Frank continued to stare up at the huge pointed thing aimed at the stars with a deranged look of pride mixed with something darker than Jackie had seen in any of Frank’s expressions before. “Meet the FG-10 Missile. The bomb that ended the war. It was my baby.
"And for every terrible thing that’s happened in the past twenty-three years, you owe all of your thanks to yours truly. A boy and his missile. A man and his biggest mistake.”
Frank stood there silent for a long time then spoke once more. “So, whether you like it or not, I have unfinished business to take care of here. So, let’s get to work. But first... Jackie, can you get me down?”
Chapter 56
Jailbreak
Black walls, floor, and ceiling made up the empty room. It was like an air lock. Just a room to put in between one area and another. Hank walked up to the next door and tried the panel but it was dead, no light and no usable buttons or options. Force it would have to be.
Hank stepped back and went running into the door with his right shoulder knocking a large dent into the black metal. Jumping back he took a deep breath and tried with the other shoulder, putting another indention alongside the first.
He was about to try again with the right shoulder when a loud screech ripped through the air from many voices. Hank turned just in time to get pounded into the door by more than a dozen ancient vampires.
Pink mouths on pale faces reached out from the darkness and latched onto Hank’s flesh and began to drink. There had to be at least ten of them drinking from him all at once.
Hank swung his arms and legs and kicked and punched and ripped with his own teeth until only a handful were still clutching him with their faces. He grabbed one suckling from his right side with his arm and broke its back, sending it rolling to the ground and squealing. It wasn’t dead, surely, but at least it was out of the way.
The next one he reached forward with his hand like lightning and grabbed its throat and pulled it out. The creature fought to continue drinking but couldn’t without its neck muscles to suck with. Another quick swipe with his hand and the creature's head tore most of the rest of the way from its body and it fell over twitching, its hands trying to reach for its head unsuccessfully. Hank gave it a good kick in the chest and it went rolling backwards in two parts.
He turned around and took another running tackle at the door and this time it busted open in the middle. A vampire grabbed hold of his foot. He kicked at it with his other shoe and crushed its fingers against the floor. Another running slam, this time with his side and back.
The door caved in and he fell through. A mirror image of the room he just busted out of surrounded him, except the door ahead was unscathed and he screamed at the question that filled his head then. Just how many of these doors are there?
***
Jonathan Braldon watched from across the street as the third deputy pulled out of the parking lot for the police station and drove off. That was his cue. He started walking across the road, then through the parking lot and through the front door.
Once inside he walked up to the first deputy who took notice. "Just how much do you motherfuckers get paid to sit on your ass while this whole goddamn city falls apart? Huh?"
The deputy, about a foot taller than Braldon, sporting a blond crew cut and built like a tank, rose up to his full height and looked down at him.
"Sir, can I help you?"
"Goddamn right you can help me. My cousin Jed done went and poisoned my goddamn dog and I called you motherfuckers an hour ago and you said you'd send someone right away and nobody ever came and I ain't no fucking idjit, I know my rights and I have a right to be served by the poe-leece, goddamnit." Jonathan moved to step around the desk that separated him and the deputy and the deputy put his arms up in a blocking gesture.
"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to calm down first. Can you do that."
"Calm down? Motherfucker, didn't you hear me, my goddamn dog Betsy's dead and you're dipshit ass is telling me to calm down. You fucking calm down and do something about—"
The deputy crossed over the desk himself and grabbed Jonathan by the jaw and clamped it shut. "I think I've heard just about enough out of you, mister. Now, either you calm down and speak only when spoken to or I'll throw your ass in jail faster than you can click your tongue back at me, you hear me."
Jonathan looked at the man, who was still holding his jaw shut, and nodded as much as he could with the limited motion the deputy's hand was allowing for.
"All right now, that's much better."
Another deputy walked into the room, eyes narrow with curiosity.
"What's up, Caruthers. You need some help in here?"
"No, man. I've got this. Just had to give Mr.?"
"Collier."
"I was just giving Mr. Collier here a warning about not calming down."
The other deputy, more stocky built with dark hair, smiled and said, "Okay. Just checking. Let me know if you need me."
Jonathan went to interrupt the man real quick but Vise-Grip Hands nearly crushed his jaw as soon as went to try and speak.
"Now, now, Mr. Collier, I said you could speak only when spoken to. Were you just spoken to?"
Jonathan shook his head slightly.
"All right, then."
The other deputy just laughed and walked away. Great. I was supposed to keep both of them in here. Fuck.
***
Danny had just unlatched the door to Alex and her brothers' cell when Gage's voice bounced off the concrete walls and announced his arrival.
"Holy shit, Sheriff, you gotta see this, we got a real live one in here tonight—what the fuck is going on?"
Gage stood there, mouth wide open for a mere second before his gun was out of its holster and pointed directly at Danny's temple. "Just stop right there, Sheriff. Or I will fucking shoot you, you got me?"
Danny raised his hands and nodded. "I don't doubt it for a second."
