Alone (Book 2): Lone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  As he landed a loud boom of gunfire tore into the front of the house and with the weakened brickwork they slowly tore it apart and shot into the world around me, I let out a howl of fury at the fact of what they were doing to my home, tearing it apart, taking it away from me. Taking to a run I took to my old room and ran to the window, I jumped out and took hold of the old guttering which was brittle and weak, it crumbled with my light weight but I was already swinging my body up to the roof and grabbing hold of a lose brick which flung out my hand and fell to the ground, swinging my weight again I landed my leg and pulled with all my strength to get up. My heart was hammering so hard in my chest as I crawled along the roof tiles some of which were lose and broke under foot, keeping low I made it to the hip tiles and kept to my side. Taking out my bow and arrow again I looked around to see them all looking at the lower side of the house not to the roof, I let out one arrow, then two, then three taking down a few men before they realised where I was hiding but their numbers were now dwindling.

  “We only want the girl”, Lucas shouted up to me and telling his men to hold their fire.

  “She isn’t here”, I shouted back, “But if you shoot me I won’t tell you where she is”.

  “Now come on your outnumbered, just tell me where she is”.

  “Go fuck yourself”, and I took out the pistol and shot down a few rounds right at the King Scavenger himself. A bullet connected with his stomach near the right side and he went down, not dead but wounded.

  "KILL HER”, he screamed out and all at once the bullets flew at me.

  Knowing my time here was up I slid back down the roof and jumped off into the jungle of a garden below me, I knew she was out here somewhere, my mum but I couldn’t think of that, I just ran to the back where our old rickety shed was still hanging on, I climbed the fence and ran through the garden behind mine. I reached the backdoor of this house and kicked it in and racing through their almost identical kitchen and then into their front room, this one was extremely water logged and water kicked up and splashed at me as I charged through hitting the front door with my shoulder and splintering the wooden frame to pieces. This side of town was just as snowy and I blinked away a few flecks of snow as a small blizzard was hitting home, I knew I could try and make a run for it in the blizzard which would make it hard for them to trace me but I needed shelter, there was only so far I could go in the freezing cold and I was hungry. I kept running for a few streets every now and then doubling back and running a different way so if they did follow my footsteps it might confuse them before I located my shelter for the blizzard and using my mother’s jumper I whipped away my footsteps but before long the blizzard would cover my tracks.

  I forced open the door of an old house near the school and shoved an old sofa and dining table against the door, I closed all the curtains before heading up stairs and hiding in the front bedroom which lucky for me had a bed and an old plasma TV. I looked out the window and tried to sense the scavengers but they were still over by my house and in the distance I could see the tendrils of smoke reach out into the snow storm, my heart ached as I knew they were burning down my home. At first I thought why? They didn’t know what it meant to me but I was sure Lucas would have looked at the other pictures on the wall and seen that they resembled a younger version of me, he was burning down my own home to hurt me in the hope I would come to fight them so they could take me out. But they were wrong, they could burn it down but they could never burn down my memories and they could never take me out.

  That night was a cold one and I wrapped myself up in one corner with the old owner’s duvet and tried to keep warm but no matter what I done it didn’t stop the chattering of my teeth. Morning couldn’t come quick enough and with it the end of the storm. Looking out I could see the smouldering remains of a burnt building in the distance, I wanted so much to go and see it and say a proper goodbye but I knew they would be waiting for me so I took up my belongings going out the back door I fled from Bidborough down the back roads and went on my merry way to Hever Castle and hopefully to Kaley.

  ~

  Monique desperately waited for Callum to return but he didn’t come back that night nor did Ollie, she cried many a times over what chaos she had caused sending Stacie away and now she was suffering alone when the one person who would have understood and could have maybe helped in some way was gone. She could feel the heat of the fever ripping through her veins like an alcoholic poison, she could feel the rage in the back of her mind but she let it sit there quietly and sobbed. As she cried she opened the pink notebook that Callum had dropped, inside were some scribblings written down by Callum himself, he had started to write his story. This gave Monique a new hope, she could write to Stacie, Ollie and Callum in the book so they knew why she had flipped out and why she was so sorry. Lifting the pen Stacie had given her to the paper she let it all flow naturally out…

  To all the people I care about, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry about what I have done. You must think I am a mad woman for sending my friends away and freaking out but if you knew why I think you might understand. After seeing Callum kiss Stacie which I was upset about I ran off to the old mansion, once there I was attacked and bitten…So now I am infected…and will most probably dead by the time you read this…

  ~

  I had made it out unnoticed and had made my way down the long country roads, the snow fall last night had been so strong that I was losing my barring’s a little bit as I had been walking for what felt like hours and all the road signs had all been covered up and hidden. To top it off there were no tracks that might belong to Kaley or Albi to follow. I came to a small narrow road which led through a darkened tree tunnel, the snow here was lighter and a little icier than the others, this road came to a dead end, up ahead was a large sinkhole that had opened up and swallowed many parts of the land around me, trees, cars and even parts of a house were all consumed by the sinkhole, to my right was a gated driveway. I didn’t know if it would lead to anywhere but I had to look, unlatching the gate I opened it wide and started off down the crunchy gravel and snow winding driveway. For a while I didn’t see much as I walked up, the driveway was long and went all through the trees before opening out to a large grand estate, a large sign swung from a post revealing the name as the snow fell off, ‘Field View Manor Hotel’ And field was right, all around the hotel was fields and trees, I just hoped somewhere nearby was Hever Castle and Kaley.

