by P. T. Hylton
And then there were the bodies. Ferals’ corpses lay strewn on the streets like trash, burning in the morning sun. The smell of them was almost overwhelming.
“Hey, Alex,” Chuck called. “I found something.”
“What is it?” she shouted back.
“Um, I think it’s an arm.”
Alex trotted over and found him in the shadows beneath an overhang, nudging a severed arm with his boot. It had been ripped off at the shoulder. The sleeve that still covered the arm looked all too familiar.
“I think it’s human,” Chuck said.
She bent down and rolled the arm over. Her heart sank at what she saw. A patch on the sleeve read “Fort Stearns, Resettlement Site 1”.
“Holy shit,” Chuck said. “How’s that possible?”
Alex shook her head. “I have no idea.”
Wesley walked over to see what they were looking at. “Damn. Do you think they sent a team down to get the ship?”
Alex looked up at him. “This guy was killed in the street by a vampire. That happened at night.”
The flatbed truck Jaden’s team had driven to the city was sitting a bit further back from the crater and was still upright. The away ship was tied down on the bed of the truck.
Alex put her hands on her hips as she inspected the scene one more time. “Well, it appears to be safe now. Let’s get Owl and George.”
Owl was the first one to climb up onto the truck to get to the away ship. She wore a near-panicked expression.
“Is she going to be okay?” George asked.
“Probably,” Alex answered. “She had a, um, special relationship with her ship.”
“So I see.”
Owl ran her hand along the side of the away ship, inspecting it for damage. When she reached the front of the ship, she glanced into the cab of the truck and grimaced. “We’ve got two dead vampires here.”
Alex ran to check it out, followed closely by George. She opened the truck door and pulled herself up on the step and looked inside. A wave of nausea rolled through her. After everything she’d seen, she sometimes thought she was immune to being revolted to the point of physical illness. Then she saw something like this.
The vampire who’d been in the driver’s seat was nearly gone from the waist up. His head had been torn from his neck, and there were three large holes in his chest. The other vampire still had his head, but he’d taken more hits in the torso, leaving his chest with a hollowed-out look.
She felt George climb up behind her before she thought to stop him. He looked into the cab and gasped. “No.” He stumbled back to the road. “They can’t be dead. They’re immortal. I’ve known Adam and Tim my whole life.”
Owl hopped off the flatbed and ran over to Alex. “What the hell’s going on here? These guys were killed with high-powered sniper fire.”
Alex nodded absently. “Fifty caliber, by the looks of it.”
“So who was shooting at them?” Wesley asked.
Patrick turned to George. “Something you want to tell us? Maybe there’s another city no one’s bothered to mention?”
George shook his head, his eyes wide with horror. “No, of course not. We’re the only city. I mean, I thought we were until you showed up.” His head spun toward Alex. “We know it wasn’t anyone from Agartha who did this. That leaves New Haven. What have you done? You’ve killed our greatest protectors!”
“Okay, everyone take a beat and settle down,” Alex said. “We don’t know what happened here, and we don’t know if the rest of the Agartha vampire team is dead. For all we know they’re holed up in one of these buildings, just waiting for sunset.” She thought a moment. “George, use the radio in the truck and see if you can contact Jaden. Owl, Wesley, Chuck, you three work on loading the batteries into the away ship.”
“What about us?” Ed asked.
“You and Patrick are going to help me protect the perimeter while we figure out what happened here.”
The team went to work, silently doing their jobs. The first hour seemed to go by quickly, and as the sun moved across the sky, the sunlight fell across new corpses, lighting them on fire and adding to the already putrid stench. Alex began to worry that the ever-increasing fires might set one of the nearby buildings ablaze. The buildings were mostly made from brick and stone, and the Feral bodies burned hot and fast, but smoldered out quickly. There didn’t seem to be much danger of the fires spreading.
As Ed, Patrick, and Alex walked the perimeter, Ed said, “So what do you think?” New Haven Resettlers versus vampires. How does that even happen?”
“I still say they came down for the ship,” Patrick replied. “Maybe sunset snuck up on them and a few soldiers got left behind.”
“This is more than a few,” Alex pointed out.
“Then maybe they all got stuck down here after dark.” His eyes widened as an idea struck him. “Hey, if that’s true, their ship is still down here. We could use that to get home.”
Alex shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. There are too many dead Resettlers. You wouldn’t need a team this big to recover a ship.”
“I’m less interested in why they were here and more interested in whether they were human when they died,” Ed interjected.
Patrick nodded slowly. “That sort of makes sense. Maybe they got stranded down here and then the Ferals turned them.”
Alex wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. Why would a bunch of newly turned vampires attack Jaden and his team?
“There’s an easy way to answer the vampire question.” Ed walked toward a severed leg laying in the shadows. He picked it up by the boot and ripped off the pants.
“You are super gross,” Patrick said.
Ed ignored the comment and tossed the leg into the sunlight. It immediately burst into flames. “Yep, the Resettlers were turned.”
