by Philip Henry
Eileen took flight and raced over Nicholl’s head. She flew over the surface of the water and grabbed the pair of shoulders that were gently bobbing up and down in the water.
From the darkness of the trees, Kaaliz shot into the air and towards Eileen. Nicholl saw him and grabbed her sword from the ground. Kaaliz flew straight into her blade and fell to the ground, rolling to a stop. Nicholl ran over to him, the deep gash she had made in his face was almost healed. Kaaliz shot a foot out in her direction. It caught Nicholl squarely on the chest and sent her hurtling backwards through the air. Her back slammed hard against the side window of the bus, shattering it. She was aching all over. Her body was hanging half in, half out of the bus. The little shards of broken glass were digging into her back.
Kaaliz walked over to the pair of legs dangling from the broken window. ‘You can’t kill me,’ he shouted. ‘I am immortal!’ Kaaliz grabbed her legs and started to drag her out of the bus. Nicholl leapt forward and snapped Eileen’s collar around his neck.
‘I wouldn’t bet on that,’ Nicholl said as she kicked him in the chest and dropped to the ground.
Kaaliz took a few steps backwards and pulled at the collar around his neck. ‘What the fuck is this?’
Nicholl held up the perimeter marker with the battery attached. She grabbed the battery tightly with one hand and the perimeter marker with the other. ‘Say goodnight, asshole.’ She pulled the battery from the perimeter marker and the collar exploded with a loud crack. Kaaliz’s head dropped to the ground. His hands and body twitched for a few seconds, before they too, dropped to the ground.
Eileen landed a short distance away with Rek in her arms. Nicholl got up and ran to them. Nicholl pumped hard on his chest and then gave three deep breaths into his mouth. She repeated this sequence four times.
‘I’m sorry,’ Eileen said. ‘I think he’s dead.’
‘Can you do CPR?’
‘Only the chest massage. I have no breath to breathe into his lungs.’
Nicholl took Eileen’s hands and placed them on Rek’s chest. ‘OK, keep his blood circulating. I’m going to see if there’s a first aid kit on the bus.’ Nicholl stood up and watched Eileen pumping Rek’s chest. She took a few steps backwards.
Claire and the zero were exhausted. The two of them had done little or no damage to the hybrid. They started taking steps back as it closed on them. Then a light hit its face and its eyeballs exploded. Claire turned and saw Lynda standing upright, though a little shaky, with a UV torch in her hand. Claire smiled.
Lynda said, ‘Ultra-violent,’ and smiled back.
By the time Claire looked back at the screaming hybrid, its neck was already smoking from the focussed beam. Claire drew back her sword and lopped its head off.
Deirdre came running towards them, still carrying the foot and still being pursued by its owner. Lynda focussed the beam on the hybrid’s neck. By the time it reached them it was ready for a nearby zero to take its head off. Deirdre was out of breath from running. Between gasps she said, ‘OK. Looks like we’ve got a system. Let’s do it!’ They obeyed her and ran off towards the nearest hybrid fight. Deirdre threw the foot over her shoulder, took a few deep breaths, and ran after them.
One of the zeros was crawling on his back along the ground. A hybrid stood over him. He fumbled around the ground and found a crossbow. He lifted it and fired. The arrow ricocheted off its skin without leaving a mark. He screamed as the hybrid dropped on him.
Lynda burned at the hybrid’s neck. They were too late to save the zero, but they could still kill the thing that had killed him. Lynda turned off the beam and nodded to Claire. Someone screamed behind them. Lynda ran towards them with the torch. Claire raised her sword above her head. The hybrid turned around and pounced on her.
The stray arrow bounced off the hybrid and ripped through Eileen’s neck as she leaned over Rek. Blood ran from her neck into his mouth. Nicholl saw what had happened and ran back to Rek. She put her knee to Eileen and pushed her off to the side with more force than she had intended.
Rek coughed, his mouth full of Eileen’s blood. He licked the blood around his mouth and swallowed. Nicholl stepped back and grabbed her sword. Rek rose before her. Eileen yanked the arrow out of her neck. She held her hand to the entry and exit wounds as they closed.
