AfterAge

by Yvonne Navarro

“What's the matter, Alex? For God's sake, what's wrong?"

  The dark-haired man was frantically twisting a T-shaped handle on the tank of oxygen and glaring at the pressure gauge. He hissed as his fingers fumbled at it, then dropped helplessly to his sides. "We're fucked." He looked dazed. "I didn't back off the pressure. I blew the diaphragm in the regulator."

  "You what?" Louise asked. Her face was ashen. "Can't you fix it?"

  Alex shook his head, spun, and pounded a fist against the wall. "What a stupid, stupid thing to do!''

  "Can you bypass it?" McDole suggested anxiously.

  "I wouldn't get enough oxygen to make the flame hot enough. It wouldn't cut." He buried his fingers in his hair as the chained woman, her arms and face mottled with ugly bruises, moaned softly. "It's useless. We’ve got to find another way."

  "I've got bolt cutters," C.J. said. He produced a small but new tool from his jacket and handed it to McDole. "Brought for an emergency."

  "Let's see those." Alex snatched them from C.J. and bent to the chain. As with all the others, the end of the chain was padlocked to an old-fashioned radiator as immovable as a table-sized block of lead. "This is hardened steel. I don't think these are going to do it," he said grimly as he fought to make the edges meet through the metal link. The muscles in his arms swelled; there was a loud SNAP! and he blinked, then his face twisted as he held up the busted pieces of the cutters. "Too small to handle it."

  "Go," the woman said suddenly. She squeezed Alex's wrist. "Come back tomorrow or something."

  "You can't do that!" Stephen wailed from behind them. "Don't you see? Anyelet will kill her and the other one, too! You have to take them with you!"

  "C.J., guard those steps," McDole commanded. He looked at Alex and Stephen, then motioned for Louise. "Everybody grab the chain," he said grimly. "Our only chance is to pull this radiator right out of the floor."

  4

  REVELATION 19:6

  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude . . .

  ~ * ~

  Vic sat up and tried to shake the nightfog from his brain. A babble of voices drifted through the pipes and the thick old walls, barely registering in his sensitive ears. Anyelet and the others wouldn't be awake yet; better-fed than Vic, they fell more deeply into nightsleep and stretched it out, knowing that awakening would bring the constant nag of The Hunger. He was always the first to rise, and tonight the chorus of voices and the stench of Howard's room, where he'd decided to hide, forced him awake while the sun was still sinking.

  The noise grew and realization hit him. Humans—louder, more rushed than they should have been. He eased into the hallway and stood indecisively. He should flee; Anyelet had surely given orders to kill him, and as strong as he was, Vic would never survive an attack by more than three of his own kind.

  But all that noise . . .

  Someone was downstairs trying to free the people Anyelet had kept prisoner for so long. The others would sleep for only a little longer; as it had Vic, the noise would tease even the laziest vampires early from their nightsleep.

  But he had a few minutes' jump on them and his mouth stretched in a dark grin. Running with the gangs of his youth had taught him that revenge could be a never-ending game.

  Trade-Offs

  5

  REVELATION 22:9

  For I am thy fellow-servant. . . .

  REVELATION 16:4

  And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers

  and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

  ~ * ~

  "Oh God, oh God!" Stephen was crying and babbling, his frail hands little help as the others pulled savagely at the chain where it looped through the radiator.

  "Shut up!" Alex hissed. “At least try to be quiet!"

  The woman yanked frantically on McDole's sleeve. "Get out while you still can! It doesn't matter about us—for Christ's sake, just run!"

  "One more try," McDole said stubbornly. "One, two, three, heave!"

  "Damn it!" Alex rattled the chain in fury. "Why can't we—"

  The woman caught sight of something over their shoulders and gasped as Alex whirled and raised his fists instinctively and McDole cried out in surprise. Alex had an instant to realize how foolish hand-to-hand would be against the huge creature that faced him, then the muscle-covered vampire grabbed both him and McDole and tossed them aside. Louise bared her teeth and drew a black pistol from her jacket, planting herself between the cowering woman and the vampire. She raised the gun and cocked it, then yelped at the stinging pain in her fingers; he'd yanked the weapon from her hand so quickly she hadn't even seen him move.

