The Dead War Series (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Simmons, D. N.

  Chloe did as she was told, standing beside the door, she gripped the handle and yanked it open. She jumped back quickly, preparing for the attack. Two zombies were making their way out of the freezer, both were sliding their bodies across the floor as neither had their legs.

  “That makes it easier to deal with them,” Chloe commented as she sliced the head from one zombie, leaving the other to drag its raggedy torso and jagged stumps towards Cassian. “Do you still want to save him to burn?”

  “I'll set him ablaze right here. Go fetch me an accelerant,” Cassian said with an offhanded gesture.

  Chloe nodded then disappeared somewhere in the kitchen. When she returned, she carried two bottles of cooking oil. Without needing to be told, she poured the bottles over the zombie and the other corpses including Marco's.

  “Ready for me to light them up?” Chloe asked, her eyes shined with a bit of mischievousness and glee as she anticipated seeing the flames erupt. She looked at the crawling zombie, than back up at Cassian. “Master! Behind--”

  Marco's corpse had risen and with vampire speed, he rushed towards Cassian, arms outstretched before him, his hands like claws. He latched onto Cassian's shirt as the vampire Master struggled to keep his deadly teeth at bay. Marco snarled and growled as he snapped at Cassian, trying to bite his cheek, neck, shoulder anywhere he could. Marco was stronger than he was after he'd been bitten by the zombie, as if he was running on pure adrenalin with a shitload of steroids. Cassian roared as he struggled to keep Marco at bay, but he couldn't risk moving his position to reach his sword that he'd dropped to the floor. Cassian growled as he felt his grip weaken and Marco's teeth drew closer to the flesh of his neck. Chloe rushed over, and with a quick and concise swing of her blade, she sliced through Marco's neck, severing his head. Cassian turned his head and closed his eyes and mouth, making sure the vampire's blood didn't enter his system, then he pushed the headless body away from him.

  “Fuck!” Cassian cursed. “Give me something to clean this blood off!”

  Chloe saw that her Master was standing still with his eyes still closed. Tainted blood was splattered on his cheek and across his forehead, eyes, nose and chin. She ran towards the sink and snatched up a dish rag, and turning on the faucet, let the hot water run over it, soaking the fabric. She poured a generous amount of soap over the rag, then went to Cassian, giving it to him. He began to wipe the blood from his face and hands.

  “Oh my god! He was so fast! I barely had time to warn you,” Chloe panted, still shocked by what she had witnessed. A part of her was coming down from the terror she felt as the prospect that her Master would be infected. She didn't even want to think about what that meant.

  Cassian went to the sink and washed his face off a second time before dropping the rag into the basin. He turned, facing Chloe. “At least, now we know. Decapitation for every last one of them,” he said.

  “I'm betting fire will work, too,” Chloe said, lighting a match.

  “We'll soon find out. But for quicker results, take their heads,” Cassian stated.

  “The virus must remain in our system even after the bloodlust is satisfied. How else can we explain Marco rising again as a zombie?” Chloe said, looking that the separated remains of the younger vampire.

  Cassian grumbled. “There's a lot of things we don't understand about this virus.” He walked over to the female human, moving her out of the way of the zombie still crawling along the floor looking for food. “I'm more concerned now about what to do with all of the vampires who have been bitten, but we thought were cured once they came back to their senses. Are they still a threat? Shit.” He lowered his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as he started to feel the pressure of his headache returning.

  “Ovidius has decided to keep the vampires who have been bitten separated from the others and the humans until we can run tests on them. So we should be able to get some of our answers soon,” Chloe reminded.

  “Wise decision.” Cassian nodded absently. “All right, let's go.”

  Chloe nodded, then tossed the match on the zombie that was crawling towards Cassian again. The thing caught on fire, the oil soaked into its clothes and skin sent the flames over his body instantly. The fire spread quickly to the other corpses, sending the place ablaze. Both Cassian, Chloe and their female captive retreated to a safer distance by the back door and watched as the last zombie ceased to crawl and lay still on the floor, its charred body twitching several seconds before it stopped moving altogether.

