by Maxey, Phil
As he felt the embrace of sleep, a beeping noise came from the large screen which sat opposite his bed.
He sighed and sat up. “Screen on…” He said into the darkness.
The large digital display changed to one of an anxious-looking dark haired man, with equally dark-rimmed glasses. His suit was ill-fitting, and he kept fixing his tie. Behind him through a glass wall, men and women in white lab coats continued their work within a large modern-looking laboratory.
“I just wanted to catch you, er… before you slept, we have finished cataloguing the Alkron code variations—”
“And?”
“—We have identified forty-seven different mutations, these include human and animals.” He nodded to the side, off screen, and a neon diagram appeared alongside his own face, showing circles and lines, arranged into groups. “Err, as you can see, most affected by the scourge are of type one, and present as what you would call your common vampire.”
Copeland noticed the bottom of the diagram and the single red pulsing dot. “And what is that, at the bottom?”
“That is the forty-seventh variation, and we believe the last that is possible. We are calling it ‘X.’ By our calculations—” More numbers slid onto the screen. “—Only 0.0000005 percent of the population are compatible with X. Which works out to be—”
“One hundred and sixty two in this country…”
“Yes, sir. We believe the man that our security forces is chasing is one of this group.”
“And the others?”
“We are developing a method to test for X, and—”
“It will be completed soon, I expect…”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, Adrian.”
Adrian’s eyes widened slightly on being offered the compliment.
“All one hundred and sixty two must be found, they cannot be allowed to spread their seed…”
“No, sir.”
“And news on the vials and tablets?”
Adrian’s face grew dark and he adjusted the top part of his tie. “No, sir, but—”
Copeland waved his hand and the screen switched off.
The governments attack on his compound months earlier almost succeeded in ending his plans before they could bear fruit. Most of the special forces that attacked were killed, but some managed to escape with what he had spent a decade trying to find. The creation tablets of the Annunaki.
Fools. They have no idea what they have.
As he laid back, he couldn’t dispel the feeling in his gut that a reckoning was on the horizon. Conflict was inevitable with the remaining humans, and as he closed his eyes, he smiled, rejoicing in the absoluteness of the coming war.
CHAPTER SIX
Beige, craggy peaks dotted with points of green passed by as the RV drove along a road which wound between mountains.
Marina looked at the banks of fallen boulders, and pine trees that ran up the slopes and sighed. It was the kind of location, just a week earlier, she wanted to find to ‘make a go of it.’ The only other thing she needed was a natural source of water. Looking at the crevices and valleys, she was sure there were streams at the bottom of some of them. A string of images of her finding a cabin, or perhaps even making her own, moved effortlessly through her mind. These were then replaced with scenes of rage and blood, eclipsing the serene life she had hoped for. She looked away from the natural beauty outside the window.
It’s gone.
She did not know what the future held for her, but she was sure it wouldn’t contain a pleasant life of living off of the land, while home-schooling her child. Not anymore.
Hungry.
The hunger which came with the scourge wasn’t the same as she felt when she was one hundred percent human, although she still also had those kinds of pangs in her stomach. No, the new hunger she felt rattled her entire being. It came in waves, and, at its most extreme, she felt she was no longer the house wife from LA. Once married to Russell and the mother of Jess. She was something else. Something that did not care of the matters of love, suffering, laughter, or any other of those other pointless emotions which made her human. It was only concerned with the glory of that first moment when the heat from the thick crimson liquid dripped into her mouth, and she devoured what used to flow through another living creature.
“Mom?”
Marina blinked as if waking from a dream. “Erm… yeah?”
“How much further?”
“I think another hour.”
Jess nodded and went back to reading a scuffed paperback with a dragon on the cover that Shannon had given her.
Marina looked around the RV. Evan had claimed the bunk in the roof at the front. Anna was driving. Joel was seated next to Anna, and as far as Marina could tell, was asleep.
Mary sat opposite her, alongside Jess. Hardin laid back on the small sofa to the side, with Shannon keeping her distance from him, and Bill was asleep in the main bed at the back. The complete insanity of the situation suddenly came to her and she giggled, making Mary and her daughter look at her. She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
She turned around to the yellowing rock faces covered with the occasional blanket of forest and let herself be swallowed once again by fantasies of a different life.
Anna sat with her hand on the large wheel. The landscape undulated between green hills and flat planes, and back again, but for most of the time her mind did not even see what was passing by. Instead, she was trying to recall as much as she could from her university days, when her roommate would keep her up late at night with his obsession with UFOs and stories of ancient aliens. She was sure the ‘Annunaki’ played a major part in the conspiracy theories he would tell her, but she couldn’t remember any details. That whole period of her life was a haze of medical books and late-night parties.
As they drove for the next hour, civilization crept up on the side of the road, which widened to four lanes. Brightly colored flat buildings accompanied large parking lots, which were mostly empty, slipped past, and the occasional abandoned car started to slow their progress.
