The rest of the trip to the police station was similarly eerie, yet uneventful. He suddenly felt like he was back on the streets of Baghdad. There were charred remains of things that used to resemble humans strewn about. Smoke billowed out of the windows of a bar and no fire department was there to put it out. It seemed as though he had slept like Rip Van Winkle and risen to witness the end of the world. One man walked down the street mumbling to himself like he was in a trance. A few stray dogs ran down an alley yelping and barking like hyenas. Another body was lying right in the middle of the road. It was twisted in a way that the human body is not meant to twist. He pulled up in front of the police department that looked just as vacant as the rest of the city.
“I want you to stay here for a minute.” He put his hand up when she started to protest. “Listen, I don’t know what might be in there. Let me check it out and then I’ll come right back and get you.” He reached past her legs and opened the glove compartment. He pulled out a box of ammo for his revolver and reloaded it. “You know how to use one of these?” She shook her head. “Look, this is the dangerous end. If anyone bothers you, point the dangerous end at them and pull the trigger until bullets stop coming out, okay?” She looked like a deer in headlights, but she nodded.
He got out of the car and walked inside the police station. Papers were spread across the floor and a few desks were overturned. He went to the nearest desk and pulled on the drawers. The top drawer had a set of keys hanging from the lock. He opened the drawer and found one of his fellow officer’s Glock 9mm inside with an extra clip. He drew the weapon and began to scan for movement, but there wasn’t any. There were bloody handprints on the walls and he saw at least one body. It was hard to tell if it was one or two. The body had been badly mutilated and torn into pieces. A quick scan of the dispatch office showed nothing unusual aside from a broken monitor and a turned over chair. He walked to the back of the building, to the holding cells and found one of the cells locked with a man inside.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe somebody came! Get me outta here, man!”
“What happened here? Why are you in there?”
“I don’t remember it too well. I was in here sleeping off a DUI when I heard a bunch of yelling and gun shots. Man, I was never so thankful to be in the lockup! Those things came in here and tried to get to me! They were screaming and squawking and clawing. I was so scared I nearly pissed myself. I think I was the luckiest bastard in here last night.”
“You may be right about that. I’ll be right back.”
“No! No wait, don’t leave me!”
The man’s voice droned away as Charlie focused on the hallway ahead of him. After a quick circuit of the rest of the building, he was sure they were safe and he returned to the man in the cell.
“Oh, thank you! I didn’t know if you were coming back or if those things would get you.”
Charlie went to a desk where the keys to the holding cells were located and pulled a large key ring from the drawer. “You understand that if I find out you were lying to me about why you were in here, I’ll find you.”
“Yea, man. Chill out. I’m cool. I just need to get out of here.” The man shifted from foot to foot and scratched nervously at his neck and arms. Charlie was positive he was lying, but he was probably just a junkie brought in for intent to distribute or maybe caught buying from a sting operation. He opened the cell and the man walked past him nervously. “Thanks, man.” He said as he moved towards the door at a quick pace. He walked into the main office and was pounced on by a figure hiding in the shadows. The man screamed and struggled but the dark figure slammed him into the wall with such immense force that the man’s screams were cut off in mid-breath.
Charlie got two rounds off but neither hit home. The figure darted at him and grabbed for the gun. Charlie caught it in the shoulder with a third round before it grabbed his arm and twisted painfully. He cried out in pain. It was all he could do to bring his knee up into its midsection and heard a powerful rush of air exit its lungs. The figure still had his gun hand secured but staggered from the blow and Charlie was able to follow the knee with a few rapid hooks into the rib cage with his free hand. When the figure’s grip loosened, he was able to push forward with a powerful front kick that sent the figure tumbling backwards over desks and chairs. He could see that it was a man. The rest of its features were still obscured by darkness. Charlie caught himself pondering when he should have been moving in and attacking the man. He had unwittingly given it a few precious seconds to recover and it was now standing five feet away in an aggressive posture. He raised his gun and fired until he emptied the clip. Unfortunately, there were only two more rounds left. Bad time to get a short-filled magazine. Both bullets hit center mass, causing the figure to stagger and pause. Instead of fumbling in his pocket for the spare magazine, Charlie dropped the gun and took the opening.
He closed the gap between them with two quick strides and grabbed the figure’s shirt with both fists. In a torrent of anger, and a scream to match, he lifted the figure off the ground while it flailed its arms and sharp nails lashed out at him. He ran at full speed toward the doors of the precinct and burst out into the early morning sun. He threw the man as hard as he could and as the man sailed away from him, he could see the wild, animalistic grin plastered across Lieutenant Johnson’s face as he burst into flames and landed on the hood of Charlie’s car. Lieutenant Johnson, or more appropriately, what used to be Lieutenant Johnson began screaming and writhing on the hood of the car.
“Maggie! Get out of the car!” He yelled but she had already jumped out of the car and was pulling Tank from the back seat. She ran up the few stairs to join Charlie.
“Friend of yours?” She said with a grin.
“Yeah, great guy.” He said with obvious sarcasm. As he watched, some of the flames trickled down into the engine compartment and flames began to emerge from the underside of the car. “No! Not the Bomb!” Charlie cried. The two of them watched as the interior of the car began to catch.
