As the Light Dies (42 page)

Steve knew it was no good, the lounge was off limits to them now; he turned around and saw the approaching mass of darkened hate!

“
W
e’
re outa time
,”
he said
.“C’
mon
,”
and he started down the open stairway to their right.

“
Where are we going
?”
Katie said as she practically jumped down the first flight of steps.

“
Anywhere but here
,”
he said.

“
Sounds ok to me
,”
said Ken starting the descent with them.

They ran down the stairs dropping as many steps at a time as possible while above them they heard the banging start.

“
The
y’
re trying to get in at Sandy
,”
said Ken almost stumbling.

Neither Steve nor Katie said anything they just concentrated on getting down the stairs as fast as they possibly could.

They reached the main deck and came out opposite the ROV control and maintenance area. Katie stopped dead and screamed!

Right across from them a woman lay draped through the broken window in an office door hanging from her waist with her blonde pony tail hanging in mid air and her lifeless hands lay palms up on the floor. Her back was fully exposed to them with what was left of her kaki green boiler suit hanging from either side torn straight down the middle exposing the torn and shredded flesh beneath. Little pieces of her littered the corridor. Ken put a hand to his mouth.

“
Oh my...
.”
he managed and then he vomited.

Steve reached out for Kati
e’
s shoulder, as she struggled to get herself under control.

“
Why did they do this, wha
t’
s wrong with them, wha
t’
s happened
?”
She pleaded
.“
This is
n’
t natural
.
”

Steve shook his head lost for words
.“
I do
n’
t know Katie
,”
he said as he looked around making sure they were still alone, they were, and for the moment at least no-one was following them.

Steve looked at the woman, he did
n’
t know the woman by name but h
e’
d said hi in passing, he knew that Katie had known her a little better h
e’
d seen them chatting from time to time. It was a terrible sight
.
This is really serious
,
he thought still trying to convince himself that what he was seeing was real. He thought of old Bill and wondered how h
e’
d ended up like that in Mic
k’
s lap. He hoped that it had been quick end for them, i
t’
s all he could do, although going by their wounds he doubted it very much.

Katie leaned back against the wall sobbing and Ken put an arm around her as Steve leaned in for a closer look at the woman and in to the office behind her. He had to hold back the urge to gag, the poor woman he thought, her entire back and from what he could see her hips as well along with her upper thighs were a mass of deep gouges, bite marks and even what he guessed were finger marks. Blood was absolutely everywhere, the office behind her was empty but had been turned upside down, and he worried that whoever did this might not be far away.

“
Ok guys
c’
mon w
e’
re far from safe yet
,”
said Steve. Ken nodded and then as quick as a flash he reached out and gripped Stev
e’
s arm tight and pulled
,
hard
!

Katie saw and realised what was happening and she yelped mid sob. Ken reached out to her and pushed her along the wall with his free hand as he pulled Steve with the other.

Steve glanced over his shoulder to see what Ken had seen and staring straight back at him with those dead lifeless black eyes was the woman. Sh
e’
d pushed herself up and was looking at them, watching them. Her skin was swollen and blotchy, her bottom lip was missing and one cheek was a mess of flapping tissue. A deep tear in her skin ran up from her mauled cheek passed her eye where her lower eye lid had been torn away and it tapered out over the bridge of her nose. It was hard to look at her. She reached out for them clutching wildly in mid air with gnawed hands and Steve saw that her veins running along her arms stretching back from her wrists were black. She opened her mouth and started croaking, her face twisted and contorted out of shape as if she was about to vomit. She coughed and croaked some more until the sounds gradually morphed into one forming a deep rumbling gurgle. Her throat worked erratically, moving up and down as it started to produce that feral sound and Steve noticed that her upper lip had turned black as she peeled it back in a snarl exposing lumpy black gums!

“
SHIT!”
said Steve
,“
what the fucking hell is this? With wounds like that she should be dead
!
”

“
We have to try and help her
,”
pleaded Katie.

“
I do
n’
t think we can
!”
said Steve.

The woman started bucking violently, trying to free herself from the window frame. She was agitated and almost seemed to screech that primitive call sh
e’
d developed. The three of them ran along the corridor putting some distance between themselves and the woman.

Ken and Steve dared to look back, Katie could
n’
t, she kept looking dead ahead further along the corridor, she refused to look back at Louise.

“
Thanks
,”
said Steve giving Ken a nod.

“
Not a problem
,”
he said.

“
I think were gonna have to get off the rig
,”
said Steve looking back at the mutilated woman thrashing and banging at the door trying to break free.

