“I think we’ve lost them but we have enough open space here to go either direction if they decide they want to follow us around. Jake, we need to talk, we might as well crack open the back door and have a mini picnic.”
And that’s what we did. Mariah was grossed out by all the red brown smears over the outside of the van. Brice told her it was her turn to wax it and she almost puked. That alone was almost worth the slight embarrassment earlier. Stephen slid a cooler to the back of the van and everyone pulled out a pop. No ice, but no one complained, having anything like this was a rare treat.
“Jake, what happened? Why were you behind the buildings over by Cheyenne?”
“It was crazy. I was taking a leek and three deadheads snuck up on me. I barely had time to zip when I realized that three turned into thirty.”
“How was it you weren’t able to hear or smell them coming?”
“I don’t know Brice, the only thing I can figure is they were bunched up in a building somewhere. Lots of big commercial buildings on the other side of the fences off Cheyenne. In fact I hopped a fence to try to get away and was hoping you guys were there, because there was no way I could have gotten away without you.”
“I’ve never seen so many before.” Stephen chimed in. “I wonder what made them bunch up like that before tearing after us all hell bent”
“I wish I knew.” Brice said. He closed the cooler after handing out some snacks from Kroger’s.
“I’ve only seen this one other time.” Mariah said. Everybody turned to look at her.
“It was by the Flint National Guard place. They were chasing down a norm and..”
“He didn’t get away.” Brice finished for her. She nodded.
“Jake, why do you want to hunt these guys? I know why everyone else does, but I really don’t know you.”
“Well, I used to have a normal life, married, hoping for kids then I did something stupid. I stopped at Maxie’s one night for a drink, and some drunk mistook me for someone else. He popped me right in the face when he realized I wasn’t the guy he was looking for. I lost it though. I pounded that guy into a pulp before the bouncers pulled me off him and I was spending a couple of days in county when the lights went out for good. I eventually escaped but I’ve never been able to find my wife. I’ve got nothing else to lose anymore.”
If Stephen and Brice were telepathic they would have realized they were thinking the same thing. The fact that Jake escaped prison. Neither of them were going to bring this up in front of everyone until they all had a chance to talk to each other. Then Jake went on after a pause.
“You know, I went home figuring I would find her there but the doors were busted down, that brown slime that dead heads seem to drip was everywhere, even smeared on the walls. Somebody had used a crow bar to open my gun safe and everything was gone. Only thing I had left to do was check under the bed and see if they found my deer rifle. They hadn’t and I had a couple of boxes of shells stashed in the dresser. I decided to leave. That’s pretty much it and here we are.”
“Man that’s rough” Stephen said
“Yeah, well, I don’t know what else to do. Either fight back or lay down and die”
“Yeah, and nobody wants to do that seeing what a swarm can do to somebody.” Mariah said. Again with the voice. She was really freaked out. Maybe she isn’t as tough as I thought.
Brice slowly went back to the back of the van and opened a wooden crate and set the lid on the floor. Inside were a couple of rifles. Apparently Brice didn’t trust everyone with everything because there were a whole lot more, and they must be stashed back at our place.
“Whoa.. I know you and Stephen were using these, but I figured that you kept them from the war or something.”
“How did you know I was in the war?” Stephen asked.
“Uhhh uhhhh ..”
“You were never near us when Brice handed me the gun, and except the meetings I’ve barely passed words with you.”
Brice was slow on the uptake at first, then it dawned on him and he closed the case, turning back slowly towards Jake. He had moved his rifle off safe and was now on burst and started to raise it when two things happened. Jake started blubbering and Stephen had his own rifle trained on Jake’s head.
“They made me do it! I didn’t want to, but I can’t stop them.”
The air was pretty thick while everyone digested this. I’m sure if Jake had made any sudden moves both Brice and Stephen would have taken care of the situation like what happened with Scarpetti.
“Who Jake. Who. Talk real slow, no sudden moves. Kids, very slowly get his gun and make sure he isn’t carrying anything else on him.”
Mariah snatched the deer rifle. While Tres patted him down. He lifted the back of his shirt to pull out a big knife hidden there when he noticed the black splotchy patches of skin across his back. It looked putrid and sort of like the skin that zombies…
“He’s a zombie!” the shout startled even myself.
“No kid, I’m just another guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Listen, lower your guns and I’ll tell you the story, the real one this time. The only thing I ask is if they kill me, you go in and rescue my wife.”
“The vamps have your wife?” Stephen’s eyebrows rose.
“Yeah, and if I don’t do what they ask they’ll send her to the blood bank.”
I started to ask why that would be a bad thing when he motioned me to shush. His story was a bit farfetched at first but things started making sense.
Chapter 13 – County Lockup, Vampires and Swarm Blood Oh my!
It turns out, Jake really was in county lockup for a bar fight. Where the story gets interesting though is the first night the lights went out for good, he didn’t escape. Gunshots and screams could be heard through the small cellblock and a couple of guards ran down the row of cells ignoring everybody calling to them to be let out. Everyone in there had watched CNN and knew about the zombies, but what they didn’t know about was the Vampires were behind it all.
