Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (6 page)

The old man’s eyes went unnaturally wide as they stared at
Nick, almost as if they were going to pop out of their sockets and land on his
shoes.  

With nowhere to run, Nick stepped forward to meet the old
man’s charge, grabbing a fistful of his cardigan and holding on tight.  He
used the old man’s momentum as a weapon and twisted sideways, flinging him
headfirst into the tiers of fish tanks.  Water flooded out onto the carpet
as the glass frontages shattered. 

The old man’s head had impacted a tank full of neon tetras
and was now lodged between the jagged edges of the glass.  The vicious
crags bit and tore at the soft flesh of his wrinkled neck and his attempts to
get free only opened up the wounds wider. 

Nick staggered away, dizzy from exertion.

I can’t take much more of this
.

Blood mixed with the remaining water at the bottom of the
broken fish tanks and turned the liquid a murky red.  The poor neon tetras
inside did their best to keep swimming in their suddenly shallow tank. 
The old man continued twisting and squirming and the gash in his neck opened up
even further.  Eventually it began to spout thick arterial blood. 
His sandaled feet twitched and kicked for a few moments as he continued trying
to get free.  

Then he went still.

Nick sat down on the floor and took some deep breaths. 
Being on such high alert, so full of adrenaline, was beginning to take its toll
on him.  The urge to scream at the top of his lungs and yank out his hair
was beginning to take over.  Nick just wanted it all to stop.  It was
too much to deal with any longer.

“What’s happening?”  It was the girl in the
closet.  “What’s going on out there?”

“I think I just met the owner,” he said, not knowing whether
to laugh or cry.  “I wouldn’t recommend his customer service.  Are
you going to come out now?  I could really use some help.”

“No.”

“Stop hiding out in a cupboard like a goddamn child. 
You need to get a grip.”  There was more silence, but he was sure the girl
was thinking things through in there.  “Come on,” he said.  “I’m not
looking to hurt you.”

Slowly the cupboard door began to open.  From behind it
the girl peered out.  “Fine,” she said irritably.  “But the first
sign of danger and I am back in the closet.”

Nick nodded wearily.  He tried to smile.  The girl
was still just a teenager – possibly early twenties.  She was a dark-featured
brunette with lighter streaks in her chocolate-coloured hair.  Her big
brown eyes were full of trepidation and she viewed Nick with suspicion. 
The look suggested that maybe her morning hadn’t been much better than his had
been.

“What happened here?” he asked her.

“I’m still waiting for someone to tell
me,
” she
said.  “I got here early because Mr Curtis wanted to set up a new display
for some ornamental scent burners he got on consignment.  I let myself in
as usual but the place was deserted.  So I went around the back to the
cottage – that’s where Mr Curtis and his wife live – and I found the front door
wide open.  Next thing I know, Mr Curtis and his wife are running at me
like lunatics, screeching like animals.  I ran back into the store but I
didn’t know what to do, so I ended up in the closet with the two of them
outside waiting to get me.  After a while they went away, but I stayed
inside anyway.  That’s when you came along.”  She looked at Mr
Curtis, his head still trapped inside the fish tank, his body limp and
lifeless.  “I don’t get it,” she said.  “He was a nice old man. 
I don’t know why he would want to hurt me.”

“It’s not just him,” Nick explained.  “People have been
losing their shit all over town.  My wife, too, and my…my son.”  He
didn’t want to think about James.  He turned his mind to more proactive
endeavours.  “We should try to get some help.  Do you have a phone
here?  Or Internet access?”

The girl nodded.  “Yeah, we have both in the office,
but there’s a problem.”

“What?”

The girl nodded toward Mr Curtis.  “Well, I’m looking
at Mr Curtis, but where’s his wife?”

As if to punctuate her point, a far-off crash caused them
both to turn towards the aquarium’s exit.

“Close by, would be my guess,” said Nick.  The
young girl started back towards the cupboard.  He went after her. 
“Hey, you’re not going back into hiding.  We need to deal with the
situation.”

