He immediately went soft on her, showing that even Nobles could be embarrassingly stupid. “Leave it to me. As long as Baron Macula is here, nothing will lay so much as a finger on you.”
He rapped his fist against his chest.
As if in response, there was a groan in the darkness off to their right.
“Eh?” the baron exclaimed, turning toward the sound. Every hair on his body instantly stood on end. Not an iota of his tough talk remained. “Just a moment—I must go attend to matters.”
Getting to his feet, the baron walked off a short distance, then put his hands against the ground. Down on all fours, he started to wriggle away.
“Sis, he means to take off on us!”
In response to Piron’s remark, Leda said, “That groan was a ‘walker.’ Hold your breath, and don’t think about anything.”
The two froze in place, as if they were stone.
—
Some fifty yards from the fire, the baron halted. An inhumanly sweet female voice had whispered in his ear, “Please, wait.”
Could that be Leda? he thought, but he immediately realized it wasn’t. Any question about when she might’ve followed him was whisked aside the second he heard that voice.
The Noble’s eyes reflected the darkness, as well as the thing that’d halted before him. It lacked eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It was a sphere about six feet in diameter. A mass of transparent liquid, the Nobleman’s eyes told him.
At that instant, the mass rolled over, swallowing the baron.
A single streak of light struck the watery mass. A terrific cloud of steam rose from it, obscuring the moon and stars. It was about five seconds later that the baron plopped down on the ground like a drowned rat. Aside from the foggy vapor, no trace of the watery mass remained.
A pair of figures raced over to the coughing, sputtering baron.
“Nothing will lay so much as a finger on us, eh? What a disappointment.”
Naturally it was Piron who spat that remark, while Leda switched off the heat beam emitter concealed in her ring and ran over, crying, “Baron?”
“I’m melting! It’s burning me!” the baron shouted as if delirious, his hands and face shrouded in steam, and his skin coming apart like a stack of waterlogged papers. It was clear that he’d been exposed to strong acid.
“His clothes and precious metals have dissolved. It’s no use now. Let’s just leave him and be on our way, Sis.”
“What are you talking about?” Leda said reproachfully, winking one eye at her brother. “We can’t leave the good baron wounded like this. I’ll see to it he has the loving care he needs.”
“Are you stupid or something, Sis?” Piron snarled at her. “He’s a Noble. No matter what happens to him, so long as he doesn’t get a stake driven through his heart, he’ll come back to life. He doesn’t need any care!”
“You’re the one who’s stupid!” As Leda gently stroked the peeling skin of the baron’s cheek, she whispered to her brother, “That’s why it’d be dangerous to just leave him here. If we run into him again somewhere, he’ll have his vengeance on us. Nothing works better on guys like him than lies and sweet talk.”
“You think it’s that easy to work human psychology on him? He might be short and bald, but he’s a Noble.”
“But the shape is exactly the same. And their heads work the same way, too. I’ll manage something.”
“Sheesh! Do what you like, then.”
However, contrary to what the children had believed, the baron showed no improvement. As the night stretched on, his tattered flesh began to give off a repulsive stench. The smell of putrefaction. Even his groans of “Ooooh!” and “Aaaaah!” clearly worsened, becoming a constant “Uggggggnnnnn!”
The two of them exchanged glances.
“I guess it’s like you said after all.” Leda had a dangerous gleam in her eye. “Nobles are supposed to get better at night, but just look at him now. We’ve done all we can. Come morning, let’s just leave him and go,” said the girl.
At that, the boy objected, saying, “But I feel kinda bad for him.”
“Why?”
“Well, he’s really in pain. He’s a weird Noble. Pretty close to human.”
“Doesn’t that make him all that much creepier, then? We’d do well to take what we can and hit the road. If he’s going to up and die on us, we’ll be home free!”
“Gaaaaaaaah!”
Something white spilled from the baron’s mouth, running down his cheeks and neck.
“He’s as good as finished now,” Leda said, shaking her brother’s shoulder and getting to her feet. From the pile of branches they’d collected to fuel the fire she chose a relatively straight piece of wood and handed it to Piron.
The flames colored the boy’s cheeks. His face was terribly devoid of emotion. He gazed at one end of the dead branch. It came to a sharp point.
“Hurry,” Leda whispered.
The boy nodded. His features hardened in a look of determination. The flames danced in his eyes.
—
Having risen high in the sky, the sun shone down starkly on the highway the boy and girl traveled.
Piron halted. He was utterly exhausted.
Having walked since early morning without saying a word, his older sister also stopped, glaring at her brother with eyes ablaze with anger. “You really are stupid, you know that? You’re groggy already, right? We’ve got nothing to eat, and I don’t think anyone’s going to pass this way—what are we supposed to do?”
“It can’t be helped. We’ve got one extra.”
As he said that, Piron slumped to the ground. The shock traveled up his back, and the pitiful figure he carried on it let out a feeble groan.
The baron still lived.
“Well, you had to go and show an odd sense of honor. Now we’re beat, and we didn’t even get half as far as we’d planned. Okay, how about we finish him off here?”
Once again the girl held out the branch she carried.