“
Thank fuck sh
e’
s stuc
k”
, said Ken...
.
”

“They’re our colleagues and they’re sick,”
blurted Katie and just as she finishing sayin
g
sic
k
, the door from the stairway pushed open.

Stev
e’
s eyes widened as the door opened. It opened slowly, almost cautiously. Steve hoped it was another survivor, if tha
t’
s what they were now. Then Mick came through!

He did
n’
t see them at first. He just stood in the doorway looking at the woman as she thrashed trying to get free. She looked at him almost knowingly.

“
She called him
,”
Ken whispered.

Steve nodded
.“
Back up
,”
he said and silently they started backing up, moving slowly trying not to draw any attention to themselves as Mick reached out with one of his huge shovel sized hands and grabbed hold of one of the woma
n’
s outstretched forearm and with one big tug he pulled her through the window tearing her stomach wide open on the glass shards that were still lodged in the window frame stabbing in to her abdomen. Her internals began slipping out of her before her body dropped to the floor in a heap on top of her own stomach. Katie was concentrating hard on the ground beside her feet, she could
n’
t bear it, and despite not looking, she still saw with her peripheral vision certain movements and actions, and she knew all too well what was happening. Without letting her arm go Mick placed his booted foot across her flesh-stripped back and climbed up on to her and stood between her shoulder blades.

“Jesus,”
whispered Steve under his breath and he and Ken heard her ribs start to pop under the strain. Mick still unaware of them grabbed a hold of her arm with both hands pulling it right round behind her and started pulling. He was using his whole body, pulling as hard as he could.

The woma
n’
s gurgle turned in to a morbid scream but somehow it sounded more out of frustration than anything else.

“
Why
?”
said Katie
,“
We have to do something, we have to help
.
”

“
I
t’
s almost like she is
n’
t one of them yet
!”
said Steve
.“
Sh
e’
s not infected enough or whatever the hell they are and h
e’
s treating her like he would us. We ca
n’
t help her, not now,
c’
mon le
t’
s g
o
”

“Can’t we even try?
”
pleaded Katie.

“
Wha
t’
s to save
?”
said Steve
,“
she was going to do to us what someone did to her
.
Is doing to her!”

Still backing up they turned around and picked up the pace. Katie was going against everything she knew. She was trained to help a fallen comrade at all costs, not turn around and walk away. She felt ill and faint, weak even which annoyed and unsettled her. She knew that out of everyone on the rig she was military trained and was supposed to be able to cope in any situation under extreme stress, but she was
n’
t, she could
n’
t it was all just so out of the ordinary and unbelievable, things like this were
n’
t supposed to happen outside of a horror movie, she just could
n’
t bring herself to accept what was going on.

Ken kept up with the others barely able to breathe, he was too scared to. Stev
e’
s mind swam with images and questions
.
Old Bill, the woman, big Mick. How that woman had still been alive, had old Bill still been alive as well? Was he infected as well? Is that even what this is, an infection
?
Then his thoughts turned to his family
.
How were they copin
g
he wondere
d
, would they even be able to cope? Is it even like this back on the mainland
?
Fearing for his family he reminded himself
,
Ruth’s got her head screwed on, she’ll have her wits about her, they’ll be ok. Ruth will make sur
e
of it, of course she will, she’s determined, she’s smart, she’s a fighter
.
He told himself the same thing over and over. He had to, because his emotions were close to taking over if he did
n’
t make himself believe that they were going to be ok.

They continued onwards without looking back, every step was a step further away from Mick and the woman regardless to what he was doing to her. The sounds were terrible, Mick was grunting and gurgling and she was making a horrible dry clicking sound, she was struggling.

A shiver passed through Steve, and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck making his shoulders twitch a little. He did
n’
t like having that thing behind them even though  it was busy tearing another one to bits.

One less to run from
,
he thought
.
Maybe they’ll all tear each other to bits in the end
!

He turned around instinctively and his eyes met dead on with Mic
k’
s.

Mick bared his dirty teeth and black gums in what looked like a horrific smile and he dribbled black fluid on to the back of the woma
n’
s neck as she slithered around under him and although Steve did
n’
t look directly at the woman
,
couldn’t bring himself to
,
he saw the mess she was in and thought it looked like Mick was trying to dig a hole right through her.

“RUN!”
is all Steve had to say and Mick opened his mouth unnaturally wide and bellowed his gurgle as loud as he could, loud enough for the whole rig to hear. On hearing Stev
e’
s yell Ke
n’
s whole body twitched and Kati
e’
s head twitched. Neither of them looked back, they did
n’
t need to, they just put their heads down and ran!