The Black River (The Complete Adrift Trilogy)

by K. R. Griffiths

  Herb had immediately ruled out using the fire escape, arguing that there was every chance they would end up trapped in there with no way to flee.

  Nobody seemed to want to debate it.

  Conny thought it would take them the best part of an hour to reach the ground level on foot—and that was without taking into account the possibility that they might need to hide or fight for their lives at any moment. She gripped the pistol that she had taken from Burnley, running her thumb over the cool metal grip. This time, carrying a gun didn’t give her any sense of power; not at all. It made her feel afraid.

  Her mind wanted to run back to Robert Nelson’s face; his sightless eyes fixed on the tunnel roof; grief and remorse tried to clutch at her throat.

  She blinked firmly, trying to clear her thoughts, refocusing only on what she could see as she paused at a railing which overlooked another set of steps leading down, to yet another residential area. Each level contained less than a handful of vast apartments, much of their interiors half-visible through the gleaming glass walls.

  Not for the first time, Conny was struck by the sheer decadence of the place. In Herb’s apartment, she had peered into a small bathroom, and noticed that the entire wall alongside the toilet was a window. There was no curtain to draw across; no need for privacy. The Shard loomed so far above everything else in London that the residents could shit right in front of the people far below and not worry about being seen. The notion had struck her as both oddly comical, and strangely sad. A bizarre thing to aspire to, she had decided; accumulating enough wealth that you could wipe your arse while staring down at an entire city from a glass box in the sky.

  She glanced at Logan.

  He still refused to meet her eye, but his sulk had mostly evaporated; boiled away by the terror of seeing the monsters up close. It was funny how quickly the sight of a vampire reorganised one’s priorities. Logan was confused and scared enough without throwing giant carnivorous insects into the mix as well.

  “You see anything, Lo?”

  Logan stood alongside her at the railing, surveying the level below. Two huge apartments took up almost the entire floor. As far as Conny could see, they were empty.

  “No, nothing,” Logan mumbled.

  She glanced at him in surprise. She hadn’t expected an actual response.

  Logan kept his gaze firmly on the level below, and Conny nodded to herself. Best to let him have time. He’d come around eventually.

  She gestured at the others, filing along behind her toward the viewing platform, to follow her lead, and moved on, quashing her desire to hurry.

  There were around a dozen of the creatures in London, if Herb’s theory had been correct. If he was right about the power stations, any others that were hunting Dan Bellamy would take a long time to get there from other parts of the country. There was little point worrying about them—not as long as Remy continued to make good time.

  A dozen, Conny thought. Even if they were all inside the Shard, there was a good chance that they wouldn’t run into the vampires. The building was large enough to get lost inside for days, and once they were beyond the residential levels, there would be a lot more places to hide.

  She made her way down to the next level, allowing her confidence to rise, just a little.

  *

  They were on the fifty-fifth floor, almost clear of the residential levels, when Remy growled softly for the first time.

  Conny froze immediately, holding up a hand to halt the others behind her. She knelt next to Remy, listening to his breathing, feeling the thrumming of his heart against her palm. He seemed anxious about something, but not in the same fraught way he had been back in the tunnels of the Underground.

  Conny frowned, scratching the back of his neck, and listened for the sound of movement.

  Nothing.

  Herb shuffled alongside her.

  “What is it?” he whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Conny shook her head. “When he ran into the vampires before, he was terrified. Now…I’m not sure. He seems more intrigued.”

  “Maybe he heard something else,” Herb offered, “there could still be people here who refused to evacuate, hiding out in their apartments?”

  Conny focused her eyes on the distant stairwell which led down to the next floor.

  “Maybe,” she agreed uncertainly. “Have the others wait here for a moment. I’ll check it out. Remy, stay.”

  Remy took a seat alongside Herb as Conny crept forward.

  At the stairs, she paused. The level below was almost pitch black as clouds raced across the moon outside the windows, but she thought she detected something in the distance, making its way toward her. A shadow, which seemed to move among the others with purpose.

  She squinted.

  What is it?

  For several tense seconds, Conny’s eyes did battle with the low light as she scanned the wide corridor below. When she had almost decided that it was simply her imagination playing tricks on her, her eyes finally won.

  A glint of light from the centre of the corridor, as if the weak moonlight had briefly caught something reflective.

  Whatever it was, it was only about fifty yards away, moving toward the stairs at a slow, steady pace.

  She gritted her teeth, praying for a break in the clouds; for some moonlight.

  And her prayers were answered. A shaft of pale light illuminated the level below for just a second, but it was long enough for Conny to see.

  Not a vampire.

  A man.

  One man, alone; stumbling along the hallway as though in a daze.

  She retreated as far as Remy and Herb. The others were lined up along the wall, but she didn’t dare lift her voice enough to speak to them all. Instead, she pulled Herb close, breathing directly into his ear.

  “There’s a man down there. Heading this way. Walking like he’s drunk, or drugged or something.”

  Herb fixed his gaze on the carpet, his eyes widening.

  “It’s one of them,” he said breathlessly, “using a human to search for us. Hoping we’ll give ourselves away.”

