by Phil Maxey
“I… I dunno.”
“At some point you’re going to have to tell him what you are…”
“Not if I’m gone. Then I never have to.”
“Anyway, I need to get some more...”
He felt the rays of the sun before they arrived.
“Guess not then.”
Noises came from the kitchen. April was already up, cleaning some dishes, and fixing breakfast.
“Get your stuff ready to leave for later today or tomorrow. Depends on how long it takes to get these crops in, but don’t let your father see what you’re doing until I’ve talked to him.”
Donnie nodded and walked back inside.
Joel slid his hand through his hair then followed him.
Shortly after he was sitting inside one of three harvesters that the Bradleys used to bring their crops in with.
The world’s ended. I’m a vampire hybrid and I’m harvesting wheat.
He started laughing, but stopped when he noticed, a mile in the distance beyond the bottom of the field he was in, a curtain drop back down from the bedroom window of the house.
Marina?
Even though he had not seen who was behind the shadows, he felt it was her. For the last few days he had been able to put his confession behind him. He was thankful for the Bradleys for that, but he also missed the woman he had grown close to. The one person who seemed to ‘get’ him. His friend.
Friend.
The term hadn’t felt right for a while. They were perhaps more. He wondered if there was any way back to what they were becoming…
He shook his head.
“Don’t be an idiot. You killed her husband. There’s no coming back from that.”
He turned on the harvester’s engine. Leaned out of the windows to make doubly sure there was no one around him then eased the huge machine forward.
CHAPTER SIX
Carla Antos sipped on a cool beer. Her boots rested on a small metal chair opposite her and she felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.
The door opened behind her. A woman peered in her direction.
“Another beer?”
Carla smiled but shook her head. “Just one when I’m on duty. Do you mind if you don’t let anyone else onto the balcony, I need to contact my home base in private.”
“Err… sure, I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.” The woman closed the door.
Carla took the cell phone from her pocket and sighed. She couldn’t put off talking to him anymore. She dialed the corporation’s number, and after dealing with an intermediary was put through to Copeland.
“I’m letting you know we have arrived at the Jackson camp. There’s a few thousand people here, more than we thought.”
She heard his gravelly breathing, and her mind started to believe she could smell his foul breath.
“And?”
“No signs of any other Alkron types. But we have only been here a day, we need more time.”
“Keep in mind the clock is ticking, Carla. Ticking on all human settlements.”
“I know…”
The line went silent. Her phone displayed the amount of time she had just spoken.
She looked out over the town square. One of a few which were ringed by shops and bars.
The central area which had been a park was now a shanty town full of tents and stalls. Unlike Haven, Jackson did not have a protective wall to keep the vamps out, but it didn’t need one. The natural barrier of mountains meant when the scourge did hit the winter resort the residents were able to control its spread. Carla had been told though that there were plans for a wall of some sort.
Shame they never will have a chance to build it.
She looked at the fires burning and the people huddled around them. A chill wind coming down from the peaks meant that autumn was on its way, and it wouldn’t be more than a few months before the ground would be peppered with snow.
No time to see the snow again.
She shuddered and rubbed her arms.
At the back of her mind a tiny version of herself, her conscience, pleaded with her to change course. It tried convincing her that the camps that existed around the North American continent needed her help. That with her skills, and the people with her, maybe they could keep the vamps from overrunning the refuges of hope. But then she remembered the thousands of vamps that Copeland dredged up from just a few cities on his way to Haven and knew that out there in the dark were millions more. All waiting to be sent like drones to their human targets. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see a way of preventing that.
Unless I killed…
She stopped her brain from finishing the thought. She still wasn’t sure what his powers were. His child had tracked Joel from across the country. Who knows what his dad could do?
She didn’t want to find out. No, for now she would follow orders and that meant searching the camps for any other strange varieties of vamps.
“Blend in. Gain their trust. Find who they are and bring them back to me. If they refuse, kill them,” Copeland had said before he left her on the hill outside Haven.
An hour after he left she was looking down at the grave of her second-in-command. She thought he would have liked the spot she chose for him despite the smoldering buildings of the small dead town below.
The door opened again, it was the same woman as before.
“Have you finished your call?”
Carla nodded.
“Good. Mayor Groves is ready to announce your arrival at the town hall if you are ready to come?”
*****
Joel dragged the trailer full of wheat to the side of the barn and emptied it into the small mountain of others inside. The other buildings contained corn and beans.
He picked up the grunt from a man working in the next building and walked towards it.
Making sure he and Kirk were reasonably alone, he stepped inside.
Kirk dropped the large sack of corn. “Last one?”
Joel smiled. “I sure hope so!”
Kirk laughed. “Being a farmer too much for that extra strength of yours?”
“Reckon so…”
Kirk continued shoveling the corn into sacks. “What’s on your mind, Joel.”
