The Night Shift - Chapter Three

Reah and Nolan

Reah watched the smoke billow away from her lips and up into the night sky. She inhaled from the cigarette again, and exhaled after a few seconds; the act barely registering. She shivered as she felt the cold metal of the Toyota Cynos through her black leggings. She pushed herself off the car and smoothed out her skirt, flicking the cigarette away with the other hand. 

She looked over her shoulder and through the windscreen of the car at her boyfriend, Nolan. He was tussling his curly, brown hair, using the rear-view mirror to try and keep it somewhat tidy. They had driven to Strawberry Fare, a dessert restaurant, for a spontaneous night out and Reah had wanted to stop by a park to smoke on the way home. Nolan wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which had become untucked from his jeans. She smiled when he looked over at her and contorted his lips into a silly face in return.

Sighing with exasperation she leaned over the bonnet of the car and put her middle finger against the windscreen, poking her tongue at Nolan. He mockingly blew a kiss back and she shook her head, amused. She slipped Nolan' jacket off from her shoulders, her white sleeveless blouse letting the cold bite her arms. But it felt refreshing, a good night. She’d even tied her shoulder length black hair up in a tidy bun for their date night.

The hedge that blocked her view of the park rustled and drew her attention; it looked as if a person was attempting to slip through it. A pale hand pushed against the branches, then a shoulder, and finally a groaning middle-aged man appeared through the hedge. The rasping moan was audible even from where Reah was standing; it rattled her, hearing that sound. It didn't even sound like he was breathing. There was only that groan, long and low, as he neared her.

"Can I help you?" Reah shouted at the old man. He heard her and his groan turned to a snarl; a predator that had found his prey. As he stepped further into the moonlight, Reah shrieked upon seeing that the man was missing an eyeball and that the other eye had clouded over to become completely grey.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Reah yelled at the grotesque man. Yet still the man lurched towards her, clacking its teeth together in anticipation.

Suddenly the sound of the Cynos coming to life made Reah turn to see Nolan leaning forward, clutching the steering wheel. The monstrous man hissed as the headlights illuminated him, but still he worked his way toward Reah.

"Do you mind taking a step to the left, Reah?" Nolan called.

Reah gave a small nod and ran to the side as the Cynos surged forward. The car hit the old man full force and he was dragged beneath the car's chassis amid a loud sound of howling and screeching. Nolan backed the Cynos back and shared a terrified look with Reah.

"I think I deserve a kiss or something because that was wildly heroic," Nolan finally blurted.

"You killed someone, Nolan!" Reah shouted furiously, shooting him a glare. She had been terrified and was expecting the man to jump out of the way exactly as she did. The fact Nolan had actually run him over completely shocked her, it had happened so quickly. Now that she looked at the body she could see how mangled and twisted the limbs of the old man had become after the impact.

"Oh shit," Nolan said, leaning out his window. "Pretty tough for an old guy though, he's still going. You hear that?"

Reah took a couple of steps towards the body of the old man and heard it; the rattling groan was still carrying on. The old man's body suddenly contorted and twisted, shuffling about on the ground. Reah put a hand to her mouth at the sight; she squinted and realised something incredibly harrowing. The old man's body was dragging itself towards them again, snarling loudly.

"Nolan!" Reah yelled, pushing her boyfriend's head back into the car.

"Oh what the hell?" Nolan muttered, keying the ignition. "I have to do this twice?"

Reah watched Nolan drive the Cynos clean across the old man, tearing the skin off the back of the body. The rattling groan stopped this time and the only sound was the rev of the Cynos as it cleared the corpse and went straight through the hedge. Immediately the car reversed and turned, Nolan angling the car to get back on the road.

"Okay so I think it's time to leave now," Nolan called, an urgent undertone to his voice.

Reah turned to look at the hole that Nolan had made in the hedge only to see a large group of shuffling people throughout the park. They were ambling towards the direction of the couple, their movements mimicking that of the elderly man. Snarls and howls met her ears and she saw many more coming in the distance. A procession of monsters advancing in the dark.

Reah ran around the side of the car and opened the passenger door, clambering in. Nolan pulled away from the park and accelerated down the street. They took a few corners in silence, still stunned at what had just happened. As they drove they noticed more of the shuffling creatures working their way onto the streets as well as screams and howls coming from various houses that they passed.

"Well as far as silver linings go…“ Nolan finally said, "at least there's no traffic."

He grinned expectantly at Reah, hoping for some kind of response. She ignored him and continued looking out the window. They'd almost died and all Nolan could think about was making a joke? He hadn't even asked if she was okay. The sudden weight of his hand on her leg startled her, she turned to look at him.

