by Maxey, Phil
She walked past him. “Let’s try the theatres.”
Joel leaned up against the back of the truck. He wouldn’t have been there, but Marina was pacing up and down beyond the front of the vehicle and he needed to keep his distance.
“How much further?” said Hardin from inside.
“Hour, maybe a bit longer.”
Joel noticed Jess looked concerned. Instinctively he smiled at her then instantly regretted the action. She looked away.
He shifted his gaze to the young boy next to her. “Jasper?”
The boy looked back at him with no expression.
Joel would have preferred to have seen the child’s eyes, but they were lost behind his sunglasses.
“You sensing anything?”
The boy nodded.
Joel was surprised, for his own senses weren't picking up any signs of other vamps. “Where?”
The boy pointed towards the hospital.
Joel ran around the side of the truck. “I’m going in to check on the others!” he shouted towards Marina. She briefly turned and nodded before watching the side streets again. Flint pulled at his leash that she was holding.
Anna and Evan moved quicker and quicker, deeper into a maze of twisting corridors, until they moved out of sight.
Hickman stopped at a junction. There was no sign of them, to the left or the right. Not even the doors moved with recent use.
Where the fuck are they.
A noise came from behind. He swung around taking his rifle and flashlight’s beam with him.
Another noise came from his right, he swung around again.
“Anna?”
His next step was followed by a crash as the ceiling caved in, bringing with it vamps tumbling to the floor.
He started firing, spraying the walls and vamps alike, some of which fell to the ground, but others scrambled forward regardless.
He went to turn back the way he came, but in the distance there was the wrong kind of shadows.
Vamps…
A burning sensation across his back made him cry out and fall forwards. Without looking behind he pushed himself into the left corridor, slamming into and then through a set of double doors.
Anna and Evan appeared in front of him.
“This way!” she shouted.
Ignoring the searing pain across the middle of his back, he caught up with them.
She moved towards a nearby stairwell, but something was coming up it at a pace. She went to turn away when she heard a human grunting noise as a man raced up the steps. Pushing the door open, she looked down at Joel coming up. “Joel!”
They moved quickly onto the stairs and descended, meeting him halfway, then kept on going to the ground floor, emerging in a corridor at the back of the hospital.
By the time they reached the front, Donnie and Marina had the engines running on both vehicles.
Joel and Anna helped Hickman into the back of the truck then, with Evan, jumped onboard.
Hickman fell onto his knees, wincing in pain.
A large tear with red frayed edges was obvious to everyone.
As the convoy sped away, a torrent of vamps spilled out from the hospital and other buildings behind them.
Soon though they were back on the main road heading north.
Anna pulled Hickman’s jacket and shirt from him. She looked closely at the six-inch laceration. “Doesn’t seem to have hit any arteries, but you got some muscle damage…”
She looked at Joel as she spoke.
Hickman continued looking at the floor of the truck, but he didn’t need to be facing the others to know what everyone was thinking.
“Shit… I’m infected, aren’t I?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Anna looked out at the lush green fields peppered with canals. “I can see why they have a camp here, difficult terrain to get across.”
Joel nodded.
A thin, dark strip just became visible sweeping from south to north across the landscape and the two-lane road they were on.
“That looks like the electrified fence,” said Joel.
They passed a large metal sign that laid face down in a ditch.
As they approached a gate within the silver-linked wall, the stench of death drifted up from putrid water which lay over the boggy landscape.
Joel noticed the fence was in sections, with small wooden stations every hundred yards, and beyond that were a series of small, white single-story buildings. It reminded Joel of an internment camp.
They stopped. On the other side of the metal-chained fence, two pickups were parked which a group of men were huddled around. Two of them broke from the rest and approached the gate. They were all armed with rifles over their shoulders.
Joel jumped down from the truck.
“Hey there!” shouted Joel. He approached slowly, smiling.
One of the men took his rifle from his shoulder while the other walked forward.
“What can we do for ya?” said the man, with a pronounced Canadian accent.
“We’re looking for refuge.” Joel briefly pointed at the wagons behind. “We brought some corn, beans, and wheat from a farm down south for the camp. We were hoping it would be enough for you to let us stay here?”
The heavyset bearded man with a baseball cap looked across the vehicles. “What’s in the back of your army truck?”
“There are fourteen of us, and a dog.”
One of the men near the pickups was talking on a radio.
The man nodded. “Okay, well stay there. I have to get permission to let you in.” He walked back to the others.
“Sure.” Joel could see the other man near the fence was anxious, but at least his rifle was still pointing at the ground.
The first man returned with the one with the radio. He was older, Joel thought and looked in charge of those at the gate.
The gray-haired man walked closer to the metal fence. “Any of you infected?”
Joel knew by now it was virtually a trick question, there would usually be some infected in any large group of people. He nodded. “We got one. He’s a soldier. He needs medical attention.”
