The Scourge Box Set [Books 1-6]

by Maxey, Phil

  He pointed to it and Carla nodded. She pointed to the closest building and they parted ways, him climbing back up while she ran across the concrete, avoiding the puddles.

  He looked into the circular break in the ground which was barely visible despite standing directly next to it. He judged it to be seven feet wide, big enough to drive a tank through. He crouched and let his fingers trace over the grooves in the slippery mud. The undulations told him what he already suspected. Vamps. Hundreds had passed through the entrance. He stood back up, trying to get his bearings, but he guessed the tunnel led directly to the water pipes, and then the prison’s basement.

  Carla stayed close to the brickwork, heading for the glow that emanated from under one of the two doors she had spotted. When she arrived at her destination, she got on her stomach, her clothes immediately soaking up the pool of water there and laid with her cheek to the ground. It was just enough for her to see under the door, and to the brightness within.

  A cavernous space was lit by a number of battery-powered lanterns. Inside, amongst a few floor to ceiling shelves full of sacks of some sort of grain, were camping beds with soldiers sleeping on them.

  In the small sliver of light she was privy to, she counted around twenty people.

  Maybe an advanced expeditionary force? Sent to support the vamps? They probably got Alkrons amongst them.

  She quietly got back to her feet. A fizzing noise just made it to her over the sheets of rain. She looked behind her. Slight flashes of blue were lighting up the first choppers cockpit.

  Good going, guys.

  She went to turn back to the door when a shadow blocked the light from underneath it and the handle turned.

  Before she had a chance to react, a hand grabbed her around her mouth and pulled her tight against the wall. The door swung open and stopped inches from the front of her nose.

  Joel let go of her mouth and they both stood frozen.

  “Five hours, and it’s not let up yet!” came a voice just feet from them.

  Carla looked towards the helicopter. The neon flashes from whatever ruin Reaper and Caz had caused had mercifully died down.

  A puff of warm breath spread out into the night air and drifted upwards.

  The man on the other side of the wooden partition took in a few lungfuls.

  “Close the friggin door!” shouted someone from inside.

  The man sighed. “Yeah, yeah.”

  The door slammed close.

  In the distance, two man-shaped shadows stood and ran from the first to the second chopper, immediately pulling the cockpit door open.

  Carla indicated to Joel that they should move past the door.

  He nodded and, being watchful of where their boots touched the drenched concrete, they crept past the entrance then broke out into a jog which became a run.

  To their right, another burst of blue light heralded the second aircraft being rendered unflyable and they stopped at the end of the first building, some thirty yards from the door.

  Another building looked at them opposite. This one, however, was completely dark.

  Joel leaned into her. “Any sign of Donnie?”

  She shook her head. “Couldn’t see much, but they got a whole lot of mercs in there.”

  He nodded back to the bank. “There’s a tunnel over there, looks like vamps have gone into it.”

  “How many?”

  “Could be hundreds or more. It’s heading towards the prison.”

  Reaper and Caz ran up to them.

  “We’ve done what we can here,” said Carla. “We need to find Keller and Bishop. See if they got a Humvee ready to start.”

  She went to move off towards the front of the building but noticed Joel hadn’t moved. He was standing looking upwards.

  “Joel, we can’t afford for them to know we’re here!”

  “You go, I’m not leaving the kid behind.” He looked along the side of the building. At the far corner was a drainage pipe that ran from the ground to the roof.

  As the rain beat down upon them both, Carla stood, hesitating. “He might not even be here anymore!”

  Joel smiled best he could despite the impacts of the drops on his face. “You have to go…”

  Her frown became a nod and she turned and disappeared into the blankets of rain.

  Joel ran to the pipe, got the best grip he could on the wet clamps that were holding it to the building, and pulled himself up. After six more heaves he was on the metal plated roof. Walking as quietly as he could, he moved forward, carefully up the slippery slope then stopped when he arrived at the first skylight.

  He looked down twenty feet to the floor and rows of men and women sleeping, all of them decked out in black army fatigues, their weapons just by the side of their low beds.

  No sign of Donnie.

  An engine roar filled the air, even louder than the rain. Joel watched a few of the soldiers sit up, not knowing where the noise came from. Then more joined them.

  The Humvee pulled out of the lot and was on the country road before the first soldier even made it to the closest door.

  Using the mayhem that was happening below him, he allowed himself to look more fully through the skylight to the warehouse space below. Not seeing any sign of the young man, he stumbled forward once again to a second skylight higher up, this one was dark though.

  Shouts and orders, being barked by senior officers, increased in volume, spreading out around the building. A large number of uniformed individuals broke in two different directions, one group moving towards the Humvees and another towards the helicopters.

  Joel strained his improved vision to see down into the dark pit that was below the window.

  Small room? Desk… shelves… person?

  Even with his nocturnal abilities he couldn’t see clearly, but he was fairly sure there was a human figure laying on the ground of the room below him.

  Could be anyone…

  He laid down, placing his ear to the wet pane of glass, and listened.

  A faint heartbeat was just audible amongst the patter of the drops. He recognized it as Donnie’s.

