"Put me down now, please," Birdy said; a request this time, not a demand.
Genie stopped and lowered the girl onto unsteady feet outside the door to the SWAT van.
"Got to be quick," Genie said. "There are more of those monsters 'round here. I can smell 'em." The woman's eyes darted left and right, constantly searching the shadows while the ax swung back and forth, pendulum-like in her left hand. Birdy realized Genie must have had it in her hand even while she had been carrying her.
"Get in," Genie said, and then waited for Birdy to climb into the SWAT van. It smelled of sweat and something else that Birdy could not place, something sweet and metallic. But at least it was dry. Her eyes automatically dropped to the steering column and she felt a small glimmer of victory when she saw the keys dangling from the ignition. Birdy slumped down into the passenger seat. Her vision swam for a second then cleared.
"If you'd been ten minutes later, I would've been gone already," said Genie, as she eased her substantial bulk up into the driver's seat. She slid the door closed behind her. "Time for you and me to get our butts out of this godforsaken city." She turned the ignition and the engine roared instantly to life.
"Tyreese...," Birdy managed to mumble, her world edging toward black again. "Have to get Tyreese..." The words sounded slurred to her, almost like she was drunk, and Birdy wondered absentmindedly whether maybe she had hit her head so hard she had a concussion. She shook her head gently, and instantly regretted it as a bolt of pain shot across her forehead and down the back of her neck. But her vision cleared a bit, enough that she could see the look of surprise on Genie's face.
"Tyreese? He your boyfriend?"
Birdy managed to screw her face into a position that conveyed how disgusting that idea was to her fifteen-year-old mind. "Friend. We have to get him and the cop."
"Cop?" The word came out of Genie's mouth like she'd tasted something sour. Then she let out a long sigh, "Okay, tell me where they are."
Birdy pointed in the direction of the apartment. "That way," she said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tyreese pushed himself to his feet, placed the palms of his hands flat against the windowpane and yelled, "Holy shit! She did it. She really did it."
Collins was sitting on one of the rickety chairs at the kitchen table, his elbows resting on the tabletop, his head in his hands. Tyreese had waited at the window the entire time after Birdy left.
"What?" Collins exclaimed, jumping to his feet. He joined a grinning Tyreese at the window and looked where he was pointing. The unmistakable twin beams of powerful headlights sliced through the narrow gully Birdy had taken.
"Open the window," said Collins, even as he reached and popped the latch himself. Cold air and rain blew in but it brought with it the unmistakable deep growl of a powerful engine.
"Christ! She really did it," said the cop, the look of disbelief on his face in complete contrast to the awe his voice carried.
Tyreese would have liked to have said that he had believed the tenacious kid was going to do it all along, but he knew that both he and the detective would have recognized it as a lie. Truth was, he had been sure Birdy was going to die horribly, she was just a kid, after all. He had just wanted to know if it happened. That was why he'd stayed here at the window this entire time. The kid had nobody left to watch over her. So, if not him, then who?
"Yes she did," said Tyreese. "She's done her part, you up for doing ours?"
A storm darker than the one raging outside passed momentarily over the detective's face at the thought of what was to come next. He breathed in deeply, held it, then released the breath in a long, slow exhalation. "Let's do this thing," he said, and began to move back toward the kitchen where he had left his Taser, pistol, and the flashlights.
The two men had fleetingly discussed how this would go down, neither really thinking that Birdy would come through. There was no way to get to the ground floor other than the still-not-functioning elevator, or one of the two stairwells. The detective had opted to try the second stairs, but Tyreese wanted the first, that was where the one weapon he knew he could use still waited, impaled in the chest of Birdy's dead mother.
"I want it back," he had told the cop. "I got nothing else."
Detective Collins had agreed, but only with the understanding that he would be on point, armed with the Taser. He had more than enough charge left in the weapon's battery, he hoped, to deal with the old woman, if she was still waiting for them. "You watch my back, and I'll take care of the rest."
