The walk down the stairs was grueling. It was only one flight but it felt like he was descending from the peak of Mount Everest. The strangers wouldn’t use the elevator for fear that the noise would attract any nearby vampires. The light that the flashlight gave off was minimal and he had to feel for each step with the tip of his shoe. The small aura of light around them only seemed to accentuate the darkness creeping in from every corner.
They finally reached the main floor and traveled down a short hallway before entering the kennel area through a large steel fire door. As the light passed one of the kennel walls he saw red smears and the woman had to explain how vampires had broken in and murdered all of the animals a few nights prior. She said they had tried to clean most of it up, but had spent most of the day fortifying the windows with plywood and stocking food. She assured him their newly laden defenses were secure enough for them to remain on the ground floor.
They reached the far end of the room and the woman unhooked a heavy padlock from the latch on the cage and opened the door.
“I brought a blanket we can put down.” The man said and he rushed inside to spread it out on the cold cement floor.
Philip didn’t want to give the man the satisfaction of knowing how much he was struggling to support her weight but there was little he could do to hide his exertion. His knees were shaking and small droplets of sweat had long since formed on his forehead. Occasionally he would break the silence as an involuntary grunt escaped his lips. As he dropped heavily to his knees and lowered Ginny to the blanket, Philip noticed the large, heavy rope in the man’s hands. He must’ve seen Philip’s eyes widen because he immediately began explaining himself.
“I’m only going to tie her hands and feet together so she can’t hurt herself if she wakes up confused. Chill out, okay? We’ve got to be fast. What if she wakes up while we’re arguing?”
“No.” He said. “I will not bind my daughter like some animal.” The man thought for a moment, then grumbled something as he stormed out of the cell.
“She should be alright in there.” The woman tried to assure him. She could tell by his posture that he had no intention of leaving Ginny so she simply set the flashlight down on the floor and handed him a lighter as well. “In case the flashlight batteries die out on you.” She said.
The man tried to give Philip a small revolver but he would have none of it. The two of them moved away from the light until all that was left of them was the soft shuffle of their footsteps. He heard the hiss of air compressing in the closer attached to the fire door at the other end of the room and then a solid clunk as it pulled the door closed.
He was alone. The room was deathly silent. The only sound in the room was the slow, rhythmic, nostril breathing coming from inside Ginny’s cell. Breathing? My God! When did she start breathing again?
“Ginny! Ginny!” No answer came from inside the cell. “Ginny!” He shook the chain link fence a little hoping to wake her. She didn’t move.
Feeling deflated, he sat down on the floor with his back against the wall across from Ginny’s cage and turned off the flashlight. Some sleep would probably do him some good. His eyes slowly adjusted to the tiny tendrils of light that snaked into the room from various points around the entrance door and he could make out the huddled mass laying in the pen like a discarded animal. Maybe it was better she hadn’t woken up. At least now he still had hope. Maybe it would be better if she never woke up. He had to close his eyes tight to squeeze the thought from his mind.
He wasn’t sure how long he had slept after that. Just that it was no lighter in the room than it had been earlier. Something had roused him. He didn’t know what. The same heavy breathing pattern was coming from Ginny. He couldn’t see very well. Even with his eyes adapted to the darkness, he was very close to zero visibility. He scrambled around on the floor looking for the flashlight until his hand bumped into it. He picked it up and flipped the switch but it wouldn’t turn on. He shook it and tried again. Nothing. He thought of the lighter the nice woman had given him and fished around in his pocket until he had it in hand. He clicked the igniter. A white flash jumped from the top of the lighter and the sudden spark burned a blue spark-shaped spot on his retina, further impairing his vision.
He held the lighter up to the cage and struggled to see into the blackness. He flicked the lighter again and a flame jumped up from the lighter and fully illuminated Ginny’s face only inches from the cage door. Philip yelled and stumbled backwards, slamming into the wall. The wind left his chest and he struggled to breathe. Gasping for air, he slumped down to the ground and lay there.
Her face. He thought. Her beautiful face. But it wasn’t her face he would recall. What he glimpsed in that instant was the grotesque visage of a monster born in hell. Its eyes bore pure, unadulterated hatred and rage. They were blood red orbs that screamed of animalistic hunger. She had chewed much of her lower lip off and thick, black blood oozed from the wound. He would never again gaze upon the beautiful face of his little girl. Virginia Beaumont had been taken and in her place was something else.
He curled his legs up into a fetal position and wept like a child for the child he had lost.
Chapter 17
From his perch up on the roof, Charlie watched Philip cross the street and walk up to the front door of the vet’s office. He grumbled to himself as he recalled the conversation he had had with Philip about using alternating routes and coming and going from the back door instead of always following the same predictable path and using the very visible front entrance of the vet’s office. Between Philip’s cavalier attitude and his insistence upon keeping that raving beast that used to be his daughter cooped up like some deranged science experiment, he was sure to get them all killed. Not a day went by that Charlie didn’t regret saving them that night. Philip had been a thorn in his side ever since. But when he thought about that night, thought about really leaving them to become vampire food, he knew he’d make the same decision time and time again if given a second chance.
