by P. T. Hylton
“He woke up.”
Less than five minutes later, Alex stood in the hangar area just inside the door to the outside world. Though the vampires had only been awake a few minutes, they were already moving with purpose, every one of them knowing his or her job and doing it without being told.
Jaden stood near the front, huddled together with George and Robert, going over some final details. Alex shoehorned in between George and Jaden.
“How many are you taking with you?” she asked.
Jaden shot her an annoyed glance. “Alex, you’re going to have to trust—”
“I did trust,” she snapped. “I kept my team inside all day when it was the last thing any of us wanted. All because you said you and your team could handle recovering the ship better. I think that’s as much trust as anyone should be required to have, and I don’t think a few details is too much to ask.”
Robert chuckled. “Have I mentioned that I like her, Jaden? Maybe we should bring her along.”
A spark of hope kindled in Alex’s chest for just a moment.
“Sure, and have the smell of a human attracting every Feral within a hundred miles of here?” Jaden countered. “I don’t think so.” He turned to Alex. “I’m taking fourteen other vampires with me. We’ll be using a ramming truck to clear the road and a flatbed big enough to carry the away ship. I’m confident we can get there and back in plenty of time. What I don’t know is how long it will take us to load up the away ship, so I want to get moving ASAP.”
Alex started at him blankly. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“ASAP. You said you want to get moving ASAP.”
Jaden looked at her a moment, confused. Then he burst out laughing. “I’m sorry. You don’t use the term ASAP in New Haven?”
“Apparently not.” Alex was far less amused by this conversation than he was.
“It’s an acronym,” George interjected. “It means ‘as soon as possible.’”
“Ah.” She glared at Jaden, who was still laughing.
“It was a pretty common one in the days before infestation,” Jaden said with a chuckle. “I wonder why your people let it die off.”
Alex frowned. “Yeah, well, I can’t help you there. But I would appreciate it if you got ASAP out of here so I could have my ship back.”
That set Jaden off laughing again, even harder than before. “I’m sorry, Alex,” he managed between laughs. “You really are quite entertaining. I’ll get your ship back here as soon as I can.”
Alex allowed herself a slight smile. “Good luck out there. I’ll see you ASAP.”
Jaden let out one last laugh and clapped her on the shoulder. “Very good. That was almost correct.”
Firefly woke in terror, darkness and icy cold surrounding him. And something else pulsating through his very bones: hunger.
It took a moment before it all came back, and when it did, he wanted nothing more than to lie there under the snow until his mind left him and he went Feral. But he couldn’t do that, because under the hunger was an even more urgent need: his masters were calling him.
His fingers tore through the snow like lightning-quick shovels, and he burst forth into the darkness of the evening. As he landed, he ran, racing toward his masters. He found them at the top of a frozen pile of Feral corpses, looking down on the gates of Agartha.
Mark glanced at him when he arrived. “Took you long enough. Next time we call you, be faster.”
Firefly felt himself nod. From the moment he’d opened his eyes until he’d arrived at their side couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds. He didn’t know how it would be possible to arrive any faster. Yet, they’d given him an order, and he would have to obey it even if it meant pushing his body beyond the point of injury.
Aaron clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s a big night. Are you ready?”
He answered honestly, the only way he could answer his masters. “I don’t know.”
Aaron chuckled. “Well, you’d better figure it out real quick, because we’re going to be fighting Jaden’s vampires in a couple hours, and these dudes do not play.”
Mark gestured toward the outer doors of Agartha. “Based on what we saw when we were living in the city, the patrols started about two hours after sundown. Maybe slightly earlier if Jaden and his disciples were headed out on a large supply run. Either way, we want to make sure we’re ready to attack the moment one of them sticks their head out that door.”
Aaron nodded. “We’ve got the snipers in position, but we need to make sure they’re ready. And that everyone’s in the ideal location.”
Firefly nodded, not understanding what any of this had to do with them.
Mark grunted. “Okay, look, what we’re trying to say here is that even though we are incredibly powerful vampires, we don’t have a lot of experience in the military arena. Aaron was a mechanic or something, right?”
“And as far as I can tell, Mark was just a nerd,” Aaron replied.
Mark shot him a look. “Point is, we haven’t done this sort of thing before. I guarantee Jaden has. That’s why we need your expertise. You were a captain, right?”
Firefly nodded briskly, not much liking the were in that sentence.
Mark chuckled. “You want to call yourself a captain, or even a general, that’s fine with us. As long as you do your job. Help us set up this attack so it’ll get the job done. Coordinate the troops. Make this work.”
Firefly wanted nothing more than to refuse, but he knew he had no choice. Still, maybe he could leverage this situation. Ask questions that would help him better plan the attack, thus fulfilling orders, but also gather information that could be used later.
“Of course. But why do you need me to coordinate the troops? Can’t you just do that mental orders thing like you did to wake me up and tell me to come here?”
Mark shrugged. “It doesn’t work like that. We can send simple messages, like danger or come. But for something this complex, I have a feeling we're going to want an actual voice on the radio.”
