by Joe Fowler
“Why are you stopping? We need to hurry.” The Major was confused. I was the one who should have been confused. They brought us here to solve their vampire problem but they wanted us to leave the airport occupied by those same vamps.
“We can smell the vampires here. Why don’t you let us take care of that real quick?” I asked nicely.
“Wouldn’t it take too much time? The downtown area is worse.” Was his answer.
“Keep your men on alert and wait here, Major.” I looked to Rosalyn with the obvious question. “Split up or stay together?”
“According to this we are on concourse C on the upper level. You go right to the D and E concourses, then down once you’ve cleared the upper level. I’ll go left and do the same for the B and A concourses. We should meet somewhere on the lower level” She said pointing to an airport layout the Major was using. Looking at the layout map, I thought for a second and darted back to the end of the C concourse we were on. I found two vampires hiding. After killing them I darted back with blood dripping from my knife.
“Okay, let’s go.” I started walking and she kept stride with me until we hit the junction with the terminal.
We shared a brief kiss before we split up. I wasn’t finding much. I would come across one or two vampires here and there, but nothing serious. I was making good time while making sure to check closely. I didn’t want to miss one. The upper level was cleared in no time. I hoped Rosalyn was having an easy time as well.
The lower level was a different story. There were vampires everywhere. I gritted my teeth and got started. As soon as I attacked, they charged at me wholeheartedly. With my speed, their slow motion attack was easy enough to fight off. I was making my way through them the way I had become accustomed to doing. I heard a fairly loud shout of ‘stop’ coming from somewhere. The vampires backed off from me and the one who shouted stepped forward. We faced off cautiously. After getting an eyeful of each other, we made a few halting attacks. He seemed as quick and as strong as I was. We gradually increased our intensity, each searching for a weakness. The other vampires were standing back completely engrossed in watching the fight. Neither of us could gain any real advantage over the other. There was a part of me that reveled in this. Almost all of my fights up until now were against a slow motion horde of vampires. This was an even match. I slowly began to realize the noise had quieted. I couldn’t take the time to look around but the vampires weren’t cheering anymore. As we broke from a clench where neither had caused any damage to the other, I was very happy to see Rosalyn appear behind the vampire I was fighting.
“Do you want to see if you can finish him, or should I?” Rosalyn asked with a smile. The vampire I was fighting stepped to the side so he could see us both at the same time. He looked around shocked to see that all the other vampires were dead.
“You think you can do better than him?” The vampire sneered at Rosalyn. Before he could even blink she had him by the throat holding him a foot above the floor.
“Yes.” She smiled her beautiful smile, then ripped his head off.
“While that fight was invigorating, I am glad you got here when you did. It could have gone either way between us.” I smiled at Rosalyn.
“I kept an eye on the two of you while I disposed of those.” She said with a wave of her hand toward the mounds of corpses. “I wouldn’t have let him harm you.”
“I was having fun and was worried at the same time. He was tough.” I pulled Rosalyn in for a kiss. “I guess we should go get the Major and tell the soldiers it is safe for them to come out now.”
Rosalyn laughed as we headed for the stairs. The Major had stayed put like we told him to do. I hoped he would continue to follow our orders. We headed toward the exit with exclamations from the soldiers at seeing the heaps of bodies Rosalyn and I had left in our wake. The Major pulled his phone from his pocket and called our transportation. An armored Humvee pulled up within a few minutes. They must have been close by waiting for us.
During the drive to downtown Baltimore, we were shown maps with the worst areas highlighted. We pointed out where we wanted to start and the Major got us there. Rosalyn got a new machete from the soldiers. I decided to stick with my knife since I was accustomed to it now.
“Keep your men here and stay inside the vehicle. Call us if you get attacked and need help. While you are waiting make sure our hotel room is ready for us. We will need a room on the north side of the hotel with a thick blanket completely covering the window. Make sure no light can get through.” Rosalyn ordered.
“Yes ma’am. We will take care of it.” The Major clearly didn’t like taking orders from us but he would do what he was told.
There were no surprises. We fought much like we had in St. Louis going street by street getting attacked by larger and larger groups of vampires. There were a seemingly endless supply of them. It dawned on me that many of these vampires had probably been turned the first night after the videos were released. As we fought, I became distracted by the thought of how many vampires there were now. Rosalyn and I might be doing this very thing for a long time. If more were being made to replace the ones we killed then it would be a constant struggle to maintain peace.
“What are you thinking so hard about? You were barely paying attention back there.” Rosalyn asked me as we walked to find more of them.
“I just realized that many of the ones we are fighting now, may have been turned after those idiots went public. It got me to wondering if we would ever be able to have peace again or would it be a constant struggle to keep them in check.” I told her. She didn’t say anything at first. She collected her thoughts before responding.
