Cold-Blooded Kin: An apocalyptic horror novel (Dying Breed Book 2)

by Jacob Rayne

  His blood-smeared hand was wrapped tightly around Marla’s throat.

  ‘Lovely neighbourhood,’ Abbott grinned. ‘How far we going?’

  ‘Not far. We need to get down into the sewers.’

  ‘With the fucking rats. Why ain’t I surprised?’ Abbott growled. ‘Get there quick then. We ain’t got much time.’

  Weiland, Lisa and Scott Wright were huddled in their loft, cold and terrified. They listened out for the creatures. It seemed that a number of them had been in the house, searching for them.

  None of them had tried looking up here yet, but all three of the Wrights knew that these creatures were intelligent and it wouldn’t be too much longer before they came up here.

  They prayed that they could defend themselves when that happened.

  This was the same prayer being said by the men at the town hall. The tension was palpable. The creatures didn’t seem to want to make the first move.

  In the end it was James Noble whose nerve broke first, firing a round from his rifle into one of the creature’s faces through the dirty glass.

  Duggan shouted at him, furious. He had a feeling that the creatures might have left, now that was not a possibility.

  Seemingly as one, the creatures screeched and started to storm the town hall.

  ‘If we survive, I’m gonna kick your ass, Noble,’ Craggs said.

  Noble muttered something then his rifle cracked again.

  Pat Cook’s rifle also fired.

  ‘There’s a spare shotgun, Duggan,’ Craggs said.

  ‘I know. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll stick with the Taser.’

  They turned to the door, where scaled arms flailed through the hole in the wood searching for the lock. Duggan sent them retreating with harsh jabs of the Taser. The owners of the hands roared and pulled their shaking limbs out of the hole in the door.

  The town hall filled with the sound of gunfire. The creature’s ranks thinned a little, but there were plenty of them to go before Duggan and his party were free.

  Duggan stabbed the Taser into another few intruding hands. The arms pulled out of the door. There were a few seconds of silence before the first thud.

  ‘What was that?’ Craggs said.

  Duggan thought of Finn at the police station, ramming his head into the bars. The whole door shook from the impact of the creature’s head.

  Behind them, they heard smashing glass. One of the creatures climbed in, off to Pat Cook’s left. They heard the roar of a shotgun and saw the creature fall, a hole in its head.

  Duggan ran over and shoved the Taser through the hole in its skin.

  Finally it fell still, blood seeping from its mouth as its controlling parasite perished.

  The creature at the door once more slammed its head into the wood, sending splinters flying. Not long till it’s through, Duggan thought.

  More glass shattered. Noble fired a blast into the creature which started to climb through the window, then sniped another creature in the heart.

  ‘There seem to be more coming,’ Morey Winters shouted from upstairs. He was hanging out of the window, sniping as many creatures as he could.

  ‘Yeah,’ Duggan said. ‘I can imagine.’

  Pat Cook’s shotgun roared twice more. Two more creatures fell in from the windows. He turned and blasted a creature that was approaching his brother from the left. It dropped like a blood-spattered sack of shit.

  He turned his attention back to the window and picked up his rifle again.

  The front door shook once more. A head-shaped hole appeared in the wood.

  ‘They’ll be in soon,’ Duggan said.

  ‘I’ve got a plan,’ Joe said. ‘We take out as many as we can from down here, then we head up to the roof.’

  ‘There a way down from there?’ Winters shouted.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Joe snapped. ‘I wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise.’

  Brian Cook was shooting a creature every thirty seconds or so but their numbers never seemed to decrease. He turned and shot another one which was climbing in through the window.

  The rest of the windows on his wall exploded in. A creature’s head appeared at each one.

  ‘They’re coming in, guys,’ he yelled.

  ‘Ok, fall back,’ Duggan shouted. ‘This better work, Joe.’

  Joe nodded and snapped off another shot. They backed into the narrow corridor and sniped the creatures pouring into the building. Noble disappeared into the basement, to bring back Al Murphy.

