by Maxey, Phil
She giggled.
They both looked at the black stain which covered the once beige and green grass and reeds.
In one swift move, he turned and kissed her. After her initial shock, she relaxed in his grip. He then pulled back.
He looked away. “Shit, sorry I—”
Her hand stretched to double its length and pulled him back to her. They kissed again.
A sound resembling a dismissive grumble came from the top of the stairs.
They both looked up at Dalton. Kizzy laughed, walked to the big guy and gently punched him on the shoulder. He looked down at her frowning. She then threw her arms around him, taking him by surprise, then pulled back with a serious look on her face. “I’m glad you’re okay. You kicked those vamps ass!”
A smile slowly broke across his face. “So did you, little lady.”
“You know she can grow taller than you, right?” said Amos. A ripple of laughter passed between them before memories and fatigue crept back into their minds.
Dalton walked a few steps into the small space, joining the other two looking out over the town and fields. “That must have been a lot of vamps.”
“I wonder why the tablet bomb didn’t affect us? You know, the good vamps,” said Kizzy.
Amos already knew that the question had been rattling around the brain of the scientists. They didn’t have an answer too.
The sound of an engine made all of them tip forward and look almost directly down to the remains of fencing and gates that sat out front of the prison walls. Two pickup trucks were weaving between the tangled metal wreckage.
Amos turned and quickly started down the stairs.
“Where you going?” shouted Kizzy.
“They’re going into town!”
Kizzy looked at Dalton. He nodded, then she took off after Amos.
Amos pushed his arms and legs as much as he could in an effort to catch up with the vehicles. Luckily, they were finding it hard work escaping the parts of fencing that lay scattered around the walls.
Kizzy quickly caught up with him, and they both arrived at the back of the rearmost pickup, being illuminated by its lights, at the same time. Two soldiers looked back at them, squinting in the gloom.
“Stay back! We’re going to check out the town!” shouted one of them.
They ignored the order and grabbed hold of the rear gate of the pickup in a moment when it had almost slowed to a complete stop.
They both climbed over and sat with a thump on the bed.
“The LT’s not going to be pleased about bringing two kids along,” said one of the soldiers. The other just frowned.
In the vehicle ahead, Carla sat in the passenger's seat while Bishop drove. She would have preferred to do the driving herself but she was beyond exhausted. Sleep was a dangerous thought and kept tempting her to close her eyes, but instead, she forced herself to remember that it was a miracle any of them were still alive, and she needed to know if any of the things remained within the town. If she found it was clear of vamps she thought she might well use one of the empty homes to sleep in. At least for a few hours once the sun was properly above the horizon.
The pickup plowed through the black muck which covered every inch of the road, grass banks, and even the small trees and bushes that bordered everything. As they neared the town it was no different. Black pieces of farming equipment laid strewn across the road, and vehicles sat upside down or on their sides, equally painted with charcoal.
Farm buildings and warehouses that were formerly white were now covered in ebony patches making them look like they had been hastily camouflaged.
“There must have been thousands… tens of thousands,” said Bishop, making sure to keep a constant speed. The last thing she wanted is to have to dig the wheels out of what was left of the vampires.
Carla remained silent, preferring to mull over the obvious. That they never had a chance against Copeland’s hordes. But something else had other plans for them. She wondered if fate would help them again.
They passed through where the electric fence used to stand proud and the road widened to four lanes. Street lights and other vertical structures were now bent, twisted, and otherwise laid flat out on the ground. Carla had seen what a few thousand vamps had done to the small town east of Salt Lake, how they ate through the smaller, flimsier buildings, carving the structures out from the inside. But even that had not prepared her for the apocalyptic scene that they were now driving through.
Homes which used to be two or more floors were now piles of darkened rubble. Even the lawns and other vegetation that was once outside the residences was gone, having been stripped away or trampled so completely as to become part of the dirt.
There were no trees either. These had been pulverized into the wind like everything else and only the strongest of trunks remained, whittled down to just a few feet of splinters pointing into the smoke-filled morning sky.
Taller shapes a mile off gave her some hope of something having survived the onslaught.
“Over there, towards the center of town. Looks like some buildings are still standing,” she said to her younger driver.
They arrived at a junction. A flock of birds covered what Carla was convinced used to be a gas station. They all took flight as one mass. To the small convoy’s right, a two-story office building sat innocently, completely devoid of any windows or doors. Inside the shadows of its internals, empty shells of rooms looked back at Carla, the soldiers, and the two younger occupants.
She looked back to the road ahead, giving up hope of finding a place to sleep. “We need to check out the internment camp at the far east. I doubt there’s anything left standing, but I want to see what’s out there.”
Amos and Kizzy looked out at the wasteland, a chill running through both of them. Amos moved across to the other side of the pickup’s bed and put his arm around her. His mind read her reaction, which was to push him away. A kaleidoscope of images played through her mind, each one relating to things that had happened to her before the previous night's events. He tried to push her memories out of his brain, but they kept on coming regardless. It was the first time he had felt ashamed for his own gifts. He went to move his arm away, but she grabbed it.
