by H. J. Lawson
With our bodies up against the wall, trying to make ourselves as hidden as possible, we walk along the metal walkway. It's impossible: we are exposed to everything, and the metal walkway creaks with each step. I can hear dust fragments from my boots falling through the gaps in the grid. I hold my breath, trying to make myself as quiet as possible.
Luckily the sound beneath us blocks out the sounds of the dust fragments.
Nervously we look into the first open doorway; the door has been removed.
It's an empty room with a few dark blankets shoved in the corner. The floor looks as if the tiles used to be white, but now it's covered in dried brown bloodstains. Blood splatters and scratch marks cover the walls, as if several massacres have taken place in this room.
Aaron and I walk quickly, not wanting to be the next victim in one of the rooms. We pass four, all with the same scenes of torture.
Aaron stops as we get to the fifth and final room before we have to take the stairs down to the pit of hell.
His arm comes out in front of me, blocking me from moving. All the color drains from his face as he looks into the last room.
He takes hold of my hand and silently walks past the room.
I know whatever he saw upset him, but I still have to look. As soon as I do I wish I hadn't.
Lakia's eyes connect with mine. My eyes refuse to close as Lakia’s eyes roll into the back of her head. She's not looking at me ... there is no life in them.
Aaron pulls me forward, away from Lakia. My feet feel like lead, locked to the ground. My breath refuses to leave my lungs.
Her neck is being lifted up as a vampire drains the last breath of life out of her. She drops to the ground, leaving her neck in an inhuman position, like it was broken under the force of the attack.
A dark black head rises up from Lakia’s limp body, leaving a sticky trail of blood between his mouth and Lakia's neck.
The vampire wipes his hand across his mouth, breaking the connection with his victim ... my best friend.
“You’re next ...” he says. I know that voice ... I know that face ... It's Roslin.
He has been turned into a vampire, and he has a nightmarish smile on his face—he's enjoying it.
He kicks Lakia's lifeless body to the side as he gets to his feet.
My heart pounds in my ears, I waited too long, waiting for Lakia to get up and come back to life. This could result in me losing my life.
I follow Aaron's instructions and sprint forward ... we need to go faster.
We’re not fast enough.
Chapter Thirty-One
"Hey guys, look who's come to join the party,” Roslin screeches joyfully over the walkway, down to the vampires on the ground.
I shake my head in disgust. I should have killed him instead of letting him go free. Part of me thought he isn’t all bad … that there was some of him still in there.
“Don’t take it personally, I’m on a different team now,” Roslin says, shrugging his shoulders and smiling at me.
“You little frigging rat,” I snap, raising my stake.
He raises his hands in the air and laughs, revealing his fangs. “That’s going to do nothing against them,” he says, pointing down to the ground.
There is a whole pack of vampires, growling, with their new pearly white fangs flashing at us. These are the kids we trained with … ate with … some I even went to school with … that means nothing to them now. All they want is to taste my blood.
They look up at us. “She’s mine … she’s mine … she’s mine …” Their whisper send a shiver of cold along my spine, as if their dead fingers are stroking it.
“You were a weak human, and now you’re a weak vampire.” I run toward Roslin and slam his body down onto the grid walkway. I raise my stake over him.
Roslin stares at me and I see the weak, shy kid from the science project.
“Please don’t, Sadie, I’m sorry,” he pleads.
“Sadie,” Aaron shouts, taking my attention away from Roslin for a moment too long.
His fist connects with my jaw, knocking me off him.
“Get back here, you rat,” I order as he scrambles backward away from me.
“Sadie, bit of help.”
I jolt closer to the rat, then spin, facing Aaron: more vampires have come up to join us.
Anger rips through my veins, like a fire has been ignited inside of me.
Running forward toward one of the vampires without a thought, I plunge the stake right through his heart—he didn’t even have a chance to react to my movement.
I pull my stake from his heart.
Aaron does the same; the vampire staggers backward, then tumbles down the stairs in a heap.
The vampire’s mouth is arched open, as if it's being ripped apart. He places his hand under his chin as if trying to stop it, but he can’t. Red spider veins appear in his bulging eyes. He leans backward with the force of the thing opening his mouth.
Before he can stop himself, his body flips over the walkway railing and disappears.
I approach the walkway railing and look down.
He lies lifeless on the ground, with his arms and legs twisted into a painful position.
“Stop!” I scream down at the vampires and kids on the ground, but they don’t stop.
“She said stop!” Aaron orders, so powerfully that it bounces off the walls. Everyone stops and stares at me.
“Stop killing each other,” I snap. “It's the government that’s to blame … they did this to us,” I say, wrapping my fingers tightly together into a fist.
“Maybe we like being like this,” one of the vampires says as he licks the top of his lip.
“Maybe you do. But what about your families, aren’t they the reason we are all here?” I say.
“And what do you think the government will do to you once the trial is over? They aren’t going to let you run free, are they?” The vampires look around at one another, not sure what to do or say. I may have convicted them.
Among the crowd of vampires, I see Kai. He’s standing by Ryder, both with gleaming blood on their faces, they are both vampires. Which of them do I trust more, Kai or Ryder?