Tyreese nodded.
They collected their equipment, checked that the flashlights still worked, then walked to the front door. Together they lowered the loveseat barricade and pushed it to the center of the corridor, but not so far that they could not grab it again if they needed to retreat back inside the apartment.
The detective put a finger to his lips. He leaned into the front door and placed his ear against it, listening for any sound that might give away whether some thing waited for them beyond it. After a minute, he turned back to Tyreese and mouthed, Ready?
Tyreese nodded in the affirmative.
The cop slowly pulled back the deadbolt, then unlatched the lock. Tyreese was pretty sure he saw Collins take another of those deep breaths, then the detective opened the door just a crack, his shoulder braced against it, ready to slam it shut again if anything tried to muscle its way into the apartment.
Tyreese stepped closer to Collins and placed his left hand on the older man's shoulder so he'd know he was there. The cop pulled the door open a tad wider, leaned his head and upper torso outside, then shined the beam of his flashlight into the darkness.
"Entire floor looks deserted," the cop whispered. He took a tentative step outside, playing the beam of the flashlight up and down the walls. He held the Taser at the ready as he checked every possible spot where a vampire could lie in ambush for them. Tyreese stepped out behind him and waited a few more seconds before he eased the door closed behind them. The click of the latch signaled they were on their own now. They were deep in bandit country and the only way either of them were going to live to talk about it was to keep moving.
To keep fighting.
The two men edged along the wall until they reached the first stairwell. The detective shined his flashlight through the safety glass onto the landing, then as much as he could, given the window's small size, he played the light up and down the stairwell. He reached for the door handle and pulled, cringing as the hinges complained loud enough to wake the dead. Well, no need to worry about that, Tyreese thought to himself, because the bastards are already awake.
The two men stepped quickly through the doorway. Collins pushed the door closed then leaned back against it as he moved the beam of the flashlight up and down the space of the stairwell again. There was no sign of anyone or anything.
From beyond the walls, the sound of the storm beating against the building reached their ears, but in the stairwell there was only the sound of the men's rapid breathing and the scuffing of their shoe leather against the concrete. Collins nodded toward the steps leading down. He went first, checking through the gaps of the metal handrail with each step he took.
Lizzie Finch's body still lay where it had fallen when Birdy had skewered her with the sharp end of Tyreese's cane. The body had begun to decompose, far quicker than a regular body would have, as though it was making up for lost time. The stink permeated the air.
Tyreese tried not to gag as he clasped both hands around the stake and pulled it free. It came away with a slurping noise that was quickly followed by a short hiss as gas escaped from the decomposing body. Black rivulets of fluid spilled out from the rupture in Lizzie's body and dribbled to the floor. Tyreese could not pull his eyes from the tip of the stake and the drops of black ichor that fell one-by-one from it, splashing across his boots as they hit the concrete floor.
"Come on," Collins whispered, taking Tyreese by the elbow and pulling him away from the body. "We have to keep going."
Tyreese carefully wiped the stake across the leg of his pants until none of the liquid remained.
"Tyreese? Come on." Collins was already halfway down the stairs to the next floor.
Tyreese hefted the stake in his left hand, it felt good to have something to defend himself with. He followed after the detective. His shoulder throbbed where the vampire had attacked him, and the stumps of his legs felt like someone had taken an industrial sander to them, but he did his best to ignore the pain and focus on staying alive. There would be time to heal when they were away from this place. Still, rivulets of sweat ran down his face even though the air within the stairwell was cold.
By the time the two men reached the ground floor, Collins was sure they had made it out scot-free. He leaned his shoulder against the door leading to the apartment building's foyer and looked through the window.
"What do you see?" Tyreese whispered, as he stepped off the stairs and joined the cop.
"Not a goddamn thing," Collins answered. He moved the beam of the flashlight around the foyer and then through the remains of the double doors and the pavement beyond them. A large pool of water had collected just inside the ruined doors, pushed in by the relentless wind. Pieces of the shattered glass twinkled and sparkled in the light as the beam passed over them.
