Dead by Dawn

by Wellman, Bret

  “The virus shows no reaction?” asked a woman on the left.

  “None.”

  “No signs of burning, red skin, blisters, rashes?” asked the hook-nosed man.

  “The only indication we are given at all is the vampire’s reaction. As far as we can tell it’s merely reacting out of fear.”

  Dr. Bennet clicked the projector to a picture of the vampire in the lab. There were a few scientists in the corner of the picture all huddled over a microscope.

  “During the daytime, specifically when the sun is up, the virus releases a chemical in the vampire’s body. We discovered that it was a new mutation of Melatonin. It’s quite powerful and knocks the vampire out.” The next slide showed Dr. Bennet poking the vampire with a long metal rod. “It puts the vampire into a deep sleep, though it can be woken up if it’s stimulated enough. As soon as the vampire relaxes again, it will pass back out. Now as far as we can tell this reaction doesn’t occur in the brain, as with regular Melatonin, but rather inside the virus itself. The vampire’s cells are going to sleep, not just its mind.”

  Dr. Bennet clicked to the next slide. This time the picture of a fang appeared.

  “It took one hour for that fang to grow back,” he said, shaking his head. “Behind the fang we found a small gland containing fresh EN cells. We believe he can use this gland to inject its victims, much like a poisonous snake would do with venom. Somebody who has suffered such an injection would turn at a far greater speed than somebody simply bitten. Under the same principles, if this vampire knew what it was doing, it could choose how long it wanted to take before its victim turned.”

  “For what reason?” asked Smith. “To infect as many people as possible without anyone noticing?”

  “I don’t know,” said Dr. Bennet. “It’s just a theory. Also we think it has the option to not turn its victim at all if it chooses. This could make some of its food sources last indefinitely.”

  General Smith tapped his finger against his forehead and closed his eyes. “This isn’t good.” He opened his eyes to find everyone watching him. “Go on,” he said, gesturing to Dr. Bennet.

  “That’s pretty much it,” said Bennet. “We haven’t had enough time to do any further testing.”

  The hook-nosed man stood up, followed by a lot of the others. “Thank you for the information doctor, now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of information to process.”

  Dr. Bennet nodded to him, but he was already heading for the door.

  “Looks like it’s time to get back to work,” said Smith as he stood up.

  Dr. Bennet let out his breath. He had been dreading this meeting for a long time. Now that it was over, he could almost relax. Almost.

  There was still a vampire in his lab and a long list of tests to run.

  Chapter 9

  Adam cooked his mom breakfast while he waited for her to wake up. He was by no means a good cook, but he could handle bacon and eggs. At least he could keep them from getting completely burned.

  His mom stayed up extremely late at the hospital the night before, dealing with Carl’s death. Adam raced to her side when she gave him the news. It was a horrible scene to walk in on. Carl lying dead in a hospital bed and his mom weeping over the body while hospital staff tried to coax her away so they could do their job.

  By the end of it all, Adam fell asleep in a waiting room chair. He was feeling it now, a giant kink in his neck. It wasn’t until early the next morning that he finally headed home.

  He pulled a few pieces of bacon and replaced them with fresh ones. Once they were sizzling he rubbed his sore eyes with the back of his hand.

  He had a lot to think about.

  He remembered those long hours in the waiting room, the things he saw.

  He was left alone in the hall, sitting in a small area that was furnished with couches and a television. The news played, though it was muted. “Breaking News,” was permanently printed near the top of the screen and “Live,” at the bottom left. It kept switching between reporters, one at a funeral home, one at a seemingly random office building and one in front of the white house.

  Adam could have picked up the remote and turned on the volume at any time. He didn’t though, because he’d never been one to watch the news. Instead he played a game on his phone.

  In the course of twenty minutes he watched three people being rolled past in wheelchairs. Each displayed the same blue lips and lack of color as Carl. Only one of them appeared to be conscious, the other two let their heads lay back and go limp. Each one reminded Adam of how close he actually was to this pandemic. If he didn’t end up with this frightening sickness, it would be a miracle.

  An hour or so later, he wasn’t sure exactly how long, they rolled a gurney in the opposite direction. There was a body on it, draped under a white sheet. Adam leaned instinctively away as it went by. A few minutes later one of the nurses accompanying the gurney came back. She looked completely panicked and he could tell she was fighting the urge to run.

  Adam closed his phone and listened intently as she approached the head nurse.

  “They’re gone!” Her voice came out as though she was attempting to whisper, but it was loud.

  “What do you mean,” asked the head nurse. She was a shorter lady with a stocky build. She looked even more buff when standing next to the slender figure of the panicking nurse.

  “The bodies, we reached the morgue and they weren’t there.”

  “Someone moved them?”

  “I don’t know, I mean I guess they had to, right?”

  A dark shadow passed over the stocky nurse’s features. “Well who’s on shift tonight?”

  “We think it’s Tim Howe, but we can’t find him either.”

