There was a feeling that this was more than a security issue. My status as a vampire was only a few weeks removed, but something inside of me said that if my best friend doesn't approve then this might be a problem.
Chapter 35
A promise. I wasn't sure how such a simple thing could cause so many damn problems, but the week had been hell since the promise to see Sunnie away from school. The three days since had been long, with a lot of cold shoulders by Veronica, and a lot of questions to the point of obsession from Sunnie.
Sunnie had been pestering me daily for details about when I could come over or when we could go somewhere in town and hang out. Veronica had been standoffish since Tuesday. I was glad that today was Thursday. Well, I only thought I was glad it was Thursday.
The school day was uneventful enough. The highlight was bumping into the wolves at lunch. Haley wanted to growl under his breath until I promptly reminded him that there was already one wolf dead at my hands and there could just as easily be two. The power of subtle gestures will never cease to amaze me. The others of his group bore holes through me with their eyes, though each was silent. As soon as the accidental confrontation had begun it had ended with the meat eaters getting lunch and finding a place far away from us.
Lunch I remained with my group as always watching Sunnie and her small cadre of friends from afar. The day turned when she strolled across the room and sat down between Veronica and myself. It seemed the whole lunchroom grew hush. This was either a chance to bridge the gap between my vampire colleagues and this human girl with whom I had become a little infatuated, or allow them to size her up for dinner.
Veronica was the first to crack. "Ethan, aren't you going to introduce us to this young lady that we have heard so much of nothing about, or should we do it ourselves?" Her eyes cut to mine as a smile graced her face, but her expression was one of fake approval.
The door had been kicked wide open.
Sunnie's show of bravery had taken her to our table, but surrounded by my group, I detected a change in her pulse rate since she had seated herself. Her heart was racing before Veronica had spoken and now it was the fastest I had heard a human pulse.
Wrapping my arm uncomfortably around her, I pulled her close enough to reassure her that everything was alright. The drastic down tick in her pulse happened as soon as I touched her shoulder. The air was let back into the room as the human teens busied themselves again with eating and discussing their trivial lives, leaving us to conduct our business with as much privacy as a public school lunchroom could provide.
"Everybody, this is Sunnie Vass. She is a, uh, friend of mine. You may remember her from the incident with John." I was at a loss of what should be said and what shouldn't.
There was no reaction. Sunnie shifted closer to me. I was sure she could have felt the cold shoulders she was getting if she had been in the next state, though it wouldn't take a genius to figure out when no one looked at you or gave a hint of a smile that you were not wanted. Even Darby followed the actions of the others. Her act of betrayal was not as obvious as she timidly looked at her hands folded in her lap. The rest looked the opposite direction taking cue from Veronica.
Continuing, "Sunnie these are my friends from the base..."
There was a reaction now. Veronica started the exodus before I could finish what I was trying to say. The last one out the lunchroom door was Darby who acted as if she wanted to stay, but like the rest she proceeded to disappear down the hallway.
"The assholes were my friends." I finished. "I am sorry. They don't take to outsiders too well. Maybe they will warm up eventually and if they don't, it doesn't matter."
Sunnie nestled into my arm. "You are right about that, their opinions do not matter, but you are wrong about one thing."
"What is that?" I asked.
The reply came swiftly. "I may be new here, but the outsiders here are ya'll."
The comment resonated with me. It was the truest statement I had heard about our situation. No matter how human we became or how well we were able to hide our true selves we would never be anything, but outsiders.
Chapter 36
Friday night had become the time to let loose on the base for our generation of vampires, as well as the rest of the creatures. This Friday night was different and thankfully I was glad. Since the issue of Sunnie had blown up in my face, the group had been less than friendly. So a night locked in my house guarded by zombies sounded like a great alternative to having to dance around the issue as we all played nice. There was longing for contact with my family of vampires, but a single one night off wouldn't kill me.
I thought about sitting down in my green living room chair, taking a handful of the Inhibitors I had been hoarding recently since I had effectively gotten over the intrusive rush of being surrounded by humans, and seeing how high I could get. Or I could go to bed and start over on Saturday.
Damn, I needed to request a television since staring at the wall was getting old. I knew some of the rest of my troupe had them, so I should at least try. What was the worst Chadron could do right? I had already been dead once. I laughed at the thought.
Why are we locked in I wondered. The call had not been issued until we had been back from school a few hours. Since the call had been issued, the base was fully activated. Soldiers roamed between the house and helicopters hovered overhead with lights searching the darkness that had overtaken the base.
A noise in the bedroom alerted me to the fact that I was not alone. A smell wafted across the room. Limes. I could smell limes, that meant only one person could be in my house.
"Darby? Darby is that you?" I questioned playfully as I walked toward the bedroom.
A muffled giggle was audible through the closed door.
Slowly, I eased the door open to find Darby sitting on my bed dressed a little differently than she was at school.
Darby was wearing white knee high stockings, plaid skirt, a white blouse that showed her midriff, and her hair was pulled back into a pony tail. Sitting with her legs crossed provocatively. If she was trying to be tempting, then she was doing a great job.
