by Ian Woodhead
In his eagerness to taste her, Raphael did not see or sense the woman picking up a large stone. He lunged forward and felt something crash into his forehead. He reeled backwards and fell into the water, feeling his own hot blood drip into his eyes. “You dirty woman!” he growled.
She jumped to her feet and looked down at her bare legs, only now aware that Raphael had ripped away her trousers. He shook the blood out of his eyes and leaped onto the wall directly above the woman. It took her a few seconds to work out where she was, but by the time she did, it was too late. Raphael reached down, pinned her arms to her side and picked her up. She struggled, but she had no chance of freeing herself.
He pulled her close to his face, gazing into her terror-struck green eyes. He decided that he would eat them first. In fact, he reasoned that he would be able to eat a lot of the human without her dying on him.
She closed her eyes, knowing that her time was up. The woman then reacted in the most unexpected way—she smiled.
“I love you, Peter,” she murmured.
He just had to see what she was thinking. Raphael pushed his mind-eye inside her and gasped at the glorious image of the woman and her mate copulating. They were both gasping and moaning, sheaved in each other’s sweat as the man slid his smooth phallus into her. Raphael shook and moaned himself. The previous bout of copulating with his mother and first-born was mild compared to this. He could not contain himself, his own phallus expanded and widened.
Raphael opened his eyes and saw the woman glaring it him. She looked down and before he could protect himself, the woman slammed her foot into his throbbing organ. He screamed out in agony and dropped the woman. He sensed her making her escape through the sewer tunnel on the other side of the deep well, but was unable to do anything about it. He wanted to die. The deep throbbing anguish running through the lower half of his body was unlike anything he had suffered through his short life. Raphael curled up in a tight ball and clutched his bruised phallus, wishing that the waves of pain would just cease.
For what seemed like an eternity the pain gradually receded, leaving a dull throbbing in its wake. Raphael groaned, took a deep breath, and wiped the tears from both his cheeks. He gently lifted up his bruised organ, surprised that apart from the ugly shade of brown flesh close to the tip, there was no other damage. “I’m going to make you suffer for this,” he growled.
Raphael leaped onto the wall, wincing as his phallus banged against the side of his thigh. “It’s going to take me a long time to kill you.” He scampered across the bricks and pushed his way into the tight hole. He found it a challenge to push his way through the tunnel, but thanks to the wet slime covering the bricks, his task was made a little easier. Raphael could hear the woman’s distant splashing. He would be able to catch her in no time. There was no way she could get away from Raphael.
As he pushed his bulk along, he made a point of remembering that as his body grew he would be restricted to only the larger tunnels. If Raphael had any hope in destroying the new-births, it would be prudent to remember that.
He heard the woman cry out. He smiled, that sounded like a noise of frustration. Perhaps she was having as much trouble as he was in attempting to crawl through these tight tunnels. The tunnel now began to slope upwards. He found the slippery walls now worked against him. Even so, Raphael grinned, imagining how badly his prey must be fairing with this new dilemma.
Her frustrated sounds filled his ears and filled his heart with savage joy. Raphael sent his mind-eye up the tunnel and watched her hands and feet trying and failing to get a grip on the moss covered walls; just as he thought, the tunnel was getting steeper. He withdrew his mind-eye and started to laugh. All he needed to do was to anchor all six of his limbs against the bricks and just wait for her to lose her balance. Once she started to slip, there would be no stopping her. The woman would fall straight into his embrace.
Raphael dug his fingernails into the loose mortar and heaved his body up another few more inches; he giggled when the woman’s body finally came into few. She wasn’t that far in front of him now. She must have heard him as her movements became even more frantic. That suited him, her panicked actions would only help in making her slip.
