by Robert Brown
*
“Why wouldn’t you give up?” Cora yells into the enemy leader’s face while she is being held down. “You said you weren’t going to hurt the humans, why wouldn’t you let them be free?”
“We have no one to set free. Our humans are all dead, only a few children remain.”
“You killed them all?”
She struggles to be released but is unable to move against so many bodies restraining her. Even her telekinetic gift is weakened. She was drawing energy from her fellow vampires to increase its power.
“Many of them killed themselves. When the blue haze arrived and we first started mutating, a large number of the families here committed suicide. As the weeks went on, the humans gave up and continued to find ways to die. There was nothing we could do.” Her eyes dart to every face around her and her eyes blink while telling her tale.
Cora grabs a part of their captives exposed wing and stands, drawing her sword. “Drain her.”
None of Cora’s soldier’s comply, so she quickly slices the vampire’s head away from her shoulders. Blinking and stunned, the vampires surrounding Cora shake their heads.
“She was using her powers on you. Their humans are alive and in the basements of many of the buildings here.” Cora spins around, directing her thoughts to the assembly, working to remove the cobwebs of confusion and distrust the powerful arch-vampire attempted to fix in place.
*
With little training and less preparation, Cora has pushed her army from one town to the next, hoping to free the entire U.S. by winter. It is an impossible goal.
“I thought we could do it.”
“We can’t push them any farther, Cora. They need time to absorb what it is their friends are dying for or they’ll all give up or worse, they could be slaughtered in the next fight.”
“I thought the vampire controlling Salt Lake might be something different. I was beginning to doubt we were doing the right thing, but when I read her thoughts, she was just like the others. Just another bitter person that had a pampered life before the change and was consumed by a petty belief that the world owes them something. She tortured humans and used them in games like so many of the others have.”
“You need time to rest as well, Cora. We will run into more problems as we head east. Word has spread about what we are doing, and the vampires are preparing for the battles now.”
White flakes leisurely float to the ground around the winners of the battle for western Utah. For twelve days, The Angel’s forces have fought with their enemy to capture the towns and cities along the Interstate 15 corridor. Cora is standing at the foot of the Rocky Mountains on the edge of Salt Lake City, staring at the rock wall blocking her progress with a hateful eye.
Lloyd puts his hand on her shoulder. “We’ve done all we can for this year.”
“I know you’re right, but I hate to think of all those people beyond the mountains at the mercy of the enemy through the winter.”
“I don’t like it either, but that doesn’t change what can and can’t be done. Winter is here and everyone will be needed to gather food and supplies to keep the humans alive and warm through the colder months.
“You especially need to help the soldiers. Use your powers to calm their minds and ease the pain of what they’ve been through. I can sense how close some of them are to giving up. We can’t lose sight of our current responsibilities on the way to our goals.”
“You’re starting to sound like my father.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now please, we have to help prepare people for the months ahead.”
“Okay, you have Brian start working on our soldiers, and I will deal with the giants this time. They’ll be on body detail, so I will stay and help them.”
Lloyd gives Cora a quick kiss and flies off through the thickening flurries.
The tragedies of war that can’t be healed with medicine require time. Sometimes it takes years and intense therapy, other times it takes a simple thank you from a person being saved. All instances are specific to the individual that had the trauma, and the success of treatment is as varied as the individuals receiving it.
Like having greater success on the battlefield during war, the vampires have an edge on healing shock and trauma. Cora and the arch-vampires like her have increased their skills of entering the minds of the wounded to massage away the difficulties.
In the early stages of the war, she could only send feelings of warmth or relaxation but not make a tremendous change in how her soldiers perceived the fighting and destruction. Now she can go in and dull the memory of a good friend’s death and strengthen their feelings of the joyful memories they had instead. It is also possible to erase the bad images completely, but that was rejected by their group as something they thought the bad ones would do. Memories of experiences are what make us individuals rather than a collective hive.
The job she and the giants have today is to pick up and prepare the bodies of the dead for funeral services before burning. They attempted burial at first, but the increasing numbers of fatalities prevent them from being able to continue the practice.
The numbers of the dead continued to rise as the armies move east, not only because of greater resistance and violence on the part of defending vampires, but also because of time. As time continues to ebb away from the first day of The Shattering, an increasing number of humans die from starvation and disease.
The slave-owning class of vampires the army is defeating show little respect or concern for the wellbeing of the humans in their charge, and on many occasions, buildings full of corpses have been discovered. Why they were sealed inside structures and allowed to starve, no one was ever able to find out. The hope is the acts are caused by negligence and not out of evil malice, but the end result is the same.
Chapter Twenty-One
Christmas Day
Medford, Oregon
The smell of cooked ham permeates the house and smiling faces are shared all around. Christmas carols are being hummed by some in the gathering and hugs are given to the children who have just arrived. The several families in attendance are celebrating the safe return of their children from the war.
