by Philip Henry
Kaaliz ran to her and grabbed her around the waist. He kissed her. Sin was as evil as he was and twice as smart, and that just made his pants bulge. He pinned her to the wall and started kissing her neck and breasts. Sin agreed that the science could wait.
Risk awoke on the floor of a cage. He got up slowly and looked around. He appeared to be in a deserted lab. He heard a grunt and turned to see a huge black monster three cages away from his. It lurched at him through the bars and he jumped back, even though he was well out of range. Someone, somewhere had made a big mistake. He wasn’t supposed to be here…wherever here was. Huge scary monsters didn’t even enter into his life-plan. This was all wrong. He shouted to get attention and a door opened at the other end of the room. A man walked in wearing only a pair of trousers. He looked pale, very pale.
“Er, hello, sir. I fink you’ve got deh wrong fella, here. Who was it you were looking for?” Risk said in wavering tones.
A woman came from the door now wearing only a pair of trousers and a bra. She was a redhead and Risk liked redheads. He glanced between the couple quickly. “Holy shit! Is dis some kind of kinky sex fing?” The curiously white couple didn’t answer him. The woman with the incredible body walked over to the bench and took a rabbit out of a cage and taped something to its back. Risk had seen some pretty sick porn movies but what the hell was she going to do with a rabbit? The woman walked over to the monster’s cage and dangled the rabbit before it. The monster shot its arm through the bars. The rabbit was just out of reach. Risk stepped forward, fearing for the rabbit’s safety. Risk had had two rabbits when he was younger: Joe and Elliot, he had loved those rabbits but after a few years they were becoming slow and sleeping more. He feared they would die but while he was away on a camping trip his mother had taken them to a farm in the country and told him that the country air had made them better. The rabbit the beautiful woman was holding up looked just like Elliot. The monster’s hand was almost touching the rabbit. The woman dropped the rabbit into its hand and it snatched it back quick. Risk screamed in dismay. The monster opened its powerful jaws and bit the rabbit’s head off. The blood ran down its chest. The legs of the little rabbit were still twitching when it put the rest in its mouth. The monster bit down hard, chewing the little mammal into small pieces. No country farm for that little fella, Risk thought as urine ruined his best leather trousers. He somehow knew by the way the man and woman were looking at him that the rabbit’s fate was preferable to what was in store for the sacked singer of Epic Void.
visiting ours
Claire smiled as she watched her son and her husband play in their back garden. It was a beautiful summer day and the sun hung in a cloudless blue sky directly above them. Tom was dribbling a football as fast as he could across the lawn. Xavier stood crouched down with his palms facing out between two sweaters that were serving as goalposts. Tom was running towards the goal-mouth when he stepped on the ball and fell forward on his face. He got up quickly so none of the non-existent opposing team had a chance to take possession of the ball. Claire held a tray with glasses of chilled lemonade for them. She would call half-time when this charge was over. Tom reached shooting distance and stopped. With immense concentration on his face he lined up the shot. Xavier stood his ground and swayed from side to side, trying to anticipate where the ball was going – even though it was obvious that it was going to the right. Tom took two quick steps back, then ran forward and kicked the ball. Xavier dived to the left and the ball trundled into the right-hand side of the goal. Tom punched his fists in the air and pulled the front of his T-shirt over his head. Tom ran towards Xavier screaming “Goaaaaaaaaaaal!” Xavier caught him and wrestled him to the ground and started to tickle him. Claire started to walk towards them with the drinks.
