I kept our pace a little slower down the next road just to make sure that no one came running to check out the sound of the truck. I hadn’t spent much time in this section of the borough since the apocalypse started, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect this close to the river.
Still, we only had two or three minutes to go before we reached the area around the pier, so all I had to do now was get us there in one piece, scope out a possible boat to take, and then find somewhere safe to park the girls.
It was light out, but there were still enough shadows in between buildings and behind trees that it made me jump every time something flickered on the edge of my vision. Even the stray rats that I saw scurry down the street put me on edge, because I knew that if we were spotted by vamps, I wouldn’t have much of a warning before they attacked.
But just a couple of minutes later, the pier came into view on the right, and as soon as I saw all the boats that were just waiting for us there, I felt my grip on the steering wheel relax. When we drove right up to the pier itself, I slowed the armored truck down even more so I could get a good look at all my options.
“This should just take a minute,” I told the girls, “and then I’ll find somewhere that we can park and come up with a game plan.”
“Hey, we want to have the best boat, too, so take your time, Spike,” Catherine said. “That’s from Buffy, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.” I rolled my eyes.
“Ooh, that one looks expensive!” the auburn-haired girl said as she pointed to a yacht-sized vessel.
“Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s good,” Natalie laughed.
“Um, yes, it definitely does,” Catherine replied.
“Okay, well, just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s what we need,” my girlfriend said. “Bigger isn’t always better.”
“But I mean, usually it is,” Catherine said with a wink.
“I think this time, Nat might be right,” I laughed as I continued to scan all the boats docked at the pier. “I want something fast and quiet, and if it’s too big, it’ll be slow and probably make a lot of noise, too.”
“How about that one?” Erika pointed to a sleek triangle-shaped craft. “It looks pretty aerodynamic, right?”
“Yeah, I like that one,” I said, “and the ones on either side of it look pretty good, too. A little bulkier, but I think any of them would do the trick.”
“Well, they look expensive, too,” Catherine sniffed. “I’m just saying.”
“Um, but like, doesn’t anything that docks at this pier gotta be fuckin’ expensive?” Lily demanded. “This is like primo fuckin’ real estate right here.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that,” I said. “I think I can make a lot of those boats work for me, so I should be able to take one of them. Now we’ve just gotta get you all parked somewhere so I can steal a boat and then go up the river to get Isaac.”
“Wait, what?” Natalie asked. “What do you mean that you want to park us somewhere? Aren’t we coming with you?”
“Yeah, I thought we’d all get on the boat,” Erika said, “and then we’d all go get Isaac together, and then we’d all just come back for the truck and all our supplies.”
“Wasn’t that the plan?” Catherine asked.
I had been dreading this moment. As soon as I’d gotten the girls in the truck, I had decided to change our plans about how to go rescue Isaac. I just couldn’t think of a single way to make the trip into Manhattan safe enough for them to come with me, and so I had made the decision on my own that they would stay behind, while I went to rescue Nat’s brother myself.
I knew the girls were going to be pissed, but I’d rather have them be angry at me than be fucking dead.
“Sam?” Natalie asked again.
“So, I’ve been thinking about it,” I said, “and I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you all to come with me. It’s not safe.”
“But it’s not like we were going to come with you onto the campus,” Catherine said. “We were just going to stay on the boat while you went to get Isaac, right? So where’s the harm in that?”
“I can’t just leave you unprotected on the boat,” I said.
“What if we took the boat to shore, let you jump off, and then we took the boat back out into the middle of the river?” Erika asked. “We could just wait for you there, and then as soon as we saw you again, we’d steer the boat back over to get you and Isaac.”
“It’d be too obvious to the vamps,” I said. “Think about it-- if you were a vamp, wouldn’t you find it kind of strange that the river was empty, and then all of a sudden, now there’s some random-ass boat in the middle of the water that wasn’t there before?”
“I guess that would seem suspicious,” Natalie said.
“And then all the vamps would have to do would be to get a boat of their own, take it out into the water, and then get you,” I said. “Or they might not even need boats at all if they’re strong enough to swim out to you.”
“But isn’t that why we have guns?” Catherine demanded as she shifted her long legs in the back of the truck.
“Against a whole boat full of vampires?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, even when we’ve used our guns before, Sam’s been there to finish the bloodsuckers off,” Erika said. “Our guns really only slow the vamps down. We need Sam to actually kill them.”
“Well, so what does that mean?” Lily crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Are you just gonna leave us here at the pier all unprotected? How is that any different from leaving us unprotected on a boat?”
“I’ll be able to barricade you in the truck,” I said as I took another left to circle around and look for a good parking spot. “It won’t be perfect, but I’ll do the best I can, and it’ll be a hell of a lot safer than if I leave you all on a boat in the middle of the river.”
“No offense there, Drac,” Catherine said with a toss of her dark red hair, “but that doesn’t exactly sound like a foolproof plan.”
“Probably because it’s not,” I said, “but I think I can barricade you four well enough that you’ll be safe until I get back. The biggest thing is just for me to mask your scent. As long as the vamps can’t smell you, you should be fine.”
