Creature

Will arrived home tired and dirty, he had just got off work, he was a builder by trade and was relieved to be home after another hard day of work.

They lived in a white weather boarded house with a red tin roof in a nice neighborhood of Prospect, it was a three bedroom house and the inside had all been renovated, new kitchen new bathroom , all very modern, with an array of the little lights that lit the house up really well.

“Is that you hon” Came Elaine's voice from the lounge as Will walked through the front door.

“Yeah It's me” Will replied and shut the door and walked into the lounge to see Elaine sitting on the brown suede sofa, he bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek then straightened and said:

“How are you?”

“Pretty good and you?” said Elaine looking beautiful dressed in pajamas and her long blond hair tied back in pony tail.

“Yeah alright, I'm just going to go have a shower”

“Alright, I'll put the kettle on”



It was a rather uneventful night for Will and Elaine, Will took their dog max for a walk, they had dinner and watched TV then Will played games on the computer while Elaine read her book. After that they went to bed and had sex then went to sleep.

Later that night Will got up to go to the toilet, he walked into the second bathroom beside there room and turned the light on, he walked over to the toilet and lifted the seat up, that's when he noticed a little black flash come from inside the toilet and into the lip of the bowl, he relieved himself and thought to himself that was a bit strange, at the time he just thought he was seeing things so he went to bed. Later that night will woke to the sound of water splashing in the toilet then he realized he was paralyzed but his eyes where open, he tried to scream but nothing came out, he then noticed something crawling up his pillow towards his head, he tried to move to escape it, but couldn't move, it was as though there was some dark ghost standing on the bed behind him holding him in their spell. The thing crawled closer and Will noticed it looked like a black slug, like a leech, the slug crawled up to Wills mouth and Will fell back asleep.

Later that night Will woke up feeling horribly sick and rushed to the toilet and spewed his guts up. He spewed three times, on the fourth time he spewed up a cancerous looking growth about the size of a computer mouse. Will looked down into the bowl and saw the growth, it was flesh color with little fleshy veins growing out of it. Will was utterly horrified by the growth and pictured little leech like slug babies growing in it, and he quickly flushed it down. He went back into the room and woke Elaine up and said:

“I just spewed up some chunk of flesh, I feel sick as a dog”

“What, you spewed up what?”

“I don't know what it was, it looked like some kind of cancer, and before I spewed, some slug creature crawled up to my mouth, I think it was laying babies in me”

“What?, Ok well I'll get dressed, were taking you straight in”

“Ok” Will said, then feeling another bout of sickness he went back into the bathroom and continued spewing. This time Will noticed that the spew was a green slime, Will started picturing something still inside him and the green slime was its feces.

“Ok I'm ready” Elaine said coming into the bathroom wearing blue jeans and a brown turtle necked top and a blue scarf.

“I’ve just got to get dressed” Came Wills exhausted voice

Will went into the closet barely able to straighten himself, he put on some olive cargo pants and a plain black hooded jacket and they drove their blue Nissan Skyline to the hospital with some gangster rap playing on the radio quietly.



The waiting room wasn't busy luckily, and Will didn't have to wait long to see a doctor. The doctor was of Asian appearance and had a blue vest on and wore round rim glasses, he walked  over to us and said:

“So what's up”

Will replied:” I've been spewing up all night and I spewed up some kind of growth”

“Oh ok, do you still have the growth” the doctor said sounding surprised.

“No I flushed it down”

“Ok well tell me about this growth?”

I explained the growth to the doctor and he said that I'd need some blood tests and a bed, and I was brought to a bed that had a curtain divider and the nurses took some blood.

“Why didn't you tell him about the slug that crawled up your pillow?” Elaine said

“I don't want to come across crazy, I mean it does sound crazy that some slug creature laid eggs in my stomach , doesn't it”

“So, they need every bit of information, you should have told them”

“You know what they do to people they think crazy, they chuck them in the mental ward, and  fuck'd if I'm going in there”

“I’m sure they won’t think you’re crazy, I don’t”

“Your my girlfriend of course you’re going to believe me”

Will and Elaine sat in silence for forty minutes then the doctor came in and said:

“It appears you've got an appendicitis and I'm recommending surgery, and as for this growth you spewed up, I've got no idea what it could be, are you sure it wasn't just a lump of peanut butter or some other food, food chunks can sometimes be mistaken for something ominous”

“Well I suppose it could be” Will lied not wanting to sound like a crazy man, but Will knew it wasn't some chunk of food this was something living, something horrible.

“I'm going to order some antibiotics in the form of a drip, then in the morning you'll see a surgeon about getting your pancreas out OK”.

“OK”

The doctor walked away, then a few minutes later a nurse came in and handed Will a hospital gown and told him to put it on. The nurse walked out of the room and slid the curtain across then Will began taking his clothes off,.

