by D. S Mac
“Aye, the only whiskey I drink that—”
Hannah spluttered.
“Little lady nae used to a stiff drink, eh.”
Drake felt himself smirk. As he rubbed Hannah’s back, he realised how much life he had missed . By becoming a puppet of time, he had lost time with friends, out drinking, laughing, doing all the things young men should do. Since his teen years before the army, he hadn’t been on a date, not that they ever went well. Hopefully, Hannah wouldn’t expect anything too extravagant after all this was over, and maybe Ferg would be up for an evening at the pub. Hell, perhaps even Hannah would too.
“Jesus. How can you guys drink that?” Hannah had recovered, her throat still burnt, but at least the drink had warmed her up. “More of a gin gal myself.” She cleared her throat. “Maybe when this is all over, you can take me for a gin?”
Drake could feel the nerves oozing off her as she nudged him. “I’d love that.” He pulled her in tighter.
As he did, he saw a ray of sunlight pierce through the cracks. “I think it’s clear out there.” He stood up, offering a hand to Hannah. “Shall we?”
Chapter 38 - Loss
The sky had blackened. The beautiful sunny blue had been swallowed up by the death and destruction of the last hour. In its wake, the tidal cloud left a murky orange fog. It tasted bitter on Drake’s tongue, each breath scratching his throat as if he had swallowed a teaspoon of sand. Streets were littered with thick dust and debris from the collapse. Shop windows and car windows had all imploded on impact and shattered, leaving the dirty shards of glass scattered around every threshold. They crunched under every step.
“Watch your feet, guys.” Drake had climbed up to the hatch that led to the bar. The place was barren, pint glasses and coffee cups scattered over the bar, which the dust cloud had knocked over. The coffees still wafted dainty clouds of steam. Stools had been blown over. Some had broken apart from impact against the bar. Every step they took rang out with a crunch of glass as they made their way to the door.
Drake opened it a crack and peered out. His mouth hung open at the sight. Destruction and devastation were the only words that came to his mind. London well and truly looked like it had been amidst a war. Buildings barely stood where large chunks had either been ripped through time and space vacuums or debris had collided where Forrest Futures had collapsed. The streets echoed with the groans from failing structures.
Drake’s knees went weak. He staggered back into a table and hunched over with both palms pressed against the glass shards.
“How… how did we let this happen?” Tears rolled down his face. Anger boiled up inside from failing. With a loud bang, he smashed his hands onto the table. Several superficial cuts instantly stung his palms. He felt a hand grip his shoulder. Then another pulling him around into a tight hug. Hannah’s dainty arms wrapped around him. Her chest shook as her breathing juddered. Then he felt her tears drop onto his cheek. Hannah tried to speak. What came out was an inaudible warbled mess. Drake felt her take a deep breath.
“It’s awful… I know… But it is not over. There has to be something we can do.”
“Aye, Hannah’s right. We just need to use our wee brains.” Fergus’s voice was as weak as everyone else’s. Hope would be hard to find. Drake pushed away from Hannah.
“Right. We need to get back to Chase and talk through our options.” He closed his eyes and willed forth his power. Through his closed eyelids, he could see the blue glow of his arm.
Screams from outside rattled down his spine, breaking his concentration. He opened his eyes to see Fergus peeping back out the door. Fergus took a step forward, looked right and then left.
Another shrill scream ran goosebumps down his arms as Drake saw Fergus’s mouth drop open in panic. Before he could even react, he was thrown against the wall with a loud oof as the air left his lungs. The creature was on top of him. Talons bared, ready to slice. Drake swiftly pulled out his Glock and fired. Two loud cracks, and the creature fell back with wounds to its face. Blood sprayed out across the doorway as it landed on its back. With his gun raised, Drake peeked around the corner. His guts almost dropped. He felt his muscles tense all over.
“We’ve got a problem.” Shambling up the road in their hundreds were the fractured creatures. All the grotesque shapes, sizes and deformities you could think of.
