Extinction

by M. D. Massey

  His weird silver and crimson eyes lit up at my response, and I was pretty sure he was sporting a woody. “Now, that’s the spirit.” He plucked the next finger off.

  “Grrrr… fuck!” I couldn’t help it. I screamed like a banshee.

  Marduk purred like a werecat experiencing her first orgasm. “Ah, that is such a delightful sound. Tell me, hunter, do you know how long a person can live, after their limbs have been torn off? I do. With a few carefully-placed tourniquets, it’s possible to keep a human alive for some time after being dismembered. But in your condition, well… let’s just see how long I can keep you from dying, hmm?”

  I looked him in the eye and swung at him with my other hand. He blocked the punch nonchalantly with his free hand, then grabbed my middle finger. At that moment, two things happened.

  First, Marduk’s eyes grew wide, and he blurred away from me.

  Second, I heard the report of a large-caliber rifle just as droplets of dark vampire blood and gibbets of cold flesh peppered my face and body.

  Marduk stood about ten feet away, with a huge gaping hole in the left side of his chest. And fifty feet away on a nearby roof, Kara was frantically working the bolt on her fifty-caliber Barrett sniper rifle.

  Must have been going for the heart. Shit. The only thing I could figure was that Marduk had heard the snap of the trigger breaking, just before the firing pin dropped and the primer ignited. He’d moved fast enough so that she had missed his heart. But I thought that surely, despite being an ancient vampire, a fifty-caliber silver round to the chest would have taken him out.

  Apparently, I was wrong.

  Marduk looked up at Kara with rage. “You insignificant speck of shit—how dare you!” he bellowed, despite the fact that he was missing most of his right lung. I didn’t get how that worked, until I saw that his wound was already closing up. I didn’t think a vamp could heal like that without ingesting fresh blood—but again, I was wrong. This Marduk fellow seemed to be breaking all the rules.

  In the blink of an eye, he had Kara by the neck, her legs dangling off the roof of the building. He was going to snap her spine, I was certain of it. I sat up slowly, looking around for a weapon—my sword, a rifle, something.

  Then I heard Tony’s voice echoing in my head. If you gotta go out in a blaze of glory, well—injecting that shit will make it happen. I began patting my pockets, hoping against hope that the damned autoinjector hadn’t been smashed when the vamps were feeding on me. Finally, my nearly numb fingers landed on a hard, cylindrical object in my pants pocket.

  I looked up, and Kara’s face was turning purple as Marduk slowly squeezed the life out of her. I popped the safety cap off the injector, then slammed it into my chest over my heart, just to make sure it injected where there was enough circulation to matter. For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then…

  Thud-thud. Thud-THUD. THUD-THUD. My heart began beating like the intro to Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” as feeling and strength flowed back into my limbs. My dizziness subsided, and any anxiety and pain I had felt faded away, to be replaced with a fire in my belly and laser focus on the task at hand.

  I saw my sword in the grass, just yards away. I moved, and suddenly it was in my hand. I looked up, in time to see the light dying in Kara’s eyes.

  “No!” I leapt from where I stood, almost flying through the air at them. Marduk wasn’t even paying attention to me, so focused was he on killing Kara. She was likely the only vampire who’d defied him in centuries, and it was to my momentary advantage that his rage had clouded his senses.

  As I landed on the roof, I severed Marduk’s arm at the elbow, shouldering him away in the same motion. I caught Kara with my damaged arm and hand as she fell, and pried the ancient vampire’s dismembered hand away from her throat.

  Kara wasn’t moving. How can you tell if a vampire is dead, or if they’ve merely fainted? I wondered.

  I shook her, hoping to get some response. “Kara, wake up, baby. Oh, please don’t die on me—not like this.”

  Nothing.

  I turned to find Marduk standing in the courtyard looking up at me, holding his sword cane in his remaining hand. The wound in his chest had closed, and the skin on his right arm had already grown over his stump.

