Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (33 page)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Up ahead, the
Big Dog
restaurant came into view.  The flickering candle light shining through
the single un-barricaded window made it clear that somebody was inside.

Thank God.

I hope.

With nobody pursuing her, Annaliese allowed herself to slow
down and take it easier on her legs.  She felt like she was going to
collapse again at any moment.  As soon as she knew that she was safe, that
was exactly what she was going to do.

She hobbled up the steps to the restaurant and approached
the open window.  Peering in through the gap, she could see only the glare
of a half-dozen candles. 

Out of energy, and almost out of fight, she pushed herself
up onto the ledge and tumbled through the gap and onto the floor.  If
those inside were hostile then they would just have to finish her off, there
and then.  There was nothing else she could do but lie there and give in.

“Anna?  What the bloody hell’s happened to you?” 
It was Eve.  She hurried over and helped her up off the floor.  “Are
you okay?”

Annaliese shoved her away.  “Are you with them? 
Are you with Shawcross?”

Eve looked confused.  “What do you mean? 

“Shawcross, Alan, and…and some other guy.  They killed
Mike.  They’re trying to kill me.  Are you with them?”  Eve
stood there awkwardly, staring at her like she was mad.  But Annaliese was
not mad.  She lashed out and grabbed Eve by the throat, surprised by her
own ferocity.  “Are.  You.  Fucking.  With.  Them?”

Eve shook her head, frightened.  “No!  Hell,
no.  I don’t even know what you’re talking about.  Let me go.
 We’ll sort this out.” 

Annaliese sighed and let the girl go.

Eve went to rush off, but turned back around and smiled at
her reassuringly.  “You’re safe now, Anna.  Okay?”

Annaliese did not reply.  She slumped against the wall
and slid to floor, trying to catch her breath as Eve rushed off into the
shadows of the restaurant.  Moments later, the girl returned with Cassie
and Pauline in tow.  Cassie held out a drink to Annaliese, which she took
gratefully.

She swigged the lemonade down in one gulp and let out a
gasp.  “T-thanks.  I needed that.”

“So, what the flipping hell is going on?” Pauline asked her.

“Shawcross is a fucking psychopath, that’s what.  He
kidnapped me and Mike.  Now Mike is dead.”

Pauline put a hand to her mouth.  “No!”

Annaliese got back to her feet, her body feeling renewed
after only a short rest.  “Yes, and he’ll be coming after me any minute,
so I need to find out who is on his side and who is still fucking sane.”

“Well, I had nothing to do with it, Anna,” said Eve.

Pauline shook her head.  “Me either.”

They all looked at Cassie.  “What?” she said.  “I
didn’t know, either.  I swear.”

“Okay,” Annaliese said.  “So the only people I don’t
know about are Michelle and Jan.  Where are they?”

Blank faces. 

Eve shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I thought Michelle
was with Alan.”

“I think it’s safe to say that Michelle will be on whichever
side Alan is,” Pauline explained.  “They’ve been sticking together for
weeks.  He’s become a bit like a father to her.”

Annaliese sighed.  “Great.  That makes us
outnumbered, then.  Especially if Jan is with them.”

“I reckon he is,” said Eve.  “He’s been pretty close to
Shawcross these last few days – think he sees him as the boss.”

Annaliese slumped back against the wall and felt some of her
newfound energy slip away.  “Great.  Last thing we need is having to
go up against a hardened criminal the size of the
Hulk
.”  She
scratched the tip of her nose and suddenly thought of something.  “That
reminds me.  This new guy with Shawcross.  He was wearing prison
clothing.”

Cassie whimpered.  “W-was he black?”

Annaliese nodded.  “Yeah, so what?  Wait, do you
know him?”

Cassie nodded and became ghostly white against the shadows.

“No way,” said Eve.  “It can’t be
Dash
…can it?”

“Who the hell is Dash?”

“A degenerate we picked up along with Jan and Renee. 
We thought…well, we thought he was out of the picture.”

“Well, now he’s back in the picture, and he seems pretty
psychotic.”

Cassie whimpered again.

“You okay?” Annaliese asked her.

Cassie nodded.  “Dash just makes me nervous.”