"We're going to be alright, okay?" Nolan reassured her.

"Yeah okay," Reah nodded in response. "So what's the plan? Where are we going?"

"Here." Nolan passed Reah his phone. "Find out what's going on; ring people, search the web, whatever you can."

"But where are we going?" Reah asked as she began entering in her dad's number.

"Mine. I wanna check on Mum, Dad and Josh and we can head to your Mum's from there."

Reah began dialling her dad but the call took several attempts to go through. When finally he answered there were loud sounds of crashing and smashing objects in the background.

"Dad?" Reah tried to make herself sound calm.

"Rh...safe...The Palms...evacu...military-" The phone cut out after a brief few snatches of her father's voice. Reah almost threw the phone. She was sick with worry for her family and Nolan'. She began putting in the number for her Mum just as Nolan' phone vibrated. It was a text from Sasha, their manager at the cinema.

"Sasha's just texted you," Reah said to Nolan, who had grown very focussed on avoiding creatures that were lumbering out onto the road.

"We can check it in a bit," Nolan said. "Just worry about your Mum for now."

Reah put in her Mum's number and dialled, listening to the tone impatiently. It was bad enough that she had only a vague idea of where her Dad was but it was agonising not knowing about her Mum or her brother and sister, Liam and Kowhai. 

"Reah?" Her Mum tearfully answered the phone.

"Mum, are you okay?" Reah had to choke back a cry of joy. 

"Yes, yes we're okay," Her Mum took a breath. "Reah, we're not staying at the house, it isn't safe. They're saying on radio stations and news shows to get to public evacuation zones. I'm taking the kids to Northlands mall. Please meet us there."

"We can come get you, Mum," Reah urged. "Don't leave yet!"

"No," Her mother said firmly. "I have to get your brother and sister somewhere safe. You hurry Reah, okay?"

"Yeah, Mum," Reah trailed off as her Mum hung up.

"Everything okay, Reah?" Nolan asked as he pulled onto his street.

"I don't know about my dad or my step sister. It sounded like he said they were at The Palms? Which makes sense cause Mum was saying they're evacuating people. She's taking Liam and Kowhai to Northlands."

"Well we can go meet your Dad or your Mum once we get everyone out of the house."

Reah stared at the lawn of Nolan's house as they pulled up alongside it. Nolan's parents, Raewyn and Murray, were hunched over something upon the lawn and making a large amount of noise. At the sound of the car drawing close they turned and squinted at the headlights. But despite Raewyn still appearing to be the same stocky mother and Murray the same stout, balding father, they were different. They had turned pale and their eyes had fogged over in the same way that the old man's had. On the lawn behind them lay the body of Josh, Nolan's brother, his belly ripped wide open and organs strewn across the grass.

"This isn't right," Nolan whispered, "We have to do something, maybe I can talk to them."

"No Nolan," Reah replied sharply. "Look at them, they were attacking your brother. They aren't your parents anymore, they're just like the rest of those creatures."

"They're my parents," Nolan replied uncertainly, watching the husks of his parents shuffle towards them.

"They're not," Reah said firmly. "Whatever this is they've been infected. Look at your Mum's neck."

Glancing at his mother's neck Nolan could see that the flesh had been ripped up, it looked like a vicious bite mark. The area around the bite had blackened and already the flesh was visibly decaying, as if she was already dead.

"Whatever this is it looks like it can be passed by a bite," Reah continued. "And both of your parents have been bitten. We have to leave Nolan, now!"

Reah watched as Nolan stared at his parents for a long time, he seemed frozen. It wasn't until the corpse of his father banged a fist on the window of the passenger door that he keyed the ignition and moved the Cynos quickly away from his house. He seemed changed, not being able to save his parents had really struck a blow to him. Reah had never seen him so stern and quiet, she broke her gaze and turned her attention back to the phone.

She brought up a news website and found the most recent news upon Christchurch evacuation areas. Attached to the comments of The Palms shopping centre evacuation point was a video with a thumbnail of the exterior of the mall itself. Reah played the video and was shocked to see a group of people running back trying to break into the mall as a small crowd of the creatures advanced upon them. The video cut out shortly afterwards, and the rest of the comments section was filled with warnings to avoid that Palms.

"Your Dad and step sister were there, right?" Nolan said in a hushed tone.

"Yeah..." Reah whispered back, not looking up from the phone. "This thing is happening all over the city."

"We'll get to Northlands and meet your Mum, I promise."

