Blood Run – The Complete Trilogy – First Promise, Two Riders, Last Chance

by Dougherty, Christine

  She heard the low voices of technicians, an occasional nervous laugh. Dr. Edwards breathed behind her. Then she heard something else…distant and muffled…in another part of the building: a scream.

  “Someone is screaming,” she whispered. She felt Peter nodding and wondered how she could feel a nod…was it the slight beat of air across her face? Then she realized that the dim emergency lighting over the door had glowed into red life. As her eyes acclimated, she could make out the huddle of technicians across the back tables.

  “Yes, I heard it, too,” he said. “I’m getting you out of here. Hold my hand, and don’t let go. You ready?”

  Her hands traveled down his arm to grasp his hand, and she squeezed it in both of hers. “What about everyone else?” she said.

  “I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I’m getting you somewhere safe. Then I’ll come back. Don’t worry, okay?”

  She squeezed his hand again. Her stomach lifted in panic as he began to move them across the lab. Her feet wanted to pin themselves to the ground. Everything in her cried out against moving through the darkness of the lab. Her nerves demanded that she find a wall and huddle against the solidity of it. Her wide open, staring eyes kept bringing her the uneasy fact of shadows in and around the lab equipment that could be anything…anything.

  She took a deep breath and calmed her racing nerves. She let him lead her.

  “I think I just heard a scream,” said one of the technicians, her voice hesitant, almost questioning.

  “You did?” Another tech.

  “Yeah, I think so, anyway…it sounded like it came from the cafeteria.”

  “I heard it too, but it sounded like the big waiting room off the old cardiac unit.”

  “You heard it too?”

  “What’s going on out there?”

  “Oh my god, do you think it’s–”

  Their voices rose together as they fed off each other’s fear. Dr. Edwards’ voice cut through the dark, strong with authority. “You’re just spooking yourselves. There’s nothing going on out there. Just be still, and no one will get hurt.” He didn’t want them breaking like panicked cattle, trampling each other in a blind flight to the doorway. “Let’s remember that we are gentlemen and ladies of science. Let’s be dignified.”

  The nervous wind of chatter blew through them again. Some of the lab techs didn’t consider themselves to be ladies and gentlemen of science, they were just people who’d been drafted to help out because they were, essentially, warm bodies in a time of drastically reduced warm bodies.

  “Please,” Dr. Edwards said, his voice rising in irritation. “Let’s show some–”

  The double doors to the lab burst inward. A man stood swaying in the doorway. He was covered in blood that looked black in the red light. His hands were at his throat. He stumbled past Peter and Promise who were halfway across the lab. A steady well of blood squeezed out from below his gripping hands, and he fell to his knees facing the huddle of technicians, his eyes round with shock. He looked like a stage actor with the world’s best make-up effects team. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, and then he spoke, his voice raspy and failing.

  “The vampires are here.”

  The technicians were still for one, long heartbeat…then everything erupted into chaos. They broke for the door as a group, Dr. Edwards shouting behind them. He wanted them to stay in the lab, bar the door, defend the research. He might as well have been trying to convince a tsunami to reverse direction–the lab was cleared in less than three seconds.

  Peter had pressed Promise to the wall and out of the way of the stampeding techs. Dr. Edwards called out to them.

  “Peter, Promise…please…it’s important that we seal off the lab,” he said, his voice threaded with a mixture of anger and panic. He went gingerly to the man who’d burst into the lab and now lay on his side, unmoving. The man’s hands had fallen away from his neck. “Help me get him out of here. It’s too dangerous…he might change if he doesn’t die.”

  “I’m going to get Promise somewhere safe first,” Peter said in a hoarse whisper. “Then I’ll come back and help you.”

  “Peter, please! Can’t you see how important the lab is? Everything we have…the only progress we’ve made…is all right here!” Edwards said, his tone harsh with panic. “If we make it safe in here, then Promise will be safe!” He put his hands together in a gesture of pleading. “Please, Peter. There is no hope without the lab.”

