Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(97)

He was almost glad when he heard someone cry out in the night, but quickly realised what it meant. The scream had been short, abrupt, but unmistakable. It was a scream of sudden terror, and it had come from a man.

Who was that? I thought everybody was back at the restaurant.

Nick slid down from the top of the roof, via the drainpipe, and landed back on the pavement. He winced as a shooting pain went from his ankles to his knees, but managed to walk it off within a couple of steps. When the pain went away, he picked up speed and started jogging in the direction he thought he’d heard the scream. He estimated it was about half way between the orang-utan enclosure and the restaurant, near to where the midway games were.

It took him a few minutes to get there, but when he arrived he quickly found out who had been screaming.

What the…?

His first thought was that an infected person had found their way past the fences, but when he saw the knife jutting out of Dave’s chest, he knew that an old-fashioned murder had just been committed.

Someone’s stabbed him.

Shawcross! That bastard.

It had to be Shawcross. He had tried to stab Dave earlier, unsuccessfully. He obviously decided to have another go.

He’ll pay for this, that rat.

Annaliese came running out of the darkness. “We heard screaming,” she said and skidded to a stop when she saw what had happened.

“Shawcross did it,” Nick said, shaking his head and clenching his fists in anger.

How could he kill Dave over such a minor disagreement?

Annaliese was shaking her head. The rest of the group appeared behind her, Shawcross included. “Shawcross is with us,” she said.

Nick shook his head. “That’s impossible. Dave was just this minute killed. I heard him scream. The blood is still coming out of him.”

“He was on his way to see you,” said Jan. “He said he didn’t want to hold grudges and that we all needed to work together even in spite of personality differences.”

Beside Jan, Renee nodded in confirmation.

“It’s true,” Eve said. “Dave asked me if I knew where you’d gone. Said he wanted to apologise for being so overbearing. He said it was just his way of dealing with how scared he was, but that he was realising it wasn’t helping anybody.”

Nick shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like Dave.”

“No shit,” said Eve. “Surprised me, too. But I guess we don’t know each other well enough to predict how we’re going to react to things. He seemed pretty genuine.”

“He was glaring at me all night. Didn’t seem regretful at all.”

Eve shrugged.

“It’s a tragedy that you took his approach as a threat rather than the apology it was meant to be,” said Shawcross. The man almost sounded smug. “Seems as though you may have gotten the wrong end of the stick.”

Nick lowered his eyebrows. “What? I didn’t do this.”

“Nobody else could have,” Annaliese said. “Every one of us was together in the restaurant. You left, and then five minutes later Dave went right after you. We all came when we heard the screams.”

Nick looked at Eve for help, but she just looked back at him, confused.

“I didn’t do this,” he shouted at them all.

“We need to lock him up,” said Shawcross. “Until we decide what to do with him.”


To his utter disbelief, Jan and Alan came forward to grab a hold of him. He shoved them away, swinging his fists and kicking his legs. “Get the f*ck away from me. I didn’t do this.”

He managed to land a punch on Alan’s cheek, but became aware of Shawcross approaching from his side. It was too late to react when the man took a swing at him, clubbing him under the chin in the exact reverse of what had happened earlier in the day.

The force of the blow made it obvious that Shawcross had hit with something harder than just his fist. The blow was so fierce that, by the time Nick fell to the ground, he was already unconscious.





Chapter Thirty-Four

Nick couldn’t open his eyes immediately. He had to flutter them for a few seconds before he could see properly. His head hurt badly, specifically his jaw. He tried to open his mouth but found the pain too much.

“I’d try not to speak if I were you,” Jan said. He was sitting in a wooden chair against the wall. Renee was right beside him. Candles lit the corners of the room.

Nick looked around and saw that he was in the cellar of the restaurant. The prison. It was musky and damp and a chill crept in through a steel hatchway at the back of the room, up a small flight of stairs.

“What am I…?” Nick winced as the pain exploded in his jaw, but fought past it. “What am I doing here?”

“I think you know,” said Jan. “You did a stupid thing, brother.”

Nick rubbed at his jaw and cleared a wad of phlegm from his throat. He had to think for a second before he was fully caught up on the situation he had just woken up into. “Dave…? I had nothing to do with that.”

Jan huffed. “Really? How much chance do you think there is of that plea being accepted? We were all together in the restaurant; everyone except for Dave and you.”

Nick sighed and let his head drop. “I can’t explain it, but it’s true.