The Savage World Box Set: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series: The Vampire World Saga Books 1-3

by P. T. Hylton

  “I’m not ready to trust them just yet.” Alex sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed. “I am done lying here, though.”

  “Good,” Jessica said with a smile. “I have someone you need to meet.”

  Jessica led them out of the hospital and to Engineering. They crossed paths with a few citizens of Agartha on their walk. Most of them nodded a friendly greeting as they passed, but none exchanged any words with the New Haven team. If they knew these people were strangers to Agartha, they gave no indication.

  They walked through a set of double doors and into a large, open room with a dozen or so people bustling around. A balding man in his fifties gave Jessica a friendly wave when he saw them and hurried over.

  “This is George,” Jessica told Alex. “He’s the head of Engineering. Speaking of which, how are we coming, George?”

  “Ahead of schedule for once,” he answered. “The console is just about packed up and ready.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow and looked at Jessica. “We got the parts we need?”

  “Without a doubt.” Jessica was practically beaming with pride. “George, fill Alex in on what you were telling me about life in Agartha.”

  George’s head bobbed up and down. “Of course. Where to begin? I’ve lived here all my life, so it’s difficult to know what’s unique about this place. But based on what I’ve read, it does have some advantages over most societies of the past.”

  “Like the vampires?” Alex asked dryly.

  George nodded. If the comment offended him, he didn’t show it. “People in Agartha are free to pursue life basically as they see fit, as long as they don’t hurt others and they contribute to society in some way. Humans and vampires work side by side to keep things running smoothly.”

  “What if you want to leave?” Alex asked.

  George thought a moment. “I suppose you could. Though it might not be a good idea, with all the Ferals out there.”

  “‘Ferals’ is what they call the less friendly vampires outside the city,” Jessica explained.

  Alex nodded, still trying to wrap her head around a society that distinguished between good and bad vampires.

  George continued. “We’re pretty self-sufficient, but when we need supplies, the vampires go out and get them. The Ferals leave them alone, for the most part. No human blood. I guess they smell different than we do.”

  “Of course,” Alex said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “What else? We have schools for the young ones, and every family has their own bunk unit. Space is tight here, but we make do.”

  As he continued talking, Alex noticed a woman who couldn’t have been more than five feet tall and maybe ninety pounds walk up to a massive crate, lift it up like it was nothing, and approach them.

  “Where do you want this, George?” the woman asked.

  He gestured toward the other end of the room. “Oh, on one of the Jeeps, if you don’t mind.” As the woman walked away, George laughed and shook his head. “I hear you don’t have vampires where you come from. How do you survive without them? How do you get supplies?”

  Owl started to answer, but Alex cut her off.

  “We make do.” She wasn’t ready to start revealing the details of New Haven to these strangers. There wasn’t a protocol for this kind of thing, but she knew she needed to be careful.

  Yesterday she’d thought New Haven was the last human city. Now she knew not only that there was another city, but that they had vampires fighting on their side. If some conflict did arise, the only advantage New Haven would have was that their location would be a mystery. She didn’t know if Agartha had any planes, but she wasn’t about to risk it.

  “Ah, glad to see you’re up and about!” Jaden walked toward them, his gaze fixed on Alex, an easy smile on his face. “Ready for round two?” He held up his fists and screwed up his face in the goofy imitation of a snarl.

  Alex felt herself blush. She’d hoped to have a little more time to compose herself before having to talk to this vampire again. “Jaden, I need to apologize. To you and Robert, both. You invited us into your city, and I shouldn’t―”

  He waved the thought away. “Don’t worry about it. Honestly, that was the most fun I’ve had in months. Things have gotten stale around here.”

  “For the record, I’m not usually like that. It’s been a tough week.”

  He turned to Jessica and George. “So, did we get the parts squared away?”

  “That, we did,” George said.

  “Good. Now we can attempt to contact your people and have them come pick you up.”

  Alex hesitated before answering. “Look, we really appreciate all you’ve done for us, but I think it would be best for all of us if we rendezvoused with our team somewhere away from Agartha.”

  The smile slipped from Jaden’s face, and he nodded slowly. “That’s understandable. We’ll do whatever makes you comfortable. I guess trust has to be earned.” He paused for a moment. “Speaking of which, Alex, could I talk to you alone for a moment?”

  Concern leapt into Firefly’s eyes, but Alex gave him a reassuring look.

  “Of course,” she said to Jaden.

  The vampire led her away from the group and into a long, empty hallway. He stopped and turned toward her.

  “Alex, I thought it was time we had a conversation. We need to talk about New Haven.”

  For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. “How do you even know that name?”

  Jaden chuckled softly. “Oh, Alex. I know about New Haven because I helped build it.”

  3

  “You helped build New Haven?” Alex asked, the skepticism clear in her voice. “Was this before or after you became a vampire?”

  He drew a deep breath. “Look, you have to understand, things were crazy then.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “No,” he said with a smile. “It’s not. Like I said earlier, trust has to be earned.”

