Rise of the Mudmen

by Thompson, James FW

  Since everyone else was busy, Alex walked back up the hallway to play with Shadow for a while. She had been locked in the room at the end of the hall all night. He had planned to sleep there with her, but had fallen asleep with everyone else while chatting into the night. He felt bad about it. She had stuck by his side, taking care of him and looking out for him since this whole thing started. He felt he had betrayed her.

  The feeling faded when he opened the door and she leapt on him, licking his face and wagging her tail excitedly. After playing for a few minutes, she ran down the hall, whimpering. At first, he was worried—something was wrong. Something is out there! No, he recognized that whimper. She wanted to go outside: to run around, to get some fresh air. The smell of the room she had been locked in all night hit him, and he realized another reason she might want to go outside.

  “You can’t,” he said, as he rubbed her head, looking down at the front door. “We can’t go outside. It’s too dangerous.”

  The dog gave him a look she had used on him so many times before. He couldn’t say no to that look.

  He sighed, went into the bedroom, and looked out the window. The dead mudmen were still stuck to the barricade—why didn’t we take them down? Are they the reason so many of them showed up yesterday? Other than the ones that were dead-dead from before—including one he realized they had killed on the way back with Kaitlyn and Hannah—there was no one anywhere near the building, living or otherwise. He thought about the situation for a moment as Shadow whimpered at his side.

  “All right,” he decided. “We can go outside, but just for a minute.” Shadow, knowing the word ‘outside,’ ran in circles, excitedly. “But,” Alex added, “you’re going on a leash, so you can’t run away!” Again, the dog seemed to understand these words and had a sudden brief look of shame.

  David was still busy screwing a bunch of boards together with the plans for his SPLITTER! (over the scratched-out name ‘SPLICER!’). Alex didn’t want a long explanation of exactly how the thing would work from his know-it-all friend, so he asked him for rope and was directed to the back corner where he found a six-foot length of nice, soft rope—a perfect, impromptu leash.

  Downstairs, he saw the light from Nicole’s flashlight as she searched with the other girls. He pulled back the board over the window and looked outside—still no mudmen. From this angle, he couldn’t even see the piked mudmen or the pieces of the others that the SMASHER! destroyed. It could be a good day.

  When he walked out, however, his eye was drawn to the movement of crows as they pecked and tore at the pieces left behind. He didn’t know much about diseases—especially this one—but he watched them with fear that they would turn too. Killer people were one thing. Killer birds that could peck your eyes out were something else all together. He quickly led Shadow around the corner, away from the birds and their disgusting meal.

  Around the corner was a whole other world. The smoke from the school was almost gone, leaving only a faint, bonfire-like smell. There were no body parts strewn about, and no mudmen. Just some gravel and a nice little patch of grass. Not much to look at, but better than what was in front.

  It was strangely silent.

  Usually on a day like this, Alex would hear a barrage of sounds: cars, airplanes, a buzz from the electrical wires. Now, just silence.

  In the distance, a gun went off. Then again. Then more silence.

  Alex stared wide-eyed in the direction the noise had come from, but could see nothing significant. Even Shadow stopped her post-bathroom frolicking to search the horizon, her ears perked up waiting for any other sound.

  “So, I guess there are people out there,” Alex said to his dog after the silence grew too much for him. “I hope they’re on our side, huh girl?” It was the first time he had thought of this situation in terms of sides, but realized it was correct. The side he was on, with the other kids in the community centre, and the side with the mudmen. Maybe there were others.

  He shivered and headed back for the door, looking down at Shadow to make sure that she was all right with the plan.

  “What are you doing?”

  He let out a yelp of surprise. Nicole stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, and an expression on her face that said she was not happy about something. Alex assumed it was him.

  “What?” he asked, dumbly.

  “What are you doing?” she said again, speaking slower this time as if her words were too complicated for him.