“Got it,” Firefly said. His mind was already racing, knowing this information could be used against them. If he could somehow get in a situation where Mark and Aaron were at a distance and a simple command wouldn’t do, he might be able to—
“What that hell?” Aaron muttered. He squinted as he stared at the outer doors to Agartha.
Firefly followed his gaze and was surprised to see the doors were opening.
“Well, isn’t this interesting,” Mark said. “Looks like this thing is going down a little sooner than we’d expected.”
When the doors were halfway open, a heavily armored truck burst through the opening and sped down the snowy trail. A second truck, this one with a massive flatbed and a boom arm mounted on it, quickly followed.
Though the trucks were a good three hundred yards away, Firefly was surprised to see he could easily make out who was sitting in the cab of the first truck. Robert was driving and Jaden was riding in the passenger seat.
Mark must have seen the same thing Firefly did, because he said, “Oh, hell yeah. Let’s light ‘em up.”
Aaron waited a moment before answering, “I don’t think so.”
Mark turned to his partner, clearly annoyed. “Are you serious? We could surround those trucks and take them down in five minutes. We’ll never have a better opportunity.”
Aaron gestured toward the vehicles. “Those trucks are headed to pick up something. Something big. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know what that something is.”
Mark thought about that a moment. “Fine. We follow them wherever they’re going. We check out their prize. Then we take them out.” He turned to Firefly. “Gather the troops. Let them know to follow, but at a distance. We’re moving out.”
8
The truck sped along the disused road, its massive six-foot tires rumbling over the uneven terrain.
As much as he preferred to run on these nightly excursions, Jaden had to admit traveling by truck
had a certain allure. If he closed his eyes, he could almost forget the world had gone to hell. Almost.
Robert kept his eyes on the road as he drove. “Remember these roads in the old days?”
“Yeah,” Jaden replied. He’d spent significant time in these mountains in the pre-infestation era. Back then, it had seemed civilization was crowding in, threatening to drive the last ounce of wildness from humanity. He’d assumed the wildness would continue diminishing. How wrong he’d been. A few short years after he’d had those thoughts, wildness had been all that was left. “Back in those days, there were far fewer potholes.” He gestured toward the road ahead of them. “And fewer obstacles.”
While they’d made great progress on their journey thus far, they’d seen far more Ferals then they usually would on this remote road. And all of them were moving toward Agartha. One of them stood in the road as their truck approached, sniffing the air. It paused a moment, then took off running toward the mountain city.
A few vampires had even jumped onto the truck, probably drawn by the lingering smell of George and the human mechanics who’d worked on it that day. Jaden and his vampires hadn’t bothered engaging them; as soon as the Ferals realized there were no humans aboard, they jumped off.
“You know, I feel sorry for them,” Robert said, staring at the Ferals gathering on the road. “To think that there are real people trapped inside those creatures. I kinda wish we’d never met Aaron and Mark.”
Jaden watched one of the Ferals flinch as it caught the smell of humans and trot toward the trucks. “Their human minds are gone. They’re no different than animals. It’s just if they feed that their human minds will return. Then they’ll realize what they’ve been through and their horror will begin. For now, they’re just creatures operating on instinct.”
“Maybe so,” Robert said. “Seems like a fine line.”
They sat in silence for a few moments before Jaden spoke again. “The real problem is their immortality. If they would eventually die, humanity could start over. Maybe even make a world better than the old one. No countries. No preconceived prejudices. Enough resources to keep every human living in abundance for generations.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, we’re still prisoners of the sins of the past.”
Robert looked at him like he wanted to say something, then he paused.
Jaden didn’t press. He knew that most vampires didn’t like talking about the past much, himself included. Instead, Robert brought up the future.
“So is this how it’s going to be from now on? We just live in a hole in a mountain for the rest of time?”
“You know it’s not.”
“Good. Because I could do another one hundred and fifty years. Probably even three hundred. But there’s a limit to how long I can live like that. I want to keep the humans alive as much as you do, but at some point we have to start thinking about the next adventure.”
Jaden nodded, then gestured to the road beyond the windshield. “My friend, we are on our way to recover an aircraft for a city we didn’t know still existed until a month ago. We made new friends, and there’s a chance we’ll get to see their city in the sky. We are on the next adventure.”
Robert chuckled. “You know something? You’re right. These recent events are what made me realize how stale things have gotten in Agartha.”
Jaden couldn’t disagree with that sentiment. “Tell you what. Let’s get through tonight’s adventure, and then we’ll start planning the next one.”
As the trucks reached the edges of the ruins that had once been a sprawling metropolis, the number of Ferals taking an interest in them began to grow. At first, a few dozen ran along beside the trucks, then that number grew to a hundred. Then two hundred.
Even more watched from a distance, their eyes peering out from behind rubble and through broken windows. It seemed every Feral in Denver was agitated tonight, and hordes watched the truck of vampires, confused by the conflicting smells of lingering humanity and the undead occupants.
Firefly ran.