Her cries of frustration turned to triumph as the woman disappeared from his view. He could not believe that she had reached the top. He screamed and scrabbled up the tunnel, trying not to slip himself. In his desperation to reach her, Raphael slipped and he slammed all his limbs against the bricks and managed to stop his body from falling any further, but he had still lost a few metres in his descent. Raphael forced his body and mind to relax, knowing that despite her achievement, she still had to find a way out of the sewers and up to the surface. There was no need for him to panic.
With as much patience as he could muster, Raphael climbed the tunnel walls with care and expediency. It took him just a few minutes to reach the summit. He scurried over to a patch of stagnant water and washed away the moss from between his fingers and toes.
He clambered onto the wall and shook off the remaining drops of water. It pleased him to see that he had no trouble attaching to the bricks. It also pleased Raphael to see that his phallus had almost recovered from its surprise assault. The sudden exertion had accelerated his metabolism, so he was confident that his organ would be back to a fully functional status by the time he caught up with that woman.
“The pleasure that your openings will give to my phallus should make up for the pain you caused me,” he muttered. Raphael rapidly thought about his approaching siblings to stop his organ from expanding. He did not want the skin to split. Raphael then smiled when he remembered that her mate’s phallus did not have barbs running down the underside of the shaft.
Once he caught up with her, the woman will soon wish that Raphael had ended her life quickly. He clambered over the wall and headed for the only visible exit. Once he reached the uneven opening in the wall, Raphael settled on the narrow stone ledge besides the opening. He closed his eyes and relaxed. Raphael whimpered in annoyance when his mind-eye failed to locate the woman.
That was impossible. She had to be close by. Could she have found her way to the surface? No, that really was impossible, even he would not be able to climb out of these sewers so quickly.
“She must be dead,” he muttered, sighing in irritation. That had to be the only explanation. His mind-eye could not find her because the woman’s brain functions had stopped. She must have fallen into a ravine in her panic to escape from Raphael. He would need to find where she fell and recover her corpse. She was the only source of fresh food that he had left.
Raphael ran through the opening and gazed in despair at the three sewer tunnels directly in front of him. She could have taken any of them. He chose the middle one, climbed onto the wall, and clambered up the bricks until he reached the top. It there was a ravine in here, Raphael had no wish to follow her down there. He raced along the tunnel at high speed, only stopping when he found his way blocked by a rock fall. She could not have gone down this tunnel; judging by the animal droppings coating the stones, this rock fall had happened a long time ago.
He made his way back, wondering what to do if he failed to locate her body. He needed more food; his rumbling stomach had made that fact very plain. There were more humans on the surface and he knew that it would not take too long to find another one. He dare not send his mind-eye up above ground. If the new-births had entered the city, they would spot his exploratory probes immediately. Seeking him out in order to destroy him would alter whatever plans they had made. He did not want them to know of his whereabouts until he was ready.
Raphael ran out of the tunnel mouth and chose the tunnel next to him. Before he entered the tunnel, his nostrils detected the faint aroma of wood smoke. It had been here before he ran into the second tunnel, but he had been in too much of a hurry to notice the smell. It was not emanating from this tunnel.
This discovery did not sit well with him. It meant that he was not alone. He scuttled to th
e last tunnel and saw to his utter shock a dim trail of yellow light and moving shadows flickering against the cavern walls further down the tunnel.
This made no sense; Raphael did not understand how this could be. There was nobody else down here with him, his mind-eye would have detected them. Yet that moving shadow proved him wrong. He paused by the end of the tunnel and sent out his mind-eye. The only signs of life he could detect were a few rats scurrying through the gaps in the bricks and a colony of bats.
His stomach rumbled again. “I do not have time for mysteries.” He raced down the tunnel, watching the light get brighter. As he reached a sharp turn, he let out a quiet gasp and caught sight of a human male holding a metal pole up above his head.
Despite the rate of which he travelled across the rock and his new bulked-out body, the figure had not heard his approach. He stood there with his back to Raphael.
