Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2)

by Derek Gunn

  He was fairly certain he had found the brake but he could not find how to drive the power from the furnace into the wheels. There were countless dials, and all of them hovered dangerously around the red marks on their glass-fronted gauges. He had to release the pressure soon or the whole thing would blow with far more force than the explosives they had planted.

  Eight minutes.

  “What’s he waiting for,” Sherman muttered as he watched the train continue to spit steam but remain stubbornly motionless. He scanned the area around him but none of the guards seemed to be paying him any mind as he sat in the truck with the engine idling. “If that fucker doesn’t move that train in the next thirty seconds I’m going to tear his balls off.”

  Just then the train lurched forward with a screech of brakes and steam pressure. Heads turned and thralls stopped in the patrols as the train suddenly stopped its forward motion with another screech of brakes and what seemed like a shudder. Then the train began to back up slowly and Sherman sighed in relief as the thralls returned to their patrols. Except for one. He caught a brief view of a thrall hurrying from the command camp and beginning to run towards the departing engine. The driver, Sherman pursed his lips and looked at his watch.

  He was no bloody hero but if that thrall raised the alarm then it would get them all killed. There wasn’t much time left before the whole place went up, but the time that was left was critical if they wanted to get away safely. He looked again at his watch and then cursed as he slipped out of the truck. He signaled for the other truck to leave and then he slipped into the darkness, drawing his knife and lamenting his luck.

  Six minutes.

  The driver grabbed the nearest thrall guard and shouted at him as he gesticulated towards the stuttering engine. Flemming could hear him over the noise of the engine but he dared not peak out to see how close they were. He was doing his best to get the train moving but he couldn’t get power evenly from the furnace to the engine so it continued to backup in spurts that were attracting far too much attention.

  Flemming looked frantically around the cabin. The furnace poured heat out at him and sweat ran constantly down his face and stung his eyes. The dials continued to reverberate madly and he expected something to give at any moment. He pushed the large silver handle further up and the train lurched again but then shook so badly that he had to ease it back again. He looked around. What was he missing? Just then the driver appeared and pulled himself up into the cabin. He shot a withering look at Flemming and then ran his hands over the controls in a quick, but assured, series of movements that stopped the engine from stuttering and allowed the engine to continue backwards smoothly before he pulled at the brake to bring it to a halt. Just then a thrall guard appeared and began to pull himself up into the cabin. Flemming moved before he got the chance to bring his weapon into play.

  He kicked out at the thrall and sent him flying back onto the ground where he lay stunned for a moment. The driver whirled around and grabbed for him before he could follow through on his attack on the guard. He felt his arm wrenched upwards as the driver grabbed at him and pulled. The thrall’s strength was incredible and Flemming felt his head swim with the pain. The thrall pushed him against the furnace and the heat seared at his flesh, burning his cheek and sending waves of agony through him. He pushed back with all his strength as adrenaline surged through him.

  He felt the driver suddenly loosen his grip as he stumbled back against the woodpile at the back of the cabin. It was amazing what adrenaline could do, he though as he threw himself forward and pummeled the thrall with a madness borne of pain and survival.

  “Hey!” he heard a shout in the distance but ignored it until he was grabbed suddenly by the shoulder. “Hey, he’s dead. And you will be too if we don’t get out of here.”

  He looked up through the haze of pain and anger and finally recognized Sherman. He suddenly looked towards the ground where the other thrall had fallen. “I got him,” Sherman followed his gaze. “Now can you drive this thing or are you going to continue on like a demented dog in heat all the way home?”

  “No, I saw what that bastard did. Jesus,” he cried as his fingers touched his ruined cheek, “that fucking hurts.”

  “The women will love it,” Sherman answered as he helped him to his feet. “There’s no time for me to go back for the other truck we’ll…”

  The night suddenly erupted in a cacophony of light and noise as the explosives went off all around them. Sherman looked out of the cabin as they continued to move away from the motor pool. A truck blew close to him and he felt the intense heat of the blast as the fuel plumed outwards and then pulled back as the vacuum sucked it back into the blast only to send it out again in an upward spiral of smoke and flame. Sherman ducked back into the cabin. He could feel the vibrations through the floor of the train as each explosion added to the madness of the night.

  Chapter 22

  Falconi heard the first thump of an explosion behind him and he looked back just in time to see a fireball surge into the night’s sky.

  “What…?” he began and then a second came only to be followed by another and then even more explosions followed so close together that they rolled into one long peal of destruction. Did they get behind us? He wondered. And then the screams began around him as thrall forces surged from the smoke ahead of them and laid down a withering volley of fire. His men began to fall to the ground, though whether they were taking cover or were already dead he really did not know.

  He looked frantically around, trying to figure out how to rally his men when huge gouts of flame gushed from the darkness on both sides and his men were caught in a crossfire of liquid flame that melted flesh on contact.

  Bullets twanged around him, grenades exploded and men screamed in pain and terror. Falconi couldn’t think. There was no time to consider a response. His men were too spread out and the enemy were packed together and extracting a heavy toll on them.

