sprang up – cutting me off from them. I looked over towards Dennis, but he was on the floor as well, swimming in a pool of his own blood. I thought about a tourniquet, but he’d already lost so much… and where would I take him, even if I got him out? Wasn’t like I could pop him round to the nearest A&E department, get them to stitch him up and pump some plasma into him. The twitching stopped at that point anyway, the last throes of death done with. I didn’t – and still don’t really – know who was better off, me or him. Me or Carrie, or Rakesh.
The fire continued to spread, running along with the river of spirits and setting light to any wood it could find, eating it up like a greedy mongrel after scraps. Cutting off my way to the cellar doors, to the street, and leaving only one exit route. Up and out through the door that led to the pub, the one Dennis had used to escape the chaos up there in the first place. I stepped over the body, tried not to look at the others that were being consumed by flames. That cellar was like what had happened in miniature – how everything had been okay one minute, then turned to shit the next. And once again I was climbing to get away from an all-consuming fire.
I was about halfway up the steps, looking over my shoulder, when a figure flew at me out of those flames. Too small to be Rakesh, it had to be Jane – the girl a human torch, clothes burning up on her. But she showed no signs of being in pain, just driven to attack; the same drive that had started all this in the first place. Remarkably, she also still had the scissors in her grasp, ready to do more damage. With her free hand, though, she caught my calf – pitching me onto the stairs. Jane brought down the scissors, and if I hadn’t rolled over to face her they would have gone straight into me – SKIN or no SKIN. As it was, the blades got stuck in the wood of the steps, giving me time to kick out, and knock her back. Oddly, her current state made it easier to fight her – she was looking less and less like the girl Carrie had cared for. Less and less human as I struggled to scramble away. That said, I still couldn’t bring myself to shoot her – so instead I struck her at the temple with the butt of the rifle and watched her tumble down the steps, rolling and rolling to meet the fire once more.
I flipped back over, half-crawling and half-stumbling up towards the door. Luckily, Dennis had left the key in the lock, so I turned it and practically fell out through the doorway into the pub, slamming the door behind me and locking it again from that side. I tossed away the key and leant against the door.
There was a bang from the other side that made me jump, but it wasn’t enough to break down the barrier – Jane didn’t have the strength for that. I couldn’t just stand there and listen as the thumps grew weaker and weaker, though; I needed to be away from that place. Be on my way somewhere… anywhere. The whole pub would go up eventually anyway.
I hadn’t even thought about whether there might still be any of the affected upstairs. It had been a little while since we’d heard anyone up there, but that didn’t mean a thing; they could have just been standing, staring into space for all I knew. Thankfully, it was completely deserted – just the dead that had met their end in the initial event Dennis had described, including the charred remains of the barmaid and the guy in the suit, the foam from the fire extinguisher having hardened over them here and there. It seemed pretty pointless now, not just because they’d been dead or dying when Dennis did it, but because fire would still claim this whole building soon.
As I picked my way through the bar area, I did my best to ignore the other sights, keeping the Heckler & Koch up and ready for any trouble. I reached the window and saw that it was still daylight outside; I’d sort of lost track of the time, of the days down there, because it was always dark
The fire continued to spread, running along with the river of spirits and setting light to any wood it could find, eating it up like a greedy mongrel after scraps. Cutting off my way to the cellar doors, to the street, and leaving only one exit route. Up and out through the door that led to the pub, the one Dennis had used to escape the chaos up there in the first place. I stepped over the body, tried not to look at the others that were being consumed by flames. That cellar was like what had happened in miniature – how everything had been okay one minute, then turned to shit the next. And once again I was climbing to get away from an all-consuming fire.
I was about halfway up the steps, looking over my shoulder, when a figure flew at me out of those flames. Too small to be Rakesh, it had to be Jane – the girl a human torch, clothes burning up on her. But she showed no signs of being in pain, just driven to attack; the same drive that had started all this in the first place. Remarkably, she also still had the scissors in her grasp, ready to do more damage. With her free hand, though, she caught my calf – pitching me onto the stairs. Jane brought down the scissors, and if I hadn’t rolled over to face her they would have gone straight into me – SKIN or no SKIN. As it was, the blades got stuck in the wood of the steps, giving me time to kick out, and knock her back. Oddly, her current state made it easier to fight her – she was looking less and less like the girl Carrie had cared for. Less and less human as I struggled to scramble away. That said, I still couldn’t bring myself to shoot her – so instead I struck her at the temple with the butt of the rifle and watched her tumble down the steps, rolling and rolling to meet the fire once more.
I flipped back over, half-crawling and half-stumbling up towards the door. Luckily, Dennis had left the key in the lock, so I turned it and practically fell out through the doorway into the pub, slamming the door behind me and locking it again from that side. I tossed away the key and leant against the door.
There was a bang from the other side that made me jump, but it wasn’t enough to break down the barrier – Jane didn’t have the strength for that. I couldn’t just stand there and listen as the thumps grew weaker and weaker, though; I needed to be away from that place. Be on my way somewhere… anywhere. The whole pub would go up eventually anyway.
I hadn’t even thought about whether there might still be any of the affected upstairs. It had been a little while since we’d heard anyone up there, but that didn’t mean a thing; they could have just been standing, staring into space for all I knew. Thankfully, it was completely deserted – just the dead that had met their end in the initial event Dennis had described, including the charred remains of the barmaid and the guy in the suit, the foam from the fire extinguisher having hardened over them here and there. It seemed pretty pointless now, not just because they’d been dead or dying when Dennis did it, but because fire would still claim this whole building soon.
As I picked my way through the bar area, I did my best to ignore the other sights, keeping the Heckler & Koch up and ready for any trouble. I reached the window and saw that it was still daylight outside; I’d sort of lost track of the time, of the days down there, because it was always dark
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