Both brothers crashed into the far wall as people scrambled to get out of their way.
‘Stop it! Stop it, now,’ screamed Megan.
Max threw another punch, which Jake took on his arm. A hard right caught Max in the body, just before a vicious left spun Max’s head round. Blood flew from Max’s mouth as he hit the wall and slumped to the floor, unconscious. Jake looked down at his brother. ‘Should’ve stayed down,’ he said.
Then he turned to look at the faces in the room and spoke calmly as if the last sixty seconds had never happened.
‘… I said a dozen men, fully armed, out front in five minutes.’ He stepped over his brother’s tangled body and walked out the door.
In the factory, Zidtool watched the fire burn brightly, lost somewhere in the flickering flames. Light danced in his empty eyes, bodies littered the floor. Zidtool stepped over a charred corpse and stood in the middle of the floor, turning to another vampire that stood close by.
‘Times up, they’ve had their chance. Kill them all.’
Outside the meeting hall at least a dozen men stood hesitantly in line, facing Jake who surveyed them like some old fashioned Drill Sergeant.
‘We’ll take the disused railway tunnels as per usual, but the last two miles will be out in the open. Make sure you have sufficient ammo.’
Behind him, Megan was finishing a hurried conversation with one of the watchmen. She jogged over to Jake, stood close, her back to the other men.
‘There are some survivors coming in from the South.’
‘How many,’ questioned Jake.
Megan hesitated,
‘No more than ten, fifteen at the most.’
Jake looked toward his new recruits then back at Megan.
‘Do you know how many there used to be in total?’
Megan looked down, shook her head.
‘Over ninety.’
He heard a slight noise and looked up. Slumped in the shadows of the doorway he could see his brother watching. Ignoring him Jake turned his attention back to the men.
‘We have to be really careful, but we need to check for survivors, salvage anything we can. Understood?’
A dozen or so heads nodded uncertainly. Jake cast a look back at the doorway as Max slid silently back inside.
‘Then let’s go.’
On East Ninety Second Street, Drameer pushed open the door to his apartment. Pausing in the doorway he closed his eyes and listened. He could hear the sound of Kathryn’s breathing as she laid asleep inside. Slowly he entered the apartment, walked across the living room and through the open doorway to their bedroom. He crossed to the bed and sat silently on its edge. He stared at Kathryn’s beauty and gently moved a lock of hair from her face with a slender finger. There was no other sound than that of her breathing softly. With a sigh Drameer walked to the window and turned a faded chair so that it was facing outwards. He sat silently. In the distance he could see the fire as it burned high into the sky. He watched in silence, amazed at how far you could see across the city now that most of the skyscrapers had been levelled to the ground in the War and slowly shook his head.
A dozen men moved quietly on foot, led by Jake, clearly in charge. Megan was close behind him. Although he hadn’t wanted her to come, deep down he was glad she hadn’t taken no for an answer. They’d moved through the underground tunnels quickly and quietly and were now out in the open. Jake knew the risks they were taking, but owed it to Eddy and the others to try and help. He secretly cursed his brother not knowing what he had started, wishing he’d been able to convince him of the madness in his plan. They moved cautiously, stopping at every intersection where Jake would carefully check around the next corner, seeing if it was all clear.
They had moved like this for just over the past hour and were finally nearing the old Navel Yard. The streets around the Williamsburg Bridge had been badly levelled during the war and there was now little cover remaining. The group crossed the open ground feeling vulnerable and with their hearts in their mouths. But they made it without incident.
Finally, as they closed on the old Naval Yard, Jake noted that the fires had diminished, but the smell of the fire, together with something far worse, hung pungent in the air. He closed on the last corner and looked round carefully, not knowing what to expect. The sight that met his eyes pinned him to the spot. The remains of the factory had been burnt to the ground. All around walls had been smashed and the resulting debris still glowed orange against the dark night sky. Every so often the embers would flare as the breeze delivered additional oxygen. Dead, tortured, bodies were scattered everywhere. Jake staggered forward in a daze. Behind him the men watched, uncertain what to do as he crossed the street.