  She stifled a laugh. “Fair enough. When you say you helped build it, are you saying you were one of the guys holding a wrench or a blowtorch or whatever, actually putting the thing together?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  “Okay, now I know you’re screwing with me.”

  “I got involved fairly late,” he explained. “It was already clear humanity was on the way out. We’d been ravaged by the first two waves of the infestation, and we had two desperate plans left, both of them crazy. Build a city in a mountain or build a city in the clouds. The teams were kept separate for fear of both becoming compromised. I was one of the few who knew about both.”

  “So, you were a bigwig then?”

  Jaden shrugged. “My point is I’m glad to see New Haven is still flying. There were plenty of people who said it couldn’t be done, just like there were plenty of people who said we couldn’t turn this small NORAD facility into a functioning city. We proved them wrong on both counts.”

  Alex thought for a moment. “Do the people here know about New Haven?”

  “Just the vampires. And I think it’s best if we keep it that way, for now.” He stifled a yawn. “I’ll have George take your team to the communication room. It’s fairly limited, but once New Haven flies within a few hundred miles of here, they should be able to pick up your signal. In the meantime, it’s nearly morning. That means it’s bedtime for me and mine.”

  Alex chuckled. “What, you can’t stay up past your bedtime? You’re underground. No sunlight.”

  “It’s not that I can’t stay up. More like, it would be a terrible idea. Vampires feel sick during the day, even if there’s no sunlight. It’s painful, and our minds don’t work as well. Best to just sleep through it.”

  Alex nodded, filing that information away. Of course, she knew that vampires were weaker and slower during the day. At least, she knew that was the case with the types of vampires Jaden and his friends called “Ferals.” But it was fascinating to hear it from the perspective of a vampire. To know how it a
ctually felt.

  As strong as vampires were, it was good to know humans would always have one advantage over them: humans could sleep whenever they damn well pleased.

  “There’s a spot in a valley about five miles from here that would work as a rendezvous point,” Jaden continued. “We’ll help you and your team out there. Then we can pull back before your friends arrive, if it makes you more comfortable. Like I said, I’m just happy to help New Haven keep flying.”

  He turned and started to walk away, but Alex called to him.

  “Jaden.” She waited until he turned back to continue. “Thank you. For everything.”

  He nodded, then walked away.

  Twenty minutes later, Alex was in the communication room with Jessica, Owl, and Firefly. George had given them a quick demo of how to use the equipment before he left them alone, and they’d been attempting to contact New Haven ever since.

  “You don’t think this is one of those things where they say we can use their equipment, but it doesn’t actually work, do you?” Firefly asked. “Call me crazy, but I’m not ready to trust a bunch of vampires just yet.”

  “Not likely,” Owl replied. “They said this comm only has a range of a couple hundred miles. New Haven won’t be overhead for another hour or so. Assuming they are even passing close to this longitude.”

  “They will,” Alex said. “No way would CB let them give up on us this quickly. Keep trying to signal them.”

  Owl kept speaking into the comm unit, and she was getting the same lack of results for her effort.

  During one of the lulls between Owl’s attempts, Jessica spoke up. “Guys, we need to talk about what this place means for the future of New Haven.”

  Firefly frowned. “What? That we’re not the last human city?”

  “That’s only part of it,” Jessica said. “The technology here is incredible. There’s so much we can learn if we work with them.”

  “You really think the Council’s going to agree to work with vampires?” Firefly asked. He paused for a moment. “The new Council, I mean. Assuming one gets set up soon.”

  “Maybe not at first. But they did save Wesley’s leg. And they gave us the parts we need to save New Haven.”

  “Let’s worry about getting home,” Alex said. “We can figure out what to tell the Council after we’ve ensured New Haven can keep flying.”

  CB paced the length of the ship, casting a critical eye on everything from the equipment in the hold to the controls in the cockpit. Not that he was going to find anything new. He’d already walked the entire ship three times. While it wasn’t the beautifully maintained, immaculately clean ship the old one had been, he couldn’t find much to complain about. At least, not much that could be fixed in the hour before they were scheduled to depart for the surface.

  When he reached the cargo hold for the fourth time, he stopped and forced himself to take a deep breath. He hated this part. The waiting. The moments when his mind ran through all the ways that the mission could play out over and over again, each iteration slightly different from the last.

  He always disliked this part, but today was worse than usual. Because he knew that going on this mission was a very bad idea, and if he stopped moving too long, or let himself really contemplate what they were about to do, he just might talk himself out of it.

  He couldn’t let that happen. Granted, the odds that any of his team members had survived a night on the surface were very long indeed, but he had to know for sure. If there was even a sliver of possibility, he had to work on the assumption that they were alive.

  The fact that he’d managed to get this mission approved at all practically qualified as a miracle. If it hadn’t been for Fleming’s desperation to get CB on his side, and for the leadership void left when the general was locked up, there was no way they’d be heading to the surface.

  Hell, if CB thought about it too hard, he’d start to have doubts himself.

  So, he kept pacing.

  The newly minted members of the GMT began to arrive twenty minutes before departure. A few of them made jokes, but it was clear that every one of them was terrified.

