The Dead War Series (Book 2): Desperate Times

by Simmons, D. N.

  “The humans are requesting the research data and the use of the bathrooms, sir,” the vampire said.

  “Are they now?” the voice commented as the owner of that velvety voice came closer. Finally he stood in the doorway.

  Felicia gasped, unprepared to view such beauty. He was definitely a step up... make that several steps up in the looks department over some of the vampires she'd seen, save the one who took over their helicopter.

  Sajan's amber gaze looked over Felicia, then the others before settling back on Felicia. “Take those who need to use the restroom,” he told the other vampire. “I suggest you put good use to this break, you won't get another for a while. Soon, you won't need another.”

  “So you're really going to turn us?” Vincent asked.

  Sajan nodded. “Of course. Only a fool wouldn't seize such an opportunity. You aren't the only doctors and scientists who have been chosen. Consider yourselves very fortunate. Soon, you'll be at the top of the food chain, a place many out there wish was their fate.” He nodded towards the direction of the store itself indicating the hundreds of people being held inside. “Now, as for the research data, we're making duplicates of the information. Once that's done, your group will receive copies as well as the other group. When you're allowed to go into the lab, you can all put your brains together and figure something out as a full team.”

  “When will be allowed into the lab?” Felicia asked. “When it's done?”

  “No. Once you've completed your transformation. We're not risking another lab accident that might leave you worthless to us,” Sajan informed. “So you'll study the data today and tomorrow, you'll enter the lab. Does this satisfy your curiosity?”

  Felicia thought about what he said, her mind dissecting every word, making heads or tails of the information. Finally, she nodded. “It is going to hurt?”

  “What?” Sajan his dark, perfectly-shaped eyebrows creased, drawing subtle lines along his forehead.

  “The... what you're going to do to us,” she asked.

  “That depends. A vampire's bite can be extremely pleasurable, orgasmic. Or it could be excruciating, torturous. We can drain you fast or take our time extending the pleasure or the pain.” Sajan smirked, an eyebrow lifting conveying his amusement at her apprehension. “I would suggest you don't cause a raucous. Don't give any of us a reason to cause you suffering. We enjoy that almost as much as dealing out pleasure... if not more so depending on the vampire.”

  That caused Felicia to take another step back, she bumped into one of the shelving units, but kept her balance. The more she looked at them and thought about what her future was to be, the more she had to wrap her mind around the very fact that vampires were real... zombies too, now, apparently.

  “All right, those of you who have to go to the restroom, follow Lucas,” Sajan said, stepping aside to let the four pass by. He looked back at Felicia and the others. “Will that be all?”

  Vincent took a tentative step forward. “We were wondering if we could get a few chimpanzees to perform our tests on, since one was the cause of the virus. We think it's imperative that we have one alive. In addition to a chimp, we were hoping to get an animal from all five of the ape primates,” he added.

  “Because your request pertains to the cure, I find them reasonable,” Sajan said. “If we can find an animal alive, we'll contain them for your purposes. Now, will that be all?”

  Both Vincent and Felicia nodded.

  “Good.” Sajan closed and locked the door, walking away.

  Eric, Lawrence, Vincent and Akane all walked by Sajan silently and followed the other vampire now known as Lucas to the rest room. Akane attempted to break away from the male trio towards the bathroom labeled “Women's”.

  “Hey, where the fuck do you think you're going?” Lucas asked, stopping her in her tracks.

  Akana turned. “I... I was going to the ladies room,” she stammered.

  “The hell you are. You'll use the men's.” He jerked his head towards the direction of the men's bathroom.

  Groaning softly, she walked back towards the others and continued to follow Lucas to the men's bathroom entering along with the three men with the vampire following up behind him. Eric sprinted to the first urinal he saw and began unzipping his zipper. Akana headed for one of the stalls, closing the door behind her. Lawrence entered another stall while Vincent made use of the other urinal. Eric stifled a moan of pleasure as he was finally able to release the pressure in his bladder. Lucas stood by the sinks watching the humans attend their business. Soon, the flushes sounded and one by one they began to wash their hands. The last one to finish was Lawrence, who with a redden face, washed his hands silently.

  “All cleaned out, are you?” Lucas teased him. “In case you were wondering, it was foul. I don't miss having to do that. Not one bit. Soon you won't either.” He walked to the door, opening it. “Let's go.”

  Thinking he couldn't be more embarrassed, he was. Lawrence walked past Lucas averting eye contact. The vampire chuckled, but said nothing else as he led them back to their holding cell. They entered and he locked the door behind them.

  “Well, he's an asshole,” Eric remarked.

  “Watch out, he said he 'liked you',” Vincent pointed out. I guess birds of a feather... he thought.

  “Better that than him hating me,” Eric retorted, thinking about the pain factor the vampire said they liked to dole out.

  “Well, we might as well get comfortable,” Felicia shifted her position on the floor, stretching her legs out in front of her.

  The others took her cue and settled into places where they could fit and talk about anything else to alleviate the fear and uncertainty they were all feeling.

  Chapter Seven

  “We have to keep running!” David told his wife, Lisa, who had just stumbled and fell to the ground out of breath.