He stumbled on something and looked down. The remains of a charred body, torn apart, lay at his feet; a piece of bloodied paper skewered to its chest with a long, thin, silver knife. Jake stooped, carefully pulling the paper free of the blade and glancing at it. It was then that he noticed the seared length of the rosary that now seemed welded to the charred neck. Eddy. His head span and he felt like he was going to be sick. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to block out the terrible sights all around. Quickly, taking a deep breath he stuffed the note in his pocket. He looked around in a daze, trying to ignore the contorted and petrified arms that rose from the bodies in death and were silhouetted against the dark sky all around.
Jake continued to clamber over the debris, trying to avoid the bodies. He staggered on towards the factory centre. As he passed the last wall he froze again. In front of him, against the skyline, stood dozens of crosses, each one was over fifteen feet tall and had been driven deep into the ground. On each cross a crucified body hung, limbs nailed roughly into the wood. Jake slumped to the floor, unable to tear his gaze away, unable to bear the sight before him and his mind was wrenched back twenty years to where a young boy and his brother crept along the side of a building until they appeared at the base of central park.
The younger boy tugged at his brother’s hand, trying to stop him.
What’s the matter? Asks the young Jake.
‘I’m scared, Jake’ replies Max, his eyes wet.
The older boy frowns at his sibling.
‘Why?’ he asks, and there was a flicker of irritation in that voice, ‘We already did the hardest bit.’
‘I want my mommy.’
Jake pulls at his brother’s hand. ‘Come on’ he says and he begins to drag his brother to the corner of Central Park West, and then he freezes, his heart hammering in his chest. He stares towards the park. In it, a row of giant crucifixes covers the ground; suspended high in the air on each and every one is a body. Jake spins Max round roughly, so his back is to the grizzly scene making his brother yelp in surprise.
‘Stay here... don’t look, and don’t move until I get back. You understand?
Max nods.
Slowly, Jake’s feet take him forward.
Jake looks so small, as he stumbles down the street, staring up at the row upon row of crosses embedded deeply into the grass in the park. Bodies hanging, some badly burnt.
Then, as if in a dream, or more fittingly a nightmare, Jake stops. He falls to his knees, tears crash down his face as he stares up at two figures hanging from the cross to his right. Seconds turn into long minutes as Jake just stares up at his parents. He can’t move until...
...a tiny hand touches his shoulder, wrinkling the cloth of his shirt. Jake looks up into the eyes of his brother; Max’s face is red from crying.
Pulling himself together, Jake stands and clasps his brother to his chest.
‘I told you to stay where you were.’ He whispers in anger.
‘I was scared. I didn’t look at the bad things, but you weren’t moving. Jake I want Mommy, I want to go home.’
Jake pivots his brother round, grabs him by his shoulders, and fixes him with his young, but no longer innocent, eyes.
‘We’ve got a new home now and I’m going to look after you. I’m always going to look
after you. Do you understand?’
A scared Max nods. There’s a slight movement from above. Max looks up and Jake watches as Max’s confusion turns quickly into realization and fear.
‘Daddy?’
Jake spins round. Above him, his father struggles to lift his head. He opens one badly swollen eye, tries to focus on his two sons below. A hoarse voice cuts through the silence.
‘Jake? Max? Is that really you?’
Jake stands frozen, his mouth dry, hardly able to speak.
‘Dad?’ he manages in a quivering voice.
Jake doesn’t move. His father blinks; a single drop of blood plummets to the ground, splashes at Jake’s feet. Then Jake watches his father look across at his wife, their mother, and sees the pain that flashes across his father’s face. Jake will never know what his father sees in his mind’s eye, which is the image of his wife being pulled away from him by a vampire before he is forced to kneel before them on the ground, then shaking the thought from his mind, Jake’s father re-focuses on his two sons.
