by P. T. Hylton
“Sure,” Chuck said. “All the time. Imagine being able to stretch out. Down here you could walk for miles and not see another human. Even back in the pre-infestation days once you got out of the cities.”
“That would make it much easier to avoid my ex-girlfriend,” Wesley said.
“We still can live down here,” Patrick told them. “All we have to do is kill a couple hundred million vampires each and we’re golden.”
“I could probably handle five million myself,” Ed announced, “but one hundred million might be pushing it. Patrick would probably kill about eight vampires. That leaves the rest for you guys.”
Alex chuckled. “Let’s worry about getting through the day before we worry about ridding the world of vampires.”
Though the trip so far had gone more slowly than they would have liked, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Everyone except Owl. In fact, she looked like she was on the verge of vomiting all over the rover.
“You okay?” Alex asked her.
She answered in a quiet voice that still managed to carry to the whole team. “We’re not going to make it, Alex.”
There was a long silence.
“How close will we be by nightfall?” Alex asked.
“Close, but not there. Five miles from Agartha, maybe. Less if we’re lucky.”
Ed slammed his hand down on the metal door he was sitting on, and it clanged loudly. “So that’s it? We die on these stupid mountain? Fleming wins? This is total bullshit!”
Alex turned back to look at him, steel in her eyes. “Of course that’s not it. Get a hold of yourself.” She looked each team member in the eye so that they could see her resolve. Her gaze settled on Ed. “I don’t know about you, but I’m still drawing breath, and until I’m not, this isn’t over. We can do five miles in the dark. Hell, we could do twenty if we had to. We’re the fiercest badasses on the ground or in the sky, and any vampire who tests us will learn a hard lesson about squaring off against the GMT.”
Her team stared back at her, probably aware that she was filled with false bravado. Five miles in the dark was insanity. They wouldn’t make it a quarter mile once the sun fell. But she also saw in their eyes that they’d follow her to the end. They’d keep fighting until the last drop of blood had drained from their bodies.
“Owl, push the rover to the max,” she continued. “The rest of you, look through your packs and make sure you’ve got your weapons in order. Sundown is in an hour, and I want us ready.”
A chorus of “Yes, Captain” split the air.
As the team began to dig through their packs, Alex did the same. She prepared her spare clips and made sure her grenades were easily accessible. Then she saw something that shouldn’t have been there.
“What the hell?” She pulled the object out of her pack. It was a radio.
She hadn’t put that in there. They traveled with their headset radios for communication between the team and the long-range radio on the away ship, but not these types of handheld units.
“Let me see that,” Owl said.
“Can we reach New Haven with this?” Alex asked.
Owl shook her head. “Not unless they’re really close. This thing’s got, I don’t know, maybe a hundred-mile range.”
“Huh.” As she considered how the radio had gotten there, she remembered something—Firefly standing awkwardly next to her pack for too long, then handing it to her.
Firefly had known they were being set up. He’d planted the radio to give them a chance at survival.
“We don’t need to reach New Haven,” Alex said. She played with the dial, selecting a channel she knew was monitored. “Agartha, this is the Ground Mission Team. We are headed to you, and we need assistance. Do you copy?”
There was no response.
She kept trying for the next thirty minutes, repeating the same message every few minutes on a number of different channels. Until sunset, the radio was the only weapon that had any chance of keeping her team alive, and she was going to use it.
When the team was twenty miles out and shadows around them were growing too long for the team’s comfort, they got their first response. “Who is this? No one is authorized to be outside this close to sunset.”
Alex’s eyes lit up. “Listen up, I need you to get George on this radio, and I need you to do it now.”
There was a long pause. “George?”
“The director of engineering! Get him on the radio. Tell him it’s Captain Alex Goddard.”
There was a long silence on the other end.
“Man, Captain,” Patrick said, “you even bark at strangers over the radio. You were born to be an officer.”
A full two minutes passed, then George’s voice came through the radio. “Alex, what are you doing flying in so close to dark? We could have used a little warning. Where you landing?”
“George, we are not flying. We’re on a rover and we’re headed straight for you.”
Another pause. “Uh, what?”
Alex glanced west and saw the sun was touching the mountaintops. It wouldn’t be long before it disappeared. “There’s no time to explain. We are headed your way, but we’re not going to make it in time. We need some help from your end.”
“Our end? How far out are you?”
Alex looked at Owl.
“A little more than three miles,” Owl said.
“Three miles, George,” Alex repeated. “Listen, I need you to wake Jaden. Tell him if he really wants to save humanity, he can start with us.”
“Okay, Alex, keep heading our way as fast as you can. I’m on it.”
She let out a breath. “Thank you. Now quit talking to me and get us some help!”
30
Garett stood in the yard, his hands behind his back, staring at his three top lieutenants. “Are we ready?”
Henry nodded. “Yes, sir. Every light has been checked and switched on. The generators and batteries are all functional and ready. The railguns have been activated, and each gunner has a supply of six thousand rounds. Snipers and lookouts are in place atop each guard tower. Our patrol teams are already in motion in the yard, and everyone else is in their designated building, armed and ready to be called into action if needed.”
