by Phil Maxey
Before Joel could reply, Lucian looked up at the dark sky. “They got them flying robots, high in the sky. I bet they’re watching us right now!”
“You can be sure there’s more than just the one Humvee. How many, I have no idea, but they wouldn’t have come here unless they felt they could take what they want by force.”
Lucian’s face changed to one of confusion. “Did they say why the hybrids are important to them?”
“Something about wanting to understand how we are different.”
Lucian frowned and shook his head. “Sounds like some scientist stuff.”
“What weapons do you have?”
“Just what the guards have and a few boxes of extra ammo. That kind of stuff is hard to come by now.”
Marina overhearing the conversation, stepped forward. “We might not be able to match them with weapons, but they don’t have five hybrids.”
Lucian nodded with a grin.
“I haven’t told you this yet, but I’m a former FBI agent. In one of the tactical teams. If you’re willing to let me help, we can get through this,” said Joel.
Lucian looked at him more closely. “Always knew there was something about you. So, Mr. FBI, how we going to stop ourselves from being taken?”
Joel could hear the conversations going on inside the hall, and the smell of fear drifted on the breeze. Most of the inhabitants of Haven were not cut out to fight, especially not against trained individuals from the Copeland Corporation. He needed to avoid a confrontation between the townspeople and the soldiers, but unless he gave them what they wanted, that was not going to happen.
“Well?” said Lucian.
“We need to keep the people of this town safe. Have any of these buildings got a large basement?”
“Where you were being kept, the school does.”
“Get them into the basement.” He turned to Marina and the others. “Mary, Hardin, Bill, and Jessica, you need to go with them.”
Marina pulled Jess closer to her. “She’s not leaving my side, Joel.”
He looked directly into her eyes. “We need you, and if she’s with you she’s going to be in danger.”
Marina sighed.
Shannon put her arm around Jess’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
Marina forced a smile, then knelt next to her daughter. “You’re going to go with Shannon, Bill, and the others. You’ll be safe in the basement, okay?” She looked at Flint looking up at her. “And you also got Flint.”
Jess flung her arms around her mother, and then let go, nodding.
Lucian emerged from the hall with the people behind him, most of which gave Joel and the others dirty looks. As they all filed past, led by Lucian and moving quickly towards the school a few blocks away, Shannon, Jess, and the other humans took one final look back at the hybrids, then joined those walking away.
Joel, Marina, Anna, and Evan stepped closer together.
“So, what’s the plan?” said Marina.
“First, we need to know what we’re up against,” said Joel.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Marina threw both of her hands out to grab the side of the small wooden boat which wobbled from side to side. “You sure you don’t want to use your flashlight?” she said to the elderly man still on the bank.
He waved at her. “I’ve been taking Bessie out since before you were born, young lady. I just need the stars above us and I can take you anywhere you want to go.”
“Well, thank you, Oliver.”
The thin man with a fishing cap on stepped into the boat and sat. “Thank me by getting those men away from our town!”
“That’s the plan.”
“And call me Ollie, everyone else does.”
“Will do.”
Evan, who was seated next to Marina, went to take the oars when Ollie grabbed them first. “And you know where to go, young man?”
“Err… no…”
Ollie frowned, then started to pull back and forth with the long wooden sticks. The boat slowly pulled away against the gentle waves.
“So, what makes you think they ain’t watching the lake?” said Ollie.
Marina scanned the far shores. There were no lights, and even though she wasn’t sure how far her audible senses stretched, she felt confident if there were any vehicles’ engines running, she would have heard them. “Can’t see any.”
Ollie scrunched his face up. “Can’t see any? How can you see anything?”
“Oh, umm, I’ve always had really good vision.”
“Right…”
They started to move around the headland and towards the center of the lake. Ollie rested the oars on the side of the boat. “Not as young as I used to be. Just need a short break,” he said breathlessly.
Marina went to take the oars herself when she heard voices. Her head twitched and she turned around in the boat to face the direction they were coming from.
“What you hearing?” said Ollie.
She strained her eyes into the dark, towards a group of buildings which sat along the shore. “What’s over there?”
“Where? I can’t see.”
She took his hand and moved it so it was pointing where the noises were coming from.
Ollie looked up at the stars, then back down. “That was Tom Hensen’s farm. Unfortunately, he and his family never made it. Why? Is that where you want to go?”
“I think that’s where the government people are…” She picked up the oars and started rowing. Ollie and Evan fell back a bit in their seats.
“Steady there,” said the older man.
“You might want to hold on.”
Oliver did, and they were soon moving against the wind, although that made no difference to Marina.
After a few minutes, she stopped, and let the boat drift. The southern shore and the buildings were now just a few hundred feet away, and she could see lights inside the two barns that sat in front of a large farm house. She also saw the Humvees parked.
She took her radio from her jacket and clicked it on. “Found them. They’re about two miles due south of the main gate, in some farm buildings. Over.”
“How many? Over.” Came Joel’s voice from the speaker.