  “Alright,” said the head nurse. “If no one can get ahold of Tim in the next ten minutes I want you to notify the police.”

  The slender nurse nodded. “Should I go back down there and help?”

  “Yes, I can handle things up here for a while.”

  “But what about you know, all the new patients coming in?”

  “I’ve been doing this for over thirty years. I think I’ll be fine. Besides, I have Dr. Rue’s help. Now go.”

  The slender nurse hesitated then turned and walked out of sight. Only when she was gone did Adam see the look of panic on the head nurse’s face.

  Something big was happening and he suspected it was something similar to a massive anthrax attack or black plague or something.

  The truth of it all wasn’t being reported, not the way he saw it last night. Most likely the government was trying to cover it up. It wouldn’t do any good to have massive panic erupt. Better to keep people ignorant and calm while they figured out what to do.

  He wished they would figure it out fast. He sure as hell didn’t want to catch what Carl had.

  And the bodies, the government was probably taking them out and burning them so they didn’t make even more people sick. It was the only explanation he could think of.

  Adam was overcooking a pancake and had to fling it off the skillet. It missed the plate and landed on the counter. He picked it up as fast as he could while it burned his hand and tossed it on the plate.

  The smell of cooking grease made his stomach growl. It was one of the greatest smells to ever grace the morning. He couldn’t help but take a piece of finished bacon and eat it.

  The government’s burning bodies under the cover of darkness, he thought as he chewed. No, that’s crazy. Maybe I’m just making a big deal out of nothing. The news would have to report on it. That’s freedom of the press. They can’t stop any reporting.

  Deep down he thought maybe they could.

  When the pancakes were done he poured some orange juice and brought it all to his mom’s room. She was asleep so he set it on the night stand.

  He went back out and sat on the couch. His eyes were still sore and he ached in places that made him feel older than he was. But he couldn’t sleep.

  This left him sitting there w
ith only his thoughts and the clock to listen to.

  He felt very disturbed. Something was wrong and he didn’t know exactly what it was.

  After five minutes the ticking clock felt like it was inside of his skull. If he had to sit there anymore he thought it might drive him insane. It wasn’t much longer after that he decided to go into work even though he’d already called it off. Just for an hour or two. He figured his mom would still be asleep by the time he got back.

  He took one last glance towards his mom’s room before heading out to his bike.

  “I thought you weren’t coming in,” said Henry Mcallen when Adam walked through the front doors of his work.

  “My mom’s still asleep so I figured I could make it for an hour or two. Would that be okay?”

  “Hell yes it would,” he had an angry scowl permanently sketched on his face. “Wilkins and Brown decided not to show up today. I guess they forgot I’m trying to run a business here.”

  “They didn’t let you know?” asked Adam.

  “I haven’t heard a peep out of them. It really pisses me off. You can start on Brown’s vehicles. He has a few brakes that need changing so it should go fast.”

  Adam gave him a nod and then set to work. It was going to be an easy couple of hours now that he could do something other than the crap jobs he was always given. Working on new cars would be a dream. He couldn’t wait to work on bolts that actually turned when you wanted them to.

  Somewhere deeper in the shop an impact wrench was barking. It echoed repeatedly a few times before dying down.

  “How’s your mom holding up?” asked Henry as soon as Adam got the first car on the hoist.

  “It’s too soon to tell,” said Adam in between bursts with the impact wrench. “We’ll see when she wakes up today. I imagine it won’t be good.”

  “It never is,” said Henry, he put his head down and headed back to do more work.

  Once he was gone Adam was able to concentrate. He had the car he was working on done in twenty minutes and was on to the next one.

  Barry showed up a half hour later looking hung over and half asleep.

  “Henry called you in too?” he asked. “He must be desperate.”

  “Nah, I came here on my own. Had to get away for a little bit.”

  “You mean you chose to come here? Like of your own free will?”

  “I couldn’t sit in that silent house anymore. It was driving me crazy.”

  “Afraid the dead guy was gonna jump out and get you?”

  Adam shook his head. “Always the classy guy Barry.”

  “What? I thought you hated him.”

  “He just died last night man.”

  “You should be happy.”

  “Somebody dying should not make anyone happy.”

  Barry shrugged. “I was happy when Osama bin Laden died.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  Adam went back to working on the car, but Barry didn’t leave. He wondered how long it would take Henry to get pissed at them for chit chatting. Usually it wasn’t long.

  “How late were you at the hospital last night?” Barry asked.

  “I don’t know. We left sometime around four.”

  “Dude, you must’ve just missed it then.”

  “Missed what?”

  “They’ve been taking extra precautions to try and stop all the body snatchings that have been happening right? Well a nurse working at the front desk is claiming to have seen one get up. They actually put the story in the paper this morning, at least that’s what people on Facebook are saying.”

  “The body?” asked Adam.

  “Yea man. She said it got up and walked out of the room. What’s even more freaky is there were three other eye witnesses who claimed to have seen it walking down the hallway and out the front door.”

