Page 11 of A Very Monstrous Desire

Dimitri stumbled to his knees. Theo would have liked to help him up, but he had to keep his gun free to shoot. How many bullets did he have left? Twelve minus three. God, he hoped those had been the only monsters left.

They’re not the only monsters here.

He cursed his brain and its intrusive thoughts. Now was not the time!

“Come on,” he said again. “We need to find the others.”

Another scream rang out. It was Julia. Theo recognised her voice. And for her to scream… He practically dragged Gill with him round to the front of the shop, Dimitri lurching alongside them. They left a trail of blood in their wake, and Theo did not think that was a good thing at all.

The scene at the front of the store was far, far worse than Theo could have imagined. There were splatters of purple and red blood on the pavement. Two munching monsters were on the ground, clearly dead, but another dozen were busy chasing Joel, Julia and the uni students down the street and into the village. They turned and fired shots as they ran, and one only just missed Dimitri. Theo pushed him back into the shop. Gill too. Once they were inside, he quickly shut the back door, slipping on the shimmering washing up liquid-brains combo as he did so.

“Stay!” he said as he did a quick check round the entire building, making sure they really were alone.

When he was confident that was the case, Theo pushed the post office counter in front of the hole in the wall and then a large bookcase in front of the back door. Both were ridiculously heavy, and he dripped with sweat as he moved them, but he had no choice. He had to ensure that there was only one entrance and exit to guard. Once the back entrances were blocked up, Theo removed the damn, scratchy army jumper, grabbed an energy drink from one of the shelves and swigged it down. He grabbed two more and took them to Gill and Dimitri.

“Here.”

Gill looked up at him with wide eyes and shook her head.

“Drink,” Theo insisted. “Both of you. You’re in shock. It’s important now that you stay hydrated. You need electrolytes as well. This stuff has plenty. Its watermelon flavoured.”

Gill shook her head again, clearly thinking that his words were nonsense, and maybe they were, but Dimitri complied. Theo bent down next to him, opened his backpack and pulled out his spare t-shirt. He ripped it down the seam—army manufacturing was clearly not what it had once been—and passed it to Dimitri.

“Wrap that round your arm.”

“Some antiseptic,” Dimitri said as he drank more of the water.

“Yes, good point.”

Theo ran back down to the cleaning supplies aisle and found a bottle of TCP. It was quite dusty.

“Here.”

“You have a med kit in your backpack,” Gill said as she roused herself to drink her watermelon-flavoured isotonic. She pressed a hand to her head, perhaps protecting the spot where her ear had once been. Theo remembered that it was now in her vest pocket and opened his mouth to say as much, maybe make a small joke of the whole thing, but quickly changed his mind. Now was not the time.

“Yes,” Theo agreed instead even as he bemoaned the loss of his spare t-shirt. He’d forgotten about the med kit! “Let’s get some antiseptic on both your wounds first and then I can use the sterile dressings.”

Theo worked quickly and methodically. He was generally a very process-driven person, so this situation absolutely played to his strengths. Though, if he’d been told three years ago that he’d be stuck in a village shop on a Saturday afternoon fighting off alien monsters that wanted to eat him he might well have made some different life choices!

It took Theo less than a half hour to patch up their wounds and give them both painkillers, and they finished their drinks as he did so, and even ate a Mars bar each. Theo ate three. They didn’t hear any other screams. In fact, it had all gone very quiet. He was anxious to know what had happened to the rest of the squad, but he knew he was needed here, and he could hardly go racing through the dark alone on a rescue mission that might be completely unnecessary! Joel had two guns after all. Besides it was fully dark now. Night had fallen. And it was cold again.

“There’s a small toilet over there,” Theo said as he packed the remainder of his med kit away and pulled his jumper back on. “I’ll go wash my hands and then we can all use it.”

“Be careful,” Gill whispered.

“We’re okay here for now,” Dimitri said, giving Theo an approving nod. Theo had given him some very strong painkillers. His arm was broken after all. “One way in, one way out.”

“Let’s hope so,” Theo said.

None of them bothered mentioning that the munching monsters could chew through the ceiling were they so inclined. They rarely ate things that were not food, but they had been known to chomp their way through entire buildings if it meant getting to food.

Theo swallowed at that thought and walked over to the toilet, gun in hand with the torch still on dim. The shop smelled worse than ever, and the smell coming from the toilet was slightly more intense. Theo’s chest tightened as he considered what that might mean. Surely there weren’t any monsters in the lavatory! Couldn’t they even pee in peace?

He gritted his teeth, feeling like it was better to get this over with, and kicked the door open.

What Theo saw next was not a monster.

It was not a toilet either.

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