  A heavy ball of worry formed in CB’s stomach as he considered what it would be like to encounter vampires with these green recruits at his side. He was still sporting the cast that had been his souvenir from Wesley’s first mission. He knew from experience that a single newbie could throw things into chaos. A whole team of them could do a hell of a lot worse.

  As he’d told the team, he’d done this before, back when he was the sole survivor of the attack on his first team. The difference was they’d been able to build up slowly, taking short, safe missions to the surface, with little chance of vampire encounters.

  This new team would not have that luxury.

  After exchanging a few words with each of the team members, making sure they were ready for this thing and weren’t freaking out too much, he checked his watch and was surprised to see how much time had passed.

  He touched the radio on his chest and spoke into his headset mic, addressing both his team and the crew outside the ship. “All right, people, it’s time.” He paused, wishing there was something more eloquent to say, but he shrugged and made his way through the passenger hold.

  The familiar whir of the engines starting sent vibrations through the ship and up into CB’s feet. The team was dead silent, every one of them staring into the void. Tension hung thick in the air, and CB could have sworn it was a few degrees hotter in that hold than in other parts of the ship.

  He didn’t say anything more to them. He’d already given his pep talk. Now was the time for them to get their heads right. They’d either cut it or they wouldn’t. Nothing he said would make a difference now. He made his way to the cockpit for takeoff.

  Chuck sat hunched over the controls, staring intently at the opening hangar door.

  CB sank into the copilot’s chair. “How many times you been off New Haven?”

  Chuck kept his eyes focused on the door. He leaned on the controls and the ship rolled smoothly forward toward the blue sky beyond the hangar. “I don’t know. A few dozen times. I had to log a hundred hours to get certified to fly, and I have to do ten a year to recertify. Never more than fifty miles from the city, though. And never anywhere near the surface.”

  CB chuckled and slapped him on the arm. “Time to expand your horizons, son. Take us out.”

  As they shot through the hangar door and into the void beyond it, CB flipped a switch on his radio, setting it to transmit to the team. Unlike Chuck, the rest of this crew had never been off New Haven. “Welcome to the wider world. You’re part of an elite fraternity now. It won’t be long now before you have real Earth dirt stuck to the bottom of your boots.”

  The team didn’t respond, but that was all right; CB hadn’t expected them to.

  He spent the next twenty minutes studying the terrain map of the area where his team’s ship had disappeared.

  Chuck shifted in his seat. He’d been gripping the controls hard ever since they left New Haven. “So, Captain… the other ship was shot down, right?”

  CB grunted in the affirmative.

  He cleared his throat softly. “And, um, are we concerned about those guns?”

  “Very,” CB said. “They must have been automated. An old defensive system meant to protect the NORAD facility, maybe.” He set down his map and turned toward Chuck. “Look, the team was caught off guard. That won’t happen to us. We’re going to approach with extreme caution. We’ll start circling the area so high, they’d need to fire a missile to―”

  The radio crackled, and a distant, unintelligible voice spoke. Then it was gone.

  Chuck glanced at CB, beads of sweat standing on his forehead. “Is that New Haven?”

  CB didn’t answer, but he knew it wasn’t. New Haven wouldn’t have any trouble reaching the ship. This was a weaker signal. And that voice… He hadn’t been able to make out much, but it had almost sounded like―

  “New Haven,
do you copy?” The voice was clearer this time, and there was no mistaking the speaker.

  Alex.

  The blood drained from CB’s face as he snatched the radio from its cradle and held it close to his lips. “Goddard? Is it really you?”

  A long silence answered him, and for a terrible moment, he thought the signal had faded.

  Then the radio crackled again. “Holy hell, CB, it’s good to hear your voice.”

  CB couldn’t have wiped the grin off his face even if he’d wanted to. “Are you safe?”

  “Safe enough. I’ll explain when we see each other. Think you can give a girl a ride home?”

  “Goddard, don’t you know me better than that? I’m already on my way.”

  Alex shielded her eyes with a hand as the ship appeared in the sky and sped toward their location. It was a bright, sunny morning, but she was still ready for anything. She knew from painful experience that vampires could be hiding under the snowbanks. Granted, they couldn’t come out in the sunlight, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t reach out and pull her in.

  Wesley lay on a cot next to Alex. He was awake but groggy. The doctors of Agartha had given him the best treatment possible, but it would be at least a week before he was walking again.

  Owl had her eyes fixed on the ship as she leaned against the stack of parts the vampires of Agartha had helped them bring to this location. “The backup ship. I hate the backup ship.”

  “It’s the only one we’ve got now,” Alex pointed out.

  The ship settled gently down into the snow and the cargo door almost immediately groaned open.

  Alex took a step toward it, but a hand on her arm stopped her.

  “Hey,” Firefly said. “Before we go back, I just wanted to say thanks. For everything. You’re a great leader, and… Well, just remember I appreciate all you’ve done for me and the team.”

  Alex stared at him a moment, caught off guard by the comment. Before she could respond, CB stepped off the ship.