“Woo hoo sexy man” Elaine said

Will then made a little strip tease out of it singing some cabaret music and dancing provocatively, then put on his Hospital gown. Will then climbed back into bed and about five minutes after that the nurse came back in and put Will on three bags of drip and for the rest of the night Will could taste the saline solution in his mouth.

It was a couple hours later when I overheard the nurses say we got another one and by that they meant another Ghost slug victim. I overheard four more people come in with the same symptoms and talking about the Ghost slug, Pretty soon all the beds were filled by Ghost slug victims but none of them had kept the cancerous growth that came out but they all talked about having it come out.

“See I'm not crazy, all those people who came in are Ghost slug victims too”

“Are they” Elaine said looking up at me from her phone.

“I overheard them talking about the same symptoms as me” Will said.

“Fuck me dead, it's like some kind of invasion or something”

Then I heard a male voice say loudly:

“This one kept it”

And a lady walked past briskly, holding a little  plastic bag in one hand, I assumed it was the same growth that I had spewed up, only the person who spewed this one up had kept it.

A couple more hours past and I could hear people arguing and shouting in the waiting room.

“You should go see what's going on” Will said curiously.

Elaine got up and walked out to the waiting room doors, she looked out of the little door windows, the waiting room was filled with people, there must have been about a hundred people crammed into a waiting room that normally would only hold 20 or 30 people. Elaine went up to the nurses’ station and said:

“What's going on, why is there so many people out there?”

“It's this ghost slug thing apparently there’s been some kind of epidemic, we've had about fifty people with the same symptoms come in so far, we've had to turn most of them away, why don't you go back into the waiting room and watch it on the TV.

Elaine went out into the waiting room and shuffled through the crowd to get a good view of the TV.

There was a news cast and the presenter said:

“We've had accounts of overflowing hospitals throughout the country, apparently all the victims of the plague have all had the same symptoms and many have spewed up what they’re calling the growth, we have one of the victims of the ghost slug to talk to us:”

The scene cut to a man standing in a street the reporter said: “So Edward tells us about what happened tonight” “

The man told the exact same account of the dark figure holding them and the black flash in the toilet and the growth he had spewed up. Then it cut to a reporter outside of  a hospital which Elaine recognized as our own. The reporter spoke over the camera pointing to a large crowd of people outside of Emergency some off them were spewing in the rock garden that lined the outside of the Emergency department while  most of the others sat on the ground holding their stomachs. It was like some kind of movie, Elaine couldn't think straight she just stood there amongst the moaning and the people spewing into spew bags and watched the TV. They did a count of all the people effected around the country and it is in tens of thousands. And they got reports of the Epidemic being in other countries as well such as the U.S. And the U.K. The reporter said.

“Elaine!” Came a females voice from the front desk and Elaine looked around as though coming out of a trance.

“Your boyfriend wants you”

“Oh OK” said Elaine and shuffled back through the people to the doors and was buzzed in, but as she walked through the doors somebody pushed into her back knocking her to the ground, Will grabbed and ripped his drip out at this sound and came rushing out and picked Elaine up and stood in front of her while the crazed man in his twenties screamed:

“GET THIS SHIT OUTA ME, NOW!”

He was wearing Black slacks and a red sports jumper, he  started throwing chairs about in a fit of rage, he was soon tackled to the ground by some police officers that had been in the other room, the man was then taken off the property kicking and screaming.

Will and Elaine went back to Will's bed and Will climbed in and the nurse came in shortly after that and put the drip back in. Another couple hours passed and it was morning, the surgeon came in  and Will signed the legal document to begin the surgery. Will was brought up to a room on the sixth floor and shortly after that he was brought into the room to begin surgery. They put the smelly gas on Wills mouth and told him to count backwards from ten, seconds later he was out.



2



Will woke up high as a kite in the recovery room and  started singing some merry song for some reason. The doctor made sure Will was alright then wheeled him out of the room and down the hall and was brought to a room with four  older people who looked in there 60's 70's, two men and one woman, the room was dimly lit and Will heard the radio get turned on and off a couple times. The nurse told Will not to get out of bed as he would fall over, and he believed her as he felt pretty weird, he felt like sleeping but couldn't and he had trouble holding his eyes open,. Elaine said:

“How you feeling babe?”

“Fine just a little sleepy” Will replied.

Elaine said: “It didn't take long I was expecting it to take longer”

“Well I wouldn't know, I was out to it”

“Well duh, doe's it hurt”

“Nope can't feel a thing”

“You’re a tough nut aren’t ya, they said they would bring some breakfast soon, you hungry?”

“Yeah a little”

The nurse came in with a jug of water and two cups a few minutes later. I drank a glass down and sat the glass onto the bedside table. The nurse then took my obs and left the room.

Will started a conversation with Elaine about there family when from down the hall beside his room, came the screaming of a woman and another scream that sounded kind of like a pig, there was a ruckus, then the pig like scream sounded as though it was coming down the hallway towards Wills room, some more women screamed and there was the sound of people running away. Elaine went up to the door of the room and looked through the window, there was silence.