Alex scratched her head. The situation made even less sense if the Resettlers were vampires. There had been a major battle here. “The way I figure it, the Resettlers and Jaden’s vampires fought, which drew all the Ferals in the area. Then everything went to hell. The only question is why.”
“Alex!” George stood next to the truck, waving his hands.
She smiled at the Barton brothers. “Maybe we’re going to get a chance to ask Jaden what he saw firsthand.” She trotted over to George. “You got something?”
“Something. But it’s weak. Mostly static. Here.” He raised the radio handset and tried again. “Jaden, do you copy?”
For a moment, there was only static. Then a broken voice came through. “…only...city…get…ground.”
“That’s Jaden,” Alex said. “I never thought I’d be so happy to hear a vampire’s voice.”
George grinned. “I’m damn happy he’s alive. Now we just have to figure out how to keep him that way.”
Jaden’s voice came through the radio again. “Ship…remember…underneath.”
“It’s been like this ever since I got him on the radio. I’m getting maybe every third word.”
“We need to find a stronger signal. Tell you what, my team and I will take the radio and search the area. You help Owl with the ship. If we do find Jaden and his team, we may need to help them make a quick getaway.”
15
“Nothing like a morning stroll to get the blood flowing,” Chuck mused.
“We in a city teeming with vampires,” Wesley reminded him. “Can you not say ‘get the blood flowing’?”
They were walking through the streets of Denver, working their way around the area in a circle to figure out where the radio signal was strongest. So far, they hadn’t had much luck. George assured them that the signal would eventually strengthen, and all they had to do was head in that direction until they re-established contact with Jaden.
Alex walked in front of the group, her eyes flickering between upper-level windows and ground-level doorways. Based on what they’d seen near the crater, she knew there were vampire snipers lurking in the buildings. She was hesitant to walk i
n the middle of the street for fear of giving them an easy target. Yet, if she walked too close to the buildings, she would risk a Feral potentially lunging at her from the shadows. There was no safe option, so she’d chosen a middle ground, walking close enough to the buildings that they weren’t completely in the open, yet far enough away that a Feral would have to risk a serious sunburn to attack them.
The key was keeping the team alert. It was a lot easier to stay on your toes when you were, say, under tons of sand in an ancient Las Vegas casino rather than walking through a city on a sunny day. Alex knew this situation could turn just as bad as that one had, though.
She’d given Patrick the radio in the hopes it would keep him from getting impatient and doing something stupid. So far, it was working, though Ed was practically steaming with jealousy that his brother had been given a special duty.
“You know what I can’t get used to about the surface?” Chuck asked. “The way the ground feels so dead.”
It was a strange way to put it, but Alex understood what he meant. On New Haven, there was always a slight vibration. It traveled from the deck up into your feet; it was a comforting sensation to those who had grown up on the ship. And not feeling it was odd, almost like your feet weren’t touching down at all.
“It is pretty weird,” Ed agreed. “But I think the opportunity to kill vampires kinda makes up for it.”
“Agreed,” Chuck said with a smile.
Patrick raised the radio to his mouth. “Jaden, do you read? We are trying to save your undead ass. Do you read?”
A broken voice came through, but Alex was only able to catch a few words.
Patrick looked at Alex. “No improvement.”
“Then we keep moving.”
They’d walked for twenty more minutes in a variety of directions before they noticed the signal strengthening. They then continued northeast ten more minutes before finding a spot where they could clearly hear Jaden.
“Pass me the radio,” Alex said.
Patrick’s eyes narrowed and his mouth fell open. He looked genuinely offended. “Wait, you’re saying I did all that work, and now I don’t get to keep the radio for the payoff?”
She held out her hand, a stern look on her face.
“Fine.” He slapped the radio into her waiting hand.
“Jaden, you there?” she said into the radio.
His voice was still a bit staticky, but she could understand his voice. “Alex, you need to be careful. There are enemy soldiers in the city.”
“Yeah, we kinda figured that out from the giant crater. Where are you?”
“We’re underground. In the storm drains.”
“Okay, give me a location. We’ll come to you.”
“Probably a good idea if you don’t want me to burst into flames,” Jaden said. Through the static, she could hear the annoyance in his voice. Daysickness. Of course he was going to be cranky. “Okay, there’s a building a few blocks north of the crater. It has three tall windows on the front. There’s a metal sign on the top that says ‘Union Station’.”
“Yeah, we can find that.” She’d seen the building in the distance.
“Good. If you’re walking straight at the building, there’s a manhole cover about a half block away.”
“Manhole?” That was a strange combination of words she hadn’t heard before.
“Damn you sheltered humans,” Jaden muttered. “It’s a metal lid covering a hole in the street. I’ll open it a little for you so you can come down.”
“On our way.” Alex put the radio on her belt and turned to her team. “Looks like we’re headed underground.”
“Of course we are,” Wesley said with a grin. “Wouldn’t be a GMT mission if we didn’t go somewhere dark and scary.”
They found the spot without difficulty, and the manhole cover was open a crack, just as Jaden had told them. Alex called down, “We’re going to open the cover the rest of the way. Sunlight incoming!”
