by Maxey, Phil
A silver sedan flew so close over his head that he smelled the oil from its engine. He looked up just in time to see it clip the side of Eltir, making him drop Anna and spin around to the ground, and then kept going into the crowd of black uniformed soldiers, scattering them like pins. Gunfire erupted but it was undirected, and couldn’t stop a second vehicle, this one larger smash through another group of panicking soldiers, flattening some, knocking others into the air.
The scene made no sense.
It’s raining cars…
The pressure holding Joel to the ground had gone and he launched himself forward then fell back to the ground, covering Anna best he could. He looked up bewildered as a tornado of metal flew through the air. Cars, one after another crashed into the soldiers running for their lives. Joel looked to where Eltir had fallen but the spot was empty. He scooped up Anna, turned, then ran as bullets ricocheted off the road near his feet. Not having a defined direction he staggered onto the sidewalk, then across a lawn and crashed through the wooden door of a house, falling exhausted onto the rug covering a hardwood floor.
Anna groaned once more, and he turned to close the door realizing that it no longer existed. Soldiers were running towards the house.
Have to keep going…
It was an honourable idea, but his body lacked the strength to stand let alone lift the woman next to him. He scrambled backwards while reaching out for some kind of weapon as five soldiers ran across the lawn, when suddenly the lamppost on the sidewalk, curved over as if it were made from rubber, and swept across the oncoming men, throwing them across the road as if they had been hit by a baseball bat.
I’m going crazy. Worlds gone crazy…
He turned back to Anna, but picked up the faint sound of feet outside. He crawled forwards, covering her best he could for whatever attack was about to land on them, when a young female figure ran up the steps to the house.
She skidded to a stop in the lobby. “We have to go! I can’t keep this up forever!”
“What…” said Joel breathlessly. “Who…”
“I’m Corine, and we need to fucking leave!”
Joel glimpsed figures with guns running across the road towards the house. He lifted his hand gesturing, his mouth lacking any moisture to produce words.
Without turning she flicked her hand from left to right, and the soldiers were now gone. Crushed by another car from an unseen force.
Corine kneeled close to him. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but the bad guys don’t like you, so that makes you and me friends. But I can’t carry you and your woman. So—”
Joel grabbed her wrist. “Others… there were others with me…”
She frowned and pulled her arm free. “There was a big werewolf, which honestly freaked me out, he went apeshit, killed lots of bad guys, but then he ran off. That’s all I saw here. Now can you carry your friend or not?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Marina watched the rectangular shapes of modern buildings sweep past. They were moving through a coastal city heading closer to the sea, which was now even more apparent due to the mist clinging to the streets and the thick salty air. The train started to slow as the taller structures fell away, replaced with longer, flatter shapes. Warehouses and storage facilities.
Jess tugged at her jacket.
Marina looked down. “What?”
“Jasper needs the bathroom.”
Marina looked back at the young boy seated opposite Evan and Shannon, the girl now awake. “Tell him he can go when we stop, which will be very soon.”
A sleepy looking Jess, rubbed one of her eyes with a knuckle, then nodded and walked back. Marina locked eyes with Mary, whose face was covered in dark stains. The older woman gave a forlorn smile in reply.
A jolt tilted everyone forward then back as the train slowly decelerated. Marina returned to the world outside. Light glinted off small trackside buildings, huts and storage sheds. She stretched to try and see what they were moving towards, but not being able to, pushed up the latch on the car door and slid it to the side, then leaned out. Enjoying the rush of clean cool air, she looked up at lights perched high on cranes lighting a huge dock space, but that wasn’t what caught her eye, for on the opposite side of the track was a ship, standing tall against the night sky. The train shuddered then ground to a halt. Instantly other car doors began opening, with people jumping down onto gravel. Marina did the same, helping the two kids, then Mary down. Flint and Shadow landed next to them, then darted around disappearing into the shadows. “Don’t go far!” Marina shouted after the animals as the car emptied out.
Behind the roaring of heavy engines, shouts and the din of excited people, the sea could be heard lapping up against harbor walls.
“He needs to go bad,” said Jess reminding her mother.
Marina scanned the options in front of her, then holding Jess’s and Jasper hand, made her way with Mary through the crowd and pushed open the door to what appeared to be a small office area. The children walked inside looking bewildered.
“This isn’t a toilet,” said Jess.
“Yes it is,” said Marina walking inside. She gestured towards a cubicle. “Jasper, do what you got to do in there. We’re leaving soon.” The boy meekly walked behind the partition, while she swung around and walked back to the door. The cargo ship towered above, its white bridge being a hundred or so feet from the dock. Stepping outside the air was full of the sound of shouts, heavy military vehicles being maneuvered and shipping containers being loaded. She got the impression that the operation had begun long before they had arrived.
Mary leaned up against the side of the building, her clothes torn. Marina wanted to ask if she had been injured, but thought better of it. She hadn’t even decided if she was going to get on the ship yet. One issue at a time.
“Marina!” shouted a voice from the masses moving from the train along the concrete which led to the stairs to the ship.
