The Jonah (34 page)

And from the shadows, through the swirling dust and grain, through the drifting cobwebs caught in the screeching wind, through the torrents of rain that had found access into the building,
something began to emerge.

They sensed it was there before it came into the beam of light.

Ellie had seen Bannen’s round, staring eyes, his blistered lips turned down in a strange, contorted grimace, and had followed his gaze. A dark hunched shape stood just behind the stream of
light.

Slauden felt his body go cold. There was a sensation at the back of his neck, a clammy prickling that made him shiver spasmodically. He was aware of a crackling around his head, a sound felt
rather than heard, and he knew that every hair on his body had stiffened, become brittle. His stomach muscles had locked tight as he experienced the extremes of fear. He forced his hand to turn the
torchlight towards the scuffling shape, but the movement was slow, almost as if some part of him did not want to see what was there.

Ellie followed the beam of light, her face drained of blood, her body beginning to sink completely to the floor. A hand gripped the guardrail, but it did not have the strength to support her
weight. Her fingers opened and the arm fell limply to her side.

The light moved across a stout, wooden beam and then touched something just beyond.

None of them could utter a sound, for the shock was too intense.

Ellie felt hot fluid jet from between her legs.

Slauden felt a whiteness sweep through him, a whiteness that blanked out his mind and threatened to send him into unconsciousness.

Bannen’s throat rasped as his mouth opened and closed and he tried to scream.

The hunched figure moved and the light shone fully on it.

Its skin was scaly, dried and cracked in some places, ravaged and torn in others. In parts the flesh was completely open and tiny things scuttled among the red meat and sinew. It was almost bent
double, one withered, claw-like hand with fingernails dangling a few inches from the floor; the other arm had no hand, just a knotted bunching of bone and flesh at the elbow, a mangled stump that
looked raw and gangrenous. Both legs were twisted and deformed, one foot no more than a stubby flat shape with no toes, no shaping of an ankle; the knee joint of the other leg was bulbous, the
thigh above thin and wasted. Shadow covered the groin area because of its hunched stance, but dark hair reached down between its legs from waist-level, curling over its thighs like tiny legs of
spiders. The skin across its shoulders was puckered and scarred, and huge lumps like angry boils covered the flesh. Its spine arched upwards from its back, the bone uncovered at several points, the
skin around it moulded in as though it had grown that way.

Its head, which sat low on its shoulders, seeming almost to protrude from its chest, was covered with strands of wispy hair, long so that it hung around its face, but sparse so that the mottled
scalp could be clearly seen.

Its face was the most hideous part.

Much of it was missing.

Black veins were exposed, but no skin or flesh grew around them; they hung against the bones of its jaw and cheek.

Brown stumps of teeth were visible, the gums they were embedded in yellow and glistening. A drooling substance dripped from its half-formed chin.

Holes punctured its other cheek as though small creatures had gorged their way through, and occasionally something wet and shiny jutted from the larger of the openings; it was its tongue,
lolling around the cavity of its mouth, pressing through like a worm in the earth seeking moisture from above, for they could see its movement behind the stumps of teeth.

The nose came directly from what there was of the upper lip and this, too, was no more than a stump. There were no nostrils.

Its forehead was large and curving, descending in a broad triangle towards the misshapen nose; the skin appeared to be flaky, powdery, barely attached to the bone beneath. The one ear they could
see was just a curled piece of gristle.

There were no eyebrows, no lashes. Its eyes projected from red-rimmed sockets like dull black marbles, for they had no irises and almost no whites.

A fetid smell of corruption emanated from the creature as it shuffled forward. It seemed to be watching the two men in the grain bin.

Bannen released Kelso, who thankfully drew his head from the grain, coughing and gasping for air. Bannen backed away, his feet kicking against the loose particles. He was at the centre of the
huge circle when the grain moved inwards and he began to sink.

Somewhere deep below, the floodwaters had forced open the silo chutes so that the grain from the bins poured through separate funnels onto the motionless conveyor-belt.

