The Lazarus Contagion: An apocalyptic horror novel (Dying Breed Book 1)

by Jacob Rayne

  The dead girl stood in the centre of the group of human cocoons and pressed her ear to one of them. A grin lit up her face and she pointed as a small bulge appeared in the black flesh.

  ‘What is it?’ Florence asked.

  ‘Change,’ the girl said, so faintly that it was hard to make out.

  Florence looked at her, puzzled, then looked back to the cocoon.

  The bulge was already bigger, the dark material stretching, becoming thinner, almost transparent.

  Something pierced the skin and started moving around.

  It looked like a head of some kind, with tiny eyes that shone with a sly intelligence and twin antennae that wiggled rapidly back and forth.

  The head came out further, pulling the rest of the body with it.

  The creature looked like a moth, but it was translucent and had six sharp legs on its body.

  It was only the size of a dime but it instilled a severe sense of foreboding in Florence.

  Moving clumsily, it flapped its wings and bounced off the surface of the cocoon like a normal moth would a light bulb.

  Another creature crawled out of a hole in the black sac, moving its head back and forth.

  A third creature crawled out.

  And another.

  All around her, the corpses began to burst open, freeing dozens of the moths at a time.

  Soon the air was thick with them, creating a funnel like a hurricane as hundreds of them circled Florence and the dead girl.

  They circled for what seemed like an age and Florence found herself unable to take her eyes off them.

  Then one of the creatures flew at her face. Its wings tickled her cheek until she swatted it away.

  A second moth landed on her, scuttling towards her nose on its strange legs.

  She brushed that one away too.

  Dozens of the creatures landed on her head and arms, all heading for her ears and nose.

  She knew she couldn’t let them crawl inside her, although she didn’t know why.

  The attacks became more frequent and more determined, and she started to panic.

  She flailed at the cloud of creatures around her face.

  While she did this, one of the moths crawled up her leg and into the bite she’d been given by the black worm.

  Duggan had to admit that the kids had made a good job of keeping away from the men in gas masks.

  The eating out of the bins aspect of the whole deal wasn’t too appealing though.

  He looked around the garbage-filled room and tried to figure out where they were in relation to the lift in which they’d found Jake.

  He gave up after a while, succeeding only in giving himself a headache, and instead tried to figure out their next move.

  All the roads out of town were chanced to be blocked.

  It seemed the gas-masked soldiers were destroying the whole town to get rid of the witnesses to the scenes at the hospital.

  Sylvia and Alfie decided to follow Ray’s advice and set off towards the town limits in Alfie’s car.

  They saw the roadblock and the men with guns a few seconds after they saw Duggan’s car abandoned by the side of the road.

  Smoke rose from the wheels as Alfie slammed the brakes on. The car behind skidded into them, the movement jarring the horn on. Sylvia and Alfie’s necks jolted forward then whipped back.

  Through the haze of swirling thoughts and adrenaline, they saw two of the men from the roadblock moving towards them.

  In their black uniforms and gas masks they looked like something out of a drug-induced nightmare.

  Sylvia came to her senses first and tried to get out but the crash had buckled the door. She let out a cry as the men with guns drew closer.

  Alfie was stirring now too, but he looked groggy and disoriented. He followed Sylvia’s wide-eyed stare to the men with guns starting to surround the car.

  The sight jolted him into action, slamming himself against the busted door in an attempt to force it open. He hit into the door panel a dozen times before it shot open, dumping him on the floor. The shock was worse than the pain and he froze.

  A jack-booted foot pinned his neck to the floor. Seconds later his head disintegrated in a haze of blood.

  ‘Out of the car,’ the guard said.

  Sylvia shook her head, her eyes wide with shock. The cold sweat on her back plastered her shirt to her flesh.

  ‘If you’re going to kill me, just do it,’ she said, her voice cracking a little. ‘I’m not going to make it easy for you.’

  The guard grunted and reached inside the car.

