Not the father that I deserved.
I beat on the door of the ramshackle grow house. I tugged on the door handle but the damn thing didn’t give right way. I tilted my head towards the door and listened. Yep. Definitely voices. I glanced over my shoulder. The sky would change colors soon and then it would be full-on dark.
Man, I didn’t want to be out here after dark. They knew my scent! And Levi’s! We had to go!
The Frenzied was repulsed by light but not all of them were afraid to step into the sunshine. Those that were strong--or those are just feasted would be perfectly fine. At least for a few hours.
We did not have a few hours.
Only a few minutes. I wasn’t even sure where we’d go if this half-assed rescue were successful; there was no time to get back to the Lab. There was plenty of time to drag us out of this grow house and drain us. No, that's not what they had planned for him. There was something unique about Levi. Always had been. I wasn’t sure what that was but I shuddered at the thought. I could not allow my son to endure the kind of agony that the Frenzied had in mind for him. It wasn't his fault that he had unique blood.
Naomi was another story.
That's when the horrendous buzzing began. First as a whirring, like a few insects maybe mosquitoes, only larger. The sound occurred in both ears and the volume steadily increased. These weren't bugs I heard but the call of the collective. The scream of the vampires who targeted us. It was not normal to hear such a noise but I was deeply familiar with it. Memories of my bloody encounter left me breathless. I wasn't in the salt-covered walls beneath Area Six. Perhaps this had been a fool’s errand, but my nightmares have become too disturbed as of late.
Not only of my own savage attack but my horrific dreams now included my family.
Something happened, something bad, and I couldn't shake the feeling that my family was in greater danger than the agency wanted to admit. Or tell me. My nightmarish encounter with the Frenzied told me otherwise. The Agency found me quickly enough, apparently, they’d been watching me for a while, but they did not move fast enough to save me from receiving a wound that would hardly heal.
The Frenzied was humming, singing, a single note. And then the buzzing became whispers and soon they would be full-on voices and there were many voices. Too many to count.
Closer. We're getting closer. Closer to you. closer. We see you, Wall-ace...
I tugged at the door and it opened. I raced into the grow house and pounded up and down the aisles in hopes of finding Levi quickly and quietly. The hiding space beneath the floor was remarkably easy to find. How these kids hadn't got busted by local police already was a mystery to me. The hole couldn’t be very large. Large enough I'm sure to hide Jimmy Burrell and his weed but not his friends. From what I knew of the kid he didn't have too many buddies.
Except for Levi. Way to go, son. Pick the biggest losers you can find to hang out with. I whispered his name as I squatted next to the trap door.
“Levi! Where are you? Naomi?”
There was a flurry of noise, but I could not detect the source of it. Not immediately. Huh. Not a trap door. Okay, back to square one. I hurried up and down the empty raised beds. I looked under each table, pulled back every piece of heavy plastic sheeting, but found no trace of them. Yet, they were here. Absolutely. If I focused hard enough I could almost detect their heartbeats. It was at that moment that I spotted the second floor panel. The dirty floor looked disturbed and they were steadily whispering to one another.
I lifted the wooden panel to reveal the faces of three terrified people who were doing their best to hide. It was Naomi that spoke first, her pale face looking even paler than before. She looked frail and helpless, as she always did. Funny how that used to turn me on. Not so much anymore.
“Virgil?"
"No time for reunions. You can welcome me home later, Mrs. Wallace. We have to go. They're coming!" I growled at them, unhappy about their stupidity... or my stupidity, I couldn't be sure.
“What are you doing here?” Levi asked as if he was disappointed at being rescued by me. God forbid.
“I can't believe you got your mother involved in this,” I whispered angrily to Levi as I reached in and pulled him out by the arm.
“You've got a lot of nerve,” he began to argue with me but I pushed him to the side and reached down for Naomi. She came up as light as a feather and briefly hugged me, but then again she was a hugger. This personal contact didn’t mean that she had any regrets about what she did. More like she was glad that she’d been rescued. I helped the other guy out of the dirty pit, suddenly recognizing him as my son's friend and Naomi's new lover.