  Looking up as I walked up to the manor house I studied it all, the large windows with lead criss crossing over it making smaller looking panes of glass, they all shimmered in the light as I moved closer giving it a chaotic eerie look. I glanced at one window and froze as I thought I saw a face at it but after sending out my sensors I felt nothing up there but what did take me by surprise was the amount of infected at the bottom of the building. I suddenly had a second thought about going inside to look there must have been hundreds all in what I presumed to be the basement. I turned away from the big main oak door which had a large knocker on the front and took to walking around the large building but before I could make my way near the corner I heard it, loud thumping music and it was coming this way and up the driveway. I had to chance it so I ran for the large oak door and heaved it open and slowly closing it just as whatever that noise was turned up.

  Inside the building it was cold, damp and smelt stale, stagnant and generally like someone had crapped themselves and thrown up on it afterwards. Holding my noise so I didn’t puke I wondered over to one of the large windows that stood proudly by the door, I brushed an old red velvet curtain to one side and peered out. It was Lucas and his men, they had an old police car with the music system somehow geared up to where the sirens used to blare out, the lights no longer flashed but they didn’t need to the noise was horrendous.

  “Crap why don’t these guys just give up?” I hissed to myself just as a loud splintering wood noise crashed out from the room next to me, followed by a scream a rather young girly scream. Not caring about
being spotted I opened the door nearest to me and opened it, inside it revealed an old ball room which had been designed to be a dining room too, large tables with mouldy red velvet covers and red velvet chairs where all stacked up in one corner barricading a door way which to me was probably where the kitchen was located.

  “Stacie?” I looked up to see Albi, he was kneeling down and had his arm down a large hole which had opened up in the soggy and rotted floorboards.

  “Please don’t tell me Kaley is down there”, I said to him.

  His face said it all.

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Stacie?” I heard her voice call out, running over I looked down. She had fallen down but had landed on some old pipe work but it was creaking and groaning and wouldn’t hold her for long, Albi had some old pieces of table cloth tied together to use as a rope to hoist her up but he was a few too short.

  “Wait there I’ll grab some more”, rushing off to the nearest table I lifted up the stinking slimy material and ran to Albi who took it from me and tied on along with another bit he got hold of, then leaning over we tried again. It was just out of her reach but if she jumped she could make it.

  “Kaley I need you to jump”, I told her.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” she hissed out of fear, “Have you heard how many are down here? I’m not jumping on this thing”.

  “Yes I know there’s a few but I need you to calm down, if you jump and grab the rope we can pull you up”, I said calmly.

  “You sure it will hold me?”

  BANG!

  Looking around I knew Lucas was making his way into the hotel, instead of just trying the handle they were smashing the door in.

  “Kaley now! Lucas is here”.

  Fear crossed her face and she got her limbs ready, shaking them until limber and then she leaped, her hands outstretched, they grasped the fabric but due to the slime and mould she couldn’t grip well and began to slide down to the end, “No, no, no”, she cried out tightening her grip until she stuck, mere inches from the end of the rope.

  “Pull her up”, I told Albi who done as I said and he slowly brought the fabric up. The door banged again and I heard it splinter a little under pressure, they must be using the damn police car, why don’t they just learn to use the handle? Unless they knew we were in here and were trying to scare us.

  I leaned into the hole and watched as she slowly came further up and more into my line of vision, putting my hand out I tried to reach her to grab her just as the door finally gave way, the noise of Lucas’s men cheering made me feel the need for her to hurry, “Grab my hand”, I said leaning further in.

  She tried but her finger tips just missed mine.

  “Well, well what do we have here?” Lucas said walking in.

  I turned and grabbed the pistol I stole from Lizzy and aimed it at him, “We need to help her up so don’t do anything drastic or I blast your head off”.

  “And what about when’s she’s up will you just hand her over to me?” I paused for a moment and looked at Albi, in his eyes he knew what I was thinking.

  Turning back to Kaley I looked at her with saddened eyes, “We can’t let him have you”.

  “No, no, no don’t let me go”, she wailed as I gave Albi the signal and he let go of the rope, it was better she was down there, she was already infected and could fight but up here if Lucas got her god knows what he would do.

  I heard the splash as she hit the bottom, my stomach clenched and I just prayed she was ok, then I heard the screams, moans and wails.

  “Kaley I will find you, just find somewhere safe to hide”.

