by Jacob Rayne
‘Horseshit. Ain’t none of God’s creatures won’t die from a bullet in the brain,’ the shouting man said. ‘Who’s with me?’
A chorus of voices went up.
Morons, Duggan thought. Go get yourselves killed. No skin off my nose.
‘Shut the hell up, Davey,’ someone shouted at the man who wanted to commit suicide by creature. Duggan recognised him as Grim, the barman from the Taverner’s Arms.
‘What you gonna do about it?’ the idiot now known as Davey said. ‘All the men wanna take the woods back.’
‘Not all the men,’ Jack Craggs said, standing up. ‘I’m with Duggan. These things are not gonna die as easily as you seem to think. It’ll be like shooting them with a cap gun.’
‘Thanks, Jack. Thanks, Grim,’ Duggan said.
‘You’re gonna get your idiot selves killed,’ Grim said.
‘Like I said, ain’t none of God’s creatures won’t die from a bullet to the brain,’ Davey said.
‘Look at it, that ain’t God’s creature,’ a woman shouted.
‘She’s right, that thing stepped right outta the gates of hell,’ Craggs said.
‘I agree,’ shouted another man. ‘That thing ain’t gonna be put off by a few bullets. Listen to the man, Davey, Joe, Marcus. He’s killed them, he knows what he’s talking about.’
‘He says he killed one,’ Marcus Coache said. ‘We ain’t got no proof.’
‘Look at the thing, you idiot,’ Grim shouted. ‘Don’t get much deader’n that.’
‘Alright, alright,’ Duggan shouted. ‘So it’s decided we aren’t gonna go running off into the woods and getting ourselves killed.’
‘I ain’t decided shit,’ Marcus Coache said.
‘Me neither,’ Davey said.
‘Now listen,’ Duggan said. ‘We’ve got extra guards on the reservoir wall. They’re heavily armed. A team is going to go round and weld shut all of the manhole covers around the fences, which seem to be the only way they can currently get into the town. If you help with all of that we can have everything secured sooner.’
‘I’m done listening to your bullshit, city boy,’ Marcus Coache said. ‘I’m goan go kill something already.’
‘Do what you like,’ Duggan snapped, the lid he’d been keeping on his temper finally gone. ‘It’s not my fucking problem if you get eaten alive.’
This brought a round of applause and Ayes from the more sensible and attentive members of the community.
The Coaches and their supporters repelled the abuse with cursing and jeering of their own.
Duggan was relieved to see it was only a small group of retards who wanted to go charging off into the woods.
The rest were more sensible and more scared.
‘So, as I’ve said, the way to kill them seems to be to starve the parasite in their head from blood/oxygen. Drowning, choking, maybe even hanging are the way to go. Shocking the parasite too. We need to pull together and use our numbers and our minds to defeat them.’
‘Minds, my ass,’ Davey said. ‘We need to fight these heathens.’ With that he finally marched out.
Marcus Coache followed, as did a small group of similarly macho, dullard men.
Davey, Marcus Coache and the rest of their group had thought the white van outside the town hall the perfect vehicle to transport them into the woods.
Hennessee was propping up the wall, smoking a cigarette.
Davey tried the driver’s side door and grinned when he found it was unlocked.
‘Hey,’ Hennessee shouted, flicking the cigarette into a nearby puddle where it hissed into extinction.
Davey groaned as he turned round.
Marcus scanned around, making sure there were no witnesses. ‘We’re taking this van whether you like it or not, Chief, so I’d back the fuck away to your little meeting.’
Hennessee shook his head. ‘Not on my wat—’
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
Too late, he turned to see Billy swinging the shotgun butt at him.
Translucent stars exploded before his eyes and a wave of disorientation crashed over him, making the world spin.
While he tried to right his vision, the others steamed in, hitting him with heavy punches.
Too dizzy to defend himself, he hit the deck. Without pause, they sunk their boots into his head and torso.
When they were convinced they had kicked the fight out of him, they climbed into the van and pulled away.