“I know you loved that car, Charlie, but we might want to get inside in case it lives up to its name.” She said with a tug on his arm.
Charlie reluctantly followed her into the precinct. Maggie screamed when she saw the dead man propped up in an odd position against the wall. There was a red blotch on the wall about six feet up where the vampire had thrown him and his head had hit with lethal force. “He’s a goner, Maggie. Let’s get these blinds open.” They moved from room to room opening blinds to let in the sunlight and by the time they were done, the precinct was well lit again.
“Looks like a tornado hit this place.” She said.
“Yeah, kinda explains why I wasn’t able to get a hold of anyone.” He walked to a small cabinet on the wall and removed a set of keys. “Come on, we need a new ride.”
“We’re not going to steal it are we?”
“Why? I don’t think anyone here is going to need it anytime soon.”
She looked around at the disarray of the room. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
As they walked to the rear of the police department, Charlie stopped at a large, heavy door with a sturdy looking lock on it and began fumbling with the ring of keys he had in his pocket.
“What’s this?” Maggie asked.
“A little insurance.” Charlie said as he twisted a key in the big lock and slid the heavy door to the side, exposing the armory. “This is where the SWAT team keeps all the good stuff.” The room was about the size of an average bedroom, but racks filled with guns lined the tops of the cabinets on either side of the room. Charlie sorted through the keys once more and unlocked a large steel bar that secured the rifles to the rack. “I’ve got a bad feeling this vampire thing isn’t going to go away overnight. We’d best be prepared.”
It took them some time, but they loaded up and hit the road. The keys Charlie grabbed turned out to belong to a police SUV that had plenty of room for Tank in the rear. They had to dump some of the nonessential stuff from t
he back of the truck, but when it was all said and done, they had equipped themselves with a large assortment of rifles and handguns, a few shotguns, and lots of ammunition.
“What now?” Maggie asked.
“Well, I figure we’ve got our offense covered.” He said motioning to the weapons in the backseat. “Now we need to think about defense.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, we need to do a little shopping. But first, I have to make another stop.” Charlie answered. He was quiet, but his mind was filled with very real, very terrible memories. He couldn’t bear the thought of Al and his family rotting in the basement of their little house while any number of looters, vagrants, or worse trampled their graves and invaded their final resting place.
And so it was, that they came to the driveway of the Vasquez home. The entire neighborhood was deathly quiet. “I, I need to do this. It might take a while.” He was stammering, but she didn’t fight him. He couldn’t even look Maggie in the eyes. He just stared at the steering wheel, afraid he’d lose his nerve if he didn’t maintain razor sharp focus on the task at hand. He could feel the concern in her stare. She wanted to reach out to him but she was afraid of pushing him away. In his periphery, she nodded. He took a deep breath and got out of the car.
The front door was just as he left it, pulled shut, the door knob smudged with blood from his own hand. He opened the door and the stench of death hit him like an open hand slap to the face. He tasted bile in the back of his throat, forced it back down and stepped inside.
The inside of the house was just as eerily silent as the neighborhood outside. He drew the new gun he had acquired at the precinct from its holster and moved from room to room drawing the shades until the house was as dark as he could make it.
He peeled the comforter off of Al and Serena’s bed and moved to the basement where the stench thickened. Charlie found Serena’s body first, near the bottom of the stairs. He wrapped her in the comforter and carried her up to her bedroom, placing her on the bed. He went back downstairs and did the same with Al’s body. He laid Al in the bed next to Serena.
He stepped away from the bed for a moment and saw something glitter on Al’s chest. He drew back the blood caked t-shirt to see Al’s crucifix still hanging around his neck. The crucifix was just as bloody and tarnished as the rest of Al’s body. Only a short section of the chain remained untainted by gore.
“Sorry, Homes. Doesn’t look like this did you much good after all.” Charlie sighed and stared at the bloody crucifix. “I wish you were here.” He whispered. He reached behind Al’s neck and unclasped the necklace. Carrying it to the bathroom, he washed it until the silver gleamed in his hand. He stared at it for a moment more before shoving it in his pocket and trudging down the stairs one more time.
He was at the top of the basement steps with David’s body wrapped in the comforter when Maggie appeared in the kitchen doorway with her snub-nose revolver at the ready and Tank by her side. When she saw him standing in the darkness with a small child wrapped in a blanket she let out a startled cry and covered her mouth with her hand. “I asked you to wait in the car.” He growled and shouldered past her, towards the bedroom.
Once there, he laid David’s body in between those of his parents’. It was a truly horrific scene.
“I’m sorry.” Maggie said behind him. “You were taking so long, I was worried.”
Charlie didn’t respond. He backed away from the bed as tears threatened to pour forth. “I can’t, Maggie… I can’t…”
She stood in the doorway to the small room, afraid to encroach on his grief any more than she already had. “Who were they?”
“My partner and his family.” He hesitated. The words came like molasses. “I.. did it. I killed them. They attacked me. I didn’t want to do it but they attacked me.” He lowered his head and his vision blurred with tears but he drew a deep breath and sucked them back in before they could break free. “This is where I was yesterday when you called. They were crazy! It was dark. I didn’t even know it was them until I had killed Al and turned on the light.”
