The only sound in the road was the popping crackle as flames rose over the huge corpse of the dog, an oily smoke rising thickly before dissipating in the breeze. The heat of the homemade flamethrower was stinging Matt's hand even through the oven mitt and he dropped it to the ground, before turning and wrapping Arlee in a tight embrace. Neither said a word, just holding each other as their racing hearts gradually slowed.

  Alan stood up from where the beast had sent him sprawling, brushing bits of twigs and leaves from rumpled clothing. Retrieving the staff that had saved his life, he took a deep breath before walking over to clasp long arms around both his friends. They stood for a long moment, each thankful that – beyond expectation – they had triumphed over this latest adversary. Alan's warning to Arlee before they had engaged the beast had been born of hopelessness, sincerely expecting to be unable to hold it back for more than a few seconds.

  He straightened, looking over his staff and running fingers the full length, feeling for cracks or splinters. Incredibly, the stout shaft had come through the trial with no obvious damage or deterioration in condition, despite the awful strain it must have been under. "Definitely a keeper." Alan muttered to himself, disengaging from Matt and Arlee to look around.

  "I don't suppose there's any chance of an impromptu street party, y'know, to hail the mighty conquering heroes?" He asked rhetorically to a non-existent audience. "Didn't think so. I'll add it to the list of stuff we deserve a medal for."

  Arlee and Matt finally released each other, mutually checking for injuries, which thankfully had been avoided with Alan's improvised tactics. Matt looked ruefully down at his splintered spear, making a mental note to sharpen points onto a few more of the rapidly disappearing bundle of curtain poles. Or maybe time to sort out an actual weapon he thought, watching the foul-smelling blaze in the road.

  Gathering themselves and checking the house number, they realised that there were only two more properties to their target. Matt took the lead, his second firetube in hand and ready – although this one was of a lower power and he would need to be a lot closer to a target, which he wasn't thrilled about. Wordlessly they pushed between thick garden plants and emerged onto a driveway, a crumpled Honda Civic showing the clear attentions of the neighbourhood's now defunct marauding beast. Although there were signs of damage, the front door and windows appeared intact and their spirits rose.

  Arlee hurried forward as the others kept a careful watch around the road. Taking a deep breath, she knocked lightly on the door, before kneeling and calling through the letterbox. "Frank? Belinda? Are you there? It's Arlee Tapper, Kira's mother."

  For a moment there was no response, before they heard a small window on the second floor open just a crack. A fearful voice hoarsely whispered. "My God, Arlee? What's happening out there? Did you see the dog?"

  Smiling in relief, Arlee stood and backed away from the door to look up at the open window. "Matt and Alan took care of it, that smoke a few doors over is its remains burning. Are there any other dangers around here?"

  At this, Matt and Alan both pricked up their ears, though kept their attention outward, each subconsciously imitating the military characters from countless movies over the years. There was a shocked pause, before the window opened a bit further and Belinda's voice responded. "I don't… no, I don't think so. We saw it fighting some enormous rat-like things one day, but since then it's been roaming around, looking for ways into houses. Every day we… we would… we would hear screams as it caught someone outside – it was horrible…" She took a deep, ragged breath. "I'm coming down, wait a mo."

  She moved back from the window and they heard a hushed conversation inside, before the sound of furniture being moved. A few minutes later, the door was unlocked and opened slowly, a pale woman's face peering around it to nervously look across the front garden and driveway. She opened the door further and beckoned them urgently.

  They quickly moved inside, squeezing past piled chairs, cupboards and other furniture items that had been used to block the front door. Entering a large lounge, they found a nervous man who visibly relaxed as they entered. Behind him on a sofa were Kira's friend Sarah and a pair of young boys, one of which Arlee recognised as Sarah's brother, Matt. All looked like they were wearing a couple of extra layers of clothes in the cool early Spring weather.

  The man came forward, holding up a fist for Matt to bump, recognising each other from a veteran's charity football match a few months previously. "It's good to see you man! How's it going? How did you manage to deal with that thing?"