Gage grinned. "Yeah, I bet. And you know what. I'm not surprised at all really. I knew there was something seriously soft in your core from the moment I met you, you fucking worthless excuse for an officer."
Gage motioned to the cell door with his gun. "Why don't you go ahead and close that back up, will ya? And then once you're done with that, we'll just have ourselves a little talk, eh? That sound like a good evening to you?"
Danny reached forward and closed the jail cell. Alexandria looked back at him with eyes wide as saucers and both boys clutched behind her back to shield them.
"Don't you worry, pretty girl. Ain't nobody going to do anything to you you ain't already been asking for. Besides..." He smacked his lips together. "I got me a rogue Sheriff to deal with here first. So you've got some time to prepare." The boys clutched Alexandria's legs tighter and the three of them backed further away from the gate.
"You hurt these kids and so help me—"
"So help you what, Jackson?..." He stepped in closer. "You gonna haunt me to death?" He let out a good long laugh nearly tearing up in the process. "Hey Billy, you got that dude out there under control yet?"
No response. "Hey... Billy? Do. You. Hear. Me?"
"Something tells me Billy's got his hands full," Danny said with a smirk. Gage took one step forward and swung his foot right into Danny's crotch, sending Danny down to his knees. Billy cocked his pistol and pressed the barrel hard against Danny's scalp. Alexandria and the boys shrieked at the sight of it. "I think you been Sheriff for just long enough." Gage stiffened his muscles and started to squeeze the trigger. There was a loud explosion of sound and in a moment of confusion, Danny was sure his brains were splattered all over the wall, but when darkness refused to come, he looked up at Gage. A fresh hole oozing blood and smoke had replaced a portion of Gage's neck where it met the collar bone. Quickly before he could do anything else with it, Danny took the deputy's gun from his hands and turned to see a man he had never met standing there, gun still aimed at Gage.
"Hi, Sheriff, sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, but you
have a really bad couple of deputies here."
Danny gave the man a solemn look, still not quite sure if he should scream or hug the man. He decided to nod instead and then fell back against the wall, overcome with dizziness.
Chapter 57
Fallout
As Frank typed away at the control panel, Jackie paced back and forth. "Why didn't you tell me you used to work for the Emperor?"
"You never asked. Besides. How often you think I tell anyone about the terrible things I've done? You think I want to tell people that I'm responsible for the deaths of over 20,000 people?"
Tears filled Jackie's eyes and she looked away.
"Exactly. That's exactly how you should react. I deserve this goddamn cancer eating up the insides of my body." Frank's jaw quivered. Jackie turned back around and gave him a wounded look. He took a deep breath and held up his open palm toward her. "Just give me a few minutes here to see what I can do, okay?"
She stared at him for a long time before she finally nodded reluctantly.
A few minutes passed and Frank was watching the timer on the missile's onboard computer panel.
05:23
05:22
05:21
05:20
He had tried disarming the bomb a number of different ways with various software commands, some of which he was sure no one but him even knew existed, but the computer gave no response. The damn thing was locked and fully secure. "I can't stop this timer..." He stood there staring at the screen for a long time. "But... I can stop this thing from launching another way."
"How?" Jackie said.
Simon stood there watching both of them without words. His expression seemed oddly calm yet sad to Frank.
"I can detonate it here."
"What do you mean, like start a new timer or..."
"No, I mean I open up the core and I ignite the goddamn thing and it goes boom. There isn't any way to delay it, it just has to be done."
"No. You can't do that. I can't let you do that." Jackie was stepping closer and closer to Frank. "Tell me how to do it and then get in that damn truck and get out of here as fast as possible."
Frank shook his head. "I can't. It's not the kind of thing I can just tell you how to do it and you'll be able to do it. I'm not even sure I can do it on the first try. But we're running out of time so please, Jackie. Let me do this. I don't have anything left to live for. I wouldn't have much longer anyway. I need to do this. And you two..." He looked at Simon with a pleading expression. "You two have each other. You deserve each other."
Jackie was still shaking her head. Random items around the room began to tremble.
Something changed in Simon's expression.
Jackie went to reach out for Frank and Simon grabbed her. "Let him go."
Frank called out then as he started climbing the stair ladder up the side of the missile, "Get her somewhere safe. Preferably as far away as possible and as deeply underground as you can. You hear me."
Simon nodded as he pulled Jackie away.
"Jackie."
She looked up at Frank. He smiled down at her. "You're a good kid. I want you to know that, okay? You're a good kid. Now go." The next second Simon and Jackie were gone. Frank opened the main core panel, took a long slow breath, and reached inside.
***
Simon held on to Jackie's body with all of his strength as he ran faster than he ever had before. He was thankful he remembered the city as well as he did. He went straight for the old fallout shelter house on Spencer street.
Jumping over houses and buildings and crashing through walls he ran and ran until finally the house was in sight. The next second there was a deep resonating boom under the earth from behind Simon and he knew time was just about gone.
