Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(114)

After what seemed like forever, the final fireworks hit the sky and fizzled out. Then there was near silence, but for the soft crackling of flames that began to take hold of the warehouse.

Annaliese was shaking, her stomach hot, her heart aching. She waited for the inevitable.

Hungry moans filled the air; not just from Ripley Hall, but from what seemed like everywhere. The collective sound carried on the wind from miles around, from all directions.

The dead were coming.

All of them.

Annaliese leapt to her feet and spun a circle. Pauline and Eve were climbing back up off the floor as well. Michelle remained slumped in a foetal position on the ground.

Dash made a run for it.

Annaliese headed straight after him. With the loss of blood and the reduced vision, Dash was easy prey. She clattered into him from behind and took him painfully to the ground. She grabbed a hold of his injured arm and made him scream in agony, but he managed to surprise her by striking back with his elbow and catching her in the eye socket. The blow rocked her and Dash used the opportunity to transition off his back and climb on top of her. He smashed her in the mouth with his fist.

“Told you I was gonna get you, bitch.”

He hit her again, splitting her lip from corner to corner. The blood in her mouth was hot and sweet. Dash raised his fist again, ready to hit break her face.

“Get off her, you son of a bitch,” Cassie screamed.

Dash turned his head just in time to see the knife coming. It went in under his chin and slid up into his skull. He was dead before he could even make a sound.

Annaliese kicked Dash off of her and watched him slump onto his side. Cassie had left the knife embedded in his jaw and didn’t seem to want it back.

“Are you okay?” Annaliese asked her.

Cassie was trembling, her arms shaking in great tremors. Annaliese got up and put an arm around her, tried to console her, but was quickly pushed away. “I-I killed him,” she said, almost as if she couldn’t believe it.

“It was him or me, Cassie. And I’m glad you chose me.”

“We all are,” Eve added. “You did nothing wrong.”

Cassie shook her head and sobbed. “I-I stabbed him in the face.” She bent over and vomited, but before anyone had time to get close enough to help her, she straightened back up and suddenly ran away.

“Cassie, come back,” Annaliese shouted. She went to give chase, but Pauline stopped her by grabbing a hold of her arm. She was about to argue and shrug herself free, but then she saw why Pauline had stopped her.

Eve shouted a warning. “Cassie, look out!”

In all her despair, Cassie had run headlong into an approaching group of the dead. They fell over her like a moving wall, their rancid, sticky bodies moving shoulder to shoulder. When Cassie collided with a tall brunette woman, who was stumbling along on a broken red stiletto, she fell to the ground and screamed.

The dead woman fell on her immediately, biting into her face like a cantaloupe. Blood spurted into the air as Cassie’s nose was chewed right off her face.

Annaliese couldn’t help herself. She started forwards to help the girl. This time, both Pauline and Eve grabbed a hold of her. “She’s already dead,” said Eve. “You know that. We have to get out of here.”

Annaliese closed her eyes as the dead continued ripping Cassie apart. She gave her fear one more moment to take hold, and then shook it away. She opened her eyes and took a breath. “Okay,” she said resolutely. “Let’s get our arses off this bloody hill while there’s still chance.”

Eve gawped at her. “What? How?”

Annaliese reached into her pocket and pulled out Bradley’s keys. She pointed in front of her. “We take that truck,” she said. “And drive over anything that gets in our way.”

The dead were currently occupied with Cassie’s half-eaten corpse, but there were more coming from the direction of the house. They would have to move fast.

“Pick up, Michelle, we have to go now.”

The three of them grabbed Michelle and attempted to carry her. Pauline and Eve held the girl’s legs while Annaliese grasped her body. They waddled sideways as they sought to get her over to the truck.

“Dump her in the back,” Annaliese said. “We don’t have time to make her comfortable.

There was no argument and the three of them hoisted Michelle up and over the side of the vehicle’s cargo shelf. She flopped onto the wooden panelling and just lay there, staring off into space.

Annaliese hurried around to the driver’s side door and put the key in the lock. The central locking engaged and the doors were unlocked. “Eve, Pauline, squeeze in the passenger side.”

The two women did as they were told and Annaliese started the engine. The moment the vehicle came to life, she instantly felt safer. The thought of being on the road after being cooped up on this hill for so long felt exhilarating. She reversed the truck and pulled it around to face the other way.

Thank God the battery didn’t run flat.

The dead from the house were coming in their droves now and Annaliese could already hear more of them coming up the hill from the distant car park below. Soon, they would be surrounded.

“What about Nick and the others?” Eve said. “We can’t leave without them.”

“They’re already dead,” said Pauline.