The car turned into another suburban side street and was faced with a wall of the creatures down the far end. They were ambling and shuffling directly towards the car. Nolan immediately spun the wheel and turned the car back the way they'd come.

"Looks like we're going to have to take the long way round," said Nolan.

He was about to pull away when he noticed something in the rear view mirror. Halfway down the street and not so far away from the crowd of zombies was a young woman dressed in her pyjamas. She was carrying something small in her arms and was struggling to hold it and run. If she didn't pick up the pace soon the creatures would be upon her.

"Nolan we have to go," Reah cried with alarm.

"You are really going to hate me for this," Nolan said with a grimace.

"For what?" Reah replied, dreading his response.

Nolan suddenly put the Cynos into reverse and lurched the car backwards towards the oncoming creatures. Reah let out a shrill cry of alarm. Nolan had to be out of his mind to be driving towards these things! He braked ahead of the woman that had been running from the creatures. Reah could now see that there was a baby in the woman's arms that was was only a few months old.

"You're going to drive for a little bit okay?" Nolan asked Reah as he opened his door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Reah yelled at him, already moving to take the driver's seat.

"Just stretching my legs, keep it running Reah."

Nolan ran towards the woman, covering the distance in no time. As he drew close he could see that the woman was completely exhausted she looked like she had given up on going any further. She looked up at Nolan's approach, startled by his sudden appearance.

"Who are you?!" The woman cried in terror.

"Um Nolan," Nolan gave a short wave. "Hi."

"Do you have a death wish or something?" the woman asked, glancing at the creatures that were almost upon them.

"Yeah actually, how about I take the baby while we both sprint to my car there?"

The woman looked beyond Nolan, her eyes focusing upon the Cynos. She choked back a cry of relief and hurriedly placed the small baby in Nolan’s arms. She gave it a desperate kiss on its little forehead before racing toward the car. Nolan careful repositioned the child before following. The woman leapt into the car even as he noticed with sudden horror that more creatures were beginning to amble from the houses around them. Nolan struggled to hold the baby upright as he ran towards the Cynos, he could sense the gap between the creatures and himself closing.

“Reah, start driving!” he yelled, only steps away from reaching the car.

The Cynos surged to Nolan's delight, but his expression of joy turned to panic when he realised that in her haste Reah hadn't changed out of reverse. The Cynos only moved back a couple of metres but one of the rear wheels rolled over his foot. The sudden crushing weight made him keel over for a second and he almost dropped the baby. Yet squinting through scrunched up eyes he saw the open passenger door before him and he pushed against the ground; flinging both himself and his small burden inside.

"Ouch," Nolan groaned as he handed the woman her baby.

"Stop whining, you're not dead," Reah retorted, speeding away from the street and around the corner.

"Well maybe if you could drive in any other direction from my foot you wouldn't have to listen to my pain."

"Let me look at it," The woman in the back seat sat forward, glancing down at Nolan.

"Why, what are you going to do?" Reah asked, brushing off the woman's offer.

"Actually I'm going to make sure he hasn't had any bones shattered or fractured," the woman replied calmly. "My name's Natalie, I'm a nurse."

By Ciaran Findlay

Edited by Nicole Campbell and Blair Findlay

The Night Shift - Chapter Two

Carson and Isaac

Carson had this awful habit of staying up late sitting on all kinds of random websites or skyping his girlfriend Naomi until the early hours of the morning. This meant that when he got to bed he often had a sore back and neck from leaning over his laptop for five hours straight. He would roll and turn and twist in his bed, fluffing the pillows and then fluffing them again until finally he could feel his eyes grow heavy and he could drift off to sleep. So you could imagine Carson's annoyance when he was woken up only an hour after having fallen asleep by the noise of the door to his room creaking open.

"Whatcha want?" Carson mumbled, trying to make out who'd entered his room in the dark.

A high pitched growl met Carson's ears and he grimaced. Every damn night, he thought to himself. I'll kill him, I really will.

"Isaac, get the hell out of my room!" Carson yelled, throwing a pillow at the shape that was shuffling by his door.

The growl turned to a hiss of fury and the shape charged at Carson, who soon realised he'd made a big mistake. This was not his brother, there was a monster running at him. A young man with decaying flesh was lurching across the room and howling at him. Carson did what any rational adult would do in a situation like this.

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" Carson shrieked as he bundled himself up under his covers and rolled sideways off his bed.

The monster landed atop of him and began scratching at the duvet, ripping away with both tooth and nail. It looked human but Carson could feel it trying to rip away at him through the sheets; it was nothing but an animal. He attempted to push it back but this only seemed to make it struggle more; the sheets would be ripped away from him in a matter of seconds.

