The Hunger (Book 2): Consumed

by Jason Brant

  “Nothing.” Lance didn’t want to tell the other two that they might have come down here for nothing.

  Cass crossed to the next car and came to abrupt stop again. “Do you hear that?”

  Lance listened, cocking his head so his ear angled toward the front. He was about to say ‘no’ when he heard something.

  Something deep and rumbling.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Cass took a few steps forward and stopped again. “There’s only one more car to go. We’ll climb up on it.”

  “OK.”

  They moved through the car slowly. More bones were scattered in it, making it difficult to walk in silence. They had to measure each step, placing their feet carefully.

  When they finally reached the end, the odd rumbling had grown louder.

  Greg’s breathing had quickened and when Lance looked at him, he wondered if the man might pass out.

  “You stay down here,” Lance told him. “You can hand up our equipment.”

  “I can do that, bro.”

  Lance glared at him, but didn’t say anything. If they survived this, he planned on having a discussion about the bro thing.

  Cass raised her goggles again as she stood between the cars. She held her hand out. “Give me a flare.”

  Lance dug one out of his pocket and placed it in her palm. She sparked the end and tossed it on the roof of their car. The ceiling of the tunnel was only a few feet above it. They would have to crawl in order to fit.

  “What do you want me to do?” Adam asked. His hands still shook, but they weren’t as bad as before.

  “You’re going up with us,” Cass said.

  Lance took the duffel bag from his shoulder and carefully placed it on the last row of seats. He had to move a hipbone out of the way. Bile stung the back of his throat as he lowered the glistening piece to the floor. It occurred to him that the bones were all fairly clean, as if they’d been washed.

  Or licked clean.

  The thought made him dizzy. He shook his head to clear it and unzipped the bag as quietly as he could.

  Cass came back in and pulled out blocks of the plastic explosives. She stacked them on the seat and then pulled out several silver tubes, which looked like thick pens. The last thing she grabbed from the bag was a small device similar in size and shape to a cell phone. It had two buttons on the front.

  “These are the detonators,” she whispered as she held up the pencil-shaped objects. “One needs to be put in each stack of explosives.”

  “That’s the trigger?” Lance asked. He pointed at the last piece.

  “Yeah. I’ll keep it with me.” She grabbed a brick of the explosives and jammed the detonator into it. “That’s all you do. Make sure all the blocks in each cluster you put in the ceiling are touching. One detonator per cluster, got it?”

  They all nodded.

  “If you see any cracks or holes in the ceiling, work a few bricks into it if you can. They’re malleable, so you can shove them around.”

  Greg scratched his temple. “Malleable?”

  Adam slowly turned his head and glared at Greg.

  “What?” Greg asked.

  “Stop talking.”

  “Sorry, bro. Just asking a question.”

  “Everyone shut up. We need to get this done and get out of here.” Cass stepped back to the opening between the cars and lifted her leg in the air. “Give me a boost.”

  Lance bent down and laced his fingers together. He held them down by Cass’ thighs.

  She stepped onto his hands and he heaved her up as hard as he could. Though she was a smaller woman, the fatigue in Lance’s arms made the movement more difficult than normal.

  Her legs kicked a few times as she shimmied her way onto the roof. A moment later, her head appeared over the edge and she pointed at the explosives on the seat.

  Lance handed ten blocks and three detonators to her before she disappeared again. Both of their hands were occupied so they couldn’t take the rifles with them. They were left in the car by the duffel bag.

  Adam stepped in front of Lance, sweat pouring from his face like a faucet.

  “It’ll be all right,” Lance said. “Just be quick and then come back down.”

  “I’m not cut out for this shit, man.”

  “You’ve survived this long. Just hang in there for a few more minutes and it’ll all be over. Put your stash over the second car. Cass and I will go over the first.”

  Lance cupped his hands again and lifted Adam as high as he could. The banker, as Lance still thought of him, was much heavier than Cass was. He could only lift his hands up to waist height.