“You deal with it.  I’m going to sit down on the
vacuum cleaner with the door closed.”

Nick grabbed a hold of the girl, a little harder than he
meant to.  Fortunately, the show of force seemed to steel her
nerves. 

She sighed and shook her head resignedly.  “Fine,”
she said.  “But can we at least get something to defend ourselves with?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Nick.

***

They found what they needed in
the storage closet where the girl had been hiding.  Nick removed the head
from a broom handle to turn it into a weapon and the girl found herself a
hammer.

“What’s your name, by the way?” he asked her.

“Eve.”

“Nice to meet you, Eve.  My name is Nick.”

“What’s with your face?”

“I had a car accident.  Hurts like hell.  My
car is in worse shape than I am, though.  It was brand new.  An Alfa
Romeo.”

“Whoop-de-frikking-do.  Can we just get this over
with?”

They headed out of the aquarium and re-entered the rest
of the store.  Past the wind chime display and indoor plants was a
greeting card stand.  Beyond that was a maze of swinging benches and
assorted garden furniture.  Past all of it was a bottleneck leading to a
totally new area.

“What’s through that archway?” Nick asked.

“The café and checkouts.”

Nick nodded and crept forwards, broom handle raised over
his shoulder like a baseball bat.  The area ahead was cloaked in shadow,
lit only by the weak morning sunshine filtering in through the skylights. 
Through the archway, and to Nick’s left, was a quaint café – more of a cosy
tearoom really.  To his immediate right was the store’s checkout area.

He looked back at Eve and raised an eyebrow of
concern.  “Be careful,” he told her.  “She could be hiding
anywhere.  These sick people have a habit of blindsiding you.”

Eve didn’t reply.  She hung back and kept her
distance. 

The cash-tills up ahead were set into a booth with two
long desks about four feet off the ground.  Behind the booth was the
store’s exit, leading back out to the parking lot.

“Hello,” Nick said in a raised voice, deciding it would
be better to alert Mrs Curtis and see her coming than to have her sneak up on
them.  “Mrs Curtis, are you here?”

“What are you doing, dumbass?” Eve hissed.

“Trying to flush her out.  Better that than she
gets the drop on us.

Sure enough, Nick’s calls were met by the sounds of
someone shuffling behind the tills.  A woman sprang up from inside the
booth and faced them over the counter.  A stringy ribbon of flesh hung
from her lower teeth like a strand of rancid dental floss.

“That her?” Nick asked.

“No,” said Eve.

Nick frowned at her.  “No?  Then who the hell
is she?”

“I have no fucking idea.”

A hungry growl spun them both around.  There was an
old lady in a blue frilly dress glaring at them from inside the café.  Her
face was pressed up against the glass as she growled at them.  Apparently
the café had not been so empty after all.

“That’s her,” said Eve.  “That’s Mrs Curtis.”

The old woman threw herself through the partition window
of the café and rose to her feet on the other side.  It was like something
out of The Terminator.

Now the two women flanked Nick and Eve from both
sides.  The lady inside the till booth leapt the counter and sprinted
towards them.  At the same time Mrs Curtis came at them from behind.

“Run,” Nick shouted, dropping the broom handle to the
floor, realising it was useless.

Eve hurried after Nick and the two of them ran back
through the garden centre’s main floor.  Nick clattered into a chiminea a
hundred yards on and almost tumbled to the ground.  He only just managed
to keep his balance and keep running.  As he reached the automatic doors
where he had first entered, he realised that they were not going to open. 
He and Eve were on the wrong side of the sensor.

“Damn it,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder at
the two women clambering through the store after him.

“This way,” Eve shouted, dragging him by one of his coat
cuffs.  “There’s a fire exit.”

Nick followed Eve into the depths of the store. 
The two feral women were only a few steps behind them.  The only thing
keeping them back was their clumsiness.  They bashed and stumbled into the
various displays like drunks in a marathon.

Up ahead, Eve skidded to a halt.  Nick almost went
right into the back of her.

