Chapter 2
Enemy Ghost
Darby lay stretched out on his stomach watching the Commander and several Foederati soldiers through the nightscope of his stake-rifle from the top of some nameless industrial building. His finger itched for its chance to pull the trigger as they walked through war-torn streets toward the center of town. Carlisle was much smaller than any place he ever wanted to live. Born and raised in Chicago, he couldn't imagine just what the hell anyone would do on any given day or night in such a tiny little shithole. Taking aim, he could see the targets gathering in the city square. About thirteen or so thirsty Imperial vampires corralled around a line of men and women of nearly all colors, shapes, and sizes. It was time for what the Empire had dubbed the “Nightly Broadcast.”
More like the nightly slaughter.
As more and more men and women joined the Foederati, the Emperor's tactics to keep the sheep in line had become exponentially desperate and violent. This latest shepherd's pull was simple. Anyone caught trying to join the Foederati was rounded up and given to the vampires... on live TV. Darby's scope zoomed in on a woman with fearful wild blue eyes and knotted hair leading up to the pale hand of one of the vampires as he looked down on her with black orbs of gluttonous hunger.
The Commander stepped into view of the scope and stood tall in plain sight of the vampires. From this distance anything that was said down there was nothing more than a whisper in the wind but it was obvious this new Commander had their attention. The creatures turned from their waiting feast and crept toward the man as he stayed there, calm and fearless. The radio bleeped the first signal to all snipers and Darby locked onto one of the targets.
The blood suckers quickly crowded around the Commander to the point that Darby was barely able to keep up with his target and still the man stood tall, confident. The second signal went through and Darby fired in unison with twelve other snipers into the crowd of Imperial vampires. At least ten of them went down and in that same instant the Commander disappeared along with the crowd of men and women and several more of the vampires.
Crazy bastard probably just took his last stand.
The third signal came over the radio and Darby locked and loaded another stake then took aim. Only three vampires were visible now. Darby put his eye on the middle one, a stocky fellow with short cropped black hair now wielding a large angled knife shrinking away as if he were backed into a corner. Darby waited with his finger on the trigger. The three vampires began to back away from where the Commander had been standing to where the line of victims had been waiting to die.
In the blink of an eye the middle one went down. "What the..." Darby moved his scope around trying to figure out what had just happened. It was as if the creature had blinked out of existence in a blur of movement. He aimed the scope lower. The Commander held the vampire down on the ground with his own mouth pressed into the bastard’s neck. "Holy fucking Christ," Darby said. The next signal nearly made him jump in surprise and Darby found himself scrambling to locate one of the other targets. By the time he did they were already dead and the vampire the Commander had somehow bitten lay lifeless and still.
Darby tried to focus his scope on something—anything—with shaking hands. He caught a glimpse of the Commander standing as still as he'd been before now looking directly into Darby's scope, eyes shining extra night-vision green and blood dripping down his chin. Darby swallowed and immediately took his face away from the scope. He'd heard all about the new Commander and how he wasn't completely human. About how his son had been killed by the Emperor and yet, he had no clue just what to make of this new leader other than to realize that he'd nearly pissed his own pants in response to the sight he'd just seen. He started to pack up his equipment, dreading having to meet up at the rendezvous point.
***
Hank wiped the blood from his mouth and looked down at the three soldiers who had come with him into the target zone. One lay dying, screaming out as his blood pooled out around him. The other two men sat on the pavement next to him holding his hands. Hank knew he should have come alone but the three had insisted on staying with him in case he needed their help. He wouldn't make that mistake again. Too many lives were lost all the time. If he could keep even one more of his men alive, that was more important than humoring their pride or building up their confidence.
All around the perimeter, snipers and soldiers and the men and women who'd been scheduled to die came out of the shadows from various hiding places. To his left, the camera was still rolling. Hank walked over to it and, after aiming it away from his face, crushed it with his bare hands. He paid no mind to the many eyes watching him as he came back to stand over his fallen man. Leaning down, Hank gently took Gary Ruttinger’s right hand from the soldier who’d been holding it and looked into his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Commander..."
"Don't... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you come."
The soldier opened his mouth to argue, but Hank shook his head and patted the man’s shoulder. “You fought well, soldier…” Hank squeezed Gary’s hand and held firm until his eyes stopped moving and simply stared into the ether. Hank made himself watch every moment, letting the sight of it fill him with more hatred, more determination to do what he knew now he was always meant to do. What at great cost to himself had been etched into his destiny from the moment he was born. And he goddamn well meant to carry it out if it took his last breath to finish the task.
As the other two men moved the body to a stretcher and lifted it, a truck pulled up and several more soldiers got out to help move Gary’s body into the back. Hank watched this with detachment, his mind more on the consequences of what they had just done. Would the Emperor continue murdering innocent people on live TV? Was it possible his face had been visible on that broadcast? No. He knew better than that. He had kept the camera to his back at all times.
A crowd of soldiers and snipers watched in silence as he walked up. Every man he came near stiffened and stood tall in a gesture of respect.
