Original Blood

by Greene, Steve

  “What do you mean, you’re not sure?” This time when he turned to look at her, he was a young boy. He had changed right before her very eyes! “Do you know how you got here?”

  “No.” He said in the little boy’s voice.

  “Is this a dream? Did you see the wolf?”

  Now he became a beautiful African-American woman with a British accent. “What wolf?” She asked. “I don’t remember anything. Just being here… and pain. Lots and lots of pain.” She shuddered and clasped her elbows.

  She took a few steps closer. The man turned away from her, sat up tall, and changed again. This time the back of his head was a familiar one. His short white hair was receding enough that he was nearly bald on top. “There’s a storm coming, Madeline. Might be time for you to start running.” As he turned, she could see Philip’s face. His shaggy white beard, the age spots that he always referred to as experience marks.

  She smiled and ran to him but he jumped back, startled. “What do you want?” He yelled.

  “Philip! It’s me! Please! I don’t know how we got here or why we are here, but you’re my husband, Philip. Stay with me, please!”

  He only stared. Like a stranger stares at the crazy man in the subway station that talks to himself. Another clap of thunder behind her, loud enough to shake the ground and make her heart skip a beat. It rumbled as though it were far away and got louder and louder. It kept rumbling until she thought it sounded less like thunder and more like some giant animal stampeding its way towards them. She heard the whip crack of saplings breaking as something barreled through the brush. Something was coming! Something huge!

  Then it broke through the tree cover and charged. She didn’t have much time to react. She dove out of the way as the behemoth thing roared past. She jumped back up and took a few defensive steps back. The thing slid to a halt and turned slowly, staring at her with pure contempt. Its hide was a thick, leathery gray and it walked on all fours, but it was huge. To that point, it reminded her of a rhinoceros the size of an elephant. Its two great horns extended from the same point at the tip of its nose, pointing up and out at an angle. Great spikes grew out of the back of its head and its teeth were giant daggers, like the mouth of a lion. It bellowed, scraped its front foot and charged her again.

  She leapt into the air above the beast. It tried to raise its massive head in time to pluck her from the air but only succeeded in cracking its jaws shut just behind her. “Philip! Run!” She yelled but even as she said it, she knew the monster wasn’t there for him. Philip simply watched with little expression.

  The beast slid to a stop again and turned to face her. It beat its feet on the ground and shook its head, steam pouring from its nostrils. The air around it began to shimmer and the dried leaves on the ground rose into the air, crinkling and glowing as though on fire and then breaking up and vanishing like ash on the wind. The trees all around the beast began to smolder and rot turning from a verdant green to deathly black in just moments. The storm was nearly upon them now and the sky grew ever darker.

  The beast came at her again, roaring and tramping, the ground shaking more and more as it got closer. She dove to the right. She was almost clear when the thing clipped her foot with one of its huge legs. It sent her spinning into the underbrush, pain throbbing in her foot. Damnit! She thought. If this was a dream, it felt awfully real! The monster was already turning around again. “Philip! Help me!” She begged as she lay in the path of the rampaging beast. Her eyes pleaded with him. He looked at her, at the beast, back at her again and stiffened his lip.

  A translucent blue flame began to glow around him. Slowly at first, then it spread and wrapped itself around him, spinning faster and faster into a fiery tornado. The beast was charging again. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Philip, but she could feel it coming through the vibrations in the ground. Finally, she looked at the beast. It was almost upon her. She shielded her eyes with her arm, preparing for the inevitable. A bright blue flash lit the canopy of the trees around her followed closely by a deafening thunderclap and the beast careened sideways into the trees and lay on its side with a gaping wound of charred flesh ripped out of its ribcage.

  When the dust cleared, Philip stood in front of her, fists still clenched tight. He turned and offered his hand to help her up. “Thank you.” She said and threw herself into his arms. He was hesitant to return her affection. She leaned back to look him in the eyes. “You still don’t remember?” He shook his head, no. “Then why did you help me?” She asked.