The people at the compound were largely spared the troubles of internment because of the isolated nature of the ranch. Being offset in the wooded hills made the area an unnecessary target of the arch-vampires controlling the Medford and Grants Pass regions. It also helped having so many children among the families mutate during The Shattering.
It was the children turned vampires that helped their parents escape the destruction of their cities and homes and make it to the survival training center in the hills.
“Eddie, come here and take a picture with us.” Simone smiles while waving him over, his attention previously fixed on the food being brought to the table.
Simone is standing in front of the newly decorated Douglas fir tree they cut down and brought in a few days ago. William and Amelia are standing in front while Benjamin is cradled in his mother’s arms. Eddie walks over to join his six favorite people for the holiday picture.
“Hannah, Olivia, you’ll have to put your wings down or we won’t be able to see the tree.”
The camera flash blinds them all.
“Arthur, Donald, we should get pictures of everyone.”
“Not right now,” Patricia Langford chides the group. “The ham is on the table and I want you over here to enjoy it. We can take pictures when we’re done.”
*
Twin Falls, Idaho
Tables are filled in the Twin Falls High School auditorium. Various families from around the city mingle and chat while others eat the shared community meal. An assortment of stews, breads, and mixed vegetables are being served from the cafeteria line.
Individual families are celebrating Christmas in their homes with returned soldiers from the war effort. The fighting has ceased for some time, but the efforts to stockpile and distribute food have been continuous, keeping their loved ones awa
y. The gathering in the auditorium is for the families of the fallen. The people here lost family in the fight to free them.
Twin Falls has a disproportionate number of losses in the war. Their children turned vampires were being killed long before Cora’s army arrived. The particular skills of the arch-vampire controlling this area were cruelty and distrust. Instead of only abusing humans, he liked to turn vampires under his control against each other to fight to the death for his entertainment. He trusted no one, so there was no ideology or level of loyalty that he cared for. The good were pitted against the bad, the loyal against the openly rebellious. All were forced to fight and all were killed that were drawn into his all-encompassing form of mind control.
The meeting is somber, but the people are still happy to be alive and grateful to have the chance to once more live a free and unmolested life.
*
Tulsa, Oklahoma
A small house on Seventh Street is packed with people. Revelers are on the lawn outside, playing music too loudly and singing in the falling snow. Fire barrels are burning around the yard and have small groups crowded around them to soak up the warmth. The revelry is active but is tainted with malice rather than joy.
“The house is almost full. We’re just waiting on Danny; he went through the change today so he’s bringing his mother.”
“We’ve got a big crowd together. I’m glad we decided to hold off the trials until Christmas, it gets old doing this every week.”
“I know. It’s like Dave expects us to enjoy spending time with them or something. I don’t know why we don’t just get rid of them all right now.”
“Right, idiot, and what are you going to eat then?”
Danny walks up the street with his mother. Her clothes are filthy and hanging from her skeletal frame. Families with children about to change are given extra rations, but Danny’s parents took only a small portion of what they were given and had their son eat the rest of their food.
When Danny changed, his father was too weak to withstand the amount of blood drained by his son. His heart gave out, killing him. His mother is the unfortunate one; she survived Danny’s change.
Reaching the door to the house, she turns to Danny and wipes tears from her eyes and then his.
“You do what I told you, Danny, you do what you must to survive. There was no choice for me or your father. You are the last of us.”
She turns and walks through the open door. Danny shuts and locks it behind her.
“That’s the last one, everyone get in line, get formed up.”
The mutants that changed over the previous two weeks are gathered in six rows of four in front of Dave, the leader of this city.
“You’ve all gone through the change and you’re almost one of us. Say the pledge.”
“I pledge myself to my new family, the family of the strong. We are the rulers of the Earth. The ones chosen for the future. Humanity was a curse to the planet and we are the cure. With our offering today, we reject our false family of the past and take our place in the real family of our future.”
“Welcome to the family.” Dave looks at the vampires before him and touches each of their minds with his own. “Now light it up.”
The assembly splits up. The fire barrels are picked up and tossed against the house containing the new vampires’ families. Fathers, mothers, as well as any brothers and sisters too old to change.
This horrific ritual is normally carried out every week for Dave to form a controlling bond over the minds of the new vampires in his territory. Any new mutant must participate in killing their old family to remove any connection to humanity they once had.
The story always told is that Dave was an orphan that was passed around from one state home to another. The truth is, his mom and dad were one of the few married couples on his street before the change. His only friend, Sydney, knows the truth, but also knows to never say anything about it to anyone.
The smoke from the burning house fills the sky, turning the falling flakes black and gray.
*
Columbus, Ohio
“We found him out here this morning. He must have made his group come out in the night to try catching some fish.”