  “Peter,” Promise said and pushed herself off the wall. “We have to help Dr. Edwards. He’s right.”

  Peter shook his head. “No. You first. Lab second,” he said and tried to grasp her upper arm to lead her out.

  She pulled back. “No, Peter,” she said. “I’m staying and helping the doctor.”

  Orange light flared deep in Peter’s eyes, and his features tightened in frustrated anger.

  She held her ground. “I’m staying,” she said again, her tone quiet but very, very firm. “If the research is lost, then what was the point? Of any of this?” Then she turned toward Edwards. “What do we need to do?”

  “Grab his legs,” Edwards said. “We have to push him back out the door.”

  “Can’t we help him?” Promise asked.

  Peter stood beside her, his eyes on the man. Before Edwards could answer, Peter shook his head. “No, there’s no help for him. He’s dead, Promise,” Peter said. “And his scent will draw the vampires here. It’s bad enough that his blood is on the floor.”

  Promise looked down at the unmoving form and realized it was true–the man was gone. She was overcome with a wave of depression that almost buckled her knees. They’d come so far, to what was supposed to be a safe place, a haven. It was supposed to have been the answer to her prayers. But instead, the nightmare just went on and on. She was so tired. She wanted to sit on the floor and cry until sleep overcame her. She wanted to sleep away this never-ending nightmare.

  Peter bent to grasp the man’s ankles, turned him, and slid his body across the lab floor and out the doors. A shiny blood trail streaked the floor. As she watched, Promise felt her gorge rise.

  Glass tinkled and then shattered on the floor behind her. She turned in surprise.

  Edwards was standing over the fallen vial, his face drawn down in lines of panic. Another vial was slipping through the fingers of his shaking right hand. Promise stepped forward and steadied his hand with her own.

  “Let me help you,” she said. She pulled the vial from his hand and placed it in a carrying case fitted with tiny racks. Edwards had managed to get two of the rubber-stoppered test tubes in the case before he’d dropped one. “Are these the immunization?” she asked, continuing to pack the test tubes he indicated into the case.

  “Yes…it’s all we’ve been able to…to synthesize,” he said, his voice shaking. He glanced over his shoulder as Peter came back into the lab, shutting the double doors behind him.

  “How can we reinforce the entrance?” Peter asked.

  “We can’t,” Edwards said. “We have to go another way.”

  “I thought you wanted to defend the lab?” Peter said. Anger and incredulity cracked across his voice. He was backlit by the emergency lighting, and Promise turned in time to see a dull, orange glow begin in his eyes.

  “We can’t defend the lab, not with only three of us,” Edwards said. “It’s too big, too open. We have to get the vaccines somewhere safe. I know a way.”

  Peter shifted, and his hands curled into fists. Outside the lab, close but not too close, came another scream. Human. Then that scream was overlaid by the buzzing whine of a vampire, and the scream was cut short. Peter half-turned toward the doors, the light flaring from his eyes.

  “Peter,” Promise said, “Please help us.” She continued to pack the vials into the cases. The slender test tubes clinked and chattered the faster she worked. Her hands were beginning to shake. “Dr. Edwards, how do we get out of here? Is there another door?”

  Edwards was still wat
ching Peter, but he turned to Promise, blinking. “No…I’m afraid not,” he said.

  She nearly dropped a test tube, her voice rising. “What? What do you mean? How are we supposed to–”

  “Be quiet,” Peter said, his voice a harsh whisper. “And don’t move.”

  Promise looked past him to the double doors. A sliver of red light eeking under the doors from the stronger emergency lighting in the hall showed the blood trail that went out into the hall. A shadow moved along the base of the door, and Promise heard a panting hiss. Peter stepped back cautiously until he was to the side and away from the opening that ran beneath.

  Promise held her breath, her eyes on the shadow that came and went as if the monster on the other side were investigating…considering its find. Then came a delicate, lapping sound, like a cat drinking spilled milk. Fear shivered up her spine. The shadow outside the door was licking up the blood. It would be led right into the lab.

