Chapter IV

Date - Saturday, 5th of October, 2018

Time - 17:46:09

Location - Outskirts of Armull and Tulamull, Co. Meath of the West, Ireland.

Two tents come into view...

"W-wait, do you see that? The tents..." Radley speaks.

"Yes..." Sulivan replies.

They hurry their way to the campsite.

It was only when they got closer to the tents that they saw all the blood... There was blood everywhere.

Walking even closer to a black-coloured tent, that is when they see the gruesome sight.

Their victim.

Upon closer inspection, the man showed no signs of life. His eyes are still wide open and anyone who should have looked into his eyes, they were met by a cold, terrifying gaze.

He still had his phone in his right hand.

But the thing that really made their stomachs turn is the fact that he is missing the bottom half of his body. His bloodied insides are scattered all across the ground, around his body.

Radley turns around and faces away from the horrific scene, but just as he looks away, he notices something else that's equally as disturbing.

A small boy. His body pinned against a tree with a thick branch piercing through his abdomen. A few of his insides managed to hang through the newly formed wound.

The body drained the boy's fluid of life. His blood. It flowed the very tip of the branch before trickling down to the ground, right by the roots of the tree.

Sulivan noticed Radley staring at something.

Milliseconds. It was all it took for Sulivan to see what Radley did...

"W-why are their bodies half-eaten?" Radley questions.

"I don't know..." Sulivan replies. "But this can only mean one thing... this is an animal attack. Or we are dealing with some sick fuckers...".

Suddenly, the bush behind them rustled. The two officers reacted by turning towards the sound. The saw nothing there, but they continue turning around and looking around them.

Sulivan pulls out his pistol.

"Is anyone there?..." Sulivan begins. He tries not to let the fear be hinted in his voice. "This is the police. I demand that if anyone is here, you show yourself immediately!".

No response.

"I have a weapon in my hand. This can only end in only a limited number of ways..." Sulivan adds, breaking the short-lived silence.

Once again, no reply.

Sulivan eyed closely the trees and bushes, looking for any sort of a figure, a silhouette. Anything that may represent a threat.

Radley gulps before saying "Maybe it was just an animal...".

Seconds pass before Sulivan drops the gun down from its aim. "Maybe..." he replies, placing this pistol back into its holster.

"Should we look through the tents?" Radley inquires.

"We might find something useful..." Sulivan says.

With that, both himself and Radley walk towards the second tent. This tent, too, is dark in colour. They stop by the already unzipped tent.

Sulivan kneels beside it before opening the tent up.

He was about to enter it but was forced to stop when another, deeply unsettling, murder scene awaited him.

There was blood everywhere. The smell of iron from all the things saturated in blood, including some patches of the tent itself, made the police officer nauseous. But what topped this is the fact that the boy's bottom half of his body, just like the other boy's bottom half, is missing.

It was this that caused Sulivan's eyes to widen.

"Holy shit..." he mutters, backing out from the tent. "Another body..." he tells Radley.

Just then, the bushed once more rustled, taking the attention of the two policemen very quickly.

Sulivan places his hand on the holster of his gun. They both turn and look around them. Their hearts beating faster and faster.

"Could it be an animal again?" Radley asks.

"I am not sure..." Sulivan replies. "Hey!" Sulivan shouts. "If anyone is here, I demand you showing yourself immediately..." Sulivan warns once again. "Because, as I said, I do have a gun... and I am not afraid to use it if I have to...".

Radley looks at Sulivan, his eyes wide open, he begins to back away from Sulivan ever so slightly.

Sulivan lets out a chuckle, "Don't believe me?". He takes his gun, points it up in the sky and...

SHOT...

SHOT...

SHOT...

One by one, the hot, empty shells fell out of the weapon and onto the ground...

Seconds later, the wind strengthened, causing the leave to rustle all around them.

Then, everything around them darkened, and from there, the sky only continued to darken as the clouds blocked off more and more of the sun and its light.

The descending darkness brought out the ominous side of the woods. It made everything around the officers seem more and more of a threat.

The... the shrubs and bushes once more began to rustle... but this time, the rustling kept on going and going and going. It seemed as if the rustling only intensified with each passing second.

Radley was about to say something when...

A loud growl interrupted him.

It didn't sound like any animal he has ever heard.