He sent out his mind-eye one more time. The man was right there in front of Raphael, and yet his mind-eye informed him that he was alone. He scuttled up the wall, watching the figure curiously, trying to work out just what he was doing. His activity had completely focussed the man. He heard the man groan. Raphael recognised that sound, Jackie’s mate had made a similar sound just before he entered her.
The figure dropped the pole and pulled down his trousers. Raphael then saw his food lying in front of him. He then detected the metallic odour of fresh blood beneath the overpowering smell of burning. He clambered further up the wall until he was directly above the figure. Raphael so wanted to understand why the abnormality was able to deflect his mind-eye.
Jackie moved her head. She was not dead after all. This development suddenly altered his plans. He reached down and tapped the man on the top of his head. The figure jumped and then looked up. Raphael watched his gaze change from disbelief to total fear. He snapped two hands around the man’s neck then jerked up his wriggling body and slammed his head into the cavern wall.
Raphael groaned with need, then pushed his mouth into the top of the man’s shattered skull and greedily sucked out the man’s warm brain. This unexpected meal made him so happy. It took him mere seconds to clean out the man’s skull. He then released the corpse, knowing that he could consume the rest at his leisure.
He stared at the groaning woman; it also made him so happy to know that he still had another fresh body to eat once he’d finished with his surprise gift. He might stand a chance against those things after all. Raphael dropped to the floor and scuttled over to the girl, watching her bruised and dirty legs open a little wider, exposing her sex organ. Raphael giggled. This day was getting better and better. He saw her eyes flicker open and jumped back, away from her legs. The woman’s eyes cleared, she saw the mutilated corpse beside her and whimpered. She then noticed Raphael.
He shook his head in disbelief when she smiled at him. He sent out his mind-eye and saw nothing but adoration in her simple thoughts. The man must have hit her very hard, not hard enough to kill her but enough to cause significant damage. She crawled over to him, mewling and she wrapped her arms around his legs, kissing and licking his flesh. For the first time in his life, he was unsure of what to do next.
Chapter Nine
Andrew Sykes had watched the three figures race past his fortified house just minutes ago. They were so lucky not to have stopped to explore. The last survivor who had done that had not lived past the first few minutes of their curiosity. Andrew did not give any warnings to anybody, not any more.
He had learned that painful lesson two years ago when he’d made the mistake of unlocking his door to a young woman desperately trying to get inside. Looking back, Andrew should have seen the signs; for a start, how did she know that anybody was in here? He was careful to disguise his house, to make it appear that this one looked just as abandoned as the rest of the houses on his street. Looking back, it was obvious. The little bitch was a hunter. Oh, she had lived up to her fucking name all right. Thanks to his irresponsibility, he had lost his wife and his young son to that dirty fucking monster.
It hadn’t been instant. Oh no, the hunter obviously thought that she had stumbled upon her own private larder with enough food to last over the next few months.
His wife took to the woman almost straight away. After having three sons, both Shelly and Andrew had give up trying for a girl. Besides, Shelly had been two years short of her fortieth birthday when she gave birth to their last son, Jason.
As far as Shelly was concerned, this strange young girl was the daughter she hadn’t been able to have. The hunter knew just what she was doing, saying all the right words to Shelly, showing just enough thigh to Andrew’s teenage sons. The dirty little bitch had them all eating out of her hands. The only one who wasn’t taken in by her pretence was Andrew.
He had no idea why he didn’t like her. At that time, Andrew, like the rest of his family, only knew that the dead had risen, certainly nothing about any of the other mutations. The ignorance was shattered when his young son changed.
One minute, Jason was quietly playing cards with his two older brothers, the next he was attached to the wall like a human moth, spitting and growling at his two terrified brothers. Andrew knew now what had happened, the little bitch must have inadvertently contaminated him. The girl had saved the two brothers by rushing into the room and pulling them out. She’d then explained to his hysterical wife that Jason had caught the virus and that there was nothing they could do for him.
