Blue Skin (Book 3): Blue Skin

by Jenkins, Steven

  I slip in front of Sean.

  “Are you mad?” he asks, his words laced with terror. “Stay behind me.”

  Holding my palm out in front, willing it not to tremble, I edge closer to my father.

  His frown slowly disappears.

  “I want to help you,” I say, my voice calm, like I’m speaking to a lost child.

  He reaches for my hand.

  “No, Freya!” Sean blurts out. “It’s too dangerous!”

  My fingers graze his, and the tightness in my chest settles. He’s just a vampire. That’s all. Like Ben. It’s not his fault.

  A lone tear glides down his cheek. I take his hand with both of mine, the size disturbing me, but I stifle a reaction.

  ‘Freya.’

  I smile with astonishment. “Yes! That’s right! I’m Freya. I’m your—”

  Something rips him from me, jerking my shoulder painfully. Sean pulls me back as Ben sinks his teeth in my father’s throat.

  “No, Ben!” I scream as a fountain of blood sprays over the wall. “Leave him!”

  In a flash of blue lightning, Ben is launched across the room, crashing into us.

  “Stop!”

  In a wild rage, Ben gathers up the metal rod, and then runs at my father. Swing after swing misses him as blood spews from his throat. I keep screaming for Ben to stop, but my voice is drowned out by a riot of snarls. For a moment, I think about stepping between them, but I’d be wiped out in the crossfire.

  Ben tries to drive the rod into his chest, but misses. He goes for a second attempt, this time he loses his balance and collides with the trolley of dead vampires. Their emaciated, lifeless bodies fall to the floor in a sickening heap. He grabs Ben by his ankle and picks him up, his thin body dangling like a captured mouse, the rod still in his grip.

  “Put him down!” I cry out, stepping towards the brawl. Sean clutches my wrist, pulling me back. “Please!”

  My voice doesn’t get through.

  “He’s my brother!”

  My father looks at me, puffing, gargling a mouthful of blood.

  “We’re family! We don’t fight!”

  The angry folds in his face begin to melt.

  “We need each other.”

  Upside down, and with a crazed howl, Ben drives the iron rod into his stomach.

  I gasp in horror. “Ben! No! What have you done?”

  Screams of agony flood the room as he drops Ben to the floor. With one giant yank, my father removes the rod and drops it, blood spewing from his punctured abdomen, his razor-sharp fangs on exhibit.

  Embers from the furnace flick at Ben’s neck as he backs away from him. “Ben! The fire!” I wail. “Look out!”

  Like a bull, he rushes at Ben, his arms outstretched, his salivating jaws wide open. But in a split second, Ben dives out of his path, leaving my father to soar, headfirst, into the flames.

  “No!” I sob as a gruesome, excruciating howl leaves the furnace.

  Shielding my stinging eyes, I bolt towards his burning body, and grab his ankle with both hands.

  “Wait, Freya!” Sean snatches the back of my boiler-suit, pulling me away from the fire.

  But I hang on.

  Hang on to my father.

  “Get off me! You don’t understand!” The flames bite at my flesh, the pain too much to bear. Sean wraps his arms around my waist, yanking me backwards.

  This time I don’t fight back.

  It’s too late.

  Ben slams the furnace door shut, and then I drop to my knees in turmoil. Crying for a man I never knew. Weeping for a monster that tried to kill us all.

  Sean joins me on the floor, hugging me.

  I close my eyes, my brain a mess of swirling thoughts. I can’t seem to process anything. Too much has passed. I should be jumping with joy that Ben is okay, that Sean and I are alive—but all I can think about is a stranger burning to death.

  In my head, I hear Mum’s voice. She’s telling me to get up. To forget about my father. To leave this place.

  They’re just words in my mind, yet I find myself listening, like she’s right next to me.

  I stand up because it’s time to leave. Time to run from this nightmare of a building as fast I can.

  Ben lingers by the exit, wondering why we haven’t left yet, why I should give a shit about a dead monster. Maybe one day he’ll understand what happened here.

  Maybe I will, too.

  I pull Ben into a hug, and then the three of us exit the furnace room.

  Sean takes my hand. “Follow me.”

  Climbing over the mountainous wreckage of the collapsed duct, we bolt down a series of corridors. After a few wrong turns, lots of dead HCA officers, we come to a set of double doors. Sean tugs on the handle, but it’s locked. Before he even has to ask, I pull out my ID card and swipe it through the security reader. There’s a beep, and the door unlocks. I stuff the card into my back pocket, and we burst through.

  Just a few metres along, we reach the garage. I’m overcome with relief when I see the lorry, and the huge steel shutter in front of it.

  The outside world.

  Half a day in this hellhole seems like a continuous loop of torture. If I could, I’d burn the place to ashes and be done with it all. No more HCA. No more experiments. “We’re almost out,” I say to anyone who’ll listen, my eyes bound to the thin gap at the bottom of the shutters. “It’s over.”

