Domain by James Herbert Page A

flashed across a bristle-haired humped back; the creature tensed, fled.
    He half rose, the flashlight held before him. Its beam fell upon a human foot, a leg, a torso, the wicked yellow eyes of the animal squatting on the man's open chest. The creature plunged its bloodied snout deep into the wound, pulling flesh free with huge incisor teeth.
    It stopped eating. It watched the man with the torch.
    'Dealey.' He kept his voice low, but could not control the tremor. 'Move towards me - slowly - just move slowly.'

The other man did exactly as he was told, the fear in Culver's voice all the warning he needed.
    Culver carefully reached for him, remaining crouched, avoiding any sudden movement. He drew the crawling man to him, then moved back so that they were both against the tunnel wall.
    What is it?' Dealey whispered.
    Culver took a deep breath. 'Rats,' he said quietly. 'But like I've never seen before. They're big.' He wondered at his own understatement.
    'Are they black-furred?'
    'Everything's black down here.'
    'Oh God, not again, not at a time like this.'
    Culver glanced at him curiously, but could not see his expression in the darkness. He did not want to take the beam away from the dead bodies or the shapes that moved among them. His eyes narrowed.
    Wait a minute. There were a couple of outbreaks of killer Black rats some years ago. Are you saying these are the same breed? We were told they'd been wiped out, for Christ's sake!'
    'I can't see them, so I can't say. It's hardly the time to discuss the point, though.'
    Teali, I'm with you there. But what do you suggest - we shoo them away?'

    'Can you see the shelter door? We must be close.'
    Reluctantly, and very slowly, Culver swept the beam across the carnage. He winced when he saw the tangle of torn human forms and fought back nausea as the creatures steadily chewed at their victims. He had never before realized that blood had such a strong odour.
    He froze when he saw one rat stealthily creeping towards them, its long body kept low, its haunches hunched and

tensed. The torch beam reflected in its eyes and the creature stopped. It moved its head away from the glare, then moved back a few paces. It slid back in the darkness, unhurried and unconcerned.
    'Have you found the doorway yet?' Dealey hissed urgently.
    'No. I got distracted.'
    The light resumed its slow journey, revealing too much, each new horror chilling him to his core, causing the hand guiding the torch to tremble so that the very cavern seemed to quake. He deliberately aimed the beam along the wall he and Dealey rested against; Dealey had said the doorway was on the right-hand side of the eastbound tunnel. He hated the idea of allowing darkness to conceal the gorging creatures once more, for he felt somehow it was only the light holding them back, as if it were a force-field of sorts. Deep down, he knew he was wrong. They had not been attacked because the vermin were content with their kill for the moment; their hunger could be satiated without further effort.
    But if they felt threatened the slaughter would start again, and this time, he and Dealey would be the victims.
    Oh Christ, where was that bloody shelter?
    The slow-swinging beam came to a halt. What was that?
    He moved the light back a few feet.
    It came to rest on a figure standing in one of the openings dividing the two tunnels.
    She was perfectly still, eyes staring directly ahead into the brickwork of a column opposite the one she leaned against. Her clothes were torn, dirt-smeared; her hair matted, unkempt. She did not appear to be breathing, but she was alive. Alive and shocked rigid.
    'Dealey,' Culver said, keeping his voice low. There's a girl on the other side of the track. Just standing there, too scared to move.'

He tensed as a black shape appeared in the opening, at the girl's feet. Its pointed nose twitched in the air before it leapt off the small ledge to be among its gluttonous companions.
    'Find the door, man, that's more