“It will get much easier. At first humans would have been offering themselves up willingly. That won’t be happening any more. There may be another wave or two now that they are losing territory. Once the werewolves joined the fight openly, the vampires would have made more to offset the balance. Their numbers will keep going down now that the soldiers have a way to fight them. If it were only the four of us going from city to city, then they would never end. Even as many as you, Josh, Seth, and I could killed, they would find ways of repopulating fast enough to remain a problem. With the wolves and soldiers helping all over the country it is only a matter of time before we will have won.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t take too much time.” I prepared my knife while I spoke since we were about to face a hundred or so in the next wave. “This is getting old.”
It was the same routine. We would find a huge group and kill the ones on the edges. The rest would attack when they saw what we were doing. It had been this way in St. Louis, and with each street we repeated the process. Rosalyn and I plowed through this group as we had so many others. When we were down to only a few left, I decided to keep one for feeding. I was feeling like I need a pick me up.
“What was that for? You shouldn’t need to feed yet.” Rosalyn asked.
“I just needed a boost. I was feeling a little rundown.” I assured her. She watched me a little more closely for a while after to make sure I was ok.
We went through street after street. Baltimore was infested pretty badly. If the residential areas are anywhere near as bad as downtown, then we might be here for weeks. This was becoming ridiculous. We were cutting through them with ease but they just kept coming. We were fighting a large group when the phone the soldiers had given us began to ring. We finished off the group and called the Major to see what was wrong.
“We are being surrounded. We shot and beheaded a few but more and more are showing up. We are inside the Humvee but they are trying to break in.” Rosalyn and I looked at each other after Major Wilder stopped talking.
“Hold tight we will be right there.” Rosalyn told him.
We took off running as fast as we could to save the soldiers. We reached them in less than a minute. There were at least forty vampires attacking the Humvee. The fight was easy enough for us. We finished them fairly quickly. The soldiers were noticeably shaken
when we checked on them.
“Thank you! We thought they had us. We were shooting them but they didn’t seem to care.” Wilder was stammering.
“You did what you were supposed to do. Just try to calm down.” Rosalyn reassured him. “What time is it?”
“3:45.” I answered her by looking at the watch the soldier next to me was wearing. It still shocked me how much time flew by when we were fighting.
“Major, you can take us to our hotel now. We wouldn’t be able to get much more done.” Rosalyn said the words I wanted to hear.
“Is it okay to drive through some of the area you cleared? I am supposed to give a report on your progress.” Wilder asked.
“Make it quick. Let’s go.” Rosalyn sounded like she was in a hurry. I began wondering if something was wrong.
The soldiers were shocked at the number of corpses. Street after street of bodies had them more in awe than what they had seen at the airport. Rosalyn and I received wide eyed stares until we reached the hotel. I was glad to get there so I could ask her what was wrong. I hadn’t seen her be this worried.
“What’s wrong? You’ve looked worried for a while now.” I asked as soon as we were alone in the hotel room.
“If you start to get hungry again let me know. It is important. Some vampires need more than vampire blood. If they don’t get living blood often enough they become weak. If that is the case we have to rethink your diet.” Rosalyn explained. “The problem now is that humans know how dangerous it is and they wear those sunglasses so we can’t compel them.”
“Maybe it was only a onetime thing and I will be fine now.” I tried to sound hopeful but I was very worried. I still had nightmares about the old couple who died because of me and I didn’t want a repeat performance.
“We’ll see. Don’t try to hide it if you do get hungry. I will keep you from killing another human. You can’t let yourself get weak when we are having to fight every night. It would be too dangerous.”
“I understand.” I did, but it didn’t make the thought of feeding off of humans any better. I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.
We watched the news until the sun came up. Paris was on its last leg. Rome and Madrid were becoming serious. The President had shared all info with the world leaders but there were too many vampires and their numbers were growing in Europe. At the moment, no efforts were being made to retake Rio or Berlin. The United States was winning its war one city at a time. Between the soldiers, werewolves, Seth with Josh, and Rosalyn with me, the worst of the problem cities had been helped, if not completely freed. Rosalyn and I went to sleep knowing Baltimore still needed a lot of help.
Chapter 15
Rosalyn and I settled for a quickie and skipped the showers. We knew we had a long night ahead of us. We decided to hurry and get started on it. The Major and his men got us to where we stopped the previous night. Rosalyn and I didn’t have to wait long. When the Humvee pulled away, the vampires came to us. They looked pissed, too.
“Wow, they look angry.” Rosalyn was laughing.
“They must have gotten up on the wrong side of the coffin.” I said it out of reflex. I usually wasn’t fond of stupid jokes.
“That was horrible!” She laughed while she said it though.
We began slicing and dicing the vampires. It wasn’t long before our normal routine was reestablished. We made it through this horde only to move on to the next. And the next. We seemed to fight forever. The night continued much the same as the night before until we ran out of vampires. We would still see the occasional lone vamp but there were no more groups in this area. We did some building to building clear outs but those seemed a waste of time since half the buildings were empty. We headed back to the Humvee so we could head to our next area. Hopefully it would not be like downtown.
“There are two residential areas that are bad. The first one is the worst.” Wilder informed us as we rode through town.
The first area turned out to be easy enough. Some apartments had been overrun and needed cleaning out. The vampires had spread to some of the surrounding houses as well. When we were sure we had the area safe, we went back to the Humvee.
