The Brutality Pack: An extreme horror collection

by Ian Woodhead

  A terrible thought crept up the back of Tony’s head and lodged there, refusing to budge. “So, you were in the nightclub? I bet all the lads sniff around your little cunt. Now, tell me, bitch, do you know of Phil Banks?” He silently counted to three, patiently waiting for an answer, and when it became obvious that she wasn’t going to tell him jackshit, he back-handed her.

  “Oh yeah, she does know the fat bastard,” muttered Zackary.

  Tony slowly nodded, finished unwrapping the Mars bar, and bit off the end. This could complicate matters. “Zack, when you say that she knows the fat cunt, what do you mean? We all know him, Zack. Do you mean that he’s fucked her?”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean, Tony. Our Danny has seen them together a couple of time at the club.” The boy leered at Natalie and licked his lips. “My brother said that they were practically eating each other. That bitch is well up for it.”

  Just the gross image of that dirty fat cunt ramming his tiny dick into this pathetic bitch who was doing her best not to cry threw all thoughts of Tony shagging her right out of the window. This was just shit; Tony’s fire had cooled all right, but only with this one. What was the point of being king of the jungle if he couldn’t get a decent fuck? To make it even shittier, Tony suspected that they were running out of bitches as well.

  He saw the woman jump when Tony’s walkie-talkie crackled into life. His swagger died along with what remained of his lust when he heard the tinny voice of the big boss demanding to know where he was. That fucker was the only person remaining on this planet who could make Tony felt like a little boy again.

  Reluctantly, he hurried back to the bench and picked up the radio. He listened to the man ordering him and the others to drop everything and meet Daniel back at the factory. That did make him grin. If the boss was telling his group to go back, he must be asking the others to do the same. Something big was going down. The boss might even have caught Phil and wanted to use the fat cunt as kindling. Oh, he so hoped so. He’d have to ask Daniel if he could light the match. That would be fucking awesome.

  Tony looked behind him and ground his teeth together in annoyance when he saw that the others had already decided to fuck her. Two of them were holding her down while Zackary was doing his best to remove her already ripped blouse. “For crying out loud!” he shouted. “We don’t have enough time for this. The boss wants us back, like right now!”

  “How is that fair?” spat Zackary. “You did the teacher; why can’t we do one? After all, you made it clear that you didn’t want her.”

  From the corner of his eye, he watched the girl punch the remaining boys. They weren’t ready for her to fight back. She wriggled out of their loosened hold and sped out of the hall.

  “You stupid fucking, dozy-arsed retards!” he screamed. “Don’t just stand there gawping, go get after the bitch.” Tony jumped off the bench and ran over to Zackary. He placed his big hand around the boy’s throat and squeezed. “I think you can figure out that I’m not very happy with you at this moment.” He watched his face for a few seconds as the skin lost its colour before letting go. Tony slammed his hand into Zackary’s chest, watching the boy tumble back.

  “I’m sorry,” he coughed. “Really I am. I didn’t know she was going to run off. I can sort this, I promise.”

  Tony dug out one more chocolate bar, noticing that he’d emptied the left pocket. That was annoying; it looked like he was far from reaching saturation point. “Zack, buddy, have you any idea what the boss would do to you if I told him that you were dumb enough to let the bitch go?” At last, he saw fear in Zack’s eyes. Tony knew the boss probably didn’t give a fuck about the girl escaping; all he wanted was for everyone to go back to the factory. Tony wasn’t that bothered either. He’d already decided that he didn’t want to fuck her any more.

  “Please don’t tell him, Tony.”

  The simple fact of the matter was, his followers had been very slack, and for that the fuckers needed sorting out. It made sense; it’s what the boss would have done. “If she does get away, it’s you that he’ll punish, Zack.” Tony ran over to the doors and pulled them open. “He’ll probably eat your eyeballs, cut off your cock, and then set you on fire. Go on, then; you’d better get after the bitch.”

