by Brandon Hale
“Are there toothpicks here?” Leo asked. “Where’s the kitchen?”
“I don’t think that’ll help us,” Lily said. “From what I’ve read, that only works in a few cases, with vampires that have completely lost it. But the house thing… they all seem to be affected by that.”
“But the rightful owners of this house are probably vampires now,” Leo said.
“Yeah,” Lily said.
“My house is just down the street,” Leo said. “If we go out a side window, I think we can get there without being seen. I’m technically the rightful owner now.”
“That’s true,” Lily said, still looking at her undead neighbors in the street. “But that doesn’t free these people from their condition.”
“Lily, no.”
“I don’t recommend shooting the crossbow,” Lily said. “They’ll be too close.”
“Lily, don’t be an idiot.”
“Instead, hang the crossbow over your back and hold a bolt in each hand. Remember, these are piercing weapons. Don’t slash because it’ll just break the bolt. Stab. Straight in, straight out and move on. And focus with every attack. The heart. Every time. Anywhere else is a miss, so don’t go stabbing wildly. Every attack has to be a planned attack.”
“Lily,” Leo said, “there are hundreds of them.”
“And it’s our responsibility to stop them,” Lily said. “Every damn one.” With a crossbow bolt in each hand and the crossbow on her back, she sprinted toward the vampires in the street.
“You know what?” Leo yelled as he followed her, “sometimes being your friend really sucks!”
***
The vampires attacked clumsily, as if they didn’t fully understand the power they possessed. This was good news for Lily and Leo. As soon as she stepped onto the street, they charged. Lily stabbed a bolt into the first one’s heart then quickly kicked it off with her foot, pulling the bolt free and sticking it in the chest of another vampire behind her.
Leo’s first two attacks were simultaneous. He pressed each of his bolts into the chests of two different vampires.
After the first four fell, the circle of monsters backed off a bit.
“They know they can take us,” Leo said, “but they also know we’ll take a few of them with us. I don’t think any of them wants to be the sacrifice so the others can feed.”
“Well,” Lily said, “I don’t plan on leaving that decision to them.” She moved swiftly but with purpose and control. The vampires fell almost comically fast. She had already dropped three more when Leo screamed. The urge to turn and look was strong, but Lily understood that could be a death sentence. She had to stay focused. “Leo, talk to me!”
“One of them bit me!” came Leo’s panicked reply. “Son of a bitch! I think it was Kenny Carson!”
“The dude who worked at the gas station?” Lily was surprised by her ability to yell at Leo and kill these things at the same time.
“Yeah,” Leo yelled. “I hated that guy! Last year, he took Jolene to the prom, and now he’s gone and bit me in the damn arm!”
“Did you kill him?”
“Yeah!”
Lily pulled her bolt from another vampire’s chest. “I guess that means you win!”
“Am I going to become one of them?”
“No, dumbass!” Lily yelled as she kicked a vampire back. “They have to drain you completely! I’ve explained that to you a dozen times!”
Leo drove his bolt into a vampire’s chest, but it didn’t die. Realizing he missed the heart, he jammed his second bolt right beside the first. He pulled both makeshift stakes out and the vampire fell. “You call me dumbass too much! It hurts my feelings!”
“We can’t keep this up!” Lily yelled. “They’re getting bolder and my mom is somewhere in this town!”
“I… agree.” Leo’s words were separated by gasping breaths. He was getting tired. “I don’t understand his plan. If he tied her up, how did he get these guys to focus on us and leave her alone?”
Lily laughed. “Leo, you’re a genius!”
“That’s better!”
“Come on!” Lily screamed. “I know where she is!”
***
They ran into the kitchen and slammed the door behind them.
“They’re not even trying to come in,” Leo said.
“That’s because they’re not invited.” Lily walked to the kitchen cabinet and pulled down a roll of paper towels. “Here.” She tossed them to Leo. “Wrap up that arm. It’s the best I got.”
Leo quickly wrapped the towels around his bloody arm, then pressed his hand against the kitchen window and extended his middle finger.
“Stop that,” Lily said.
Leo let his hand drop. “Why?” he grumbled. “This house either belongs to you or your mom. Either way, they aren’t getting an invite.”
Lily walked through the kitchen to the stairs that lead up to the family bedrooms. “They aren’t held out by some magic shield. It’s a kind of brain damage from their transformation. It’s in their heads. They psychologically can’t come in without an invite. You piss them off enough, they might be able to overcome it.”
“How do you know this stuff?”
Lily shook her head as she walked up the stairs. “How do you not know it? These guys have been a major part of the world since we were eight. This is stuff they start drilling into your head in the Night Creatures classes in the ninth damn grade.”
Leo followed her. “I had Mr. Hill for Night Creatures. It’s a well-known fact that Mr. Hill’s voice lulls you into a state of semi-consciousness almost immediately.”
They made it to the top of the stairs and walked down the hallway. The first room was Lily’s. It was empty. She moved on to the end of the hall.
