Tabitha (48 page)

Tabitha
emerged from the shop and propped a three-foot axe against the outside wall.
The chunky steel head clunked on the pavement; reassuringly heavy. The edge
shone in the daylight. She walked out onto the street to find the monster resting
from its rage, eyes still
murked
in extinguisher
foam, sitting motionless on the road. Cold and trembling at the thought of what
was coming next, Tabitha took a couple of deep terrified breaths. She held the
paint tin tight; one hand on the plastic handle and the other cradling the
base. Her next footstep took all the will and conviction she had left. But she
only had to think about the tiny skins in the city square to make up her mind.
She walked on as quietly as she could, closer and closer to the thing, her
footsteps hidden away in the sound of the pouring rain. She closed in on the
monster from behind, pale and nervous. She couldn’t afford to miss; if she did
it was all over. The thing turned on her in a rage when she got close, but she
was ready. High on adrenaline Tabitha threw the tin of thick white emulsion
into its face and ducked its blind swipe. Throwing the paint tin down with a
clatter she sprinted back for the shop, grabbing up the bright yellow handle of
the axe as she ran. The monster pounded after her down the pavement, drawn to
the noise of her running footsteps. It was gaining fast, with all the hellish
momentum of a wrecking ball. As soon as Tabitha stopped running the monster
beat the pavement to shattered chunks where she’d stood. She emerged from the
shop doorway beside it and smashed the axe down into its head before she
escaped up the road. The thing roared like nothing she’d ever heard, filling
the dead street. Bright silver blood dribbled from its skull, mixing with the
blinding white paint all over its face.

‘So
you do bleed,’ she called to it down the street. With the axe still buried in
its head, the thing roared and charged blind towards the sound of her voice.
Tabitha leapt away from the old stone building behind her, and watched the
monster smash head-first into the limestone wall and collapse. With the thing
stunned for a moment Tabitha wrenched the axe out of its skull. With a yell she
brought it down hard onto its neck. It was a mistake; the blade deflected with
a jolt off thick armoured skin. The rumbling sound from the monster warned her
to get away. It spewed a glowing slop of molten steel in a scorching arc around
it, steaming on the wet road. Tabitha leapt away as drops of steel splashed her
leg; screaming and writhing as it burned through skin and bone. She scraped at
the burnt skin with her shaking hands, trying to claw the searing steel out
from her flesh. Yelling, she crawled and limped and staggered away. The monster
leapt back from the wall and brought its fists down into the road with an
earthquake tremor. Tabitha darted away as the thing hurled up another burst of
molten metal at her. In a slow-motion ballet she zig-
zagged
between cars and leapt over benches as the monster destroyed everything at her
heels. It followed the sound of her footsteps and charged after her, ploughing
through cars and bins like they were cardboard. Tabitha spotted an old side
alley off the high street and ran down it. It was narrow; too tight for the
monster to fit. Stomping into the alley after her, its shoulders smashed
through the brick walls on either side. It lost its momentum as it ploughed
through, swamped in fallen bricks, and suddenly it was stuck between the narrow
walls. Before it could turn its huge body to squeeze further down Tabitha came
running back towards it. It vomited down the alley at her, but she’d left some
distance. Its next spew was nothing but a glowing dribble from its giant
piranha jaws. And then… nothing. The thing was pinned. Its white eyes stared,
stark and murderous.