  “Herb,” Conny said, “he’s coming straight for us. We have to go back up—”

  “We’d just be cornering ourselves,” Herb muttered. “We have to get out of the residential levels. Get down to the hotel and restaurants. We’re sitting ducks in these damn corridors.”

  Conny nodded.

  “Sure, so what do you suggest?”

  Herb grimaced.

  “We have to kill him.”

  38

  Herb gestured at the group to follow, and led them back to the next set of stairs which led back up toward his father’s apartment. The guy approaching them was moving slowly, according to Conny, but Herb needed more time to think.

  Killing the man outright would bring the vampire that had control of him; there was no doubt in Herb’s mind about that. Worse, the creature had to be close, maybe only a handful of floors away.

  He felt frustration rising inside him. The Infinity Pool was only a couple of levels below, and it served as the ‘roof’ of the Shangri La hotel, which occupied the next eighteen floors. If they could reach the hotel, he was sure they would have more options: more rooms, more stairways; anything.

  He flashed a glance at a door marked fire exit, which stood around halfway down the corridor.

  The group had ruled out using the fire stairs for fear that once they entered what was in effect a maintenance stairwell, they might not be able to get back into the central part of the building itself, but it was the only place they could hide. If they didn’t use it, the man searching for them would simply herd them all the way back up the Shard, right back to the apartment.

  In the distance, at the far end of the corridor, Herb saw movement, and ducked back into cover.

  “We can’t just kill the guy,” Conny whispered.

  Herb grimaced.

  “Not sure we have any choice.”

  “We could take the fire exit.”<
br />
  “And if we get stuck in there? We’d be putting ourselves in a place with only one way in and one way out.”

  “Like right here,” Conny said pointedly. “We can’t kill him.”

  “It’s not ‘him’ anymore,” Herb said. “Whoever that guy was, he’s gone now. Just an empty shell. If there’s any part of him still in there, he’d probably thank us for putting him out of his misery. We’d be doing him a favour.”

  Conny pursed her lips.

  “Some favour.”

  Mancini hustled forward.

  “What’s the problem?”

  In the distance, Herb heard a strange, soft clunk, and risked a peek around the corner.

  The vampire’s puppet had made it halfway along the corridor, and was checking the fire door.

  Shit.

  In around a minute, the group would be forced to retreat back up to the next level. And then the next.

  Trapped.

  Waiting to be discovered; waiting to die.

  Even if we do kill him, we’ll just bring his master down on our heads. No way of knowing how far away the vampire is. Could only be a level or two.

  “We need a distraction,” Herb whispered, focusing on Mancini. “We can hide on the fire escape, but he’s checking the doors on each level. We need to find a way to get him to move right past without checking. Something to draw him away.”

  “Something like a cellphone ringing?” Mancini said, slipping a small black phone from his pocket and holding it up.

  Herb frowned. He knew exactly what Mancini was suggesting—that he could run up a level or two and set the alarm on his phone. Maybe, if it trilled at just the right moment, it would persuade the approaching man to hurry past the next fire door without checking it.

  Another desperate plan, he thought. He didn’t dare risk another look around the corner. He nodded at Mancini.

  “Go,” he said, “quickly. The further up the building you get, the more time we’ll have to run. Once you drop the phone, take the fire exit back down to us. We’ll keep the door open for you.”

  “Run?” Mancini repeated, his eyes wide with doubt.

  “Yeah, run. I’ve tried fooling these things before, and they are far from gullible. If it takes the bait, we won’t be safe for long. I’m betting it will know straightaway that we have slipped past it. We’ll have to make a run for the hotel. It’s only a couple of floors down from here. We’ll be able to lose them in there. I hope.”

  “Running will be noisy.”

  Herb nodded.

  “Yeah. But it’s all we have. Go.”

  Mancini turned without a word, and jogged lightly up the stairs, his footsteps inaudible. He might have time, Herb thought, to carry the phone up a couple of levels at most. It would have to be enough. Once he dropped the phone, he could enter the fire escape and make his way back down to meet them.

  Herb waved at the others to follow, and made his way back up the stairs, following Mancini slowly, and quietly.

  On the next level, when he reached the fire door, Herb pressed on the bar and eased it open quietly. They would all fit into the fire escape, of course, but there would be nowhere to hide once they were in there. If the puppet opened the door, the game would be up.

  He waved the others inside, and waited.

  He figured Mancini had around thirty seconds. He closed the door, stopping just before the lock engaged, and left a crack through which to peer. Outside, the hallway was still empty, but only for a few moments. He saw movement in the darkness by the stairs, shuffling toward him slowly.

  His heart began to pound loud enough that he felt sure it would give them away, and he winced when he heard a fire door opening above. It sounded like Mancini had made it up a couple of storeys.

  The man outside approached the fire door, and a cold sweat broke out on Herb’s brow. If Mancini’s alarm didn’t go off…

  The figure in the hallway was barely five yards away. Herb was desperate to keep the door open a crack to see, but he didn’t dare. He closed it until he felt the lock trying to engage, and stared at it furiously, waiting for the man outside to push it open.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  Pressure on the door.