“Excellent. Time?”
Mario checked his watch. “Sundown in five minutes, sir.”
“Then let’s get to our stations.”
Garrett climbed the stairs leading to the tower on top of the administration building, Shirley following close behind him. From this centralized location, he’d have a three-hundred-sixty-degree view over every external wall.
He took his station and surveyed Fort Sterns. The daylights lit an area sixty feet beyond the walls. Anything the lights didn’t kill, the railguns would.
He looked west and saw the faint glow of red sky over the mountains. That, too, would soon disappear.
Night had fallen on Fort Sterns.
Garrett drew a deep breath and felt a calm wash over him. All the hard work of the past month had led to this. Humanity was back on the surface, finally home.
Shirley pointed beyond the eastern wall. “We’ve got movement, sir.”
A vampire was rushing forward. Garrett raised his binoculars for a closer look and saw dozens of vampires sprinting from the same area, popping out of the ground like they were being propelled. He frowned. For the vampires he’d seen awake during the day, simply pulling themselves from the dirt had been an arduous process.
He focused in on one as it sprang from the soil, landed in a crouch, and sniffed the air. It immediately spun toward the prison and let out a terrible howl. It sounded different, more powerful than the howls he’d heard during the day. More feral. Answering cries came from outside every wall.
“Jesus,” Shirley whispered. “They’re everywhere.”
Garrett put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right. We knew the first couple nights would be rough. A lot of them are going to die tonight.”
A rush of vampires raced to
ward the prison, as if the howls had unleashed them. As the light touched them, smoke rose from their skin. They screamed, but the yells seemed to hold more fury than fear. Some turned back, but others kept pressing forward until they eventually burst into flames.
“Dumb animals,” Garrett muttered.
The snipers in the guard tower opened fire. The vamps standing just outside of the ring of light went down, one after another as large-caliber rounds went through head after head.
Garrett put his radio to his lips. “Snipers, hold your fire for now. Let’s see how they react to the light.”
The line of vampires standing just outside the light was growing denser as more and more undead creatures on every side of Fort Sterns reached it. Some howled in rage. Others just glared up at the wall, teeth bared. More and more of them were coming out of the darkness.
How was it possible so many vampires were gathered outside? This place had been a small town. Maybe there was something to Alex’s theory that the scent of humans working here over the past few weeks had drawn them.
It didn’t matter. They could line up there all night for all Garrett cared. Or he could have the rail gunners take them out, and that would be that.
A vampire on the south side disappeared back into the darkness, then reappeared a moment later, sprinting toward the light. Just before it reached it, the vampire leapt, springing into the air with unbelievable force. It rose two hundred feet into the air, easily out of the range of the lights and well above the wall. As it fell, it stretched out its arms and its webbed wings caught the air. It glided swiftly toward the yard.
Shirley gripped Garrett’s arm as several more vampires followed the first’s example and leaped over the wall.
“Snipers, open fire!” Garrett called into the radio.
One by one, they picked off the airborne vampires. A few managed to land unscathed, but as soon as they entered the yard, they began to smoke and eventually burst into flames.
Garrett watched, his eyes widening as a vampire rushed toward the nearest Resettler, either unaware, or not caring that it was on fire. The flesh was melting off its bones, but still it tried to feed. The nearest patrol officer fired on the burning vampire, dropping it before it could reach any of them.
When all the vampires inside the wall were dead, Garrett looked around. The vampires were no longer leaping the wall. Maybe it was that psychic link Alex had talked about. Maybe they knew they would die if they went past the wall.
For a moment, Fort Sterns was quiet.
Then a howl broke the silence.
This howl wasn’t the desperate, piecing cry Garrett was used to hearing. This was a low, rumbling sound that seemed to vibrate through the very tower where he stood and into his bones. It began outside the north wall but quickly spread, growing louder, becoming a full-throated roar.
Garrett looked around and saw most of his people had their hands to their ears now. He fought the urge for a moment, but then did the same. It didn’t matter; the sound still rumbled into his brain.
More and more vampires emerged from the darkness, joining the roaring horde. There was a sea of them that stretched into the darkness and continued who knew how far. He wondered how many more were back there in the dark, summoned by the smell or the roaring or their mysterious mental link.
Looking out at the sea of vampires, he felt like his flesh had turned to ice. Even from this distance, he could smell them, an earthy, rancid odor like decaying meat and rotting mushrooms. All the while, that horrible roar shook the tower around him.
And through it all, he heard Alex’s voice as if she were standing beside him. “Resettlement is suicide.”
He raised the radio to his lips. “Rail gunners. Light. Them. Up.”
The gunners opened fire, tearing through the front lines of vampires.
The roar became more disjointed and broken as the creatures responded to the attack. Ten of them outside the western wall formed a wedge and leaped in unison toward one of the daylights. The rail gunners on that side were ready, sending a barrage of ammunition tearing through the group. Pieces of vampire flesh flew as they were all shredded by the gunfire.
All but two of them. The two in the back of the wedge.
The final two landed on the daylight. They instantly caught fire, but they punched at the light, breaking through the protective outer glass.