The air got cold all at once. The sky turned grey in an instant. Claire looked up and saw the sun turning black. She glanced at Tom and Xavier. They had stopped laughing and were staring at the darkening heavens. Claire sensed danger. In a few seconds the land would be completely dark. The drinks slipped from her hands and smashed on the paving stone she was standing on. Tom and Xavier were in danger. Somehow she knew it. She turned to them and ran. Xavier was on his knees with his arms around Tom. They both turned and saw Claire running to them. Their stare was penetrating. Claire ran faster but she didn’t appear to be closing the distance between them. Tom and Xavier were still as statues, staring at her, waiting for her. Claire pushed herself even harder. Her heart and lungs were fit to burst with the exertion. She was still the same distance from them, despite the fact that every stride she made was moving her forward. Tom and Xavier’s mouths began to move slowly and silently. They stared at her. They needed help. From below them the grass began to tear. They didn’t see it and Claire tried to warn them as she ran. They couldn’t hear her and remained fixed in place. The lawn tore up and arms shot up from the ground. The arms were encircling them now and grabbing. They remained oblivious to the threat and continued to stare at Claire. The fingers of the arms walked up their bodies like spiders and secured a tight hold on their clothes and limbs.
Then Claire noticed the gap had closed. She was getting closer to them. The arms pulled downwards and in a few seconds they had pulled Tom and Xavier under the ground. Claire screamed. The hole in the lawn was repairing itself. Claire was close now. She jumped to try to reach the hole before it closed. She landed hard on the ground. The hole was only large enough for her to get the fingers of her hands in. She lay on the ground trying to pull the hole open again. She pulled herself forward and looked down into the hole. She couldn’t see anything in the darkness. She shouted for Tom and Xavier. She saw movement below. She moved her face closer. Blood erupted from the hole and covered her face.
Claire jumped up from the bed and screamed. She was in the hospital. She was sitting in a chair beside Tom’s bed. Her head had been resting on his mattress when she had fallen asleep. Tom was awake and looked at her with an understanding look on his face. It was almost as if he had known what she had dreamed. Claire looked around the ward and saw a couple of nurses whispering and looking at her with concern. Claire forced a smile and said, “Sorry. Just a bad dream.” The nurses looked satisfied and walked away.
Claire felt stiff from sleeping in the awkward position. She stood up and stretched. She caught her reflection in the little mirror over the sink. She looked terrible. Her make-up had run and been smudged. Her hair was doing a passable impression of tumbleweed and her little black Gucci dress was torn and filthy. The only thing that was still beautiful was the locket that Xavier had given her. She rubbed it lightly between her thumb and forefinger. She looked down at Tom. She was going to reassure him that her scream had just been the product of a bad dream but the look on his face said that he knew already. He didn’t even look scared.
“You need a shower, mummy,” he said calmly.
Claire laughed in his face. She was so relieved that he seemed unchanged by recent events. She had feared he would clam up and live in a constant state of fear. There was something special about Tom and though all mothers say that about their children, Claire knew that her little boy was more special than most. “You’re right, I do,” she answered. “But I’m going to stay right here with you.”
“You’re scared of the bad man getting me, aren’t you?”
Claire was shocked by the candour of the question. She forced a smile. “No one’s going to get you, Tom. Your daddy and me won’t let anyone.” She wanted to change the subject. She didn’t want to continue in case Tom sensed the fear and doubt in her voice. “So, how badly do I stink?”
Tom was quiet, studying her it seemed. “You can have a shower soon, mummy.”
“What do you mean, honey?”
“Daddy can watch me.”
Claire was just about to reply when Xavier walked through the door carrying a carrier bag and Claire’s hockey-stick bag. She looked at Tom and felt uneasy. Apart from him apparently being able to see the future, he seemed so unemotional
about everything now. Maybe Kaaliz attacking had affected him. Claire smiled at him and walked to Xavier.
Xavier kissed her quickly and handed her the bags. “I bought you some new clothes and there’s a sword in the hockey bag,” he whispered.
Claire looked worried. “You think he’ll come here?”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
Claire nodded sombrely. “Can you watch him for twenty minutes while I get cleaned up?”
“Sure.”
Claire looked back at Tom, reluctant to let him out of her sight for even a moment. Then she forced herself to go. As Claire went over to one of the nurses and arranged somewhere she could have a shower, Xavier sat down beside Tom. He was trying to think about how to explain all this to the boy when he spoke.
“Mummy’s scared, daddy.”