  “Well, if it's not dead, at least it stopped moving towards us,” Chloe said.

  “This test doesn't prove what I need it to prove and we can't stay to confirm.” Cassian frowned, shaking his head. “Let's go. There are humans we need to bring in.” Grabbing hold of the female survivor, they left the restaurant.

  ~*~

  Ovidius walked between the spaces that separated the clusters of humans. His predatory gaze scanned over the faces of each human, calculating who would be of further use to him and his people. His semi-heightened senses picked up on which humans were suffering ailments anywhere from cancer to the common cold. They would need to be attended to soon enough if they were going to service them. Not that their tainted blood could do them harm, but they didn't need sick or dying humans among their flock. Besides, healthy blood just tasted better.

  As he observed each human, he gauged their mental disposition. They were terrified, curious and angry, some more than others. He looked up as one of his vampires rolled a seventy-inch Smart TV into the area per his orders. Smiling, he walked towards his vampire, nodded at the huge television set.

  “Do you have the footage I requested?” Ovidius asked.

  Dale nodded. “Yes Master, Josef just brought it in.” he reached into his pocket, producing a little USB device and handed it to Ovidius.

  “Excellent. Now, set up this television, I want to show this to these humans,” Ovidius ordered, stepping aside to let Dale get everything ready.

  In no time at all, Dale had the television ready to go and Ovidius slid the USB device into the port on the side panel of the television and controlled the search with the remote control. Once he found the footage he was looking for, he paused it, then turned to address the humans.

  “I know that you are all afraid, unsure of why you're here, of who we are and what we want from you. You can take comfort in knowing that we want to protect you. That there are things out there, monsters far more deadly than anything you could have ever imagined and we are the only ones who can save you. Some of you have already heard this speech, but many of you haven't. This will be the last time I will address you regarding our reasons for taking all of you into custody,” Ovidius said. He walked a few paces to the other side of the room and continued to address the crowd.

  “Many of you if not all of you were saved before you had to come face-to-face with what's out there and I'm here to t--”

  “Exactly why did y'all save us?” A black man in the crowd asked, waving his hand up high to get Ovidius attention. “I mean, I don't mean to sound ungrateful and shit, but who the fuck are you and what the fuck could you possibly want from us?”

  Ovidius inhaled deeply, biting down on his internal rage at having been interrupted by the human. One he deemed whose worth was purely sustenance. Yet this mere, insignificant mortal felt like he could demand anything from him at all was nearly too much to bear for the clever Master vampire. Still, he held it together, licking his lips, moistening them before answering.

  “There is no easy way to break this information to you, so I'll simply come right on out with it. We are vampires.” Ovidius paused to let what he said sink in. He wanted to see just how many would be willing to take his word for it and how many would laugh. To his surprise, no one laughed, but that didn't mean they all believed him. As his eyes scanned over the huge crowd, he could see this skepticism on many of their faces. Some, who he was sure may have witnessed a strange act or two from some of the vampires who brought them in,
stared forward at him, while others made the sign of the crucifix across their chest.

  “Do you expect us to believe that shit?” one human blurted out setting over half the room into an uproar. A chorus of voices raised in volume, drowning out each other.

  “Calm down!” Ovidius called out, but the humans continued to argue.

  “Shut the hell up, you son of a bitch!” A male yelled at another. “My family and I were saved by one of them. The way he moved, how fast he was... it wasn't human,” he said.

  “That's fucking ridiculous!” Scoffed another.

  “Silence!” Ovidius yelled, quickly quieting the rowdy humans.

  They could actually feel the atmosphere in the room change with Ovidius' temper. The room itself grew colder and somehow more tense. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared forward nervously awaiting the next words from the Master vampire.