Eve and Pauline placed an arm around the girl and tried to
comfort her.  Annaliese got the impression there were things they weren’t
telling her, but there was no time to demand answers at the moment.

“We need to arm up,” she said.  “Let’s get whatever we
can.”

“But we can’t fight them off,” said Cassie.  “There are
more of them than us, and they’re men.”

Annaliese spun around and scowled at Cassie.  “Mike was
a man.  These are just little boys trying to have all the toys.  They
may have the advantage, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie down and get
fucked.  They want to recreate
Lord of the Flies,
then let’s make
sure it’s one of them that ends up being
Piggie
.”

“I don’t know what that means,” said Cassie.

“Never mind.  Let’s just get ready.”

“I’ll go get some things to defend ourselves with,” said
Eve, rushing off into the dark corners of the restaurant.

“Okay, make sure mine is something long and sharp.  I need
something to shove up Shawcross’s arse.”

Pauline stepped up to Annaliese and looked her dead in the
eye.  The woman seemed anxious, but resolute at the same time.  “You
think we have any chance of holding them off on our own?”

Annaliese thought for a second and then gave Pauline a
smile.  An idea had just brewed in her head.  “We’re not going to be
doing it on our own.  We have reinforcements.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going to free Nick and Renee.  Nick didn’t kill
Dave.  It was Shawcross; he admitted it to me.  He must have had Dash
do it.”

“I knew it,” said Pauline.  “I knew Nick wouldn’t do
something like that.  Let’s get him out of that damn cellar.”

Annaliese nodded and marched across the restaurant. 
There was a door at the back of the bar which opened to the cellar
staircase.  She grabbed the brass handle and twisted. 

It was stuck.  Locked.

“Bollocks.  Does anybody know how to get this door
open?”

“Shawcross has the key,” Cassie said.  “It was in the
door when we arrived.”

Annaliese booted the door in its centre, and then again next
to its hinges.  It wasn’t going to give.  There were no weak points.

“We’ll never get it open in time,” said Pauline. 
“They’ll be here.”

Annaliese leant up against the door and sighed.  If
they had any chance at all of fighting back against Shawcross’s bloodthirsty
cabal, they needed Nick.  The other women trusted him.  They would
crumble without him.

She banged her fists against the door.  “Nick!” 
She banged harder.  “Nick, we need to get you out of there.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nick opened his eyes and sat up on
the floor.  He was hot and threw his itchy, woollen blanket to one side.

Renee was already up.  The man seemed hardly to ever
sleep.  He was standing over Nick patiently, as if he had been waiting for
him to awake.

“W-what’s going on?” Nick asked.  “Was that banging I
just heard?”

Renee nodded and motioned to the door at the top of the
stairs.  The man had gone back to not speaking after their brief
conversation, but he was surprisingly effective at communicating without words.

“Nick, can you hear me?”  Someone was shouting from
inside the restaurant.  It sounded like Annaliese.

He jumped to his feet and hurried to the foot of the
stairs.  “Anna, is that you?  What is it?  What’s wrong?”

“It’s Shawcross.  He’s lost the plot.  Mike is
dead and there’s some thug called Dash running around doing Shawcross’s dirty
work.  They set you up over Dave’s murder.”

Nick wondered if he’d just heard her correctly.  “Did
you say
Dash
?”

“Yes, Dash.  As in the third prisoner you picked up
with Jan and Renee.”

Nick looked around at Renee who was staring back at him with
wide eyes.  He obviously did not believe it either.  There was no way
Dash could be alive.  Not after the fall Nick had seen him take.

Nick climbed the stairs and stood outside the door. 
“Okay.  Open up and I’ll come help you.”

“We can’t.  Shawcross has the key.”

Nick grunted and punched his fist against the concrete wall
of the cellar.  The pain woke him up a little.  “Damn it!”

Renee came forward and placed a gentle hand on his
shoulder.  “Shawcross does not have the only key, my friend.”  From
within the pocket of his tracksuit, Renee pulled out a long brass key that was
attached to several others via a
Ripley Heights
key ring.  “Perhaps
he should have checked beneath the bar, too, no?”

Nick stared at Renee with disbelief.  “You mean you
could have let me out of here at any time?”

