One (Alone Book 3) Read online

  Aksel smiled as he played the security footage back on his computer console, he had managed to steal the tapes before the real security ‘team’ of the facility could get wind of what was on it. Well he had to really the rebel who had gone off with the doctor’s daughter worked in security so there was a chance more rebels did and he couldn’t have them all knowing about this, as they could possibly prepare for her arrival and make it so this place would fall. Aksel watched as her ‘Astral projection’ as he researched in a book and now called it appeared on the monitor, she looked a little shocked but spoke to Candice and Kian.

  “Can you see me?” “I need your help”, the girl stated.

  “What kind of help?”

  “I need to get to where you are now, I need to get to the place with the never ending snow, I need to stop the infection, I need to find the cure”.

  “H…H…How do you know about the cure?”

  “I don’t really, all I know is that I need to get there to help, to fix something, I get bits and pieces that’s all”.

  “Where are you?” Candice asked.

  “Tonbridge in England”, the girl replied.

  “How are you doing this? How are you…Communicating with us?” Kian asked.

  The girl shrugged, “I don’t think you would believe me if I told you, let’s just leave it that I need your help”.

  Candice turned to Kian, “Will the helicopter make it that far?”

  He nodded, “It should do, depends on how much fuel Fernandez put in it”.

  “You have to try”, the girl stated.

  Aksel watched it one more time, focusing on the flickering image of the girl. The communications room had no power so he knew it wasn’t a digital breakthrough from the British side, plus they had been one of the worst places hit, although now most of the world had fallen just like Britain had, so he knew it was her brain power, her astral self. This made his heart skip a beat, would he become the first scientist to discover this phenomena and be able to prove it? In the new world once it was ready he would record it all in the new history books, making sure people would remember his name.

  Turning off the console and leaving his home he wondered through the town and through to where his lab, the big main lab was situated, once inside he locked the door and then flicked the switch to turn on all the lights and incubators. Smiling to himself as he had one specially reserved for her when she arrived and a few others for if she had friends with her, as they would come in handy for future works. Extremely handy indeed. And the rebel, he was sure he would continue to be handy. He laughed to himself at the pun, how the rebel would be handy, the rebel who had no hand… Life was good…

  ~

  Kian watched Stacie from a distance, her body working and moving as if on auto pilot. They had just gone to collect the others to say the shopping centre was safe when a huge horde of creatures had appeared from the direction they had come from, causing them all to take refuge inside. Stacie had barricaded the main doors to stop the horde from getting in, but it wouldn’t take them long to somehow find a way, there was just so many of them.

  He sighed thinking back to how their luck was changing and running out. They had given Ollie a small funeral service along with Mac who had been retrieve by Stacie herself. They had said their goodbyes before cremating them both in a car together. Kaley had stayed silent since then pretty much, only talking when needed. Kirsty was different, chattering all about Mac and how they met, things they shared in common and how they had planned to settle down once they got back or found somewhere new to live. Kian couldn’t help but feel sadness inside at how naïve they had been to think they could just go back home.

  They had raided the shops that had anything still in them, they found some food but not a lot, Stacie prising it into Kaley’s mouth and then to Cain’s, “We need to keep you two alive and well”.

  No one argued, Stacie looked different, a madness in her unstable eyes. Even Kian could feel it, her depression, anxiety and madness taking over her body and making her strange.

  After resting for an hour or so they all heard the huge smash of the barricade giving way and the screech and wails of all the creatures coming in and baying for their blood. Stacie was up and had everyone moving, racing to the outside where they came face to face with a bigger problem.

  “This is ridiculous”, Dwayne said puffing and panting, “We need another plan of action”.

  There was also a big a horde of creatures outside of the other end of the shopping centre than what was chasing them on the inside, they were surrounded.

  “Like what?” Kirsty asked.

  “Stacie any ideas?” Dwayne asked.

  But something wasn’t right, her head was shaking from side to side like she was trying to force something out of her mind, “Go away”, she mumbled, “You’re not even here”.