“Kai.” Ryder didn’t like me when he was living, so I don’t think he will like me now he’s a vampire.
He slowly turns around to face me. “What?” Kai says from the pit of his stomach; he looks the most powerful and terrifying one of them all.
“Kai.” My voice trembles as I say his name. I cough.
“Think of your son,” I say softly. His eyes dart up to mine. Jadyn. Kai’s voice drifts into mine, repeating his son’s name.
“Yes. Jadyn.” Kai looks at me intensely.
“If you let me get out of here alive, I promise you I will protect him,” I tell him. It feels as if we are the only two people in the bunker.
“You promise …” Kai asks.
“I promise,” I repeat.
“I will protect him with my life, we both will,” I say, taking hold of Aaron’s hand.
“We both will,” Aaron confirms.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Come down,” Kai tells us. My mouth dries up and my body freezes; every muscle in my body tenses up.
“What the hell?” another person questions Kai.
“Hush,” Kai says, gritting his teeth together.
I can feel that Aaron’s body is doing the same as mine as his hand grows clammy in mine.
We turn and look at each other.
Kai seems like he’s in charge. If anyone is going to help us, he is.
I take a deep breath in, as does Aaron, and we walk down the metal grid stairs. I can feel my heart pounding in my mouth with every step we take. My hands tremble as I grip hold of the stake.
I keep my eyes focused in front on me—I don’t want to look any of the vampires in the eye in case they turn on us.
That’s when I see it: there is a gun wedged between the last step and the wall. It must have been Lakia’s. I can’t stop to
get it because it will draw attention to us—we already have targets on our heads.
As we get to the ground floor, Kai pushes his way through the vampires and the other kids.
“Kai!” one of the vampire’s snarls at Kai, and moves his hand near to Kai’s chest.
In a flash, Kai wraps his hand around the vampire’s wrist, stopping him in his tracks.
“Don’t touch me,” he growls back, revealing his fangs, and snarls.
The other vampire jolts back and gulps in fear; they are all scared of Kai.
“You will protect him, my girl and my family,” he says sternly as he stands in front of us.
“We promise we will watch over them,” Aaron says to Kai, with all the warmth and compassion in his voice which I love about him … his words are from the heart.
“Go now,” Kai says firmly.
“Thank you,” Aaron says.
“We will protect them,” I say as I push my lips together, holding in all the emotions.
“I know,” Kai says as he nods his head, indicating that we should go.
Aaron and I both turn away from Kai.
Our backs are to the others, and the vampires. That’s when it hits me, we are leaving the others to die.
Aaron squeezes hold of my hand tightly, as if he realized at the same time. Guilt riddles my veins like the poisoned blood that flows through the vampires’ veins, but we don’t stop walking.
“Aaron,” Ryder calls out from the crowd.
I squeeze my hand tightly around Aaron’s. His head turns and he glances over his shoulder in the direction of the voice.
“Don’t leave me,” Ryder pleads. I look over my shoulder and see that he is surrounded by all of the kids that he pushed in front of the vampires in the earlier trials. He made them that way. Now it is their turn for revenge.
Aaron turns away from Ryder.
“Aaron, don’t leave me here. Not with them, and not with her,” he says bitterly, looking at me.
“What?” Aaron stops and turns to face Ryder.
“Sadie hasn’t told you about her and Theo?”
Aaron glances at me just as I pull my face into a scowl, shooting the look toward Ryder.
“I take that as a no,” Ryder spits.
Aaron silently turns away from Ryder.
“Noooo,” I scream as Ryder raises his gun and points it at Kai. He’s left him to die once, and now he’s going to kill him. I can see the bullet leaving the gun, cutting through the air as it flies toward Kai’s back.
I dive forward, pushing Kai and myself to the ground, out of the way of the bullet.
The impact knocks the breath out of my lungs, and I gasp as I push up from the ground.
The sound of bullets tearing through flesh and atrocious screams for help rip through the air. It is as if the bullet was the catalyst for hell to open its doors once again.
The vampires have turned back to their prey.
Aaron doesn’t move. The color has drained from his face; his eyes blink rapidly.
His hand moves upward toward his shoulder, then back out in front of him; he stares down at his hand.
Blood drips down from his fingers onto the ground; Ryder shot him. I let out a gasp of horror as Aaron stumbles back against the bunker wall, grabbing hold of the stairway handle. No … we’ve made it this far.
“Kai, help us,” I plead as I get to my feet and run toward Aaron. “Go down that tunnel,” Kai says; his nostrils flare as he takes in Aaron’s bloody wound.
“What are you waiting for?” Kai snarls as he walks back to the vampires.
He doesn’t need to tell us twice. I snatch the gun from between the wall and the metal staircase, then head down the tunnel Kai indicated. Guilt follows me.
The tunnel is pitch black. We run as fast as we can, but Aaron is losing blood, and the smell is a trail for the vampires we left behind.
It's impossible to block the horrific screams for help out of my head, and with my hands gripped around the stake and gun, I can’t use my hands to block out the sounds. It will haunt me for the rest of my life, knowing that I left them behind … What choice did we have? That doesn’t give me any comfort. We left them, and made a pact with a vampire.