Oh yeah. They weren't fooling me. I knew about them long before I left.
She can say what she wanted-- Naomi was no innocent. I stared down into the darkness looking for the face that I hoped to see the most, but there wasn't anyone else there. In fact, I don't even know how the three of them managed to fit in that hole. But not seeing my daughter there agitated me.
“Where is Debbie? She should have been with you. Levi? I told you to get out of there. Did you leave her behind? Where is she?”
Even as I asked the question, I knew the answer, yet they gazed back at me not saying a word. The three of them looked frightened. I couldn't help but ask the same question repeatedly. I had to hear someone say it!
“Where is Debbie? What has happened to your sister?” I reached for my son's brown jacket collars. I pulled him close and kept him tight. We were face-to-face and I snarled at him but the sobs were coming. The buzzing in my ears ramped up. It was almost as if the Frenzied were excited by all this. They were excited about us being together.
Yes, together! As they flew toward us the buzzing got louder and too quickly became actual voices. Yes, they were harsh and foul-mouthed; they hated me, but wanted me.
“Virgil, please,” Naomi said as I released my son. As I let Levi go I let the sorrow take over. The voices of the Frenzied spoke heartbreaking things, they told me what they’d done, but my heart couldn’t take it. Not another minute.
“What happened to Debbie?” I asked the three of them as the voices droned on.
She's gone. All gone. Only the voices answered me.
I heard a singular scream in my head and all the other voices were silenced. I moaned in agony as my hands covered my ears. Just one voice and it was so familiar. Oh so familiar.
The Creep. My attacker!
I am coming for you, my pet.
My brain commanded me to run, but I struggled against it. They were outside, or very close at least. I worked my mouth but nothing came out except for a moan of sorrow. My daughter; my Debbie. She had been the only good thing I had left. The whole reason I came here.
A vehicle pulled up to the grow house. It was loud with obnoxious mufflers. Some sort of hot rod. I didn't recognize the sound, but that didn’t mean anything. I had been hiding away in the Agency’s Lab in Area Six for so long everything sounded loud.
The phone began to ring. It was by the door hanging near a corkboard. Who puts a phone in a grow house? But sure enough, it was there. The four of us stared at it and the door. What do I do? Have we been found out? Levi scuffled to the window and peeked outside.
“I can’t see anything, but I think it’s Jimmy.” After a few seconds he said, ‘“Yeah, it’s Jimmy.” He would find us in just a few seconds, so there was nothing to do but wait. His loud footsteps wouldn’t help us stay hidden from the vampire collective. This person was slightly overweight and had a bit of a strange stride. Yep, Jimmy Burrell. He opened the door and came inside before realizing we were there.
“What’s up, Levi? What are you doing here? And you brought your parents? Not cool, man. I don’t let people in here. You know that. Jackie? What’s going on?" He had a frozen Rocket Pop in one hand and a paper bag of soggy groceries in the other. Apparently, Jimmy had planned on having a night alone; just him and his weed and if he got the munchies, he’d be all set. The phone began to ring
again.
"Jimmy, don't answer that phone," I said in a calm voice. Jimmy acted as if he didn't understand me. I don't know how I could be any clearer. "Jimmy! Don’t do it!" I said with some lead in my voice this time. "Do not answer that phone!”
With a scowl of disapproval, an indignant Jimmy did the exact opposite of what I told him. Just like every other teenager I knew. He picked up the phone and said, “What? Who is it?” I could hear the humming from the receiver all the way from the other side of the room. By the look on Levi's face, he heard it too. There was someone singing, others humming and there were too many voices.
"Hello?" Jimmy said as he deposited the bag on the wobbly table near the door. He still held his Rocket Pop in his other hand. He licked at it absently. It was beginning to melt. "Who is this? If you think you're going to prank me, you’ve got another thing coming." Jimmy’s mouth suddenly went slack as the music got louder and louder. His eyes widened, but he didn’t drop the phone.
