Dead by Dawn

by Wellman, Bret

  She tossed Matt to the side and he fell to the ground with a dilapidated skull. Blood dripped from the corners of his eyes and a crack in the back of his head.

  It pissed Joe off that she was doing what he wanted to do, but at least Matt got what was coming to him.

  The vampire’s eyes fell past Joe. “Ambrogio,” she said.

  Joe caught movement out of the corner of his eye and tried to turn, but it was too late. The vampire was on him.

  He felt the cold hard bite of fangs on his neck and his knees went weak. The world faded out of focus as his life was sucked away. A dark cloud enveloped his mind. It was so hard to think. He couldn’t even come to the full realization that the vampire was feeding from him.

  Joe pulled the wooden stake from his belt and thrust the tiny weapon backwards and up. The vampire was standing slightly to one side, giving him the perfect angle.

  The vampire lifted its head and gasped.

  “No!” cried the female.

  Joe used the new separation to drive the stake home. He could feel a cold liquid pouring out of the wound and onto his hand.

  The vampire bit down again, and this time Joe felt fire shoot into his veins. His vision went white from the pain.

  The vampire dropped, and Joe stumbled forward. He continued on until he hit the wall. There he sank to the ground.

  The fire was spreading from his neck, down his right arm.

  Joe used what little strength he had left to prop himself up against the wall.

  Matt’s gun wasn’t very far away. He reached out and took it, holding it in his lap.

  The female vampire was on her knees, leaning over her master. The stake in his chest had turned black. The vampire’s skin was shriveling. Wrinkles appeared and grew until they covered its entire body. It wasn’t long before the vampire began to look like a giant raisin.

  The fire inside Joe was moving to his chest and down to his lower leg. His skin broke out in a cold sweat.

  The female vampire stood up and faced him. Her expression was stoic, she might as well have been carved out of marble.

  “You think you’re so clever human, but you’ve accomplished nothing,” She growled, flashing every bit of her fangs.

  Joe lifted his head to meet her gaze. He knew the little pistol in his lap wouldn’t do much, but he was preparing to shoot her in the face anyways. Just one last act of defiance before he passed out.

  “He’s not dead you know. I can feel his presence, he’s still here.” She turned her head to the side and examined the bite mark on Joe’s neck. “He put himself inside of you.”

  “Bullshit,” Joe managed.

  “Yes, he put his life force inside of you, and soon you will become him!” The vampire’s glare turned into a wicked grin. “He will still lead us, through you.”

  Joe lifted the pistol, but instead of pointing it at her pressed it against his own temple.

  “Good to know.”

  The vampire’s eyes went wide, the smile on her face dropped. “No!”

  Joe pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 46

  Sarah let out a scream that surprised even her as it left her lips. She couldn’t help it, she thought they were going to crash.

  Technically they did crash, it just wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be.

  There were two cars nosed together in the center of the road. In their current situation, Adam couldn’t afford to slow down and go around, so he punched it through the middle.

  Their car jerked and Sarah felt the seat belt grab her. The other two cars flew apart. Adam did his best to keep his foot on the gas, fighting the violent impact. The car fishtailed, wanting to lose control. Adam went red faced as he fought to keep them from spinning out. They went a good twenty feet before he brought the car under control again.

  Debris from the grill bounced across the hood before falling to the ground and disappearing behind them. The front right headlight was broken and dangled by an electrical wire. Surprisingly enough, the left headlight survived the impact and was still shining.

  They were quickly regaining the speed they had lost however, so the gamble was paying off.

  Sarah looked through the back window. Hundreds of vampires were jumping over the two cars, all of them sprinting to catch up.

  Sarah’s heart was hammering. She thought it might explode if it beat any harder.

  The vampires were fast. They couldn’t get any separation in the obstacle ridden streets of Washington D.C. Every time Sarah looked back, the sea of claws and fangs was right behind them.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  Adam jerked the steering wheel as a vampire dove at them from the sidewalk. The vampire missed by a few feet and quickly joined the others in pursuit.

  “We keep going,” said Adam. “I’m not giving them the satisfaction of an easy meal.”

  He had to swerve around an abandoned truck, slowing the car down to thirty miles an hour to do so. Another vampire was waiting for them on the other side. It leapt at the front of the car.

  The impact smashed the remaining headlight and the scene went dark. The vampire fell partway below the front bumper of the car, managing to dig its claws into the hood and hold on.

  Adam was once again gaining speed, but now the vampire was climbing up.

  It moved slow, piercing one hand through the hood at a time. It pulled itself farther before digging in with the other hand. Each time, the hood gave way to its claws.

  Adam attempted to knock it off by swerving, but it wouldn’t let go.

  It was up past its chest and attempting to get a footing.

  Sarah rolled down her window and stuck out the pistol Keith had given her.

  She fired three shots, the first missed, but the other two struck him in the cheek and forehead.

  The vampire lost its grip and slid backwards. A few seconds later, the car was bouncing over its body. It felt so violent, Sarah thought the wheels might fall off. They could feel the heavy impact both times the vampire passed under each tire.

