Alexis is caught in a factory fire. Near death and accepting
that life has screwed her over for the last time, she encounters a new life form
and a path to survival. Life is all about changes and the world better fear the
change in Alexis. No longer a victim, Alexis is now a hunter with a mission, and
the small town of Harpers Hollow is about to see Hell in the flesh!
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Excerpt:
Alexis wiped a hand across her sweat drenched forehead. The
fire blazed through the toy factory and the blare of the alarms echoed through
her panicked thoughts as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
Seconds ago an explosion tore through the small factory,
interrupting her routine at the assembly line where her quick, nimble fingers
checked the dolls for defects before heading on to packaging. The blast,
immediate and fierce, ripped through the assembly room in a flash of heat and
pressure. The aftermath left overturned equipment and melted plastic dolls
everywhere.
Alexis grunted as she gasped for air that burned her lungs
with each inhalation. Pieces of sanity broke through as she took in her
surroundings. One of her arms was caught under the overturned metal belt,
pulped in a mess of blood and flesh.
“I don’t want to die,” she said, her voice cracking like
dry, dead leaves.
Alexis was stuck, pinned by the heavy machinery, and the
slow realization of impending death crept across her flame blistered face. What
was left to do but die before the shock wore off and the pain overwhelmed her,
leading to a slow torturous death?
Cries reached out for help, for comfort and reassurance, but
her voice would not join the chorus. Weak and raw, it rattled, and the fire
heated breathes she had already taken were rushing her toward darkness. She
felt the icy fingers of death squeezing her lungs and heart even through the
searing air. Hot tears streaked from the corners of her eyes as she began to
give up.
A minute passed in slow ebbing pain as her vision narrowed
and the blackness of oblivion closed about its edges. A foot away from her she
found her last focal point. The head of an Emma Doll, its plastic, raven locks
already melted and one side of its tiny, clementine sized head melting until a
nickel’s worth of space had opened.
She laughed, hoarse and hacking, as the absurdity of a life
wasted was reflected back at her through the tiny dolls disfigured head. It was
fitting, she thought, to die staring at the ridiculous little toy she had
wasted so many years of her life on assembling.
There was movement in the dolls head; the quick flicker of a
snake-like tail, black and scaly.
“But how?” she railed. In these final moments it was the how
that bothered her, not her imminent death. The heads were solid pieces of
plastic. Fifteen years on the assembly line had taught her that much about the
product. She could write it off to hallucination if, in fact, the movement was
not escalating as it did now.
The tail vanished
from sight and a small, leathery head emerged from the melting opening. A tar black, cracked tongue darted out and
licked at the scorched air. And its eyes, red and alert, had fallen on her. A
flurry of blurred motion confused her momentarily, and then it was there,
clawing at her agape mouth and forcing itself down her damaged air way.
She would have screamed, if that was an option, but she was
beyond producing sound now. If the strange little creature wanted to curl up
inside her and die with her, then so be it. There was nothing left to fight
for, so she welcomed the encroaching dark as it swept over her.
Her eyes flew open, and suddenly alert she moved, fighting
against the belt pinning her down. She shifted on the floor, aware of the
orange blaze consuming everything around her, and braced her legs against the
overturned equipment. She could see her exposed skin blistering under the
intense heat of the devouring flames. Suddenly she didn’t accept death as the
final answer. Gritting her teeth beneath her splitting lips, she shoved hard
and her arm tore free at the elbow leaving the ruined flesh behind to burn into
ash.
Something’s off, she thought as she stumbled toward freedom.
She should be dead, but step by step, moment by moment, the increasing inferno
caused her less pain and her vision was clearing up. Looking down, she saw her
clothes were tattered or burned off. One bare breast jiggled, exposed to the
air with the plastic arm of a doll seared to the ample flesh. She reached up
with her remaining arm and tore it free.
Her screamed pierced the factory, the only noise left
besides the crackling of the flames and the crumbling of various objects being
claimed by them.
She reached the north wall. Her body reacted before her mind
could comprehend its actions. Her left leg shot out and kicked a hole in the
wall, sending huge cement bricks flying off. She struggled to understand how
she could be capable of such a superhuman feat, but the need to survive spurred
her on and she squeezed through the small opening to the fresh air outside.
The morning sun mirrored the blaze inside and seared her
with its bright assault. She went to
cover her eyes with her right arm, but half of it remained inside. She raised
her left, blocked the rays with it, and pushed forward, breaking into a limping
run toward the forest, visible just past the parking lot.
It’s shaded there. It’s safe there. We can heal there.
“We?” she said, her voice returning, “Who the fuck is we?”
Alexis couldn’t panic anymore, her body simply had nothing
left and she collapsed just inside the wooded expanse, landing face first in a
carpet of soft green moss.
A beetle crossed her plain of vision as for the second time
her consciousness began to recede. She felt the faintest stirring of hunger
spark inside, stirring her appetite. “So odd,” she thought. Her jaw creaked
open, charred muscles having trouble with the motion and her tongue, insanely
long and split at the end, speared out and snatched the beetle. An instant
later she heard the crunching in her head as she chewed. She passed out again
before she could scream.