  Dr. Edwards tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to him. He motioned for her to put the remaining vials in the case and close it. She glanced back at the door once more and then did as he instructed. Then Peter was at her side.

  “If there is no other door, then how do we get out of here?” he whispered to Edwards. Promise thought she still saw a glow of orange in his eyes, but that could have been the emergency lights.

  Edwards rose one shaking hand from the table and pointed up. Peter and Promise followed the direction he was pointing. A drop ceiling, twelve feet above them.

  Light flared across the room as Peter’s eyes dropped back to Edwards. There was no denying the fire in them now. Promise wanted to step away from him, but she held her ground. Peter would not hurt her. It’s what she told Evans and the rest of the Guard, and it’s what she believed to be true.

  “A drop ceiling?” Peter said; his voice strained with quiet fury. “That’s where we’re supposed to go? That’s the plan?” His hand curled into a fist on the table. “That will never hold us!”

  “It will hold her,” Edwards said and nodded at Promise. “There are metal studs once she gets past the tiles. The drop ceiling just covers ductwork and pipes. She can hide up there with the vaccine until the hospital is put back to rights. They’ll never find her, and the vaccine will be safe.”

  Promise’s stomach rolled with fear, but she swallowed and nodded, straightening her shoulders. She could hear the vampire outside the door still licking at the blood. “Okay,” she said. “Boost me up.”

  “Good girl!” Edwards said, relief in his voice, just as Peter said, “No. No way. I said I’m going to protect you, and I am. I’m getting you out of here.”

  “There are no other doors,” Promise said, soundlessly placing a stool next to the lab table. She put a foot on the stool ready to climb onto the table. “That thing outside is going to be in here any second. It’s going to follow the blood, like you said,” she groped for the case. It was bulky, the size of three briefcases stacked together.

  “I’ll hand it up to you,” Edwards said, pulling the case to his chest. “Peter, help her up there. Hurry!”

  “No! Promise…please,” Peter said. “I can get you out of here and–”

  A grunt came from the hallway, and all three turned to look. The shadow had stopped licking. They all held their breath until they heard the rough lapping start up again. Promise breathed out a sigh.

  “Peter, I have to,” she said.

  He took her face in his hands. The orange in his eyes–like banked coals deep in a campfire–no longer scared her. She looked back at him, unflinching.

  “Okay…but stay right there,” he said. “I’ll be back for you. No matter what. Okay?”

  She nodded, unable to speak, and then his mouth was on hers. She didn’t know if her fever had returned or if the light in his eyes warmed her, but it didn’t matter. She kissed him back.

  Edwards cleared his throat. “It would be best if…if you…”

  Peter broke the kiss and put his hands around Promise’s waist. He lifted her easily onto the lab table, and the butterflies in her stomach seemed to help her fly. Then he sprang up next to her, turning on the balls of his feet, making her gasp at his fluid agility.

  He stood and pulled her up with him. Then he kissed her again, his hands on her waist. She felt weightless, dissolving into the air of the dark lab. As the contact of their lips broke, Peter said, “Reach up…” and she realized she was already at the drop ceiling. He was lifting her as though her weight were nothing.

  She pushed the panel aside and reached into the darkness above until her fingers encountered slick metal. The crossbeam. She gripped it and pulled herself up and over it until her weight was supported across three beams. She took a steadying breath and then reached down.

  “Okay, I’m set. Hand up the case,” she said.

  Edwards handed it up to Peter, and Peter lifted it into her hands. She pulled the case up and balanced it firmly across two beams. Then she looked down to where Peter stood on the table below. His face was grave, but then a small smile turned up the corners of his lips.

  “You ready?” he asked, and his eyes were not orange now; they were his regular, mild gray.

  She smiled back as she began to slide the panel across. “As I’ll ever be,” she answered, the panel almost in place.

  In the last second, he put his hand up and halted it in its path.

  “I’ll be back for you, Promise,” he said. “No matter what.”

  She nodded because she couldn’t speak. Tears were very close, closing her throat and stinging the backs of her eyes. She slid the panel closed.

  She began to wait.