“What is it?” Will whispered

“I don't know I can't see anything” Elaine whispered back

Elaine was knocked over by something, Will immediately Scrambled out of bed but just fell to the floor in a heap, he turned his head to see Elaine struggling with some naked thing that had a big head, the creature held Elaine down and  was trying to bite her face with its huge mouth that housed rows of teeth like a sharks mouth, the old lady that was in the room was screaming while the other two old men just sat there with their mouths open. The creature hissed and squealed and struggled with Elaine, Will felt helpless then he noticed one of the glasses had fell of the bedside table and had broken into a sharp spike.

“Elaine!” Will shouted and with all his strength threw the broken glass at Elaine. Elaine grabbed the broken glass from beside her and started stabbing the creature in its fat hairless head, on the third stab the creature stiffened up and fell onto the floor having a fit.

Elaine stood above the creature with bloody hands holding the broken glass in her hand wondering if it was dead, she then started stabbing it furiously. After ten seconds of stabbing the creature had stopped convulsing and Elaine was covered in blood.

“It's dead babe, stop” Will said managing to get himself into a sitting position against the wall

Elaine seemed to snap out of something then let go of the broken glass and dropped it on the floor, then stood up and walked out into the hall and screamed:

“It's dead!!, I killed it”

Then walked back into the room and crouched on her feet in the fetal position in front of will, her blood covered arms folded on her knees, she sat there shivering and breathing heavy.

Will said:

“Elaine”

Elaine just started into space and said nothing still shivering.

“Elaine!” Will said a little louder.

Elaine got on her hands and knees and crawled over to Will, then curled up into a ball next to Will and put her head on his shoulder. A few minutes passed and the nurses returned and a doctor came into the room and stared at the dead creature that was sprawled over the floor in a pool of blood. The doctor told some of the nurses to put the creature on a bed. Two nurses came into the room and picked up the six foot tall creature with some effort and plonked it on the bed , the doctor then wheeled it away.

One of the nurses, a young pretty Asian then came over to me and said:

“Are you guys alright?”

“Yes I think so, My girlfriends a little shaken though, she just killed that thing”

“I know I  saw the whole thing from the hallway. Lisa can you come and help me put Will back into his bed” The nurse said to another.

The two nurses managed to lift me back into the bed and Elaine sat on the chair beside the bed.

The other older nurse with short hair said:

“You’re a hero Elaine, that creature killed three doctors  before it ran down the stairwell to this level and you got him” the older nurse then told the younger one to go get a mop out of the cleaning room and clean this blood up, then went back to the nurses’ station. The younger black haired Asian nurse left the room.

“I’ve got to wash my hands” Elaine said and got up and went to the Bathroom on the other side of the room.

Elaine came back out a minute later with her jumper sleeves rolled up hands clean although there was still blood on her jumper and Jeans.

“What the fuck was that thing”  said a fat balding old man who was in the bed opposite.

“I don’t know but it’s dead now” Will said.

Half an hour later a man came in with a trolley of food and handed Will his breakfast which he shared with Elaine. It was Poached eggs and toast and some wheetbix with milk. After breakfast the older female short haired nurse came in and said Will should be able to get up and move around now. So Will carefully climbed out of bed and found himself a little woozy but managed to stand ok.

“I’m just going to the toilet” Will said and he walked slowly to the toilet and shut the door, he needed to pee and had to sit down as the Hospital gown made it hard to stand and do it. Will did his business then turned on the tap and began washing his hands, then a saw a black flash come out of the tap and disappear somewhere. Will panicked and rushed out the door back to the bed and said:

“We have to go now, I just saw another Ghost slug” and he pulled the curtain around the bed then started putting on his clothes in a drugged panic”

Elaine just sat there staring into space. There was the crackle of machine gun fire in the distance.

“Is that gun fire” Elaine said

“I think it was” Will said then collected his wallet phone and keys then said:

“Ok let’s go”

“Ok” Elaine replied.

They walked out into the hallway there was a big lady on the phone in the nurse’s station, sounded like she was talking to police. They headed for the door and passed a couple nurses that looked overtired.

“I’m feeling sleepy you’ll have to drive” Elaine said yawning.

They left the hospital through the sliding doors and walked out to the Car park it was a beautiful spring day  a few clouds dotted the blue sky and the air had a nice fresh smell.



On the drive home they heard more gun fire coming from a house that had a police car parked at it, Will nearly crashed his car looking at the house.

When they got home Elaine went straight into the lounge room and turned the TV on while will stood in the hallway thinking.