What made Charlie’s situation so much more precarious was that Maggie agreed with Philip. She was a doctor, after all, and a bit of a scientist at heart. She thought Philip might be on to something with his research, and like it or not, Virginia was the closest thing they had to a lab rat. So, Charlie waited. Sooner or later, the crap would hit the fan and he would have to be ready.
He put his eye to the back of the scope of the assault rifle he had taken from the police armory and scanned the surrounding buildings once more. It was mid morning, but still no one roaming the streets. It was just as well. They had enough company in their small corner of the world. For now, food was still plentiful. But it wouldn’t be long before the stores were picked over and what was left was rotting away. Soon, people would be foraging and willing to do whatever it took to get what they needed. Desperate people took desperate measures, after all.
It had been almost two weeks since the night they took in Philip and Virginia and all had remained relatively quiet during that time. There were a few buildings on the block with boarded up windows; a good sign that someone was hiding inside. But he hadn’t seen many people coming or going. If there were people watching them, he hadn’t seen any. But if they had been watching, they would have seen Philip travelling regularly to the local park to shoot squirrels and rabbits with the pellet gun Charlie had found for him. The rabbits and squirrels weren’t for them to eat. No, the rabbits and squirrels were for her. A chill ran up the edge of his spine. He got to his feet, threw the sling of the rifle over his shoulder and climbed down the fire escape to the window and into the apartment.
Maggie was filling water jugs from the kitchen sink when he stepped into the apartment. She looked up from the sink just long enough to flash the most disarming smile Charlie had ever known. The dimples she had on each cheek only accentuated the innocence of the gesture. But it was anything but innocent. Even in the short time they had known each other, he had come to know that smile. It was the smile she flashed whe
n she wanted something. And knowing the smile’s purpose did him no good. He was still helpless to her charm.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” She turned off the water and moved towards him. She wrapped her arms seductively around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.
Oh, boy. He thought. It must be a big one. She’s really pouring it on. “What is it?” He asked, returning her embrace.
“Philip has a series of experiments that I think will help us out a lot in understanding how the vampires choose to feed.” She subconsciously, or purposely, he wasn’t sure, pulled him tighter as the question came out. She was afraid he would pull away.
He didn’t, of course. He wouldn’t pull away from her. He paused, sighed. He didn’t answer, but she took the pause as an opportunity.
“All he needs is a pint of our blood.”
At that, Charlie did pull away, just a little; enough to look her in the eyes. “Now he wants to feed us to her? What the squirrels aren’t enough?”
“No, no, no! Charlie, darling, it’s not like that.” She backtracked. “He wants to use some of it to study, to see what might be attracting her to some of us more than others.” She gave him another glimpse of the disarming smile and his knees went weak. “And he wants to use some… well, just hear him out, okay?”
Charlie waved his head back and forth, but resistance was futile. She already had him.
“Look,” she continued, “you’ve been pretty hard on him. And I’m well aware of the risk we’re taking by having her here. But, Charlie, he’s lost his daughters and his wife. Wouldn’t you do anything in your power if you thought there was a chance to save your daughter? Wouldn’t you have done anything in your power to have saved Rafi the day he was killed?”
“That’s not fair.” He said.
“No. Life isn’t fair. But Charlie, we have to be the light in a broken world. We’re the good guys here. Don’t you see? If we let our situation strip away our humanity, what else have we got? We need to help him, Charlie. It’s the right thing to do.” She had seamlessly transitioned from seductress to authoritative school teacher, but he didn’t mind.
Charlie nodded, albeit reluctantly. “What do you want me to do?” Like it or not, she made good points. What if it was Rafi down there in that cage? Wouldn’t he want to try… something?
A few minutes later, they were on the main floor of the vet’s office, talking with Philip.
“I know we haven’t gotten along very well since we arrived, Charlie. But I want to sincerely thank you for doing this. Thank you for saving us and harboring us against your better judgment.” Philip was both humble and gracious. But above all, Charlie could tell he was being completely honest.
Charlie felt the knots in his stomach unwind a little. “You’re welcome. Now tell me again what you’ve found?”
“Yes! So interesting!” Philip’s face lit up when he began to talk. He had a genuine love for the art of discovery and the scientific process, that much was certain. “A sample of Ginny’s blood collected from the floor after her conversion revealed an elevated white blood cell count.”
“So, she has an infection? That’s hardly a surprise. She’s infected by the virus. And getting the sample off the floor isn’t exactly a sterile collection point.” Charlie retorted.
“Precisely why I took a second sample.”
“How did you get a second sample?” Charlie asked.
“Your very resourceful veterinarian friend, here, has access to pole administered tranquilizers for dangerous animals.”
Charlie’s eyes went wide. “You what? Are you crazy?!”
Maggie stepped in. “Now, Charlie! You know very well you wouldn’t have let us do it. And you certainly wouldn’t have been any help. Ginny goes crazy whenever you’re in the room. I didn’t ask because I knew you would react this very way. We were fast and careful. And anyway, your chance to stop us has long since passed, so no sense in worrying over it now.”
