The beast wanted them all.
The tendrils claimed other refugees, including the driver, and plucked them from the carriage. Neither the tendrils nor the people returned. The beast put its wet mouth to the hole in the roof. There was a gurgling, gagging noise. The fleshy, contracting maw widened until it covered the hole completely.
A clear fluid dripped from the mouth. The gagging sound grew louder. Something pale and wriggling appeared inside the mouth and then dropped into the aisle with a moist slap. The refugees stared at it as they retreated, screaming and shouting
“It’s like it’s just been born,” said Frank.
“Newborn,” Ralph said.
The pale thing – the newborn – was a collection of white pincer-limbs, a segmented abdomen and a glistening thorax of mottled flesh. About the size of a large dog. Its skin was wet and coated with creamy mucus dripping from its body. It unfolded itself from the carriage floor and opened its mouth, which was something that shouldn’t have existed beyond the pitch-black fathoms of the seas. Sharp mandibles and clicking jaws. It stood on multiple legs, wobbling like a baby giraffe, and cried out in a high pitched shrill that turned Frank’s insides to quivering jelly.
The newborn’s eyes were like white grapes upon fleshy stalks. A shadow of a dark pupil within each eye. The newborn turned towards a man to its right who was cowering in his seat. The man looked back at it, his eyes wide.
The creature let out another shrill cry.
The man screamed.
The newborn pounced on him, stabbing him with its pincers, making itself part of the man’s torso. The man spluttered blood from his mouth. The creature needled him, puncturing his internal organs and slicing him from groin to neck, ravaging his body. His insides fell out like a sloppy surprise.
Screams filled the carriage. The newborn separated itself from the dead man and dropped to the floor, skittering underneath the seats.
Frank looked back at the hole in the roof; into the beast’s mouth as it gurgled and gagged.
Ralph was trying to undo his jeans.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Frank asked.
Ralph ignored him, reached into his jeans and produced his flare gun.
Ralph checked the gun was loaded then crept down the aisle until he was beneath the large, wet mouth. His eyes went wide. He aimed the flare gun towards the mouth. His movements were calm and deliberate.
He pulled the trigger. A flash of red light and smoke.
The beast screamed. There was pain within the sound. The flare was fizzling inside the beast. A smell of burning.
Then the carriage was shaking.
“Shit!” cried Joel.
The windows imploded. Flying glass flew and found soft flesh, faces and eyes. Screams of agony. Frank slipped, fell down in the aisle. Ralph collapsed on top of him.
There was a terrible wrenching sound. The world quaked around them. A deep roar. A feeling of moving into the air. Weightlessness that seemed to last for hours. The carriage left the ground. Then a crash. Impact. A pain in Frank’s legs. His breath was stolen.
Metal and glass everywhere. Broken, screaming bodies.
By the time Frank came to his senses, he realised the carriage was upside down and he was lying on the ceiling.
Ralph was lying next to him, eyes open and unseeing.
Ralph wasn’t moving.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
There was screaming, crying and moaning. An unseen woman begged for help. The inside of the carriage was all grey light and bright splashes of blood. Broken windows and warped metal. Bodies lying at contorted angles. The world was askew. The hot smell of opened bodies.
The seats were hanging above Frank. Bags and belongings littered the ceiling.
Frank grabbed hold of Ralph’s arm, shaking him. “Ralph! Ralph!”
Ralph blinked. He groaned. He sat up and spat a tooth onto his chest.
“Are you okay?” Frank said.
“Yeah. I think.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. You pissed it off.”
Ralph offered a broken grin.
Florence crawled towards them.
“You okay?” Frank asked her.
She nodded, dazed but unhurt.
“Where’re Magnus and Joel?” asked Ralph.
“Over here.” Magnus was crouching over Joel, who was rubbing his head and moaning. Magnus’s forehead was cut, weeping a lazy trickle of blood. He wiped it away before it reached his eyes.
“Are you okay?” said Frank. “Is Joel okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Magnus.
“Same here,” said Joel.
“Where’s that little bastard creature?” said Ralph.
“Hopefully it’s dead,” said Magnus.
The large beast was still outside; Frank could hear its insect legs skittering upon the ground. There were screams from the direction of the track. He looked back towards the track. Their carriage had been thrown over twenty yards. The beast had upturned the rest of the train and was picking through the remains. One of its tendrils plucked a crying man from a torn carriage and sucked him into its gaping mouth. Hundreds of people were running in every direction, most of them taken down by the infected. Others were fighting back, protecting their families. A group of men and women had formed a circle around some children. They were quickly overwhelmed by the infected and then the children were screaming. Groups of refugees were fleeing down the track, away from the train. He saw a young boy pinned to the ground by an infected woman; her arms were glistening pincers that impaled him through the chest. Then she bent down and began to strip the meat from his face with her ragged hole of a mouth.
Shadows gathered outside the upturned carriage. Footfalls and mewling sounds and strangled wails. Infected people appeared at the shattered windows, reaching inside and dragging outside anybody at the edges of the carriage. One man was pulled outside by a sinewy, hollowed-eyed woman. She went to work with her teeth and hands. The man screamed until she removed his throat with her snapping mouth.
Other refugees climbed out of the train and ran.
“Stay away from the windows,” Ralph said.
“It won’t matter,” said Magnus. “They’ll get us.”
“We’re surrounded,” Joel muttered. “We’re trapped.”
Frank kept Florence close to him.
Ralph was searching around him. “Where’s the flare gun?”
“It’s gone,” said Frank.
“We’re fucked,” Magnus said.
“Shut up,” said Ralph. “Pull yourself together.”
Frank looked through the jagged window frame. He pointed towards the trees the infected had poured from earlier.
“Our only chance is to get to those trees.”
“What?” said Magnus. “The trees the infected came from?”
“Yeah.”
“Fucking hell.”
“I’m scared,” said Florence.
“I know,” said Frank. “We’ll be okay. You have to be brave.”
“If we’re going to leave,” said Ralph. “Then we should probably go now, before more infected arrive.”
Frank looked at Ralph and the others. “Ready?”
“No worries,” said Ralph.
Frank turned to the girl. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“Be brave.”
“Okay.”
They prepared themselves to leave the carriage. Magnus inhaled deeply then exhaled through his mouth. Ralph stared outside. Joel breathed through his nose. Frank held Florence’s hand.
Then Magnus was screaming.
Frank turned. The newborn was on Magnus’s back, one of its sharp limbs spearing his shoulder. The creature shrieked; its body was twisted and bleeding and most of its legs were broken. Its mouth opened, jaws connected by glistening strands of fluid, and it pulled its head back, ready to bite the back of Magnus’s neck.