  “I... feel... like... I'm going to puke,” she managed to say through desperate pants.

  “Then puke, but for god’s sake keep moving!” David said, he put his five year old son down and bent over, slipping his hands under her arms to lift her up. “We have to keep running. We need to get to higher ground.” He picked his son back up and took his wife's hand.

  Together, they continued to run, people ran past them in other directions while others ran in the same direction they were going in. It was apparent that no one knew where to run to, or what was a safe place? Was there a safe place? There was a shriek followed by an ear-splitting scream that stopped a lot of them in their tracks. Some stood on the sidewalk and in the streets looking around in the direction where the sound came from. Soon, more screams echoed and they knew they were running in the wrong direction.

  “Oh fuck!” David gasped as he turned to run in the other direction. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!” He could hear the screams getting louder which meant they were getting closer. Over the sounds of the horrible screams were the snarls and growls of the things attacking them. The media had all but given up trying to find fancy scientific names for these monsters and just started calling them zombies. That worked for him, it was as good a description as any. He stopped along the streets to try any doors to see if one was open. Every last door was locked to his dismay.

  “What are we going to do, we can't outrun those things?” Lisa asked.

  Stopping and looking around desperately for a way out of the predicament they were in, he spotted a bat someone had dropped laying in the streets. People rushed past them, bumping them to and fro, but he struggled towards the bat. He picked it up and ran back over towards his family, pushing more people out of his way as he did.

  “Stand back,” he told his wife and she nodded as she held tightly to their son.

  David swung the bat with all of his strength. It took two blows, but he finally shattered the double-paned glass of the Wilcox Condos. The alarm sounded, but he ignored it. His only objective was to get his family to the roof, where hopefully rescue helicopters would see them. He knew their only chance to
be saved was to reach the top. No one was being saved on the ground. He snatched his wife's free hand and together they stepped over the glass and ran into the building. Others followed them with the same escape plan in mind. He rushed toward the elevators, pressing the up button. The doors opened immediately and he and his family piled on as well as so many others. People continued to try to press themselves into the lift and those already on the elevator pushed back.

  “You won't fit, bitch, get the other one!” one of the male pushers in a three-piece suit belted out, as he shoved a middle-aged woman to the floor.

  The pushing war continued until three more people were unceremoniously ejected from the elevator and the doors were finally able to close.

  “Stupid sons of bitches don't realize a fucking elevator has a damn weight limit!” one of the female riders commented.

  “They're just afraid. We all are,” another female responded.

  “Yeah, well I ain't dying for no one. I ain't letting anyone get in my way,” said the man in the three-piece suit.

  David made sure to take special note of the person with the every-man-for-himself attitude. One thing was certain, he wouldn't let anything happened to his family.

  The elevator numbers lit up on each passing floor. It was one of those modern, speedy elevators, so even though their stomachs dropped slightly, they reached the top floor more quickly. They all piled out, relieved to finally be able to breathe properly.

  “Hey, let me see that bat,” Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself requested, holding his hand out towards David.

  “Why?” David asked, clinching the bat just a little harder.

  “I want to jam all of these elevators up, smash the control panels,” he said.

  “No,” was David's simple response, then he took his wife's hand and ran towards the door marked “stairs.”

  “We need to keep those things from getting to us!” the guy yelled at him.

  “I'm guessing they'll take the stairs before the elevator. Now you can stand there or you can move your ass,” David said, pushing the door open and running up the first flight of stairs he saw. He could hear the footsteps of the other people already ahead of him. Before he reached the rooftop entrance, he heard gunshots ring out. He stopped moving, bracing the railing, keeping his family at bay.

  “What's happening?” he called out.

  “We had to shoot the lock,” someone yelled back.

  With an exasperating sigh, he continued onward, dragging his family in tow. They exited onto the rooftop and looked around. Everyone was breathless, but there were several sighs of relief from some of them thrilled to still be alive and away from the zombies for now, at least. David and everyone else all took the time to look around and over the edge of the roof, seeing the streets dozens of stories below. The building was high enough to give a person a great view of the city of St. Louis and on any other day, the moment would have been savored. Unfortunately, the only thing David wanted to see in the sky was a fucking rescue helicopter. Ten minutes later, Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself in the three-piece suit came bursting through the rooftop door, startling everyone.

  “Whoa! I'm human!” Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself screamed, dropping his fire extinguisher and raising his hands in the air.

  “What the fuck, man! Why the hell did you bust through the door like that, I almost shot your ass,” said Mr. Nine-Millimeter, a young casually dressed, African-American male, who was now lowering the barrel of his gun.

  Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself put his arms down, seeing he was safe now. “I was just trying to get to a safe place.”

  “How in the fuck are we going to seal this door shut now?” one of the female asked, looking around at all who were now gathered on the rooftop. “Genius here, shot the lock.” She gestured at the young black man who was now turning toward her.

  “Bitch, did you have the key?!” Mr. Nine-Millimeter asked. “Because if you had the key, you should have said so before I shot the lock.”

  The woman stood still, silently glaring with her crystal blue eyes.

