Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) (8 page)

Alex raised his pistol and fired, but his hands were shaking.  He missed.  The eater turned towards them and moaned, chunks of meat falling from its open mouth.  It stood, lumbering towards them.  A gunshot echoed next to Alex and the eater dropped to the floor.  Micah lowered his weapon, turned away and leaned his free hand against the wall, closing his eyes and taking rapid breaths. 

“Breathe through your mouth,” Alex said.  “The smell won’t be so bad.” 

Shouts and banging sounded from farther along the corridor.  Trying not to look at the gruesome sight on the floor, Alex waited for anything else to appear.

A door marked “TOILETS” was nearby.  Micah walked straight to it and knocked.  When nothing responded, he went inside, closing the door behind him.  Alex carried on down the hallway, giving the body as wide a berth as he could, and found the room with the trapped people.  Faces smiled through the glass panel at him.  Their happiness wouldn’t last. 

“Wait there,” he told them, not lingering for a response.

He checked the rest of the floor quickly, finding no-one else uninfected.  Another office further along contained three eaters.  He left the door closed.

A woman’s scream startled him.  Alex ran back the way he’d come to find the door to the office open and the man who had spoken to them from the window out in the hallway, staring at the body. 

Make that a man’s scream. 

Micah was standing by the toilet doorway.

“I told you to wait,” Alex said to the man in the suit.  He strode forward and pushed him back into the room, stopping anyone else from coming out.

Everyone was speaking at once, panic on their faces.  The man sagged into a chair.

Alex went into cop mode as Micah entered the room behind him.  “Okay, everyone, listen up.”

Although he didn’t use it much, he had the commanding voice down pat.  There was an abrupt silence.  He looked around the little group.  Six men and five women, all dressed for a day at the office, not a day when their world would fall apart.  They were all casting nervous glances at him with his pale eyes, but he was used to that.

There was no way to sugar coat it.  “This is an outbreak.  A huge eater outbreak.  They’re everywhere...”  The questions began, stopping when Alex raised his hand.  “I don’t know what’s going on, I can just tell you what you need to do to survive, so listen.”  He stopped to make sure they were, in fact, listening.  They were, with rapt attention.  “There’s a body in the hallway.  You probably knew her.  Ignore it, you’re going to see plenty more before this is over.  When you get out of here we’re going to go back down the fire escape and you will get to your cars as quickly as you can.  Does everyone have a car?”

They all nodded.

“We car pool,” one woman said, pointing between herself and another woman before looking embarrassed.  “But you don’t need to know that.”

“Caring for the environment, that’s good,” Alex said, trying to sound encouraging.

She gave him a small smile.

“Once in your cars, you will go home.  Don’t stop.  Don’t go near any major routes out of the city.  Don’t try to leave the city, the roads will be blocked.  If anyone looks like they’ve been bitten, don’t go near them, even if you know them.  Even if they’re family.  Believe me, you can’t help them.  The only way you will survive is to barricade yourselves in somewhere and wait until help comes.”

“When will that be?” a man said.

Alex took a breath.  “Hopefully soon, but I don’t know.”

“Where are the police, the emergency services, the army?” a woman said.

“I don’t know,” Alex repeated.  “I don’t know what’s happening.  All I know is that, right now, we are all on our own.  So you need to be smart.”

“But you’re police, aren’t you?” one of the men, not screams-like-a-girl, said, pointing to Alex’s badge clipped to his belt.  “Surely you know something?”

“I don’t.  I told you, the police are gone.  My station was wiped out by eaters.  As far as I know, I’m all that’s left.”

“Well, how do we know things are as bad as you say then?” he said.  He looked at the others.  “I think eaters aren’t as dangerous as we’ve been told.  I’ve heard it’s all to scare us.  I could take one.  Maybe two.” 

He glanced at a pretty blonde nearby and puffed out his chest.  He looked like he worked out.  Probably thought going a few rounds with the punching bag made him tough.  Why was there always that one idiot? 

“Is that so?” Alex said, stepping towards him.  “Go on then, try me.”

The man acted as if he was turning away then spun around, his fist raised.  Alex saw it coming a mile away.  It was sloppy and his technique was terrible, elbow flaring out to the side, arm flailing.  Easily dodging the punch, Alex caught his fist, stopping it in mid-swing.  When he tried with the other hand Alex did the same, clamping his hands around the man’s big fists and forcing him to his knees.

“Eaters cannot be taken down by a punch,” he said.  “They don’t feel pain.  Nothing short of death will stop them.  Do the people who love you a favour and don’t go near any.  You will get killed.” 

He let go of the man’s hands and turned away, fighting the urge to scream.  He knew he was wasting his time.  They’d all be dead by tomorrow.

“You didn’t have to do that,” the blonde said.  Alex turned to see her sink to her knees beside the man, putting her arm around him.

The others began to speak, some reprimanding him, some asking him more questions he didn’t have the answers to.

“Hey!”

The attention of everyone in the room switched to Micah who was standing by the window looking out at the street.  He turned to look at them.

“We just saved your lives,” he said, “so stop complaining.  We’re leaving.  You do whatever you want.”

He marched back across the room and out into the hallway. 

Alex followed him.  “There may have been a better way for me to handle that,” he muttered as they walked back along the corridor.

“You think?  I saw a couple of eaters down the road.  They weren’t coming this way, but there may be more.”

There were gasps behind them and Alex looked back to see the people from the office filing out of the room, seeing the gutted body and the dead eater.  One by one they made their way past and ran to catch up with him and Micah.  No-one said anything until they rounded the corner and came across the body of the eater Alex had shot. 

Someone gasped, “Stan!”

When they reached the door to the fire escape, Micah stepped through, checking the alley.  “It’s clear.”

