Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2)

by Derek Gunn

  “I’m coming too.” Sandra forced herself from the bed and began to pull her clothes from the cabinet in the corner.

  Harris didn’t try to argue. He knew there was no way to dissuade her. And, if he was honest, he was pleased to have her with him. He would need everyone he could get. He was certain that his team would already have been told to stand down by the committee but he had to come here first.

  “Aren’t you going to argue?” she asked over her shoulder as she struggled into her clothes.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Harris smirked and watched her bare skin as her nightgown slipped before she had managed to get her trousers on.

  “One word,” she grunted as she overbalanced and nearly fell.

  “That’s what I’ve always loved about you,” Harris laughed, “you were always so graceful.”

  “Bastard,” she said as she finally managed to stop herself falling and straightened up.

  “Oh, and your eloquence, of course,” he added as he dodged one of her shoes as it flew from her hand.

  “What’s happening, Peter,” she asked, suddenly serious as she turned toward him.

  “People are scared,” he answered as he handed her shoe back. “It’s too much for them to cope with. The vampires, the serum, survival, food shortages. They can’t cope, so when somebody offers an easy ride they jump at it. Can’t really blame them”

  “I can blame Regan,” she retorted as she straightened her hair.

  “It’s not him,” Harris sighed. “It’s Tweedle Dum and Dummer pulling his strings that are at the root of this.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Nothing for now,” Harris answered and turned to leave the room. “First we’re going to see if we can save a few of the people that are coming to the border. If we survive that then I’ll worry about the politics. It’ll all change after tonight either way.”

  “What do you mean? How will it change?”

  “Come with me,” he answered cryptically. “There’s one more thing to do here before we go to the others.

  “So that’s it.” Harris finished, sat back in his chair and regarded April and Steele.

  “Is that all you want?” Steele laughed.

  “I was going to do it myself, but with the current escalations I…”

  “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing,” Steele interrupted him. “I mean, telling the vampires that we exist is a huge risk.”

  “I know.” Harris wiped at his forehead. “I just can’t see a way around it. We have to stop them using the serum though or we’re all dead anyway. It may take a little longer but we’ll all die regardless. Besides,” he paused as he looked Steele in the eye, “it’s really only a matter of time before someone notices that you never came back from your mission here and send someone to investigate.”

  Steele looked at Harris and could see what the decision was costing him. He may have decided what was best but it was obvious by his pale complexion and his haunted mien that he was still not completely comfortable with what he was doing.

  “Is this all we have?” Steele indicated the four of them in the room.

  Harris shrugged. “I’m hoping that I can get a few more to help. It all depends on how quickly Phelps can lock down the complex, so we have to move quickly.”

  “I’ll need to take most of the fuel the camp has if I’m gong to get there, though.” Steele raised his eyebrow. He knew what that would do to the community. They had little enough fuel as it was to power the generator. If he took what he would need to travel almost to the far side of the country he would have to leave them dangerously short for the rest of the winter.

  “I know,” Harris replied with a heavy sigh. “I don’t think we have a choice, though. There’s too much riding on this.”

  “You’re not going to be popular around here.”

  “With any luck we’ll both be killed. Then all they can do is spit on our graves,” Harris laughed.

  The men jumped as April slammed her hand on the table to attract their attention and then gesticulated madly. Harris had no idea what she was saying but her hands moved with such grace that he was mesmerized. Her face was scrunched up in concentration and her eyes burned with anger as she directed her focus at Steele.

  “She says we’re both mad,” Steele repeated after she had finished.

  “I’d say she said a lot more than that,” Sandra arched her eyebrows and then winked at April. “We don’t really have a choice, love,” Sandra said as she reached for the girl’s hand.

  April managed a quick series of hand gestures before emotion took over and she buried her head in Sandra’s shoulder.

  “What did she say?” Harris asked.

  “She asked what she would do without me.” Steele sighed heavily and laid a hand on her head with surprising tenderness.

  “You’ll never be alone while we’re here,” Sandra assured her but forgot that the girl could not see her lips, so the words, if not the sentiment, dissipated impotently into the air.

  Steele pulled the girl gently back from Sandra and repeated her words in gestures. She nodded weakly but all present knew that it was little solace for April.

  As the four of them left the hospital they were shocked to see ten fully armed men and women in full armor and packs standing in their way. For a moment Harris thought that Regan had sent them to arrest him but then he saw the smiles on the faces of the soldiers and he relaxed.

  “We heard you were going off half-cocked again so we thought we’d tag along.” Rodgers grinned at him and Harris couldn’t help laughing at his friend’s return to form.

  “You realise this goes against the committee’s orders.”

  “Oh, you mean the other raids were actually sanctioned?” Rodgers raised his eyebrows.

  “There are different levels of disobedience.”

  “No there’s not,” Warkowski thundered as he hefted his rifle. “I take my orders from you, Harris, not any committee.”

  “Didn’t expect to see a law abiding cop here, Tanner,” Harris joked as he spied the ex-lawman.