‘Dad, I don’t know what to do.’ Jake’s voice is cracked and scared, but beneath the surface his father recognises the inner strength he knows his son already has.
‘Go, son. Get...Get’ he struggles to speak. ‘Get Max away. You...you shouldn’t have come back, now go...please, before…’ His eyes glaze, his mouth moves but no sound comes out, then to Jake’s dismay, his head slumps one last time onto his chest.
‘Nooooooo!’ screams Jake and he runs, pulling Max, clearly in shock, behind him. Max tumbles and for ten yards is dragged along the floor by his older brother who can’t comprehend the terror of everything that has just happened.
‘Jake! You’re hurting me.’ It’s his brother’s pitiful sobs that bring Jake back to his senses and he yanks his younger brother up.
‘Come on!’ He demands.
‘What about Dad, you can’t leave him.’
‘It’s too late, Max. Now come on.’
Jake pulls Max up, who falls again.
‘No!’ Max clambers to his feet, beats Jake in the chest with clenched fists.
‘It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault; you did this.’
He screams at his older brother and Jake can hardly breathe. Max sobs uncontrollably as his small hands continue to pummel at Jake’s chest, whilst Jake just stands there letting him,
‘I shouldn’t have listened to you! It’s all your fault!
Max’s words seem to break the last of Jake’s resolve and with defeat in his eyes he takes hold of Max’s wrists. Not looking back, and in total silence, he drags his brother away.
The crackle of the dying fires jerked Jake back to the present, he looked up at the crucifixes and the terrible sight seemed to galvanize him, snapping him back into action.
‘Cut them down!’ He demanded.
‘But, if the…’ one of the men began to argue.
‘I said, cut them down. All of them, now.’ The look on Jake’s face left the man in absolutely no doubt that to argue was not an option.
Chapter 16
The Challenge
In the general assembly hall of the United Nations Building a low rumble of chanting ran around the auditorium. The room filled with the sound of roar power and anger, as the assembled vampires waited for their Queen to arrive.
Outside, Drameer stood with Voltan in heated debate, the sound of the assembled vampires thundering out in the background like a distant storm.
‘He needs to show strength,’ Voltan growled at Drameer, ‘the Queen has demanded that the resistance be destroyed. Now she has called on Rodan. Overlord Karick’s position has been dramatically weakened.’
‘Voltan, sometimes true strength is standing up for what you know is right, regardless of the consequence, or for that matter the views of the others,’ Drameer glanced at the thick doors to the auditorium, then back to Voltan. ‘Voltan the truth is we need the humans.’ He paused, before adding quietly, ‘Perhaps more than we’d care to admit.’
Voltan snorted.
‘You have been blinded and cannot see.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We all know of your...’ he tried to select his next words carefully, but anger burned in him like a red hot rage ‘your perversion.’
Drameer’s eyes narrowed. The two vampires faced each other in an uncomfortable silence, a hint of a snarl present on Drameer’s lips.
Then Drameer breathed out and broke eye contact. Voltan would never know how close he had come to being attacked. Drameer took another breath and steadied himself before continuing, this time more quietly.
‘This is not about individual feelings, but about logic. About what is right, about what needs to be done.’
‘Drameer, I think there is far more at stake here tonight than what may, or may not be right.’
‘How can that be?’
‘If Overlord Karick loses power your…’ he spat out the next word ‘…truth as you would call it won’t count for anything.’
Drameer, still angry, began to respond, but instead he paused and took another breath. He turned his back on Voltan and closed his eyes.
‘Voltan, I fear we might both be right. But for now Overlord Karick needs our undivided support.’ He looked up and both he and Voltan fell silent as Karick entered the chamber.
Jake sat on a pile of debris, deep in thought. The others stood in silence around him, nervously scanning the area, expecting the vampires to appear from out of the darkness at any moment. None of them wanted to be there, out in the open, for a moment longer than was absolutely necessary. With them a handful of survivors that they’d discovered sat still in deep shock from their ordeal. However, despite their unease, they were as equally nervous about disturbing Jake, who seemed lost in his own nightmare.
