by Phil Maxey
She almost didn’t want to turn around, but did so anyway. The small confined space which appeared to have multiple uses including, office, lunch area, and storage, contained the remains of human beings.
Fragmented legs, arms, and other parts all mingled together, forming a small heap in the middle of the area. She instinctively went to heave, but stopped when Mary screamed.
A figure, with torn clothes, held Mary off the floor by a single clawed hand.
Flint scrambled forward, but his paws couldn’t get purchase on the wine-soaked smooth floor, and Mary’s flailing legs and arms were starting to sag.
Shannon ran forward, desperately trying to get herself between the vamp and the children, when Jasper arched his back. Two small bat-like wings ripped through his coat and he flew forward, tiny clawed hands swiping away at the vamp that looked as surprised at the miniature picture of rage as the humans did.
The vamp dropped Mary to the floor, sneered, then swung his own razor-sharp appendages at the boy. Nearly all missed as the boy was too quick, but the final one caught his shoulder and Jasper fell backwards, holding his arm and snarling, as the slender vamp, with skin that seemed too tight for its skull, loomed over him.
The vamp seemed to laugh at the boy on the floor, then looked back at Mary. Flint leapt through the air, his jaws catching the vamp’s throat with a large snap of his jaws, and sent the vamp careening backwards struggling to get free.
By the time he had landed on the concrete, the vamp was dead, and Flint furiously shook his jaws left and right, until there was no more life left.
Shannon ran to Mary, who was groggy but alive. She then looked at Jasper who was in a huddle against the outside wall. She hadn’t had a good view of the young boys eyes before, and he seemed even younger without his sunglasses. “Are you okay?”
He frowned but nodded, and she watched as his small wings receded, and his hands and teeth returned to normal.
Jess peered around the door and held out a hand. In it was Jasper’s glasses.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Marina looked to her right at Jess sleeping in the passenger seat in the RV. Almost an hour had passed since the vamp attack, and she was happy to be heading back into the hills and mountains beyond.
All the vehicles were fuelled up, and, after returning from the pharmacy they found with bags full of supplies, Joel informed everyone in the convoy they were heading west. He kept the destination vague, but Bill, Marina, and the other hybrids knew that meant going to Cheyenne Mountain.
The route on Evan’s laptop was five hundred miles, or roughly two days’ worth of driving and took them directly through somewhere she was not looking forward to returning to, Denver.
As she headed the convoy of vehicles, driving smoothly around twisting bends, she couldn’t stop her mind returning to the days before she left to go back to LA and to try and find Russell. She loved her older sister, but Jackie was always known within their family for her reluctance to take a risk, and as the frequency of screams in the streets outside the apartment increased each night, Marina knew staying in a city wasn’t going to end well for her or Jess, or anyone still not infected.
Jackie’s expression the last time Marina saw her was one of pretend hope that she might see her sister again.
After hearing about the devastation to Denver and other large cities on the radio as they covered the miles back to California, Marina knew she wouldn’t get to see her sister again. From then on Denver stopped existing for her.
Now, here she was, driving back to where she started.
Must be fate.
Lee Kemp followed behind the RV in the dark blue sedan they discovered hours before. A bumper sticker of ‘Vegas or Bust’ kept catching his eye despite his efforts to watch the road. He had never been to the city of miniature versions of the worlds’ wonders, but had always secretly wanted to. The plan was to take Wanda, his wife, on their thirtieth wedding anniversary, but then people started getting sick in the small town of Haven, and the mayor, who was a personal friend, asked him to come out of retirement to help out. A month later, Wanda was infected, and a few days after, he found the bedroom window open and an empty space in the bed. Between shifts, exhausted, he tried finding her, but by then the walls were going up, and he knew in his gut he would never see her again.
Lucian arriving was something of a relief for most. The population of the town was dwindling and Lucian put a stop to that, and his people went out and found supplies to keep everyone alive. Lee wasn’t ever completely onboard with the whole ‘brother’, ‘sister’ aspect to Lucian’s stay, but he was never one to go against what the majority were happy with, so Haven became a town of pretend siblings, with Lucian being the father to all.
He wondered what happened to the famous vacation spot in the desert, and if anyone was still in the brightly lit interiors, playing blackjack or roulette.
“There’s got to be some form of government left somewhere,” said Anna in the passenger seat next to him.
His mind returned to body, and he had to replay what she had just said to answer. “We can only hope.” He briefly looked at the woman next to him. She was looking paler than usual. “Have you been drinking your blood rations?”
The two men and one woman in the rear shifted in their seats.
She looked hesitant to answer. “Mostly…”
Lee had seen those who had changed suddenly become overwhelmed with bloodlust and kill innocents around them while working in the medical center. “You need to take your dose.”
“I’m experimenting. Seeing how long I can go before I need the blood again.”
“How long has it been?”
“Four days.”
“Then this is an experiment we will do together. I shall monitor your vitals. But if I feel things have gone too far, you will take some blood, okay?”
“Of course.”
