Ferine Apocalypse (Novella): 4 Hours by John F. Leonard

too completely for survival.
    Pearcey could see seven or eight crumpled heaps in the gathering gloom.
    Not all dead. Two of them continued to twitch and make small, desperate movements. Immobilised, but not finished. Clinging to their new existence with a tenacity that awed him.
    Dear lord, they were tough.
    <><><>
    Pearcey glanced at Sonny Gallagher.
    “Can you see your windows? Are any of them broken?”
    Gallagher nodded and then shook his head slightly. He’d come to the same conclusion as Pearcey, knew exactly what his friend was asking.
    Had his daughter turned and already left.
    “They’re intact.”
    He pointed, but Pearcey didn’t bother looking. He trusted Sonny not to lie. It meant that Anne Gallagher hadn’t jumped of the window. That was all. It didn’t tell him much else.
    Besides which, he was more worried about what was around them. It was quiet, no creatures in evidence. It appeared that Raylens had been right once again. They’d run from the fire.
    Pearcey didn’t trust it though.
    He felt exposed, squatting there in the street.
    Naked and defenceless.
    Those things could come from anywhere at any moment. Their fear of the flames might not be as strong as their desire for prey.
    Their need to hunt.
    And the light was fading.
    Pretty soon it would be dark and then everything would change again.
    If he’d learned anything in the last couple of hours, it was that the rules of the game, along with most of the human population, had undergone a radical metamorphosis.
    A savage transformation.
    He was struggling to grasp those rules in daylight. He didn’t want to start figuring them out in the dark.
     
    Gallagher interrupted his reverie.
    “The garages are at the back of the flats at the edge of the green. A block of lock-up units. I rent one. Costs an arm and leg but what can you do, they’re like fucking gold dust.”
    Pearcey thought that the cost had probably just plummeted. Like the creatures lying on the grass there.
    The rent wouldn’t be collected this month.
    And not for the foreseeable future.
    Gallagher delved into his combats and produced a bunch of keys.
    “Keys to the lock-up and the motor.”
    Pearcey chewed his lip and tried to improvise a plan of action.
    It was all improvisation and that had been the problem from the outset. One improvisation led to another and before you knew where you were, you were in a shitload of trouble. Neck deep and floundering to keep your head above the waterline.
    Or shitline, if you wanted to be pedantic.
    God, he’d had enough of this.
    Like the character in the film had once said, he was too old for this shit. Too old and too tired.
    He wanted to be at home. Watching a movie or reading a book and dreaming about his next spell of leave.
    “Okay, here’s the plan. We scoot round to the garages and make sure that everything’s peachy there. Get it all ready to roll before we go in and grab your daughter.”
    Gallagher agreed with his habitual nod and the girl stared at him blankly.
    She may as well have been wearing a sister to Raylens mask for all he could judge from her expression. Maybe one of those disturbing but beautiful harlequin things.
    He had no intention of abandoning her, but in his heart Pearcey wished he’d never laid eyes on her.
    She was just another complication.
    Another problem, when he had more problems than he could handle.
     
    “I’m not going in there.”
    Wayne Raylens voice was emotionless and unequivocal, a monotone made flatter still by the mask.
    The rifle cradled in his arms like a precious child.
    “It may be an alien hive now. Where they lay their eggs. No way baby. I’m not taking that chance. Being trapped in one of their filthy fucking nests.”
    Pearcey was almost relieved. However good Raylens was at killing monsters, the guy was a loose cannon in a stormy sea.
    Loop-de-fucking-loop.
    He’d vaguely dreaded being in an enclosed space again with the man.
    “I’m not that keen to go in there