Vigil

by Saunders, Craig

  It just cemented the idea in his head.

  ‘OK, everyone out.’

  Tom clicked on his walkie talkie and called Jean.

  ‘Jean…Jean…’

  Just static.

  He would have run, but he couldn’t afford for his heart to give out. Not yet.

  *

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The first elevator had been shut down already, so Tom took the stairs, slowly, all the way up to the second floor. It was a long climb.

  He planned what he was going to say in his head.

  Part of him knew it was folly to even try. Part of him thought it was stupid in the extreme. But then his father had known. His father had believed.

  His father still believed?

  Tom shut down that line of thought.

  He opened the stairwell door onto the second floor and was greeted by turmoil. People ran too and fro in panic. They knew the drill should the complex fall but in their panic people had forgotten the most basic of rules.

  Tom pushed his way through to the second floor command room. The computers here were all linked. He knew he would find Jean there. And, he hoped, Marie. She would fight his corner.

  Never had he faced such pressure. He needed to get Jean’s attention straightaway. If the first floor had fallen then there was no time for long explanations. He could not show Jean any data.

  He just had to hope he had not exhausted any good will the council might hold for him during his long years in the facility. He knew he had rubbed plenty of people the wrong way, but if they didn’t listen to him now everything they had learned would be for nothing.

  Jean was where he expected him to be, with headphones over his head, in constant contact with the security team who would be holding the first floor.

  Tom spared a nod for Marie, who was at his side, and went and took a seat in front of Jean.

  ‘Jean, I need to speak to you.’

  ‘Not now, Tom.’

  Tom resisted the urge to shout.

  ‘Now, Jean. There isn’t time. This is more important. The security team can buy us time, no more. You know that, Jean. What I have to say might make the difference.’

  ‘I can’t leave them, Tom!’

  ‘You can,’ said Tom, patiently. ‘You must.’

  ‘Two minutes. Marie, monitor communications. Let me know if they break through. Two minutes, Tom, and this had better be good.’

  ‘Oh, it is. Now, just don’t interrupt. Listen well.’

  Tom took a breath and prepared to make the most outlandish pitch of a lifetime.

  ‘There are four dimensions. Length, Breadth, Height are the simplest. Time is the fourth. No, just wait. Let me speak.

  ‘Four dimensions, Jean. That was all there ever was. But my father was a genius. He discovered a fifth. People had theorised about a fifth dimension before, but it was always a kind of deus ex machine, used by mathematicians and physicist to explain properties they didn’t understand. My father was a visionary. He made it real.’

  ‘Tom, what the hell…’

  ‘Just shut up and listen to me, because it might be the last thing you ever do. Make it count. Now, this fifth dimension – it doesn’t matter if you believe me, although it would help, is a gateway. Through it, you can step into time. It recreates the moment of the big bang. That is where the doorway is. An infinite moment of infinite density that contains the universe. Is it possible that a man could look through that moment and see the universe as it is, was and would be? I don’t know, but my father did. And he knew more about this than I ever could. He had a lifetime to study it.’

  ‘Tom…’

  ‘They’re at the east entrance,’ said Marie.

  ‘I can’t listen to this anymore.’

  ‘Jean! Damn it. They can step through time! That’s what this is about. They can step through time! Through time. They did it. They sent people through time. But they died. It is all documented here. A quantum singularity - a moment outside time when the whole universe was contained within a single point of infinite density. From within that point is it possible that you could see the universe as it will be, as it was...?’

  Jean’s attention was now fully on Tom. ‘Jesus, Tom. If what you’re saying is true…’

  ‘They did it, Jean. It’s true. My father did it. But nothing could survive. How could anything survive? The big bang, for Christ’s sake. Nothing living, at least…’

  ‘Are you saying that something else could get through?’

  Tom nodded. He was still unsure, but his father would not have risked everything on a whimsy. It was his life’s work. If anyone could have found a way, he could have.

  ‘The particle accelerator is only one of many. It’s the last one. The rest are all online. The only person who could have managed that since the fall is my father.’

  ‘You’re saying your father is out there?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying, Jean. And he wants in. I don’t think we can stop him. But we can beat him to it.’

  ‘Jean,’ said Marie. Her face was white with fear. ‘They’ve broken through.’

  *

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Kappa put his rifle to his shoulder and took aim as the first vampire came through. His shot took the vampire in the shoulder. The vampire merely shrugged and shouldered its own weapon. It took its time aiming. The creature took another slug in the leg, and then Samson’s silver-tipped bullet removed its head.

  Then the vampires flooded through the entrance. Bullets flew everywhere. They pinged off the steel corridors and ricocheted down the long hallway. Kappa’s team had had long years of practise with their weapons, but the vampires were working in unison now. Kappa’s team had little experience facing determined well-schooled vampires with weapons.

  Suddenly, the game had changed. Kappa's team were hunters. Now the game was war.

  Kappa had lived a long time, though. He knew how to adapt.

  He took his shots carefully. He aimed for the head. Most he hit. The ones he missed took up defensive positions and pushed forward, holding the entrance.