  "Hey, you son of a bitch!"

  The creature spun and snarled as Alex primed the Winchester and fired from only six feet away. The slug opened a crater in the vampire's right bicep and he bellowed and tackled the dark-haired man, leaping the distance in the space of a breath. Louise screamed as Alex took a vicious crack in the face and dropped the gun; before McDole could react, Deb's Winchester was in the vampire's hands.

  "Get back," he growled, and swung the barrel at McDole. "Farther, damn it!" He glowered at the two men, then motioned at Louise. Thin reddish fluid dribbled from the hole in his arm. "Get out of the way." When she refused to move, he grimaced, snatched her arm, and pushed her behind him, sending her stumbling into the arms of the two men edging up from the rear. Alex sprawled on the floor and lost his grip on the machete he'd pulled from his belt; it went skittering out of reach as McDole landed heavily on one hip and gasped. C.J. pounded toward them from far down the hallway.

  "Vic," Stephen entreated. He held his hands out. "Please—"

  The former bodybuilder ignored Stephen and hefted the woman to her feet, then grasped the chain a foot away from her ankle and literally tore it apart. He shoved the terrified woman into Stephen's outstretched arms and streaked into the next cubicle as Alex gained his bearings and dived for the machete, then dropped it again when the vampire hauled the final prisoner from his room and threw him at Alex and McDole.

  "Get the hell out of here," he hissed. "Before Anyelet—uh!" His face slackened for a second, then his eyes widened and he grinned. He sank to his knees and pitched forward.

  "Vic!" Stephen cried. He ran to the vampire's side and struggled to turn him over, face filled with dismay at the sight of C.J.'s arrow buried so deeply in Vic's back that it protruded through the front of his chest. Alex helped roll him on one side, hoping frantically that this unexpected ally would survive, but Vic raised a hand and waved them toward the open stairwell door behind them.

  "Go on," he rasped. "I unlocked it." Alex had a flash memory of how horrible Deb's voice had sounded just before her death; this man’s was exactly the same. The vampire sucked in air and coughed; a gout of black-red heartblood gushed down the front of his white polo shirt. He looked down at it and smiled. "Good," he said in that awful death rattle. "I hated being like this." His head lowered to the floor and he was still.

  McDole pulled the woman to her feet and yanked on Alex's arm. "Let's get out of here," he said urgently. "There's no telling how many more are coming. What the hell are you doing now?"

  Perlman was yanking a syringe from his pocket. "Leaving them a present." He ripped off the wrapping and squirted its contents onto the vampire's chest. "Done—let's go."

  "Oh, man," C.J. said. He crouched, looking toward the main staircase unhappily.

  "We are in some serious shit now."

  6

  REVELATION 20:13

  And Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them.

  ~ * ~

  C.J.'s bow found its second kill of the day.

  The vampire, a young, clean-cut man who might have been a store clerk in his former life, gave a loud gurgle as black, oily fluid spewed from his mouth and nose onto his shirt, dripping from the arrow embedded in his chest. He dropped to his knees and the two following him up the stairs bared their teeth and ducked behind him, then yanked his twitching body uprig
ht as a shield.

  "This way." Stephen jabbed a hand toward the stairway door Vic had used. "This will—"

  Gunfire shattered the plaster above their heads. C.J. spun against the wall with a yell as buckshot peppered his right hand and he dropped the bow, then grabbed it again.

  "What the hell has he got!" Alex cried. The woman Vic had freed crawled frantically for the stairwell and Alex planted a hand on her backside and shoved her forward, then rolled and brought up Deb's Winchester, pointing it toward the vampires at the end of the hall.

  "Shit!" the vampire holding the gun raged and primed it again. "I can't control the aim of this bast—"

  Alex fired, pumped, and fired again and again, his aim wild as he pushed himself backward along the floor. One of the creatures reeled with a howl.

  "Motherfucker shot my ear off! He almost killed me!" His companion hurled the semiautomatic shotgun across the hall in fury. "Cocksucker's empty!"

