by Maxey, Phil
“If they had more they would have used them,” said Nelson. “No. That was everything they had.”
“And we’re still alive,” said Corine.
“Not everyone,” said Anna.
“Has anyone seen Evan?” said Sasha.
“He said he wanted to spend some more time with Shannon…” said Kizzy. Silence fell again to the room. “I don’t know how I feel about—”
“Being human?” said Sasha.
“Yeah. I mean… having to drink blood, after the first few pints, ain’t that bad…”
The younger people in the room chuckled.
“I hear that,” said Corine.
“It’s the only way,” said Anna.
Sasha looked at her. “If it works, and the scourge is gone. What you going to do next? Will you go back to the mainland?”
As she took a moment to think, everyone waited for her answer as if, knowing what she thought would give them a clue to their own futures.
“I think I might stay here.”
“This place has taken a whole lot of damage,” said Dalton.
“How’s that different to anywhere else?”
He nodded.
“And anyway, those children in the basement, below us, need a teacher.”
“None of them talk English,” said Corine.
Anna turned around with a smile. “Then I guess I’ll have to learn Spanish.”
Most in the room heard the humvee pull up, and the footsteps of the individual walk into the hallway.
Joel opened the door and looked around the room. “No one’s getting rest?”
“Marina’s downstairs with Hector and the kids. They’re sleeping,” said Anna. “What’s the situation?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s simple. We keep the people of this base alive for another eleven hours.”
*****
Marina, Joel and Anna stood in the main hallway which was lit by headlights from two trucks outside.
“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” said Marina to him.
“I am. The humans, you and the children will be safer. And it will be hard for the vamps to get to you.”
“But, they will get there eventually…”
“I’m going to do everything I can to stop that from happening. We just have to hold out until sunrise.”
The two dogs came down the stairs ahead of Jess and Jasper, both kids wrapped in warm clothes and with a small backpack each. Marina picked up her own pack, then an assault rifle, placing it over her shoulder. She leaned forward and hugged Joel then the doctor who could tell Marina wanted to speak more, but was resisting doing so. Anna walked over to the two kids, making sure their coats were correctly fastened.
“We’ve come a long way together,” said Marina.
He nodded. “When you jumped in my car, who would have thought we would end up in Puerto Rico!”
She smiled, then swallowed, the moment of humor quickly passing. “Try and stay alive. We’ll going to need you once all of this is settled.”
“You too.”
The door near the stairs opened and out walked Hector, with a sleepy looking Layla and the other children behind her. He grumbled something to them in Spanish then looked at the two hybrids looking back at him and frowned. He started to walk to the entrance, when Anna moved forward and without pause hugged him. His hard expression softened but never quite made it to a smile.
She stepped back. “Next time we see each other…”
“I know. My back pain will have returned!”
She smiled and this time so did he. He nodded to her and the other hybrids, then led the children out, the last of which stopped near Anna.
She leaned down and hugged Barry. “Remember to stay calm, and if you can’t…”
He nodded. “I know. I’ll make sure I’m alone. Hector and Layla know what I am, but still wanted me to come. I would never hurt them or the other kids.”
He left Anna’s embrace and walked across the hallway
“When all of this is over,” said Joel to him. “We gotta arrange a film night. See some of those super hero movies everyone told me I should have seen.”
Barry smiled, nodding, then walked outside with Marina and her two kids.
Anna and Joel followed and watched as they climbed into the back of the trucks. Just as the vehicles pulled away, the two hybrids picked up a distant boom, and a flash of light appeared to the north on the horizon.
He looked at his watch. “That’s the first. Right on time.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
A cone of light swept across a mountain of concrete, glass and household belongings being drenched in sheets of rain.
Anna shook her head to rid the rain from her eyes. “He said he would be here!”
Joel, standing near their vehicle, looked out into the darkness at silhouettes of former buildings, but no sound or smell came back to him of another hybrid in the gloom. He looked back to the doctor. “We have to go. We can’t stay here. We need to get to the bunker.”
Anna shook her head again, this time in frustration. “Okay, okay.”
They got back into their humvee. As their doors closed, his radio crackled.
“Twenty miles. Over,” said a male voice.
A series of “copy that,” replies came through Joel’s radio speaker, with him adding his own.
The voice continued. “Good luck to us all. Over and out.”
Anna looked across to the man next to her and briefly grabbed his hand. Then back to the darkness ahead. “Lets do this.”
The wind howled outside and a piece of wood which used to be a piece of furniture flew across their headlight beams, crashing into a bent and twisted lamp post. Joel pushed down on the gas and weaved a path out of the crescent then headed west.
Roughly three miles ahead of them Dalton and Kizzy made their way through dense undergrowth, climbing higher, until reaching their destination. The dark shape of a spindly square tower with a triangular roof stood out against the fast-moving clouds above.