  “Oh, I guess you didn't have the key, you just wanted to talk some shit. Oh, I get it now.” He snorted. “Your ass should be saying thank you for getting the door opened,” said Mr. Nine-Millimeter before giving the woman his middle finger.

  “We can lean against it,” a Caucasian teenager suggested, he looked to be no older than sixteen. He was terrified as he looked around him at all of the other terrified people. Even more so, he was alone. He didn't know if his parents were still alive, he hadn't been able to talk to them since they left for work that morning.

  “Yeah, like that shit will work. Did you see how those things ripped open that door on the news?” the crystal-blue eyed female said.

  “Well, what the fuck do you want us to do about the damn door now? We had to blow the fucking lock off just to get out here. I'm sorry if we all forgot our toolboxes at home,” said another man, obviously fed up with the woman all together.

  “You don't have to get an attitude. I was only thinking of our safety,” the woman said in her defense.

  “Actually, I had the good sense to barricade the door downstairs leading to the roof top. We can't do shit about this door.” He pointed to the roof top door that was suffering from two bullet holes where its lock used to be. “But that one downstairs, I made sure no one could push open from the other side. See while you were all running without a plan, I was thinking about our safety,” announced Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself with no lack of arrogance.

  “And here I am without the Key to the City to give you for your heroic efforts.” That brilliant, sarcastic comeback was retorted by a middle-aged Caucasian man in a Nike track suit leaning against the air duct vent.

  Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself snorted. “A simple 'thank you' will suffice.”

  “Yeah, well, thank you... even though I'm sure you were thinking about your own safety when you barricaded the door. Let's hope that whatever 'barricade' you crafted holds up,” Nike-Track-Suit said.

  “Well, whatever the case, this is all we've got. Now let's just pray those damn zombies don't come up here before we get saved.” David said, putting things into perspective.

  “Maybe we should stay as quiet as possible,” another man suggested.

  “Works for me. Let them chase all those screaming ass loud people down there. Hopefully, they'll go right past this place,” said Mr. Every-Man-For-Himself.

  David wanted to hate the man for his callousness, but he couldn't. As much as he wanted to think otherwise, every part of him was agreeing with the asshole. He wrapped his arm around his wife and son pulling them closer.

  “Daddy, I'm scared,” his son, Zachary whined.

  “Shhhh, I know. You're being so brave right now, not crying. We need you to be brave a little longer, okay? Can you be brave for your mom and me?” David asked, gently stroking his son's soft cheek.

  The child nodded. “Yes, daddy. But I'm still scared.”

  He scooped him up from his mother’s arms and she let go. He placed his son in his lap, kissing the top of his head. “I know, little man. I know... daddy's scared, too.”

  “Are those things going to get us?” his son asked, tears began to pour out of his round, brown doe eyes, looking all the more innocent.

  God, David hated those things and the sons of bitches at SciTech for creating them. To have to see tears of fear streaming down his sons cheeks was almost too much for him to handle. Even more so, his wife struggled to calm down her breathing. He knew she was as terrified as he was and had been hiding it as best she could to protect both of them.

  “No son, I'm not going to let those things get anywhere near you. I promise,” David said, kissing his son again on the top of his head. He hugged him as tightly as his little body could take without crushing him. Then he loosened his muscles.

  “Daddy, are all chimps dangerous?” Zachary asked in his little childish voice.

  “No Zach. What happened to that chimp, was a man-made error. This is why
mommy and daddy are against animal testing,” David said. Being a veterinarian, he loved animals, taught his son to love them, too. So far, he was relieved that this virus didn't seem to affect cats and dogs and pigeons and the like. Lord knows it was a bunch of them running around out there. He wasn't sure of any other animal being susceptible to the virus. He couldn't stay home and watch the news any longer to find out. Once they started evacuating Chicago and it was reported those monsters were moving south... he knew he had to get his family out of the city.

  It was easier said than done. Lucky for him, it was his off day from the Armitage Animal Hospital. He'd been planning on taking his family out for a picnic when his cell phone began ringing. His brother told him to turn on the news and when he did, he couldn't believe his eyes or ears. It just couldn't be true, there was no such things as zombies. But there they were, plain as day, terrorizing the streets and heading their way. He wasted little time explaining all of this to his wife. They managed to pack their necessities quickly enough. They loaded up the car and hit the road. That was when they ran into trouble as apparently all of St. Louis was evacuating the city at the same damn time. Traffic, bumper-to-motherfucking-bumper kept them in one place. He and his family held it together long enough until the screams came. He knew then that he couldn't wait in his car. From the little that he'd seen on the news, cars offered absolutely zero protection. Those who thought their vehicles would save them were snatched out and gorged on. At first, he took just one backpack, heavy as it was, it held their necessities. But when that started to slow him down, he tossed the extra load and it was just him, his wife and son, the only necessities he had to have.

  Now, he found himself holding his family close as they all prayed for a helicopter to come flying this way. He looked at several people trying to make calls on their cells, but it was looking like they weren't having any luck whatsoever.

  “What's happening?” David asked one of the young men who just gritted his teeth and looked upwards toward the sky in a blatant show of frustration.