by Maxey, Phil
He walked to the drapes at the back of the driving compartment, and pulled the edge of one back slightly, making sure to keep his light pointed at the floor.
He let out a breath. Clouds covered the moon but he was still able to see the front of the drive and the street beyond and it was completely empty.
He moved to the right-side window and pulled the—
A vamp was standing a foot away between him and the fence. He immediately dropped the curtain as it began to swing around.
It didn’t see me. It’s—
Something heavy slammed into the side door, making him jump back. He ran in the back room closing the flimsy partition, as another impact made the RV rock and now a screeching, snarling sound was all Barry could hear outside.
He slid to the floor placing his back against the door, as the impacts became heavier and heavier when suddenly he heard the latch break and the door fly open. A smell of old rotten clothes wafted past him and the floor creaked as something labored up the metal steps.
It can smell me. It will know where I am…
He looked at the drapes a few feet in front of him, and the windows beyond, but knew they were all sealed.
No way out…
His world had reduced to a six-foot square space, and his beating heart in his ears was all he could hear.
Plastic and wood split as the thing on the other side of the door, slowly slid a nail down the center. Barry looked up in horror, swinging his light around, wanting to run, but not having anywhere to go.
Gonna die, gonna die, gonna—
He yelled as the door exploded into fragments and the creature with fangs and claws burst through. He scrambled across the bed, but the thing caught his calf, slicing it. He screamed in pain then collapsed into the gap between the bed and rear wall. A final useless refuge.
“Get away from me!” he cried out, as the vamp slowly came around the front of the bed until it could see its next victim.
Its smiling. Its happy it’s going to kill me…
Barry closed his eyes. He would be with his mother soon.
There was a sound of breaking glass and the ripping of fabric. He flicked his eyes open to the vamp shaking, while flailing its arms at the walls looking for support. Its demonic face appeared stuck in an anguish he had not seen before, and then it fell beyond the front of the bed.
Barry got up slowly, walked forward and peered down at the thing that was still moving, but appeared to be convulsing, its skin covered in black veins…
An engine roared at the end of the street outside, but he was too shocked at what had just happened, to fully notice.
Brakes screeched and light from a vehicle squeezed through the drapes at the front of the RV, lighting the rear wall to his right. He pulled his eyes away from the thing on the floor, climbed over the bed, through the hole and to the front, then pulled the drape back. Anna’s pickup was parked out front. Without thinking he ran down the steps and threw his arms around her just as she got out.
*****
“Shouldn’t we stay off the main road!” shouted Corine from the rear seat of the pickup.
“I can’t see him? Is he still up there?” said Kizzy, trying to look out of the window to the sky above.
Joel had the gas to the floor, but he wished it was further. The siren was rapidly growing distant, but he knew the corporation’s people wouldn’t be far behind. He also couldn’t reach Anna on the radio.
“Anna? Are you—”
Her voice came from his speaker. “Joel! I’m at the rendezvous point with Barry. Are you okay? Did you get them? Over.”
“Got them. Dalton’s got a chest injury, but he’ll live, Amos and Kizzy are fine. We’re about—” A man lay in the middle of the road. Joel had flashbacks to Marina’s husband, but this time managed to swerve around the obstacle, avoiding the pylons and street lamps and skidded to a stop.
“What the fuck!” said Corine.
Joel looked around. “Is everyone okay?”
Kizzy was rubbing her head. “What happened?”
Joel pushed open his door, grabbing his M4 and looked into the shadows, then at the prison lights some miles to the west. He was sure he could feel the distant vibrations of vehicles. The body on the ground wasn’t moving. “Hey!” he shouted while raising the barrel. There was no reaction from the body twenty-feet away, which his senses told him was still alive.
Amos flicked his head to the side, then pushed her door open.
“Stay inside!” Joel shouted to him but the young man ran around the back of the pickup.
“I think I know him,” said Amos walking forward.
Joel ran alongside as they both approached the person strewn across the concrete.
“You got a flashlight?” said Amos to Joel.
He produced one from his jacket then highlighted the face of an old man with a collar around his neck.
“He must have escaped… I know him. We met in the prison yard earlier.”
Joel could now hear the sound of engines. “Help me get him into the back of the pickup. Corporation will be here within minutes.” As they moved quickly to the bed, he looked up into the night sky, sensing Copeland was still with them.
Hasn’t bailed yet.
They placed the old man next to a seated Dalton.
“Aren’t you going to break his collar?” said Amos.
Joel closed the back. “Not until I know if he’s a threat or not. Get back in.”
It wasn’t long before they pulled up behind Anna’s pickup.
Joel pushed the door open and she rushed into his arms. They briefly kissed, then became conscious of the show they were putting on for those behind them. He went to speak, when Anna’s eyes became big and a gust of wind washed across them both.
“It’s a Drak!” she shouted.
“He’s with us!”
She looked at Joel completely confused. “What?”
Copeland’s huge wings beat near the ground, then he landed, wavering, then stood fully. He lumbered towards them both.
“I don’t have time to explain. But Copeland, Anna. Anna, Copeland.”
