Autumn: Disintegration (31 page)

“We’ve also got the plane and helicopter to think about,” Harte continued, subdued. “I think Jas is right, and if they are evacuating from somewhere like he says, then they’ll probably be done soon. The fact they flew over so many times today makes me think they must be close to being done now. We need to get them to see us.”

“But we can’t risk giving away our location.” Martin sighed. “We’ve already been through this. That might be all it takes to tip the bodies over the edge.”

“Well, we might just have to take that risk,” Hollis said.

“We can’t.”

“We might have to.”

“But—”

“He’s right,” Harte said. “We could torch this whole fucking place if we had to. Imagine that … there’s the distraction you need. Every single one of those fucking things outside would drag their sorry backsides straight over here. We could just walk away.”

“No, that’d be suicidal. No way.”

“I’m not suggesting we do it, but it’s an option.”

“It’s a stupid option,” Martin protested, his voice getting louder.

“Let’s wait until morning,” said Hollis. “We can’t make any decisions tonight. I think we should try and work out how the bodies are likely to react, then work out how to attract the attention of the plane, if it comes back.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

“Isn’t this is exactly the kind of reason you’ve kept the body by the swimming pool?”

“Suppose,” Martin said, sounding more subdued.

“Well, we need to see how your corpse reacts when we get up close.”

47

The morning came too soon. Hollis’s stomach grumbled with pangs of hunger but he was too nervous to even think about eating. He waited for Martin at the end of the corridor which led to the swimming pool. Lorna, Harte, Howard, and Gordon waited with him.

“You okay?” Lorna asked, picking up on his obvious unease. He nodded but didn’t answer. He didn’t want to talk. Others didn’t seem to want to shut up.

“Remind me what we’re supposed to be doing again,” Gordon mumbled nervously.

“Stop being such a fucking drip,” Harte said. “You know exactly what we’re doing.”

He was right, Gordon understood completely, but like the rest of them he didn’t relish the prospect of being face-to-face with one of the dead, even if they did outnumber it six (and a dog) to one. He wished there was an alternative, but none of them had managed to come up with a safer way of being able to properly gauge the strength of the creature’s reactions. It had seemed like a sensible idea when they’d talked about it late last night. Now they were actually here, however, they were all having serious doubts.

Martin appeared from the direction of the Steelbrooke Suite. He tried to hold back, but the others made it abundantly clear that he should go first.

“She’s your baby,” Howard whispered.

The group walked down the curved corridor, stopping just before the window into the office. Martin peered in but it was difficult to see anything through the layer of grease and rotten flesh which had been smeared across the glass. After having spent so much time hiding in the shadows, the increased amount of staining on the window indicated that the behavior of the corpse had indeed changed. Had it been looking for them? Howard’s dog stood beneath the window looking up, her sharp white teeth bared in a silent, sneering growl.

“So how are we going to do this?” Howard asked. He jumped back as the corpse’s rot-eaten face appeared at the window. Its dulled eyes looked around at the six people who stared back at it. Perhaps sensing it was outnumbered, it took a few awkward, uncoordinated steps back into the darkness.

“There’s not enough room here,” Martin answered. “We should get her out onto the side of the pool.”

After a few seconds of nervous inactivity, Lorna pushed past the others and followed the corridor around to the entrance to the pool. She shoved the heavy door open, wincing with disgust when the smell of the stagnant water hit her. The air was icy cold and a sudden smacking, clattering noise made her catch her breath. A door on the other side of the pool was blowing open in the strong wind, then slowly closing again when the breeze died down. She hadn’t actually been in here before, she’d just glanced in from outside. It would have been lovely, she thought sadly to herself, just the kind of place she could have imagined spending her pre-Armageddon time if she’d ever been able to afford to stay in a place like this. On one side of the pool were the various items of gym equipment which she’d heard Jas and Harte talking about previously, and over in the far corner a scattering of wooden deck chairs and sun-loungers, all draped with a shroud-like layer of dust and cobwebs. The large, open windows and the glass ceiling, had they not all been covered with dust and dark, moss-green stains, would normally have allowed the whole area to flood with sunlight. Her daydreams were interrupted by the noise of Hollis yanking open the changing room door. He disappeared into the darkness momentarily to prop open the door to the office, giving the corpse a clear passage out to the pool.

