As the Light Dies (84 page)

Dean, Gavin and Ann sat on the floor in a semi-circle facing David.

Sam sat off to their right with his head high and his ears standing tall. He was alert and ready for action. They ate cold smoked sausage straight out the pack. Apparently one of Davi
d’
s favourite snacks. Sam had his own small pile of sausage meat that was building up between his outstretched front legs as the others tossed some over for him.

After reluctantly following David inside, they found themselves in the Castle Street pawn shop, of which David was the owner. It was a shop that none of them had ever been in, but on occasion Dean and Gavin had both glanced in through the window as they passed. There was always a varied selection of items on show ranging from the usual video games and consuls, DVDs CDs and TVs, and on occasion ther
e’
d been an air rifle or a sling shot, and more than once ther
e’
d even been an imitation decorative sword or fantastically shaped dagger for hanging on the wall that more often than not, originally came from one of the tourist shops across town. These always caught Gavi
n’
s eye as he passed and he always told himself h
e’
d buy one one day, when he had the spare cash. So far, that day had
n’
t come.

Relations between the four of them had started off tense and uncomfortable, but as it turned out David was actually ok.

He was just extremely twitchy after suffering years of break-ins, and after all the violence and aggression h
e’
d witnessed over the last twenty four hours he was
n’
t taking any chances. The gun h
e’
d pointed at them was real. He shot clay pigeons with it at the weekends, but it was
n’
t loaded. It was for intimidation purposes only, and that together with his enormous muscular frame worked quite well.

After their initial meeting David had been totally blown away by what he saw through the peephole in his back door. He had
n’
t seen any infected yet. He told the others that maybe he had seen some, but just had
n’
t realised it.

“
Everyone looked like shadows out in the ash
,”
he said. But h
e’
d heard plenty of strange sounds. Unnatural sounds that he just could
n’
t place. And ther
e’
d been screaming, lots of screaming.

Thanks to the ground floor windows being bricked up, the horde of infected people in the backyard could
n’
t see them, nor could they make any lasting impression on the solid steel back door, so their attack eased.

After one too many break-ins David had bricked up all of the ground floor windows at the back of the shop and right now, they were all glad he had.

David watched through the peephole as his backyard filled up with horrible looking infected people. He could
n’
t believe his eyes, or his ears. The sounds h
e’
d been hearing from out in the dark and polluted snow, since he battened down the hatches were all coming from infected people.

Gradually the horde started to thin out, and some of them started climbing back out, and as the yard slowly cleared, five discoloured and badly gnarled up dogs emerged from within in the horde. They seemed to wander around aimlessly for a while, before suddenly going berserk.

Within a flash they scaled the end wall that gave on to Connel Court steps and they tore off out of sight snarling and barking that horrible gurgle like sound.

A few seconds later he heard screams. They all did.

They were high pitched and desperate!

The horde fell in to a frenzy behind them and quickly followed, climbing over each other and shoving each other out of the way to get over the wall. They sliced their arms and hands and thighs to shreds as they climbed over the jagged broken bottle top wall without a care.

The screams got Ann crying. She knew what it meant.

They all knew, and so did David but not fully. Not until he heard Gavi
n’
s story about Eddy, and then what had happened to Keith. But he knew from the pitch of the sound scratching its way across the surface of his eardrum that it was
n’
t good. He knew that somewhere out there, through the black snow and the choking ash, someone had been found by those infected freaks. Sniffed out by those terror dogs. The screams rose to an unimaginable pitch, ringing out louder that the crescendo of gurgles, and then they stopped dead.

Cut short!

Ann blurted out that she hated it as she covered her ears. But it was no good, she could still hear the horror
.“
Why is
n’
t anyone doing anything, why are
n’
t the army or someone here to help
?”
she sobbed
.“
I have to get home, I have to,
I’
ve got to get back to my boys
.
”

Dean put an arm around her and she buried her face in his shoulder and wept.

He nodded at the others, indicating for them to move away from the back of the shop and David led them through in to the main part of the shop. He told them that he did
n’
t want to get any of the ash from their clothing in to his apartment upstairs above the shop, just in case tha
t’
s what was spreading the infection: if tha
t’
s what it really was.

So they settled down on the floor in front of the till counter, amongst the vast array of items for sale. David gave them all something to drink. It seemed h
e’
d stocked up on a fair bit of Gatorade. And he put down some water for Sam using a replica WW2 soldie
r’
s helmet for a bowl. Then he dug out the smoked sausages and passed them around.

As they ate, and drank they felt relatively safe, at least for now.

Nothing was coming in through the back door, and the shutters were down out the front, covering the main window, giving them confidence that nothing was about to burst in on them from the street, and Dean hoped that at the very least it would slow any infected down long enough for them to get moving.

