by Stevens, GJ
Jess moved closer to the girl and reached out.
“Leave me alone,” the voice sobbed when Jess made contact, as the girl tried to push herself further into the tangle of insulation.
A low rumble of falling rock echoed through the tunnel and pulled my gaze from the girl. The light followed as I twisted around to the dust raining down in front of the door we’d come through moments earlier. The indistinct sound filled me with a new dread that our tiny space had shrunken even further.
“How did you get down here?” I called out, returning my gaze back to the child. When she didn’t reply, I walked with Cassie closer to Jess’s side. “Just take her with us. We’ve got to get the hell out of here before it’s too late.”
“No,” the high call came back from below the pipe. “You need to go.”
I stopped, turning back at Jess’s side, just able to see the tangle of hair before it disappeared behind the pipe.
“She must have been down here a long time,” I said, looking back in the darkness towards where we’d found the tiny bones. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
Alex turned the light to point down the tunnel as we moved past, before swinging it back around when a gasp of air caught everyone’s attention. The girl stood to three quarters of Jess’s height but it was the black veins like tree roots lining her face and the beard of dried blood around her chin which sent us recoiling back.
Cassie stumbled as I lurched. Shadow barked. The child stood staring at Jess as we recovered our footing. The moment seemed to span an age, a voice in my head screaming out for Jess to raise the gun.
This girl had the hunger. She needed to feed, but she was talking. What the fuck was going on?
Rather than blowing the creature away, Jess pushed the pistol into her waistband and stepped forward.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I shouted, sending Shadow’s pitch even higher.
“Let’s go,” Cassie said, her voice barely heard.
“Go,” Jess said in a calm call, not turning my way, instead opening her arms to entice the girl into an embrace. “Go,” she repeated when we hadn’t moved, twisting around to catch my eye and glaring in my direction.
I should have done as she said right then. I should have dragged Cassie away and Shadow as the echo of his bark rang through the narrow tunnel.
But I didn’t. I waited there with my feet fixed firm, watching the creature struggle as Jess enveloped her in the embrace.
I watched as the young creature’s mouth flashed to a hungry snarl pointed in my direction, seeming to ignore Jess altogether. Blood-stained teeth bared instinctively; her red-raw gaze shifted to Cassie, the snarl faltering for a moment before looking past the light to Alex.
But Jess didn’t react other than to clamp the girl tight, not pulling out the gun and putting the creature out of her misery. Jess would die because she couldn’t get past the childish features and high voice.
9
“Let’s go,” I said in a quiet voice as I turned away. Holding Cassie tight, I helped her into the darkness, walking forward whilst trying to remember the layout of the tunnel I’d seen moments earlier.
With his claws clicking on the concrete floor, Shadow followed and behind him Jess alternated between pleading for Alex to go then switching to a gentle tone as if to talk the child from a tantrum.
When I’d seen Jess from the roof standing amongst the death, destruction and the foul twist of nature, I thought she understood the new world we lived in; I’d been wrong, and she would pay the price. Despite the confidence in her eyes when she told us to leave, she’d have no chance of talking down a frenzied animal from its need to feed. It would rip Jess apart before it moved to us to sate its appetite.
Light shone at our backs as footsteps ran from the rising commotion.
Jess must have realised her peril.
Despite my desperation to turn and leap to her defence, I picked up the pace when the light cast our shadows to the curve of the tunnel ahead. My first duty had to be to Cassie and I couldn’t sacrifice her safety, even knowing the girl-creature had flipped, her hunger becoming too great.
It was already too late if the pained calls were anything to go by.
As we sped, I felt Cassie’s effort increasing despite the obvious toll it took. We were running for our lives, knowing once again we had an unnatural beast at our backs.
“Run,” I heard from behind, Jess’s call taking me by surprise when I realised she’d survived. But still she’d come to the choice too late and her high call told me she knew she’d be a victim of the new species occupying the earth.
As we ran, already going as fast as we could, the commotion behind stopped but the racing footsteps hadn’t.
“Run,” her high shout came again, but we needed no encouragement in the strobing light when we saw a wooden door ahead.
Shadow took the lead, barking as if to point out the brass handle. A confusion of heavy footsteps landed at our backs and my heart pounded as I raced, staring at the handle and willing the door to be unlocked.
“Please open. Please open,” I said, not able to keep the voice just inside my head.
“Quickly,” the voice called at my back again.
I let go of Cassie, tentative at first, pausing just enough to make sure she could take her own weight. With my shoulder leaning into the wood, I gripped the cold metal and gave it a heavy turn.
Falling through the doorway, I only just caught my fall when the metal twisted and the door opened away from me. I took Cassie’s outstretched hand, with Shadow stepping past me into the darkness, his claws skittered on the concrete floor.
Alex caught up with the light, twisting around and plunging us into darkness. My gaze flickered in the direction we’d come, but I couldn’t see anything other than the slow curve of the corridor.
With the light through the doorway from behind, I saw concrete steps rising a few paces ahead. Without pause, I took Cassie’s arm and led her upwards, soon finding another door at the top and frantically searching for signs it would lead us back outside.
