Dean Carter - Blood Water

The hand on his throat came as a complete surprise. The crushing power was simply terrifying. He tried to choke out a question, but could do nothing but splutter as he was forced round. Looking into the strange glazed eyes, he tried desperately to escape from the powerful hold. He tried kicking and punching, but this had little effect on his attacker. Waites was sure that James intended to kill him, and that could only mean one thing: somehow the creature had got inside him. Waves of colour swam across his vision and he felt light-headed, but just as he thought he might black out, a strange look came over James’s face and he loosened his grip.

Waites broke free and staggered away, nearly falling as his damaged ankle gave way.

‘Where is it… ?’ James said impatiently: he was looking at the ground as if trying to remember something. ‘Let me see… Let me see where they are.’

‘ They ?’ Waites asked, confused.

But the creature was concentrating hard; it spat in frustration. ‘You will show me… Or I will find out for myself.’ The thing that was James looked up, then turned and marched out of the room, apparently forgetting Waites was even there.

Waites breathed out in relief and limped after it, wondering how he was going to get that thing out of the boy if there was no more salt water.

Sean was halfway along the first-floor corridor when he saw his brother dart into Holland’s room. Hearing furniture being overturned, he came up behind James and saw a mess of papers and books on the bed.

‘What are you looking for?’ he asked.

There was a pause as James straightened and turned to him. ‘We don’t have much time. Waites has that thing inside him. He’s going to come and try to find out where the others are. We have to stop him or there could be thousands of these things on the loose.’

‘Oh my God. It’s in him ?’ Sean was aghast. ‘Well, we have to get it out!’

‘There’s no time. We have a bigger problem. We have to find the others.’

‘There are more of them? No… ’ Sean couldn’t believe it. This thing wasn’t a single monster, like in horror films. This was one of many, a plague; if the others were just as dangerous, there was no hope for anyone. ‘So what do we do?’

‘Look through this stuff. See if you can find anything that mentions more of them. There must be something. If we can find it, he can.’

‘What about Holland’s computer?’

‘No good – the hard drive’s been destroyed.’

‘He destroyed his hard drive?’

‘No, I did.’

‘Why?’

‘It had what we’re looking for on it.’

Sean sifted through the papers, some typed, some written in an almost illegible hand. He became aware of approaching footsteps and tapped his brother on the shoulder. ‘He’s coming.’

James looked up at him, then at the doorway. ‘Get back,’ he said, picking up a table lamp and holding it up, ready to strike the teacher when he walked in.

The footsteps slowed and Sean could tell that Waites was waiting near the door, no doubt aware of them. He looked across at James, whose face was suddenly twisted with hatred.

Then Waites walked in, and everything happened too quickly.

Waites saw Sean first; he was just forming words when James swung the lamp at his head, sending him to the floor. Sean noticed deep red marks on the teacher’s neck – the man looked half dead.

James leaped on the teacher’s prone body and started punching him, his teeth clenched, spittle flying. Sean couldn’t believe it was his brother. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Waites struggled and tried to shake James off, screaming all the while for Sean to help him, to stop his brother.

‘It’s in him, Sean! Get him off me – it’s in him !’

And all at once things were worse, far worse. Sean was stuck between action and inaction. Part of him wanted to push his brother off the struggling teacher; the other wanted to do nothing and let his brother destroy the creature and the unfortunate body it still possessed. But it didn’t make sense. The teacher couldn’t move, and the thing inside him would surely have tried to jump into James’s body by now. And James had struck him on the head: that was the weak spot, but Waites was still conscious.

‘No!’ Sean charged forward into his brother so that he rolled off Waites and onto the floor. He helped the teacher to his feet, praying he had made the right decision.

‘Sean,’ Waites said. ‘We need to restrain him and get that thing out.’

But the creature had already guessed their plan: James was on his feet in seconds. ‘It’s too late… I know where they are.’ He turned and ran towards the stairs.

‘No!’ Sean screamed, suddenly realizing that his brother was indeed infected.

‘Damn it!’ Waites groaned, rubbing his battered head.

‘No!’ Sean screamed again in disbelief. ‘He… He said something about you looking for the others. Lots of them. It must have been looking for them itself though. We’ve got to get it out of him,’ he said, following his brother. ‘We have to get it out of him now!’

‘We will, don’t worry,’ Waites replied. ‘If it finds the others, we’re finished. We’re all finished. Come on.’

Downstairs the creature made its way past the lecture theatre and the laboratories towards the front entrance. It only vaguely registered the figure that had once been the headmaster of Orchard Wells High School. Its new body was good. Young, more agile than the others. Strong too. More importantly, the young man’s memory had the information it required. He knew where the others were and could picture their location.

It had taken a while to get the information – the boy had been blocking it somehow, but eventually, as the creature had made itself at home, the barriers had come down, and it was allowed access to everything he knew. It could barely contain its excitement. On its own it would only ever be able to jump from host to host. With others of its kind, it could spread throughout the world, using up the humans until there were none left. But there were millions of human beings – it had learned this much. It would take a long time to use them all up. Such fun. And even though it would all come to an end at some point, it would be worth it for the experience, for the education. It would be better than floating around in a pool of water for thousands of years. Lost in its thoughts, it suddenly allowed its host to stumble and fall on his knees, but it didn’t mind. In fact it was laughing.

Sean had to help Waites down the stairs: he’d not only been bitten and half strangled, he’d also been bashed on the head. However, they walked as fast as they could – if they lost the creature’s trail then all hope would be gone. They were passing Morrow’s office when they heard the front door slam.

‘He must have gone out the front,’ Waites said, hobbling along. ‘Come on, before we lose him.’

Hurrying into the reception area, they opened the front door and peered out into the night.

At first they saw nothing in the dark and the rain. Then Sean noticed something moving along the track leading to the road. James was running down the bank towards the car.

‘What’s he doing?’ Waites asked. ‘He’ll never get that thing started again – it’s finished.’

‘He’s after something,’ Sean replied. ‘Maybe a torch.’

‘There’s one in the glove box. That means we’ll need one too.’

‘I saw one in Morrow’s office,’ Sean said. ‘A big metal one. I’ll go and get it.’

‘OK – be quick though. I’ll keep an eye on your brother.’

‘Right…’ Sean hesitated. ‘Are we going to… Will we have time to get it out of him? I don’t—’