The Screaming (Book 1): Dead City (2 page)

              Jez’s eyes were adjusting to the darkness and he could make out more and more inside the container. There were empty water bottles laying all over the floor, along with tin food cans and faeces, dotted about like mines. A small pile of mutilated rat remains occupied a corner to the right of the door.

“Have they been eating them?” One of the constables exclaimed, pointing at the pile.

              Further back inside were large cardboard boxes stacked high and several sleeping bags. The container was still too dark to see all the way back. Jez cupped his hands to his eyes to narrow his vision, but then felt a hand pulling him back out of the container.

“Out.” It was Palmer.

“Ok, ok.”

              Jez walked up to Pete, who was still leaning up against the forklift, he parked himself next to him and reached for his tobacco.

“Everyone out.” Palmer demanded.

              Deafening screams bellowed from the back of the container. Jez stood upright, startled. Everyone stared deep into the darkness, squinting, in hope of a better view. Several officers and the paramedics started to edge backwards. The screams were ear piercingly high pitched. Jez reached up and cupped his hands over his ears, reluctant to look like he couldn’t handle the noise, but soon saw that everyone else was doing the same.

“It sounds like more kids. Loads of them.” one constable yelled.

              Shadows started to slowly emerge from the darkness and blunder towards the front of the container. But they weren’t children. Far from it. A large man stepped out to the front. He stopped at the doorway, the toes on his bare feet hanging over the lip of the entrance, inches from the dead girls head. He ignored the girl, laid dead at his feet. Something was very wrong with this man. More figures edged out from the darkness behind him. To his left a woman and his right another man, with more behind.

              The man stepped out of the container onto the dock floor, and into the light. The girl’s blood squelching between his toes. He was clearly a black African man, but his skin was so pale, almost white. It hung off his bones like wet washing. He was wearing a dirty green t-shirt, stained red around the neck, and denim shorts. He must have been only in his mid-twenties, but his once dark hair was showing signs of grey. He scanned his surroundings, his head making jerky movements like he was trying to see an annoying fly buzzing around his face. The light was occasionally catching his features. The skin was flaking all over his pasty gaunt body, but most striking of all, was the blood. He was breathing heavily like he was struggling for air, and blood sprayed from his open mouth onto his shirt with every exhale. Blood also dripped from his nose but more noticeably it was seeping from his red swollen eyes.

“Oh my god, they’re diseased.” Pete winced, as he covered his mouth and nose with his hand.

              Slowly the woman edged out into the light and stood at the dead girl’s feet. She had been black once too and probably in her thirties. She was wearing a blue dress that was badly stained with dark blood down her chest. Her blooded eyes blinked into the light and blood gathered over her tear ducts as her eyes closed, before dripping down her cheeks onto her neck as she opened them again.

              Time seemed to move in slow motion as more and more figures drifted out of the darkness and gathered at the doorway. In reality, only moments had passed since the horror of the young girl laid bleeding out onto the dock was revealed to the unsuspecting gathering of officials. One of the paramedics slowly edged towards the man at the front with a blue cotton blanket raised to offer him some comfort. He clocked the Paramedic approaching from his periphery. His head snapped round and his crimson eyes locked on to the startled paramedic who scuttled back, dropping the blanket in the blood pool.

              The man’s mouth slowly dropped open, revealing his broken pus filled teeth. Suddenly he let out an immense chilling scream. The high pitched shriek pulsated through the crowd and reverberated around the mist filled dock. The terrifying child-like pitch unnervingly out of place from the mouth of a fully grown man, sent shivers of fear through the crowd who started stepping backwards, not taking their eyes off him. As if encouraged by the howls, the woman’s mouth also dropped open and released a scream more piercing and higher still. Soon multiple wails burst from the depths of the container, like a crescendo, their heads quickly scanning around the faces of their rescuers each locking onto a face filled with fear.

              Several police officers pulled out their batons and racked them out with a sharp click and held them ready, instinct clearly kicking in. As sharply as it started, the screams stopped in an almost rehearsed synchronicity. Silence filled the air as ears rang with the echoes of screams. Parker flew back cracking his head on the floor, dazed, he shook his head and looked up to investigate the weight now crushing his chest. The man was on him, his hands clawing into his shoulders. Bodies piled out of the container like bats from a cave, running in every direction, each locking onto an unsuspecting uniform and launching into them.

              Parker struggled and kicked at his attacker, landing a punch to his forehead. The man paused momentarily and then dipped his head down to Parker’s face and sunk his teeth into his cheek. He tore through the fleshy feast and pulled his prize clean from Parker’s face. Parker whimpered and wriggled but it was no use. The cheek was devoured and swallowed almost instantly and the teeth returned for more tearing into his neck. Blood sprayed from Parker like a hose pipe, covering his attacker in a fine red mist. Parker let out a desperate cry which soon tailed off as he drifted into unconsciousness. People bomb, burst in every direction, being run down by the fast pace of their pursuers.

              One of the paramedics stumbled only yards from the container door and was set upon instantly by a young male, with hunger in his angry red eyes. The paramedic turned on to his front and reached out at nothing, praying for a miracle saviour. The young monster landed on his back and started clawing at his flesh, ripping through the desperate medics green overalls like paper, before digging his finger nails deep into the exposed fleshy lower back, tearing chunks of meat apart before thrusting his already blood stained face into the gaping wound and devouring his catch.

