by Jacob Rayne
‘Excellent. Let’s go.’
‘Please don’t hurt me. I’ve had all the fear and pain I can take,’ sobbed the man in the blood-spattered lab coat.
His glasses were sprayed with gobbets of gore. His face was streaked with it, his tears leaving trails of white amid the crimson. His right arm ended at the wrist, a ragged wound which looked like it had been crudely cauterised.
‘What the hell happened here?’ Abbott said.
‘They took my hand,’ the scientist sobbed.
‘Why?’ Abbott said, then thought of the palm reader on the door outside. ‘Ah, shit. Did they take the serum?’
The scientist nodded, holding his damaged hand to his chest in a vain attempt at soothing it.
‘Is there any left, Brad?’ Kyle said.
Brad shook his head, forlorn. ‘Not a fucking drop.’
‘Shit,’ Abbott said, booting the bench hard enough to dent it and darken its perfect white paintwork a little. ‘Is there any other way of healing the bitten?’
Brad looked up. ‘There isn’t one of you bitten is there?’ he said, eyes on the verge of popping out of his skull. His remaining hand went for a gun by his side, but Abbott darted in and pinned the hand to the floor with his boot.
‘’Less you want to lose your other hand I’d forget ’bout going for that gun,’ Abbott said.
Brad winced in pain as Abbott applied more force for a second, then he kicked the gun across the floor.
‘Attaboy. Yes, there’s one of us bitten.’
Brad moved to get to his feet, wincing as he put his weight on his stump. He cried out in agony.
‘Calm down.’
‘Y-you don’t understand. This is bad.’
‘Is there any way of stopping the infection?’
‘Amputation if the bite’s caught soon enough. I mean within ten minutes or so. After that it’ll have spread too far. How long ago did she get bitten?’
‘A good few hours now,’ Kyle said.
‘Where is the subject?’ he asked, before catching himself. ‘Victim, I meant to say victim.’
Abbott growled at him angrily. ‘She’s in the corridor.’
Brad moved over to her. ‘Ah this is really bad. The poison has begun to corrode the flesh see,’ he pointed to her leg, being very careful not to touch it with his bare hand. ‘She’s catatonic.’ He spoke as if he was reading out the notes of an autopsy. ‘Blood in the saliva. This is not good.’
‘What can we do?’
‘The poison from the bite has begun to eat her from the inside. She doesn’t have long left, I’m afraid. And the time she does have will be horrendous.’
‘There must be something we can do,’ Kyle said.
‘The only option at this stage is to do a blood transfusion, but we have nothing here to use. The nearest lab is miles away.’
‘Fuck,’ Kyle shouted, kicking out in anger. A head that looked like it had been roughly pulled from its neck rolled away from his boot.
‘I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. It would be kinder to put her out of her misery.’
As if in response to this, Vanessa sat up bolt upright and let out a shrill scream.
The Miller Time sign was indeed as big and as easy to find as Lennon had suggested. It towered over the car park, lit up by a good two dozen fluorescent lights.
‘There he is,’ Duggan shouted, pointing at a battered police car.
They parked up next to him, as did Craggs and Weiland.
‘Hey, man, glad you made it,’ Duggan said, giving the old cop a bear hug.
‘Glad you made it,’ Lennon beamed.
‘Me too.’
‘This place is ideal for our needs,’ Lennon said. ‘It was built in the late sixties, as a business park. There’s a stadium there, home to the hapless Scar Island Seahorses. There are no houses, mostly commuter ran offices. There’s also a prison, and a few small businesses.’
‘Is it going to be easy to defend?’
‘See for yourself,’ Lennon said, flattening his map against the dashboard. ‘Six bridges onto the island; two north, two to the west, one each east and south. They are the only ways onto the island unless you’re travelling by boat or air.’
‘So it would be ideal to defend?’
‘Yup. Also, if you look down, we’re about a hundred feet above sea level, so it’s one hell of a climb after a boat ride.’
