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

by P. T. Hylton

  “George is going to give us the parts we need to fix our downed ship,” she said. “Then at first light, me and my team are heading back to Denver. Once we have the ship repaired, we’ll fly up to New Haven and take the city from Fleming.”

  “Huh.” Jaden scratched at his chin. He was silent for a long moment. Then he leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. “You ever see a deer?”

  Alex nearly laughed at the non sequitur. “A deer?”

  “Yes, a deer. Four-legged mammal. Males have a rack of antlers. Generally brown.”

  “Yes, Jaden, I have seen a deer. Damn things are everywhere.”

  “Well, back in the pre-infestation days, deer hunting used to be a popular pastime. But deer are dumb creatures. Skittish, yet prone to freezing when faced with danger. There were so many ways to kill them that humans came up with rules and limits. You could only kill them at certain times and in certain ways.”

  Alex opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She was so flummoxed by this strange line of thought that she didn’t know how to respond.

  “My point is, if you’re not careful, you’ll be the deer. You’re so focused on Fleming, you’re frozen. Staring at him. You don’t see that you’ve left your human scent at every point along the road between here and Denver, and that Ferals will be waiting in every shadow for a shot at you. You don’t see that this trail is putting my city in danger.”

  “I’m very sorry about that, but we’ll be out of your hair really quick. Give us what we need, and—”

  He held up a hand, cutting her off. “You also don’t see that your team has just been through a traumatic battle. They need rest. You leave here without letting them get some sleep, you’ll be lucky if you make it to Denver without accidentally shooting each other. Not to mention how easily Fleming will put your little team out of commission when you get home. If you’re serious about this, if you really want to take out Fleming, you need to stop talking and start listening.”

  The vampire did have a point, not that she was about to admit it. Underneath the waning adrenaline, she felt a deep well of exhaustion screaming to be filled with sleep. If she were being honest, she wasn’t in ideal fighting condition. After a long day of driving to Denver, fixing the ship, and flying to New Haven, she’d be crashing. Her team would be just as bad if not worse.

  She looked down at the table. Asking for help had never been her strong suit, and she found herself unable to look the vampire in the eyes as she spoke. “What do you suggest?”

  “I suggest you let me do my part. You said you wanted me to help save humanity.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Tonight we rest. We grieve for the fallen. Then, tomorrow at dusk, I take some vampires to Denver. The Ferals won’t bother us, and we can have the ship back here by morning. Meanwhile, you and your team can start working on a plan other than ‘fly to New Haven and take out their defenses with five people.’ How’s that sound?”

  Alex considered that. “I don’t know. Losing a whole day? I don’t think we can spare it.”

  Jaden smiled his knowing smile once again. “Let me ask you a question. Who put you in charge of New Haven?”

  “Do you have to be in charge to do the right thing?” There was an edge to her voice.

  “So that’s another way of saying no one put you in charge of New Haven. Got it.” That infuriating smile still played on his lips. “But someone did put you in charge of the Ground Mission Team.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “I see it in your eyes. You want so badly to be a great leader. I’ve met a few of those in my time, and a whole lot of bad ones. But my advice is to focus on the things you’re actually in charge of for now. See to your team. Make sure they’re at their best. Then figure out how to help New Haven. I’ll let you get to it.”

  With that, Jaden stood up and walked out.

  Alex sat another moment, trying to gather herself. Every conversation with Jaden left her a bit confused. He had a way of seeing the world that felt both true and absolutely absurd at the same time. She had to admit he had a point. If she truly wanted to help New Haven, she was going to have to be smart about this.

  She got up and walked to the room where the team was waiting, eating off trays the vampires had brought them.

  The moment she walked in, Ed pointed at his brother. “Patrick is planning how to kill the vampires who saved us.”

  Patrick immediately responded, “I am not!” He paused. “Well, not exactly. I just thought it was an interesting exercise. To think about how I’d do it. You know, if I had to.” He paused again as Alex took a seat among the team. “Shotgun blast to the head, if you’re wondering. I don’t care how fast they are. I guarantee I could get off a shot before they—”

  “Can we not right now?” Alex said. “They saved our lives like two hours ago. At least wait a full day before plotting their murders.”

