Suddenly the knocking could be heard again: three firm, calm taps, the same as before.
“It's me,” Beth called out, her voice barely audible over the sound of the rain. “Please, you have to let me in!”
“Don't listen to her,” Lizzie said firmly.
“Help me!” Beth shouted, banging on the door. “They're out here! They're going to get me!”
“We can't leave her outside,” Laura said, stepping toward the door.
“She's one of them,” Lizzie replied, grabbing her by the arm.
“Says who?”
“I saw her!”
“Please,” Beth whimpered, “I don't want to die!”
“Jesus,” Laura hissed, trying to pull free from Lizzie's grip, “we can't just ignore her!”
“She's one of them,” Lizzie said again. “You have to believe me. She's just trying to get us to unlock the door so she can get in and kill us all.”
“They're coming!” Beth shouted, banging on the door again. “For the love of God, you have to let me in!”
“For the love of God?” Lizzie continued. “Does that really sound like Beth?”
“Help me!”
“We know what you are!” Lizzie shouted. “There's no point pretending, you're just wasting precious energy. We all know!”
“Dude -” Laura began.
“You need to open the door,” Beth said suddenly, her voice sounding strangely calm.
“Or what?” Lizzie shouted back at her.
“Or we'll have to find another way in.”
“Crap,” Laura whispered, turning to Lizzie. “You were right.”
Glancing at the window, Lizzie saw a black tendril reaching up and brushing against the rain-soaked glass.
“Is that her?” Laura asked.
“It's part of her,” Lizzie replied. “It's in her.”
“How long do you think you can hold out in there?” Beth continued. “A few hours? A day? A week? This is a two-week camp, so no-one's going to come looking for you, not until it's too late. You'll grow weaker and weaker, and in the meantime we'll grow stronger and stronger.”
“Oh yeah?” Lizzie replied. “How are you going to do that?”
“By going through the other cabins first. We'll rip them apart one by one. All those little bags of energy, running around and screaming. I'm sorry, we don't take any pleasure in killing, but most of us have bodies so now we just need energy. It helps us to grow and get stronger. Believe me, if you think we're powerful now, just wait until we reach adulthood. We have no choice. We have to feast.”
A moment later, glass could be heard breaking somewhere nearby, followed by the screams of people from the next cabin along. The screams continued for a few seconds, as Lizzie looked back at the others and saw the look of dread in their faces. No-one wanted to be the first to speak, to be the first to ask, but they all knew that whatever was happening in the next cabin, it was clearly horrific. Another scream rose up, gurgling for a second or two before being cut short, and then once again all that could be heard was the sound of rain.
“One down,” Beth said calmly from the other side of the door, “and just a few more to go. Every time we feed, we get stronger. We'll leave your cabin until last as a courtesy, but I promise you, by that point we'll be strong enough to rip the walls apart. I have to advise you that it would probably be less painful for you to submit yourselves now, rather than waiting until we come in there and take you. And we
will
be through your door soon.”
“Not if we get out of here first,” Lizzie replied.
“And how are you going to do that?”
“Wouldn't you like to know?”
“Me too,” Laura whispered.
“We have time to wait,” Beth continued. “Feeding doesn't need to be rushed, so it could take us several hours to get through the rest of the cabins. Take your time trying to think of a way out, but rest assured that whatever you try, we'll be waiting for you. Or...” She paused, before knocking three more times on the door. “You could always end the agony right now and just come out to meet your fate.”
“Go to hell,” Lizzie replied, taking a step back.
“My foot hurts,” Kirsty whimpered from the bed. “It's like it's throbbing.”
“We can't just sit here,” Lizzie muttered, looking around the room, hoping against hope that she might spot something that could be used against the creatures. “The longer we wait, the stronger they'll become. I saw them feeding on people, it makes them bigger, they kind of swell up and...” Pausing, she thought back to the sight of two of the creatures fighting over the corpse of a girl in the forest. “Oh God,” she whispered finally, “all those people died. All around me, they were screaming and fighting for their lives, but the creatures moved so fast in the dark. I heard the screams, I heard people begging for their lives...”
