Blood Water

CHAPTER 22

‘We’ll carry him to my car,’ Waites said, getting to his feet. ‘Come on. You guys grab an arm each. I’ll take his legs.’

Sean and James took hold of the man’s arms gingerly, watching his mouth in case the creature decided to make another break for freedom. They turned him over and lifted him, surprised by how heavy he was. Sean watched him carefully as they carried him towards the steps: his head was lolling to one side, his mouth open. Was that a gasp? There were also red, bleeding sores on the back of Titus’s neck. Sean wondered what the creature was planning to do at that moment. Would it stay inside the headmaster until it saw a chance to escape, or was it intending to wait until it had one of them alone before emerging and attacking? Either way, Sean didn’t want to be alone with it. As they negotiated the steps, he nearly lost hold of Titus’s arm, and glanced at Waites. However, all the teacher’s attention was focused on Titus’s mouth.

‘Right, guys, careful now. I’ll try and open the door. Turn him round… God, I can hardly see through this thing. Hang on, put him down a second. I’ve got a better idea.’

He took off the face guard and put it on Titus, securing it as tightly as he could. Sean and James removed their face guards too.

‘Right, that should stop it from getting out. We’ll tie him up properly at the centre. Come on.’

They picked up the body again and slowly turned so that Waites could shoulder the door open. As they passed through, the doors banged twice against the headmaster’s body. They carried him through the hallway and out into the car park. The rain seemed to have eased slightly, but the path was covered in water, and when James accidentally stepped onto the grass, it was like stepping into a bog.

‘My car’s on the far side,’ Waites said.

‘That figures,’ James said, already showing signs of tiring.

They splashed across the car park until Waites told them to stop.

‘Right, just put him down gently while I get the car open,’ he said.

They laid him down in the water; his face was paler now, almost luminous in the dark, but with more sores visible on his forehead and cheeks. Waites took out his car keys and unlocked his old Vauxhall Corsa, opening a back door so that they could manhandle the headmaster inside.

‘One of you will have to sit back here with him,’ Waites said.

Sean and James both stared at him, horrified, neither one willing to volunteer.

‘Come on, we don’t have time—’

‘All right,’ James said. ‘I will.’

‘No, I will,’ Sean countered.

‘I’ll do it,’ James insisted firmly.

‘No!’ Sean was adamant now, his fear gone, his desire to protect his brother stronger.

‘James,’ Waites said, handing over the car keys, ‘you drive. I’ll sit in the back with our friend here.’

The brothers didn’t argue. They lifted, pulled and shoved the headmaster into the vehicle, trying to manoeuvre him into something resembling a sitting position, then got in themselves; Waites was as close to his door and as far from the unconscious man as possible. He knew that thing was still alive and kicking inside the man’s body, and he was already panicking at the idea of what would happen if it managed to ‘jump ship’ again.

James started the engine, flicking the front and rear windscreen wipers on. Sean buckled up his seat belt and looked in the rear-view mirror. He could only see Waites’s profile, but it was enough to tell that he was very anxious and uncomfortable. Titus’s head was lolling back on the seat, his mouth wide open behind the mesh of the face guard. Sean imagined the black slug shooting out and oozing through the mesh, shredding itself then somehow miraculously re-forming and darting towards the back of his head. How much contact with the thing did you need before it killed you? he wondered. Did you merely have to touch it, or did it have to be inside you? And how long before it was able to regain control of the headmaster’s body? If it did so while they were in the car it could be disastrous. As James reversed the car out of its space, Sean tried not to dwell on such things.

The car sent wave after wave of water across the car park as they moved towards the road. Unsurprisingly there were no other vehicles: everyone was either at home or waiting out the weather somewhere or helping others get out of harm’s way. This time James took the back road to the study centre, hoping that the water wouldn’t be too high.

‘So what do you know of this Sally?’ Waites asked, trying to take his mind off his fellow passenger. ‘What did you say she did at the centre?’

‘Well, I’m not really sure,’ James said, peering ahead into the rain and darkness. ‘I know she helped Dr Morrow quite a bit so she must be into marine life, but she kept snakes and things too. Perhaps we’ll find out when we get there.’

‘Well, whatever it was they were doing, Morrow used his last few moments on this earth to point us to it. Hopefully we can rid ourselves of this… thing before it does any more damage. Jesus… how the hell are we going to explain the mess at the school?’

Neither James nor Sean could think of a reply.

‘I don’t know,’ Sean said after a while. ‘But they’ll realize it was an infection of some kind. I mean, it doesn’t exactly look like murder.’

‘No.’ Waites looked out of the window, wishing it was light again, but knowing there were many hours of darkness still to come.

‘God, it feels like this is the end, you know? Everything’s happening at once,’ James said as he slowed down for a bend in the road. It was unlikely there would be other traffic around, but he wasn’t taking any chances. The rain blocked out any other sound, and as the car made its way along the waterlogged country lanes, the occupants could almost imagine they were alone in the world.

‘Nearly there now,’ James said, turning to Sean after what felt like an eternity.

Sean was peering out at the road ahead too – what he could see of it at least. He hadn’t looked behind for a couple of minutes now, but when he happened to glance in the mirror again, what he saw made him cry out.

The headmaster’s body was still sitting slumped, his head lolling backwards and moving slowly from side to side, but his eyes were now open.

Sean’s cry caused James to lose concentration for a second, the car swerving across the road. ‘What is it?’ he asked, still straining to see the road ahead.

‘He’s awake!’ Sean said, eyes glued to the mirror as Titus slowly lifted his head.

‘Oh, shit,’ Waites said. ‘Move it, James!’

‘We’re nearly there, just round—’

But it was too late. With an unearthly groan, Titus raised his hands towards Waites’s neck. The teacher was surprised by the headmaster’s unnatural strength. The man was panting in his face now, and Waites expected to see something wriggle from his mouth and try to fight its way through the face guard.

‘Here it is,’ James shouted desperately. He swerved off the main road a little faster than he should have and started down the winding drive towards the lake and the study centre. The car rose and dipped over the bumps and potholes, throwing the occupants around.

‘Oh God,’ Sean heard Waites mutter behind him. ‘I can see it.’

Waites started screaming and struggling with Titus, desperately trying to keep their mouths apart to stop the creature from switching host. James was also panicking, glancing in the mirror, then looking over his shoulder. It was Sean who noticed first that the car was moving dangerously close to the edge of the road, which was raised above the fields on either side. Sean cried out as James turned the wheel hard to the right, but it was too late.

The vehicle left the road, veered onto its side, the wheels churning the mud and sending it flying up behind them, then flipped over, rolling twice before settling back on its wheels with a loud, metallic moan.