  The other vampire, one side of his head spurting blood, pulled something from his jacket and tossed it to his friend as he swiped at the fluid spilling across his eyes. "Try this."

  "Go!" Stephen screamed. He dragged the woman the rest of the way, then swung the thin man who'd been released last around and tossed him bodily into the stairwell. Louise and C.J., his right hand punctured in a dozen places and nearly useless, stumbled forward and fell into the doorway as submachine gun fire hammered through the air.

  "He's got an Uzi!" yelled McDole. "Keep moving!" Alex pumped the Winchester again, then swore as the chamber came up empty.

  "Got you fuckers now!" cackled one of their attackers. The linoleum in front of Alex splintered as bullets streaked across the floor and McDole stumbled into the stairwell. Stephen, his face red with exertion, leapt after them and slammed the metal fire door, throwing them into darkness as the bar-lock slipped smoothly into place. A second later the vampires began pounding on the other side.

  "This will lead you to the main floor. Turn left when you come out; you'll have to go all the way down to the Wells Street doors. Don't go right—the Franklin Street doors are locked. Now go!"

  No one needed further urging. They tripped blindly down the stairs, C.J.'s bow dangling worthlessly from his left hand.

  "Come on!" McDole demanded when Stephen made no move to follow. "That door won’t hold much longer!”

  “I'm not coming."

  "What!"

  "You're wasting time—they won’t hurt me anyway. Get going!"

  McDole was unprepared for the hard shove the man gave him. He stumbled backward, fighting for balance on the dangerously dark stairs. When he regained his footing, the hallway was silent except for the pummeling on the door, and McDole knew he'd never find Stephen. "Last chance!" he said desperately. When there was no answer, he fumbled after the others.

  On the first floor, the deepening darkness made the hall seem endless, made their shambling, terrified steps little more than attempts to run on ice. When they finally flung themselves through the main doors and onto the Wells Street sidewalk, McDole groaned. Only a trickle of daylight still bled along the tops of the buildings, not nearly enough to keep the vampires inside. At the far end of the hall behind them, the stairwell door banged against the wall as the two vampires spilled out. The underweight man Alex had been pulling along whined in fear

  "Take this!" C.J. shoved the bow into Alex's hands. "I can't shoot anyway. You've got enough time to break into the alley entrance of another building. Choose a small one, barricade yourselves in, and the bow will give you even odds."

  "Where are you going?" Alex's face went white. "Wait!"

  "The only chance you guys have is if something takes their attention away from you."

  McDole grabbed his arm. "A decoy—absolutely not!"

  "You don't have any choice!" C.J. wrenched his arm free and suddenly waved both hands high above his head. "Hey, you rotting little fuckers!" he screamed. "See if you can catch someone who'll fight back!" He laughed then, an insulting giggle teetering on hysteria. "Go!" he shouted over his shoulder as he sprinted in the opposite direction. He glanced back to be sure and saw the group finally flee northward and cut between two buildings, then realized Louise was running alongside him. "What are you doing?" he cried. They wrestled in midstreet as he tried to force her to turn back

  "Stop it!" she yelled. "We've got to go now!" She sprang ahead, her slender legs pumping frantically over the Wells Street Bridge. He chased after her, shouting angrily.

  "It's too late for that, C.J.," she panted. He followed her pointing finger and saw the two vampires burst onto the sidewalk. “And how many more are coming?'

  "Oh, no," he hissed as the two nightbeasts turned toward the direction in which McDole's group had fled. He jumped at a sharp crack! when Louise pulled the pistol she'd retrieved upstairs and fired it, knowing she couldn't hit anything from this distance. The vampires' heads whipped toward them.

  "What's the matter?" Louise taunted loudly. "Afraid you can only catch the old ones?"

  Even from a block away, the teenagers could see their nasty grins as the vampires surged toward them. C.J. clutched Louise 's hand and they began to run in earnest.

  7

  REVELATION 13:2

  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard.

  ~ * ~

  "Come on, Gabriel, speed it up! The shits are getting away!"

