by Phil Maxey
Snarls and growls rippled amongst the beings looking up.
“The scourge was merely a retelling of a story that started long ago…”
He paced back and forth, his wings flexing.
“In ancient times, our kind covered the earth and we were kings. But one of our own betrayed us and allowed our food to breed like rats. Never again!”
Grunts and roars filled the valley.
“We march!”
The sounds increased to a deafening volume, and the vamps charged forward, tearing through branches and the earth in equal measure.
Copeland turned, his wings beating a few times allowing him to glide across the mountain top to where a group of thirty mercenaries stood. Behind them, the blades of a large transport helicopter started to rotate.
A figure of athletic build stepped forward to him.
“We are filled and ready to go, sir,” said an assured female voice.
The dark eyes of the demonic being gave off a yellow glow which appeared to linger in the air. He leaned over the woman in front of him. “When you land, scout the area, then wait for us.”
“Yes, sir,” she started to move off.
“And, Antos?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Which of your people has not performed to your expectations?”
Antos hesitated. “They are all fine soldiers, sir.”
Some of the twenty-nine mercenaries shifted their feet uneasily.
Copeland leaned in closer to his new head of security.
The smell of dried caked blood wafted past her, which momentarily fazed her thoughts.
“Choose, or I will.”
Numbness washed over her and, despite her unwillingness to do so, a name popped into her head. She whispered to the beast in front of her.
Each of the mercenaries looked at each other, some even started to reach for their guns, but most hadn’t noticed the man holding his neck, his voice being lost in the blood which was filling his throat. He fell forward, his face landing with a smack against the cold stone.
Copeland looked at the slightly stunned woman. “If you do not leave, you will be behind schedule…”
Antos forced her mind out of the fear that was threatening to overcome it, and turned, waving her colleagues onto the helicopter. They all started running. She did the same, moving as quickly forward as possible so the sound of the chopper blades drowned out the sounds that were coming from Copeland and his victim.
*****
Anna sucked the blood through the straw which pierced the top of the blood bag. As the viscous liquid flowed into her, images of death and destruction cascaded through her mind, until she had seen enough, and instead focused on those she missed. Her parents had passed away years before the scourge, but she saw herself playing in their garden, swinging from a seat which was attached to a rope, and a tree branch above it. A summer breeze rushed past her face, and the other gardens and sky came in and out of view as she tried to swing higher and higher. The urges were gone, but she still sucked on the straw trying to eek out every last drop from the pouch.
Lee sat on a chair to the side of the bed, watching the other doctor drink from the blood bag. He was sure he saw her eyes turn dark a number of times, and more than once checked how close the door was.
Anna took a deep breath. “Calm down, doctor, I'm not going to eat you.”
He produced a nervous smile. “Oh, I'm sure I'm safe.”
Anna laughed. “You don't sound too convinced.”
Lee sprung to his feet, walked to the bed and placed his hand on Anna's forehead. “I’ve dealt with a number of the infected, I'm not scared, young lady.” He then felt her pulse while looking at the old watch on his left hand. “Over the years I’ve become a pretty good judge of character. Your pulse is slightly fast but that’s the case with the infected, so I would have to say you are ready to leave.” He produced a small penlight from his top pocket and examined her eyes.
She blinked a few times, scrunching her face up. Anna was already dressed in clothes which the nurses had given her. Denim pants, a pair of pink sneakers, and a red flannel shirt.
“Sensitive to light no doubt.”
She wiped away a single tear that was rolling down her cheek. “Yeah.”
“From what I have witnessed in those affected before, that sensitivity will increase.” He sighed. “Although, you’re different. With your kind, I’m not sure that will happen. Either way, you might want to start wearing sunglasses on bright days.”
Anna laughed to herself.
“What’s funny?”
“Before I changed, I used to wear glasses. Quite a strong prescription. Then I didn’t have to. My eyesight was better than perfect. Now I have to go back to wearing glasses again.”
Lee walked to the door. “Well, taking into account how close to death you were when you arrived a few nights ago, looking cool in sunglasses isn’t the worst outcome for you.”
She stood and smiled. “No…”
“What is it?”
“I was wondering if you could do with some help around here?”
A mile to the south, Joel and Lucian got out of a Humvee under a watery sun. Dark patches of gravel and mud were still wet from the overnight rainfall.
The ‘leader’ of the few hundred people that resided inside the walls was now wearing military-like garb, which he took from the bodies at the Hensen’s farm. Vince got out behind them, along with other armed individuals in a pickup behind.
“I thought it a good idea that we both inspected the walls,” said Lucian. “With your FBI knowledge, I’m sure you can see where we can improve things…”
Joel had previously seen places in the barricades he wanted to make stronger, so nodded in agreement.
Lucian pointed to the nearest wooden structure which sat up against the wooden posts. “First though, let’s get to the top of that lookout tower.”