The TV presenter was talking to man who claimed to be an expert in the super natural, he explained the ghost slug as something that will enter the body and then try to build a body out of your own cells then once it has a functioning body it will leave the body in quite a violent manner. They gave a graphic violence warning saying it is quite disturbing. The footage was blurred out and Elaine could hear somebody screaming in pain, then there was a horrible squelching sound and the blurred screen came clear and it freeze framed on a short, hairless, creature with rows of sharp teeth on its oversized head, in the picture the creature starred at the camera looking sort of angry. The expert went on saying that the picture you can see is the creature in it’s birth state and that by eating meat it can increase its size to that of a full grown man.

Will went into the lounge room and looked at Elaine laying back in one of the brown arm chairs, he said:

“I’m going down to the supermarket, do you want to come or are you going to wait here?”

“I think I’ll wait here, what are you getting?”

“We need some duct tape, I’m going to tape up everything that water comes out of and the drains so we’ll be ghost slug proof”

“Ok”

“You should have a shower and wash that blood off, while I’m gone”

“Ok”

“And call all of our family and tell them to seal there taps and drains and toilet too”

“Ok”

Elaine said and just started back at the TV. Will looked at her for a heartbeat thinking to himself I can’t lose you.

Will jumped into the car and drove it toward the supermarket, on the way he noticed two ambulances drive past sirens flashing, and on the way down George town road hill he noticed about five cop cars parked at a house, it seemed shit was going down all over the city.

Will pulled up the car in the supermarket car park, he noticed it wasn’t very busy, only about five cars in the car park, he parked the car and got out. He noticed two people a man in his forties kind of fat and wore an old dirty light blue baseball cap and a thinner woman with ash blond hair about the same age, she wore a light green track suite, It looked like they were hiding from something, Will walked over to them and said:

“What are you two hiding from”

“Shoosh up” Came a loud whisper from the man, the man then whispered:

“There’s one of those monsters they’ve been talking about on TV in the supermarket, it killed two kids, and just started eating them”

Will glanced at the supermarket doors, then back at the couple

“Have you called the police?”

“Of course we fucken have, they said they’d send someone , but that was an hour ago”

Will took another glance at the supermarket doors the said:

“Is there anybody still inside?”

“I don’t know” said the man.

Will glanced back at the couple and said: “Why don’t you guys just go home?”

“My wife left her bag in there with the keys in it, our house keys and car keys are both in that chain, we can’t get in our house without it”

A police car drove into the car park and came up to us and stopped, a tall middle aged police man stepped out of the car , he had blood stains on his blue police T-shirt and the smell of gunpowder came from him.

“You’ve got a ghost slug creature here have you?”

The fat man replied:” Yeah it was eating people when we ran out here”

“Ok you three wait here, I’ll take care of this” The cop said then upholstered his gun and walked toward the glass doors,  gun in one had pointed in front of him.

About 20 seconds after the cop went through the sliding doors there was the faint sound gun fire, about 15 shots , he must of emptied a whole clip Will thought to himself.

A couple minutes later the police officer walked out of the sliding doors and back towards his car. Will noticed he had blood splatters all over him as he came toward him.

When the cop came nearer he said:

“It’s dead, you can go in there now, feel free to take what you need”

The cop then sat in the patrol car, door open, then got some tissues out of the glove box and started wiping the blood off of his face and arms.

“How many of them have you killed” Will said to the cop.

“This is my second, but we’ve had about twenty case city wide of these creatures killing and eating people, and we’ve lost three officers in the process”

A voice came over the police radio:” Lieutenant Goudy report”

The cop picked up the hand set and said:

“Lieutenant Goudy here, I just got another one of those creatures, just waiting on orders”

“We have another report of a possible creature”

The lady voice gave the address and the cop shut the car door, started the car and drove away speedily.

“I’m going babe, you wait here in case there’s more of them, and if you see one run as fast as you can” the fat man said and began walking toward the entrance. Will followed, and as soon as he stepped through the doors of the shopping center he noticed how empty and quiet it was. Will and the man both walked across the center floor and into the supermarket, Will noticed the smell of blood and gunpowder in the air, the pair went their own ways. Will went to look for duct tape and found it at the other side of the store. He went and grabbed a shopping bag then came back to the tape then filled the bag, then he went to another isle and grabbed a ten liter water container.

He stopped on the way out the store and decided to go look at the creature to make sure it was dead.

He found it’s corps alongside the meat isle, there was empty packets of meat strewn about the place around the muscular tall creature, this one must have been about seven foot tall and it had bullet holes all through it’s huge round head, it’s eye’s looked like sharks eyes and it had meat all through its teeth. Will looked down the isle and there was a big pile of sloppy shit sitting there, that must have been the creatures shit Will thought to himself. It stunk like diesel fuel only more shit like. The reality of it started hitting home and his heart started pounding, it was like he had been drugged out for the last few hours and nothing seemed to scare him, and now everything felt more real, his heart started thumping and he quickly left the store, there wasn’t any cashiers so no payment was required really, but Will decided to chuck the money in the little cubical where the smokes are kept before he left anyway.