“Jimmy, hang up the phone, man!” Jackson shouted at him. Suddenly the Rocket Pop fell to the ground and Jimmy's hand went to his throat. He turned his head slightly toward us as if he wanted to ask us for help, but there was nothing we could do. I have never seen the Frenzied attack through the phone line before but I knew it was them. No doubt this was the Frenzied. What was I witnessing?
Jimmy was going to die. Long strains of some strange and deadly instrument played into the phone so loudly that we covered our ears to block out the music. A horrendous nasty voice chanted repeatedly.
It was the Creep.
Levi grabbed my arm. "Virgil! Snap out of it! We have to go! Come on Virgil! Give me the keys!" I watched in horror as a kid I watched grow up buckled at the knees; his eyes poured blood. His hands were shaking like he was having the most horrible of seizures. And there was nothing I could do about it.
Nothing at all.
No! This can’t be happening! I would never be able to stop them. This was the truth and I knew it now.
Jackson was screaming in my face and anger boiled up inside me. I was pissed. And my anger is what broke the spell. The buzzing in my ears ceased and I watched as Jimmy Burrell flopped on the ground in a pool of his own blood his melted Rocket Pop beside him. Suddenly the music stopped and the phone line became static.
I looked at Naomi hopelessly.
“It's too late. They're here.”
Chapter Three--Levi
“Give me the keys, Virgil!” I grabbed for them and managed to get the engine started. It was a small white panel van. It didn't have any markings on it which said to me this was some kind of police vehicle. Was Virgil in some sort of trouble? Seemed unlikely, the guy did everything by the book, except take care of his family. But I didn't have time to ask questions. “Where to? Where should we go?” I asked Virgil again, but he had no answers for me. He was rolling up the window furiously and staring up at the sky.
It was nearly dark now. Twilight was the name Lisa called this time of the day when she felt romantic. There wasn't anything romantic about the prospect of being in the dark with vampires. Not at all.
Jackson was screaming from the backseat. "Oh my God! What happened to Jimmy? What the hell is going on? How can they do that? They're going to kill us! They're going to kill us. I have to go home. Levi. My wife, my kid. What do I do? What do we do?”
Jackson was always the kind of guy that had to take action. This wasn't something he could just solve. "Shut up! Jackie! Keep it together man! You," I said as I grab my dad's arm "Snap out of it! Where do we go?"
"There is a place, it’s called the Lab. It was specially built to be a bunker against the Frenzied but it is too far away. I only left the Lab to find Deb...you all. Getting back there is not a possibility tonight. They are onto us and they will be coming. I have no doubt about that. We’ll have to go somewhere close. And fast. And we need a place where there is lots of salt. Salt weakens them. Salt and silver. It makes them sick, powerless." He went back to staring out the windshield.
“You were hiding in a Lab and you left us out of the loop? You knew about these things? What a bastard!” Naomi shouted at him. She slapped the back of his head, but he barely flinched. His face reddened, but he said nothing else. I agreed with Naomi, of course.
"There's an old salt mine, Levi. If he’s telling us the truth, we might be safe there. Is that what you're talking about, Virgil? That kind of salt?" Jackson was banging on my seat as I punched it.
Naomi was between us now, as livid as a wet cat. My dad's expression changed. Was that hope I saw there? “Yes. That'll be perfect until tomorrow; until we can get back to the Agency. We could hide there until tomorrow and then make our way to the Lab. We’ll be safe at the Lab, I promise. We just got to get through the night. Head to Denton.”
"What’s the fastest route to Denton?" I drove as fast as I could away from the grow house. I headed towards the highway.
“That’s right! Take the highway and head south, Levi! There is safety in numbers. They won’t reveal themselves to too many people. Not yet. They have a big reveal planned but this isn’t it.”
“How do you know about any of this? How did you get involved?” Jackson asked from the backseat. He was holding on to the back of mine still and I could hear the anger in his voice.
“I met one and it changed me forever.”
“Changed you how? Are you one of them?” Naomi asked as she pulled away and sat back on her seat. “No, but it was close. Look, there’s a lot to talk about, but let’s save the chit chat for later.”