  I got no reply back but maybe it was due to her hiding, I hoped to god that was the reason.

  “You fools”, he snarled and let out a shot but I ducked and dove behind a table just as Albi rushed them. I took aim as Albi used his daggers to slice them down, I let out a few rounds hitting one in the chest. Lucas dodged my fire but he moved awkwardly and painfully as the wound I had inflicted on him gave him jip, hopefully it would get infected and take him down.

  “Stacie go get Kaley I’ll keep them entertained”, Albi shouted.

  Nodding to him I ran for the hole she had just disappeared down and jumped, the wind whipped past me as I fell down into the darkness. The smell hit me first, the rotted flesh, the human waste and then the moans and wails of the hungry. SPLASH! The chill of the manky water hit me and I went under only for a moment before I surfaced and gasped for fresh air, only to reel from the stink. I felt paralysed by the chill, that was until I heard the hungry wail to my right, a rather bloated and water logged looking creature made a splash for me and I slashed it in half with my knife, it was only a short knife but the creature was so soggy from the water its skin tore so easily like wet paper, I heard more and more wails and moans echoing from all around me.

  “Kaley!” I shouted out but I heard no response. I just hoped she was still alive that one of the creatures hadn’t got to her, that she hadn’t fallen unconscious in the water and now she was being eaten alive or drowning. I sent out my feelers but it was no use as I couldn’t sense her but I could sense how many creatures there where down here…too many.

  I grabbed my torch from my bag and lit up the room around me and gasped, there were hundreds of bodies some alive some not all piled up down here, the hotel must have used the basement to keep all the infected guests and others from the nearby towns that wandered in down here. The stink was suffocating as all the human excrement and stagnant water filled the air and I felt sick to my stomach. Sloshing around I tried to find a way to another room because I knew if Kaley was alive she would have kept moving, I spotted a door frame with a few planks of wood blocking it but some had been ripped off revealing another dank and dark room filled with stinking water. Just as I approached it a waitress appeared from under the surface of the water and circled her hands around my throat, her soggy hands were so cold and swollen from all the water, even her face and body was swollen from the water I took the knife again and stabbed her in the chest then as she wailed and sloshed back I went for her face which popped like a water balloon, horrible red and watery liquid spilled down my arms and into the water as she fell back under the water. . I could hear more coming after me and I ducked down under the planks of wood into the arms of another monster. This one had been male and a chef, his chef whites now green and thick with slime, his face so swollen his eyes could no longer see but he could still smell and he outed me with my scent. I stabbed his face too and turned just as it popped sending more weird watery red fluid into the now algae green and red sea.

  Suddenly I was pulled under as more swollen hands and bodies grasped at my clothes, they were trying to swim under the planks like me. I thrashed around kicking some in the face their faces imploding under the water, I then kicked out again but hit a rather odd feeling plank. As I ran my hands along it I realised it wasn’t a plank of wood it had been part of a load baring wall which held up the floor above, I thrashed out using all the strength I could muster which didn’t have to be a lot as the structure was so weak, I rammed my body into the large beam pulling it and dragging it along in the water, I hoped my plan would work, as I pulled I felt the whole building around me quiver and shake then as if by luck the ceiling above me crashed down into the water, sending like a tsunami wave out throwing me the other way away from the door frame, I slammed into a wall smacking my head.

  I surfaced from the water and coughed out some of the rank water, looking ahead I saw the door frame was gone along with all the swollen rotting bodies. That wasn’t all of them though I could hear more of them deeper in the basement but at least that horde behind me was dealt with for now. As I shone the torch around the new room I spotted a small stair case leading back up, my heart fluttered with joy for a moment until I saw there was a padlock on this side with chains wrapped around the handles, that was not going to be my way out and that was not the way Kaley went if she had come this way at all.

  Just behi
nd the stairs was a small narrow hallway which led to what I could make out as the laundry area, the hallway was littered with dead human corpses which had been gone for a while, most were mere skeletal forms of what they used to be. I took care as I made my past them through to the other side, trying to be a little respectful of my fallen fellow humans but then something moved in the water and sent me splashing head first into it, as I came up for air I came face to face with another swollen face, this one had no legs from the knees down as they had been chewed off but it could still brace itself up in the water, its face was half chewed where its lips should have been, one eye was blind the other was hanging half way out of its socket. I sent my hands out with the speed and power I had grown to love and twisted the things neck snapping it off and leaving it convulsing under the water as it perished with the others.

  I came to the back end of the laundry area which was filled with water, old washing machines, a few burnt out tumble dryers which had burnt a large hole into a wall before the water had put it out. There were old wash baskets floating around along with some disgusting looking clothing, pushing past them I came to a door which led into a small room, it had a small round window and as I peered in I could make out a ladder which went up to another room, there were two really large washing machines in here with a body laying across them, Kaley! As I looked in more I spotted two dead creatures bobbing up and down in the water, she obviously had to use her ability to take them out and exhausted herself.