  His eyes narrowed as he regarded me, and a silent, barely controlled rage was etched on his face. “If you hadn’t challenged me earlier, I’d have killed you while you lingered over your lover’s corpse. But needs be that some honor is left in this world, however meaningless. Come, hunter. Face your end with a dignity deserving of a warrior.”

  I stood and hissed my reply. “I wonder, vampire—how long can one of your kind live after being dismembered?”

  Then I launched myself off the roof at him, with a speed that managed to surprise even the vampire. Our blades clanged together once, twice, three times in an instant. He was still faster than me, but I had something on my side that he didn’t. I was used to fighting things that were stronger, faster, and hardier than me. Marduk, on the other hand, wasn’t accustomed to being challenged at all.

  I sprung away from him while avoiding a nasty backhanded slash that would’ve taken my head off. After that clash, I knew I couldn’t beat him cleanly, even with the drug cocktail Tony had given me. But I wasn’t thinking about winning.

  I was only thinking about not losing.

  Marduk gave me a knowing grin. I noticed that while his stance was relaxed, his sword wasn’t, as the tip was pointed right at me. “You fight well, hunter, and whatever power you’ve drawn on to bring you back from the brink of death is impressive. But you are still dying, and despite this rally you will lose.”

  “Shut up and fight,” I whispered, springing at him with a flurry of cuts that he danced away from, parrying each one with relative ease. C’mon, you overconfident prick—make your move. I saw something in his eyes, a tell I’d noticed earlier. The asshole always looked where he was going to thrust.

  As he moved, so did I. Not away from him, but at him. I took the sword thrust square in the ribs, pulling him into me so I could lay my blade against his throat. I extended my arm in a full draw cut, pressing hard as twenty-four inches of razor-sharp tamahagane steel sliced through his ancient flesh like a hot knife through butter.

  I smiled grimly at him as his eyes grew wide. The rest of his body froze, bereft of any signal from his brain that might tell it to rip his sword out of my chest to finish me. His lips and jaw worked, but no sound came forth, and his head slowly slid from his shoulders, tumbling away into the grass next to us.

  I pushed the vampire’s headless corpse away from me, sliding myself off his blade as his body fell. Then I flipped my own blade around and took a single step, falling to my knees with a downward thrust. My blade skewered the vamp’s head like an olive on a toothpick, pinning it to the ground through one eye and out the back of his skull.

  Then, everything went black.

  HOME

  Darkness. Motion. Voices. I was in a moving vehicle. Fragments of conversation came to me as I faded in and out.

  “…have to do it, Sledge…”

  “…his only chance…”

  “…might not even work…”

  “…half-dead already…”

  “…no other choice…”

  “Fine, but it’s not on me if it doesn’t take. I’ve never seen someone survive the change when they were this close to death. You sure about this?”

  I felt someone caress my face, as Kara’s voice came loud and clear from nearby. “Do it.”

  Pain overtook me, and I faded from consciousness.

  I had no idea how long I was out, but when I woke I was in my bed back at the Facility. Kara was sitting in a chair next to me, while Gabby was pacing at the foot of the bed.

  “You can stop walking a hole in the floor, kid. I’m awake.”

  I was sitting up, slowly, when a ninety-pound missile practically tackled me. The kid buried her head in my chest and wrapped me in a bear hug. I hugge
d her back, patting her back with one arm while noting the two pink-skinned nubs where my fingers had once been.

  The kid broke away, shoving me in the chest with both hands. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she cried. “You had us worried sick!” Tears were streaming down her face.

  “Hey, it’s alright. I’m alive, I think.” I looked around at the I.V. in my arm, and examined the dozens of fresh scars all over my body. “Not going to be winning any beauty contests, though.” I looked at Kara. “Whose idea was it to turn me?”

  She tilted her head, her eyes glassy. I think if a vampire could cry, she’d have been shedding tears. “It was a group decision. Sledge did the honors. Bobby didn’t know if he could do it, at his age. Plus, he’d never turned anyone before, but Sledge had.” Kara’s voice grew soft. “Are you mad?”