"Darby what are you doing here?" I found it hard not to be distracted by the shortness of her skirt as she slid further back onto the bed.
"Visiting a friend." She laughed and patted the bed beside her.
"Thanks for the invitation, but this is not you Darby. I thought we agreed that we would be friends and this appears to be about something more."
She looked at me with a serious expression. "What do you mean this is not me? Am I not as pretty as the human Sunnie? Can you not desire me as much?"
Anger was welling inside of me from frustration. I wanted her to know she was beautiful without making her think that I wanted more.
Moving to the glass, I thought about how to proceed. Looking out the door into the small alleyway, I noticed that Chuck was still on patrol, oblivious to me standing inside the room only three feet away. He scanned his surroundings then slunk forward then repeated. He paced back and forth, dragging his chain ten feet in one direction. When the chain pulled tight, Chuck would be thrown around to start in the other direction. The clanking had become reassuring. This was distracting.
Darby complained, "Undoubtedly, I am not even as alluring as the zombie outside the window."
I spun, "Dammit Darby! You are very beautiful, but I think of you differently! Besides, I thought you had been seeing Logan!"
It felt good to yell, to vent. I wasn't really mad at her, but she was going to get the brunt of my anger since she was near.
She blushed and adjusted her outfit to not be as revealing. "How did you know about him?"
Responding as I approached the bed, "We are vampires. I can smell the difference in you since you have started being together. You also act differently around each other since it started. Oh, and Logan has been telling us. You have made him very happy."
Darby bowed her head and started to cry. "Please don't tell him. Please Ethan you ca
n't tell him. I think I love him."
I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder. "I won’t, but why are you here? What could have brought you here if you love him?"
She leaned in close enough to me than her lips lightly grazed my ear as she spoke, "They made me. I was told to distract you while Veronica was called to a meeting about how to handle Sunnie."
I wanted to pull away, but she held me tightly in place as she told me the plan. "The other vampire groups are thinking you are endangering us and instead of dealing with you, they decided to remove her."
My mind was spinning. I grabbed Darby from the bed and lifted her into the air, shaking her "What do you mean remove her?! What do you mean?! Tell me Darby?!"
Darby was shaking without my aid as she sobbed uncontrollably, her voice rising and falling as she pleaded. "Please don't hate me Ethan! Please! They only want what is best for us."
Throwing her onto the bed, she bounced off and landed on her feet then ran toward the door at full speed. I caught her around the neck. "Don't make me hurt you dammit! What have they done?! Tell me or I will kill you."
Darby tried to scream, but my grip was too tight around her throat for a sound to escape. I fought with my anger because it was driving me. It was pushing me closer to the edge. There was a real chance that Darby was going to die if I didn't get the anger under control soon.
"Darby, I will kill you. You need to tell me the truth."
From behind me Veronica called, "Put her down Ethan, and I will tell you what you want to know."
I released the grip around Darby's neck and cast her roughly to the ground. She clutched at her throat as she skittered away into the open closet, cowering in the corner.
I didn't want to look at Veronica because I was afraid of so many things that were going through my mind, including my connection and friendship with her which I didn't want to erode, but might be irreparable. I growled, “Veronica what did the group do?"
Veronica slowly approached from the bedroom door. "Ethan, listen."
"Quit stalling Veronica," My reply was caustic.
She sighed, "The group decided to eliminate Sunnie through the use of a surrogate. After the vote was decided to have her killed, two of the group volunteered to release a trained GV6 hunter to take care of the problem. Chadron detected the base departure of one of the GV6s and locked the base down. There is nothing that you can do to help her. What is done is done Ethan."
I was already out the door before she had finished.
Dodging Chuck was easy enough. It was then I realized the truer reason the chained zombies were used. As I sprinted past, he screamed a loud piercing noise that was unlike anything I had ever heard. The zombies in between the houses were sentries that were used to alert other guards. The soldiers were already on alert and would check out the source of the screaming within seconds. How Darby had slid by without Chuck noticing was an avenue I needed to explore when, and if, I was allowed to return. I wasn't sure what my punishment would be for going AWOL, and I didn't care. I had to get to Sunnie before the hunter found her, and I was already behind.
The base was a blur as I used all of my speed to get to the training center to which Veronica had recently taken me. Crossing the base, I had sped by many of the inhabitants of the Farm. Some had acknowledged my presence with a moan or scream, though most ignored me as they tried to stay out of the sight of the military patrols. I, however, did not give a shit if the security forces saw me.
I had believed when I left my home to rescue Sunnie, since Veronica and Darby had been concerned enough to occupy me, they might have chased me down. A cursory glance behind me proved that they had decided to let me go.