But needless to say, the strange growl brought worry, fear and nervousness upon both Sulivan and Radley.

"Show yourself!!" Sulivan shouts out at the bushes and shrubs.

Then... what Sulivan was looking for all this time appeared by a tree. A silhouette...

Wasting no more time, Sulivan sent multiple bullets it's way. Each bullet made a critical hit. Resulting in the figure to wabble before falling and rolling our of the shadows of the thick, deciduous forest. It laid and stayed on its stomach.

Sulivan's eyes widen immediately.

It was a person... a human.

But upon a closer look, it was anything but an ordinary human... it looked as if it was a corpse...

"W-w-what... w-what is that?" Sulivan studders. He began to close up towards the corpse.

He gets himself closer to the still body. A much darker shade of blood leaks from the bullet holes from the shots.

Reaching the body, Sulivan kicks it over, causing it to go onto its back. That's when he really has his breath kicked out of its lungs.

Its eyes are a foggy white colour while its skin is a decaying, blue colour - as if its body was to be covered with bruises upon bruises.

It had many bloodied slashes across its forehead and cheeks. Sulivan also noticed the way that a part of the creatures lip has been ripped off, exposing its yellow, rotting teeth.

The more that Sulivan has his eyes on this unearth-like creature, the more nauseous he once again became.

Then, movement. Sulivan caught the creature twitch and move. Suddenly, its head turns and the foggy eyes looked right into Sulivan's blue marbles.

Then... the creature began to mutter something, each second that ticked by, it grew louder and louder until finally...

A scream...

The decaying corpse began to scream. It was almost like it was calling out for someone.

Before Sulivan could think thoroughly of what to do, he took his pistol back into his hands, aimed it at the corpse's head...

BANG, BANG, BANG...

It took three shots for its head to burst. Blood splattered everywhere.

"Oh, shit..." Sulivan mutters under his breath, then, Radley's moans of distress caught his attention.

Radley turned around and ran off to the nearest tree before allowing his body to rest as his stomach goop erupted violently through his mouth...

"Radley!?" Sulivan calls out. "Is eve-". Sulivan doesn't even finish his sentence when the rustling of the bushes was heard again. Sulivan responded by pointing his gun back up as he looked around for any possible danger like the corpse that was alive barely a minute ago...

"I-I am fine now if that was what you were about to ask. But man, you could have at least warned me beforehand that you were about to blow its fucking head off..." Radley said.

But before the conversation could develop any further, they both widen their eyes when they see a few more silhouettes by the trees.

Seconds later, they walk out into sight.

The two officers feel their fear intensify once again when they see that the five figures that walked out of the woods look exactly the same as the one Sulivan just killed. They are all corpses!

Suddenly...

"AGHHHHH!!" Radley screamed.

Turning towards Radley, Sulivan almost dropped his gun when he sees the head of a corpse by Radley's neck. Blood flowed down his police shirt as the creature fed upon Radley's blood.

Radley manages to somehow get the corpse off of him, and then he does, that is when blood begins to gush everywhere. All the corpses turn towards Radley. They are all attracted to his blood.

"R-Radley!?" Sulivan shouts out as he begins to shoot all the undead. One by one, they all fall to the ground...

But, more and more keep coming from the woods.

"M-Marty!!!" Radley shouts out, as he holds down his newly formed wound to prevent major blood loss.

But it was too late...

The undead grabs Sulivan, in turn causing him to drop his weapon to the ground. Sulivan manages to turn around and face the living corpse, turning to desperately get it off him.

Unfortunately, before Sulivan's reflexes of keeping the creatures head away his body could come into play, the undead manages to dig its teeth in Sulivan's shoulder. Blood immediately flowed out of the big bite.

Sulivan manages to push the undead off of him. But with the undead goes some of Sulivan's flesh.

Blood is now gushing out of Sulivan's left shoulder.

'Am I dreaming?' Sulivan thinks to himself. 'I-I got to be dreaming...'.

Over time, Sulivan's vision became more and more blurry as he became weaker and weaker.

Another herd of the undead arrives...

There was nothing that Sulivan could do. He got tackled to the ground. There, he looked for his pistol.

He sees it instantly.

More and more corpses fall on top of his body.

All that Sulivan could have done was reach out before a very loud and agonizing scream was heard from him.

He was being feasted upon.

Very soon, Radley would undergo the same exact fate...