  He waited for the panicked boy to stumble out of the door on the other side before he unwrapped his chocolate. He took a bite and tried not to giggle. Oh yes, he was definitely having fun tonight. Tony turned around and ran over to the other door on the far side of the hall. He pushed through the double doors and raced towards the school kitchens. Unlike those morons, he knew his school like the back of his hand, and he had a good idea where she’d be heading. Tony ran through the fire door and into the small kitchen. He kicked open the fire door and ran into the dark playground. There was only one route available to the girl, and he intended to get there before she did. Tony ran past the disused toilet block, smiling at the happy memories of organising dogfights in there last year.

  The fire door to the biology labs was right in front of him. Tony got to his knees and pushed his fingers under the crack at the bottom; he counted to three and pulled. He grinned when the broken fire door silently swung open. The caretaker was supposed to have fixed this door ages ago. As far as anyone else was concerned, he had fixed it.

  The caretaker had owed him a favour regarding unpaid dogfight bets. Tony had decided to let him off a couple of grand in return for him to leave this door how it was.

  He entered the corridor and eased the door shut, grinning at the sound of the girl’s laboured breathing getting closer. The bitch was heading for the physics building in the new block. Everybody knew that the fence behind the building was a bit dodgy.

  Tony flattened his back against the wall, doing his best to keep quiet. This was going to be so cool! As soon as Natalie raced around the corner, he lunged out and grabbed the side of her head and then slammed it into the wall. He looked up and giggled at their shocked faces as his followers raced into the corridor.

  “You’re all fucking useless,” he said. Tony frowned as Zackary kneeled beside Natalie and placed his hand against the side of her neck.

  “Oh no, she’s fucking dead now,” he muttered, glaring up at Tony.

  He couldn’t believe this. The soppy bastard had tears in his eyes. “Jesus, man, what is it with you? Zack, we were going to kill her anyhow. Why the sentiment?”

  The boy jumped up and ran up to Tony. “I wanted to fuck her, Tony, that’s why.”

  Tony pushed him back, “For fuck’s sake, man. Daniel is waiting for us. Are you really that lacking of brains, or are you now thinking with your bollocks. Come on, for fuck’s sake. There are still tons of girls out in town. We’ll find you another one, I promise.” He grabbed Zackary and pushed him out of the door. “Look, I’ll tell you what; we can always come back here once we find out what Daniel wants.”

  The other boy shook his head in confusion. “I don’t understand. Why?”

  Tony laughed. “It takes a while for a body to cool down, that’s why. Did you not pay attention in biology?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Phil had kept his temper in check and finished off counting to thirty. It was fucking obvious that whatever was waiting in the darkness wasn’t going to leap out and attack him after all. He slid his knife back into his belt, feeling a little miserable. Phil had been so looking forward to venting his frustration on whatever had been lurking around at the bottom of this shaft.

  The sound of splashing water grew fainter. “Yeah, that’s right,” he shouted. “You go run off that way, and you’ll live another day!” Unless he was just a look-out or a scout, those fuckers wouldn’t tackle an enemy; they’d go get reinforcements. Phil shrugged, so what if they did? There wasn’t much he could do about it.

  For the first time since he felt Daniel’s artificial rapture wearing off, Phil started to ask himself the simple question of just what he intended to do now that he had got away from that bunch of losers. It felt a lit
tle bizarre to know that everyone that he’d ever known now wanted him dead. He then smiled at that thought. Phil found that he liked the fact that he was now a wanted man, an outlaw. His first proposal was to turn the tables and go after them one by one. Hunt them down, make them hate and fear him. Now that would be pretty awesome.

  “Like you’d last the night,” he sighed. Phil couldn’t fault his own common sense. They would catch him eventually, there were just too many of them, and Phil had no plans to let them set him on fire.

  He couldn’t leave the only town that he knew. There was nothing for him outside of Brutality. Phil couldn’t be the only one left in town who wasn’t too keen on blindly following that wanker’s commands. Granted, Phil guessed that he was probably the only one strong enough to break out of Daniel’s grasp, but there could still be pockets of locals who hadn’t tasted the smoke.