“It’s okay. I’m cold.”
*****
Holland paced up and down in the corridor which branched off to cell blocks A and B.
“And what if they tear the doors off those cells? And come at us? We haven’t got much in the way of ammo left!” he said to Joel and Anna.
Seventy-nine people were now residing on uncomfortable beds inside the cells of both blocks. These were the humans that stood a chance of surviving the night. A further thirty-two were left in the medical ward, some saying goodbye to their loved ones, while others were already unconscious. Next to their beds of those that agreed, were plastic containers, slowly siphoning off their blood. In case they changed before they passed, they had been secured to their beds as best as possible and four armed individuals stood guard.
“And if they don’t, if they survive the change, then we have an army of almost eighty hybrids,” said Anna.
Holland scrunched his face. “How’s that even going to be any good against a million vamps?” He looked between the doctor and Joel for an answer.
“I’ve been thinking about what we should do next…” The words limped from Joel’s mouth. He needed to sleep like the other hybrids, and despite being deep inside the prison he could feel the sun in the sky outside. “If this works. Then we should split up. Into maybe three groups. Each head in a different direction looking for survivors. If we find them, we protect them from the corporation's forces.”
Holland’s expression became even more manic. “Are you—”
A scream rang out from one of the cells in block A.
“Someone’s changing,” said Anna. “I’ll go check.” She disappeared through the door to the block.
“This place is the only protection we got! I say we rebuild the wall
s, fence ourselves in. Turn this place into a fortress. We can raid nearby towns for supplies if we need it.”
Joel’s tired eyes looked directly at the older man. He had given his blood in short bursts, allowing him to recover, but he still felt literally drained. “They know where we are. Do you think they won’t send another legion at us here? Copeland wants the tablet. He will stop at nothing to get it…” Jasper jumped into his mind, but he continued. “So far he’s just attacked with his easiest option, the vamps. Next time it might be tanks, missiles even. I’m sure he’s got access to that kind of firepower by now. The only way we survive is to break into small units. With the hybrids, we might survive this.”
“And then what?”
“Short term, find other humans and create more units. Long term, we find a way to cut the head off the snake… If you want to stay here, no one's going to stop you.”
Holland went to balk at the idea of anyone being able to stop him from doing anything when more yells and screams broke out from both blocks, and cell doors started to rattle on their hinges.
Anna appeared in the doorway. “We need to start feeding them blood. Come quick!”
Joel ran into the large cavernous space that was cell block A. Despite his fatigue, the cries and screams from beyond the solid metal doors penetrated beyond his audible senses and, for a moment, he stood frozen as he tried to reclaim his own mind.
“Joel!” Anna shook his arm.
He shook his head. “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry I can hear them.”
“The whole prison can hear them! Help me feed the blood to—”
One of the doors with a numbered ‘A5’ printed on its paint chipped exterior rattled as something slammed into it on the opposite side.
Anna ran to the first of multiple columns of plastic containers, each containing the blood of the occupant in the cell behind it.
Another door shook within its frame. Then another, and another. A series of booms, like a group of bass drummers had taken up residence in the large hall.
Anna slid back the first of the small openings in the door next to her, immediately something growled and clawed fingers pushed through the gap trying to get to her. She shoved the small bottle of blood into the hole and slid the door back, the cell went quiet, but it was hard to tell within the chaos of noise which was now increasing all around them.
A door flew open, falling off its frame, and with it came a hybrid. A man in his early thirties with short dark hair leaped over the second-floor balcony seemingly unaware of the netting between the floors. Instantly, he tore at the mesh, falling to the floor and lunged at Anna. She deftly jumped back while Joel grabbed the thing by the back of its head and flung it back through the air until it smashed into the wall behind them.
That’s when they both realized they never came up with a plan for what to do if any of the hybrids got out.
A chorus of clunks and slams echoed out around them as more doors threatened to give way.
“Keep giving them the blood! I’ll take care of him!” shouted Joel as the newly born hybrid staggered to his feet, shaking off the effects of the impact against the wall, and then lunged forward once again. This time Joel was less merciful. As the man’s claws swept through the air where Joel’s head was a few seconds before, Joel stepped to one side, grabbing the hybrid’s head and, with a pull that would have bent a three-inch steel bar, twisted the man's head, breaking his neck and rendering him lifeless.
Joel looked back at Anna’s horrified face.
“Keep giving them blood!”
She quickly moved to the next door.
He ran back to the exit, across the hallway and into the other block. The scene was one even more chaotic than the one he just left. Dalton had two hybrids held by their throats while Evan and Donnie were fighting with another two. Shannon and Rachel ran from cell to cell feeding the bottles of blood through the gaps in the doors.