‘We’ll be defending the town while you pussies bang yer gums in there,’ Marcus said, hawking up a thick wad of phlegm onto Hennessee’s back.
Hennessee groaned in response then slumped into darkness.
‘Now, as I was saying before the Rook’s Foot Canyon Kamikaze squad made their feelings known,’ Duggan began.
This brought laughs and cheers from the crowd. One man shouted ‘Yeah,’ as enthusiastically as if he was at a comedy show or a rock concert.
‘They are cunning and show advanced cognitive function. They heal quick and are tough to kill. They’ve been created for just those purposes. But with the right attitude and effective teamwork we can defeat them.’
A few of the townsfolk nodded. The rest remained terrified.
Duggan ran through a few chokeholds for the villagers to practice. Most of them picked it up quickly, listening carefully as they knew it could mean the difference between life and death.
When they all seemed to be getting the hang of it, he answered their questions and sent everyone back to the safety of their homes.
Martin poured Kyle a generous brandy and got him sat on the settee.
‘I’m sure it’s not that bad,’ he said.
‘It is,’ Kyle said, fighting to get off the settee. His legs were still weak and he staggered away. ‘Everyone in America will be baying for my blood as they’ll blame me for what has happened. And then there’s the mutants. They’ll come for me cos they know that I have the best chance of stopping them.’
Martin wasn’t sure how to react. If his brother’s paranoid thoughts were true then this was potentially a nightmare situation.
‘What the hell are we doing just standing here talking?’ Kyle said, coming to his senses. ‘We’ve got to get out of here. They’re already on their way.’
Martin stood watching him.
Kyle rushed him, grabbed his lapels. ‘Don’t you understand? They’ll tear us limb from fucking limb. We’ve got to get out of here right now. Pack some things and let’s go.’
Vanessa was throwing things into a suitcase within a minute of hearing her husband’s doom-laden prophecies. Still, this wasn’t quick enough for Kyle who was cursing and imploring her to hurry up.
He shoved her out of the way – the first time he’d ever laid a hand on her in anger in all of their twenty-two years together – and fastened the suitcase up.
‘Get the girls in the car,’ he said.
She dared not argue.
Martin and Stephanie were waiting in the hall, their cases yet to be unpacked as they had barely arrived. Thank God for small mercies, Kyle thought.
They heard a thrumming sound that puzzled them all. It sounded like a helicopter, but not at the same time.
Too late, Kyle realised what it was.
The screech that carved through their eardrums confirmed his theory.
‘Get back,’ he said, just in time to avoid the front door erupting in a hail of jagged splinters and flying glass shards.
A black, shining insectile face appeared in the hole in the door, screeching promises of a painful demise.
Its antennae twitched, its fangs moving in and out as if already tasting their flesh and blood.
Then it lifted its mantis claws and smashed the rest of the door into kindling.
‘Upstairs, now,’ Kyle said, brandishing the shotgun he’d got from the weapons safe in the spare room.
His first blast bounced uselessly off its chitinous hide.
It screeched louder, making all of them s
cream in unison. It moved a little awkwardly, the broken glass and remains of the door making for an unsteady surface.
‘Get upstairs. Stop staring at it, we’re wasting time,’ Kyle barked, roughly shoving his family up the stairs behind him. Only Stephanie remained.
‘Come on,’ he said, grabbing her arm.
She was frozen to the spot.
The creature darted forwards, its bladed forearms raised like a boxer’s guard. Then they slashed down, cleaving Steph’s body clean in half in an orgy of flying blood and gobbets of flesh.
Her halved body fell, exposing gleaming sections of bone and twitching organs. Blood was already thick on the laminate flooring.
The creature’s mouth opened in what looked like a hideous smile as it took a step forward.
Kyle gave it a blast to the face at point blank range and was terrified to see that it had no noticeable effect. He cursed his decision to leave the formula at the lab. He had a tiny sample of it with him, but hadn’t had the forethought to prepare it.
Live and learn, he thought. That’s, of course, if this thing doesn’t cleave me in half like it did my bitch sister in law.