  "Not likely." Gabriel's bloodless face gleamed in the growing dusk as he smiled widely. Ron grudgingly slowed his pace to stay with him, the discovery of both Jasper's and Vic's bodies and the danger of outcasts enough to keep him from going after the two humans on his own. Besides, catching them too quickly would spoil the fun.

  "Shit!" cried Ron as their prey veered east off Wells Street and disappeared around a corner.

  Gabriel did increase his pace then, easily passing the heavier vampire and angling wide around the side of a building, then sliding to a halt and peering east. A block down Congress, he saw the two teenagers slip into a doorway and heard the faint tinkle of breaking glass. By now they must be nearing exhaustion; there was no way a human could keep up that kind of speed. Ron joined him and they quickly checked the shadows for outcasts, then eased along the side of the huge Board of Trade Building until they found a door to a small shop where shattered glass speckled the concrete. Inside, he guessed the humans would head straight up.

  "They're really getting desperate!" Gabriel laughed. "That or they think we'll lose them in the building," Ron said.

  "Not a chance," Gabriel responded. "Let's go."

  The two of them darted into the building like hungry, oversized cats.

  8

  REVELATION 18:20

  For God hath avenged you on her.

  REVELATION 15:4

  Who shall not fear thee?

  ~ * ~

  By the time she shot up the stairs and tripped over Jasper's body, Anyelet's vision was red with fury. "What's going on here?" she bellowed. "Where are my humans?" She skidded to a stop behind Stephen and reached for him with razored fingernails, then hesitated. Crouched over someone on the floor, he ignored her as he tucked the blanket tenderly around the body. Stephen's loose clothes were dotted with blood, though he didn't seem to be bleeding himself, and instead of the usual moaning and whimpering there was only silence; inside the door of a room a few feet away sat two smelly metal tanks and an abandoned welding helmet. She shoved him angrily. “Who is this?" she demanded. "And what have you done with my humans?" When he didn't answer, Anyelet bent and yanked the blanket away; Vic's peaceful face came to view, his mouth a slack, crimson hole. She tugged harder and the blanket jerked free, splattering her hands pith droplets of the heartblood leaking from the lethal chest wound.

  "You tell me where those humans went, damn you!" she twisted her fingers in Stephen's baggy shirt and hauled him to his feet. "TELL ME!" she shrieked as she shook him furiously. "Tell me or die!"

  "Th-he-ey ca-ame an-nd got-t th-hem." Stephen's voice wobbled with
his body, but he seemed unconcerned at her rage. "They didn't say where they were going." She flung him away before her temper made her strangle him outright; he bounced against the wall and tripped, then sat staring at her and rubbing his shoulder.

  "Why didn't you go with them?" she hissed. Her fists were clenched so hard her nails were opening deep gashes in her own palms.

  "Because I wanted to stay with you, of course."

  She gaped at him for a moment, then whirled as Rita and four more vampires hurtled into the hall, goggling in amazement. "Get the others," she ordered, "and search for the humans. They'll head north to avoid the river and Lower Wacker."

  The middle-aged woman Anyelet had raged at the previous evening looked at her apprehensively. "I think we're it, Mistress. Gabriel and Ron are usually here before us—"

  "Then the four of you go!" she shouted impatiently. "Move!" They fled down the stairs.

  "Stephen, snap out of it." She crouched next to him. "We have a big problem here." He just kept massaging his shoulder and smiling. “All these hungry vampires and no more food," she continued. She touched his arm, then dropped her hand. Why was he still smiling?

  "You can use me," he suggested. He offered his wrist. "You can all use me. Not that it makes any difference anyway."

  She stood. "You're not making sense." She resisted the urge to slide into his mind; right now he reminded her of Hugh, or Rita after her face had been blown apart, and she would deal with him later. She spun at a tumble of sound and saw Rita and the others shuffling backward up the stairs, scrambling over each other in their haste to get away from something. Werner, the last one, toppled and fell, then did an awkward crawl away from the stairs until the wall stopped him. He cowered against it, shivering and gawking with bulging eyes at the empty staircase. Rita, the scars on her face a livid purple, snarled at the stairwell and huddled a few feet away.