After It Happened (Book 1): Survival Page 19

  He turned to whisper to Steve “Bleeding. Dragged. Boots left rubber marks” Steve bent to examine the same and offered no other explanation. He nodded, and Dan followed the tracks slowly with Ash stalking silently beside him. Deeper they went into the pitch black heart of the foul hospital.

  LET US PREY

  The patient had seen the woman walking carefully through the hospital. He followed her on bare feet, moving like a ghost. He was a hunter, and she was his prey. She carried a gun on her back, and had one in her hands which she pointed everywhere she looked.

  The demon told him that she was dangerous, but that he could not let her violate their temple of death. Take her, the voice urged, take her now.

  The patient picked up a heavy box by the handle, silently, carefully. He walked behind her as she opened cupboards and looked for things. She could not be allowed to desecrate this place any longer. He stepped out silently, and readied himself like a cat.

  The woman froze, and started to turn towards him raising her gun.

  He swung the heavy box, hitting her on the left temple at the same moment she saw him and her eyes went wide with fear.

  Yes, said the demon. Fear us, he shouted as she slumped to the floor and dropped her gun. The man stood there, breathing deeply with exultation at his prowess as a predator. He looked down on the woman, and marvelled at her youth and beauty. She was dressed as a warrior, but he had bested her easily.

  He took her gun, caressing it as a tool of power over others, before he took her by the wrists and dragged her limp body through his lair.

  He tied her to the walls using the wires and tubes, making intricate patterns as he built a shrine to her body. The demon told him what to do at every turn, purring his orders to the man and enjoying every second.

  She will be perfect for us, it said.

  He used the woman’s knife to cut away her clothing, inspecting each piece as he removed it until she hung slumped in her bindings, naked and dripping blood from her head onto the floor.

  He watched her until the light grew pale. When it started to get dark he lit candles taken from the chapel where he had torn the heavy wooden Cross from the wall. He holds now power here, warned the demon, only I.

  He inspected her thoroughly, feeling a desire he had not felt for as long as he could remember. Not yet, instructed the demon, she is mine to take and you will not touch her until I command.

  The patient made slow, almost lazy cuts along the top of her breasts, watching with fascination as the blood ran to form a small puddle next to the one made of the blood from her head. He watched in blissful anticipation as the drops formed on her nipple, holding his breath until it fell to the ground. He was so silent and intent that he could hear the drips falling.

  He was readying himself to take her, to consume her and make her part of him, when he heard an animal noise in the dark catacombs of the hospital.

  He took no chances, and moved to hide where he could still see his prize. He would kill whatever came for him, then take her.

  As they crept through the corridor, following the faint trail of what they feared and suspected was the path of one of their own.

  The dog made the first move, becoming the catalyst for a violent sequence of events.

  Ash’s hackles rose, and he let out an echoing growl of blood-curdling menace that gave the men goose bumps. Dan hissed at him to heel with no response. He moved forward a pace and put his hand on the dog’s back. He was rewarded by Ash’s response to turn and snap at him.

  He recoiled. He had never seen Ash so tense, so scared and so dangerous. He took a pace in front of the animal and repeated ‘no’ as loud as he dared. The dog did not back down, but at least he went silent. Dan could no longer trust Ash not to give away their position. He had to make a decision that he wasn’t happy with; to leave him there and go on without his capabilities.

  He told him to stay, in a hissed growl, and the dog reluctantly lowered himself to the ground without taking his eyes from him.

  Dan turned to Steve who watched intently. Fear showed on his face and he was certain he mirrored the same emotions. He could barely control his breathing, and wanted to give in to the panic. To run from the hospital. If he did, he was certain that they would not see Lexi alive again.

  They proceeded another twenty, thirty, forty metres along the mile-long corridor that seemed to be the spine of the building like it was a living organism. Steve held up a hand and sniffed the air. He whispered close to Dan’s ear, “Smoke. Candles”

  Dan removed his goggles and saw the faintest glow of light from a doorway ahead and to their right. Something or someone was there, and they would have walked right past it with their goggles on. He showed Steve what he intended with hand signals and the two began to stalk towards the doorway as silently as possible.

  They reached the doorway and pushed the goggles up to their heads. Both had been moving for over two hours now, all of that time under huge mental and physical pressure. The corridor past them was lit with a flickering yellow light. Using hand signals, he told Steve what he wanted to do. Steve nodded and went in first, low and slow with the carbine up at the ready. It took an eternity to reach the end of the corridor, and when they did neither could contain their pent up fear and rage any longer.

