by Maxey, Phil
The doctor looked at her and Joel. The realization washed over her face as she got what was obvious to the others already. She looked back at Joel. “You need to get that blood.”
He nodded. “I will.”
*****
Levi Corvin looked out into the nothingness that the convoy was moving through. Taking direction from the young boy that sat behind him in the Humvee, they had been driving north for close to an hour, and only had to use the high-intensity ultra-violet beam perched on top of the other Humvee a few times to clear a path.
He would have preferred to have gotten out, stretched his legs and tore through a few vamps with his assault rifle, but their target was moving away from them, and they needed to catch up.
Twice decorated during his tours of Afghanistan and Iraq as a Navy Seal, he couldn’t resist the lure of the private sector, and when Copeland Security came knocking, he found himself with a high paying role in the organization.
He and his team knew, of course, what effect the scourge was having on the surrounding areas of north California, but even they were surprised when it spread as it did. The last few years were spent returning to the hot zones where he had fought a decade before, together with archeologists and his boss, Mr Copeland. At first, he thought the whole escapade was another example of a silicon valley founder with too much money and time, but when the ground-penetrating radar displayed a temple complex a few miles in diameter that had never been discovered, even he began to believe.
When they finally broke into the ‘Tomb of Kings’ and found what was contained within, his whole world view changed. That still didn’t mean he drunk the ‘potion,’ as he called it, that the Copeland scientists developed from what they learned from the ancient tablets. And seeing what it did on the test subjects, he was glad he refused. He even tried telling Copeland not to take the final batch, but he knew in his gut the younger man was always going to follow-through. As California drowned in blood, and then the country and world shortly after, he wondered if that was always Copeland’s plan.
As he looked out of the Humvee window, seeing more of himself in the reflection than any sign of life beyond it, he didn’t care what the scourge had done. The world was now playing by rules he understood. It was Darwinism at its finest. And he had a seat at the table, next to the man that made it happen.
Hmm… man…
Corvin wasn’t sure that was the right noun to use anymore to describe what his boss had become.
He felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Looking behind, a young anxious face looked back at him. The boy pointed off into the darkness.
Corvin held the radio to his mouth. “All stop. Over.”
The convoy quickly slowed, then ground to a halt. Corvin looked back to the boy whose fingers were now pointing off to the side, towards a field of mud and grass.
Corvin got out then walked around the front, moving through the headlights. Two soldiers came with him, and they walked down a small bank. He pulled out a flashlight and waved it in their path. A large piece of wooden fencing was laying flat. Slowly, he lifted the beam into the darkness beyond. A dark shape stood out about twenty yards off.
The soldiers slipped their rifles from their back. Corvin’s handgun remained in its holster, but he marched forward into the shadows regardless. It didn’t take long to arrive at the pickup, which was on its side. As the soldiers looked out into the darkness, he turned his light in to the cabin. The remains of a body lay slumped across the seats. He couldn’t tell who, or what, it was, and he presumed they were already practically dead by the time the vehicle came to a stop, and the vamps finished the job. Either way, the boy wouldn’t have got him to investigate unless this dead person was connected to the man they were chasing.
He bent down and crawled into the small space. He wasn’t bothered about getting bloody. Like piranhas, there wasn’t a drop left in the body. He reached into the pants pockets and then the jacket pocket until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a small leather wallet, flipping it open in the light of his flashlight. A late middle-aged woman looked back at him. “How you end up here, Claire…” he said under his breath. He flicked through the credit cards until he reached a business card, which proudly announced that Claire was the chief proprietor of the Bellweather Hotel. He smirked.
Kid’s never wrong.
He crawled out and stood, looking into the darkness. The stars burned bright above his head, and a light wind brushed across his face, but apart from that, there was no sign of any life, human or otherwise.
“Back to the convoy,” he said to the soldiers.
As they approached the line of vehicles, the boy was standing in the glow of the headlights.
Corvin knelt next to him. “What?”
The boy pointed into the distance, far along the two lane road they were already on.
Corvin stood, and squinted into the night ahead of him. Just visible, was the dark monolithic shape of a building.
CHAPTER NINE
Joel looked at those around him that were sleeping, mostly those that had not been through the change. He could see that Marina was still awake though, sat up looking at one of the books from the shelves which ran along a part of the gym’s wall.
The large space was kept alight by a single bulb which resided above the door they entered from hours earlier, but it was still more than enough illumination for Joel. It also made it easier to see the secret cameras that were attached to the walls high up, near the windows.
He had seen the slight red glow, and heard the buzzing of the tiny devices as soon as he entered the large space, and passed on the information to the others shortly after. Since then, everyone had been trying to do their best to act normal. For those like Joel, that meant not making it too obvious that they had extra energy during the night, although he was fairly sure the occupants of the town had not come across hybrids before. ‘Hybrids’ was the name he had settled upon for what he and the others were. When it was just him, there was no need for an extra classification, because as far as he knew there was no one else. He was special. Now he was one of four and calling each other ‘vamps’ didn’t seem right.
