by M. Lorrox
Jambavan spins back to the notepad he has in front of him. “Go ahead.”
Sky reads them out. “Sumerian, Akkadian, …Eb-la-ite? Echo, Bravo, Lima, Alpha, India, Tango, Echo. Then there’s Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian.” She frowns. “I suppose that still is a lot, but at least we know where to look next.”
Eddy nods. “Alright, let’s look for translation, uh, codes? I don’t know what to call them. You guys know what I mean. So, let’s split up the list.”
Jambavan tears the sheet out from his notepad, carefully tears the list into thirds, and hands Eddy and Sky a piece of the paper. “And then there were three...each.” He smiles.
June swipes her card to the hotel suite and steps inside. Lars holds the door open with his foot, still talking to her. “It’s almost entirely painless now, and with your healing abilities, you should be good as new in as little as an hour after the procedure.”
June nods. “Okay, thanks for telling me. I’m gonna call my dad now.”
Candace, Beatrice, and Michael stand in the hallway. Michael reaches into his pocket, glances down the hall, then pulls his hand back out.
June grabs her phone from off the couch and autodials her dad. She waits, then she hears a fast, busy signal. What? She looks down at the phone and hangs up. She notices she doesn’t have any reception. That’s weird… Maybe a text will go through. She creates a new conversation on her phone, adding her dad, Charlie, Sadie, and Eddy to it. “Is there a name for this condition?”
Lars frowns. “No name specifically exists for your condition; you seem to be quite unique. But if we don’t act immediately, I fear that you’ll experience a combination of sepsis, toxic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatic encephalopathy.”
June shivers. “In English?”
Lars is about to respond, but Candace places her hand on his shoulder. “June, all that means is that your blood is toxic, and if it gets worse, then your organs would fail, and you’d die.”
“Great.” June types a message:
Bad news, my blood is toxic. Good doctor lady says if not treated immediately I could die. Kinda thinking I’d rather live. Can’t reach dad. Somebody call me!
She clicks send. “Where exactly are we going?” She starts typing another text.
Lars grins. “To my lab, where we can work much more efficiently and discreetly than at a hospital.”
June looks up from her phone and sighs. “Where’s the lab?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s at the Pentagon. I didn’t mean to assume you knew that.”
She nods. “I only want to have my blood tested for the toxicity. No samples, and nothing at all until my dad gets there.” She types another text:
Going to mellguard lab at pentagon for test. CALL ME!
Lars nods. “Absolutely. The priority is to see what we’re dealing with, then we can take it from there.”
June glances up again. “Beatrice?”
She steps through the doorway and into the room. “Yes?”
“You’ll come with me? I’m nervous.”
“If you want to go, of course I will go with you, dear.” She gives her an understanding smile. She can tell that June is more nervous than she lets on.
“Thanks.” She looks past Beatrice toward the door. Lars stands there, smiling. Behind him, she sees darkness, feels cold, and smells burning. Something’s not right... Why is that Michael guy even here? Is he the muscle? Are they going to force me if I don’t go along with them? Are they lying to me about being sick? But I feel sick… What would Eddy do? He’d play it cool. Her bag is on the ground near Beatrice. She looks at her cell again as her heart races. It still shows that it doesn’t have signal.
She makes herself smile at it, and then she turns the screen off. “Alright, I sent a text to my dad and my cousin. They’re going to call me, and then they can meet me at the lab.” She picks up her bag, puts her phone in it, and looks at Dr. Melgaard. “Right?”
He nods. “Absolutely.”
June feels a chill coming off him, even though he smiles. Whoa. She pauses, then sets her bag down. “You know, maybe—”
Lars cuts her off. “June, I tried not to alarm you earlier, but I’m very concerned for you. We need to get you to the lab immediately.”
She looks at him, and she sees a flash of blue with the cold. Is he nervous? Michael is dark and burning. Anger? He just moved his foot and made a fist. Candace is flowers. She saw the results; they must be bad. I don’t want to die… Beatrice is green and orange—compassion.