Anna wondered if it was worth stopping at any of the large stores they were passing, but everyone apart from Jess seemed asleep. She envied them. The sun seemed brighter than usual, and she kept wishing she had snuck some sunglasses into her pocket at some point. She pulled the sun visor down. Even though her face was now in shadow she could still ‘feel’ the rays on her face.
As they progressed, a large body of water appeared on her left, while snow-capped mountains rose in the distance on her right. She had never been to this part of Utah, and she almost didn’t notice the near complete wall of vehicles in front of her until she was on top of it.
“Shit…”
She slowed then stopped the RV. Sedans, pickups, trucks, and vans sat motionless ahead. Some of the doors were open but mostly they looked as if they were all stuck in a huge jam, and were about to move away.
She looked across to Joel, who was still asleep, then over her shoulder for some support as to what to do next, but everyone’s eyes were closed.
She then remembered that just a few moments before she had passed an exit.
Okay, side roads it is then.
She swung the RV around, and was soon moving down the slope to an empty junction. She looked up at the traffic lights. No longer did they display red, green, or orange, now they just sat there waiting for someone to give them purpose. She took the turn to the right and drove up a slight incline. In her side mirror, Utah lake started to appear, and as she became absorbed in the afternoon sun catching the ripples, she didn’t feel the first or second bump. The third, though, made her turn her attention back to the road in front and the sea of bodies she was driving over.
She slammed on the brakes, making most in the confined space inside the RV suddenly slam up against whatever was behind them. But that wasn’t what woke Joel. It was Jess’s scream that did that.
Everyone looked at the ragged assortment of bloodied limbs and torsos t
hat lay spread out in all directions.
“They’re vamps,” said Marina, standing in the aisle behind the two front seats.
“They’re dead right?” said Mary, standing as they all crowded around trying to see out the front.
“Yup,” said Anna, both her hands still frozen on the steering wheel. Despite the rumbling engine in front of her feet, she couldn’t hear any heartbeats from the broken things that lay in front of them.
Joel scoured the scene. Something gold caught his eye. Twenty yards away, spent bullet casings glinted in the sun. “There was a battle here.”
“Any idea who won or lost?” said Hardin.
Joel looked across to Anna, ignoring Hardin’s question. “Why we on this road?”
“The highway was jammed with cars. No way through.”
He looked back to the discarded creatures scattered all around. “Keep driving, but go slow.” He reached down to the space in front of his seat and brought up his M4 assault rifle.
Marina pulled her Glock from the back of her pants.
Bill staggered forward from the back. “What’s going on? Why we—” He then saw the scene of carnage they were about to drive through. “Are we in Salt Lake City?”
“South of,” said Marina. She looked down at Jess. “Sit back down.” Her daughter obliged, and hugged her book to her chest.
Anna did her best to avoid driving over the arms and legs of the distorted bodies, but some could not be avoided and she winced each time the RV bumped, despite knowing that they were vamps.
“What’s that?” said Marina, looking at the corner of an apartment complex a few hundred yards in front of them.
As the RV grew parallel with the towerlike structure of a sandy-colored five story building, a white sheet, hanging from one of the top windows fluttered in the wind. The humans were not able to read what had been painted onto it, but the others could.
“Stay out of city. We have gone to the sanctuary,” said Anna.
They looked east to the range of peaks which soared into the sky.
“You think they made it?” said Mary.
Joel looked at the dead vamps around the RV. “I think they did.”
Bill sat down and opened the map which sat on the small table. “Unless we are willing to go hundreds of miles out of our way, all roads lead through the city to get to the air force base.”
“I don’t think they wrote that for no reason!” said Hardin.
Joel leaned forward and squinted at the blinding sun. “The vamps don’t like the direct light. If we’re going to go, this is the best time to do it.” He looked across to Anna who nodded and pulled away, bumping over more bodies.
Hardin huffed and sat back down on the sofa.
It wasn’t long before they were headed back north and were weaving between abandoned vehicles on a seven-lane highway. Luckily, on this stretch the cars and trucks were more sparsely spread out, but it was still slow going having to steer the large RV around the obstacles.
After driving for around twenty minutes, Anna slowed then stopped the RV.
“What’s it now?” said Hardin, getting to his feet and looking through the front window.
Up ahead, another highway passed over the one they were on, and, as with the apartments, a sign had been hung over the edge of the overpass.
Anna lightly pressed down on the gas and edged closer to the large sheets that fluttered in the wind.
Bill leaned forward to read what was written. “And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground”
“That something from the bible?” said Evan.
“Genesis Nineteen twenty-five,” said Mary.
Under the excerpt was also written, “This city is dammed! Stay out!”
Hardin waved his arm around. “You can’t seriously be thinking of keeping going in this direction?”
Anna looked across to Joel. “I’m not sensing anything, are you?”
