by Maxey, Phil
Those he had traveled with were gone. Left minutes before with a swarm of things that soon moved from his sight, being lost to a complex of buildings.
He took a breath then slowly sat forward, shifting himself slightly to the right, to the middle of the seats where he could see the…
The keys were in the ignition. Was the soldier that stupid?
Not dumb. Arrogant.
The middle-aged, overweight, damaged individual in the back seat, was of so little threat that Finn hadn’t cared if the keys were left behind. Arlo was bound, wrists and ankles and anyway, he was surrounded by the things, eager to end another human life.
His mistake…
He slowly turned his head to the side, looking out the window to a vaguely human shaped thing which stood frozen on the sidewalk, a single-story wooden home behind. Its torso and legs bulged through remnants of a dark-gray suit, and a many veined neck with a snake-like skull, containing not two, but multiple human eyes too large to fully contain them, quivered and shook. Another three equally unexplainable creatures stood directly in front and to the right of the car.
He took another breath in preparation for the pain. The next part was going to be the most difficult. If he could get the cords far enough down his wrist then hand, his arms being far enough apart, he could then slide them beneath his ass and eventually over the end of his legs then feet. If he couldn’t he would continue to sit in the car, waiting for when Finn and Rackham got bored of keeping him alive. And if that happened, no one was going to help the Keller’s kid.
He heaved his wrists apart, being sure he heard cracking. Pain surged up his arms, into his shoulders, neck then head but he kept pulling and with rocking back pushed them beneath his lower back, then thighs, his knees being to his chest and then… The pain was too much, he had to stop, but he got another glimpse of the closest of the things outside, and forced his wrist the final distance until they sprang free from his boots.
He fell back onto the seat, breathing heavy, trying to focus his thoughts so he wouldn’t pass out. But darkness was creeping into his vision. He raised his hands and did his best to slap his face, each impact bringing him a little further into the real world.
Sit up, Arlo… Sit… up!
He launched himself forward, lunging between the seats, awkwardly shifting over the gear stick and slid, fell into the driver’s seat.
“Okay… I got—”
He felt the spray from the fragments of glass from the driver’s windows before he heard it break. A stalk like thing was across him. A claw on its extremity was fumbling on the other seat. He was frozen in place, fear preventing him from moving at all. The keys were just inches from his hands, but he could feel the foul stench of something rotten just a foot away to his left, just beyond the broken window.
With a flick of his bound hands he grabbed then turned the keys, the engine firing and slammed down hard on the gas, propelling him and the car forward. The stalk like limb retracted but not before it hooked into his shoulder, taking a chunk of his flesh with it. He groaned in pain but kept his foot hard down on the pedal slamming into another of the creatures which bounced off the hood then cracking the windshield before falling to the road. His hands were now on the steering wheel, his entire body on fire with pain, but that was okay. It was time to rescue Josh.
*****
4: 34 p.m. Galveston.
The final moment.
The pain in her shoulder was almost too much for Jess. She could feel the claws pulling at her muscle and skin, gravity being her enemy, but she managed to hear her daughter’s scream and hear the crack of booms from Scott’s rifle. None of it mattered though as the creature rose then dipped almost instantly to the parking lot where she quickly became aware of the things, the thousand of things which now inhabited the northern part of the island. They were moving away from a particular spot in the center of the parking lot, creating a circular clearing.
The creature above released its grip near the ground but still high enough for her to drop and send a shooting pain through one of her ankles as it threatened to turn over. She fell to one knee, her breathing labored.
“Mom...”
Her head flicked up and with it came joy and sadness. Josh, his face full of flecks of blood and grime was standing just ten-yards from her. But so was Rackham and a new face, one she knew was responsible for what happened at the school. Keeping her eyes on her son, she forced a smile. “It’s all going to be okay, Josh. I promise.” He started to cry, trying to pull away from the thing which had its hands clamped to his shoulders.
Rackham looked different but the same, his features more refined, younger perhaps, but equally more demonic as if his face was a mask, hiding something else. He smiled then released his grip. Like a spring, Josh ran forward into the arms of his mother who hugged him tight, tears running from them both. “I love you,” she cried between sobs as did he. “It’s going to be okay. Trust me.”
“You see, Josh. I kept my word.”
Josh whirled around. “I hate you! We’re going to kill you!”
Jess pulled him back then stood, her eyes fixed on the old man and his colleague. In her periphery ill formed faces and bodies, swayed and shuddered, all looking at her.
Rackham smiled. “Finally, we are all together.” He looked beyond the mother and son to the large building where Jess had been taken from. “And Sam is nearby as well! All of us have so much work to do! And Sam has already started!”
Jess shook her head, words starting and failing to make it to her throat. She knew what the crazed thing in front of her was going to say. She had suspected from the moment she heard the first screech and gunshot in the hospital, but she hoped the truth could be hidden somehow, that Sam would never know the part she played.
Rackham snorted. “I see you know what your daughter did. How she helped—” He spread his arms. “— make all of this possible!”
