by Andy Briggs
It was the largest nightmare Marlow had ever seen and there was certainly no name for it in her father’s precious tome. It was new.
The cavernous mouth was feet away. Marlow felt the breath sucked out of her as the coils around her waist constricted. She attempted to breathe but the little air she could draw in stank of the putrefying fish stench coming from the beast.
Luckily the tentacle had wrapped beneath her arms, leaving them free. Even more fortuitously, Marlow still had her gun. She was moving too fast and feeling too disoriented to take aim. Instead wild reflexes honed from a lifetime of training kicked in, and Marlow shot at the beast's eyes.
The gun's report was drowned by the shriek the Infiltrator gave as a cluster of eyeballs exploded like vile black grapes. The tentacle around her waist slackened and she fell–
Fortunately not far. She landed on the roof tiles slick with fresh snow. Her arms windmilled for balance, the blunderbuss flipping from her grasp. It clattered along the tiles then slid off the roof. The roof itself vibrated as the creature moved. Marlow's boots couldn't maintain their grip as she slipped inexorably towards the edge. Arms still crazily spinning, she slipped off the edge.
A fall from a single storey is enough to kill somebody. Marlow was saved from the three-storey plunge by landing in a fragile cherry blossom that was bare in the winter. The barren branches stabbed into her back before snapping and pitching her down and away from the building - straight onto the bonnet of a parked car. The metal buckled under her weight, the suspension bounced several times, triggering the alarm.
Marlow rolled from the vehicle and swayed unsteadily on her feet. Above, the nightmare was still very much there. It raised itself up on four thick tentacles and, using them as legs, it oozed over the side of building and into the car park, crushing a dozen vehicles.
She looked around for the gun… it must be close, but it was too dark to see anything. The only light now came from the service station across the car park where four people had stopped to stare at the commotion. They obviously couldn't make anything out through the swirling snow because they were not yet fleeing in terror.
The nightmare roared again, flipping a van aside like an empty can. The vehicle bounced towards Marlow, forcing her to push herself flat in the snow as it spun narrowly overhead, colliding with the car she’d landed on.
Marlow scrambled for her life as the beast surged towards her. This was ridiculous! 'mares didn't get this big. Sure, she'd fought many the size of a van and once, even a coach. But this was enormous. Now the four gawkers got a clear look at the beast and decided to scream and run. Marlow needed a plan, fast.
Waking Dan would be futile; the Nightmare would have ensured his Conduit was sedated with enough good dreams for that to happen. Her blunderbuss was lost and useless against the titan. The traps she had brought along to ensnare the 'mare were likewise pathetic.
Another roar came close behind and Marlow could feel the air displaced as tentacles swung for her. She switched directions, sprinting a sharp ninety degrees to her left just as the crash of broken cars and squeal of alarms behind rose to a crescendo. She squinted as snow stung her eyes. She raised a hand to shield them as the glare from a lorry’s headlights almost blinded her as it pulled into the service station.
Marlow had a sudden inspiration. She raced towards the lorry, heart hammering and every muscle in her legs protesting. She hated herself for drinking so much and eating so badly that her once trim frame had transformed into a pending cardiac attack. She promised to whoever was listening that she'd quit drinking and get back in shape, if only she could survive the night.
Marlow protected her face with both forearms as she sprinted through a hedge separating the car park from the lorry park. A roar and the rending of a lamppost as it was pushed aside confirmed the beast was fifteen seconds behind and closing in.
The lorry swung towards Marlow as it lined up to a parking bay. The brakes suddenly slammed on. She didn't think the driver was trying to avoid her - he'd probably seen the monstrosity looming in his headlights.
Marlow reached the vehicle and grabbed the door handle, hoisting herself up the two steps that brought her level to the driver just as he opened the door.