The door at the end of the block burst open where the guards were running towards and a tall figure stepped out. He was rather tall, and except for his red glowing eyes he looked normal. The guards let loose with their guns. Nothing happened, but the figures smile turned in a snarl as he grabbed one guard by the throat and twisted with his hand. The second guard wasn’t quite so lucky. His throat got torn out and the prisoners watched as the vampire had his fill.
Jake was shocked. This was the kind of stuff he always watched on TV as a kid, and watching it on TV knowing it was fake was nothing like watching it happen right in front of you. He moved as far back into the cell as he could wishing he could melt out of sight between the block wall and the thin foam padding in his cell.
“You all work for me now.” Was the only thing he said and went cell to cell ripping the doors open. Surprisingly enough, most of them did, including Jake. After all, he just witnessed this guy take two dozen bullets, kill two guards with his hands, and now ripping the steel doors open. There were a couple of inmates who had a different idea though. They ran the opposite direction.
“My friends, those two are yours.” Motioning to the doorway the two were running towards. The guys ran right into the arms of zombies where waiting obediently just outside of sight. Their screams were horrible.
In single file, we followed the figure up the stairs and past the desks and out the front door. One of the more fearless of the guys there asked him “Hey mister, what do you want us to call you, Boss, Boss-man, Dracula?”
For a second it looked like the vampire was considering making the heavily tattooed convict into a lunchable when a smile broke across his face.
“You can call me Bill. Oh, and don’t worry about my friends behind you. They won’t eat any of my employees unless told to.”
The group turned around and almost fell over themselves. Somehow the zombies had silently followed the group to the front door. Bill just smiled at the con who I later learned was nam
ed Travis, but had the stupid nickname of bones. Travis paled and didn’t say a word after that.
Now there’s one thing I think is important about the vampires. At least the ones around here, they love the best of things. The best clothes, the best music, the best weapons, the best of cars. That is what picked us up. A stretched hummer Limo. Bill climbed in the passenger seat after telling us to hop in back and enjoy some drinks.
This guy had style. Jake was sure the limo was stolen from somewhere, but the bottles of booze were all top shelf, the beer all fancy imports. I was in heaven for all of 20 minutes while I enjoyed two quick beers when we stopped at the gate. In Jake’s previous life he was working at a packaging center. They sold boxes. He didn’t make enough to buy beer, let alone ride in a limo.
Looking around to see what’s in front of a stretched hummer isn’t as easy as it sounds. From what the guys towards the front of the limo were saying, there were some Army guys with guns guarding this really heavy looking gate. Something was said to the guard who approached the passenger side and he held up a radio. The gate started opening and the limo pulled through honking its horn twice.
The building we stopped in front of looked like a barracks, but Jake wasn’t for sure, but the honking brought out quite a few people. It seemed to be equal parts of norms and the red eyed vamps. This was so not good.
The door was opened from the outside so Jake followed the wave of humanity where the guys were lining up almost in formation, many of them dropping their drinks in fright.
“Now for the sorting.” The cons were freaked out, but every vamp seemed to be waiting on this part.
You here, you there, you here and on and on. “Just my luck” Jake thought, picked last. Which group would he be in? The vamp was sorting folks into two groups. The harder/tougher looking guys were in the smallest group and Bill’s eyes lingered over me. He looked at my hands, still swollen and crusty with scabs from my fight.
“No, no, you may be a fighter but I doubt you are tough enough, go there.”
“Sir! I need one more for my group, the numbers from last week…” one of the vamps said.
“Ah yes you and your numbers, very well, you go with this group.”
Jake wasn’t sure if he had won the jackpot or crapped out so he said nothing. His group was being led into the barracks when he heard bill say “Lunch Time” and the screams of those from the other group as the vampires swarmed them. There were more cons than vampires but I have no doubt the humans were overmatched. The group of norms that came out of the barracks followed us back in.
That’s where we learned the truth. Very few of us would remain unharmed. The toughest of the group were hardened criminals, and they served the role of enforcers for the vampires during the day. Another group was being used as guinea pigs for medical experiments, and the washouts were either eaten or given swarm blood and set loose in a large area.
See, swarm blood was something that the vamps came up with in the labs. It is the blood of a vampire engineered somehow and injected into norms. Swarm blood mixed with norm blood sends off some kind of pheromone that the zombies love. They will go into a frenzy just like sharks when they can find and catch the source. The only good thing about swarm blood is it only lasts a couple of hours, the bad things are what it does to your skin. It makes it look like a zombies flesh for a while.. and what’s worse is every zombie for a mile can smell it and they swarm the area looking for the source, hence the name.
Vampires and zombies are similar but far apart on the evolutionary scale. Zombies are cavemen, and vampires are Einstein’s. The refinement in the vampire’s blood makes them unable to go into the sunlight though. Their virus won’t allow it and it takes a lot longer to heal. How did anyone find this stuff out?
The vampires talked of this. Often. Annoyingly often. They are quite arrogant on this account.