"At ease." Some of the men loosened but most did not. "Great job, guys. We hit our mark and none of the civilians were harmed. However, we did lose one of our own and for that I'm greatly sorry. But we can only hope his sacrifice won't be in vain when the word spreads around about what happened here tonight."
The men cheered a multitude of unintelligible responses.
"Snipers, I want you to head back to H1. The rest of you I want to start seeking out refuge in the area and set up a perimeter guard about four to six blocks in diameter of this place. I doubt it'll be long before we have some nasty company headed our way and we had better be prepared. Donovan..."
"Yes, sir," a lieutenant in his mid-twenties shouted.
"Go ahead and release the vampires from the trucks and relay the orders I just gave. We're gonna likely need them."
"Yes, sir, Commander, sir."
Hank nodded and Donovan took off in the direction of the trucks on the southern end of town. All around him the other soldiers and snipers were following their orders and dispersing to their various destinations. Hank took a deep breath. Things were about to get a whole hell of a lot more interesting.
Chapter 3
Mother's Milk
Jackie sat watching thick droplets of moisture drip down from a nearby stalactite and splash into a small expanding puddle. She was finding it harder and harder to deal with the fact that, while most of the vampires were out there fighting against the Empire, she and Simon were stuck lurking within the salt caves of the Hive, tending to the Queen. Especially when she knew, no matter what lie Simon told her, he wanted nothing more than to be out there fighting too.
But the Queen was now growing heavy with a new litter of vampires. Jackie couldn't imagine how such a petite creature could give birth to thousands of children. Simon had explained to her more than once that the Queen would only be giving birth to tiny eggs that would grow and eventually hatch into young male drones. Jackie just couldn't seem to wrap her head around th
at.
She sighed and decided to practice some more. Scanning around the cave, she singled out a small rock with her gaze and began to concentrate on it. At first nothing happened at all, and then as time went by and her focus became narrower, the stone began to shake slightly. Slowly, still trembling, the rock rose from its respective pile foot by foot until it was nearly touching the cave ceiling. Jackie willed it to move to her left and as she turned to keep her gaze on it, the rock floated in the direction of the stalactite she had been watching. When it was just under the dripping water, Jackie let go and watched as the stone fell into the little puddle and made a much bigger splash than the dripping moisture had.
She smirked and wondered how much longer it would be before she could do something actually useful with her newfound gift. She couldn't wait to show Simon. But she wanted to master it first. Wanted to really impress him. Maybe then he'd take her more seriously. Maybe then he'd see her for the strong and mature woman she had become. A single tear slid down her face with the desperate wanting of that thought. Before long, her sadness turned to anger and the large rock she'd been standing next to began to rumble and crack. A split second of fear stabbed her in the chest until she realized she was doing this.
Overwhelmed with a feeling of strength and renewal, on the foundation of her anger, she willed the rock to crumble. Before her eyes it began to implode and sink inward as if some invisible giant had brought its foot down and slowly crushed it. A moment later it fell to dust and pebbles and Jackie smiled for the first time in months.
***
In the darkness of the Queen's quarters, the room surrounded by dozens of ancestor vampires, Simon knelt by her side, wetting her forehead with a rag. Her body temperature had been rising for several days now at a far more than normal rate. Because of which she was constantly covered in sweat and needing to be cooled. Having no previous medical experience—not that any experience would be useful tending to a creature as rare and exotic as she—Simon was in a constant state of having no idea what he was doing and feeling completely insecure because of this.
"Don't worry, my child. Your insecurity and determination are your strengths. Use them well and you succeed." The Queen's smile dissolved into a scowl of pain and she raised up from the soft mattress into a sitting position, her hands holding her up behind her back. "Three times I have carried my children, and never has there been this much pain so... early."
"Is something wrong? Is there something I should d-"
"No. I must remember that this time is different. The eggs inside of me now are new to this world and this ancient body. And they will bring with them many things unexpected."
Simon hesitated to ask the question that had been bothering him so much these past few weeks.
"Child, your worry does not go unnoticed. Why you and the other human-born children let your feelings rise and simmer and carry them around with you, I will never understand. If you must know, I'm not sure how long it will last. Ishan is strong and I have seen the day come that he will open his eyes again. But it is one of several days of many miracles and many tragedies. And with so much to come in such a short time, it causes my vision to blur to try and focus on any one thing within the multitude."
Simon nodded. He looked over at the far end of the room where Ishan lay still and silent, his eyes closed. Simon had spent so much time brooding at Ishan as a newborn vampire, he couldn't even begin to prepare himself for how it would feel when his master's—his brother's—presence was vacant. But knowing that she had seen that the day would come when Ishan would awaken took a bit of the burden away. Made the loss somehow tolerable. Simon dipped his rag in the small wooden bowl of water again, rung it out then placed it on the Queen's face. And for the first time, he saw just how fragile that face was becoming. He fought to conceal the new worries brimming over within him. But the Queen only smiled in response and lay back down.
