by Philip Henry
‘You’re not giving up that easily, are you?’
Rek turned slowly and saw Kaaliz standing before him. Instinctively Rek reached inside his backpack and brought out a Taser and a stake. Kaaliz looked into his eyes, grinning.
Rek held his stare but shouted, ‘Get these people back!’
The police woman turned and saw Rek advancing on the attractive, though extremely pale man. The crowd seemed to notice him at the same time and were silent apart from a few gasps. A few pushed their way through to the back of the crowd and ran home. The two remaining police officers spread their arms and the crowd allowed themselves to be shepherded back a few steps. They all watched Rek approach Kaaliz.
They began to circle each other. ‘You should have killed me when you had the chance,’ Kaaliz said.
‘Don’t I know it.’
‘You’ll never have that chance again.’
‘We’ll see.’
‘It took me a while to place her, your sister.’
Rek’s blood boiled.
‘Undertaker’s daughter, right?’ He nodded, smiling. ‘She looked a bit different last time I saw her. I have got the right girl, haven’t I? Prefers the man to be on top? Bit of a screamer? Struggles a bit, but secretly loves every minute of it?’
Rek raced towards the vampire and drove the stake into his chest. Kaaliz made no attempt to move. The crowd inhaled, ready to cheer, but stopped when the vampire kept smiling. The stake felt as if it had hit rock. Rek pushed harder but the point couldn’t penetrate the heart of the creature. Kaaliz swung a punch and Rek flew through the air, landing on the bonnet of his car and shattering the windscreen. His back ached and he grabbed it with both hands. Kaaliz pulled the stake from his chest and the crowd whispered in awed amazement as the wound on his chest closed in seconds. Kaaliz tossed the stake aside.
An arrow plunged into his chest where he had just removed the stake. He looked around and saw Rek by the open car door with a crossbow. Another arrow, and another. A dozen arrows in all entered Kaaliz’s body. He laughed as he pulled them out, one by one, like they were splinters.
Rek pulled his sword from the back seat and ran at Kaaliz. He landed a lot of blows but the wounds healed instantly – no vampire could heal that quickly! Rek noticed that Kaaliz would block the blows heading for his neck with his arm. That meant his neck was still vulnerable. He could still kill him if he took his head off. Rek hacked away with all his strength but couldn’t get a clear shot at the vampire’s neck. Eventually he began to tire and Kaaliz took the sword from him and tossed it aside.
Rek threw a punch at Kaaliz’s face. Kaaliz caught it and twisted his arm around behind his back then pushed him. Rek flew full speed into the side of his car. Before he had time to get his senses back, Kaaliz grabbed him by the collar and threw him into the air again. Rek’s back hit the window of the house he had rescued the little girl from and shattered it. He fell forward into the garden and Kaaliz was on him again. Kaaliz picked him up and punched him. To his body. To his face. To his body again. Rek hadn’t even the strength to hold his arms up for defence. Kaaliz dropped him to the ground. He took three running steps towards Rek and kicked him just as he got to his hands and knees. The impact sent Rek into the air again and back out onto the street. He fell awkwardly on his left side and pain shot through his back again.
Kaaliz grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. Blood was dribbling from Rek’s mouth. Kaaliz pulled him close. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. ‘Your scent is intoxicating. Your fear, grief and guilt are like a marinade your body is soaked in. Your blood carries it in every drop.’ Kaaliz opened his mouth and his incisors grew to full length. He leaned in slowly. He was going to enjoy this.
‘Hey!’ The mother stepped forward and wiped her tears away. ‘You leave him alone.’
Kaaliz turned and laughed. ‘What?’
The father whispered in the little blonde girl’s ear then set her down. She pushed her way through the crowd and ran home. The father stepped forward. ‘You heard her, leave him alone.’
The police woman lowered her arms and threw off her cap. She stepped forward.
‘And you mortals are going to make me, are you?’ Kaaliz smiled.
