by P. T. Hylton
Jessica turned toward George. “Maybe not now, but there were eleven billion people on the planet before the first wave of the infestation. How many did the vampires kill?”
“Those weren’t our vampires. Jaden and his friends had nothing to do with that.”
“You know that for sure?”
“I do.”
His voice carried the conviction of a true believer, so she decided not to press him further.
“Let me ask you one more thing,” she said. “You have a team of vampires and the most impressive weapons arsenal I’ve ever seen. Why are you still living under a mountain? Why not expand?”
“We’ve talked about it. Jaden assures us that we will eventually. But the time isn’t right.”
“Huh.” Jessica thought about that. If Agartha didn’t think Resettlement was a possibility, what chance did New Haven have?
George gestured to the door. “Let’s get back to the lab. We’ve got a gun to repair.”
8
“Fremont County is a great place for you bicyclists. A five-thousand-mile trail called the American Discovery Trail passes through here.” Owl paused, then said, “Déjà vu, huh? Anyway, enjoy your trip back to Florence ADX.”
Alex shifted in her seat, mentally preparing for what lay ahead of them. The passenger hold was a little more crowded than usual today. Along with the members of the GMT, they had two engineers along with them, Ron Oralee and Yoko Darby. Now that the prison was cleared of vampires, Fleming had tasked these two with figuring out a way to tie in generators to the old electrical system. The GMT was there to make sure the engineers were able do their work without getting their throats ripped out.
“It’s a classic,” Hope said, picking up a conversation she’d been having before Owl’s speech. “You really gonna rag on a classic?”
“A classic for people who can’t shoot properly,” Ed responded. “Point a shotgun in the general direction and pull the trigger. Where’s the finesse in that? Where’s the art?”
“The art’s splattered all over the wall when you blow your enemy’s head off with the thing,” Hope replied.
“I’ll take precision any day.” Ed paused. “Tell you what. How about we keep a tally. I’ll bet I take out more vamps than you today. Loser buys drinks tonight.”
Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at their conversation. She’d made plenty of similar wagers with her Drew back in the day. In happier times.
“You’re on,” Hope immediately answered.
Patrick shook his head. “We’re not going to encounter anything today, dumbasses. We already cleared this place out. This mission is just a babysitting job.” He paused a moment. “That said, you’re going to let me in on the contest, right?”
Hope grinned. “Maybe you two want to combine your scores? We all know it takes both of you to kill one vampire.”
The ship set down in the yard, and the team gathered outside the ship.
A light snow was falling, and large snowflakes drifted down, landing on their helmets and gear. With the ship shut down, the place was eerily silent.
Alex gave them a moment, letting them take in the beauty of the falling snow, letting them feel the crisp air on their faces for a moment longer before they had to go back into the dark, musty cell blocks. Then she took a good look at the ground in the yard, and the tranquility of the moment slipped away. The familiar crackle of adrenaline rushed into her muscles.
“What the hell?” Owl said. “There weren’t any tracks here last time.”
The snow around them was full of marks that it had taken Alex a few moments to identify. With the thin layer of freshly fallen snow covering them, it was difficult to see the divots for what they really were: footprints.
Alex turned to Ron and Yoko. “You two need to go back in the ship. Wait for me to give you the all-clear.”
The engineers exchanged a glance, but they didn’t argue. They hauled their heavy backpacks filled with gear and electrical testers back onto the ship.
Ed nudged Patrick, an excited grin on his face. “Babysitting mission, huh?”
“Looks like we’re back in the vampire-hunting business.” Alex gestured toward the nearest building, cell block four. “I’ll lead the way. Ed, Hope, take my flanks. Patrick and Chuck, I want you two in the doorway. Stay in the light and get ready to cover us if we need to make a quick exit.”
“Hell yeah,” Ed said. “Let’s put these animals down.”
Alex, Ed, and Hope passed through the entry to the building and made their way slowly down the long corridor that led to the old security checkpoint and the cellblock beyond, their headlamps lighting the way. The air carried a musty scent like rotting leather. Though the smell conjured images of old things, it hadn’t been here a few days ago when they’d cleared this building.
As they passed through the checkpoint, they saw the vampire. It was slumped in the corner, huddled up and apparently asleep.
Ed raised his weapon.
“Hold your fire,” Alex ordered in a soft voice. She glanced back down the long hallway, mentally running through what to do next. “Come with me.”
She led them back down the corridor, moving just far enough that they were still able to see the vampire.
“Get ready to run,” she said. Then she raised her weapon and fired.
Her round caught the vampire in the upper leg, and it let out a howl of pain.
“Go!” Alex shouted. The three of them dashed to the entrance.
The vampire followed, running awkwardly on its injured leg, but still closing the gap at an alarming rate.
Ed, Hope, and Alex reached the entrance and hurried through.
The vampire made it to the door a moment later and stopped just short of the sunlight. It glared at them with furious, wild eyes and howled.
“What the hell was that, Captain?” Ed asked, his voice short as he tried to catch his breath. “You’re always bitching at us about aiming for the head and the heart. You didn’t even hit a vital.”