She spotted Evan and Shannon, who were now joined by another girl she had not spoken to much before, but recognized as being one of the more exotic results of taking Joel’s blood back at the prison. The three of them ran over to her.
“I’ve talked to the general, there’s—”
“Galloway is here?” she said interrupting Evan.
“Yes, they got here by helicopter. The train was mostly for the heavy stuff and the people from the town. She said there’s a cabin for both of you and Jess and Jasper.” Evan saw through her fake smile. “You don’t want to go? What other choice is there?”
“It’s not as simple as that Evan.”
Shannon frowned, turning away. “Lets go Evan, if she wants to…” The young woman leaned forward slightly looking at a group of people, twenty yards away looking up at the sky, a few of them pointing.
Evan continued his discussion with Marina. “You have to come with us! Joel would want you—”
“Umm Evan…”
“— to be on that ship! You know that!”
“I think…”
Evan continued but Marina was now looking at the young woman behind him, and at what she was looking at. She then followed the gaze of those that seemed interested in what was amongst the clouds.
Screams filled the air at the same time as a siren did, blaring from speakings around the dock.
They all looked towards the heavens.
“What is that?” said Shannon, tilting her head as far back as it would go.
Marina could see further into the void. Shadowy cross-like forms drifted hundreds of feet above their heads, including one diving towards the crowd, its bat-like wings folded behind it.
“Everyone get inside!” she shouted, pushing Mary into the building, following behind with the others, then pushed the door closed and gathered Jess and Jasper close.
“What is happening!” shouted Sasha.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Marina crouched beneath the large glass window as a Drak swept across the dock, its claws producing a trail
of pink mist as it sliced open those trying to escape. “They found us.”
“We have to get on the ship!” said Evan.
The world outside their room was a cacophony of fear and gunfire. And for a moment Marina hesitated, still not being sure that taking to the sea was the best choice, but then she felt the itching, gnawing at the back of her mind. Others were coming. A different kind of wave was about to crash against those scrambling to get onboard. She looked at those around her. “He’s right. We can’t stay here, vamps are coming. Thousands.” She whirled back to the window, as more demonic visions descended, cutting across those running for the safety of the steel hull.
“We… we can’t survive out there!” said Shanon.
Marina looked past her at the other girl with fear in her eyes, observing the carnage. “You can. I’ve seen what you can do,” she said to Sasha.
The young woman shook her head. “I… can’t control what I can do. I can’t help.”
Marina pushed past Shanon, grabbing Sasha by the shoulders. “You got this crazy ability, right? You can become like dust or something?”
“How’s that going to help us?” shouted Evan. The siren continued its wailing, almost lost to the sound of battle rattling the windows of the room.
Marina looked into the wide eyes of the girl in front of her. “I need you to protect my kids. Me and Evan might not be enough. Will you try?”
Sasha saw the desperation of a mother and nodded. “Yes.”
Marina turned away. “Good. Then we’re going to run for it. We stay close—”
Mary screamed. They all looked through the window at the reason. A Drak was bounding towards the small office building, cutting down people who got in the way.
“Maybe he doesn’t know we’re in here,” said Shanon.
“If he crashes through that window, there’s nowhere for us to go,” said Marina. She pulled the door open, and a rush of noise and heat swept across them. She looked at Sasha and Evan. “Get everyone to the ship.”
Before Evan could argue differently Marina ran forward, becoming a blur, her hands changing to claws, her eyes darkening. Her target the thing that meant harm to those she cared for.
Not this time…
The Drak ran forward too, both of them destined to crash, when mere feet from impact, Flint and Shadow, both almost double their normal size tore into the monster bearing down on Marina. It screeched in reply, its wings slicing through the air, trying to shake the dogs loose, whose enlarged fangs were sunk into its flesh. She continued her surge regardless and jumped at the monster’s head, bringing her claws across its face. Blood burst from its forehead, but it still fought, managing to grab Shadow and fling it to the ground.
Marina spun around, and went to lunge again when the thing’s almighty wings beat hard into the concrete and it took off, gaining tens of feet in seconds while Flint’s jaws were locked around its thigh.
“Let go, Flint! Let go!” she shouted.
But the Drak rose higher while the dog held on, its head latched onto the monster ascending into the night sky.
“Flint!”
A punch dislodged the altered canine, making it fall away, growling and snarling at the Drak above it. Without thinking Marina sprinted forward, diving at the final second as Flint crashed down on top of her, her body only being a brief interruption to its journey to the ground.
As booms and automatic gunfire echoed all around, Marina, her mind a daze, got to her feet. Flint, now his true canine self, whimpered on the ground, blood trickling from his mouth, one of his legs awkwardly bent backwards.
“I got you,” said Marina, her eyes still black. She bent down and picked him up and staggered towards the ship. Weaving around bodies and abandoned vehicles, she ran past the locomotive, towards stairs which were no longer there.
A horn blew from the ship, which was now drifting from the side of the dock.
“Marina!” shouted Evan from the deck, high above her.
She looked up in despair, but he was not looking down, but towards the back of the train.