Throughout the crowd children ran backwards towards their homes. The adults stepped forward. The father looked behind and was emboldened by the support of his neighbours.
He took another step toward Kaaliz. ‘We’re not going to tolerate your kind anymore. You’ve walked among us too long. Too many of our loved are in their graves because of you and your kind. No more.’ He turned to the crowd and shouted, ‘No more!’
The crowd surged forward as one. Kaaliz was dumbfounded. What were they doing? He dropped Rek. Suddenly there were hands all around him. Scratching, punching, ripping at his skin. Some had rocks in their hands. Others had makeshift stakes. Some stabbed him with knives. The police officers shot him in the face at point blank range. Mortals were all over him. He tried to bite them but couldn’t get close enough. There must have been half a dozen people twisting his head, presumably trying to break his neck. He tried to punch and kick but had no room to draw back his limbs, which were also being held.
Rek crawled back to the car and found his revolver. His whole body ached but he fought through it. He loaded one bullet into the chamber and closed it. He looked back at the mob. He could see Kaaliz’s head and shoulders struggling above the heads of the others. He was trying to escape into the air. Rek rummaged around in the backpack and eventually found the small black, pill-sized object. He twisted it and the LED inside started flashing. He dropped it down the barrel, holding the gun vertically so it wouldn’t fall out.
Rek got to his feet and pain shot through his legs and up his back. He ran into the crowd. Kaaliz was waist high above the heads of the mob now. He would soon be free. Rek pushed aside the men and women and made it to the centre of the fray just in time to push the barrel of the gun into Kaaliz’s stomach and fire. The bullet wound repaired before his eyes. A few seconds later Kaaliz broke free and flew into the air.
He hovered a safe distance above the crowd and looked Rek in the eyes. Rek stared right back at him, unafraid despite his injuries. They were both thinking the same thing.
We’ll meet again, real soon.
Kaaliz flew away and the crowd cheered and hugged each other. Rek managed to stumble back to the car and collapse in the driver’s seat. His phone was ringing on the passenger’s seat. He picked it up and looked at the screen.
SARAH CALLING.
He pressed the button and answered it.
section zero
Nicholl awoke with a splitting headache. She sat up and looked around. It was dark, but there was some light coming through the curtains from outside. She was on a bed. In a bedroom. She was lying on top of the covers still wearing the orange boiler suit. She swung her legs off the bed and planted her feet on the floor. She fell back onto the bed on her first attempt to stand. Whatever drugs they had shot her up with were still kicking around her system. She looked around the room. It was clean but impersonal, like a hotel room. A stack of photos lay on the bedside table. She reached out and lifted them. They were all pictures of her family and friends. These were the pictures that had hung on the walls of her flat, taken out of their frames. She set them back. She scratched her itching palm then looked at it. There was a circle of redness with a pin-prick in the centre. The same mark was on her other palm. She grinned briefly; the Daves were right. She felt in control of her equilibrium and tried standing up again. This time she managed it.
She walked to the window and pulled back the curtain. The light was coming from a circle of lampposts about a hundred yards away. She could see figures moving, talking and… drinking? There were houses beyond the circle, in fact, as far as she could see the houses formed a larger circle around this communal area in the centre. She heard laughter. Was this really Section Zero? She needed to talk to those people.
She was heading outside
when she noticed the wardrobe door was ajar. She stopped and opened it. All her clothes were inside. She went to the drawers and found her underwear, her T-shirts, jeans, jumpers, they were all here, but there was something off about them. They didn’t smell right. She looked around for her brown suede jacket and couldn’t see it. She walked out of the bedroom and barely looked at the little living room she was crossing. All her jackets hung on pegs on the wall by the door. She grabbed the brown suede jacket and checked the cuff, no missing button. She checked the left lapel, no cigarette burn. These weren’t her clothes. These were new versions of all her clothes. They really weren’t taking any chances about smuggling transmitters into Section Zero. She kept hold of the jacket and walked back to the bedroom.