  Despite the ridiculousness of the situation, a smile crept onto Alex’s face. Patrick and Ed could be total idiots, but she loved them. Besides, she didn’t have much room to judge. She’d gotten in a fistfight with Jaden’s friend, Robert, only hours after the first time they’d saved the GMT.

  “What’s the plan?” Chuck asked, his forehead scrunched in worry. Unlike the Barton brothers, Chuck tended to consider the possibilities of every situation carefully. It was a quality that made Alex believe he’d be a good leader someday, but it also made him prone to living inside his own head.

  “Jaden and his vamps are going to recover the away ship from Denver tomorrow night,” she told them. “We should have it back thirty hours from now.”

  “Then we fly up to New Haven and shoot somebody?” Ed asked hopefully.

  Alex chuckled. “Honestly, that was my first thought, too. But I think we need to be smarter about this. We need a solid plan for when we reach New Haven.”

  “If we reach New Haven,” Owl interjected.

  Wesley tilted his head and looked questioningly at the pilot. “What do you mean?”

  “If Fleming wants to keep away from us, all he has to do is fly New Haven in the southern hemisphere. No way we could reach it with the away ship. It’s designed for shorter-range flights.”

  Alex considered that. “I don’t believe that’ll happen. Fleming thinks we’re dead. He’ll want to fly close to Fort Stearns for Resettlement. Besides, he’ll want to recover the abandoned away ship.”

  “Could be you’re right,” Owl allowed. “I’m just saying it’s going to be hard to find New Haven if they don’t want to be found.”

  “Noted,” Alex said. “Let’s see if George will start working on intercepting their radio communications to Fort Stearns. And let’s all work on a plan.”

  The heads around the table bobbed up and down in nods.

  Though none of them said it, they were all thinking it. Fleming had made his move against the GMT, and that meant their friends still on New Haven had to be square in his sights as well. CB, Brian, and Jessica were in serious trouble.

  “You know what’s funny?” Mark asked as he paced in front of the line of newborn vampires. “They actually think they’re safe.”

  Firefly felt a droplet of blood hanging off his chin, a remnant of his recent death. Part of him wanted to reach up and wipe it away, but another part of him was afraid to try. What if he found he couldn’t do it without his masters’ permission?

  Only an hour ago, everything had been so hopeful. They’d been the Resettlers, paving the way for the future of humanity. Two intelligent vampires named Mark and Aaron had ended that. They’d used the chaos of Ferals attacking Fort Stearns to do much more damage than Firefly would have believed possible. They didn’t just kill the Resettlers; they brought them back to life and enslaved them.

  “You thought you were safe, too,” Mark continued. “You thought your guns and your walls would save you. You lasted, what, twenty minutes?”

  Firefly looked up and down the line of men and women, all standing at attention
. Some of them were shaking. A few were crying. But all of them had the same shocked, hollow expression in their eyes. Not that it was surprising. They’d all just been through something very traumatic: their own deaths.

  A wave of nausea washed over him. These people had been his responsibility, and he’d failed them in the most profound way imaginable.

  Mark stopped in front of Firefly and gave him a crooked smile. “Agartha has walls and guns, too. Bigger ones than you did. But we’ll bring them down.”

  Agartha? Firefly hadn’t considered that this was just a warmup for Mark and Aaron. Now they wanted to move against Agartha?

  Aaron stepped forward and stood next to Mark. “As you’re going to figure out real soon, we need to move on this fast. In the next few hours you’re going to start feeling the hunger. But vampire hunger ain’t like human hunger. It’s not just in your stomach. You’re going to feel it in your bones. Crawling across your skin. Every part of you is gonna be crying out for blood.”

  As Aaron spoke, Firefly realized he could feel it already. It was mild, like a light humming throughout his body.

