“Officials are calling it an industrial accident, and so far no casualties have been reported..”
I SAT DEVOURING the local news as well as my lunch, words lost through the noise of squelching, of mastication on my chicken sub, spilling bits of salad and mayo on the varnished grain kitchen table.
“According to eye-witness reports “a luminous fog” was seen spreading from the wreckage that for miles around…”
Chewing, I thought about the incident two miles away, glad I slept with the window shut.
Bang! The side door opened. Mum was home early from nursery.
Without a hello, she walked to a cupboard, opened the doors and dumped a huge 5kg bag of penne pasta on the counter big enough to feed an Italian village.
Pulling a bottom tier drawer out, she lifted a silver pan out with the lid. I’d never seen it used before, the lid large enough to be used as a shield.
Tap on, she began filling the pot, then dumped it loudly on the biggest hob.
“Do we have guests coming over?” I asked, hoping not, eyes back on the TV.
Click, click. Gas ignited, turned up high. I could tell by the roar of the flame.
“No. Do you want lunch?”
My half eaten sub was clearly visible. She sounded weird, slow, as if she’d just woken up from anaesthetic.
“I’m hungry too,” she said.
I screwed up my face and focused on the news, a map on-screen showing the likely path of the leak. I stopped eating, food halfway to destination mouth, dropping it onto the wrapper – our house was right in the middle, near the epicentre.
The reporter returned to screen, still wearing a mask, but now it was more worrying. They’d manouvered to get the train wreckage in the background. About half a mile away, hobby-sized freight wagons lay littered near the track in careless patterns.
I heard pasta cascading into the pan, the lid jammed on top. Turning, I watched as Mum raided the fridge for fresh tomatoes and three family size packs of mince.
Why would she lie? We clearly were having people over. I wrinkled my nose, grimacing, and returned to Bad News, the unofficial name for all news channels, coinciding with an ad break.
Chopping commenced; steel on wood. Soon it was clear what – my eyes feeling the diluted sting of onions. How many? It looked like she had chopped an entire bag, diced white piled high.
She carried the board to the pasta pan and swept the onion in.
I became concerned at that point but figured it must be some new method she’d seen on the cooking channels.
Looking at my sub, onions invading my nostrils now as well, my appetite vanished, replaced by an unsettling feeling I couldn’t place.
Chop, chop, chop, chop! – louder, more aggressive. Twisting I saw the tomatoes reduced to a pulpy mess. Mum looked over mid cut, smiling the most unnatural smile, the biggest knife of the kitchen chopping blindly as she maintained eye contact.
“Oh!” she said, looking down.
I nearly fell out my chair, my veins running cold in total horror, my face wider, mouth open.
“Silly me!” She smiled, eyes and voice emotionless, raising her right hand up, covered in tomato seeds and blood that poured out from where the index finger used to be. “There it is!” She picked the still pink finger up and walked over to the pot, placing it into the aggressive bubbling water.
By this stage my voice was gone. I’d managed to stand up on weak legs, eyeing the door. I wanted to puke, I wanted this all to be an elaborate hoax, I wanted to someone to run in with cameras.
Blood still oozing for the stump, Mum was scraping the tomatoes into the pan. She turned and said,”Won’t be long now,” dead eyed, grinning manically.
About to make a run for it, I saw a shadow fill the doorway. It was Dad! What a relief.
He opened the door looked at me, paid no heed and went to Mum who was pulling out jars of sauce – every one – from the cupboards onto the counter.
He lifted the lid off the pot, took a sniff, then noticed the packs of mince. “I’m so very, very hungry.” Using a knife from the rack he took overzealous stabs at the plastic seal, then threw the knife in the sink, clattering steel on steel.
Tearing the plastic away with both hands he grabbed a handful of mince and began shoving it in his face, chewing like a wild animal as Mum watched on, still smiling, still bleeding.
Noticing me as if for the first time while I inched towards the door, heart on loudspeaker, he stopped chewing. “Do you want some?” He proffered his fist of mince in my direction. Slowly I shook my head, the rest of my body doing it involuntarily already.
The next sound was the door slamming behind me, my socked-feet pounding down the drive and along the road towards the high street. I slowed down, puffing and panting, close to retching, feeling like I’d just hallucinated. After two more miles on the way to my pals house, I noticed my fear melt away, replaced by an overpowering need: I too felt hungry. I could eat a horse. In fact, there was one in the field I was walking past…
LionAroundWriting 
Oh yeah, loved it. When she picked up the finger, I’m thinking ‘don’t do it, Lady!’ She did it and it was perfect.
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Thank you Lisa, always appreciated.
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Your writing is so vivid. The importance you place on making your scene graphic, almost movie-like makes it feel all the more real when we read it. I loved this piece to bits! I could read a lot more of it. I like how you pace your epidemic too. They don’t turn into brain eating corpses in just a split second. They feel the the hunger but still recognize their loved ones. They don’t become mushy brained right away either which sounds way more realistic. The finger bit though… it augurs a really really creepy outcome from the outset. Again, great piece, Mister Lion 🙂 It leaves me starving for more.
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Kind words, thank you for the details comms. I always say this about short stories, they can always become more. Perhaps a sequel will happen one day ☺
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Perharps 🙂 I will be there to read it if it does. I agree great shorts can be turned into novels with a little sweat and a lot of passion for the leading idea 🙂
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I knew it.. I knew it.. I felt the terror as soon as I started it… scared.. me scared.. me very very scared..
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I would say sorry. But, you kinda know what to expect 🙂 😉
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Love it! Very reminiscent of James Herbert’s The Fog, but with a bit more cheeky black humour. 🙂
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Thanks for your feedback babbitman ☺ Funnily enough I’m reading my first Herbert novel currently, The Secret of Crickley Hall. Maybe I’ve been infected!
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Not read that one. The Fog and The Dark are pretty good horror thrillers, although The Dark has a few moments that are bordering on sick & depraved. Fluke however is much more cute & sentimental, but not cloyingly so. Generally worth a go.
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Cheers, I think I have seen the film version of The Fog maybe its called Mist, not entirely sure its based on Herbert actually.
I’m liking the current read, so i’ll keep an eye out for more.
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Oh my!! That was amazing! I mean it was scary and horrifying, still it was just sooooo…. Lion-ish! Wonderfully written as always Lion. 👌👌
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Lionish – new dictionary update ☺😃
Thanks for your comment Syeda.
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Hahaha! Aren’t we writers like that! Create something when nothing seems fit 😋😋😁
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This is a really top class short story, Lion. It is full of surprises and so they are so well executed. Surreal hooror in a realistic narrative.Very nice work. One of your very best.
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That means a lot, thank you Chris. For this and all the other reads too.
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Brilliantly ghoulish. From confusion to fear to resistance to assimilation… Just like the real-life zombification process!
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Thanks for another great comment ☺ It’s pretty open for interpretation but I didnt intend it as a zombie piece, I like thats how it came across though.
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That was unexpectedly gruesome 😐
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Glad to surprise ☺ Btw did you receive my email with my part of the story?
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I have! Sorry I haven’t been active lately. I’ve just come back from the snow so I’ll be looking to write back this week 🙂
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Cool, just checking ☺
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Soon, they’ll be eating each other…
Brilliantly stomach-turning!
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Well worded 🙂
Much appreciated.
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