“Don’t think that’s going to stop fifty thousand vamps,” said Kizzy.
Dalton glanced at her with a frown. “We’ll be long gone before it comes to that.”
They jogged forward, quickly climbing the three sets of wooden stairs and stood in the small open space at the top. The wooden construction creaked from the force of the wind. They put their packs down then flipped NVG’s down over their eyes.
Dalton grumbled. “Still can’t get used to these damn things. My eyes are better in the dark!”
Kizzy ignored the comment and looked out over a shallow river a hundred feet below, and beyond to a busy landscape of the dark rectangular shapes of the city. She tried to see into the voids between the apartments, office buildings and shopping malls. “They can get pretty close before we see them.”
“We’ll hear and smell them before that.”
The wind picked up again, making the structure they were on shudder.
She glanced at the large individual next to her. “You really think they can get rid of the scourge?”
“Don’t know, but I want to be around in seven hours to find out.”
A low rumbling made itself known through the boards below, which at first they both thought was the wind, but then Dalton’s radio came to life with a voice.
“Moving into place. Over.”
They looked down to a wide highway on their side of the river. Heavy military vehicles trundled along the concrete, each one stopping at intervals, while the rest continued. Eventually a row of battle tanks were lined up facing west.
“Ten miles. Over,” said a different officer from Dalton’s radio.
“When will they—”
Interrupting Kizzy, the wind and rain suddenly become lost within a series of almighty booms, as explosions ripped from multiple barrels, sending neon projectiles streaming across the buildings in front of them.
“Here we go,” shouted Dalton.
*****
They ran through a gap in the wall which was quickly resealed, and up to Nelson who was in full combat gear.
“They’re all inside,” said the older man. Joel patted him on the back as they walked past, through the already open door and down the concrete steps to the underground headquarters. The large room was as busy as usual, but he could smell more fear in the air than before.
“Where are they?” he said to the nearest officer, who pointed him to the conference room. They ran past soldiers and officers and entered the cramped space. All attention was on a live feed being shown from inside a C-130.
“Good timing,” said Gus. “We’re about to drop the incendiary bombs.”
The door closed behind Joel and Anna, and they watched as soldiers pushed a series of black cylinders off the back of the plane’s ramp. A second later the screen became so bright all detail was lost.
“We can’t see shit, what’s happening? Over,” said Gus into his headset.
“First wave of bombs have been released successfully,” said the pilot. “Coming back around for a second pass. Over.”
The view from the camera became less saturated and shook, as a soldier pointed it outside at the ground which had become a blanket of rolling fire.
Relief and a few claps came from the ten or so people in the room, including Galloway.
Gus smiled. “Good job. Over.”
The camera view suddenly jolted then whipped around to the cargo hold, showing the other bombs and concerned soldiers. It shuddered again, this time causing them to reach for the walls.
“What’s happening? Over.” said Gus.
“We seem to be hitting some bad turbulence, from the storm or—”
Fear came across the soldier’s eyes, some quickly grabbing their rifles and aiming them towards the ramp. The camera operator ducked out of the way, while swinging around to face the back. Flashes from gunfire lit up a Drak clambering inside. Its wings retracted as it lunged forward and the screen went black.
Everyone held their breath in dismay and shock. The screen reappeared, showing a massive explosion in the night sky and molten fire falling to the ground.
“What view is this?” said Joel.
Gus looked at him, then let out a breath. “It’s from a drone a few miles behind the plane.”
Atop the wooden observation post, Kizzy and Dalton could see a raging inferno beyond the sheets of rain, and tracked a sparking glow crash into the ground. The tanks had fallen silent, being replaced with the howls and gales and the constant white noise of the weather hitting the roof.
Dalton tilted his head, then flicked up his goggles and leaned forward into the water droplets and took in a lungful of air.
“You smell something?” said Kizzy.
He picked up his assault rifle and looked down the scope, scanning across the faint grays of roads and stopped. Still not answering the woman next to him, he unclipped his radio. “Got movement to the west. About two m—” He suddenly raised the barrel and started firing but it was too late to stop the figure from the sky crash into him, taking them both and part of the structure to the ground.
Kizzy clung onto a smashed piece of wooden handrail as branches broke amongst the clatter of more gunfire below. She stepped to the other side as the floor began to drop and jumped from the platform just as it collapsed, landing heavily amongst the sodden ground. Quickly righting her helmet she flicked her goggles back over her eyes and looked up as demonic shadows glided across the backdrop of the clouds.
A roar ripped through the night. She turned and ran towards it.
“I’m coming!” she shouted as grunts and thuds played out amongst the storm. Running past branches she caught glimpses of two huge creatures fighting in the dark. She raised her rifle and fired at the one with wings, neon streaks bouncing off its back. It swung around, its cat-like eyes reflecting in her screens, and then with a jolt and a spray of blood fell to the ground.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Gus nodded to the voice in his headset. “Acknowledged. Over. ” He looked at those in the room around him. “Thousands of vamps are moving through the city. They will be at our west gate in minutes. Most of the Abrams are out of rounds, and are trying to pull back.”