And then a resounding crack sounded and interrupted the monster's attack, then another and another. Suddenly all Carson could feel was the full weight of the thing slumped upon him. It no longer attacked at him, instead having gone limp. Carson shoved the monster off himself and felt a hand grab at his wrist. He made a nervous yelp and curled back up deeper into his torn up duvet.

"Seriously Carson, you are killing me right now. Get up," a deep voice said.

Carson flung the shredded bedspread off himself and looked up to see his brother Isaac standing over him, holding a bloodied wooden walking cane. The head of the cane was shaped like the head of a dragon and it was the tip of this that Isaac had smashed into the monster's skull. Thankfully the cane hadn't broken; Carson was surprised by this as it was an old prop from the brothers' high school drama classes.

"Oh, I'm killing you?" Carson exclaimed, flustered as he grabbed his brother's offered hand and got to his feet. "Seriously Isaac when you pull shit like this it just pisses me off. So who is this, one of your friends? Hey, guy, get up- whatever he’s paying you, it’s not enough."

"We don't have time for this, Carson," Isaac hissed.

"Sure we do," Carson said, smirking. "Guess your little prank failed."

Isaac sighed and stomped on the monster's head, caving in the hole he had made. Brain tissue and rotted flesh spilled onto Carson's floor and clung to Isaac's shoe. Carson stared at the mess, transfixed. Finally he looked at his brother and took in the fact that he was fully dressed. Isaac had put on his jeans and slung a leather jacket over a t-shirt. A line of sweat clings to the fringe of his short, brown hair and his piercing blue eyes are tensed with determination.

"What's going on?" Carson whispered, a pang of fear stabbing through him.

"I don't want you to freak out, man," Isaac said, turning away and beginning to rummage through Carson's drawers. "But these things are in our house. There are more of them and they will attack you on sight like this one did."

"How do you know that?" Carson asked, catching a pair of jeans that Isaac threw at him.

"I know because I've seen them downstairs and had to deal with another one up here already. We need to move before we're trapped up here. So just shut up for a while and listen to me, okay?"

Isaac tossed Carson a shirt and a black woollen sweater. Carson caught them both and looked up at Isaac quizzically; something was wildly off about his brother. Isaac was never this grim and pensive, he was normally someone who was very outgoing and a bit of a jokester. That was certainly not the case tonight. Complying with Isaac's orders due to the gravity of the situation, Carson did a quick change into the clothes he'd been thrown and followed Isaac out of the bedroom and onto the upstairs landing. 

A harrowing sound of growling, crunching and tearing came from downstairs; it was a sickly, wet sounding noise. It reminded Carson of the time he'd found their cat Bonnie devouring a baby bird in the backyard. He tried to poke his head over the bannister to see what was happening, though all he could make out were shadows and silhouettes moving about.

As they advanced towards the stairs Carson glanced at their sister's room. Normally Laura was a loud sleeper; she snored and grated her teeth... but tonight she'd fallen silent. Straining his eyes against the darkness, Carson could make out large flecks of dark red coating the interior of her room. It looked like something out of a crime show. Carson looked at his brother and eyed the bloody cane and shuddered to think what had happened.

"Isaac," Carson whispered, grabbing Isaac's sleeve. "We need to stop and get Laura. Come on."

Isaac shook Carson's arm off and just scowled in response. This abrupt reaction shook Carson who searched Isaac's face for some kind of answer as to what he meant. When Isaac finally shook his head and looked away, Carson knew what had happened. He choked back a sob and moved to go into his sister's room, but a strong hand on his shoulder pulled him away and back toward the stairs.

"We can't do anything for her, Carson," Isaac said firmly. "Believe me, I know what's in that room. It's not worth seeing. You didn't do what I had to, so you shouldn't pay the consequences. Now what comes next is really important; you need to be silent. Incredibly silent. Okay?"

Carson ran a hand through his ebony brown hair but managed to nod in response before following Isaac slowly down the stairs. Outside the house he could hear screaming and the sound of a loud crash in the distance. What was going on? What were these things that had invaded his home?

Finally as they approached the bottom of the stairs the lounge came into view and Carson realised what the sound was that he had been hearing. In the brightly lit lounge was a group of five of the same monsters crouched over the bodies of his parents. Carson's father had been completely disemboweled and three of the monsters were ripping into his flesh. His mother’s head had been disconnected from her body and the other two beasts were fighting for it like dogs over a chew toy. 