  "Hey Frank! A lot of luck mate, and some sneaky tricks. Mainly the big man here…" Matt indicated Alan, who was casually leaning on his staff by the doorway. "…holding it back while I set it on fire."

  "What? How did you manage that?" Frank asked in wonder. "And thanks, of course! That thing was a monster!"

  "I'll tell you all about it later. More importantly, how are you all doing? Are any of you hurt?" Matt asked.

  Belinda entered the room, sitting down by the two boys on the sofa. "No injuries, just getting hungry. We ran out of good food a couple of days back, so we're down to snacks and crisps. We're running low on water as well – have you seen anywhere we can get more? Surely the government must have setup aid stations by now?"

  "We haven't seen anything like that yet, or any sign that there are any functioning public services at the moment." Arlee responded, taking a seat in a comfy armchair and pulling her bag off her back. Fishing around inside, she pulled out boxes of energy bars and large bottles of water, along with a bag of apples. "Here, tuck in."

  The group looked at her in astonishment, before reaching forward and grabbing the food which they virtually inhaled, resulting in a couple of bouts of choking before they moderated their pace. Slightly.

  "Where did all that come from? I didn't see you carrying eight litres of water and it didn't fit in that tiny bag." Belinda eyed Arlee's bag suspiciously as she crunched through an apple.

  Arlee gave a small chuckle. "Magic! I've got my own Mary Poppins bag!"

  Belinda's eyes were disbelieving, and grew wide as Arlee reached into the bag, not stopping until her whole arm up the shoulder had disappeared inside. The children looked on with fascinated eyes, as Frank huffed in apparent disgust. They looked over at him in surprise.

  "It's so unfair!" He said, although through a wide grin. "She gets a magic bag, and I get a scrubbing brush that can clean stuff." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "Did you all get some special object? That started doing crazy stuff about a week ago after… whatever it was happened?"

  Arlee nodded. "Yes, my bag is one of those. It looks like each item is particular to one person, as this…" She hefted the bag, "…is just a normal bag to anyone else."

  Sarah spoke up for the first time. "My colouring pad and pencils are magic now as well! I was always really good at drawing, but my pictures are so much better now! I'll go get them and show you!" She rose and was about to dash off before Arlee held up a hand.

  "It's great catching up and I would love to see some of your drawings Sarah, but right now we have something important to talk about. Maybe later on?"

  Sarah looked a little deflated, but nodded and settled back into the sofa. The two boys were staring into space, each holding a matching game console controller. They didn't seem to be engaged in the usual frantic button mashing, staying curiously stationary.

  Belinda noticed her look. "They were playing one of their games when it all happened. Nobody else can see it, but when the two of them are holding those controllers, apparently they can play any of the games that Matt had for his console. Don't ask me how, because nothing else electronic is working."

  Matt smirked. "Would you believe magic? I know it sounds outlandish, but we've seen a variety of incredible things over the last week and magic is the only explanation we've been able to come up with."

  Belinda shrugged, a small smile on her face. "Before… I would have laughed at that. Now though… we've seen too much to discount anything – and there's nothing to laugh about, anyway."

  Arlee took the conversation back up. "We'll see if we can change that for you – remind me to tell you about the noises Alan made when he forgot that there was no hot water!" The group chuckled, Alan pulling some contorted faces at Sarah, imitating freezing which caused more giggles. Then Arlee continued.

  "We've all been through a lot, and at this point it doesn't look like there is any central authority or organisation coming to help. We'd like to try and put together a strong community, based on cooperation and bringing together people we think would gel well. So far we have three families in our road and we'd like you to come and join us. Lara and Kira are helping Alan's wife Carry to get one of the houses ready today, which will have heat, light, fresh water and a working fridge. We will work together to dig a vegetable patch in the garden, so we can start growing our own food. Having a group working together will give us an element of safety in numbers as well." She stopped, taking a swig of water from a bottle, giving them a chance to digest and respond.