“Alright,” Alex said to the group, “once we get down there, have your keys ready, get to your cars as quickly as you can and don’t make any noise.  If any eaters appear, run.”

“What about you?”  The woman who spoke was somewhere in her fifties, petite with short, brown hair.  Alex had noticed her back in the office, calm, listening, watching.  He knew it would be people like her who would survive.

“What about us?” he said.

“Do you have a car?  How are you going to get home?”

None of the others had shown any concern at all for his or Micah’s wellbeing.  He was slightly taken aback.  “Uh, well, we had a car, but it broke down.  We’ve been walking.  If anyone’s going anywhere near East Town, we wouldn’t say no to a lift.”

No-one spoke up, whether because they weren’t going that way or they just didn’t want to give them a ride, Alex didn’t know.  He wasn’t expecting anything anyway.

The woman dug in her handbag and pulled out a set of keys, removing a car key and handing it to him.  “You take mine.  John lives near my son’s house, he can give me a lift.”  She turned to a man next to her.  “Can’t you, John?”

John’s eyes flicked from her to Alex and back again.  “Sure, Mavis.”

Mavis smiled and nodded.  “It’s the white Nissan Micra, just down to the left, on the other side of the road.  It sometimes has a bit of trouble starting, but just keep trying and it always catches in the end.”

Alex stared at the key in his hand for a moment, overwhelmed.  Random acts of kindness were something he’d come to not expect. 

“Thank you,” he said.  “Thank you, Mavis.”

“Yes,” Micah said, smiling, “thank you.”

Mavis smiled back.  Alex
really
hoped she made it.

Pushing the key into his pocket, he took a deep breath.  “Everyone ready?” 

There was a smattering of unenthusiastic nods as Micah led the way onto the fire escape. 

Once on the ground at the end of the alley, Alex peered around the corner, checking the road for movement.  Seeing none, he waved to the others and they ran past him one by one, heading for their cars.  He and Micah brought up the rear.

Alex saw Mavis’ Nissan as soon as they left the alley.  It was the only white car on the street, one of the old style Micras, the shape more boxey than the newer models.  His mother had owned a Micra, bought just after the new shape came out, so he knew that made Mavis’ car over twelve years old.  At least it was a vehicle.

They were within twenty feet of it when they heard the scream.

Alex turned to see a small group of eaters emerge from a side road beyond where the people from the office were making their way to their cars.  For a moment he thought it would be alright, that they would get there in time.  But then panic set in.  One man dropped his keys, having to go back for them.  A woman tripped on her high heels.  A few more eaters rounded the corner. 

“Oh, hell,” Alex said.  He handed the key to Micah.  “Get the car.” 

Hoping Micah wouldn’t just drive off without him, he dropped to one knee in the road and unzipped his bag, pulling out the G36.  It was unloaded and he scrabbled in the bag for a magazine, glancing up at the eaters closing in on the panicking office workers.  A handful were already in their cars.  Engines roared to life.  The first car sped past him.  Another two pulled out and turned round to get away from the oncoming menace, almost colliding as they did so.

Alex’s hand closed over the magazine he was searching for and he jammed it into the rifle, standing back up.  The first of the eaters were only ten feet from a man hurrying to get to his car.  He glanced round, saw them, and froze.

Alex took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and fired.

The first eater went down as it reached its hands for the man and Alex hoped none of its blood had reached him.  The shot seemed to bring the man to his senses.  He started to run again, reaching his car a couple of seconds later. 

Alex fired again.  Another eater, only feet away, dropped and didn’t move.

The man finally got into his car and peeled out into the street, ploughing into an eater in the process and knocking it to the ground. He pushed forward, crushing its head, and drove past Alex. 

Two more cars passed him.  He shot three more eaters in quick succession. 

Mavis was ten feet from John’s car, eaters moving to intercept her.  John was already inside, starting the engine.  He pushed open the passenger door towards her. 

“Hurry!” he screamed. 

An eater reached for her, grabbing hold of her handbag.  She shrieked, letting it go.  Alex knew she was too close for him to shoot.

“Mavis,” he yelled, “run!”

She dashed for the car, throwing herself through the open door.  As she yanked it shut, Alex pulled the trigger.  He breathed out as the eater fell.  John pulled out onto the street, stopping briefly for Mavis to grab her bag off the ground then accelerating towards Alex.  Mavis waved as they passed.  Another car followed.

More eaters were on the road now, at least twenty, all of them heading towards Alex.  He glanced back at Micah, only now noticing that Mavis’ car hadn’t started.  The engine turned over a few times and stopped.  Micah looked at him through the windscreen and shook his head.  He tried the car again.  It didn’t start.

Alex turned back towards the horde of eaters in time to see the final car pull out, zigzagging across the road as its panicked driver looked at the eaters instead of where he was going.  Alex’s eyes widened as the car headed straight at him.  He grabbed the bag and dived out of the way, crashing into a parked van as the car careered past, right where he had been standing moments before.

“
Seriously?!
” he shouted at the car’s retreating bumper.  He rubbed his shoulder where he’d collided with the van.

As the sound of its engine faded, he heard two things.  The moaning of at least a couple of dozen eaters all determined to make him dinner, and the repeated turning over of a car engine.

Scrambling to his feet, he ran back towards the white Nissan.  The engine caught and revved as he approached and he heard Micah whoop.  He jumped into the passenger seat.  The engine promptly died again.

“What?  No!” Micah said, staring at the dashboard in horror.  He looked at Alex.  “What is it with you and cars?”

“What do you mean me?  You shouldn’t have taken your foot off the accelerator.”

“I had to get into gear.”  Micah turned the key again.  All the effort produced was a few lacklustre revs. 

Alex stared out the window at the approaching eaters.  “Now would be good.”