  “What does it look like?” he asked, holding up Shadow’s leash. “I took Shadow outside. She’s been locked in that room all day, and she was miserable!”

  “That’s fine,” Nicole said, in a tone that made him sure that it wasn’t fine at all. “But, when you want to go play outside, make sure you close the door! I mean, Jesus, Alex! What if someone got in?!”

  “Like who?”

  “Like one of those things, stupid!” She took a step toward him, pointing over her shoulder at the piked creatures. “What if one of those things got inside and killed all of us while you were out here playing with your dog?”

  “Oh, like that would happen,” he said, avoiding her eyes. He knew she was right—he had been careless to leave the door open—but he wasn’t going to let her know that. “They’re super slow. I was only out here for—”

  “It doesn’t matter!” she said, forcing him back a step. “They could have gotten in in a few seconds and come after us! That’s what they do!”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “And what if they got hold of you while you were out here?” she asked, clearly growing more upset as she went. “You were over here on this side, and we can’t see this side from anywhere so, what? You guessed it was okay? Huh?”

  “I ... guess?” He felt horrible.

  “And then we’d have to go looking for you, but it wouldn’t actually matter because you’d be dead.” She stopped and crossed her arms. “You know that, right? That you’d be dead?”

  “There was nothing out here!”

  “It doesn’t matter! There could have been! And,” she said, grabbing Alex by the shoulder and dragging him to the front of the building, “what do you call that?” She pointed down the street to where someone was wandering.

  It was clearly a mudman.

  The sight of the creature so far away made him want to bolt back inside, but he decided to play it like he didn’t care. He wouldn’t let Nicole make him look stupid again. “Pfft. Chill out,” he said with a shrug. “It’s way down there. Not a problem.”

  “Chill—? What if it got to the door before you did?” Nicole said, shoving him back again. “What if—”

  “Hey!” David called from the window above them. “Would you two be quiet? You’re going to bring them all back!”

  Nicole glared silently at Alex.

  Alex stared back, defiantly.

  “Also,” David continued, “is the cat down there with you? He’s not up here anymore.”

  Nicole’s nostrils flared. “I swear to God, Alex, if that cat ran outside—”

  “So what?” Alex said, continuing to pretend. “If he’s gone, he’s gone.”

  “Then we won’t know how it got in ... until something else does.” She shoved him again, harder this time. “If he’s gone, what are you going to say to Ryan?”

  For the first time in this fight, he didn’t know how to respond. “I’m sure the cat’s still inside. It’s probably just ... downstairs ... or in another room?”

  “I looked in the rooms,” David said from upstairs. “Not there either.”

  “Get inside,” Nicole said, her tone threatening. “Now. We will fix this—YOU will fix this. Now!”

  Alex knew not to say anything if he wanted to avoid an ass-kicking. Nicole was looking for an excuse. He held the leash tightly, as if for dear life, and ran inside. Nicole followed, slammed and locked the door, and blew past him on the stairs.

  At the top, Kaitlyn and Hannah stood in front of a big blue bin full of things they had found. They
weren’t looking in it, however. They were looking at Alex. David came out of the bedroom. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Alex figured he probably said something to Nicole—who was nowhere to be seen—and got yelled at himself, and was now too afraid to be on his side. If he were in David’s shoes, he wasn’t sure he would be on his side, either. He was just about to apologize to them all when a noise caught his attention.

  “And another thing,” Nicole burst into the hall, nearly tripping over the tub, “if you think—”

  “Shh,” Alex cut her off, listening.

  “Don’t you ‘shh’ me, you little jerk!”

  He ignored her, and instead tilted his head back and forth. “Shh.”

  “I can’t believe this!” Nicole said. “Why don’t you—”

  “Shh!” This time it was David who cut her off.

  She turned red and her eyes went wide. “You listen to me, David! If you saw—”

  “I hear it too,” Kaitlyn said, wandering away from the group. Hannah stuck to her like glue, warily watching Shadow just five feet away.