“I need your ride!” she yelled and pushed against the bewildered trucker. The man was bigger than her, with muscles bulging from his arms - but he obediently shuffled over to the passenger seat as Marlow swung in and crunched the lorry into gear. It slowly moved forward. She had been hoping to run the terror over but the lorry was accelerating at a snail's pace as it hauled the load behind it. She was already in third gear and moving at a brisk walking pace when the beast caught up and bumped undramatically against the vehicle. Tentacles wrapped around the cab as it hitched a ride. All Marlow and the trucker could see from within was a huge mouth filling every inch of the windscreen and offering an unrivalled view down the monster's gullet.
“What is that?” the trucker wailed in an unseemly high voice.
“You ever had a bad dream?” Marlow grunted as she pushed into fourth gears and gained momentum. The lorry jerked as something struck the creature and a faint crunch of metal resonated just below the Nightmare's roar that plastered globs of spittle across the windscreen, forcing the Driver to reach over and put the wipers on out of habit.
“We've hit something!” he cried, not yet having got to grips with the reality of the situation.
“That's the idea!” snarled Marlow as she mashed the accelerator and crunched up another gear. Her internal radar hoped they were heading for the service station - and she prayed that people would see the lorry speeding towards them with the giant beast chewing open the cab. They felt three more jolts as she knocked vehicles aside but couldn’t see anything. Marlow hammered the horn for added attention.
“Get ready to jump!” she warned.
The trucker looked at the door but made no move to get out.
“How?”
Marlow glanced at both side windows and spotted the flaw in her plan - huge tentacles lay across them, holding the creature in place and effectively sealing them inside.
“Oh, cr– “
The cab gave an enormous jolt, first pitching them forwards with such force Marlow headbutted the steering wheel - then they were both thrust back into their seats as the front of the cab rose almost forty degrees with an ear-splitting crash – before bouncing back to earth. They abruptly stopped moving forwards. The beast gave high-pitched wail before it exploded, showering the windscreen in thick indigo goo.
Marlow felt dizzy and could already feel a bump forming on her forehead. She killed the engine and climbed from the cab, feet slipping in the deep-purple ichor oozing across on the tiled floor. All around she could hear screams and, as she got her bearings, she could now see they had rammed into the service station’s atrium and skidded to a halt several yards inside, smashing into the magazine shop Marlow had cornered Dan in earlier.
Metal spars had given way under the impact and the remains of the glass roof that hadn’t yet collapsed, groaned ominously. Only a few of the toughened glass panels had actually broke and everything was covered in rapidly evaporating nightmare gloop. Marlow was satisfied with her handiwork.
“Run! Everybody run!”
Marlow looked around assuming that somebody had belatedly spotted the truck and attached monster, before realising that it was the trucker. Twisting further around she saw water pouring over the floor from the lorry's load. A few more seconds then the fishy stench of the dead nightmare was replaced by sickening chemical fumes. Only then did it dawn on Marlow that she had commandeered a tanker.
“Oh crud,” she muttered before turning around, waving her arms frantically and yelling : “Move! Go! Get outta here!” The fumes burned the back of her throat, sucked her warning into a hacking cough. Luckily nobody needed any motivation; they were already fleeing the disaster.
Marlow hopscotched over dry areas of the floor as she tried to avoid the liquid sloshing across the fl
oor. A faint curtain of vapours rose as it melted the floor beneath. Marlow looked up to see fallen sections of roof blocked direct access to the exit, and skirting around it took up extra valuable seconds.
Yards away was a broken window, jagged glass still hanging from the frame. She had little choice but to run towards it and jump through, protecting her head with both forearms. A jagged shard ripped the sleeve of her coat – then she landed in snowy slush outside, spilled and fell hard onto her side. But she was out – and that was all that was important.
She clambered on all-fours, intent on putting distance between her and the chemical spillage. Then she heard the unmistakable sounds of a child crying. At some primeval level it even got through to her blunt sense. She stopped - again wasting valuable seconds. It could easily be a trap set by another nightmare, but then she spotted a little girl cowering under a book display back in the shop. A steel roof spar had given way and collapsed through the store, forcing the girl to hide. Lighting fixtures had severed and now electrical cables dangled like snakes all around her, spitting spark.
