Untitled (13 page)

       "Where are we going anyway?" Peter asked as he climbed in and took a seat.

       "A small village called Westow," Harrison answered.

       "Great, I hope they have a pub."

       Harrison began to get that sinking feeling in his gut. 'W
hat am I doing?' he
thought, climbing in the front.

       Kaci strapped herself in and ran through one last series of checks. "I hope you all took your travel sickness pills," she laughed, the sound instantly drowned out as the engines roared into life.

       
'What am I doing?'

       As the helicopter left the ground he patted at his jacket, feeling the journal inside and hoping it would provide a solution.

       The first thing that crossed Chappell's mind as the van pulled up outside the site was that they'd turned up too late. He saw the front gate hanging wide open and cursed the ineptness of the security team. He'd paid for the best there was (albeit with the investors money)and he expected to get what he'd paid for. Heads where going to roll if his orders had been ignored.

       Chappell was out of the van before it had even stopped moving, leaping from the vehicle and running through the gate before the others had a chance to realise anything might be wrong.

       "He's fucking losing it," Sean Parker said, puffing on a half smoked cigarette.

       "Losing?" Sue disagreed. "You mean lost."

       "You're right," Colin added. "He hasn't been right for weeks."

       One by one they climbed out of the van and followed Chappell, leaving the doors open in their hurry to catch him. Kenneth was the first through the gate and he slid to a stop, holding up a hand to halt the others. His reaction was too late and Carol passed him. She was the first to scream, a quick outburst cut off as her legs gave way and she collapsed.

"Fucking hell," Darren gagged.

       "Sue, keep an eye on Carol," Sean ordered, shocked by the scene of carnage that littered the courtyard, yet realising he had to keep his head. "The rest better come with me." The warble in his voice gave away his nervousness. "We gotta find Chappell."

       "You don't think he did this?" Kenneth asked, prodding at the shredded security uniform with his boot. "He couldn't have done. He didn't have time."

       "Was you with him all night?" Sean yelled at Kenneth.

       "No, but it can't have been Chappell."

       "Just as much reason to find him." Sean was growing irritated. "If some one else is here we need to leave."

       Sean started crossing the courtyard, following the dark trail of blood across the mud caked ground and shouting Chappell's name. Darren and Kenneth followed. Colin remained with Sue, but he hadn't stayed to help with Carol. He backed up against the wall and began to shake uncontrollably, his one and only phobia forcing his mind to retreat to somewhere safe.

       "Colin, help me roll her over." Sue struggled with Carol's size eighteen body.

       "So much blood," Colin blubbered in the corner. "Too much." He began to cry like a child lost in the woods.

       "Fucking typical," Sue cursed, managing to roll Carol into a preferable position.

Sue's only knowledge of first aid was from TV programmes and she watched very little of them and was thankful to discover that Carol was breathing, a hog-like snoring. At least she was alive.

       "She looks tasty." Sue heard the rasping statement and looked up from her unconscious friend.

       The courtyard was empty and Sue looked around for the source of the unnerving voice, her pulse racing as a new fear settled in her stomach.

       "Nice and plump," came a second voice, similar yet more masculine than the first.

       "Colin?" Sue turned and screamed.

       One second Colin was stood shaking like a leaf and the next a taloned hand-like claw had reached down from above and engulfed the archaeologists head. Colin didn't have time to struggle, before the hand squeezed his cranium like it was a ripe pumpkin, but it wasn't seeds that sprayed over Sue's face.

       Colin's head exploded between the beastly fingers, a high pressure release of grey brain, thick red blood and bone splinters. The scream died in Sue's throat as she choked on the fluid that covered her. Insanity took over and she spun around only to collide with another nightmare.

       "Hello Sue," snarled the creature that had once been known as Blondie. "Care to join us for breakfast?" Sue looked up into the things empty eye sockets and her world turned black.

* * *

"Chappell!" Sean shouted, the sound echoing down the tunnel. "Where are you?" His second shout reverberated off the walls, flowing into the first in an off kilter distortion of his true voice.

       Darren and Kenneth followed close behind, the basement area of the cathedral wasn't the most pleasant of places at the best of times, but add the scenes of slaughter that had led them here and it became a subterranean nightmare.

       "I say fuck Chappell." Kenneth kept his voice low, his echo doing nothing for his already shot nerves. "Let's get back to the van and call for the police."

       "You wanna go back?" Sean faced him. "Then go, but I'm not leaving without Chappell."

       "Suit yourselves." Kenneth pushed out his chest then reconsidered leaving through the tunnels on his own. "Just make it quick."

       Sean grinned, pleased at his small triumph over Kenneth. He didn't like the man anyway. He couldn't stand the prim and proper way that Kenneth did everything. From the straightness of his parting to the stupid fucking dickey bow he always wore; all aspects of Kenneth's mannerisms wound Sean up into a furore he couldn't explain. Hopefully Kenneth would keep his fucking mouth shut until they located Chappell.

       Darren wanted to leave too, his eyes darting all over the place, wary of every shadow and what it might hold. His stomach was a knot of pure terror. He wanted to agree with Kenneth, wanted to turn and run, but Sean was his closest friend and he wouldn't leave him alone down here.

They kept moving until they reached the pile of broken rubble left from the demolition of the stone slab only twelve hours previously.

       "He wouldn't have entered the chamber," stammered Kenneth. "He knows the dangers better than any of us."

       "Yeah, but over the last few weeks he's been obsessed with finding the fucking thing," Sean retaliated.

       "Sean's right," Darren added. "I mean, Jesus, he was out of order having us destroy the slab."

       "I'm not arguing with that," Kenneth blubbered. "All I'm saying…"

       "What?" Sean pushed.

       "I don't know." Kenneth shook his head, raising his torch and shining it over the heap of debris.

       "Se
an?"
the call came from behind them, a sing song tease.

       "Sue?" Sean shouted back. "I told you to stay with Carol and Colin." He shone his torch back along the tunnel but the light revealed nothing.

       "It's OK," came Sue's reply, her voice warbling as if bubbling through a viscous liquid. "They're all with me."

       "I can't see them." Kenneth was shivering from head to toe, every muscle suffering spasms of fear.

       "We're coming now," Carol's voice joined Sue's in a slavering duet. "And we're sooooo hungry." More voices joined the chorus, the sound deafening within the close quarters of the tunnel.

"Why can't we see them?" Kenneth howled.

       "Look up, dreary," Carol answered, dropping from the ceiling and landing on all fours in front of Kenneth.

       "Carol?" Kenneth asked, knowing that the thing crouched before him couldn't possibly be the woman he'd known for so long.

       The Carol thing looked up at Kenneth and grinned, a smile of sharp teeth that spread from ear to ear. Kenneth whimpered as his spleen gave way, hot urine staining the crotch of his corduroy trousers. The Carol thing flicked out a reptilianlike tongue and licked at the wet fabric.