Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel

by Iain Rob Wright

  She started crawling away on her hands and knees, dragging herself along. She screamed out as loud as she could. Pleaded for help. Pleaded for the others to come and rescue her.

  There’s nobody here. They’re not going to hear me.

  “Anna, what’s wrong?”

  Alan was standing over her and giving her a quizzical look. Seeing him gave her the tiny boost needed to scramble to her feet.

  “Alan!” she said. “Thank God. You have to help me.” She spun around to face her attacker, and saw now that it was a young black man. His left eye was bloody, completely gouged out, but looked to be healing. His clothing was torn and muddy; a grey tracksuit, like the ones Jan and Renee wore, covered in dry blood.

  Another prisoner?

  Annaliese threw herself into Alan’s arms and squeezed him desperately. “He’s trying to kill me, Alan. He killed Mike. Shawcross…”

  “Where is Shawcross?” Alan asked her calmly.

  “He’s in the greenhouse. He found the zoo’s agriculture plot.”

  “Yes,” I know,” he said.

  Annaliese pushed him away. “You know?”

  Alan nodded. “Yes. Shawcross showed a handful of us yesterday. Explained the food situation.”

  “What situation?”

  “That too many greedy mouths to feed is going to mean big problems,” said the unknown black man. He had moved to the edge of the treeline and was standing there without any kind of urgency.

  Annaliese stared at Alan and realised, then, that the two men already knew each other. “Alan,” she said, swallowing deeply as she asked the question. “Who is this man?”

  Alan shrugged. “Calls himself Dash. Shawcross bumped into him a few days back. He’s been staying at the greenhouse this whole time.”

  She shook her head and started backing away. “He’s a murderer. He killed Mike.”

  Alan sighed. “I liked Mike, but there’s not enough food for all of us. Tough decisions had to be made.”

  “Decisions made by who?”

  “By me?” said Shawcross, emerging from the treeline. His face was matted with blood and one of his eyes was swollen shut. Mike had really done a number on him.

  Good. I just wish Mike had had the chance to finish you off.

  “You’re a psychopath,” she spat at Shawcross. “What gives you the right?”

  “Taking it, gives me the right. Some of us recognise what the world has become. If the human race is going to survive, some of us need to be pragmatic. Until things are more stable, we can support only the core group.”

  Annaliese took a step backwards as he approached her. She shook her head at him. “Core group? What are you talking about?”

  “Well,” Shawcross grinned, “you could say the people that respect my forward thinking are the core group and the rest of you are…disposable.”

  Annaliese went to make a break for it, but Alan grabbed a hold of her. “I’m sorry, Anna,” he said. “I really am.”

  He seemed sorry as well. The jerk. There was no pleasure in Alan’s eyes at all. It was obvious that the only reason he was even going along with Shawcross at all was weakness. The guy just wanted to live, and would hitch his wagon to whichever was the strongest horse.

  “Let me go, Alan.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  She shrugged and tried to escape his grasp. When she couldn’t, she opted to knee him between the legs.

  Take that, you spineless piece of shit.

  Alan doubled over in pain, but manage to keep hold of her as he went down. She still couldn’t get away.

  Dash lunged forward and planted a right hook on her cheek. Her vision spun and the floor came up to meet her.

  “You right, Shawcross. She is a feisty bitch.”

  The next thing Annaliese knew, something descended from the trees and clubbed Dash in the back. He went sprawling forward and landed on his face, unconscious.

  What’s happening?

  Alan screamed and rushed off out of view. Shawcross backed away slowly. Someone had come to her rescue.

  Lily stood over Annaliese protectively and let out a low, guttural huffing sound. A clear warning.

  Annaliese lay on her side in shock, unable to move. One of Lily’s hands grasped at her shirt and tugged it. Get up, she was communicating. Get up now.

  Annaliese pushed herself up onto her feet and started backing away. Shawcross made a move to grab her, but Lily rose up and hooted aggressively. He backed away.

