wytchcroft

There was something about the eyes of the stranger - looking at me unwavering through the red streaked dark. I could see them so clearly set into the pale face, see them clear through the soot and ash and sparks about us, clear through the thick layers coating the windows of my face plate, clear through the sweat in my own eyes that was making me blink and squint.
There was something…

Even as I thrashed about, yelling “Oy! Oy you! You shoudn’t oughta be ‘ere! You ‘ear me! You shouldn’t be here!” Weren’t that gospel!
Empty, we got told – and the station had sent a couple of squawkers to keep any bloody Joe Have-ago-hero away. Everyone knew our crows right enough. So I hadn’t thought about people at all, not for a second as we went into the building, only in a vague way; we had to get this place safe or the fire could spread lickerty split and that WOULD mean people and rescuing people was a whole different game to putting out fires.
But this weren’t people. I knew that straightaway. Some part of me did.
It was the eyes. This soft faced stranger sat under a fallen door and in the middle of all this chaos and just watching. Nah this weren’t people, this was one of them.
We had all kinds of name for ‘em.

But right then – as another great chunk of wall came down to the left of me and a spray of fine darting sparks fizzled and dripped – I couldn’t spare time thinking of them all. I had to help Bert – and get him the hell ought of this place.
Tearing my eyes away from the eerie gaze of the thing across from me I looked around in vain once more for the Memory pack. Bert had ceased his carrying on and that was a bad sign. The chief though – he was still talking in my ear saying “Stop that yammering, stay calm!”

Wierd, I felt calm – even as my body scrabbled about in the dark, holding onto Bert and crawling backwards up against the broken trolley and away from the creature beyond me.
But the Chief didn’t think so. “Take a deep breath and calm down!” He was ordering. “We’re still getting air to yer after all aint we? Ray’ll be there soon enough – just that him and Jimmy got to get to you and they’re stuck right now. They aint far off though, alright? Keep it together man!”

I was doing my best. He was right, I knew Raymond had a spare pack and a set of discs because carrying them had been his idea and he’d had to persuade the Chief about it, with the chief moaning on about the extra weight.
The only weight bothering me was Bert. I had to do something! Flopping over onto my good side, crying out at the pain from broken arm, I pulled Bert towards me with my fingers, they were swollen and black already. I was thinking – maybe I could talk to him, keep him going, man to man, y’know?

With clumsy movements I peeled back the two square goggles on his helmet, shutters same as you find on a lantern. I nearly dropped him with shock. I dunno what I thought – but I hadn’t expected him to be staring so, wide eyed and right at me, with his eyes just – he was blank already. Nothing, nothing there. And he was sucking on his air tube like an infant.
Somebody touched me on the shoulder.

I wanted to shriek but my throat had had enough of that. I gazed up at the kneeling figure with my belly churning and my legs shaking inside of their boots.

Yeah, we had all sorts of names for them.

Blanks, Purgs, Head-suckers, Vampires… they came at you when you was weak and took the only precious thing you had, your memory.
Them eyes looking at me, they was blank – and they were the same as Bert’s.

It what happens when yer memory goes – what we all worry about nights as we lay our head on the pillow. What if the pills don’t work this time? What if the booster don’t take – what if the supply runs out. All of us.
But NOT all of us hang about in the dark waiting to take what we need from someone else – anyone else. Not all of us – just them.
I couldn’t back away any more than I had. The thing could do what it liked as it started to move toward me. At least Bert’s out of this, I thought. His poor wife though…

And then I noticed something. This one was messed up. The calm eyes narrowed a fraction and the mouth twisted like an animal. This one was wounded – and it knew it. Looking down at me and then slowly turning to Bert. As it did so I could see, one of the legs was all burnt up, if I hadn’t been a fireman the sight would’ve made me gag. As it shuffled closer to Bert I lifted my hand and tugged open my visor. Bugger the smoke. I pulled my faceplate open and said, “You won’t get nothing there.”
I could still speak thank God.
The creature look at Bert again, then back at me. “That’s right,” I said, “He aint got long, and I’m as broken biscuits as you.” My fingers were clutching the dirk anyway. Instinct.

The chief suddenly spoke through the helmet speaker again. “It’s no good,” he said, “they can’t get through. Put yourself on the trolley – we’re gonna yank you out and Ray’ll meet you out here.” That would be too late for Bert I thought sadly.

The Blank had cocked an ear, like it could hear – like it could understand. Maybe it could, some few memories left from the bastard’s last feed. Bert was gonna be like this – if he weren’t already. And me? I couldn’t really feel my left side at all.

It’s funny – there was the crackle and crash of the whole ruddy building going up and coming down, there was the floor sizzling about me – and the Chief yelling instructions to Ray. But it felt silent to me just then.
I was looking into them eyes – and they was looking at me – and everything else just sort of, well, faded. Then I saw two long teeth, long as my dirk and thin as a Mem-pack needle, they came right of the mouth of the beast and it was on me before I could blink
……………………………………..

When a hose carrying trolley gets pulled through the remains of a burning building, going like the clappers and with you clutching on like anything - everything is a blur. I shut my eyes against the dizzying surroundings and tried not to get winded as the runners hurtled the trolley backwards over any obstacle jumping and shaking and bumping its way forward. I was glad of my helmet coz it kept everything out of my eyes – and at that rate anything would have blinded me for life.
It took forever but then it seemed like it was over in a heartbeat – like the way a bad dream can do when you wake up.

I couldn’t move when the trolley came to a halt and Ray and the Chief were lifting me off the trolley and onto a stretcher. I was dazed for sure, but I knew I didn’t need THAT. I sat up, brushing at the two men. “Give over!” I coughed. “I aint no cripple, I can stand on me on two feet.”
I tried to do just that, flopping off the side of the stretcher and onto the ground. One of the kids was holding a lamp up over me, Ray was leaning forward in alarm.
“You just lie still alright? We gotta take a look at you” he said, pulling my face plate open, “Bert.”

I saw Ray shake his head. “Hang about – I thought –“
“Where the bloody hell’s Malcolm?” The Chief snapped.
“Didn’t make it,” I said, coughing this time – my lungs were thick with tar it felt like. “If you can get to him you’ll see… “
“He told me he had a broken arm – and you were supposed to be nuts!” The Chief shook his head along with Ray. “What did we need Ray for then – eh?”
“I dunno Boss,” I said, “But you shouldn’t talk like that. He was brave, just the hose…I think, the trolley, it took his arm off.” I coughed again.
“Jesus…” I heard Ray wince, “but what about you?”
“I’m alright I tell yer. Just – I wish I could’ve…”
“Never mind that,” The Chief actually patted my shoulder. “You’re alive – you did your best, I’m sure. You’ve got other things to think about.”
That was true – I DID have a lot to think on. First things first though eh?

For a split second I had the unwanted flash of the creature back there inside, watching it crawl past me from behind wiping its mouth, before turning away. I couldn’t see too clear, I was looking at Malcolm, the blankness in his eyes, those eyes that had been mine.

“Yeah boss.” I was nodding slowly, turning my face up to look at the men. “Get me home to my wife,” I said.

THE END

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-the actual music used to write this was: David Bowie, The Man who Sold the World, Tipping the Ages - Music Hall of the early 1900s, Logan's Run movie soundtrack (Jerry Goldsmith) -

thanks for the nice comments:)