The Fungus

Occasionally the road itself was covered with a carpet of fungus. In places it was quite thick and seemed to suck at the tires as the truck passed over it. Wilson guessed that it was feeding on the asphalt.

Then they came to a section of road partially blocked by the ruins of a building that had collapsed into the Street. Slocock pulled up and all three of them peered at the fungus-coated wreckage.

“It looks as though the bricks and concrete have been eaten away. What kind of fungus can do that?” asked Kimberley.

“The hyphae of dry-rot fungi — serpula lacrymans — can travel through masonry to reach moisture, but they don’t actually eat it. This mutated version must do the same at an incredibly fast rate until the brickwork just crumbles away.” The pile of rubble across the road presented no serious obstacle to the Stalwart, which was able to climb over it by means of its six large wheels. Then they were on the outskirts of Cheltenham and the road ahead seemed clear.

Wilson yawned, “If no one has any objections I’m going into the back for some sleep. Unlike you two I didn’t get any at all last night.”

“We didn’t get much either,” said Slocock.

“You got a hell of a lot more than me,” said Wilson, and grinned at Kimberley.

When he’d crawled through the hatchway and closed it behind him Kimberley said, “I think he knows.”

Slocock shrugged. “Who cares? I don’t. Do you?”

“It would be less complicated if he didn’t know.”

He gave her a sidelong glance. “You fancy him at all?”

“No. He’s not my type.”

Slocock reached across and put his left hand on her crotch. He gripped her hard. She gave a hiss of pain and annoyance and pushed his hand away. “Don’t do that!”

Amused, Slocock said, “Oooh, the lady doctor’s all uppity today. Doesn’t want to remember what she was doing with common old Sergeant Slocock last night.”

“That was a one-off event. Don’t think for a moment you’re going to get second helpings.”

Slocock’s hand shot out and grabbed her by the hair. She gasped and struggled but he was able to push her head down towards his lap without any trouble. Then he gave her hair a sharp twist. Her scream was muffled.

“You know what to do now, Doctor. And be gentle with it. I feel your teeth in me I’ll scalp you.”

She unzippered him and freed his already erect penis. As she went to work on him with her tongue he shuddered with pleasure and said hoarsely, “You’re a real expert at this, I can tell.”

His words were confirmed in the 15 minutes that followed. Several times she brought him to the edge, but just when he felt he was about to explode she seemed to sense it and eased off. Finally she didn’t ease off and he came in her mouth with such an intensity of feeling he almost drove off the road.

He let go of her hair. She sat up, unzippered her own pants and kicked herself out of them with an obvious urgency. Then she twisted round, put her left leg across his lap and draped her right foot across the back of his neck.

He glanced at what was being offered. ‘No rest for the wicked,’ he muttered and put his fingers into its gaping wetness.

Minutes later, as Kimberley, back arched, juddered with a series of uncontrollable spasms, he reflected that the one good thing about the present crisis was the total lack of police cars on the motorway.

After that they rode on in silence for some time. He glanced at her occasionally and was amused to see how quickly she became her usual, cool, poised self. Only the slight flush on her cheeks gave any indication of what had happened.

Finally she said, “I’ve got to go into the back. I need to use the toilet.”

“Try not to wake Buffalo Bill. The less I see of him the better.”

Kimberley opened the hatch and murmured, “Oh my God!”

The way she said it made him look around.

On the other side of the hatch there was nothing but a solid wall of yellow fungus.

15

Wilson was still unaware he’d been consumed by the fungus.

He had remained asleep as the growth had filled the rear compartment and he continued to sleep even now.

The growth completely covered him, but as its structure was highly porous, his breathing was unimpeded. He slept on as the fungus ate his clothes and the blanket under him, along with every other organic substance that was accessible to it in the compartment.

When his clothes had been consumed the hyphae proceeded to absorb all his body hair and then entered his various orifices. In his mouth the probing, thread-like hyphae picked his teeth clean of every particle of food; they entered his anus and extended themselves along his rectum, absorbing waste material as they went; in his ears they ate the wax and in his nostrils they consumed the dried mucus.

At the same time the fungus began to dissolve his dead outer-layer of skin. This was what woke him up.

He regained consciousness aware of an intolerable itchiness all over his body.

Then he opened his eyes and saw nothing but total blackness. Then he realized he was covered in something. It was all over him. In his mouth, his nose.