A rail gunner fired on them, killing them both, but destroying the light in the process.
Garrett’s mind raced as he thought about how much ammunition had just been used to take out ten vampires. Two hundred rounds? More? Whatever the answer, at this pace they would run out of ammunition much sooner than they ran out of vampires.
He wasn’t about to give up yet. That wasn’t how CB had taught him. If they could just survive this initial onslaught, he was sure they’d have a chance. He raised the radio to his mouth.
“Rail gunners, hold your stations. Everyone else, fall back to the administrative building.”
He watched from the guard tower as his Resettlers hurried to carry out his order. He could see even from there that most of them were in full panic mode. Some screamed as they ran. Others pushed, shoving their fellow Resettlers out of the way.
Looking down at them was almost as terrifying as looking out at the horde of vampires. As hard as he’d worked to prepare them, it hadn’t been enough. But could you really prepare someone for this type of horror? He only knew a handful of people who wouldn’t crack in this situation, and every one of them worked for the GMT.
A loud crash came from the south wall, and Garrett spun toward it. As his watched, a rock the size of a fist flew over the wall and slammed into one of the buildings below, exploding into dust.
“Holy shit, sir,” Shirley cried. “What do we—”
Garrett whirled on her. “Get in the administrative building with the others.”
Another rock flew, and this one slammed into one of the daylights. The reinforced glass held, but how many more hits like that could it take?
More rocks flew, hitting the lights and the railguns.
Most of the people were inside the administrative building now, and the rest would be soon. That would buy them a little time.
He swallowed hard, driving down the lump of fear and sorrow that seemed lodged in his throat. He’d do his best to keep them fighting. They’d take out as many vampires as they could before this was over.
But Garrett Eldred could already see how this was going to end.
31
The rover hummed up the mountain toward Agartha, its motors smoking from the strain of the trip.
“Um, is that bad?” Chuck asked, nodding toward the motor.
“It’s not great,” Owl answered through clenched teeth.
The sun was a thin line at the horizon now. The team was close to Agartha, but Owl’s calculations had proven correct: they were still a few miles out and the sun would be gone at any moment.
“Okay, everybody, prepare for incoming,” Alex told the team. “They’re going to be coming fast, much faster than we’re used to. Remember the fundamentals and focus on things you can control. Pick a target. Eliminate that target. Repeat. Watch your buddies’ backs.” She paused. “We’re about to face vampires at night. You want to put yourself to the ultimate test? This is it. Whatever happens, we go down fighting.”
“Is it strange that I’m both petrified and absolutely thrilled right now?” Chuck asked.
Patrick grinned. “Nah, just means you’re as much of a weirdo as the rest of us.”
In the distance, a howl came from the shadows. Then, something else: the roar of an engine.
“If that’s George, I am going to kiss that man on the mouth,” Owl shouted.
“Me too,” Ed added.
A large armored vehicle sped around a bend up ahead and careened into view.
The radio in Alex’s hand sprang to life and George’s voice came through. “I see you! Keep moving. Let’s get to Agartha.”
Alex quickly answered. “George, don’t you want us to get in the armored transport?”
“No time. This thing is not tough enough to survive a full-on vampire assault. What I have inside is, but that doesn’t mean that we’re safe. Just keep heading to the entrance like your life depends on it, because it does.”
The large vehicle raced past them, then turned a surprisingly sharp one hundred eighty degrees and pulled up alongside the rover.
“Can’t that thing go any faster?” George called.
“It can barely go the speed it’s going now,” Alex shot back.
She looked to her left and saw glowing eyes in the growing shadows. The last sliver of light shone on them, keeping the Ferals at bay as they raced along the road.
Owl looked at Alex. “I hope that there is a miracle inside of that truck, because we’re about to have some hungry visitors.”
“Get ready, team,” Alex called. “This is it.”
All at once, the sun disappeared behind the mountains and night was upon them.
Alex gripped her pistols hard as day turned to night.
The Ferals sprang from their hiding places, leaping at the rover.
As the team picked their targets and fired, an animalistic roar came from the armored vehicle next to them. Jaden rocketed out of the back of the truck followed by ten vampires. They moved at an incredible speed, landing in the midst of the Ferals and tearing through them.
“Focus up, team! We still have incoming.” A wonderful and terrible battle lust coursed through Alex’s veins. She fired, hitting a Feral that was racing toward them square in the forehead. The Ferals on either side of it fell too, taken out by Chuck and Wesley. She turned just in time to see a Feral’s head explode a moment before it landed on the rover, taken out by Patrick’s shotgun.
The Ferals were coming at them with such speed and with such numbers that it seemed impossible even to fire fast enough to hit them all. The rover wouldn’t last much longer if something didn’t change fast.
Then Jaden charged from where he’d landed, entering the fray. Watching him was mesmerizing. He moved so quickly, her eyes could barely track him, but that was only the beginning. To watch him fight was like watching water flow. He carried two long, curved swords, and he wielded them as if they were extensions of his very soul. Each movement melted into the next in a dance of righteous carnage. His blades whirred through the air, creating a humming sound that added a kind of music to his dance.