  Oh, shit! That guy I chained up in the lorry!

  I peek into the back, but he’s gone. Please God, don’t let him be hiding somewhere, waiting to take me out. Not now. Not after all we’ve been through. On the wall next to the shutter is a panel of buttons. I push the one that’s labelled ‘Open’. There’s a clanging of steel as the shutter slowly rises, letting in the cold night breeze. It feels good. Like this place has drained me of oxygen, and now I finally get to breathe again.

  “It worked!” I yell to Sean as he climbs into the lorry.

  The garage fills with the rumble of a heavy engine.

  Beaming, Sean pokes his head out of the window. “We’ve got a ride.”

  “You don’t think a HCA lorry might stand out a bit?”

  “No,” he replies, shaking his head. “It’s just a lorry. It doesn’t have a sign on it.”

  “What about outside? Can’t we use someone’s car?”

  “We don’t have time to look for keys. Now get in before someone finds us.”

  “Okay.” I race over to the passenger door just as the shutter completes its ascent.

  “Probably best if Ben hides in the back,” Sean says. “Keep him hidden.

  “Yeah. You’re right.” I scan the garage for him. “Ben!”

  I can’t see him.

  “Ben! We have to go!”

  No sign of him.

  With a deep scowl, I dart around the garage. “Ben! Where are you?”

  Sean cuts off the engine and climbs down from the lorry. “What the hell is he playing at?”

  I shrug. “He was here a minute ago.”

  Wasn’t he?

  We run back into the corridor. “Ben!” I shout, my voice echoing along the walls

  “Where would he be?” Sean asks, frantically scanning each direction. “Did we leave him at the double doors? The one with the ID scanner?”

  I think back, trying to remember if he followed us through or not, but the memory isn’t there. I was too preoccupied, too dazed. “I don’t know.”

  Reaching into my back pocket, I feel about for the ID card. It’s not there. I check the other pockets.

  Empty.

  “What are you looking for?” Sean asks.

  “He took my ID card.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  Before I can answer, the corridor starts to vibrate.

  It’s a stampede of footsteps.

  “He let them out,” I reply, my tone filled with dismay.

  “Let who out?”

  At the far end of the corridor, the double doors split open, and a horde of
vampires flood towards us.

  “Run!” I scream, yanking him back into the garage.

  Leaping into the lorry, we slam the doors. Sean tries to start the engine, but I grab his wrist to stop him. “No,” I whisper. “It’s too late.”

  We crouch down as the vampires rush past us like a cluster of bees, escaping through the open shutter. Wave after wave pushes through, trampling over each other, desperate to leave this prison. Through the masses of blue, I search for Ben—but there’s too many.

  Perhaps a minute goes by before the garage falls silent. I straighten in my seat, and then wince in fright when I see the vampire standing in the opening, staring up at the windscreen.

  It’s Ben.

  He has something in his hand.

  My ID card.

  “What’s he doing?” Sean whispers.

  His voice appears in my head. ‘I’m sorry,’

  I open the door.

  ‘Better without me.’

  By the time my feet touch the concrete, he’s vanished.

  “No! Come back!”

  Tears engulf my eyes as I chase after him.

  But he’s gone.

  “Don’t worry.” Sean wraps his arms around me. “We’ll find him.”

  I don’t respond, just sob into his chest, twisting, squeezing, the fabric of his shirt.

  “Come on.” Sean picks up the ID card from the floor, and then steers me to the lorry. “We can catch up to him.”

  Broken and bruised, I slam my door, and stare at the black of the night sky.

  Sean starts the engine, and we pull off out of the garage. “He won’t have got far.” He puts his hand over mine briefly. “It’s gonna be all right, Frey.”

  I hear his words, but I’m too numb, too distraught to react.

  We come to the gates. They’re closed. No guards. No lights. Sean opens the window and slides the ID card along a security panel, and the gates open.

  And we’re free.

  Escaping this place was meant to be a celebration, a victory. Something that I thought was impossible, or at the very least, a long-shot. But as The Facility disappears in my wing mirror, all I can think about is family. Mum’s gone. A father I thought abandoned us is now dead, left to burn to death in a furnace. And now Ben has left me, too.

  All I have is Sean.

  I picture Ben running with his new family. Like a flock of birds. Looking for a place to live. To hide from this cruel world. Mum couldn’t keep him safe at home. Maggie almost killed him at the farm. Because of me. And I let them drag him to this place to be tortured.

  No wonder he left.

  No wonder he hates me.

  I should have never let Michael inside the house that day. I should have told him to go screw himself. I should have fought harder. Fought longer. Then all this mess could’ve been avoided.

  He’s better off without me.

  I rest my head against the window, with no clue where we’re going, or what’s going to happen next.

  “I’ll never let you go again,” Sean says, his voice soft. “No matter what.”

  I don’t answer because I’m watching the trees whiz by in a smudge of black and green, hoping that I might catch a glimpse of Ben.