Soon, they were standing fifteen feet from the ground, inside a wooden frame that looked south across farmland and country lanes.
Joel pointed to the ground below. “We should dig ditches along the—”
A click noise came from behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know what it meant.
“Remember I can move pretty fast. Maybe as fast or faster than you, but even if you have any ideas of trying to take this gun from me, maybe go ahead and look down to your left.”
Joel did. He counted seven of Lucian’s people pointing guns at him. Even if he moved to take Lucian out, there was a good chance bullets from the other weapons would still strike him. He slowly turned around until he was facing the handgun. “What is this about?”
Anger quickly grew across Lucian’s face, and he stepped forward pressing the gun into Joel’s jaw. “You brought them here! Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your precious suitcase and what was inside it?”
Joel started to run the options of how he had found out, then pushed them out of his mind. It didn’t matter now. “We don’t know what it is inside the suitcase ourselves.”
Lucien’s expression grew tighter, until he let out a burst of frustration and turned briefly away. “I got a good thing going here. I thought when we took out all those army guys that would be it. It would be over. Now I know they’re gonna keep coming until you give them that case, and even that might not be enough!”
“We’ll leave…”
“It won’t matter! If someone as rich as Daniel Copeland is behind all this shit, then we’re all dead! Cos that’s what rich folk do!” Lucian waved the gun around as he expressed his thoughts through his gestures. He pointed the gun back at Joel. “Tell me. No bullshit. What’s in the vials, and what is that tablet thing?”
Joel looked him straight in the eye. “I… don’t… know… We just know that they came from Copeland.”
“Why do you even have them still? Why didn’t you just throw them all into a dark hole somewhere?”
“If they are important to Copeland, then they are important
to someone else. I thought I could leverage them in some way. Maybe use them to help find a refuge from everything that’s happened.” Joel thought it was a reasonably believable lie.
Lucian shook his head. “Where the suitcase at now?”
“Somewhere safe.”
Lucian raised his gun back parallel with Joel’s head. “I will shoot you if you’re lying. The way I see it is, we give Copeland’s people the suitcase when they arrive and hope they don’t kill all of us.”
Joel steadied his breathing. “It’s too late for that. They will be coming here to kill us, no matter what we do with the case.”
Lucian’s face contorted with the dilemma of the situation once again, and he whipped around, shaking his head.
“The only way out of this is when they get to Haven, we make them wish they never came,” said Joel.
Lucian turned around. Joel was glad to see his gun was by his side. “And how we gonna do that? What if they turn up with tanks and helicopters?”
Joel returned to looking outside the walls. “We start by digging ditches,” he turned to face the man that just threatened him. “And, Lucian, we need to get started right away.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Carla Antos stirred the steaming water as she poured the instant coffee powder into her plastic mug. She figured she had drunk about a gallon of the dark stuff over the four days since they left the base, but she still enjoyed that first morning sip.
The noise of approaching steps made her look towards her tent’s opening. A muscular, bearded man appeared.
“There’s a lot of activity going on down there. Inside and outside the walls, ma’am.”
She waved her hand. “I told you, Carlson, enough with the ma’am.”
“Ok, well you should go look.”
“Give me a minute.”
He hesitated near the tent’s flaps.
“What?”
“The gang is rattled after what happened last night. Jacob was a good merc. Jackson and King are not happy about it.”
She sighed, then placed the mug to her lips and drank some despite the burning sensation. It tasted like dry leather, but the familiarity of it helped kickstart her brain. “They’re welcome to leave if they don’t like how I run things.”
She made sure not to look the former Corporal in the eyes. She knew from her time with him in Iraq he had a knack of telling whether you were lying or not.
“If the boss does that again, I’m not going to be able to keep them in line. Just saying.”
“If they feel that strongly about it, why don’t they take it up with him…”
He frowned, then left.
Her mind drifted back to when she was still part of the US military. She had just been advanced to O-2 and was awaiting her new posting when reports started coming in of a disease that was sweeping across major population centers.
She knew Copeland’s claws had long been deep into the military, and when the command structure fell apart the Corporation was ready to step in, for ‘the good of the country’. To her, it sounded unconstitutional, but if the five stars said it needed to happen then she wasn’t about to argue, not when the whole world was turning upside down.
By the time she learned those same generals had gone off reservation, it was too late, and she was officially a mercenary. Not that it made any difference. The scourge took everyone, it didn’t make any difference if you were a soldier or a housewife from Missouri.
She finished her coffee, picked up her M4, and walked outside into the light rain. Even with a blanket of gray above, the scene around was still breathtaking. The mountains dissolved into rolling green hills which ended in the blue shimmering water.
She took the binoculars from her second-in-command, Reid Carlson, and marched with him up the muddy track to a loftier vantage point. She stood and looked through the double eyepieces. The small town, which sat on a finger of land jutting out into the lake, was a hive of activity. Carlson was right. She also knew what it meant.
“They know we’re coming,” she said to him.
