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Chapter 1
The armored truck purred for me as I steered it down the corpse-filled street. It was like the world’s worst driver’s test, but instead of just a handful of orange construction cones, I had to avoid all the dead bodies that the vampires had left behind.
Of course, it was mostly just irritating and not actually all that difficult, but that was probably because I was one of them. Sure, I had better control over my new vamp impulses, but at the end of the day, I still needed blood to survive, just like all of them.
The only real difference was that I drank blood more than just to live. I drank blood because I had a whole car full of women who depended on me for survival, and I wasn’t about to let them down.
Well, maybe that wasn’t the only reason I drank blood.
I also drank it because it was the best stuff I’d ever tasted. It was like a whiskey that was so smooth it didn’t burn at all on the way down, but as soon as it hit my stomach, it made my whole body feel warm and relaxed.
Plus, now that I was a vamp, the taste of human blood turned me into some kind of goddamn superhero every time I had it. I was stronger and faster than I had ever been as a human, and I had ridiculous reserves of stamina that I could use to fight or fuck all night long.
I glanced over my shoulder at the four girls in the back of the armored truck to make sure they were all still okay. My gorgeous girlfriend, Natalie, smiled back at me, and then she glanced back down at her phone to check if her brother Isaac had texted her again.
Isaac was the main reason that we were headed toward the river in the first place. I wanted to get the girls out of the city as soon as possible, but we hadn’t even looked at the most direct route out of New York. Instead, we had talked about the best route up to Manhattan, since Isaac was stuck with several other people on the campus of Columbia University. He had begged for us to come and get him, and since he was my girlfriend’s brother, I wasn’t going to say no to him when I had a chance to save him.
Natalie’s two roommates, Erika and Catherine, were seated on makeshift chairs in the back of the truck beside her. Erika had settled down on one of our suitcases of clothing, and at the moment, she held up her homemade satellite dish toward the windshield to try to scan for a wifi signal from a nearby building. Catherine had settled onto a stack of duffel bags, so she could stretch out her long legs across the back of the armored truck, and when she saw me looking at her, she grinned and gave me a little wave.
“Don’t worry, Sam,” Catherine laughed. “We’re all still here.”
“Well, I didn’t think you had jumped ship just yet,” I said with a smile. “I just wanted to make sure you were all comfortable.”
“Are you serious?” the fourth girl in the back of the truck demanded.
The fourth girl was Liliana, but she just went by Lily. She had only joined us less than an hour ago, just before we headed down to the truck to start our trip out of town. She lived on one of the lower floors of my girlfriend’s apartment building, and after she had been attacked by two human scumbags for her food supplies, she had eventually made up her mind to join us wherever we were headed.
Well, it probably helped that I had saved her life and killed the two humans who had attacked her. The beautiful Hispanic girl might have been scared of me at first, but she had figured out pretty quickly that I would only protect her, not hurt her, and that if she wanted to stay alive now that the goddamn apocalypse had started, she needed to stay with me.
“What do you mean?” I asked her. “Of course I’m serious. I know it’s a little tight back there with all our luggage and supplies, but I want you all to be in a good position.”
“Yeah, we better all be good and braced if we run into any trouble,” Catherine said. “Otherwise it’ll be like a bad amusement park ride back here.”
“I’m pretty sure Rhino here can take some big hits and come out just fine on the other side,” Erika said as she pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Isn’t that right, girl?”
“I’m sure the truck agrees with you,” Natalie laughed, “but if it suddenly starts to answer you when you talk to it, I’m out of here.”
“Sorry,” Lily said. “I wasn’t trying to say that I was uncomfortable back here or anything. All I was trying to say was that I don’t give a fuck if I’m comfortable or not. I’m glad that you let me come with you and that I’m not vampire food right now.”
“You can say that again,” Erika sighed. “I’d rather be zipped up in one of these suitcases than be out there with all the bloodsuckers-- no offense, Sam.”
“None taken,” I said as I swerved the armored truck around another cluster of human corpses.
The armored truck that I had stolen as our getaway vehicle could easily have handled a few bodies if I’d wanted to use them like speed bumps instead of obstacle cones, but I had a feeling that there would be plenty of opportunities to test out everything that Rhino could handle later. There was no reason to make her do more than she had to, especially since I’d already used her to mow down a horde of bloodthirsty feral bastards, so I had some idea of what she was capable of.
I glanced in one of the big side mirrors of the truck to check behind me, but so far, I hadn’t seen anyone try to follow after us. I had been careful when I led all four girls out of the apartment, and I had triple-checked every direction to make sure that there were no vamps around who would be able to sniff them out on their way to the truck.
But even though I didn’t see any vamps, I knew there were still plenty of them around. Brooklyn Heights alone was swarmed with different factions of bloodsuckers who all wanted to control the borough, so I didn’t even want to think about how many other vampire gangs there were in the rest of the city.
“Sam, are you okay?” Natalie asked.
I realized my girlfriend had said my name a few times, but I had been so preoccupied with scanning the area around us that I hadn’t heard her at first.