Duggan nodded. ‘Many people around?’
‘I doubt it. Most of the businesses closed at noon today, it being Sunday and all. They’ll be long gone. Only people here’ll be the people at the prison and a few night shift workers from the factories.’
‘Excellent. Last thing we want is a bunch of strangers running loose. Right, I say we start playing hard to get.’
A sea of furrowed brows greeted him.
‘Let’s get these bridges down so no one else can get out here. We don’t want the world and his dog stealing our food and water.’
‘There’s a builder’s company based here, believe it or not,’ Lennon said. ‘My research tells me they were demolitions experts. That might be a good place to start looking.’
‘Excellent,’ Winters said.
‘OK,’ Duggan said. ‘Let’s get the transporter bridge down first, since it’s the biggest.’
‘There are plenty of scrap cars over there,’ he said, pointing to the scrap yard behind them. ‘They’ll do nicely as a road block while we get some demolitions gear together.’
‘You know the way, Lennon?’ Duggan asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘You and Gooding come with me then. The rest of you get this road blocked off so no one else gets out here.’
Duggan drove, Lennon navigated. The builder’s yard wasn’t hard to find, the cranes and JCBs stood out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of old-fashioned buildings and patches of barren, cracked earth which gave the island its nickname.
Gooding scouted the place out with the scope of his rifle.
‘Anyone there?’ Duggan asked.
‘Can’t see anyone. Coast looks clear.’
Duggan nodded. ‘Randall, you wait here. Holler if ya see anyone coming. Tom, you come with me.’
Gooding shuffled out of his seat.
Duggan was already out of the car and on his way to the spiked metal fences. It wasn’t something Duggan fancied climbing over, so he shot off the padlock. The gates creaked open.
No one came to challenge them, but Duggan kept his gun drawn, just in case.
He scanned around to make sure there was no else around then waved Gooding in.
There was a locked building in the middle of the compound.
Duggan reckoned it was as good a place as any to start the search for the explosives. He shot off the padlock, grimacing at the noise and the way it seemed to echo around the otherwise quiet island.
When the noise died down, he wrenched the heavy door open.
He almost jumped out of his skin when a huge Rottweiler darted out of the gap in the door.
Duggan didn’t want to hurt it, but he wasn’t prepared to let it tear his throat out.
It flattened him before he could react.
He landed on his back, the snarling dog inches from his face.
‘Is there anything we can do to ease this for her?’ Kyle said.
Brad hung his head.
‘Only one thing I can think of,’ he said.
Abbott made a gun with his fingers.
Brad nodded sadly. ‘I’m so sorry. But it’s the only way.’
‘You want me to do it?’ Abbott asked Kyle.
Kyle was speechless for a split second. Then began to curse. ‘No I don’t want you to murder my wife. What on earth are you thinking?’
Abbott shrugged. ‘I just don’t want her to suffer.’
‘What if we shoot her with the serum that detaches the parasite from the host?’ Kyle said, pointing to the crossbow.
‘I wouldn’t advise that,’ Brad said. ‘It’s untested o
n humans, so God alone knows what’ll happen.’
‘God ain’t got a look in in this place,’ Abbott growled.
Brad looked away.
‘It’s worth a try, isn’t it?’ Abbott said. ‘’Fore we put her down like a damned dog.’
‘Sure is,’ Kyle said.
‘You want me to do it?’ Abbott said.
Brad looked away, not wanting to watch the experiment.
‘You’d do well to look, since this is partly your fucking fault,’ Abbott said.
Before they could administer the shot, she began to convulse. Dark red sweat stood out on her brow. It looked like she was sweating blood.
‘Ah this is not good,’ Brad said.
‘OK, here goes,’ Abbott said, aiming the weapon at the site of the wound.
The bolt bit deep into her leg, sending a fine dark steam up from the site of impact.
Her screams became worse.
She thrashed and flailed like a fat man in a mosh pit. Then she fell still.