  Kian tapped her shoulder, “Stacie, you ok?”

  But she didn’t look at him, “You’re not even here”.

  Kaley came up to her and looked into her eyes, she took her head in her hands, “Stacie it’s me Kaley can you hear me?”

  “Why are you back?” She hissed, “Why?”

  Kaley looked down to her shoes and kicked a lone pebble away, “We need to go”.

  “What about her?” Kian asked.

  “She will find us when she is ready”, Kaley sighed.

  “We can’t leave her”, Cain sobbed from Lara’s side.

  Kaley knelt down to his level, “Cain, something is wrong in her mind at the moment, she can’t hear us and I can’t get in to see why. She has…blocked me. I think it’s grief”, she sobbed but tried to stay strong, “but we need to leave”.

  “But how? There are too many of them, how can we get past?” Lara asked.

  “We aim and shoot”, she stated holding up Ollie’s shotgun.

  “We can’t leave her”, Cain said again.

  “If we don’t she could hurt us”, Kaley told him, “She isn’t Stacie at the moment, she is the creature inside. We need to go…She will find us”.

  “We can’t leave her alone with all that lot coming”, Dwayne added.

  “She can take care of herself”, Kaley told him bluntly.

  “What, whilst she’s like this?” Kian said as Stacie still muttered to herself, “I don’t think so, she needs to come with us, she needs our help”.

  “She won’t, not now, she can’t hear us. Her mind has gone but it will return and she will find us”.

  “How can you be so sure?” Kian asked.

  “I just…know…Like I did…”

  “With Ollie?” Lara asked, “You knew about Ollie before it happened?”

  Kaley nodded, “I wanted to change it and I tried. That’s why I chose that hotel because when I saw it before it was at a different building a few streets back. It happened differently…in a way…still the same creature but slower…”

  “Kaley I’m so sorry you had to see it, twice”, Lara said.

  Kaley nodded, “I’ll be fine, I’ll be with him soon enough”.

  “Wait, what?” Dwayne said, “I thought you was the saviour of the world?”

  “I am, but even saviours have to die right?”

  He couldn’t answer back to that one but he knew she was right, everyone had to die, they would all die whether it be sooner or later.

  “GO AWAY”, Stacie screamed clawing at her head, her finger nails leaving marks down her cheeks.

  Kian looked at her, then behind her as he saw all the creatures coming this way, there had to be at least fifty of them, “We need to leave, Stacie can you hear me? We need to leave”.

  “GO AWAY, LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU’RE NOT HERE”.

  Kaley pulled at his arm, “She will come back to us, just not tonight”.

  Kian took hold of Cain’s hand, “I will take care of you till she comes back”.

  Cain nodded trying to sound strong, “Don’t worry, she will, she always does, even if I don’t want to leave her”.

 
Kian took one last look at her as the first creature approached, it stuck out its withered, haggard, flesh devoid hand and she snapped, howling into the night and tearing it clean off. She wasn’t Stacie right now, she was a monster and the bloodlust had seeped through into her veins and she couldn’t come back from it. He watched from a distance now as they moved, her body working and moving in autopilot, slicing and dicing, blood and gore glittering around her in the moonlit sky.

  “I will look after him”, he whispered into the night air hoping she would hear it.

  Chapter Eleven…

  The streets were filled with noise as we left the shopping centre, even the shopping centre had been filled with the voices that called to me. Many voices, all at once calling out to me, I knew who they were, Ollie, Monique, Callum, Sian, Albi and everyone else who I let down over the years. But there was one, one that really stood out from the crowd, one that couldn’t be here with me, one I thought might be the only one to forgive me because I had tried to make up for it over the years by keeping ‘him’ safe.

  “Hello little sister, well isn’t this just marvellous. Another one dead because you failed”.

  “Go away…You’re not even here”.

  “Oh but I am Stacie, I’ve always been with you, by your side watching you fail everyone you care about, watching everyone die by your mistakes, watching and waiting for when you would see me”.