June exhales and glances down. She sees a coloring book of Minnie’s on the counter. I could stall, maybe write a note. “Actually, I just was thinking I should go to the bathroom before we go. I’ll be right back.” She leaves her bag and walks toward the bedroom the Costanzas use. Think June! I can’t fight them; Beatrice is old, and she could get seriously hurt. Dr. Melgaard seems so determined, and my stupid phone doesn’t work. Candace wants to help, and I trust her… I should leave a message, just in case.
As she walks through the bedroom, she scans for something—anything—that she could use to write a note with. Damn, they straightened up. She walks into the bathroom, still scanning for something she could use.
She sits down on the toilet, and although she’s nervous, still pees. There’s towels and the shower, and toilet paper... Think June! As she moves, she sees light reflecting off the surface of the tiles across from her. She smiles.
When she’s finished in the bathroom, she walks out of that room to the alcove where the sink, mirror, closet, and all of Sadie’s makeup is. She turns on the sink, quietly finds a tube of lipstick and writes a note on the mirror. Then, she splashes water on her face and walks back to the others by the door to the hallway. “All right, I’m all set. Let’s go.”
She picks up her bag, and Beatrice puts her arm around her. As they walk out of the suite and June shuts the door behind her, Rusty sneezes in his sleep and wakes up. He’s curled up in the blanket that Eddy set in the corner of the bedroom yesterday. He yawns, then falls right back to sleep.
When they reach the lobby, Jules is on the concierge’s desk phone. She glances up for a moment, then returns to her call. Outside, a man opens the passenger doors to a car that’s waiting, and Lars pulls the man aside to speak to him. “We’re taking another passenger. You’ll need to get a separate ride.”
“Yes, sir.” He hands Lars the keys, then steps around to the driver’s door and opens it for him. Lars glances at Michael, who takes the keys, walks around the car, and gets behind the wheel.
Lars sits in the front passenger’s seat, and the three ladies ride in the back. As soon as they’re driving from the hotel, Lars sighs. “Michael, I don’t want to waste any time going through normal security, bring us in through the bridge.”
Michael glances at him. “Really? The last time—”
“Do not question me.”
He sighs. “If you insist.”
Lars turns to the back seat. “My lab used to be a sort of bunker, with secret access and exit for emergencies. It’s much faster to get in through the secondary access point, and I hate unnecessary delays. The higher-ups threatened that if I bring one more person into the Pentagon this way, that they’d revoke my access to the lab… To my own lab.” He shakes his head. “Well, I suppose that’s why it’s a good thing I’m bringing two people instead of one.” He smiles.
June holds back a cringe. She turns away and closes her eyes. Somebody call me. See the text, find the note, just call me and come meet me.
Charlie is jolted back to consciousness when someone knocks into him. He opens his eyes in time to hear a scream coming from the person next to him.
Aharon howls and holds the opposite side of his neck. Sergeant Lowe, one of the soldiers, has blood dripping out of his mouth. He’s leaned over on top of Aharon. His eyes are blank, and he grabs at Aharon.
Charlie shakes his head. WHAT?
Sergeant Lowe opens his mouth and moans, an
d a piece of flesh falls out. He hisses as blood drips off his teeth, and he bends down to take another bite of Aharon.
HE’S A ZOMBIE! Charlie fumbles with his harness while still maintaining a visual on zombie Lowe, who is about to get another bite of vampire-meat. Charlie leans and manages to shove zombie Lowe back, and it falls onto a pile of nine other zombies. They look stunned, then they turn and stare at the three vampires strapped into their seats along the wall.
Charlie screams, “ZOMBIES!” as loud as he can.
Tiger wakes up instantly. “What the bloody hell?”
Charlie turns to Aharon. “Are you alright?”
The speaker kicks on from the cockpit. “Everything alright back there? Over.”
The zombies closest to the speaker look in its direction and try to find the meat-bag of a body that made those sounds, while the rest of the zombies start to get up and move toward the vampires.
Aharon turns to Charlie. “He took out a piece of my neck! I don’t think it nicked anything!”
