Chapter One
The Meeting
'Hello my name is Mr. Ben Jones', I said to the rather bored crowd of very important people, likely looking bunch I thought to myself, over there at the end of the table is the Prime Minister himself looking as important as ever, and all the other rather, less valuable people around him. Joseph Britain the chief of police, next to him 5 star General Lewis Parker of the US Military, I have no idea what he's doing here in London, so far away from his home in America, next to him the Prime Ministers' beautiful young Secretary I never found out her name, then a load more less valuable people. Then at the end of the table was me, probably the least valuable of this group of dunderheads. Me Ben Jones, an investigator, and destroyer of gruesome and horrific pests that have got out into the open, mostly subjected to horrific and terrifying experiments gone wrong, I had been called to this meeting following the events of a horrific death which was most likely caused by some rouge pest, and they thought I was the perfect man for the job.
The Prime Minister spoke, 'I'm sure you know why you're here Mr. Jones?' he gave me a peircing look.
'Actually I don't Mr. Prime Minister sir' I said irritably, 'all I was told is that you wanted to see me because you thought I was the right man for the job of discovering what manner of beast killed that poor man and then destroying it, but your bloody chief of police won't get me go near the damn body.' I and Joseph Britain had been enemies since we were 11, and now 20 years on he still holds his damn grudge.
'Are you deliberately stopping Mr. Jones from investigating the body Mr. Britain?' asked the Prime Minister politely.
'No I just don't like him!' Joseph said angrily.
'Come now Mr. Britain this is no time for old school grudges. You and Mr. Jones will be working together on this case, whether you like it or not!' Joseph said something which sounded like 'for fucks sake'.
'You can 'for fucks sake' all you like Mr. Britain but I assure you, you'll both be working together and I plan to make you both release your grudges against each other' the Prime Minster looked at me as he said it.
'You'll be lucky Mr. Prime Minister sir' I said 'old Britain here has held his grudge against me since we were 11, and look 20 years on he's still a little prick' I continued with a hint of deepest loathing in my voice.
'Now there's no need for that language Mr. Jones. I know you and Mr. Britain have grudges against each other but...'
'I have no fucking god damn grudge against him Minister!' I cut over him.
'If I might Mr. Prime Minister' Lewis Parker's strong American accent rang from his corner 'but wouldn't it be easier if they sort out their grudges here and now?'
'No. I think it would be easier for them to sort it out when they are on the case and alone.' The Prime Minister continued.
'Fair enough Minister' Lewis Parkers voice drained off as I spoke again.
'Now, there are a few creatures that could have done this, I'm not going to go over them now, but I have a bad feeling I know what could have done it' I said this rather calmly, if the giant rats from 15 years ago had returned, well, shit will be getting real and I don't know how I'll cope with it, they nearly killed me, and because of that, I decided to get a job in destroying rogue pests like them.
'When will you be able to tell us what it is?' a females voice spoke, this startled me as I looked as saw it was the Prime Ministers' Secretay, I felt myself going red, not now I thought to myself, I came back to my senses.
'Not until I've seen the body, Miss? I'm sorry I don't think I ever found out your name'.
'Alex, Alex Britain.' Oh shit I thought, she can't be Joseph Britain's sister?
'Well then Alex Britain, once I see the body, I will be able to run an analysis to see what really killed him, it may take some time, maybe a week, but it will be done.'
'Very well Mr. Jones, but first a little backing story on what we do know about this man. His name is Dave Alan, he was 32 years old and from what we've heard from his work colleagues is that he had left work early to get what was required for his little girls birthday which was the next day. It's all very tragic if I must say' explained the Prime Minister sighing as he said it. 'It is essential you examine the body, and try your best to find out what the cause of death was, if this is an infestation of some sort, we can't afford any more people dying' he continued.
'I understand sir' I replied, 'when would you have me start? '
'As soon as possible really Mr. Jones, I shall speak with Mr. Britian after you leave, and get him to let you see the body tomorrow'
'Thank you Minister, now I best be getting off, I have some other plans for the rest of today, which I can't be late for' I said as I got ready to get out of my seat. Once everyone had started leaving I heard the snarl of Joseph Britain
'Can't think why anyone would want to spend time with you...'
'Oh shut up you fucking retarded twat' I said rather irritably as I walked off without looking back.
As I was about to get into my car, I heard a voice calling my name. 'Mr. Jones! Mr. Jones, wait a second!' I turned round and saw that it was Alex Britain.
'Oh hello Miss Britain' I said looking at her with a rather puzzled look.
'Look, I'm sorry about my brother, he can be a right bastard at times' she said looking at me with a worried look on her face.