Nicholl looked into the face of her lover. ‘No, Rek. Not you.’
Rek opened his mouth and she saw his incisors grow to full length. He smiled at her.
She raised her sword. Tears welled in her eyes. She whispered, ‘Please, Rek. Don’t make me do this.’
sacrifice
Tom and Sarah were exhausted. They had been fighting the Master with every ounce of strength they had but he was just too strong. He blocked their swords with his arms. They just couldn’t seem to damage him. They could barely lift their swords now after what seemed like hours of attacking him.
Tom glanced at the sky behind him.
‘Is that what you’re waiting for?’ The Master nodded across the sea to the horizon. ‘The sunrise?’ He smiled. Sarah charged at him from behind. He grabbed her and threw her aside like a ragdoll. Sarah held onto her ribs when she stopped rolling. She’d heard something snap when she hit the ground. Something was wrong. She was weak. Really weak. She looked at Tom. He was bent over, hands on knees, breathing hard, but still keeping his eyes on the Master.
The Master continued, ‘Back in the mid-seventeen-hundreds I was in love with a woman named Rosalind. In all the thousands of years I’ve lived I’ve only been in love three times. You believe that?’
Tom didn’t answer.
‘One of your little posse got hold of her one night and hung, drew and quartered her. It was the preferred form of torture at the time. They left her parts hanging from a tree where I would find them. And I did find them. And believe me when I tell you that every single man involved in her death lived to regret what he had done.’ He stared into Tom’s eyes with that unnaturally long, piercing gaze. ‘Point is, even after I’d taken my revenge on them all, it didn’t bring her back. I still missed her. So one day, I suppose I was feeling especially melancholy, I just walked outside into the sunlight.’
He knelt down next to Sarah, writhing on the ground. ‘Now I’m not saying it didn’t hurt. It definitely pinched a bit. But I wanted to die, so I stood there for about half an hour before I came to my senses.’
He got up and turned to Tom. ‘What happened to me was probably on a par with a bad sunburn. My skin had fried and crackled and it took a while to come good again, but it didn’t kill me.’ He stood facing Tom. ‘So, chosen one, what are we thinking here? Sun’s almost up. I guess whatever happened to bring about the age of vampires happened somewhere else, eh? Kinda makes you wonder why the rest of your little gang didn’t show up at some point.’ He smiled.
They both heard a noise and turned. Hal was walking down the gravel path towards them. The Master laughed and clapped his hands. ‘Harold, my boy. You made it!’
As Hal got closer they could both see what poor shape he was in; scarred and bleeding, holding one arm close to his torso and limping on one leg. ‘Did we win?’
The Master shrugged then looked at Tom and Sarah. ‘Well, they certainly didn’t. I think the world’s going to be a lot different when we rise again tonight.’ The Master tilted his head and looked at Hal. He winced. ‘You could really do with feeding. Do you still want to save her?’
Hal stopped beside the Master and looked at Sarah on the ground. Sarah shuddered as she felt a shiver go through her brain. ‘She doesn’t love me and she never will,’ Hal said. ‘I just saw everything that was important to her.’ He glared at Tom.
The Master put his hand on Hal’s shoulder. ‘Do you want her?’
Hal was still glaring at Tom. ‘No, I want him.’
‘Then you don’t mind if I have her? Dhampir blood is such a delicacy.’
‘No, go right ahead.’ Hal walked towards Tom. The Master walked towards Sarah, lying on the ground. Tom ra
ised his sword and Hal knocked it from his grasp. Hal grabbed him and pulled him close. Tom tried to struggle but every muscle and bone in his body hurt. Hal whispered in his ear, ‘I told you it would come to this.’ Hal bit into Tom’s neck and began to drink.
The sun broke on the horizon. Hal stopped drinking for a second to drag Tom into the shade of Mussenden Temple. He would have to make a quick getaway before the sun got to full strength, but he wasn’t going to rush this pleasure.
The stone on the top of the temple started glowing, then pulsing brightly. No-one seemed to notice.
