Jack stared. He was having trouble comprehending what his eyes were seeing. It looked like a monster straight out of his worst nightmares.
The creature looked human enough. Or like something that had once been human. Its limbs had elongated, and where its feet and hands should have been, were claws. Large yellow eyes stared back at Jack. They blinked, as if the creature was deciding whether to attack him or finish off the woman. The monster glared at Jack and shrieked.
Jack’s heart hammered in his chest, sending a shot of adrenaline right through his body. He struggled to think straight. The creature crouched over the woman. Jack watched, dazed, as it plunged its head down and tore out the woman’s throat. Spurts of arterial blood coated the creature’s face, the plasma glowing a hellish red in the firelight. It turned its head towards Jack, as though it could see him watching, and it licked its strange, sucker-like lips. Then letting out a horrible screech, it returned to its meal.
Jack’s hands started to shake but he was unable to look away despite the horror.
The creature was reptilian-looking with blackish translucent skin. Where the mouth should have been was a weird sucker-like appendage filled with sharp teeth. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the image, but it was seared into his mind.
A cacophony of sounds echoed through his head. Shouts and screams. Engines starting. The swoosh of blood pumped through his ears. Frantic cries of terrified children. Children!
Snapping out of it, Jack looked back towards Flatcap’s car. Flatcap’s children were screaming.
Throwing his car into reverse, Jack screamed, “C’mon!”
But the crashing sound of glass breaking made him stop. Terrified screams pierced the night.
To his horror, three more of the creatures had appeared out of the smoke and chaos and were swarming all over Flatcap’s car. One of them reached in through the shattered windshield — that must have been the breaking glass he’d heard — and dragged the woman out by her hair. Before he could consider the consequences, he put his car into drive and barrelled towards the creature.
Jack sideswiped it, flinging it backwards several metres and smashing it into another vehicle. The creature shook its head groggily, glared at him, and let out a horrific shriek.
“Get in!” Jack yelled at the woman, all the time keeping his eyes on the monster.
She whimpered, but hauled herself up with steely determination and jumped into Jack’s car.
“Go! Go!” Jack shouted out the window at Flatcap. Two of the creatures were still on top of his car.
Flatcap managed to get his car moving and expertly spun the wheels despite the loose gravel on the shoulder of the road. Wrenching the car side to side, he came out of the melee, throwing the two monsters off and into the ditch in the process.
Flooring the accelerator again, Jack squealed back down the road.
I’ll find you, Dee. Just stay put. I’m coming, promise.
“Holy shit, what the hell was THAT?” Jack said, more to himself than to his passenger. A cold sweat enveloped him. Images of what he’d just witnessed flashed through his mind. He tried to calm himself.
Deep breaths, in, out, in, out, in out. Deep breaths…
Though Jack could see Flatcap’s car up ahead, he was struggling to keep up with his panicked driving. Both cars tore through the night. He focused on the red tail lights, following his driving lines.
“What the hell was that?”
He barely heard the quiet response. “Dante’s bloody inferno.”
Jack nodded his head in agreement. “Did you see its mouth?”
“Yeah.”
He looked over at his passenger. She had her hands in her lap. He could see by the way she leant away from him, curled against the back of her seat, that she wanted to be left alone with her thoughts. Staring out the windscreen, focussing on the road, Jack had time to think.
He just couldn’t make sense of it. What the hell were those things he’d just seen? Were they what people became if they caught this virus? That just didn’t make any kind of sense. Outside of science fiction, that is. Surely no one had managed to create a virus that turned people into monsters? Surely? He shook his head. He had so many questions, and no answers. He banged the steering wheel in anger.
Stay safe, Dee. I’m coming.
Jack looked down at his shaky, sweaty hands. He wiped them on his pants in turn, trying to dry them. He clenched them into fists to try to stop the shaking, gripping and regripping the steering wheel as he did so. His mind just kept replaying the horrifying creature tearing out the poor woman’s throat and lapping up her blood.
The car shuddered and swerved as it went over onto the gravel shoulder, threatening to skid out. Jack cringed, cursing at himself as he watched a road sign go under the front of the car. He took his foot off the accelerator and pulled the steering wheel hard down to the right. To his relief, he regained control of the car. The car bumped slightly as he returned to the tarmac. He shivered as a cold frisson enveloped him.
“Bloody hell! Sorry,” Jack apologised, glancing at his passenger.
Flatcap’s wife stared ahead into the darkness, oblivious. Jack looked back up the road at the disappearing tail lights. Get it together. He forced himself to refocus and follow them.
— 3 —
He had to survive. Jack had spent so many years alone, wishing for someone to share his life with. He didn’t want to lose it all now. Thinking of surviving reminded him of the stories his nana had told him about living through World War Two. About how everyone had carried on as normal. How they looked after each other, helped one another when needed. How they’d sung songs down in the bomb shelters, frightened, scared, listening as the Luftwaffe rained down terror and misery. She would be telling Jack to “Keep calm and carry on.”
Thinking about how his grandparents had survived the Blitz helped Jack to calm down. He reached out and turned on the stereo. Anything to try to distract him from the horror that he had just witnessed.
After thirty minutes, the two cars came up to an intersection. Flatcap pulled over, allowing Jack to pull alongside. His passenger jumped out before the car had stopped and ran over to her car. “Babies! Are you okay?” The kids clambered out of the car to hug her.
Jack waved to Flatcap. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I think so. Was that the virus?”
“I don’t know, man. I really don’t know.” Jack shook his head. “I was hoping you could tell me. I’ve been hiking in the mountains for the last three days.”
“There was shaky footage on the news and conflicting reports,” Flatcap said.
Jack nodded and checked his mirrors for any other cars.
So many thoughts were buzzing around in his head, he was having trouble concentrating. He just wanted to get home to Dee. A few hours ago he’d been happily enjoying the solitude of the wilderness, back before he read Dee’s message. He’d believed her, but seeing the creatures first hand had frightened the hell out of him.
He looked back at Flatcap and his family. “We’d better keep moving.”
Flatcap nodded in agreement. “Definitely. Which way from here?”
“Right for a few kilometres, then left for a bit. Just follow me. Lots of turns.”
“Sure. How far to Cambridge?”
“Half an hour or so.”
Flatcap grimaced and stuck his head out of his window and lowered his voice. “Thanks for your help back there.”
“No problem.”
Jack plotted the course in his head, thankful that his adventurous spirit had pushed him to explore all these back roads. The fact that he hated being stuck in traffic had added fuel to his passion for exploration. Everywhere he looked, the glow of fires in the direction of built-up areas lit up the night. Knowing what caused them made him hurry.