  ‘Grenade!’ called Samson. He threw long, the metal explosive tinkling against the steel floor as it rolled toward the forerunners of the vampire force. The explosion burned them and blinded them for a moment. Kappa motioned his men forward and they stepped up to their barricade.

  For a few moments they had a free field of fire. The vampires did not return their fire. At least six were down, but two of them had only lost legs. They would be up again, and soon.

  Then a team of vampires wearing flak vests and helmets stormed through the entrance. One of them carried a rocket launcher. He took a knee and prepared to fire. Kappa shot him in the head and he fell back, launching the missile into the roof.

  The explosion was deafening, far louder than even the boom of the grenade. Shrapnel from the missile and flame rained down through the corridor. A shard tore through the man next to Kappa. The man dropped dead, a smoldering hole in his forehead.

  Kappa’s eardrums were broken. He could no longer hear his team through the earphones.

  He wiped his eyes, which were watering from the smoke, and laid down covering fire. Through the smoke he could just make out more vampires coming in through the haze.

  His team opened fire with everything they had, but the vampires gained the first corridor. Now they had cover of their own. From round the corner they fired a barrage at Kappa and his team.

  Another man went down, blood pumping from a wound in his neck. Kappa tried to take the man's arm and pull him clear of the battle, but a bullet broke Kappa's elbow. His arm flopped stupidly, but there was no pain, yet. The adrenaline was taking care of that.

  ‘Fall back!’ he shouted, his voice strange and muffled as he could only hear the vibrations. His team heard him and they armed the claymores at their feet, then ran around the corridor to the elevator. The elevator could be shut down from below, but they wanted to buy more time. Jean had told him the
y had a chance, and to buy as much time as he could. He knew his team would not make it. They all did. But at least now they had hope that the vampire’s attack would be in vain.

  They all knew the stakes.

  They ran around the corner and took up positions behind the second barricade. A vampire peered round the corner. Kappa took its head off with a single shot, holding his rifle in his good hand, his left arm a useless lump.

  Then there was another explosion from down the corridor. Pieces of vampire soldiers splattered against the steel wall.

  Kappa held up his hand for them to wait. His men held their fire. They didn’t want to waste ammunition. Kappa knew they would be dead before they ran out of ammunition. His men knew, too, but Kappa wouldn’t insult them by saying it out loud. They all chose to be on security detail. They all knew it could come to this. But then didn’t everybody living after the fall? Humans were all living on borrowed time.

  A second claymore exploded, firing ball bearings into the unprotected legs of the vampire kin, cutting them down.

  But it wouldn't be enough to stop them.

  Kappa grinned, nonetheless. Half blind from smoke and completely deaf, he grinned wide and opened fire yet again when the next vampire soldiers charged down the steel corridors.

  *

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  A vampire walked up to one of Kappa's team and pulled him to his feet. Blood pumped from a wound in his neck.

  Kappa had thought him dead.

  The vampire could smell the fresh blood. It was infuriating, but he was not wounded. He longed to feed, but if the commander found out he had fed and let one of his men die he would tear his head from his shoulders.

  He pulled the bleeding soldier along the bloody floor and laid him in front of one of his men with a leg missing, the nub already growing back.

  His man fed until the life blood stopped flowing and the quick beating heart stilled.

  The leg grew back. He stood on it and nodded to his captain.

  Then the captain motioned the man forward. The vampire, his leg stripped of soldier's fatigues, the skin puckered, still, and almost alabaster it was so white, picked up his dropped weapon and moved on, limping, but only because his boot had been blown to pieces with his leg.

  *

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Kappa’s men made a good account of themselves. They fought all the way back to the stairwell. He hadn’t been sure they would make it. The vampires brought rockets and flamethrowers, but Kappa never let them get close enough.

  Still, his men had fallen. They had died well. They had destroyed at least thirty vampires.

  It was a good tally. A good tally to take to the pearly gates.

  Kappa nodded to last two of his men. This was the last stand.

  There were five pounds of C4 set up in the stairwell. The last man would blow it.

  He knew he wouldn’t be the last man.

  Samson grinned at him.

  Crazy bastard, thought Kappa. He was actually enjoying himself.

  ‘Fuck you, Samson. What have you got to be happy about?’

  ‘The end, Kappa. It’s about time we met our maker. You want to live forever?’ The words sounded strange to Kappa. Blood poured from his wounded ears, but he could make out the words well enough.

  ‘And be like them? No.’

  ‘Well, then. Let’s go out like men, and fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.’

  Kappa smiled, at last.

  ‘Fuck ‘em,’ he agreed.

  ‘John, go on. Go and blow it.’

  ‘No way Kappa, I’m not a sissy.’

  ‘Just fucking do it. Me and Sam, we’ve got business.’

  John looked at him, slapped them both on the shoulder.

  ‘God bless.’

  Then he ran through the stairwell door.

  Kappa nodded to Samson.

  The vampires came streaming round the corner. The smell of their blood must be urging them on. It must be driving them crazy. Many were wounded. They needed fresh blood to heal. Kappa would be fucked sideways before he gave it to them.