  Steve cried out “NO” and burst into the room where Lexi was tied naked to the wall in a sickening effigy of crucifixion. The left side of her face was a mask of dark and swollen skin, and blood ran freely from carvings on her chest. As Dan went to call a warning and pull him back, the patient struck.

  He slashed Steve deeply across the left forearm with Lexi’s knife, making him drop his weapon. The patient followed up with a vicious upswing of the pistol in his left hand, catching him under the chin and sprawling him backwards onto the cold floor.

  He seemed surprised to see Dan, but threw himself at him like a wild animal. The patient was filthy, and the stink of him was rank in his nostrils as he stepped back to avoid the attack. He was naked and matted with blood, but holding a razor sharp knife in one hand and a gun in the other.

  He was on Dan too fast for him to use the carbine, and he was forced to push it out in front of him to ward off the vile creature. The knife came low and lethal at him underneath his pathetic barrier, and caught him fully in the abdomen. The body armour was sufficient to stop the blade from disembowelling him, but the force of the impact drove the air from his lungs and hurt him.

  He had no time to recover from this before the knife came down from up high and slashed him from head to chin. He was blinded instantly by his own hot blood in his eyes, and he screamed in rage and terror as he hauled the disgusting beast off him and threw him to the side. Dan couldn’t see, and the sound of his pulse banging in his ears deafened him to the small sounds that could help him locate their attacker. He hit the floor hard, banging the back of his head and bringing bile to his throat immediately. He knew he was badly damaged.

  On instinct he used his sleeve to desperately try to wipe the blood away, but it was replaced instantly with more and his brain registered only a snapshot of his attacker preparing to fly at him again.

  He was sure he had failed; he had failed to train Lexi well enough to ensure her survival, he had failed to protect his newest recruit who had trusted him enough to come, he had failed to trust his most loyal friend, and he had failed to kill this beast who threatened the lives of them all.

  He felt sad and helpless, wondering at the point of all their suffering if the brutal nature of their futile struggle was to end them here in this stinking mausoleum.

  The resounding thud of bodily impact snapped him from his self-pitying reverie of submission.

  The noises which accompanied the thud told him that help had arrived and given them all a chance of survival. The sound of snarling and ripping flesh betrayed the ferocity and desperation of Ash’s attack. He heard the sound of wild man and dog rolling only feet away from him, and fought to clear the blood from his eyes. He tore desperat
ely at the matting mess on his face with his hands as the man fell on him again. Dirty fingers clawed at him, foul breath was in his face. He fought to roll on his side, reaching for the shotgun over his shoulder with his right hand. He was blinded and had never felt more desperate.

  A horribly loud and pained yelp told him that Ash was hurt; the cry of his dog cutting through to his very soul.

  He had to act now to use the time gifted to him by his loyal companion, or they were all dead. He rolled, pulling the ugly shotgun from its elasticated holster over his shoulder as he got to one knee. Flicking the safety catch by feel, he yelled “DOWN ASH!” waited a second, as long as he dared, and fired.

  Three deafening booms echoed around the dead hospital, interspersed with the metallic sounds on the pump-action replacing the chambered shells. He fired in an arc, left to right, in an upward direction praying to hit only the wild man. He could hear nothing but the high-pitched ringing of his shocked eardrums, then silence.

  EPILOGUE

  Dan lay there panting, light headed. He was barely conscious and terrified.

  He struggled back to his feet and tried to wipe the blood from his eyes again. He groped around, and found a rag of a hospital gown which he wrapped around his head and left eye. He sucked water from the bladder built into his vest and spat it into his hand to give him at least some vision out of his right eye.

  There was no sign of the man with whom they had fought and so nearly lost to. Blood was all over the floor and he could not tell who it belonged to. He staggered forwards to find Steve unconscious and bleeding heavily from a deep cut to his left forearm. He found another gown and tied it tight around the wound before going to Lexi.

  She was still alive, but her pulse was weak. He cut her down and wrapped her in a white blanket. He tried to lift her, but fell twice, weak from blood loss and pain. He eventually rolled both of them into another blanket he had laid on the floor, and dragged them together as he crawled to retrace their steps. He had to get help before he passed out as his injuries threatened the end for all of them.

