Bad Timing

by Nicky Peacock

  “Maybe if you stop hurting the people I love, I’d perhaps be more inclined to like you better.”

  “You love them?”

  “Oh crap, did I just put bigger bullseyes on my friend’s backs? Do you hate me that much that you would…?”

  “I don’t hate you!” He grabbed my hands and brought them to his mouth as he fell to his knees. I cringed as he kissed my palms, his slithery lizard lips trailing spittle over my skin.

  “Get your mouth off the lady.” Tate was on his feet and by my side.

  Nicholas looked up at him and narrowed his eyes. He then slowly released me and got up, puffing his chest out trying to match Tate’s stature. “I don’t hate any of you, I just want to…”

  Before Nicholas could push out another of his arrogant, selfish tirades, Green’s voice crackled over the intercom, “Ummm, guys you need to look out of the window.”

  We all shifted to the side window. Although the night was dark, I could clearly see a battalion’s worth of planes at different altitudes flying around us. Were they here to shoot us down? But just as I’d formulated a plan to ensure everyone got a parachute, apart from Nicholas, the cargo doors of each of the planes opened and boxes began to tumble out. Like the Red Cross giving aid to the lost and needy.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “We’re right over the United States. What in God’s name are they doing?” asked Nicholas.

  “What the hell are in those crates?” Tate moved Nicholas aside so we could get a better look.

  “Are they US planes?” I asked.

  “No,” Nicholas replied as he walked away from us, “Those planes belong to the Elders.”

  “What could they possibly want to drop on the States?” And just as I asked the final question, all the answers began to tumble forward out of one of the descending crates. Zombies. The Elders were bombing the US with crates full of zombies.

  I bolted to the cockpit. Green was staring straight ahead, his tight grip of the controls making his knuckles white.

  “Where’s the planes to shoot these things down?” I asked him.

  “The radio chatter completely died ten minutes ago, according to my friend on the ground. She said that she was getting some odd reports from town.”

  “Your friend, the one that was giving us safe passage onto the base, what’s her name?”

  “Mariah. We trained together. She’s a pilot too. Works under Mallock at the base.”

  “Can we trust her? Did she tell the Elders?”

  “No! She doesn’t even know about vampires, she just knew that I had information I needed to get there before they go ahead and nuke England into oblivion.” Green had turned to face me. It was oddly unnerving him not keeping tabs on the space ahead of us. I’m pretty sure that vampires would survive a crash, but our diplomatic mission would be over, along with the lives of all our human friends back in Ireland.

  “Watch the road!” I yelled.

  “There’s no road up here, and the other planes are now flying off.” Green motioned to the plane’s windscreen.

  “Okay, what about this Mallock guy?”

  “I don’t know him, he’s Josh’s contact, and maybe he told the wrong person. But Mariah has access to the launch codes, so she can abort the bomb from the base. We just need to reach her.” Green looked thoughtful.

  Whether the Elders knew about our mission or not, they weren’t taking chances. These dead drops would infect the base. There was bound to be some zombies that would survive the fall, others would explode on impact like bad blood bombs. The infection was going to spread fast. Shame they hadn’t thought it all through. Being out of the modern information loop could have sealed their fate. The bomb was already set and ticking away. If neither Mariah nor Mallock survived the zombie attack, we were all scuppered.

  “What’s our ETA?” Tate gently moved me aside and strapped himself into the co-pilot seat.

  “Down in five,” Green replied.

  “Since when can you fly a plane?” I asked Tate.

  “Honey, you’re not the only one who goes on education sprees.”

  Nicholas was already strapped in by the time we had started the descent. He wouldn’t look at me and he didn’t ask me any teeth clenching questions that would make me want to punch him the face. He just existed in his seat like a piece of furniture that, although you’d never liked it, you’d become accustomed to the use it gave. I had this crazy pang of guilt that I was misjudging him, like I’d somehow disappointed him. And it feels so much worse to disappoint someone than to anger them. Maybe he knew that, maybe he was doing it deliberately. That manipulative scumbag! Well, two could play at that game. I shifted my gaze to my own boots.

