by Ian Woodhead
There was no reason why those creatures ought to be avoiding that area of town. As far as I could recall, it was just a few streets of old terrace houses. If it was something like a huge hole in the ground, then yeah, they wouldn’t be going anywhere near it. The area was fairly close to that field where Mark and I found those mushroom eggs, so was that a coincidence? Whatever the reason, I needed to get over there, and the others needed to know that this could be our way out of this mess. Besides, Harry had the only weapon left.
I jumped off the car and ran back into the building, stopping just before I reached the door. The last thing I needed was for Harry to get all jumpy with that trigger finger. “Guys, it’s just me. I think I’ve found a way out of here!” I swallowed hard before walking into the room. They hadn’t moved in inch.
“Bullshit,” snarled Harry. “There is no way out.”
“Won’t you even take a look? I mean, is that it, you decided to go out in a blaze of glory?” I turned to Joshua. “Come on, man. Think of Ingrid.”
“Don’t you fucking dare try to guilt trip me. My girl is dead.”
“You don’t know that!” I retorted. “She and Mark aren’t due back for another couple of hours, they might still be out there.”
“Are you on drugs?” Harry pushed past Joshua, and walked right up to me. “I’ve told you once. Get out. You’re not welcome here. Leave us be.”
“She’s my girl too, Joshua.” I backed away. “Once I do find her, I’ll give her your regards.”
Harry roared, and brought up the weapon. “Last chance, shithead!”
I stayed my ground. “Even if there’s a tiny chance that she’s out there, we have to try. Isn’t that what this is all about?”
“Even if we do leave here, and hell, maybe my daughter is still alive. Then what, Travis? We’re still stuck in here. You’ve already proven that there’s no way out of here. Admit it, we’ve come to the end of the line. There’s no hope left.”
I held both my arm out. “Give me the gun, Harry.”
“What?”
“You heard me. If you two want this, then fine, go ahead, there’s a table over there. If you’re lucky, you might both be able to get under it. Now give me that fucking gun.”
Harry shook his head. “Not a chance, this is mine.”
I reached behind me, and slipped out my knife.
“What, you’re going to take me on with that?”
“Unlike you, I’m not going to do the alien’s job.” I turned around, and walked out of the door. “I’ll be seeing you! Then again, maybe not.”
As I reached the outer door, their raised voices took away some of the dread that had settled in my guts. They’d come with me, I think Joshua would see to that. I don’t think he was quite so willing to die just yet. I left the building, and took up my position on the car bonnet. The line had contracted, but not as far as I feared. I looked over to where I had seen that gap, and saw nothing but blackness. I refused to believe that it had closed up.
“So, where are we going?”
I hid my smile, and jumped off the car. “Come on, I’ll show you.” I ran along the side of the pavements, keeping my ear open for any sound of Black Sentinels not with the rest of the pack. I wouldn’t be too surprised to discover a few hidden creatures placed inside buildings before they initiated the main assault. After all, it’s what I would have done. God, I wish I had a proper gun. I have killed one of the Black Sentinels with this, but it took stealth on my part as well as a lot of luck. We crossed the intersection that led to the four mills, and turned left. Our pub was just around the corner. From there, it was only a couple of minutes to the field. I felt their tension as we neared that seemingly unbroken line of murderous machines. Even from this distance, I could hear their limbs hitting the concrete. Once we reached the Black Swan, we’d be able to see them.
“This is utter madness,” hissed Harry.
I turned, and saw that he’d skidded to a halt. The man rushed over to a post office van, and ran behind it.
“I should have stayed where I was. Fuck, you’ve killed us, Travis.” He slid down to the floor and brought his knees up to his chest. “I’m not moving. You two go if you want. I don’t care anymore.”
“We can’t leave him!”
“I know that, Josh.” He had the only gun, and I think we were about to need it. Three of the machines had just turned into the top end of this street. They hadn’t seen us yet judging from the sound of breaking glass; they were too busy trying to enter a florist on the corner. “Come on!” I ran over to Harry.
