Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  “Babes, we need to find a way to stop those things before the sun goes down.” he pointed down at the motorcade. “Do you remember what Elsie said?”

  “Yeah, something about this was their town?”

  He nodded. “There are two clans here, Katy. We already know that. At first, I thought those bastards would start fighting again, right here, in this town.” He watched a dark blue van at the front, slow down then turn, driving into an open field. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “How can you be so sure, Cade?”

  The other vehicles followed the van into the field. He stood up and saw that the other lane beyond this field was already packed with cars. “The Swarmers are not as strong as the Deathgazers,” he said, remembering the images that flowed through his mind while he was by that ancient pit, last night.

  As closed his eyes and felt his mind slipping back. The ground beneath his feet lost cohesion. He stumbled and fell. Cade’s eyes snapped open and he saw that a dozen wooden houses, built in a rough circle, had replaced the cultivated English countryside. He spun around, trying not to slip again and saw that Katy was no longer with him.

  What was wrong with his body? Cade had a mild nauseous ache, nibbling at the pit of his stomach, but apart from that, Cade felt most chilled out. He could wrap his head around it, hell, his emotions should be spinning like clothes in a washing machine.

  As he turned away from the ramshackle buildings, Cade discovered that he wasn’t alone. There were a group of men, women and a few children, stood, around a large black stone. They were motionless and mute. Curiosity got the better of him and he stepped out of the muddy puddle, sighing when he saw the state of his trainers.

  Cade approached the group, noticing that none or them seemed the least bit interested in his presence. Unlike him, the people were all dressed in similar rough woven clothing. They all looked as though they’d stepped out of the middle ages. Beyond them, he saw a large barricade, built from tree trunks encircling the area.

  Where the hell was he? Cade still found it hard to understand why he felt little emotion, unless this was just a dream? That could explain it. Perhaps this is where Katy had come to before he woke her up. It would explain why the people hadn’t seen him. He walked up to the nearest one, a young woman, about the same age as him. To try out his theory, he placed his hand upon her should.

  He let out a yelp of surprise when the woman turned and placed her own hand on his. Cade’s emotions then hit him with the intensity of a speeding truck when she turned around and he gazed into the young face of his mother.

  “Thank you, Dalain,” she said, giving him a tired smile. “I did not doubt you. I knew you would not shirk from your responsibilities.” She pushed him forward and pressed him back against the black stone. “The elder will see what you have done, this harvest eve as a sign that we are the ones for the Powers to favour.”

  Cade looked at the sallow faces of the assembled people, trying to make sense of her words. The rest of the people had still not spoken. Then, like at the command of some hidden signal, they all looked up to the top of the large stone. He followed their gazer and saw, to his horror, that these savages had manacled a young girl to the surface. From here, he could see the blood pooling beside her mouth. He staggered back, pushing his way out of the circle. As he retreated, Cade saw that the blood wasn’t just localized around her mouth. The poor girl was lying in a lake of her own blood. Dozens of shallow cuts criss-crossed her thin body. At first, he assumed that she was dead, until her arms twitched.

  “What the fuck have you maniacs done to her!” he shouted.

  The woman who looked just like his mother took his arms and led him back into the circle. She didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered at his outburst.

  “Get off me, you weird bitch!” he snarled.

  The woman acted as if he hadn’t even spoken, “come, Dalain. They’ll be arriving presently. We need to ensure that you show fortitude in the face of their enemies.”

  Cade now found his body moving of its own volition. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning towards the woman and kissing her gently on the lips. He then found his body walking past the gathered people and touching their shoulders as he passed each one. He then returned to the woman and gripped her hand tight.

  The woman tensed. “They are arriving! I feel their lust and desire.”

  The others all spun around, they gazed into the air and all moaned in terror before dropping to their knees.

  “Remember the words of our First Father!” she shouted. “Do not run and do not make eye contact. The Flesh Dragons will go for our sacrifices but the Swarmers will divert their trajectory if they sense you.”