“Patience, Ed,” Alex replied. She held her weapon at the ready, but she didn’t fire at the vampire. Not yet.
The vamp let out another howl as it stared at them hungrily from the doorway. But this time, it wasn’t alone. A dozen more howls answered, some from cell block four and some from the other buildings.
“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.” Chuck muttered the litany softly, his weapon trained on the vampire in front of them.
“Sounds like its friends woke up,” Patrick observed.
Hope gripped her shotgun tightly. “Brilliant deduction, Patrick.”
A sound like a thousand rats scurrying over a concrete floor filled the air. A second later, fifteen more vampires appeared, cramming themselves into the corridor behind their injured friend.
Alex said, “Now you can aim for the vitals."
The team opened fire, immediately obeying the command.
Hope’s shotgun roared as she fired again and again. Ed, Patrick, Owl, and Chuck mowed through the vampires with their automatic weapons. Alex stuck to her pistol.
The vampires fell as bullets tore through their heads and hearts.
After a moment it was over, and a pile of dead vampires filled the corridor.
Angry howls came from the other buildings and echoed through the prison grounds.
“Looks like this is going to be a long day,” Chuck said.
“Can we reset?” Hope asked. “I have no idea who killed which vampire.”
“You wish,” Ed said, a smile on his face. “I took out at least half of those undead bastards.”
“Um, no. I will admit you took out more than Patrick, though. I swear, half his shots went over the vampires’ heads.”
A pained expression appeared on Patrick’s face. “What battle were you guys watching? I was like a surgeon.”
“A drunk surgeon, maybe,” Hope joked.
Owl scratched her head as she surveyed the pile of vampire corpses piled near the door. “I don’t understand.
These guys weren’t here two days ago.”
Hope looked at Alex. “Any idea what changed, Captain?”
Alex thought a moment before responding. She had a theory, but it was little more than that. “The only thing that changed was us being here. They must have picked up on our scent and come here to find us."
“Huh,” Hope said. She sounded skeptical.
“There’s no way they can smell that far, is there?” Chuck asked. “I mean, none of us even shed any blood. We were here in the middle of the day. Are you telling me they could smell us so strongly hours later that they came running from God knows where and just hung out here in the hopes we’d come back?”
“Don’t know,” Alex said. It felt odd to admit her lack of knowledge. After all, she was supposed to be in charge here. But she knew the only thing more dangerous than an inexperienced leader was one who pretended she knew more than she did. “Their senses are heightened at night. So it’s possible.”
Chuck nodded slowly. “Okay, so what do we do next, Captain?”
Alex gestured to cellblock five. “We get back to work. We still have a mission to finish. We’ll clear out the other buildings the same way we did this one. Then, once we’ve swept them all, we’ll bring Yoko and Ron in to do their engineering thing.”
They started at cellblock five, Alex again leading two of them inside, injuring one of the vampires to wake it up, then getting the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Then the team stood in the safety of the sunlight and took out the vampires that gathered at the door.
After the third building, Patrick said, “Man, Captain, I thought the GMT was going to be tough. This is almost too easy.”
“No kidding,” Ed agreed. “Why haven’t we tried Resettlement before?”
Alex grimaced. “Go up against a vampire at night, then tell me Resettlement is a good idea. And that’s the last I want to hear about this being easy. Easy means we all go home alive. That’s not always the case on the GMT.”
That shut them up.
Alex tried to push away the anger she felt at their words. She couldn’t blame them; she’d made similar comments not long ago. Maybe humans were doomed to keep making the same mistakes generation after generation. She’d underestimated the vampires until she’d learned through painful experience how formidable they were. CB had underestimated them too in his youth, and his first team had paid the ultimate price.
Alex vowed to herself she wouldn’t let that happen to her team. She might not be able to protect her people from danger one hundred percent of the time, but if one of them died, it wouldn’t be because their captain had underestimated the enemy.
They moved on, and Alex let Chuck take the lead on cellblock eight. She’d hoped he’d develop into a leader, but after the mission the other day, she wasn’t so sure about him. Or her judgement. Still, the guy needed confidence, and sometimes trial by fire was the best way to gain it. He managed to shoot a vampire, and they got to the safety of the sunlight in time. However, this time only five vampires gathered in the doorway.
Alex assumed cellblock eight just happened to be more lightly populated then the first few buildings. But when they moved on to cellblock nine, they found it even more sparse. They moved down the long corridor and stopped at the edge of the open room where they’d shot the vampires in the other cell blocks. This time, there wasn’t a vampire in sight.
Alex raised her pistol and squeezed the trigger, firing into the open room. As the echo from the gunshot faded, she heard shuffling sounds from deeper in the cell block, but no vampires showed themselves.
“We need to get out of here,” she ordered. “Move.”
Chuck immediately turned toward the door, but Hope hesitated.
“I heard them in there. Shouldn’t we flush them out?”
“You have your order,” Alex growled. “We’ll talk in the safety of the sunlight.”
Hope hesitated a moment longer, then headed for the door.