“You can fuck off, you’re not having my gun.”
“Josh, help me pull the dickhead up.” I grabbed one of his arms. “I don’t want your pissing gun. I want you to get up. We’re almost there. Come on, you’ve gone this far. Don’t you want to prove me wrong? Look if there is no gap then…”
“Then what?”
I looked down at Harry. “Then he can make one!”
“You’re fucking insane! What can one gun do against a thousand?”
“Jesus, has he always been this fatalistic? I bet you’re a right fucking riot at parties.” With Joshua’s help I did manage to get him back onto his feet. “Time to go.”
I raced over to the pub and skidded to a halt, gazing in disbelief at the wide open door. “This is impossible!” The lights inside were now on. I leaned inside, and saw that I’d been mistaken. Somebody had taped a dozen industrial torches to the ceiling.
“What part of ‘leave him in the base’ did you not fucking comprehend?”
“Stu?”
This was beyond surreal. Mark was in the corner, sat in his usual place; he even had a beer in front of him, sat on the table. He wasn’t drinking it, though, he was too busy turning a metal soldier between his fingers, and I don’t even think he had even noticed that I was here. “What the fuck is going on?” I screamed.
Stu marched up to me, grabbed the front of my shirt, and pulled me inside. “Are you three the only ones left?”
“Where’s Ingrid?”
Stu ignored Joshua’s demand. He took one last look outside before he closed the door. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He glared at me before returning to the bar. “Jesus, what a mess. Mark, you’d better go find her.”
“This is all my fault. I knew I should have brought him back when they fell over me. Then again, how could I? I mean, this is the end, it all changes after tonight.”
“So, this is where we make our last stand?” Harry walked up the Stu. “Thanks for running out on us. At least I’ll go down knowing that you’re going be dying alongside me.”
“Oh, shut your cakehole, Harry. Nobody is going to die tonight.” He looked at me. “Nobody else is going to die, that is.
“Stu, I’m very tired, and I think my head is about to melt.” I slapped my knife onto the top of the bar. “Please, enough with the keeping everything to yourself. Don’t we deserve an answer before those things outside melt the pub and everyone inside?”
“Jesus, for the last bleeding time, we’re not going to die in here, we’re perfectly safe.” He looked over at two figures entering through the back of the lounge. “The only reason why you lot has lived up to now is because of Mark. Unlike the rest of the converted, he still carries a couple of those spiders. Oh, sure, they’re not exerting much influence over the lad, but they’re still alive,” He paused and stared at me. “Alive enough for the Black Sentinels not to bother searching.”
“The gap.” I looked once at Stu before running over to Ingrid. “Oh, God. I thought…I thought you were dead.”
“Believe me, Travis. Your girlfriend was never in any danger, not while she was with Mark.”
This was just too much for me. I looked back at the knife that I’d left on the bar, and so wanted to stick the point right into his fucking smug face. “You bastard. You’ve played us like we were a bunch of pieces on a chess board.”
“No, I kept you alive, and if you’d have listened to me in the f
irst place, the others would have had that privilege too!” He pushed past Joshua and Harry, and headed to the door at the back of the pub. “Look, you’re safe. Stay here; have a drink or something. Do shit what civilians do. I have work to do.”
“Go with him.” Ingrid planted a kiss on my lips. “He is right, you know, we are safe in here. Go, let me hug my dad. I’ll be here when you come back.”
I gave Mark one last look. He’d sat back down in his favourite chair and had picked up his toy soldier. All conversation halted when a burst of bright green flashed in the window. I did as Ingrid suggested, and followed Stu out of the room. I’d never felt so alone.