  Sylvia pulled the knife she’d had concealed by her side and swung at him.

  The blade cut a gouge in the guard’s hand, making him cry out and dart backwards out of the car.

  His focus regained, he reached back into the car and knocked the knife out of Sylvia’s hand.

  She cried out as he grabbed the collar of her blouse and hauled her out of the car. Her breath was wrenched from her lungs as she landed hard on the concrete.

  The pain from the impact seemed to spread throughout her whole body.

  The meagre amount of breath she had left exploded out in a cloud of pain as the wounded guard booted her in the ribs. Transparent specks danced in front of her eyes.

  The next kick caught her in the right breast and made her squeal.

  He poked her belly with the barrel of his machine gun, enjoying her anguish. The weapon felt cold against her skin.

  His boot flew at her stomach a final time and this time she managed to get her arms in the way. This only served to make her arms hurt too.

  He stood back and aimed the machine gun at her head.

  She refused to close her eyes, wanting him to see she wasn’t scared of him.

  He hesitated then his finger moved to the trigger.

  Before his finger fully tensed, a black shape shot through the air behind him.

  A huge diagonal slash appeared, running from his left clavicle to his right hip.

  Daylight shone through the gaping wound.

  The guard fell, a vast pool of blood already surrounding him.

  The second guard opened fire, but the dark shape didn’t fall.

  An arm that looked like a scythe knocked the gun out of his hands. The guard turned and ran. The dark shape didn’t follow, it gathered Sylvia to it with one of its arms. The blade running along the forearm was so keen that it nicked her shoulder.

  Before she could do anything the creature had her gripped tightly to its body. The next thing she knew they were flying through the air.

  Below them the guards opened fire. The bullets whined as they bounced off the creature’s dark, chitinous hide.

  Then the guards were far behind them and they were heading towards the hospital.

  ‘Holy shit, what was that?’ Duggan said, peering through one of the vent covers in the wall of the kid’s hideout.

  ‘What happened?’ Mark said.

  ‘The guards dragged some woman out of a car. They were about to shoot her then this big fucking black thing rescued her.’

  ‘What was it?’ Jake said.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Duggan said. ‘It moved too fast for me to get a good look at it. All I could see was that it was black, vicious and it could fly.’

  ‘Fly?’

  ‘Yeah. It took Sylvia off towards the centre of town.’

  Ray’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and handed it to Abbott. His human qualities seemingly didn’t stretch to answering the phone.

  ‘Hello?’ Abbott said.

  ‘Abbott, it’s Duggan. I’ve just seen something take Sylvia.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘I don’t know. I think it’s one of our biological weapons gone wrong.’

  ‘Hold on a sec,’ Duggan looked to Ray, who seemed to have heard the tinny exchange from the speakers.

  ‘Where did they go?’ Ray asked.

  ‘Back towards town. I’d guess the hospital.’

  ‘Yeah,
me too,’ Ray said before Abbott could say anything else.

  ‘Do you want us to go and get her?’ Duggan said.

  ‘No,’ Abbott said straight away. ‘You’d only get yourselves killed.’

  ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’

  ‘You haven’t seen those things in action.’

  ‘True. So what do we do?’

  ‘We sit tight and let Ray do what he was made to do.’

  Subject I looked at his kind, their fluttering wings stirring the air around him.

  He knew he’d done well to get the hybrid’s woman. If the hybrid was still as human as he seemed, he’d be unable to resist coming to the aid of his mate. If not, he’d enjoy tearing her apart.

  The terrified look on her face was delicious.

  He knew it wouldn’t be long until the traitor made his move.

  The first wave of the moth creatures lit out from the hospital later that night. There were only two dozen to start with, but they managed to get into houses through cracks in the brickwork and windows.

  Many a horrified occupant woke to find one of the eerily beautiful creatures crawling on their face.

  By then it was too late as the fangs had already secured the creatures to the faces of their future hosts.

