Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (18 page)

Impossible
.

“We need to get out of here,” she said.  “We need to get
every Doctor and Scientist in the country out here working this thing
out.  Whatever is happening must have some explanation.”

Shawcross stared at her.  “We can’t leave. 
There’s no way.”

“What?  Of course there is.  There’s a door marked
fire escape over there.”

“It’s locked.  I know it shouldn’t be, but I don’t like
the thought of leaving the kitchen unsecured during the night, so I always lock
it once the cooks go home.”

She shook her head and cursed.  “Great idea.  So
how on earth do we get out of this bloody kitchen?”

Shawcross looked over his shoulder towards the other end of
the kitchen.  “The only way out,” he said, “is to go back through the
house.”

Before Annaliese had time to reply, a scream echoed through
the kitchen.

Chapter Fourteen

The screams came from Kimberly, the
woman who had let Annaliese inside the kitchen.  The woman’s misty blue
eyes were now stretched wide as she fought desperately with Bradley.  He
had her up against the wall and was fighting to get at her with his chomping teeth. 
Slobber fell from his mouth and plastered his chin.  His eyes were
bleeding.

Shawcross was right.  Bradley is one of them. 

No one in the room was helping Kimberly.  They all
stood back, frozen in fear.

Annaliese ran over and shouted at Bradley to stop, but it
was no good.  He wasn’t listening anymore, and Kimberly was
weakening.  She needed help.

But it was too late.

Bradley slipped free of Kimberly’s grasp, swatting aside her
arms with ease.  Like a starving animal, he sunk his teeth into her windpipe,
cutting dead her screams and reducing them to a pained gargle.  A gout of
blood expelled from between her lips and her eyes flickered, as if trying to
comprehend what they were seeing.  The others still stood by and did
nothing.

Why is nobody helping her?

“I told you,” Shawcross shouted.  “I told you this
would happen, but you wouldn’t listen.”

Annaliese fought against a growing lump in her throat.
 She spluttered as she spoke.  “I-I’m sorry.”

Shawcross still held the meat tenderiser in his hand.
 He rushed up to Bradley with it raised over his head.  He swung the
wooden mallet in a wild arc.

The first blow opened a wide divot in Bradley’s skull, but
it didn’t stop him from chewing on Kimberly’s neck.  The second blow
dropped him like a switch had been flipped in his brain.  His legs folded
and he hit the floor in a crumpled heap.

Kimberly looked at Shawcross like he was her saviour. 
She even managed to smile amid the thick, dark blood that spilled from between
her lips.  Shawcross smiled back at her, almost pityingly.

Then he smashed the mallet into the side of her skull,
cracking open her temple and sending her to the floor.

Annaliese threw up on the tiles.  The sight of
Shawcross bludgeoning Bradley, and then that innocent woman to death was the
final straw.  She should have been shocked, but somehow she knew he was
just doing what was necessary.  Kimberly had been infected the moment
Bradley had bitten her.  There was no place for mercy.  If Annaliese
had understood that earlier, perhaps Kimberly would still be alive.

“S-she let me inside,” Annaliese spluttered.  “She
saved me and now she’s dead.”

Shawcross stared at her with bulging eyes.  Blood
spattered his face and streaked his ginger hair.  With the mallet in his
hand he looked like some kind of Scandinavian berserker.  “I told you this
would happen, but I let you have your own way.  I should have dealt with
Bradley the moment you brought him in.  A woman is now dead because of my
mistake.”

Annaliese shook her head.  “This wasn’t your fault.”

“No,” he said, thrusting the bloody meat tenderiser in her
face.  “You’re right.  It’s
your
fault.”

Annaliese looked down at Kimberly and Bradley.  Was it
really her fault that this had happened?  Was a kindly, courageous woman
dead because of her?

“I want to get out of here,” somebody said.  “I’m going
to lose my mind if I don’t get some air.”

Annaliese took a deep breath through her nose and noticed a
cloying odour hanging in the air.  She didn’t know how she had missed the
smell to begin with, but it was unmistakable.  It was the stench of death.

Shawcross was still irate.  The others in the room kept
their distance as he raged and gesticulated angrily.  “We can’t leave,” he
said.  “Those things are out there.  As soon as we step foot outside
they’ll be on us like a pack of bloody hyenas.”

“But we can’t stay in here forever,” someone said.