“How many made it back?” Laura asked.
“Ten, maybe.”
“And the rest?”
“Dead,” Lizzie replied. “A few of them were taken over, the rest just got eaten. Sucked dry, or whatever the hell those creatures actually do to them.” She turned to Crystal, who was standing ashen-faced by the wall. “I'm going to ask you again. What was in those waste bags?”
“I have no idea,” Crystal replied.
“Think!” Lizzie shouted, stepping over to her. “Anything you know, anything you remember, might be useful! You had those bags brought here, you have to know what was in them!”
“It was just medical waste from Leadenford Hospital.”
“They're like tumors,” Lizzie continued. “Beth said they grow inside us. Was the waste from a cancer ward?”
“I don't know,” Crystal told her, with tears in her eyes. “It was all hush-hush, there wasn't exactly any paperwork! I was just told that it was low-grade medical waste that wouldn't harm anyone. They just wanted to get rid of it without going through all the bureaucracy, that's all. Is it a crime to help someone avoid bureaucracy?”
“They went for other cancers,” Lizzie said, turning to Laura. “I saw them, in the forest when they were attacking... That girl Clare who had a brain tumor, the creature was attacking her head first. Another guy who had lung cancer, they were attacking his chest. It's like the creatures are drawn to each person's cancer first. Do you know what that means?”
“Yeah,” Laura replied, “it means they'll go for your butt.”
“It means this isn't some random attack,” Lizzie continued, ignoring her comment. “It means these things...” She paused for a moment, trying to make sense of what was happening.
“You think they eat cancer?” Laura asked finally.
“No,” Lizzie replied, “I think they
are
cancer.”
“Whatever they are,” Kirsty said, “they're gross. We have to get away from them as fast as possible!”
Lizzie turned to look at the door. “If we just walk out,” she said after a moment, “they'll kill us. We have to assume that. But if Beth, or whatever's in Beth's body, is telling the truth, most of them are busy feeding, which means there's probably only a few keeping an eye on the cabin. They're smart, but they're not all-seeing and all-powerful, and they're still not quite used to their new bodies. We just need to find a way out that they're not expecting.”
“The window?” Kirsty suggested, her voice trembling with fear.
“Not the window,” Lizzie muttered. “They'll have the window covered. We need to think about using the ceiling, or the floor.”
“If we go out the ceiling,” Laura pointed out, “we'll just be trapped on the roof.”
“Either way, we'll eventually have to make a run for it across the grass,” Lizzie replied. “I don't think we can just sneak away without being noticed. We need a plan, and we need to -”
Before she could finish, they all looked up as they heard a bumping sound on the cabin's roof, followed a moment later by another. Something was up there, moving across the roof; moments later, they heard a series of creaks, followed by a bump that this time seemed to come from under the floorboards. They all looked down for a moment.
“I think they've got us pretty well caged,” Laura said finally. “The door, the window, the ceiling and the floor... I don't think we're getting out of here without a fight.”
Lizzie turned to look at the door.
Seconds later, more screams could be heard from one of the nearby cabins. Hurrying to the window, Lizzie peered out into the rain and saw that while the nearest cabin had seemingly been emptied, the next one along was now being attacked. Beth and the creatures were making their way along the row one by one, breaking down the doors and killing whoever they found inside. As she continued to watch, Lizzie suddenly became aware of a dark tendril just inches away, creeping up the other side of the glass.
“Does anyone here know Buddhism?” Kirsty asked from the bed, with tears in her eyes. “I think I want to be a Buddhist right now. Or maybe Christianity. Which religion has the best track-record in saving people from immediate danger?”
“We're fucked,” Laura said, taking a seat on one of the other beds. “There's no way out, all we can do is sit here and wait for them to get us, like... Like sardines in a tin.” She paused. “Still, I feel pretty pumped. This is the first time for years that I haven't been exhausted. Must be the adrenalin. Silver linings, huh? I mean, if we're gonna die, at least it'll be in a way that people remember.”