‘Are
you finished?’ she asked it breathlessly, waiting for the hurled liquid steel
to cool in the rainwater. Exhausted, the monster struggled and heaved against
the brickwork holding its arms. Leaping forwards Tabitha swung the axe into its
face, over and over, until the roaring head streamed silver. It tried to turn
its body and grab her. The thing roared and spat, spraying Tabitha’s coat with
hot metal. Yelling, she threw off her smouldering jacket. With a racket of
crumbling brick the monster wriggled an arm free from the wall. Tabitha swung
her axe at its reaching hand, but the skin was too thick. Suddenly it lurched
forward and gripped her arm with crushing metal fingers. The monster dragged
her out screaming from the narrow alley and threw her down into the pavement
with a crack. Ears ringing, head dribbling blood, Tabitha tried to crawl away
in a daze. She reached out limply for the axe on the road. The monster grabbed
her up again and opened its grinding jaws to push her inside. Tabitha wriggled
an arm free and pressed her thumb deep into its eye. It was hard, rubbery. But
at least it hurt. The monster dropped her with a snarl and clutched its face.
Before its hands could grab her again Tabitha ducked, staggered around it and
swung the axe deep into the back of its knee with a slicing crunch. She could
tell from the scream how much she’d hurt it. Silver blood streamed when she
wrenched the axe away. Dodging a swipe that blew apart the brick wall behind
her, Tabitha stepped in and drove the axe deep into the joint of its forearm.
The thing roared in pain and cratered the pavement with a fist as Tabitha leapt
away. Silver blood spurted heavy from its wounds, gushing and slapping on the
tarmac as the monster followed her. Watching it carefully, Tabitha stepped away
and kept her distance. Heavy feet and heaving animal breaths filled the silent
road as the monster limped and tried to reach for her. Seeing her chance,
Tabitha lifted her axe and sprinted back in to wound its forearm. With a sudden
staggering swing the monster struck her in the shoulder and sent her flying
across the street. The road spun below her. She lost her axe and landed hard on
the tarmac in an ugly tumbling scrape. The thing growled at her as she picked
herself back up; both of them limping and pouring silver blood. Tabitha
clutched the claw wounds in her shoulder and watched the creature staggering.
It was worth getting hit though, just to hurt it again. She left the monster to
bleed for a minute. It wasn’t healing like her.

‘Fight
me! Come on!’ she screamed, picking her axe up. At least the rain had stopped.
The monster was stumbling now as it came towards her. It pounced. She leapt
away. It staggered and ploughed into another wall behind her, shattering
windows and bending steel. It had to drag itself back up. Teeth clenched,
Tabitha swung the axe into the back of its wounded knee with everything she
had. The creature’s scream was deafening. She wrenched the axe out with a yell
and a bloody squelch, and swung it in again before the roaring monster grabbed
her hard around the waist. She squirmed and screamed as its grip crushed her.
She sunk the axe into its head, and the monster bellowed and threw her down on
the road. She crawled away gasping; it grabbed her leg. Dragged her back. She
spun and axed the joint in its forearm again; it snarled and dropped her.
Breathless, Tabitha crawled and staggered away as it punched the road into a
cracked crater. There was a moment of exhaustion between them; a staring
split-second reprieve. Dust-smudged and sweating, Tabitha swallowed hard with a
dry throat. The thing was growling like a landslide. She stood and faced it; it
charged at her. Adrenaline slowed the world down as the monster came in close.
Time crawled. Tabitha watched the creature swing in slow motion and hunched her
body, dipping her shoulders and arching her back. Feet pushing the pavement
away, she sprang out fast and feline and dived under its swiping claws. She
rolled and pushed up off the road behind it; airborne. Swinging the axe
two-handed she hacked off its forearm in a bloody burst of shining silver. She
surprised herself. The monster’s scream was music to her ears; violent poetry
as it staggered away. She stood staring, breathless, sprayed in silver blood as
the creature’s wound spurted. The monster roared; she yelled back. It slipped
in its own blood when it tried to lash out. Tabitha ducked in and punched the
bloody stump of its arm, and sent the monster reeling to the floor with the
pain. She dodged its slipping swipe and bit the axe down deep into the back of
its knee. It kicked out and grabbed for her, but she wasn’t there.

