ShowerKrogan

  Ned whipped open the door.

  “What in the hell—“ he started to say but was tackled to the floor before he could finish his sentence. A rge man had jumped on him as soon as Ned pulled open the door. The attacker had Ned pinned down and snarled while he tried to sink his teeth into Ned’s neck.

  “Man, get off me!” Ned tried to push the man off without success. The man put his face no more than an inch from Ned’s face and hissed at him.

  I sprinted across the warehouse to help Ned. When I was less than ten steps away, the man on top won their hand fighting and pinned Ned’s hands to the ground and chomped down on the side of Ned’s face.

  “Ahhh! Damn it!” Ned yelled. I heard people shouting behind me as they watched the unknown man chewing on Ned.

  I unched myself at them and drove my shoulder into the side of the man on top. The man let out a grunt and went tumbling across the ground into the wall. My shoulder stung a little, but nothing a hot shower wouldn’t help. I jumped right back up and looked over to make sure the man was still on the ground. Ned reached out to me, and I csped his hand and pulled him to his feet.

  “You okay?” I asked him and turned on my phone’s fshlight to get a good look at his face.

  “I think that fucker bit off my damn ear!” Ned replied and turned his head so I could get a good look.

  The bottom half of his ear was missing; the remaining cartige was dangling and looked like I could pull it off with a soft tug. Blood was running down the side of his face and onto his hoodie.

  “Shit dude, that does not look good,” I told him and looked up to see the man bracing himself against the wall as he rose back to his feet. He wobbled as he started slow-walking back toward us.

  That was when I noticed the intense smell radiating off the man. Like rotting meat left in the Texas sun while soaking in spoiled milk. My stomach churned as I tried to process what I was smelling. I tried to limit how much I breathed in; it felt toxic.

  “Stay down, asshole,” I said while walking up to him. The man let out a soft groan as he watched me approach. His neck seemed to have a hard time keeping his head straight; his head bobbled around and swung back and forth as he tried to look at me. I hesitated for a moment watching him struggle, then pulled back my fist and smmed my knuckles into the side of his head.

  The man groaned and fell, bouncing his head off the concrete floor and lying still. I looked at my hand and saw a clump of slimy flesh clinging to my fist.

  “Oh gross, what the actual fuck?!” I shook my hands and there was an audible plop as the clump of skin fell off my hand onto the ground. Mal walked up behind me to get a look at what was happening. “Uh, sorry. I shouldn’t use that kind of nguage with a dy present.”

  “I don’t mind,” Mal said and peered at the clump of flesh on the ground.

  “I was referring to Ned, actually,” I said.

  “Aww,” Ned said and hung his head.

  “What the heck was that about?” Peter asked.

  Ugh, Peter.

  “You find my ear?” Ned asked through clenched teeth as he walked up to me. His hand was csping his ear.

  I pulled off my gsses and cleaned them on my shirt. Blood and bits of flesh from my hit had spttered across the lenses. Then I took my phone back out and shone the fshlight on the ground. Boss came jogging up to us with Mal positioning herself to keep me between him and her.

  “He dead?” Boss asked and gestured to the man on the ground.

  “He’s not moving. Check if he’s breathing?” I said as I continued to search the ground for the missing ear.

  “I’m not getting near that nasty man,” Peter said and started swinging his pocket watch again. Boss grabbed it out of the air and spiked it onto the ground. Peter gasped and crawled over to the pocket watch to assess the damage.

  “Are you okay?” Mal whispered to me while keeping her distance.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Ned is going to be hurting for a while,” I said to her. “Can everyone help me look for his ear?”

  “Hey EmCee, come check him out. He doesn’t look right,” Boss said while he was crouching down by the attacker.

  I aimed the fshlight onto the man and walked over. My eyes watered as the stench washed over me. It was a putrid stench so potent it physically hurt to inhale. I squatted down to get a look at his face and…

  “What the actual hell is this?” I asked Boss. “This can’t be real.”

  Boss just shook his head and gave me a side-eye look. A look I knew well from our time together. It was a look that meant we were in trouble.

  The man’s face was missing rge patches of skin, more than what was on my hand after I hit him. I could see his decaying teeth, part of his jaw, the skull peeking out from where he had been losing hair, and his nose was entirely missing. His skin had a greenish tint, and veins were protruding from his neck. His eyes seemed to have a slight glow to them. There was no pupil, no whites of his eyes. The entire eye was a bright light blue. The tattered clothes he was wearing looked to have once been nice but were at that point little more than rags covering his body.

  “It is Halloween. Maybe it’s a really realistic mask?” Boss offered up. I raised my eyebrows at him.

  “If you and the rest of Mystery Inc. want to unmask our vilin, be my guest,” I said and rose to my feet.

  “Everyone, just stay away. No one needs to touch that thing,” Peter said. No one said anything to him.

  Boss stared at the man for several seconds before reaching out to pinch and pull on the man’s skin. There was a small pop as the skin came off the bone, then a slurping tearing sound like pulling wet Velcro apart. It was not a mask.