  Daniel had burnt dozens of bodies, but he couldn’t have reached everyone. It made sense that he should try to find them before the idiots above ground got to them first. “You’re really going to locate them down here, you arse.”

  Phil would do just that as soon as he got out of here. He looked up at where he thought the cover was and wondered if he should take a chance at going back the way he came. He chucked the idea away. That bastard and his poodles weren’t going to stop looking for him. No, he needed to find another route to the surface. He looked to his left and then to his right. Both directions led into impenetrable darkness. “Like it makes much difference which way I go.” Phil chose the left, mainly because he thought that was where the splashing went.

  Daniel had told his core group that once all the town’s outsiders were no longer a problem, he would feed their craving by bringing more people into the town. Even back then, Phil’s cynicism had thought that idea was bollocks. Brutality was placed in the middle of nowhere, away from any main roads. Visitors were rare. Phil had also heard from the copper, Andy, that Daniel wanted to march the townsfolk into the next town. That slimy bastard had his own agenda, and Phil believed that the only person to win from this fuck up would be Daniel.

  The bastard had to go; there was no other option. Just who gave him the right to waltz into his town and fuck everything up? He skidded to a halt. Wait on; Daniel wasn’t even a local! Oh fuck, how come nobody had picked up on that? Oh, this was just fucking fantastic. His days were numbered, and with that clown out of the way, the town should go back to how it was before, to how it should be. Phil splashed through the dark tunnel, grinning. It was a good plan.

  As Phil traversed further along the tunnel, he believed that his eyes must have started to adapt to the darkness. He could actually see the back of his hand. Phil then noticed what appeared to be tiny crystals embedded into the rock beside him; they were giving out tiny pinpricks of light. It reminded him of looking up at the night sky. “Okay, so that’s a bit fucking weird,” he muttered.

  The light was getting brighter, though, and he knew that these crystals not only contributed to the brightness, they were responsible. The tunnel then opened out into a huge cavern. Phil looked up and saw what appeared to be natural light filtering in from the top. “What the fuck is that?” Phil gazed in wonder at the bright light. “This is bollocks, it’s dark outside.”

  Phil tore his eyes away from the light and looked ahead, wondering if he was dreaming. A multitude of grey stone buildings spread out before him, stretching as far as he could see. This place was huge. He didn’t understand any of this. How the fuck could there be another town under the ground? He’d stumbled upon the home of one of the first families, he must have, but they didn’t live in towns, they were just fucking animals.

  The town wasn’t empty. He noticed movement inside a few of those glassless buildings. He watched as a dozen grey emaciated naked people emerged from the buildings and tentatively walk towards him. More of them followed. It didn’t escape his attention that a few of the people carried hefty looking clubs Phil reached around and wrapped his fingers around the knife handle. If these jokers wanted a fight then he’d give them what they wanted.

  As they people got closer, he saw that those clubs were actually human bones. They were cannibals. Oh, this was just fucking brilliant. He should have gone the other way or at least tried getting back into the factory.

  A young girl pushed her way through the gathered crowd. She too was naked. Phil then noticed that just like Lisa, the girl had sewn several pieces of human body parts into her skin. He doubted that it was a coincidence.

  Phil kept as still as a statue as the little girl got down on all four and crawled over to him. She slowly got back on her feet and walked around him, sniffing at his body; she was acting just like a fucking dog. He knew he could have his knife in his hand within seconds if she did try anything like trying to bite him or something. He didn’t care what the others did to him; there was no way that he would let this brat cut off any part of his body. Before he could decide whether he should slit her throat, she spun around and ran back to one of the men holding a club. She whispered something into his ear before slipping back into the crowd.