Chapter 4
Town Meeting
Sunlight flooded in from the windows and thousands of voices busy with conversation echoed off the walls inside the large high-ceiling room within the community center. Hank sat at the main table where an unknowable amount of town meetings had likely been moderated before by some mayor or town leader or the like. He looked down at the crowds of people filling up rows upon rows of small foldout wooden chairs. Some of the people looked hopeful, others flitted around their seats nervously, and a small few stared back at him or his soldiers with fire in their eyes, wild hungry dogs waiting to bite.
Most of the town had been gathered by that point. But a few distant neighborhoods were still on their way. Hank had expected an immediate response the night before, but the assault never came. In the hopes that bringing the townspeople to a secure familiar place would keep them safe, he had ordered his troops to go and find them all, explain the ominous threat, convince them to come and stay here. Most had come. A small few had fled the small town, claiming loyalty to Caesar. One had attempted to shoot at the soldiers, was apprehended, and was now detained in the town jail.
Several of the Foederati soldiers relayed what the people had told them. And from the sound of things, the majority of them had been neutral to the war going on outside their small Rockwellian town, hoping to side with whoever won probably. But the Emperor had gone and changed that. He brought the battle directly to their doorsteps. Imperial vampires arrived and sniffed out the small number of rebels hiding within the place-brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers, cousins, and friends to many there, and then prepared to execute them.
When a new group of men, women, and children walked hesitantly in the door followed by the last of the Foederati soldiers who had gone out, Hank waited for them to sit down and then stood up and stepped forward. Before long as people noticed, they told others and soon the entire room was quiet, watching, waiting.
Hank cleared his throat then stared forward. "I can't begin to express the remorse I feel for you for having been put in this position last night, today, and for God knows how long. I don't intend to try and claim no responsibility for this. As Chief Commander of the Foederati, I have brought war to several cities now and no matter what our reason is for fighting, no matter how much I believe it to be the only choice we have, I know still that there are consequences to every action. And when you decide to rise up against your government, those consequences begin to sacrifice the lives of others and the lives of your own.
"But I also won't pretend that I, or my men, should stand alone in bearing that burden. The Emperor, in his cruel attempt to instill fear on those who would stand with me, with my men, and fight by our side. Good, brave, innocent men and women merely exhausted by the shackles binding their right to freedom. Men and women who you see day in and day out. Brothers, sisters... neighbors that you have known for most of your lives. Blood family for a small number of you.
"Now, I have brought you here, not to ask you to fight—not to ask you for help, but to-"
"You gathered us for slaughter, Mr. Foe-doh-rotty Chief bastard." A man about halfway down the fourth row was standing, shaking and sweating. "You brought us here to barter-"
"Oh, shut up, Clarence, and let the man speak."
"Yeah, let him speak."
The crowd roared with mixed messages. Hank waited for their voices to die down so he could continue. The man referred to as Clarence had been arguing with several men sitting behind him but now he stood tall, asserting their disagreement. Clarence shoved one of the men and before long a small fight broke out among them until three Foederati soldiers broke it up. Hank could see the hatred in Clarence's eyes as he stood surrounded by the soldiers and his own neighbors who were against him.
"Clarence, is it?" Hank asked.
Clarence nodded, shoulders stiff and eyes full of poison.
"Clarence, no one's forcing you to stay in this building. You're as free to go as anyone else here."
Clarence looked around the room at the many people watching him and very forcefully bowed his head and nodded slowly
. "No sir, I'll stay. And keep my mouth shut from now on."
"There's no need to keep your mouth shut, but I'm going to make things completely clear," Hank moved his gaze slowly across the crowd, "to all of you... You are all welcome to express any opinion you have but I will not tolerate any violence from you." He let his gaze circle back around to Clarence. "If you can't abide by that, you will be made to leave."
Clarence flinched for a second and then said, "Yes, sir. I'm s-... sorry, sir." Then he took his seat.
"All right. As I was saying, I don't ask or expect any of you to fight by our sides, but if any of you should volunteer, I certainly will not turn you away." The crowd broke into a flurry then and still Hank stood like stone, waiting with inhuman patience. As the rumble of voices died down to a few mumbles and whispers, Hank continued. "I must prepare you though—in case you should encounter them—there are vampires among our ranks who are, right now, sleeping in... an undisclosed location."
Faces of worry and fear stared back at Hank.
"Do not concern yourselves with them, they are here for the same reasons as myself and my men. And... in case you need any further reassuring... I have something to show you." Hank turned and picked up the large black two-liter bottle sitting on the table behind him. "This..." he held it up high for all of them too see, "is one of several hundred bottles of a synthetic blood that our people have managed to develop in the last six months. In its current state of use, it will provide sustenance that will allow the vampires to fight amongst us without any need or desire to drink the blood of humans."
Some men and women were sharing looks of awe while others glared at Hank with disbelief. A few men puffed up their chests in expressions of macho indifference. He wondered how macho those men would look if they knew that there was only enough synthetic blood to last their numbers for three days.
Empire of Blood: A Dystopian Vampire Trilogy (Bundle, Boxset) (Plus Two Empire of Blood Short Stories) Page 55