  From there the creatures crawled through noses, ears, mouths and on a few occasions even chewed through eyes, until they reached the back of the host’s skull and started their possession of the body.

  One of the many creatures landed on the wall of Duggan and Mark’s stinky sanctuary.

  The kids were all asleep, but were soon awakened by Mark’s panicked screams when he was stirred from his sleep by the scraping of the creature’s claws across his neck.

  Duggan’s eyes jerked open and he was instantly furious for he’d fallen asleep on his watch. His bleary eyes focussed on the light shimmering from the tiny creature. He reached out and slapped it away, removing the creature along with a small patch of Mark’s skin.

  The creature circled wildly.

  Duggan nudged the kids awake then hastily put a gas mask over Mark’s head. After a second’s thought he put one over Jake’s face, reckoning it was the least he could do since Jake had saved them.

  ‘What is it?’ Zeke said, his voice high enough that Duggan suspected only dogs could hear it.

  ‘Shut your mouth,’ Duggan said. ‘It’ll try to get in through your eyes and nose and mouth. Don’t let it.’

  Zeke let out a cry.

  The creature disappeared from sight for a moment.

  They all visibly relaxed.

  Duggan moved slowly, keeping his hand close to his nose and mouth. He looked around cautiously.

  When he adjusted his position he saw the creature on one of the walls. He raised his finger to his lips to shush his companions and moved closer to the creature.

  They matched him, too tense to make a sound.

  He raised his hand, ready to reduce the creature to a stain on the wall.

  His hand was an inch from the creature when it took to the air, flying at his face with frenzied energy.

  He closed off his nostrils and mouth with one hand and beat at the creature with the other. The claws cut his free hand in dozens of places but there was no way he was letting it inside him.

  It seemed to give up, sensing easier prey, and flew at Milo instead.

  The young boy squealed and slapped at the creature but it avoided his blows and flew into his open mouth.

  At the last second he slammed his jaw shut. The creature bashed against his teeth. Its claws gouged holes in his gums. Then it seemed to get a good grip on his gum and started burrowing into the gap between his teeth.

  Milo felt like crying out but he knew that if he did he would have had his gums clawed to bits for nothing, so he kept his teeth clamped shut.

  Duggan grabbed the creature with finger and thumb. It vibrated with life and violent energy.

  ‘Hang on, this will hurt a bit, kid,’ he said, pulling the creature loose with one sharp movement.

  A trail of blood followed it. The creature let out a cry of frustration, its legs and wings and mouth working in protest, gouging more of Duggan’s finger.

  Duggan put the creature carefully under his boot then let go and slammed his foot down. There was a brief sensation of his foot crushing something and he thought it was dead but then he felt its claws scrabbling at the bottom of his boot.

  He cried out when he felt a sharp claw pierce the sole of his boot.

  Not wanting the creature trapped inside his boot, free to feast on his foot, he lifted his leg.

  ‘Don’t,’ Mark shouted.

  Duggan pulled his boot up anyway.

  The creature crawled along the floor reminding him of a dying wasp at the end of summer.

  Mark bolted in and thrust an upturned jam jar over the creature. He used a piece of card to trap the creature, then flipped the jar and fastened the lid again.

  ‘Nice thinking,’ Duggan said, still wincing at the thought of the creature feasting on his foot.

  They all crowded round and took a closer look at the creature in the jar.

  All five of them shuddered at the sight of it, all claws and teeth and wings. Blood dripped from its body onto the base of the jar.

  It moved to where Mark’s hand gripped the jar, its teeth working at the glass as though it could taste him.

  Mark resisted the urge to drop the jar when he saw how the creature reacted to him. Through the glass an icy chill spread through his palm.

  ‘Any idea how to get rid of this thing?’ Duggan asked.

  Mark shook his head but then an image flashed into his mind – the body-strewn sports shop, the men in masks leading away the drunken man.

  The short black device they’d applied to the base of his skull.

