by P. T. Hylton
“Welcome to Agartha,” Jaden said.
Owl laughed.
“What?” Alex said.
“Agartha is a mythological city at the center of the Earth,” Owl said.
“The impossible city,” Jaden said with a nod. “Let it never be said that we don’t have a sense of humor.”
Wesley groaned softly. His eyes were unfocused as he stared into the distance. Alex realized he hadn’t spoken since before the concrete door opened.
“Jaden, we gotta get this guy to medical,” Griffin said.
“Yes. Take him there, and I’ll show his friends the reactor control panel.”
Firefly looked at Alex. “If they take him to medical, I’m going with them.”
Alex didn’t like the idea of splitting up, but she wasn’t going to send Wesley off with these people by himself. She nodded.
Firefly followed Griffin and Daniel down the hallway. Jaden headed the opposite direction, Jessica, Owl, and Alex by his side.
They walked through the corridors in silence, Alex not wanting to give up any more information than she needed to. She knew she’d probably have to reveal more about New Haven at some point. Would they really give up priceless reactor control panel components without knowing exactly where they were going?
Jaden stayed silent, too, as they walked. Maybe he didn’t want to give up too much information, either.
They passed a handful of people. Most of them nodded a greeting to Jaden and looked warily at the visitors without speaking. Alex realized Jaden was probably taking them around the perimeter of the city, where they wouldn’t see too much, or come into contact with too many residents.
They reached an unmarked door in an unmarked hallway, and Jaden led them inside and to the reactor control panel. A round man with glasses sat in front of it. He looked up in surprise as they entered.
“Give us a minute, Hank?” Jaden said.
The man nodded and scurried out of the room, his eyes never leaving the strange women.
The control panel was smaller than the one they’d dismantled in Texas. In fact, it looked about the same size as the one on New Haven.
Jessica hurried through the room, stopping here and there to inspect parts of the control panel. “This is it,” she said in hushed excitement. “These are exactly the parts we need.”
“Excellent,” Jaden said.
“You’ll let us take them?” Alex asked.
“If it means saving lives. Our system is completely redundant, so we can live without the parts.”
Jessica looked up sharply. “This is the backup system?”
Jaden nodded.
Alex stepped forward and gently rested her hand on the control panel. Everything they’d been through had been to get to this moment. Simmons and Drew had given their lives to make this happen. Now, finally, their deaths were not in vain. She turned to Jessica. “You’re sure these parts will work?”
Jessica didn’t take her eyes off the control panel. “It’s the same era as ours. Same make, even. Yes, the parts will work.”
Alex’s eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t wait to tell CB. They’d done it. Though it had come at a terrible price, they’d accomplished their mission. New Haven was saved.
Epilogue
CB sat in the interrogation room, the arm that was not in a cast, cuffed to the D-hook on the table.
Despite Brian’s speculation to the contrary, they’d only waited in the cell for a little over an hour before five guards, each holding a baton at the ready, came for CB. They refused to answer any questions, just telling him that he was needed elsewhere. Then they’d stuck him in the interrogation room where he’d been waiting for the past fifteen minutes.
In the intervening time, CB had calmed down slightly. In the unlikely event that Alex, Drew, Firefly, Owl, Wesley, and Jessica were alive, he was their only chance of rescue. They needed him to be smart, to be cold and logical. The fury still burned in his chest with a fiery heat, but he’d managed to contain it. He promised himself he’d unleash it on those responsible for this madness eventually, but he knew that opportunity was probably a long way off.
The door to the room opened, and Councilman Fleming walked in, flanked by two guards carrying rifles. He wasn’t wearing the smug smile CB had expected. Instead, he looked tired. His face was lined with concern. He sank into the seat across from CB and got right to the point.
“I need your help, Captain.”
CB raised an eyebrow at that. He had no idea how to respond. He’d expected Fleming to be holding all the cards, that the councilman would make him beg and swear loyalty for the opportunity to save his team. Instead, Fleming was handing him a poker chip and inviting him to play an honest hand. CB didn’t trust himself to speak, so he just waited.
“First,” Fleming said, “I need you to know that I didn’t want any of this. I know you were close to Councilman Stearns and General Craig. Now Stearns is dead, and Craig is locked up awaiting trial, a fairer one than mine, I assure you.”
CB struggled to keep the emotion off his face.
“I take no pleasure in any of the deaths today any more than I would the death of an elderly relative, whose time has simply come. It was a sad necessity, one I worked hard to avoid.”
CB couldn’t let that comment stand. He leaned forward. “They didn’t pass away peacefully in the night. They were murdered. You and your people murdered them.”
Fleming nodded sadly. “I certainly understand your perspective, and I’m not going to try to convince you to change your mind. I’m hoping we can still work together.”
CB just waited.
“The guards tell me you’ve been screaming about your team. That they’re on a mission and need to be rescued.”
“That’s right.”
