The Cure, стр. 28
‘We saw one on our way here. He killed our friend,’ said Logan.
‘It’s very hard to defeat an army of monsters who don’t care whether they live or die. We’ll try to pick them off one at a time, but if they all get through our extra manpower won’t have any advantage. They don’t need weapons. If they get close enough it’ll be like fighting a mountain lion. They know we’re in here and they have the hunger, so they won’t leave until they get what they want. We need to finish this now. Will you fight with us?’ said Samson.
‘Yes,’ said Tallulah who was stood with the group behind Samson wielding various weapons. ‘What do we do?’
‘Take up a place that is well covered and shoot anything that comes through that door when we open it. They don’t care about the dark and they have a strong sense of smell. When they come, they will come fast. Do not hesitate to put a bullet in them and do not think that they are human beings. They haven’t been human for a long time,’ said Samson.
The men at the gate started backing away and getting in a position to make contact, whilst the group scattered in pairs behind anything that served as a shield. Samson raised his hand and held it in the air for what seemed like ages, before dropping it. The gate clattered upwards and everything became a blur.
Logan watched what looked like a greyhound bound through the room on four legs and leap at one of the men headfirst. Before he knew it, the man was on the floor and the creatures face was covered in the man’s blood. Seconds later a bullet ripped through the air and into the creature. Logan felt real fear for the second time, since he heard his father condemn half the country to death and then watched his friend ripped to pieces.
Gunfire rang out as more of these creatures, some dressed and some half naked rushed through the entrance. Some looked like vampires from old films he had seen. Pale and with glistening teeth and claws, but there was no doubt that these animals were once human.
Tallulah didn’t know where to look. There was noise all around, whether it be the rat-a-tat of gunfire or the shrieks coming from the creatures. She held her gun tighter knowing she was the last line of defense and looked behind at the women and children huddled fifty yards behind her in the warehouse. It was absolute carnage and blood spilled across the warehouse floor as the men battled against these monstrosities, who had no issue with tearing strips of flesh from the men with their teeth. They looked like something from a horror film.
The fighting seemed to go on for ages until suddenly it was quiet again.
‘How many left?’ someone shouted.
‘Seven,’ came the reply.
The remaining creatures had got passed the first line of men and were hiding within the warehouse amongst the many tents and homes. Samson’s men and the group of boys turned towards where Tallulah and Faye were standing and shuffled quietly towards them guns pointed at potential hiding places. Suddenly another shriek and one of the things, a bag of skin and bones launched itself towards Chuck and pinned him to the floor. It shook for a while before Chuck rolled over revealing his machete sticking from the creature’s gut. ‘Whoa now. Too close for comfort,’ he said. ‘I make that six left.’
‘Arrrrrrrrgh,’ came the shout from Samson, as another Savage had jumped on his back and sunk its gnarly teeth into his shoulder. Samson swung around unable to reach it, his large arms flailing above his head. It grasped at his throat, as he managed to grab its head and wrestle it to the floor crushing its head into the ground. Blood oozed from his shoulder, but he dismissed it like it was nothing and held up his hand ‘five.’
Tallulah blinked as she watched something moving towards the families. It was stood upright and fully dressed and it took a double glance to realize it wasn’t one of the survivors. It looked almost normal, other than the dark piercing eyes, as it turned and smiled at her. More human than the others but somehow even scarier because of the fact it or he was closer to them in the scale of this messed up new world order. She walked towards him; her gun raised in front of her.
‘Tals, what are you doing?’ whispered Faye.
‘He’s going for the children,’ she said moving forward with pace.
As Faye stepped forward to put a hand on Tallulah’s shoulder to pull her back, two of the animals working as a pack took hold of Faye, one digging its claws into her abdomen and pulling her away into the shadows. Samson’s men shot towards the area Faye had been taken, before Logan’s voice was heard over the gunfire. ‘Stop. Let us go in there and find them,’ he pleaded.
Tallulah was in shock, but her attention came back to the one headed for the back of the warehouse. Tears rolled from her eyes thinking about Faye, but she wasn’t about to let anyone else get killed. By now the creature was circling the children and eyeing up the potentially most delicious and filling meal, drooling at the thought of it. Tallulah lifted her gun. She was a few feet away as it turned around and faced her.
She’d never seen anything close to what she was looking at now. A real-life monster who was looking straight through her and into her soul as if it knew every little secret and didn’t care who it told. Its eyes were sunken back and both eye sockets were black with dried blood around them.