'It's fine, the further away from that prick I am, the better' I turned as I said this and smacked my knee on the door of my car which was still open. 'Oh for fucks sake! I hate it when I do that' I looked at her expecting her to have a rather stern look, but instead she was giggling.
'Oh, it's fine, I do that a lot too, where are you off too now anyway Mr. Jones?' she asked looking at me with a smile
'Oh, no-where really, just might go get some lunch, then head home for the rest of the day, I only said I had other plans today because I wanted to get away from your brother' I said giving her a weak smile back.
'I guessed, why don't we go get some lunch together? Oh and please, call me Alex' she said looking at me again.
'Yeah sure Alex' I smiled as I let her get into my car before I went into the drivers seat and drove off down the road.
After an eventful lunch of sharing stories of childhood, school life and such with Alex Britain, and in which she gave me her number in-case I ever needed her, although narrowly avoiding what had happened to me 15 years ago with the rats as I didn't want to make her worry or anything about my suspicions and stuff, I drifted off into an uneasy afternoon nap.
I was running, running for my life, running from some kind of creature, I didn't dare look back, I didn't dare stop running, the amount of times I had wanted to look back at what I was running from was too many to count, I was running through empty alley ways and empty streets, what was chasing me was getting closer. Fuck this I thought, I quickly glanced round at what was chasing me, and by my horror I saw that it was one of the rats that had tried killing me 15 years ago. I stopped 'right, this time, you little fucker, I'll kill you' I found the nearest sharp object, just as I was about to slice at it, it pounced on me.
'Arrrgghhh!' I woke with a scream, I felt my forehead, I was sweating, shaking with fear. It had been years since I last had a nightmare about the rats, but this one was worse, much worse than the others. I needed to tell someone about it, the first person that popped into my head was Alex. I checked what time it was, it was only 4pm, shit, I was sleeping for about 3 hours? I picked up my phone and dialled her number, I waited while it was ringing, until she answered.
'Hello?' she said
'Alex, it's Ben, you know you said to call you or something when I needed to talk to you or something? Well, I need you, bad nightmare, about something that happened 15 years ago, I'll explain more when I see you.'
'Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can, wait where do you live?' I told her where my house was and after that she said okay and that she would be here as quickly as she could.
Half an hour later there was a knock on my door, I opened it and saw Alex standing there. I welcomed her in. 'Now, tell me what happened' she said looking at me worriedly. I explained what happened in my dream to her, she looked scared 'shit, is something like that what happened 15 years ago to you?' she looked even more scared.
'Not exactly, here, I'll explain it... 15 years ago, when I was 16 years old, I thought it would be funny to go into an old abandoned house with some friends, two friends to be exact. One of their names was Jimmy, the other Jess. They both died, they were my best friends, Jimmy was the first to go, the lights went out, me and Jess heard a scream and Jimmy was being dragged down the hallway, we ran after him and saw that giant rats where attacking him, he was being bit on the jaw, he was holding the rat trying to get it off, but its claws were just ripping his chest into bloody tatters, it wouldn't stop until it had bitten his whole jaw completely off, but he still kept on fighting, good old Jimmy, even though he was bleeding to death, the crazy son-of-a bitch kept on fighting, I loved Jimmy for that, he's always in my heart. After that me and Jess, both crying at the sight of our best friend being killed right in front of us, decided enough was enough, we were getting out of there. We saw that the door to the house was swarming with the rats in front of it, we looked up and saw that there was a window on the roof, so we began climbing, with the rats following us, I remember caving in a few of the fuckers soft little heads, when we got to the top, we saw that some rats had been sneaky, they had climbed up the outside, and were waiting for us, in fear we let go and started falling, we fell through the floor into the basement of the house, rats following us, it knocked the wind out of me completely, by the time I was able to see straight and think again, I heard the terrible screaming coming from Jess, she was being ripped apart right in front of me, those fucking rats! I don't know how I managed to get out, seeing your two best friends die right in front of you, you're not going to have the strength, or will power to want to carry on, but I managed it.' tears were swimming in my eyes, as I started to cry into Alexs' shoulder.
'Ben, I'm so, so sorry that you've had all that happen to you' she looked like she was about to cry too 'you think they might be what caused that death?' she asked me with a scared tone.
'I can't be sure yet, I hope it isn't, I almost died that time' I said as I wiped away my tears 'we will find out tomorrow once I see the body, I'll know if it's from them or not'
It was now nearly 8pm Alex had stayed with me since I told her what had happened. 'Are you sure you'll be fine for the night? Do you want me to stay here with you for the night, so you don't have that dream again?' she asked me with a smile. 'Please stay, just for tonight' I looked at her, she looked back, her face getting closer and closer to mine, our lips touched in a kiss. After we pulled away from each other, I rested my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes to sleep.