It felt odd wandering through these empty rooms, partly due to the fact that, although I’d frequented the Black Swan for what seemed forever, I’d never actually left the two main rooms. Exploring the kitchens and the publican’s living room and dining area felt as though I was intruding in where I didn’t belong. That feeling only increased when I reached the stairs. He must have climbed these, unless he was hiding under the sink. After what he’d put me though, I wouldn’t put that past the bastard.
I shook my head and took them two at a time, holding onto the banister tight when I heard two more of the horrible things beyond the pub discharging their weapons. “Jesus, you’d better be right about Mark,” I muttered as I reached the top of the stairs.
He was there, waiting for me, with his arms folded over his chest. “My young Fitzpatrick,” he said, smiling. Stu then closed the gap between us, and wrapped his arms tight around my chest. “I’ve missed your company, my friend.” He gripped my shoulders, and pushed me back. “I’m sorry about not telling you about Mark. I honestly thought you had already figured it out.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“No, you didn’t, it should have clicked with me earlier. I suppose it would have if I hadn’t been so preoccupied. Come on, let me show you exactly why I had to leave.”
Stu released me, walked to the end of the hallway, and stood beside a set of ladders. “These lead up to the roof. From there, we’ll be able to see everything.”
He chuckled as he climbed up, leaving me, as per usual, completely confused by his actions and his words. Once he disappeared, I followed him up, determined to find out what he was up to.
Thousands of stars shone down on me as I reached the roof. One of those stars could be the home of the aliens. Of all the stars in the sky, why did they have to come here? What did we do to deserve this slaughter? I lowered my gaze, only to have their spire forest infect my view.
“Come on, hurry up, you don’t want to miss this.”
Stu was right on the edge of the flat roof, dangling his legs over the side. I slowly walked towards him, my heart hammering as the sheer scale of their assault was now evident. There were way more Black Sentinels than I could have possibly imagined. They continued to sweep through the streets and buildings; they were even checking the abandoned cars. They were everywhere, except here. Just like Stu had said, they moved past the pub like a river flowing past a large rock in the middle of a bed. Two of them clambered out the post office van and set off, almost running towards the next vehicle. “They really are checking everywhere.” I stopped behind Stu, and gaped open mouthed, unable to take my eyes off the things. “Nothing can withstand this.”
“Remember what I said back in that shop when I passed you that screwdriver?”
I shook my head. A lot of what had happened had began to merge into one huge unbroken collage of nightmares. “Wait, yeah I do. You said that flesh will never beat steel, or something like that.”
He nodded. “That’s right. Of course, it is kinda difficult to put that to a test when they have already dispensed with our army.” He swept his arm from side to side. “What can you see down there, Travis?”
“I don’t know, Black Sentinels?”
“The only thing down there is what’s left of our species. Those ships arrived months ago, and they constructed those Spire Forests in the space of a few hours.” He turned around. “It’s not just here either. They built them everywhere.”
“What, you’re telling me that you were able to get out of town?”
“So, have you not wondered what they would do if they no longer were able to pit those flesh constructs against what remained of our species?”
“Of course I have, but that’s not going to happen is it?”
He turned back around and patted the ledge beside him. “Sit down, my young Fitzpatrick. I regret not bringing the popcorn, but you can share this Twix with me.”
As true to his word, he really did have a Twix in his hand.
“By the way, I was impressed with Harry’s choice of weaponry. I take it that was your idea. My instruction obviously made some kind in mark upon your psyche. Now, I need you to focus. Tell me where the epicentre is.”
“It’s our base, of course. They obviously found it because of another group planted a bomb on one of those monsters.”
“There was no other group,” he whispered.
“You mean…you mean that was you?” The man had no idea just how close I was to pushing him off the building.
“Look, calm down, for crying out loud, and look again.”
I’d come this far. I saw no point in not listening to the rest of what he had to say. I got to my feet and studied them. The ring was getting tighter, he was right. The creatures had already passed by our old base. “It’s the open market, where Joshua said where you used to hang out of a Saturday afternoon.”