Joel missed the last few words from the colonel as his audio senses were picking up the sound of distant gunfire.
The door to the conference room burst open, with a wide-eyed young soldier in the gap. “We’re under attack!”
“Get everyone inside!” shouted Winston.
Joel looked at his watch.
Too soon.
“No!” he shouted. “We need to hold them off for longer!”
“Then do what you can son.”
Joel looked at Anna who nodded and he quickly left, grabbing a flak jacket from a rack and an M4 and in a blur ran up the stairs to the external door, then pushed it open to chaos and the clatter of automatic weapons. A soldier screamed as he was lifted up into the night sky, still firing at his abductor, while the .50 Cal on top of the light tank lit up the surrounding forest, felling some attackers, but missing others. Dark lumbering shadows surged forward, almost making it to the sandbags but the humvee Joel had arrived in crashed into them, as directed by Nelson’s hand.
Joel ran forward and kneeled near the older man, firing repeatedly at anything that was moving, but the bullets just pinged off the artificially armored beasts bearing down on them.
A blood filled gargle made him spin around. A figure slashed across the neck of the young soldier on the big gun. Joel took two steps and leaped to the top of the armored vehicle, crashing into the other hybrid, both of them flying off the back and into the wall at the side of the bunker. The hybrid soldier pulled a handgun and fired, but Joel was too quick and moved forward in a blur grabbing the weapon in his left hand and slamming his claws into the neck, with the other. He turned wanting to return to the fight near the entrance when he felt the ground shake and threw himself to the side just as a wing with a razor sharp claw at the end, swiped where he was standing, knocking masonry from the wall.
The Drak lunged from the gloom with huge hands, but missed as Joel leaped directly upwards while twisting to grab hold of the reeds and branches that had made the roof their home. Ignoring the creature trying to find space to stretch its wings and follow him, he ran to the front and looked down as the sand filled wall crumbled. Nelson staggered back towards the entrance, waving his hands in front of him, turning what metal from his surroundings he could into projectiles, but the Drak almost on him just batted the objects away.
Joel jumped down, landing on top of the light tank, grabbed the big gun and fired it almost point blank into the huge Alkron, tearing it apart despite the armor it was wearing. More screams came from his right and he directed his fire in that direction, but the forest was alive with dark menacing shadows and nothing else. He jumped down, grabbed the back of Nelson and pulled him inside, slamming the solid door closed.
Three miles to the west Kizzy and Dalton were running. Despite the rain that was fallen around them, like an advanced warning, the air was thick with the smell of dried blood and sweat, and just audible above the wind was a din of screeching. The tanks had fallen silent and the two Alkrons, both transformed into stronger, faster versions of their human selves, were pushing every muscle to outrun a tsunami of death.
Kizzy lifted her radio to her mouth. “Bunker eight! Make… Sure… The door… is—” Branches and whole trees crashed to the ground as the vamps, packed together like desperate starving rats tore through the forest behind them. “— open!”
A light became
visible through the trees ahead. Dalton dropped his helmet, then his gun, as did she so they could run quicker, both moving faster than any human had ran before, leaves and branches slashing across them as they leaped over logs and rocks, the ground now a constant tremor.
Two soldiers frantically waved them on, then fell to their knees firing, the bullets searing the air just inches away from the Alkrons who sprinted across the clearing in front of the bunker.
Dalton and Kizzy threw themselves through the opening as the soldiers jumped back inside, closing the door and pulled the heavy latches down. They all ran down the stairs as a thundering barrage slammed into the entrance behind them, making dust fall from the ceiling.
*****
Rynon looked down at the fires that still burned amongst the ruins of the base, paying particular attention to the islands of concrete which stood out against the broken and splintered trees. One structure felt different. He looked across to the panicked face of the human scientist who was trying to speak, his weak jaw not being able to withstand the force of the wind long enough to release words. Still, maybe he device was confirming what the ancient king could also sense.
“Take me down!” Rynon commanded to the Drak above.
He landed on the rain soaked ground, stepping over the remains of a soldier and vampire. Others landed nearby, including his brother Eltir, and Adrian, dressed in combat gear with a harness strapped to his back.
The scientist waved a small black box around, eventually facing the strange triangular roofed building that the others were looking at.
“There!” said Adrian. “I’m picking up signature energy from inside that bunker!”
Rynon took a step forward but not before Eltir had. The older brother looked back. “Let me go with our warriors to claim the prize for you.”
The hybrid king looked at Adrian. “If you are wrong about this human, you will be food by the morning.”
Adrian’s head shook. “Yes, the energy the tablets produce is definitely coming from inside that building.”