“What the hell are you doing?” he said.  “Keep
moving.”

“Look,” she said, pointing.

Nick looked to his right, towards the aquarium, and
could not believe what he saw.  Mr Curtis was back on his feet.  His
neck wound was so deep that his head hung unnaturally to one side.  He was
slower now, stumbling along like a new-born calf, and moaning hungrily.

Nick shook his head.  “There’s no way he could
still be alive.”

“I don’t think he is,” said Eve.

Nick didn’t have time to ask what she meant by that,
because Mrs Curtis came crashing through a display of garden shovels, sending
them clattering to the ground.  Eve got moving.  A split-second
later, so did he.

At the far end of the garden centre was a heavy glass
door with a green FIRE EXIT sign flickering above it.  Eve threw herself
against the push-bar and shoved the door open, stumbling out into the car
park.  Nick leapt through right after her.  They quickly put their
backs against the other side of the door to shove it closed.  It was slow
progress, though; the fire door built to move slowly to prevent causing
drafts. 

Come on, come on.  Close goddamnit!

Two inches before the door was shut, both Mrs Curtis and
the other woman threw themselves against the other side.  A struggle
ensued and Nick and Eve fought back against the unexpected strength of their
pursuers.

“How are they so strong?” asked Eve.  “Mrs Curtis
is almost eighty.”

“I don’t know,” Nick said.  “But we need to get
this door closed, right now.  Look!”

In the parking lot a bleeding man stumbled in their
direction.  His head craned like a bird when he spotted them and he let
out a moan.  Nick was grateful the guy wasn’t a sprinter like the two
women inside, or else they would already be done for.

He must have been one of the drivers of the crashed
saloons.  He’s covered in broken glass.

Eve began to groan under the stress of pushing the door
closed.  “I’m slipping,” she cried out.  “I can’t hold it much
longer.”

“I can’t either,” Nick admitted.  “We’re going to
have to make a run for it.  After three, you ready?”

“No.”

“Okay,” said Nick.  “One, two…

“…three.”

They made a dash across the car park, stone chips flying
up behind them as their trainers crunched down on the uneven gravel.  They
cut a wide arc around the man ambling in front of them and headed for the
road.  There was a chance that Lara might have got free and was now
waiting somewhere up ahead.  That would also mean that it was safe to get
back inside his car and drive away.  But, as Nick leapt the embankment, he
saw that Lara was still tangled up in the seatbelts and was going
nowhere.  His car was off limits.

“Shit!” he said.  “Where do we go?”

“Anywhere, but here,” Eve said.

They both tumbled down the embankment and into the road. 
Eve pointed to one of the intersections that led to a sharp bend in the
road.  “Maybe we can lose them around there!”

Nick glanced behind him.  The two women from the
garden centre were stumbling around the car park with the glass-covered man,
but so far they seemed unaware of Nick and Eve’s location.  They were
glancing around, moving in circles and sniffing the air; like any other
predator hunting prey.

“Okay,” said Nick.  “Let’s just get out of here.”

They pounded the road towards the bend, their breaths
ragged and painful.  Just as Nick thought they might be home free, a
piercing screech from the parking lot made it clear they had been spotted.

Eve’s eyes went wide.  “They’re coming.”

“I know,” said Nick.  “Just keep runni-”

Something caught Nick’s attention.  He spun around
urgently and managed to fling himself to the ground just in time to avoid
getting hit by a skidding bus.  Eve hit the dirt right beside him. 
There was a never-ending moment where he closed his eyes and waited for death,
expecting to feel the crush of wheels over his body, but the moment eventually
passed, leaving behind nothing but a tense silence. 

The bus had come to a sliding stop, a protesting squeal
echoing from its brakes.  Its bulky rear tyres rested less than a metre
from Nick’s outstretched legs.  He rolled onto his back and looked up in
confusion as the vehicle’s pneumatic doors hissed open.

“Get in!” screamed the driver.

Nick yanked Eve off the ground and
bundled her up the steps onto the bus.  Then he flung himself in after
her, twisting around to make sure that the doors were closing behind him. 
He sighed with relief when they hissed shut.

