Now things will start to heat up. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to those who have been reading through the series so far.


Bad day at the office

"Work can kill"

Chapter 3: Mightier than the sword

Patricia was mind numbingly bored. She had been subjected to displaying the same video for the sixth time. "Health, Safety and you…saving the office." 'The company that produced this trash should be charged with manslaughter. I can see at least two people that seemed to have died from boredom,' she mused. Even with the white venetian blinds closed she could still make out a few heads nodding as the workers struggled to stay awake.

Somewhere close a fire bell rang. 'Great a chance to escape this place for a couple of seconds. This is exactly what I needed.' She stopped the video and went to open the blinds. She was surprised to find that it was still dark. 'I'm sure it wasn't that dark a moment ago.' Patricia walked to the front of the room in order to address the group,

"OK everyone I'm sure it's just a drill. Make your way calmly and safely to the nearest fire exit. Just like in the video." There were no signs of movement from the group. The sound of the fire bell became distorted. Patricia went to switch the lights on. The fluorescent tubes above flickered with a pale light. It appeared that the entire group had fallen asleep. Patricia approached one of the people nearer the back of the room. "Hello? Sir?"


Jack was trying to concentrate on the bright screen full of drawing parameters in front of him. His actions were in vain as all he could think about was food.

"Hey Gary can you keep that munching down man. My stomachs growling louder than Dave on a night out."

Gary laughed and made sure to eat as loud as he could.

Jack laughed "Asshole. Cut it out man. C'mon gimme a break."

Gary looked from behind the screen and grinned. "Yeah, yeah. OK I was just messin with ya."

Jack shook his head. The sound of eating could still be heard. As Jack was about to save his work the fire bell sounded and startled him causing him to delete all his work instead. "Shit. What's that doing on again? They just tested that thing." The sound of the bell warped and became like that of an air raid siren.

"SQUELCH" The sound of something moist and squishy being chewed on came from behind the screen. Jack wondered what the hell was going on. His attention was soon diverted by another sound when the siren died down. "SQUELCH," flecks of red liquid sprayed over the screen and Jacks face.

Jack frowned "Damn it Gary what are you a baby? I thought I told you to cut that…" A soulless moan was uttered from the other side of the screen.


Patricia recoiled at the touch of the man's shoulder. It was as if the skin on his shoulder was loosely hanging on the bone. Her first instinct was not to get to close to these people as they might have some sort of disease. Her second thought was that they could be dead so she walked over to one of the corners near the windows and picked up a pole that was used to open the higher level windows. She prodded the nearest person. She looked like she was in her late fifties with short blonde hair and a pair of large oval black rimmed glasses. She wore a white top and blue denim skirt. Her face sagged as if it was ready to peel off at the slightest touch.

Patricia got no response from prodding the woman and was about to move onto the next person when a loud, muffled "CRACK" was heard from the blonde woman's body. A series of quieter cracks were heard and upon closer investigation something was moving underneath the woman's skin. It was a slow, creepy movement sending skin from one part of her head to another. Patricia threw up as she made out the shape of a small foot pushing at the skin. "Crack, crack, CRACK," her head now had a large white point sticking out. Blood flowed from the wound and matted in her blonde hair. A small grey hand punched the white bone apart further and a high pitched screech could be heard that sounded like a combination of a cat screeching and a baby crying. The sound made Patricia shudder as she started to make her way to the other side of the room.

Patricia moved slowly so as not to attract the grotesque little creature's attention, for fear of the thing doubling its efforts to come after her. The woman's skull was now completely split and showed a gap large enough to fit a melon through. A small white tail with a sharp barb on the end poked itself out of the hole and then proceeded to stab the woman in the back, it was closely followed by two small grey hands that grabbed her skull for leverage to hoist itself up.

Patricia threw caution to the wind; it was obvious that stealth wasn't going to work. She reached the door within two seconds and nearly broke the handle in an effort to get out. To her horror the door wouldn't budge. A screech signalled that the monster had broken free of its fleshy prison. It had a small grey body with no features whatsoever to distinguish the sex of the monster. A small red, veiny face with bright blue eyes and moist blue/grey lips smiled with a mouthful of wickedly sharp teeth. The back of its head was covered in protruding bony spikes like a hedgehog. There were large claws coming out of its tiny feet. 'What the hell is that thing?' Before Patricia could think of a possible answer her train of thought was broken by the sound of loud communal cracking. Screeches could be heard from the other bodies in the room. Patricia held in a scream and tried even harder to get the door open.


Jack was frozen in his seat. He was staring face to face with a creature that couldn't possibly exist. It's skin had the normal fleshy colour of his late friend Gary. It was completely hairless and had a dull gleam to the skin when the light reflected off of it, as if the thing was coated thinly in some kind of mucous. The main thing that Jack noticed about the face was that it was missing a nose. It's soulless; coal black eyes were found where human's cheeks would be.