Martin was staring in sullen silence at his wife’s butchered remains when Kyle began shoving him full force up the stairs.
Martin tripped but Kyle was frantic now and he dragged him by the scruff of the neck.
The creature was at the foot of the stairs now, its clawed limbs scrabbling for purchase on the polished floor.
Kyle threw one of the pictures from the hallway wall at its head, doing nothing other than annoy it.
He reached the top of the stairs in a sweating panicked mess and heard a shrill scream.
Two of the creatures were climbing through the window into the bathroom.
Marcus Coache’s hunting party stopped off at Davey’s to pick up some weapons. On the way to the woods, they ran Officer Carroll over as he stepped into the road to stop them.
They all took a torch, a shotgun, handgun, plenty of ammo and a knife apiece. Davey had gone for overkill and had an axe strapped to his back too.
‘Fucking city boys think everything can be solved with words and thinkin’,’ Marcus snarled. ‘These things respect one thing and one thing only; violence. The only way to kill ’em is to make ’em bleed. Are you with me?’
The group of men roared their approval.
‘These goddamn mutants ain’t taking my town,’ Marcus continued, spittle flying from his lips as he spoke. ‘Not without hearing from my double barrels.’
‘Yeah,’ Davey cried.
‘So what we waiting for?’ Marcus asked. ‘Let’s take back our woods. Me and Grant’ll go together. Davey, you take Jarvis.’
Davey groaned at this.
Marcus ignored him and carried on. ‘Pete and Chris, then Billy and Andy. We stay together until the Hanging Trees then we split off into pairs. You run into trouble give a holler or a whistle and we’ll come a-runnin. Let’s go.’
‘That was some speech, Jim,’ Craggs said. ‘They were like putty in your hands.’
‘Thanks. I try to entertain.’
‘You think Davey and Marcus and co will really go looking for those things in the woods?’
‘Yeah. They’re sure dumb enough.’
‘Should we go help, do you think?’
‘Na. If they’re stupid enough to go in there, they deserve everything they get.’
‘I guess.’
‘What are your thoughts on this, Duggan. Do you think we can win?’
Duggan sighed. ‘It depends how many of them there are and how many of us we can rally together. If we can get organised, there’s no reason why we can’t. But without knowing how many of them there are, and bearing in mind how tricky they are to kill, it doesn’t look good for us.’
Kyle shoved his family into his bedroom. He locked the door and he and his brother pushed the huge antique chest of drawers against it. The drawers had cost almost three months of Kyle’s wages, but it would be worth every cent if it helped he and his family avoid this brutal death.
‘Ok,’ he whispered to the five scared faces gathered before him. ‘We go out of this window, down the roof and head for the car.’
‘But what if there are more of them out there?’ Simone whined.
‘It’s a risk we have to take,’ he snapped. ‘These things will kill all of us if we stay here.’
Simone burst into tears.
Kyle’s wife, Vanessa, glared at him for upsetting their daughter.
‘I don’t mean to scare you all, but they will. You saw what they did to Steph. We need to get out and we need to get out now.’
They all nodded.
‘Cover your eyes,’ Kyle said and slammed the butt of the gun into the window. The glass shattered and the top half fell down like a guillotine blade. Kyle moved the glass out of the way and took a look through the window.
He nearly shit himself when he saw that one of the creatures was on the roof, headed right for him.
As it neared, he hit it with the shotgun butt.
The blow didn’t seem to hurt it, but it knocked it off balance. The creature fell, headfirst, from the wet roof and landed with a horrible crack.
‘Ok, come on, before the rest come,’ he said.
Vanessa climbed out first.
The bedroom door thumped as one of the creatures slammed into it.
The kids froze, looking at the door with ashen faces.
Martin went to brace the chest of drawers with his weight.
‘Get away from there,’ Kyle shouted.
His explanation was cut short by Martin’s scream as a thick black scythe blade smashed through the door and impaled him through the stomach.
Dark blood ran down from the tip of the spike, then the blade pulled back, leaving Martin slumped against the drawers with agony hewn into his face and blood pouring from his twitching lips.