“I mean, I trust that you know what you’re doin’ and everything,” Lily said, “but that just kinda makes me damn nervous, you know?”
“I know,” I sighed. “But we really don’t have any other choice if we’re going to save Isaac.”
“Um…” Catherine trailed off at first. “Okay, so I don’t want to be the bad guy here, but, uh…”
“What is it?” Natalie asked. “You know you can tell us anything.”
“You may change your mind after I tell you what I’m thinking,” the auburn-haired girl said.
“What do you mean?” my girlfriend demanded.
“I’m just gonna say what all the rest of us have to be thinking right now,” Catherine said. “Do we really have to go save Isaac?”
Chapter 2
“What did you just say?” Natalie growled.
The anger in my girlfriend’s voice was so unusual that I glanced back to make sure that she hadn’t just leaped across the back of the truck to tackle Catherine by the throat. Both girls were exactly where they had been the last time I checked, but they looked like two cats about to pounce on each other.
I couldn’t blame Catherine for what she said, and I had a feeling that Erika and Lily probably felt the same way. But Erika was too sweet to ever say anything like that to Natalie directly, and Lily was just so happy to be with us that she likely had no plans to rock the boat just yet.
“Hey, I just said that I don’t want to be the bad guy here!” the auburn-haired girl told Natalie. “It’s just, like--”
“He’s my brother, Catherine!” Natalie said. “How could you say that? You know Isaac! We’ve all hung out together, and he--”
“Now is not the time,” I interrupted. “
We can talk about this in a minute, but right now, I need you to keep your voices down until I get us parked somewhere safe, okay?”
“Sorry, Sam,” my brunette girlfriend said.
“Yeah, sorry,” Catherine repeated. “We can table the discussion for right now.”
“Okay, good,” I said. “Because I think I just found us the perfect parking spot.”
I glanced in both directions to make sure that we were still all alone, and then I pulled into the parking garage closest to the pier. There were a few other cars on the first floor, but even though there weren’t enough for me to worry about, I still didn’t think the first floor was the safest place to park. I also thought about parking on the top floor, but it was too exposed to leave the truck out in the open like that.
So instead, I drove up to the second story of the garage and parked the truck horizontally across several spaces, so its front end was pointed toward the exit. That way, if we needed to move the truck in a hurry, we wouldn’t have to back up or even turn the wheels at all. We could just hit the gas and take off.
There weren’t many cars on this floor of the parking garage, either, but there were a few scattered around. Other than the empty cars, there were no signs of life on the second story of the garage, and even though I knew some vamp might be hidden underneath one of the cars, I doubted there was too much real danger here.
Just to be sure, I rolled down the truck window and inhaled. I didn’t smell any signs of vamps around us, and I also didn’t smell any fresh blood outside the truck, so no one had been killed here recently. And since we were hidden from the view of anyone on the street below, I figured this was probably the safest spot that we were going to find.
I turned the truck off and swiveled around in my seat to look at the four girls in the back.
“Okay, I think this is good for now,” I said.
“Good, because I’d like a damn explanation,” Natalie said as she glared at Catherine.
“And I’m sure Catherine will explain,” I said, “but I need you to wait just a few more minutes. If we’re going to stay here for a little bit, I need to go double-check that everything is safe.”
“Take all the time you need, Sam,” Erika said.
“Yeah, if it means we’ll be safer, then I’ll make sure they don’t start the, uh, discussion without you,” Lily said.
“Good, thank you,” I said. “I’m just gonna grab a little diesel from the back so I can help mask your scent, and then I’m gonna poke around the parking garage for a few minutes. You know, just to make sure we’re alone.”
“Do you need us to do anything?” Natalie asked as she turned her big blue eyes toward me.
“No, just sit tight while I’m gone,” I said. “And try not to make any kind of noise.”
I climbed down from the front seat of the truck, quietly shut the door behind me, and opened the back to pull out a fuel can full of diesel. I wanted to save most of the diesel to actually fuel our truck, so I didn’t want to use too much of it, but I also knew that if I didn’t hide the girls’ scent a little, we’d never make it out of the city and even have a chance to use the truck in the first place.
After I spilled a few drops of diesel all around the truck, I inhaled again, but all I could smell were the powerful fumes of the fuel. I only smelled the girls when I got right up next to the back of the truck, and even then, their scent was still muddled by the fumes and the thick metal plating of Rhino herself.
I stashed the diesel in the back of the truck again with the girls, and right before I closed the door on them, I looked at all four of them and smiled.
“Alright, you know the drill,” I said. “Just because you’re not in an apartment anymore doesn’t mean anything has changed. So as soon as I close this door--”
“Barricade it and don’t open it for anyone except for you?” Catherine guessed.
“You got it,” I said. “You can slide some of the heavier bags in front of it, just as a final barrier between you and anybody else, but don’t worry-- I shouldn’t be gone long. I’m just gonna scope out this floor and the other two levels of the parking garage real fast.”