  Should he try to communicate with these dirty savages? He wasn’t scared of dying, but he’d rather stay living. He watched as they all abruptly turned around and dispersed, leaving Phil more confused than ever. He noticed that they all hadn’t gone, one man stayed behind, and like Phil, he wore clothes. Unlike him, the stranger’s clothes were just filthy rags; he looked like he spent his life begging for money in the town centre. He had no idea how old he was. HE placed the stranger’s age from anywhere between thirty and sixty.

  The stranger turned and watched some of the others disappear into the buildings before turning back around and nodding at Phil. He walked a little bit closer to him. “I hope you weren’t thinking of using that on me, were you, friend?”

  Phil sighed heavily; he slid the knife back into his jeans and attempted to give the man a friendly smile. If the clown did try something, he was confident that he’d still be able to take him with a weapon; he didn’t look that dangerous. “So, who the fuck are you supposed to be? Seriously, you look like Robinson fucking Crusoe.”

  “What is your deviation, friend?”

  “My what?”

  The stranger pointed at Phil’s chest. “You are town born. You must have a deviation. All in the town are damned, friend, some more than others. Even so, compared to these abominations, we play the game, pretending to be normal while hiding away our dirty secrets. At least, we were until he came back and altered the rules.”

  Phil reached for his knife. “I won’t fucking tell you again, friend.”

  The man rested his thin hand over Phil’s arm. “Please don’t do that. They are watching you. If you take your little pointy thing out of your belt one more time, they will chop and dice you. The only reason why you still breathe is because the chief’s daughter thought you looked really funny.” The man wrapped his fingers around his wrist. “You had better follow me. Your presence is making them nervous.”

  Phil allowed this freaky bastard to lead him through the collection of rough stone buildings. He stared at the faces watching him through the windows, suppressing the urge to stick his tongue out at the skinny fuckers. The freaky bastard was taking him closer to the largest structure down here, a stone circle composed of dark stone pillars. Unlike the rest of this weird Fred Flintstone toy town, this structure looked well crafted. He doubted that any of these brain-dead cavemen could have built it.

  As they got closer, Phil saw that right in the middle there was a man tied to the thick wooden pole; at least, he thought it was a man.

  “Impressive, isn’t he? The creature belongs to the other tribe. He’s part of the first family.”

  Phil shook his hands off the freaky bastard and approached the stones, running his hands down the surface.

  “Please don’t enter the circle, friend. I won’t be able to guarantee your safety if you cross the threshold. They don’t approve of people like us interfering.”<
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  “Oh, this is just fucking surreal. I mean, they told us about the families during the conversion, but I didn’t actually believe that they were subhuman. Is that what it is?” As the creature leaned to the left, Phil then saw numerous strips of flesh missing from the side of his body. Fuck, the bastards were peeling him like a fucking orange. Phil stumbled back when the creature opened his eyes and stared at him. He stared back, gazing into those big, beautiful amber eyes, seeing a mixture of fear, sorrow, and pain. For the first time in his life, Phil actually felt empathy for another creature. He knew that he had to stop this madness, those bastards were eating him alive. He had to stop it right now.

  Before he could step into the circle, the other man grabbed his shoulders and wrenched him back. “Don’t even think about helping him,” he hissed.

  Phil shook his head, feeling like he had just been drugged. “What the fuck just happened to me?”

  “They have the ability to strip out your deviation, friend.”

  “I wanted to help him.”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “As soon as you got a little closer, it would have ripped you into pieces.”

  “It’s a meat eater?”

  “Of course, creatures do not have elongated canines to eat grass, not that there is grass down here.” He laid his hands on Phil’s shoulders. “I wanted you to feel one emotion that the powers don’t allow us locals to feel. Now come on, we need to get out of here!” He pulled him away from the circle and threw Phil against a stone wall. “Get over it and duck down. Move it, friend.”

  Phil obeyed the freaky bastard, shocked at the man’s strength and trying to work out how he felt after looking into the thing’s eyes. As stupid as it sounded, Phil wanted to go back and gaze into those hypnotic eyes one more time. There was no chance of that happening, for the other man was right behind him as Phil scrambled over the wall.