"We'll wait here until we see Birdy's lights," he said. "Pointless leaving ourselves—"
Both men felt the breath freeze in their throats as from above them the sound of a door swinging open on unoiled hinges floated down the stairwell.
"Shit!" whispered Tyreese, his attention moving to the stairs, trying to see through the darkness that enveloped it.
"We move, now," said Collins, opening the door quickly, ignoring its creaking hinges. Collins stepped out into the foyer, Tyreese right behind him.
Flashlight beams crisscrossed like lightsabers as both men quickly played their lights across the room ahead of them. There was no sign of the vampire they had encountered earlier in the evening.
Through the ruined entrance of the building, the faint twinkling of oncoming headlights cut through the night moving painfully slowly up the street toward the apartments. Collins grinned at Tyreese, who allowed himself a smile in return as both men moved toward the entrance. They would meet Birdy outside of this place, the pounding rain and bone-rattling gusts of wind a welcome tradeoff to staying even a second longer in the apartment building.
"Quick as you can," said Collins, leading the way through the inch of water that had crept into the foyer. Tyreese had taken only a few steps after Collins when he sensed something was not right. This was just too easy. He stopped and slowly played his flashlight over the foyer.
"Collins!" Tyreese called out as he played the beam of his flashlight toward the stairwell back in the direction they had just come.
Collins stopped abruptly and turned to face Tyreese. "What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.
Tyreese looked over his shoulder at the cop. He said nothing but began to slowly back up, allowing his flashlight to illuminate the area around the stairwell.
"What in God's name...? Oh! Shit!" Tyreese heard Collins spit the words just as the detective's flashlight joined his, illuminating for a split second the four vampires waiting silently in the shadows, their bodies stuck to the walls around the stairwell exit like trapdoor spiders waiting for their unsuspecting prey. Another vampire clung to the ceiling, its eyes glowing fiercely. There were four women and a man, ranging in age from somewhere in their twenties all the way up to the old woman who had blocked their way out of this hellhole earlier. In unison, the vampires leaped from their roosts, arcing through the air toward the men, hissing and screeching in the repellent light of Tyreese's and Collins's flashlights.
"It's a trap!" Collins yelled. "Christ! They were just waiting for us." He started to turn back in the direction of the exit. "We've got to make a run—"
Collins's words stuck in his throat as the old woman they had encountered earlier made a beeline directly for him. Tyreese saw the detective bring the Taser up in a sweeping defensive ark, connecting with the exposed neck of the old woman. As it connected, Collins pulled the trigger.
The vampire convulsed as a continuous stream of high-voltage electricity ripped into her. She screeched and convulsed, smoke rising from where the Taser connected with her exposed skin. When the woman's eyes rolled back into her head, Collins pulled the Taser away and the woman crumpled to the floor. Collins took a step back from the smoking body, holding the Taser out in front of him like a knife.
A second vampire, this one a teenage girl no older than Birdy, hit the floor, opened her mouth wide to expose her fangs, then leapt to the right of the two men, disappearing into the shadows as the third and fourth vampire landed in front of the two humans. The smoldering body of their comrade lay between them. The two vampires hesitated, wary of whether the cop would be able to do the same to them.
Collins raised the Taser in front of him, waving it back and forth as though it was a sword. His gambit worked; both vampires backed up, dodging and feinting first right then left, hissing at him like scalded cats.
The fifth vampire, an obese man who must have weighed in excess of two-hundred-and-fifty pounds was not as reticent. Shirtless, his deathly-pale rolls of blood-splattered fat wobbling obscenely, he vaulted across the floor with impossible agility for a man of his bulk, barreling straight toward Tyreese. The creature's jaws hung wide, black flecks of spittle flying from between the glistening obsidian teeth, his arms thrust out ahead of him.
