Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (20 page)

“Just go,” Annaliese urged her.  “Before it’s too late.”

Charlotte climbed up onto the ledge tentatively. 
Annaliese placed a hand on the girl’s back to steady her.

Then, without pause, Charlotte jumped.  It seemed that,
once the girl had made up her mind, she wanted to get it over and done
with.  Annaliese watched her hit the mattress and rebound off into the
grass.  She stood up quickly and made it clear she was alright.

Crack!

My turn
, Annaliese thought as she placed one of her
wellington boots onto the ledge.  Her hamstrings were painfully tight from
her desperate sprint through the hallway and it was a real struggle to push
herself up onto the ledge.  Every time she tried to climb up, her legs
went numb and she fell back down.  It took a couple of attempts before she
was finally able to get up onto the ledge.  Then she found herself looking
down at the mattress below, suddenly feeling that the drop was more like twenty
feet than twelve.  She knew it was just her imagination – a built-in
safety device that every person had to keep them from taking risky falls – but
the thought of jumping was still terrifying.  The hardest part of the jump
would be fighting her instincts and stepping out into nothing but thin air.

Crack!

The room’s door continued to splinter and come away as the
infected threw themselves at it.

Right,
Annaliese told herself.
 Let’s do
this.

I’ll count to three.

One…

Two…

Thr-

She stopped herself just as her body was about to take
flight.  She quickly realised that she had forgotten something.

Mike’s wallet.

She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t leave without even
having looked for it.  She hopped back down off the window ledge and
glance frantically around the room.  The wallet was in clear sight; right
on the bedside table where Mike had said it would be.

I can grab it.  There’s time.

She eyed the brown leather wallet and then the room’s
battered door.  The hole at the top was now the size of a person’s head
and several of the infected peered through at her with their swollen
eyes. 

I can make it.  I can get the wallet.

She made up her mind.  She dodged back around the
bedframe and headed over to the bedside cabinet.  She placed her hand
around the wallet and was surprised by how heavy it was.  She just about
managed to force it into her pocket when-

There was an almighty
crash!
  The cracking of
wood and the sound of a door being busted wide open.

Annaliese hurried back to the end of the bedframe, but was
cut off by a large man with a torn cheek and a flap of skin hanging loose.

She let out a scream, and so did the man, screeching at the
top of his lungs.

She leapt onto the exposed box springs of the bedframe and
used it as a springboard to hop towards the window.  More infected people
flooded into the room and headed right for her, all of them screeching like banshees.

With a fresh surge of adrenaline, she was able to leap up
onto the window frame with a single attempt.  She stared down at Clark and
Charlotte below.  Both of them stared back at her anxiously. 

Annaliese prepared to jump.

Before she had chance to step forward and plummet to the
mattress, something hit her from behind, grabbing her around the waist and
shoving her off-balance.  She fell forward, grabbing out but finding
nothing but air.  Then, suddenly, she was falling.  She fell fast and
she fell awkwardly, as the weight on her back bore down on top of her. 
She hit the mattress hard and felt something snap.  The fabric covered
springs were less forgiving than she had anticipated.

The next thing she knew, besides the stars floating through
her vision, was someone clawing at her back.  Company had followed her
through the window. 

And now it was trying to kill her.

Chapter Sixteen

Annaliese struggled on her stomach
as her attacker clung to her back.  A flash of white hot pain stabbed
through her right hand but she had no time to investigate the cause.  If
the infected man, who had followed her out of the window, managed to bite her
then she was doomed.  Just like Bradley had been.

Clark and Charlotte were nearby and quickly offered their
assistance.  Clark managed to wrap an arm around the infected man’s throat
and prevented him from taking a bite out of Annaliese.  Charlotte grabbed
her arms and began pulling her away.  The pain in her hand exploded once
again, but she focused only on getting away from the infected man.  She
kicked out with her legs and sent her attacker sprawling backwards. 
Clark, still clutching the man around the throat, twisted and threw him to the
ground.  Together the three of them backed away from the mattress.

