hellspawn - Part 13

PART 13

Original prompt, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

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Daniel looked to William who seemed irked by this, who appointed him leader of the day? “Well?” The man with the shotgun asked insistently. William seemed speechless so Daniel had to step in front of him, it would be impossible to pee his pants right now he had done all the pants pissing back at the camp.

“We erm… we were out camping and we erm…” Daniel couldn’t think of the words to say, he would never believe him. Isabella spoke up as the shotgun man seemed impatient, the woman stood beside him had a pistol pointed to them as well.

“We were attacked.” Isabella said confidently. This seemed to pique the interest of the man and the woman who whispered something to each other.

“By what?” the woman asked. That was a good question Isabella thought, what exactly had attacked them? How can she tell them something she doesn’t know?

“We don’t know.” She simply said. There wasn’t any other way to tell them. The man and woman both looked to each other.

“Describe it.” The man said.

“What?” Isabella replied.

“Describe the thing that attacked you.” This made her curious, she never said their attacker wasn’t human.

“How do you know it’s a thing and not a who?”

“Just answer the question.” Isabella decided to stop asking the questions, she was the one with a shotgun pointed at her head.

“It was… some kind of monster, it was black… and it was on fire, it had red eyes and 6 legs.” The man and woman put their weapons down, the tension in the room eased heavily. Daniel, William and Isabella all sighed relief and were surprised to see the man shaking their hands.

“I’m Patrick.” He said to them, “and this is Julie, my wife.” He said gesturing to the woman. “Is there any more of you?” It was surprising how he went from aggressive to calm so quickly.

“Yes.” Isabella felt a pinch of guilt for forgetting already. “I mean, there was.”

“How many?” Patrick was now searching his house, he found mystery compartments you would have never thought existed and they had provisions inside them. Food, ammo, weapons.

“There was 10 of us.” This made him stop, he looked at all 3 of them. “I’m sorry, we’ve all lost loved ones.” Patrick didn’t actually know for certain if his family was dead, but it was most likely.

“You mean this is happening everywhere else?” Daniel asked, William had been very quiet this entire time, he probably didn’t care enough after the death of Sophia. Julie had walked up to Isabella and was now comforting her after hearing about all her friends being killed.

“Yes, as far as we know.” Patrick seemed very distracted, like their company wasn’t welcome.

“We’ll get out of your way soon, we just need to get our things and then we’ll head to the city. Maybe we’ll find some help there.” Daniel tried to sound confident, he didn’t want to piss this man off any more than they already had.

“No, you’re staying here.” Was all Patrick said.

“What? Why? You want us to stay here? But…” What was he saying? They had intruded on this man’s home and now he wants them to stay?

“There are thousands of those things out there.” Patrick seemed to go into a stupor then snapped back to reality. “You wouldn’t survive a couple of hours, let alone a day.” Daniel couldn’t believe what he was being told, if one of those things did what it did and if there really was thousands out there… is everyone else dead? Julie was sat on the sofa with Isabella now and was making everyone cups of tea.

“How did you escape? Did you come from the city?” Daniel asked, he had so many questions.

“Yes.” Patrick replied, he paused again as he remembered. “We got out due to dumb luck, and because we never stopped moving.” Suddenly he looked like an epiphany came to him. “Where did you go camping?” he asked insistently.

“That lake is just a few miles up the road, your place was the first place we came across it was dark and we…” Daniel got cut off as Patrick marched up to him.

“Did that thing follow you? Did you get here unseen?!”

“We… we don’t know we just… drove here and…” Patrick seemed very aggravated. “Yes, I think so.”

“You think?! That lake is only 10 miles away it could have easily followed you here.” Patricks face was turning visibly red with anger, perhaps they wouldn’t be allowed to stay after all.

“I’m getting a beer.” William suddenly said as he walked out to the jeep, seconds later he walked back in with a cooler and a can of beer. Patrick walked off in a hurry down the hallway, he lifted a plug socket off the wall revealing a small lever which he pulled down. The wall next to him slid away revealing a secret doorway to a vault door. He typed in a code on the number pad next to it which made several clicking noises. Grabbing the vault door spoke handles patrick spun it opening the door to a stairway down below. Everyone but Julie looked on in surprise.

“That was there this whole time?” Daniel looked dumbfounded with Isabella behind him looking over his shoulder.

“If anything attacks us we run down here, ok?” He told them, they all nodded. They followed him down the stairs and through another less secure door into an open space, it was another living area with a sofa and a TV. There was another 3 doorways leading away from the main area. “What we have down here.” Patrick started and looked at them sternly. “Is enough supplies to last 2 people 10 years, so split evenly between the 5 of us I would say 3 or so years. IF we ration it.” They walked through a doorway to a massive room stockpiled with lots of different food, tins and candy bars and anything else that would last as long as you don’t expose it to air. They all walked around gawking at the shelves filled to the brim with food.

“How long did this take you? This is amazing!” Isabella shouted in excitement.

“A few years, I came here every chance I could. This whole thing was a little project of mine I worked on since I built this place 15 years ago.”

“Yeah, it got more love than me sometimes.” Julie joked, her face went from smiling to miserable in a split second to which Daniel shot a curious look at. She seemed suddenly distracted with something.

“Are you ok?” Daniel asked her. She jumped when he spoke to her and put on a fake smile.

“Yeah yeah sorry, got a little bit distracted for a second there.” She laughed nervously before following Patrick out of the pantry and through another door.

“And here we have beds, it was only ever intended for 2 people but now we are 5 we can work it out I’m sure.” Isabella felt guilty when he said that.

“I’m sorry for intruding on you like this, we can leave if it’s too much of a problem I…” Patrick interrupted her.

“Go look at our car, we parked it just down the road a little.” he gestured back to the stairs.

“I…”

“Go on, go look” He insisted. Everyone walked out of the bunker and outside to their car just down the road from the jeep. They looked at it in shock, it was covered in blood and different pieces of human.

“Did you run someone over?” William asked, he seemed enthusiastic about it.

“No, that was just from driving in the city. The streets are covered in blood and human pieces, it is enough to make anyone wish they were dead, it’s also infested with swarms of those things.” He pointed inside the house. “In there is a steel bunker, there is food, there is water. There is heat. Everything you will ever need is in there. The entire bunker is lined with steel and nothing is going to get in if we can help it, you’re much better off here than out there, so you stay here.” He started walking back up to the house then looked back at them “But you’re welcome to leave if you wish.” William, Daniel and Isabella all looked at each other.

“We’re good, we’ll stay here.” Said Isabella. They all made their way back into the house.

“Keep that door closed behind you at all times.” Patrick said to Isabella who was the last one in. She walked up to close it.

“What’s in the last room?” William asked as Isabella closed the door. Just as she did there was a knock at the door. Everyone fell silent and stared, nobody dared to say anything out loud.

“Who else is with you?” Patrick asked Daniel.

“Nobody, everyone else is dead.” He replied just as there was another couple of knocks on the wall away from the door. Everyone looked on hesitantly.

“Oh no no no, not the knocking again” Julie had her hands over her ears and her head was down. Two more knocks on the opposite wall.

“Who is it?” Isabella whispered to Julie who just kept repeating the word ‘no’. Two more knocks, they were getting closer to the back door. Patrick grabbed the shotgun and holstered a pistol. William was in view of the back door when whatever was outside knocked on it. The door slowly opened accompanied by a wooden creaking noise.

“Oh… shit.” William said, just before his throat got ripped out by a set of black flaming claws.

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Hope you enjoyed it and come back later for Part 14 :)