David went in to a bit of a daze after seeing the horde of infected in his back yard hammering and clawing at the thick steel door turning their hands in to bloody stumps without caring. Not slowing down, not giving up. Until they thought they had a better chance of hunting down someone else.

He struggled to get his head around it all: they all did.

“
I do
n’
t think ther
e’
s a rescue centre round at the Eastgate
,”
said David, coming out of his daze.

“
At least I have
n’
t heard of anything like that and I have
n’
t seen anyone making their way in that direction. I thought if anything that the rescue centre would be at the sports centre with the big halls and all that, but obviously not
.
”

Dean shook his head
.“I’
m afraid not. And if i
t’
s not the Eastgate then it must be at one of the schools. In which case w
e’
re outa luck, coz we ca
n’
t go around every school in town. W
e’
d be dead before we reached the second one with those things out there, tha
t’
s if we even made it that far
.
”

“
No! It wo
n’
t be a school
,”
said David.

Ann looked up at him
,“
Have you heard something
?
”

David shook his head sharply
.“
No, uh, what I mean is, I think Dea
n’
s right, I think w
e’
d have been told or something you know. Seeing as ther
e’
s so many schools around. It could be any of them. Like Dean said, people would have to try them one by one. Maybe it is at the Eastgate Centre, but I think I woulda seen people heading in that direction already.

Dean said
,“
Maybe the power died before they had chance to broadcast. Either way w
e’
ll be passing the Eastgate Centre so it wo
n’
t hurt us to check. We already know that i
t’
s not at the leisure centre and the next biggest place in town is the Eastgate. We gotta try even if tha
t’
s all we do, see if we can find any answers to any of this, and if not. Well then w
e’
ll just stick to our plan and take Ann home to Tim and her kids, and then w
e’
ll get to the A9 and head north, back home to mum and dad
.”
Dean gave Gavin a nod as he finished. Gavin nodded back.

“
Yo
u’
ve got it all figured out
,”
said David.

“
Have to
,”
said Dean
,“
ther
e’
s no second chances out there right now
.
”

As he finished the shutters banged against the windows making them all jump!

Sam was on his feet and halfway across the shop in a flash and Ann yelled out in reflex.

“Shit
!
What the fuck was that
?”
blurted David getting to his feet.

No-one answered. They waited in silence and listened. Sam was poised on three legs facing the front of the shop ready to pounce. They listened hard trying to hear over the wind and the sound of the dirty snow blasting against the glass shop front.

Sa
m’
s head jerked left. Ann stifled a gasp. They heard a shuffle!

It only lasted a split second but they all heard it.

Sam dropped his front leg h
e’
d been holding up and lifted the other without moving his head a single centimetre. It came again. A faint shuffle as a heavy foot was dragged through the black snow.

Ann was ready for it this time and held her nerve.

David started to speak
,“
Could be a dog out th...
.”
Dean raised a hand quickly indicating for him to be quiet. David closed his mouth feeling stupid, knowing he shoul
d’
ve known better. They waited. Listening and staring at the front of the shop waiting for the shutters to explode in to a frenzy of shakes and rattles any second.

Then there was a heavy thump from upstairs!

Everyone ducked down.

“SHIT!”
yelped Ann unable to stop herself, and Sam howled and bounced up on his hind legs, looking up at the swinging light in the centre of the dark ceiling.

“
What the hell
?”
said Gavin trying to look up at the ceiling and at the front of the shop at the same time. Glass shattered nearby so loud that Dean thought it was something in the room with them.

An infected reaching through the steel shutters
,
he thought. He snapped his head around and looked at the front of the shop. The glass was still intact.

Then the gurgles started! They were guttural and deep like a base drum.

“
Oh God
!”
said Ann as she backed up against the till.

Loud hysterical yelling erupted, filling their eardrums. It was coming right through the walls!

“
Holy shit
!”
said Dean as he searched all around taking up his meat cleaver as a high pitched brain- numbing scream rang out drowning out the yelling. It made Ann wince, and Sam whine.

It sounded like it was getting nearer. Coming towards them from somewhere!

Dean grabbed hold of Sam and pulled him snarling and barking to the back of the shop. Dean was desperate to keep their presence hidden for as long as he could, but the screaming was so loud!

Where the hell is it
,
he wondered. He had
n’
t a clue where it was coming from and yet it was still getting louder.

“
SHIT
!”
he cursed with frustration.

There was a bang and a clatter behind them! In the room with them!

They all spun around ready to fight and saw an open door swinging back from hitting against a display cabinet full of used wrist-watches. There was no sign of David.