Alex stifled a chuckle as she followed. Hope was too much like Alex for her own good. Alex would have to ask CB for some tips on dealing with recruits who questioned orders during the mission.
When they were back outside, she gathered the team around her. “The vampires are learning.”
Patrick laughed. “You’re kidding, right? Those things are animals. They can’t learn.”
“Animals learn all the time,” Owl pointed out.
“Fine,” Patrick allowed. “But we’ve killed every vampire we’ve encountered. How would the ones in this building know what we were doing?”
“I don’t know,” Alex answered. “But I’ve seen them make decisions as a group before.”
“As have I,” Owl added.
“We’re not taking any chances. There’s no reason we need to clear out every building today. The electrical system should be the same in each of them. Owl, get Ron and Yoko.”
A few minutes later, the team entered cell block four once again. They’d just passed over the threshold, stepping past the bullet-ridden corpses of the first few vampires, when Ron spoke in a shaky voice.
“I’m sorry, Captain Goddard, I can’t do this.”
Alex frowned, but one look at the engineer’s face confirmed he was barely holding it together. He was nearly as pale as a corpse, and he rested one hand on the wall to steady himself.
She nodded. “Understood. Owl, take him back to the ship.” She turned to Yoko. “How about you?”
The female engineer didn’t look much better, but she met Alex’s gaze. “I’m fine. Let’s keep moving.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Alex shot Patrick a look, intending to convey for him to keep a close eye on the engineer. To her relief, he responded with a quick nod.
It was impressive how quickly this team was learning to communicate effectively in the field.
She looked at her team. “We can’t assume the vampires all ran to the doorway and followed their friend to the slaughter. Some of the deep sleepers might still be snoozing in the shadows. Stay frosty.”
The team made a quick but thorough sweep of the cells and found nothing. As time inside the cell block passed, Yoko seemed more on edge, but she was managing to keep it under control so far.
Before they headed to the utility area in the basement, Alex put a hand on Yoko’s shoulder. “This is your time to shine. You ready?”
“I’m ready.” Her voice was even, though the wild look in her eyes betrayed her fear.
“Good. If something does happen, if one of those undead freaks shows up, I want you to freeze. Don’t move. We will protect you, but if you start running around, you’re likely to get shot or bit. Understand?”
Yoko laughed softly. “Freeze? That I can do.”
They moved down the stairwell, the team in formation.
“Solitary cells first,” Alex told her team.
They crept toward the part of the basement with the cells, weapons at the ready, Yoko wedged between Chuck and Patrick.
They reached the four cells, and Hope stepped forward, shining the light from her headlamp into the first cell.
As her beam hit the cell, a howl came from inside so loudly, Alex could feel it rattling in her chest. The moment the sound stopped, four vampires leapt through the doors, one from each cell.
The team was ready, and Hope, Patrick, Ed, and Chuck all sprang into action.
Hope fired a moment before the rest of the team and her shot was true. Her shotgun removed everything from above the nose of the vampire. Ed and Patrick acted almost as one, putting three rounds each into the chests of their respective vamps with their automatic weapons.
Alex walked the line of cells, checking each one and putting an extra bullet in the heart of each vampire.
“That was damn nice work, team,” she told them. She looked at Yoko. “Time to do your thing, girl.”
They headed for the utility area, and Yoko went to work.
After only a few minutes, Yoko stood up and smiled. “T
his is better than I’d expected. They had a backup generator hooked up. It’s one of the old-fashioned ones that uses gasoline, so we’ll have to replace it with one that uses biodiesel. But once we do that, we’ll have power.”
Alex clapped her on the back and forced a smile onto her face. Once they had power, Fleming would be one step closer to making Resettlement a reality. “That’s excellent. What do you say we head back to New Haven and give them the good news?”
Yoko’s smile widened. “Now that’s an idea I can get behind.”
9
Firefly stood in front of the gathered recruits, watching as they ran through hand-to-hand combat drills. There were one hundred and fifty of them lined in front of him, all former badges. They’d taken nearly half the badges to make this happen. Colonel Kurtz hadn’t been pleased, but Fleming had insisted. Getting a group that already had some training was the only way they were going to have any chance of meeting Fleming’s insane timeline.
This would only be half the Resettlers. The rest of them would come from other departments and would each bring specialized skills needed for survival. They’d have engineers, farmers, electricians, and more. Firefly had a lot of work left ahead of him before they’d be ready.
Still, he was pleased that they had forward momentum. And apparently that was what the people of New Haven wanted to see. Sure, there were some who hated Fleming for what he’d done to the council. But, to Firefly’s surprise, many believed the explosion had been an accident. And plenty who didn’t seemed willing to look past that as long as Fleming continued to deliver results. Never mind how he’d gotten power, at least he was getting them one step closer to the surface.
A wave of nausea rolled through Firefly at the thought of what had happened to the council and his own role in it. Not that he’d known what would happen. Granted, he’d have been a fool to believe Fleming had a happy plan for the explosives Firefly had provided. But he’d never imagined they’d be used to orchestrate an actual coup.
But what was he going to do about it now? He couldn’t change the past; he could only do his best to make sure it was all worth it.