We turn down the next tunnel. This one feels like we are moving upward … my heart races at the thought of getting out of here.
My joy is quickly drowned by the rotting smell of death; there are vampires down here.
I pivot my head quickly around. There is no light … there is nothing, just my senses.
Sadie, you can sense where they are.
I home in on their smell, the sound of their mouths, wet with saliva, ready for my blood …
I’m not on the menu today. I spin around and fire a shot.
A gurgling sound comes from the direction of my shot, as if the vampire is drowning in its own blood.
“Run,” I order. There are more of them, the smell is overpowering.
I run sideways with my arm reaching back, firing bullets down the tunnel we just came from.
“Here. We’re here,” Aaron calls out.
I turn to face Aaron and see a sliver of sunlight.
“Move,” I order. He dives to the side as I fire the gun at the wooden slats blocking our exit. Bright sunlight beams through the holes.
Then I fire more bullets down the tunnel. Crap, I used them all. I throw the gun at the oncoming vampires.
“Ouch,” someone cries; I must have hit a vampire.
Sprinting forward, Aaron and I reach the wooden slats. With my fist I punch at the holes; I can feel each time my knuckles connect the skin is being ripped off my hand.
A heavy hand grabs my shoulder; I can smell burning, rotten flesh. It's a vampire’s hand, burning in the sunlight, his fingers digging down into my flesh, trying to separate my muscles from the bone.
“Aaron, break the wood,” I squeal in pain; sunlight is our only hope.
Spinning my body around, I can feel his fingers touching my bone, and pain shoots through my body.
Your turn … I plunge the stake into his side, then quickly pull it out and repeat the movement, pushing it in and out of his fleshy insides, each time pulling him forward, moving him just enough to edge near to the sunlight.
His arm closes around my throat, pushing me up against the tunnel wall. Fragments of the wall drop down onto my head from the force. He squeezes my throat, trying to block the air from getting to my lungs.
I kick my legs out toward him, into the ragged holes I created with the stake.
He grins at me as if it doesn’t hurt.
“Quickly, Aaron,” I shriek as I gasp for air.
Reaching my arms out in front of me, I plunge my stake into his eye, knocking his eyeball into the back of his head.
Instantly he drops me to the ground. “That’s mine,” I say as I pull the stake from his eye socket.
I raise the stake toward him for one last attack, but before I reach him a bright ray of sunlight does.
“Argh,” screams the vampire as he steps into the darkness, but not quickly enough.
The smell of burning flesh enters the tunnel, like a pig skin burning. The sunlight beams down on him, the skin on his face melting away like a lit candle. His skin looks as if it's turned to wax, revealing his white cheekbone.
He turns and runs back down the tunnel. We made it.
Aaron’s body starts to sag to the ground as he realizes that we are safe, in the sunlight.
I run to him, catching him before he falls.
His top is soaking wet with blood, which is glowing red in the sunlight. He’s going to bleed to death if we don’t get him to a doctor.
Silhouettes move in the shadows. The smell of singed flesh drifts up my nose. Sniffing sounds pursue us as the vampires try to grab us through the shield of sunlight.
“Get away!” I scream at the vampires. “We have to get back to base,” I tell Aaron.
Will he pass the trial if he’s injured? Or will they send him back do
wn the tunnel as food for their pet vampires?
“Yeah,” he says, with a faint smile on his face.
“We can make it,” I add. We have to … I can’t do this on my own.
My hand is raised as I try to block the burning sun from my eyes. It feels like I haven’t seen sunlight in months, not days. My eyes take a moment to adjust to the natural light.
That’s when I see them: Outside of Sector 105 is Commander Cheng, with her umbrella protecting her from the sunlight. Two guards stand on either side of her, along with people dressed in white … doctors.
“The trial is over … it's over,” I say to Aaron. Please, God, don’t let them take him away from me ...
Epilogue
“Congratulations. You passed the trial,” Commander Cheng said when we reached her. I can remember her voice, like it was something to be joyful about.
Aaron grabbed hold of my arm, pretending to fall, although really he was pulling me back from attacking her.
Congratulations! How dare she send us to our deaths and say congratulations. Not a frigging sorry or anything.
Morgan stepped out of the group with urgency, though I am not sure if it was to stop me or help Aaron. She took us off to the medical suite before anyone else could, and before I could drag Commander Cheng to the pit of hell, where they would rip her to shreds.
Silently we walked back to the training hangar.
I was glad for the quiet—I wouldn’t know what to say if we did speak.
She tended to Aaron’s wounds and informed us that all the successful candidates would be injected with devil’s breath to clear the trial from their memory. Our injection was administered without the devil’s breath, but included a sleeping agent to make us sleep for the same length of time as the other injection.
When we woke, just sixty minutes ago, Aaron’s wound had healed. We haven’t got a clue how long we were asleep for. By the way that my stomach will not stop growling for food, it must have been at least twenty-four hours.
The alarm and then Commander Cheng’s announcement woke us, pouring through our speaker, congratulating us on passing our training trial and instructing that we should get ready for our first assignment.