She flipped between the towering creature and Joel. “What?”
Joel placed his hand on her shoulder trying to get her attention. “Anna!” she looked at him. “We have to go. They are coming!”
“Err… okay.” Dalton got out of the pickup. She quickly moved to him, examining his wound, and nodded back to the Drak. “You’re going to have to tell me how that happened.” He grumbled in reply as she helped him up the steps of the RV.
Copeland stood near Joel. “We cannot stay here. We do not have long.”
Joel briefly looked up, while being aware of Amos in the pickup’s passenger seat, watching them both. “We’re leaving.” He nodded towards the back of the pickup. “There’s space in the back, if you need to… rest or something.”
“What is your plan? You had your chance to kill Rynon and you failed.”
Anger began to bubble within Joel. This time he looked up and held the cat-like eyes in his gaze. “They’ll be another time. Right now we have to get to the Florida coast. Find a ship, boat, anything we can and head south.”
The Drak’s expression changed, his head tilting a little, but before he could speak the prison’s siren stopped and he looked to the east. “How many will be leaving these shores?” he said, studying the lights in the distance.
“Everyone here. Why?”
Copeland looked down at Joel. “Because I have a better way to do that.”
CHAPTER TWO
Rynon paced up and down inside the prison’s sport recreational room. Gym equipment sat against one side, while a basketball half-court and hoop the other. The raven-haired woman from the yard stood behind him, while others sat nearby and on a TV screen was a live feed of Galen and Adrian Kee on their knees, with two hybrid soldiers standing behind them.
The king stopped then looked at those trying not to show their fear. “How could this be allowed
to happen!”
One of those on the seats kept repeating the same phrase, “praise be to the scourge,” over and over.
A middle-aged woman with shoulder length dark wavy hair tried not to frown at the strange man next to her. She looked at Rynon. “I can track the girl.”
He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “And who are you?”
Margery went to speak, but a man around her age, wearing a suit, spoke first. “That is Margery Wilson, sir, she is a type—”
Rynon held his hand up. “I know what a tracker does.”
“I made contact with the girl, a day ago. Would have gotten closer, but…”
“And you can find her? And the others?”
She nodded. “If I got a piece of her clothing, or something she’s been close too, yeah.”
“Sire, if I may—”
Rynon whipped around to face the large screen, stopping Galen from continuing. “There was a girl on the roof, who was moving the metal construction…” He walked closer to the digital representations of the two humans, who were roughly a hundred miles to the southwest. They both were visibly shaking. “Could she have been the Alkron that escaped the blood farm days ago, Galen? The one that you said you would find within twenty-four hours?”
“I… there…”
Rynon turned away. “Kill them both.”
“No, sire!”
“Wait!” said Adrian.
The guards held their assault rifles to the heads of the two below them.
“I know where the other two tablets are!” shouted Adrian.
Rynon slowly turned. The soldiers looked at the camera pointing at them, hesitating to shoot, then lowered their weapons when the king gestured. “I am not Copeland, human. If you are lying, your death would not be quick as it would have just been.”
Adrian shook his head nervously. “I’m not lying. I won’t do that. We had intel that they were on an island, now we know which one!”
Rynon nodded. “Hmm… interesting. Okay, just kill Galen.”
The eyes of the gaunt looking older individual grew large but before words could leave his mouth, there was a boom and blood sprayed across Adrian’s face. Galen fell face forwards onto the smooth floor. Adrian’s mouth hung open as he watched the pool of blood grow.
“And where is it?”
Adrian looked back at the camera. “Err… If I tell you. You will just kill me…”
“This may be true. But if you do not tell me, I will definitely kill you. Your choice human.” He gestured towards the solder behind the scientist.
“Okay! Stop! They are at an old base on the island of Puerto Rico!..” He hunkered down, his head receding into his shoulders. “Please don’t kill me…”
The barrel wavered behind his head.
“And where is that?”
Adrian looked up. “In the Bahamas…err… off the south coat of Florida, then south.”
The king exchanged a brief look with the woman behind him, then looked at the camera.
“Very well human. I will let you live for—”
The door to the room swung open and Eltir and Faulkner entered, the older brother with concern written across his face. Before he could speak Rynon raised his hand. “Yes brother, Copeland has gone, as well as some Alkrons but we will find them, and we now have the location of two of the tablets.” He looked at Faulkner then to Margery. “Go with this woman. She says she can track those that escaped. Find them, but do not engage. Just relay that information to us.” Faulkner nodded, while Margery stood. He nodded to the distraught man who had not stopped babbling to himself the entire time. “And take that thing with you.” The three of them quickly left. He then looked at the governor of the prison, the man in charge of ‘re-education.’ “You told me some weeks ago Becker, that you can turn the Alkrons that we capture into an army. Do you still stand by your word?”
“Umm yes. Yes indeed… but we need more time, some of them are…” The king’s expression made him stop talking and just nod.
“They will be my legion. Talk to the human female… Iona. I want them ready to leave by the morning.”