  ‘Maybe an electric shock?’ Mark said.

  ‘What makes you say that?’ Duggan said.

  Mark explained.

  ‘Worth a try, but how the hell do we manage that?’ Milo said.

  He still wore a terrified expression on his young face.

  Duggan scanned the room, searching for inspiration.

  Sylvia was woken by her husband coming to her aid.

  Gunshots rang out through the still night, punctuated by shrill screams.

  Then Ray was in the building. She could sense him, knew he was on his way.

  The dark skeletal form in the corner drew itself upright as the door flew off its hinges in a shower of splinters.

  ‘You came,’ it said, its voice like nails being dragged along a plate. ‘I knew you would.’

  ‘Hand her over.’

  ‘You have betrayed our race. Join us or perish.’

  ‘Let Sylvia go. She’s got nothing to do with this.’

  ‘I will once you make your decision. Are you going to join your kin or are you going to die?’

  ‘I’m not in with the bloodshed, if that’s what you mean.’

  ‘Then you shall perish like everything else that stands in our way.’

  ‘So be it.’

  Ray stepped in between Sylvia and the grim spectre of darkness.

  His dead eyes took in its charred skull, complete with bulge at the base, its long, scythe-bladed forearms, its black exoskeleton which gleamed in the dim light, the six insectile legs which gripped the floor.

  Finally they took in the long black tail which rose behind the creature with a vicious swordlike appendage at its tip. Thick black fluid seeped from the end of the spine.

  The creature opened its mouth to its full capacity, making horrible popping noises as the dead skin on its cheeks tore apart, and let out a screech that chilled Sylvia’s blood.

  ‘Get out of here,’ Ray told his wife then ran at the creature, swinging a chunk of metal pipe he’d had concealed in his long trench coat.

  The blow thudded into the creature’s thorax, the impact travelling up the shaft and stinging Ray’s hands, but the creature seemed unfazed.

  He swung ag
ain, this time catching the creature in the face.

  Ray began to feel completely out of his depth when the creature shrugged off a blow that would’ve been enough to crush a human skull.

  The creature raised one of its bladed arms and hacked off one of Ray’s forearms. Dark blood poured out of the wound. Ray felt no pain, just a second of panic.

  He used his remaining hand to swing the club at the creature again. The blow smacked into the creature’s eye socket, sending shards of black bone flying into the air.

  The creature let out a roar and moved its forearm down. The blow caught Ray in the side of the neck, sending dark blood spurting out.

  While Ray twitched and danced, the creature threw him to the floor and ran one of its arms up his back. The flesh parted, revealing the dark stem of Ray’s spine.

  Subject I’s claws cut the parasite from Ray’s skull and threw it to one side.

  Ray’s body fell still, blood oozing from his mouth.

  Subject I let out a cry of triumph and set off after Sylvia.

  Duggan tore open the tenth bin bag, only to find scraps of food and crumpled beer cans. At least the children will have food, he thought with a wry grin.

  The next bag he tore open had what he’d been looking for; a discarded table lamp with its power cord intact.

  ‘We’re in luck,’ he grinned.

  While the children looked on in puzzlement, he smashed the lamp’s porcelain frame and pulled the cord loose. He bared the wires with his knife and made enough slack so that they didn’t touch. Then he motioned for Milo to bring him the glass jar.

  He plugged in the lead and told Mark to get ready to open the jar.

  ‘Now,’ he said and switched on the power socket.

  The creature flew up into the bared wires that Duggan had shoved into the mouth of the jar. It lit up and shook as the charge hit it. Then it flew back to the bottom of the jar and lay, still, on the glass. It moved occasionally, but seemed stunned.

  ‘Get it out of the jar and hold it still,’ Duggan said.

  Milo produced a pair of wooden tongs from a grubby pocket.

  Mark took them and gripped the creature tight. It moved a little as though protesting being held captive.

  Duggan carefully adjusted his grip on the wire and thrust it into the creature.