Will walked past the Charcoal chicken takeaway store and the news agency, both stores empty, then he walked towards the sliding doors and heard something behind him, he turned around in a start and it was just the fat man with the crappy baseball cap, so Will kept walking briskly with the man following behind him a little slower. Will jumped in his Skyline and roared towards home, he drove up George town road and found there was hardly any traffic, he passed the house with the cop cars then noticed someone on the middle of the road waving up ahead.  As he got closer he discovered it was one of the Monsters about six foot tall with its eyes rolling around its head running towards the car hissing and screaming. Will stomped the accelerator and gained some speed, he hit the creature at a hundred K’s, the creature hit the front of the car shaking the car a little the creature rolling over the roof falling off on the side off the road, Will looked in the rear vision mirror and saw the creature rolling around in a heap, Will kept driving up the hill and pulled into his street, there was a crowd of people out in the street it appeared there was an argument, Will pulled into his driveway and then walked over to the crowd he pushed his way past the crowd and to the source of the argument, it was a man in his thirties poking an old looking man in his sixties who held a shotgun in one hand.

“I need a fucking gun to protect my family come on!” the younger man shouted” so either you give us every gun you have or we’ll just take them”

“Over my dead body “the old man said blocking the other man’s path.

Will stepped in between the men and said:

“Now listen I don’t care about the guns but one of the smartest things we can do right now is stay in our homes and block up everything that water comes out of, these creatures come from the ghost slug don’t forget and the ghost slug enter the home through water, so If I were you I’d go out and buy some masking tape”

“What are we gonna use for water “ a teenager male said.

“We’re going to have to use bottled water, go down to the Woolworths there’s no one there, you could go in and get whatever you want for free.

What Will said seemed to go in one ear and out the other to these people so Will walked back to his house and let himself in with the key. Elaine had showered and Will noticed she smelled pretty when she came to greet him with a kiss.

“How’d you go?” Elaine said

“I got the tape , but there was one of those creatures in the supermarket”

“What the same as the hospital one?”

“Yeah, a cop killed it with a handgun”

Elaine hugged Will tight and said:

“I’m scared it’s like It all started hitting home while you were gone”

“I had the same feeling when I was in the supermarket, lets get this place sealed up then “ Will said.

Will began taping up all the tap ends, then taped up the toilet and sink holes, Elaine helped and they had the place ghost slug proof at least they thought so anyway. Will and Elaine plonked themselves down on the brown couch and Elaine turned on the radio and found a station that was playing music.

“You hungry” Elaine said

“Not really no” Will replied

“Ok well we won’t bother with dinner then” said Elaine

As they lay there they noticed there was machine gun fire off in the distance and the crack of a loud rifle came from a suburb nearby. All through the night they heard gunfire and it was late at night when They heard a knock at the door. Will got up to answer it and felt a little uneasy about answering it so he said loudly:

“Who is it”

There came no answer, there was no peep whole so he couldn’t see who was there so he went to one of the windows pulled the curtain across then looked out, what he saw put a frog in his throat and made his heart start pounding. It was one of the creatures standing there at the front door. The creature thumped on the door a couple more times.

“Why don’t you answer the door babe?” Elaine said walking towards the door.

“Wait!” Will shouted in a whisper then said “ It’s one of the creatures out there”

Elaine came over to the window and looked out.

“Should we kill it” Elaine said

“No let’s call the police”

“Ok “Elaine said and rushed into the kitchen, picked up the phone then dialed triple zero.

Elaine explained the situation to the police and hung up and went back to the window were Will was still standing looking at the creature that was still pounding on the door. The creature stood there swaying for another couple minutes doing nothing but slowly swaying back and forth then suddenly as if it woke up it ran out the front gate and out of view.

“It’s gone” Came Elaine’s relieved words.

They both went back into the lounge and lay down together and just sat in the silent house listening to the gunfire. Out of the silence there came a sound from the kitchen like a mouse chewing on something. Will got up and Elaine followed and they went into the kitchen and walked towards the sound, it was coming from the Kitchen sink. Will could put his head up to the tap with the rolls of duct tape wrapped around it, he could hear a sound coming from inside it.

“I think it’s a ghost slug”

They both stood there staring at the tap for a bit until the noise had stopped then went back into the lounge room and went back to lying on the couch listening to the sporadic gunfire in the distance.

Suddenly the loud sound of machine gunfire out in the street, both their hearts began to race, Elaine jumped up and walked to the kitchen window followed by Will. They looked out of the window and saw a group of Soldiers looking down at another dead ghost slug monster, the soldier’s then walked over to the old school where Will could just make out some tents behind some trees , and figured it was where these soldier’s were stationed.

Elaine said:” It’s turning into a war”

“Yeah,  I wonder how many people have died”

“Should we go watch the Tele”

“Nah, we need to get some sleep”

“Ok but lets sleep on the couch, I'll feel better there”



They spent the night on that couch managing to get some sleep in the early hours of the morning over the occasional sound of gunfire and ghost slugs..