  “Thank you,” said Adam.

  A quarter mile ahead of them the road came to a dead end. There was a cross street they had to turn on that ran parallel to the red brick building that stood directly in front of them. If they continued going straight, they would end up somewhere in the building’s lobby. If they were going to change directions, they were going to have to slow down enough to make a ninety-degree turn. They couldn’t afford to lose that much speed less the vampires catch up.

  “This is gonna be tight,” said Adam.

  He kept the gas pedal on the floor until they were thirty feet from where they needed to turn. When the time came he started the turn and hit the brakes. The car slid sideways, almost coming up on two wheels. Its tires screeched into the night and Sarah was thrown against the door.

  They made the turn, but the car’s speed was drastically reduced.

  Four vampires took the opportunity to dive from the shadows and latch on. As far as Sarah could tell there were two on the hood, one on the trunk, and one clinging to the back door on the driver’s side.

  The fourth vampire busted out the back window and dug its claws into the interior of the door. Sarah shot it in the shoulder twice, but it refused to let go. The vampire on the trunk managed to climb its way onto the ceiling. Its claws stabbed through the roof, just above their heads. They could hear a horrible ripping as each clawed finger punched through.

  Sarah sank low in her seat.

  The two vampires on the hood were climbing high enough to block Adam’s view of the road. One of them punched at him and the front windshield split into a spiderweb of cracks. On the second punch, the safety glass buckled inward.

  Sarah emptied the rest of her pistol through the front windshield, though she couldn’t see her targets clearly. Whether she hit them or not she wasn’t sure, they were still on the hood.

  There was an old Camaro parked on the side of the road. If Adam could have seen where he was going he wou
ld have noticed that he was drifting towards it. A simple course correction would have been enough to avoid the accident. Unfortunately, Adam could not see.

  They clipped the Camaro’s bumper, which turned Adam’s car sideways and caused it to flip. The vampires clinging to the door and roof were smashed. The other two were thrown forty feet, before the car promptly caught up and smashed them as well.

  Adam and Sarah were both clinging on for dear life. Shattered glass and debris flew around them as the car continued to flip down the road.

  Sarah struggled to grab hold of anything, but couldn’t get a grip in the shifting orientation. Gravity seemed to be pulling her in every direction all at once.

  When the car finally stopped, it slid upside down into a telephone pole. The impact jarred her knee against the glove box.

  Sarah opened her blurry eyes, feeling the seat belt pressing the air out of her lungs. Her hair dangled down toward the ceiling, along with her arms.

  “You alright?” asked Adam, she could hear the strain in his voice.

  “Vampires,” she said.

  She was looking just outside his window, where one of the smashed vampires was attempting to crawl towards them. Its left leg was missing at the hip, the other from the knee. The bone was sticking out of its left arm and road rash had torn away most of its skin. It was attempting to pull itself towards them with its right arm. With all the damage, it looked more like a zombie than a vampire.

  Beyond it, she could see hundreds of legs sprinting through the street towards her. The vampire mob would be on top of them in moments.

  Sarah clicked the seat belt and fell sprawling onto the ceiling, which was now the floor. She had a cut on her elbow that trickled a ribbon of blood down to her hand. Her pistol was nowhere to be found, but Adam’s single barrel shotgun was laying a few feet away from her.

  Adam unbuckled himself and came crashing down next to her. He grabbed the shotgun and cocked it.

  When the nearest vampire reached them, he shot it in the chest. The vampire stumbled back from the force. Adam retreated away from the door.

  It felt as though the other vampires all hit the car at once. The force of them was so heavy that for a moment the car was lifted off the ground. The telephone pole creaked against the new weight.

  Adam shot any vampire that got low enough to crawl through the window. It wasn’t ten seconds before he was out of bullets. After that he attempted to use the gun as a club. The vampires quickly ripped it away.

  Sarah let out a powerful scream as a vampire came through the opposite window and grabbed her. She was yanked onto her back and staring up at it.

  The vampire flashed its fangs and lunged.

  The vampire would never get to taste her blood however, because it missed. Instead of coming down on her neck, its entire body fell across her. Instead of continuing its attack, it grabbed the sides of its head and began to scream.

  Sarah attempted to push it off of her, though she didn’t have to. The vampire quickly retreated from the car.

  The other vampires were all screaming as well. The vibrations made her head buzz.

  Some of them fell to the ground, others bent over.

  They began to run back the way they had come. It was just a few at first, but eventually the entire crowd began to move. The last of them staggered away as if they were drunk.

  The zombie-like vampire on the ground switched its direction as well and began pulling itself with one arm away from them.

  Adam laid his head back on the ground and took a deep breath. “It’s working.”

  “Did they kill the leader?” asked Sarah.

  “I don’t know. I hope so, but it feels too good to be true.”

  He looked up at her, a strange expression on his face.

  “What is it?” She asked.

  Adam grabbed her neck and gently pulled her in. The next thing she new, their lips were touching. She embraced the kiss, feeling how soft their lips felt together. She let it wash away her surroundings and for one peaceful moment she was in heaven.