Her parents’ door was closed.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Could mean they’re both still tied up,” Leo offered.
“Maybe,” Lily said as she crept toward the door. “Now is a good time for the crossbow.”
Leo pulled around the crossbow and pointed it at the door. “You’re covered.”
Lily pushed the door open.
“No,” she said, barely audible. “Oh, Mom.”
Beth was still tied to the chair, but she was no longer alive. Her body was covered with dozens of bite marks. In places, her body was missing large chunks of flesh.
The monster that used to be her father stood by the window. “Hello, kiddo.”
Leo aimed at Darren’s chest. “Just give the word.”
“No,” Lily said. “Not yet.” She wanted to just kill him without a word. That had been her plan, but something in his eyes made it very hard to follow through. She could feel him influencing her, and she was surprised at how hard it was to resist.
“I was about to turn her,” Darren said. “Even though it might kill me, I was gonna risk it.”
“Who invited you here,” Lily said.
Darren pointed at Beth. “She did.”
“It’s no longer her house.”
Darren shrugged. “If you want me to leave, just say so. I’ll leave, obviously, because I’ll have to. But I wish you’d hear me out. It’ll be too late to change her if you wait too long. We don’t have much time.”
Lily pulled the crossbow from her back and pointed it at the vampire. She refused to even think of it as her father.
“Listen, kiddo,” the vampire said. “It’s not like you think. I might look like a monster, but I’m not. I’m still in here. Lily, we can be together. All three of us. All four of us, if you want to bring Leonard. We can be a family again. Forever.”
Lily pulled the trigger of her crossbow.
The vampire crashed through the window and fell into the darkness beyond. The bolt had struck his heart. Lily was sure because she saw death in his eyes before he even hit the window.
&nbs
p; She walked to the window and looked down at the ground, just for confirmation. The vampire was down there, dead.
“I wanted to apologize to my father,” Lily said.
“Why didn’t you?” Leo asked.
“Because,” Lily replied, “my father wasn’t in the room.”
Leo put a hand on her shoulder. “Lily, I’m so sorry.”
She reached up and placed her hand over his. “I know, Leo. I’m sorry, too. About everything.”
“How many did you kill outside?”
Lily shrugged. “I’m not sure. Probably about twenty or so. If all vampires were as weak as these guys, the war would have ended in a day.”
“Yeah,” Leo said. “I got twelve myself.”
“You counted?”
Leo smiled. “Of course I counted. So that puts the total in the mid-thirties. Which means there are still hundreds of them out there.”
“I know.”
“Do you think they’ll eventually come inside?”
“No,” Lily said. “From everything I’ve studied, it takes years for them to overcome their psychosis. As long as we don’t goad them into coming, they’ll probably stay outside.”
“Then we can wait until morning,” Leo offered. “Let them hole up, then just drag them into the sun.”
Lily looked at them on the street. From there, they looked more like zombies than vampires. She wondered if both were actually the same thing, just separated through myth and fiction. “We could do that,” she said.
Leo sighed. “But we’re not going to, are we.”
It wasn’t a question.
Chapter 5
The Day Soldiers
The soldiers arrived shortly after dawn. It was a single black vehicle, kind of a mix between a jeep and a tank. Lily and Leo sat on the steps of the police station, watching the vehicle as it came to an eventual stop. Lily recognized it as a standard transport for Day Soldiers, developed specifically for the war.
The doors on the back of the vehicle opened and several soldiers jumped onto the street. It was a mix of men and women. They carried very high-tech looking rifles and wore the same uniform Bev had been wearing a million years ago.
Or was it yesterday?
To Lily, yesterday was a million years ago.
From the front of the vehicle, an older man stepped out. His gray hair was cropped short. His face was either extremely wrinkled or extremely scarred. Lily wasn’t sure which. Despite his apparent age, he looked very strong.
While the man – clearly the leader of this troop – was looking at the many dead vampires scattered throughout the town, one of the younger soldiers jogged up to him with an excited look on his face. “Commander, there are hundreds of them. All dead. Every one of em apparently staked. Staked, sir. By hand. What the hell?”
“How many human bodies?” the commander asked.
“None,” the young man answered, “that we can find.”
Still looking at the bodies, the commander said, “Burn em all.”
“Yes, sir.” The young man jogged toward the other soldiers. “Bonfire time!” he yelled.
“There are three human bodies,” Lily said in an exhausted voice. “We put them in the station.”
The soldier turned and looked at the blood-covered teenagers. “Looks like we missed the fun,” he said.
“Looks like,” Leo answered flatly.
Without looking up, Lily said, “Good morning, Commander. Welcome to Iveyton. Population: two.”
“The name’s Wallace,” the man said. “Commander Geoff Wallace. So... would one of you kids mind explaining to me what the hell happened here?”
***
Lily and Leo sat at her kitchen table while Commander Wallace tried to figure out her father’s coffee maker. They had come to Lily’s house because the commander wanted to get away from the stink of burning vampires. After they told him everything that had happened the night before, his immediate reply was that he needed a cup of coffee.