“Come on,” he yelled. “You’ve been in there too long, sweetheart. It’s time you came out to see us…”

The rest of the group stood a safe distance back and waited. For a moment nothing happened but then, very suddenly and very definitely, low sounds of shuffling movement came from inside the office. A loud clatter and bang sent Hollis scampering back to the others.

“Can you see her?” Lorna asked quietly. Howard’s dog took a couple of padded steps forward and then stopped and bared her teeth again. Normally completely silent, she emitted the faintest low growl as more noises came from the darkness.

“Nothing yet,” Hollis replied, shuffling tentatively forward again. “Hold on, here she comes…”

The corpse dragged itself out into the light, and it was an abhorrent sight. Despite the filth, the sloping glass roof above them meant that the light levels in the swimming pool were better than in much of the rest of the hotel complex, certainly better than the office in which the loathsome carcase had been held captive for almost two months. This, Martin realized, was the first time he’d seen her in her full glory, and her dishevelled appearance fascinated him. He felt an instant revulsion but also genuine pity as she lumbered clumsily forward. A guest at the hotel on the day that she and almost everyone else had died, he remembered again having seen her just before the infection had struck. Transfixed, he walked over to where Hollis was standing, finding it hard to believe that the grotesque creature he was looking at now was the same woman he’d seen previously. Her figure—and she’d had a great figure, he remembered that clearly—was all gone. Where her body had been pert and tight before, it now sagged and drooped. Gravity had steadily drained the contents of her bowels down. Her feet were swollen and blue, her belly and buttocks distended and her heavily stained and discolored swimming costume had been stretched completely out of shape. The straps of the one-piece outfit had cut into the skin on top of her shoulders, wearing little grooves where they’d continually rubbed against her deteriorating flesh.

“Careful,” Lorna whispered. Without realizing it, both Hollis and Martin had continued to move closer to the corpse.

“It’s okay,” Hollis said, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the body. The cadaver, in turn, kept what was left of its eyes trained on the figures which surrounded it. Although labored in its movements, it was definitely looking around the group. It slowly moved its rotting head from left to right, then turned back again when Gordon slipped in a puddle and lost his footing for a moment. Howard’s dog growled again, an ominous low rumble of warning, and the body reacted, dropping its head and looking down at the animal standing its ground just meters in front of it.

Then it stopped.

It began to move backward.

With even less control than it had demonstrated before, the body slowly began to retreat, leaving behind it a trail of smudged, slimy footprints. It shuffled back across the tiled floor, bumping into the frame of the door through which it had just emerged. Then, more through luck than as the result of any conscious decision making, it shuffled left and slipped back into the darkness of the room where it had spent the last sixty days.

“Fuck me,” Hollis said.

“Where’s it going?” Gordon asked, unnerved by the creature’s unexpected behavior and hoping that someone would have a plausible explanation.

“She’s trying to get away from us,” Lorna suggested.

“This is great,” Harte said from his position a little farther back. “Damn thing knows it hasn’t got a hope in hell.”

“Did you see her checking us out, though?” Howard said, standing next to him. “I reckon she saw there were too many of us and decided it wasn’t a fair fight.”

“I think you’re right,” Hollis agreed. “If it’s got any sense left in its head, it’s got to know that it’s got no chance on its own against six of us.”

“And a dog,” Howard added.

“It knows it’s safer back in there than out here,” he continued.

“So what do we do now?” Martin nervously asked. “Have we actually proved anything? If we go outside, do you think all those bodies are going to start backing off when they see us?”

“They haven’t so far,” Lorna said, moving slightly and trying to peer deeper into the changing rooms. Hollis did the same.

“The difference is it’s still got a choice at the moment,” he said. “Most of the bodies left out in the open don’t have anywhere to hide. We need to see what happens when we take away its options.”

“Force it out into the open?” Lorna wondered. Hollis nodded.

“Martin, why don’t you go through to the corridor and try to force her back out here. Then close the door behind her so she can’t get away again.”

“I-I don’t know…” he stammered anxiously. “Do you really think we should be doing this?”