  Cade then saw several black dots in the sky, getting larger as they approached. She called them Flesh Dragons. It didn’t take a great leap of deduction to realise just what was heading this way. Cade felt his own knee go weak as he started to make sense of their appearance. There were four of them, Dragons was a good description, the flying creatures were huge, the smallest creature looked about the same size of a business jet. They looked like a cross between some prehistoric flying reptile and a giant bat.

  A single figure sat astride each creature. The distance now was close enough for Cade to make out their features. They were dressed in rags, similar to the people around him but their clothing looked more like the wing membranes of the animals that they rode. He watched them all fly over their heads, circle and then land atop the huge black slab.

  The chained up girl wasn’t so quiet now. Cade tensed up and wanted to shut his ears at the heart tearing screams, bellowing from her mouth.

  “It’ll be soon over,” murmured the woman, beside him. As hard as he tried, Cade could not get this body to respond to his demands. He wanted to get this evil woman off him and to slap the harpy before trying to help that poor girl. Her screams suddenly ceased as the huge creatures all dipped their long smooth necks to allow the armour-plated heads access to the girl.

  He wanted to moan and weep when the noise of crunching and wet sounds of feeding reached his ears. Cade could only take solace in the fact that at least her end was quick and now her pain was now over.

  Cade felt his head turn and saw, a little shocked that the woman was openly weeping.

  “I know that they told me not to expose my sorrow. Why can I not, my husband?” she whispered. “Dalain, please don’t allow them to witness my tears. I think…” She drew in a sharp breath, turned away from him, and gazed and the surface of the huge smooth, black obelisk. “Dalain remove your eyes!” she hissed, “They’re ready.”

  Cade’s eyes didn’t move. He saw the ground surrounding the terrified people rumble before, several huge, leather clad figures rose up. Cade felt the man’s mouth attempt to scream out as they all seemingly glided forward. He gazed into their bright crimson eyes, his blood just turned to water.

  They all turned their heads, and gazed in his direction, simultaneously, their jaws yawned wide, sabre-sized canines burst through their bloodied gums. The nightmarish creatures took their lantern eyes off Cade and looked up towards the surface of the black stone.

  A bone shaking roar burst Cade’s ears, His hands were clapped against his ears and he saw the others all dropped to their knees, crying out in pain. At first, Cade presumed that it was the abominations on the stone that had issued that noise, but then he saw the black-clad figures surrounding them closing their huge jaws.

  The things above had seen them, and despite the frantic efforts from their protesting riders, the creatures all waddled to the edge of the stone and swooped towards the waiting figures. Cade watched the all remove a curved black metal blade as tall as him, from a hidden sheaf on their backs. The creatures assumed a defensive posture and as soon as the Flesh dragons were close enough, the creature swung their blades, cutting through the flying construct’s neck like a hot knife through butter.

  The riders tumbled from their saddles, onto the rough ground, the most of the creature�
�s fell upon the shrieking figures, within second’s, the noise had ceased. The two remaining creatures replaced their blades and walked over to the woman, stood next to Cade.

  “You have done very well, Listrulia. Thanks to your cooperation, the Swarmers have lost their advantage in this province.”

  The woman bowed her head. “We are but willing servants, my First Father.”

  The creature nodded. “You have served your tribe and your masters with due diligence and for that, I will allow you to serve me in another purpose.”

  Cade felt powerful hands grip his arms as the other creature grabbed him. He saw the remaining people receive the same fate as the others took them as well.

  “I don’t understand!” cried the woman, “What have we due to displease you?”

  The creature sighed. “The need for flesh is paramount, Listrulia. We won this battle but the Swarmers are still eating into our lands like a viler cancer.” He nodded to the creature holding Cade. “Juan, ensure that you take him to my house, and see to it that the others go to the rendering chapel.”