“Be safe,” Natalie said.
As soon as I closed the door on all four of them, I started through the second floor of the parking garage to make sure there weren’t any vamps or stray humans that had hidden inside or underneath the cars. I didn’t see any signs of another person on the second level, and I wondered if all the humans had been killed before they could come get their cars.
Of course, they might have all driven their cars here and then tried to take their boats to get out of the city via the river, but I had a feeling that probably hadn’t gone well for them. After all, things had settled down in the streets a little bit now, but that certainly wasn’t the case when the AIDS vaccine first all turned us into vampires.
At first, it had been a goddamn bloodbath, and the only reason things had calmed down at all was because, for one thing, so many humans had been killed already. And for another, the vamps had finally started to get themselves organized into gangs to control different territories in the city. So sure, it looked a little calmer now, but just in case there was any doubt about who controlled this city now.
The piles of drained corpses everywhere served as a nice fucked-up reminder.
I checked the top level of the garage next, but there was even less to investigate up there than there was on the second story. Still, when I came back down from the roof of the parking garage, I checked the second level again to make sure no one had snuck in after me, and then I headed down to the ground-level to do a final sweep of the area.
The first floor didn’t have very many cars, but since it was right next to the street, I wanted to be extra careful when I checked it out. I looked under all the cars, checked in between any that were parked right next to each other, and even went up to the garage booth to make sure no attendant was hidden inside-- dead or alive.
I was just about to head back up to the second level when I heard a light footstep from the street outside. Instantly, I ducked behind the entrance booth and stayed perfectly still, so that I would hear the noise more clearly if it happened again.
The footsteps sounded again right away, and after only a few seconds, I could pinpoint exactly where the noise was coming from. It was about half a dozen paces down the street, but the footsteps didn’t seem strong or confident.
They sounded like one foot dragged behind the other, so maybe it was a human who had been injured and was now trying to limp to safety. But when I sniffed the air to see if I smelled human blood, the only scent I caught was mold and mildew, and I knew that could only mean one thing.
It was one of the goddamn bloodsuckers.
And from the sound of it, they weren’t exactly fighting fit. After all, if the vamp had drunk blood recently, they would have already healed whatever their injury was, so this vamp must be pretty close to feral-- well, if they weren’t that far gone already.
The good thing was that if it was a feral vamp, it shouldn’t be a difficult or a very long fight, and I shouldn’t have to use my Mark 23 at all. I wanted to take him out so he didn’t accidentally stumble up to the second level of the garage, but I wanted to do it quickly and quietly.
I hadn’t brought my bat or my axe with me, and since I didn’t want to use my handgun, I knew that meant I would need to take the bastard out with my bare hands.
The moment that I heard the footsteps land in front of the parking garage entrance, I sprang up from my hiding place, vaulted over the barrier bar, and sprinted toward the vamp in the street.
I punched my fist into the fanged fucker’s eye before I even got a good look at him. The eye squished from the force of my fist, and when I pulled it back, little pieces of the white of his eye clung to my knuckles like the asshole had just sneezed all over me.
This vamp was definitely feral. His still-intact eye was bloodshot and looked like he hadn’t slept in over a week, and one of the b
ones in his shin had been broken and was now poking halfway out through his skin, which had healed around it.
No wonder this bastard was limping.
But even though he was wild and half in the grave, this bloodsucker was still dangerous. He bared his teeth as black blood from his injured eye leaked down his face, and he launched himself at me like he would just twist my head until it snapped clean off my body.
I ducked to the side and let the vampire stumble past me. He tried to recover his balance and spin back around to face me, but I moved faster than him, so I brought my fists up to deliver a double-punch to his kidneys before he managed to turn back around toward me.
The limping vamp howled and latched onto my shirt, so I just let him pull me in close to him. As soon as I could smell his stale, moldy breath, I leaned my head back and then crashed my skull down onto his forehead.
I barely even felt the impact, but the crack of our skulls together was enough to make the vampire release me and stumble backward. Then before he could howl again, I jumped forward, grasped his skull with both hands, and twisted sharply until I heard his neck snap.
The wild fucker immediately sagged and dropped to the ground, but I knew he wasn’t really dead. The only way to kill a vamp was to kill its brain, and that meant I needed to chop his head off or crush the bones of his skull straight into his moldy brains. And since I didn’t have my axe with me, I figured the easiest thing to do would be to just stomp down on his head.
I nudged his body with my foot, so he rolled over into a good angle for my boot. Then I raised my knee up to my chest and slammed the heel of my boot straight down onto the weak vamp’s temple.
He was half-dead already, so my boot broke his skull with one blow, and I felt my heel enter the fanged fucker’s squishy brains. I lifted my foot up again and stomped down one more time just for good measure, and this time, the skull broke into even smaller fragments. The vamp’s moldy brains squelched under my foot, and after black blood from his skull began to dribble out across the asphalt, I wiped the heel of my boot off onto his clothes and then stepped away.
Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth (Book 3): Vampire Lord 3 Page 2