“What do we do?” said Clark in a voice so thick with fear
that it sounded like he might run screaming at any moment.

Before Annaliese could answer him, another body landed on
the mattress and bounced off onto the grass. 

And then another.

The infected guests continued falling from the bedroom’s
open window, hitting the ground below.  As soon as they jumped, another
infected person would take their place, forming a line like a bunch of ungodly
lemmings.

There were now four infected people on the ground and they
were getting to their feet quickly.  One of them limped on a broken ankle
caused by the awkward fall, while another had a slashed face, lower lip hanging
like rancid sausage meat.

Annaliese looked up to see more infected people ready to
leap.  She looked at Clark and Charlotte.  “We need to get out of
here, now.”

“No shit,” said Clark.

The three of them took off across the rear gardens of Ripley
Manor.  Annaliese led them around the building to the front, hoping that
Shawcross and the others had managed to make it out safely. 

Behind them, the infected screeched and gave chase.

“They’re coming after us,” Charlotte said.

“Just keep moving.  The longer we’re in sight, the more
of those things that will come through the window.”

They rounded the corner of Ripley Hall and entered the front
lawns.  Annaliese could see the park and zoo buildings in the
distance.  The orange sun was rising up behind them and casting long
shadows.

They stuck close to the building and headed for the front
entrance.  “This way,” she said.  “We need to meet up with the
others.”

“Oh, shitmack and fries,” Clark shouted.  “They’re
gaining on us.  How are they so fast?”

Annaliese looked back.  Three of the four infected that
had fallen through the window were gaining ground quickly.  The one with
the broken ankle was nowhere to be seen, obviously unable to keep up.

Annaliese turned the corner and sprinted across the lawn,
ducking between trees and hopping over bushes.  She skipped over the body
of the man who had attacked and bitten Bradley – the man who had started this
whole nightmare for her. 

Ripley Hall’s front doors were hanging wide open, light
spilling out from the foyer.  Annaliese glanced around while still
running.  “Where are they?  Where the hell are they?”

“We should run back inside,” said Charlotte.

“No.  The house is full of infected people.  We
need to find someplace safer.  The others should be out here waiting for
us.  Where are they?”

She looked behind her.  The three infected would be on
them any second.  There was no place to run that offered absolute
safety.  But standing and fighting would be suicide.

“Anna!”

She spun around to see Shawcross and the others.  They
were fifty yards away, shouting over from the doorway of one the zoo’s buildings.

“Come on,” Annaliese shouted and pointed.  “They’re
over there.”

With safety in sight, Charlotte and Clark seemed to find
additional strength.  They picked up speed and managed to overtake
Annaliese, leaving her at the rear.  The infected seemed to pick up speed,
too.  Their screams were incessant and beginning to drive her insane.

“Quickly,” Shawcross shouted as he held the doorway open for
them.

Charlie and Clark rounded a concrete statue of a chameleon
on a log and sprinted the final thirty yards to the building.  Shawcross
ushered them inside to safety.  He motioned urgently for Annaliese to
hurry up and get in after them.

I’m coming, I’m coming.

She was going as fast as she could, but the infected almost
had her.  She could feel them right behind her.  Her thighs were
burning and she just could not keep up the pace.  There were still ten
yards left to run when she felt fingertips at her back. 

Up ahead, Shawcross’s eyes suddenly went wide.  He
slammed the door closed, locking her out. 

That bastard.

The fingertips at her back turned into palms and progressed
to grabbing hands.  The infected had caught her.  She was done for.

I’m going to end up as one of them.

Suddenly, the door to the zoo building sprung open again.
 Somebody emerged from it. 

It was Mike.

He ran towards Annaliese with a length of broom handle
raised above his head.  Just as she was grappled from behind, taken down
to her knees, Mike swung for the cheap seats and batted her attacker around the
side of the head.  The broom handle snapped in two and the infected man
went down.