Three hundred human statues are frozen along the bank of the Scioto River. Some have fishing rods still in hand, the lines locked in place in the now frozen holes.
“He said he was tired of his people being hungry but didn’t tell me what he would do.”
“Damn it! He’s only nine years old. You are supposed to be responsible for what the younger vampires do. You need to teach these kids it’s dangerous to go outside in the cold, especially at night. He tried helping them, and they were all either too scared or too stupid to tell him they needed to stay warm.”
“What should I do?”
“Take him inside and thaw him out. When he wakes up, bring him out here and show him what he did. The fishing was a good idea, but he should have told us about it so we could have kept everyone safe. I don’t want to make everyone’s Christmas even more miserable so let’s wait until tomorrow to let the others know.
“Once we do tell the others, we should start bringing all the humans and vampires in our area through here to see how many people died. Once we’ve explained the danger to everyone, then we can figure out a way to fish on the river without anyone else dying.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to catch enough fish to keep everyone alive.”
“Do you have a better idea? The humans have gone through all of the other supplies and are eating the dog and cat food. It’s only Christmas, and we have at least three months of winter left. Every fish we catch might save another life. It’s better than them eating the alternative.”
“Rats?”
“Each other.”
*
The intentions of the vampires controlling the nation are varied, but the outcomes are largely the same. Even the vampires that care for the humans cannot make food sprout from the frozen ground. They are constrained by the territories they control and often end up with the same shortages when they fight with others to gain access to supplies.
The basic principle is that a large population kills. The more humans there are within a geographic area, the lower the chance of survival becomes. Cities beyond the freed territories are death traps. Starving masses are dropping dead in the frigid shelters they huddle together in.
The southern states have the decided advantage of more moderate weather, moderate but not warm. As in years past, multiple cold fronts have passed from the arctic to reach as far south as Louisiana and Florida. The freezing temperatures are taking almost as many lives as starvation.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lost Souls
Colorado
A thunderous roar like the galloping of a thousand hooves echoes over the ground. Through the air, the rippling sound of loose sails fluttering in a strong wind join the chorus of running feet down below.
Over forty thousand runners are matched by six thousand of their winged brothers and sisters in the sky. Dirt, branches, and leaves are kicked up like dust billowing behind a speeding truck on an unpaved road. The breadth of the attacking line causes the appearance of an approaching sandstorm to the onlookers outside the city.
The flying soldiers, led by The Angel, tuck their wings behind them and begin their spiral approach. Targeting their progress are the exploding rounds of bullets and cannon fire. Flying projectiles tear into many of the speeding mutants advancing on their targets on the ground.
Screams of fear from the human inhabitants of the city echo loudly in the ears and minds of the sensitive mutants. The fear of the people urge the attackers on even more.
Hundreds of bodies fall from the sky as they absorb the incoming barrage from the ground, but Cora urges them forward. Seconds later, the foot soldiers arrive at the frontline of military armaments guarding this zone of control.
While running, the pale fury open fire with weapons of their own again procured f
rom military installations. The battle for Denver begins, and like all others before, it will only end when one side is completely drained of blood. Cora’s soldiers on the ground toss the enemy combatants and equipment through the air. Alongside the vampire troops are the giants she has collected from their displaced and empty homes around the west.
As terrifying and deadly as the fighting inevitably is, the giants demanded to be included in the first war of the spring season. Their talents of strength are often utilized for reconstruction projects, but many of them feel most at home on the battlefield. Several of her strongest pick up an Abrams tank and toss it away, taking out two others in its trajectory. The humans in the tanks that were forced to fight are an unfortunate casualty in this war.
With the aerial bombardment against The Angel’s air forces thwarted by her ground troop’s success, the rest of her army is able to lay siege directly on the buildings containing the frightened and screaming humans.
The buildings are on fire. She sends her thoughts to the others. We have to save them!
“You know it’s a trap,” Brian calls out from her left.
We can’t let them die that way. We came here to free these people, not let them be burned alive in front of us. We are going to kill the vampires willing to do this to people, and I will fight until we win or I die.
“Here they come!”
From around the backs of the flaming buildings, the Denver’s air force defenders finally take flight. Gun barrels flashing from underneath wings, the defenders of the city know they have to stop The Angel’s advancing army here on the front line or the entire city will fall. With the flaming towers and screaming lives at their backs, they unload all of the bullets they have to weaken the attack of the flying mutants.
Cora’s forces do not fire back. Their bullet trajectories would continue beyond their intended targets and into the burning buildings. None of them want to risk killing even more humans than necessary to win this battle. Unfortunately, from what Cora is able to sense, thousands of the surviving humans have been forced into the burning skyscrapers they are approaching. The people they came to save are trapped in the buildings the defenders set aflame.