Hal moved in to bite Tom again, but caught a glimpse of the Master and Sarah, which stopped him. The Master was drinking from her neck but she was looking at Tom. Hal hadn’t even noticed that Tom was looking back at her and using what little strength he had left to stretch out his hand to her.
The stone on top of the temple was pulsing at an almost blinding intensity now.
Hal looked down at Sarah being drained; blood running from her neck, tears running from her eyes. Still she looked at Tom. The way Hal had always wanted her to look at him. The way he had looked at her. The way he still looked at her.
Hal dropped Tom and charged at the Master. He grabbed him and was inside the temple before the Master knew what was happening. Hal threw him to the floor, slammed the door and locked it.
‘What the hell are you doing, Harold!’ The Master got to his feet. Harold walked to the window and looked out at Sarah. Tom had managed to crawl over to her. Sarah turned and looked at the window. Tears were running down Hal’s face.
The Master slammed into the door but it was solid. ‘Give me the fuckin’ key, Harold.’ Hal put his hand in his pocket. He felt the photo of him and Sarah and clutched it tightly in his fist. The Master looked at the boy standing at the window and strode towards him, determined to make him suffer for his betrayal.
The sun cleared the horizon.
Sarah saw Hal mouth the words, I love you. A second later the whole temple filled with light.
Inside, the sunlight was funnelled down the mirrored channels and into the alcoves where they shot the light, intensified many thousands of times, in concentrated beams into the temple. The windows magnified the suns rays and also added to the solar execution. Hal had been disintegrated in an instant, but the Master was screaming.
Tom and Sarah managed to get to their feet and hobble over to the window. They saw the Master in the centre of the room, held in every direction by beams of light. His skin was blackened with veins of orange breaking it from below. He gave one final, agonizing scream then his whole body exploded.
The stone on top of the temple powered down and the lights inside faded. A thick layer of dust on the ground was the only evidence anyone had been in there.
Tom held Sarah close as she wept in his arms.
Nicholl raised her sword and took another step back. Eileen took to the air. She saw the sun coming up. The trees would offer some cover but she would have to be careful. She couldn’t go too high. If Nicholl wasn’t ready to decapitate the love of her life, Eileen was ready to dump him into the reservoir and give her some time to prepare for it.
The blood streams from Kaaliz’s body and head had found each other. They were pulling towards each other, almost guiding. Kaaliz’s hand twitched. His eyes opened. He saw his body lying close to him. He really was immortal, much more than any other vampire. He was eternal. His fingers dug into the dirt and pulled his body closer to his head. The blood on the ground started circulating; going into his head, coming out of his head. Across the ground. Going into his torso, coming out of his torso. It seemed to pump faster the closer he got to joining the two pieces together again.
Kaaliz’s hand dragged his body closer to his head.
Rek lunged at Nicholl and she punched him with the hilt of her sword. He fell to the ground and landed on his front. His back was exposed to her. This was her chance. For the good of all mankind, she had to do it. She pointed the sword downwards over his back and grasped the hilt in both hands.
Eileen screamed and dropped out of the sky. She landed awkwardly on her left hip, but she wasn’t high enough to break any bones. Nicholl turned and saw her. Eileen looked confused. What the hell was going on? Rek sat up. Nicholl turned and swung her sword, but stopped just in time.
‘It’s OK, Mand. It’s me. I’m OK.’
Eileen walked over. ‘So am I. I don’t think I’m a…’
The sun rose over the tree-tops and Eileen held her face in its bright glow. She smiled and tears rolled down her face. It might have been the brightness of a sun she hadn’t seen in a long time, but it probably wasn’t.
Nicholl dropped her sword and jumped up on Rek, hugging him tightly and kissing him.
Rek smiled at her. ‘You call that a plan?’
Nicholl laughed. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’
Rek left her down. They looked behind them and saw Kaaliz’s body and head shrivel to a dried husk. Rek walked over and stamped Kaaliz’s skull flat, just to be sure. Nicholl came over and took his hand. She led him away.
They joined Eileen walking across the battlefield in the morning light. There were a lot of bodies. Hybrids and humans. Twenty yards away they saw half a dozen members of Zero Squadron hacking up the last hybrid. Deirdre waved to them briefly, smiling, then got back to hacking.