  “I wasn’t great at obeying orders before the vampires came, doesn’t seem much point in starting now.”

  Harris looked along the grinning faces before him. Dee Ratigan stood next to Warkowski but she had an arm entwined around a still-grinning Rodgers.

  “You finally got him to do something, then?” he asked Dee as he nodded at Rodgers.

  “Nope,” she grinned. “Got tired of waiting so I took the initiative.”

  “Good for you.” He grinned and nodded to Scott Mitchell, Aidan Flemming and Carlos Ortega. His eyes met those of Dave Sherman and he tilted his head to the side in question. “You sure about this?”

  “I wasn’t doing anything else today,” Sherman shrugged. “Tomorrow, now that would have been a problem.”

  “You better get going, Steele,” Harris nodded to the other man. “I’ll need somebody…”

  “I’ll give him a hand and catch up with you later.” Sherman was already moving forward.

  “No, I need you to organize the explosives so we’re not delayed.” Harris looked along the faces. “Ortega, go with Steele and help him get his vehicle fuelled and out of storage. You may need to force your way in, but remember, Lucy is one of the good guys, so no violence. Tell her I’ll explain when we get back.”

  Harris looked back at his men and frowned as he saw something cross Sherman’s face, but then it was gone and the man was smiling again. He soon forgot it during their hectic preparations. Phelps was no fool; he would come after them as soon as he could find any troops who would follow him. Of course, thankfully, there weren’t too many left for him to find.

  Sherman cursed as he was led away to prepare the explosives. The day had started off so well. He had met the cute nurse, Amanda, last night and had spent an enjoyable night wooing her. He had been attentive and interesting, regaling her with stories of dangerous missions while ensuring she saw his sensitive side. He had assure
d her he was very interested in her and her job and had spent hours probing gently about her position and how important it was. He had slowly come around to asking her about the dangers of issuing the wrong medications and had listened patiently while she explained about the different cases she was responsible for. He had feigned interest and asked what might be the worst medication that she could issue in error, and once he had her answer he was finally able to spend the rest of the night gutting her.

  She had died a little too quickly, though, and this morning he still felt a little cheated, though still in a buoyant mood. He had hid the body quickly and had planned to return later for a more thorough job after he had taken care of Steele. Amanda was due on duty at nine o’clock so he hoped to get to the hospital, issue the medication to Steele, and get out before her absence was noted.

  It was just his luck that he met the rest of the platoon on their way to the hospital too. They assumed that he, like them, had decided to offer their support to Harris and, as he had no other reason to be at the hospital, he had been forced to play along. Now he was stuck and he’d have to go on another mission. He had hoped to get to Steele while he was fuelling his vehicle but that plan had crashed as well. In fact, the only good news so far this morning was that, as Steele related what he was about to do, Sherman realized that there was no way in hell he was going to survive. So he would not have to kill him after all.

  He was only a little disappointed that he wouldn’t get to do it himself; the main thing, though, was that he would be out of the picture and that sweet young friend of his would be all alone when he got back from this mission. Life was looking up.

  Chapter 18

  The light was draining from the sky like blood from an open wound and Carter could feel the weight of the oncoming darkness as he strained to hear the approach of the vampires. His stomach churned, knotting with nerves and tension as he waited for the first signs of his masters. There was nothing more he could do. Around him the tanks and gun emplacements that still remained functional squatted like deadly, dark shapes against the lighter tapestry of the sky. He had prepared as well as he could, given his reduced resources, but the twisted and ruined outlines of those tanks and vehicles that he had not been able to salvage were still far too numerous to ignore. He wondered briefly if he should have removed the destroyed husks, if for no other reason than it would have looked better, but he knew he had acted correctly. That was assuming that the vampires used the same logic as he did, of course.

  He had made a decision earlier in the day that terrified him but also filled him with a resolve he had not experienced in quite some time. His decision would have major repercussions for them all, so much so that he was oblivious to how momentous it was. At first his men had flatly refused to obey his orders, but, eventually, they had relented, especially after he had sent them to examine the torn and gutted corpses of the thralls who had borne the brunt of the vampires’ last attack. He had based his decision purely on self-preservation but, by the end of the day, his men began to refer to him as master rather than the ‘sir’ that his rank demanded.

  He knew that Wentworth had his headquarters closer to the front than Von Kruger and, crucially, that he and his men would be on their own for at least twenty minutes before their own vampire overlords would reach them. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that Von Kruger, or any of his clan, would come to their rescue. If it suited them then they might help, but, for all intents and purposes, he and his men were on their own. They would have to face Wentworth’s vampires alone. He had no idea how many there would be—the thought of just one of them was terrifying enough—but a sky full of them was incomprehensible.