  Boss gagged and dropped the skin. I turned away to hide my own gagging.

  “That is so, so, SO repulsive,” Mal said and covered her face.

  “Why does no one ever listen to me?! Ever! I’m sick of being ignored!” Peter compined to himself. I barely heard what he was bitching about. Ugh, Peter.

  Ned bent his lips into a heavy frown and shook his head in disbelief.

  “What is happening? What bit me?” Ned asked while staring down at the decaying man. “How was he walking around? And so strong. I couldn’t fight him off; he overpowered me.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can see part of your ear in his mouth,” Boss said, peering through the hole in the man’s cheek.

  “He can keep it,” Ned said.

  “Are there others like him?” I asked the group. “Is this what the emergency was about?”

  Boss opened his mouth to speak but anything he said was drowned out by the sound of a group of growling creatures smashing into the garage door. Then smashing into it again. Then again. And again. Again. Again. Again.

  The door began to creak under their relentless barrage.

  “Everyone get back!” I yelled to the people over there who had been moving around the boxes.

  No sooner had I yelled my warning than the garage door came crashing down. A couple of men yelled out in pain as they were caught under the door. A few others were able to scramble away in time.

  No fewer than a dozen people came rushing through the now open garage. Four of them jumped down out of sight but the screams from the two people beneath the garage door told me where those four were. The other eight continued their charge into the warehouse. People closest to them turned and ran but most were run down before making it far.

  The sunlight from the open garage now flooded the warehouse and illuminated the horror scene before me. The intruders started biting down on their victims. I could see the decaying flesh hanging from the skeletons of the people who broke in. I watched their mouths pulling fresh skin from the people they were able to bring to the ground. They slurped up the flesh and dove back in for another bite.

  No time to think. I had to go.

  I grabbed Mal’s hand and gave her a hard tug.

  “We need to go. Now!” I started running and dragged Mal behind me. She struggled to get her bance initially but composed herself as I yanked the door open and charged out into the alley, leaving Boss, Peter, and Ned sck-jawed behind me watching the carnage unfold.

  The events in the warehouse were distracting from the sounds I was listening to earlier, but the moment we entered the alleyway the unmistakable sounds of chaos surrounded us.

  Police sirens, car arms, gunshots, and screams of horror greeted us as we sprinted away from the warehouse.

  “Becca! What the hell is happening?!” I yelled as I looked behind Mal to see a group of decaying monsters charging toward us, no more than fifty yards away.

  Becca: Grayson? Oh, thank your God you are safe. Please return to the facility.

  “Well, since you said please… I’m trying Becca! There are these people with what looks like decaying skin chasing us! They were eating people!” I pulled Mal close to me as we reached the end of the alleyway and were at the edge of a main street. I peeked around the corner and wished I hadn’t.

  The street was a warzone. Bodies littered the street. Blood was running down the side of the road like water during a Texas thunderstorm. People with guns were shooting wildly, hitting the decaying creatures and some hitting normal looking people who were running away. Both sides of the street were encased in the same chaotic war.

  “Becca, I need a quick decision. Left, or right? What’s the safest way back to the facility?” I gnced behind us again. The group of decayed were closing in, maybe thirty yards back. I could see three of them. Enough to be a problem if they were all as strong as the ones back at the warehouse.

  “What’s she saying?!” Mal screamed at me. Her eyes were wide and bulging. Too much more of this stress and I was worried they would pop out of her head. Which, sadly, would not be the worst thing I’d seen today.

  Becca: Calcuting… Turn left and cross to the right side of the street. Sending drone support. The doctor should be nearby.

  The group behind us was now too close for comfort. I turned to face them and pulled Mal out of the way.

  “Cover your ears!” I yelled back at Mal and pulled out my sidearm. I was really hoping this was not some really eborate Halloween prank, or this was going to be really awkward. I set my feet, gripped the gun with both hands, and aimed dead center at the chest of the decaying creature in front of the group. I breathed out and squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked back with a roaring bst, but I knew the feeling of this gun well and recovered control quickly.

  My aim was true and the decaying jerked back and stumbled to the ground. I aimed to the left and fired two shots into that decaying. Without waiting to watch it fall, I turned to the one on the far right and fired off four more shots. A couple of shots burst out of its back, one went through the neck, and the final shot hit the middle of its forehead. It crumpled to the ground and remained motionless. The other two were stirring and trying to stand but moved slowly enough that I was not concerned about them for a moment.

  “Understood, Becca!” I yelled and popped out my magazine to check my ammo. Eight rounds left. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to carry extra mags around on a normal day, but I sure wished I had.

  There was a high-pitched ringing in my ears from the gunshots, but some hearing loss was better than being eaten. I looked down at Mal and said “We’re moving, stay close to me. If we get separated just keep running. Go to the edge of town, head northwest. You should be able to find the facility. It’s a big-ass building surrounded by a massive steel wall on that hill we used to roll down as kids. No matter what happens, keep moving.”

  I grabbed her hand again and we rushed into the hell on earth that had overtaken the city.