“We’re going to be back on the road tonight. Most of the journey up to the border is farmland. So there shouldn’t be too much danger from vamps during the night.”
Kirk stood. “That makes sense…”
“And I want Donnie to come with us.”
Kirk paused then frowned. He returned to shoveling. “I apologize for my son going on about leaving. But he knows he’s needed on the farm.”
“It’s for the farm that I want him to come.”
Kirk stopped and stood again. “I don’t understand.”
“We’ll take some of your produce up to the camp. Some of it Donnie can exchange for things you need here on the farm. Then he can bring it back.”
Kirk shook his head. “He’s just a kid. What if something happens on his drive back? Who’s going to help him?”
“I’ll make sure someone comes back with him. He won’t be alone.”
Kirk rubbed his chin. “I don’t know…”
“You’re needed here. You need to talk to the other farms you mentioned before. Help them. Donnie can do the drive, I’m sure of it.”
Kirk went back to his work. “Maybe, I’ll let you know.”
An hour later Kirk walked to his son’s room. The door was already open and Donnie was scouring his room for the last item he needed. His backpack was on his bed, full to the brim. He noticed his father and continued looking.
“So, I guess you’re going then,” said Kirk in the doorway.
Donnie looked under his bed, pulling out a small penknife and pushed it down a small pocket in his pack. “It’ll just be a few days then I’ll be back.”
“You don’t look like you’re packing for just a few days.”
Donnie looked at his father. “Always be prepared. That
’s what you always told me.”
Kirk smiled. “That I did. Like my father told me.” He walked forward and hugged his son. It was the first hug in a long while that Donnie was happy to receive and he gripped his father tightly.
Kirk let go then backed off to the door. “Mom’s waiting downstairs with the others.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“There’s a town up ahead, let’s find a place there to sleep for the night,” said Hawkins to Fields who was driving. Dalton sat motionless in the back.
Soon the two vehicles were driving alongside towering blocklike hotels and casinos, nestled within mounds of rocks and cliffs.
“Pull into the parking lot over there…” He pointed to their left. “We’re going to find some rooms in this hotel. Over,” he said into his radio.
Shaw, driving the Humvee behind, acknowledged and followed. They both parked alongside one of the few vehicles that was left in the lot. A silver truck.
They all got out. Dalton sniffed the night air, glancing up at the moon above them.
“Your vampire senses telling you anything?” said Hawkins.
Dalton shook his head.
Hawkins looked at Amos and Kizzy. “What about you two?”
Kizzy giggled. “There’s a dragon just around that building!”
Hawkins sighed then turned, bringing his M4 down from his shoulder. He pushed a switch on the side of his weapon and an intense bright white light shone from a tube just above the barrel. He looked at his two colleagues. “This is a big place. Chances are there are vamps here.”
They both nodded, holding their rifles ready and switching on their own lights.
Amos could hear the fear within their minds and smiled.
This is going to be fun.
The door of the main entrance was unlocked. Pushing it open, Hawkins moved inside quickly, the barrel of his rifle following the beam.
“Snazzy,” said Kizzy, looking at the decor.
The cones of light briefly lit a brightly colored carpet which covered a large floor area. As Hawkins walked across it his light shone up against the check-in desk which was covered in streaks of dark red.
He leaned over the waist-high counter then climbed up and over, dropping down to the other side. As he decided upon which key cards to take, the other two mercs anxiously studied the entrances to the other parts of the hotel.
Kizzy sat heavily on one of the lounge chairs, picked up a magazine, and started flicking through it while Amos stood with Dalton.
“Right, I got the cards to rooms on the first—”
A sound echoed in one of the halls nearby.
Hawkins flicked a switch on the side of his weapon. The light from it became an intense purple.
Amos flinched instinctively for he already knew the beam was ultraviolet light.
Another clatter came from the opposite direction to the first.
“Maybe coming in here was a bad idea,” said Shaw.
“We can handle a few vamps,” said Hawkins, stepping out from around the counter, and moving closer to a set of double doors.
He pointed his rifle’s beam through the small glass panel in the doors. “Looks clear this way. Come on.”
He pushed the first door open with his boot then stepped through the gap. Fields and Shaw walked quickly across the floor, following.
Amos sighed then went with them as did Dalton.
Kizzy sat in the room as the light disappeared into the corridor beyond.
“You coming?” growled Dalton as he got to the doors.
Kizzy sighed. “Yeah, yeah.” She got to her feet, walked a few feet then retreated, grabbing a handful of glossy magazines, then ran after the others.
The hotel corridor in daylight would have seemed wide, spacious even, but in the shadow-infested dead of night, it seemed oppressive. Even to the three vamp hybrids.
Hawkins led the group, and they soon came to an open staircase. “We’ll take this up—”
A vamp came thundering down the stairs, and was on the merc before he had time to raise his weapon.
Purple beams converged on the flailing creature, each stream searing it’s flesh. Hawkins kicked out sending it tumbling onto the steps, and, getting to his knees, fired multiple rounds into it, killing it.