  He shrugged. “Seemed like the right thing to do.”

  She fought to hide her disappointment. She was about to say something else when she was interrupted by the beast. Its head reared up with a great groan. It was struggling to get back on its feet. “I think we’d better run.” He said to her, then grabbed her hand and took off through the woods.

  They ran as fast as they could. “Where are we going?” She yelled.

  “I don’t know!” He yelled back as he lowered his head and busted through a thick set of brush.

  She looked ahead and caught a glimpse of the white wolf darting through the trees. “There!” She yelled. “Follow the wolf!”

  He veered to their right and they were on a game trail that gave them fewer obstacles. The trees flew by at an amazing speed. They could feel the beast behind them, now. It was nowhere in sight, but they felt its presence like hot breath on the backs of their necks.

  Without warning, the terrain suddenly sloped up and out of the trees, turning rocky. They began to climb as the grade became steeper. They were above the tops of the trees before the edge of the plateau became visible. They climbed over the lip and rolled onto their backs panting from the sprint. When they had the strength to rise, they found themselves atop a huge plateau that rose up out of the forest like a pedestal. All around them, there was nothing but dense forest as far as the eye could see.

  “What now?” He asked.

  “I don’t know.” She answered, pausing. “I think this is it. Our last stand. If only I could wake up, this would all go away.”

  Heavy breathing and the sound of tumbling gravel alerted them to the beast’s presence. It scraped and clawed its way up onto the plateau, growling all the way. It snarled and paced around them, circling, waiting for an opening. Philip stood between them, challenging the thing with his movements. It snarled, baring its huge teeth and roared an awful, bloodcurdling roar. “Stay behind me.” He told her. “I think I can do this.”

  The flame appeared around him again. It started as the tiniest flicker near the top of his head and spread down to his feet, growing in size with the occasional gout of flame bursting up out of the ground around his feet and hurtling up into the sky. He took off running straight at the beast, screaming. It charged at him with equal ferocity and they met in the middle with a mighty clash emitting a shockwave that knocked Madeline off of her feet and back onto her rump. The dust blown back from the shockwave got in her eyes. It took her a while to blink back the tears stinging at them. To her horror, Philip and the beast were still locked in deadly struggle. The beast had lowered its head during the charge and Philip had been pierced through the midsection by one of its great horns. But the flame around him was more alive than ever.

  The flame whipped and rolled around them both. The pressure in her ears was building rapidly. Philip had a death grip with his hands locked on both sides of the thing’s massive head. It whipped and shook, but he wouldn’t let go. It tried to push forward but his feet were like anchors set in the stone underneath. A roar came from the two of them. This time it was from the flames. The roar grew louder and louder like the climbing pitch of a jet engine. She had to stick her fingers in her ears and brace against the sound.

  An explosion ripped from where they stood. The force threw her backwards again, shrapnel tearing at her flesh. Her ears were ringing from the explosion. She rose and shook the cobwebs from her head, staggered a little, and looked to where Philip and the beast had been. The dust w
as still settling and random bits of flesh and bone debris were raining down from the sky. The ringing in her ears made the scene surreal. All the sounds around her felt muffled and far away, as though she were watching the scene on a quiet television set while the incessant ringing droned on. She walked forward into the dust cloud. Her hand was wet and sticky with blood from a gash that had opened on her arm. She mouthed a silent prayer for Philip.