  Belinda and Frank had listened politely, faces growing worried, then disbelieving when Arlee spoke about the amenities. They looked at each other, before Belinda cleared her throat and replied. "You mean leave our house and squat in someone else's? How long would that be for? I'm no lawyer but I know that can't be legal, and who would look after our house while we weren't here? And how do you have working houses when we don't? Is it a localised service failure or something?" The questions started slowly, before gathering pace, Belinda's expression clearly showing what she thought of the absurd offer.

  Arlee looked taken aback at the force of Belinda's rebuttal. Seeing that she lacked an immediate response, Matt laid a hand on her arm and stepped in.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Belinda, Frank, let's be honest here. It's been a week since this all kicked off and there has been no sign of anything resembling local authority coordination. No help stations, travelling announcements, or any of the things we take for granted that a government does in this sort of situation. At this stage, it's safe to say that we're on our own. We've seen and heard terrible things – horrors that we took for granted would never be part of modern society – and the number of wrecked, empty houses just in this road alone are a testament to how things have changed." He paused for a breath, then quickly carried on as Frank looked ready to interrupt.

  "That monster outside? That was just one of dozens, maybe hundreds just in and around the village! The roads around us were swarmed by a pack of rats the size of big dogs, we've seen spiders straight out of a Harry Potter movie, and red kites with a twenty-foot wingspan, trying to grab us from our gardens. Wildlife everywhere is changing, and very little of it is for the better. L… we met a survivor whose whole family had been taken by a giant snake, fought off a walking statue and – yes – magic is a thing now. I really really hope we get the chance to argue about property ownership sometime in the future, because if this carries on – if the whole world is like this – then humans as a species are not guaranteed top spot on this planet anymore!"

  The group were stunned as Matt's frustration and fear erupted out of him, from where they had been bottled up as he strove to keep his family and friends alive. He didn't shout, but the intensity of his voice silenced everyone else, the room falling into an uncomfortable silence in the aftermath. Taking a breath but not wanting to lose persuasive momentum he stood and moved to the back of the room to stand by the curtains across the back window.

  "I'm going to show you something – please let me know if you have a good explanation for it." Saying this, he pulled the curtains across the window, dropping the room into deep shadow. Touching the patch on his arm, he moved back into the middle of everyone as a bright radiance slowly grew to cover the whole group. By this time the boys had been roused from their game, and five mouths gaped in awed silence as the first non-candlelight they had seen for days illuminated the room.

  It was Sarah who got to her feet first and moved timidly toward him, fingers reaching out to play in the light, then touch the radiant patch. She drew back at the rough feel of the cloth. "How does it work?" She asked in a voice full of wonder.

  "I've learned how to weave different things into these patches." Matt replied softly. "We have patches to make things warm, make them cold, protect us from harm, make light, make fire. I've only just started experimenting with all the things they can do."

  "And you make these yourself?" Belinda asked, joining her daughter.

  "Yup, that's how we have heat, a cold fridge and fresh water – not quite on tap, but enough for what we need every day. It's also how we put paid to that overgrown chihuahua out there – homemade flamethrowers." He grinned suddenly. "ACME approved for all your overgrown mutant beastie needs."

  Sarah perked up suddenly. "Wait a moment, you said 'Lara and Kira' were with one of your friends. What is Lara doing there?"

  Arlee and Matt looked at each other awkwardly, before Alan stepped in to save them. "Sleepover. She came over for a fun night of ghost stories and chocolate biscuits." He leant his staff against the wall and crouched down in front of the boys. "We're going to talk about really boring grown up stuff for a bit. Do you want to stay down here and talk about tidying stuff up, or do you have some really cool toys you could play with upstairs, eh?"

  The boys nodded wordlessly, scrambling up off the sofa and racing to be first up the stairs. At Belinda's urging, Sarah followed to 'keep an eye on them', under protest until Alan started listing all the boring things they were going to talk about – toenail clippings, digging toilets, organising paperwork. He was so blatantly insincere that Sarah could not stop herself from giggling as she disappeared up the stairs after the boys.