“Hurry.” The high words came from beyond the light at my back; someone, Alex perhaps, but the voice was so high, helped to heave Cassie’s weak frame.
The door held firm as I twisted at the handle. Over our heavy breath, a rush of feet came from far back, a scuffle, but Shadow’s renewed barks drew me away and my concentration fixed on the door without answering the question screaming inside my head.
Was the creature still chasing behind Jess or had Jess succumbed to her end?
At my feet light spilled under the crack where the door met the floor as cold, fresh air surged from underneath. Trying the handle once again, rattling left and right, the light soon shined on the door and I saw Alex’s silhouette taking Cassie’s weight, their bodies swaying up and down as they fought for their breath.
I didn’t linger for long, instead slapping my shoulder to the door, hoping to feel the crack as I hit against the wood.
The door didn’t bow or split, its stout structure designed to slow a fire for hours.
Shadow’s bark rang through my head. I felt the overwhelming need to bend down and comfort him to stop, but we had no time. Once the creature had finished with Jess, we would be next.
Slamming hard against the wood a second time, I knew the futility of the task. Sinking to my knees, the impossibility of the situation slapped me to the ground.
A voice called in the background; short words, but Shadow’s bark blocked their meaning. The time had come. The end close. With Jess gone, it was our turn.
About to take Alex’s place, I rose then halted, hearing the urgent words between Shadow’s calls.
“The key.”
Cassie had spoken at my side and I twisted back to the door, shaking my head, but then I saw the thin metal protruding from the lock below the handle.
Whoever hung from the ceiling must have locked himself inside.
Fumbling at the metal, I felt it twist and turned th
e lock left, then right when it wouldn’t open. Chilling air and bright light blasted through the opening as I pushed and stumbled out to the grass, staring to the space and the rubble piled where the hospital had once stood.
I turned around, grabbed Cassie by the hand as she stepped through, collecting her in my arms as I stared at the chaos all around.
The rubble moved in so many places; rock and concrete still crumbling and settling to its resting place. Small fires burned everywhere.
Alex rushed to my side, before turning back to the doorway. In that moment I saw her as if for the first time and realised she was a woman.
“Jess,” she said in the same high, hurried call I’d heard in the corridor; that same voice I’d thought had been the reporter’s.
Panic had pitched her voice higher, the call so full of affection and despair I couldn’t help but feel a deep sorrow toward her. I saw Alex’s smooth, pale skin, but my fascination lifted as my gaze followed her rush back to the door still open wide. If those calls hadn’t been the reporter’s, it must have been the childish creature who’d won the battle.
Leaving Cassie to take in the view, I took long steps to the door and slammed it shut. Regretting the bellowing noise, I planted my back against the wood and fixed my feet firm. I had to stop the creature from getting out. We had to make the most of the chance they’d gifted us.
“Move,” Alex said, stepping to my side, but I didn’t meet her look; instead I searched the horizon for our next escape route.
A thud of hands slapped to the door from the other side and a low visceral scream rattled the wood. With Alex’s eyes widening at the call, her mouth opening, I couldn’t watch the heartbreak.
“Let her out,” she said, her voice calming.
I couldn’t let the creature out. Despite her age, she had as much of a killer instinct as those who’d already killed so many of my friends.
10
JESSICA
I couldn’t think with the dog’s incessant bark. I could only watch the hunger in the child’s eyes. Despite trying to hide her face from the light, I saw the battle in her tensed features. I pictured the terrible memories racing through her mind.
Something pricked her interest, and she pulled her gaze from the hiding place to peer at each of us. The corners of her mouth rose as her gaze settled. I twisted around, following the deep sense of longing as she stared at Alex and stood up.
For a fleeting moment I wanted the memory of Alex’s scent, feeling robbed I couldn’t taste the sweet smell in the air, but knowing I couldn’t compare her nectar to that of Toni’s. Horror pulled me back when I realised what the girl wanted to do to my newfound friend.
“Go,” I said, before turning back to the child, whilst pushing the pistol into my waistband. Wrapping the child in an embrace, her eyes went wide as I held her tight, her lips curling at my touch.
The girl’s muscles tensed and relaxed as she tested my grip around her shoulders, a hiss of complaint rising by my ear. Tightening my hold, I saw her looking back to Alex. When her breath faltered, I released my grip just a little, and I remembered the girl’s voice.
She was like me and it could mean she too could live without eating human flesh; without having to kill with her bare hands. Once I found out what Toni had intended, all of us could live alongside each other in this changed world.
“Go,” I repeated, louder this time. The guy, Logan, hurried them on. I could hear their steps heading away, but the light lingered at my side.
“Go,” I repeated in a soft voice. It took the girl to buck against my hold, hissing with her teeth bared at Alex, for the light to go altogether.
The barking returned in the distance, still stunning my ears with each call and sending shivers through the girl.
“What’s your name?” I said, whilst trying to catch a look at her face. With just enough remaining light from the tunnel, I watched lank strands of inky hair as she tried to twist her view to follow those already so far away.