Annaliese staggered back to her feet.  Tremors wracked
her knees and tried to bring her back down, but she fought.

There were still two more infected people to deal with.

Mike grabbed Annaliese by her lapels and yanked her towards
him.  Then he took another swing with the broken broom handle, striking
the nearest attacker – a dark-skinned man – under the chin.  Then he
kicked out fiercely, knocking the man to the ground.

“Look out,” Annaliese shouted just as the remaining infected
person – an overweight woman in a ripped blouse – launched her attack.

  Mike used the broken broom handle as a spear,
ramming it upwards into the woman’s nose.  He gritted his teeth as he
forced the wooden shaft upwards, through the soft nasal canal and into the
brain cavity.

The woman’s entire body went into seizure and her hungry
screams immediately stopped.  Mike let go of the broom handle and she
slumped backwards, dead.

“Come on,” Annaliese shouted as the infected man Mike had kicked
to the floor began to rise up again.

The two of them galloped the last twenty yards to the zoo
building, huffing and panting under the strain of fighting for their
lives.  Shawcross was back at the door now, a look of worry and
aggravation on his face.  At least this time he was holding it open
instead of leaving her out in the cold.

Annaliese barged past Shawcross angrily and made her way
inside the building with Mike right behind her.  The door slammed shut and
finally she was safe again.  But for how long, she did not know.

Chapter Seventeen

“You were just going to leave me out
there to die!” Annaliese shouted in Shawcross’s face.  The building they
were now standing in was the zoo’s reptile house.  The atmosphere was
humid and the only lighting was from flickering lengths of weak strip-bulbs.

“I have to look out for the group,” he rebuked.  “I
thought you were done for.  They had you.  You were never going to
make it.”

“And yet here I am, alive and well.  Thanks to
Mike.”  She turned to the man that had saved her life and bowed her head
to him.  “I owe you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said.  “We never would have
gotten out of that damned kitchen without you, so we can call it even. 
Looks like you ran a little rescue mission, too.”  He motioned to Clark
and Charlotte.

Annaliese nodded.  “Yes, this is Ch-”

“Charlotte and Clark.  Yeah, I know,” said Mike. 
“We work together at the Tamworth branch.”

“It’s good to see you’re okay, Mike,” Charlotte muttered.

“You too.  I was beginning to think no one else made
it.”

“Where did those infected come from?” Shawcross demanded.
 He was leant up against a tank full of corn snakes.  The reptiles
were pressing their triangular faces up against the glass in a vain attempt to
inspect him further.

Annaliese shrugged.  “We had to jump from an upstairs
window.  The infected followed us out.”

“Damn it!”  Shawcross banged a fist against the corn
snake’s terrarium, making them hiss and flick their tongues.  “Then we’re
trapped in here no better than we were in the kitchen.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said.  “We have multiple
exits now and open space inside and out if we have to make a run for it. 
Besides, Mike took two of them out.  There’s not many out there now – just
a couple.”

“What if they keep coming through the window?” Charlotte
asked.  “There could be dozens and dozens of them.”

Annaliese shook her head.  “If they can’t see you, they
just tend to mill about aimlessly.  I don’t think they’ll jump out the
window unless they spot someone to chase.  They should all be secure
inside the house as long as we don’t get close enough for them to see us.”

“So they’re all locked up safe?” Charlotte asked, obviously
looking for reassurance.

Annaliese nodded.  “As long as we lay low, everything
should be-”

She stopped mid-sentence.

“What?” Mike asked.  “What is it?”

“The doors.  You left the front doors of the house wide
open.  There’s nothing to stop them just wandering out into the grounds.”

Mike stamped his foot.  “Shit!  You’re
right.  We were in such a panic that we all just ran outside without even
thinking.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said.  “It’s done. 
But we need to get those doors shut before they gather back in the foyer and
leak out onto the lawns.  We won’t be safe otherwise.  We don’t know
how long it will be until help arrives.  I’ll have to go back outside.”