*****
Joel opened his eyes and looked at the patterned wall paper which smothered the walls around him. He was on the bed in the small room at the back of the RV. His instincts immediately told him there were eight other souls in the vehicle with him, before his ears picked up their heartbeats and then voices.
His mind returned to the night before and his fight with the thing Daniel Copeland had become. His shock at seeing a vamp with wings had been somewhat dulled by the fact that he saw similar creatures in the animated display on the side of the Sarcophagi, but knowing these creatures existed in the ‘here and now’ was unsettling. He wondered how many other types of vamps were out there, waiting to be discovered.
Maybe the tablet could tell me?
If only he could read it. He also didn’t particularly want another mind trip, or whatever it was the tablet did to him when he touched it.
Then there was the fact that they had kidnapped the flying monster’s son. Although Jasper appeared to be happy being with them, rather than being used as a vampire radar as he was before.
From what Shannon described, the boy was similar to his father in some respects, but they had not seen him eat anything let alone drink blood. A few mouthfuls of water was all he asked for daily.
A chill ran through him thinking of the child being used by his father like he had been. He wondered if the change had made Copeland particularly cruel or if he was always like that. He also wondered where the mother was.
A tinge of hunger shouted from somewhere deep within him, and he leaned over the side of the bed and pulled up a satchel that contained, amongst other things, a few blood bags. One was completely empty, but the others were still full, and he pulled the plastic stopper out, and let the blood course into his mouth. The viscous liquid washed away the cobwebs of fatigue, and he became more aware of the living beings around him, and those in the vehicles following.
He figured he and the other hybrids had enough blood for a few more days, but if the opportunity to find more came up along the way, he would take it.
A knock came on the door.
“I heard nois
es, are you awake? Do you want some coffee?” said Mary.
The memory of human beverages still made him smile. “That sounds good, thank you.”
He heard her walk away.
He got to his feet, opened the narrow door and walked into the narrow space that was the main part of the large cabin. He already could tell the sun was still up, but it was a lot lower in the sky than when he laid down.
He bent over and looked out through the dusty curtains. Sandy-colored fields with hints of late summer grass looked back at him. Scattered around in the distance were farm buildings and the occasional home. “Whereabouts are we?”
“Just coming into the outskirts of Fort Collins,” said Marina over her shoulder. “Roughly sixty miles from Denver.”
Joel could hear the change in tone on mentioning the city.
“We need to approach it slowly, all of us need to be alert.” He looked at his watch. “Around four hours till sundown. We should make it to the mountain by then.” He walked through the central aisle until he was near the front. “I can take over the driving, you should get some rest before we get there.”
“I’m good,” said Marina, her eyes fixed on the road.
Joel looked down at Jess who was sitting between the front seats and smiled. Jasper appeared to be sleeping. He looked tiny, all huddled on the passenger seat.
“Mind if I use the bed?” said Shannon from behind him.
“Be my guest.”
Joel sat down at the small table, opposite Bill and Evan. Mary placed his mug down and he took a sip. He looked around. “Where’s the case?”
“In my backpack,” said Bill.
Evan’s eyes were on his laptop’s screen.
“Why?” said Bill.
Joel took a pause before replying. “This has been one crazy nightmare from the start—”
“And it keeps getting more complex?”
Joel nodded. “We don’t know what I am. We don’t know what’s in the vials, we don’t know what Copeland wants with them…” He sighed. “We are continuously being pushed by events outside our power. Maybe using the tablet can change that.”
“That’s why I’ve been spending what time I could examining the device, and trying to find references on what you saw in your vision.”
“And?”
Bill looked at Evan who swung his laptop around so they could all see the screen.
Joel could see grids of symbols, which morphed and changed. He had seen the scene before on the tablet itself. “How?”
“I created an AI Program which mapped the symbols to what we had in our database, and… as you can see it’s getting results,” said Evan.
Joel leaned in further. One of the symbols had the word ‘Memory’ next to it. “That was the symbol I touched which took me to the tomb…”
Bill nodded. “What you experienced was a lifelike recreation of an important event.”
“VR without the goggles,” said Evan.
“Why the tablet showed you that particular place I do not know,” said Bill.
Another symbol on Evan’s screen locked in place, with the word ‘Ruler’ next to it.
“How long will it take so we know all the symbols?” said Joel.
Bill frowned, and Evan looked uneasy. “With this amount of computer power, maybe twenty years! The computer has so far scanned over ten thousand unique symbols and is still finding more,” said Evan.
“It’s a language unlike any I’ve seen or I might say, anybody has seen. It’s multidimensional… we will be able to decipher maybe ten symbols per day.”
Joel looked back at the screen. “So far we have, ‘Memory,’ ‘ruler,’ ‘fire,’ and ‘serpent’…”
Bill produced a wry smile. “Maybe avoid touching the ‘fire’ symbol.”
Joel smiled.
Bill’s face visibly turned grave. “I doubt Copeland will stop looking for the case or his son. We will have to deal with him, once and for all, at some point.”
“I know.”