  I chewed my lip and nodded. “A little. Should’ve been my choice, but I’m not going to complain about y’all saving my life.” I looked around the room, and tuned my hearing to what was going on in the hall. Voices and footsteps came at me from all directions in stereoscopic sound, adding a sense of depth and distance to what I heard.

  Kara recognized the shock on my face. “It’ll take some getting used to. Give it a few days.”

  “Uh-huh. Where’s Bobby?”

  Gabby cleared her throat. “He said he couldn’t just sit around waiting for you to wake up… something about too much nervous energy. He’s been running patrols almost non-stop for days.”

  “How long was I out?” I asked.

  Kara grunted. “Ten days. We hunkered down for a week in the basement of an abandoned house in Lubbock, making sure the fallout had dispersed before we headed back here. The Doc and I have been taking dosimeter and Geiger readings since we got back, and thankfully everything around here seems all clear.”

  “Any sign of the vamps since Amarillo?”

  Kara shook her head. “None. But we’re running short-range and long-range patrols, keeping an eye out just in case.”

  “What about deaders?”

  Gabby smirked. “Aunt Lorena got the pest control system working again. We’re officially a dead-free zone.”

  “Sounds like you have everything in hand.” I laid my head back down on the pillow, and closed my eyes. “So, if y’all don’t mind, I’m going back to sleep.”

  Despite having werewolf healing abilities, I spent several more days recuperating. The fingers never did grow back, and my scars never went away. Samson said that the ’thrope vyrus only worked with what you had when you were turned, and that it didn’t restore what you’d lost before then. I was just glad that Marduk hadn’t had a chance to tear anything important off before Kara had shot him.

  In the weeks following our return from Amarillo, talk turned to what we’d do if more vamps showed up, and how we might distribute the vaccine the Doc had cooked up. It wouldn’t get rid of the deaders or the vamps, but at least it’d prevent more humans from turning. That was something, at least.

  Although we hadn’t seen hide or hair of the vamps, I was still the paranoid type. So, I got with Samson and we sent a small recon team up to Dallas to see what was up.

  When the scouts returned, they reported that the Dallas coven had fallen into disarray since the events that occurred in Amarillo. The remaining vamps had sent their own people to find out what had happened to Marduk and the rest of the coven, and once they’d determined he was gone for good, war broke out. All the baby vamps started killing each other, and not one of them had a clue how to make new vampires.

  The result was that what remained of the Dallas coven had destroyed itself from the inside out. Only a few vamps were left standing, and they controlled only small pockets of the walled citadel the vamps had constructed after the War and invasion. But they still had all the infrastructure they’d built: electricity derived from solar and wind power, clean water, lots of living space, and walls to keep the whole thing deader-free.

  It was too good an opportunity to pass up. We fell on them like locusts during the day, killing them all and freeing the thousand or so humans who’d been kept as servants and cattle. Having learned my lesson from Nadine, we vaccinated and exiled any troublemakers who were unwilling to pull their weight or toe the line.

  As for the rest? We armed and trained them, of course.

  Within months, we had the largest militia in Texas, controlling what had become the safest and most secure area in the state. Once our reputation spread, it was only a matter of time before more survivors started showing up. Some came due to rumors of a vaccine, while others came looking for the sort of safe haven they’d never known.

  Within time, rumors spread among the population about a serum that gave you powers, and about humans who’d become ’thropes. People started volunteering for one or both, so they could join the fight.

  We needed a plan. Samson, Anna, Colin, Kara, the Doc, and I came up with one.

  The Pack agreed to work with the humans to rebuild civilization, starting with Dallas first. The ultimate goal was to get the vaccine to every major remaining outpost in the state, and to organize more militia to eradicate the dead and keep the vamps at bay.