              Several street hardened police officers stood their ground, batons drawn. As their opposing attackers launched themselves at them, batons were wildly swung in more desperation than aimed strikes. One Officer completely missed his target and was thrown to the ground by his own momentum and made a soft target for two attackers. One landed heavily on top of the officer, thrusting his knee straight into the back of the officer’s head. His face shattered under the pressure on the cold concrete dock floor. The unfortunate officer’s second attacker dived down to the legs and immediately started tearing at his calf muscles.

              Panic was everywhere, screams from both attacker and victim reverberated around the misty ceiling. Pete cowered behind the forklift truck with his eyes shut tight and his hands over his ears to shelter himself from the nightmarish performance unfolding in front of him. He was picked out by a middle aged woman, as soon as she sprinted from the dark cage that had been her home for several weeks. He made easy pickings as the woman descended on him and sunk her canines and incisors into the top of his head. A tooth splintered off and shot out of the woman’s mouth from the impact with Pete’s skull. It pinged against the side of the forklift before dropping to the ground. The woman was not fazed and didn’t break stride as she sunk her hands under Pete’s clavicles and his shoulders snapped simultaneously to enforce her claim to her prey. Her teeth bombarded Pete’s skull with volley after volley of gnarling attack until the bone gave way and she forced her face into his brain, tearing the flesh from her own cheeks and jaw as she desperately chewed her way into Pete’s head. Pete hardly made a sound throughout and soon went limp, his arms dropping from his defensive cower.

              Jez found himself bolted to the floor, He was frozen in one horrific moment from which he saw no escape. To his back, nothing, but a cold, dark estuary and to his front the unfolding carnage of screaming monsters devouring the very people there to help them.

“I need to get out of here.” He thought to himself.

              The old man and boy zeroed in on him from the container doorway and set their take down into motion like a pair of lions, running down a gazelle. Jez suddenly found movement in his feet. He turned on the spot and ran. But there was nowhere to go except the water. It was like running in treacle, the lions gaining on their prey with every step. Jez stopped and turned as the boy glided through the air and floored Jez with a crack. His head bouncing off the dock floor.

“No time to be dazed, you go unconscious and its death.” Jez thought.

      He shook his head and started throwing wild, desperate punches at the monster child’s head with his right hand, whilst holding him at arms-length by the throat, with his left. He had only seconds before the old man would be on him and then its game over. He shifted his weight to the left and rolled over, gravity did the rest and the boy was dumped next to him, laid on the dock floor. The boy immediately started clambering to his feet to re-engage the attack. Jez clawed his way backwards on his elbows shuffling along the dock floor, his eyes fixed on his next opponent only seconds away. He jumped to his feet and let loose his best free kick toe punt in the face of the boy, knocking him spinning back down onto the ground.

              It was fight or flight time and there was only one option. Flight. Jez turned and sprinted over to the dock wall, without hesitation, launching himself into the darkness of the Thames. As the ice cold water quickly soaked into his clothes he was immediately paralyzed with cold and barely able to move, let alone swim. He bobbed to the surface just in time to see the old man running off the side of the dock into the water, his legs still running in mid-air like a Roadrunner cartoon, as he ran out of dock. A huge splash followed and the old man sunk into the darkness. Jez found a new motivation and started kicking his feet in an attempt to get himself away from the dock.

              He looked up to see the giant Princess towering over him. Curdling screams projecting from the deck high above.

“They must have got on board.” He thought to himself.

              His clothes were offering a surprising amount of buoyancy, and despite being minutes from hypothermia he was in a better place and staying afloat. Just as he was starting to feel a slight element of relief, he found himself under water and gasping for air. Something had hold of his ankle and was pulling him down. He opened his eyes but saw nothing but filthy darkness. He pulled himself into a ball and reached for his ankle. He was desperate for air, kicking out at whatever had him hooked. He screamed out the last of his air in a display of bubbles as he felt the hand of the old man grasping tightly around his ankle.

              Frantic kicking and suddenly he was momentarily free and sucking in air on the surface. Down again. The old man had a grip on his trouser leg and was reeling him in, climbing up his body, clamping his nails into Jez’s flesh as he climbed up him. Jez opened his eyes to see the old man at chest height. He forced both his hands down onto the old man’s head and pushed out. While the old man’s teeth chomped through the thick water targeting Jez chest.

“This is it. I’ve got nothing left.”

He erupted from the water like a tomahawk missile and air flowed into his lungs.

“What happened? Where did he go?”

              Jez frantically looked around for the old man, bracing himself for another attack. Suddenly the old man broke the surface. Jez desperately battered the water trying to put some distance between them. But something was different. He was bobbing on his front, face down in the water. Jez reached out and punched the old man in the back. Nothing.

“Ha, fuck you.” He said, before cursing himself for making so much noise.

              He didn’t want to draw any attention from any of those other monsters. The old man made a good float and Jez turned his attention to the massacre still unfolding on shore. He couldn’t see any of the police officers or other officials, just the silhouettes of those things kneeling over putrid carcasses. But something was different, different? How could anything be different? This wasn’t exactly the norm.

“Idiot.” Jez thought to himself.

              But no. Wait, something was….

              He released his grip on his new float and swam to the dock wall. He grabbed hold of an old tyre that formed a link in a chain placed the length of the wall, to act as a buffer for docking ships. He pulled himself up and hooked his foot into one of the tyres, so that he could just see over the dock wall.