EPT
Chapter Two - Stench
The smell of the corpse was unbearable but David ignored it as best as he could. He lifted his under shirt over his nose to block the odor. The clinic was about an hour from where he was at now, and the hospital would even be further. All clinics have a regeneration capsule: a chamber that wounded can regenerate their tissues, in David's case, his girlfriend's non-functioning brain and heart, her entire body, would be regenerated. David drove fast, so that the blood in her body would still be warm, this would make the regeneration process much faster.
David felt the chill from the outside coming into the car. He immediately thought, “One of the doors isn’t shut properly,” but when he checked he discovered they were all shut tight. He then checked the gas meter, he was about to run out. The odor from the decomposing body was filling the entire car; it was a mixture of open, raw flesh and fecal matter. He tried to ignore the smell but, even with the shirt covering his nose, he couldn't. He needed to stop and get some fresh air. With the fog clear, the streetlights showed him a visible street and places to park.
He put the car into ‘park’ and got out. He breathed in the fresh, cold air, which filled his lungs and choked him. David coughed and then looked back at Melanie’s corpse, which was still on the backseat. Her eyes were withdrawn, her mouth a gaping hole. What puzzled him was that blood still spilled from her mouth and nose. David moved closer to the window. Suddenly, her body convulsed, which made him jump backwards, his heart racing. Melanie's body continued to twitch.
"Holy mother of--" David gasped as Melanie's chest and throat began to swell to the point of explosion. Claws suddenly burst through the skin, ripping open her chest. Three pairs of glowing red orbs appeared.
"Demons!" David shrieked, backing further away from the car. The beasts clawed out of Melanie's body, devouring her flesh as they spawned. Blood splattered across the side window and windshield, the inside of the car was blood red. Another demon broke her skull in two, from the jaw up. The beasts tried coming at David but for the time being the windows prevented them.
David stood there in shock; he could not believe what was happening. Melanie's body was completely mutilated. Her torso and guts had been eaten away; her left arm dangled from her body by a piece of tattered flesh but worst of all, her beautiful face was missing!
To David’s horror, the beasts, about two feet long, began to emerge from the car. He realised he had not closed his car door properly. They stared at the human. They were curious. Using their thermal vision they could see the warmth radiating from David’s body, his veins working overtime, pumping his blood. They pinpointed his heart.
"STAY THE FUCK AWAY!" David shouted, walking backwards. He looked for something to attack these monsters with, but the only weapon he could think of was his pistol, which was still under the seat in his car.
A dense fog appeared again, coming fast from the west. The beasts stared at him, and then at the fog, which covered them all. David couldn't see a thing except blurred shadows, which as fast as he could turn, came and went. The beasts groaned and moaned until the fog disappeared again.
The streetlight glowed dimly down on him. The beasts, all three of them, were motionless on the floor, their guts spewed from their bodies and their blood was splattered across the tarmac. David spotted a much larger monster, maybe an adult, which carried off an infant beast. The monster stopped and gnawed at it, then swallowed it whole. David stood there watching in disbelief for a moment. Something obviously spooked the beast as it suddenly ran off, disappearing into the shadows. He gingerly walked over to where the dead monsters lay and nudged them with his foot, to make sure they were dead.
David looked at his watch; it was close to 5:00AM. The cool air dried his sweat making his body shiver. He put the collar of his undershirt up so that the wind wouldn't penetrate into his flesh so much. He slipped his hands into his pockets and walked back the car.
The stench permeated the air as he opened the door. He coughed and gagged as he grabbed the pistol out from under his driver’s seat. He quickly shut the door and stared at the remains of Melanie. He vomited.
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" he yelled as hard and as loudly as he could. "COME ON, FUCKING TAKE ME TOO! COME ON!" But there wasn’t a soul around. No sign of the grotesque monster either.
"FUCK YOU!" he yelled and collapsed onto the ground. Tears rolled down his face. After several minutes he sighed, took a deep breath and then stood up.
The street lights automatically shut off. Morning had arrived.
He had not had a dink for several hours or eaten since dinner the night before yet he did not want either food or liquid. What he wanted was sleep. He was expecting the sun to come up any moment; he needed to feel the warm rays of the sun shining down on his cold, aching body.
A siren broke off his daydream.
He opened his eyes and looked around; the skies were gray, as if about to snow. David continued to walk around the city. He noticed a small building, which had lights on. The door was open so he walked in. It was a commercial building and it reminded him of where he worked.
David took the stairs instead of the elevator up to the next floor. For about an hour, he walked in and out of the many rooms. There was no kitchen, not even a vending machine. It looked vacant and yet there were still some signs of life; the lights were on in places and a cup half-filled with coffee was sat on top of a pile of printer paper. There were no signs of blood, it was just... empty.
The sun was now up, shining from the east. David sniffed the coffee; it was ice cold and lacked fragrance. He pushed the papers onto the floor for bedding and huddled inside his fur coat.
His hands held the pistol and he leaned his head on a stack of leftover printer paper. David yawned and closed his eyes, passing out from exhaustion.
~