  Cade screamed himself awake. He opened his eyes and gazed into the eyes of Katy. “Bloody hell!” he gasped.

  “I’ve been trying to wake you for over an hour!” she said, “What happened to you?”

  He sat up and looked at the surrounding countryside. Even with that huge wooden barricade obstructing the view, Cade just knew that the village had been right here, in this spot. While he had been lost in another time, he saw that more vehicles had arrived. The fields below were packed.

  “I don’t know what happened to me,” he confessed. “Somehow, I had found myself back to when these vampires ruled this land.” He shivered, thinking of those terrible creatures. That woman had called them flesh dragons. He just knew that they weren’t an animal born, those vampires had made them.

  “What did you see?”

  Cade took her hand. “Baby, you don’t want to know. Really you don’t. I have figured out what is going to happen though. All that lot down there will help to spread this vile plague across England.”

  She shook her head, “Elsie said they were going to stay here.”

  The clue is in the name, Katy. Back in out distant past, the Deathgazers looked after their livestock. Believe or not, most of the humans were happy with this arrangement. I’m guessing that arrangement went on for a long time.” He shrugged, “Why not? Their vampire masters protected them and made sure that their animals were well fed. Apart from the odd tribute, the humans could get on with their lives.” He then pictured the sight of those things landing one the stone slab and the look of disbelief etched on those villagers’ faces when the vampires dragged them away. It wasn’t that difficult to guess the purpose of the rendering chapel. “The Swarmers weren’t keen with this farming idea and just took what they wanted.”

  Cade turned and gazed back at the town buildings at the back of the woodland. “The Swarmers had all night and yet, they only turned a couple of people? Since when does that make sense? They know their enemy is in the vicinity, you’d have thought that by now, every human in town would be hiding from the sun.”

  Katy hurriedly dressed and stood up beside him. “It scares me that you know so much about them.” She rammed her bare feet into her shoes. “And these black outs fucking terrify me.”

  Cade shrugged again, unable to find a way to calm her fears. His visions frightened the crap out of him as well. As each hour passed, he found yet another nugget of ancient history, suddenly worm its way into his mind. “Don’t be, forewarned is forearmed, I suppose. It just means that we stand a better chance.” Even with this new knowledge, he wasn’t sure just how much of a chance they did stand. The temptation to grab the girl’s hand, before getting the hell out of town was so hard to suppress. He dared not put down odds of not seeing another dawn if they did stay in town.

  “Does your phone still work?” she asked.

  “I have no idea.” He brought his phone out of his pocket. It felt so strange to feel it in the palm of his hand. Cade slid the on bar across and stared at his welcome screen. After what he had been through, these past few hours, gazing at the phone screen made him want to burst into tears. Everything on here now seemed so pointless. He remembered his frustration of not beating Damien’s high score on their shared online games and the insults that he traded with his mates on Facebook. He looked at Katy, realising that despite the fact that they both lived only a few miles apart, he had never met Katy online. Should that bother him? Cade nodded. “Yeah, it seems fine. Why do you ask?”

  “This used to rule my life, you know. I spent more time on here than anywhere else.”

  Cade couldn’t ague with that assessment. He suspected that most of them in town were in the grip of their small block of shiny plastic.

  “So try as I might, I just cannot think of anybody who can help us out.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Christ, this just fucking sucks.” She angrily slammed her phone back into her pocket.

  He took hold of Katy’s hand, then pulled her up the embankment. Cade saw a park bench, overlooking the park and guided her over to it. “What else did you expect?” he said sitting her down. “Just look at me, Katy. Just look at my appearance. I’m into all this vampire stuff and even I have nobody I could turn to. All my mates live in the States and yeah, they’re all as geeky as me.” He stared across the green, wondering just how the guys would react if he did tell them about the situation over here. He then sighed deeply, knowing that they’d just call him an attention seeking, dork. Course they would, hell, he’d do the same.

