The Anomaly(92)

Pierre hadn’t moved or made a sound since he’d been thrown from the fight. He’d been counted out of the equation for now, possibly for good. I was next on the creature’s list.

But Molly ran straight at it, pummeling it with her fists. It felt the blows. It wasn’t impervious, but it wasn’t troubled. It tore her off with one hand, unfurling the motion to sling her down the tunnel past me.

“Go,” I told her. “Just go.”

Molly was pushing herself back to her feet. She looked me in the eye. “Do it,” I said. “Get out of here, Moll. Please.”

She nodded, took off the light, and left it on the floor. Then she grabbed Pierre and started trying to haul him away. He was moving, but slowly. She kept at it. Molly Mom wasn’t going to give up, I knew that. Good for her.

I turned back just in time to see the thing’s fist coming toward my face. Managed to twist my head enough to stop it smacking me front-on. Instead the blow caught my ear and the back of my head. The impact threw me straight across the tunnel to crash into the wall.

The creature did not immediately pile into me after I landed on the floor.

It waited. It judged the situation.

I tried to stand. Got halfway, but my legs collapsed under me. My ears were ringing. I tried to stand again and made it farther this time, but then a swinging blow from its other fist caught me in the temple and I was down again.

Down and nearly out.

The clanging in my head was so loud now I could barely hear. My vision was doubled and darkening. It felt like all the pains in my body were joining together.

And deep in the shadows, beyond the thing standing over me, I saw movement and knew another one of them was coming. Out of the ark, two by two…And then many, many more.

An army unleashed. The end of the world.

It kicked me, a crunching impact to the rib cage that had me crashing into the wall once again. The edges of my vision were folding in now as shadows came flooding into my mind, turning my thoughts upside down, breaking continuity like a movie cut up into single frames.

I knew I was right to do this, to have stayed behind. Not just because I’d given the other two something closer to a fighting chance, but because I’d spent so long running from things that didn’t work or that hurt. Turning and facing this one had always been doomed to failure, but sometimes failure is what happens next. What happens last.

Another kick and everything was broken in my head. Nothing connected anymore. Time itself was malfunctioning and I couldn’t tell the difference between what was happening now and my memories. I had a flickering recollection of lounging in the bar back at the hotel, a brief delicious illusion of the sensation of a cold beer going down my throat. A momentary snapshot of the view from my balcony back in Santa Monica.

A memory of Kristy looking across at me when we were out walking in the woods somewhere, years ago, with the crooked half smile that meant there was nowhere she’d rather be.

I even thought I heard Ken’s voice, making fun of my shirt one last time.

The creature reached down and pulled me up by the throat. It was not monstrous; that was the worst thing. This was no chaotic blow from an uncaring universe, no car crash or landslide. This was a living, intelligent thing, as I was, and it was going to do what it had been created to do, and carry on doing it. For once in my life, I was going to be first.

It pulled back its fist, and I noticed that it had a thumb and five fingers, rather than four. It was a real-life actual giant and it was going to kill me, and unless unconsciousness claimed me first, I was going to be there as that happened. I was going to die in real time.

It opened its mouth, revealing that it had two rows of teeth. The better to eat me with. It stared down at me with eyes that were hazel flecked with green, as Gemma’s had been.

Then the right side of its head exploded over my face.



I heard five more shots.

As I lost consciousness, pretty sure it was going to be for the last time, I experienced a strange vision.

It was of Ken, standing grinning over me. “Stop dicking around, Nolan,” he said. “It’s time to go.”

Then darkness.





Chapter

54



I wasn’t out long. Five minutes, they said. It seemed longer. It felt like a million years, and like returning from a very great distance. There was a brief phase where I was apparently conscious but in no pain, as though everything to do with the body was an optional extra that I didn’t need to be concerned with. It was nice that way.

Then it wasn’t, and everything hurt. Very badly.

My ears were still ringing. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t seem to move the lids.

“He’s concussed.”

The voice was Molly’s. That disappointed me, because I thought she’d probably know what she was talking about, and if she believed I had a concussion she was most likely right. On the other hand, it presumably also meant I wasn’t dead.

“Nah. He’s just a tool.”

That was enough to open my eyes.

Ken was sitting opposite, his back against the wall of the tunnel. His shirt was torn, there was a big cut up his arm, half his face was covered in grime, and he was missing a shoe. Other than that, frankly I’ve seen him looking worse.

“Seriously,” he said, exasperated. “Why’d you leave the gun up there, you muppet?”