  “Last night when I was there?”

  “Must have been after you left. The whole place was going crazy. It’s a freaking zombie!”

  “So what, it turned out the person wasn’t dead after all?”

  Barry shrugged. “Well I would think, but no one knows. They never found the body.”

  “No one stopped him?”

  “The nurse tried, but he ran out the door.”

  Adam stopped working and turned back. “Seriously?”

  “Yea. A lot of church people are claiming the final judgment day is here. They keep saying something about two men being in a field and one disappearing.”

  Henry came up behind them looking just as irritated as ever. “I’m not paying you guys to talk.”

  Barry lingered for a moment, a stupid grin on his face, and then went to start his work. Adam tried to concentrate on the car after that, but couldn’t keep his mind from racing.

  The world was falling apart all around him and everybody was trying to pretend it was normal.

  Or is somebody working that hard to keep a lid on things?

  The question was never far from his mind for the rest of the time he spent at work.

  When he got home his mom was still asleep. The breakfast he made was all gone so he assumed she had at least woken up to eat.

  It was just after noon and he was feeling more awake than he had all day. The things Barry said earlier didn’t seem so bad the more time passed. Sure things were getting a little crazy, but somewhere around the corner was a simple explanation.

  He was beginning to think a terrorist attack was ridiculous. More likely it was just some other disease. Some new strand of Ebola mutated by antibiotics or something. Did antibiotics even treat Ebola? He thought back to his high school days and couldn’t remember anything that would help.

  As far as people seeing dead bodies getting up, and generally disappearing… well that was a job for somebody with a college degree to figure out.

  His mom came out of her bedroom around one and sat down next to him on the couch. She was motionless, looking straight forward. She did almost nothing to acknowledge he was even there.

  “How are you doing mom?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “It’s a nice day outside, maybe we should go sit out on the front steps?”

  “Carl visited me last night.” Her voice came out weak and raspy.

  “What?” asked Adam, sitting bolt upright.

  “He came to my window and I let him in.” Her eyes were distant.

  “Mom,” said Adam, placing his hand on her shoulder.

  He drew back and took in a sharp breath. She was ice cold. Now that he looked, she was pale too. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she lost a lot of weight.

  “You’re sick!”

  Like an answer to his accusation, she began to cough.

  Chapter 10

  Joe didn’t like anything he read in the morning paper. They were saying the entire east coast was suffering the first effects of a new plague. Bodies were disappearing and the homicide rate had risen, particularly around people guarding those bodies. All of it was happening faster than authorities could keep up. Hell, it was happening faster than anyone could keep up.

  With all the extra crime, the mystery of his slain dog had fallen to the wayside.

  They’re sure as hell gonna remember when I kill the son of a bitch. He better pray he never steps on this property again.

  Now that he’d fed and milked the cows he was able to let his frustrations simmer. Things didn’t seem nearly as bad as they were saying. Out in the fresh air of his farm, he couldn’t help but think the stories were just from the radical news doing what it did best. Most likely somebody was making a mountain out of a molehill in order to sell more papers.

  Even so, he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of unease in his gut. His instincts agreed with the paper, something was wrong. Whether there was a plague or not, that didn’t seem right either.

  He thought about Charlie and Rose and decided to give them a call. It would make him feel better to check on them, considering everything that may or may not be happening.


  He dialed their number twice and both times got an answering machine. Rose’s sweet voice came on the line, telling him to leave a message at the beep.

  He ran his hands over his stubbly chin as he stood there and thought. Rose never left the house much in her old age, especially if it wasn’t Sunday. She loved phone calls and would usually be waiting to talk his ear off. It wasn’t right.

  His next decision took no hesitation and little thought. He tossed his twelve gauge behind the back seat of his old F-250 and took off down the driveway.

  There was a two track a little ways down his driveway that cut directly between the two farms. It was bumpy and narrow, with fields of corn reaching out from either side. Joe took it and was pulling into Charlie’s driveway in less than two minutes.

  The ground was a lot smoother on the driveway. The truck stopped bouncing and he was able to go faster. When he reached the house he came to a skidding halt. The cloud of dust that was chasing him caught up a few seconds later.

  Joe knew something was wrong immediately. The front door was wide open, screen and all.

  He reached back and grabbed the twelve gauge before getting out of the truck. The blue sky hung over his head as he crossed the front yard. The sun was glaring and he was glad his hat was on to protect his eyes. The dog days of summer were making their first appearance and he knew he would find little escape from the heat for the next few months.

  “Charlie, Rose, is everything alright?” he called as he approached the door.

  The only response was a soft creaking as the screen door swayed back and forth with the breeze.

  The house was two stories and taller than it was wide. The siding was a grayish white with green shutters on all of the windows. There was a time when the house looked immaculate, but the paint began cracking and fading in more recent years. Joe was waiting for the day when Charlie would come ask for help painting it. He would try and pay for the work, but Joe would refuse his money. They would probably go back and forth for weeks until Joe gave in and took it.