“They’re coming!” he shouted, trying to climb over the side, but hands pulled him back.
Flint breathed heavily in her arms as she looked towards the dark shapes of the city’s buildings, a jagged backdrop against the night sky, and then saw them. At the entrance to the docks, thousands of clawed things came into the light, packed together, but all with a single purpose to get to the lone survivor. Her. And in that moment a quiet but resolved voice inside her told her to stop. To sit down and let the fanged and lusting things take her.
“Mom!” shouted Jess.
She looked up at her child looking back.
No…
She would not die tonight. She looked around, and then she saw it. Hope. Sprinting towards the crane, she leaped ten feet into the air, while shifting Flint to her other arm and grabbed hold of the ladder with her free hand. The ground thundered from the weight of the vamps flooding around the base of the iron tower she was now climbing. The ship’s horn blew again and red neon streams spewed from its side tearing through monsters just tens of feet below, but there were so many it hardly made a dent.
Higher and higher she climbed until the wind made her grip both the ladder and the dog with all her strength. Not wanting to look down, she stepped off onto a gantry, the topmost level. A cabin sat nearby, but without pause she ran forward, stepped up onto the guardrail and leaped into the unknown.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Joel was lost inside a void, when suddenly a spotlight as bright as the sun switched on above him, and he was on his knees.
Not again… I… got… away…
Other pools of light switched on, one by one, each one someone he knew and cared about. Evan, Marina, Jess, Jasper, Bill and so it continued. Each of them bound in chains, their eyes wide with terror. Evan’s was the first head to slide from its neck, hitting the ground then rolling more than it should until it hit up against Joel who looked down at it. The mouth opened and closed, silent words which Joel understood regardless.
“Why… Why…”
“I tried to help you! All of you!” cried Joel, but the dead don’t care for platitudes.
Another swoosh, another head hit the solid invisible floor and rolled to join Evan’s. More judging words and eyes.
Then somewhere in the dark, the sound of two people arguing seeped into Joel’s mind. The heads rolling towards him were now a cascade, piling one on another, burying him.
“But what I’m saying is, how do we know he’s like us? Maybe he was one of them and—” said an older woman’s voice.
The heads were gone, but all was still black around him. His body bumped and swayed as if he were inside a moving vehicle. But he was unable to open his eyes. He was made of lead. A dead weight.
“If you had seen how his friends were treated, trust me, he wasn’t one of them. And that giant wolf guy, killed like twenty of their soldiers before he escaped,” said a younger voice.
Need to wake… need blood…
With all the strength his body contained he raised one eyelid. He was in the backseat of a car, maybe some kind of SUV. It was still night outside. There was someone next to him for he could hear breathing. With some effort he turned his head, just enough to see Anna’s legs.
He had carried her, with the young woman as far as he could, and then the lights inside his brain flickered and went out.
“Blood…” The word was less than a whisper, so he swallowed and tried again. “Need—”
“Ah, he’s awake!” said the old woman in the driver’s seat.
“— Blood. Need blood.”
Corine was looking back at him from the passenger’s seat. He couldn’t make out if she looked sad or angry. Maybe both. She frowned, then leaned forward grabbing something and tossed it into the backseat. It landed a few inches from his right hand. Too far.
“Shit,” said Corine. “I’m going to have to feed him like a baby. Pull over there. Near that fa
st food place.”
“I… don’t know if we should stop in this town Corine. You know the biters are still out at this time.”
“Just pull over. If we see any, I’ll take care of it.”
The car slowed while momentum pulled Joel left and right, then stopped.
The old woman sighed. “You reckon if I eat a four-month-old burger it will kill me?”
Corine pushed her door open and a cool night breeze rushed in. “If you find any, I want one too.”
Joel heard a handgun cock, then the driver’s side door opened, while the door to his right, next to Anna did the same. He turned his head as far as he could. Anna, her face more yellow than blue laid to his side, her eyes closed. Corine was hovering over her, then leaned forward and grabbed the blood bag and pulled the stopper off.
The scent of blood was like perfume to Joel, but he shook his head regardless. “Give… her…”
Corine looked at Anna then frowned. “She’s been unconscious since I saw her, back at that junction.”
“Give… her…”
Corine sighed. “Fine, yeah I hear ya. Lady’s first. Old school. I can respect that.” She held Anna’s mouth, squeezing her lips to open them slightly and let the crimson liquid drip into her mouth. Seconds passed and just when Joel thought the blood was having no effect, Anna’s eyes flicked open, her eyes turned back, and her hand shot up grabbing Corine by the neck. The young woman kicked and punched while Joel tried to pull Anna’s hand free. The metal shell of the car began to crumple inwards.
Summoning what moisture was left in his throat, Joel shouted. “Anna! Stop!”
She turned to him, anguish across her face, then as quick as her eyes turned black, they returned to normal and she let go, instead throwing both arms around him.
“Bitch!” shouted Corine outside between coughs.
“What the fuck did you do to our car!” shouted the old woman from somewhere outside, but Joel didn’t care. Anna pulled back briefly, then her lips met his and for a moment the pain crying from his skull quietened.