  I heard the screams long before we’d set down. This was no longer a diplomatic mission, but a full-on undead battle.

  Green taxied the plane to the base’s fuelling station. He was to stay with it, fill it up and get ready to go again as quick as humanly possible. We three vampires were to venture out and find Mariah or Mallock. And at this point we didn’t care which.

  When the doors opened the stench of death and blood smacked into my senses. We needed to get into the office buildings in the centre of the base, and fast. I looked down at my watch to see that we now had less than two hours to stop the launch, that is, if there was anyone left alive who knew how.

  “We need to split up, cover more ground.” I said, then sprinted across to a nearby hanger. I shouldered in the door and surveyed the scene before me. There were human stains spread across the ground like jam on toast. A small group of soldiers had been forced into a corner of the building by hungry horde of newly turned undead.

  I whistled at them, to gain their attention. But these undead seemed oddly focused. They upheld their barrage on the soldiers, yanking one out of the group to strike. I jumped over the heads of the zombies, and pulled out my scythes. They were heavier than my originals, and knowing Philippe’s tastes, probably more ornate that practical. I kind of wished I’d thought of that before we’d left Ireland, but hey they did look real pretty!

  I grabbed the soldier’s collar and pulled him to his feet. His eyes were unfocused, but he hadn’t been bitten. I whirled round to stand in front of him and bear the brunt of the zombie assault. But the zombies stopped when they got a good look at me. Their moans were now silent and their grabby hands were still. Was it my previous zombie infection that had them puzzled? I shrugged and began chopping off their heads. As I moved I found the scythes’ weight added a smoothness to my strikes. I felt graceful and deadly like a cross between a ballerina and a blender. When I was finished, I looked up at the soldiers, half expecting to take another bullet to the heart. But they didn’t shoot me. They stared for a moment, then moved aside to reveal a small boy. When he smiled you could see his fangs.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you Britannia, I’m Eddie.” He walked forward and extended his little hand to me.

  “Brit, honey don’t freak out!” Tate was suddenly by my side.

  “Tate!” The little boy squealed and threw himself into my friend’s arms.

  “This is the little Prince, isn’t it?” I whispered.

  “I’m so happy to finally meet you,” Eddie said as Tate shifted to hold him on his hip like some overgrown blood-sucking Earth Mother.

  “Is your brother round here somewhere then?” I seemed to remember that his brother Richard had only been eight when the whole zombie murder tower had gone down. I really didn’t want to see a child of that age as a vampire, but I needed to be prepared, just in case the story of him growing up was a half-truth designed to get me over the Atlantic.

  “No, he wasn’t turned. My time in the Tower had affected my health. I would have died if Tolliver hadn’t…”

  “Okay, okay,” I interrupted, “I get it, I don’t need the sire details.”

  “Eddie’s brother grew up. Some of his descents enlisted. When he had his vision, he tracked them down,” Tate explained.

  I loo
ked over at the soldiers. They were all different ranks and even different uniforms. But they all had the same blond hair and blue eyes of Eddie.

  “I saw you, I know your destiny, I know what…” Eddie began to lecture. Tate gently let him slip from his arms so he could approach me. I hate kids. Vampire kids, although just as illegal as turning women, did happen. I just didn’t need one to throw his arms about my neck and tell me a story. The clock was still ticking.

  “I don’t care what you saw. Where’s Mariah? Mallock?”

  “Who?” he asked.

  “Didn’t see everything then, did you?” I ran out of the hanger and started to search for my contact. Time was running out and Eddie could creep me out later with his Nostradamus ramblings about my future.

