by John Riley
'...No bad dog!' Sarah had completely forgotten about the man, she spared a glance to see him shuffling towards them, before locking eyes with the dog again.
The beast glanced away too, then looked back up at her and backed down with a cough.
'I'm so sorry, honestly he isn't dangerous there was no need to...' The man was older, he leant strange on one leg and Sarah could hear him panting, 'Not mine you see, son got him and I take him for walks while he's away do you need help, should I call for somebody?'
Sarah wasn't listening to him, he wasn't changed like the others and the thought was sinking in but that seemed little prize to compensate for the shards of glass in her lungs, the rocks in her stomach and the agony her battered hands were in.
'Look I'm going to take him away ok,' The man was frowning a little now, he must have thought she was one crazy bitch she realised,
'Wait!' the next group of people you see will try to rip your head off and will probably manage it, how the hell was she supposed to warn him of that, 'Um... be careful.' She meant of the monsters, he took it to mean the dog and his frown deepened,
'As I said, he isn't dangerous, bark worse than his bite, sorry again.' He turned away, the big dog pulling hard on the thick chain around its neck, hacking and coughing against its self-inflicted strangulation, 'crazy bitch.' She heard him mutter.
The bark of the tree pressed into her back as she relaxed a little. Sweat had formed on her face and she wiped it off, it felt like she had run a marathon. Her legs were shaking, her arms were leaden. The dog had stopped pulling back against the man now and instead pulled ahead, the pair moved quickly away across the field and Sarah watched as they disappeared between the trees on the other side. That man was dead. She realised it as she thought of moving out of the tree. He was dead and she may as well have been the one to kill him.
'Be careful? Idiot.' She admonished herself. She lowered herself through the branches slowly, trying to keep her hair out of the way this time. Her feet hit the floor lightly and she straightened, looking back down the path to see if anybody else would be coming. Nobody was or seemed to at least. Her legs protested as she began walking up the path towards the end of the field.
She couldn't take back her mistake with the old man, had to just accept that she didn't warn him, but she could and would do better next time. Whoever served her at the shop... She stopped dead in her tracks.
How many times would she be an idiot today she wondered, the old man had been unaffected but whoever served her at the shop would have seen a lot of people today already, there was little to no chance they wouldn't be changed. Or it might be closed, it was Sunday after all.
'Fuck... Just gets better and better.' Talking to herself calmed her a little. If the person in the shop was changed she would have to rethink getting food, if it was closed though, maybe she could break in. She would just have to see when she got there, but until then what could she say to any normal people she met, her conscience made it her responsibility.
Nothing had come to her by the time the path turned onto the main road Laura had warned her about. She could see one or two people walking away from her in the distance but nobody close. Her side of the road was field to her left, housing to her right. The houses stopped a little way down and a large building was set back from the road beyond them. She guessed this was the youth centre, it looked dark and disused, falling into disrepair. Across the road she saw the shop on the corner of the main road and another, the lights were off, it was closed.
'Closed. Ok then.' She said to herself. That was the best thing that could have happened she thought, it seemed her moral compass allowed her to break the law when it suited her, or at least when she knew the victim would probably rip her face off as soon as they saw her.
Just before she could move out to cross the road she saw a door open for a small café almost directly opposite her and she ducked back to behind the protection of the last tree. She watched three people exit the café, a girl about Laura’s age with shoulder length tight black curled hair in a shocking pink skirt and top, a woman who had to be her mother with her own tight curls falling from a ponytail and a short white man carrying a folded wheelchair. The man opened the wheelchair up and set it down, Sarah looked on in confusion as the seemingly perfectly able woman sat down in the chair and folded her hands into her lap, smiling at her daughter and making a shushing gesture. They waited for a few moments and Sarah saw what they were waiting for as the door to the corner shop opened and a large well-built man stepped out and turned, closing the door behind him. His black hair was cut very short but still curled enough to show he must be the girl's dad, he was beardless but wore glasses and they looked a little strange coupled with his clearly muscled physique. He looked to Sarah like a man who knew what he thought about himself and didn't much care what others thought. When he turned to look at the three-people waiting for him his smile faltered and Sarah glanced their way too to see why.
The woman was twisting in the chair, trying to get up and out as the man span it with his forward momentum. The chair stopped the girl from moving forward too, she howled and screeched at her mother and the three fell forward in a spitting, hissing, screaming ball of thrashing limbs.
'RUUUUUUUUN!' Sarah shrieked. She had left the safety of the tree, had pushed herself into action and sprang across the road almost on instinct alone. She couldn't let him die, wouldn't watch as he got ripped apart by his family, couldn't fail him like she had the old man. The guy was staring in confusion at the three and jumped as he heard her shouting at him,
'MOVE!' She yelled between breaths, stumbling up the curb and almost crashing into him, he caught her arm and she righted, grabbing his wrist and pulling at him to get away. She was about to shout for him to move again when he looked back at the three monsters and then turned to run without a word. Sarah shot a glance back to see the short white man sporting an arm that was bent almost ninety degrees in the wrong direction, he was still coming.