  Nicole looked at the faces of the people around her. “What are you all—”

  “Shh!” they all said in unison.

  Nicole grew enraged. She let out a frustrated growl and everyone turned to look at her. “Why don’t you all just—”

  She stopped short when she heard it too. A very faint noise coming from the bottom of the stairs. A tiny, jingling, ringing sound, coming from the bell on the new collar of Ryan’s little cat.

  “You’re lucky,” she whispered, as she passed Alex and headed down the stairs.

  NICOLE

  Nicole suggested that Alex put Shadow back in ‘her room’ since she would make finding an already-scared cat much more difficult. The girls waited at the bottom of the stairs.

  Except for the lobby, the first floor was almost identical to the second: same doors on either side, same non-functioning bathrooms, same fountain. There was one extra door at the bottom of the stairs; it led to the basement. One of the remaining doors was for the kitchen, another to some kind of lounge, and one to the largest room which served as the karate school. The rest of the doors were locked. Behind at least one of them was a door that led to the backyard. Nicole, Alex, and David had all seen it while using “the hard way,” but without a key it was useless and anyway, the fewer ways in, the better.

  Because the first floor was used so rarely, all the supplies that David, Nicole, and eventually Alex, had found, but not bothered to take upstairs, crowded the hall in haphazard piles.

  The first floor had no hallway window, and so remained pitch black. From that darkness came a crash, then a scrambling noise.

  Nicole locked her eyes on the spot the noise came from, and waited. When David came with flashlight in hand, she grabbed it from him. As she shone the light down the hallway, she said, “There.” Two little green lights reflected back at them before disappearing.

  “Was that him?” Alex asked.

  “I hope so,” David answered. “If it wasn’t, we have other problems.”

  “What? Like goblins?” Kaitlyn asked, sarcastically.

  “No, not goblins!” David answered, indignantly. “Some other animal or something. Like a coyote, or a raccoon!”

  “Raccoons don’t live in Sydney,” Kaitlyn pointed out.

  “Of course they do,” Hannah corrected her. “Lots!”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen raccoons around here,” David said.

  “Where did you see raccoons?” Alex asked, excitedly.

  “Well, I never actually saw them,” David replied, “but—”

  “Will you all shut up!” Nicole whispered back over her shoulder. “We’re in the middle of something, remember?”

  Everyone grew silent, looking at the now-empty pool of light in front of them.

  “Where did it go?” David asked.

  “Farther down the hall,” Nicole answered.

  As if in reply, a board that had been leaning against the wall fell over.

  “Yup. That’s him. And he just went that way.” She pulled the light to the right and started down the hallway.

  Everyone stuck very close to Nicole and the light. They stopped right where Nicole stood, facing a pile of boxes in front of a door.

  “Where does that go?” Kaitlyn asked.

  “I dunno,” David answered, looking at the area around it. “It can’t be another room, ‘cause there’s not enough space.”

  “Maybe it’s a closet,” Kaitlyn guessed.

  “Yeah, maybe,” David answered, as he got closer. “It has a bunch of locks on it. That’d be weird for a closet. Maybe it ... crap.”

  “Maybe it crap?” Nicole asked.

  David shoved the boxes out of the way. The bottom panel of the door was missing. “Someone was super lazy and put boxes here instead of fixing it!”

  “Well,” Alex said with a smile, “now we know how the cat got in, so ... can we go back upstairs?”

  “You can go whenever you want,” Nicole said quickly, “but this doesn’t tell us how the cat got in.” She shone the light into the hole in the door. “This does not go outside.”

  David peered through the hole. “Stairs,” he said after a moment. “It’s stairs. This is another door to the basement.”

  Nicole could feel the tension take hold of the group. The idea of going into the basement sounded like a very bad idea. They had seen horror movies and knew that searching the basement was an easy way to get killed.