  Mark nodded. “And the only way we’re going to satisfy that hunger is to take down Agartha. Then we can worry about New Haven.”

  Firefly felt a flush of anger. Mark had ordered him to reveal everything he knew about New Haven, and Firefly had been forced to comply. Not only had he let down his Resettlers, he’d let down his city.

  Aaron stared at Firefly for a long moment. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  Firefly started talking immediately, before he even consciously registered the question. “We can’t take Agartha. Their city is built into the side of a mountain. And they have one hundred vampires.”

  Aaron burst out laughing. He put a hand on Firefly’s shoulders. “You goddamn idiot. We have three hundred vampires.”

  A chill went through Firefly. That was why they’d come here and turned the Resettlers instead of just feeding off them. They’d wanted an army.

  “Point is,” Mark said, “that hunger is only going to grow stronger. If we don’t feed in a few weeks, every one of us will go Feral. But we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. We might be your masters, but you’ve gotta start believing we have your best interests at heart. We want you to feed.”

  “Enough jawing,” Aaron announced. “We leave for Agartha in five minutes. Get your weapons.” He looked at Firefly. “You follow us.”

  As the newly turned vampires hurried to gather their weapons, Firefly followed Mark and Aaron outside. Though the attack had been in full swing when he’d last been out there, seeing the prison yard was still a shock. With his improved vampire sight, he could see everything perfectly even though every light had been torn down and destroyed. The yard was filled with what had to be hundreds of Ferals. They slammed into buildings, smashing supplies. Firefly realized they were being driven wild by the residual scent of humans, a pungent, honeysuckle smell Firefly felt arousing his own hunger.

  To his left, a group of five Ferals fought over a spot of blood-soaked ground, battling for the best position from which to lap at the dirt.

  The Ferals ignored Mark, Aaron, and Firefly as they passed among them. Firefly’s shoulder even brushed up against one, but it didn’t react.

  Mark shook his head. “These poor bastards will be holed up here for months, unable to ignore the lingering scent of the humans. This place will have a thousand Ferals and not a damn thing to feed any of them.” He turned to Firefly. “Before we go, we wanted to have a little chat with you.”

  Firefly said nothing. His eyes were fixed on a guard tower on top of the wall. One of its sides had been ripped off and it stood empty. He wondered what had happened to the man who’d been stationed up there. Had he been turned or had he fed a Feral?

  “As you’ve already figured out, you can’t disobey our orders,” Mark said. “It’s best if you don’t even try. It won’t work and it’ll just stoke your hunger.”

  “If I can’t disobey, then why are we even having this conversation?” Firefly asked.

  Aaron glared at him. “Because we’d prefer you to proactively help us rather than just obey orders. Once we take Agartha, there will be leadership positions available. If you want one of them, now’s the time to get on board.”

  Mark nodded. “We’re going to take Agartha, but it won’t be easy. We’ll start by taking out the railguns mounted around the city. Then we’ll take out their nightly patrols. Then we have to figure out a way past the doors. Point is, there will be a lot of moving pieces. We need a few people we can trust to actively help us figure things out.”

  Firefly opened his mouth to speak, but Mark held up a hand.

  “Don’t answer now. Think about it on the way to Agartha. We’ll be there by morning.”

  Firefly felt his mouth click shut.

  He took another look around Fort Stearns. All this destruction was his responsibility. He’d let down so many people. All because of the fantasy that he was Garrett Eldred, the great leader. But he wasn’t. Not really. He was Firefly, the warrior. If he wanted to help his people, he needed to embrace that fact.

  He thought about what Mark had just said.

  “How are we going to get to Agartha by morning?” he asked.

  Aaron grinned. “You’re a vampire now. That means you’re fast as hell and you don’t get tired. We’re going to run.”

  2

  Sarah fixed her gaze on Fleming as he paced back and forth from one end of his office to the other. The man was making her nervous.