  Adam scrambled the rest of the way before spinning around and reaching down. Lance handed him the same amount of equipment he’d given Cass.

  Greg gave Lance a boost up, though he whined about it. It took all the willpower Lance could muster not to punch him. Of all the guys they could have encountered on their way down to the tunnels, it had to be someone like him.

  The rumbling sound was louder on the roof. The air seemed to reverberate with it.

  After getting his share of the explosives and detonators, Lance crawled along the metal roof of the lead car. The flare was on the other car, so it didn’t give him much light to work with. It was enough though and his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

  He saw Cass a few yards ahead, crawling toward the other end.

  After a few more feet, he rolled over and slid on his back, eyeing the tile ceiling for cracks or crevices.

  His shoulder snagged on a gouge in the metal and he had to bite down against the pain.

  Large, deep holes ran from the side of the car to the center of the roof. Above the gouges was a wide gap in the tiles. Deep shadows concealed the inside of the space.

  He unclipped the spotlight and held it out in front of him, aiming at the hole. He clicked the trigger and then immediately hit it again, hoping to minimize any risk of exposure to nearby Vladdies.

  What he saw made him smile. The concrete behind the tiles had been chipped away, creating a hole several feet deep. He examined the gouges in the metal again.

  Did one of the Vladdies try to tunnel through?

  He wondered if maybe they could hear the river above them and had tried to break through to it. Perhaps the scratches in the roof of the car came from their claws as they raged against the ceiling.

  Carefully, so he wouldn’t drop the explosives, Lance stood up. The hole was high enough that he could stand fully erect. He had to reach up another foot above his head to feel the top of the crevice.

  Because of the darkness, it took him longer to plant the explosives than he would have liked, but he managed. All of his blocks went into that one space. He figured this would be their best shot at blowing a big enough hole to get through to the riverbed above.

  He jammed two detonators into the blob he’d molded. Whether it required one or two, he didn’t know, so he figured he would play it safe. Another strobe of the spotlight revealed his handiwork—he was content with it.

  Cass hadn’t come back yet.

  Lance flattened himself to the roof of the car again and looked ahead.

  He didn’t see her. The glow from the flare didn’t extend to the far end of the car.

  What’s taking her so long?

  Behind him, Adam climbed down between the cars, his mission completed. Cursing under his breath, Lance crawled forward.

  Ten feet out, he spotted her explosives. She’d jammed them in a small fissure in the roof where some tiles had been knocked loose. A detonator stuck out of the amorphous mound. He continued along the roof.

  Lance still couldn’t see her ahead, but that didn’t mean much. He couldn’t see anything anymore. Judging from how far he’d crawled, he knew he had to be approaching the end of the car. Before he’d finished the thought, his hand brushed against the rubber tread of a boot.

  “Cass?” he whispered. His fingers traced up the boot and he felt her cargo pants.

 
“Shh.”

  The darkness was complete, encompassing. He couldn’t see her leg even though it was right in front of his face.

  Her fingers brushed against his head, fumbling around. They grabbed hold of his hair and tugged softly. She wanted him to keep crawling.

  Lance inched along, moving to his right so he could come up beside her. When his shoulder brushed against hers, he stopped. His fingers fell over the end of the car.

  The rumbling sound was louder still. A slight vibration came from the car underneath him.

  Cass grabbed his hand and pressed the night-vision goggles into his palm.

  As he raised them to his eyes, she put her hand over his mouth. He tried to shake his face free, but she pressed her palm against his lips even harder.

  “Look through the goggles.” He felt her warm breath on his cheek. She was so close that her lips brushed his ear. “Don’t react to what you see.”

  Only the rumbling sound and the thrum of his heartbeat were audible as he pushed the goggles against his face.

  Despite Cass’ warning, he moaned against her palm when he saw what lay on the tracks ahead.

  Vampires.