Her warm, timid hand pressed into his shoulder. “It wasn’t them, Charlie. They were already gone. Like those things last night.” She whispered as though she were afraid to wake them from their slumber.
She was right. He knew it. But it still didn’t make him feel any better. He thought for a moment that he should say some kind of prayer, but he didn’t know how. Probably wouldn’t matter anyway. He thought.
He tore the bedroom curtains down from the window and almost instantly, the three bodies ignited. Charlie watched the flames for only a few seconds before they had consumed the bed. They climbed the wall and licked at the ceiling. Charlie thought for a moment about staying with the bodies, letting himself burn. But he ultimately gave in to Maggie’s gentle tug on his arm.
They walked to the front yard and turned to watch as the flames spread. Within minutes, the house was completely engulfed in flames.
“Charlie, we should go. How will we explain this when the authorities arrive?”
Charlie let out a cruel chuckle. “That’s just it Maggie.” He turned towards her. “Who’s coming? Look around you! No one’s coming! No one! From this point on,” He turned back towards the flames, “I think we’re on our own.”
Chapter 13
Julia woke with her face stuffed in a large cushy pillow. She rolled over and put her hands on her face. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t rub the fatigue from her eyes. She pulled the goose-down comforter up under her chin and closed her eyes again. It had been a long night, or day, or whatever it was. She couldn’t tell. The windowless room gave no indication of time. Maybe that was how they wanted it.
She had spent most of her sleep fighting off terrible nightmares, not that that surprised her. After the encounter with the things on the bus, she’d be surprised if she hadn’t had any nightmares. She was breathing deep and slow and on the verge of falling back into sleep when she sensed another presence in the room. As though the weight of someone’s stare were tickling the hair on her arms and the back of her neck. Frantically, she reached for the light on the nightstand next to the bed, found the switch and clicked it on. She brought her arm up to shield her eyes from the sudden light that filled the room. Through squinted eyes, she could see a dark shape perched like a bird of prey atop the dresser at the foot of her bed.
“What do you want?” She asked.
A soft, melodic voice came from the person on the dresser. “Just waiting for my new pupil to wake.”
As Julia’s eyes slowly came into focus she could make out the soft features of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. The woman’s face was as smooth and perfect as fine porcelain. Her thin, rose colored lips were tipped up in a grin. And her jet black, wavy hair tumbled down to her chest. Her eyes were an electric blue-green color as deep and mysterious as the deepest tropical lagoon. A few strands of her dark hair fell across her face and cast a shadow, but her eyes shown through like they were on fire. In all her days, she had never seen anyone’s eyes look so virile, so alive.
“Yes, the windows to the soul.” The woman said as she hopped down from her perch with the grace of a cat. She landed soundlessly and walked to the edge of the bed with an exaggerated and tantalizing swagger in her hips.
Julia was caught a little awe struck. “I… I’m sorry?”
“The eyes. Windows to the soul. But we aren’t here to discuss prose, are we?”
“How did you know...”
“You were gawking at my eyes, yes? You’re not the first. My name is Sylvia. It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Julia.” Sylvia offered her hand and Julia gripped it in hers. For all the delicateness of Sylvia’s demeanor, the strength of her handshake told a different story. “If you are feeling up to the task, I would ask that you rise, cleanse however you need to, and get dressed. We have work to do.”
She saw no point in arguing, so Julia dragged herself out of bed and went to the shower to turn i
t on. She shed the sleeping robe they had given her and turned to see Sylvia standing in the doorway watching her. Julia jumped back and covered her private areas with her arms, startled. “Do you mind?” She asked.
The vampire snorted and smiled, letting out a little chuckle as she turned to leave. “Human sensibilities.” She tsked under her breath as she closed the door behind her, obviously amused.
Julia stepped into the hot water and let it release all the tension in her shoulders. She couldn’t remember the last time a hot shower felt so good. She scrubbed her body vigorously with the soap in the hopes that it would somehow wash away the memories of the nightmares she had suffered in her sleep. It didn’t.
When she had finished she turned off the shower and stepped out to dry herself. Her long red hair tickled her back as she dried herself with the plush white towel that had been folded neatly on the bathroom sink. Swaddling herself in the towel, she stepped out of the bathroom expecting Sylvia to be waiting for her, but what she found was her bed made and clothing laid out for her. They had set out everything down to the undergarments. She slipped on the bra and panties they had provided and looked down at the rest of the clothes she was supposed to don. It was an outfit identical to what Sylvia had been wearing, built for utility not looks. There was a black pair of cargo pants along with a white undershirt and a black ribbed turtleneck sweater with black leather patches on the shoulders. She almost didn’t want to know what kind of work she would be doing in a get up like this, but curiosity was beginning to get the best of her. She pulled on the pants and found them to be surprisingly comfortable. The sweater was snug but still allowed her to move freely. Even the black combat boots were comfortable aside from the rigid tops that rose midway up her calves. She was lacing up the second boot when she heard Sylvia’s voice and jumped in surprise letting out a little yip in the process.
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