The Last Magician

Trapped

Kurt retraced his steps along the aisle, his eyes intent on the gloom he backed away from.

The sounds continued unabated. He didn’t know how many there were, he didn’t want to know what they were, but it seemed they had not detected his or Jack’s presences.

His foot struck a rock and for a moment he staggered before regaining his balance on the broken floor.

It seemed an eternity since Jack had freed him from the police cell, but just for a moment Kurt wished he was back there, safe and contained against the horrors that were abundant in the outside world.

“Jack? Are you there?”

“I’m here,” Jack hissed from beyond the shelves. “Keep going. You’re almost at the end of the aisle.”

“Any idea what they are?”

“Nope. Feel free to nip back down and take a look.”

Kurt almost laughed despite his pounding heart and charging pulse. He was always the one with the wisecracks but for once he was happy to hear someone else break the tension. The images of what clicked and crawled nearby had dried up his humour glands.

“How much further?” he asked.

He waited for a reply that did not come.

“Jack?”

Still nothing.

He opened his mouth, struggling to control an urgent sense of panic, when a hand clamped over his mouth and pulled him back a step.

Kurt twisted his neck to find Jack standing behind him. Jack held a finger to his lips, then removed his hand.

“What the fuck was that for?” Kurt said. “Christ!”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t have shouted if I’d just spoken or tapped your shoulder?”

“Maybe. Give me the chance to the find out next time though. By the way, how much firepower do you have with that?”

“Not as much as I’d like,” Jack said, looking at the rifle. “Not enough to start popping shots at an infestation though.”

“Is that what it is?”

“Well it’s not just a slug this time.”

“Well, that’s great. Can we get out of here now before they smell us, or sense us, or whatever the hell they do?”

“Careful as you go. They obviously don’t know we’re here so– ”

The howl echoed through the broken stones and shelves.

“Shit!” Kurt shouted, instantly regretting it.

Jack spun around, the rifle swinging in search of a target.

The howl faded and a chilling, expectant silence descended.

Kurt exchanged a guilty glance with Jack, who had turned back to the gloom of the aisle.

They waited, breathing shallow, listening to the deafening still.

Then the sound of scuttling began again, and immediately it moved closer.

“Come on,” Jack shouted, turning on his heels. “We don’t need to be careful anymore. Just get out!”

Kurt was already moving away, turning back towards the way they had come.

“What happens when we get outside?” he asked. “They’re just going to follow us.”

“I know,” Jack said. “I know.”

They moved with haste, dancing by debris and avoiding the cracks in the broken floor. The clicking feet continued to move behind them, but they did not seem to be closing the distance.

“We didn’t come in this way,” Jack said suddenly.

“What?”

“We didn’t come in down this aisle. I don’t remember seeing those cans, or the sacks over there.”

“One pile of cans looks like another doesn’t it?” Kurt said. “maybe you just– ”

His word were cut off as his foot tangled up in something soft and he crashed to the floor.

Jack stopped running and turned back towards Kurt. He took a step forward then paused again. He lifted his foot from the peculiarly soft surface that felt no more like stone than their pursuers sounded like a flock of sheep.

He stepped back from the partially obscured arm, a strangely vacant sense of dread enveloping his thoughts and tightening around his gut.

He leant over and quickly threw aside one of the empty sacks.

“Fuck,” Kurt said, clambering away from the arm that had tripped him.

The man rested against the shelves, arms and legs strewn out like those of a rag doll. He had been stripped, his naked body discoloured, bruised. He had been beaten, to a pulp in many places, and although they may not have been the cause of his death but it had certainly contributed.

“Where the hell did he come from?” Kurt asked, pulling himself off the floor.

Jack scanned the floor nearby. “Not him. Them.”

He moved another sack, revealing a second body, this time female.

“There’s another one next to you,” Jack said.

Kurt stepped away from the sack beside him.

“I’m not in any hurry to see any more dead people, thanks,” he said. “I’ll take your word for it. Still doesn’t answer the question though. How did they end up in here?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I’m more worried about how they ended up dead.”

“Not to point out the obvious, but I don’t really give a fuck considering we’re going to end up the same if we don’t move.”

Jack didn’t need to be reminded of the scuttling creatures seeking them out. As much as he wanted to know more about the corpses at their feet, he knew they couldn’t linger.

“Ok,” he said. “I think someone did this though. Someone, not something.”

“You know you’re really topping my bill right now,” Kurt said, pushing past Jack and heading down the aisle.

“This isn’t the way we came in though, “ Jack reminded him.

Kurt turned to reply, but another voice cut him off.

“Jack! Jack, where are you?”

“Amanda,” Jack said, quietly, then louder, “Amanda! Get out!”

“I need you to help us. There’s something wrong with Dylan and there are things out here. Something’s coming!”

Jack was already moving along the aisle, once again taking the lead from Kurt.

“You can’t bring him in here,” Jack shouted, the need to remain quiet no longer a priority. “There’s things in here too. Get back out.”

He rounded the corner to find Amanda already inside, an unconscious Dylan hanging by his armpits as she attempted to drag him further inside.

“Jack I don’t know what happened,” Amanda said when she saw him, her words flowing in a frantic torrent. “ He was fine then suddenly he started talking weird and this voice came out of him. It said there were wolves prowling and something howled and …and...”

Jack put an arm around her, pulling her into him while Kurt took Dylan’s weight.

“It ‘s fine,” Jack said. “It’s fine. You’ve done nothing wrong. At least we’re all together now.”

“Yes,” Kurt said, struggling to lift Dylan into a comfortable position. “We’re all together in deep shit.”

“That doesn’t help,” Jack snapped. “Maybe we can still get out before these wolves or whatever they are come. Come on.”

“No, we can’t just run out there,” Amanda said, pulling back on his arm. “It…I know it can’t be safe out there.”

“Because Dylan said so,” Jack said. “I know, but he didn’t say they were right outside did he?”

“He didn’t need to!” Amanda said. “I heard them.”

“It’s ok, we did too,” Kurt said. “We weren’t the only ones either. Now would anyone mind if we did something? Anything, you know. Just something other than standing here waiting to be eaten would be good. And he’s not exactly light either.”

“I didn’t complain about dragging him I here,” Amanda commented.

Jack moved between them, heading for the opening in the wall. “Save the tit-for-tat until later.”

He looked out through the gap in the wall, being careful not to reveal himself to anything stalking the building.

Nothing stirred in the world. He scanned the road and the distance beyond, up the small incline to the row of houses they had walked from, over to the right where the dishevelled police station remained only just standing.

Jack stretched a little further, aware of the urgency on him to make a decision.

The howl came from far too close.

Jack stumbled back from the opening, not waiting to see how this world had changed what he knew a wolf should look like.

“Oh my God that was close, “ Amanda said. “ They’re coming aren’t they?”

The sounds of the predators within were as frighteningly close as those without.

Their options had been narrowed to nothing.

Jack found himself looking around the small area in which they stood, searching for some hidden doorway or mystic portal to appear as an escape route.

Miracles weren’t abundant in the world though. If only they had more time, Jack knew he could work something out.

Time, however, was almost up.

For a breath Jack stared distantly at nothing.

Then he had it.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing Amanda and heading back into the store. “We need to be quick.”