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

by P. T. Hylton

  “Keep moving!” Jaden called to his team. “We need to get some cover. Head inside there!” He gestured to the nearest building.

  The Ferals seemed to be coming faster and faster now. Jaden would need to focus on taking out as many of these bastards as possible and trust his team to make it to the building.

  He glanced down at the ancient swords in his hands. He wasn’t generally the type to develop attachments to material possessions. He’d abandoned everything he owned—everything but these swords—more times than he could remember. But he’d forged these two blades himself after a century of practice. And after more than six hundred years of using them as his primary weapon, he’d developed a certain bond with the blades. They were extensions of his arms, of his very soul. A single thought could translate to the death of an enemy with a flick of one of these blades. And it often had.

  Turning to the Ferals, he resumed his dance of death.

  After he’d dispatched the three closest Ferals, he glanced over his shoulder to check in with Lesley. What he saw brought a slight smile to his face in spite of the circumstances.

  She was no longer huddling on the pavement. The bleeding from her elbow had almost stopped, and her eyes blazed red. In her remaining hand, she held a sword, and as he watched, she swung at the nearest Feral. The blade bit clean through, and the head fell to the ground.

  Jaden almost pitied the sniper who had removed her arm. She was a vampire in search of true vengeance, and he knew she would not stop until she got her satisfaction.

  It didn’t take long for the team to make their way to the nearest building. According to the dilapidated sign, it had been a water-treatment facility.

  “Lock’s already been blown!” Robert shouted as he reached the door.

  “Then let’s get inside,” Jaden answered. The team made their way into the three-story building. When everyone was inside, he said, “Stay away from the windows. We don’t want to take any chances.”

  He sent two of his team members to do a quick sweep for Ferals who may have wandered inside.

  Robert marched up to Jaden, his eyes wide. “What the hell just happened? Who was shooting at us?”

  Lesley joined them, clutching her injured elbow. “I felt them. They were vampires. How is that possible?”

  “It had to be Mark and Aaron,” Jaden answered. As much as he hated to give that answer, he believed it had to be the truth. “Although they weren’t alone.”

  “God damnit, Jaden!” Lesley shouted. “I knew we should have killed those bastards. And yeah, there were more than two of them. I counted at least eighteen shots.”

  Jaden turned to the others and nodded. “Lesley’s right. Almost. There were twenty counters. I’ll forgive her missing two, as she was recovering from a sudden amputation at the time.”

  Lesley held up her stump at Jaden.

  He chuckled. “Are you giving me the bird?”

  “You’re damn right.”

  “If we could get back to the task at hand,” Robert said. “Err, no pun intended. I sensed a lot more than twenty.”

  Jaden nodded his agreement. “If they had twenty snipers, who knows how many they had total.”

  “How’s this even possible?” Lesley asked.

  Robert grimaced. “Those idiots from New Haven keep coming down to the surface. Maybe some of them got turned.”

  “We’ll get the answers eventually,” Jaden said. “For now, we should help them realize that they have just attacked the most skilled and fearsome team of warriors to ever set foot on this Earth. It is time to let them know that we are the hunters and they are the prey.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Lesley admitted.

  “We'll leave two vampires here in the building. The rest of us will spread out through the storm drains. We can come out on the other side of their perimeter and attack them from behind. Who wants to stay here and draw their forces into this building?”

  Lesley once again raised her stump. “I want to take them on in close quarters. I’m going to rip their arms off and then stab them through the heart with the bone.”

  “That seems highly inefficient,” Jaden says, “but it’s your call. Just don’t let your emotions make you sloppy in battle.”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Akono said after a moment.

  “Good,” Jaden replied. He looked over what remained of his team. “Let’s show them what experienced vampires can do.”

  Firefly stared at the Ferals gathered below in the street surrounding the water-treatment building.

  “I guess we know why Jaden has his people use swords,” Sharon said dryly.

  Firefly turned, surprised to see her. Even with his vampiric senses, he hadn't known she was standing there. “Yes, it would appear the Ferals don’t like noise much.”

  “Understatement of the year.”

  Firefly grunted his agreement. How many of his soldiers had he already lost? He didn’t know, and he didn’t know how to feel about those losses. On the one hand, he would never see those people again. On the other, they’d been freed from this hellish existence. “The good news is the Ferals seem to lose interest quickly.”

  “Yeah. It didn’t take long for them to chill out after we stopped fighting them.”

  It did present a conundrum, though. If they wanted to take out Jaden’s team, they were going to need to use a lot more bullets. Which would bring the Ferals back down on their heads.

  The good news was that Jaden’s team had taken up position in one building, effectively cornering themselves. Firefly’s soldiers were moving into position now, surrounding the building. Any vampires who tried to exit would be gunned down before they made it ten steps.

  Firefly's radio chirped to life, and Aaron's voice came through. "How we looking, Firefly?"

  “Almost in position.”