  She could sense that David, on the other hand, was actually excited. He had been down there and searched it thoroughly just a few days prior. Spaz hasn’t ever watched a movie long enough to see anyone get killed in the basement, she realized, shaking her head.

  The door was locked, and none of them could fit through the missing plank, so David led them all to the other basement door. When he opened it, Kaitlyn and Hannah backed away.

  “Is it okay if we go upstairs?” Kaitlyn asked.

  Nicole sighed. Haven’t any of you ever watched a movie? Don’t go in the basement and don’t split up! She didn’t want to have to answer for everyone, but since no one else would, she felt she had to. “Well ... the dog is up there.” She looked right at Hannah when she said it. Her face must have been telling.

  “We can stay here,” Hannah said.

  “Fine,” Nicole replied, peering into the thicker darkness of the basement. “Just call down if you need something. And we’ll do the same thing if we find something.”

  “What do you think you’ll find?” Kaitlyn asked, a tremble in her voice.

  “Best thing we find is the hole that the cat came through,” Nicole answered. “A really small, barely cat-sized hole.”

  “Worst thing we can find is a bunch of mudmen,” Alex added with a smirk that quickly faded and became a look of genuine worry.

  Nicole and Alex followed David down.

  The stairs, she noted, were old wood, probably never re-done since the centre had been built. The walls and floor were concrete. Other than pillars here and there, they were in one big room. When they shone the light around, they found a few other rooms behind closed doors.

  “One’s probably a furnace room or something,” David said, as they looked at two doors standing next to each other. “The other one is the workshop where I found a bunch of the tools.”

  “What about the others?” Alex asked, as the light moved and found two more.

  “No idea,” David answered. “I found the tools and got out of here.”

  “Scaredy cat,” Nicole said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Nicole,” David said, “did you want to stay down here and look around by yourself? I can go back upstairs if you want. I was actually working on—”

  “No, that’s fine.” She cut him off. “We need you down here. You’re our basement expert.”

  She couldn’t see him, but she knew that David had puffed up a bit when she said that. She’d never called him an
expert in anything—anything complimentary, that is. The thing was, they needed him down there to lead them around, and he needed to be calm to do that. If she had to stroke his little ego a bit, then so be it.

  The basement was surprisingly warm. If it weren’t so very creepy and dark, it could have been cozy. It also smelled bad, on top of the usual dank, musty old basement smell.

  “Well,” David said, as he pulled his shirt up over his nose and mouth, “based on the stench, I’d say there’s a few animals down here.”

  “Yeah,” Nicole said, as she tugged up her own shirt, “but we haven’t seen any, so don’t worry about it.”

  Something under David’s foot crunched as he walked. He shone the light down and stepped back. “Oh gross, gross, gross!”

  “What’s going on down there?” Kaitlyn called from the top of the stairs.

  “Nothing!” David yelled. “Ugh ... gross.”

  “What?” Nicole asked, shoving past him.

  “Ugh ...” he replied, scraping the bottom of his shoe on the gritty floor. “I found what the cat was eating before it came up with us.” He shone the light on a little pile of bloody bones that had once belonged to a mouse. “Gross!”

  “You do know that there are at least four dead people hanging outside on a trap that you made, right?” Nicole asked.

  David stared back at her blankly as if unable to put the two points together.

  Nicole shook her head. “You baffle me.” She took control of the flashlight and walked past him. She felt the same squishy crunches under her feet as David just had. Ugh, gross! “It’s weird,” she said, as she looked at the tiny bones scattered around the floor. “Usually cats eat in one spot. At least, that’s what our cat used to do.”

  “Our cat ate cat food,” David argued.

  “Yes, but when she got outside she’d kill mice and voles and stuff and leave them in the same spot.”

  “On the step!” David jumped in. “And if we didn’t see them or clean them up or whatever, she’d take them into the corner and tear them up and eat them there. That way she wouldn’t step in the mess later.”