The Infestation: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel

by Matt Shaw

  I saw in the distance just past a row of tents that a large coach had pulled up into the campsite. People of all different genders, ages, shapes and sizes were disembarking - looking slightly concerned with their current predicament. I must say that no sooner had their feet touched the ground then they were directed to a check-in point where they could give their names to the waiting team of, I guess, data input clerks.

  I hurried over and started to call for my family only to be pushed back by one of the army officers without so much of a word. I wanted to push him right back but I realised, for once, he was in the right. I needed to give the disembarking people room to get off the bus and it’s not as though Hannah, Rebecca and Emma were going to get off any faster with me pushing people back into the coach so I could climb aboard.

  Nervously I paced with anticipation as I waited to see if they were onboard. After a number of people stepped off an army officer emerged and closed the door behind him.

  “What? Is that it? No one else?”

  I went to move closer, to get a look into the coach. Maybe there were more people in the back but they weren’t allowed to get off yet - not until the data inputters had a chance to fill in the details of the masses of people crowding them already.

  “Step back please, sir!” the army officer pushed me back.

  “Don’t fucking touch me!” I hissed. “I just want to know if that’s it...”

  “It’s empty. There’s no more!” he snapped back in a tone of voice which suggested I backed down immediately or faced the consequences.

  “What about another coach? Is there one behind you?”

  The army officer walked past me and spoke to another military man who had come along to oversee the arrival of the new campsite members, “That’s it,” he told him, “there’s no more. We’ve lost the road-block...We grabbed who we could and fled. We can’t go back.”

  “It’s faster than we first thought,” the other man said.

  “What do you mean? Lost the road-block? Please tell me what’s happening...” I said.

  “Get back, sir. I won’t tell you again...”

  Fiona caught my eye by giving me a little wave. She signalled towards the book of names and solemnly shook her head - as though trying to tell me my children, and wife, weren’t present amongst the new names. At first I wanted to thank her for pointing out the obvious but, I figured, there could have been a chance they had slipped past me unnoticed - albeit a very slim chance for I was looking in every direction possible so as not to miss anyone.

  I heard a fight break out between the group of new arrivals. Someone was shouting at one of the army men, I turned to look so I could see what all the fuss was about.

  “You did this, didn’t you? It’s something you’ve done! What is it? What the fuck is it?” shouted the young, dark haired man. He was so angry his face was red. I thought he was going to explode. Some of the other new arrivals were holding him back. Probably just as well too. He looked as though he had murder on his mind.

  The army men were looking around anxiously. Perhaps expecting more people to come forward and start kicking off too. Some of them had their hands on the grips of their weapons - I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a show of force or for their own peace of mind. I have a horrible feeling it’s more to do with a show of force. After all, they were quick to put me in my place when I first ran into them.

  The man either didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. He continued to wrestle against the people holding him back. Part of me, the darker side, wanted him to break free and smack the man he was addressing, who was just standing there with a look on his face which suggested he didn’t care.

  “My family are dead!” the man screamed. “What the fuck are they?” he continued.

  A couple of other people stepped forward to fight his case with him. They weren’t as angry but you could tell the air was thick with tension.

  “We deserve answers,” they said. “What we saw - that’s not normal...”

  I tried to move closer but was pushed back by the uniformed prick in front of me who ordered me to, “Move along.”

  I shot him a stern look. I wasn’t going anywhere. The military was being blamed for something, something which could have taken my family, and I wanted to know what the hell it was. Especially if I was to be leaving camp, like I planned.

  Fiona appeared by my side and stood between the officer and myself, “He’s fine,” she said, “he’s with me.”

  The look on the officer’s face suggested he didn’t care but I ignored him, turning my attention back to the argument between the small group of people and the military.

  “It’s classified,” was all they kept saying.

  “What have they done?” I asked Fiona, on the off-chance she knew more than she was letting on. “What’s happening out there? Did they make something in a lab - some kind of infection? Is that what’s happening? It’s leaked into the atmosphere?”

  “It’s fucking spiders,” someone shouted across to me, from the group of new arrivals.

  “Spiders?” someone else repeated from somewhere out of my line of sight.

  The military troops started to look apprehensive - as though they had had their dirty little secret aired in public. Some of them started to slowly move away from the crowds of civilians whilst others braced themselves for, I presume, a sudden onslaught of questions and possible anger.

  “Okay,” I said loudly, “can someone please tell me what the hell is happening out there?”

  It felt as though I was constantly repeating myself - the same question again and again trying to get to the bottom of what was actually happening out there. Before I got the answer I was looking for, though, someone shouted from near the bus.