  As soon as the children were out of earshot, Belinda turned to Arlee and Matt and softly asked. "The Wrens?"

  Matt nodded, anguish crossing his face as his voice faltered. "We were close by scavenging some stuff, so I… I went round to check on them. I found Lara in the loft, half dead from lack of food and water. Reena had pushed her up there, but couldn't get David up before a giant snake took them both. We got away from it and she's living at ours now – she seems to be dealing with it. One of our friends is a nurse which is helping, and having her friends around would be a huge support for her."

  Belinda bowed her head, tears flowing freely. She had been good friends with Lara's parents, through their respective daughters' friendship. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

  "You're right – everything has changed. The young lad Nick is… well, he has a similar story to Lara. He was over here playing and his parents were fine for him to stay – they lived a few doors down. That first night when we… we heard screams and… we barricaded ourselves in. The next day, we saw them coming over to ours and… that thing burst out of the bushes and tore them apart! All we could do was cover the kids ears until it stopped. Since then, a few others made a run for it – I don't know if they made it, but I don't know anyone who is left around here. It's all gone wrong." She sat down and hugged herself, weeping quietly.

  Frank hurried over and sat down, wrapping her in an arm. "I love this place Bel, but family is more important. We'll be safer with them, and the kids will have more friends around." He looked up at Matt. "Who else do you have in mind?"

  Arlee rummaged in her bag for the list she had made up with Carry. "We're going to the Chen's next, then there are a few other friends in the area. We went through everyone we thought would get on and fit in well. That will help people make the transition a bit easier."

  Belinda raised her head, wiping her eyes dry. "I don’t know, it feels… wrong to just move into someone else’s house.What would we need to do?"

  Alan piped up. "Pack what you need – only what you need. Clothes, medicines, any food. If you have anything you can use as a weapon, bring that and keep it handy. Do you have bikes?"

  Frank nodded. "Yes, Nick brought his round, and we all have one. We used to go for rides around Dinton Pastures together…" He stared into space for a moment. "Not sure that'll be safe any more.

  He turned to his wife and took her hands in his. “I know how you feel Bel, but let’s be honest – we’re not in a position to carry on here. Everyone else has gone and we have no way to feed ourselves once the food runs out. I think we should go.”

  Belinda took a deep breath, before nodding firmly. “Okay. We've got a trailer I can hook onto the back of a bike, so we can pack a backpack each and put extra stuff in the trailer."

  "Good idea. You go get packing – I imagine the kids are going to take a while to get used to the idea, so maybe spin it as a trip to see friends, don't go into too much detail."

  Belinda and Frank hurried upstairs, and the trio heard muffled conversations, complaints and what was probably a junior stamped foot. There was a bustle of activity though, so progress was likely being made. Alan turned to the others to plan their return journey.

  "We have all them on bikes, so we can jog along at a slow pace, and give them directions. If we meet anything manageable, we can cover them and then run for it. One of us needs to be watching the sky the whole time, and we'll talk them through what to do. We go slow and steady, so we can hide at a moment's notice. Cross your fingers – and everything else."

  About an hour later, after much packing, discovering other 'essentials' and repacking, the family were ready. Under Alan's watchful eye, Frank had lined up the family's bikes and loaded the small trailer. They had gone over the plan, trying to make everyone aware of the seriousness and potential danger without scaring the crap out of anyone. With a final check over to ensure that bags were closed, laces were tied and the coast was clear, they hurried out the door to their bikes. Frank locked up, a last wistful look over the house before joining them, and they set off up the road.

  The smoking pile of what had been the neighbourhood's territorial terror was unavoidable, but they had warned the family to keep their eyes on the houses to the right and not stop, and everyone had paid attention. The trio without bikes jogged alongside, watching keenly around and above them. Rounding the corner, they pulled into the shelter of a large tree quickly to survey the road ahead, which was still and silent. There was no sign of the large cow which had been grazing, a welcome lack of distraction.