Best guess, there was about a twenty-minute drive between us and the salt mine, maybe less if I could get there without getting pulled over. To my surprise, Virgil flipped on the radio. He was playing my favorite radio station and Hillbilly John was doing his thing. He was running his show as if nothing happened. As if people weren't dying left and right in Eureka Springs. As if he had nothing to do with it.
Rotten bastard.
He was another one that I would make sure paid for Lisa and Debbie.
“Turn the radio off,” I barked at Virgil who ignored me and tinkered with the station. His fingers spun the dial; he was trying his best to get a better signal. "I said turn the radio off!” I reached over, but Hillbilly John let out a yee-haw as he always did before he was going to announce a song dedication. “The sun is going down; this one goes out to Levi. It’s from Lisa who says, ‘Don’t let the sun go down on me, lover. You know where to find me.” Then Hillbilly John let out another howl and I turned the radio off.
I banged my hands on the steering wheel as I floored it. It didn't have much gas left in it; I hoped we’d have enough to get to Denton, but I kept my worries to myself. Mom was quietly crying now while Jackie talked to himself. We were all a mess and we were never going to be the same.
Never.
"He's just taunting you, Levi. You do know that, right? He knows you are listening. I don't know how to say this to you, but he's one of them. Just a different kind.”
I shook my head in horrified amazement. “There is more than one kind? Great. Just great.”
“This radio personality, he's one of them. He's one of the Frenzied. Probably a recent addition though. They have a plan. They want to take their music to the airwaves; they want to...hurt everyone who will listen.”
“Why don’t you tell me--tell us--exactly what was going on? I think you owe us that much. Don’t you think you owe us that?"
"How about you tell me exactly what happened to your sister? I left her in your care,” he said in his accusatory tone.
“I don't know what happened to Debbie. She wasn't supposed to be at that concert; she knew I had tickets, but she didn’t have one. I don't even know if she went to the concert all I know is that she's dead and you knew about all this and you didn't tell us! You split on us. Debbie’s death is on you!"
He twisted in his seat to stare at me. “Watch the road, Levi! How do you think you're still alive? If it weren't for me you would all be dea
d. What happened to Debbie shouldn't have happened, but I tried to stop it. I made sure you were safe. I gave up my life for you guys and this is it; this is what I have left. Unbelievable, Levi. Always so damn ungrateful.”
“That’s bullshit, Virgil. You are always blaming everyone else for your shortcomings. Typical!”
Naomi broke into the argument, “There's the turn off, Levi. Keep your mouths shut, please. This is on you, Virgil.”
Now I remembered why it didn’t upset me that these two were separated. I did not remember a time when they got along. I couldn’t believe we've made it this far, but there was the gravel driveway as plain as day. It would turn to dirt soon.
That's when the first bird flew past our car. It was such a large bird that I momentarily hit the brakes because I was afraid to hit it. If a bird that size crashes into your vehicle you're going to know it. That’s not a bird! It’s some sort of creature! It had flown ahead of us and stood on the left side of the gravel road. The wings--it had two and they appeared to be body length, unfurled and it flicked them at us as we drove by. Naomi screamed as the thing’s face contorted, snarled and snapped at us, but somehow I managed to avoid getting too close.
“Sonofabitch!” I tilted the wheel and the rear end of the car slung slightly to the right.
Nobody asked dumb questions like, “Did you see that?” or “What was that?” We’d all seen it and we all knew what it was--it was evil incarnate.
“Look!” Dad shouted as he pointed to the right. “The mine is right there! We're almost there! We're going to have to move fast and pray to God that this works. You get this van as close as you can, Levi. I mean sideways. Are there any tools back there, Jackson? Can you see any?”
“Talk about bad breaks,” Jackson swore under his breath as he dug around the van. “Looks like the doors been nailed shut. I’m looking for a crowbar or something. Hey, this might work!” Jackson came up off the ground with a tire tool in his hand. I spun the vehicle sideways as another creature flew past us. Was this going to just get worse or what?
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