She rummaged through her underwear drawer and found her favourite bra; the one with the dodgy clasp, and found it didn’t have a dodgy clasp. Where did they find this stuff? She’d searched everywhere for another bra like this one. She took off her boiler suit and got dressed in jeans and a T-shirt: an original 1987 T-shirt from Def Leppard’s Hysteria tour. She had this T-shirt but it had been washed so many times the print was barely distinguishable from the background. This one was pristine, the colours rich and vibrant. She had scoured eBay for years trying to find a new one! If the Ministry ever got out of the vampire business they could make a killing in the collectable clothing market, she thought. She pulled on the suede jacket and looked at herself in the mirror. She was quite nervous about what sort of response she was going to get here. Was this like prison; rival gangs, watch your back, don’t drop the soap, or was it more like that old TV show with Patrick McGoohan? I am not a number, I’m a free man! Or woman as the case may be. There was only one way to find out. She looked in the bottom of the wardrobe and found all her shoes; none of them had a single mark on the sole. She pulled on a pair of Nike trainers that they stopped making at least ten years ago and headed for the door.
It was a relatively mild night. Spring seemed to be bullying winter away early this year. People said it was the Greenhouse Effect. Nicholl just thought of the sunlight as a weapon and the more she saw of it, the better. She walked towards the sound of conversation and laughter. There must have been twenty people at least. And they were drinking. It looked like some suburban garden party that had run on into the wee hours. When she was about twenty feet away someone noticed her and a ripple of taps and touches went through the crowd to attract their attention. They all turned and watched her approach. Several of the men licked their lips. Away from the main group Nicholl saw the silhouette of a woman sitting by herself, smoking. The woman seemed to turn briefly and look at Nicholl, then returned to the business of smoking and staring off into space. Excited whispers were now passing among the crowd. An older man pushed his way to the front and began applauding. Everyone else joined in.
Nicholl stopped on the edge of the communal circle and forced a smile.
The older man stepped forward. He was skinny with a gaunt face, wearing a loose peasant blouse and jeans, and was walking in his bare feet. His hair was grey, long and rather unkempt. ‘Welcome, Welcome! You did sleep a long time.’
‘You knew I was coming?’
‘Yes, we all get a notification when someone new is joining us. We like to throw a little party to welcome them and introduce them around. I am Joshua.’
‘Nicholl.’
‘Oh, we don’t hold to that old Ministry dictate here. We’re all on a first name basis in our little community.’ He smiled widely, waiting for an answer.
‘Amanda. Mandy.’
‘Mandy, welcome.’ The rest of the assembled crowd echoed his greeting. ‘Would you permit me entrance into your comfort zone for the purposes of an informal, non-verbal display of greeting and love?’
‘What?’
‘Can I give you a hug?’
‘Oh. Right. Well, er, sure.’
Joshua stepped forward and hugged her tightly. He smelled of hemp and smoke. The crowd applauded again. Joshua smiled and ushered Nicholl into the centre of the circle where chairs and tables of finger food and drink had been set out around a large, circular stone plinth.
Joshua made a sweeping gesture towards the tables and looked to Nicholl for approval.
‘Very nice. Thank you. Nicest prison I’ve ever been to.’
Joshua laughed and shook his head. ‘We don’t think of this place as prison.’ He offered her a glass of wine. Nicholl shook her head politely and lifted a bottle of beer from the table and popped the cap. She wasn’t drinking anything that wasn’t coming from a sealed container. ‘Didn’t you watch the Introductory DVD before you left your domicile?’
‘No, I… I guess I just wanted to get out and have a look around.’
‘Quite understandable. You really should have a look at it though; it does explain the basics of living here. How to order food, clothes, recreational activities.’
‘Wait a minute. You’re saying they give us whatever we ask for?’
‘Yes.’
‘What’s the catch?’
Joshua smiled. ‘The catch is obvious; you have to stay here and you can have no direct contact with the outside world.’