Nicholl stopped and knelt down next to Claire’s body. She felt for a pulse and didn’t find one. Sarah and Tom had both lost their mothers in the space of a week. She hoped they would be able to comfort each other. Nicholl closed Claire’s eyes.
They walked on and found Dave kneeling next to his namesake, crying. ‘Come on, man. You have to get up now.’
Nicholl knelt down next to him. ‘Dave?’
‘No, no, he’s all right. He’s going to be all right, aren’t you man?’ He shook Dave’s limp arm. Tears were running down Eileen and Rek’s faces. Lynda walked over to them and dropped her torch. She knelt down on the other side of Dave. He turned to Lynda and hugged her, crying hard into her shoulder. Nicholl reached forward and closed Dave’s eyes.
the beginning
Chloe managed to dress herself. Her fractured arm from the helicopter crash didn’t hurt much and her hand was free of plaster. She looked in the mirror. There wasn’t make-up in the world capable of covering up the cuts and scars she had received that night. She didn’t care. Most of the others looked the same or worse.
She walked down the stairs of her mansion. The house she thought she had always wanted. Now sold for thirty percent more than she had paid for it to a man who sold pornography on the Internet. More money than she knew what to do with. She had come a long way from scraping by on benefits. And even though all the survivors of the Endtime War – that’s what they were calling it – would be receiving a very generous cheque in the post tomorrow, she still had more money than she could ever spend.
The house echoed even more now with all the furniture gone. Most of it had been sold too. She was moving to a modest little bungalow close to Lynda’s family. Lynda said she had the perfect guy for her. She’d heard that before, but she’d give him a try.
She walked around the empty living room. This was the last time she would be in this house. She found her scrap-book and opened it up. She looked again at the picture of her saving the baby that the vampire had pushed out into traffic. That’s where this had all begun for her. The rest of the pages were blank, like the rest of her life. Not empty, just waiting to be filled.
She dropped the scrap-book in the bin as she left.
Chloe was early so she sat in the car and checked her make-up again in the rearview mirror. She turned on the radio.
Police say a group has claimed responsibility for the bombing… She twisted the dial.
Was found to have murdered his own parents and then used a hack-saw… She twisted the dial.
Kept the girl imprisoned since she was nine years old and sexually… She turned the dial.
Static hissed. S
he looked in the mirror for a long time. She turned the dial.
I would believe five people, maybe even ten, but in the UK and Ireland alone, eight-thousand missing persons show up in the same week? We’re also hearing from America, Australia… basically everywhere! These people are just showing up in droves out of nowhere! And they’re not only in perfect health, but none of them are willing to say where they’ve been or what they’ve been doing all this time.
Chloe laughed to herself.
Of course this story has brought every UFO nut in the country out of his parents’ basement… She turned the radio off and got out of the car.
The funeral was huge. No newspaper or television station had carried the story of what Hal had done, but apparently word had spread. He had saved this town, this country, and probably the world, and it seemed everyone wanted to thank him for that.
Nicholl and Rek stood by the graveside holding each other. Both were badly cut and bruised and hiding behind sunglasses. They had posted Mr Takamura back The Fist of Merlin. Chloe smiled when she thought of him opening his post.
It would probably be even better than the phone call Kyle at Ministry HQ had made to Nicholl, apologizing. After all the vampires they had on level six suddenly turned human, he thought Nicholl might be onto something. Bureaucracy gets there… eventually. At least Nicholl had used her clout to secure pardons for all the zeros who survived the battle. They were really free now.
Eileen had called this morning. She had gone back home to her children and wouldn’t be able to make the funeral. Chloe said she understood. She imagined it would be a long time before Eileen dared let her kids out of her sight again.
Chloe looked across as the reverend spoke. Tom and Sarah seemed to be holding each other up. They were both so young and had lost so much. Hopefully the money she was giving them would help them start a new life together. Again the thought persisted in Chloe’s head: why her and not me? Claire had a son. I have no-one. It should have been me instead of her. Claire gave birth to a boy who helped save the world. What had Chloe ever done? Wrote a few cheques. It didn’t seem like enough.