“Oh, you know Sam,” Catherine said with a smirk. “He’s too busy looking out for all of us to notice when we keep saying his name.”
“That’s not true,” I laughed. “Maybe I just liked hearing my girlfriend say my name.”
“Then maybe we should all say it,” Catherine moaned as she tossed her dark red hair over her shoulder. “Oh, Sam! Sam!”
“Cut it out,” Erika giggled, even as the shy girl blushed bright pink from the tip of her nose all the way to her ears.
“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes. “What were you trying to say, Nat?”
“I just wanted to know if we had figured out exactly where we’re heading yet,” my girlfriend replied.
“That depends,” I said. “Erika, have you had any luck with finding a wifi signal yet?”
“Not yet,” the shy girl said, “but the Chinese place on the corner up there has wifi, so if no one’s cut the power to it, maybe we could try there?”
“I’ll slow down when we pass it,” I said. “I don’t know what the best route to take is yet, but the only way to find out is if Erika’s able to get a signal and find out more about which vamp controls which territory.”
“You said somebody controls the Brooklyn Bridge, right?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, last I heard, it was some bloodsucker named Grant
ham,” I answered. “And he’s got control of the piers right around the bridge too. And since the cops--”
“Vamp cops,” Catherine added.
“Right, vamp cops,” I said. “Since I’m pretty sure they control the rest of the bridges and tunnels into Manhattan, we’re pretty fucked if we head that direction. Unless, of course, Erika finds out something else whenever she picks up a wifi signal.”
“So are we just driving around right now?” Natalie asked. “Until we have a better idea where to go?”
“Kind of,” I said as I glanced in the big side mirror again. “I also want to make sure that no one is following us.”
“Like Grantham or the cops?” Lily bit her lip.
“Well, Grantham, yeah,” I said. “But I don’t think the cops will be an issue on this side of the river. At least not yet. But we’ve also gotta look out for Kowalsky and his goons since they’ve been moving steadily north.”
“That’s a lot of bad guys,” Catherine said and then patted the .45 on her hip. “Maybe we’ll all get a chance to use these babies again?”
“Let’s hope not,” I laughed. “I only want you girls to have to shoot as a last resort. I know Nat’s a great shot, and she’s a good teacher, too, but you all know how fast these fuckers can be.”
“Trust me, I haven’t forgotten,” Erika murmured.
“Okay, so like, we’re gonna look out for this Kowalsky guy and this Grantham asshole, right?” Lily demanded. “But if we’re avoiding all the bridges and tunnels because the cops control them, where exactly are we fucking going?”
“Stop!” Erika said. “I’ve got a signal!”
There were still about a dozen feet to go before I pulled up next to the Chinese restaurant, but since I didn’t want to risk losing the signal, I slowed Rhino down to a stop and then let the armored car idle.
“What you got, Erika?” I asked.
“Alright, hang on,” the shy girl said as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose again. “If their password is still the same as the last time I was here… yep, okay. I’m in.”
“What was the password?” Natalie asked.
“Orangechicken4eva,” Erika said with a shrug. “I always told them they should change their password more, but now I’m glad they didn’t.”
“Do you see anything new on any of the message boards you’ve been checking?” I asked.
“I’m looking now,” Erika replied.
I glanced in both side view mirrors and then up ahead again to get a full picture of what was around us. We had managed to travel down the length of one street, but one street had never seemed so long, not even when I’d gone out for supplies on foot.
Then again, I hadn’t had the four girls with me to protect whenever I’d gone out for supplies, so even though it had been life or death, it had only been my life or death that I was worried about. Now I had four beautiful women to keep alive, too, so the pressure was on.
“The bridges and the tunnels are all a bust,” Erika announced. “I read posts by a couple different users that say the NYPD vamps control all of the roads into Manhattan.”
“Fuck,” I said. “I was afraid of that.”
“And these users…” Catherine cleared her throat. “Are you sure they’re reliable, Erika? I mean, they’re posting on message boards in the middle of an apocalypse, so… I don’t know. I just mean, like, what kind of person do we think that is?”
“Probably the same kind that stops in front of a Chinese restaurant and steals their wifi,” I snickered.
“I promise they’re reliable,” Erika said. “At least a few of them are. I’ve read stuff by them for years, so I don’t think they’d just start making stuff up now.”
“And the rest of them?” Natalie asked.
“Look, I don’t know all of the people who are posting this shit,” the black-haired girl replied as she lowered her makeshift satellite, “but they’re all saying the same thing, so that can’t be a coincidence.”
“It’s definitely not worth the risk,” I said. “NYPD vamps will have guns, riot gear, and probably armored cars of their own, so I don’t exactly want to take on the whole police force to try to get across the river.”
“So then, uh, where are we gonna go?” Lily asked as she pushed her thick dark curls out of her face.
“Well, if Grantham and the cops control all the roads into Manhattan,” I said, “that leaves us with only one real option.”
