by John Riley
Sarah couldn’t think, couldn’t shout or scream, couldn’t seem to even breathe. She was screaming in her mind though. In the brief flickering moment before she saw her fiancé’s face twist nightmarishly she begged to any God that would listen,
‘Don’t let this happen, let him stay him, let me be dreaming, let me be mad.’
She couldn’t watch Daniel, her eyes seemed to move away from him when she tried. She saw the others reacting to him, her eyes locked with Miles for a split second before she looked away. They weren’t close enough. THUMP went Sarah’s heart.
The now expected scream rent the air like a jet taking off, filled with hissing and gurgling, more animal than any sound Sarah had ever heard before. With an immense force of will she turned her gaze towards the monster. It stood half-crouched, arms wide, fingers twitching as they clenched and unclenched. The thing’s mouth worked silently now the scream was done, it champed and bloody foam spilled from its lips. Sarah’s legs started working, she stumbled back, losing footing on something that rolled away. The monster launched itself forward, throwing so much power into the movement that when it landed it skittered for purchase. Sarah backed up as it came, half-falling into the stairs for the catwalk.
Hope blossomed for a few seconds of life more than she should have. Sarah waited a fraction of a heart-beat longer, until the thing was practically on her. Then she swung under the stairs, throwing her legs before herself in a kick. Her feet connected solidly in centre mass. She felt the impact vibrate up in her chest, it sent the thing sliding back a few paces but nothing more. She pulled herself up and behind the stairs in a blind panic, slipping into the gap between them and the wall. She felt the air from the thing’s fingers as they barely missed grabbing her ankles. She threw herself up and over the railing, seeing the monster spider its way up the gap with its back to her. The metal steps stung her knees as she landed but she barely felt them through the fear. She drew herself up the steps, pulling with her hands on the railings as she ran.
Almost at the top she felt for a moment like she had missed a step, stumbling forward. She managed a glance back to find the monster on all fours on the stairs, one hand clawed around the laces of her right shoe. In a moment of terror, she kicked back, striking the thing in the mouth. It loosed her lace and she pulled herself to the top of the catwalk. It followed quickly, limbs blurring as it switched from all fours to standing. It stopped to let out a deep resonant hiss that sounded like it was coming from a gigantic angry cat. Sarah backed away, keeping herself low, hoping maybe to catch it off balance and push it from the catwalk. It attacked with blinding speed, clawed fingers coming up under her pathetic guard. The splayed fingers may as well have been steel for all the give they had, hitting beneath the chin and snapping her head back.
Sarah saw stars, then she felt the earth move. Shaking off the fugue she saw the monster had lifted her by the arm with one hand. It looked to be screaming into her face but she couldn’t hear anything past the ringing in her ears. Then it slammed a fist into her stomach and sound came back. She tried to make a noise but the wind had been driven from her. When she tried to take a breath, hot vomit forced its way up her throat and sprayed from her in a torrent. The thing dropped her and clawed at it’s now covered face as she collapsed to her knees. The monster grabbed for her again once it’s eyes were cleared, lifting her by her hair this time. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t defend herself. She felt it wrench her forwards and her head connected solidly with the railing. She managed a sharp breath that stank of bile, then it twisted its fingers more tightly into her hair and rammed her head into the metal again.
Somehow, she was still conscious. She pulled back as the thing tried to yank her forwards again. All that achieved was that she directed her cheek into the bar. She felt the thing pushing, her face slid slowly up. Her eye opened wide involuntarily as the skin drew taught on her cheek and then her lips were forced open. It scraped her face across the metal as she tried to fight against it and failed. Soon her chin rested on the railing and it became apparent what the thing was trying to do; her windpipe closed off as it increased the pressure on her from behind. Sarah felt her eyes bulge. She hadn’t taken more than a single breath since the monster had sucker-punched her and she could already see darkness coming in at the edges of her vision. She knew she was going to die. The creature was huffing like a steam train in her ear, it had gotten closer, was pressing all of its weight on her top half. Sarah managed to get her feet beneath her as it curled its body around hers, like a lover. She tried to look down at what was below her but couldn’t and so prayed instead. Then she kicked against the metal of the catwalk bottom, hard.
The monster had been too high up on her back, had been putting all of its effort into gluing her suffocating frame to the railing by her neck; the sudden movement forced its efforts outwards into space. They both tipped forwards, momentum sticking them together as they fell. Sarah had already had her hands on the metal, her grip twisted as the ground appeared above her head. She squeezed her eyes tight at what she knew was coming. Her body flipped with a stomach lurching motion and she thudded solidly against the outside of the railing. Her head was yanked forward before the hair in the things hand tore free. She heard it hissing as it fell, knew she’d soon be following as it hit the ground with a dull bong. Keeping her eyes jammed shut she gasped hoarse breaths with her mouth hanging open. The strength in her fingers began to fail as she heard the thudding crash of heavy footsteps on the catwalk,
‘Please…’ She thought blearily.
‘Sarah!’ Miles’ voice called down to her, his warm hands grabbed at her wrists and she almost cried with relief, ‘Oh God, are you ok!?’