  Hundreds and hundreds of sleeping vampires.

  Chapter 20

  The goggles shook in Lance’s hand.

  He watched the wide, corded chests of the monstrosities rise and fall as they slept. Their breaths rumbled from their gaping mouths, each one bursting out with incomprehensible force. The sound reminded him of a snorting bull preparing to charge.

  They slept on the ground and tracks, bodies stretching across one another.

  Half-eaten limbs and torsos dotted the area, clamped in the distorted claws of the damned.

  The air was dank and sour.

  The nest of slumbering Vladdies stretched out as far as the goggles allowed Lance to see.

  It was an army of hunger and wrath and mutated death.

  He wanted to scream, to flee.

  He didn’t dare do either.

  In traditional vampire lore, the subway tunnels would have acted like one giant coffin.

  Cass tugged on his shirt, signaling for him to back up. She crawled backward beside him, her arms brushing against his side. He lowered the goggles, focusing on keeping his breathing as silent as possible.

  Panic tugged at his thoughts. There were so many. His composure threatened to slip away.

  He’d moved a half a foot away from the edge of the car when he noticed that he could actually see it. The tiled wall beside him had a faint glow reflecting from it as well.

  Lance whipped his head around. Cass’ outline was directly behind him.

  Crawling toward them on the other end of the car was Greg. He held the flare in his hand, raising it close to the ceiling.

  Cass turned and waved him back.

  He either didn’t understand, or didn’t want to listen, because he kept coming.

  “What are you guys doing up there?” he asked. Though he tried to whisper, his voice carried.

  Something shifted in the darkness beyond Lance.

  His muscles stiffened.

  The movement came again, but more pronounced. Another followed it.

  A dozen more after that.

  Lance’s lungs seized as he slowly turned his head toward the end of the car. He brought the goggles to his eyes again.

  Several of the Vladdies stood on all fours in the middle of the tunnel. They faced them, noses tilted in the air. Quick, forceful snorts pulled their widened, oozing nostrils in.

  One of them tensed and slammed its knuckles into the rail. It bounded two steps forward and sniffed again.

  Lance looked at Cass and waved frantically for her to go. She nodded and shimmied backward, urgency in her movements.

  He turned back, looked through the goggles.

  Three more had woken up. They faced his direction, their eyeless sockets aimed at the back of the car.

  “What took you so long?” Greg asked from behind him.

  Lance winced.

  Did the Vladdies hear him?

  One of them roared, its back arching, hands lifting from the ground. Two others shrieked, filling the entire tunnel with tormented echoes.

  The cries woke up the rest of the vampires. Hundreds of mutations exploded to their feet. They shoved at each other and slammed their forearms against the walls and ground.

  Cass shuffled backward even faster, her eyes wide with fear.

  The car shook as the Vladdies raged against the construction of the tunnel, their fury building to a crescendo. They slammed against each other in confusion and anger. More shrieks came as they turned toward the subway car. Lance winced against the intense sounds crushing down upon him.

  He knew the game was up. They were at least a half a mile into the tunnel and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of murderous mutants ready to tear them to pieces.

  But that didn’t mean he would go down without a fight.

  Lance reached into his cargo pocket and pulled two flashbang grenades out. His finger curled into the pin of the first one and he pulled.

  It didn’t budge.

  “Shit,” he muttered. He yanked at the pin again and it tore free.

  “Run!” He heaved the grenade as far into the group of Vladdies as he could.

  He pulled the pin on the second grenade out before the first had found its mark.

  “Lance! Come on!” Cass screamed.

  If he didn’t do this, he knew none of them would have a chance. If the vampires were susceptible to light and sound, the flashbangs should do some serious damage.

  Or so he hoped.

  He lobbed the second grenade, but it slipped from his sweat-covered fingers and bounced off the ceiling by the end of the car. It disappeared over the edge in front of him.

  “Damn!” He cupped his hands over his ears and rolled into the fetal position.