‘Come on,’ Kyle said, failing to hide the fear from his voice.
He passed the kids to Vanessa, making sure that he didn’t catch them on the remaining shards of glass in the frame. He followed, taking a nervous glance back at the door.
On the roof, the air was much colder than it had seemed inside. Maybe it was the impending death, he thought with a frown.
They moved carefully down the roof, not wanting to fall and add a broken leg to their quickly growing list of woes.
Kyle looked down at the fallen creature, trying to decide if it was dead or not.
‘Ok, you keep the shotgun,’ he said to Vanessa. ‘I’ll go down first. You pass the kids down to me.’
‘I don’t know how to fire it, mind.’
Kyle sighed, tried to figure out the best way of doing this. ‘It’s ok, I don’t think you’ll need to. Thing looks dead enough to me.’
He climbed down, his heart thudding in his chest, his eyes fixed on the creature. It remained still. It’s dead, he reassured himself, its goddamn head’s all over the yard.
Vanessa picked up Simone and dangled her off the roof. Kyle stretched up and grabbed her and put her down.
‘Daddy, its eye blinked,’ Simone said.
‘It’s ok, sweetie, I think it’s dead,’ he reassured her.
As he put Marla down in the yard, a cold hand curled around his ankle.
Duggan and Craggs left the town hall after a brief discussion of further tactics against the reptilian invaders.
‘Shit, Randall, you ok?’ Duggan said, upon seeing Hennessee’s unconscious body in the middle of the muddy van tracks.
Hennessee muttered something incomprehensible then went back to sleep. Blood-flecked spittle poured over his lips.
‘This don’t look good,’ Craggs said.
Duggan waited with his friend until the ambulance came then accompanied him to the hospital.
He stayed with him until he’d been given the all clear then they headed back to Rook’s Foot Canyon.
‘Kay,’ Marcus Coache said when his rough and ready vigilante army reac
hed the Hanging Trees. ‘Keep your eyes open. Me, Grant, Billy and Andy’ll go now. The rest of you give us five, ten minutes, then come in after us.’
‘Ok.’
‘Good luck everyone. No mercy. These woods are ours and we’re taking ’em back. Fight your asses off and I’ll see you all back here before we go to the Taverner’s and drink like the heroes we are.’
A chorus of Ayes went up.
‘Let’s go,’ Marcus said.
The first group set off deeper into the woods, leaving the second in the shadows of the Hanging Trees.
Five minutes in, Marcus’s torch beam found a thick trail of blood droplets.
He shuddered, feeling eyes on him.
‘You feel that too?’ Andy said.
‘Probably nothing,’ Grant said.
‘Aye,’ Marcus said.
They continued on their way, not seeing the two glowing eyes that watched them from the branches of a tree above their heads.
‘This is sure creepy,’ Jarvis said, casting his eyes around the dark clearing.
‘Don’t be such a pussy,’ Davey grinned, exposing his tobacco-blackened teeth.
‘Yeah, Jarvis. Grow a pair. These are our woods. No goddamn dinosaurs are gonna take them off us,’ Chris said.
‘Just this place, the creature. And these,’ Jarvis said, pointing up to the Hanging Trees. ‘How many people have died out here? It’s gotta be haunted.’
His three companions laughed at him.
‘I’m serious. This place has gotta have something lingering around, all the souls that have been set free round here.’
‘I told ya not to read those goddamn books,’ Davey said, ‘fillin’ your head fulla fucking magic.’
‘Yeah,’ Pete said. ‘Everyone knows reading’s a waste of time.’
‘Horseshit,’ Jarvis said. ‘Best way to spend an afternoon, nose in a good book.’
His three companions scoffed.
‘It is,’ Jarvis insisted. ‘You’re always complaining that you’re bored. Having nothing to do. Pick up a book, you’ll always have something to do.’
‘Loada horseshit,’ Davey spat.
‘It’s no wonder you three are as thick as cowshit, if that’s your attitude.’