The man pointed to the long white huts in the field behind him. “You see those buildings. You’ll be staying in those for a few days to make sure none of you turn.”
Joel looked at the buildings. He then realized there was a second fence a mile off at the back of the field in front of him. “Sure. You should get this produce stored somewhere before it gets damp.”
The older man nodded to the guard standing next to one of the wooden stations. Joel couldn’t see what he was doing, but he presumed it had something to do with turning the electricity off at this section.
Chains were unraveled and the gate was unlocked and opened. Anna drove the truck and wagon through with Donnie following in the pickup behind.
Joel held his hand out to the man. “My name’s Joel Garret.”
The man shook it. “Art Greene. Been on the road long?”
“About a day. But most of us started off in different places. We got some scientists with us from the base at Cheyenne Mountain.” Joel could see Art recognized the significance of the location.
“Chad Holland is going to want to talk to you, he’s in charge of everything here.”
“Holland?”
The man stopped and looked straight at Joel. “Yeah, you know him?”
In Joel’s mind a distant voice tried to get attention behind layers of more recent memories.
He shook his head. “No.”
The gate was closed then locked, and Joel could now see a large metal lever being pushed up, sending the current back through the links and coils.
They both started walking back to the vehicles which were parked near the buildings.
“How many in the camp?”
“Just over three thousand now. We get maybe twenty to thirty arrive every day. Some from Canada, but most from south of the border.” He nodded towards the wagons. “Those supplies are going to come in very useful.�
��
Joel smiled. “We want to help. Be useful. Do you get a lot of attacks from vamps?”
“Haven’t had a major attack for a few weeks. But there’s always one or two who try to scale the fences each night. They’re usually desperate by the time they make it all the way out here and pretty easy to put down. Excuse me.” Art walked away while holding his radio up to his mouth.
A homely looking woman with her hair tied in a bun emerged from the nearby building. A sign above the door stated, ‘Administration.’ She walked towards Anna, Bill, and the others who were now standing outside the vehicles.
“My name is Bee Abbott. I know you have probably all had a long and hard journey to get here. You’ll be staying in one of the buildings around you, our quarantine area, before you are allowed into the main part of the camp. We have food and water for all of you.” She noticed Hickman was slightly bent over, despite his attempts to not show how much his back was hurting. “We also have a medical center for those of you who require it.” She looked at the sergeant. “You seem to be in pain, young man?”
Hickman frowned, not wanting to speak.
“If you are injured, we can help.”
He slowly walked forward then took a breath. “Got sliced by a vamp.”
Some of the guards rocked back slightly on their heels, but the woman smiled and walked forward, placing her hand on his shoulder. “We will do what we can for you.” She looked at one of the men standing nearby. “This man will take you to our facility where you will be looked after.”
Hickman sighed then nodded. He walked away with the man.
Bee looked to the others. “Are any of you injured? Or feeling unwell?”
There was only silence amongst the others.
“Good. I know it must feel strange to you staying here, but it is for the good of all concerned. I myself arrived as you all did not so long ago, so I know what it’s like. Okay, I’ll show you to your quarters.”
*****
Marina looked at the twenty or so beds and those laying on them in the long single room and sighed.
Waiting rooms. Always waiting rooms.
Despite the pleasant welcome, she wasn’t getting her hopes up this place was going to fare any better than the last two, but for now it was better than being back on the road. Jess needed somewhere that felt safe, even if that was temporary.
She looked at her daughter and Jasper sleeping on the bed next to her. Anna had told her what she needed to say to any medical examiner about the boy. Something about a blood condition which led to his pale appearance. She didn’t understand the terms, but the doctor who looked Jasper over seemed to believe what was coming out of her mouth.
Her muscles tensed and she gripped the sheet below her. It was the hunger, and not the kind that could be satisfied with corn or wheat. She wondered how the other hybrids were holding up. At least in Haven she could talk to Joel.
The murderer.
She closed her eyes and let the anger waver until it reverted back to sadness. But the last emotion wasn’t just about the loss of the man she used to love, but also for the man she thought she might have had in the future.
What were the chances that he would had been the one to have killed Russell?
When Joel admitted what he had done, it seemed so unlikely that she actually thought he was joking despite how sick it would have been to say that. She still didn’t know how it came to be that Joel and Russell happened to be in the same place at the same time.
What it did tell her was that Russell was making his way west, out of LA. He was trying to find his family, and knowing that gave her a kind of closure she wasn’t expecting.
Since the ’incident’ with Joel she hardly talked to the others, especially the hybrids. She was surrounded by people, but felt more alone than ever.
She forced the events of the past week from her mind, and instead thought about the possibilities of living in the camp. She was going to need to find some kind of work. The woman in charge of the quarantine said that most were expected to contribute.
She couldn’t wait.
Two hundred yards away in another large white building, Joel sat on the end of a camping bed. The long single room he was in had empty beds lining each wall. No doubt waiting for the next set of arrivals.