“I’m leaving,” said somebody else.

Shawcross huffed.  “You’d rather die a horrible death
than stay here a while until help arrives?”

Annaliese thought about the call to emergency services that
Shawcross had made hours ago, and how help was still yet to arrive.  She
didn’t like any plan that involved waiting around to be rescued because she
wasn’t sure any help was coming.  They needed a better plan. 

“How about causing a distraction?” she said.

Shawcross glared at her irritably, but his silence suggested
he was willing to listen to suggestions. 

“Those things seem to operate on sight and sound more than
anything else.  Maybe if we could lead them away from this part of the
house, we could all sneak out without them seeing us.”

Shawcross shrugged.  “And go where?  You said you
were attacked in the gardens, so those things have obviously gotten outside,
too.”

Annaliese shrugged.  “I only saw one.  I think the
park and zoo would be a safe place to go.  We could even make a break for
our cars.”

“Well, none of that makes any sense without a plan to get us
there.  How on earth do we distract them?”

Annaliese stared down at Kimberly’s dead body.  Then
she looked at the frightened faces of the various strangers in the
kitchen.  “I’ll go out,” she said.  “I’ll try and lead them away so
the rest of you can escape.”

Shawcross frowned at her, but a slight twitch at the corner
of his mouth suggested that he might actually be impressed by her
suggestion.  “That’s insane,” he said.  “They’ll rip you apart.”

“Maybe.  But these things have chased me once
already.  They’re fast, yes, but they’re also clumsy.  If I know
exactly where I’m going, I think I can stay ahead of them.”

“That’s all very well, but what do you do once you’ve led
them away?  You can’t run forever.  Eventually you’ll have to shake
them off.”

Annaliese thought for a moment before offering a
suggestion.  “Can’t I slip inside one of the bedrooms and lock the door
behind me?  I could climb through a window and re-join you all outside.”

“You’ll never make it,” Shawcross said.  “Besides, I
don’t have my keys.  I was cashing-up the bar when the first attacks
happened.  My keys are still in the till.”

“I have my room card,” said a young guy over by the room’s
industrial ovens.  He had a bloody handprint on his light blue shirt but
seemed in good shape otherwise.  She put his age at about thirty by the
style of his gelled black hair.  “You can take it to get into my room.”

Annaliese took the card from the man and thanked him. 
“What number is your room?”

“Seven.  It’s just up the stairs on the right. 
It’s not far.”

“Great.  I’m sure I’ll be able to get there, no
problems.

“You really want to do this?” Shawcross asked her.

She nodded.  “A woman is dead because of me. 
Least I can do is try and get you people out of here.”

“Then, you should take a weapon.”  He offered her the
bloody meat tenderiser.  

She waved it away.  “It’ll just slow me down.
 Plus, I still think these people are just sick.  I’m not about to
bash somebody’s skull in unless there’s no other choice.”

“Sometimes there isn’t,” he said.

“Wait,” said the young man whose key card she had
taken.  “How will we know when the coast is clear?”

“You won’t,” she said.  “Just come out five minutes
after I leave and pray that they’ve all followed me.”

“The first sign of danger and we will return back here,”
said Shawcross.  “If everything is all clear, then we head out the front
doors and regroup at the zoo.  Hopefully Annaliese is correct when she
says it’s safe out there.”

“It is,” she reconfirmed.  “Like I said, there was just
the man who attacked Bradley.  I didn’t see anybody else.”

“Just be careful,” said the guy from room seven.

Annaliese smiled at him.  “Thanks.  What’s your
name?”

“Mike.”

“Good to meet you, Mike.  I’m Anna.  I’ll see you
outside, okay?  Anything you want from your room?”

“There
is
actually.  My wallet is on the bedside
table.  It would mean a lot to me if you could get it for me.”

Annaliese was confused, but shrugged in agreement. 
“Okay.  I don’t think there’s going to be much need for your credit cards,
but I’ll grab it if I see it.” 

“Shall we get this over with?” Shawcross asked.  He was
standing next to the barricaded exit, leaning close to the doors and
listening.  “I think they’ve wandered off.  I can’t hear them
anymore, but who knows when they will wander back.”

Annaliese rubbed at her eyes and blinked.  “Okay, I’m
ready.  I’ve had three hours sleep in the last thirty-six hours and I’m
stuck in a low-budget horror movie, but I’m ready.”

