by Ian Woodhead
“After all the shit that we’ve been through so far? Come on, sweetheart, what else can they throw at us? Look, we’re still kicking, Amber. Trust me, it’ll be all downhill from here,” he replied, trying to sound more confident than he was. He turned around to pull up his trousers, not daring to gaze in lust at those fantastic legs any more. Jesus, what the hell was wrong with his hormones? The girl was obviously in a shit load more stress than she had been letting on. Amber needed his strength and support and yet all he could think about was fucking her brains out.
When he finally turned back, Dave saw with some relief that Amber was looking more or less respectable. His passion cooled down now that most of her naked flesh lay beneath a layer of multicoloured cast-off clothing. “What a transformation! You really do look fabulous,” he said, grinning.
“Don’t take the piss, I look like a colour blind clown.” She placed her nose against her shoulder and took a deep sniff. “I now smell like a mouldy sofa.”
He threw on the rest of his clothes, sighing when he saw that he had to put on his shit-smelling shoes. Dave brought his arm up against his nose. “Amber, we both do. Still, it’s better than smelling like a tin of rotten cat food.”
Amber threw her arms around Dave’s neck. “Not that I’m complaining. I think…” She suddenly released him. “We have company!” she hissed, looking over his shoulder.
He spun around and started when he saw the tramp running towards them. He had honestly believed that they had seen the last of the man.
“Don’t just stand there staring at me!” he yelled. “Run!”
As the Tramp neared, Dave discovered that the man wasn’t alone. The dull light revealed three silent figures right behind the man, and they were slowly catching up to him. Amber grabbed Dave’s shoulders and pulled him forward.
“Come on, you heard what he just said!”
Amber raced off along the passageway. He glanced behind him one more time to see that the tramp had managed to put a bit of space between him and his pursuers. He turned back around and sprinted after the girl, feeling his aching body already complaining at the extra work.
“What part of ‘move your arse’ did you not understand?” shouted Max as he drew level with Dave. “Do you want them to catch you?” The tramp got behind him and slammed his hands into his back. “Move it!”
He stumbled forward, trying not to trip over his own feet, wanting to turn around and smack the man right in his face. He gritted his teeth, asked his overworked heart to forgive him, and put on an extra burst of speed, desperate to catch up with Amber. The passageway began to slope downwards; the incline did help a little. He honestly believed that if it had sloped the other way then he’d have just stopped right there, dropped to the floor, and let those maniacs do whatever to him.
Dave noticed the top of Amber’s head disappear around a bend, and somehow he found a hidden resource of energy to put on one more burst of speed. As he turned the corner, Dave saw that the woman wasn’t that far from him now. He watched her slow down and then stop. She spun around; her face displayed a look of complete terror.
“They’re in front of us as well!” she screamed.
Dave caught up with her and saw two more people heading towards them from the other direction. They were just kids; the oldest one couldn’t have been more then seventeen. Their grins widened when they saw Dave glaring at them. He couldn’t take this any longer, why could the bastards not leave them alone? Dave clenched both his fists. The idea of giving up dissolved. There was no way that he would allow a pair of snot-nosed brats to beat him.
“Come on then, if you think you’re hard enough,” he snarled. Dave took a little satisfaction in seeing both of them hesitate. He ran forward and raised his fists, just daring either of the bastards to take him on. Even so, it did take him by surprise to see both of them spin around and flee.
“Just see it as a minor victory,” muttered Max. “They’ll be back with reinforcements.” I hadn’t expected them to know about the other entrance; they must be desperate to catch us.” He gazed into Dave’s face. “I’m sorry, but that way is blocked now, my friend.”
“You mean we’re trapped?” Dave could hear the running feet of the others approaching. His bravado had all but disappeared, and he didn’t think he could tackle the ones that were chasing the tramp. “What are we going to do?” He felt Amber grab his hand.
“I didn’t say we were trapped.” He set off following the two fleeing kids. “There’s another way out.”