  With their undivided attention, Ovidius continued. “As I was saying, you are here, safe with us because we need you as much as you need us. You see, humans are our sole food source. The rich fluid that flows through your veins is our life source.”

  “I'm getting the fuck up out of here, this shit is some ol' bullshit!” a young black man said, standing up from the crowd.

  Before he could make another move, Ovidius was on him, startling the humans who gasped and yelped. Those closest to the duo scrambled away, leaving a wide open space where Ovidius stood with the man in his grasp. The Master vampire's hand was wrapped around the man's neck as he lifted him two feet off the floor. The human was struggling in his iron grip, legs kicking air, his fingers clawing at Ovidius' hand trying to pry it away from his throat and free his airway, but to no avail. Ovidius turned to the stunned and frightened crowd, making sure they bared witness to his power.

  “If I wanted to, I could crush this man like a toothpick, break every bone in his body without any effort at all. But he, like all of you are valuable to us. So, let this stand as a lesson. Now, is there anyone else here who doubts my words?” Ovidius asked. He looked around the crowded clusters, waiting for any one of them to protest. No one said anything. Far too terrified by what they'd seen to challenge the vampire any further. The speed in which Ovidius moved proved that he was inhuman and the strength in which he displayed lead them all to believe he was in fact, what he said he was... a vampire.

  “Good.” Ovidius turned back to the human still struggling, but weakly now, nearing unconsciousness. “I take it you'll sit down and shut the fuck up from now on, yes?”

  The man nodded once, his eyes watering, his face turning another color as his oxygen-depraved body continued to suffer. Finally, Ovidius released him, letting him fall in a crumpled heap onto the floor, coughing, wheezing and gasping for air.

  “Let me be clear,” Ovidius paused, looking over the crowd. “My patience does, in fact, have limits. The next person who interrupts me will be disemboweled. Understand, we are in control here and we do not answer to you. It is you who will follow our orders. Now, as I was saying... this will be an arrangement between our two species. You are but a select few who now know that vampires do exist, consider yourselves privileged.”

  Ovidius began to make his way back up to the front of the crowd where the television awaited his command. Other vampires were spread out around the room, keeping watchful eyes on the humans making sure all stayed in place. They, too, did not go unnoticed by the humans in the room who were now eying them with even more scrutiny than before the announcement.

  “You will service our needs. Blood will be given freely, really, it will do you no good to fight us on the matter. It's a small price to pay for what we are offering you and in case you need reminding or a revelation of sorts, feast your eyes.” Ovidius pressed play on the remote control and the footage that one of his vampires had taken began to roll.

  The humans were witnessed to the zombies roaming the streets of St. Louis. They watched them break through glass windows and doors to attack the people hiding inside. Collectively, they watched the zombies, faster than any human running on foot and stronger to boot, overtake every last human who tried to flee. Blood splattered car exteriors and interiors as people were being snatched out of their locked vehicles through broken windows. Children, the elderly, men and women, no one person were safe from the carnage. The zombies were relentless and indiscriminate in their killing and just when they thought they'd seen the worst of it all, then came the reanimation. Humans who had been ripped apart and devoured, their body parts torn or missing began to rise or crawl within seconds of being murdered. Seconds! They watched as the zombies who had been feasting on them, now moved on looking for more fresh victims. The humans eyes remained glued to the television screen as they witnessed cops and soldiers using flame throwers and guns to try to kill the zombies only to see them be overtaken. The zombies appeared to come at them from all angles, ripping into the police and military with an animalistic viciousness that was beyond monstrous. The people on the screen never even had a chance.

  “Oh my God!” a female gasped as she covered her mouth, horrified by what she was seeing.

  “God isn't here to save you. We are,” Ovidius said. “Outside these very walls, those things await you. They will not offer to let you live for a taste of your flesh. They will eat your children and destroy everyone they see.” He paused the footage. “In that footage, you saw that the military is powerless against them. Their fate was the same as anyone else. More of my kind are making their way here, bringing with them more humans. I suggest you get them up to speed about what is expected of you.”