Though Piron looked at it longingly, his gaze soon became one of fierce refusal.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t want to. I can’t do that to someone who’s in pain.”
“He’s a Noble!”
“He looks just like us. I can’t do it!”
Leda glared at her brother for a while, then nodded. Jerking the branch back, she said, “Fine, I’ll do it,” and raised the pointed stick high.
“Don’t!” Piron cried, grabbing his sister’s hand.
“Why are you trying to act like such a big man?” Leda shouted at him as they struggled. “It’s all the Nobility’s fault that the two of us have to live like this. We could destroy ’em all and take their treasure and no one would ever say a damned thing about it!”
“But if we went and stabbed someone in pain, we’d be just like the Nobility! Let’s just swipe his stuff! Okay?”
“And what are we supposed to do if he gets better and comes after us? He could tear us to pieces like nothing. We’ve gotta nip that in the bud.”
“At any rate, just don’t do it.”
“Shut your mouth!”
“Shut up!”
Still struggling, the siblings froze.
Who’d just said, “Shut up”?
Two sets of eyes found a common focus at the siblings’ feet.
A burnt, swollen face was looking up at them disagreeably.
“You, you’re, er, you’re awake?” Leda said, smiling awkwardly.
“Yeah, I haven’t slept a wink since last night.”
“Um . . . You know, I . . . Well, I was just joking.”
As Leda tried to explain, she casually brought the opening of her laser ring to bear on the baron.
“Save your pathetic little toy for the beasts,” the baron said with disgust, dismissing the threat with a wave of one hand. “Enough about that. Don’t you two see anything?”
“Huh?” they exclaimed in concert, looking all around them.
“Down the road that way . . . I saw buildings . . . Probably a town. Stick with it until you get that far. There’s maybe another three miles.”
Though the other two strained their eyes, they couldn’t make out any buildings, let alone people.
Somewhat suspicious, Piron asked, “Have you been conning us?”
Suddenly, the Noble cried, “Uggggggnnnnn!” He flailed his limbs like a frog.
“You must be shitting me, you bald little Nobleman—walk on your own damned feet!” the boy shouted, delivering a well-placed kick to the baron.
“Little bastard,” the baron grumbled as he got up.
Leda quickly squatted down in front of him, turning her back to him and saying, “My dear baron, I’ll carry you if my brother won’t.”
“Shut up, you two-faced bitch. I’ll never believe another word you say. And sooner or later I’ll drink your blood; mark my words.”
“That hurts me,” Leda said, sniffling. It really was something to see. She was a born actress.
“Okay, let’s go,” Piron said with a displeased look on his face, tossing his chin at the road ahead. “And baldy, if you’re lying about that town, I’ll stake you.”
—
III
—
There was a town.
The siblings’ faces brimmed with pleasure, but it soon changed to suspicion. Once they reached the edge of town, that was transformed into despair. Thunder could be heard rumbling in the distance. Rain was coming. It was just another weight on the siblings’ chests.
“That’s weird,” Piron groaned.
There wasn’t a man, woman, or child on the streets. Every town had its idle old folks sitting out in chairs facing the street, but there were none to be seen here. Yet a clamorous performance could be heard from the saloon. As the trio stood rooted and dumbfounded, streaks of white angled through their field of view.
“If it’s not one thing, it’s another—now we’ve got rain,” Leda remarked apathetically.
On the right-hand side of the street there stood a two-story hotel. As the trio bounded through the door, they were followed by the sound of rain.
“Funny,” Piron said, craning his neck.
There was a lobby next to the front desk. The tables in the adjacent lounge were covered with cups of coffee and half-eaten meals that still gave off enticing aromas. However, there was no one there.
Waddling over to one of the tables, the baron picked up a cigar that rested in an ashtray. Putting it to his lips, he blew out a puff of purplish smoke and said, “That’s a cheap one.”
“Oh, shut up!” Piron snarled, showing his teeth. He was still angry that he’d carried the Nobleman on his back when the baron could’ve walked on his own.
“But judging from the way that cigar’s still burning, there were people here about ten minutes ago.”
Leda’s comment drew a nod from the baron, who touched his finger to a steak. “It’s still warm. I’d say five, maybe six minutes ago. Oh, someone dropped a cigarette over there and it’s still burning. That’s not good. Only you can prevent fires!”
Quickly waddling over, he stomped it out. He looked less like a baron and more like a gaudily attired bellhop. Cigarettes had been dropped in five places.
“There are knives and forks on the floor, too. What could’ve happened, Sis?”
“Don’t ask me; ask the good baron. Dear me! He’s gone!”
“Ran off, did you, you bald shrimp!”
Piron looked around, and then the door to the lounge opened and the baron appeared.
“What the hell were you doing?”
“Preventing fires—there was food cooking in the kitchen. The place was that close to going up in flames.”
“Leave it to the good baron! You’re so much more perceptive than the two of us.”
“Of course,” the baron said, puffing his chest—or rather, falling over backward. For it was at that moment that the door was blown off, followed by a roar and a shock wave.
Having narrowly managed to hit the floor, the siblings were spared the force of the blast by a toppled table, and a battered but pudgy face appeared between them.