Renee tilted his head and wore a sagely expression. 
“Escaping your cell would not have restored the other’s trust in you. 
Escaping would have just made things worse for you, my friend.  I had this
key only for emergencies…such as this.”

Nick shook his head, still not understanding, but glad
anyway to have a way out.  He took the key from Renee and slotted it into
the lock, giving it a solid twist.  The lock clicked and the handle
released. 

God, I can’t wait to get some fresh air.

Annaliese wore a puzzled expression when he opened the door
to meet her.  “What?” she said.  “How did you?”

“It’s not important.”  He moved past her so that he was
fully away from the stuffy cellar which had been his prison for the past
several days.  Up ahead, he spotted Eve and immediately headed towards
her.

“Eve,” he said.  “I’ve missed you.”

To his surprise, she wrapped both arms around him and
squeezed him tightly.  She kissed him on the cheek.  “I’m so sorry,”
she said.  “I should have believed you.  Shawcross is responsible for
Dave’s death.  We should never have blamed you.”

Nick eased her away.  There wasn’t time for apologies,
or any need of them either.  “It’s okay,” he said.  “No harm
done.  Just promise to trust me from now on.”

“I promise.”

He cleared his throat and looked around.  He was
accompanied by Renee, Annaliese, Cassie, Eve, and Pauline.  A table in the
middle of the room was piled with makeshift weapons.  He picked up a
replica hunting rifle that had been cut loose from the laser shooting gallery
at the midway area.  It would make a good club and had also received the
modification of a nine-inch nail wedged into the barrel; an excellent bayonet
in tight circumstances.

Good thing one of the weapon stashes is here in the
restaurant.

The rest of the group armed up, too.  Then they all
stood in a loose huddle, staring at one another apprehensively.  Cassie
looked the most nervous and was clutching a sharp blade against her chest.

“So, just fill me in one last time,” said Nick. 
“Shawcross has Dash with him and they are going around killing people?”

“Alan is with them, too,” said Pauline.  “Maybe Jan and
Michelle as well.”

“Shawcross has this crazy idea,” Annaliese explained. 
“That the group’s chance of survival will be better if there are fewer of
us.  He’s found the park’s greenhouse facility and has stockpiled all of
our supplies there.  Apparently there is not enough to sustain us all.”

“So the crazy sonofabitch is trying to…
what?
 Cull us?  Jesus!”

Crunch!

The group turned towards the open window as the sound of
cracking glass and shattering plates came from outside.  Someone had
breached the minefield.

“They’re here,” said Annaliese, holding up the butcher’s
knife she clutched tightly in her hand.

“Everyone, keep quiet,” said Nick.  “And get down.”

The group took cover behind the bar and the various tables
lying around.  Then they waited.

Minutes passed.

Nothing.

Nick peered over the top of the bar and made eye contact
with Annaliese, who was perched behind an upturned table.  It was clear
from her expression that she was as tense as he was.

What are they doing out there, he asked himself. 
Why are they not trying to come inside?

They’re planning something.

Something came flying through the open window and thudded on
the floor.  Whatever it was rolled a few metres and then came to a stop in
the middle of the restaurant. 

It was a head.

But it was not human.

Annaliese moaned out loud as she looked down at the severed
head.  “Lily!  You bastards.”

Nick looked down at the orang-utan head and could not
believe it.  Was Shawcross really that twisted?

“We’ve killed your precious friend, Anna,” came Shawcross’s
nasally voice from outside.  “And if you don’t surrender now, we will
systematically kill every animal in the petting zoo.”

Annaliese shook her head and began crying.  Nick could
see that the threat would not work on her, would not make her give up, but it
was upsetting her a great deal.  It upset him, too.

“You’ll kill them anyway,” she shouted back.  “So don’t
take me for a fool.”

“That’s the last thing I take you for,” said
Shawcross.  “You’re a smart, rational person, so if you come out
peacefully, I will rethink things and let you live.”

“Whether I live or die is not your choice, Shawcross. 
You are not God.”

There was laughter from outside.  “No, you’re
right.  I am not God.  God is impotent.  God is idle.  God
is inaction.  I am better than Him.  I am ambition.  I am
leadership.  I am survival.  I am-”

“You are batshit crazy,” Nick shouted.  “That’s what
you are.  Nothing but a run-of-the-mill nutcase with delusions of grandeur
and a
messiah
complex.  You’re a fucking cliché, mate.”