Charlie looks down at his harness and continues unstrapping it. CAZZO! He has one of the three buckles undone, but he’s having trouble with the others.
Remarkably, Aharon is the first vampire to get out of his harness—even with one hand pressed to his neck. He stands as another zombie lunges toward him, and he’s able to spin and deflect it. He grabs it with his free hand and rips it backward, sending it flying into the zombies standing by the speaker.
It’s so cramped in there that the zombies don’t fall; they are held up by other zombies that are held up by other zombies that are held up by the opposite wall. Now there are twenty angry, gripping, and snatching arms reaching for the vampires.
Tiger frees himself next and lifts his arm. -SLAP!- He shakes his head. “Fuck! I thought I was dreaming.” He leaps into the pile, yelling and punching.
“What the hell is going on back there? Over.”
Charlie yanks at his harness. The buckle must be jammed.
A zombie charges into Aharon and crashes him into the starboard side hatch. A loud -thud- then -bang- rings out from the metal door. They struggle, and another zombie is now throwing himself at Aharon.
Charlie kicks a zombie’s knee out, and its face lands in Charlie’s crotch. “No!” He reaches up and rips the harness attachment points off from the wall and shoves the zombie away from his manly parts. Holy fuck that was close! Now, another zombie is on him. Charlie is pushed backward—his knees are taken out by his jump seat, and he falls back into it.
Tiger screams as a zombie takes a piece of his forearm. He rips his arm away from the zombie’s mouth, but his arm is now missing a hunk of flesh and has trailing cuts made by the zombie’s teeth. “What the fuck do we do?”
“Kill them!” Charlie gets back up and leaps into the air, hunching over so he doesn’t fly into the fuselage above him. The zombie of Lieutenant Walker lifts its chin to look at him, just as Charlie wraps both arms around its head and squeezes. Zombie Walker’s head crushes in on itself, his eyes pop out against one of Charlie’s biceps, and the body drops. Charlie rides it until his feet land on the vomit and blood slicked metal grating of the plane’s floor, and he howls.
His blood-covered arms are stretched out to his side, and he’s in a low stance. He continues to howl, so loud the plane shakes and all the zombies focus on him.
“For fuck’s sake, answer the god-damned radio!”
The zombies reengage their rabid attack. Tiger is punching, elbowing, spinning, and being bitten, all at the same time. Charlie shoves one zombie back as he grabs another zombie by its throat. He’s about to squeeze and yank its windpipe out when he’s stunned by a loud sound.
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
To the vampires, the alarm cuts through their brains like hot javelins, and they automatically reach for their ears.
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
The zombie belonging to the neck that was briefly in Charlie’s palm leans in, mouth-first. Charlie notices, lets go of his ears long enough to shove the zombie back, then covers his ears again. What the fuck now?
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
Tiger screams “I’m going deaf! I can feel it!”
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
Charlie turns and realizes that for the last fifteen seconds, he’s forgotten about Aharon. He turns to see three zombies on top of Aharon, biting and tearing. He’s a bloody mess. “Aharon!”
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
Charlie rushes toward him. He grabs the zombie on top of the pile attacking Aharon and yanks it away as hard as he can. Charlie spins and lands with the zombie a couple feet closer to the Dillos stored in the aft of the plane. The zombie had a piece of Aharon in his hands, and whatever that piece was, the zombie took it as a prize and now shoves it into its mouth, biting down on the pink flesh.
-VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- -VRHEEET!- ...
Charlie looks back toward Aharon and realizes what the noise is. He sees a red arm streaked with blood, bite marks, and hanging flesh spinning a wheel. On the hatch. That opens outside. At whatever-the-fuck altitude they’re at.
-clunk-
Charlie lunges and grabs the bumper of the nearby Armadillo. “HOLD ON TIGER!”
The door underneath what’s left of Aharon’s gnawed-on body blasts open.