  The next road took them to a T-junction where they would turn left down toward their destination. So far, so good Matt thought to himself, flame tube in gloved hand as he looked about. A few minutes later, the group were within moments of the ultimate turning when Alan stopped, turned and herded the group into a narrow driveway behind a thick hedgerow. He lifted a finger to his lips and gestured for Matt to join him, Belinda swiftly following after handing off her bike to Frank.

  Using his staff to wedge open a gap in the thick hedge, Alan pointed down the road. Past their turning, a pair of large grey-brown animals were moving around one of the gardens, concealed behind some shrubberies. As they watched, the beasts moved into the open.

  Rats.

  Matt's breath sped up, threatening to hyperventilate until Alan clamped a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sharp pinch, shaking his head and repeating the 'quiet' gesture. Matt took deep breaths, eyes closed, willing his heart to slow down. He had been so swept up in the craziness of the days following his initial life-and-death struggle that he obviously still held some traumatic stress from the experience. The savagery of the attack and the wounds he had suffered had left a lasting mark – and now they were faced with the perpetrators of that mental scarring.

  Alan waved Arlee over and whispered softly. "It's only two of them, but I don't want to hang around and see if any more turn up. We've only got about 50 yards to the turning, then a straight run to the house. Matt and I will be at the front until we turn, then we will wait behind until you're all past us. Arlee, you get them into our place – dump the bikes in the yard and get them inside fast. And make sure you go in first, so the cats don't think they're being invaded." Arlee nodded, pale-faced as she considered the potential for a disastrous misunderstanding.

  "Cats?" Belinda asked. "Why would we need to worry about cats?"

  Alan smirked and quietly responded. "You'll see when we get there. Better safe than sorry."

  Frank and Belinda both looked like they had more questions but held their curiosity at bay. They returned to the group and went through the plan, downplaying the danger in front of the children. They could all sense the tension though, and lips were clamped shut to avoid making the slightest noise of distress. At Alan's signal, they moved out slowly and down the road toward the turning.

  There were now three rats, sat in the road, staring up the shallow incline at them.

  Matt heard a slight whimper from the group behind, though was unable to tell who from. Truth be told, he felt exactly the same way, but kept his nerve as they reached the turning and let the cyclists past them, never taking their eyes from the stationary rodents, their only movement twitches of noses and paws on the tarmac.

  Once the others were past, Matt and Alan started backing slowly into their street, eyes locked on the beasts, knuckles white as they gripped staff and flame-tube. They noted that the rats were pacing them, taking slow steps forward, keeping them in sight, not letting the fifty-yard gap get wider.

  What are they doing? Matt thought. Why don’t they charge?

  Abruptly, one of the rats reared up onto hind legs and let out a shrill chittering, before returning to its slow advance, long and pointed teeth now bare and menacing.

  "Pick up the pace, but do not trip over anything." Alan muttered from the corner of his mouth. "If one of us goes down they're gonna charge."

  They continued backing away, quietly talking each other past obstacles, always keeping their steady pursuers in sight. The fear was building as another pair of rats appeared back at the entrance to the road, hurrying forward to join the growing pack of voracious vermin. Seconds seemed like hours, until they arrived outside the Brands' house, seeing Frank hurrying inside with the last of the bags. The rats, maybe sensing their quarry slipping away, started narrowing the gap, quick sets of several steps closing the distance as the pair picked their way around the discarded bikes and toward the front door.

  Hearts thumping, sweat chill on their skin, they reached the door, Carry just inside with a desperate look on her face. Matt nudged Alan in first, flame-tube held at the ready, but curiously the rats advanced no further than the edge of the road. Now seven strong, their black eyes stared, fangs were bared and claws gouged tracks into the tarmac.

  As if marking their prey, the largest rat let out a soft chittering and the pack whisked away, disappearing down the road and out of sight.

  They’ve found out where the food is…

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