  Craggs and the Cook brothers fired at the ever-growing army of creatures. Noble appeared at the basement door, his eyes wide with disbelief at the sheer number of creatures running into the hall. One saw him and darted for him.

  Before he could close the door, it was on him, tearing the flesh from his face with its curved teeth. Murphy screamed and locked the door.

  Behind them, the front door buckled. A creature forced its way through the gap. It hissed as it locked eyes with Duggan. A blink of an eye later, Craggs’s shotgun sent it plummeting to the floor.

  ‘Upstairs,’ Duggan said.

  They moved back one by one, leaving each other enough room to keep firing.

  The front hall became alive with creatures. Craggs dropped a few before he backed up the stairs. Duggan went up last, stabbing the nearest creatures with his Taser.

  As they retreated, Joe shoved his way down the stairs, lashing out wildly with his shotgun butt.

  ‘Joe, what the fuck are you doing?’ Duggan shouted.

  Joe ignored him and vanished into the crowd.

  ‘I risk my fucking life for him and he goes and does this,’ Duggan said, shaking his head in disbelief.

  After Joe’s seemingly suicidal manoeuvre, the men started to lose hope, at least that’s how it looked to Duggan. The never-ending army of enemies pouring into the building was wearing them all down. At least the narrow staircase would act as a bottleneck to trap the creatures.

  Morey Winters and Tom Gooding leant over the banister, unloading their rifles into the surging reptilian tide below.

  Craggs and the Cook brothers fired into the horde climbing the stairs. They had their rhythm down. Pat Cook fired, then Craggs, then Brian Cook. This way there was a steady stream of bullets heading down the stairs.

  They heard glass shattering behind them. They all wheeled to see Duggan kicking the window through.

  ‘What the hell are you doing? Gooding said.

  ‘We’ll be overran here, we’ll go up to the roof.’

  The lull in fire allowed a few creatures access to the landing. One of them clawed Craggs’s chest. He let out a cry of rage and fired his shotgun into its face at point blank range. It fell, screeching, dark blood pouring from the holes punched in its pallid flesh. The three resumed their fire, but the creatures were closer now.

  ‘Get up to the roof,’ Duggan said, for the first time showing signs of panic. ‘It won’t be long before we’re overrun here.’

  ‘Fuck that,’ Brian Cook said. ‘There ain’t a way down from there. Joe’s gonna get us all killed.’

  ‘Trust me, they’re winning this one. You aren’t even killing the vast majority of ’em. They still need Tasering.’

  Duggan climbed out of the window. Winters, Craggs and Gooding followed.

  ‘I’m not leaving my brother,’ Pat Cook said.

  ‘Suit yourselves,’ Duggan said. ‘But you may as well stick those guns in your mouths and pull the triggers.’

  The Cook brothers fired into the seemingly endless tide of creatures. With only two of them, their rate of fire was too low, even with the bottleneck at the top of the stairs in effect.

  Pat fell first, a creature on either side of his neck. Brian managed to shoot both of them before he was torn limb from limb by a huge, bellowing hybrid of crocodile and man.

  ‘They dead already?’ Gooding said.

  ‘Yeah, I fucking told ’em,’ Duggan said.

  He was looking around the edge of the building for a way down
.

  It seemed that most of the creatures were inside now, rather than outside.

  ‘See, they’re thinning out,’ Duggan said.

  The other men weren’t as optimistic. They climbed up the ladder which led to the second level of the roof. As Gooding – the last one up – set foot on the roof, one of the creatures climbed out of the window.

  ‘We have to stop ’em getting up,’ Duggan said.

  ‘Kinda fucked up here, aren’t we?’ Gooding said, eyeing up the sheer drop to the leafy floor beneath.

  As it was blatantly obvious there was no safe way down, Duggan couldn’t help but agree with him.

  Joe was amazed to still find himself alive as he reached the windows of the town hall. He’d got a few scratches but nothing major.

  God sure was looking out for him today. He muttered a quick prayer of thanks and climbed through the window.