  Annaliese took a few unsteady steps, before realising that no one was going to risk following her. Dash was still dazed on the ground and Alan was nowhere to be seen. She looked around and got her bearings. She was in the zoo, not far from the cable car station. From there, she could make it to the Big Dog restaurant and find the others.

  Can I even trust them? How many of them were in on Shawcross’s plan? I might still be done for.

  But not yet.

  Annaliese had no options but to find the others and hope that they would help her. She took off in the direction of the amusement park. She had to make it to the restaurant.

  “You’ll regret this,” Shawcross shouted after her. “You and your goddamn monkey.”

  Annaliese gritted her teeth as she made her getaway. She’s an ape, you idiot. For the last time, she’s an ape!

  And she just saved my life.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Up ahead, the Big Dog restaurant came into view. The flickering candle light shining through the single un-barricaded window made it clear that somebody was inside.

  Thank God.

  I hope.

  With nobody pursuing her, Annaliese allowed herself to slow down and take it easier on her legs. She felt like she was going to collapse again at any moment. As soon as she knew that she was safe, that was exactly what she was going to do.

  She hobbled up the steps to the restaurant and approached the open window. Peering in through the gap, she could see only the glare of a half-dozen candles.

  Out of energy, and almost out of fight, she pushed herself up onto the ledge and tumbled through the gap and onto the floor. If those inside were hostile then they would just have to finish her off, there and then. There was nothing else she could do but lie there and give in.

  “Anna? What the bloody hell’s happened to you?” It was Eve. She hurried over and helped her up off the floor. “Are you okay?”

  Annaliese shoved her away. “Are you with them? Are you with Shawcross?”

  Eve looked confused. “What do you mean?

  “Shawcross, Alan, and…and some other guy. They killed Mike. They’re trying to kill me. Are you with them?” Eve stood there awkwardly, staring at her like she was mad. But Annaliese was not mad. She lashed out and grabbed Eve by the throat, surprised by her own ferocity. “Are. You. Fucking. With. Them?”

  Eve shook her head, frightened. “No! Hell, no. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Let me go. We’ll sort this out.”

  Annaliese sighed and let the girl go.

  Eve went to rush off, but turned back around and smiled at her reassuringly. “You’re safe now, Anna. Okay?”

  Annaliese did not reply. She slumped against the wall and slid to floor, trying to catch her breath as Eve rushed off into the shadows of the restaurant. Moments later, the girl returned with Cassie and Pauline in tow. Cassie held out a drink to Annaliese, which she took gratefully.

  She swigged the lemonade down in one gulp and let out a gasp. “T-thanks. I needed that.”

  “So, what the flipping hell is going on?” Pauline asked her.

  “Shawcross is a fucking psychopath, that’s what. He kidnapped me and Mike. Now Mike is dead.”

  Pauline put a hand to her mouth. “No!”

  Annaliese got back to her feet, her body feeling renewed after only a short rest. “Yes, and he’ll be coming after me any minute, so I need to find out who is on his side and who is still fucking sane.”

  “Well, I had nothing to do with it,
Anna,” said Eve.

  Pauline shook her head. “Me either.”

  They all looked at Cassie. “What?” she said. “I didn’t know, either. I swear.”

  “Okay,” Annaliese said. “So the only people I don’t know about are Michelle and Jan. Where are they?”

  Blank faces.

  Eve shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought Michelle was with Alan.”

  “I think it’s safe to say that Michelle will be on whichever side Alan is,” Pauline explained. “They’ve been sticking together for weeks. He’s become a bit like a father to her.”

  Annaliese sighed. “Great. That makes us outnumbered, then. Especially if Jan is with them.”

  “I reckon he is,” said Eve. “He’s been pretty close to Shawcross these last few days – think he sees him as the boss.”

  Annaliese slumped back against the wall and felt some of her newfound energy slip away. “Great. Last thing we need is having to go up against a hardened criminal the size of the Hulk.” She scratched the tip of her nose and suddenly thought of something. “That reminds me. This new guy with Shawcross. He was wearing prison clothing.”