“No way,” said Mike.  “You’ve already risked your neck
enough times already.  Look at you, you’re exhausted.”

“Then who?  Is anybody else willing to volunteer?”

There was silence amongst the group.

Annaliese tutted.  Their lack of courage didn’t
surprise her.  People were selfish.  Test them and they would always
look out for number one.  Her ex-husband had taught her that lesson. 
“I’m going back out in five minutes,” she said.  “I just need to catch my
breath first.”

“Then, I’m coming with you,” said Mike.

She shrugged.  “Fine.  The more the merrier.”

Least one of you has some balls.

“I’ll see if I can find you something to defend yourself
with,” said Shawcross, wandering off into the darkness of the reptile
house.  Annaliese had the feeling that he just wanted to be away from her.

He probably feels more at home with the snakes. 

Mike took Annaliese to one side.  “I’m really sorry to
ask, but did you-”

“Find your wallet?  Yes, I have it.  Almost died
trying to get it, but I got it.”  She slid her hand into her jean pocket
and hissed as a bolt of agony shot through her knuckles.

“What is it?” Mike asked.

Annaliese held her hand out in front of her.  Her
little finger was bent back at an unnatural angle.

Mike looked as though he might heave.  “Bloody
hell.  It looks broken.”

She examined her twisted digit and then shook her
head.  “No.  It’ just dislocated.  I must have done it when I
fell out the window onto the mattress.”

“What do we do?”

She grabbed her little finger with her other hand and took a
deep breath.  “
We
don’t do anything,” she said.  Then she
snapped the finger back into place, yelling out against the worst agony she had
ever felt in her life besides childbirth.

Then the pain was gone, replaced by a cold numbness.

Mike looked at her, astonished.  “That was pretty
hardcore,” he said.

“No point being a vet if I can’t even fix myself.  Now,
let’s get the doors to Ripley Hall closed so we can finally catch our breaths
and sort this whole thing out.  Here’s your wallet.”

Mike took it from her and nodded.  His stare was
slightly dazed, no doubt due to the horrors he had witnessed.  Annaliese
knew that the more time passed, the more Mike and the others would start to
struggle with the emotional trauma of what had happened to them.  She just
hoped she could keep herself together long enough to help some of them. 

Mike started to unbutton his bloodstained shirt, exposing a
gleaming white vest beneath.

She put a hand out to stop him.  “You sure that’s the
best thing?  Going out there in just a vest?  What if one of those
things bite you?  Not to mention the fact that you’ll probably freeze your
tits off.”

Mike started fastening the shirt back up again.  “Good
point.  I’m just starting to freak out at the feeling of all this blood on
me, you know?”

“Whose is it?” Annaliese asked.  She could see it
wasn’t his, but from the pained expression that flashed across his face, she
was sorry for asking the question so bluntly.  “Sorry,” she added.

He waved his hand.  “No, it’s okay.  It wasn’t
anyone I was close to, just a co-worker, James Craddock.  But he had two
sons and a wife, you know?  He was a happy guy.  Deserved better than
to be ripped apart like...”  His words trailed off and he seemed to lose
himself for a moment, staring off into space. 

Annaliese placed a hand on his shoulder and was surprised by
how tense his muscles were.  The guy was on edge, even if he hid it well
with courage and an amiable personality.  “Hey, we’re going to get to
bottom of this, okay?  You’re doing really great.  You’re my hero, in
fact.”

He smiled at her and straightened up.  He could have
been dashing if not for the circumstances, and the fact that he was covered in
blood.  “Thanks,” he said, and then let out a deep sigh.  He cleared
his throat, ran a hand through his messy black hair, and seemed to ready
himself for whatever came next.  After a few moments, he smiled at
Annaliese.  “Let’s do this,” he said.