  "Good." There was a long pause, and Firefly thought maybe his master was finished, but then Aaron continued. "One more thing. Don't attack the Ferals! We're not food, so if they don't see us as a threat, they'll leave us alone. Oh, and remember, Jaden must be taken alive. Do whatever it takes to make that happen. Take out the rest of his team, no matter the cost. Sacrifice yourself and every other soldier in the group if need be."

  Firefly gritted his teeth at this poor display of leadership, but all he could say in response was, “Yes, Aaron.”

  “That was two things,” Sharon remarked after he’d signed off.

  Firefly chuckled, but there was no humor in his laugh. The fact that Mark and Aaron would sacrifice their entire army to take out a dozen vampires told him everything he needed to know about their leadership. He would give anything for the chance to take those two out. He just prayed he would someday get the chance.

  “I’ve got the two teams of twenty-five ready to go,” Sharon said, getting back to business.

  “Good. Who’s leading?”

  “Dominic and Rodney.”

  The two teams would enter from the doors on either side of the building and work their way to the middle. He'd given instructions for them to stay in tight formation and drive anything that moved toward the front doors. Then the teams waiting outside on the surrounding buildings would finish off anyone who fled the building.

  It was a simple plan, but it was a solid one. All there was to do was to wait and see how it played out.

  Lesley and Akono waited inside the ductwork, silent and unmoving. The enemy was coming, they knew. It had been a long time since either of them had faced an intelligent vampire in true to-the-death combat, and they were both looking forward to the opportunity.

  The sound of glass breaking came from the west. That would be the enemy breaking through the door on that side of the building, Lesley knew. She fought the urge to rush out to them, reminding herself of the oldest vampire rule: patience was the key to staying alive.

  A sharp bolt of pain shot through her elbow and her hand went to it. Akono glanced at her, concern on his face, but he said nothing. She was an old vampire, and she co
uld handle pain. She'd been through worse. Already, a new layer of skin had grown over the bone, and she could feel the bone pressing on it as it began to grow. The next few days wouldn't be pleasant, but at the end of them, she'd be as good as new with two working hands.

  That didn’t make her any less angry about the situation, and she was looking forward to expressing that anger to whoever had just broken into this building.

  She watched through a vent, waiting for the enemy to pass by. She didn’t have to wait long.

  A group of twenty-five vampires filed past her location, every one of them carrying an automatic weapon. They moved slowly, carefully, checking every door as they went, but they appeared oblivious to her presence.

  She shook her head in disgust. If they’d been more attuned to their vampire senses, there was no way she could have remained hidden while they passed so close. Sadly, the lesson she was about to teach them would be their last.

  When the last two soldiers passed her vent walking side by side, she burst through, leaping into the air, sword drawn. She brought the sword around hard and sliced off two heads before her feet touched the ground. The moment her boots met concrete, she sprang forward, ducking into the office across the hallway.

  Peeking through the crack in the door, she saw the other soldiers turn as the bodies of their two comrades hit the ground.

  “Holy shit!” one of the soldiers cried out. He looked like he couldn’t have been more than twenty, and based on his poor reflexes, he hadn’t been a vampire long. Lesley almost felt sorry for him. Two of his friends had been killed and the attacker was nowhere in sight.

  “Hey, look at this,” another soldier said, gesturing toward the open vents.

  “They’re in the walls!” someone shouted. “Light 'em up!”

  Lesley dropped to the ground as the soldiers began shooting wildly, peppering the walls and ceiling with automatic fire. She silently cursed as she lay there, hoping she didn't catch a stray bullet. Her hopes of facing an intelligent vampire in combat were quickly slipping away. This was amateur hour. These soldiers might technically be vampires, but they didn’t know enough to understand what that term fully meant. They were simply prey that was already bled dry.

  When the soldiers finally stopped firing, there was a moment of silence. Then a lone howl came from the north. Another joined it. And still more, coming from every direction now.

  Lesley grimaced as she gripped her sword. These idiots had just made things a lot more complicated.

  Firefly barely dared breathe as the howls of angry Ferals echoed off the surrounding buildings. From the sound of gunfire, it was clear the team that had entered through the west door had encountered the enemy. But the gunfire had stopped, so either that had been a surprisingly quick victory or…

  He didn’t want to think about the alternative. He brought his radio to his lips. “Dominic, I need a report when it’s safe to do so.”

  The reply came instantly through his earpiece. "We engaged with the enemy, sir. We've got two men down."

  “Damn it. Did you take any of them out?”

  There was a long pause. “I don’t think so. We didn’t actually see—”

  Another burst of gunfire cut off the rest of Dominic’s words.

  It was quickly followed by a burst of gunfire from the eastern part of the building.

  A noise came through his earpiece, something like a gurgle.

  “Rodney?” Firefly asked. “Is that you?”

  A female voice answered. “Rodney’s dead, sir. He was standing by the wall and a sword just stabbed him through the chest like it had come from nowhere.”

  Firefly cursed as he heard the news. He’d been a fool to send these barely trained rookie vampires against experienced warriors. But it hadn’t really been his choice, had it?

  “Sir,” the female voice continued, “I think they escaped, but I’m not sure.”

  “How many did you see?”

  “None. Just the sword.”

