As the Light Dies (58 page)

Kati
e’
s ear piercing scream started dying out.

She’s gone
,
he thought
,
oh God, the poor girl! The poor, poor girl
!

The second mutilated hand slipped under his chin and gripped around his throat pulling his head up off the floor with both hands now, pulling his face towards that putrid mouth. Steve lost all focus, his mind raced off on its own saturated in adrenalin, panic, fear, anger and sorrow all at once. The sound of snapping teeth got louder, the turbulence in the air beside his face stronger, to the point where he was sure he felt the infected ma
n’
s broken mouth brush across his cheek.

He took the deepest breath his shaking body would allow, and he screamed! He did
n’
t mean to but his body had taken over, h
e’
d lost control....
.
THWACK
!

Fluid spurted across Stev
e’
s face! It ran across his lips, his eyes, through his ear, and down his neck
!
Let it be quick
,
he prayed. The hand behind his head let go and fell away
.
Now comes the smashing against the floor
,
he thought waiting for it to join the hand around his throat.

Both hands grabbed his shoulders
.
Here comes the smashing
,
he thought wondering where h
e’
d been bitten with all the blood running down his face and neck. He was amazed that he could
n’
t feel it, there was no pain
.
Adrenalin
!
he thought, it had to be. The cold rubbery forehead of his attacker slapped against his temple
.
Oh shit, oh shit, here it comes.  Shit, shit, shit
!
he thought still screaming as loud as he possibly could on that single breath, sure he would feel what was coming next, expecting the side of his face to be torn off....Nothing happened!

Stev
e’
s head dropped back to the floor, it was
n’
t forced. He dared to open his eyes and was both shocked and bewildered to see a young red headed woman yanking a long crowbar out from the back of his attacke
r’
s head.

She looked at him, saw that h
e’
d opened his eyes and was looking at her and said
,“
Take care of that one
,
QUICKLY!”
She wiped black goo off the crowbar and ran back down the corridor.

Stunned he thought
,
Take care of what one
?

He lifted his head to look and burst in to life in an instant as the crawling torso reached out for him!

It had the body of his attacker on its back, dead and pouring that horrible black fluid from a hole punctured all the way through its forehead. It was weighing the crawling torso down holding it back just far enough so that it could
n’
t quite reach him....for now! It fought with the limp body lying on top of it, trying to break free from its hindering weight, inching towards Steve.

The body suddenly rolled off, the torso lurched forwards desperate to sink its teeth in to him.

“SHIT!”
Steve yelped as fleshless fingers reached for him. He rolled away as fast as he could and stood up. He glanced over at Katie not wanting to but needing to and saw her lying outstretched on the floor and still. The new red headed arrival was beside her pulling her crowbar out of Kati
e’
s kille
r’
s head. Two infected bodies lay beside her. Horrified and burning with hatred he grabbed his fire extinguisher and raised it above his head, he watched the discoloured mutilated torso relentlessly closing in on him. Its face was a mess from where he had battered it earlier. Skin had been pulled apart stretched by the blunt trauma exposing bone and dark infected flesh beneath and one of its beady black eyes had burst leaking inky black fluid down its discoloured cheek.

Grinding his teeth Steve let it come closer, letting it crawl within range and when it was he jumped up in the air holding the extinguisher high and then brought it down with every bit of strength he could muster and slammed the extinguisher against the back of its head mashing its face in to the floor. He retrieved the extinguisher utterly amazed that it was still conscious if not dead. It grumbled and jerked pushing itself up, pulling its face up off the floor and reached for him again.

Steve lost all control then, he swung the extinguisher from over his head and struck the crawle
r’
s head again, then again, and again swinging the extinguisher in an arc from just below his shoulder blades up over his head and down on to the crown of the infected torsos head. He swung it like his childre
n’
s children'slives depended on it without realising he was screaming at the top of his lungs!

He carried on until there was nothing recognisable left but a dark pulpy mess.

Katie lay on the floor utterly exhausted both physically and mentally. Her body too tired to even tremble. The red head said
,“
Do
n’
t move! Yo
u’
re in shock ok, yo
u’
re safe for now, just stay here and
I’
ll be back in a second ok
.
”

Katie simply could
n’
t believe what was happening, she thought she had a grip on things, she thought sh
e’
d managed to come to terms with the outlandish thought of fatally infected people turning cannibalistic and turning a weird charcoal colour. She had thought of them as the enemy in a war simulation, but she had
n’
t bargained for them being able to withstand such force. Sh
e’
d watched as she repeatedly inflicted horrendous wounds with her extinguisher as it pulled and tore flesh on impact and broke bone. But despite that the infected person still came at her oblivious to any pain. Relentlessly pursuing her, wanting to consume her
,
needin
g
to consume her! Her blows just slowed them down, that was all. Not one minute of the hundreds up on hundreds of hours of combat training she had taken part in could have ever prepared her for that.

As she lay there trying to grasp everything that was going on her body began to tremble, and she knew she was regaining her strength.