Kelso felt the movement and immediately realized what was happening. He grabbed for the metal rim nearby. Bannen was in a less fortunate position. He cried out for help as his legs were sucked
down. Grain immediately avalanched inwards around him.

‘Help me!’ he screamed. ‘Please, please help me!’

His arms scrabbled outwards as though he were trying to swim, but it just seemed to hasten his descent. One hand touched Kelso’s outstretched foot and his fingers closed around it in
desperation, Kelso felt the tugging and slid backwards; he clung to the edge of the silo and tried to pull himself back up.

Bannen’s grasp slipped from Kelso’s foot and with a despairing scream he sank further into the quicksand of grain. Soon his shoulders were covered and his hands beat at the air to
ward off the falling particles.

Kelso managed to pull himself onto the container’s lip and he looked back in time to see Bannen’s head sinking beneath the grain, his screams suddenly choked off, two grasping hands
remaining, slowly going down, clutching at the air, until they, too, had disappeared.

Kelso grabbed the guardrail and hung there, too shocked to move. Even as he watched, the shifting of the grain slowed, its centre filling again until the surface merely dipped towards the
middle.

‘Oh, God, no,’ Kelso groaned. Bannen’s body had become wedged in the funnel end of the container, the tons of grain bearing down on him prevented from flowing out. The sea
water had not drowned him, but the grain had.

Kelso slid over the railing and fell in a heap beside the prostrate body of Ellie. He looked at her and was barely able to raise a hand to touch her cheek.

‘Ellie . . .’ he said.

He looked curiously at her staring, terrified eyes and then turned to see what had caused her to be so transfixed. His body went rigid. His eyes widened. Revulsion swept through him.

Then the shock passed and there was something more in his expression. The deformed monster was silently watching him and, for a moment, the terrible cacophony of wrenching wind and rushing water
seemed to abate; it could have been only in their minds, the horror of the sight before them closing out all other aspects from their consciousness. Ellie managed to force her gaze away and looked
towards Kelso. Consternation mixed with her fear; was it pity on his face?

‘Jim?’ Her voice shook. ‘What . . . is it?’

He did not seem to hear.

‘Jim!’ Ellie tugged at his arm.

Kelso turned his head towards her, but there was no recognition.

‘Jim!’ Ellie screeched, and her hands beat weakly at his chest.

His expression changed, the cloudiness left his eyes, and he knew her once more.

She pulled closer to him and her hand clutched his coat collar. ‘What is it? Please tell me, Jim!’

His mouth opened, but she wasn’t sure of his words. ‘Tell me!’ Ellie urged, for somehow she knew there was a link between this creature and Kelso.

Kelso spoke quietly, his words slow and forced, and this time she heard, but could not believe.

‘It’s . . . my . . . twin,’ he said.

The roaring returned. The wind blew at their hair, tugged at their clothes. Rain splattered against their skin with renewed vigour. Ellie stared at Kelso, oblivious to everything else. Then she
turned her head towards the creature.

Its black, malformed eyes were watching her.

It tried to stand erect, but could not. The twisted, misshapen body lurched forward and spittle flowed from its hideous mouth. It came forward towards the two figures lying against the
guardrail, one side of its mutilated body reflecting bright light from the torchbeam, the other side in deep shadow. Its eyes never left the girl.

Ellie looked pleadingly at Kelso, but he had withdrawn into himself, his eyes wide and staring, but his face expressionless. She shook him once more and called out his name, but there was no
response. Ellie drew away from him, her head shaking in a gesture of disbelief, tears of panic, bewilderment, adding to the dampness of her face. She crawled away, wanting to find some dark recess
to curl up in, to escape from the approaching monstrosity, to hide away from the malignancy that was part of Kelso.

She dragged herself along the rough floorboards and could not take her eyes from the lurching thing. It was near Kelso now, but still advancing on her. She felt her strength failing, her muscles
becoming weak as though an immense pressure was bearing down on her. She lay there on her side, trying to make herself move, trying to make herself scream to release the hysteria that locked her
body rigid. She could only raise a trembling hand to shut out the sight of the mutant.