Eddy and the squires decide to meet again on Saturday to keep working on identifying—and translating—the language found on the ring. They all walk together the few blocks back to the hotel, laughing and being silly. At the hotel, Sky and Jambavan split off to report to the acting Guard Commander, Captain Korina Sarkis, and Eddy walks through the lobby. He glances into the courtyard to see if June is there, but she isn’t, so he heads up to the suite.
He finds it empty, but the door to June and Skip’s bedroom is closed. Maybe she’s resting. That’d be great! Just then, it hits him; he’s both hungry and thirsty, thanks to an epic sugar crash after that big mocha. He gets a drink from the fridge along with the makings for a PB&J. He takes his bag off, sets it on the table, and considers the ring. Even if it’s the real one from the legend, the rest of the story has to be nonsense... Has to be.
He starts making his sandwich. He sets the knife on top of the jar of peanut butter while he opens the jam. The lid sticks, so Eddy uses more force, and it immediately comes free. His elbow hits the knife, and it falls, banging against the plate he had set out with some bread. The knife slides off and nearly falls off the counter, but Eddy catches it. He freezes, listening to see if he woke June. He doesn’t hear anything coming out of her room. Whew. He hears Rusty groan from the other room, then silence.
He finishes making the sandwich, sits down to eat it, and notices his laptop nearby. He opens it up and logs in. Headphones... He looks around. Where’d I leave them? He stands up and walks toward his bedroom, then pauses. Oh, there they are. He grabs his earbuds off the side table in the corner of the living room between the couch and the large window.
He returns to his laptop, plugs in his headphones, and enjoys his sandwich and drink while watching music videos.
Sadie still sits in her meeting at the Pentagon. The cast of characters is like yesterday’s; United States military officials, the High Council, the War and Defense Cabinet, and a few other elders that were also invited. The meeting concludes, and people start to get up and move about.
Mary walks over to her. “Sadie, my dear, thank you for agreeing to give the presentation this afternoon to the house about the joint operation.”
Sadie responds with a slow nod. “I’d feel better about giving it after the mission is over though, maybe an event can be scheduled this weekend instead?”
Mary shakes her head. “Some U.S. congressmen and senators will be joining the meeting back at the hotel.”
Sadie looks at her sideways. “You mean, additional ones?”
“Oh, yes. Sorry, non-vampires will be joining us later, and there’s basically no use in tryi
ng to get everyone to give up their weekend plans. I, for one, could use a couple days away from all these meetings.”
Sadie nods. “Me too.”
“Besides, it’ll be so much more poignant if you give the presentation while Charlie and the other knights are on the mission.” She turns to walk with Sadie. “Also, because the House of Elders’ vote on going public is scheduled for Monday, it would be preferable to announce the operation today.”
“I agree, I just am a little preoccupied with Charlie being gone. He hasn’t been on mission since we’ve been together.”
Mary places her hand across Sadie’s back, gently reassuring her. “Charlie is the toughest knight and the most stubborn son of a bitch that I’ve ever met.” She chuckles. “I can’t imagine anything that would be too much for him to handle.”
Sadie smiles and nods. “Thanks. He definitely is stubborn.” She sighs. He’ll be fine.
“Will you be joining the rest of us for a tour of the building? I’m looking forward to seeing the chapel and the 9/11 Memorial Room.”
Sadie shakes her head. “I need to prepare for the presentation. I might just go to a coffee shop and disappear for a while. I may pass on the luncheon back at the hotel as well.
Mary shrugs. “Well, thank you again.” She smiles and squeezes Sadie’s arm. “See you later.”
“See you later.”
Sadie walks out of the room and is about to turn her phone back on, but she remembers that the Pentagon REALLY doesn’t like people using electronic devices in the hallways. She leaves it in her bag and walks toward the main exit. I wonder what Charlie’s doing now? He’s probably still in the air.
The ninety-seven-foot-long C-130 Hercules, with a wingspan of one hundred and thirty-two feet, has a service ceiling of 33,000 feet when empty, and a service ceiling of 23,000 feet when loaded to its capacity. Best performance of the aircraft is achieved at higher altitudes, and the plane that Charlie is currently inside is cruising at 26,000 feet and over three hundred miles per hour.