  “SOMETHING BIT ME!”

  Everyone turned to see who had screamed out so loudly. It was one of the army men. He was holding his ankle - I’m guessing the point of the bite - and he looked like he was panicking.

  Whilst people moved away from him - some even going as far as to run like their lives depended on it - I tried to get closer to see if I could offer some assistance. Everything else happened in the blink of an eye.

  Fiona grabbed my arm and stopped me from approaching the man.

  Another squad member dashed forward with a large flame-thrower in his arms - a fuel canister attached to his back. Without any hesitation, and ignoring the screams of the bitten man, he unleashed a string of fire onto the poor bastard.

  People were screaming and running. I just stood there. My mouth was wide open as I witnessed the horrors of the sight and smell of the man’s flesh getting burnt to a crisp by the relentless flaming. The man, black now, dropped to the floor. He wasn’t moving but the attacker continued to flame him to a crisp. The stench of burning flesh filled the air.

  “What the fuck are you doing?!” I screamed when the man stopped firing.

  He turned to me with tears in his eyes, “I didn’t have a choice!” he screamed. “He would have hatched!”

  I looked around in dismay. More army men were running over with large fuel tanks on their backs. Some of them simply carried assault rifles with them. All of them, though, looked as though they meant business.

  “Come on,” said Fiona. She tugged at my arm and pulled me away from the horrific scene.

  I didn’t put up any resistance. Even I knew when it was time to move. Especially considering everyone is so trigger happy around here.

  Fiona pulled me into the first tent we came across, “What the man said - he was right...Whatever is happening out there - it’s all to do with spiders!” she said. “They’re not like anything I’ve seen. They’re shiny, hard-backed...Black. Jet black. So many of them - all together, running around taking over everything. They were biting people and the people they bit...” she looked pale.

  “What about the people they bit?”

  “They looked to be in pain...Groaning...The looks on their faces...Not long after more spiders came out of their bodies
- as though hatching from within.”

  “What? How’s that even fucking possible?”

  She shook her head, “I don’t know. It’s not.”

  “And the people, out there, think it was something to do with the military? What - some kind of experiment? We don’t even have military labs around here...There’s not even a base here.”

  “I don’t know - it’s just what people were saying - you heard them too!”

  I paused.

  There was no other explanation. At least - no other explanation as likely as the military one. If the spiders were biting people and hatching more spiders from the bite - I’m sure we would have heard about them before today. Maybe not from this country but from whatever country they first came from. And just because I wasn’t aware of any military bases around this area - I mean other than this make-shift one...It didn’t mean they didn’t exist. The more I thought about it - the more I felt it entirely possible that these things could have been designed in some lab. Perhaps an accidental breach let them into the outside world? At least, knowing that the army had something to do with what was happening explained how they were able to set up this camp so quickly.

  Fiona started to cry.

  “What is it?” I asked, almost afraid of what the answer could be.

  “When they picked us up from the school - the spiders were already there...They bit some of the children. They’re just kids. They must have been so scared.”

  I wasn’t sure if she realised what she was saying. I wasn’t thinking of the children that had been bitten. I was thinking of my own kids - and my wife. It’s hard to put a stranger, even a child stranger, ahead of your own family.

  “Look I can’t stay here,” I said, ignoring her tears as best as I could. I felt there was no point trying to offer words of comfort. “It’s not safe. It’s just a matter of time before people kick off again and you saw how quickly that soldier was prepared to use his weapon on one of his own because, potentially, there was a spider here already. This place is dangerous, the people are dangerous...First opportunity I get, I’m taking whatever vehicle I can find and I’m getting out of here.”

  “But where will you go? What will you do?”

  I shrugged, “Go home? Maybe my house isn’t infested yet. The city was infested, sure, but - when I left home - there was no sign of trouble. I could go there, barricade things up. If my family are still alive, and I realise it’s a big if, then I’m sure they’d go there and wait for me...”

  “I overheard some soldiers talking about a plan to fix things - something coming from the main base to put things right. Maybe it is best just to wait here?”

  I shook my head, “I’m telling you - it’s a ticking time bomb here. There’s trouble waiting to happen. Look, come with me. We’ll hole up at mine. If a plan is coming, we won’t be there for very long. If nothing comes - as soon as we’re ready we can raid my house for supplies and just drive up north towards one of the main airports. We had only just done the shopping so there’s food there, at least. Grab that and then see if we can catch a flight out of here...”

  “What about your family?”