  Cassie whimpered. “W-was he black?”

  Annaliese nodded. “Yeah, so what? Wait, do you know him?”

  Cassie nodded and became ghostly white against the shadows.

  “No way,” said Eve. “It can’t be Dash…can it?”

  “Who the hell is Dash?”

  “A degenerate we picked up along with Jan and Renee. We thought…well, we thought he was out of the picture.”

  “Well, now he’s back in the picture, and he seems pretty psychotic.”

  Cassie whimpered again.

  “You okay?” Annaliese asked her.

  Cassie nodded. “Dash just makes me nervous.”

  Eve and Pauline placed an arm around the girl and tried to comfort her. Annaliese got the impression there were things they weren’t telling her, but there was no time to demand answers at the moment.

  “We need to arm up,” she said. “Let’s get whatever we can.”

  “But we can’t fight them off,” said Cassie. “There are more of them than us, and they’re men.”

  Annaliese spun around and scowled at Cassie. “Mike was a man. These are just little boys trying to have all the toys. They may have the advantage, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie down and get fucked. They want to recreate Lord of the Flies, then let’s make sure it’s one of them that ends up being Piggie.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” said Cassie.

  “Never mind. Let’s just get ready.”

  “I’ll go get some things to defend ourselves with,” said Eve, rushing off into the dark corners of the restaurant.

  “Okay, make sure mine is something long and sharp. I need something to shove up Shawcross’s arse.”

  Pauline stepped up to Annaliese and looked her dead in the eye. The woman seemed anxious, but resolute at the same time. “You think we have any chance of holding them off on our own?”

  Annaliese thought for a second and then gave Pauline a smile. An idea had just brewed in her head. “We’re not going to be doing it on our own. We have reinforcements.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’re going to free Nick and Renee. Nick didn’t kill Dave. It was Shawcross; he admitted it to me. He must have had Dash do it.”

  “I knew it,” said Pauline. “I knew Nick wouldn’t do something like that. Let’s get him out of that damn cellar.”

  Annaliese nodded and marched across the restaurant. There was a door at the back of the bar which opened to the cellar staircase. She grabbed the brass handle and twisted.

  It was stuck. Locked.

  “Bollocks. Does anybody know how to get this door open?”

  “Shawcross has the key,” Cassie said. “It was in the door when we arrived.”

  Annaliese booted the door in its centre, and then again next to its hinges. It wasn’t going to give. There were no weak points.

  “We’ll never get it open in time,” said Pauline. “They’ll be here.”

  Annaliese leant up against the door and sighed. If they had any chance at all of fighting back against Shawcross’s bloodthirsty cabal, they needed Nick. The other women trusted him. They would crumble without him.

  She banged her fists against the door. “Nick!” She banged harder. “Nick, we need to get you out of there.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Nick opened his eyes and sat up on the floor. He was hot and threw his itchy, woollen blanket to one side.

  Renee was already up. The man seemed hardly to ever sleep. He was standing over Nick patiently, as if he had been waiting for him to awake.

  “W-what’s going on?” Nick asked. “Was that banging I just heard?”

  Renee nodded and motioned to the door at the top of the stairs. The man had gone back to not speaking after their brief conversation, but he was surprisingly effective at communicating without words.

  “Nick, can you hear me?” Someone was shouting from inside the restaurant. It sounded like Annaliese.

  He jumped to his feet and hurried to the foot of the stairs. “Anna, is that you? What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Shawcross. He’s lost the plot. Mike is dead and there’s some thug called Dash running around doing Shawcross’s dirty work. They set you up over Dave’s murder.”

  Nick wondered if he’d just heard her correctly. “Did you say Dash?”

  “Yes, Dash. As in the third prisoner you picked up with Jan and Renee.”

  Nick looked around at Renee who was staring back at him with wide eyes. He obviously did not believe it either. There was no way Dash could be alive. Not after the fall Nick had seen him take.

