The Rule of Three

— 2 —

Jack sped through the night, the road dipping as it followed the undulating countryside. He kept off the main roads, taking the narrower but straighter roads that dissected the flat farmland. His eyes scanned the houses as he flew past, searching for signs of life. Every house was dark; people had either left or the power was off.

Jack grimaced at each dark building he saw and fought the urge to drive faster. The closer he got to Hamilton, the more his trepidation grew. After thirty minutes of speeding his way along the back roads, Jack decided to risk the highway, his worry for Dee and his family making up his mind.

As soon as he turned onto the main road he spotted an orange glow up ahead. His mind flashed back to his time in Australia. A glow like that normally meant a fire. Slowing his car, he wound down the window. Acrid smoke wafted in, making him cough. Definitely fire.

Jack dropped his speed further and glanced in his rearview mirror, searching behind for any vehicles, in case he needed to make a quick U-turn. The glow intensified as he rounded a sharp bend, and before him was the cause of the fire. He jammed on the brakes.

Cars lined the road on both sides, their occupants milling around. About 100 metres away, he could see a jack-knifed milk tanker strewn across the road, its ends tangled in fences on both sides. It was engulfed in flames, thick black smoke pouring out over the land.

Alongside him, on the shoulder of the road, a family sat waiting in an old mini-van.

Winding his window right down, he made eye contact with the driver. “Hey, been waiting long?”

“About an hour,” replied the man.

Jack could see him quite well in the light from the blaze. He looked about 40 and had on a flat cap, like the English wear — or the hipsters. The woman sitting alongside had her hands over her ears. Hearing the bickering of kids from the back seat, he could understand why.

Jack turned his attention back to Flatcap. “Any sign of the emergency services?”

“Nope, not yet. It’s pretty crazy out there. The roads are jammed up.”

“Because of the virus?”

“Yeah. They announced it on the news, told everyone to stay home from work, only essential travel. That was yesterday. We decided to go and stay with family, get out of Auckland. I guess everyone else had the same idea.”

“What about Hamilton?”

“Couldn’t get past the Bombay Hills. The police directed us onto this road.”

Jack nodded, contemplating the new information. Looking out at the tanker, the fire raging out of control and all the cars jammed up, he knew that if he was to get home to Dee, he’d have to go the long way around.

Making his decision, he turned back to Flatcap. “Thanks mate. I’m going to try a different way. I really need to get home to my wife.” He revved the car up and shifted it into gear.

“Hey!” called out Flatcap.

“Yeah?”

“Can you give us directions?”

“Sure, where are you headed?”

“Cambridge.”

“Cambridge? Okay. Follow me. I’ll show you to the turn off.”

The lady, who had not uttered a sound until now, turned and looked at Jack. “Thank you. It’s madness out there.”

A high-pitched scream echoed through the night. Jack and Flatcap exchanged a look.

Squinting into the glare from the fire, Jack could just make out the source of screaming. A couple were running down the road towards where he was stopped, terror sharpening their features. The woman let out another primal scream as a black blur slammed into her. They went down in a tangled mess of arms and legs, just a few car lengths away. The black blur had stopped above them and came into focus.

Jack stared. He was having trouble comprehending what his eyes were seeing. It looked like a monster straight out of his worst nightmares.

The creature looked human enough. Or like something that had once been human. Its limbs had elongated, and where its feet and hands should have been, were claws. Large yellow eyes stared back at Jack. They blinked, as if the creature was deciding whether to attack him or finish off the woman. The monster glared at Jack and shrieked.

Jack’s heart hammered in his chest, sending a shot of adrenaline right through his body. He struggled to think straight. The creature crouched over the woman. Jack watched, dazed, as it plunged its head down and tore out the woman’s throat. Spurts of arterial blood coated the creature’s face, the plasma glowing a hellish red in the firelight. It turned its head towards Jack, as though it could see him watching, and it licked its strange, sucker-like lips. Then letting out a horrible screech, it returned to its meal.

Jack’s hands started to shake but he was unable to look away despite the horror.

The creature was reptilian-looking with blackish translucent skin. Where the mouth should have been was a weird sucker-like appendage filled with sharp teeth. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the image, but it was seared into his mind.

A cacophony of sounds echoed through his head. Shouts and screams. Engines starting. The swoosh of blood pumped through his ears. Frantic cries of terrified children. Children!

Snapping out of it, Jack looked back towards Flatcap’s car. Flatcap’s children were screaming.

Throwing his car into reverse, Jack screamed, “C’mon!”

But the crashing sound of glass breaking made him stop. Terrified screams pierced the night.

To his horror, three more of the creatures had appeared out of the smoke and chaos and were swarming all over Flatcap’s car. One of them reached in through the shattered windshield — that must have been the breaking glass he’d heard — and dragged the woman out by her hair. Before he could consider the consequences, he put his car into drive and barrelled towards the creature.

Jack sideswiped it, flinging it backwards several metres and smashing it into another vehicle. The creature shook its head groggily, glared at him, and let out a horrific shriek.

“Get in!” Jack yelled at the woman, all the time keeping his eyes on the monster.

She whimpered, but hauled herself up with steely determination and jumped into Jack’s car.

“Go! Go!” Jack shouted out the window at Flatcap. Two of the creatures were still on top of his car.

Flatcap managed to get his car moving and expertly spun the wheels despite the loose gravel on the shoulder of the road. Wrenching the car side to side, he came out of the melee, throwing the two monsters off and into the ditch in the process.

Flooring the accelerator again, Jack squealed back down the road.

I’ll find you, Dee. Just stay put. I’m coming, promise.

“Holy shit, what the hell was THAT?” Jack said, more to himself than to his passenger. A cold sweat enveloped him. Images of what he’d just witnessed flashed through his mind. He tried to calm himself.

Deep breaths, in, out, in, out, in out. Deep breaths…

Though Jack could see Flatcap’s car up ahead, he was struggling to keep up with his panicked driving. Both cars tore through the night. He focused on the red tail lights, following his driving lines.

“What the hell was that?”

He barely heard the quiet response. “Dante’s bloody inferno.”

Jack nodded his head in agreement. “Did you see its mouth?”

“Yeah.”

He looked over at his passenger. She had her hands in her lap. He could see by the way she leant away from him, curled against the back of her seat, that she wanted to be left alone with her thoughts. Staring out the windscreen, focussing on the road, Jack had time to think.

He just couldn’t make sense of it. What the hell were those things he’d just seen? Were they what people became if they caught this virus? That just didn’t make any kind of sense. Outside of science fiction, that is. Surely no one had managed to create a virus that turned people into monsters? Surely? He shook his head. He had so many questions, and no answers. He banged the steering wheel in anger.

Stay safe, Dee. I’m coming.

Jack looked down at his shaky, sweaty hands. He wiped them on his pants in turn, trying to dry them. He clenched them into fists to try to stop the shaking, gripping and regripping the steering wheel as he did so. His mind just kept replaying the horrifying creature tearing out the poor woman’s throat and lapping up her blood.

The car shuddered and swerved as it went over onto the gravel shoulder, threatening to skid out. Jack cringed, cursing at himself as he watched a road sign go under the front of the car. He took his foot off the accelerator and pulled the steering wheel hard down to the right. To his relief, he regained control of the car. The car bumped slightly as he returned to the tarmac. He shivered as a cold frisson enveloped him.

“Bloody hell! Sorry,” Jack apologised, glancing at his passenger.

Flatcap’s wife stared ahead into the darkness, oblivious. Jack looked back up the road at the disappearing tail lights. Get it together. He forced himself to refocus and follow them.