  “Like I said - if they’re alive, they’d have gone back home. I’m sure of it. If they aren’t there...Well, they aren’t here so I’ll have to presume the worst case scenario...” I said, not that I wanted to believe in the worst case scenario. “You don’t have to come with me but...I don’t think you’re as safe as you think you are here.”

  I could see it on her face - she didn’t think she was safe here already. Something tells me she had had those feelings long before she had a run in with me too. Perhaps, being closer to the troops, she had heard and seen more than she should have, or would have, if they hadn’t employed her to keep the books so to speak.

  “You know what they did to get you here in the first place,” Fiona pointed out. How could I forget? My head was still banging from the hit I sustained during my first friendly encounter with the soldiers. She continued, “I doubt they’d let you just walk out of the camp.”

  “Then I won’t tell them. I’ll wait until nightfall and sneak out. They can’t keep me here.” I realised I was putting a lot of trust in this woman that I hardly knew. Just because she worked at the school where my children go, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t have informed the officers what I was planning on doing at the first possible opportunity. I don’t know why I trusted her so much. Just something about her, I guess.

  “It’s a long walk back to the city,” she said, “we’d need transport.”

  “You’ll come?”

  She nodded, “Like you said - here doesn’t feel as safe as it should. At least, out there, I know what I’m looking out for.” She paused a second, “I can get us some transport,” she said.

  “How?”

  “There’s a tent where the soldiers store everything; food, water, equipment. I noticed keys hanging on a post...”

  “It’s too dangerous,” I said. “We can just walk.”

  “Through the woods and countryside? If the spiders have come this far...”

  “And if you’re caught trying to take keys from what is effectively a military base camp...”

  “It’s our one shot,” she pointed out.

  “Then I’ll do it.”

  “You won’t even be allowed in the tent. Being a volunteer, I can at least say I’m getting the register from inside.”

  “I....”

  She interrupted me, “It’s fine. I do this, you take me with you. Deal?”

  Reluctantly I agreed. I knew it was more or less suicide leaving here without a vehicle. This was our best shot. I just didn’t like the idea of sending her into what was technically a lion’s den.

  “Well,” she said, “wish me luck.”

  She walked towards the tent’s doorway.

  “Luck!” I said.

  She took a few deep breaths and stepped from the tent.

  All I could do was wait.

  She had only just stepped out of the tent but, straight away, my mind couldn’t help but think she had already been sussed out and was being dragged in front of whoever was in charge of this hell-hole. With the country going to shit only a few miles away from us would the normal rules apply with regards to laws or would they simply shoot her for her actions? Perhaps citing it as treason or some bullshit like that? More to the point would she give me up if she is caught? Shit.

  I shouldn’t have let her go. I should have done it. I should have found a way in for myself. Or even just said ‘fuck it’ and gone without a vehicle. They couldn’t have done anything then. They’d have probably just thought of me as a suicidal man and let me go before I put any of their lives at risk. Damn it. I need to get her back.

  I stepped out of the tent, straight into the heat of the day, and looked from left to right. Desperately trying to see which direction she had gone in. Can’t see her, though. Damn! Damn! Damn! I guess all I can do is wait. Perhaps listen out for a scream or raised voices coming from the soldiers who discover her. Man, my heart is in the back of my throat.

  Feel like I’m going to have a fucking heart attack.

  By running late, getting ready for work, and letting my wife do the school run. I potentially sent my family to their deaths. And here I am again, potentially sending someone else to her death. If not her death - then at least some hard questioning and perhaps a lifetime behind bars when order is restored. Perhaps I should just stop talking to people. Let them make their own decisions and live their own lives.

  No, I’m not taking the blame for this. I told her I didn’t want her to go. I told her that I’d find a way to do it. She didn’t give me a choice. This, if she is caught, is down to her now. I can’t take the blame for it and I won’t.

  Looking around, I still couldn’t tell where she was. I should have gone with her when she left. Should have, at least, watched where she went. Hell, I could have run in after her - if she were to be caught. She said there was equipment in there so there may ha
ve been weapons too. We could have blasted our way out. Jesus, what am I talking about? I’m not exactly Rambo.

  Then, just as quickly as she had disappeared, she came back into sight with what appeared to be a triumphant smile on her face.

  “Well?” I asked when she got close enough for me to whisper, just in case anyone heard us. She nodded and I couldn’t help but smile. The first bit of good news since this shitty day started - not that we’re out of the woods yet, both figuratively and literally speaking. We’d have to find out which vehicle the keys belonged to next and, more to the point, do it without raising any suspicions. My fleeting moment of hope seemingly crushed in the stark realities of what we had yet to achieve.