  Almost as an answer to the prayer, she saw a dark figure through the dust, lying on the ground. She rushed towards him, dropping to her knees at his side, but he was no longer Philip. He was the handsome young man he had been when she first saw him next to the stream. He had a gaping hole in his stomach where the beast’s horn had been. Whether he was Philip or not, he had saved her life. She lifted his limp head from the ground and pressed her wound to his mouth. The blood is the life. She kept thinking. This has to work! He began to weakly lap at the blood. She looked at his wound and watched tiny sinews and tendons as they jumped across the wound and began to pull it closed. He sucked at her arm with more vigor while the ringing in her ears got louder. His eyes fluttered open…

  …and so did hers. “Clear!” She heard someone yell followed by the distinctive crack of a defibrillator administering a shock. The high-pitched buzzing continued. “Clear!” Another shock. The stark white ceiling of the hospital room she was lying in was like staring at the sun after being unconscious for who knew how long. She had to squint to see the group of doctors and nurses milling around the bed next to hers. The man they were working on was none other than the vampire she had been wrestling with when they had been abducted. The doctor standing over him sighed. “Let’s call it people.” He looked at the clock over the bed. “2:14 AM. How’s he doing?” The doctor spoke to someone else on her other side. She looked over to her left and her mouth fell open. The handsome young man from her dream was lying in the bed to her left.

  “He’s fine. Blood pressure dropped for a while but he came back on his own. I think he’s stable.” A young man in a lab coat answered the doctor.

  “Alright. Get this one out of here and let’s keep a close eye on that one, okay?” The doctor said, indicating the young man from her dream.

  Someone made a squeak of surprise next to her. “Doctor! She’s awake!” Everyone’s attention was suddenly on Madeline. They all rushed to her bedside.

  The doctor was the first. He jammed a needle in her IV. “I don’t understand. That shouldn’t be possible.” He was mumbling.

  She tried to struggle but realized she was well restrained and could only squirm. It didn’t matter anyway because whatever the doctor put in her IV was already travelling along an icy path up her arm and her vision turned fuzzy. It wasn’t long before everything went black again.

  Chapter 24

  It wasn’t long after the fight with the beast that Charlie found himself sitting on the same rock next to the same calm stream where he had been when he met Madeline for the first time. Everything seemed to be back to normal. The trees had regained their green leaves and blossoms. The stream was serene. Even the bushes that had been trampled by the beast had been restored.

  He remembered now. He remembered everything. Everything except how he got here next to this stream. It had to be a dream. That was the only explanation. Why was he stuck in a dream state that felt so real yet was obviously not real.

  Some of his last moments were still blurred by pain, but he remembered Maggie. He remembered the kiss she had given him when she begged him not to die. Was that it? Is that what had happened? Was he dead? Had he slipped off into the unknown while trying to recover from his wounds? He sighed and touched his lips as though the touch of her lips on his was still fresh. Then he laughed at himself. Look at me. Acting like some lovesick teenager! He thought. After all, they had only been thrust into this pseudo-relationship for a few weeks. A relationship of necessity, no less. Part of him believed that she could be falling for any average Joe as long as they provided the same security he was able to give her. But he didn’t want to believe that. He wanted to believe that she shared the feelings he was having.

  The sun parted the clouds and the warmth from its rays was a welcome sensation. He tilted his head back to let the sunshine warm his face and he thought of Madeline. Who was she? How did she come to him in his dream? She had saved his life. He knew that. Her blood had saved him. But he knew he was no vampire, so how? And, where was she?

  He closed his eyes again and tried to remember what she looked like, what her voice sounded like. He tried to reach out with his mind to find her, searching. He said her name out loud, feeling a little silly. But somehow it worked.

  “Charlie.” He heard a voice say from behind him. He turned to see Madeline. “You know now? You remember?” She asked. He nodded. “Before, you were Philip, my husband. How…” She began, but the look on his face was answer enough. Tears began to cradle at the bottoms of her eyes. “You knew him?”

  He told her everything. He told her how he and Maggie met Philip and Virginia and how they had been killed during the vampire attack. Philip, by a vampire and Virginia, he assumed, trapped in the pet hospital that burned to the ground. She cried wildly for a long time. He held her and said he was sorry. What more was there to do? He wished he knew.

  While they talked, a faint, rhythmic beeping sound began to echo in his ears. “Do you hear that?” He asked.

  “Hear what?” Madeline answered.