It was Megan who finally approached him, gently touching him on the shoulder.
‘Jake?’
He looked up into her beautiful face, filled with concern, and found it difficult to accept that this beauty could exist so near the terror that they had just witnessed. Each of the crosses now stood empty, some of the large wooden crucifixes lay spent on the ground.
‘We need to leave,’ she continued.
Jake nodded, ‘how many survivors did we find?’
Megan paused before she whispered her answer, her voice almost failing her; ‘three.’
Jake closed his eyes, drew a long, deep breath. Suddenly there was a slight sound, a movement to his left and Jake was up, his gun trained on the shape. As the others span, their guns also raised, Jake frowned, holding his hand out to calm the men. Behind him Megan watched as he slowly picked his way carefully through the rubble. She couldn’t make out what had moved, but continued to cover him with her own weapon just in case. About twenty metres away he crouched down. Megan’s eyes narrowed as she stained to see in the darkness, then she heard him speak in a soft but reassuring voice.
‘Hey, little girl.’ Jake whispered and the compassion in his voice weighed heavy on Megan’s heart, bringing a lump to her throat.
Jake smiled. A pair of frightened, dark brown eyes stared back at him from beneath a pile of rubble and discarded wood. The eyes didn’t blink as if by doing so it might cause another terrible nightmare to descend once more. The eyes belonged to the small girl, frightened earlier by Zidtool. Jake held out his hand.
‘Don’t be afraid.’
The little girl swallowed, not moving, not blinking; her face covered in dirt.
‘My name’s Jake, what’s yours?’
‘F..Faith’ she whispered hoarsely.
Jake smiled again, as she tentatively reached out and took his hand.
Again Jake was transported back twenty years in his mind’s eye.
Jake stands in a dark room with his petrified brother who is gripping one of his hands tightly, squeezing it until it hurts. Max watches as Jake pushes open the door. Just as Jake peers outside a voice speaks from somewhere out of the darkness behind them.
; ‘Now, you remember where to go?’ It is a question asked by a young Father Matthew.
Jake looks up into the Father’s eyes, behind him Jake’s mother stands with his little sister, both are sobbing quietly, Jake’s father stands off to one side, his head hanging low, helpless and unable to do anything. Jake knows he’s been crying too.
‘I’m scared, Father,’ Jake whispers in a weak voice.
‘I know son. But God is with you, here…’ Father Matthew takes a gold cross from around his neck and gently places it over Jake’s head.
‘Take this. It will help protect you in your darkest of hours.’
Jake stares down at the gold cross gleaming in the palm of his hand; it makes him feel stronger somehow. Father Matthew glances back towards Jake’s parents, then back to Jake and Max.
‘Now you must go. I’ll look after your ma and pa, okay?’
‘But what about the vampires?’ Max’s question is spoken so quietly that it is hardly audible.
Jake, although shaking, grasps his brother by his shoulders.
‘Nothing’s going to happen Max, I promise’ and steeling himself, Jake pushes the door open wider, glances around.
‘Jake! Be careful, the monsters!’ comes a small voice and Jake turns. The voice belongs to his sister, who pulls away from her parents. Her neat hair pulled back in a ponytail. She runs forward, holds out her hand, eyes burning into his. He reaches out, squeezes her hand in his.
‘It’s alright Sis, we won’t be long.’
‘Then can I come too?’
The young Jake shakes his head.
‘No Sis, Max and me have got to meet some people. It’s too dangerous for you. Now, stay here and help Father Matthew look after Mom and Dad, okay?
His little sister moves forward, a frown on her face.
‘Not fair, I wanna go too.’
‘When you’re older, I promise.’
Father Matthew smiles and Jake watches as his mother picks the little girl up, then the two boys step out into the darkness.
Dominant Species Page 12