  He checked to see that there were no creatures immediately below him. There weren’t as the vast majority of them were now entering through the buckled front doors.

  He dropped to the floor below and ran like his life depended on it, hoping that his eyes had not deceived him.

  Vanessa felt like an utter failure for leaving her daughter in the darkness, but she reckoned she was headed towards the cops. With any luck they might have taken her in.

  Not knowing what was happening to her daughter was killing her and she sobbed uncontrollably as she limped on.

  ‘She’ll be okay,’ Simone reassured her. ‘She’s a tough cookie.’

  Vanessa nodded.

  They saw a man standing in front of them. He had normal clothes on, and was as dirty and dishevelled as they were. He seemed an unlikely ally, just sitting there in the dark, his head in his hands.

  It looked for all the world like he was sobbing.

  Vanessa called out to him for help.

  As he spun, they saw the glazed look in his eyes and the blood smeared round his mouth.

  There was something limp and furry in his blood-smeared hands.

  ‘What the hell?’ Simone said. ‘He’s chowing down on a rat.’

  His face, covered in dark veins that were on the verge of poking right through the skin, seemed to twist into a grin as he took his first faltering steps towards them.

  ‘Shh,’ Weiland Wright said.

  His children listened and heard one of the creatures sniffing around below. It sounded as though it was alone. It rummaged through the first floor, seemingly searching for hidden food.

  It finished in the bedrooms and came back out into the hall. They heard its laboured breathing below them. Its claws tapped the loft hatch.

  The tiny sound made them all jolt.

  Then it went away, like it had decided not to look up here after all.

  They all breathed a sigh of relief, but then the hatch lifted a few inches and two glowing orange eyes appeared in the gap.

  Craggs blasted another creature as it made its way to the base of the roof. A second creature followed in its footsteps. He gunned that one down too.

  ‘I don’t know how we’re going to get down from here,’ Craggs admitted.

  ‘Me neither,’ Duggan said. ‘We’ll smash our legs if we try and drop from up here. We sure as shit can’t climb down. I’m completely out of ideas.’

  ‘I’m out of ammo in a few shots,’ Gooding said.

  ‘Me too,’ Winters grimaced.

  While he reloaded, a creature lunged for him.

  They all reacted too slowly to stop it in time, but the creature was suddenly thrown off the roof with explosive force.

  A thick cloud of water droplets soaked Winters’s shirt and his brow furrowed in bemusement.

  ‘The fuck was that? Duggan said, equally as perplexed.

  A piercing whoop came from below them, along with a flash of blue light.

  Another creature was flung bodily from the rooftop.

  Duggan looked over the edge to see it land in a bloody heap on the floor below.

  A few yards to its right was a huge red thing that he swore hadn’t been there when they’d climbed up to the roof.

  It was so out of place that it took him almost a full minute to figure out what it was.

  ‘You fucking coming down or what?’ Joe shouted, giving another blast on the fire engine’s siren to get their attention.

  In stoned wonder, Duggan climbed over the edge and onto the ladder that led down to their salvation.

  Grinning like idiots, the rest of the men followed him.

  The two eyes scanned the dark loft.

  It must have seen us, Weiland thought. He didn’t want to fire at it, in case it drew attention to the house, so he had the cleaver in his hand, ready for the creature’s inevitable entrance.

  Next door’s dog started barking. The creature’s eyes moved out from under the loft hatch. The dog barked again, drawing the creature’s attention.

  Weiland moved a little, trying not to make too much noise, and saw the creature was standing on the landing, looking out of the window in the direction of the barking dog.

  He put his fingers to his lips. His children nodded.

  He ducked back as the creature looked back up at the hatch.

  When he heard it go down the stairs, he gave his kids the thumbs up. They smiled and hoped that it was the last scaly visitor their house would see.

  ‘Now we’ve saved each other’s asses, Duggan,’ Joe grinned as he started to pull away from the ruins of the town hall.

  Duggan grinned and smacked him hard on the back. ‘I thought you’d lost your fucking mind. How the hell did you manage to make your way out of there?’