She didn’t reply; instead each of the muscles in her upper body went tight at the same time. Not letting my grip falter, I pulled her closer.
Tightening further, I remembered how I’d felt as I stepped from the van in the pale dusk. I remembered the blank emotion as I led the soldier, Jordain, to his death. I closed my eyes, but could barely tell the difference. I tightened my grip a little more.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she felt the same as I did when the hunger came, and she could talk, a little girl still somewhere behind those eyes. Toni wouldn’t have left me like this. She wouldn’t have left me to live out the rest of my life like an animal; a predator on humanity. The very fact I had these thoughts gave testament to my hope.
But this wasn’t about me; the dark, bulging lines on the girl’s face told me she could be different.
Did she have the same hopes? Could I take the risk to find out? The price for being wrong wouldn’t just be my life.
Her breathing slowed and her muscles stayed limp as if she’d given up, accepting the decision I hadn’t voiced.
Her chest went in further as she expelled air and I tightened a little more. It would be best for Alex. Best for the others. Best for the girl.
It would be over in a moment and if only the dog would stop barking, this would be a beautiful ending to her pain.
“Emily.” The small breathless voice came from below. I no longer wanted to know her name.
Without thought, I relaxed my arms to the deep pull of breath rushing into her lungs.
Why did she have to speak again? Why did she have to remind me she was a girl first? Human, in some part. A tragedy afflicted by the same designers of my cross.
A terrible thought ran through my mind. Had her experiment happened before or after mine? Was she meant to be a better version of what I had become? Or just another failed guinea pig?
“How long have you been down here?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet.
My grip loosened, but still wrapped her tight. She didn’t reply and all I could think of was how scared she must have been to wake alone with animal thoughts in her head she could do nothing about, other than to seek satisfaction.
“Did you escape?” I said, but she didn’t react. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes, even though I knew there would be no light. The last thing I wanted to see was the affliction spidering across her face. “How long have you been down here? You must be so hungry.”
Regretting the words just as they came, her shoulders flexed, her power too great for my hold and my arms burst wide. Light speckled with tiny white stars as a heavy blow landed to my chest.
She was out of my arms and at my side, running, racing down the corridor to the noise of the dog. Racing towards Alex.
Lunging out low, I caught a leg in the darkness, gripping for a moment but I couldn’t keep hold. With my fingers scratching at her skin, I heard her fall.
Over-balanced, I tumbled forward, the gun clattering to the floor. I heard her scrabble to her feet as I swept my hands across the dusty ground until I retook the gun in my grip and jumped up to give chase, my finger twitching on the trigger as I sped through the darkness.
A door slammed ahead and by instinct alone I launched myself forward, somehow catching at her ankles and bringing her to the floor again.
Scrabbling to my feet, I heard her in front and before I hoped she could rise, I jumped forward, landing on top of her compact frame, but with such strength in her movement, she tried to throw me off.
I dropped the gun and grabbed at her hands as she struggled. Fighting against her thrashing body, thrown left and right as she pulled from my grip, she rolled to her back with a soft, quivering voice; the voice of a victim. Her voice like mine had been.
Yes, I’d killed a man for his meat. I’d done the deed, but I’d woken from that moment still human. Why shouldn’t this girl have the same chance too?
“Say something,” I said through gritted teeth as I struggled, willing her to calm as she bucked with my
hands at her wrists.
With a surge of strength, she slammed me left and right like a rodeo bronco but without the stadium of hollering fans. Perhaps she was past the point of no return.
Did we share a fate?
Letting go with one hand, I reached out to my right and where I hoped I’d dropped the pistol. Before I could search, she twisted me over and sent me spilling to the wall with a ring of pain resonating across my head.
Blinking away the sparkling dots across the black view, I sensed her stare; in my mind, she leaned over, snarling in my direction.
I rose tall, steadying with my hand out to the wall, having decided; I wouldn’t kill her if I could help it, but I couldn’t let her loose on Alex either.
Lunging where I heard her snarl, my foot touched at the gun and I dropped to scoop it up as I lurched forward, connecting with what I hoped was her head as I slammed into her.
Her body went limp and her animal snarl stopped. Now was my chance.
Keeping the gun in my grip, I ran, following the curve of the wall with my left hand as I listened for the others ahead and for any sign of her rousing at my back.
A door slammed in the distance, the noise cushioned by something blocking the way.
Feet scraped on the dusty floor behind me and I heard footsteps, slow at first but they soon rose in volume.
Somehow, I’d slowed before hitting against the door barring my way and I searched for the handle, handicapped by holding the pistol. I found its curve, gripped hard and twisted until I felt her force at my back, sending me through the door to clatter against the concrete steps on the other side.
Blindly kicking out, I didn’t know where my attacker stood, but not waiting for her to come again, I scrabbled up the steps toward the door at the top. Frigid air circled where a sliver of light met my eye-line. Banging hard at the door, I screamed for release, but heard nothing other than her teeth snapping as she rose behind me.