Lorna sighed. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, stop being so pathetic. I’ll do it.”

“Be careful,” Hollis warned.

“It’s no big deal,” she said flippantly as she walked away. “Just a half-rotted sack of shit.”

Hollis watched her leave, then returned his attention to the corpse in the shadows. He could see it hiding just behind the door. It was standing still—or at least as still as it could—but the uneasy swaying of its body gave the game away. An arm would swing out into the light momentarily, or its head would droop down lazily before it pulled itself back out of sight again.

Lorna stood in the corridor outside the office and composed herself before going in. The handle was stiff and she needed to shove the door hard with her full weight to get it open. She paused again before going any farther, letting the cloying stench of the captive corpse’s decay dissipate. She felt unexpectedly nervous. Christ, what was she worried about? She’d dealt with hundreds of these creatures before now, and this one wasn’t any more of a threat than any other. And besides, she reminded herself, this is one corpse against six of us. Damn thing doesn’t stand a chance.

She entered the dark room, picking her way through the waste and rubbish which had accumulated over weeks, trying not to slip in the dark puddles of offensive-smelling gunk which had seeped and dribbled from the cadaver over time. She moved toward the light coming from the pool. The corpse in the doorway was still preoccupied with the men lying in wait for it outside and didn’t notice her approaching. She’d never been this close to one of the dead before and not been about to destroy it. It was a grotesque, yet morbidly fascinating sight. The nearer she got, the more unpleasant detail she could make out. The various lesions and open wounds on its torso and legs were filled with teeming movement—thousands of maggots and worms gorging on its decaying skin. A chunk of flesh hung loose from the side of its right calf. She could see bones and what was left of its muscles and sinew under the skin. Although for a moment her nerves threatened to get the better of her, she forced herself to stay focused and keep going.

“Get ready,” she shouted.

At the sound of her voice the cadaver began to slowly try and turn itself around, but it was far too slow and clumsy. Lorna lifted her hands and shoved it firmly in the small of its back, taking care to handle its swimming costume and not make contact with bare flesh. Knocked off-balance, the corpse tripped back out into the open again. She followed it through to the poolside, slamming the door behind her and sealing off its escape route. It instinctively lurched toward Hollis and Martin, the closest of its aggressors. Howard’s dog bolted forward and he dragged her back, just managing to grab her collar as she leaped at the Swimmer. Her claws dragged along the raised floor tiles at the side of the pool as she scrambled to break free and attack.

“Watch it!” Gordon yelled as the dead woman heaved its disfigured bulk toward Martin. He put his arms up to protect himself, but Hollis shoved him out of the way. The body acted with remarkable speed, almost immediately turning its full attention toward him instead. It crashed into him with unexpected momentum, shoving him back and over.

“See,” he said as he picked himself up and struggled to grab hold of the hideous figure which writhed and squirmed relentlessly, “it has no choice now. We’ve made it fight. All it can do is attack.”

The monster’s loose, greasy skin seemed to slip and slide around its bones as he held it. It managed to free itself from Hollis’s grasp and immediately lurched toward Harte, the next closest. He could see that it had already been damaged as a result of its brief skirmish with the other man. The flesh at the top of its right shoulder had been torn away and now appeared to be falling down its arm like a loose-fitting sleeve. He looked deep into its vile face as it neared. Harte knew nothing of the creature’s past. He knew only that it was time to end its pitiful existence. He jumped toward it, grabbing a fistful of hair and slamming its face onto the tiles at the edge of the stagnant swimming pool. Still it continued to try and fight, hopelessly overpowered but stubborn and relentless to the end.

“Fucking thing won’t give up,” he said anxiously as he fought to keep hold of it. No one else moved. Howard, in particular, had seen far fewer corpses than the others and was overwhelmed by the full extent of this cadaver’s grotesque appearance. Every movement it made caused more damage but it didn’t stop. He could see rotten flesh literally peeling away from its bones; the more it fought, the more damaged it became. But what else could it do? The enormity of what they were witnessing was not lost on Lorna. More used to being this close to the dead, she could ignore the shock of the grime and gore and concentrate on the implications of the creature’s actions.