“Ah, Nick.  Is that you?  I take it that our
darling, sweet Anna has released you from your penance?  Just another
transgression that she will later come to regret.”

He’s talking like a raving lunatic.  I must have
damaged his brain when I punched him.

“Just give this up, Shawcross,” Nick shouted over the
bar.  “You’re not hurting anybody else tonight.”

“I beg to differ.”

There was silence for a while.  Nick again made eye
contact with Annaliese as the two of them tried to figure out what was
happening outside.

I don’t like this.  We need to see what’s going on.

Eve moved away from her position by the soda fountain and
came and joined him at the bar.  “Do you smell that?” she said.

Nick could indeed smell it.  Petrol had begun pouring
through the open window, pooling on the wooden floor of the restaurant. 

Pauline and Cassie realised what was happening and looked at
Nick with fear in their eyes.

“Come out,” Shawcross demanded.  “Or I’ll burn you
out.”

“No,” said Nick.  “You won’t.”

“Do not test my resolve.”

“You won’t do it,” said Nick.  “Because if you do,
you’ll be as screwed as we are.”

“And why is that?” Shawcross shouted from outside.

  “Because you’ve seen as well as I have that fire
attracts
them. 
You set fire to this restaurant and you bring a
shitload of death up that hill.  The dead and infected would be up here
within the hour.  Not to mention the fact you could end up incinerating
the whole park.”

There was silence outside.  Nick knew that, of all
things, Shawcross was a careful man.  He was a planner above all
else.  He was not about to set fire to one of his biggest assets.

“I think you need to find a plan b,” said Nick.  “And
if it involves you coming anywhere near us, I’m going to kill you. 
Understood?”

“You’ll regret this, Nick.”

“Not before you do.”

There were sounds of discussion coming from outside, heated
and irritable.  It was obvious that they had been forced to rethink.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Eve asked him.

He shrugged.  “I don’t know, but we’re sitting ducks in
here.  Sooner or later they’ll come up with a plan to get us out, or kill
us where we stand.”

“What do you suggest?”

Nick thought about it for a moment.  “I think we should
leave here.  But on our terms, not theirs.”

Annaliese headed over and Cassie and Pauline took suit and followed
after her.  They all huddled behind the bar.

“What do you mean we should leave?” Annaliese said.
 “Aren’t we safe in here?”

“Yeah, for now.  But eventually they’ll come up with
something smarter.  All we’re doing at the moment is giving them time to
think.  I say we hit back now when they least expect it.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” said Pauline.  “I don’t like the
sound of that.”

“Me either,” said Cassie.

“And you’re right not to like the sound of it.  It’s
dangerous and could get us killed.  But what choice do we have?  They
put us in this position.  Are we going to let them win?  After
surviving for this long, after all that we’ve been through, are we really going
to let an arrogant pig like Shawcross determine out fate?”

“Hell fucking no,” said Eve.

“Maybe we should just surrender,” said Cassie.  “They
haven’t tried to hurt me or Pauline.  Eve might be safe as well.”

Nick shook his head.  “You can do whatever you want
Cassie.  No one is
forcing
you to do anything.  But Dash might
do if you join up with them.  Remember when Dash tried to force you to do
things that you didn’t want to do?”

Cassie’s eyes brimmed with tears in the candlelight. 
“That’s not fair.”

“No it’s not, and neither is you refusing to pick a
side.  It’s time for you to shit or get off the pot, Cassie.  You
have to pick a side, right now: go out and join them or stay here with
us.  Once you pick, though, that’s it.  No more playing it
safe.  This is about survival – not just about tonight, but for whatever
comes next.  It’s time to evolve, people.”

Cassie wavered for a moment, turning towards the window and
then back towards Nick.  Eventually she sighed, her shoulders dropping.
 “Okay, I’m with you guys.”

“Glad to have you,” said Nick.

“So how do we get out there without them seeing us?” Annaliese
asked.  “If we try to funnel out the window they’ll pick us off easy.”

Nick rubbed his forehead and formulated a plan
quickly.  “We deal with Shawcross the same way we dealt with those brain
dead zombies at the bottom of the hill,” he said.  “We distract him.”