Free Fan Fears: A collection of fear based stories by Michael Bray

streaked with dust and dirt. Justin knew him. His name was Mike Rose, and they had been friends for almost fifteen years since they both joined the service.
    "It's a goddamn mess, Justin," the man said.
    "Tell me about it, Mike. We're stretched too thin. This is a nightmare."
    Mike looked at the rubble pile. "Are we looking for survivors or is this a recovery mission?"
    "Hoping for the former, expecting the latter. How are those light rigs coming along? I need light so we can continue the rescue operation."
    "They're almost done," Mike said, taking off his helmet. "There are a lot of dead, Justin. At least a hundred at the train crash site. Maybe four hundred or more at the opera house. What are you thinking here?"
    Justin shrugged. "We've already pulled out twenty bodies from the rubble and we've barely scratched the surface. This is going to be a mess. Two of them still on the run too, the sons of bitches."
    "They got them," Mike said. "One of them dead, one wounded but critical."
    "I hope the bastards suffered for what they did," Justin said as he watched crews carry in the huge lighting rigs and set them up around the rubble.
    "Are they ready?" Justin said to one of the men as he walked past him.
    "Yes, Chief. Ready to fire them up when you are."
    "Then get it done. Sooner we can move on this, the sooner we can carry on helping people."
    The officer ran back the way he had come to pass on the message, leaving the two old friends together.
    "Do you ever wish you retired, Justin?" Mike asked as he put his helmet back on.
    "Every damn day."
    The two men shook hands. "I better get back to it," Mike said. "Good luck with the search. I'll get my men over to help as soon as I can spare some."
    "I appreciate it. You take care, you hear me?"
    Mike waved absently as he ran back up the street and pushed through the growing crowds. Justin turned back towards the crews setting up the lighting rigs who were standing around the generators for them. "Any chance I can get some damn lights tonight so we can save some lives?"
    The men complied, activating the diesel generators which coughed to life. Seconds later, the high wattage lighting rigs illuminated the pile of rubble, enabling the crews to work through the night.
     
    FIVE
     
    The chamber was suddenly illuminated as if someone had switched on the sun. The artificial light, much more intense than the diffused natural light of earlier, banished the darkness, melting it away so that they could see once more. Becky squinted at the sudden change, then screamed, unleashing the sound that she had been holding onto for hours.
    The chamber was alive with rats. Hundreds of them scurrying around the room. She stared, unable to believe what she was seeing. Frank was also staring at the pulsating mass which covered every surface of the chamber. He had a stone in his hand and had been poised to throw it when the lights had come back on. Becky stared past him at his legs, wondering how it was possible that he hadn't felt it as the rats had eaten them. Only bloody stumps remained below the knees as masses of rats gnawed and ate at his flesh.
    She watched from the safety of her ledge as they swarmed him, covering him and drowning out his screams as they ate him. She watched him struggle for an impossibly long time, but every time he pulled some of them away from his face, more filled the gap. Eventually, the fight went out of him, and he stopped moving. It was only then that she realized Kevin was screaming too. The rats were chewing on his toes, and unlike Frank who had been numb from the chest down, Kevin could feel everything as they stripped the skin from his feet. As she watched, one rat sheared away his toenail, exposing the wet, pink flesh beneath.
    "I can't move, help me, it hurts." He was screaming and staring at her. Becky couldn't do anything but stare. She had become detached from the scene, unable to comprehend what was happening. Something came out of the hole where the first rats had