The other pursuers were now visible. Dave felt his bowels loosen at the sight of the silent crowd, there were so many of them, and each one carried a weapon. Dave set off after Max with Amber right behind him. He saw that the tramp was on his knees a few yards down the tunnel. The man looked up and pointed to the wall.
“Come on!” he hissed.
Dave couldn’t see anything—what the fuck what he playing at? Amber pushed passed him and dropped to her knees. He then saw it. Dave couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him; there was a circular hole cut into the rock face. For some stupid reason, he imagined a giant mouse popping its head through. “Will you get a fucking grip?” he muttered. He fell to the floor and followed the girl through the hole.
The first thing that hit Dave as he exited the narrow tunnel was the light. He looked up and gasped at the sight of thousands of tiny lights embedded into the cavern roof. “What the hell is this?” he asked. The air was cold and damp. He shivered. There was a faint taint in the air as well; it reminded him of rotten eggs. Dave then noticed a column of worn stone steps directly in front of them leading down into the blackness. The stench was coming from wherever those stairs went.
Amber grabbed his arms and pulled him into her embrace. “This is all too fucking weird, Dave. Where is this place?”
He shrugged. “I think the only person who could answer that one is right behind us.” He looked at the foreboding steps, and his overactive imagination calmly informed him that those steps led directly to hell. He frantically looked around the new location, trying and failing to find another way out. “Oh God, I so hope those fuckers were as blind as me. I don’t want to go down those steps.”
“You can stop fretting, Dave. They won’t follow us in here,” replied Max. He pulled the rest of his body through the hole.” Oh, you’ll need this,” he said, passing him a small torch. “The illumination doesn’t reach farther than a few feet. Once we leave this cavern, we won’t be able to see anything.”
Dave flicked on the torch and shone the beam down the steps. He could see the bottom. He looked back towards the tramp. “Why? No, seriously, why won’t they follow us in here?”
The tramp looked up towards the roof. “They are so beautiful. It’s been decades since I last looked at those lights.” He looked at Amber. “They have never stopped giving out their bright blue light for thousands of years; not one of them has stopped working, you know.” He shone his torch beam around the cavern.
The light picked out stone columns, the remains of what looked like huge ornate doorways. Dave saw hundreds of hieroglyphics carved into the rock. They were everywhere.
“You’re looking at the remnants of a civilisation that flourished before the last ice-age. It was they who created the first township on this site, you know.” Max pointed the beam of light towards the hole. “The ones born in the damned town are terrified of what lies below their feet.”
Dave shone the torchlight into the man’s grinning face. “Is that supposed to fill me with comfort, Max? What the fuck is down there?”
The man pushed the torch out of his face and turned to Amber. “You need to trust me on this one, you both do. There is a very good chance that we’ll all get out of here unscathed.” He headed over to the steps and began to descend. “That will only happen if you do exactly as I say and you stay silent. Noise travels in the catacombs.” He looked at them. “Both the tribes hunt mainly by sound.”
Chapter Eleven
Did t
hat foul-mouthed old bastard really mean what he said to her? Jackie sighed, already knowing the answer to that one. That loon was as mad as the rest of the freaks in this town. She peered around the edge of the rotten gatepost, relieved to see that he was almost out of sight. She watched him lean over a low brick wall on the other side of the road before shrugging and making his way back to where she had first bumped into him.
“Oh Jesus, what is wrong with the people in this fucked up town?” she muttered.
What was she going to do now? Jackie desperately needed to find out where they had taken her brother. She hoped to God that he was okay. She looked down at the piles of rubbish and weeds by her feet. Jackie crouched down and tentatively brushed her hand through the discarded human refuge. She picked out a rusty nail file. Shook her head and tossed it over her shoulder.
“Come on, lass. What did you think you’d find in here, a fucking machine gun?” Jackie sighed and carefully rose to her feet, keeping a close eye on the road. She had no intention of letting anyone else see her.