“Don’t worry, Tom. Your mummy can handle herself. She won’t let anyone harm you.”
“Who is the bad man, daddy?”
Xavier shifted uneasily in his chair. “He’s someone your mummy and I knew a long time ago. We had a bad falling out with him and then he went away. We thought he was dead but he must have just been…in jail.”
They talked for the next half-hour with Tom asking questions and Xavier giving simplistic answers and trying to tone-down the threat that Kaaliz was. By the time Claire came back it seemed he had answered all Tom’s questions to his satisfaction. Xavier stood as Claire talked with one of the nurses by the door. She was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a grey fleece and a pair of running shoes. Her hair was still damp and hung about her shoulders. Xavier thought she looked beautiful. He turned to Tom and kissed him on the forehead.
“Are you going to find the bad man now?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, son. I’ll be back before you know it.” He gave Tom a reassuring smile and then turned to leave.
“Daddy,” Tom said quickly.
Xavier turned round and saw tears in his son’s eyes. “What’s the matter?”
Tom sniffed and wiped away the tears. “Don’t go to the island, daddy.”
Xavier was confused. “What island, Tom?” More tears slid from Tom’s eyes. Xavier sat down on the bed next to him. “Tom, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be back soon.” Tom hugged his dad and Xavier hugged him back.
“Don’t go to the island, daddy,” Tom whispered through his tears as his head rested on Xavier’s shoulder.
They released the embrace and Xavier looked Tom in his glassy eyes. “OK, Tom. I won’t go to any islands – but I wasn’t going to anyway.” Tom sniffed away his tears and nodded. Xavier put his hand on Tom’s head and ruffled his hair. “I’ll see you soon. You’ll be perfectly safe with your mum.”
Xavier walked away from the bed trying to keep his own tears inside. He stopped with Claire at the door. They stared at each other. Each knew how uncertain the future seemed right now. Xavier held her and kissed her. When he looked at her again she looked scared. “Don’t worry, I’ll get him,” he said softly.
“Get him quickly.”
“I’ll try. You keep that sword close at all times.” Claire nodded. Xavier walked down the corridor and out the doors.
Rek and Nicholl returned to the Ministry late that evening after a fruitless day searching for the vampires’ lair. Rek had told her about the boathouse and how he gone back there after the ambulance had taken the screaming girl away. The equipment had still been there and he had staked the place out for hours but to no avail. He had left because he thought the vampires might be wreaking havoc elsewhere and he wasn’t around to help anyone. When Rek had taken Nicholl back there today the equipment was gone. She had to bite her tongue or she would have screamed at him for not putting a tracker on the bag. It was only after walking on the beach for a while she realised that he wouldn’t have trackers.
They had then tried to talk to the girl with the broken leg at the hospital, but she was heavily sedated and the social worker that was dealing with her case said when she was awake she just screamed. The two of them had brainstormed and thought of a few other dark and dingy places where vampires might hide and had visited them all with nothing to show for it. They decided to go back to the Ministry and rest until the sun went down. Nicholl had said they were in for a long night.
The Ministry door was open when they got there. Nicholl drew her gun and walked inside. Sitting in a chair in the records room was a figure with his back to them. Nicholl cocked her gun and the chair turned slowly, responding to the sound.
When she saw the face of the man in the chair she relaxed and put her gun away. “What are you doing here, Goodwin?”
Goodwin stood and the light illuminated his face. Nicholl had always regarded him as an attractive older man, but today he looked exhausted. His grey hair was matted and unkempt and the wrinkles on his faced seemed more pronounced. “I’ve come to bring you back,” he said in his deep, rough voice.
“I haven’t dealt with Kaaliz and Sheridan yet,” she answered flatly.
“You know this mission was never authorized, Nicholl. If the Ministry wasn’t in such a shambles you’d be considered a rogue agent.”
Nicholl could hear the anger building in his voice. “I was following a lead. I’ve done it before without direct orders. Besides, after what happened at HQ I knew it would take time to re-establish a chain of command.”
“Why didn’t you take your phone with you?”