“Mummy!” wailed the girl , tears cascading down her cheeks. She couldn't have been more than four.
Marlow tensed. Self-preservation screaming she should run. Instead she sprinted back inside the building, skirting around the increasing pool of corrosive chemicals. She powered into the store, slipping on fallen books underfoot. A live cable glanced off her damp coat, but the live ends failed to make contact. Instead they spat a warning spark near her face.
The little girl looked up at Marlow with wide eyes. Perhaps her unkept appearance was making the kid hesitate to accept salvation.
“Gimme your hand, darling,” Marlow said in the sweetest voice she could muster. She risked a glance behind and quelled her rising panic as the tidal wave of liquid gushed into the shop. She turned back to the girl, her eyes staring madly as her false grin broadened. A look that made the child actually back away.
“Don’t be as dumb as you look,” Marlow said with a smile. “Take my hand.”
The girl hesitated - only springing forward to take the filthy hand as half the shop collapsed down behind her with a deafening sound of masonry. Marlow lifted the child up, hooked an arm to cradle the girl as she turned and ran.
Even avoiding the pooling liquid, her feet slipped on the wet floor as snow blew inside. She focused on the opening to the car park ahead, the intact automatic door constantly opening and closing with an asthmatic hiss. The kid's grip tightened as more roof collapsed behind. Marlow couldn't see, but judging by the noise and the girl's gasp, she guessed a sparking cable had ignited the liquid payload.
There was a loud WHUMP from behind. Marlow dared not turn as the wind rushed past her with hurricane force - feeding the flames. Then she was through the door just as it sliced closed behind her. A moment later she felt a wall of heat singe her back as a massive explosion blossomed within the shopping area and the ground ahead lit up as if the sun had crashed the party.
Glass from the door pelted her back, the snow’s chill helped lessen some of the heat blast from the explosion. Marlow didn’t look back. She kept running towards the shadows, vaguely aware that the fleeing service station punters had congregated there.
Another explosion came. It was a short boom - at least for those standing close as they became temporarily deaf. A pressure wave thrust Marlow to the snowy grass, still clutching the girl. She instinctively twisted herself over the kid to take the brunt of the impact. An orange mushroom cloud punched into the night sky, illuminating the car park. Debris were tossed vertically up like matchsticks and the severed halves of the tanker somersaulted straight up before crashing back into the inferno.
Shaking, Marlow sat up. The girl had stopped crying and stared at the inferno, no doubt the coolest thing she had ever seen.
“India!” gasped a voice next to Marlow and the girl tugged from her arms by her tearful mother. They both embraced in tears, their elation left no time to thank Marlow.
“You're welcome,” she muttered, suddenly remembering what she disliked about other people, namely: everything. Then she remembered the whole cause of the debacle. “Dan!”
The explosion had jolted Dan awake now that the Infiltrator's sedative was no longer active. Still, the noise had only registered in the back of his consciousness. He'd rolled over as every window in the Travel Stop imploded, pelting his duvet with glass. That was more than enough to wake him.
When Marlow entered at a run, Dan had been staring through the broken window at the farrago outside, watching the crowds keep their distance from the service station wreckage, huddling together as the snow eased.
“We’re leaving!” The exploding windows had taken out two of the lights, but Marlow shoved everything haphazardly into her kit bag. “Right now.”
Outside, Marlow felt nothing but amazement to see her Beetle was one of the few cars the monster hadn't crushed. Just as fortuitous, she found her blunderbuss under a lamppost that had come back to life now the fiend’s portal was closed.
The Volkswagen started on the fourth attempt and they sped onto the motorway just as flickering blue lights behind announced the late arrival of the emergency services.
“Where are we going?” asked Dan.
“Far from here,” although in truth Marlow had no idea what to do. She was not only out of her league but in a completely different sport.