“How the hell can they know? We’re at least six miles away still and we landed the birds in the valley.”
She moved her enlarged view across the homes, to the people that were busy moving vehicles in the street and the construction work which was happening outside the walls. “The boy.”
“Even if he survived, the boy don’t talk.”
“Yeah, well, presuming he did, he must have told them something because there’s no other way they would have known.”
“And why would he do that? Why help them?”
Corvin told Carla the truth about the boy some weeks back. It made her sick to her stomach, but she wasn’t about to tell anyone else. She handed the binoculars back to Carlson and began to walk back to her tent. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing can save them now.”
*****
Evan pulled and pushed on the oars of the small boat. On his back were four gallons of water in plastic containers, contained in his backpack. He hardly noticed it was there.
Shannon quietly sat opposite, observing the water and hills around. The cover story was they were just going to hang out as young people do. One of Lucian’s men made some joke and wished them well.
Shannon’s eyes whipped towards Evan and away again. He knew she was anxious about being in the boat with him, just by her increased heart rate which he could hear, but her expression made it obvious anyway.
From the moment they were out of audible range from Haven’s shore, he wanted to talk to the young woman next to him, but every time he went to speak, his fear jumped in front of his words, preventing them from emerging.
By the time they reached the halfway point to the sliver of land they drove to the day before, he had all but given up on a conversation. Maybe it was better that way, he thought. He wasn’t sure what he would say to her anyway.
Within the first few days of his change, he had had the strange notion that perhaps being a vampire would give him better chances with girls. That’s how it worked in the movies, so why not real life?
But much to his annoyance, his social anxiety was as strong as ever, despite the fact that he could now run a hundred yards in five seconds, or hear what people were saying, even if those people were behind a few inches of brick and stone.
“What if we can’t stop them?”
Shannon’s words were like a slap in his face. Waking him from the prison of his own thoughts.
He pulled extra hard on the oars. “Unless they show up with a platoon of hybrids, I think we can take them. They had thirty or so soldiers, and we won, so I ain’t bothered.”
She frowned, looking at him directly. “You almost all died. Lucian’s people saved your asses!”
“The point is, they will take losses—” He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they don’t want to do that.”
She looked at the approaching shore. “Or maybe they don’t care…” she said under her breath.
Evan heard her clearly. He stopped rowing and let the boat go with the current. “We survived this far. We won’t let some crazy Silicon Valley billionaire kill us.”
The small boat bumped up against the rocky shore. They both jumped out and Evan tied it to a metal peg, then they quickly made their way up the dirt track which dissected a small farmers field, and onto the gravelly path which sat next to the farm buildings.
The scene seemed creepily quiet to Shannon, but Evan could hear his grandfather in the largest of the buildings, and jogged across the road and into the short grass of the field.
She watched him disappear around the corner of the building and followed. When she got to the gate, she stopped and looked at the hills that were overlooking the lake. Shaking her head she walked inside, closing the gate behind her.
“Five gallons of water. That enough?” said Evan to Bill, who was surrounded by paper with sketches and numbers on them.
“Going to have to be. Thank you. I presume they didn’t see you take it?”
A rush of wind followed a blur and the barn door clattering. Evan stood with a smile and a long-stemmed flower in his hand.
“Yes, you’re very fast. I get it,” said Bill.
Evan looked at Shannon. He immediately realized the meaning of him holding a flower and started to go red. Shannon frowned and looked away, her expression changing to one of a smile. He placed the flower down on the long wooden bench.
Evan walked to the other end of the bench and looked down at the tablet, which looked just as pristine and clean as it always did. “Learn anything new?”
Bill sighed. “There’s not even a hint of something like this in historical literature. Not even on the conspiracy boards. Copeland was either the first to discover it, or people went to a lot of trouble to keep it secret.”
Evan picked the tablet up, studying the markings closely. “What about the symbols?”
Shannon’s eyes widened, which Evan sensed. He looked at her and smiled. “Only Joel has the weird—” he rolled his finger around the outside of his temple. “—Vision thing when he touches it.”
“Yes, obviously whatever is different with Joel is not fully passed on with his blood.”
Shannon sat up straighter as if just realizing something. “Lucian is like Joel. Could he use that thing too?”
“That’s something we don’t want to find out,” said Bill.
Evan put the tablet down.
“We better be getting back,” said Evan. “It’s around three p.m., probably a good idea you come back with us,” he said to his grandfather.
Bill shook his head. “I think I’m going to stay here overnight. You can come back for me in the morning. I doubt any of the Haven people know I’m not there, or care.”
“Lucian might if he finds out.”
“It’ll be fine, Evan. If I need any more food, I’ll walk up the road to that house. We didn’t take all of the food when we went there last time.”
Evan hesitated. He hated leaving him alone, especially overnight. “I don’t know…”
Bill looked at him directly. “If Copeland’s people do show up, I’ll be safer here anyway.”