  The only thing was, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  So, I came up with the idea of creating elite units that were patterned after special forces A Teams, with a ’thrope as the heavy hitter, four juiced hunters serving in different tactical roles, and a human magic user trained by Colin to work the hoodoo. The idea was that these teams would be sent out to distribute the vaccine, establish outposts, and train insurgent militia units. And, they’d be able to troubleshoot problem areas that contained pockets of resistance, taking out vamps, revenants, and the like that the human militia couldn’t handle.

  Everyone agreed that it was a good plan, and we started implementing it immediately. Inside of a year we controlled everything north of Dallas to Wichita Falls and Texarkana, and south to Laredo and Corpus Christi. Houston was a wasteland of dead, so we left it alone, relying on the refineries along the Gulf Coast further south for petroleum processing. We trained medical personnel, started clinics in every outpost, and encouraged people to settle in reclaimed areas.

  All told, it was a massive success. But people and vamps didn’t mix, and I knew it was only a matter of time before Kara got found out. There was just too much negative sentiment against her kind for her to ever be able to coexist with humans.

  Besides, the clamor of the city and so-called civilization just wasn’t for me, and the way things were running I’d become a redundancy. Gabby, Bobby, and Colin ran the teams, Samson kept the ’thropes in order, and Anna headed up the human militia. A council led and voted on everything, and we’d even put a Constitution in place, with laws and rules and all the happy horse shit that keeps a society from imploding.

  At that point, I knew I’d done my part, and I was satisfied to rest easy in the knowledge that they’d all be just fine without me.

  It was time to go home.

  Kara and I spent days getting the ranch house back in order. Scavs had been through, but they hadn’t stayed since there wasn’t much of use to take that I hadn’t hidden. My caches remained untouched, which meant we were good on weapons, ammo, and gear. Not that we needed the firepower, but I felt better with a gun on my hip just the same.

  We were sitting out on the porch late one evening, enjoying the night air and each other’s company, when we heard them coming up the drive. It was a small group, maybe five or six men and women, walking like they were carrying heavy packs and lots of gear. From the sounds of it, they were armed.

  “I told you they’d come,” Kara said sadly.

  I grabbed my rifle and laid it across my lap. I waited until they were within shouting distance before speaking.

  “Y’all lost?” I said, loud enough to be heard clearly.

  The footsteps stopped. We heard them whispering, so we waited for them to decide who should speak. Moments later, matters were settled and an older woman’s voice holler
ed back from down the hill.

  “Not rightly—that is to say, not if this is the Sullivan place.”

  I looked at Kara, and she raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

  “It is,” I replied. “Dangerous for you folk to be out at night. What business you got here?”

  The old woman paused. “Are you the Sullivan boy? The one who used to hunt these parts, looking out for the settlements?”

  I looked at Kara, who replied with another shrug. “I am.”

  “We got need for a hunter, mister.”

  “Shoulda sent for the militia, out east. There’s an outpost in Fredericksburg, you know.”

  She laughed, but her tone was devoid of humor. “We did. Said they don’t come out to these parts, outta respect. Said you told ’em to steer clear.”

  Kara chuckled. “Told you that would bite you in the ass.”

  “That you did,” I said softly. “What do you think?”

  “Other than being nervous about approaching you, as far as I can tell they’re not lying. Heart rates are more or less normal, and I don’t smell fear—only a bit of nervousness.”

  “Damn it,” I whispered. “What’s your situation, lady?” I shouted.

  The woman’s voice held a spark of hope that hadn’t been there before. “We got a rev’ that’s been harassing us real bad. Mean one, and crafty. Sent men after it, but they ain’t come back. We need help, mister.”

  “You got kids with you?”

  “Couldn’t very well leave them back home, could we? They’s hidin’ down the hill.”

  Kara laid a hand on my arm. “Scratch, you can’t turn them away.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “Fine,” I muttered. I stood and raised my voice again. “Y’all fetch those kids and come up to the house. You can get some hot food in you while I grab my gear.”