  He stood and looked around the building. A group of soldiers were now standing around the aircraft and the Humvees, guarding them, even though it was too late.

  Other heavily armed soldiers were fanning out in all directions, no doubt to create a security cordon. There was no way out even with his abilities. And that was counting on Donnie being in a healthy state which Joel presumed he wasn’t going to be.

  And then he remembered the hole. The one full of vamps, but led straight back to the prison. A one-way ticket to hell.

  Without hesitation he jumped up into the air, and then dropped down, smashing through the glass, and landed a foot away from the captive. With one movement he swept him up in his arms and leapt back up into the air and back out through the skylight.

  The boy in his arms was badly beaten.

  Bastards.

  His rage pushed him forward, his eyes darkening, and he sprinted across the roof as it rose and then fell away. As he neared the edge he took to the air with an almighty leap. Neon streams from bullets cut through the rain, but all missed such was his momentum.

  He landed a few yards from the tunnel entrance on the bank and surged forward, plunging into it, into darkness.

  By now, Donnie was across his back, allowing him to use his other hand to steady himself as he staggered down the deep slope.

  As it started to level out, he felt something behind him, something not human but not a full vamp. An Alkron of some kind.

  He had no intention of finding out what new hideous thing this was, and pushed his limbs to cover the ground faster.

  He sprinted across the junction, only being peripherally aware of the monsters that were in the tunnels to his left and right, and then jumped, hopped, and trod on the others in the tunnel that he hoped headed towards salvation.

  The vamps around him were awake, it was night after all, but they seemed disinter
ested in the hybrid blur moving past them.

  The new thing though, the one that was chasing him, that kept on coming.

  He made it to a cavern and stopped.

  Now what?

  The body over his shoulder started to stir. He placed him down gently then leaned closer to his face. “Donnie? It’s me, Joel, we’re in the cavern, but I don’t know which way to go?”

  Donnie growled something. “U…”

  Joel leaned closer, so he could feel the young man’s breath on his ear.

  “Uu-pp.”

  Joel felt Donnie’s arm and then hand indicating a point in the darkness, ahead and above them.

  “Good enough. Can you walk? Climb?”

  “Yeah… think so, help me up.”

  Joel pulled him to his feet.

  Donnie staggered forward. “This way…”

  They both walked across the loose ground as quickly as they could without having much of any idea of which direction they were heading in. Unlike when it was night on the surface, and Joel’s vision allowed him to pick up the slightest hint of light for him to find his way, this far underground there was nothing, not even the hope of illumination.

  Joel slammed up against a cold damp muddy wall.

  “We gotta climb,” said Donnie, his voice already a few feet above Joel. “Use your claws or whatever you hybrids got…”

  Joel drove his hand into the clay as Donnie suggested, finding something to grasp then did the same with his boots, and then his other hand, starting to pull himself upwards.

  As he did he became acutely aware that they were not alone in the darkness. Not that he could hear a third heartbeat, because there was none, just Donnie’s and his own. Nevertheless he kept climbing.

  “I’m at the pipe!” shouted the young man above him.

  Joel looked up, trying to see any sense of form in the darkness to let him know he was climbing in the right direction.

  “Follow my voice!”

  Joel did just that, altering his course. Pushing his muscles as much as he could. Allowing the vampiric rage inside him to push him upwards.

  And then he felt it. The air pressure changed around him, becoming warmer, heavier. And with it, something grabbed his ankle. A human hand, but with a vicelike grip.

  He looked down, but there was nothing there, only darkness.

  “Are you there?” shouted Donnie once more.

  “There’s something… someone holding me, gripping my leg!” Joel tried with all his strength to pull his leg free, but it wasn’t letting go.

  “It must be a vamp. Just kick it off!”

  But Joel knew this wasn’t a vamp. He kicked away with his other boot, and then that became stuck. Gripped in midair. He then realized something was pulling him from the rock face, something that couldn’t be real.

  “Something’s got me, something—”

  Joel’s voice was cut short as another hand clamped over his mouth. He wanted to yell, shout, struggle. Do something to be free of this invisible thing that was holding him.

  He was sure it was an Alkron, something no one had seen before, and then he saw something that confirmed it.

  First it was just a shadow in the darkness. Then, slowly, the shadows started to solidify into a fine mist that swayed with a breeze that Joel couldn’t feel.

  “I’m coming back down!” shouted Donnie.

  Joel tensed his muscles to drive this thing off of him, but nothing made any difference. And then the mist became a face, one that was smiling.

  Joel knew he was looking into a man, a man that could become a ghost.

  He could hear Donnie getting closer. The face in front of Joel looked up, still smiling.

  This ethereal spider would soon have them both and there was nothing he could do about it.

  But then hope. A sound, distant at first, but quickly gaining in volume. Scuffling was coming from the pipe above. The monster’s particle face changed. Now it was angry.

  Joel didn’t see the light at first, for it was faint, but he felt it. The thing’s face in front of him broke apart as if its very essence would be hurt by the coming illumination.

  Joel took the opportunity of the things distraction and forced his rage into his limbs. His left boot broke free first, and he dug it back into the cliff surface next to him.