“But—” On seeing the king’s reaction to another possible question, Becker put his head down and left.
As soon as the door closed, Eltir walked briskly to this brother. “Tyror died because of your games Rynon! Just kill the humans! Be done with them!”
“We cannot kill them all, Eltir…” said the woman. The older brother threw her a look of hate, but she held his gaze.
“This is not your business Rosetta.”
She walked slowly to Rynon and placed a hand on his shoulder, her eyes not leaving the older brother. “We have information, that you do not.”
Eltir looked at his brother. “What?”
“My contact with the humans has told me they have found Freon’s tomb…”
Eltir’s eyes grew large. “Where?”
“They will not tell me, but have agreed to destroy it.”
“And you are trusting them?”
Rynon walked away leaving Rosetta’s hand to slide from his shoulder. “Of course not brother, but they were heading south with the other humans… south to the coast, where they boarded a ship…”
“Which just so happens,” said Rosetta. “To be sailing in the same direction as where we were told the tablets are…”
Eltir looked away. “That cannot be… coincidence…”
Rynon sat. “No brother, it cannot.”
*****
“And we’re really going to trust him? Over.” said Anna into her radio. She was awkwardly driving the RV, while Joel was driving her pickup. The other they left behind.
Joel took a moment then held his radio to his lips. “Amos says he’s telling us the truth. He’s got a plane at Lake Tahoe airport. Over.” There was no reply. He continued. “But no, I don’t trust him. It’s a risk. But flying south is better than the kings chasing us across the southern states for days. Over.”
“And Amos will know if he lies? Over.”
Joel looked in the rear mirror at the young man seated behind, who nodded. “He’ll know. Over.”
There was another pause before Anna spoke. “Has he asked you about Jasper? Over.”
“No. How’s Dalton? Over.”
“Sleeping, last I looked. How much longer will we be on the road? Over.”
“If we can keep to the highway, just over an hour. Copeland should be somewhere above… Over.”
The four-lane highway wound through and over low hills and forests, with no sign of life amongst the darkness.
In the RV, Dalton emerged from the rear room, walked past Barry and sat opposite him at the small table.
The Boy winced at the dark red stained sheet that had been tied around the big guy’s chest. “Does it hurt?”
Dalton waved his hand. “Ain’t nothing.”
“Did you kill what did that to you?”
Dalton frowned, his eyes looking up. “Not yet.” He turned awkwardly in his seat to those at the front. “We making any stops on the way to find blood?”
“One way trip all the way to Lake Tahoe,” shouted Anna over her shoulder.
He turned back to face the table and let his head fall back.
In the back of the pickup, Kizzy rested her head on Amos’s shoulder. He wanted to sleep too, but needed to keep probing the Drak’s mind, a few hundred feet above them. He had already discovered that the former CEO was double crossed before he had a chance to do the same to the kings, and that all he wanted was to kill them and get his organisation back, even if it meant working with the original enemy. Amos had no idea how everything would work out, but right now Copeland was the best chance they had of escaping.
The man in the pickup’s bed behind was still unconscious, his mind shutdown over the strain of fighting against the collar, and because of that Amos wasn’t able to gleam any memories from it. It was pure instinct he was going on that whoever the old man was, he wouldn’t want to kill all
of them on waking.
The highway rose and they ascended through a wall of pine, covering steep slopes above and below.
Joel tried to keep his thoughts and guilt to himself, for he was acutely aware of who was seated behind.
“I don’t blame you,” said Amos. It was a lie. He did blame Joel for leading them into an ambush, even if he missed the other mind reader. But if the plan to leave the mainland for warmer climbs was going to work he needed the FBI operator driving to be free from baggage. He needed him to help keep himself and Kizzy alive.
Joel sighed. “I appreciate that but what happened is on me. It was my idea to rescue Anna… and I led the team.”
“And I should have known there was another mind reader. We all make mistakes.” Amos looked out into what he could see of the trunks and branches moving past.
“You learn anything from Copeland?”
“He thought he would rule alongside the kings… that didn’t work out too well for him.”
“And now?”
“He wants control of his company back, and Rynon and Eltir dead. If you help him do that, he will play by our rules.”
“Has he thought about Jasper?”
“Some, but it’s more a distant sadness… regret maybe than a thought. He thinks you have him somewhere, and you will use the boy against him.”
Joel stayed silent, as did Amos.
The air grew ice cold as they moved into the mountains, the trees embedded amongst a rich void, so close to the two-lane road that no view of the lighter sky was possible. Dalton was the first to hear the howl even though he was half asleep.
Static came from Anna’s radio followed by Joel’s voice. “I think I heard a howl. Over,” he said.
The two vehicle convoy continued as the road veered around a bend.
“Far off, maybe it was a real—” A cascade of howls now were echoing off the hills and rock faces around them.
Dalton got up uneasily and walked to the front. “They ain’t no dogs. That’s the real deal.”
“How far away?”
He sniffed. “Hard to tell. Few miles maybe.”
“We got a problem. Over,” said Joel as the brake lights on the pickup in front of Anna burned red.
