Read Ferine Apocalypse (Novella): 4 Hours for Free Online

there.
    Aimed at the water like a threat or a promise.
    The creature’s legs were broken.
    Destroyed, barely attached from below the mid-thigh area. Despite that, it was still moving, digging clawed hands into the tarmac and pulling the rest of itself along.
    That was the scraping sound. The claws and drag.
    Pearcey was fascinated and appalled.
    Hairless head that was dominated by a huge jaw and massive jagged teeth. Chittering and snapping in their direction, as if it could already taste them, feel their heat in its mouth.
    It was hissing.
    As it grew closer, he could hear that more clearly.
    A hissing and mewling that spoke of hurt and hunger and frustration. A horrible noise. Somehow alien and yet completely comprehensible.
    He began to get it.
    Began to build a scenario in his head.
    Began to see what might have happened here.
    Motorbike Man had been zipping across the bridge, getting to wherever he was going. Getting there fast because these days it didn’t pay to hang around and admire the view.
    He’d come across one or more of them.
    Encountered a single one or a group of the creatures. Those ripping, half-human things that moved like hunger personified.
    Either had no choice or simply decided to drive through.
    Bust them apart and be on his desperate way.
    But he’d got it wrong.
    Misjudged something. Taken a fall and in turn been fallen upon by them. This slithering monstrosity was a casualty of the collision. Left to fend for itself. Horribly damaged yet still terribly dangerous.
    <><><>
    Smoke in the sky.
    The coppery smell of blood on the road at his feet.
    The dirty smell of the water in the river below him.
    The inexorable approach of this outrage.
    Radiating a hunger that was even greater than the damage it had sustained.
    He felt strangely removed from himself. As if the world had receded and left him in a time out of time.
    Pearcey raised the handgun and squeezed the trigger before he could think anymore. Watched as its head exploded in a spray of fragments and thick fluid.
    Mutated body jerking and spasming.
    Felt an enormous sense of relief as its death throes slowed to twitches.
    It was short lived.
    That relief.
    <><><>
    As he looked away from the dead thing, he saw movement at the end of the bridge. Figures appearing and disappearing as they darted between stalled vehicles.
    More of them. More creatures like the one he’d just killed.
    Gallagher saw them as well. He bent back to the task at hand, their most immediate problem, and grabbed the motorbike.
    Began to drag it off to the side.
    Pearcey went to help and Gallagher waved him away.
    “Start the car Carlton.”
    A gasped instruction as he wrestled the machine.
    “And you might want to think twice about shooting. You’re drawing a fucking crowd.”
    Pearcey slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Waited anxiously, scanning the bridge, until Gallagher jumped in beside him.
    They were very close now, running in a weird predatory lope. Six or seven of them. Dressed in an assortment of rags.
    Some naked.
    Abstract human shapes that moved in an inhuman way. Emaciated and corded with animal strength.
     
    Pearcey’s foot paused on the accelerator.
    “Are you sure Sonny? You still want to do this. It’s not too late. We can abort it, go back to the shelter. Re-evaluate things.”
    Sonny Gallagher shook his head.
    “I have to get Annie. The clock’s ticking. I can’t leave her out here in ... this .”
    He indicated the monsters that were nearly upon them.
    “You can go back, but I can’t.”
    Pearcey nodded and the car surged forward into the unknown.
     
    The sun a little lower in the sky.



Chapter 7
Progress
    He swerved into the street. Used everything the Jaguar had to offer and pushed it that little bit further.
    Hoped that the road was open.
    Please God, no monsters, no obstructions. A clear run for just a few minutes. Let me get closer to the objective before you throw anything else in the way. Just a little break from