Charlie took a deep breath. She was right and he knew it. He had been a bit of a tyrant the last couple weeks. It was his nature. Charlie was a born leader and he liked to call the shots, especially when the lives of people he cared about were on the line. “Alright, I get it.” He sighed. “So, what did you find? No more white blood cells?”
“Actually, I found even higher levels.”
“So then where is this going? It’s no surprise that she’s fighting an infection.”
“No, but what was surprising is that in the blood sample I took from her mother before we were attacked, Madeline’s white blood cell levels were perfectly normal.”
“Virginia’s mother? The vampire?”
Philip nodded.
Charlie thought for a moment until something clicked in his memory. “Didn’t you say that Madeline was more cognizant of herself? That she could talk and control her actions better than Virginia?”
“Yes. And what’s more, aside from burning when hit with sunlight, you’d never have known Madeline was a vampire. Not unless you had known she was sixty-two years old, anyway. And that leads me to another conundrum. In our final days together, Madeline confided in me that she felt a near uncontrollable blood lust when she was near Ginny. So extreme, in fact, that she felt compelled to leave Ginny’s presence lest the cravings become too great for her to control. Both Ginny and Madeline were type O positive, so I thought...”
Charlie’s surprise must have shown clearly on his face because Philip trailed off and smiled. “And it would appear that you are type O positive, too, am I right?”
Charlie nodded.
Philip smacked his hands together in excitement. “Now we’re getting somewhere!” Philip paused in thought for a moment. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the bloodlust Ginny and Madeline experienced occurred with someone of the same blood type. But that still begs the question, are they attracted to like blood types or just type O positive?”
“Maybe before we answer that,” Maggie offered, “we should perform the experiments you had in mind, Philip.”
They all agreed. Once Charlie understood the experiments, they made sense. Over the next couple of hours, Philip would place a few drops of each of their blood on separate Petri dishes and place them in a random order in front of Ginny’s cage. She would sniff the air for only a moment before reaching her fingers underneath the chain link and pulling in the dish that most appealed to her. Charlie’s blood was the first one chosen every time. Second, was always Philip’s. The peculiar thing was that Maggie’s blood was almost disregarded by the thing formerly known as Ginny. She would sniff at the dish and cringe, turning away. Not until the dish had been allowed to sit for quite some time, once for almost twenty minutes, would Ginny reach under the fence, snatch the Petri dish from its resting place, and lick it clean. Intrigued, Philip added a dish of a few drops of dog’s blood, kept in the vet’s office for transfusion purposes, to the mix. Again, Charlie’s and Philip’s blood were first and second, but the dog’s blood came third, while Maggie’s was, again, allowed to sit before being consumed.
After the experiments had concluded, the three of them sat in the main lobby of the vet’s office, discussing the findings.
“This is so intriguing.” Philip said. “What could possibly cause her to dislike Maggie’s blood with such disdain? I haven’t seen her turn her nose up to anything else I’ve offered so far.”
“I am type AB Negative.” Maggie chimed it. “It’s the least common blood type. Maybe that has something to do with it.”
“We need to test this with another vampire.” This time it was Charlie that spoke and both Maggie’s and Philip’s jaws nearly hit the floor.
Maggie was the first to speak. “Charlie, you’re not suggesting…”
“No, I’m not suggesting we try to capture another one. But what if we set up a few different experiments outside, during the daylight. We could monitor them once darkness falls and see what happens.”
Philip still looked astounded. He g
lanced back and forth between Maggie and Charlie a few times before speaking. “I must say, Charlie. You’re coming around much more quickly than I thought you would. That’s an excellent suggestion.”
“Well,” Charlie replied, “don’t read too much into it. I’m for anything that will help us understand what’s going on, and maybe even survive a little longer.”
“Fair enough.” Philip nodded. “Well, without knowing anything about the vampires that approach the experiment, we are left with many different uncontrollable variables, which hardly create a desirable environment for reliable data. But, some data, even incomplete data, could still be useful at some point.”
Charlie and Maggie agreed with him. And by nightfall, they were peering down at their handy work from the relative safety of the apartment window on the second floor. They had laid out four stations on the sidewalk below. Each had four Styrofoam plates labeled A, B, C, or D. And each plate had a sample of either Charlie’s, Philip’s, Maggie’s, or the dog’s blood on it. They had the experiments spaced out far enough that they hoped they’d be lucky enough to get four different vampires. As it worked out, they got three, which Philip heralded as a small victory. One vampire approached two different stations and licked the plates in the same order both times. Philip’s blood first, then Charlie’s, then the dog’s. At both stations, it sniffed the plate containing Maggie’s blood and then left without touching it. The other two vampires licked the plates in much the same order, except one of them licked the plate holding Charlie’s blood first. None of the vampires touched the plates speckled with Maggie’s blood.
After the experiment was over and Charlie had replaced the board over the window and secured it with the quick-access crossbar he had designed, they whispered about their results in the darkness.
“So, they definitely don’t prefer type O Positive.” Philip whispered. “Two of the vampires chose my blood first, one of them chose the same order both times.”
Original Blood Page 20