Will woke up and looked at the wall clock 6:30 am he got up trying not wake Elaine then went into the kitchen and put the kettle on, filling the jug with the water that he had bought earlier.

Will then sat at the wooden kitchen table and sipped his tea. Suddenly there was more machine gun fire out in the street and he put his tea down and got up and looked out of the window, he couldn’t see what was happening but caught sight off two soldiers running down the street, some trees obscuring what was happening. Elaine woke up at the sound of the gun fire and was now standing next to will looking out of the window. There was  the sound of about ten machine guns firing continuously like there was a mini war going on out there. The soldiers came into view walking backwards and screaming and firing there machine guns. There was another ten seconds of machine gun fire, then the shooting stopped, one of the soldiers giving a loud woo hoo and firing a couple rounds into the air, then screamed: “Mother fuckers”

“I want to go see what happened” Elaine said

“No we should stay in house, it’s too dangerous”

“Just a quick look” said Elaine and ran out to the door unlocked it and ran outside Will gave chase and they both stood on the footpath in their socks and looked down the street, there was what looked to be about fifty dead creatures strewn about the place mostly up the end of the Street, some of the creatures were huge looking to be eight or nine feet, and others where the stubby little ones about two feet. There was a few people all up the street looking at the scene. One of the soldiers then came up to us, he was only young about 22, and he had held an M-16 with grenade launcher, he asked us if we have taped up our water courses and offered us some duct tape. Will told them they had already done that, and then the soldier said we had to go back into our houses, so we went back inside our house.

“This shit is some kind of invasion” Elaine said when we stepped through the door

“It’s something like that , but I don’t know if it’s alien” Will said.

They both went into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table.

“I’ll cook us some breakfast, you should go see what the TV’s saying about all this” Will said.

“Ok” said Elaine and went into the lounge room sat on the couch and turned on the Tele.



“Another survivor has just turned on the television” the male presenter said.

The news presenter narrated while some footage was played, it was helicopter footage and the camera was a little shaky but you could see a mass off soldiers around a temporary barracks set up in center of the city in the street and littered throughout every street were dead monsters, like a mass of  ugly naked dead people in pools of blood only their heads where bigger.

The screen came back to the presenter and he said:

“Oh it looks like we have another one, but the producer said were not going to show the footage now but will show it later tonight. And for those who just tuned in, the latest advice from the Government is to stay indoors and tape up anything that water comes out of, keep your house well lit and don’t open your doors without identification of who it is, and lets go to Tracy who’s inside the hospital with chief of police.

It skipped to footage of the police commission who was a lady in her forties, there was only a couple other reporters there one was the rival TV station and the other looked like a newspaper reporter with his digital recorder up near the police commissioners mouth.

“I’m deeply saddened to tell everybody listening, the Ambulance and army have been doing a count of the deceased, most of them found in their homes, we will not be divulging any details at this time but one thing we know so far from reports is the creatures don’t like light so leaving all your lights on at night and tapping up any water sources and drains in your home, and only go out during the day to get food”

“What’s the death toll police commissioner” said the news reporter.

She looked at us with a tears welling up then said” Reports are of about two to three hundred survivors, the death toll could well be in the tens of thousands in this city alone, reports of the same around the country ”

The three reporters all spoke something at once.

And the commissioner said “I’m deeply sorry for those who’ve lost in this tragedy but I have to get back to my family “and she walked away.

The screen went back to the presenter and he introduced the next video as disturbing and said young kids should not see this. Then it showed some CTV footage of a creature trying to smash its way into a supermarket for a few seconds then it ran away.

“This is the creature that we should be worried about it is a vicious blood thirsty thing that will kill anyone who gets in its way, so if you’re listening try to limit your time outside your home to a minimum.



Will came in a few minutes later with eggs on toast and orange juice on a tray. And they had breakfast. As they ate Will said:

“We’re going to have to make a weapons bag that we can keep near us in case things get rough”

“What are you going to put in it”

“Well we could put knifes, lighters and deodorant cans, and I could get my electric drill from my Ute”

After breakfast Will found his camping backpack and put a rolling pin, a couple large knifes, two deodorant cans and a lighter then went out to his Ute and got out his electric drill out of the back cab then went back inside and packed it in with the other stuff.

Will and Elaine spent the day watching the horror footage of the ghost slug creature on the TV, with the occasional machine gun fire sound coming from different parts of the city, mostly off in the distance.

The unofficial death toll was in the billions and they were stuck to the TV all day watching the horror unfold.



It went on like this for about two weeks watching TV and talking to loved ones on the phone and eating and trips to the one supermarket that had stayed open, everybody who had worked at the others had died, so the stores couldn’t run and one of the owners put all the food up to the highest bidder leaving an E-bay account name next to his name on a sign out the front of his store, it was like a depression. The sound of machine gun fire kept on going; it was what I imagined the world wars were like but without the bombs.