There were no teeth in its mouth. In fact the opening in the middle of its face didn't resemble a mouth at all but was closer to a closed fist. A large spike of bone that must have been its tongue repeatedly stabbed the dripping red mound of flesh that was in its mouth. It was then that Jack realised what this thing was devouring: it was a human heart.

Jack did not wait to see what the rest of the thing looked like. He grabbed his monitor and slammed it as hard as he could over the things head. The screen landed with a satisfying squelch, Jack wiped his forehead happy to have won his first fight in this crazy nightmare without even having to fight. A hollow whistling sound was heard from under the monitor as blood dripped over the desk. 'Shit that things still alive.' In disbelief Jack watched the grizzly decapitated thing rise from the desk and proceed to stand up to it's full height of at least seven feet. The thing whistled louder in a vain attempt to roar, spraying blood everywhere.

Jack now saw the creature in its full glory. It was twisted in form as the ribcage was back to front, yet the arms and legs were contorted so that they faced forward. It was if the creature were a play dough figure made by a three-year-old. The left hand was on the right and vice versa. Its bones clicked as it moved awkwardly towards Jack. Jack tried to back away but to no avail as the thing steadily advanced towards him. Jack dived through the things legs narrowly missing getting captured. 'Gotta kill this thing quick. What can I use here?' Jack searched desperately for a weapon. Finding nothing he bolted for the door. The creature turned to face his direction. He could smell the rancid flesh of the thing breathing down his neck. 'How does it know where I am?'

Jack picked up a bin near an empty desk and jammed it over the things hollow neck. He knew he could only buy so much time without a substantial weapon to use. He threw a printer at the creature and picked up the small table in the desperate hope that he could pin it in. The creature tripped over a chair while trying to make its way to him. Jack took the opportunity to slam the metal table legs into the creature's flesh, sending up a brown coloured liquid. Some of which landed in Jacks mouth. He spat it out and retched in disgust. He recognised the taste and it had been about five years since he had tasted it. Jack jumped onto the table, using it for a stepping stone to get to the door. He breathed in the stale air of the staircase with relief of his escape before retching again to get the taste out.

Vomit mixed with the blood flowing down the staircase towards the ground floor to where it landed at a long slimy purple coloured tentacle, which sucked the vile concoction right up. A dark laughter floated up the staircase encouraging Jack to move to a different floor. 'Who knows there may be some more survivors. Then we can get out of this hellhole together. I don't think I can take on another one of those monsters by myself.


Patricia now held a chair and was fending off a small army of the monsters that until recently had occupied the skulls of the other people in the room. She had no time to think if the people that came in were even human or if they had been vessels for these unholy creatures from the start. Patricia's main concern at the moment was to get her hands on a decent weapon to fight these little terrors. 'Has the whole world gone to hell or have I just gone mad?'

One of the creatures made a sound that both freaked her out and stopped her train of thought dead in its tracks, "Mama."

She looked closer at the monster that had uttered the word. 'The eyes. There's something about the eyes…' She screamed as one of them latched onto her leg, the tail stabbing at her foot. "Oww. Bastard!"

She kicked the little creature off her. More decided that they would also try to bring her down. She grabbed the chair tightly and swung it at them, taking five out as they leapt at her in unison. Small spatters of purple blood sprayed across the projection screen. One of the things landed on the desk with her laptop and free gifts on it. Among these was a large tin of pens and pencils. The creature skidded across the desk as it flew across the room, taking the stationary with it. A small spine-tingling scream was heard coming from where the creature landed on the other side of the desk.

Patricia rushed to the other side of the desk to see what had killed it. The small evil being lay writhing in pain on the carpet, purple blood seeping from its back. A pen was sticking out of one of its hateful little eyes. At that point an idea popped into Patricia's head. "The pen is mightier than the sword huh? Well I suppose I'll soon find out."

She saw the spikes up its spine had folded upon its death. Surprise took her when the last folded in at the top to slowly reveal a barcode. She quickly bent down to inspect it. There was no mistaking the brand. It was definitely a barcode and in small letters underneath was the word Spinefant. "No way. Someone made these things?"

She didn't have any more time to think as more came for her. She grabbed a pen from the floor and stood up again. Clutching the chair as a shield Patricia proceeded to grab at their tails. Pinning one down with her foot she stabbed at the Spinefant's head with the pen. Eventually a shrill cry and a satisfying crunch of a skull caving in due to pressure let her know that she had killed another one. She was surprised how easy they were to kill considering how tough they looked. Even at that she knew she was still outnumbered.

'Got to be a quicker way to do this.' At that moment she tripped over one of the dead bodies and noticed something shining from inside the corpse's skull. Continually swiping at the things she quickly stuck her arm inside the skull recoiling as she felt something warm and gooey move inside.