‘Did it work?’ Abbott asked the stunned scientist.
‘I’m not sure.’
‘She still breathing?’ Kyle said.
‘Yeah, very weakly though. I’d not rate her chances,’ Abbott said. ‘Her pulse is very low. Almost non-existent.’
She let out one more hideous scream then slumped back.
‘She’s dead,’ Abbott said. ‘No pulse. No breathing. Nothing.’
‘Yeah, he’s right,’ Brad said.
Kyle cursed, tears blurring the view of the woman he loved more than anything in the entire world.
‘I’d suggest we get out of here as soon as possible,’ Brad said.
‘Why?’ Abbott said.
‘The toxins in the bites are engineered to decay the human body, but once the host is dead, the bacteria in the blood start to transform and make parasites.’
‘Not them fucking moth things again,’ Abbott said.
‘Unfortunately, yes. The body decays into a cocoon and it holds the creatures until they are strong enough to break free.’
‘How long are we talking?’
‘Within an hour usually.’
‘Holy horseshit.’
‘The serum might delay it, but I think we should get out of here right away.’
‘Ok, let’s find out what’s happened to the serum and bag the asshole who took it.’
Brad pulled himself to his feet.
Abbott quickly searched the room for the serum but whoever had been in had completely cleared the place out.
‘So who took the serum then?’ Abbott said.
Brad didn’t want to say.
‘Well, shit, son, he took your hand, I’d say you can safely give him up. Hell, I’ll take his head off his shoulders for ya if you ain’t so inclined.’
‘He’s bad news,’ Brad said.
‘Not as bad news as I am, trust me,’ Abbott said, a knowing grin on his face. ‘So tell away.’
‘It was Jeffries’ brother, real badass. He’s head of the private militia that ran these facilities.’
‘Let me guess, big ginger beard. Scar over one eye. Hits like an anorexic girl scout?’
Brad laughed for a second. ‘Yeah, that’s him.’
‘Well let’s go track him down. He ain’t that tough. Besides, if we’re gonna have the slightest chance of survival we’ll need this serum. It’s worth the risk in my book.’
‘How we gonna find him?’ Kyle said. ‘These tunnels stretch for hundreds of miles.’
‘Shouldn’t be too hard,’ Abbott said, his eyes scanning the floor for signs. ‘See, there we are already.’ His finger pointed out half of a bloody footprint.
He followed the trail through the corridor, finding that they came out at another entrance to the facility.
‘This is the staff entrance,’ Brad said.
Abbott nodded. He saw another partial footprint in blood, headed to the right of the doors.
‘The fucker’s gonna wish he was never born when I see him again,’ Abbott said.
A few hundred yards down the tunnel, they saw skid marks.
‘So the cocksucker was in one a them jeeps,’ Abbott said.
‘More than likely,’ Kyle said. ‘It was his idea to start using them down here. Another few years and he might’ve put trains in.’
‘We might be on a while then,’ Abbott said.
Duggan had dropped the gun when the dog hit him and the Taser was tucked out of reach in his pocket.
The dog’s foul breath steamed on his face.
It looked rabid, thick strands of foam stringing from is jaws as they opened.
He kicked out at it as it lunged in. The dog was heavy but he managed to move it back a little. Almost as soon as he’d done so, it growled and darted back in.
Its jaws slammed shut, nipping his arm. His leather jacket stopped the teeth penetrating, but the force exerted felt like it was crushing the bones in his forearm together.
Mercifully, its jaws opened.
He shouted for help, but there didn’t seem anyone around.
He swung a fist as the dog lunged at him again.
The blow scudded into the side of the dog’s head, but it was enraged now and didn’t seem to feel pain. It shrugged off the blow and nipped at his throat.
Through luck alone, he managed to get his forearm up underneath its chest and shoved with all his strength. The beast lifted. A spot of drool landed on his face. The dog barked, loud enough to hurt his ears.
Its weight was slowly wearing down the strength in his arms. The teeth slowly came closer.