Will and Elaine spent another two weeks of living all day inside watching the horror of it all unfold on the news footage they repeatedly played, with new footage daily.



“Pass the chips”

Said Elaine as she sat on the other end of the couch reading something she had printed off the computer.

Will passed the chips to Elaine, Will was watching SBS, which played some documentary that Will wasn’t really paying attention too he was thinking about places they could go when the food ran out.

Then all of a sudden the lights went out, TV as well.

“Check the power board” Elaine said from the dark.

“You mean the circuit breaker. Do you know where the torch is”

“In the kitchen cupboard “Elaine said both of them now whispering.

Will went and looked through the kitchen for a minute then came out with the torch and went outside and checked the circuit breaker. He turned it back on and there was nothing.

“Did ya get it”

Elaine said now standing next to Will.

“Does it look like I got it. I think  the whole block is out , could be the whole city”

Will said and walked out into the street and looked down it, the street lights were all off and there weren’t any lights on in the houses, Will then walked back into his yard and climbed the onto fence then up to the roof.

“What are you doing?”

Said Elaine standing in there front yard.

“Just hang on”.

Will said then looked out over the city and couldn’t see a single light on, he figured the hospital would be the only place with light now, with their backup generators.

“Are the lights out” Elaine shouted.

“There out city wide” Will shouted back.

Will climbed back down and looked at Elaine and said:

“We should be right, there’s no rivers for a while and our taps and drains are sealed”

“Ok but let’s seal the door ways too”

So they both went back inside and sealed the doorways with tape and went into the bedroom and lay in bed and snuggled each other. Shortly after that they heard the sound of squeals coming from throughout the house. It sounded like rats only louder and it sounded as if they were hurt but they weren’t hurt, they were hungry, hungry for bodies. The squeals went on for a bit then stopped.

“Were they the ghost slugs?” Elaine whispered.

“I think so. But their gone now” Will replied.



3



Will couldn’t sleep he was upset about his mother’s death, as she was a victim of a Ghost slug and will kept picturing one of those creatures bursting out of her stomach and he held in his emotions in only letting a couple tears stream down his face. He didn’t tell Elaine about his mother he thought he’d tell her after all this ghost slug business was over. Will lay down in the bed and got himself comfy then started to drift off.

A couple hours of sleep later and will woke up to the ghost slug screams  and felt something crawling up his leg it was two ghost slugs crawling up his leg Will brushed at them and felt a sharp sting on his leg. he then went to wake Elaine and saw a ghost slug crawling up her neck, Will brushed it away from her face and she woke up.

“What’s going on, what is it”

“It’s the ghost slugs their everywhere, we have to go now!”

Will and Elaine quickly put on some clothes and shoes and will grabbed the weapons bag.

“Where are we going?”

“were going to go to my Uncles house” Will said then looked for the keys

“He lives in the bush and has a generator”

They rushed out to the car and got in and will started the engine.

“We’ll go get as many tins of petrol as we can get, and fill the car up, then got out there to stay for a bit”

Will drove the car out of the driveway and down the street past a group of armed soldiers who were brushing ghost slugs away and shooting at them; Will floored it with fear of being hit by a stray bullet. He sped around the corner and down George Town. They found the BP just down the road was open and Will filled up the car and grabbed his petrol tin he had packed in the Ute along with some food and water, he was prepared for leaving the city and wanted it all packed and ready, and turned out it was best thing he could have done.

Will filled the fifty liter Jerry can and noticed the motor sound of the generators coming from the back of the store. It was well lit around the store and there weren’t any ghost slugs in sight, He went into the shop and paid the curly haired woman who looked like she hadn’t slept in a week, then went back outside and got back into the car.



As they drove down the main roads towards Wills uncles house they would occasionally get groups of ghost slugs on the road crawling across it, Will would aim the car for them and run over them, they could hear their squeals from behind them as they drove away. They noticed there were large groups of the ghost slugs concentrated around river areas, and as Will drove the car past the rivers the ghost slugs would jump all over the car most of them bouncing off and others holding on for a bit only too fall off seconds later. Will got a good look at the slug this time , it looked like a leech only with spikes coming out of it’s tail, it was on the car windscreen. That must have been what cut me, Will thought to himself feeling down his leg and feeling the cut, which Will thought to himself:  it's just superficial

The huge slug managed to hold on to the window with it's sucking mouth, then started tapping it's tail on the glass at an amazing speed. The windscreen began to break into a little hole.

“Elaine, grab the electric drill out of the back” Will said.

“OK” Elaine replied

She climbed over the chairs towards the back and Will noticed  the hole in the glass getting a little bigger, Elaine returned in a brief moment with the cordless electric drill with the long drill bit,. Elaine then started drilling a hole through the glass and into the mouth of the ghost slug. She had success and the drill went deep into the slug which screamed and let go off the car.

“Is that all of them?” Will said.