He shook his head. It was a lie by omission. He was sensing something. Like the sound of crickets on a hot day. In the dark recesses of his mind he could hear the inhabitants of the city. But he was sure they were not aware of himself and the others yet.
Anna drove forward slowly. The sheets and blankets slid over the top part of the windscreen and then dragged across the roof.
They were plunged into darkness as more sheets hung on the opposite side, meaning they were now inside a tunnel.
“Can’t see shit,” said Hardin.
“We can,” said Anna. She could see the shadows contained nothing of threat and they passed through the other sheets and back out into the light.
The other side was no different to the previous section of highway. The occasional car or jackknifed semi, but nothing which gave any credence to the city being overrun.
The road widened to eight lanes and was banked by a small concrete wall, but due to the height of the RV they were able to look at the skyscrapers and other important looking buildings a few miles off to the east. Just below the highway, railway lines converged and a train, with three carriages, sat motionless as if waiting to enter the city’s station.
As they drove past, a flock of blackbirds that were resting on the tracks took to the sky.
“We’re not too far from the base, maybe another fifteen minutes,” said Anna.
The buzzing was still permeating Joel’s mind, but he ignored it, instead using his other senses to look beyond the highway they were on.
“Take the next exit,” said Bill.
Anna did as instructed and they were soon on a four-lane road, bordered by smart-looking homes, large stores, and the occasional mall.
“Salt Lake City is so clean and tidy,” said Anna.
“Even after the apocalypse!” said Marina, kneeling just behind her in the aisle. They both laughed.
“The base should be at the end of this road,” said Bill, looking up from his map.
After a few more miles, they arrived at a junction.
On a pole, an American flag fluttered in the afternoon sun, and a sign etched in stone on a plinth proudly announced they were about to enter an air force base.
Anna slowly drove them across the junction, past the sign and onto the road which ran to the main gate. On both sides, expansive lawned fields sat, the grass made yellow by the early autumn sun.
She stopped the RV at the booth which sat in the middle of the road. It was empty.
“That doesn’t bode well,” said Marina.
Anna drove on, weaving around a car which was on its side. She slowed as they past it. There were streaks of blood across the windscreen but no other sign of who drove it. She stopped the RV at another junction and looked at Joel. “Where to, this place is huge.”
He reached out with his mind and every other sense, desperately trying to locate any sign of humans. A conversation, breathing, footsteps, even a heartbeat would give him some indication of which direction to move in, but only silence echoed back to him, until it was replaced with pain.
As if a red-hot poker had been driven into the back of his head, he leaned forward clutching his temples.
“What’s wrong?” said Anna, leaning towards him.
The pain slid from his mind as easily as it had entered, but the reason for it lingered. “They’re coming.” His words came out between breaths.
The inhabitants of the RV looked through any windows close to them.
Anna’s head whipped around, from right to left. “From where? All I see is flat parkland.”
Marina stood upright. “Everyone quiet!”
They all froze in place.
The slight vibrations of the RV windows and internal pieces of furniture were obvious even to the non-scourge infected of the group.
Anna looked at Joel. “Where are they coming from?”
He closed his eyes. “From where we came. From the city.”
Marina moved swiftly to the back room, leaned on the bed, and looked
out the rear window. The road they just travelled up looked no different, but there was something about the sky just above the road which made her squint. The air looked dusty, as if the fog of pollution had suddenly descended to the south.
“Let’s just get the hell out of here, there’s obviously no air force here left to hand that suitcase off to!” said Hardin, wiping a cloth across his forehead.
Anna looked at Joel who nodded back to her. She pushed down on the gas pedal, and they jolted forward then moved smoothly away, passing a running track then large blocklike buildings. One had a sign mentioning a medical facility whereas another, devoid of any windows, talked of ‘Engine repair.’
After a short distance, the landscape flattened out again.
“Stop!” shouted Joel.
Anna slammed on the brakes, and all eyes looked along the road which ran down a few miles to the northwest gate.
At first, no one was sure what they were seeing, for it seemed a volume of liquid was moving towards them, but Joel, and the others similar to him, could see more detail of the mass of arms and legs which were tearing at the dusty air.
“There are thousands…” said Hardin more to himself than those around him.
“Reverse!” said Joel.
Anna did so, then swung the RV around, and moved off back in amongst the various bland multi-story buildings.
Joel scanned each structure as they passed them by. “We need to get inside one of these… That one!” He pointed to the ‘Engine repair facility.’ From what he could see, it contained virtually no windows, and hardly any entrances. “Get us close to the vehicle bay door.”
“And when we get in, how do we get back out?” exclaimed Bill.
“I don’t know, but if we can’t fight that many off.”
As the RV bumped up a curb and Anna drove them across a small parking lot, Marina held Jess close with one hand and held onto the table with the other.
The RV rushed towards the entrance and skidded to a stop in front of the wide metal vehicle bay door.
Joel looked over his shoulder. “Everyone outside, we need to get that door open!”