By her estimation, she had been away from that pair of crumbly nutcases for about ten minutes now. Jackie had spent those precious minutes trying to find anyone who was willing to help her. There must be someone who’d know where they had taken her James. The area where those mad women lived was deserted. She’d only just spotted the old guy hunting through a litter bin by the side of the park. If he hadn’t been standing beneath a streetlamp, Jackie would have walked straight past him.
His reaction when he saw her reminded Jackie of how the old bags acted. As she backed away from the foul smelling piece of trash, she just knew that she had made a terrible mistake.
There was no way that she would let him get too close to her. Jackie had spun around and raced along the darkened street, listening to the tramp give chase. He had no chance of catching her, though. Despite those freaks chaining her up, Jackie still had youth and fear on her side. The old man couldn’t keep up.
As she watched him continue to search along that wall, she wondered if there was anybody in this town who might be able to help her out. She shivered at the thought of what would have happened if she had found somebody else, somebody a lot younger and fitter. Jackie would have stood no chance of getting away.
“This isn’t fair,” she whispered, trying not to cry. She wiped her face, angry at allowing her emotions to get the better of her. She waited until the creep was out of sight before stepping out into the middle of the road. There was nobody else hanging around, but even so, Jackie still felt very exposed. She shook the feeling away; she had the road to herself.
“Time to get him back,” she muttered, running towards the centre of the town. After what she had been through with those two bitches, she just dared anybody to get in her way. Jackie slammed her hand over her mouth, wishing, just wishing that she had the guts to mean those words. She glanced behind her. If she couldn’t even stop one smelly tramp, what chance did she have with anybody else? “I’ll get myself a weapon, that’s what I’ll do.” He just surprised her, that’s all. The shock of discovering that it wasn’t just the two old bags that were off their trolley had thrown her. Jackie wouldn’t make that mistake again.
This was the road that she and James had travelled on all that time ago. She recognised the landscape. The darkness might have changed the feel of the place, but she wasn’t mistaken. Jackie had perfect memory recall when it came to finding her way around unfamiliar towns.
Jackie then spotted part of the landscape moving. She silently gasped and ran to the side of the road when the top of the old man's head came into view a few metres from her location. Was that bastard still looking for her? Jackie thought that he’d given up and gone to find a bin to look through or something. She crouched down and watched him. That bastard must be at least seventy years old, probably even older. “And you’re hiding from him,” she whispered. The old bastard must know everybody in this fucked up town. It also made sense that if he spent his life on the street then he was bound to know the comings and goings of the local population.
“I bet he knows where they took my brother,” she whispered. “Of course he’ll bloody know.” Jackie hurried along the side of the wall, keeping her head down, and staying a few metres distance from the man. The last thing she needed right now was for the man to spot her. Jackie stopped and leaned against the wall, wondering if she had the nerve to confront him. She could hit him with a rock or something; there were plenty around here, lying about.
She yelped aloud when a pair of car headlights picked her out. She threw her body hard against the ground, wincing as a dozen sharp stones dug into her stomach. Her fears calmed a little when the car didn’t slow down and continued on its journey. When she looked back, Jackie gasped again when she saw him glaring down at her.
“Well, ain’t this a lucky find!” he said, laughing. “You sure are one pretty little girly.” The man stooped down and grabbed Jackie’s hair. “It looks like I’ll be getting myself some booze tonight after all. I reckon that I’ll get a decent price for you, pretty girly. Maybe even a couple of bottles.”
She squirmed and wriggled, desperately trying to get this old bastard to let go. All she succeeded in doing was for him to grip her even tighter.
“Do you want me to rip out all your hair, is that what you want?”
“Get off me, you fucker!”
“Now you listen to me, pretty girly. You’re making this dead hard for me.”
“I hope your fucking cock drops off,” she snarled. The man brought her head to face his and laughed at her. The man’s breath stank of stale tobacco and cheap whisky. Jackie tried not to let him see how much pain the bastard was causing.