It shocked him to see his loving wife pour all her emotions out to this stranger, completing ignoring Andrew. He then watched the girl turn around and wink at Andrew before she growled and clamped her teeth over Shelly’s skin and ripped out her throat.
The three figures disappeared from view. He turned and padded back into the dark kitchen, idly wondering if the house three doors to his left still had those four bottles of wine in the cellar. He couldn’t remember, it had been months since he last ventured into that search area. Andrew knew that he really should think of expanding his search, food was getting harder to find. Luckily, finding fresh water wasn’t a problem thanks to the well at the back of the next door neighbour’s garden.
Andrew sat in his favourite chair and stared at the black television screen, occasionally looking at the ornaments on the shelf above the fireplace. It was getting close to the time when he changed them around, swapping them with the ballerina figurines in their bedroom.
He felt it important to keep up with routine. Shelly changed the ornaments around every week when she did a full house clean. She used to say that it made the home feel fresh. Oh god, he so missed his family. He had never blamed Shelly for her actions, she had never been the most emotionally stable of individuals, and the hunter somehow knew exactly which buttons to push. If he could blame anybody, it would be himself. Thanks to his inaction, that fucking bitch managed to kill the rest of his family while he just stood there, not moving, watching in disbelief as she dived on his sons and slaughtered them.
To this day, he still didn’t know how the carving knife ended up in his hand. He certainly wasn’t aware of snatching it off the kitchen counter, but he did remember the savage glee at the feeling of burying the blade into the back of her neck.
The ornaments could wait until later this evening, he decided that a brisk stroll towards the wine bottles were a better plan. Besides, it would be a good idea to make sure that the three figures still weren’t hanging around. Extra bodies always meant trouble. This was his patch and he wasn’t willing to share it with anyone. If those bastards were planning to stay around, Andrew would soon show them the error of their ways. He grinned. Andrew was getting rather an expert at making sure the unwanted wouldn’t bother him again. He eased his body out of the chair and looked across at his weapon collection hung on the wall above the shelf, wondering which one to choose.
“I think that it’s time to go hunting,” he said, lifting his samurai sword down from the wall. He would have preferred to use the crossbow, but he only had two bolts left.
He grabbed his cloak and hurried over to the door. Andrew was actually looking forward to the confrontation with the three strangers. It had been over a month since he took out his last passing wanderer.
Andrew tentatively sniffed the cloak and wrinkled his nose. The stench was starting to fade already. Their effectiveness just wasn’t lasting like the first batches. He’d have to construct a new cloak in the next week or so. He wrapped the cloak tight around his body, trying not to let any of the dead skin come into contact with his own flesh.
Skinning another couple of dead things so he could create a new cloak was such an arduous task, it was a job that he never cherished. So far, he’d constructed three of them. Andrew did admit that his skill increased with each new cloak made, but it didn’t alter the fact that Andrew still felt sick to the stomach during the process.
It was a necessary evil. Without the cloaks, there was no chance of slipping through the town without the dead things trying to catch and eat him. His hunting and foraging would be so much harder.
Andrew unbolted the door and looked through the spy-hole. Once he was satisfied that nothing was lurking in the overgrown garden, he quietly opened the door. His beautiful garden now resembled a weed infested rubbish tip. It tore his heart in two seeing his pride and joy so neglected. He had lost count when he wanted to just get out there and try to bring back its former beauty. There was no chance of that happening, not if he wished to remain hidden. At least with the waist high plant life, if anyone or any dead thing wandered in, he’d be able to see evidence of their movements.
There was no sign of any recent activity, but that didn’t surprise Andrew, the dead things were so few and far between. “Thank you for that small mercy,” he muttered. It wasn’t that long ago when the shambling monsters were everywhere. Hundreds of the things descended onto the suburb, joining the ones already here. The streets stunk of the foul creatures. This even happened before Andrew discovered that he could blend in with the things by wearing their skins.