The bus started moving and Nick stumbled sideways into
the aisle. He had to grab hold of one of the support rails overhead to keep
from falling down.  Eve dragged herself over to the nearest vacant seat
and sat down, clutching her chest as she tried to catch her breath.

It was then that he noticed the other people on the bus.
 He nodded at them all politely, but decided to turn to face his saviour,
the bus driver.

If he hadn’t come along when he did…
 

The driver was a rotund man with thinning hair, grey at
the sides.  Both his of narrow, unblinking eyes were glued to the road.
 The steering wheel was gripped tightly between his pudgy hands. 

“There’s a car wreck up ahead,” Nick warned him. 
“You’ll have to drive carefully to get around it.

 The driver nodded and kept the bus at a low
speed.  Up ahead, Mrs Curtis and the other two infected people from the
garden centre were coming up the middle of the road.  They looked like a
pack of roving hyenas.

“Friends of yours?” asked the driver.

“More like acquaintances,” said Nick.

The driver steered around them carefully and then
decided to introduce himself.  “I’m Dave, by the way.”

Mrs Curtis leapt at the side of the moving bus but
rebounded futilely to the road in a crumpled heap.  The people onboard
whimpered with fright but seemed to realise that they were safe.

“Really good to meet you, Dave.  I’m Nick, and the
girl with me is named Eve.  What made you pick us up?”

The bus reached the crossroad intersection and started
to manoeuvre around the three wrecked cars, which included Nick’s Alfa
Romeo.  It felt wrong to abandon it.

I bloody loved that motor.

Dave cleared his throat.  “You looked like you
needed a lift, way you was running down the road like a bat out of hell. 
Seems quite a few people are in need at the moment.  But I can only pick
up so many.”

Nick glanced back at the other passengers.  All of
them wore their own individual expressions of fear and pain.  Some were
stony-faced and silent, while others wept quietly. 

“You rescued all these people?”

Dave shrugged one shoulder.  “Some of them, I
did.  I’d already picked up a few on my normal run.  Things didn’t
get crazy till about thirty minutes later.  After all hell broke loose I
managed to collect a few people, here and there – dropped ‘em off near their
homes whenever I could – but most people were beyond saving.  People have
gone bad in the head; like wild animals.”

Nick nodded.  “I know what you mean. 
Something is making people insane.  I think it’s some kind of…sickness.”

“I was pretty much thinking the same.  Seen a lot
of sick people these last few days on my morning runs.  Flu, colds,
fevers; people sneezing and coughing from the moment I picked ‘em up till the
moment I dropped ‘em off.  Something bad has got itself inside people.”

“Well,” Nick said.  “I’m pretty sure I owe you my
life.  Thank you.”

Dave huffed and put his foot down on the
accelerator.  “We’re not out of the woods yet, I’m afraid.  I got no
clear destination and only half a tank of petrol.”

“We should go the hospital.  Find help.”

Dave took his eyes off the road for the moment and looked
Nick in the eyes.  There was something approaching regret in his
expression, as if he didn’t want to say what he was about to.  “Hospital
was the first place I checked.”

Nick raised both eyebrows.  “And?”

“No good.  There were sick people everywhere; bleeding
and half-naked, making those terrible screeching sounds they make.  It was
a blood bath.  I turned around and left no more than five seconds after
getting there – was a complete death trap.  In fact, there’s a gal named
Pauline I picked up from near the hospital just in time.  She had a group
of maybe a dozen crazies right on her heels.  Lucky I got to her when I
did.  She’s still with us, couple rows from the front.  She’ll tell
you herself that the hospital is a no go.”

Nick felt defeated.  People were sick and even the
hospital couldn’t help, apparently.  How was the situation ever going to
get better when there was nowhere to go, no one to take control or offer
assistance?

“How about a police station?” Nick asked.

Dave shook his head.  “The cop shop is in the town
centre and the main roads to town are all blocked up with traffic.”