The sharp blasts that rang out caused her body to jerk violently and her hand dropped reflexively to her mouth. Fresh nausea swept through her as the creature turned towards the source of light,
for more of its body was exposed to the glare. Ellie’s stomach heaved when she saw the two long, distended breasts, their flesh cross-thatched with dark veins and sores. The nipples were red
and pointed, almost like tiny fingers protruding from the softer mounds.

Ellie finally screamed and vomit poured from her when something thudded into the creature’s face, tearing away the protuberance that was its nose. But the deformed figure hardly flinched
and no blood flowed from the wound. It made no sound as it moved towards the torchlight.

The gunshots had shaken Kelso from his cataleptic state; his first thoughts were for Ellie and he wildly looked around for her. Another shot rang out and the bullet smashed into the stump of the
creature’s arm. Pieces of bone shattered outwards and a thick tendril of flesh swung freely, but the hump-backed figure did not seem to feel any pain. It continued to shuffle forward.

Suddenly, the torch was dropped and the light vanished. As Kelso tried to see into the black void, he heard scuffling sounds, someone running, moaning noises that resembled the whimperings of a
trapped animal. He made himself move, crawling in the direction of the girl.

She heard him coming and tried to get away. His hand had closed around her outstretched leg before she had the chance.

‘Ellie, it’s me.’

She hesitated, then he was holding her, pulling her face close to his own, and she knew she had been mistaken; the creature was no part of him. She wiped the sickness from her lips and tried to
speak, but it was still too soon – no words would come.

Someone screamed, a demented howl that joined the wind, and they knew it was Slauden. Shapes in the darkness slowly became visible, but only a gunflash and its simultaneous roar helped them
locate the fleeing figure. He was near the end of the long room, his back against the wall. They had briefly seen the hunch-backed shape silhouetted in the swift burst of light; it was only a few
yards away from Slauden.

Now Slauden had moved towards the far window and they could see him against the lighter patch in the general darkness, beating against the panes, trying to force a way out. Glass shattered, but
it was a futile effort; the window-frames were never meant to be opened. He turned to face the thing that was reaching out for him with one withered hand and one mutilated stump. He screamed. And
screamed. And screamed.

The explosive collapse of the wall behind and the floor beneath him saved Slauden from the nightmare, but its sanctuary was death.

Kelso and Ellie cowered away from the sudden fiery brightness and their heads reeled with the roar. The floor heaved upwards and they clung to each other, sure that the floorboards would break
up and they would fall through.

The wall at the far end fell away, the old bricks torn apart by the explosion that had come from below. Large sections of the floor at that end disappeared too and, through the dust and smoke,
Kelso saw the far grain bin begin to topple, the grinding, tearing sound just another element of the madness sweeping through the feed mill. It vanished into the night like the sinking funnel of a
lost ship.

Small fires had started in the rafters and beams of the old building, but the pounding rain did not allow them to spread. The storm rushed in, for now there was nothing at all to hinder it, and
they were blinded by its force.

Kelso stirred himself; he shouted at Ellie, but the explosion had momentarily deafened both of them. He began to drag her limp body towards the stairwell. He tried to stand and pull her to her
feet, but the effort was too much; he sank to his knees and cradled her in his arms.

Ellie’s fingers dug into his wrists and he winced at the sharp pain. Then he saw why she had squeezed him.

Through the swirling smoke and the pelting rain, through the shadows that were now disturbed by the weak flickering of dying flames, came the bent, black shape of the creature that Kelso had
called ‘twin’.

Ellie staggered to her feet and tried to run, for the mutant wanted her. There was no reasoning behind Ellie’s fear, only instinctive knowledge. Her legs were too tired, her spirit too
drained, for her to get far. She fell against a heavy rising beam and lay there, fingernails digging deep into the rotting wood, sobs racking her beaten body. She felt, rather than saw, the
misshapen shadow loom over her, and her senses began to spin. It was hopeless; the creature wanted her dead because she had become part of Kelso’s life. Ellie understood, but did not know how
she understood.