The tablet and vials were back in the silver case and were now under a part of the mattress he was sleeping on. He figured, at some point, someone from the town was going to go through their belongings and keeping them there was just asking for the case to be taken. But as he laid with his head against the wall, he tried keeping all of the problems he had to solve in his mind, straight.
Get the blood. Make sure no one finds out about the hybrids. Keep the case secret, and get it to any authorities that are still left. Figure out what the visions mean…
Could that have been what the other vamps he encountered meant when they said he was special? He wasn’t sure. Just another piece of the puzzle that seemed to be growing larger each day.
He also knew his time inside the town was probably going to be limited, but maybe they had comms he could use to contact the outside world. First things first though. He needed to get blood. He had figured out the restroom and accompanying showers were not covered by the cameras.
He got to his feet, taking his backpack with him, and walked across to Marina. “I’m getting a shower, be about an hour,” he said a little louder than he needed to.
Her initial reaction was to wonder why he was telling her, but then she understood and nodded, putting her face back into the book she was reading.
He left the gym, walked along a small hallway, and then into the restroom, with showers along one wall. He closed the door behind him, then walked to one of the showers and rotated the handle, causing a weak stream of water to pour from the nozzle. He then walked to the slim window. Its latch was padlocked, but those that secured the window hadn’t figured on a hybrid’s strength, and after a few heaves he was able to pull the latch from the frame, with the lock still attached to it.
He pushed open the window a few inches and listened into the night outside. There was
only silence. He couldn’t even hear any heartbeats locally around the school building.
No need for anyone to stay up if there’s no vamps around.
Pushing against the metal frame, he opened the window all the way, then jumped up, pushing his backpack first through the gap, and then himself. He landed catlike on the dirt outside and looked out into the darkness. The sports ground was on the opposite side of the building, and in front of him was just the grayness of a parking lot.
Where the hell’s the medical center?
He tried to remember the layout of the town from when they flew over it, but nothing from his memory looked like a hospital.
He scanned the landscape around him, but only strange shapes stood out against the sky and stars. There was also the occasional light hanging from buildings or poles, but most of the town was in darkness. He ran forward across the concrete, past waste disposal containers, and grabbed hold of a chain-link fence and hopped over to the sidewalk on the other side. Despite how dark it was, he could still see most of the buildings, and promptly stopped on seeing how strange the first one appeared. It was covered in crucifixes. Large ones, small ones, and some he was sure were just painted onto the walls. Even the windows had small cross shapes painted on them. Topping them all off was a wooden crucifix, maybe ten feet high, nailed to the front of the roof.
He ran across the road and examined the building more closely. A small wooden placard stuck in the dirt near a path which led to the entrance said, ‘Meeting house.’
He looked to the right, at the property on the next lot. This building was larger, and part of a row of stores, but the external wall was covered in the same cacophony of religious symbols as the one he was next to.
He shook his head. He had already encountered many such crucifixes over the past few months, and never had they had any affect on him. He wondered why the inhabitants of the town thought otherwise.
He jogged to the side alley of the stores and ran down it. As he emerged, the smell of blood drifting on the cool night air, hit him like a happy memory. For a moment he stood frozen, his senses scrambled. Shaking his head, he looked at the scene in front of him. He was at a junction. A church sat on one corner with a modern flat building sat alongside it. The latter was where the metallic sweet smell was coming from, he was sure of it.
Could I be that lucky?
He ran across the street, being careful not to move out of the shadows and onto the lawn which sat in front of the building. A clean plaque on the wall announced ‘Haven Medical Center.’
The double glass doors were well lit. A bit too well lit, so he ignored them, and instead moved around the side of the building, running across flower beds until he found a ground-floor window. He gripped the bottom of it, and pulled upwards until the latch broke, then climbed inside. The smell of blood was even stronger inside the building.
Must be a blood bank somewhere in here.
There was no light in the room around him, but he could make out enough to know it was a small office. He moved swiftly to the door, pressing his hand against it and went to pull the handle down, when he heard them. A confusing mix of heartbeats and voices. Lots of both. He quietened his mind until only one voice could be heard in the corridor outside.
“You think they’ll come?” said a male voice.
“Don’t know. But if they are, I wish they do it soon. I need my sleep,” said an older male voice.
Joel slowly stepped back from the door.
Trap.
He climbed out of the window, bringing it down as quiet as he could, and raced away into the dark.
*****
Marina’s eyelids were heavy, but she lifted them anyway. Jess was sleeping soundly on the bed next to her, with Flint lying on the floor in between. Sunlight streamed in from the top windows bathing the glossy hardwood floor in intense yellow light. In the translucent beam, she watched the tiny dust particles dance to a silent tune.