For a moment, they were all silent, listening to the sound of the rain and to the screams that could be heard coming from one of the other cabins.
“Sardines in a tin are already dead,” Lizzie said finally. “We're
not
. There's a way out.”
“How?” Laura asked.
Lizzie took a step back from the window, before glancing across the cabin.
“How?” Laura asked again, with a hint of desperation in her voice. “If you know another way out, could you maybe share it with the rest of us?”
“Easy,” Lizzie replied, taking a deep breath. “We've only got one choice. We have to go out the front door.”
Behind her, more tendrils were starting to creep across the rain-battered window.
“Karen!” Freeman shouted as he tossed a couple more torches into the back of his truck. “I'm heading up there!”
Turning, he looked back across the dark parking lot as heavy rain continued to fall. He paused for a moment, waiting for his sister to reply, before realizing that there was no sign of her. After checking his phone again and seeing that the time was almost 5am, he hurried back into his apartment and looked in all the rooms before making his way out the back and stopping as, finally, he saw a dark figure kneeling by the roses at the far end of the garden.
“Karen!” he called out.
Making his way over to her, he found that she was looking down at a patch of disturbed soil, and she seemed to be mouthing something to herself, almost like a prayer. He watched for a moment, trying to make sense of the way his sister was acting.
“Did you bury that thing?” he asked.
Ignoring him, she leaned down toward the ground and placed her hands in the muddy soil.
“You're going to get ill!” he continued, taking off his waterproof jacket and draping it over her shoulders. “I told you to wait inside!”
Now that he was a little closer, he could finally hear the words that were coming from her lips. She seemed to be chanting, repeating the same phrase over and over again:
“Great Memnon, help the soul of our lost brother to reach the promised land.”
“Karen,” Freeman continued, kneeling next to her, “this has to stop.”
“You killed him,” she replied, turning to him with anger in her eyes.
“Him? Sis, that thing wasn't a him! It was an...
it
, it was a thing, it was -”
“He was the first martyr,” she continued, interrupting him. “The first to die, but... There will be others. We should have been more prepared. We underestimated your barbarity.””
Staring into his sister's eyes, Freeman couldn't help but notice her wide-eyed intensity. Karen had always been the kind of woman who rolled through life without much excitement, never really showing any enthusiasm for the world, but now she seemed to be filled with the passion of someone who truly believed in something strange and new. In their life together, he'd never seen such an expression on her face. Still, he couldn't quite bring himself to consider the obvious possibility. Not yet.
“I've loaded the truck,” he said finally, hoping to bring a hint of normality back to the conversation, “and I'm heading up to Camp Everbee. I called the police and they said they'll try to look into it, but I could tell they weren't taking me seriously, and in this weather I doubt they'll get their butts moving any time fast, so I have to go up myself and make sure everything's okay.”
“The rest of the pilgrims have left the arks,” Karen replied with a smile. “I can sense it.”
“What pilgrims?” he asked. “What arks?”
“They're already getting stronger,” she continued. “Soon they'll be coming down the mountain.”
Turning for a moment, Freeman glanced up at the dark shape of Mount Everbee, which rose high into the dark, stormy sky.
“The Great Memnon is waiting,” Karen told him. “He knows his children will fulfill his prophecies.”
He turned back to her. “Prophecies? Sis, you're sounding like you're in some kind of cult. Have you been spending too much time online?”
“It's beautiful,” she continued, reaching out and putting a hand on the side of his face, as tears ran down her cheeks. “Embrace the emergence of a new order, embrace a new -” Pausing suddenly, she began to frown, as if some deep pain was starting to trouble her mind. “Chris?” she whispered finally. “Chris, it's in my...” She leaned forward and fell against him, but he caught her in time and kept her up.
“Sis, what's wrong?” he asked. “Karen, you're starting to freak me out!”
“It's in my mind,” she whispered, leaning close to his ear. “It's too strong...”
“What is?”