He swallowed. His hunger was coming in painful waves, each one more determined to make itself heard than the last. He needed to find blood from somewhere.
At least they made it. The fence seemed pretty secure, and everyone he had met so far seemed to be taking their roles seriously.
The sound of vehicles vibrated through the windows.
He’s here.
Art had left Joel in the hut almost an hour ago, saying that he will return with Mr. Holland.
Joel still wasn’t clear what official role Holland had, but everyone appeared to respect him.
The door opened, bringing with it some fall chill, and in walked a group of people. Two of the largest walked forward first, moving closer to Joel, looking him over. He stood.
“Oh, no need to stand, son,” said a stout man with thinning gray hair. He sat on the bed opposite Joel’s.
The rest of the group stayed near the door.
“Art tells me you’re from the Cheyenne base? And that it was destroyed?”
“They were doing experiments with the scourge virus, and things went… wrong. People died. We all came from there, apart from Donnie who came from a farm down south.”
Holland shook his head. “We lost contact with them a few days back. It was their communications that were linking all the remaining camps… now, we’re on our own.” He got to his feet. “But then, we were anyway. Thanks for the info, son. Oh, and that produce you brought up. Going to come in real handy. The town thanks you.”
Joel went to talk, but Holland was already on his way to the exit with his two guards.
CHAPTER NINE
Amos's eyes felt almost as heavy as his arms, but he lifted them anyway.
Daylight.
Through strands of hair he looked at the drawn drapes and the dull gray glow which filtered through them.
How long have we been sleeping?
He presumed there was still a ‘we.’ After things went south in the luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere, they hot-wired a sedan and headed east. The Humvees were missing. Shaw and Fields had gotten away. Not that it mattered.
The soreness in his arm flooded back into his mind. He tried to force the sensation away, but it came regardless.
Able to force feelings on others, but can’t do shit to my own.
Pushing the sheet back, he looked at a torn rag that was tied around his lower arm.
They had only driven a few hundred feet along the highway when he remembered the tracking chips implanted inside them. They were going to have to come out. Some agonizing moments later, and with the help of a screwdriver in the glove department, his and Dalton’s chips were laying on the side of the road. Kizzie’s took a further thirty minutes, and driving the front wheel of the sedan over her band for her to also be free. Her own attempts to shrink her arm so the band fell off were thwarted by the device sending an electric shock into her nervous system. Brute force though won through in the end.
Two hours later, they were driving into the outskirts of Salt Lake City as the sun was rising, and the first hotel they found was the one they were now all sleeping in. That was if the others hadn’t already left.
He calmed his mind and probed outwards looking for the thoughts of others. He found two. Kizzy was still sleeping in the room next door, but Dalton was somewhere else. Somewhere almost out of detection.
Amos sat up, walked to the window, and peered through a small gap in the drapes. By the position of the sun he guessed it was late afternoon. If Copeland’s people had left San Jose as soon as they knew their pets had ran off, it wouldn’t be too long before they reached where the old guy, Hawkins, had been killed.
Need to get back on the road.
&n
bsp; Dalton’s thoughts were drawing closer.
Coming back.
He tracked the man-wolf into the lobby, up the back stairwell and, when Dalton pushed the bedroom door open without knocking, he was leaning against the wall looking at him.
Dalton threw a bag of blood at him. “Drink some, but not all. The rest is for the girl.” He noticed Amos’s arm. “Why you ain’t healed?”
Amos picked up the bag, pulled the plastic stopper out, and let the good stuff flow into his mouth. After a few seconds he stopped, being aware of Dalton watching. “I don’t heal like other vamps. I’m just like every other poor sap in that regard.” He threw the bag back to the big guy. “We need to get back on the road, they will be coming.”
“Let them come. I’ll kill them too.”
Amos laughed.
“What’s funny?”
“Look at the tattoo on your arm.”
“I don’t need to look I know what it says.”
“Then what does it say?”
“A-21-54. What of it?”
“The first number is your classification. Werewolves are number twenty one…”
“OK, so?”
“And the second number is the vamp-human group we were part of…”
Dalton’s eyes widened.
“Yup. There’s another fifty-three squads out there made up of who knows what. And one or more of them will probably be on their way to take us back to Daddy as we stand in this moderately nice room.”
“So, what we gonna do? You’re the smart one of us. What’s the plan?”
Amos was surprised the mountain of a wolf-guy relinquished control to him so easily. Good thing he did already have a plan. “Humans. We find human camps. We blend in. We use them as shields if the corporation comes calling.”
Dalton’s head wavered slightly. “And what if they discover what we are? They will treat us the same as Copeland’s people.”
“Then we just gotta make sure we don’t get discovered.”
“Fine. You know where one of these camps is?”
Amos smiled. “There were a few knocking around Hawkins’ brain, but the best protected was one on the Canadian border. It's run by prisoners from a prison up there.”
