The Screaming (Book 1): Dead City by Matthew Warwick Page A

rapidly inflated.
                  The deafening shriek ricocheted around the carriage as the man fired the almighty shrill from deep inside. The unbearable racket swiftly increased as others on the platform joined in, each one in a stare out with the train passengers. The grotesque choir united in a child-like harmonic cry that bellowed on insufferably, before abruptly and sharply ceasing. Zac slowly raised himself from his seat, unable to turn his glare from the assembly of oddities poised outside. He slowly edged backwards until his back shunted against the perspex cab door. He could feel his heart exploding out of his chest as tension turned to fear. He cut a quick glimpse into the cab to see the driver lady opening the external door and bounding out onto the platform.
                  All of a sudden the youth at the door, lunged forward at the green coated woman now cowering in her seat. He grabbed her head with both hands, and drilled his finger nails into her scalp, she screamed and writhed like an animal in a trap, before being ripped from her seat. The youth plunged his mouth at her face and impaled his teeth into her nose, slicing through the flesh in one quick primal motion. Terror filled the train, passengers screamed and clambered back, the yuppie started swinging his leather effect briefcase at the youth, repeatedly hammering it down on his undeterred head.
                  The doorway was instantly swamped as bodies piled into the carriage and immediately launched themselves at desperate individuals, as they clambered over each other to escape the approaching animals. The white bloused woman collapsed into a ball on the floor and tried in vain to cover herself with her arms. The yuppie was pulled to the floor by a woman half his size, his briefcase sliding off under a seat. He yelled in defiance and swung a right hook at the woman, who, untroubled, dived onto him, thrusting her hand straight into his throat, several of her fingers popped and snapped from the driving force into his gullet, before quickly cleaving out a hand full of shredded flesh and packing it into her impatient mouth. Blood propelled from the yuppies gaping wound as he struggled and wheezed for breath.
                  Zac was petrified by the inconceivable slaughter taking place in front of his eyes. He reached his hand behind his back desperately rifling for a handle to the perspex door, but too terrified and mesmerised to look away and find the handle. He yelped in disbelief as a torrent of blood engulfed every surface, as peoples entrails were torn from their shell and demolished. The door handle suddenly filled his sweaty palm and he wrenched at it in shear desperation, but it failed to shift.
                  His attention was drawn to the woman in the once white blouse, as she suddenly shot to her feet. What was left of her right arm swung by her side, stripped almost free of tissue and muscle.   Pain and fear somehow exorcised from her being, as was the colour, replaced by a pasty tone. She looked across and snared Zac in a hypnotic stare, as a tear of blood trickled down her pale cheek. Zac fought all his instincts, flipped around to face the cab door and planted a kick at the perspex pane…nothing.
                  He fired kick after frantic kick at the pane, until it suddenly cracked. He chanced a peek over his shoulder to see the woman charging down the carriage towards him, marching over bodies without breaking stride. He took a half step to his left and threw volley after volley of kicks at the crack. An almighty pop exploded as the pane gave way, and he wasted no time reaching through the gap made in the door, and feeling for the latch on the other side, which slid across easily. He threw himself through the door and turned to slam it closed as the woman hurled her body at it. Halted like a bug on a windscreen.
                  The woman instantly