  When he pulled away the night came flooding back around her.

  Sarah let her head rest against the glass covered floor. With the immediate threat of death gone, she was able to observe every little knick and pain in her body. Her knee was throbbing and she was pretty sure she was cut in a million places.

  “What was that for?” She asked.

  “I told you I was going to do that when this was all over,” he hesitated. “And if we’re going to die, I don’t want to spend the rest of eternity knowing I never kissed you.”

  Sarah felt herself smile even though she was in so much pain. “Good, I didn’t want to spend eternity that way either.”

  There was a blanket on the ground ten feet outside of the car. It must have flown free of the back seat during the accident. Adam crawled out and grabbed it, then returned. He draped it over them and they huddled underneath.

  The echo of screams still filled the street. Some were moving towards the White House, others were coming from the opposite direction and moving closer.

  One of the screamers turned a corner onto their street. It came straight at them flailing its arms and brandishing its fangs. Adam grabbed Sarah and moved to block the vampire’s path. It proved unnecessary when the vampire went by without paying them so much as a second glance.

  Adam sank back and let out an exhausted sigh.

  They decided the safest thing to do was to wait the night out under the car. It seemed stupid to climb out of the car during the night and tempt any vampire that might otherwise pass. Every few minutes a vampire or two would go running by. They assumed the worst for Joe and the others.

  It must be hell at the other end of this stampede, thought Sarah.

  They lay there for hours, shivering even though it was warm out. Neither of them spoke, they were too exposed. Instead they breathed in hitching breaths, waiting for the moment when they would be discovered by a sane vampire and killed.

  When the sun finally began to rise the vampires were still out. It was in the early dawn of morning when they saw the first of them die.

  It was still running towards the White House, only the sun had touched it. The vampire was engulfed in flames: a shooting star racing across the land.

  Sarah climbed out of the car to find similar fires happening farther down the road. None of the vampires seemed to care that they were burning to death. They just ran.

  Sarah’s back was stiff, along with her arms. The pain in her knee forced her to limp. The car accident was rougher on her body than she’d thought.

  “Come on,” said Adam. “Let’s get back to the others.”

  “You don’t think they survived, do you? I mean you saw all those vampires rushing towards them?”

  “We owe it to them to check.”

  Sarah rubbed her eyes, then agreed. If there was any chance that their friends had survived, they needed to know.

  They began walking. Her knee loosened up with each stride, making her limp less prominent.

  They were miserable. Their lack of sleep was obvious. They shuffled along yawning, their eyes fighting to close. Sarah wished they could break into the nearest building and crash on the couch.

  As the morning passed by, the sun continued to rise in the sky. Sarah’s thoughts passed from where they would find sleep to where they would find breakfast. Her stomach was growling.

  They had walked more than four miles when they spotted a Jeep. It was far off in the distance at first, but coming in fast. From what they could tell it was black with no top.

  Sarah and Adam debated hiding, but decided it was already too late. If the jeep hadn’t spotted them by the time they had spotted it, they definitely had by now.

  Sarah didn’t know what to expect as it got closer and wished she had a weapon.

  When the Jeep pulled up beside them, they were surprised to see a young family inside.

  The dark haired man behind the wheel looked to be in his thirties, w
earing an army uniform. His wife was a similar age, with long blonde hair, wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt.

  The two toddlers in the back could have been mirror images of their parents.

  “Are you two alright?” the man asked.

  “I guess,” said Adam.

  “You need a ride? It’s not safe to be on foot.”

  The woman dug around and came up holding a couple water bottles. “Here, you look like you’ve had a long night.”

  “Most nights are long these days,” said Sarah, taking the water. “But thank you.”

  “Are you heading to the White House, did you get the text as well?” said the man. “You’re welcome to tag along if you want.”

  Sarah and Adam hesitated, glancing at one another. Sarah shrugged.

  “The text came through the other night,” said Adam. “We’d appreciate that a lot.”

  “Are you two alright? You look pretty banged up,” asked the woman when they were climbing in.

  The little boy and girl both dove into their mom’s lap when they saw Adam and Sarah climbing in. They peeked at them through the cracks in the seat.

  “We got in a car accident,” said Sarah. “Our companions should already be at the White House, we think they killed the head vampire last night.”

  “Already?” asked the man.

  “That’s what we’re going there to see.”

  Adam gave Sarah’s hand a squeeze that she returned in kind.

  The Jeep went slow, swerving around piles of ash and burning bodies. The mother held her hands over her children's eyes.

  With every mile the ashen bodies grew thicker, and Sarah’s hopes for her friends sank.

  Chapter 47

  It was all covered in ash. No surfaces were spared. It looked as though a volcano had gone off. Washington D.C. had been turned into Pompeii overnight. Ash covered the roofs and windowsills, and hung on fences and filled cracks. The ground looked as though it were covered in black snow that refused to melt.

  The Jeep they were in carved tire tracks right through the center of it.