He felt the tips of the ivory spears touch his neck.
Suddenly the dog was shaking and emitting a low howl.
Duggan flung it off him and took up a low stance, ready to tackle it, but it had darted away, whimpering, to the corner.
‘Thanks,’ Duggan panted. ‘That was a fucking close one.’
He had a quick rummage in the shed and found what he wanted.
An old wheelbarrow proved to be extremely useful in transporting the explosives.
He sent Gooding back to the car with them while he hijacked a JCB.
Grinning from ear to ear, he followed Hennessee back to the bridge.
Craggs and his party had managed to block off the two westernmost bridges with the cars from the scrap yard. They’d done a good job of it. A speeding juggernaut couldn’t have gotten through.
Although the roads were empty, it wouldn’t be long before the word got out and everyone thought of this island as the perfect sanctuary.
Duggan saw that the westernmost bridges were blocked off. He congratulated everyone on a job well done and sent them to the northernmost bridges to do the same.
They set up on the east bridge.
Gooding had some experience of demolitions work, so he set up the charges.
They retreated to a safe distance and pressed the button.
The bridge became a wall of noise, fire and smoke that chased them onto the island. They stopped and watched the awe-inspiring display once they’d got to a safe distance.
The metal platform tipped like a giant seesaw and fell into the water below.
Still keeping one eye on the inferno in the rearview mirror, they set off for the westernmost bridge.
Chuck and Jon found themselves to the far west of the caves.
Along this side was a river, which acted as a boundary. They hadn’t seen any creatures for almost half an hour. They probably didn’t want to be near the water, seeing as how it could kill them so easily.
They stood on the banks of the river, watching the dark water flow past. The sun dazzled them from the surface of the water.
The river was maybe ten feet wide and fast flowing. There were some stepping stones leading down across the river at an angle.
They reckoned they could use these to cross without too much trouble.
Chuck set foot on the first stone and found it was slick with water and river slime. He almost skidded off it and into t
he roiling water. Not a good start, he thought.
He stepped onto the next stone, his confidence increasing as he walked. Roughly halfway across, the stone wobbled a little, but he flapped his arms until he righted his balance. Jon didn’t laugh; he was concentrating on his own journey.
Chuck reached the other side without too much trouble. A few stones had wobbled, but nothing too lethal. Jon took longer, but managed to cross safely. They climbed up the steep bank and found themselves in a patch of woodland. ‘More fucking trees,’ Chuck laughed.
‘I’m sick of the sight of these woods. But at least we’re alive to see them.’
‘True. Let’s see if we can find our way outta here.’
Soon the last bridge onto Scar Island was tumbling into the river below. The weary party had just enough energy left for a round of back-slapping and high-fives.
‘Right,’ said Duggan. ‘We’ll head to the prison and see if we can hole up there. We’ll come up with a plan in the morning.’
The convoy of cars headed for the prison.
Abbott and his companions followed the tyre marks up the tunnel.
The heat underground was almost unbearable, especially at the pace Abbott was pushing. He neither noticed nor cared that the others in the party were panting hard and pouring with sweat.
All of them were on edge; death potentially lurked round every corner.
They saw nothing, which, instead of being reassuring, only served to make them more cautious as it reinforced the idea that they were walking into a trap.
Then Abbott let out a quiet whoop and punched the air.
His companions were puzzled until they saw the gleaming black paintwork of the jeep.
‘Gotcha, ya bastard,’ he said, drawing his magnum and pressing himself against the wall to start his approach.
He moved quickly but quietly, using skills that had been honed over a lifetime of creeping after enemies.
There was no one in the car. No one near it that he could see.
‘Ah well, least we’ve got a vehicle now,’ he beamed. ‘I can’t wait to put a bullet in that asshole’s skull.’
The breeze from the open windows of the jeep was a godsend, especially at the pace Abbott demanded they move. Kyle was driving, as Abbott wanted to keep his weapons ready in case they were ambushed.