‘Behind
you.’ Tabitha took a hard lumberjack swing and took off its leg at the knee.
The monster screamed and crashed to the tarmac, and Tabitha stood ankle-deep in
a sloshing silver tide of blood. Adrenaline racing she leapt up onto its back
and hacked at its head, over and over, until the thing stopped struggling and
screaming. Breathless, gold eyes staring in shock, Tabitha staggered off the
dead monster’s back and inspected her cuts and bruises. The steel burns on her
leg were healing up; pushing beads of metal out from her skin. All around her,
silver blood pooled and ran down the reeking drains. Lying stark against the
silver road was the dead black brute, like some hellish fallen statue, its hot
skin steaming. Too late, Tabitha looked down and saw its white eyes still
staring. Its remaining arm shot out and gripped both her legs together. Tabitha
yelled and tried to pull away, struggling to balance. With half-dead slowness
the monster’s claws tightened and sank into her flesh. Tabitha screamed and
struggled. The hand held her still, but didn’t pull her closer. The monster had
stopped moving. Was it dead? Her axe swing glanced off its armoured hand in a
spray of sparks. Another swing and the axe slipped from her tired bloody grasp,
clattering out of reach on the road. She yelled and punched it, trying to climb
out from the fingers. The claws were deep in her flesh. She may as well have
been hitting a tank or a steam train for all the good it did. Then its arm
began to pull, dragging her closer with impossible slowness. Tabitha staggered
and fell to the road, screaming as it pulled her closer. There was little life
left in the monster’s brain; blood slopped and gushed from the alien’s head.
Its eyes flickered to grey and back to white, over and over, like faulty
lights. Its grip around her calves was inescapable; its movement snail-slow. It
dragged her towards its open bear-trap mouth slowly, inch by inch, like a
zombie. Its arm scratched and scudded on the silver-painted tarmac, dragging
Tabitha ever closer as she struggled. Panic filled her thoughts. She glimpsed
the grey sky above, the walls of shops all around her. She punched uselessly at
its arm, grasping desperately for the axe too far out of reach. She felt the
rough drag of the road on the back of her head. She was panicked, tired,
drained like a dead battery. Its mouth creaked open as it dragged her feet
towards its rows of teeth.

‘I
am
not
dying in slow motion!’ she yelled at it, punching its lifeless
head over and over. She tried desperately to pull her legs free from the
inevitable. She wrestled uselessly with alien fingers thicker than her
forearms, black and solid as cast iron. The still monster’s eyes flickered and
greyed, staring. It didn’t flinch when Tabitha clawed at them. Its teeth closed
glacier-slow around her boots, huge and cruel, piercing the soles. Tabitha
screamed as the teeth sank in amongst the skin and bones of her feet, so slowly,
with a cracking drawn-out crunch. She screamed louder than she ever knew she
could. She was passing out with the pain, feet gushing blood into alien jaws.
She hit desperately at its head, over and over; punching at the brain exposed
there and frantically digging her hand inside its skull. It was useless. She
screamed and smacked the road in agony and reached for the axe redundantly. But
still the teeth sank down, slower and slower. And then, they stopped. The
monster’s grey eyes flickered to black. The thing was finally dead. Tabitha sat
there in a shining silver pool, screaming, attached to the monster’s corpse.
The teeth were stuck halfway through her feet. Her blood gushed through her
boots, welled in the monster’s mouth, and dribbled out from its jaws to patter
down into the pool of alien blood. They both had the same blood; the same slick
silver. Pale and shaking, Tabitha struggled lethargically against the jaws. A
rush of shock came over her then, cold and sudden. Sickness filled her head;
her vision faded to black. When her head dropped back and hit the road hard,
she didn’t feel a thing.

It was dark when she
came around. A fresh shock of pain coursed up her legs, and she gasped at the
agony and remembered where she was. Her head hurt; her scalp was caked in
silver blood. The hulking black mass of the alien looked even darker than the
night around it. A full moon shone above, pouring ghostly white light down on
the high street where she lay stuck in her monstrous bear trap. Caught by a
vast black body in a silver pool. Tabitha wanted to throw up at the agony but
only dry-heaved, over and over. Feeling almost drunk on the pain, she propped
herself up on her hands. Looked over its clutching fingers at her trapped feet
between its teeth. She’d tried not to move her legs when she sat up, but she
couldn’t help it. She screamed afresh when her legs had twitched, and she felt
the grinding teeth and stabbing fingers scrape against her bones. Punching the
dead monster’s head in a rage did nothing but make her scream again with the
pain. She had to think. She had to figure out how to escape before anything
turned up here. One spider wasn’t much to her normally, but stuck here she
could meet a very slow death if one turned up and tried to tire her out. She tried
to open up the alien’s fingers and jaws with her hands, but it was no use. The
axe was just too far out of reach, and digging in the monster’s squelching
brain achieved nothing with any motor reflexes it might have had left. She felt
around its head and neck, searching for bolts, seams, joints or rivets;
anything she could use to dismantle its head from its body. But the metal
monster seemed completely organic, whatever the hell it was. She sighed
shallow; panicked and distraught. Was this it? Was this how she was supposed to
die, bleeding to death with her feet caught in a dead monster’s mouth? What
kind of superhero did
that
make her? She tried to breathe deeper.
Shallow shaking breaths in the moonlit dark.