Tyreese set his feet wide, braced his body for the coming impact, and at the same time thrust the business end of his stake at the onrushing vampire, aiming for his heart. The vampire ran into the stake, impaling himself just below the left clavicle—missing the heart, Tyreese judged, by an inch or so. He felt the spear slide through the vampire's flesh and momentarily saw the tip appear out the creature's back. The man slid down the shaft of the stake, colliding with Tyreese. The full force of the vampire's impact knocked him backward, wrenching the weapon from his hands, sending Tyreese sprawling across the floor as his prosthetic legs failed him, buckling at the knees, as lightning bolts of pain lanced through his shoulder wound.
The impaled vampire screamed and thrashed, his legs and arms whirling. Thick black blood flew across the room splattering Tyreese, as he attempted to push himself away from the vampire toward Collins.
One of the two vampires Collins had been holding at bay now turned their attention toward Tyreese, hopping over the body of the old woman. Collins thrust the Taser at the creature... and missed, but the crackling blue bolt of electricity scared the thing enough that it backed up, giving Tyreese enough time to scramble on his hands and knees across the floor to the cop. Collins, his eyes never leaving the two creatures in front of him, held the Taser at arm's length, periodically pulling the trigger. The electrical bolt seemed to be frightening enough to the vampires that they did not want to risk attacking.
It would buy them some time.
Collins offered his free hand to Tyreese and pulled the man back to his feet. Tyreese staggered, wiping the spray of the obese man's blood from his face and eyes.
"Back up... slowly," Collins said through clenched teeth as he thrust the Taser at the two vampires again. The blue/white glow of the electrical arc cast flickering shadows across the creatures' faces, making them seem even more menacing, if that was even possible.
Tyreese looked across at the vampire he had stuck with his makeshift stake. The man's hands were clenched around the shaft of the cane and he was slowly working it free. Tyreese thought about rushing him, pulling it free and trying to finish the job but he knew that would be a mistake. The remaining vampires would be on him in a second. With a grunt of disdain that masked the lump of fear that had fixed itself in his throat, he abandoned any hope of retrieving his one weapon and instead began to edge his way toward the entryway.
Collins began to back up too. The two vampires he was holding a
t bay climbed over the body of their deceased comrade as they followed, but kept a respectful distance, encouraged to do so by the crackle of Collins's Taser. Each time Collins activated the Taser, the creatures stopped momentarily, snarling and spitting at the men.
"Hold on," said Tyreese as they reached the exit. The glass doorway had been shattered by Collins's and Officer Mulroney's gunfire earlier that evening, leaving behind shards of glass that jutted out of the frame like teeth. There was no way they would get through the opening without risking a severe laceration.
"Open the goddamn door," Collins ordered, his head facing the vampires but his eyes flicking to where Tyreese, his hands still slick with the blood of the fat vampire, fumbled with the door handle.
"I'm trying," Tyreese spat back, "just give me... Look out!"
The teenage girl leaped from the shadows where she had been hiding. Collins reacted just in time to keep her snapping jaws from slashing through his neck. Too late he realized it wasn't his throat she was going for; it was the Taser. He let out a scream of pain as the creature's mouth clamped down on his left wrist. Her teeth, like shards of glass, slicing through the material of his raincoat, jacket, and shirt with such force he thought he felt the bones in his wrist crack. The pain was unbearable but Collins refused to release the Taser. The girl's hands were fastened to his arm almost as tightly as her jaws. She began shaking her head violently from side to side like a rabid dog, tearing at his flesh, sending his blood flying through the air, all while pulling Collins back into the foyer and the waiting darkness. Collins screamed in agony, his fingers convulsing on the trigger of the Taser, discharging it uselessly into the air while he beat at the girl's head with his flashlight trying to dislodge her.
Seeing their chance, the two vampires Collins had been holding at bay bounded forward, then fell back again as Collins's convulsions continued to fire the Taser.
The Darkening Page 23