  “Come on, honey, it’s time we made tracks, we have a lot to do today.” Cade pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her, “well, that’s if you still want to stay with me, sweetheart.”

  “Cade, surely there must be someone in town that we could tell? I know you have lots of friends who dress like you.” She looked down the embankment; we have a town full of freaks now. What about them? They won’t all openly scoff at our story, will they?”

  She gasped, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a freak. It just kinda slipped out.” Katy ran her fingers through his hair, “you’re my special guy, Cade.”

  Her word did sting, just a little. He wasn’t going to make a big deal of it, hell, the group that Katy hung around with called him and his mates a lot worse than that.

  “I don’t think any of those will be able to help, honey.” The idea of asking some of the newcomers for help had crossed his mind already. It would be in their benefit, considering come nightfall, if he didn’t stop them, those Swarmers would be running through those fields, like wolves amongst sheep. “Just because they all dress like me and I’m sure that more than a few of them will have all the twilight books and all believe to be expert in the vampire myth.”

  “There you go then,” he replied, smiling.

  He shrugged. “It not real though, is it, al least that’s what everyone else thinks. Believe me, those down there are just as close minded as everyone else, Katy. Vampires don’t exist,”

  “We’re on our own?”

  It took him a moment to realise that she had included herself in that sentence. “We could spend the whole day trying to convince other people to help us, Katy.” He suddenly smiled. “I don’t believe I’ve been so daft!” Cade grabbed her and raced across the green. “I think I’ve just figured a way how to stop them.”

  He reached the children’s play area and pointed to the row of shops opposite the main gates. “There you go,” he said, grinning. “There’s our secret weapon!”

  She shook her head, “I’m not getting you at all. I’m sorry.”

  Cade took her over to the gates and pointed at the gaudy, purple fronted building, on the end of a block of terraces. “It’s the only one in town, thank God.” He smiled at the girl. “Always full of women, obsessed with their appearance. The freaks, love it. I thought you would be very familiar with the place.”

  Katy smacked him on the shoulder
. “You cheeky bastard,” she giggled. “My skin is naturally brown. I don’t need to go to a tanning salon to get it topped up, thank you very much.” She looked back at him. “I still don’t get it, though.”

  He covered his eyes with his hand then looked up. “UV light is supposed to the one thing that can definitely kill the bastards. Come on, let’s go shopping.” He ran through the gates and over the empty road, not believing that he hadn’t thought of this before. “All we have to do then Katy is to find where the bastards have bedded down for the night. That shouldn’t be too hard, there can’t be that many places to hide in this town, can they?”

  Katy burst out laughing. “Are you serious? For crying out loud, sweetheart, there were a bunch of vamps hiding in the buildings that you told me that you knew like the back of your hand! Think of how many cellars there are in Welbourgh. Most of the houses are dead old. Then there’s the sewers and all the abandoned houses, not to mention all the outbuildings around the farms. We could search for weeks and not find them.”

  Cade leaned back against the wall, “You really know how to put a downer on things.” He felt his euphoria slowly leave him. He tried to keep hold of at least one piece of his idea. “Okay, but at least we do have another weapon to use against them.”

  “That’s if we can get inside, Cade. In case you haven’t noticed, the shop is shuttered up.” She walked up to a sign beside the door. “It doesn’t open today, sweetheart. I’m sorry. Look, if it’s any use, I have been in here before.” She held up her hand. “I only came in here with my mates. Anyway, I did notice that the place was full of beds, nothing small.” She walked up to him. “And nothing that came with batteries.”

  The sun was now over the trees, somehow, they had already wasted a quarter of the day. He turned around, wanting the kick the crap out of the shutters, despite what Katy said, he knew that there must be at least one portable UV lamp in there. He took out his phone, looked up at the sign and punched in the number. “There’s one way to find out,” he muttered. “I bet the lady who runs the place will be able to help me.” He laughed. “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t tell her that we’re hunting vampires.”