She was tired. More so after Joel returned from his ‘shower’ and told her and the others of what he was almost lured into. She had to admire the townspeople though. It was a clever ploy to weed out who among them might have a craving for blood. She wondered what would have happened if Joel had fallen for it. Would they have tried to kill him? She was sure he would have been the first of their type to come here. Maybe they would have given him a chance. Maybe they would give them all a chance.
Yeah, right.
She knew she wasn’t safe for as long as she stayed in the town, and that meant Jess wasn’t safe, and that wasn’t acceptable.
Contact the authorities. Pass off the tablet and vials. Leave.
It was a simple enough plan, she just needed to stay out of trouble long enough for it to occur.
She swung her legs around and onto the floor, when her senses picked up that the outer door of the building had just been opened. She sat, tracking the footsteps of three men, two much heavier than the third, and when the door to the gym was unlocked and opened, she did her best to act surprised.
Joel opened his eyes to the two guards that escorted them to the gym the previous evening, and a third person. A sandy-haired woman, with rosy cheeks, and a jumper that looked too big for her.
“Please everyone, can you wake. I have good news for all of you.”
Mary and Bill sat up immediately, whereas Hardin pulled the sheet over his head. Anna came out of the restroom drying her hair with a towel.
“What’s going on?” said Joel.
“You are to be taken to visit Brother Lucian!”
“Who the hell is he?” said Hardin from beneath his sheet.
“He is our leader. The one that has been chosen to carry us through the nightmare that has descended upon Earth.”
Marina looked at Joel, while Evan looked at his grandfather.
Joel got to his feet. “We’re happy to meet your, err… leader, but we need to get a message to any remaining governmental authorities. If you have communications to the outside world?”
“Umm… perhaps after you have talked to Brother Lucian.”
“Okay, lead the way,” said Joel, walking forward.
Soon they were all outside. The fresh air felt good for everyone. Even the hybrids took in a few lungsful of breaths, despite feeling hotter than the others under the early morning sun.
As they walked across the parking lot, the other buildings around them came into greater clarity, each one covered in painted crosses. But that wasn’t all. Joel hadn’t realized while he was exploring in the dark, but the sidewalk and roads were also anointed in similar fashion.
Brief looks were exchanged amongst the group, that were being led along the sidewalk. They soon realized they were heading for the ‘meeting house.’
Marina leaned into Joel as he got close. “This whole place is nuts.”
He subtly shook his head as the woman with the big jumper walked through the doorway, into the cool air of the open space within. A large room contained five rows of seating, and, at the front, a middle-aged man with hair and a beard of small dark curls interceded with white. He sat on a chair larger than the others. He was also immaculately dressed, wearing a bright white suit, shirt, and red tie. The whole place was empty apart from the man, that had his hands clasped together.
They all walked to within ten feet of him.
The woman’s face was one of nervous tension. “These are the visitors, Brother Lucian.”
Lucian smiled. “Thank you, Sister Abigail. That will be all.” He talked with a tinge of a southern accent.
The woman smiled, lowering her head slightly as she turned and walked away.
Joel just caught sight of the two guards taking up standing positions outside as she closed the door.
Marina walked forward. “Lucian, is it?”
He nodded with a smile.
“I really don’t care what kind of gig you got going on here. But we’re not here to sign up. We want to use any communications you have to the outside world. I presume you have one
, right?”
Joel sensed Lucian’s heart rate was faster than it should be. He could also smell blood in the air. An idea started forming in his mind.
“I presume your humans are not infected?” He pointed to Bill, Mary, and Hardin. “If they are, then we have a problem.”
Hardin scrunched his face up in disapproval, then looked at those around him. “Humans?”
The itch at the back of Joel’s mind became a fully formed concept. He walked forward. “They’re not infected. What about the people in this town. Do they know what you are?”
The realization that Lucian was like them, dawned on Evan, Anna, and Marina simultaneously.
Lucian stood. “They know what they need to.” He walked to a small cupboard at the back of the room, produced a key from his pants’ pocket and opened it.
A wave of delight swept across the faces of the hybrids as the smell of blood which resided in the large glass decanter washed past them.
Lucian turned with a glass full of blood in his hand, and took a sip. “You’re the first I’ve found that are… like me. Usually, it’s just the infected we get wandering the hills and end up here…” He looked down at his glass. “Although they do come in useful.”
Marina swallowed, fighting the urge to rush across the room and swipe the decanter from the cupboard, while Anna licked her lips. Evan was seated, looking down at the floor, murmuring to himself.
“You feed on the people here?” said Marina, trying not to look at the blood.
He raised his glass, seeing her muscles straining. “Oh, you want some too?” Just when Marina couldn’t hold back anymore, he pulled the glass in to himself, turned, and closed the cupboard. “If you’re thinking of taking the blood for yourselves, just keep in mind that each and every citizen of Haven worship me. They would gladly kill all of you if something were to happen to me.”
Joel put his hand on Marina’s, steadying her shaking. “We got nothing against you. You can do what you want in this town. But we do need to use your town radio if you have one… some blood would be helpful as well.”