“I’m told they headed down to the United States. It’ll be dark there now. My understanding is that you’re strongly against Resettlement. That you say vampires at night would tear through any human settlement in a matter of hours.”
Who had told him that, CB wondered? “That’s right.”
“Then how is it you believe your team might still be alive?”
“They were headed for NORAD. Jessica Bowen says there’s a chance the facility would have held up against the infestation. If they got inside, it’s possible they could survive the night.”
“I see.” Fleming regarded CB for a long moment before speaking again. “I’d like you to put together a team for a rescue mission. You’ll have the full support of the government. Any people, any equipment, whatever you want. I’ll personally guarantee you use of any of the considerable tools at my disposal.”
CB suppressed the hope that was rising within him. There was a catch. There had to be a catch.
“All I need from you,” Fleming said, “is your word that you’ll continue to lead the GMT after the mission, whether you manage to rescue your team members or not. The GMT’s mission will be changing slightly. We’ll no longer be asking you to make trips to the surface to retrieve equipment. Instead, we’ll be sending you down to prepare the surface for Resettlement.”
There it was. The catch. To save his team, he was going to have to sell out his city.
“What do you say, Captain?”
CB considered for only a moment before responding. “I’m in.”
Jaden led them out of the reactor control room and up a winding set of stairs. Alex had a momentary flashback to the stairs in Texas. Jaden bounded up the steps, clearly unconcerned about any potential danger.
Alex exchanged a glance with Owl. She looked as worried as Alex was. The wave of happiness she’d felt at seeing the control panel had quickly subsided, leaving a gnawing sense of concern in its wake. Why were these people so forthcoming and so generous with their equipment? Was it possible they were simply so happy to see other humans that they blindly trusted them? And could people that naive have survived on the surface this long?
Six levels up, Jaden led them through the door and toward an ar
ea with a sign that read Observation Room.
“I want to show you something,” he said, and he darted through the door.
Alex followed, moving cautiously, her hand hovering inches from her pistol.
What she saw when she entered the room was so surprising that she momentarily forgot her concerns.
The room was long and thin, and one long wall was covered in large video monitors.
“Behold the city of Agartha,” Jaden said.
The video monitors showed crowded hallways of people bustling to and fro. It showed a large, open area of green, tree and flowers growing under an artificial light, children playing in the grass. It showed a vast cafeteria lined with countless tables, most of them filled with people eating their dinner off trays.
The lone man watching the monitors started to stand, but Jaden held up a hand. “It’s okay, Anthony. They’re friends.”
The man sat back down, but he kept a wary eye on the strangers.
Alex realized the screens didn’t just show the interior of the city. Night vision cameras showed vampires climbing the door at the north entrance, futilely pounding on the concrete. Three other monitors showed similar concrete doors. These were clear of vampires. Must be protected by more of those automated guns, Alex assumed.
“What is this place?” she muttered.
“I told you,” Jaden said. “It’s Agartha. It was an old military installation, and it was one of the last human strongholds during the third wave of the infestation. Those who survived, remained here. Over time, we grew the facility into something more.”
She looked at the monitor showing a child playing in the grass among the trees. “I can see that.”
“The city’s self-sustaining now. We’re about ten thousand humans strong.”
One-fourth the size of New Haven. And all living in this hidden city inside a mountain.
Owl scanned the monitors. “Do you ever leave? Go out into the world for supplies?”
“Not often,” Jaden said. “Like I said, we’re pretty self-sustaining here.”
Alex stared at the people eating, either unaware or unconcerned that they were being watched. How would New Haven react to the existence of this place? How would this place react to the existence of New Haven? Would they be allies or enemies?
“How’d you do it?” Alex asked. “How’d Agartha survive when everyone else died?”
“I could ask you the same question,” he said with a smile. “But I won’t. I can see you’re not ready to talk about it.”
She wasn’t going to argue with that. As long as he was willing to continue giving information while demanding none in return, she was willing to go with it.
“As for us,” he said, “this place provided most of the protection. It was built to withstand nuclear war, but it held up just as well against the creatures out there. And when additional protection is needed, they have us.”
“Us?” Alex asked. Something about the way he emphasized the word was strange. Like us was apart from the rest of the city.
“The defenders of Agartha. There are one hundred of us. We take care of the people on the rare occasion something gets past our defenses. And, to Owl’s point, we venture out into the world when we have to, gathering supplies by night.”
“By night?” Alex asked. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Jaden smiled. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? We’re vampires. The defenders of Agartha are the last one hundred true vampires, and we’re going to save humanity.”
The Savage Night
The Vampire World Book 2
1
Hope Briar hurried through the door of the Ground Mission Team headquarters, cursing with each step. She’d waited five years for this meeting, and now she was going to be late.
In her defense, she hadn’t expected Captain Brickman to call her in the middle of the night while she was working a double in Sparrow’s Ridge. Now, here she was, still in her badge’s uniform, headed to her first meeting with the GMT.