Every so often somebody tries to make a vampire but doesn’t give enough blood, or takes way too much and the victim is stuck halfway between living and un-death. In many respects these guys look and act just like zombies, their norm brains fried to a crisp as the virus tries to change the victim but unable to. Some maintain part of their vocabulary but most don’t. The vampire lords call them ghouls. I guess it’s quite an embarrassment to a vampire to make a ghoul.
If a ghoul bites a norm before killing him they become a zombie, and zombie who bites a norm becomes a zombie. Make sense?
Then it’s how everyone calls the vamps the Vampire Lords. There really are Vampire Lords. They came from Eastern Europe before the mass infections started. They somehow have power over the zombies, but let’s face it, zombies are usually slow, dumb and easily distracted. The thing about the vamps though, they are smart, and they have a plan, and somehow they coordinated the lights going out worldwide.
Jake tried to stay in the first group of enforcers so he could quietly slip away when no one was looking. Who would want to be an experiment or a juice box? That wasn’t how things worked out.
Chapter 14 – Pins and Needles
After a few days there, Bill came for Jake and two others. It was odd, nobody stopped them or even looked at them. The army looking guys would give a snappy salute and Bill would nod back while they walked towards a hanger style building Jake had never been in before. Once inside they went down a staircase into what looked like it could have been the world’s largest basement.
A Heavy portal style door swings open as Bill leads the three towards it. Most of them thought of running for it but remembered how easily he had killed the guards. Running down three middle aged guys wouldn’t be too hard would it? Air blew against us as we stepped through. “That’s an airlock” Jake thought. Why would they need one of those?
Inside was a lab. There Bill handed the three of them off to a white coated lady that Bill Kissed on the cheek.
“This is my wife Nancy. She’ll be in charge of you for as long as you have left to live.” With that he turned and left. The sound of the door closing was the worst sound Jake had ever heard.
“That part I am going to skip over guys. It was just too horrible.” Jake told the others. They looked shocked. Everyone knew it was bad news, but Tres and Brice looked especially pale as they exchanged glances throughout the story.
“Needless to say, I was picked and prodded, injected with stuff that made me sick for days. My blood felt like it was on fire and every cell in my body was screaming in pain. That’s when I decided I would be better off dead. I did everything I could to mess with them and ruin their fancy tests, often times knocking syringes to the ground when they weren’t looking or lying about whatever effects I was having from what they were doing.”
“Somehow I must have been some sort of success with them. Whatever they wanted to happen to me happened. I didn’t know what at first. Killing me wasn’t in their plan, and I couldn’t keep messing things up for them so one morning Bill came back into the lab leading my wife. She looked well but she was crying and very scared. I don’t think I’ve ever been hugged harder in my entire life.”
“Jake, you will cooperate with us willingly now, or your wife shall be given a large dose of swarm blood and throw out the front gate.”
“I’ve seen this happen Brice, one of the guys in our group was dying from all the experiments so they juiced him up with the swarm blood and handcuffed him to the outside of the gate. I think they wanted everybody to know what would happen if they stepped out of line. I think every zombie in the area came in, like some sort of un-holy communion. There was no way I was going to let that happen to my wife.”
“So you played ball?” Mariah asked.
Jake just nodded.
“So they kept on with the experiments, drawing blood, injecting me, drawing blood and once bone marrow. I don’t think there is any torture worse than what they did to me. At the end of the day they let me visit with my wife for a couple of hours before I went back to the lab to be hooked up while I slept. The dreams are bad. In them there’s all these
evil scientists who joke about their failures.
“No big deal, we’ll just eat our mistakes.” Was the favorite one I heard over and over.
“Then one day they announced they had a breakthrough. They told me that something in my body allowed me to stay alive much longer than the other people they were experimenting on. Somehow they were able to see the progression of their work by working on me and in my blood to perfect a new strain of virus.”
“What does it do Jake?” I asked. I had lots of thoughts swirling through my little 13 year old head, most of them about Bill & Nancy.
“Well for one, I heal about three times faster than normal, and apparently I am immune from changing into a zombie or ghoul.”
“Bullshit!” Stephen yelled, and for a second it almost looked like he was ready to choke the life out of Jake.
“No really, look.” And he took off his shirt. Bite marks were on both arms towards the meaty part by the shoulder.
“This arm was from a zombie, my right arm was from a ghoul. They deliberately let those fly blown maggot heads chew on me like I was a chicken nugget!” Jake yelled almost ready fly off the handle himself.
“Easy guys, easy.” I think everybody at that point realized we had quit pointing our guns at Jake during this crazy story he was telling us. “No sense going off halfcocked now. I have some ideas rolling around, and we all need to stay calm. Jake, I’m sorry. Get your shirt on, kids, give him his weapons back.” Somehow Brice was believing this? What if it was true? What did it mean?
Mariah looked as if she was about to burst when her expression softened. “Jake, how did you get the swarm blood earlier if it’s daylight?”
“Remember the con Bones I told you about? He had me holed up on Cheyenne right before he injected me. See, it’s a trap. It was always a trap. They used me as a human dirty bomb to kill you guys.”
Dead At Last Page 5