Shawcross started sliding the fridge away from the doors,
shuffling it a little bit at a time so as not to make a noise.  Mike went
and lent a hand and the two of them eventually moved it out of the way. 
They slid away a heavy table and flipped the latch on the door.

Shawcross looked at Annaliese.  “You ready? 
Things get too dangerous, you come right back here and we’ll think of another
way.”

“There
is
no other way,” she said.  “We don’t
know when help will get here or how long we can stay safe inside this
kitchen.  We have to get outside.”

Shawcross opened the door a crack and peered through the
gap.  “It seems all clear,” he whispered.  “I think that when they
lose sight of people they wander off and disperse.  Then, if they find
someone again, they screech.  It’s almost like a rolling net. 
Spreading out till they find someone and then closing in when they do.  At
least for now the coast is clear.”

“They’re still out there somewhere, though,” said
Mike.  “So be alert.”

“Will do,” she said.  Then she slipped through the
kitchen doors and was in the dining room again.  Blood still caked
everything and the smell had become a sharp metallic haze in the air. 
Bloody streaks and dirty handprints covered the back of the kitchen’s doors
where the mob had previously been battering to get inside.

But they’ve gone now.  Where?

Annaliese bent her knees and kept low.  It was an
instinctual movement and she instantly felt less exposed as she ducked down
beside the room’s large mahogany table.

While she could not see anybody else in the dining room, her
ears picked up the slightest sound of movement.  It would not quite
register what it was exactly, but it was regular, almost rhythmic.

She crept onwards, heading for the foyer, her wellington
boots sticking to the tacky bloodstains on the stone floor as she moved. 
As a vet, she was no stranger to blood, but so much of it, and spilled so
unceremoniously, was a little hard to handle.  She had to take deep breaths
in order to keep her stomach and bladder under control.

As she crossed the dining room, staying close to the table,
the mysterious rhythmic sound became louder.  Either that or she was
closer to the source.

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap.

Annaliese rounded the corner of the table and stepped out
into the open.  There was an overturned chair in front of her, but it was
too small to provide cover.  She would have to just hope and pray that
none of the sick people were in a position to see her.

Tap, tap
.

The noise seemed to be coming from her right, over in the
far corner of the dining room.  As she looked over, she saw movement
amongst the overturned furniture.  She couldn’t help herself but take a
couple of steps closer.  Her curiosity demanded to know more. 

Tap, tap.

She took a moment to check behind her as she took another
step.  The last thing she needed was to be jumped from behind.  When
she turned back around, she finally spotted the source of the noise.  It
was a sight she wished she could un-see. 

She put a hand to her mouth and felt her eyes water. 
“My God.”

Ten feet away, lying amongst a pile of broken chairs was an
infected person.  It was one of the slower ones –
one of the dead ones?
 It was lying on its back.  Perhaps a male, but it was hard to know
for sure.  His face was a half-eaten mess, only the chomping jaws still
left intact.  The tapping sound was coming from the man’s thrashing
legs.  They had been stripped clean of flesh from above the knees
downwards.  The exposed bones of the foot and ankle were clicking against
the stone floor as the decimated figure tried to move.  With each attempt
to get up, his withered legs folded uselessly beneath him.

Tap, tap.

Tap.

The torn-apart man finally spotted Annaliese and let out a pained
moan in her direction.  It was almost like a plea for help, but she knew
what would happen if she got too close.  The body dragged and clawed
itself across the floor, trying to get at her, but its progress was
snail-like.  As long as Annaliese kept moving, the body would pose no
risk.

She crept onwards, trying to shake the disturbing images
from her mind.  The doorway to the reception hall was just up ahead. 
She could see the front doors of the foyer that led outside to the
grounds.  A voice in her mind urged her to just make a break for it; get
outside on her own and run for help.  But then she remembered that the
others would be coming out in five minutes.  They were counting on her to
clear the way.

I have to do this.

Okay, here goes nothing.

Annaliese straightened up and stepped out into the
foyer.  She prayed with every ounce of her spirit that the space would be
empty, just like it had been when she’d first entered with Bradley.

That was not the case, though.

When she stepped into the reception area, there were at
least a dozen infected people staring directly at her.  All as one, they
let out a scream.

And then they came for her.