  Nick climbed the stairs and stood outside the door. “Okay. Open up and I’ll come help you.”

  “We can’t. Shawcross has the key.”

  Nick grunted and punched his fist against the concrete wall of the cellar. The pain woke him up a little. “Damn it!”

  Renee came forward and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Shawcross does not have the only key, my friend.” From within the pocket of his tracksuit, Renee pulled out a long brass key that was attached to several others via a Ripley Heights key ring. “Perhaps he should have checked beneath the bar, too, no?”

  Nick stared at Renee with disbelief. “You mean you could have let me out of here at any time?”

  Renee tilted his head and wore a sagely expression. “Escaping your cell would not have restored the other’s trust in you. Escaping would have just made things worse for you, my friend. I had this key only for emergencies…such as this.”

  Nick shook his head, still not understanding, but glad anyway to have a way out. He took the key from Renee and slotted it into the lock, giving it a solid twist. The lock clicked and the handle released.

  God, I can’t wait to get some fresh air.

  Annaliese wore a puzzled expression when he opened the door to meet her. “What?” she said. “How did you?”

  “It’s not important.” He moved past her so that he was fully away from the stuffy cellar which had been his prison for the past several days. Up ahead, he spotted Eve and immediately headed towards her.

  “Eve,” he said. “I’ve missed you.”

  To his surprise, she wrapped both arms around him and squeezed him tightly. She kissed him on the cheek. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I should have believed you. Shawcross is responsible for Dave’s death. We should never have blamed you.”

  Nick eased her away. There wasn’t time for apologies, or any need of them either. “It’s okay,” he said. “No harm done. Just promise to trust me from now on.”

  “I promise.”

  He cleared his throat and looked around. He was accompanied by Renee, Annaliese, Cassie, Eve, and Pauline. A table in the middle of the room was piled with makeshift weapons. He picked up a replica hunting rifle that had been cut loose from the laser shooting gallery at the mi
dway area. It would make a good club and had also received the modification of a nine-inch nail wedged into the barrel; an excellent bayonet in tight circumstances.

  Good thing one of the weapon stashes is here in the restaurant.

  The rest of the group armed up, too. Then they all stood in a loose huddle, staring at one another apprehensively. Cassie looked the most nervous and was clutching a sharp blade against her chest.

  “So, just fill me in one last time,” said Nick. “Shawcross has Dash with him and they are going around killing people?”

  “Alan is with them, too,” said Pauline. “Maybe Jan and Michelle as well.”

  “Shawcross has this crazy idea,” Annaliese explained. “That the group’s chance of survival will be better if there are fewer of us. He’s found the park’s greenhouse facility and has stockpiled all of our supplies there. Apparently there is not enough to sustain us all.”

  “So the crazy sonofabitch is trying to…what? Cull us? Jesus!”

  Crunch!

  The group turned towards the open window as the sound of cracking glass and shattering plates came from outside. Someone had breached the minefield.

  “They’re here,” said Annaliese, holding up the butcher’s knife she clutched tightly in her hand.

  “Everyone, keep quiet,” said Nick. “And get down.”

  The group took cover behind the bar and the various tables lying around. Then they waited.

  Minutes passed.

  Nothing.

  Nick peered over the top of the bar and made eye contact with Annaliese, who was perched behind an upturned table. It was clear from her expression that she was as tense as he was.

  What are they doing out there, he asked himself. Why are they not trying to come inside?

  They’re planning something.

  Something came flying through the open window and thudded on the floor. Whatever it was rolled a few metres and then came to a stop in the middle of the restaurant.

  It was a head.

  But it was not human.

  Annaliese moaned out loud as she looked down at the severed head. “Lily! You bastards.”

  Nick looked down at the orang-utan head and could not believe it. Was Shawcross really that twisted?

  “We’ve killed your precious friend, Anna,” came Shawcross’s nasally voice from outside. “And if you don’t surrender now, we will systematically kill every animal in the petting zoo.”