She felt her fingers being peeled off the bar, she was lifted up and soon found herself sitting with her back against cold metal,
‘Sarah?’ She felt herself being shook and realised she still hadn’t opened her eyes. She did so now, tentatively.
The first thing she noticed was pain, pain in her face, pain in her arm, pain in her stomach. Next was the fact that her right eye had swollen to the point that she could barely open it. Miles was crouched before her, eyes wide as he looked her over.
‘You’re already bruising up, but there’s no blood…’
‘You’re still thinking disease?’ Mary asked, she had puffed her way to up behind Miles with the kids in tow, ‘after seeing that thing!?’
Sarah’s head seemed to be filled with cotton wool, she couldn’t think straight, but she focused her attention on the kids and started to stand,
‘We need to run while he’s out.’ She slurred, Miles put a hand on her shoulder and gently forced her back down,
‘He isn’t going anywhere,’ The man said with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes,
‘Why?’ Sarah turned her head to look between the bars and flinched, ‘shit my neck.’
She straightened her head and opted to scoot around instead. She looked down from the catwalk,
‘You landed him straight in the vat.’ Mary stated.
It was true. Sarah looked down into the open top of the wide, empty containment vat that stood beneath the catwalk. At the bottom was Daniel, he was picking himself up in slow jerking movements and quite obviously attempting to crawl out of the vat. He looked like a sleepwalker, or more accurately like a dead thing reanimated and using its limited intelligence to attempt to escape. Something about the way his limbs moved reminded her of a spider in a glass, legs tapping softly along the inside, looking for freedom.
‘What’s better is that there are a couple of hatches at the bottom,’ Miles said behind her, ‘With a little work I should be able to slide one up and we can… talk with him.’
‘It.’ Sarah replied. She forced herself to her feet, shrugging Miles’ hand off this time.
‘I think that’s a good idea.’ Laura spoke up suddenly, ‘I don’t know whether this is a disease or aliens or whatever, but we’ll never know if we just leave now.’
&nbs
p; Sarah turned to face her, saw that the others had gathered together and were all looking hopeful and resolute,
‘But it’s Daniel…’ She said, trying not to let the whine come into her voice, ‘What if it had been your wife, or your daughter?’ She threw the question at Miles, angry and spiteful, aiming to hurt.
‘I put my wife down when she attacked us.’ He replied, straightening his back to loom over her, ‘you caved in my daughter’s face with a hammer.’
Sarah took an involuntary half-step back, her good eye brimming with tears,
‘I’m sorry…’ She choked,
‘We aren’t talking about torturing him, just talking.’ Mary said softly, Sarah shot her a look; like it mattered what they did with the thing that Daniel had become.
‘It isn’t Daniel.’ She said through gritted teeth, ‘it’s a reminder of how fucked we are and of what we lost. What I lost.’
‘You don’t have to talk to him, you don’t even have to see him.’ Miles promised, he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a sad smile, ‘I understand how you’re feeling, but what if we can learn something, what if everything isn’t over and we can go back to our families?’
Sarah looked up into Miles hope filled brown eyes and looked away. How could he want to return to those monsters? Maybe she had had it all wrong before, maybe Miles’ hope was fuelled by a bad relationship, the thought that the people he could go back to now were different might appeal. Maybe she didn’t want to see Daniel because she could see he was different, that she could see the change had stopped him from being the man she loved. But what if she were wrong? What if Miles was right and all it would take is thirty seconds of intense pain and abject terror to be reborn as a better her, Sarah 2.0? To have her fiancé again and get married and have the life they always planned to have together…
‘I think you’re wrong.’ Sarah stated simply. The others all lost their hope, she saw it fall from their faces like rain, ‘but I’m going to let you do what you think is necessary.’
She moved to walk past them and Miles caught her arm softly,
‘Thank you.’
She ignored him.
16
Sarah had retreated to the storeroom. She soon heard the sound of footsteps and Mary walked in, followed by the children. Mary held a bright green square of plastic in her hand, it had a piece of black plastic coming out of it at an angle and Sarah recognised it as the wind-up shower radio.
‘Stevie found this.’ She said, waving the radio in her hand before yanking the antenna out. The thing began hissing and popping like an angry snake in a barrel of balloons. She ran a thumb along the side and stations started coming in and out between the static.
‘What are you looking for?’ Sarah asked despite herself,
‘News.’ Mary replied, finally finding a station and sticking to it.
Amid the static and despite the bad quality of the speaker they could hear a voice.
‘...true time of confusion, but also hope.’ Mary looked up from the radio to Sarah with her eyebrow raised,
‘We are still getting our facts straight but it would appear that the Moreton Family Hospital is seeing a slew of unexplainable miracles.’
‘No way!’ Laura shouted, looking from Sarah to Mary,
‘Looks like you were right about not going to the hospital.’ Mary said with a grimace,
‘Shhh!’ Sarah demanded, standing to get closer to the radio,
‘So far staff at the Moreton have released no comment but witnesses have come forward citing stories of patients in comas, cancer patients on low life expectancies and patients in other states of critical health suddenly standing and walking of their own accord and with no idea of how their miracle came about. More on this as facts come in.’