She watched in awe as a small, slick, gore encrusted snake emerged from the black hole that was up until recently someone's head. It looked like the person's spine had become a small creature within itself. The head was made up of what used to be the person's brain. From time to time it opened up to reveal a row of sharp teeth and a key nestled inside, resting on the spongy wet tongue of the creature as if it were daring her to take it. Patricia tried beating the weird and disturbing creature repeatedly but to no avail. With Spinefants swarming around her and the snake holding the only key out of the room Patricia felt a sense of hopelessness creep up on her. She dodged as one of the Spinefants lunged for her face, its claws outstretched to scratch her eyes out. The thing whizzed by her head, scratching her cheek and let out a short, sharp screech as the snake opened it's jaws to cleanly snap the little creature in half, spraying Patricia with purple blood. Far from being disgusted Patricia was relieved to see a way out of this. She threw the chair to the side and began to furiously snatch at the little monster's tails, flinging the creatures at the snake as soon as she got a hold on them.

The little creatures ran in terror from Patricia as she mercilessly hunted them down to feed them to the fleshy snake. Soon she found herself backing the last one into a corner. It had a large black scar running down one eye. 'Must be the leader,' she thought, 'Gotta be more careful with this one. No telling what this thing can do.'

No sooner had she thought of this than the creature rebounded off the wall between her legs and scampered off towards one of the many corpses that lay scattered on the floor. It grunted contentedly when it found the corpse it was looking for. The corpse was dressed in black and lying on its back. A blue timber wolf design on the T-shirt stood out against the black background. The Spinefant quickly searched the pockets and gave a chilling giggle when it found what it was looking for. The creature turned round to face Patricia and her hand full of complimentary pens. Patricia gasped in fear when she saw what the evil little thing was holding. It was a long, shiny switchblade. At that point Patricia knew that the creature was ready to put up a fight.

Desperate to get the key so she could get out Patricia grabbed anything near her and started throwing it at the spiteful little creature. Chairs, paperweights, her laptop, everything that might have had some value were now nothing more than ammunition. The Spinefant was much more agile than its fellow creatures. Looking more closely Patricia saw that it was also taller than the others. Then it dawned on her

'He's not like this because he's the leader. This thing is growing. Holy crap at the rate he's growing the thing will soon be big enough to easily take me down. Got to kill it and kill it quickly.' Patricia doubled her efforts to send the creature into oblivion.

The snake in the middle of the room was becoming restless. The Spinefant gave it a hateful look before jumping off the table, hopping onto Patricia's shoulder and diving at the snake in the style of a kamikaze. The snake snapped at the little creature before reeling back in anger and surprise as the Spinefant sliced the snakes tongue open with the blade, making the snake swallow the key. Patricia cursed as she watched helpless as the key disappeared from sight.

She picked up a safety first paperweight and threw it at the Spinefant as hard as she could. To her surprise she caught the little monster on the side of the head, stunning it for a couple of seconds, but more importantly knocking the switchblade out of the thing's hand. She made a desperate dive for the blade and was even more surprised when she found that she was clutching the small knife tightly while the Spinefant scratched at her hand. She quickly opened the blade and sliced at the creature. She was too slow however as the thing leapt back and looked between the snake and Patricia. It obviously decided on a tactical retreat as it scurried up the wall and into one of the ventilation shafts.

'I'll deal with you later. This isn't over tough guy.' Patricia thought with venom before turning back to face the snake. 'Right. Now to get out of here.' Patricia gripped the knife handle tightly before carefully making her way towards the snake with another chair in her hand.

Patricia expected the battle to last quite a while but as it turned out the real battle was over in the blink of an eye. Patricia was lucky, the snake wavered and swayed in an effort to hypnotise its prey. Then suddenly, without warning it opened it's jaws and lunged for her face. She reacted quickly and brought the chair up to defend herself, unwittingly impaling the snake on the chair leg. The snake had lunged with such force that its head had slid halfway up the leg of the chair. Upon seeing this Patricia wasted no time in slitting the snake's spongy neck open. Near the top of the body lay her goal.

She smiled as she fished the key out with the blade and picked it up off the floor. She was a little repulsed at where she got it. The snake was hissing wildly and still struggled desperately to reach Patricia. She stabbed it in a frenzy of rage and adrenaline as she didn't know what the hell was going on but she would be damned if this place was going to take her life. As the snake went limp she dropped the chair to the floor, sank to her knees and cried. She didn't know if she was in actual physical pain or if it was the shock or even just the relief that she was alive and that she was getting out of here. All she knew was that she couldn't hold the tears back any longer. When she had composed herself again she got up, smoothed down her expensive, blood-spattered suit, unlocked the door and walked out.


Thats all for now. More coming soon.
Cheers
Wolf