  A pretty Caucasian teenager dared to raise her hand, hoping it wouldn't end with her guts spilling out on the floor. Ovidius took notice and nodded in her direction. “Speak.”

  “So you're like Darian Alexander from the Knight of the Darkness Chronicles, right? Powerful like him? Can you fly?” the teenager asked with an apparent reverence to each word. “Or are you like Marquis Silivais from the Blood Destiny series? Is that why you can walk around in the sunlight?”

  Ovidius fought the urge to roll his eyes. He could tell by the teen's glazed expression that she would be more than willing to donate her blood.

  “Be quiet,” her mother whispered harshly as she pulled the girl's hand down back into her lap.

  “Don't believe everything you read in books,” was all that Ovidius was willing to offer the starstruck girl. “Now, we chose this particular location for its construct, but more importantly, it has all of the necessary amenities that you both require and desire. Food will be rationed out as to make sure it lasts as long as it can. As you can see, shelves have been moved out of the way to make room for all of you to set up your own comfort zone from whatever resources we have available.”

  A middle-aged African-American male timidly raised his hand, his brown eyes studying Ovidius carefully, hoping the vampire wouldn't lash out. Especially after he let the silly teenage girl spout her nonsense.

  “You have a question?” Ovidius gestured to the man.

  “Will you be taking blood from all of us and how will you do it?” he asked.

  “However we see fit. We have a refrigerated unit set up to store a fair supply, but you can most likely expect to be fed upon naturally,” Ovidius answered.

  There was a collective gasp amongst the crowd and many of them gathered closer together in their individual clusters as if tightening the space between them would somehow deter the vampires. Ovidius smirked, his eyebrow cocking as he began to address them again.

  “The experience can be extremely pleasurable if you allow it. Besides, as clichéd as this statement might be, it doesn't make it any less true: 'Resistance is futile'.” Ovidius walked over to the television again, pushing a button on the remote control. Footage on the screen sparked to life and the humans were treated to more death, horror and reality. “This is what you are being spared from having to endure. Every last one of you would have been one of those things already had we not saved you. Don't make this arrangement we h
ave set up here any more difficult than it needs to be. You play nice, we'll play nice. You try to escape, attack or act out in any way and we may just toss you to these creatures if only to prove a point. Am I understood?” He paused the film and looked out over the crowd.

  Everyone either verbally agreed or nodded, either way, the message was clear. They understood.

  Ovidius gave a quick nod. “Excellent. Make yourselves comfortable, food is being prepared as I speak and lunch will be served soon. If you need to go to the bathroom, I'm sure you already have learned that any one of my associates here will take you.” He pointed to the three dozen vampires standing around the collective group of humans, watching them closely.

  “Now, are there any questions? If I were you, I'd take this rare opportunity,” Ovidius said.

  “Do you have a cure?” a young Asian man asked. His red and black spiked hair making him look like an anime character.

  “No, but we have several people who will be working on one. Right now, you are all uninfected, save a few easily curable, normal human ailments. We will see to that tonight; heal you,” Ovidius answered.

  “If you're a vampire can we see your fangs?” a twelve year boy asked, excitedly.

  “No. I don't perform for human entertainment or to appease your curiosity. Besides, you'll see a pair of fangs soon enough. Children are especially delicious.” Ovidius managed to conceal his smile when he watched the child's mother pull him closer. Her wide eyes staring at him with anger and fear as she cradled her son's head against her shoulder. He looked out at the crowd. “Next.”

  “Are you going to turn us?” asked a young, brunette female.

  “No. That is not our intentions... at this time.” Ovidius handed the remote control he'd been holding to Dale. “Last question, better make it worth my while.”

  “How can you kill those things out there?” a man blurted out from the crowd.

  “As far as we know, decapitation works best. So now you see why humans won't stand a chance and why we're you're best hope for survival.” Ovidius gave the crowd one last look then walked off to tend to the others who needed him.