Mary ran her thumb along the dial until the radio clicked into silence.
‘All those people…’ She muttered,
‘What’s wrong?’ Laura asked,
‘What’s wrong is that the Moreton held hundreds of patients,’ Mary replied grimly, ‘Hundreds of people now fit and healthy by all accounts and ready to be released into the town.’
‘Oh…’ Laura said quietly,
‘How long will it take for them all to be released?’ Sarah asked, worry etched on her face,
‘I don’t know,’ Mary confessed, ‘they might want to keep people in to figure out what happened, but they can’t hold them if they want to leave unless there is fear of a contagion.’ She handed the radio to Sarah and fished her phone from her pocket as she spoke.
The woman swiped a thumb across her screen and tapped a few times before holding it to her ear, she took it away again in disgust a few seconds later,
‘Who were you trying to call?’ Sarah tucked the radio into her jacket pocket, looking up to see Mary putting the phone to her head again, ‘the hospital?’
‘My ex.’ She growled back, ‘what would be the point in calling the hospital?’
‘To tell them they have a contagion or whatever?’ Sarah tried,
‘Oh, I see.’ Mary locked her phone and slipped it back into her pocket before putting her hands on her hips and facing Sarah fully, ‘Hello, hospital? Yes, I’d like to report a virus which is healing people of all that ails them. By the way, they turn into angry hell zombies when they look at you, so, y’know, look out for that.’
Sarah didn’t respond, Mary was right, if being a bit of a bitch about it. She tried turning her head a little and felt pain flare up into the base of her skull.
‘God I’m starving.’ She muttered, looking across to the kids, ‘want to eat?’
They nodded and Sarah gestured to the floor by the window. She turned on her heel as Laura pulled her brother down next to her. Mary followed closely behind as Sarah left the room,
‘I thought you didn’t want to see him?’
‘I’m not going to,’ Sarah opened the door to the factory floor and stopped to listen. She heard Miles’ steady voice but nothing else, ‘I’m just getting the food.’
She left Mary at the door and after a deep breath made her way quickly to the bag.
‘...just need you to listen, I swear we aren’t going to hurt you.’ She heard Miles say as she passed.
‘What about Sarah, I know she’s here, that Lucy woman told me she found her bag here!’ Sarah flinched at the sound of Daniel’s voice. He sounded muffled and echoed inside the vat, Miles had managed to open the hatch a lot faster than she had expected.
‘She’s fine.’ Miles looked at her as she bent to pick up the food, his eyes pleading. What the hell,
‘I’m fine Dan.’ She said without emotion, looking at the vat.
The hatch Miles had been talking about must have previously been used to siphon liquids, it was less than six inches square and dead-level with the bottom of the inside. She could see a hand on the other side, Daniel had obviously dropped to all fours to talk to Miles.
‘Sarah, you’re ok!?’ She refused to let his concern touch her, this wasn’t Daniel.
‘Yes, I’m fine.’ She repeated, then to Miles she said, ‘when did he stop puppeting?’
‘A few seconds ago, just before you came back in.’ He lifted the hammer in his hand and pointed it at the hatch, ‘I had to hammer the hatch down to get it open and as I did he started calling through the hole.’
‘Every other time they went back to the place they were before they went crazy…’ Sarah mused, ‘Couldn’t this time though, I sort of expected him to keep trying to get out.’
She was acting marvellously. Her face a calm mask of indifference as her insides warred. Fighting the urge to stare openly at the hand of her fiancé, fighting the urge to grab it, to hold it and kiss it. Fighting the urge to climb the catwalk and throw herself down to him, whether to die painfully or turn and lose herself entirely.
‘Are you ok?’ Miles asked, concern on his face. So maybe not acting too well then.
‘No.’ She answered truthfully, ‘Daniel, if you really do lov
e me you’ll talk to Miles and give him everything he wants.’
She indicated the bag of food and pointed to the door where Mary still stood.
‘If you need us…’ She let her sentence tail off.
‘Sure.’
Sarah walked away to no sound, Daniel hadn’t answered. Mary moved out of the way and let her pass,
‘I am sorry you know.’ Sarah couldn’t care less about the woman’s concern, but wanted to stay civil.
‘Thanks, but right now I just want to eat something and maybe get some sleep.’
They ate in silence until Sarah got fed up of the oppressive mood and switched the radio back on. Putting the volume down low they were able to just discern the music from the static and slowly the four of them started to relax. An hour later, with sleep completely off the table; Miles walked in. He sat down and immediately started ripping into a breakfast bar.
‘So, how’d it go?’ Mary asked, Sarah switched the radio off and Miles stared at the floor chewing before swallowing with a sigh.
‘He thinks I’m the leader of a cult that kidnaps kids and convinces people the apocalypse has happened.’
The room went deathly quiet. Mary sat with her mouth hanging open and Laura looked incredulously from one person to the next.
‘Wait, what?’ Sarah broke the silence, her eyebrow raised.
‘I told him what was happening, told him what you told me about the club and after, told him about my family, told him everything.’ Miles reported, ‘then he started talking about the news, saying everybody had gone mad over nothing and calling this “crazy-land ground zero”.’
