The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

The sound of hundreds of footfalls navigated my bustling auditory system, telling me Avery was right. The materializing silhouettes coming quickly into view completely dashed any remanence of hope I might’ve had. “Shit,” I whispered.

The ghastly procession headed on a crash course that ran parallel with our slapdash shelter. The first couple Grays I saw were good runners. They sped past, without any hesitation. They were on a mission. What came next was a hodgepodge of Grays. Some of them walked relatively normal, while most of them jerked and palsied their way towards the same location the fast runners headed. A couple of the Grays wondered a little too close for comfort but nothing other than a few hard sniffs in our direction came of it.

Relieved but completely exhausted and deflated, I fell hard on my ass. The others whispered fearful utterances. I didn’t need to explain what I saw. They knew. Jesus, I thought. This is bad.

Things quickly got worse. Way worse. Something scraped at the side of the building. The corrugated aluminum siding vibrated against my back, as the object scraped and scratched at it. In concert with the scraping was the sound of feet compacting deep, untrodden snow mixed with the occasional snort.

I struggled to get my breathing right. I closed my eyes and counted, but that did little to assuage my difficulty. Fuck it, I thought. Go out with a fight. I stood and pressed my face hard against the side of the frosted-over window, trying to get a glimpse of what was making the noise.  It was like a punch to my gut when I saw it. A Gray, no more than a few feet from the window, scraped the side of the building with a large butcher knife.

For an instant I lost control of my ability to stand. I fell at the speed of gravity, my ass again smacking hard concrete, as the earth came rushing up to meet it. I made way too much noise when my back smacked the wall, followed by my head. I managed to stay conscious, but my breathing was in overdrive. The night went quiet.

***

The moonlight shining in the window cast a shadow, of the menace, directly in front of me. I turned to face the others, their eyes large with fear, their bodies ridged with panic: both that I would die right there of a heart attack, and also because there was a Gray who was smart enough not to be drawn away by the gunfire like the others had. What he wanted was inside the shed.

I heard what I thought was the sound of plastic wrap being crinkled. Then I realized it was the sound of flexing pane of glass above me. The window pane began spider webbing as he applied more and more pressure. There was a brief silence before the window exploded inwards, shards of glass shooting across the inside of the building, and a fair amount falling on me.

He stuck his head in, sniffed, and grunted. Avery whimpered loudly. Sam grabbed his face and pulled it close to his. “Be quiet boy,” he hissed. The Gray snorted hard in Sam and Avery’s direction, slamming something into the side of the building, as he removed his head from inside.

Sam released Avery’s head and slowly moved towards the rifled that leaned against the wall.

I grew dizzy from the rapidity of my shallow pants. I needed to control my breathing.

Once the Gray figured out he couldn’t get in through the window, he began to move away. Momentarily, I thought he had left. He was eerily quiet. The respite of silence ended when the scraping started anew. This time in the eastern side of the building. He was walking around the damn building, I thought.

Titouan panicked. “What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?” He repeated.

“Shut up, damn you,” Sam said, in what couldn’t ever be misconstrued as a whisper.

The scraping sound neared the still locked entrance. With a thud, the Gray threw his weight into it: once, then twice, and finally three times before quitting. Avery began to repeat something under his breath. A prayer, I thought. At least he was whispering during his mental breakdown.

I had managed not to pass out. I was in semi-control of my breathing.

The scraping began again and terminated too damn close to the unlocked door. There was a pause. An incredibly long pause. Then, without warning, the Gray smashed through the door, his momentum making him fall hard against the concrete floor. Damn he was fast. He was on his feet in less than a few seconds and ready to attack.

“Shoot him, dammit,” I said.

Click.

“Oh shit, son,” was all Sam could get out before the Gray was on him.

Sam held the Gray at bay with the gun between them. The Gray snapped his teeth and flailed the knife wildly and, lucky for Sam, inaccurately. Sam grunted as he pitched the Gray to his left. He was free of the attacker, but Avery gained one, thanks to his proximity to Sam during the attack.

Tish fled to the other side of the building, not bothering to help.

I saw Sam try to grab the Gray, but he was stabbed in the leg for his effort. He fell backward in pain. I then tried to help, but the man was too powerful. I ended up on my ass for my effort.

“He is biting me!” Avery screamed. He followed that with cries of being forsaken.

Instantly, I thought about loitering Grays. If they heard him scream, they would soon join in with the one who was already attacking us. We could barely handle him. Shit. I grabbed hold of the Gray as Sam pounded him with the butt of the rifle. The Gray swung the knife wildly, somehow missing everyone, while sinking his teeth into what looked like Avery’s hand. My near stroking out due to hyperventilation for the ten minutes prior had rendered me near useless.

Titouan came up behind