  He had deployed his men along his area of responsibility; the areas of the border outside his jurisdiction were not his concern. He couldn’t care less if those men were torn apart—in fact, that would slow the vampires down and give him more time to prepare. But he wasn’t going to sit idly by and wait to be torn apart. Every time he devised a new strategy he had to fight against a strange sensation that seemed to act against him. He was only too aware that the very chemicals that made him a thrall and granted him his strength and amazing abilities also ensured his loyalty. Any time he tried to plan against a vampire attack the details became cloudy and he found it hard to concentrate. In frustration, he had driven out to the site of the vampires’ attack and forced himself to study the slaughter. Strangely, he found it easier to make his plans against the vampires in the middle of the chaos that they had wrought. The grotesque, twisted bodies and the smell of their decomposing helped against the strange effects of his enforced obedience. In fact, by the time the sky had turned amber he was quite enjoying the new twists that his mind was coming up with.

  He was no fool. He knew that even if he survived against the initial assault and Von Kruger won the day that he would never be allowed to live after killing another vampire, let alone as many as he was planning to kill. Everything had changed. The old world, if two years could be described as that, was gone. Whatever happened tonight, the dawn would bring with it countless changes, not least of which would be the new status of thralls in this world.

  Snow began to fall, lightly at first, and the wind caught the flakes, swirling them around lazily, almost hypnotically, before a gust would suddenly catch them and cast them violently into his face or against one of the tanks. Most of the flakes did not survive the treatment and they quickly melted once they touched the warmer surfaces. Cold air snatched at him and he shivered as he surveyed the sky. The temperature had dropped drastically in the last hour. If the snow continued like this it would start to stick, and that would only add to his problems.

  None of the vehicles had snow tires so any mobile attack would be fraught with danger. His stomach churned again and his bladder ached. He forced his mind off his discomfort. All he needed was for Von Kruger to arrive while he had his trousers around his ankles. The image of him wilting under the vampire’s stern gaze while his pecker was in his hands was too much, and he laughed. What’s the worst he can do? He thought as he looked at the pale, bloated face of one of Wentworth’s thralls in a gutted tank beside him and he shrugged. I can only die once, after all.

  Though what he did not know was that there were far worse things than dying.

  Far worse.

  The escape from the community’s stronghold was a very emotional and worrying event. Sandra couldn’t help but feel like a fugitive. She had no doubt that what they were doing was the right thing, but the potential for disaster weighed heavily on them all. Whatever the outcome of the oncoming night, their existence would change drastically. After tonight, the vampires would know they existed. They could no longer hide away, silently orchestrating unrest between their neighboring states. Now they would have to stand alone against the full might of the vampires. If a whole world failed to stand against them, how could their small community hope to? They were doing this for the good of humanity and the irony was that they were acting without the mandate of the only cognizant group left that they knew of.

  In order to save a world they had had to betray their friends, stealing precious fuel and equipment like thieves instead of colleagues. Even if they succeeded tonight, what would it achieve? How many could they save while the vampires fought amongst themselves? For that matter, how many could they care for and feed back in the community with the resource shortages they had? Would they even be allowed back into the community with their drugged charges? Questions flooded her mind as their vehicles slipped out of the city. She looked back but darkness was already creeping across the buildings like a spilt inkwell, enveloping the cityscape slowly but ineluctably into its embrace. She looked around at the faces around her, smiling wanly at those that caught her eye. Each person here was present more as a confirmation of their loyalty to Harris than from any particular noble urge and she wondered if it would be enough to sustain them if, and when, they returned.

  She sidled over to Harris and slipped her hand into his. He looked
up briefly and smiled at her distractedly as he quickly returned to the papers in front of him. She looked at the crude drawings and noted the countless scribbles and crumpled papers littering the floor around him. Obviously the plan was not coming together as easily as he would have liked.

  “You know you can’t hope to save them all, don’t you?” she gently reached out and eased his face towards hers. She could see the anguish in his eyes and wondered if the pressure would ever relent. Harris was incapable of turning off. She supposed that it was an admirable quality in some ways, but there was also the risk of descending into fanaticism. He hadn’t quite slipped that far, but she would have to watch him. Sometimes you had to take a step back or you were in danger of falling off the edge.

  “I know,” he sighed as he crumpled another sheet and let it fall absently from his fingers, “but this is the best shot we’re going to get.”

  “Just remember that we can’t feed the thousands even if you could get them to the Promised Land, Moses.” She kissed him on the cheek and left him to his planning.

  Steele turned his Honda TS1300 onto the highway and eased the throttle higher. He had forgotten how much he loved the feeling of driving at night. The wind snatched at him, easily penetrating the layers he wore and forced his heart to thump faster as it tried to keep him warm. His wound still ached but he had enough painkillers to keep the worst of it at bay for the journey. He doubted he’d need them on the way back—there wouldn’t be a return journey.

  Karma, he thought. It was just his time to pay for all the things he had done. The fact that he would have a chance to do some good, to make a difference would, he hoped, have some impact on his final judgment. By delivering his message to Von Richelieu he would accomplish two things. One, he would hopefully buy humanity time by stopping the serum being used. And two, he would most likely doom what remained of those who remained free.