  “You’re not even here”.

  “Yes I am”.

  “Why are you back? Why?”

  “Look behind you”.

  So I did and I saw the army of the damned coming, coming for the people I cared about.

  “I’m going to enjoy watching you fail and those creatures tearing them all apart, my creatures”.

  “GO AWAY. GO AWAY, YOU’RE NOT HERE”.

  “I AM HERE, I’VE BEEN HERE ALL ALONG, WATCHING IN YOUR DREAMS, WAITING IN THE DARKNESS, WATCHING YOU KILL THEM ALL!”

  A hand tugged at my sleeve and I turned coming face to face with her she had moved into my view, “Hello little sister, wanna play”.

  Tanya’s gleaming eyes bored deep down into mine, her perfect face full of amusement and anger at me, until the flesh started to fall form her skull, her hair decaying and dropping to the floor, her eyes changing to full on rage and anger, her teeth snapping together trying to bite down on me. I twisted my hand and ripped her hand clean off before spinning and round kicking her in the stomach, she flew backwards and landed on the floor wailing and howling, her remaining hand out stretched trying to reach me. Dodging her hand I then kicked down hard on her skull so my foot crushed it, blood and brains raining out through the cracks.

  As she died the face changed and I saw it wasn’t her, it was another creature, one that had once been male.

  “Tut, tut, tut, little Stacie killing another innocent soul”.

  “It was a creature, they would want to be dead and out of this world”.

  “It was a man, a hungry beggar, not a creature and not a monster…You’re the monster”.

  “Are you deluded, this is not a human anymore Tanya, it’s a threat, a monster, a...”

  “Zombie?”

  “No not a Zombie, a creature, they are still…Alive”.

  “Then it is not me who is deluded, it is you”, she said staggering towards me, as she did her arm decayed and fell off from the shoulder and splatted to the floor in a puddle from the rain that had fallen.

  “ARGH!” I screamed charging at her and pushing her over, she fell back hitting her head on the corner of an old cars bonnet. Blood sprayed out drenching the faded paintwork and repainting it red. The body crumpled to the floor and I noticed this one was not Tanya either, she was using them to hide from me. “Where are you?” I called out.

  “I’m here with you, like I always have been”.

  “You haven’t, you’re lying”.

  “You have the cheek to call me a liar? You are the one that failed to keep your promises, you let me down, you let everyone down”.

  “I didn’t mean to, I try my hardest to keep my promises to people”.

  “Really, then what about little Cain? My son, your nephew. You have brought him out here to his death. You have gone, in your mind now and he will be all alone without you and even if you had made it he would have died anyway. Kaley made sure of that”.

  “No Kaley is trying to change things”, I cried out.

  “Liar, liars, you all lie”, and she appeared out of the shadows, from behind a building, her long dark glossy hair fluming out behind her like a cloak. Then she ran at me, wielding what looked like a knife of some sort. I moved and dodged her blow, she grunted and howled like an animal and swung her arm, she let go of the blade which rippled in the air towards me. I ducked and skidded on my knees to the floor tearing my jeans and skin on the tarmac but it saved my head, just. As I looked up I spotted a bone fragment lodged in the wall above my head it had been a trick of the moonlight, it hadn’t been a knife at all. Turning to her I could see she had a collection of bones that she held like daggers, launching another attack she raced towards me, picking up speed and swiping her arm at an angle, I didn’t move in time and a sharp pain engulfed my arm as the bone sliced a wound open, my blood trickled down my arm to my hand. For a moment I was mesmerised by it, until I heard the licks and sucking noises. Coming back into reality I found it to be a decomposing creature sucking at my blood from the floor, disgusted I stabbed it in the head with my claws and screamed, “Where are you now!”

  She laughed but I couldn’t see her, all I could see were loads of creatures.

  “I have brought a few of my friends to play with you Stacie, I think they would like to dance”, she cackled which wasn’t a normal sound to come from her normal and gentle personality.