“What the hell was that you said about preventing fires?”
Piron was too angry to say any more, but the baron rubbed the top of the boy’s head.
“What kind of sorry excuse for a spell are you trying to put on me?” Piron snapped.
“Just trying to ingratiate myself,” the baron replied. “It would seem I forgot to turn off a gas range. Well, no matter. We’re safe now. Let’s decide where our quarters will be!”
“But the place is on fire. Aren’t we gonna put it out?”
“That can’t be helped. Let the rain take care of it.”
“You lazy Noble bastard—where are we supposed to sleep?”
“Any place with a roof will suffice,” the baron said, getting up and hastening to the foyer.
—
The next building the trio entered was the sheriff’s office. There wasn’t a soul there, either.
Walking about the room, the Nobleman said, “The cigarette butt in the ashtray is fresh. Maybe the sheriff simply stepped out on his rounds. But judging from the way the jail is locked up, someone must’ve been in the cells. In short, this is how I see it: Up until five or six minutes before our arrival, this town was going about its business like normal. However, for some reason, every person in town vanished.”
“Impossible—there’s probably someone around. I’ll call out and see,” said the girl.
“I wouldn’t do that. What if whatever got rid of all of them gets wise to us?”
“But—”
“Wait until we know what we’re dealing with here.”
“How are we supposed to find that out?”
“How should I know?”
The baron’s flippant answer made Leda explode in anger. “I’m going to go see about this!” she shouted, spinning around, but the baron took a step forward and grabbed her by the back of her collar.
“It’s raining. You’ll catch a cold. Oh, I know what we can do. Get some of those weapons over there and get ready to stand guard. I’ll go look for some food or something.”
This time it was Leda’s turn to grab him by the back of the collar. “I’m not letting you get away, my dear baron. We’ll stick together at all times!”
“Unhand me, damn you! Let me go! Don’t you care at all about how I feel?”
“Not a bit,” Piron said, shaking his head—then he picked up a chair and smashed it against the glass front of the weapons case. Avoiding the flying glass, he pulled out a firearm. As a rifle would’ve been a bit much for him to handle, he chose a pistol. Still, it was disproportionately large for a ten-year-old boy.
“What, are you an idiot or something, making a racket like that!” the baron shouted. “You’ll bring the damned thing down on us, you little shit!”
The boy and the girl looked at each other, then shouted at the baron in unison, “The damned thing? You know what it is!”
“Shut up!” the baron snapped back, trying to keep his voice low.
Pulling Leda’s hand off of him, he dashed over to the door. As he peeked outside, his face fell. That same dismal mood infected the siblings, keeping them motionless. A minute passed.
After a good, long look, the baron turned around. “Okay, we’re safe for the time being. Use this chance to go find some food. The general store’s over there.”
“I thought you were going?”
“I’m afraid not,” the baron said, barreling through the doors. After swinging wide, they swallowed the chubby figure.
“Wait,” Piron called out, gun at the ready.
But Leda scolded him, saying, “He was right—you can’t be making noise like that!”
“But the little baldy—”
“Forget about him. He needs our blood. He’ll be back soon enough. So forget it, and let’s go find some food, just like he said. I’m starving.”<
br />
—
Fortunately, the merchandise in the general store was unaffected. With all the canned goods, instant food, and drinking water they could carry, the two of them returned to the sheriff’s office.
With the coming of night, the rain grew more intense, and it was joined by wind. The baron, of course, hadn’t returned. They turned out the lights and used a candle that was in the office instead out of fear of the unknown threat. It seemed impossible to believe the baron’s terror had been feigned.
Suddenly, the world was aglow with white. The ears of the astonished pair caught a rumble. Thunder.
“I wonder if that lightning struck very close to here.”
“I don’t know why, but I just hope it goes in that direction.”
She must’ve meant in the direction of the thing the baron had mentioned. Piron nodded as well, in spite of himself.
On and on went the hours of wind and rain. It was nearly midnight now. Though the two of them were in no position to be sleeping, they could feel the sandman prodding at their brains. Suddenly, Piron opened his eyes. At the same time, his sister looked at him.
“Sis, the little baldy appeared to me in a dream!”
“Me, too. And he said—”
“—to hurry up and get out of here!”
They stared at each other in astonishment.
Shaking her head, Leda got up and headed for the door.
The street was strangely bright. The lights were on in the arcade that covered the sidewalks. Whatever had taken all the people didn’t appear to have any interest in electricity.
Leda peeked out the window that was set high in the door. Once she’d checked straight across from them, she shifted to the left to see down the right side, then to the right for a look down the left.
“Ah,” she gasped, her tone rather dazed.
It took Piron about two seconds to notice the change in her. Racing to his sister’s side, he looked in the same direction. And immediately understood.
The street felt strangely short.
And then, the light furthest down the street suddenly disappeared. It hadn’t been switched off. It’d been swallowed by the darkness.
“Sis—the darkness is coming this way!” the boy shouted in amazement as a black, heaven-and-earth-engulfing shape approached, swallowing everything in its path.
Record of the Blood Battle Page 11