“I think so” Elaine replied



Will's car belted down the highway then slowed  turned off and they drove down a series of roads then came to a dirt road. They drove the dark dirt road at a reasonable speed as Will didn't know the area, no sign of an y ghost slug action.

Will spoke :“No houses out here, so as long as old Uncle hank is OK their shouldn't be a problem”

“I'm sure he's cuddled up to his wood fire with his smoko right now, fine” Elaine replied.

“I hope so”

Will drove them down a series of dirt roads that lead into the bushland then continued down a road for about two hours, Elaine saying how it was miles out. Then they came to a driveway and Will parked the car in the driveway, there was an old white Ute parked there and  a house down the driveway about 20 meters away that had a  chimney with smoke coming out of it.

Will said in a relived voice“ He's home”

The both got out and walked down the dirt hill driveway and up to the front door and Will knocked on it a few times.

A minute later, a kind of short middle aged man with a shaved balding head answered looking like he just woke up.

“Hank you've got to help us” Will said

“What with what, why are you hear so late?” Hank replied sounding groggy.

“Haven’t you heard Hank, Half the world is dead” Will said

“What, who's dead , is Selena and the kids OK?”

“I think so I talked to them a couple nights ago, and they seemed fine” Elaine said.

“Well come in out of the cold”

Will and Elaine went inside Hanks self built house, it was a two story  wooden gem with coragated iron roof  and a fire place, and all the modern conveniences one could need. Will sat down on Hanks couch next to Elaine in front of the fireplace, which was one of those black metaled ones with the glass windowed door,.

“So half the worlds dead hey, wouldn't surprise me that I'd miss all the action” Hank said from the kitchen as he grabbed a beer offered them both a beer which they refused then sat down in his old recliner.

“That's right a ghost slug invasion” Will said “ And we should probably ring our families right now and check that their OK , cause the slugs were everywhere and the power went out so they could be in danger”

“Well you'll have to walk up the road a bit to get reception” Hank said

“OK but first we have to get some lights on”

“I'd rather keep the generator off, I haven’t got much petrol”

“You don't understand these little slug creatures will come after you in the dark, we need light!, and I've got petrol in a tank in the car and that should last the night” .

“OK I'll go start up the generator” Hank said and went out of the back door that was connected to the lounge.

“Should I go up the street and make some calls?” Elaine said holding her phone.

“I think Hank should be the first to make a call, he's got kids to check on”

The lights came on and Hank came back in and Will said to him while handing him the phone:

“Here mate call your family we'll stay here, just watch out for any naked people with big heads , if you see one run straight back to the house”

“Naked people with big heads?, your starting to scare me a little, what are they aliens?”

“I'll explain everything later, just go ring your family, it's important”

“OK I'm going” Hank said and walked briskly to the front door then went through it shutting it behind him.

“I'll just go get all our stuff from the car” Will said to Elaine who was staring at something.

“Look he has guns” Elaine said.

“OK we'll talk about that in a minute, Let's get our bags for now” Will said and walked for the door.

“I'll help” Elaine said and followed him out to the Ute. As they were getting the bags out of the back of the Ute they heard a screaming mans voice coming from down the road.

They both ran up to the road and could make out two figures running towards them, as the figures got closer they could see that it was Hank with a six foot tall ghost slug monster running after him.

Will and Elaine ran inside with Hank behind them and they managed to get the door shut before the monster got to it. The monster then started kicking at the door and hissing and drooling, Will and Elaine could see it through the window on the door. Hank struggled with the Gun locker padlock and Elaine said.

“Give em here” and took the keys off of Hank and opened the gun draw and took out a 22 rifle and a shotgun and handed them out to Will and Hank, Hanks shakes seemed to stop at the feel of the double barrel shotgun. They quickly loaded the weapons Will taking a little longer than Hank, Hank then walked up to the door and aimed it at the creature who started  punching through the glass window, Hank squeezed the trigger and unloaded a round through the window, blood and glass splattering about the place. Hank looked through the door window and peered down and saw the creature on the ground with brains hanging out of a large hole in it's head.

“It's dead!” Hank said.





Six years later



Most of there families survived OK, but they all lost someone in the coming years, Hanks family made it through Ok through moving in shortly after that first night.

There only struggle was getting enough petrol for the generators, until they got some solar panels that was enough power to light the place each night. They killed another couple creatures and by the time the war was over the total creature kill count for the whole world was around four billion and another billion dieing from the slug, violence and starvation, So the total death toll was around Five Billion, The world had changed to a very different place. Will and Elaine took over a deceased couples farm and gave them a burial then started living off the land, trading for other foods and things with other farmers and fishermen and everything you'd find at a market. They would ride their two horses and wagon to the city like so many other folk would do. People still had cars but petrol was pricey, the price of just about everything in stores was expensive, and only rich people had electricity cars and phones. Elaine and Will lived out their lives on that farm, they had three kids and grew old together and lived long happy lives, the Ghost Slugs just a distance memory.



The End