She pushed her tortured body into action.
8
They turned the corner, feet slapping against the pavement in unison. Sarah had pulled ahead, pulling the man's arm in an attempt to direct him, but she had no idea where to go, had no knowledge of the area and was already winded.
'Need to hide!' She managed between breaths, 'Where!?'
The closed stores whipped past as they ran, the screaming, roaring and hissing from behind keeping them going.
'There's a side alley down there!' The man pointed, Sarah aimed for it and they barrelled into a turn that almost took her from her feet. The man kept her upright, yanking her to a door,
'Don't start being smart now Carl.' He muttered trying the door, it opened and he ran through, pulling her behind him and slamming the door shut.
Sarah heard the three monsters thunder into the alley as the door closed, it had a lock, but they didn't have a key.
'C'mon!' The man called, already moving down the shady hall and through a moth-eaten curtain. Sarah followed and found herself in a room filled with mannequins, all clothed in period-style dresses and hats. The man sprinted through the shop and stopped at the entrance, grimacing. Sarah followed as fast as she could, trying desperately to hide her limp. Before she got to him he turned, picked a mannequin up off the floor and span, hurling it base first into one of the big front of store display windows.
'What the fuck!?' Sarah yelled, turning her head and covering her face from errant glass shards,
'He doesn't use deadbolts, no way to unlock the door.' Not using his hands, he did a standing jump and cleared the sill, landing outside with a bounce, 'you coming?'
She took a step back and managed to skip over the sill herself with a short run, answering his question.
'Look, thanks for... Whatever you just saved me from.' The man said, sticking his hand out, Sarah looked down at it and then back up at his face, he pulled it away.
The man was big, he could look after himself and he obviously wasn't
one of the monsters. Sarah sure as hell wasn't going to let him leave, they needed each other.
'Come with me.' She begged,
'Lady I haven't got a clue who you are...' A scraping at the alley entrance made him stop, 'and I guess right now it doesn't matter, where to?'
Sarah glanced at the alley then back down to the corner where she could see this man's shop. They still needed supplies and she had a fair idea she knew what would come from around that corner, they might have time. God if she screwed this up those kids back at the factory were as good as dead,
'Your shop.' She pointed, he frowned but the first shape appeared at the alley entrance,
'Ok, go!' He said, already pulling away from her at a sprint.
Sarah tried to keep up, but by the time she turned the corner he already had his keys in his hand and the door was open as she reached him. She was shepherded in with one hand whilst he span and locked the door with his other. She bounced to a stop on the balls of her feet before the first row of low shelving filled with food.
'Why the hell didn't they chase us that time?' The man asked, his back to the door.
Sarah turned and leant her back against the cold metal shelving, letting the throbbing in her legs and feet die down a little.
'They puppet out afterwards.' She said with a wry smile she didn't feel. He stared her down with a blank face,
'What are “they”, what the hell does “puppet out” mean and after what?' He wasn't shouting, he looked confused as hell.
'I don't know what they are.' Sarah stated simply, 'I went out yesterday with my boy... fiancé, then these things attacked us and we got separated.' She didn't want to say, “I ran for my life and left him behind”, 'When he finally got home this morning he “didn't remember” the monsters and convinced me to open the door before trying to attack me.'
'You think he was lying?' The man interrupted,
'He tried to attack me.' She repeated flatly.
The man stepped away from the door and moved to behind the counter. Sarah watched him open the till and start putting money into his pockets.
'What are you doing?' Sarah asked, resting her arms on the top of the shelves and leaning her chin on them.
'I'm getting the hell out of here.' He replied, 'I knew something was wrong when she called. She hasn't been that happy in...' He stopped and looked up at Sarah, 'Let's just say I can believe that your fiancé lied to you.'
'So, you'll come with me?' She was terrified of leaving this shop alone, of having to trek back to the factory, alone.
'Where?' He closed the register and pulled a large duffel bag out from behind the counter, Sarah didn't react to it but she did raise an eyebrow at the thick length of wood that followed it,
'The old centre of town, we're holed up in one of the abandoned factories.' He looked up at her,
'We?' He stopped putting food into the bag, 'There are more of us? More of those things too?'
'Two kids and yeah, a lot more.'
'Shit!' He whistled through his teeth.
'We might be the only people left.' Sarah tried,
'Shit.' He rubbed a hand across his face and picked the bag back up, 'Ok.'
He started shoving food into the bag again, only pausing to toss Sarah something which she caught with her nerve tightened reflexes. It was a medium sized ball-peen hammer.
'What's this?' She lifted it by the head,
'Defence.' He didn't look up at her,
'This won't hurt them for long, they heal.' She swung the hammer a little, it felt strangely good, 'Really fast.'
The man looked up at her at that,
'They heal?' He sighed, looking back at the bag and zipping it up,
'One of them, it fell into a concrete thing and cracked its head open. Brains were practically spilling out.' Sarah still shuddered at the thought that she might have killed a person, 'It stood up again after a few seconds, not a mark, not even any blood on it. All over the floor... but not on it.'