  “That beeping. It’s getting louder.” And indeed, it was. His heart began to race and the beeping kept time with it, growing in intensity and speed as his heart did. “I need to…” He tried to sit down but his head sailed on him and he toppled down to his knees.

  Madeline knelt to catch him. She cupped his face in her soft hands. “Charlie! Charlie!” She shook him a little, but her face changed suddenly into one he didn’t recognize.

  “Charlie. Mr. Cutter.” A gentle shake of his shoulder came from the woman with the face he didn’t recognize. He was looking up at her from a bed. A stark white ceiling rose above and behind her. He was buried in white sheets. In his periphery he could see the white casing of the pillow he was resting his head on. “Mr. Cutter, we don’t have much time.” The unknown woman whispered.

  He tried to talk but a sudden strike at his gag reflex left him choking and straining against the feeding tube that ran down his throat and into his stomach. He pulled it out as quickly as he could and felt it slide up and out of his esophagus like a cold, wet finger. He threw it to the tile floor. A long bout of hacking coughs followed. “Where am I?” He asked.

  There was a click as she turned off the heart monitor and the beeping ceased. “You’re in the hospital. St. Joseph’s, near the center of the city. This is a top-secret lab that the Army is using as a weapons development site.”

  “Weapons development? In a hospital?”

  She nodded. They are convinced that men can be turned into half-vampires that will fight for our side. They’ve been changing these poor soldiers into those raving, murderous things, over and over again. But they haven’t been able to make it work, yet.”

  “Who are you? And why are you helping me?”

  “My name is Rebecca. I was a nurse here before the Army took over. Somehow, I passed their little security evaluation and they made me party to their experiments. I thought they were trying to help, but it seems more like they’re trying to harness the virus rather than eradicate it.”

  “Wait, did you say, virus?”

  “Yeah, it’s a blood-borne virus. But they can’t figure out why it changes some people into vampires and some into psychotic, murderous cannibals. I need your help. I’ll tell you where to find the pretty girl that came in looking for you, but I need your help first.”

  “Maggie? She was here, too?”

  “Yeah but she’s not here now. She left her phone number. But we don’t have time for this now. Here.” She threw a pile of clothes into his lap. “Get dressed. We have to get out of here.” She lo
oked nervously at the door to the room.

  Charlie stood and she moved to the door, cracking it just enough to look out into the hallway. “Um…” He paused with the clothes in hand, his cheeks reddening.

  “I’ve seen everything you’ve got, Mr. Cutter. Who do you think dressed you in the hospital gown in the first place? Now get dressed.” She made a shooshing sweep with her hand and returned her gaze to the hallway.

  He pulled his pants and shirt on and jumped as a soft moan broke the silence from behind the curtain partition in the middle of the room. He yanked the curtain back and instantly knew the woman shackled in the bed behind it. Her long, lustrous white hair and ageless face were unmistakable. She looked just like she had in his dream. “Madeline!” He said. Rebecca’s cold stare snapped away from the view of the hallway and glared at him to keep it down. “We have to take her with us.” He told her.

  “What? Are you crazy? She’s one of them.”

  “No, she’s not. I mean she might be, but she saved my life. I have to help her.”

  Rebecca was getting more irritated with him by the minute. She was a husky woman. And the anger in her face turned her chubby cheeks a flush red. “Fine.” She spat. “But we don’t have time to wake her up so if you want to bring her, you carry her.” Her teeth were clenched and he had the distinct feeling that if they hadn’t needed to be quiet, she would have screamed the words at him.

  He finished getting dressed quickly and removed the vast array of needles and probes from Madeline’s skin. The feeding tube he removed dripped a thick, reddish black fluid. No question what it was, but was it human? Animal? Who could know? He unbelted the leather shackles that held her on the bed and hoisted her small frame into his arms, taking a few seconds to pull the back of the gown closed so as not to display her buttocks to the world. He instantly realized how silly of a notion that was. If all went well, no one would see them. If someone did see them, they were probably as good as dead anyway.