Patrick pulled the cover aside and they all dropped down into the storm drains.
Alex was the first to go down. After she landed, she stepped out of the sunlight and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. Before long, she could see large figures in the shadows. Jaden and six other vampires.
“Alex,” Jaden said, “why am I unsurprised you didn’t stay in Agartha?”
Alex and her team stood in silence as the listed to Jaden recount what had happened the previous night. The unexpected sniper ambush. The Ferals going on a rampage. The explosion at the water-treatment facility.
When he’d finished, there was a long silence.
Finally, Alex spoke. “I don’t understand. If the vampire soldiers are the Resettlers from New Haven, why would they attack you? Were they going after the ship? Did they want to get home?”
Jaden sighed. “I’m afraid it's not that simple. There are two vampires named Mark and Aaron. They were Ferals until recently when they returned to their intelligent form. I took them in at Agartha for a while, but I threw them out after they tried to take advantage of my hospitality. I believe they’re here to take their revenge on me. With a new army under their control.”
Wesley scratched at his chin. “So how the hell did they get all the Resettlers under their control?”
“They must have found the Resettlement site and personally turned all the Resettlers.”
Alex held up a finger. “Hang on, I’m still stuck on another part of the story. Two Ferals returned to intelligent form. The only way to do that is by drinking blood, right?”
“Correct.”
Alex spoke slowly, afraid she knew where this was going. “And when did this happen?”
Jaden met her gaze with a cold, unwavering stare. “Mark and Aaron showed up shortly after you left Agartha the first time.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.” She felt a chill run through her. “I only know of one human who was killed by a vampire near Agartha around that time.”
Wesley’s eyes widened as he started to understand. “These are the vamps that killed Drew?”
Alex nodded slowly. She expected to feel anger, but instead she just felt cold. “These bastards killed our friend, and then Jaden took them in, knowing what they’d done.”
“They were Ferals in the grip of mindless hunger,” Jaden explained.
“Did you even consider that they’d just killed Drew?” She asked, her voice even. “Whose side are you on, Jaden? The vampires or the humans?”
Jaden took a step forward, and there was a slight snarl in his voice when he spoke. “I’m on the same side I’ve always been on. The one fighting for the continued existence of life on this planet. I saved Mark and Aaron from starvation, yes. And I saved you and your friends when you were dumb enough to stay out on your little rover after dark.”
Alex took a small step back. She’d never seen Jaden like this. His emotions seemed so close to the surface, like they were threatening to boil over.
He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It’s the daysickness. It makes me act… different.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “Look, I made mistakes, and my friends have paid dearly for them. I won’t apologize for taking Mark and Aaron in. They were confused and suffering when they showed up on our door. But I will apologize for letting them go once they revealed their true natures. I should have ended their miserable lives then and there.”
“But you didn’t,” Alex pointed out. “And now everything has gone to shit.”
“This is not the ideal scenario,” Jaden admitted.
Alex cocked her head, unable to believe what she’d just heard. “Not an ideal scenario? Is that what you’d call it?”
“Alex,” Wesley said, putting a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it away.
“These two monsters killed three hundred people. People who wanted nothing more than to make a better life. Now these two vampires you let go have my fellow New Haven citizens as their undead slaves. That’s more than just not ideal. It’s fucking horrific.
”
A strange sound that was almost a growl escaped Jaden’s throat. “It could be much worse. If the settlement had been wiped out by Ferals rather than by Mark and Aaron, we’d have hundreds of Ferals returned to their intelligent, human state. They’d be running around, out of control, each with their own agenda. We’d have hundreds of Marks and Aarons. At least now it’s contained.”
“So what, we just let them run free in Denver?”
“No!” His voice was a full snarl now. “We kill Mark and Aaron. That’ll set the others free.”
Ed patted his rifle. “Finally, a plan I can get behind. Let’s do it.”
Alex ignored him, keeping her gaze fixed on Jaden. “And what then? We have three hundred vampires. We can’t take them back to New Haven. Are they going to live in Agartha?”
“I don’t… I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.” Jaden put his hand over his eyes and lowered his head.
For the first time, Alex noticed that the other members of Jaden’s team were struggling. None of them had spoken a word since Alex and her team arrived. Two of them were leaning against the wall; their half-opened eyes looked drugged. The rest were slumped on the floor in various states of consciousness.
She turned back to Jaden. “You still with me, big guy?”
For a moment, he didn’t respond. Then he let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes. “You have no idea how difficult it is to function during the day. We’re all strong enough to pull it off, but just barely. Any of the newly turned vampires who are awake really hate life now.” He paused a moment, then looked at her. “I’m curious if you’re really as capable as you seem to think you are.”
Patrick took a step forward. “I’ll bet Captain Goddard’s capable enough to kick your tired ass.”
Alex flashed him a look, then turned back to the vampire. “Jaden, if you have an idea, spit it out.”
He took so long to answer that she was beginning to think he hadn’t heard the question, but then he spoke.