His legs doubled in speed and he jumped into the air, just barely landing in the house's yard, looked back for one quick split second to see the blasting fiery wind push through the city, dissolving everything in its wake and coming right for them.
Simon crashed into the house, found the secret entrance and pulled it open, tossing Jackie's body down inside, and then grabbed hold of the inside of the hatch and dove in. It locked into place just before he fell to the ground below next to Jackie.
The earth around them shook violently. They embraced each other tightly, squeezing faces into each other's chests as the blast ravaged the outside world above. The entire room around them started to break up and dust and debris fell from the ceiling and then everything around Simon blinked out of existence.
***
In mid push, both the Queen and Ishan screamed out in unison. They could both feel something terrible emanating from Simon's mind. A great blackness engulfing all of his being and everything around him. And then just as quickly as it came, it passed and the Queen and Ishan stared at each other in knowing and sadness. Then the next contraction blasted through her body and Ishan did his best to hold on to her legs as they spasmed in response. The Queen's voice cried out, echoing off of the walls and resonating inside Ishan's mind.
"The crowning has begun," the Queen cried out as her legs pressed hard against the bed. Ishan looked for himself and sure enough, there was the very top of the head of a child. He smiled despite the terrible knowledge threatening to burst his heart in two.
Simon, if only you could have seen this.
Chapter 58
Firstborn
Hank had busted through three doors now and once again he was greeted with yet another door. There has to be an end to this. He would have been drained of all his strength if he hadn't drank the blood of several of the ancients that had tried to kill him before moving on. He looked at the door in front of him and let the rage that had been building inside him simmer and then closed his eyes. After a minute had passed he let the anger release as he swung his body elbow first crashing into the door. This time, the door came away without any resistance, falling flat to the floor and sliding into the room it had previously concealed. Hank walked inside.
This room was far different from the others. It looked familiar. It wasn't the same room where he had made that deal with the Emperor what felt like eons ago now, but it was designed and decorated almost exactly the same. He listened for breathing or a heartbeat or anything. There was nothing. He knew the Emperor was here somewhere, but he also knew Joseph Caesar wasn't like other men. Hank could only dream of the things that Joseph was capable of after centuries of drinking the blood of the ancestors.
When he still couldn't make out any sounds or smells to detect the man, he began tearing through furniture and throwing aside boxes and trinkets and anything else in his way. He came to a computer. Its screen flashed with some sort of error message and Hank grabbed the entire desk, monitor, machine, and all and pulled it away from the wall, tearing out all its cables in the process. Sparks flew for a second and then died out. Hank threw the desk and its contents aside.
There was nothing here. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find any trace of Caesar.
"I know you're in here. There's no point in keeping up this game. You might as well come out and show yourself."
No response.
Hank threw aside the desk he had just dropped and began investigating the floor for some kind of trap door. Everywhere he looked, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, they all looked sealed. No hint of a door or window or anything.
***
Joseph waited beyond the wall, his face a mix of tension and fury. Something loud crashed outside of the room and his face flinched involuntarily. For more than three thousand years he had walked this earth and no petty little creature was going to stop him from living three thousand more. With his own eyes, he'd watched the dawn of civilization, the crucifixion of the one they called Christ, the destruction of the holy temple by the Romans, the very rise and fall of the Roman empire, and so much more. He had risen up his own armies more times than he could rightfully remember anymore. He had torn apart entire nations and rebuilt them and now this man, this one descendent of his woul
d dare try and take it all away from him.
Fool. I will not go into the night so easily.
Joseph activated the security trap and waited just beyond the door. It was only a matter of time before Hank would find his way in, but when he did...
***
Hank focused his senses on the walls. Sliding his hands along them and concentrating, allowing for any slight vibration to let itself be known. He hadn't come this far just to give up. His internal timer showed less than three hours remaining. He had to find the Emperor now or he would die here in this place, his last task uncompleted. The sound of some nearby microscopic electronic switch turning on alerted Hank to the wall just behind him. He turned and listened. Something was behind that wall. Right behind that wall. A device of some type. Something digital.
Hank let the hum of it resonate in his mind and followed the sound of it to its source with his eyes. When he was confident he had the sound placed with as much accuracy as he could possibly accomplish, he crashed into that spot in the wall without so much as a breath taken first. A door caved inward, partially, causing its outline to half resolve. Inside, Joseph Caesar stood in the far corner of the room. Their eyes met and something in Joseph's expression told Hank something was wrong, but he didn't listen. He stepped back once and charged forward again, busting his way in through the door and stomping it aside.
He stepped into the room and the next second everything went tumbling away and he was on the floor, the entire universe pulling out through his abdomen. He looked down. A stake much like the Foederati blood stakes was lodged into his stomach and he could feel the blood draining quickly from his body. Hank screamed and grabbed hold of the device, trying against all odds to pull it out but it only pulled harder inward the more he tried. The room and everything around him was blurring. The Emperor stood over him, smiling down, eyes alight with fury and victory all at once.
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