“What time is it?” I asked the soldier sitting next to me.
“It is almost three o’clock.” Was his response.
“That should be plenty of time then.” Rosalyn said from my left side.
The second residential area was much like the first. Two apartment complexes had been lost to the vampires. They hadn’t moved on to the houses yet. Rosalyn and I did our thing and were headed back to the hotel soon enough.
We skipped the news, opting for showers instead. We lay cuddling as we waited for sleep. The comfort from having her in my arms was indescribable. I didn’t need conversation or sex. To lay with her beside me was my happiness. The fact that I didn’t feel hungry yet was an encouraging sign.
We woke that night to the sound of orders being shouted outside the door. I went to find out what all the fuss was about. It looked like Rosalyn and I were to get some rest for a change. We were to be flown back to Chattanooga. The soldiers informed us that the order had come from Seth. We would have a day or two without having to fight. After that, Seth would fill us in on what was needed.
The airport was full of humans this time. They had heard about Rosalyn and me. We were recognized immediately and cheers rang from every direction. The military escort was surprisingly efficient at crowd control. We made it to our plane quickly. Rosalyn and I were the only two passengers this time. No soldiers. Only us and the stewardess who seemed happy enough to keep the beer coming.
“There you are!” Alicia was waiting for us when we landed.
“Hey, Alicia. Is Josh coming back too?” I asked as she gave me a hug.
“Yes. His flight from Boston is due anytime.” She hugged Rosalyn as well. “Come on. His gate is over here.”
“How has everything been here? Any problems?” Rosalyn asked.
“We have been worried about you guys is all. Chattanooga had been mostly cleared of vampires by the attacks at the house and furniture warehouse. We gave the police our phone number so we would be called as needed but they haven’t needed us. Jimmy is frustrated because y’all are getting to have all of the fun.” Alicia laughed.
“Will Seth be with Josh?” I noticed she hadn’t mentioned Seth yet.
“Nope. He is almost chained to the President now. Josh went to Phoenix and then Boston by himself. I was so worried since he wouldn’t have any real help. He said the soldiers were mostly useless.” Alicia seemed angry that they would send Josh into such danger alone. I had trouble being worried about Josh. From what I saw of him, he could retake Rio and Berlin without breaking a sweat.
It was only a few more minutes before Josh came walking up. His eyes lit up when he saw Alicia. He picked her up in a huge bear hug and I could see he didn’t want to put her back down. Their kiss was almost too sweet to watch. I thanked whatever deity would listen to a vampire that Rosalyn and I had been together at least.
As we climbed out of Josh’s Challenger, we were met by the packs. There were pats on the back and job well done sentiments. The girls, Sarah and Crystal, each received one of Josh’s bear hugs as well. They had the beer cold and ready for us.
The wolves asked for details of our fights and between Rosalyn and me, we told them enough to satisfy their need for action. Of course they wanted to hear about Josh’s experience too. Rosalyn and I listened as closely as the packs did. While most of it was similar to our story, a couple of parts really hit home with Rosalyn.
“…We were plowing through them like you would expect when one of them stood out. He came at me in a rush and fought like hell. He was nearly as fast as I was. Luckily, he was nowhere near as strong. It still took a minute or two for me to kill him.” Josh was saying when Rosalyn interrupted.
“What did he look like?”
“He was short and thin with a white streak through his black hair right here.” Josh brought his finger
to his temple and swept it back just over the ear.
“That was Daniel. I am very glad he is dead. He loved to feed off of children. I have wanted to kill him for centuries but haven’t had the chance.” Rosalyn seemed disappointed that it wasn’t her that killed him.
“After him, Miami was easy. Seth ran into an old powerful vampire in Detroit. He had heard of him and recognized him on sight because of his white eyes. It was some weird name like Tarhook or something.” Josh was saying.
“Tarlfook. He was three thousand years old. I met him once in France and he scared the hell out of me.” Rosalyn shivered.
“Well, he won’t anymore. Seth said he was almost disappointed. He expected Tarlfook to put up a better fight…” Josh continued to tell of the cities he had visited.
I listened as well as I could but I started to get hungry and struggled to ignore it. When Josh finished his story, Rosalyn and I left the living room for the front porch. I didn’t want to tell her but I knew I didn’t have a choice.
“I am hungry again. I know it is way too soon. I’ve drained two vampires in the last three days. I didn’t want to tell you but this doesn’t seem like something I should try to hide.” I looked at Rosalyn as I said that. Her face dropped noticeably.
“I will tell Josh. You can feed off of one of the wolves and we will make sure you don’t take too much. Stay here.” She told me and went back inside to find Josh. They came back out with her telling Josh of my problem. I couldn’t help but wish it would be Josh that I drank from. His blood sang to my ears.
“I will see if one of them will volunteer. I would do it myself but my blood must never be drank by a vampire.” He said but didn’t explain. He turned and went inside before I could ask why.
“See, we will take care of this. Josh and I will make sure you stop before you hurt anyone.” Rosalyn reassured me.