He reached down for Fergus, who had turned ghost white and was clutching his chest. He turned his head towards Drake and shared a look that said, ‘I’m done, mate.’
“No, no, no, no.” Drake fell to his knees. “Ferg, come on, bud, you’re ok.” Drake was pleading. His arms shook as he moved Fergus’s arm out of the way, revealing a gaping hole that was weeping a lot of blood. “Fuck, Ferg. Come on, get up.” Drake, in a fit of emotional pain, tried to pull Fergus up.
Fergus groaned, jaw locked tight with sweat pouring down his ghastly white face.
Arms latched around Drake’s waist. They pulled him back. “No, no, we can help him.”
“Drake.”
He ignored her, still fighting to get to Fergus.
“Drake.” Her voice was firmer. It snapped him back to reality. Drake looked up to Hannah, who was barely visible through his tear-ridden eyes.
“We’ve got to help him.”
Hannah shook her head. The pain in her eyes said a thousand words he could never accept. Fergus spluttered on his blood. His breaths became shorter. Drake looked at his friend, who was trying to say something. He shuffled forward.
“What is it, bud?”
“Twen…” He coughed; waves of blood poured from his mouth. “Twenty,” came out in a wheeze, “Twenty… eighteen.” Fergus slipped against the wall and slid to his side, leaving a thick trail of his blood across the wall. “K… Kill… us.” The last breath slipped out from between his lips. His body seemed to sink into itself as his eyes became devoid of life.
Drake froze. A thousand questions rattled his overworking brain. How did I let this happen?
“Drake.”
Why Ferg? Why now? After everything. The first friend he’d had in a long time, and he had left him just as fast.
“Drake.”
All his dreams of everyday life, going out for a drink and enjoying his friend’s company, became a wish, what could have been the second Fergus died.
“Drake.”
He stood over Fergus, trembling. Hope had become a dream, death a reality. Drake wondered if there was any point in continuing.
“Drake.” A loud clap followed by a sharp sting to his face brought him back. Hannah stood in front of him, hands clasped to his biceps. Her lips were moving, but no sound was making it to him audibly. His eyes came back to full focus. Hannah looked scared but determined. “I will not die here with you. We need to go… Now.”
Shrill screams echoed from the streets outside. The ground pounded beneath his feet as the army of creatures came for their prey. He nodded, and Hannah led the way. She launched herself around the bar and disappeared through the back.
Drake realised he hadn’t moved. Several creatures burst through the door, hissing and snapping in excitement. Their snarling features resonated in his brain, which sent signals to his legs, ‘run’, before they could get to him. He picked up a stool and threw it in their direction. He didn’t wait around to see what damage that had done and ran to follow Hannah.
Drake exited out the back of the pub, back into the alley with the trapdoor. A glance left, he saw several creatures knocking into each other, wanting to be the first to feast. He spun on his feet and ran in the opposite direction. The scuffle of their feet and their snarls of hunger cascaded a layer of fear down his spine. Drake pushed through it and emerged from the alley onto a street. His eyes rapidly searched, left, right and left again. He didn’t have time to waste, yet here he was indecisive over which way to run. That was when he saw her. Hannah, hurtling up the road in a borrowed car. Its windows and windscreen had been completely blown out. Dents riddled its black bodywork, leaving w
hite scars.
Drake watched as Hannah slalomed around several abandoned vehicles and screeched to a stop in front of him. He reached for the handle and threw himself in. He had just managed to close the door when a creature impacted the side. It screamed in his face, spittle flying off in every direction. A talon as big as Drake’s arm came into view. It waved around behind the creature like a cat’s tail. As it was about to thrust, Hannah threw the car into gear and burst away. The engine struggled with the high revs. She slammed it into second gear, third gear. Drake struggled with the creature at the window.
Hannah shifted up to fourth gear and shouted, “Brace yourself.”