‘So where are we?’ She tried to make it sound like a throwaway sort of question.
‘No one knows. We all have our theories of course, but no one really knows. My guess is up north. Somewhere off the coast of Scotland.’
‘How do you figure?’
‘The weather. Gets very cold in the winters. Although they say this greenhouse thing has messed up the Earth and its cycles. Winters are longer and more intense, summers are earlier and shorter. So maybe the south is just as cold as the north these days. You would know better than I. You’ll be inundated with questions for the next few weeks, I’m afraid. Try to take it in good humour.’
‘Questions about what?’
‘The world. What’s happening, what’s changed, what’s the same? We get newspapers here, but it’s the little things that people seem to miss the most; that social domesticity that we all took for granted while we were in the other world.’
‘How long have you been here, Joshua?’
‘Thirty-seven years. First ever resident of Section Zero. I was alone for the first two years.’
‘Jesus,’ Nicholl whispered.
‘Yes, it was tough.’ He turned to her and smiled. ‘I don’t mind telling you, I had quite a few conversations with potatoes in those early days.’
Nicholl giggled and Joshua smiled. ‘Can I ask what you did? Why you got sent here, or is that not the done thing?’
‘No, no, it’s fine. We all know everything about each other in here. You’ll find when you live in this close proximity, you soon run out of things to talk about. What got you sent here? is always one of the first topics when someone new arrives. I tried to free a vampire from HQ. She was beautiful and I was in love, or thought I was. I was so young then.’ Nicholl saw his eyes glass over. ‘I think I would have let her bite me if it meant being with her. She said if I released her she wouldn’t hurt anyone, but she killed four Ministry staff before the agents brought her down. I’ll remember those four names until I die. I killed them. By my own selfish actions, I killed them. So they sent me here. I think I got off lightly.’ He forced a smile and rubbed his eyes. ‘And what about…?’
‘Aren’t there any guards here?’
‘You’re thinking about escaping.’ He gave a thin smile and nodded. Nicholl gave him a neutral look. ‘Which direction are you going to go?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘This island is one point three miles across at its widest and two point three miles at its longest. I walk all the way around it every day, and even on the clearest summer day, I can’t see land in any direction. So if you’re thinking of swimming…’
‘Are you saying there are no guards?’
‘I’ve only seen them twice. Last time was a few years ago. This fella we had here. He was some kind of engineer or designer for the Ministry but
in his youth he had won several awards for kite design. He built a glider in secret.’ He pointed past the smoking girl towards the cliff edge. ‘Came out one morning ready to launch himself off there. They came out and stopped him.’
‘Where’d they come from?’
Joshua nodded his head at the plinth.
‘That opens?’
‘Lowers. That’s where we get all our deliveries. Food, clothing, games, whatever. There’s a little computer in your living room, you just type in there whatever you want and in a day or two you’ll find it sitting on the plinth. It lowers down, they set the stuff on it and raise it up again. That day Ted tried to escape they raised themselves up, Tasered him, burnt his glider and lowered themselves down again. Never said a word to any of us.’
‘So they’re under us,’ Nicholl said, almost to herself. ‘And they can see what we’re up to, so they must have…’
‘Cameras, yes,’ Joshua nodded. ‘Dotted all over the island.’
‘What about the living quarters?’
‘No.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘That’s where Ted built his glider.’
‘Maybe after his attempt they installed them.’
‘When? While we were away on our holidays?’
Nicholl nodded and smiled. Good point. ‘How many of them were there?’
‘Two.’
Nicholl thought it through. Two, plus they’d need at least another one in the control room to bring the plinth down again. There could be as little as three guards on this island. ‘How do they bring these deliveries in?’
‘By boat, at night. You can hear it sometimes. No running lights so you can’t see what direction it comes from or leaves in. Probably how they change the personnel down there as well when their shift is over.’ Joshua could see the cogs moving behind Nicholl’s eyes. ‘You thinking about taking the boat?’