He’d run before, of course. Plenty of times. He’d run for exercise and as a way to relieve stress. He’d run as part of his GMT training, often with CB close on his heels, barking at him to go faster. He’d ran during missions, both to fights and away from them.
But he’d never run like this. He ran like his body had been designed for this very purpose. His legs pushed hard, each step sending him surging forward through the cold Colorado night and sending a delicious rush of pleasure through him.
He must have been going thirty miles an hour, and he knew he could have ran faster if he’d needed to. But he had his orders. He was to follow the Agartha trucks at a distance, so that’s what he did.
As he ran, he looked around, taking in the night. Even though it was full dark and there was only a sliver of moonlight, he felt like he took in more detail with every glance than he had in his entire human life.
It was strange; back when he was human, he’d thought of vampires as undead. Something less than alive. But that wasn’t the way it felt now. Every fiber of his being practically vibrated with sensations. The air hummed with an electric buzz he’d never noticed as a human. And the colors! Even in the darkness, he was noticing shades his human eyes had never seen.
But the unpleasant sensations were just as powerful as the pleasant ones. The hunger was growing stronger. He felt like he hadn’t eaten in days, but when he thought about his favorite foods, his stomach turned. Picturing himself biting into an apple or sipping a cold beer was nearly enough to make him vomit.
His body knew what it wanted.
Firefly believed that when the time came he’d be able to resist biting a human even though it would require every bit of self-control he had in him. He wouldn’t allow himself to hurt anyone else.
But it wasn’t really his choice, was it?
He wasn’t in control of his own body. Mark and Aaron were.
He’d considered circling back to Agartha and warning them about the vampires surrounding their city, but his mind had immediately rejected the treasonous thought. He’d thought about killing his fellow Resettlers and then himself, but his hand wouldn’t even draw the weapon, knowing his intention was to betray his masters.
His will was not his own, and as wondrous as some of the new sensations were, the horror of this knowledge outweighed everything else.
Firefly looked over his shoulder and saw the soldiers running behind him. They’d believed in him and followed him to Fort Stearns. Now they were following him again, and who knew if the results would be just as disastrous.
He was a slave, and so were they. As long as Mark and Aaron lived, Firefly would kill the people he loved and destroy everything he held dear on their slightest whim.
He needed to find a way out.
But for now, he ran.
9
Robert pulled the truck to a stop about a block away from the location Owl had given them for the away ship. “Gee,” he said, “do you think they can smell the human scent on the away ship?”
“I think that’s a fair guess.” Jaden’s eyes scanned the massive horde of Ferals in front of them. The creatures filled the streets, standing shoulder to shoulder. Getting past them would be impossible without causing a serious disturbance. And if they wanted to get to the away ship, they had to get past the Ferals.
“This is bad,” Robert said. “If we set them off, we’re in serious trouble.”
Jaden nodded. Ferals generally left the vampires alone, but if they felt threatened or if they felt a food source was in danger, they wouldn’t hesitate to attack. And the way they were surrounding the away ship, they had to feel it was a food source.
“Do they think there are humans on that ship?” Robert asked. “Or are they just hoping the humans will come back?”
Jaden considered that a moment. “I’m not sure their level of thought goes that deep. They smell a strong human scent, so they gather. The human smell means the potential for food.”
“Ouc
h. This could get ugly.”
Jaden turned and called into the back of the transport. “Igor, Natalie. I need you two to scout ahead. Find out if this is as bad as it looks.”
“On it, Jaden,” Igor answered.
The two vampires leaped out of the truck and scampered up the side of the nearest building. When they reached the top, they leaped to the next one. And then the next. They vaulted from building to building, high above the Ferals. Finally, they paused, watching the streets below.
Jaden followed their progress with his eyes. Even after all these years, he still occasionally marveled at the grace and beauty in the movements of his fellow vampires. He supposed it was like living with an exceptional piece of art. You might grow accustomed to it, but it still had the power to bowl you over now and again.
A few of the Ferals glanced up at the vampires on the building, clearly aware of their presence but not bothered by it.
A moment later, Igor and Natalie made their way back to the transport.
“They’re packed in tight all the way to the ship,” Natalie reported. “They’re all over the ship itself, too. If I hadn’t known it was there, I might have thought they were standing on a hill or something. Not one inch of the damn thing is visible.”
Jaden thought a moment, considering how best to proceed. They needed to get some of these Ferals out of here, but they needed to do it in a way that didn’t cause a massive riot of the undead.
“I need you two to do something else.” Jaden gave Igor and Natalie their instructions. They grabbed two sniper rifles out of the back and went to work, climbing to their position near the top of a building east of the transport. Then they fired.
The first shot struck a Feral in the shoulder. It wasn’t a killing blow, but it certainly got the attention of the Ferals gathered around the target. The next shot took a Feral’s arm clean off.
By the third shot, Natalie and Igor had the Ferals’ full attention. The undead horde surged toward the sound of the gunfire, and Natalie and Igor took the signal to get the hell out of there. They leaped down onto the street and took off running east, away from the ship and the transport.