  Starting to push.

  This is it, Herb thought, and felt energy begin to fizz through him. The plan had failed. Running blindly was going to be the only option.

  The door opened a crack.

  And somewhere above, a loud, cheerful tune rang out, splitting the silence.

  The pressure on the door lifted abruptly, and Herb heard footsteps departing in a hurry.

  He felt Conny at his back.

  “Shouldn’t we make a move?” she whispered.

  Herb grimaced, and shook his head.

  “Wait,” he said.

  After a moment, he heard it. Clicking on the main stairs. Coming up fast. When it reached the hallway, the carpet muffled its approach a little, but the vampire was moving quickly, oblivious to the noise it was making. It thundered past the fire door, and Herb waited until he heard it clicking up the next stairway to the floor above.

  “Move,” Herb whispered. “Quietly. When it comes—and it will—just run.”

  He pushed the fire door open, and burst out into the dark hallway, breaking into a near-silent trot.

  He had made it as far as the steps leading down to the next level when he heard the screech a couple of floors above, and knew that the ruse had been discovered. The monsters weren’t stupid—far from it—and he was certain that the creature would immediately realise that it needed to descend.

  Before the screech had receded into silence, Herb growled run in a seething whisper, and began to sprint.

  And somewhere above, the vampire followed.

  39

  The Infinity Pool represented the top floor of the eighteen-storey Shangri-La hotel. The pool itself was small, set alongside a fully equipped gym and fitness centre. At any other time, the sight of the pool, nestling alongside a huge window which offered an extraordinary view of the city below, might have taken Dan’s breath away.

  If he had any left.

  The others were pulling away from him, and with each stride, he felt pain shooting across his abdomen as he tore more stitches out of his wounds. Another screech somewhere behind and above him told him that running was an option with a severely limited shelf-life. He was just too weak to keep going, and the vampire sounded like it was closing fast.

  There was nothing else for it. He felt weak and sick; unsure even whether he could repeat the trick that he had pulled on the hospital roof, but knowing he had no option other than to try.

  He came to a stop alongside the pool and turned around, waiting for the monster to appear.

  “Dan!”

  Herb’s whispered call barely made an impression on Dan’s mind. He was already looking inwards, searching for the river, wondering if this was to be the last time he ever saw it.

  Some part of him hoped that was true.

  He took in a deep breath, focusing on the entrance to the pool, and flinched in surprise when the doors burst open and a man charged through.

  The man from the hallway, he thought bleakly. He focused his eyes on the approaching man—a middle-aged guy in a business suit with a loosened tie and an untucked shirt who looked like he had probably slept through the evacuation of the building. Most likely, the man had awoken to find a nightmare looming over him, and had known terror for an instant before his mind was plucked away.

  Dan focused on the man’s eyes.

  Nothing.

  His mind is already taken.

  Dan stumbled backwards, making it only a few steps before the businessman tackled him heavily around the waist and slammed him down onto the tiled floor surrounding the pool. For a moment, his vision blurred as the pain in his abdomen became a howling agony. Breath exploded from his lungs, and before he could suck in more oxygen, the businessman drove a solid fist into his jaw.

  Dan’s head ricocheted
off the floor, and for a moment the world went dark.

  Can fight vampires.

  Can’t fight people.

  Still a pathetic, feeble weakling.

  He lifted a hand, trying vainly to block the next blow, and suddenly the weight of the businessman pinning him to the floor was lifted.

  Dan’s head rolled weakly to the side, and he saw Herb hauling the businessman off him and swinging a savage flurry of punches. The man in the suit collapsed backwards, falling into the pool with a loud splash.

  And Herb dropped to his knees.

  His mouth opening in a silent scream.

  The vampire had arrived at last.

  It stalked into the room almost warily, as though unsure of exactly what it might face.

  A good job Herb doesn’t still have the gun, Dan thought dimly, or we’d all be dead already.

  Sickly despair washed over him as he watched Herb pivot at the waist and drive his forehead into the tiled floor with a loud smack. The big man lifted himself up, his forehead dark with blood, and drove himself down again.

  And, finally, the river crashed through Dan’s mind, the rushing torrent of rage and fear and disgust, and suddenly his injuries were forgotten; the pain wracking his body a distant, faded memory.

  He rose to his feet, still aware. Still conscious.

  Not blacking out this time.

  “It’s me you want,” he screamed, unnerved by how unlike his voice the words sounded.

  The vampire whipped around to face him, and the terrible red eyes fell upon Dan. Herb dropped to the floor, lying still, like some kid’s toy which had its batteries removed abruptly.

  The vampire’s attempt to take his mind was weak; water breaking against a vast dam. He batted it aside and took a step toward the monster, drilling his gaze into it, ripping whatever it called a soul to shreds.

  And suddenly, he was the vampire.

  Staring back at himself, and the group of people cowering behind him.

  Dan’s face broke into a wicked grin.

  “I think,” he said, watching himself speak through the monster’s eyes, “that I’m getting the hang of this.”