Drake realised what she was about to do, he hadn’t put on his seatbelt, and they were doing at least fifty. He planted a fast, hard jab at the creature’s face and yanked on the seatbelt. A sharp clunk resounded as its safety features stopped it from moving. Hannah braked hard. Time slowed down as everything lurched forward. Drake had mere seconds to try again. In one swift movement, he pulled across the belt. A faint click where it connected. Tires squealed from the effort while clouds of black smoke wafted up behind them. Drake felt his body hit the belt hard. It locked against his chest and threw him back to the seat.
Pain swelled across his breast as time resumed its normal speed. He looked to where the creature had been flung. Blood smothered the ground in patches where it slid, its skin shaved as if it had been through a grater. It snapped up straight, eyes locked directly onto the car. Outrage spread across its pale face, reddening the pasty skin. It made the creature look even more formidable. Then for some reason, it changed its focus. No longer looking at the car but past it, into the distance. Drake looked over to Hannah, who had the same confused look he did.
They felt it. First, slight quakes rumbled through the car, each one vibrating with more force than the last. That was when the distant pounding started, easily mistakable for a thunderstorm a few miles away. Drake looked at Hannah again. Her face had ‘what the hell’ written all over it. Together they looked back between the seats. What they saw made their heart rates increase exponentially, pounding through their ears. BOOM.
The car’s frame rattled violently, BOOM. Both Drake and Hannah sat with their mouths wide open, frozen in fear. BOOM. A beast as large as several buses, snapping and frothing mouths littered across most of its face. Arms, legs and god knew what other appendages protruded from every surface possible. Drake had faced one of these before. The last thing he wanted was to go up against another, especially considering they had been saved by the mysterious stranger before. It wasn’t likely he would show up again out of the blue.
“Hannah…”
She glanced over at Drake, visibly shaking. No normal person had ever seen anything like this.
“Drive.” Drake’s sharp tone brought about her focus.
She spun back around, shoved the car into gear and sped off. BOOM. Even travelling at forty miles per hour, they didn’t seem to gain any distance. The beast was enormous yet dangerously fast. Its colossal bulk blocked out what was left of the sun. Between that and the haze left by the dust cloud, London was shrouded in darkness. BOOM. Drake’s neck twinged where he repeatedly looked over his shoulder, every glance confirming his worst fears. They were not fast enough, the beast was gaining on them, and it was only a matter of time until they had no options left.
Hannah ploughed through the streets, swerving around cars, bodies and debris where shops or homes had fallen. Hannah yanked the hand brake and drifted around another corner. Drake sharply jerked to the left, his muscles tensing from trying to retain his posture. Then they saw a straight run-up to Lambeth Bridge. BOOM. BOOM.
Drake looked back, and the beast had gained a ridiculous amount of distance. “We need to take out the big guy… We can’t outrun it.”
Hannah, whose face was bright red from the strain of the chase, looked fit to burst, her knuckles white from having a tight grip on the steering wheel. She risked a glance at Drake. “What do you suggest?” She looked angry, but Drake knew it was fear. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Just keep going. I’ll figure something out.” Drake searched in every direction for a plan. BOOM. BOOM. Which was hard considering everything was a blur. Then he spotted it. “Shit. I’ve got it. Get across the bridge. Quick.” On the other side, down a road along the river, was an abandoned fuel tanker with its door open. “I’m going to get that tanker to the bridge.”
If Hannah thought it was a bad idea, she kept it to herself and nodded. BOOM. BOOM.
They hurtled across the bridge at eighty; the car’s rev needle buzzed around as the engine strained to maintain the speed. Drake had a hand ready on the handle as Hannah slowed down. Before they had fully stopped, he shot out, sprinting for the tanker. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The beast’s steps reverberated through everything. It was so close now that each vibration shook Drake to his core. He jumped into the tanker’s cab and frantically searched for the key, tearing down sun visors and scattering the owner’s rubbish across the dashboard. Had he failed yet again? His stupid idea, and now he couldn’t execute it. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
“Fuck.” Drake punched the steering wheel and heard the jingle of keys. He reached a hand around to the ignition; his fingers gripped hold of cold metal. Frustrated at himself for not checking there first, he twisted the key. It whirred to life after a splutter, and the HUD lit up. He had driven several vehicles in his time but never a tanker. His motto back in his army days was ‘if you can drive a car, you can drive anything’, which ultimately led to him crashing a tank on a training mission early on in his career. Which he’d more than made up for over the years.