Carson let out a short cry of anguish at the sight of his parents' bodies. Isaac instantly slapped a hand over his mouth in response. Sadly he was far too late and Carson had made a terrible mistake. The monsters in the lounge turned to see the brothers standing awkwardly at the foot of the stairs. One of the things bared its teeth, revealing a bloody maw with bits of flesh still visible.   

"Run." 

Isaac shoved Carson, who remained rooted to the spot. He was still recovering from the sight before them, the open and insatiable carnage of their parents. Unfortunately they didn't have the luxury of time for grieving. As the monsters began clambering to their feet, Isaac gave Carson a sharp kick to the shin and pushed him down the hallway to the second lounge and past the kitchen. The sound of wild snarls made Carson pick up the pace and he turned down another hallway, flinging open the door to the garage. As Isaac sprinted through the door Carson slammed the door shut, immediately watching the door buck and sway in its frame as the five monsters slammed into it.

"Move," Isaac barked at Carson, who jumped out of the way as Isaac brought a fridge crashing down in front of the door.

Carson turned to look at the rest of the garage as he caught his breath. There was one black Holden Captiva sitting on the left and a small red VW Polo on the right. Around the edges of the garage was a miscellaneous assortment of sports gear, tools, bits and pieces for gardening and camping equipment. Surely there were some things here they could use to get out of the house. Isaac seemed to have the same idea; he'd already grabbed a backpack off a hook on the wall and was now searching through the rest of the garage.

"So are we taking the Captiva?" Carson asked, looking through the garden tools.

"Um, no," Isaac replied, distracted by his search through the tool box.

"Well I mean the Polo isn't great but it'll do," Carson said with a shrug. He picked up a light gardening fork hanging on the wall. Hefting it in his hand, he practiced thrusting it forward and gave a nod of satisfaction.

"I, um, I forgot to grab the keys," Isaac mumbled, averting Carson's gaze.

"You what?!"

"Hey, don't get huffy, I got us this far," Isaac retorted, resuming his check of a set of shelves. "We'll just have to run. Be ready to pop the garage door, okay?"

"Are you suicidal?" Carson was beginning to wonder at how smart it had been following Isaac's instructions up until this point.

"No." Isaac pulled a long pruning blade off the shelf, checking to make sure the blade and tip were sharp. "Now open the door, Carson."

A thud on the hallway door made Carson's mind up for him. He paced over to the switch for the garage door, flinching as the hallway door started splintering around the hinges. He flicked the switch and jogged over to Isaac, who was surveying the street through the growing crack of the door.

"Alright, three of them out on the street heading this way," Isaac said to Carson, as they both stepped out into the cold night air.

The sound of a few car alarms hit their ears, the noise bouncing all around them. In some of the houses about them the lights were on and the sound of screaming and furniture being overturned could be heard. Front doors had been flung open and small groups of monsters had gathered around the bodies of those that had attempted to escape. Two of the same monsters were shuffling towards Carson and Isaac from across the street, while another was already making its way up the short driveway.

Carson stepped forward and with a fast jab, plunged the gardening fork into the monster's chest. The monster snarled in response and heaved its body further onto the fork, attempting to claw at Carson. Wrestling for control of the fork Carson stumbled back and almost lost his footing; the monster began snarling louder in anticipation of an easy meal. Isaac moved forward and with a sharp thrust, buried the pruning saw in the monster's head. 

"What the fuck?" Carson exclaimed, watching the body drop.

"You have to go for the head," Isaac replied, pulling the blade of the saw out of the dead monster's skull. "I tried beating the shit out of one earlier, didn't work. Crack them in the head enough times though and they seem to stay dead."

"So what now?" Carson eyeballed the two monsters that were approaching.

"Now we run."

"You are a funny guy. I can run about as fast as a potato."

"Then run ahead of me."

"What's that going to achieve?" Carson scoffed.

"Because if I run in front you'll get left behind," Isaac retorted.

Carson gave his brother a quick glare as he ran down the driveway towards the street. The two zombies had now reached the foot of the driveway so Carson and Isaac were forced to run across the garden and out onto the street to get past them. As they ran Isaac pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and looked down at a brightly lit screen. In the distance the sound of wood splintering and howls filled the night as monsters poured out of the brothers' house.

"We need to get to Northlands," Isaac urged Carson, who glanced back.

"That's a half hour run," Carson exclaimed. "Why the hell would we go there?"

"Because Sasha just sent me a text, man; they're evacuating civilians from large public centres. We're going to have to move fast to get there."

"Alright then," Carson said with a nod. "Just a casual sprint through Hell, no biggie."

The two brothers shared a grim smile as they pressed on into the chaotic night.

Written by Ciaran Findlay

Edited by Nicole Campbell and Blair Findlay