In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

room at the back. I turned away before I crossed in, bile rising in my stomach at the thought of the mess ready to greet us. We had little choice but to climb out the ladder we’d left behind.

The mess was no greater, no worse. The picked-clean bones no brighter, no duller. The red of the carpet no more vibrant. The metallic cloud no thicker, no thinner.

With a glance to my left I saw the two bodies and an unformed question pulled me from my course to the window. Finding myself standing at the foot of the bed I looked at the couple whose ages were obscured by the thin mask of red. More questions raised themselves and pulled me around to the side of the bed, closer to where they lay as I tried to answer why they’d been killed but not eaten.

The answers didn’t come. Only more questions and Alex’s voice calling me in the background, but I couldn’t turn away to check her words. I couldn’t take my eyes from their chests when I saw movement. Only when their crystal-clear eyes opened together, pulling apart from the clasp of the dried blood and rearing towards me did I realise they weren’t dead, but weren’t human anymore either.

Instinct took control and brought the bat down heavy on their skulls, sending dried blood cracking into the air. Two solid thumps each and they were out of their misery.

The questions fighting for attention kept me removed from the deed, the loudest of which was why the creature who’d sat on the bed and attacked us, hadn’t ripped these two apart? Had I witnessed something Toni had said was impossible? Had I witnessed one of her creations making more of itself? Had I just witnessed a double birth of these terrible creatures?

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The car alarms screaming in the background reminded me I couldn’t linger on the horror. Using the tips of my toes I trod as lightly as I could through the great scarlet patch to lean out of the missing glass with my hair billowing behind me in the draft.

The last of the creatures were leaving the garden. The last of the creatures were rushing, just a little faster than their previous shambling pace, clattering and bumping to find the source of the noise.

I accepted the mini victory of the step ladder still being in place and I was on the flat roof without Alex’s offered helping hand. I took the air rifle as she climbed down and gave it back as I lifted the ladder, whilst checking all around before I placed it to the foot-flattened grass at the back. Climbing down, I peered around the corner and watched the backs of the last creatures moving toward the chorus of alarms.

Up the ladder and jumping down the other side of the fence, I watched Alex repeat the climb and balance on the wood with the thin slats bowing in and out as she took the ladder up before setting it on the other side. I flinched each time the metal gave the slightest clatter, hoping the alarms would be more than enough to mask it.

When both of us landed on the grass the other side with the ladder in hand, I couldn’t help think it was going too well. We were three houses down out of six, with three more to go and with the ladder handed into the fourth garden it wouldn’t be long before I could get what I needed; the camera equipment and hopefully the last vial of medicine.

My thoughts turned to my happy place, my posture straight as I imagined looking down the camera and telling the masses about the breaking story that would change their world forever.

As the thoughts whirled in my head in a noxious mix of emotions, the chorus of alarms turned to a pair and after a pause to check, became a single voice as I stepped off the ladder and jumped to the paving slabs the other side.

With another step, the last masking call dissipated and the world seemed to stand still.

I didn’t panic. My pulse didn’t inflate by a wide margin until Alex sat on the top of the fence; until it collapsed as she swayed with the ladder in her hand. The metal slapped down to the flagstones. The cacophony echoed like a dinner bell when Alex landed on top to send a second chorus ringing out.

I listened to the lull as the echo died, fixing my glare on Alex’s wide-eyed fright.

We were both afraid to do anything. Both afraid to rattle the aluminium call in our attempt to move. A rising fear told me we'd already done the damage and the creatures, fast and slow, would chase around the corner at any moment.

We couldn’t wait to find out. Holding my hand out for Alex, she clambered to her feet, pulling the ladder as she rose. The gentle rattle of the aluminium sounded less than I imagined but still seemed to echo in the quiet air.

We ran.

As I arrived at the next fence, I glanced along the side of the house where grotesque faces met my view as they headed our way and responded with a steady increase in their clamber to get to their meal.

With the ladder planted at the base, I climbed, but my feet slipped as they hit the first step. Swearing under my breath, I raised again, attempting more care to plant my feet with Alex’s hands fixing the metal’s shake.

Balancing on the top step, I ignored the fence, only peering with a glance over the wood before checking back along the side of the next house where the creatures were already getting within a couple of car lengths from us.

Dropping the baseball bat to the other side, I jumped and a sharp pain rose along my shin as I landed, but