“I don't know if I'll be able to hold it back much longer. This might be my last chance to say -”
He waited for her to continue, as rain fell all around them.
“To say what?” he asked finally. “Karen?”
“The Great Memnon sees all,” she replied, her voice suddenly sounding calm again. “The Great Memnon is pleased with the work of his children, and he awaits our pilgrimage to his shrine.”
Glancing down at the makeshift grave, Freeman saw that his sister had arranged a series of sticks, propping them up to form a kind of pyramid structure.
“Okay,” he said finally, “I was gonna leave you down here in my apartment, but I think maybe you oughta come with me up to the camp.”
***
“God damn this machine to hell!” he shouted a short while later, as the truck lurched to one side and came to a halt with one of its wheels submerged in a thick patch of mud. “It's supposed to be all-terrain!”
He changed gears and tried to accelerate out of the mud, before hitting reverse and trying again, but the truck merely shook for a moment as its engine struggled to get the power down.
“Wait here,” he muttered, opening the door and jumping out, only to find himself ankle-deep in a river of mud that had washed away part of the road. Wading around to the front of the truck, he shone a torch down at the wheels, only to see that the situation was hopeless: the front-left wheel was buried deep and he knew from experience that there was no way he could get the damn thing out without a tow.
Turning to look back along the road, he saw that while the storm was still raging, the first rays of dawn were starting to show in the distance.
“God Almighty,” he muttered, “I don't believe in any of that religious crap, but if by chance you
do
exist, feel free to convert me by sending down a fucking miracle.”
Hearing a noise nearby, he looked back at the truck and saw that Karen had climbed out. She was struggling to get through the mud, but finally she joined him on what was left of the road.
“The Great Memnon has sent the storm,” she said calmly. “He intends it to ease the path of his family.”
“We're almost at the camp,” Freeman explained warily, still uneasy about the blank expression in her eyes. “I figure I can carry the rest of the gear.”
“I'll come,” she replied. “I should be reunited with my brothers and sisters.”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that they are massing,” she continued, “and that the promised land is so close, I can almost feel its warmth on my face.”
“I don't feel any warmth right now,” he replied, wading around to the back of the truck and pulling the tarpaulin aside. Grabbing a couple of torches, he tied them to his belt before pulling a spade down, followed by his rifle. After tucking some cartridges into his pockets, he headed back to the road and looked up toward the camp, where a few lights could be seen beyond the distant row of trees.
“They're so close,” Karen said, making her way over to join him. “I can feel their life. The Great Memnon always promised that one day we'd emerge from the arks and find a feast waiting for us. There were times when my faith wavered, but I should have known that he was right all along. The Great Memnon knows everything.”
“You're starting to seriously freak me out,” he replied, setting off along the road. “The first thing we do when we get there is we make sure everyone's okay, and then we go and take another look at those Leadenford Hospital bags. I've got a feeling that whatever's in those damn things, it's a lot more than just some old bandages.”
“Leadenford was the genesis point,” Karen told him, keeping pace.
“And what's that supposed to mean?”
“It's where our new life began to grow. We couldn't blossom there, though. In order to blossom, we had to wait in the arks.”
Stopping, he turned to her. For a moment, he felt as if he was starting to understand: Karen wasn't herself, and the words coming from her mouth seemed completely unfamiliar, as if someone else was speaking through her. In the back of his mind, he was worried that something had managed to take control of her body, but at the same time he told herself that no matter what else was happening, there was no way this his sister could possibly be a victim. They'd been looking after each other since they were children, and the thought that something could have...
“Let's just keep going,” he said finally, turning and continuing the walk up to Camp Everbee, “and try to cut it out with all that pseudo-religious bullshit, okay? It's creeping me the hell out.” Rounding the next corner, he led Karen through the gate and past the coach, which had been parked a little way out from the main area, before heading around the side of the vehicle and stopping as he saw the cabins in the distance. Through the rain, he could just about make out several figures moving through the darkness.
“Life begins,” Karen said, stopping next to him with a broad smile on her face. “Life refuses to be held back.”