  But there’s no chance. He really has gone this time.

  “Did you hear what I said, Frey?” He strokes my arm; the warmth of his fingers barely registering.

  “Yeah,” I reply, but the word comes out like breath, almost inaudible. I lower my eyes to the road. It’s too dark to see the tarmac. I might as well be staring down at the endless void of deep space, or the ocean at night. It seems peaceful out there.

  “You’re stuck with me,” he says. This time his voice is firmer. “For good.”

  I turn to him. “It’s not safe with me.”

  “Safe?” He snorts, and then points to a bleeding gash on his cheek. “Does it look like I give a shit about safety?”

  I want to smile, but my lips don’t move. Instead, I stare at him as he focuses on the road ahead. And then I remember everything he’s sacrificed for me, everything he’s lost: his job, friends, his family.

  I need him so much. He’s all I’ve got. And maybe, just maybe, he needs me, too.

  “I love you,” he tells me.

  A tiny smile creeps over my mouth, and I take his hand. It’s clammy and warm, but melts away some of the ice around me.

  “I love you, too.”

  Part X

  MICHAEL MATTHIAS

  33

  Like the living dead, I drag my broken ankle across the floor, the deceased employees scattered along the corridors.

  For the love of God, let him still be here.

  With a chest-full of cracked ribs, I struggle to breathe, using the scratched and dented walls for support.

  Everything’s ruined.

  I reach the stairwell. Each step is torturous, but I climb to the top, nevertheless.

  The agony running through my body is clouding my vision, so I stop for a moment, take another painful breath, and then set off again towards Doctor Moore’s office.

  I’m not even through the doorway before I see the horror. Amongst the blood and gore, I find the remains of Erin. The unsettling image curls my stomach.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I should have been there to protect you. I failed you.”

  Throat catching, I step inside the lab, only to unearth something even more repugnant.

  I kneel down in front of Doctor Moore’s decimated body. Sadness turns to anger, and I ball my fists up.

  How could I let this happen? I should have never let that bitch anywhere near Pete.

  It’s all my fault.

  As I stand, I notice the ventilation shaft in the office. The wall around the opening is covered in scrapes and cracks.

  I leave the room and follow the path of the duct along the corridor. After a few minutes, I find its final destination. The vent has been snapped and ripped down from the ceiling, creating a heap of crushed metal and plaster. Limping around the devastation, I make my way into the furnace room. Inside, there’s blood on the floor. Lots of it.

  What the hell happened here?

  I turn the heat down on the furnace and open its door.

  And that’s where I discover his remains. The charred, enormous skeleton couldn’t belong to anyone else. Just him. Just Peter.

  My friend.

  In anger, I slam the furnace door. The loud clanging sound echoes, deafening me for a second.

  Feeling lightheaded, I sit on the bench until the haze clears.

  I really messed up this time. How could I be so stupid? He was safe. Asleep for eighteen years. I glance at the furnace. And now he’s dead.

  I take a giant breath, and head for the exit. One last stop before I leave this building. “Goodbye, Pete.” I salute my friend. “I’ll see you in the next life.”

  The pain in my ankle is beyond bearable, but somehow I soldier on. For Pete. Along the corridor, I pass more and more dead bodies, but I’ll bury my turmoil until all this is over. Until I’ve put this mess right.

  When I finally arrive at The Containment Zone, my body gives in and I collapse to the floor.

  All three hundred and forty-two prisoners are gone.

  Just an empty cage of abandoned shackles.

  I grind my teeth in rage.

  That bitch did this!

  All of this!

  I start to cough. A little blood sprays out. I cough again, this time much harder, forcing me to clutch my ribs.

  My eyelids feel heavy. I hang on to consciousness, but the pain is too much to endure.

  But she’ll never beat me.

  I’d rather die than allow it.

  And I won’t rest until every last bloodsucker is back in its cage.

  And Freya Lawson is dead...

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  Blue Skin: Book One

  What will you do when they come for your children?

  The world has turned inward, away from the sun, in the wake of a mysterious disease that has altered the human race. No longer able to bear human children, our mothers and daughters have brought vampire-like hybrids into the world, and with it a new order. Now that reproduction has been banned, those left with young children face a terrible and devastating decision - turn your babies over to the government or pay the price. For young Freya, keeping her brother hidden is the only real option.

  Enemies of the state, Freya must stand between her family and the forces of a fearful world. Although her brother may not be human, there is little else separating her and those of the blue skin.

  Choices will be made. Lines will be drawn. The battle for humanity has only just begun.

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  Fugitives from the government, Freya and Ben find themselves living in a decrepit flat, in a dying town infested with lowlifes and vigilantes.

  But in the shadows, a light shines.

  The enigmatic Maggie, protector of vampires and leader of a fortified community, provides respite and salvation.

  The fences may be high; the watchtowers heavily armed. But how long before the darkness finds them again?

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