Chapter Ten
“You know what your problem is?”
Marlow vaguely harrumphed for Dan to continue as she concentrated on driving through the snow. Not that she was really paying attention, but as long as the kid was prattling away then at least he wasn't sleeping. They had stopped twice to buy coffee, energy drinks, chocolate bars and fuel. She mused that Dan's blood sugar was probably so high that a normal person wouldn't be able to sleep for a day, although the kid showed no outward effects.
“Well, it's not like it's a single problem really. More lots of different ones percolating to make... well, you, really,” said Dan thoughtfully.
The honesty of children, thought Marlow. Another reason she disliked them.
“For starters, you said you have children? How old are they? Eighteen? Older?”
“None of your business,” she muttered, trying to concentrate on the road.
“And I bet they left home as soon as they could rather than hang around with you.”
“Just how old do you think I am?” She shot him a glance - wobbling the car across the road. She gripped the wheel and concentrated. She was feeling exhausted but wanted to put as much distance between them and the incident as possible. Keeping away from the motorway, she’d found the A-roads were almost deserted in the wee hours of the night. “If you really want to know, they're about your age actually and, unlike you, they haven't run away from home.” The comment came out rather more sharply than Marlow had intended.
“You mean they're not freaks?” said Dan in a low voice. He stared straight ahead and Marlow hoped he hadn't fallen asleep with his eyes open again.
“I didn't mean...”
“It's OK. I'm used to it. You're no different from the morons in school.” The calm, matter-of-fact manner in which he spoke sounded more mature then Marlow's own monosyllabic responses. Not for the first time she felt that she wasn't the grown up in this conversation.
“They live with their father.”
“So you're divorced? Makes sense.”
Marlow gripped the wheel tighter and looked slantwise at Dan to see if the comment was delivered with malice, rather than just a simple statement.
“I don't get to see them much in my line of work.” Marlow never voiced her feelings to anyone, and hadn't intended to start now but found she suddenly had a case of verbal diarrhoea. “In fact I haven't seen them for just over two years. My husband... ex-husband, Trebor, does his very best to keep them away.”
Dan whistled low between his teeth. “Wow, you must have been a terrible mother.”
Again Marlow glance
d at the kid and saw his eyes were wide with interest as he studied her as if trying to peel away the layers of unkemptness to see what lay underneath. Marlow stole a second glance searching for any signs of a smug smile, but saw nothing.
“I don't think I was,” she said defensively.
“Then why don't they want to see you? If you were my mum then... OK, bad example. If I knew where my dad was I’d be desperate to see him.”
Marlow pondered this for a moment. All her problems had been squarely focused on Trebor. She'd assumed she'd been the perfect wife and mother and he had been the cuckoo who had disrupted the family nest. Of course, he had always blamed her, but now Marlow wondered if there was something in that. She had always blamed her dad for embroiling her in the family business, which she had seen as drawing her focus away from the life she yearned to lead.
“You blame everybody but yourself,” said Dan sagely, and with a jaded voice, as he followed the windscreen wipers batting hypnotically side-to-side.
Marlow gave him a sharp elbow in the ribs - partly to stop him from sleeping but mostly for the impudence of vocalising her own thoughts.
Dan blinked, aware he was on the edge of slumber. For the first time his own fear was keeping his narcolepsy at bay. He licked his dry lips, searching for something else to say.
“So what happened to your dad?”
“What d'you mean?” asked Marlow, keeping her eyes on the road as she too fought sleep.
“Well, you inherited the family business even though you didn't want to and you're all alone fighting these things. So I kinda thought...” Uncharacteristically Dan paused, searching for the words.
“You thought what?”
“I thought, y'know, he must have bought the farm.” Dan looked impassive, despite the realisation that it was a terrible phrase to use. “Dead.” he amended. After a long pause, he added detail: “Swallowed whole by some terrible nightmare while trying to save some poor kid. A heroic kind of death.”