  “So be it, you can watch them die”, I laughed back.

  “Oh is that a threat?”

  “A promise”.

  “Well let’s watch you break it”, she taunted me as I swung my clawed hand up and ripping it into the face of the nearest creature, blood showered down around me as my claws left its face and it fell to the floor.

  “I don’t break my promises”, I hissed.

  “You always break them”, she laughed. She was sitting on top of a cars roof watching me intently.

  “Then you do not really know me”.

  “And you do not really know me…I have done things Stacie, things that I am not proud of”, her voice wavered for a second and as I looked at her, her image changed to that of the Tanya I had seen at the Big Guns camp, her hair short, choppy and seemed to be cut by a razor, no longer glossy or full but dank and lifeless, like her eyes that bored into mine.

  Another Creature lunged at me and I kicked it back into a load of its friends, I then jumped over the fallen ones and stabbed them all in the head and sliced the back of their necks to sever the spinal cord. She howled in anger and moved sprinting towards me, her arm caught my cheek and I flew backwards on the ground landing in a puddle of luke warm blood. She clawed at me from above, trying desperately to gauge my eyes out, I placed a hand on her chest and let my claws retract and then commanded them back out, I caught her at the right angle and the claw stabbed into her chest cavity. She hissed in pain and reared back falling over some of the dead but she didn’t go down, not fully. She tried to get back up swinging her arm at me again but I was ready and sliced her head clean off. It rolled over the tarmac and stopped when someone’s boot stopped it.

  “You got good at this didn’t you Stacie? Killing people”.

  “So did you”, I cursed at her and ran, her boot kicked the bodiless head at me but I swatted it away and punched her right in the jaw, it disconnected and crumpled to nothing.

  “Ra, argh”, the creature now in front of me gargled and blood poured from its chin. I punched it again and watched it fold in on itself.

  “Come on my friends, take her down, she is nothing”, Tanya shouted, cheering on the monster army before me.

  Feeling the
anger that my own sister, my own flesh and blood could want this for me I went into a rage and tore into the few nearest me, tearing their throats out from their necks, slashing their heads to nothing, chopping until they could no longer move. The rain of blood continued to fall until I knew I was no longer human looking but I didn’t care, I licked my lips and tasted the tainted copper tone of infected blood but mine too was already infected so I didn’t care. All I cared about was … Cain … Kaley …Kian …Lara …the others….

  “Come on”, I shouted as more approached me from behind a building, all staggering to that same god awful dance that only the creatures have. Their eyes none blinking to the unhearing beat, the wails and moans singing the chorus into the night sky, “Come on!”

  “Get her”, Tanya shrieked.

  They lunged but so did I my arms moving and slashing to a rhythm of my own beat, I sang my own song of a war cry as I danced between all the rotting and stinking bodies. My legs gliding gracefully through the mush of blood, guts, bones and raw bloody body tissue. My legs kicking into the nearest ones sending them sprawling, my arms connecting and colliding with the ones behind them as they tripped over their fallen dancers, their liquid movements failing them and mine were more fluid in motion than theirs. I tore at some, their bodies ripping in half, blood bursting over the tarmac, limbs cast aside like rag dolls. More and more came charging and wailing at me, howling like animals to the moon but I was in charge of the moon and the sun, I was the greatest goddamn creature alive. I was… “Stacie!”

  “Stacie?” Her voice echoed my name as I cut, kicked, tore and bit, “Stacie stop this isn’t you”.

  “This was what you wanted Tanya, this is what you wanted me to do all along wasn’t it, you wanted me to become this killer, this monster, this thing”, I shouted to her. I could hear her voice calling to me but I couldn’t see her, my vision faded by the red bloody plasma that covered my whole body, covering my blinking eyes and falling from my eye lashes then my hands…I looked down at my hands…the blood was radiating from them, they were the most dangerous weapons the world had ever seen and they were mine.