Joel’s eyes turned black and he surged forward slicing across the hybrid’s back that was battling with Donnie, and then leaping through the air and doing the same to the one that was fighting Evan. Dalton squeezed the two he had in his grip, until both their necks snapped.
A different boom rang out in the distance. Joel recognized it as a gunshot. Without stopping, he turned and, with speed that made him just a blur, sprinted back to cell block A. Anna stood over another dead hybrid. He ran up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “We need to keep going!”
She shook her daze from her eyes and ran back and continued feeding the blood to the lusting tenants of the cells.
After a few moments, all the blocks were empty of bottles and sound.
Joel and Anna stood out of breath, looking at the wreckage around them. She walked forward to the cell in front of her, and slowly pulled the small covering back.
Joel went to move to another cell to do the same, but instead, he stopped, for his attention was drawn to the first cell in the far left corner. It had remained steadfastly silent during the whole process. There was also something different about whatever was inside the small eight by eight space.
He walked over to the door and slid the hatch to one side.
Inside, a young girl with black frizzy hair sat on the bed. She seemed to be sobbing. As she looked up at the man who was peering at her through the door, particles floated from the surface of her body as if she was made from dust.
“Err… Anna, there’s something over here you might want to take a look at,” he shouted over his shoulder while his eyes remained fixed on the strange sight.
CHAPTER FIVE
A new chamber had been created within the corporation’s San Jose complex. One more befitting the royalty which now walked its halls. Copeland had been preparing the room for weeks, making sure every detail was right. From the blood dispensers in the kingly chairs to the computer screens which would keep the three hybrid kings updated on the progress to fully eradicate the humans from the continent.
Members of his own personal Alkron guard stood at the entrance as he entered the large space along with three others. Rynon, he learned from ancient texts, was the leader of those that had become infected thousands of years earlier during the first kingdom of Sumer. There were three other hybrids that served at the head of his army. Tyror, the blonde individual whose golden hair was now tied back, and Eltir, the third who emerged from the sarcophagi and the quietest of the three. The fourth, a hybrid known as Freon, was not in any of the other sarcophagi that Copeland excavated and he had no idea where the hybrid had been buried. It was one of a hundred questions he wanted to ask of them when the time was right. So far it hadn’t been.
At the center of the room was a large lit table which showed whatever it needed to. Right now that was a simplified map of the United States. The rest of the space contained three chairs for the kings to sit and drink, and around the walls, stations which would be permanently manned by those feeding the kings information. The whole area looked more like a bridge of a fictional spaceship than a room deep inside a northern Californian building.
Others followed the four hybrids and Galen into the room, immediately taking up their seats at the workstations. Copeland, Galen, and the kings stood, looking down at the digital map.
“As you can see, sires, most of this land has already been conquered. The rest will soon be under our control,” said Copeland.
Rynon looked at him with an expression that looked friendly but he suspected was anything but. “And yet you still do not have the tablets.”
“It is only a matter of—”
“Are you about to say ‘time?’ Do you not think enough time has passed for us?”
Copeland went to talk again, but Galen started to speak. “One of the tablets was used against us not long—”
The three hybrids looked at each other.
“Where was this?” said Tyror.
Galen tapped the screen and the whole digital view slid and zoomed to show the prison and the dark stain across the landscape around
it. “Here, there was a battle. Somehow one of the tablets was activated, and well… the vamps that were attacking this location were all destroyed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner!” shouted Rynon while looking at Copeland.
“I…”
“Could Freon have returned?” said Tyror to the older man next to him.
Copeland and Galen exchanged a brief look.
“I don’t know about this ‘Freon’—” said Copeland.
“Choose your words wisely, Drak,” said Rynon.
Copeland had never heard of the term ‘Drak’ but he presumed it wasn’t a compliment. “We believe there is a hybrid… someone, umm, similar to yourselves who is in possession of the tablet. He must have activated it…”
“Perhaps he is a descendant of Freon?” said Galen.
Rynon turned from the others, standing deep in thought. “Leave us.”
Copeland and Galen looked at each other, hesitant in their next action.
Rynon swung back around. “Did you not hear me?”
Copeland and Galen went to walk to the door.
“Take your human pets with you!”
Those that were busy working looked up, then in fear ran to the exit.
Copeland and Galen followed them. As the demonic looking creature approached the threshold, he paused. The guards, his guards, were not moving along behind him. Instead, they stood motionless. Copeland glanced at them as they left.
Once the door closed Tyror threw his arms in the air. “Without the tablets, we will not be able to control this kingdom!”
Rynon nodded. “Calm yourself, brother.” He looked down at the black smudge on the horizontal screen and the prison at its center. “We know where one of the tablets is. Once we have that, we can use it to find the others. We will use this Drak’s wealth to reclaim what is ours.” Rynon looked at Eltir, who was standing silent, his eyes closed. “What is it?”
“There are more hybrids, I can feel them.”