Over the next hour, fields of dying crops gave way to suburban areas, which gave way to industrial forecourts and multi-story office buildings. The convoy had to slow more often to avoid jackknifed trucks and abandoned cars.
“It’s looking pretty thick up ahead,” said Marina.
“Are we in Denver?” said Joel.
“Have been for twenty minutes,” she replied. “Do you want me to take an exit to avoid the cars, or try and stay on the highway?”
Joel moved forward and leaned down to see out of the windscreen. Vehicles of different sizes and colors laid forgotten across the freeway. He tried plotting a path through them in his mind, but kept hitting a stopping point. “We’re going to have to get off.” He went back to the table and clicked on his radio. “We’re taking the next exit. Stay close, and don’t stop unless you have to. Over.”
Those with radios in the other vehicles acknowledged.
Skyscrapers appeared in the distance as Marina led them to the right, under a green sign that stated ‘Downtown.’
They soon arrived at a wide junction.
“Just keep—”
“I know where to go,” replied Marina to Joel’s suggestion.
They passed apartment blocks, schools, and a bridge on a road which seemed to be a collision course for the most built-up part of the city.
Joel wanted to tell the woman driving that they could stop, that she could check on her sister’s apartment, but he felt as if they were driving into a viper’s nest, and they needed to keep moving.
Jasper sat bolt upright, then pointed to the tall buildings ahead. He looked around him anxiously trying to get the adults attention.
Joel placed his hand on the child’s shoulder. “I know, I can feel them too.”
Jasper placed his palms together and rested his head briefly on them.
“Yes, they’re sleeping.”
Like the sound of crickets on a summer day, the sounds of thousands of vamps scratched at the back of Joel’s mind, but he also sensed that they did not have a coherent thought between them. So far, the convoy was undetected.
“How long before we are through the city,” he said.
“Maybe another fifteen minutes if we keep to the main roads.”
Marina turned the convoy left and right down narrow roads, with buildings looming over them.
Joel looked at the countless windows as they crept by, knowing what was beyond them, and hoping none of the shadows would start moving.
The sound of the vehicles echoed around the empty streets.
Suddenly, Joel felt it. Like the domains in a magnet all aligning to form an unstoppable force. “They know we’re here. Go faster.”
Marina pushed down on the gas and they sped along the tight roads into the heart of the city. She looked in the mirror. “One of the cars is falling behind.”
Joel ran to the back room and looked out the rear window. Shannon was doing the same.
A red sedan was slowing and was already fifty yards behind.
Joel clicked on his radio. “Anyone know why that car’s falling behind? Over.”
“We don’t know. Are we stopping? Over,” said Anna.
“They got some kind of engine problem,” said a gruff voice from another vehicle.
The sound of shattering glass rang out around them. Splinters crashed onto the sidewalks.
“What do you want me to do?” shouted Marina from the front. “Should I stop?”
No guns.
“No, keep going…” the words limped from his mouth. Every part of him wanted to stop, but he could feel them. Feel their hunger from the buildings they were surrounded by. Stopping would mean certain death. He clicked on his radio. “No one stops. Keep following us.”
Over the increased engine revving, the clattering of metal poles and beams came from a building site. From it, two vamps ran across the road and were promptly slammed into by the RV, despite Marina’s attempt to avoid them.
“They’re coming out of the
buildings!” shouted Bill, looking out of the side windows.
Marina skidded the RV around another corner at a junction, and then slammed on the brakes. “No—”
The full fifty foot width of the road was submerged in a sea of vamps moving towards them.
She threw the RV into reverse, but they only moved a few feet before slamming up against Anna’s sedan behind that was trying to do the same.
“Get us out of here, Marina!” shouted Joel, looking down the street to the hungry throng descending on them.
The other three vehicles fanned out around them and carried on going straight. Vamps burst out of every store front and apartment, swarming over them like ants attacking a larger prey.
As the vamps clung onto the cars’ roofs and windows, they swerved. One slammed into a streetlight, while the others just slowed to a crawl as the windows exploded and vamps sliced their claws at whoever was inside.
Joel looked to the only possible exit. The road to their right, which still only had a handful of creatures running along it. “Take the right!” He went to click on his radio as Marina threw the RV into a sharp right, but Anna’s car was already speeding off in that direction.
Marina slammed down on the gas and they soon followed.
The RV rocked left and right as vamps slammed into the sides. The window next to the table shattered and claws filled the space.
Joel and Evan moved forward in a blur, each battering the vamps back.
The sedan and RV roared along the road, weaving as groups of vamps appeared from the expensive-looking stores and office buildings.
“Which way?” came Anna’s voice from the radio.
Her sedan screeched to a stop as did the RV close behind it. They were on a bridge. Opposite them on the far side a continuous stream of vamps converged creating a wave which rolled towards them.
Anna began to turn the car around, as Marina tried to do the same.
“Look!” shouted Shannon, pointing out of the rear window from where they came.
Joel’s shoulders momentarily sank. Vamps. Thousands, each one stepping over another, all desperate to get onto the bridge. To feed.