  He looked up. Flashlight beams were shining down into the cavern. Donnie was just a few yards above him.

  Joel looked back down into darkness. Into nothing.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Anna felt Donnie’s forehead. “You’re running hot, even for a werewolf.” She smiled. She had no idea what temperature a werewolf should be, but she was sure it wasn’t as hot as how his skin felt. “Still got the headache?”

  He went to answer when the building shook, and a distant boom rang out below them.

  Donnie’s eyes grew wide. He immediately winced. “That boom wasn’t only in my head, right?”

  Anna smiled again. “They’re bringing the roof of the cavern down, no vamps will be coming through there. You did really well, you were brave.”

  “Pffft… All I did was get laid out and then captured.” He looked confused. “Still don’t know how they got the drop on me. I was alone, I was sure of it, there weren’t nothing out there in that parking lot. Next thing I know, I feel a pain in the back of my head and I wake up with a bunch of dumb soldiers grinning at me.”

  “Joel might have an idea how that happened…”

  In the staff room, Joel leaned back in the comfiest chair in the sixteen by sixteen foot space. Carla entered the room.

  “It done?” said Holland, sitting on the table in the center of the room.

  She blew out her cheeks. Then wiped her hand across her forehead which just made it dirtier than it already was. “Nothing’s coming through there now. It would take the vamps weeks to clear a tunnel again.”

  “Doesn’t mean they won’t try,” said Joel. “And thanks for the rescue party.”

  Carla walked to the water dispenser, pouring herself some in a beaker. “You’re lucky the radios in the pickup got through to the prison. Otherwise, it would have been too late from what you told us.”

  Holland looked back at Joel. “Yeah, just what the fuck was that thing?”

  “Don’t know. Some new kind of Alkron that we haven’t come across before.”

  “At least we know it’s not too fond of light,” said Carla.

  Holland shook his head, and sat back down on the table. “This shit just keeps getting weirder.”

  Joel went to talk again when Marina entered the room.

  “Hey, sweet cakes. Glad to see you heard my offer,” said Holland.

  Marina’s eyes briefly looked at Joel then moved across to Carla, before resting back on Holland. “Yeah, well, figured I’m more useful up here.”

  “Who’s with Jess and Jasper?” said Joel. He immediately regretted asking. It suggested Marina had left them unattended which was not what he meant.

  “Shannon for a bit then Mary… The noises, those from explosions in the tunnels under the prison?”

  “Sure are,” said Carla. She nodded towards the dispenser. “Water?”

  Marina nodded. “So… what’s the plan now? We just hide inside these walls? Waiting for a more obvious attack?” She took a beaker with water from Carla. “And where are we getting more of this stuff?”

  “The prison’s surrounded by canals. We’re going to have to make daily trips outside and get what we can,” said Joel.

  “Obviously in the daytime,” said Carla.

  Boyd walked into the room, walked up to his father, eyeing the others, and whispered into the older man’s ear.

  Holland smiled and looked at Marina. “Looks like we got some trouble in cellblock C. Why don’t you go with my son here and see if you can sprinkle some of that vamp goodness on them.” It was said as a statement, not a request.

  Marina sighed then nodded in agreement. She then left with Boyd.

  “Earl
ier today she saved some poor sap’s life while kicking ass. She’s an impressive woman.” Holland’s eyes lingered on the spot were Marina just was.

  Joel sat forward. “Six hours until sunup. I’m going to check out the view from the towers then get some sleep. If anything happens that shouldn’t, let me know.”

  *****

  Evan felt the pressure of the sun, even in his dream. He was sitting in the middle of a beautiful field, a bright blue sky above him, and he was on fire.

  He awoke with a start then realized his hand was burning. A tiny spot of sunlight had managed to invade the cramped space at the top of the watchtower, and his hand was what stopped it. He quickly drew his fingers back and rubbed the dark red mark. He was sure when he was fully human the rays wouldn’t have done that to his skin.

  Price you pay.

  He figured it was about 8 a.m. The last thing he remembered after spending a few minutes with Joel, was sitting on the ground, pushing himself up against the wall near the top steps, and then nothing.

  In front of him, his two companions, Johnny and Chet, slept.

  “What?”

  He scrambled to his feet. One of them should have been awake. Should had been keeping watch with the scope.

  He quickly held it to his eye, took it away, rubbed it, then put it back and looked out across the lush green landscape. It was the first time he had seen the land around the prison looking anything other than deathly. And the canals could now be clearly—

  He swung the enlarged view of the scope back to his left, back towards the town. There was movement there.

  He walked across the small room, treading on a slim, bony man as he went, and leaned forward to be as close to the glass window as possible.

  Dark forms skittered across the streets. As if the town of Westlands had suddenly become one giant ant farm full of determined little creatures.

  “Fuck.”

  The gaunt-looking man looked up, chewing something left over in his mouth. “Fuck? Why fuck?” He smiled as if he had just said something funny. “The legions of the dead are not attacking, are they?” He turned over and laid back down. “Tell them Johnny is taking today off, so they can’t.”