“Ain’t you got fire in your belly, pretty girly? I thought that Betsy would have beaten that out of you. She usually does.” He pushed her head down towards the front of his trousers. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Because you won’t stop acting like a dirty wriggly octopus, I’ll play with you for a bit before I hand you over to the others.” The man moaned. “Oh yes, that does sound like a fucking great idea. I haven’t had a pretty girly that’s been breathing for years.”
Jackie stifled a sob.
“I didn’t think you’d like those apples, pretty girly. Sticking my thick cock into a warm arse will make a pleasant change, I think.”
Jackie ceased her struggles and burst into tears.
He nodded. “Now, ain’t that better? As you’ve stopped it with the moving, I’ll try to be gentle, pretty girly. I can be, you know.”
She nodded. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll be good; I’ll let you do anything you want to me.” As soon as she felt the grip on her hair loosen, Jackie flew out both her fists, hitting the startled man in the stomach. As he folded, she wrenched her head back. He still had one of his hands entwined in her hair. Jackie squealed in agony as she felt his tight grip ripping out the hair by its roots. She gritted her teeth then launched her left foot into his face, grunting in satisfaction when she heard the bones in his nose crunch.
“You’re a dirty, vile, diseased old cunt!” she snarled. “You are going to…” Jackie was just about to boot him in the guts when she lifted her head at the unmistakable sound of another approaching vehicle.
Jackie leaped over the wall and ducked down, trying not to cringe when she discovered that she had jumped into a large patch of nettles. The car sped past their location without stopping to see if the tramp was okay. For the first time since arriving, Jackie thanked the locals for not giving a shit about anybody. Unless they just thought he was sleeping.
She popped her head over the wall to see him on his hands and knees, slowly crawling along the leaf-covered floor. Jackie jumped over and used her foot to push him onto his back.
“Don’t hurt me again, pretty girly,” he whined, spitting blood out of his mouth. “I was joking; honest I was.”
“Yeah, sure you were.” She raised her foot and placed it directly over his face. “I’m not joking though. If you d
on’t tell me where they have taken my brother, I’ll stamp on your ugly head.”
The tramp spat our more blood and turned his head. He raised one arm and pointed towards the town centre. “Over there, they went that way. That’s where they took him, I swear on my life. Can I go now please?”
“I’d already figured that bit out, you fucking moron,” she snapped. “Whereabouts in town have they taken him?”
“They’ve taken him and the others to the nightclub, pretty girly,” he whispered. “It’s not far from here. I can take you, if you like.” The man looked up into her face. “I really am sorry, please don’t be mad at me?” he coughed again. “I see that I’m not convincing you; well, could you at least get me an ambulance? I think I’m close to dying.”
Jackie shook her head. “Are you having a laugh? I want you to die,” she snarled. “In fact, I want every one of you dirty fuckers in this bastard town to fucking die!” She launched a kick at the tramp’s exposed stomach before sprinting down the road.
As she neared the commercial area of the town, Jackie began to notice the faint stench of burning meat in the air. It smelled as if somebody had set a dozen barbeques on fire. The stench was vile. Jackie stopped and placed the sleeve of her coat tight against her nose and mouth.
She stopped dead at the sight of three young men hurrying out of a pub on the other side of the road. Her terror changed to confusion when they didn’t bother to give chase. They must have seen her, so what were they doing? They turned around and started to hurry towards the centre of the town. Jackie hurried after them, keeping her distance. If these fuckers did suddenly change their mind and go after her instead, Jackie wanted enough of a head start so that, unlike the tramp, if they did catch her she would stand a chance,
More people emerged from other streets and buildings, all heading in the same direction, and that smell was getting worse. Jackie held her nose and breathed through her mouth, but it was no good, she could now taste the stink. She noticed that none of the other townsfolk appeared to be affected by it. In fact, they didn’t seem to be affected by anything; they all appeared to be in some sort of trance.