  He was always full of energy, and yes, sometimes he expressed that energy by pacing. But even in his most fidgety moments, Fleming displayed an air of excitement and confidence. It was as if he was moving because the ideas and optimism inside of him couldn’t be contained behind a desk. It was part of what she loved about him, part of what had led her to take a bullet for him.

  But this was something different. He wasn’t pacing out of excitement.

  “Colonel Brickman,” he muttered. “Jessica. Brian. Three of the greatest minds in New Haven. And all of them disappeared. Probably off sowing discontent in my city.”

  Colonel Kurtz glanced at Sarah, and she saw the unease she felt mirrored in his eyes. He’d just betrayed CB, one of his oldest friends, for Fleming. It had to be disconcerting to see him like this in what should have been a moment of triumph. “We’ll find them, sir. We’re on a ship. There’s a limited number of places to hide.”

  “Yes,” Fleming agreed, “and Jessica knows every one of them.” He ran a hand through his unkempt hair, then he turned toward Kurtz. “I want your best men guarding this building. No one gets in or out without your guys checking them and making a record of it.”

  Kurtz nodded.

  Sarah drew a deep breath. She knew speaking meant risking getting her head bitten off, but she had to try to calm him down. “Sir, let’s not let this minor hiccup cloud an otherwise beautiful sky. We did it. You did it. Resettlement is real. When morning comes and we re-establish contact with Fort Stearns, the people aren’t going to care about three fugitives. As much as the people love CB, he’s yesterday. You’re tomorrow.”

  Fleming nodded slowly. “You’re right. Still, I’m not going to underestimate them again. CB has access to half the weapons on this ship—”

  “Had access,” Kurtz corrected. “We deactivated his security card two hours ago.”

  “Fine, but who knows what he might have stockpiled somewhere. And with Brian on his side, they might not need our weapons. That guy could probably make a cannon out of an old pair of socks and a doorknob.” He turned to Kurtz. “It’s time for us to activate the faceless GMT.”

  Kurtz was silent for a moment, then he nodded. “I’ll make it happen.”

  Sarah looked back and forth between the two men. Clearly they knew something she didn’t. “What’s the faceless GMT?”

  Fleming turned to her and smiled, a bit of that old confidence back now. “I’m sorry, Sarah, I d
idn’t mean to hide anything from you. I wanted to keep this from Garrett, though. He has strange loyalties to the GMT.”

  “Okay,” Sarah said slowly.

  Fleming leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms. “One problem we’ve had from the beginning is that people love the GMT. They’re heroes of an almost mythical level. For a while, I tried to use that to my advantage, like when I brought Alex on my citywide announcement. But I realized I’ve been going about this the wrong way. We need the GMT, but we don’t want the people idolizing them.”

  “How do we do that?” Sarah asked.

  Fleming nodded to Kurtz. “Tell her.”

  “Fleming asked me to form a new GMT,” the colonel said, “but to do it in secret. There are thirty-six of them, and we cycle them in and out.”

  “So no one gets to be the face of the GMT,” Sarah said, starting to get it.

  “No one but me,” Fleming chuckled. “Tell her the rest.”

  “Your ‘no one gets to be the face’ comment is righter than you know. They’ll wear masks and go by call signs, referring to each other simply by a number, reassigned each mission. They won’t even know each other’s names.”

  “Damn,” Sarah muttered. She wasn’t sure if the plan was brilliant or crazy.

  “The GMT was always meant to be a tool,” Fleming said thoughtfully, “nothing more. Now they can selflessly serve their city. The way it was meant to be.”

  The rest remained unspoken, but Sarah understood. If the people of New Haven wanted a hero to look up to, Fleming would make sure his was the face they had to see.

  In the ventilation ducts far below the surface of New Haven, everything echoed. Even though Jessica had assured them the chances of anyone overhearing their conversation were infinitesimal, CB still found the reverberation of his own voice disconcerting. He spoke quietly when he had to speak at all.

  “Hold still, I’m almost done.” Brian had finished cleaning the wound in CB’s shoulder and was now redressing it. “How’s that feel?”