  ‘Sheer dumb luck. I thought I was a goner, but I remembered how you were looking out for me, so I wanted to pay you back. I’d seen blue lights and heard sirens so I figured it was a fire engine coming to deal with the fires on the edge of town.’

  A creature screeched as it saw them leaving the scene.

  Winters leant out of the window and caught it full in the face with a rifle blast. Its face erupted in a dark mass of blood and it fell onto its back.

  Craggs manned the hose, figuring the high pressure blast would come in handy.

  Dozens of creatures raced round the corner to greet them, seemingly drawn by the piercing sirens.

  Craggs started things as he meant to go on; blasting the front row of creatures with the high pressure hose. They were lifted off their feet and thrown back into their brethren, landing wet and extremely pissed off a few metres back.

  The rest screeched as one and raced at the fire engine.

  ‘Fuck me,’ Duggan shouted.

  He leant out of the left window, Winters out of the right. They snapped off shot after shot, blasting bloody craters into the heads and bodies of the creatures.

  ‘Brace yourselves, lads,’ Joe shouted, flooring the accelerator and racing towards the ever-growing group of creatures.

  The first creature’s upper body slammed the bumper. Its ribs and spine snapped with a sickening symphony of cracks, then it fell, screaming in agony. The wheel rolled over its head, bringing the cries to an abrupt end as it smashed the skull like an egg and showered gore and pulverised brain up the wheel arch.

  The hose and the rifles hit hard, causing more injuries among the creatures.

  The engine picked up speed, smashing into the front row of creatures and scattering them in a hail of blood and broken bones.

  Craggs turned to see that a creature with shattered legs had somehow managed to climb the side of the vehicle. He turned and sunk his boot into its head with barely concealed relish. It fell hard, its head bouncing off the floor with a horrid crack.

  The hose cut a swathe through the group as the truck rumbled on, crushing further bodies beneath its wheels.

  They were just at the outer reaches of the group when there was a deafening bang and the vehicle sunk to one side.

  ‘Fucking tyre’s burst,’ Duggan shouted over the cacophony of pained screeches from outside the bloo
d-stained windows. ‘Everybody up on the roof with Craggs.’

  Winters climbed out of the window, barely avoiding being taken out by a creature. The only thing that saved him was Duggan shoving the Taser into the gaping maw as it came for him.

  Craggs blasted the nearest few creatures to give them time to get out.

  Duggan kicked out furiously at the creatures that lunged for him as he went up and out of the window. His boot shattered teeth and drew blood. The creatures fell from the side of the vehicle, landing among their kin in a bloody heap. As they tried to get up, Craggs blasted them back down with the hose.

  Joe climbed up onto the cab, but a creature grabbed his ankle so hard it felt like his bones were being ground into dust. He kicked out, but it was not enough to throw the creature off.

  The weight was quickly growing too much for his arms. It was obvious to him that he couldn’t hold on much longer.

  Duggan’s booted foot came down past his shoulder, smashing into the creature’s mouth, shearing teeth off at the root.

  Still it clung on.

  He booted it again, splintering the remains of its teeth into bloody shards. Its eye was swollen and dripping crimson tears now too.

  A second creature grabbed onto Joe’s other ankle.

  The weight was growing too much to bear. It felt like his arms were being pulled out of their sockets.

  Duggan fired at point blank range, dropping the creature that had jumped on.

  Joe looked down, saw the mass of creatures behind him.

  He looked up to Duggan. ‘You ever see my family again, you take good care of them,’ he said.

  ‘No, Joe,’ Duggan said, reaching down for his hand, but Joe shook his head and slowly released his grip.

  He fell from the side and was almost immediately concealed by the mass of creatures that fell upon him. His screams were instant and soul-searing.

  Duggan led the others off the far side of the fire engine. They were deep in the heart of the enemy now, so they were ready for anything that could be thrown at them.

  The creatures were in disarray, and a fair number were already pulling the meat from Joe Coache’s bones, but there were still enough left over to pose a serious threat.