Nicholl shrugged and lowered her gaze to the floor. “I guess I forgot in all…”
Goodwin stepped towards her angrily. “We both know you don’t forget things, Nicholl,” he shouted. Goodwin stopped a few feet from her and calmed himself. “You didn’t take your phone because you didn’t want to be recalled. It was a bloody stupid thing to do! We needed every agent we had left. Everyone in the field was in the middle of an investigation but they all came back when they were ordered to. I know what losing Bradley probably did to you, but there are still protocols to be followed and now fourteen more people are dead.”
“Fourteen more? How?” Nicholl asked impatiently.
Goodwin walked back to his chair and sat down. He rubbed his face with both hands and then began. “After the bombing at HQ the emergency recall was activated. Over the next thirty-six hours, all the remaining personnel met at the bunker. Some of them were at home when HQ was attacked and some were out in the field. Of the two-hundred and forty-six people who worked at HQ, sixty-one are still alive.”
Nicholl walked closer to Goodwin and leaned against a table to hear the rest of the story. Sixty-one people. It was worse than she had imagined.
Goodwin continued. “Kyle’s still alive. He gave the order that while we waited for everyone to show up we should help the emergency services with the rescue attempt. It was tough going. A lot of us thought it was pointless. We dug all day, lifting bricks and rubble. Removing dozens of crushed bodies from the aftermath. People we knew. People we saw every day. Crushed almost beyond recognition. I’ve seen some monstrous things in my twenty-seven years at the Ministry, but when it’s like that, so close to home…I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night.” Goodwin swallowed hard. “Then, when we were all tired and at our lowest, we found a survivor.”
“Who was it?” Nicholl asked.
“Beech. From Administration. Do you know him?”
Nicholl shook her head lightly.
“He had been trapped under an iron girder and though it crushed both his legs beyond repair, it was also what saved his life.” Goodwin paused. “They had to amputate both his legs. The doctors say he’ll live, but the emotional trauma is going to be a lot harder to overcome. Anyway, finding Beech alive brought a fresh vigour to the rescue crew and as more agents arrived, the work seemed to go a little faster. There was another spike of hope near dawn when we heard someone tapping out S.O.S. We didn’t get to that one in time, though. We worked all the next day carrying out bodies to the ambulances that were being filled as soon as they arrived. By twilight, some of us hadn’t slept for two days an
d we were going to leave to get a few hours sleep. Then it happened.”
Nicholl tensed but did not speak. Rek’s phone rang and he patted the pockets ‘til he found it and stepped outside to talk.
“In our desire to find survivors we had forgotten something very important. We had forgotten that Kaaliz wasn’t the only vampire on Level Six. Blame it on fatigue or exhaustion if you want, but not one of us remembered that the vampires could have easily survived the blast if they were far enough away. They could have survived the falling debris, and the lack of oxygen. They could have survived it all…and they had.
“The vampires erupted from the rubble as one. There were four of them. They must have been digging up as we were digging down, all following the same route. They had felt the heat as they got closer to the surface and had lain in wait for the sun to go down. We weren’t prepared. No one was armed. You have to remember most of the people helping weren’t hunters; they were researchers, scientists and accountants. They ran and no one blames them for that. What hunters we had armed themselves quickly with whatever they could find; iron bars, broken splints of wood, stuff like that. The vampires flew over them and attacked the fleeing masses. They killed three firemen and eleven of our people and then flew off into the night. We never even grazed one of them. Maybe now you understand why you have to follow orders.”
Nicholl kept staring at the ground. “I don’t think I would have made much of a difference.”
“We’ll never know,” Goodwin said solemnly. “The point is, now we have four more vampires out there and they are all much older and more experienced than Kaaliz and Sheridan. They aren’t a priority and you’re our best hunter so I’ve been ordered to bring you back. Your orders are to track down the other escaped vampires. I’ve brought you dossiers on all of them; you can study them on the plane. You have full authority to second anyone you wish and law enforcement and army personnel will be at your disposal.”