  He called for his dog desperately, fearing the worst, but he did not come and Dan could not find him.

  After he made maybe thirty metres along the endless corridor before he lost consciousness, only to regain it with a gasp after he knew not how long.

  Seemingly for hours he laboured, dragging the inanimate forms of his two friends and crying with the pain and the fate of his absent dog.

  He eventually made it back to where they had all entered at different times, and could go no further. Light was beginning to show at the edge of the sky now, and he tried one last effort with what remained of his strength.

  He dragged himself through the smashed glass panel, getting cut again as he lacked the alertness to avoid the glass shards. He pulled himself towards Lexi’s vehicle as his peripheral vision began to fade.

  He hauled himself to the side step, then the door handle and tried the door. Barely able to believe his luck, he found the door open and tried to get inside where he grabbed the speaker mic of the CB radio.

  He keyed the press-to-talk, calling weakly for anyone who would be listening.

  “Help us” he gasped “hospital” and slumped into the footwell, finally unconscious for good.

  ~

  Very few of the group had believed Dan’s assertion that all was well, and it was no secret that he left not long after with Steve, both heavily armed. Loud disputes had gone on through the night, with Neil and Joe advocates of going after them with everything they had.

  Penny raised strong counter arguments, supported by the lefties and the pacifists and those in favour of a warm bed and a clear conscience through their blinkered views.

  Jack had remained mute throughout, carefully watching the CB radio for and twitch of life. For hours he sat as the arguments raged around him.

  Kate had prepared her ambulance for a rescue mission, and was arguing for action over inaction. Penny finally went too far by declaring, “He only has himself to blame if he has gone out and found trouble. He has a habit of doing so!”

  That was too much for Neil.

  “Do you think any of us would be here if not for him?” he turned and yelled at her, taught with anger

  Mike, more through personal experience and loyalty than his own beliefs, sided with Neil. “He has killed to keep us safe, and you would just abandon him?” he asked angrily, very conscious that he would be dead and his daughter brutalised if Dan and Lexi had not saved them.

  A shout from jack silenced them all.

  “QUIET” he roared, and turned back to the radio set.

  “Say again” he spoke into the mic. “Repeat. Dan are you there, friend?”

  Nothing.

  He turned to the group, still frozen in their stances of mid-argument.

  “I heard them. He said ‘Help. Hospital’ I’d have heard more but for your howling” he said, looking at Penny with obvious scorn.

  “I for one am going. Now. Who is with me?” he said as he nodded to Joe.

  Joe led the way in his Land Rover with Jack. Kate followed in the ambulance with Neil riding, quite literally, shotgun.

  They were at the hospital by day break, arriving in the biggest contrast to Dan and Steve, and what they saw made them fear the worst.

  Joe was out of the car and scanning wildly with his rifle, moving towards Dan. Kate nearly bowled him over to get to him first, checking his pupil response and shouting his name. He came round enough to speak.

  “Inside. Help the others” he said, before blacking out again.

  He slipped away into the dark, and knew nothing more.

  END OF BOOK ONE

  The story continues in AFTER IT HAPPENED BOOK TWO: HUMANITY

  Table of Contents

  NEIL

  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  Dan

  LAND ROVERS

  LEAH

  SHOPPING

  PENNY

  WOMEN AND CHILDREN

  MORE SHOPPING

  BAD PEOPLE

  GETTING ORGANISED

  NEW WORLD ORDER

  GETTING OUTSOLDIERED

  THE SOLITARY SENTRY

  BIG BOY TOYS

  THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE

  THE GRANGE

  RECRUITMENT DRIVE

  HOUSE MOVING

  NOBODY EXPECTS THE INQUISITION

  MAD MAX

  HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS

  CALM AFTER THE STORM

  NEW PLAN

  EVERYTHING MUST GO

  THE LEXI SHOW

  MOTION LOTION

  THE WAY OF THINGS

  OLD FASHIONED BOOKS

  SETTLING IN NICELY

  DEVELOPMENTS

  RETURN TRIP

  WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH ARSEHOLES

  EXPLAIN YOURSELF, MAN!

  COUNCIL OF ELDERS

  IT’S GOOD TO TALK

  READY FOR HIBERNATION

  THE DEMONS WE CARRY

  TAKE YOUR SHILLING, MAKE YOUR MARK

  LET US PREY

  EPILOGUE