Her mind replayed what had just happened even though she did
n’
t want it to, she tried to stop it, but it was no good, she did
n’
t have a choice and she saw herself falling on top of the infected man and struggling with him until he overpowered her and managed to climb on top of her.

He started pulling her face towards his snapping jaws. They tussled for a moment until they reached a stalemate, she did
n’
t have the strength to push him away and he was
n’
t quite strong enough to pull her closer. But he was coming closer! He was gradually wearing her out! He was getting too close, he was winning and Katie knew it. He worked his way so close that Katie was certain he was going to bite off her nose like the infected man on the bed in the bunk room. She turned her head to the side desperately pushing her face against the floor delaying the inevitable when he seemed to flinch. Katie felt him jolt. She glanced at him through the corner of her eye just in case there was an opportunity for her to put some distance between them both when something burst through his face under his left eye spraying Katie with black goo.

The vicious snarl disappeared, his jaw dropped open loosely, and then he slid backwards as he was pulled off her. Katie saw a young red haired woman standing over him pulling a long steel crowbar out of his head. The red head looked at her and smiled
,“
Yo
u’
re ok
,”
she said and Katie overwhelmed by the situation dropped her head back down and urinated without even realising. The woman hopped over quickly after freeing her crowbar and told her that she was in shock, not to move and just to lay there, then she went to help Steve. Steve fell back against the wall panting, he was covered in black goo from crushing the infected tors
o’
s head when he heard the redhead speak to Katie.

Astonished he pushed himself off the wall to go to her absolutely elated, and before h
e’
d even taken his first step towards her the bunk door opposite him crashed open and a partly dressed partly eaten man fell on him. Steve screamed with shock as he was forced back. The figure was slow and disorientated but it was strong and it was heavy. It grabbed his arm. Steve pulled away but the man had to good a grip and Steve just pulled him closer, he yelled out in fear. He tried to yank his arm free tugging it quickly but the grip was as tight as a vice. Yelling out for help Steve tried to lean as far back from the figure as he could, he could
n’
t bear to touch it, to even be near it. It looked like it had been dipped in an oil tank full of piranhas. Its skinless face oozed that horrible black goo that reeked of dead animals
.
“SHIT!”
he yelled slamming his free hand against its partly hollowed out chest cavity to hold it back. His hand sunk in to the rancid flesh, he yelled out horrified and his yell turned in to a shrill scream as one of its eyes fell back in to its head. As its eye fell out of sight the head suddenly separated splitting in two as an axe head carved down the middle burying itself all the way down to the roof of the infected ma
n’
s mouth. Steve felt the grip on his arm loosen and he scrambled back as the figure fell to the floor in front of him. He was
n’
t surprised to see the redhead at the end of the axe handle.

“C’
mon, w
e’
ve gotta go
,”
she said leaving the axe where it was, it was bedded in too deep for her to waste any time pulling it free. She offered Steve a hand and pulled him up.

“
Thanks
,”
he said as she ran off up the corridor telling him to help his friend. He saw that Katie was standing up. He went to her.

“
Katie
,”
he said
,“
I thought you were...
.
”

“
So did I
,”
she said cutting in, then they hugged.

Steve looked over her shoulder and saw the other two infected figures, the slower ones lying on the floor in puddles of black goo further along the corridor
.
Thank Go
d
, he thought as Katie took his hand and they started back along the corridor after their new friend as she called them, telling them to hurry.

The redhead stood outside the bunk door that Katie had slammed earlier shutting the horribly mauled infected person inside as Steve struggled with his extinguisher.

The door had cracked from top to bottom down the middle with the continuous pounding from inside, the noises coming from the other side were horrendous.

“I’
m Jen
,”
said the redhead
,“
you guys got a plan
?
”

“
Yea
,”
said Steve
,“
we came to help you. We heard you earlier, we were gonna launch in...
.
”

“
One of the lifeboats huh
!”
said Jen. Steve nodded
.“
Same idea I had
,”
said Jen watching the cracking door closely as Steve and Katie caught up to her.

More horrible calls rose up behind them! They all turned around and saw a group of infected men rounding the end of the corridor all jostling amongst themselves for a position at the front. When they caught sight of the three of them their calls erupted like battle cries and they started to race towards them violently shoving each other out of the way and simply trampling over each other as they rushed towards them.

“
GO! GO! GO!”
yelled Jen turning and running for the exit door. As they made a run for it the mauled figure trapped behind bunk door finally burst through in to the corridor in a frenzy of flailing arms and morbid screams desperate to reach them, it stumbled over some debris from the shattered bunk door and was trampled beneath the human stampede racing up behind it.

Steve just saw it happen looking back as Jen slammed the door behind him.

They raced blind along the walkway straight in to another group of infected people that had gathered following the calls. Jen swung her crowbar overhead as she ran and brought it down hard piercing the top of an infected female enginee
r’
s head with the curved claw and before the female had even started to buckle Jen side kicked another figure, a guy twice her size, and hit his knee dropping him to the steel grating as she snatched back her crowbar letting the infected woman collapse and then pulled the same move on the kneeling guy and buried the cold steel shaft of the crowbar deep through the top of his head.