“None of this is her fault!”
“Ah, but there you would be wrong, mother Keller. Her role was to provide me with enough genetic material for Finn and to create a modified version of the virus, so my children can live beyond their time, but there was a side effect, one which although not planned proved to be quiet useful. She would be my very own little Typhoid Mary and carry my creation all the way here, into the heart of the only enemy capable of stopping me…”
Jess was sure she heard a scream of anguish some distance beyond her, which fell like a weight upon her own shoulders.
Rackham continued, while a smug smile emerged across the face of the other mass murderer at his side. “But you have nothing to fear anymore, mother Keller. You, your daughter and son will be well…” The older man’s head tilted to the side, his attention momentarily elsewhere. Finn did the same, but had already turned completely around to face the other end of the parking lot from where Jess could also now hear a noise. A roaring, but this wasn’t organic in nature. No, this was… an engine?
The sound of screeching breaks came from a street nearby, beyond the wall of creatures in front of her. She held her son close, her head flicking left and right, then quickly behind for any gap, but the creatures were too tightly packed.
A vehicle was approaching at speed.
“Who the fuck is that?” said Finn, walking towards the noise, the mass of creatures slowly separating until even Jess could see the sedan speeding towards the parking lot. “Ha. Who would have thought the fat nerd would have had it in him?” He looked back at Rackham. “Can I kill him now?”
Rackham nodded as the car bumped up a curb, lifting into the air, traveling at seventy at least and heading straight for the super solider and crazed scientist behind him.
Finn walked forward then stood in the center of the cleared route as the car now moving even faster charged towards him.
“Arlo… no…” said Jess under her breath now seeing who the driver was. She pulled Josh behind her.
Finn sprinted towards the oncoming few tons of metal, its screami
ng engine the only noise across the expanse of concrete and just as the collision was inevitable shifted to the side, throwing his arm out which tore through the fender, then the entire left side of the car, causing it to flip, then tumble, again and again through a swathe of the creatures which dived out of the way, eventually smashing up against other parked cars until it slid to a stop.
“Well, that was entertaining, wasn’t—”
Arlo’s sacrifice was all the distraction she needed. She smashed the three small vaccine bottles in her right hand across Rackham’s face, the affect immediate, a cry of pain being cut short as his mouth, then nose then entire skull crumpled, dissolving as the contents of the bottles she had discovered in the school library ate, acid like through his body. A claw swung from an appendage which had sprouted from somewhere on his torso but without eyes it missed its target, swiping the air above Jess as she ducked, then quickly grabbing another bottle from her pocket cracked the glass into the exposed skin. There was a squeal as skin stretched and retracted turning dark with decay, then becoming ash as the thing known as Rackham shrunk in form and size, the bones and muscle that had made it, becoming nothing more than a heap of dark brown bubbling sludge on the concrete…
She fell backwards, almost tripping over her own feet, not believing her plan had worked. She reached behind her, looking for her son, not noticing the blur which slammed into her shoulder, hurling her across the lot, landing ten-feet away, semiconscious and bleeding. Josh cried out, running to her.
“Finally!” shouted Finn. He paced left and right, not being able to contain his excitement, his eyes wide and bloodshot. “Thank you! Thank, fucking… you! For killing that pompous ass!” Josh shook his mother, trying to wake her, while shooting glances at the insane soldier just fifteen-feet away who continued his rant. “He got what he deserved! All these plans of making the world in his image! Bullshit! Typical nerd shit! Now I can do what he should have done, but was too blind and stupid to do! I can kill all of you!” He took in a lungful of air. “I knew this was going to be a good day!” He looked at his creatures, the mass of malformed things that stood in rows, many of which were shuddering, their heads flicking from side to side, their limbs flailing at invisible enemies. “His children, my ass. They were always my army, and I’m going to use them, control them to kill every last human I can find. Starting with that little bitch daughter of yours. Time to get rid of my competition!” He sped across the concrete, shoving Josh to one side and picking Jess up by her hair. She groaned as Josh screamed, running forward, punching and kicking at the soldier, who shoved him away again, this time harder, the boy thumping his head on the solid ground. Jess’s eyes flicked open as blood ran down her face and she threw a clenched fist at her attacker. The punch connected and the bones broke in her fist, causing her to cry out in pain as he smiled. He dragged her higher, like a doll, then with his other hand grabbed her face and pointed it back towards the mental health block of the hospital. “I want you to see my soldiers bring her to me and see what happens next…”
Jess clawed and kicked but each movement only elicited a snort of laughter as the creatures started to move towards the multi-storey building. Gunfire erupted from the first-floor windows, hitting the first creatures to get to the entrance. He was distracted. This was her chance. She reached down and pushed her distorted fingers into her pocket to find… The final three bottles had broken in her fall, the contents already evaporating.
He let go, dropping her like trash to the ground. She scrambled to Josh, pulling him to her, then looked back at the soldier who seemed confused by something.