Her footsteps echoed loudly as she hurried across the hangar to the briefing room. When she reached it, she was unsurprised to see all three of her fellow GMT recruits already seated and waiting.
They were badges, just like her. And while they currently spent their days enforcing the law in the last human city, they all dreamed of getting the call to join the GMT.
Was it possible the time had finally come? And if it had, what did that mean for the current GMT? Where were Alex, Drew, Wesley, Owl, and Firefly?
Hope found a seat and sank into it, nodding a greeting to the other three. There were usually five backup GMT members at any given time, but Wesley had recently been called up to replace Simmons. That left the four of them.
The Barton brothers, Ed and Patrick, had been Sparrows Ridge legends since childhood for their eagerness to pick fights with anyone at any time. Then there was Chuck Williams, a thoughtful badge, who worked in the Hub.
“Okay, I’ve had it with this oppressive silence,” Patrick Barton said. “Who’s got a guess as to why they called us down here in the middle of the damn night?”
“There’s no need to guess,” Hope pointed out. “Calling all four of us at once? Something happened to the team.”
Patrick and Ed nodded, as if that confirmed their suspicions, but Chuck shifted uncomfortably in his seat at Hope’s words.
It had been a crazy few days in New Haven. First there had been the vote for Resettlement, a vote that had passed, only to be vetoed by the City Council. Then, there had been the freak explosion that had killed every member of the Council except Fleming, the one Council member who happened to be pro-Resettlement.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the explosion hadn’t been an accident.
“So, what happened to the team?” Ed asked. “I’ll bet they made a move against Fleming. They’re probably sitting in jail down at the Hub right now.”
Patrick shook his head. “No way. You think the soft desk jockeys they have stationed at the Hub could take down the GMT? Not a chance.” He glanced at Chuck. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Chuck answered. “And you’re right. If the GMT made a move against Fleming, we’d be talking about civil war.”
Hope grimaced. Not that long ago, the GMT had been above politics. It didn’t matter who you supported for City Council or what your political leanings were. The GMT was about gathering the resources people needed to survive, end of story.
That had all changed when Fleming took control of New Haven. There was no such thing as politically neutral anymore. Add to that the fact that Fleming’s central issue was resettling the Earth, and that put the GMT in the dead center of the political discussion.
“My guess is they’re just trying to get everyone in line with the new chain of command,” Patrick said. “Things are changing fast, and they have to make sure we’re on board.”
Ed raised an eyebrow. “In the middle of the night?”
Chuck rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “When Captain Brickman radioed me, he asked if I was comfortable flying the backup ship. On the way in, I noticed the main GMT ship isn’t in the hangar.”
That comment sobered the group, and they waited in silence for another two minutes until the briefing room door swung open. Captain Brickman and another man marched through the door. It took Hope a moment to identify the second man as Brian McElroy, the head of research and development for the GMT.
The recruits leapt to their feet and stood at attention. Brian shut the door behind him as CB moved to the front of the room.
CB motioned for them to sit. “Take it easy. We have a lot to discuss.”
A twinge of worry tingled the base of Hope’s spine at the sight of these two clearly weary men. Brian looked pretty rough, but CB looked twice as bad. His usually crisp uniform was a wrinkled mess, and he had heavy bags under his eyes. His right arm was in a cast. CB usually maintained the image of military excellence and discipline, but that day, he was falling far short
of the ideal.
When he spoke, Hope heard the edge in his voice.
“All right, let’s get to it. In seven hours, the four of you will be deployed on your first mission as members of the Ground Mission Team.”
He let that hang in the air a moment before continuing.
The energy in the room changed at CB’s words. Before, the recruits had suspected they were about to join the team, but now they knew. A strange combination of fear, excitement, and trepidation hung in the air.
CB continued, “And it’s going to be one hell of a first mission.” He tapped the screen in front of him, and the wall behind him came to life, displaying an aerial photograph. “This is an area formerly known as El Paso County, Colorado, in the United States. It was the home of NORAD, a military mountain facility our team believed could have the nuclear reactor components necessary to repair New Haven and keep her in the sky. The GMT was deployed to retrieve these parts yesterday morning. Their ship was shot down as they were landing.”
The recruits glanced at each other as they realized the implication of these words.
Hope raised a tentative hand. “Shot down, sir? By whom?”
CB met her gaze. “I’ll be honest with you. We don’t know. We also don’t know their current status. We believe…” CB paused, then corrected himself. “We think there’s a chance the team could have made it to the NORAD facility, and it’s possible they survived the night. Your mission will be to locate the downed ship and track the team from the crash site. We’re going to find them and bring them home.”
He gestured to Brian. “This is Brian McElroy. If you don’t know him, you’re going to want to rectify that situation. He and his team create the gear that keeps us alive down there. He’ll be outfitting all of you prior to departure. Questions?”
After a long moment, Chuck raised a hand. “Sir, I don’t know a polite way to ask this, so I’m just going to spit it out. With the City Council gone and General Craig locked up, who does the team report to? Above you, I mean.”