“Yep, and my buddy wins a years supply of kebabs. Well, there’s a very good reason as to why they are heading to that precise location. You see, while I was away, I managed to find and convert almost thirty humanlikes.”
“Seriously? That’s just awesome news. With that many, we’ll easily be able to start making them pay. Especially if we can get hold of a few more of those beam weapons. Oh, yeah, this is awesome news.” I realised that I was babbling, but I didn’t care. Finally, some good news. I couldn’t wait to tell the others. “Where are they?”
“In the market. I drugged them, and lay their bodies to the tables.”
I started to move, only to find his fingers holding me tight. I honestly thought he was going to do what I originally thought about, and throw me off the edge. “You’re fucking insane. I thought that you put value on life.”
“You had better shield your eyes, Travis.”
I didn’t even have time to close them, when the night sky burst apart in a torrent of overwhelming noise and eye searing white light. The blast blew the pair of us back against the walls.
“What have you done?” I hissed. “Just what the fuck have you done?”
Stu brushed himself down before hurrying over to me. I slapped away his helping hand. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“I needed a large enough number to get them all out. As for what I’ve done? Isn’t it obvious? I’ve levelled the playing field. I’ve stripped away their most valuable asset.” He peered over the edge. “Although I think I might have used a bit too much, still that’s not exactly my fault.”
I backed away from the grinning man, those ladders couldn’t be that far from me. Oh Christ, I so needed to get away from this lunatic.
“Does this mean that you don’t want the rest of this Twix?” Stu rushed me, and grabbed my arm. He dragged me back towards the edge. “Looks like not all of my lessons sank in. Perhaps I should have tried a little harder.”
I was running out of roof. “Don’t throw me off. Jesus, man. You can’t do that” He then really did shock the hell out of me by bursting into laughter.
“Is that what you thought I was going to do? That blastwave must have scrambled your mind circuits.” He stopped right on the edge. “Those poor people were all casualties. I mean the converted and the Black Sentinels. Look, that beam weapon that the big idiot is so proud to brandish, when you were cutting it off, did you at any time think that you could be hacking into the corpse of your mother?”
/>
If he hadn’t kept hold of my wrists, I would have killed the bastard there and then.
“Didn’t think so, Travis. My heart screamed when that bomb went off. I knew that there was no other choice. There really wasn’t. Now, look over the edge, just look at what we’ve just done.”
The bomb had destroyed a huge part of our town, leaving a crater where the market once stood. I still saw movement, a couple of the creatures were still moving, but the rest were in bits, bloodied pieces lay everywhere.
“I bet we’ll be able to grab a sizable amount of beam weapons to equip our force.”
“All five of us? Six if we include Mark. I bet the aliens really must be shitting their pants.”
“Travis, There’s a force of over a hundred people that are waiting for us on the other side of that Spire Forest, converted and immune. All we need to do now is to reach them.” He pushed the chocolate into to the palm of my hand. “They’ll have heard the explosion, and they’ll want a progress report. Look, those people in that open market? They volunteered. They sacrificed their lives so that we can continue.”
“I…I didn’t know that,” I whispered.
“We’d better rejoin the others before we do move out, we still need those weapons. I hope you’ll show the others how to remove them.”
“I’m sorry, Stu. I thought…”
“Forget it. You were right, I did use you. I did treat you like a chess piece, and I’m not going to apologise. This is far larger than either of us, and I’ll do whatever it takes to stop those bastards.”
I took one last look at the devastation before moving back towards the ladders. He was right. This was larger than any of us.
“We all have our skills, Travis. It’s vital that we recognise them in others. It could mean the difference between life and death. Travis, I don’t have a clue about bomb making. I was a medic.”
“So who built the bombs?”
“Ingrid is immune. It looks like whatever gene carries this mutation is hereditary.” He smiled. “Travis, your father built the bombs, and he’s waiting for you on the other side.”