  “What about you?” Peter asked, whispering in the darkened lab. The nauseating licking went on and on outside the door–but Peter couldn’t tell if his nausea was from repulsion or…hunger.

  He was afraid it might be both. Leaned in this close to Edwards, he could smell the man’s blood as it pulsed giddily through the large veins under the thin skin of his neck. He could smell the heat of it, the salt of it. His stomach rumbled and then clenched painfully, burning. He ran his tongue across his teeth. Had they grown?

  Edwards stepped back. “What do you mean, ‘what about’ me?” he said.

  When he saw the alarm in Edward’s eyes, Peter steadied himself. He dropped his shoulders and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see that pulse, pulse at Edwards’ neck. “It’s okay,” Peter said and put his hands up, palms out. “It’s okay. I only meant, how do we save you? Can you go up in the ceiling, too?” Calmer now, he was able to open his eyes and look at the doctor, but he kept his gaze firmly above Edwards’ chin.

  “No, it wouldn’t hold me. I’m too heavy. We’ll just have to–”

  Several screams came from down one of the halls, cutting Edwards off. Peter couldn’t tell which direction. The licker outside the door paused again, its breathing a ragged pant.

  The screaming went on and on, getting louder. Getting closer.

  “Then help me figure out how to bar the door,” Peter said. “We have to keep them–” He was halfway across the lab, still whispering back at Edwards, when the double doors burst open.

  Two women and a man, all civilians in hospital tech scrubs, tumbled through the doors, screaming, followed closely by a hissing vampire. The vampire was dressed in the black uniform of the Guardsmen. There was a fresh bite wound on his forearm. He’d just been turned.

  The vampire that had been licking blood in the hall–a considerably more ragged vampire with shredded clothing and long, bedraggled hair–hissed at the small stampede and then resumed its gruesome meal. By now, he’d latched onto the source of the blood and was sucking diligently at the man’s neck as one would try and get the last remnants of a delicious milkshake through one’s straw.

  The doors swung closed.

  The newly turned vampire roared in frustration as the three hospital workers split off in three directions, zigzagging through the lab. It stood still for a second, its head swinging
stupidly from left to right, confused and enraged.

  Peter took the instant of confusion and pulled Dr. Edwards further into the depths of the lab. He had to fight his own building rage, which seemed to be in answer to the vampire’s screams. Something in Peter was urging him to fight, to guard Promise and Edwards…but he couldn’t tell if it was more from a sense of defending the people he loved or defending his territory…his dinner options.

  He pushed the thought aside and opened one of the low, wide cabinet doors that ran along under the table. He reached in and swept beakers, a Bunsen burner and racks and racks of vials out onto the floor in one violent, jingling crash. “Get in there,” he said, his hand on the back of Edwards’ neck, pushing him down and in. A deep, nasty part of his mind enjoyed the sensation of manhandling the doctor as easily as a man might handle a five-pound pup. “You won’t be able to hold the door closed so just stay absolutely quiet. Okay?”

  Peter’s ‘okay?’ was punctuated by a scream and a jingling crash from the far side of the lab. The vampire must have caught someone. One of the women, from the sound of it.

  Edwards’ eyes were wide in the dark, his mouth working as his pupils darted side to side. He was hunched uncomfortably, his chin pressed against his chest, just barely squeezed into the cabinet.

  An underground rivulet of giggles began to bubble darkly in Peter’s gut. He wanted to laugh at Edwards’ obvious distress; his blindly…frantically…searching eyes. It was funny how vulnerable the doctor looked, how delicate, how thin-skinned and–

  Peter tumbled backwards onto his butt and kicked the door closed with a snap, shaken by his conflicting thoughts: light and dark, angel and demon, high road and low road. The monster inside him felt very near to the surface. Very strong. The screaming and the smell of the blood…it was overwhelming. He groaned as liquid heat spread from his heart, pulsing outward, setting him on fire inside. The alienness of his own blood seemed at first an affront, devastating as it began to eat at his consciousness, his humanity; then he began to like the burning.