  ‘Shall we?’

  Samson nodded. ‘Let’s do it.’

  They were out of ammunition, but they still had a belt of grenades left.

  The C4 went off in the stairwell and they nodded.

  Then they ran round the corner into a hail of fire. Both men stumbled and fell, their hearts still beating. The front ranks of vampires fell on them and began feeding. Then Sam, Kappa, and the frenzied vampires were vaporised.

  *

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Marie shook her head and took the earphones off.

  Tom turned his attention back to Jean. He didn’t have time to mourn. He’d liked Kappa, but he had to hope he hadn’t died in vain.

  ‘They bought us some time, Jean, but we can’t afford to waste the little time left to us down here.’

  ‘So you think your father wants to use the gateway?’

  ‘I’m sure of it. This is Hub One. The others must be online. This gateway is the only one. It’s here. Nothing living can get through, but a vampire?

  'Maybe. It’s a long shot, but father has had decades to think about it. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. He’s sure of it. We can’t reason with him, or turn him aside.’

  ‘How can we stop him?’

  ‘Blow it.’

  ‘Jesus, Tom. That would kill us all.’

  Tom looked round to make sure nobody else was in ear shot. It was just him, Jean, and Marie. It was time for all or nothing.

  ‘We’re already dead, Jean. You know it as well as I do.’

  Jean slumped in his wheelchair.

  ‘It’s all been for nothing. Mankind. We could have touched the stars. We harnessed the power of the atom, cured cancer and heart disease. We went to space, Tom. Landed on the moon. All of mankind’s achievements and it’s all been for nothing. We just blow ourselves up and the vampires win. They rule the earth.’

  ‘But it doesn’t have to be in vain, Jean.’

  ‘I can’t see any way out of it. We blow it. You’re right, Tom. We blow it.’

  Jean picked up his walkie talkie and depressed the button to speak. Tom knew he was going to call in the second security team.

  Tom put his hand over Jean’s.

  ‘Jean, wait. It doesn’t have to be in vain because we can use it.’

  Jean just stared at Tom. ‘We can’t, Tom. We can’t because nothing living can survive.’

  ‘But vampires can survive.’

  ‘So what, we let them turn us and we all step through to whenever, wherever this gateway takes us?’

  ‘No, Jean. We have an inhibitor. It doesn’t work on a vampire that’s already changed. But I think we can immunise against the infection.’

  ‘We can hardly ask them to wait until we’re immunised, then bite us…’

  ‘No, Jean. If they know what we’re going to do they will destroy us. They’re going to kill us anyway. But we can beat them to it. We make one of us into a vampire, and go through. It’s a gamble, but what else have we got?’

  ‘Who the bloody hell is going to let us do that? We don’t even know if it will work. The last vampire you tried the inhibitor on melted.’

  ‘I have an idea about that. I think it can be done.’

  ‘But that doesn’t answer the question, Tom. Who would risk their life on a guess?’

  ‘As I said, Jean, we’re all dead already. We might be living and breathing, but it’s just a matter of time. The collapsed stairwell won’t hold them for long. We’ve got to do it now, before they know what we’ve done. We’ve got to send someone through, then blow it. We’ll never know if it works, but if I’m right we might be able to go back in time and stop this from ever happening. We might be able to change the course of history, Jean. Just think of it, we could stop the vampires from ever existing. We could ensure that mankind would always survive. Stop my father before he ever thought of the particle accelerator, stop F
allon Corp. It’s mankind’s only chance.’

  ‘Jesus, Tom, it just sounds like nonsense.’

  ‘What have we got to lose? Marie?’

  ‘I agree. We’re dead anyway. Why not try it?’

  Jean shook his head sadly. ‘I can’t believe this. I can’t believe what we’ve come to. Who do we inject? Who would risk their lives on this idiocy? Jesus, Tom. What the hell are you asking me to condone?’

  Tom smiled sadly and took Marie and Jean’s hands. ‘Me, Jean. There is no one else. Inject me.’

  *

  The Parisian Countryside

  2025 A.D.

  Year Zero: Apocalypse

  The machines that kept the ancient man on the bed alive are silent. The roar of nuclear fire that rages through distant Paris does not reach even the scarred man's remarkable ears.

  But there are sounds in the night. He closes his eyes to hear them more clearly. The night has been long, but he is not tired. He is a creature of the night.

  With eyes closed he can hear his own heart and the heartbeat of the man on the crisp white sheets for whom he stands vigil.

  Both hearts beat slow. The old man's is erratic. The watcher's heart beats maybe once a minute.

  With his eyes closed against the blinding light of the fire on the horizon, he can hear the wind, the mice in the surrounding farmland, the swish of the sheets on the bed as the poisonous wind caresses them.

  He hears a soft sound. Almost imperceptible. Opens his eyes and looks down. He watches intently for minutes. Those minutes turn to an hour. Two. The night, and the vigil moves on, but he is not mistaken. The sound he heard was the sound of the old man's mechanical arm moving. Not by thought, but by rejection. The man's flesh rejecting the foreign body.

  Rejecting it because it is no longer needed.

  *