  Squeezed his eyes shut.

  The first grenade exploded in the group of Vladdies. The pitch of their cries spiked several octaves.

  Lance braced himself for the second explosion.

  It didn’t help. The bang stunned him, rocking his head like a punch from a boxer.

  He opened his eyes and watched as the infected nearest the car writhed on the ground, cradling their heads. Others, further away, stumbled around blindly, their senses jumbled from the grenades.

  Lance crawled away, struggling to keep from falling off the car. His balance was shit, his arms rubbery and feeling detached.

  Cass’ head appeared at the gap between the cars. She shouted something at him that he couldn’t make out. A shrill ringing stabbed at his ears, shoving other sounds aside.

  She waved him on. He complied as best he could.

  When he reached her, she grabbed him around the shoulders and guided him down to the floor. His weight was too much for her, but she pivoted well, and had him landing on his feet.

  Adam and Greg were gone.

  Cass’ mouth was moving, but Lance couldn’t get past the ringing.

  “What?” He stuck his pinky fingers in his ears and waggled them around.

  She pointed past him, at the end of the car.

  Lance turned to see a Vladdie climbing into the open doorway. Its unnaturally long teeth, yellowed and sharp, glinted from the flickering light of a flare left on the floor. A gnarled hand clutched at the first row of seats, stained claws tearing into the fabric.

  It roared at them, strings of spittle stretching to the floor.

  Lance shoved Cass in the other direction and grabbed the spotlight on his belt. The beam flashed dead center on the Vladdie, illuminating its striated, translucent chest. Pain-ridden cries filled the car, loud enough for Lance to hear it over the subsiding ringing.

  The beast stumbled backward and fell from its perch.

  Cass grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around. She held her rifle in her hands and pointed for Lance to pick his up. He lifted it, and the duffel bag, from the seat. The bag still held another brick
of explosives and a few more clips of ammunition.

  They sprinted through the cars. Lance struggled with his balance, having to grab handles hanging from the ceiling to keep from falling into the aisle. Bones crunched under their boots.

  The floors vibrated as the vampires clambered after them.

  Cass reached the end of the row and leapt to the tracks. She spun around and stuffed her hand into Lance’s cargo pocket as he landed beside her.

  He looked behind them and nearly fell over at what he saw.

  The entire car was packed with the infected. They climbed over the seats and fought against each other to get ahead. They filled the aisle, the doors, and the windows.

  Both sides of the tunnel surrounding the car were flooded with twisted flesh and rending claws. The sight froze Lance. He stared at the oncoming wave in revulsion and horror.

  Cass got a handful of his shirt and pulled him along the tracks. She yanked the pin of the grenade free, but didn’t throw it until they were twenty yards into the tunnel. She heaved it behind them without breaking stride.

  They covered their ears as the pop behind them sent another wave of tortured shrieks through the enclosed area.

  The glow of a flare further down the tracks caught Lance’s attention as they rounded a corner. Adam and Greg were ahead, running down the center of the tunnel. Adam shouted something over his shoulder that was drowned by the enormous racket behind them.

  The ringing in Lance’s ears dissipated, only to be replaced by the rages of the vampires.

  “Faster!” Cass yelled.

  “I’m trying!”

  The beam from Lance’s spotlight danced along the floor and walls as he pumped his arms. His legs and shoulder burned from carrying the heavy duffel bag earlier.

  A gunshot barked. Adam and Greg had stopped, with the dancer cowering by the right wall, holding the flare in front of him. Adam stood with his feet apart, the pistol held at chest height.

  He fired again, the .44 bucking in his hands.

  Lance angled his spotlight further ahead, giving Adam a better of view of his target. Cass raised her rifle her to her shoulder as they stopped beside him.

  A Vladdie burst from the shadows, running on two legs. Its left arm hung by its side, hitching with each stride. Blood poured from a hole in its shoulder.