“Then where?”

“Well,” Dave began.  “One of the folks I picked up
earlier had the idea of finding an Army base or something.  They tend to
be out in the countryside where things might not be so bad.”

Nick nodded.  “If anyone can deal with a shit storm
like this it’s the military.  Where is the nearest base?”

“That’s the problem.  No one has any idea and the
guy who originally suggested it took off on his own to find his family. 
So keep an eye out for any road signs that might help us.  I’m going to
head towards Nottingham.  See if we can find the Sherwood Foresters or, at
the very least, a petrol station that isn’t overrun.  The Foresters are a pretty
big regiment, right?”

Nick shrugged.  He had no idea.  He looked out
at the road ahead and was glad to see that it was clear for the time
being.  There might finally be time to take a breather.  Although the
chance to sit and think things through in detail, to reflect on the day’s
terrible events, was not something he was looking forward to.

James…

Deana…

“You mind if I take a seat, Dave?  I’m dead on my
feet.”

“Take a load off, my friend.  If I need something,
I’ll let you know.”

He went over and took a seat beside Eve.  The girl
was currently leant up against the window, examining the scenery as it rushed
by.

“I’m filthy,” she said without turning away from the
window.

Nick stared at her.  “What?”

She stretched out her legs to show the mud that covered
her jeans from the ankles to the knees.  “Look at me.  I need a
shower.  Need to wash my hair.  It’s disgusting.”

“Big picture, Eve.  People are dead, or at least in
much worse shape than you.  You can clean yourself up later.”

“Don’t talk to me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re my fucking dad, or something.”

Nick felt himself snarl.  “I’m not your fucking
dad.  My only child died this morning on my goddamn kitchen floor, and all
you can do is moan about some dirt under your nails.”

Eve folded her arms grumpily and grunted.  It was
obvious she had no interest in speaking to him unless he was ready to indulge
her complaints.

Fair enough
. 
Guess there’s no reason for
us to be bosom buddies now that our life-and-death experience is over. 
She can go back to being a stroppy teenager and I can go back to being an
adult.

Nick rose up from his seat and switched over to the
other side of the bus, taking a seat just in front of a middle-aged woman in
the tattered remnants of a grey blouse.  A colourful scarf lay on the seat
beside her.  It was covered in blood that seemed to merge with the floral
pattern.  He smiled at the woman as he settled into the threadbare cushion
in front of her.

“Hey,” she said to him wearily.  “Welcome to the
hell bus.”

Nick chuckled, but it contained no mirth; it was a mere
social instinct.  “Well, I for one am glad to be a passenger.  Beats
being where I was before Dave picked me up.”

The woman nodded.  “It’s not the bus that’s
hell.  It’s everything outside the windows.”

Nick looked out of those windows and saw nothing but
trees and fields.  It was a pleasant view, but he could imagine the things
the woman had witnessed on the main roads and in the towns.  He understood
what she was saying.

“Seen some nasty stuff, huh?” he said.  “Me too.”

“I was at the hospital,” she said, staring out of the
window blankly, “to pick up my sister.  We live together and her car isn’t
running.  She was working the night shift – she’s a nurse…
was
a
nurse.  I was supposed to pick her up this morning.”

Nick could see from her faraway gaze that she was
remembering something ghastly.  It was a fair guess that it involved the
fate of her sibling.

“I’m sorry,” he said, remembering the sight of James
dead on the kitchen floor.  “I’ve lost people, too.  I think a lot of
people have.  It’s all…very wrong.”

“She was always a bit of a mess, you know, my
sister.  Never could seem to get her life in order; always sponging off me
and wasting her life.  I always figured she would find her way eventually,
once she had grown up a little more.  Now she won’t ever get the chance.”

Nick nodded.  “Dave told me he picked someone up
from near the hospital.  Is your name Pauline?”

“Yes.  Pauline Ross.  Wish I could say it’s a
pleasure, but…well, you know?”