Drake checked over the bridge. The beast was almost on it. It was now or never. He chucked the tanker into gear and slowly pulled away. With his foot hard on the accelerator, he willed it to speed up. It was taking too long. Finally, the tanker seemed to gain momentum, and he was fast approaching the bridge. As he turned right to make a wide angle, then left onto the bridge, he could see the beast, its mouths chattering as if it were laughing at his inevitable end. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
After parking the tanker across the bridge, Drake jumped out and ran to Hannah. Each step from the beast shook the ground violently. He looked back and could see the tanker bouncing around. Like a mountain over London, the beast’s frame blocked out everything west of the bridge. He jumped in the car.
“Drive a bit farther up. Not too far, I’ll need to be able to make the shot.”
Hannah gave a curt nod and gently pressed on the accelerator. Drake could see that something had changed in Hannah. Her arms were locked tight to the steering wheel, her features hard, scared. It was understandable. The world was falling apart and being ravaged by grotesque humanoid beings.
Hannah slowed the car down and stopped. “Reckon you can make that shot?”
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
“Only one way to find out.” He stepped out of the car, took aim on the roof and waited. The colossal beast had made it to the bridge. A sound almost like an explosion erupted where the bridge beneath it collapsed from the sheer weight. “Fuck! This isn’t going to be easy to time right.” The beast kept coming, disintegrating the bridge with every step.
Hannah stepped out of the car. She leant next to Drake. “On my mark, Drake, you just steady your aim.”
Drake nodded and focused on his breathing. After a deep exhale, he drew in as much air as he could and released a quarter. Stabilised and ready. “NOW.” With reactions of no more than a millisecond, he squeezed the trigger. Time slowed down as they watched the bullet impact the side of the tanker. Nothing happened. The beast still advanced.
Chapter 39 - Emergence
It must have been summer by now. With nature thriving and the sun beaming, Brendan had his patch, his turf. A luscious field of green, the new grass flickered in the cooling breeze. He spent most of his time lying amongst the grass, letting the soft blades tickle his bare skin. His face buried into the verdant ocean, inhali
ng the sweet smell of fresh grass.
The other beings knew who was alpha around here and rarely bothered Brendan. If one happened to wander through his field, it took only seconds for him to bolster his position and tear the creature’s limbs from its frame.
After a prison sentence’s worth of years trapped in a life-consuming hell, fighting for his life every single day, shrouded in darkness and misery, with nothing but primal instincts and a broken mind to keep him active and somewhat aware, amongst years of wanting to find a way out, he had finally found a new age of peace. He could see the need for a humanless world, the beauty of nature, untouched, undefiled. That was when he knew exactly which path to take next.
“Bu…” he croaked. “Butch…” His throat seized, causing him to cough. “Butchhh…” He cleared his throat and tried again. “Butcherrr.” What came out was a gravelly growl, but words nonetheless. Brendan repeated Butcher’s name over and over again until it made sense. He had not spoken in so long. Human words seemed so alien to him now.
Brendan felt a presence behind him. In a sharp movement, he snapped his head around and stared into the air. Nothing, but he could still feel it. Like something was watching him.
Butcher emerged from the remains of a building, his face coated in blood as if he had attempted using it as foundation. Brendan averted his gaze and watched as he strolled over, his large frame creating an awkward gait. He stopped a few meters away and bowed his head.
“Butcher, do you—” he took a breath “—under… stand—” another breath “—my words?”
The giant creature raised his head and nodded.
Brendan was taken aback. He had not expected this stupid primal creature to have any form of intelligence. “Jump.”
He did as he was asked and leapt into the air, surprisingly high for such a big humanoid. The landing was a different story. His legs entwined with each other after, looking like he was attempting a petit jete. He met the ground hard on his side and let out a whimper.