  I followed the zombies. It seemed that they would be the quickest way to find the largest concentration of living humans. And they were right on the undead money. By the front gates of the base, a mile long line up of cars had accumulated. No doubt the nearby townsfolk making the journey in the hopes that their military would protect them. Zombies were gathered on the inside of the base’s gates, waiting to fall onto the unsuspecting civilians. There were no soldiers here; it would appear that most of them had already been infected or had been half eaten.

  “What are you thinking?” Nicholas had found me and I hadn’t even heard him till he was by my side. His stealth was becoming a worry.

  “That I need to buy you a bell.”

  “There’s no time for your insults, Brianna.”

  He was right. Man, I hate it when he’s right. I looked at my watch again. The countdown to the nuclear bomb was at 1:42.

  Nuts to it. I reached down to where my scythes were attached to my belt. “I’m going to take care of these flesh munchers before those people open the gates.”

  “If the humans in Ireland die, we’ll starve. Jack will starve!”

  The thought of Jack being hurt smacked me in the chest. I wiggled my fingers over my weapons. I closed my eyes but could still hear the cries of help from the people behind the gate. They wanted into the base, but didn’t know that there was a huddle of decaying killers waiting for them. The gate was solid but with the pressure from the humans on the other side it would…it was then that the rumbling sound of a truck revving filled the air, then a loud smash as it battered the gates. They were ramming it. They weren’t through, but it wouldn’t take long and the minute they were, the zombies would descend upon them.

  “We have to get on with the mission, Brit. These people are not our responsibility.” Nicholas put a hand on mine. The feel of his skin made me recoil. I dropped to the ground and swept his legs out from under him. He fell down and back, grunting at the sudden impact.

  The truck then broke through the gates.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Zombies launched themselves onto the hood of the truck and the people that had gathered by the gate were grabbed by undead hands.

  Time was running out. I still hadn’t a clue where Mariah or Mallock were or even if they was still alive. In my many centuries I’d killed both vampires and humans, never blinking, never hesitating, but right now I was rooted to the spot. Death in front of me, death behind me and an asshole I hated struggling to get back up beside me. If I left it any longer, there’d be nothing left to internally debate; time would decide for me. I pulled out Xyla’s syringe and injected myself.

  I had half imagined a Jekyll and Hyde type of reaction, my limbs contorting into supernaturally uncomfortable angles; writhing in agony as a cloud of red mist turned me into a Vambie again. But it wasn’t like that at all. I felt no different. I actually thought it hadn’t worked and that Xyla was full of it.

  Nuts to it, if I was willing to inject myself with an unknown substance to save these strangers, I should just get on with it as quick as I could. Tate would be trying to track down the humans we needed, he was far too practical to just be guided by Eddie’s bizarre visions. I grabbed my scythes and started to stride toward the fresh undead carnage. Just as I’d reached the first zombie, I felt a tingling tug on my consciousness, just like before. I flexed it out and the zombies stopped what they were doing. The people were still screaming, but I couldn’t concentrate on them, just the dead.

  I silently gave them the order to move into a group away from their intended victims. They did. My intention was to dispatch them quicker this way. But the fact that they had done what I’d asked was a little off-putting. At this moment I had more in common with them than the blood bags now staring at me with…was that horror, the ungrateful buggers? Maybe I should just let the zombies feed off them? I could do with a little sustenance myself; sweet warm blood would just hit the spot right now.

  “Britannia!”

  I focused my eyes on where my name had come from. Nicholas was stood a few steps away from me. “Please, the time, we need to stop the bomb. Remember?”

  Oh yeah, the bomb. I looked at my watch: 1:30.

  “Good people,” Nicholas yelled out, “We have a cargo plane being fuelled to take you someplace safe. Please make your way to the air strip,” Nicholas pointed over to where Green was re-fuelling, “and allow Captain Green to get you situated. We will protect you and will be along shortly.”

  “Captain?” I said.

  “What did you do? How are you controlling them?”