“Ooh, we’re taking a motherfucking boat, aren’t we?” Catherine grinned.
“Something like that,” I said. “I’m driving us toward Pier 5. Just north of Pier 5 is where they keep all the private watercraft. As long as we don’t run into any vamps before we get there, we can scope out the area and see if we spot any good boats.”
“I always wanted to take a boat,” Lily sighed. “I mean, I promised my fuckin’ mother that I wouldn’t ever go on the water when I moved to New York-- I mean, no ferries, no nothing-- but I never really meant it.”
“When did you move to New York anyway?” Natalie asked. “I’ve never seen you in our building before, so you must be new, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” the olive-skinned girl replied. “I just moved into that apartment like two weeks ago. Great timing, I know.”
“Where’d you move from?” Erika asked. “I mean, where were you living before this?”
“Jersey,” Lily said with a shrug. “With my mother.”
“I take it that your mom wasn’t super excited for you to move to the city?” Natalie asked. “I mean, if she didn’t even want you to go across the water…”
“Yeah, she hated the idea of me living in the city,” Lily replied. “I’d been living at home and trying to save up money to put myself through nursing school, you know, but I’d just started and the commute was fuckin’ hell, so--”
“Hold up, are you a nurse?” Catherine demanded.
“Oh, god, no,” Lily said. “I mean, I’m a student, but I really only just started, so it’s not like I’m an expert or anything.”
“But you probably know some basic stuff, right?” I asked. “Like basic first aid and that kind of thing?”
“Yeah, sure, I know some stuff,” the girl said as she pushed her dark curls out of her face again. “But anyway, like I was sayin’, I was trying to save up money, right? But then my aunt up and dies on me--”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Natalie laid her hand on the other girl’s leg.
“Nah, it’s alright,” Lily said. “We weren’t close or nothin’. She was technically my great-aunt anyway, but she dies, right? And even though I don’t know her at all, she’s rich as fuck, and she really liked my mom, and so she decided to leave all her money to my mom’s only daughter-- and that’s me.”
“So you took the money to get an apartment in the city?” I asked.
“And to pay for nursing school, yeah,” the olive-skinned girl replied. “So two weeks in, I’m feeling pretty good about everything, and then bam!”
“The vamp apocalypse begins,” Catherine said. “Yeah, I think this one took us all by surprise.”
“I knew I shoulda listened to my fuckin’ mother,” Lily said. “I guess this is what I get, huh?”
“Have you heard from your family since all this started?” Natalie asked.
“Nah,” Lily said and then bit her lip.
“Sorry,” my girlfriend said, “I didn’t mean to--”
“It’s alright,” the other girl said with a shrug. “My mom always has her phone in her hand, so if she hasn’t answered by now… well, I just know she’d want me to be safe, whatever else happened.”
“Then it’s a good thing you joined up with us,” Erika said. “Sam will keep us safe, and as far as family goes-- I mean, just consider yourself one of us now, alright?”
“One of us!” Catherine chanted. “One of us!”
Lily laughed, and I was glad the other girls were able to cheer her up and distract her a bit. The end of the world had been t
ough on everybody so far, but we all needed to stay focused if we were going to make it to Manhattan, much less if we were going to make it out of the actual city.
“See anything else helpful on the message boards?” I asked Erika.
“Not really,” the black-haired girl replied. “I think the vamps themselves have jumped on some of the sites to try to get humans to come to them.”
“How do you know?” Natalie asked.
“Well, some of these people are saying they have plenty of supplies and shelter, and they’re giving out their home addresses and stuff,” Erika said.
“Yeah,” I sighed, “it seems safe to say that’s either an incredibly stupid human or a vamp looking for a fresh meal to walk right through his front door.”
“Plus, some of them are cops,” Erika added, “and they’re telling people to come to the tunnels and bridges, and they’ll be escorted to safety in Manhattan.”
“Oh, those people are definitely bloodsuckers,” Catherine said. “No, thank you! Also, in what world would real cops tell people to leave their homes and travel alone through the city right now?”
“Well, I’m sure they are real cops,” I said. “They just also happen to be vampires now.”
“Ugh, I agree with Catherine,” Lily said with a shudder. “No, thank you.”
“If you don’t need to look up anything else, Erika, I’m gonna go ahead and pull forward,” I said.
“Yeah, that should be fine,” the shy girl replied. “Besides, I’m sure there’s some sort of wifi signal around the pier that I could pick up when we get there.”
I shifted the armored truck into drive and rolled forward, and since there was still no one on the street except for us, I gave her just a little bit more gas. The truck grumbled and then roared as black smoke poured out of the exhaust pipe behind us, and when the engine vibrated through the whole truck, I sped down the road toward our turn up ahead.
No wonder I had nicknamed this truck Rhino.
She growled like a wild animal as I steered around another stack of corpses, and then when I slowed down to take a left turn, she purred and turned as smoothly as if she’d been a fucking race car instead of a huge armored security truck.
Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth (Book 3): Vampire Lord 3 Page 1