The complex would be in view in less than a minute as I tried to formulate a plan to get off of the base. I was well on my way when a single shot ran out then a barrage of shots. The initial shot had been a warning not intended to strike a particular target. The barrage was another issue. The shooting was off the mark by a fraction of an inch at first. Quickly, I located the sources. The shooting was coming from two automated Browning machine guns that were hidden in a clump of trees two hundred yards away from the main approach to the base. These either had not been active the other night or had been recently added as extra security. Either way, the guns were causing me serious concern. There were a few instances where I could feel bullets creasing my skin opening shallow cuts. The cuts would heal quickly, but what if I took a direct hit. Could I survive multiple penetrating wounds from large high velocity rounds?
Dodging only a small amount, I was afraid I was going too fast and would be unable maintain my balance. I was doing well until I felt a bullet puncture my shirt, passing clean through without making contact. The moving became wide ranging in an attempt to weave and out. The guns quieted as I entered the main grounds of the training complex crawling with zombie and human soldiers.
Somewhere within the confusion of soldiers, a single voice shouted out an order to halt. Halting seemed a great way to get killed so I opted to find out if I could go even faster. The soldiers were too closely grouped to take aim at me as I raced past toward the warehouse that contained the Camaro. If a soldier did fire a shot then the round would probably have a better chance to hit another soldier than make contact with me. The guards were too preoccupied with my approach to have effectively secured the warehouse. Two zombies turned toward me too late. Both of the Zs were forcefully pushed backward without injury to me. The door was now within reach when two shoots pinged off the metal walls in front of me. I dove into the door as another shot tinged off of the frame of the door to my right. I hit the concrete floor. The speed with which I plopped onto the floor propelled me along until I was able to pop up into a run.
I had seconds before the mass of soldiers of both groups poured through the door behind me. The narrowness of the door would buy me time as only a single soldier at a time could enter. An attempt to secure the door was forfeited in an effort to get to the muscle car in front of me.
I begged quietly to myself as I leapt into the open topped Camaro that the keys were in the ignition. On contact of the seat with my ass, I reached for the ignition to find my silent prayer answered. Firing up the Camaro, I spun the Chevrolet to find a mixed bag of thirty soldiers with assault rifles pointed in my direction.
Unfortunately fifteen or so were too close for their own health as I used every ounce of horsepower of the eight cylinder motor to toss the car around in a wide circle, scattering the soldiers with the rear fender. The remaining ones in the warehouse fled their airborne colleagues. The soldiers, filtering in through the open door, were forced to adjust or risk being injured by a flying limb or body.
Straightening the car, I pressed the remote button as I slammed the accelerator to the floor. The engine roared to life sending me rocketing across the small warehouse. The large door was moving too slowly making this exit close. There was a small crack that the Camaro could squeeze through, and if I held the car steady, maybe only the side mirrors would be torn loose. I never wavered.
There was sporadic gunfire punching through the thin outer wall while a few random shots shredded the body of the car as the tires found the dirt road. A mile then two was soon behind me. There was no pursuit behind me. There was just dirt in front of me, and a hope inside that I could reach Sunnie in time to save her. If I didn't, I vowed there would be hell to pay.
As the dirt road began to turn into pavement, I realized a great miscalculation on my behalf. In my haste to go to the aid of an innocent friend, I had not thought about the fact I had no clue where she lived.
My phone was in my pocket. Struggling to whip it out I scrolled through the contacts hoping in earnest that Sunnie, or I, had added her number. When I reached the end of the list, which was short to begin with, I started to throw the phone out the window until it was illuminated by an incoming text from Darby. "Good luck! Sunnie's address is 272 County Road 117. So Sorry!"
The address was what I needed and at the rig
ht time. I had been willing to give up the fight. Well, that is not entirely true. I wouldn't give up until her death was confirmed. My foot had followed a subconscious command, and I had allowed it to slack on the gas petal, but a renewed spirit prompted me to hammer the car as hard as she would go.
The Camaro was fierce on the straightaway and the engine rumbled throughout the night, ticking away the miles at speeds exceeding one hundred twenty miles per hour. I had slowed once since receiving the address to put it into the mapping function of my phone, but willed the car to go faster as I closed in on her house. Twenty three miles quickly became ten then even faster became three. The Detroit beauty growled a loud throaty expression of yearning to be unrestrained again as I removed my foot from the accelerator as I neared Sunnie's street.
The Camaro was less than stealthy as I crept along the streets edging closer to her home. Two blocks away, I decided my best recourse was to simply drive fully to her house and wish for the best.
The streets were dark and the houses were cookie cutter representations of structures being built during a time of prosperity for many after the initial purchase of the property that comprised the Farm. The ones that had stayed had been flush with money or as flush with money as the people of the poor communities had ever been. As the money flowed, the surviving towns sprawled for a few blocks as split levels and ranchers dotted once fertile farm fields. The street had been carefully laid out to afford comfort and quietness along with a sense of safety in numbers. The blocks today found well cared for homes of several decades of age and partially manicured flower gardens and lawns underneath a canopy of mature trees that hid the properties from the light of the sun or the moon. At the moment, I was thankful to be a vampire because there was little natural or artificial light to make out the house numbers on the mailboxes.
Created (Book 1 of the Created) Page 19