He let out a large breath. “Thing moved too quick. We need to be—” He looked back to the others. “Where’s Dalton?”
Fields swung his rifle and light around, causing Amos to duck.
“Hey, watch that thing!” he shouted.
Hawkins got to his feet and walked past everyone else, shining his light the way they had just walked. “Where the hell is he?” He looked at Shaw. “He was standing right behind you!”
The female merc looked as uncertain as her colleague. “I dunno. He was behind me when that vamp attacked…”
Hawkins shook his head. “He can’t be that stupid to run.”
“Well, he never really seemed like the brainy type…” said Kizzy, looking down at her magazine.
“What do we do, sir?” said Fields.
Hawkins pulled his phone from his pocket, its screen illuminating the ceiling above it. After a few taps Hawkins eyes widened. “Got you…” He went to move off in the direction indicated on the map.
Amos looked down at the number imprinted on his arm. “Wait… you mean you can track us with this tattoo?”
Hawkins walked past him, moving back the way they came. “It’s not just a tattoo, kid.”
Kizzy frowned towards Amos. “You didn’t know? I thought you knew everything?”
Amos shook his head.
Hawkins stopped, his head still down over his phone. “He’s coming back…” He pointed his gun along the corridor towards the lobby they entered from. The other mercs did the same.
Then they heard it. A repeating scratchy thud.
“What is that?” said Shaw. The barrel of her weapon was now shaking.
“I think we should just leave,” said Fields.
“Hold your ground, son. I’m not running from no freak.”
Kizzy looked up from her magazine towards the lobby doors. “What’s so special about—”
The doors exploded in a shower of splinters and from the melee came a vision of muscles and fangs.
“Oh…” said Kizzy as the three mercs fired at the canine man-beast that tore through the air towards them.
Some rounds hit their mark, but others missed, ricocheting off the walls and ceiling.
“It’s not stopping!” shouted Fields who then turned and started to run in the opposite direction.
“Hold your—” Hawkins wasn’t able to finish as the creature’s huge claws were now around his throat, slowly lifting him off the ground. His rifle fell to the floor. The beam of light now only illuminating a small patch of wall. A snapping of bones signaled Hawkins was no more.
Shaw got off another round of shots, most impacting the creature, but none seeming to have the power to stop it. Seeing the futility in her actions, she turned and ran, but only made it a few yards before falling over the remains of the dead vamp in the dark.
She tried to scramble to her feet, not daring to look behind her. The pounding footsteps of the werewolf grew closer then stopped.
She swung around, trying to make out any details in the gloom behind her.
Kizzy looked up at the beast which almost had to crouch so not to touch the ceiling above them. “What are you doing! We had a good thing go—”
A razor-sharp claw sliced across her chest, through her clothes, revealing her lungs and beating heart.
Shaw and Amos looked on in horror. The former got to her feet and ran.
Kizzy wavered then her muscles and tissue started to form over her organs, and within seconds the outer layers of skin were also mending.
She pushed her hand out angrily towards the snarling creature. “You are not heeelllllppping…”
This time Kizzy’s fingers flew and hit the wall as the beast sliced once again. They quickly re
grew.
“Okay, you want to throw down dog-man. Let’s do it!”
As if she was being pumped up by some invisible liquid her body mass increased, and with a fist equally as large as the thing’s own in front of her, she slammed it forward hitting the creature and sending it spiraling backwards, until the wall stopped it.
It growled then lunged forward.
A flurry of blows, mere blurs, covered Kizzy, but her body was a mass of arms and legs, each one blocking then producing its own strike.
Amos grabbed his temples. He could feel the rage in the two fighting. Feel the anger blocking their reason. They would keep going until one of them was dead. This had to end.
Closing his eyes, he felt his own anger, his own disappointment, his own solitude, all of which he let flow from him.
The shouts, screams, and grunts receded. Kizzy, whose multi-limbed physique was bent around the large canine man-beast like a human snake, morphed back to something resembling human and she jumped off, collapsing to the floor. As she did the coarse hair, snout, and claws of Dalton retracted, until only the man they had been travelling with remained. He too fell to the floor.
They were both sobbing.
Amos breathed deeply, stood, and walked forward to them.
“What the fuck did you do to me?” said Kizzy breathlessly. Her words falling between her tears.
Dalton angrily tried to shake the depression that had fallen upon him, but it was useless. Instead, he curled up into the fetal position.
“We can’t do this. We can’t fight. Copeland’s going to be coming after us.”
*****
A convoy, made up of an army truck with a wagon attached behind and a pickup with another wagon, moved through the void across the Nebraska plains. In the east the darkness was fading.
Driving the truck, Joel could feel it.
He looked out into the fields. Spikey rotating shapes were just becoming visible.
Anna yawned sitting in the passenger’s seat. “How much further?”