  The zombies were patiently awaiting orders. I’d never had a proper undead army at my disposal before. This could be the time. The right time to get rid of Nicholas once and for all. I wouldn’t even be blamed for it. It would be the zombies that would kill him, not my fault I couldn’t do anything to help him. He stumbled and fell into them, they just ripped him limb from limb, and I could do nothing to stop them. Honest, it was nothing to do with me.

  “Brit, please, you’re scaring me.”

  The people had already started running toward the plane, their meagre belongings strapped to their backs, dragging children and pets with them.

  I held the zombies in place with the lightest touch of my mind. Their thoughts were pleasantly numb, like a soft white noise that you could fall asleep to.

  “Brianna!” Nicholas shouted at me.

  I shook my head, “I thought I told you to stop calling me that. That was my human name. Brianna is long dead.”

  “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. This is all my fault.”

  “What exactly is your fault? You’re to blame for so much these days, you need to be more specific.” He physically shrank under my gaze. I could feel my zombie power tiptoeing over every inch of my skin. Hunger for fresh flesh and blood starting to gurgle in my guts. I licked my lips.

  “Jack and Josh need you. Please don’t succumb to this.” Nicholas dropped to his knees before me, hands clasped in prayer. The second time today that he had been on his knees before me.

  “Josh, you mean the man you murdered?”

  “I turned him for you. He was to be a peace offering. The Elders decreed that there would be no new vampires till after we had the infection under control. I broke their law for you.”

  “You’re well versed in breaking laws. Give me a reason not to rip your head off right here.”

  “Look at your wrist.”

  I stared down at the digits. 1:19. Crap.

  “Go to the plane. I don’t want to see your face again.”

  He pulled himself up, turned and sprinted toward the plane.

  The zombies were still staring at me, awaiting my orders. This whole Queen of the Zombies thing might not be as bad as I first thought. But then I remembered Philippe and what it had done to my oldest and dearest friend. Twisted his gentle soul and kind heart into something pure evil.

  I sent the instructions for the zombies to kill each other and left to find Mariah or Mallock, whichever was lucky enough to cross my path first.

  I was in the mood to do some damage, so slaughtered every undead shuffler I saw as I searched the base. I felt their existence fade from my consciousness and all
too soon my queen doom days were over. I was just a vampire again. Xyla’s concoction had only lasted about fifteen minutes.

  I was just about to give up and find Tate to see if he had had any luck, when I heard weak shouts coming from a nearby office block. I ran toward the sound. I now had only 50 minutes. My scythes were still in my hands, but I could no longer feel them as separate entities; they were part of me now. The gallons of undead blood I’d split with them had all but wielded their handles to my palms. I kicked down a door to find a single zombie: was it her who had cried out? She was a little unsteady on her feet and I could tell from her outfit she hadn’t worked at the base. She was a civilian. A teenager not much older than myself when I was turned. Her long blond hair was dip dyed neon pink and she was wearing a torn Manga t shirt. She wore an odd, thoughtful look and had a chunk of mid-section pulled out to reveal the pinkish white of her ribs. I heard the cry again. It was coming from the next room. I should have dispatched this odd undead girl, but as I moved toward the door, she didn’t lunge for me or even make a sound. She simply stared as if confused to her role in all the killing. I’m not sure why, but I choose to leave her alone. I kicked down the door to a back office. Three uniformed zombies were attacking a woman. They had her on the floor and I could smell fresh blood. I ran at them, cutting one’s head off instantly, round-housing the head off another. I then used both blades to decapitate the third in a scissor motion. Their bodies thudded to the floor. I was about to do the same to the woman when she held up her hands in surrender. I took a moment to take this in, and saw her name badge. This was Mariah. And she was now infected by multiple bites.

  “Thank you for saving me,” she said.

  I wasn’t sure how long it would take for her to turn, probably minutes, and that’s if we were lucky. But I needed her, since I hadn’t found Mallock. She could be my only shot. If she died we wouldn’t be able to stop the bomb. I had to buy some time.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to her, then grabbed her round the throat and took a massive bite.