“What the hell…”
Jess couldn’t see what was happening from the ground and didn’t care. She needed to get Josh out of here. She threw her hand to the ground, pushing down to get to her knees, but instantly burning pain surged across her back and neck, making her drop back down.
“Mom! Mom!”
“Run, Josh. R…” Jess realized something was wrong. She swung her head around to a wall of creatures standing in front of Finn, each one looking back, not at her but at him. And the soldier, he was shaking, both hands by his side, clenched in fists, trembling.
He fell back out of breath. “Agh! So you control some. Good for you!” He spun around, his arms outstretched. “But the rest. The other few thousand. They’re… all… mine…”
The ground thundered as clawed feet, limbs, spider-like torsos surged forward, across the lot into a wall of similar things sprinting the other way. A cacophony of screeches and roars filled the air as fangs and talons came together filling the air with blood and sinew as the creatures tore into each other. As the maelstrom flooded past, Jess with Josh crawled across the concrete, stopping, pausing, ducking then moving again, trying to avoid the stampede that shook the ground all around them. Her hand pushed into something solid, a wall, and with all the strength left in her she lifted herself up, and with Josh fell over it, into bushes surrounded by palm trees.
“Mom! Mom! Look! The bad ones are winning!”
She looked up at Josh standing at the wall, looking at the storm flashing past. Despite the pain in her shoulder almost being to much for her to form any thoughts, she grabbed the wall and pulled herself to her knees. It was like witnessing a swarm of ants, except these insects were fighting each other. Josh was right, and so was Finn. His creatures outnumbered the others, four to one, and the soldier himself was tearing through them as well, felling two at a time as if they were made of paper. Despite everything she had achieved, that all of them had achieved, they were still going to lose. Finn and his army were going to kill them all and there was nothing that…
Blood and guts exploded as streaks of projectiles flashed across the lot, dropping creature after creature to the ground. The sound was deafening but she was sure she could see a truck, more than one across the far left edge of the lot? The direction the gunfire was—
A hand touched her back and she swung around with a fist completely missing Landon.
“Jess! We have to get out of here!”
Across the lot, at the first-floor window of the mental health building, Sam stood, watching, concentrating, moving the mutated beings in front of her like pieces on a game board, sending them at the others, utilizing their mutated claws and limbs to exact revenge, but she knew what her mother had guessed. Her side was losing, even with Luci and the others showing up with guns, big guns. Her eyes flicked to the soldier inflicting so much damage, as he smashed through another of the multi-limbed abominations, rendering it lifeless. She had to take care of the soldier. Before Scott could stop her she unlatched the window, pushing it open and slipped through the gap falling the ten-feet to the ground, creatures fighting creatures all around her. She sprinted forward, diving to the side, to avoid a claw thrust in her direction then rolling, standing and leaping entirely over a mass of tentacles which stretched and swiped at her. She could see Finn, he was finishing off another of her pawns, which were almost depleted. As she ran towards him, she mustered her concentration for one final effort.
The handful of things left under her power suddenly whipped around in the soldier’s direction and thundered towards him, but he saw the threat. A galloping beast, tendrils dragging on the floor was slammed into by a spider-like thing with eyes on stalks. Another of her creatures, tumbled and was set upon by three others. She was running out of soldiers as his, launched themselves at the building and trucks.
He stood back, his arms open wide. “Yes! Yes! Come at me! Do your worst!”
She only had one advantage over him. Something she hoped was true, but didn’t know would work until she tried it.
She skidded to a stop and focused every part of her mind on him. The effect was immediate. All of the things stopped dead in their tracks, returning to their quivering, bewildered state as Scott, Luci and the others continued firing, tearing the things apart, bullets slicing through them, dropping tens of them at a time from the array of weaponry ranged at them.
Fi
nn grimaced, his own body paralysed by the teenager just yards away. His muscles twitched as he fought against her influence over his brain and slowly but surely feeling returned to his neck, then shoulders, the sensation creeping across his body, until his arms become his, then his legs. A smile broke out across his face as frustration then exhaustion came from Sam. “Now I get to—”
Finn never heard the boom or felt the front of his skull explode. His final thoughts were of sweet victory and what he would do to those he hated. He fell face forward into the concrete as Landon looked down on him from behind. His shaking hand, holding a shotgun.
“Die…”
He collapsed to his knees. As Sam ran towards him, throwing her arms around his shoulders, but as the bullets continued to rain down upon the frozen things across the lot she knew something was wrong with her father. He felt limp in her arms. She pulled back, tears in her eyes. “Dad? Dad?” she screamed. Others were running to her from the buildings, but her only focus was on the man she was holding, his eyes open, wide, glassy. “Dad!” she screamed again, as Scott then Barker ran to her side, the elderly man falling to his knees, immediately feeling for a pulse.
“No pulse. I’m starting CPR!”
Sam let go as Jess limped to her side, Josh with her, both desperate to get near Landon.
Alternating between chest compressions and trying to get air into his lungs, Barker kept repeating the same technique, over and over as the sounds of screeches and roars finally diminished and only sobs could be heard across the parking lot.