“I don’t get it,” he said as he pressed a blue button on the coffee maker. “I keep pushing the On button, but nothing’s happening. It’s got the coffee and the water. Why won’t it brew?”
“Daddy had some kind of timer on it,” Lily said. “I don’t know how it works.”
“Forget it,” Wallace groaned as he turned around. “I’m gonna be honest here. I’ve been with the Day Soldiers since it was created, and I’ve seen some crazy shit in this war. But I’ve never seen anything like what I saw out there this morning.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Lily said.
“I’m not talking about the bodies or the blood,” Wallace explained. “That’s commonplace nowadays. I’ve just never seen two people – of any age – take down almost a thousand bloodsuckers.”
“We covered this,” Leo said. “They were newborns. The oldest one wasn’t more than a few hours old.”
“I don’t care how old they were,” Wallace said. “Most soldiers go an entire tour of duty and don’t kill half that many vamps. But besides the physical aspects, I can’t believe you kids had the guts to do what you did.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” Lily said.
“Oh, you had a choice,” Wallace argued. “When Dennis left, you were free to go. You could’ve run. Most people would’ve run. But you didn’t. You stayed. You stayed and cleaned this town.”
“Is that what you people call it?” Lily said. “Cleaning a town? Because to me, nothing about what we did felt clean. We killed every person we’ve ever known. Every friend we’ve ever made. Family members who loved us and took care of us were rewarded for that love by having a wooden shaft driven through their hearts.”
“The kids were the worst.” Leo’s every word sounded like it was a test of his endurance just to say it out loud. “I thought killing my grandma was the worst thing I’d ever experience. But that changed in a few short hours… the little kids…” He took several deep breaths. “When we staked them, their screams didn’t sound evil or otherworldly. They just sounded like little kids. Dying little kids.”
Wallace put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “It’ll never get better, son. And it’ll never go away. The screams of those children will stay with you until the day you die.”
“Great,” Leo said.
“Just being honest,” Wallace said. “You two sacrificed yourselves to save the souls of the people you love.”
“We were the ones who put their souls in danger in the first place,” Lily said.
Wallace laughed. “Don’t buy the bullshit Dennis was selling. Mind games are just part of their battle strategy. Vampires came to this town and fed on you people. You stopped them.”
“Killing those vampires didn’t bring Dennis into this,” Leo said. “Phillip—”
“I’m gonna stop you right there,” Wallace said. “Phillip was the werewolf who led the attack on New York, all those years ago. He’s the reason the city fell to darkness. He was responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings. Millions. When you killed him, you saved more lives than you could ever count. And you made a significant impact on this war.”
“By killing one werewolf?” Lily asked.
“Yes,” Wallace said. “Phillip ruled most of the east coast. We’ve been trying to take him out since this war began. I have no doubt that he was in this area looking to build an attack force that could take Virginia Beach from the south. Personally, I find it hilarious that his death is the direct result of vampire stupidity.”
Lily was still overwhelmed by grief, but she could feel the guilt lesson, just a bit. “You’re saying they might think twice before moving this far into Virginia again.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Wallace said. “I’m sure they already know what happened here. Phillip came south and wound up dead. Then Dennis came here, turned an entire town into the undead, and every damn one of them wound up staked. Al
l without the help of the Day Soldiers. Kid, predators don’t enjoy hunting prey that can hurt em back. That trait is exclusively human.”
“Hell of a price to pay,” Leo said.
“Yes,” Wallace agreed. ”It is. Your town died to keep those things out of this part of the country. They’re heroes, every damn one.”
“Except,” Lily countered, “they didn’t sacrifice themselves. We sacrificed them.”
Wallace shook his head. “Answer one question. After they found out what you did, how did they react? Did the sheriff throw you in jail? Did your parents disown you?”
“No,” Lily whispered. “They were proud.”
“Even though they were probably terrified, they supported you.”
Lily thought of her mother. “Yes,” she said.
“They sacrificed their lives for a greater cause,” Wallace went on. “And you two sacrificed a hell of a lot more than that. The price was high but it wasn’t in vain. And the only question left is whether or not you want to continue making that sacrifice mean something.”
Lily looked into the commander’s eyes. “What are you saying?”
“From this day forward, every vampire and werewolf you kill will be the result of last night’s sacrifice. Each time one of those things falls at your hand, that sacrifice will have more meaning.”
Lily looked at Leo. She could see something new in his eyes. Something hopeful. The pain of her family’s death would never go away. She accepted that. But even the smallest hope that their deaths might have meaning was enough to push back her despair. She was sure Leo was feeling the same thing.
The next thing Leo said confirmed it. She could hear it in his voice. “You’re asking us to become Day Soldiers.”
Wallace laughed. “Son, you already are Day Soldiers. I just want to make it official.”
“I have a request,” Lily said. “It’s a big request, and I don’t even know if it’s within your power to make it happen.”
“Go on,” Wallace said.
“Dennis,” Lily said through clenched teeth.