“I see seven Humvees. Hard to say how many soldiers… actually, I think there's someone on the shoreline. Someone small, sitting. Shall we proceed? Over.”
There was a short pause before Joel’s voice came from the radio’s speaker. “If each vehicle had a full complement of people, that’s a lot of soldiers… but I don’t see what choice we got. Get to shore and wait for the signal. Over.”
Inside the now almost completely empty meeting hall, Joel slid the radio back into his jacket pocket and looked at his watch.
Anna entered the hall and walked up the center aisle, placing the silver suitcase on the first of the pew seats. Her fingers shook as she looked back at Joel. “You sure there's no other way? Can't we just leave. If Marina and Evan made it out on the boat, then maybe—”
Joel held his hand up. “If we leave, there’s no telling what they will do to this town. We have to take care of this, here and now.”
“I don’t know if I can do it…”
“For this to work, it’s going to need all of us. Just remember, they only know about me. Lucian is sure it will explode on opening?”
She sighed, then nodded.
On the shoreline, tens of yards from Tom Hensen’s farmhouse, sat a young boy. He could feel the two vampire humans way off in the middle of the lake, watching him, without being aware he was doing the same to them. He knew there were others in the town too.
Since his change, his other senses had improved. He could now see in the dark, and smell and hear things he never could before, but that wasn’t what impressed the founder of the Copeland Corporation. For that was because of a sense that the boy hardly knew he had, but the Copeland’s scientists discovered. An ability that allowed him to link to other vampires. A piece of cloth, or, even better, some blood was
all it took, and his mind was chained to theirs. Although they never knew it, for this was just a one-way deal.
As he listened to the waves lapping the shore, ignoring the laughing soldiers in the barns nearby, he wondered if he should tell Captain Corvin about the others. Did he need to know? He was asked to help find just the one. The man that took the suitcase. And soon that man will be coming back with them. The boy picked up a pebble and threw it into the lake.
*****
Joel took in a deep breath, then nodded to the guards to pull one of the wooden gates open. Red and yellow flames reflected in the small silver suitcase in his hand, and he calmly walked through the opening and out onto the street beyond. Waiting for him was a Humvee with two soldiers, but no sign of Corvin.
He wasn’t expecting the Captain anyway.
One of the soldiers opened the rear door, to which Joel walked and climbed in the back.
Anna, with those of Lucian’s people that were posted along the wall, watched as the Humvee turned around, then headed off into the dark. She quickly climbed down the ladder, then ran out beyond the gate.
Joel looked at the soldier next to him and the one driving. Despite the lack of light inside the cabin he could see them fairly well. Judging by their steady heartbeats and fixed expressions these weren’t new recruits, but battle-hardened veterans. Mercenaries.
Even though that made what he was about to do somewhat easier, he still had an emptiness in the bottom of his stomach.
The journey to the farm took less than a minute.
Two curved roof barns sat perpendicular to each other, and were covered in gray rusting sheet metal, while opposite them both was a single-story brick built residence. An orange glow came from the windows and fires burned inside two barrels outside the barns. There were soldiers everywhere. Joel sighed on seeing most had night vision goggles, but it was to be expected.
As the Humvee drove up a gravel path, he stilled his mind trying to locate the others. Searching from heartbeat to heartbeat, he finally came across one he recognized, but it was in the wrong place. It was inside the house.
Were they discovered?
Just before the rear door was opened, he scanned the area once more, this time two more signature pounding noises came to him, and these were to his left, just behind one of the barns.
His door was opened and a soldier stood waiting. Keeping the suitcase close to him, he followed the soldier towards the light of the house and into the first of just five rooms it contained.
Two soldiers sat on a ragged orange sofa, while others filled the living room, drinking. To his right, three more soldiers sat at a kitchen table.
Out of the gloom of the hallway, walked Corvin, with a child.
No… Why is…
The boy was between eight and ten, had blonde hair and snow-white skin.
Corvin smiled. “You made the right choice.” The captain walked into the kitchen, picked up a jug of water from the counter, and drank some. The boy stayed in the hallway looking up at Joel. “We have been following you all the way from LA.”
Joel tried to ignore the small eyes that were examining him.
“Oh, meet Jasper. Jasper has a special gift. He can track those infected with the scourge.”
It was Joel’s turn to examine the small human in front of him. “He’s like me?” he said, looking back at Corvin.
Corvin shook his head. “The lab geeks don’t know what he is. What we do know is he doesn’t need blood like your kind.” He nodded to a nearby soldier, who got to his feet and took the suitcase. “So how did you end up with the case?”
“I was part of the CDC team to try to get it out of LA.”
Corvin smiled. “Great job you did then—” he noticed the slight change of expression on Joel’s face. “—Ah, you felt guilty. Your duty to protect it and all that, which is why you carried it with you across the country?”
“Something like that.” Joel’s eyes watched the soldier who was holding the suitcase. “What’s inside it?”
Corvin smiled, then nodded to another soldier. This time a soldier took Joel by the arm, and started to pull him back out of the doorway. Joel looked at the boy still watching him.