She realised she had been staring off in a daze, she snapped back to reality to see him looking at her.
'At least you won't have to go easy on them then.' He smiled, 'by the way, I'm Miles.'
He had stepped close, his hand back out, this time she took it and they shook once,
'Sarah.' She smiled despite the complete lack of humour, 'polite in the face of the apocalypse.'
Sarah saw Miles' eyes flicker to the door behind her and she flinched away, turning to see what he had seen.
The woman and her daughter passing the shop, shuffling in gravity defying lurches, the short man following just behind.
'What are they...' Miles trailed off, 'Puppet out?'
Sarah nodded, moving to press her face against the window.
'Open the door.' She commanded. Miles paused for the barest second before stepping forward and doing as she asked. They both stepped slowly out of the shop and watched as the things made their way down the road. Sarah heard the snick of the lock behind her and glanced at Miles, he had the duffel bag slung over one shoulder and the fingers of his other hand wrapped tightly around the length of wood.
'Where are they going?' He asked, Sarah didn't answer, instead looking up and down the street for any other people. The road was blessedly deserted, she looked across to the path beside the trees and saw that it too was devoid of any life larger than a squirrel.
'We need to go.' She whispered, nodding off toward the path across the road.
'Will they ever stop or is this it now?' He wasn't listening, she could tell that he was morbidly fascinated in the three monsters as they swung on their invisible strings, 'Oh wait...'
Sarah turned slowly to look at the three, they had stopped outside the café and were twisting back around.
The strings were cut.
'You take your time with everything don...' The woman's voice matched her looks, smooth and confident. The half-smirk fell from her face and was replaced by a fury filled mask. At the same time the girl and short man screamed, arms rising, fingers clenching into tight fists. Sarah took an involuntary step back and stumbled into Miles. She looked up at him with terror and saw him drop the bag. The woman charged, her hair free of its ponytail and flowing out behind her. Sarah ducked away, flinching back from the expected collision and saw Miles take hold of the length of wood with both hands. The woman leapt, Miles twisted and the wood whistled through the air with blinding speed - CRACK.
The sound was hideous, Sarah could almost feel it. Miles kept the wood moving and the woman followed it behind him and down. She ploughed into the ground completely still. The short white man was quick to close in next, Sarah saw Miles twist the wood in his grip and swing it like a cricket bat, the already bloodied weapon came up faster than she could believe and connected under the chin. The man was momentarily lifted off his feet and Sarah was sure she had heard his teeth shatter. The blow wasn't enough to put him down though, spitting blood, froth and shards of tooth he came on again. Miles prepared to hit him once more when the girl sprang like a mad cat and dug her fingers into the flesh of his cheeks, drawing his face towards her, mouth snapping. The man crashed into them both and they went down, Miles rolling and managing to rise to his knees, the girl still clinging to him. With one hand, he grabbed the man's collar as he scuttled close and threw him back. The girl quit trying to bite and threw her head back and then forwards in a vicious head butt, connecting a glancing blow against his jaw.
Sarah was frozen to the spot, she felt powerless. What could she do to these things if a man easily double her weight couldn't hurt them? The terrifying demon that had been a little girl managed to get her mouth to Miles' face and scored deep depressions across his forehead and down one cheek with her teeth, Sarah's grip tightened on the thing in her hand. The hammer.
Sarah awoke from her trance, bursting into action she flung herself into a world of screaming, flailing hell and suddenly she had the monster's frizzy curls in her left hand, pulling. It turned it's little-girl face to her and mad
e a noise like an angry kettle, Sarah's hand dropped from above her head and the hammer connected solidly in the centre of the creature's face, the sound halted. The hammer came up again as the thing struggled to focus on her, it screamed in defiance, letting go of Miles to attack her instead,
'FUCK YOU!' Sarah screamed back, slamming the head of the hammer down again, shattering bone and making the brow bow in. She swung a third time, the hammer sank through the burst flesh where the bridge of the nose had been and the girl dropped like a sack of flour. Hair ripped from the scalp due to Sarah's death grip and she shook it free in revulsion.
She tore her gaze from her blood-flecked hands and up at Miles, he had his arms around the last monster from behind, the piece of wood up against its throat and his knee in its back. With a massive heave, he dropped the man face down on the pavement and wrenched back, the corded muscles on his neck standing out. The monster flopped forward onto the pavement, its head kept moving but its body stayed completely still. Miles had broken its neck.
Miles stood up, chest heaving. He had two long marks down his face where the girl's teeth had been but they hadn't broken the skin. His jaw had a bruise starting on it and she could see he had been winded, probably whilst she had... dealt with the monster. She refused to think of it as a little girl, didn't let her mind draw images of spongy skulls. She wanted to scream again
'We need to go.' Miles muttered hoarsely after a few seconds. He looked down at the little girl and Sarah had to look away, bile rising to her throat, 'They're going to get out soon.'