  Firefly’s mind raced. He realized he had no idea what to do here. Should he send in more troops or withdraw the ones already inside? He sorely missed the days when he’d been a member of the GMT and his job had been to blow up obstacles rather than outthink them.

  At the ground level, Ferals were surging toward the water-treatment building, drawn by the gunfire. There had to be a thousand of them down there. Some bashed their way through the doors while others scaled the walls and smashed the windows to get inside.

  “Everyone out of the water-treatment building!” he shouted into his radio. “You’ve got Ferals incoming. A lot of them. Don’t fire on them, just get the hell out of there!”

  The sound of gunfire once again filled the air, but this time it was coming from behind Firefly. He spun toward it, confused.

  The Ferals on the street all turned toward the sound. Then, after a moment, some headed toward the gunfire while others turned back to the water-treatment building.

  “We’re under attack!” someone shouted through his radio. He knew that voice. It was Hector, who was stationed on a building nearby.

  “The Ferals?” Firefly asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. Somehow, they got behind us. And they have swords.”

  A chill ran across Firefly’s cold, lifeless skin.

  Jaden’s vampires were attacking.

  12

  Jaden and his team made their way through the storm drains and under the buildings. Four of the vampires had branched off to the north, and the other three, including Robert, stayed with Jaden.

  As they walked, Robert sidled up next to Jaden. “So, what do you think? How’d Mark and Aaron get their army?”

  Jaden had his suspicions, but he wanted to hear what the other vampire thought first. “Give me your best guess.”

  Robert thought a moment. “Well, unless they snuck a bunch of blood out of Agartha, which wouldn’t have been possible, they couldn’t have restored Ferals. I guess that means they turned humans.”

  “Yeah,” Jaden agreed.

  “So, I guess that means New Haven.”

  “Yeah,” Jaden said again, glad his friend was working it through. “They’re armed. Mark and Aaron left Agartha with nothing. So, unless New Haven crashed and Mark and Aaron just happened upon the crash site, there’s only one plausible explanation. Fleming didn’t listen to my warning.”

  “You think they set up a Resettlement colony already?” Robert asked. “I thought Alex said they’d only been seriously talking about it for a few months. That would be insane.”

  “Sure. Insane if you know the stakes as well as we do. But remember, humans are short-sighted and impatient. That’s always been their downfall. I’ve been thinking of Resettlement in terms of centuries, but I’ve forgotten how abstract that concept would be to a human. It’s so difficult for them to see beyond their own lifetimes. Something to remember in our future dealings with them.”

  Robert chuckled. “Jaden, you’re the only creature I know who would take the time to discuss the limits of mortal imagination during a battle.”

  “What can I say? I enjoy multitasking.”

  Robert shook his head. “You know, it’s not just humans who are impatient. Mark and Aaron have had their army, what, a couple days tops? Otherwise Alex would have known about it. And they’re already attacking us.”

  “Perhaps. Could be they saw us being out as an opportunity too good to pass up.” He saw the tunnel branch off ahead. “You and the other three go to the left. I’ll go right.”

  Robert raised an eyebrow. “You sure you want to go alone?”

  Jaden grinned, raising his swords. “I’ve got my two best buddies. I’ll be fine.”

  He walked until he was three blocks from the water-treatment building, then exited through one of the drains onto the street. Looking around, he confirmed he was alone, then he scaled the nearest building.

  When he reached the top, he looked around and grimaced at what he saw. Mark and Aaron’s army was in position on m
ost of the buildings surrounding the water-treatment plant. The army was much larger than he’d thought, at least a couple hundred strong. That wasn’t counting the Ferals, who would likely lose control and attack once the fighting started again.

  There had been nearly three million people living in the Denver metro area at the time of the third wave, and most them were now Ferals. If the fighting got too intense, it could bring every one of those Ferals crashing down on them. If that happened, his thousand years of existence could end today. Even he couldn’t take on three million battle-raged Ferals.

  If Jaden and his team were going to survive this night, he had to make certain that didn’t happen.

  He sensed vampires approaching, and a moment later he saw them walking through the alley below, totally unaware of his presence. He scanned the fire escapes and saw a few more soldiers, all with their guns trained in the direction of the water-treatment building.

  As he moved into position, he heard gunfire. Clearly Lesley and Akono were engaging with the enemy. That meant the time was right to hit them from behind.

  Just as he reached the alley and drew his swords, certain he’d caught these new vampires unaware, a Feral howled somewhere in the distance behind him. One of the soldiers turned and spotted Jaden. His eyes widened in surprise.

  Jaden wasted no time worrying about this bit of bad luck. To him, being spotted was as good as a starting pistol at the beginning of a race. He leaped forward, his swords raised.

  The soldier who’d spotted him moved impressively fast, raising his weapon and squeezing off a round before Jaden reached him. He miscalculated Jaden’s speed and the shot went wide.

  Jaden instantly rewarded his mistake by burying his sword in the soldier’s left shoulder and driving it down and through his heart. He didn’t wait for the soldier to fall, but turned to the vampire next to him, his sword already in motion.