You’re going to kill a child…
Joel held his ground in the hallway. “Hey, Jasper how do you track the infected?”
Corvin frowned, and waved Joel and the soldier away.
Think, Joel, think.
He looked at Corvin. “I’m half vamp, maybe I can get the boy talking…”
Corvin looked down in thought, then sighed. “Sure, whatever. Just leave and take him with you.”
Joel beckoned to the kid, who followed him and the soldier outside. Joel carried on letting the soldier pull him across the yard towards a quiet part of the largest barn. Jasper quietly followed. Just as the soldier reached for the warped wooden door the night briefly turned into day, and the air filled with flying glass and a deafening explosion.
Screams and shouting replaced the silence, and the soldier who was now crouching up against the wall of the barn suddenly remembered his prisoner. He whipped around, but before he could stand the fangs of a dark-eyed being sunk into his neck.
As the blood flowed into Joel’s throat he could hear the familiar clatter of semi-automatic firing, and even though most of his thoughts were eclipsed with a primal rage, he knew the fight had begun.
Soldiers and flames burst out of the house, the former staggering forward and falling to the ground. Others ran in all directions, trying to get a fix on the blurs that were moving around them.
“It’s vamps! They’re here!” shouted one of the soldiers.
Joel leapt forward, bounding over a Humvee and slammed into two soldiers at once, slicing across both of their necks, while others fired into the constantly shifting shadows around them.
He spun and then became a blur himself as he felled three more soldiers one after the other. Neon streams of bullets split the air around him which he deftly avoided, then crashed into another group.
In the back of his mind, he heard the sound of a vehicle’s engine, and then his world filled with an intense violet light.
He smelt his skin burning before he felt it. Instinctively, he threw himself into the back of the barn behind hay bales. Searing pain cascaded through his mind, but it was not enough to block out Anna’s screams.
Trying to shake the burning sensation that reverberated across his body, he staggered forward into the main part of the barn. Anna was on the ground in front of a Humvee, bathed in a purple light. Her skin was boiling.
Despite the blackened skin and burnt red skull, he recognized the man at the helm of the strange telescope-looking device. It was Corvin.
He survived?
Joel went to leap onto the back of the Humvee, when bullets slammed into his back. He fell forward to the side of the vehicle.
Anna’s blood-curdling screams filled Joel’s mind as he forced his spine and legs to work, and clung onto the side of the Humvee, desperately trying to pull himself up.
He looked up at the man he already hated, at the satisfaction he was taking in killing his friend, and rage surged through Joel. With one final push, he heaved himself up to the back of the Humvee and pulled his clawed hand back to bring it across the back of Corvin’s neck, when the head of the man in front of him exploded, and Joel’s face was sprayed with blood.
Just before the pain became too much, and darkness almost completely overwhelmed his vision, he saw a group of humans running up the path to the farmhouse, their guns leading the way.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The thing that Daniel Copeland had become glided majestically on the warm air currents. If there had been anything alive below him, looking up, they would have just seen a shadow passing overhead in the night sky. His anger had meant he had drifted for almost an hour across the hills and canyons east of San Jose looking for those that would pay for what happened six hundred miles further east.
The last message
he received from Corvin was that they had obtained both packages. The former Naval Captain went to talk again but the phone went dead. Copeland knew what that meant, and fifteen minutes later most of his priceless artwork and antiques were laying in pieces across the mausoleum-like space that was his apartment.
He contacted the new default head of security to confirm what his gut was telling him, and a few moments later he took to the air from his balcony.
The first to die were vamps. He lost count how many, but when his wings pulled him skyward again, the ground was littered with the remains of distorted bodies. Those that had been scouring the streets for their own prey were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. What he really wanted though, were humans.
As the undulating hills flowed by beneath him, he scoured the landscape for any sign of civilization, until on the horizon he saw what he hoped would satisfy his fury. The dark blocks and grids of roads tempted him towards them, and when he got within a mile of the small town of Templeton, his blood rush increased when he smelt the odor of the living.
By now he had come to recognize the warm, salty smell of packs of humans. If only they knew how easy it was for his kind to find them, they would descend into caves never to emerge again.
As the sidewalks, former homes, and business sailed by a hundred feet below, he zoned in like an eagle looking for its meal, on a faint glow which came from the tiniest of gaps between a window frame and a wooden board that had been nailed across it.
He floated down, landing on the roof of the three-story early twentieth century apartment block. As soon as his clawed feet touched the concrete surface he could feel the accumulated body heat of homo sapiens. He walked across the roof using his heightened senses until he felt the tiny vibrations of disturbed air molecules, which he heard as muffled voices.
The building below was full of food, but a slaughter would be too easy. He needed them to run. They needed to be warned.
He ran and leapt off the side of the building, his huge wings beating the air to allow him to descend so he was level with the window the light was seeping from. Moving forward gently, he grabbed the wood covering it and ripped it off. Part of the masonry came with it, and fell twenty feet to the sidewalk, sending an explosion of noise into the night.