Nick nodded and tried to smile.  He knew how the
she was feeling.  While he had been running on adrenaline for the past
couple hours, too panicked to properly grieve his losses, this woman had been
sitting on this bus, alone with her grief.  The reality of the situation
was crushing her and Nick knew that once he took the time to slow down and
think, his grief would crush him also.

Just the thought of thinking about it is making me
afraid.

He looked around the bus at some of the other
passengers, trying not to dwell on things that could wait for later. 
There was a grimy-looking man in navy-blue work overalls at the rear of the
bus.  He had thick dreadlocks and was staring at the floor while picking
at callouses on his hands.  In front of him, a couple rows ahead, was a
teenaged boy in a bulbous, yellow jacket.  Like Eve, he was gazing out of
the window and watching the world whiz by. 

Lastly, there were two older ladies, sitting together in
the middle rows and nattering to one another as if they were on an ordinary
journey on an ordinary day.  Acting that way was probably their way of
staying calm; the stiff upper lip of the older generation.  Nick did not
blame them at all.

Better to fake sanity than to accept insanity.

The vibrations of the bus’s diesel engine started to
lull Nick into a restful daze.  Now that he was finally safe his entire
body began to throb.  His blood felt like crude oil in his veins, pooling
at his feet and making them swell.  Through the window, he watched the
countryside break apart as they passed by a small industrial estate.  The
various factories and workshops were all dormant, their workers not managing to
make it in today.

“Looks like things are going to get a tad rough up
ahead,” Dave shouted back from the front of the bus.  “Everybody hold on
to their arses.”

Nick got up from his seat and stumbled his way to the
front.  When he got there, Dave’s expression was impassive, staring dead
ahead.  Nick peered through the windscreen to see what was up ahead.

More car wrecks littered the road and there were
pedestrians everywhere.  There was a motorway service station, just off
the upcoming island, that was currently ablaze.  Nick could only assume
what had happened there.  An outbreak – of whatever was making people
crazy – must have occurred at the rest stop, and the weary travellers trying to
grab a quick burger or make use of the restrooms would have been taken by
surprise.  Those who had managed to flee had found their way back onto the
roads, which only caused cars to swerve and crash around them, or mow them down
completely.  The whole scene was a disaster-zone as the healthy fought
desperately against the sick and burning husks of automobiles continued to pile
up like twisted sculptures.

“Think we can make it through?” Nick asked Dave.

“I don’t know.  The motorway entrance is totally
blocked, but I might be able to stay on the island and get round onto the A
road.”

“Do your best.  If we get stalled then we won’t be
able to get moving again.  Those crazies will be all over us.”

Dave took a deep breath and held it.  He stamped
down on the accelerator, choosing speed over caution.  If any of the
people out there on the road managed to get caught up in the bus’s wheels they
would grind to a halt and have no escape.  Speed was their best option.

Dave steered to the right as a body flew out in front of
them, arms flailing in the air.  Nick could not tell if it was one of the
crazies or someone normal pleading to be picked up.  They couldn’t afford
to slow down and find out.

A woman clutched her bloody arm against her chest, up
ahead; it was missing a hand.  She screamed at the bus to help her as it
sped by, but there was no way to do anything for her.  Nick looked back
helplessly as a mob of crazy people engulfed her.

“Holy shit!” said Eve, who had silently joined them at
the front of the bus.  “They’re like packs of piranha.”

Dave steered the bus through a gap between an overturned
people carrier and a gold and black Mini Cooper.  They scraped against the
Mini and exchanged paintwork.  Nick figured it was the least of anybody’s
concerns right now.

The bus jolted as the tyres crunched over something and
swerved slightly.  Fortunately, Dave kept a tight grip on the steering
wheel and held them straight.

“What was that?” Nick asked.  “What did we run over?”

“You don’t want to know.”

They got halfway around the roundabout and the roads
seemed to clear a little.  Mangled bodies littered the verges, but there
was no one walking around there.  The car wrecks were also at a minimum.

“I think we’re through the worst of it,” said Nick.

“Yeah,” Eve agreed beside him.  She sounded
relieved.