  The tank, he thought suddenly as a shell thumped from the armor closest to him. The shell whistled past him and exploded among one of the tightly packed groups of thralls. Falconi laughed as he saw enemy soldiers flung upwards in grotesque parodies of a circus-balancing act. That’ll teach ‘em to pack their men so close together, he thought as he shouted around him for his men to rally to him. He was filled with relief when he saw many of the bodies on the ground begin to move as his men got to their feet.

  Another explosion split the night behind him, but this one was far closer. He whirled in time to see the turret of the tank split from the main body as the remains shuddered to a halt. Flame still leapt from the darkness on their flanks and the heat began to force his men inwards in a mad race to avoid the spurting liquid death. His men had lost their shape and cohesion and their return fire was erratic and far less effective than the smaller enemy force’s relentless attack.

  His own men were terribly exposed, backlit as they were by the flaming tank and the burning camp behind them. He had to do something. He could hear radio chatter close by and he ran toward one of his men who sat huddled in a hollow. He jumped down into the hollow and demanded an update. The noise was horrendous around them and the man was near panic but he managed to get the main gist of the situation. The rest of his forces had encountered little opposition as they had poured across the border, but some of them were retreating from their own vampires who were fuelling themselves for the coming battle with Von Kruger’s main force. Bastards, he cursed. As if it wasn’t bad enough to have his forces decimated and his rear command compromised and very probably destroyed, now his own masters were attacking them and taking what precious few men he had left.

  His mind raced as he struggled to find a solution. Even if they won out here their fate was already sealed. The vampires were so crazed with bloodlust that they didn’t know or care who they got their blood from. Why were they killing each other when they should…

  He stopped as an idea hit him like a brick.

  Carter saw the white flag swing f
rom side to side like a disembodied giant butterfly and its starkness against the surrounding darkness made him start for a moment. They can’t be surrendering, he rationalized, they still far outnumber us. As he peered into the darkness he could just about make out the figure of a man as he approached bravely with his weapon raised above his head in one hand and a white flag in the other. He saw the thrall cringe as bullets flew around him but, to his credit, he kept coming. A brave man. Cater shouted for a cease-fire and slowly the stutter of fire grew less and finally stopped. He raised his head, stood up and strode confidently towards the enemy lines.

  As he drew closer he could see that the enemy commander was blackened with smoke and that blood covered much of his clothes. A hand’s-on commander, Carter appraised the man and nodded a greeting.

  “You want to surrender?” Carter asked nonchalantly.

  The man laughed and Carter was surprised to see that the laughter actually reached his eyes. “Hardly, we out number you ten-to-one at the moment.”

  “So why are we talking?”

  “This,” Falconi swept his hand around the battlefield, “is not about us. It’s their fight.” He pointed up into the black sky.

  “So?” Carter asked cautiously.

  “How many men have you had torn apart today to heal their wounds?”

  Carter looked into the man’s eyes and saw no subterfuge there. This was a man who had been betrayed and had had enough. He had been annoyed himself as the vampires had constantly toyed with his own remaining forces as they swooped down on his men and ripped them to pieces as they feasted. There were hundreds of humans back at their base but they chose to play games with them instead. He was just as pissed but he did not know what to do about it.

  “What are you suggesting?” he ventured as he watched the other man.

  Falconi watched the eyes of the other man. What he was about to suggest went against everything they had been created for. But he had never signed up for this madness.

  “When the dawn comes and one side walks away victorious they will not care who sustains them in their victory gorging. We have no chance if we weaken each other much more.”

  Carter smiled. “You are suggesting an alliance against the vampires?”

  “You don’t seem as surprised as I expected.” Falconi shifted his machine gun and studied the man in front of him. He was smaller that usual for a commander of men and his untidy appearance and stubble spoke of a long campaign.

  “We’ve already had our first encounter with our glorious masters tonight.”

  “The fact that you are still here and in such numbers speaks volumes. And the fact that you got behind us and destroyed our camp proves you are more than you seem.”

  “The five we killed were over-confident; it may not be as easy next time. As for your camp, I’m sorry to say we had nothing to do with that.”

  Falconi paled. This man and his men killed five vampires and he jokes about it. God, this night really does signify the end of the old world. And more worrying of all is the fact that, if it was not his forces that attacked my base camp, then there is another force I know nothing of in this play and they are behind me at this very moment. He forced his face to remain calm as his mind raced.

  “I suggest we stop killing each other and plan for the time when we will be forced to fight for our very lives when our masters,” he spat the word, “come calling for their due.”

  Carter couldn’t believe his luck. They could not have lasted much longer as it was but now they really had a good chance if they combined their forces. There was no way that they could defeat the vampires but with any luck there would be few enough of them left that they would gorge on the captive humans rather than risk an armed force in their weakened state.

  “I must lead my soldiers back to camp and investigate the explosions there.” Falconi had no choice but to leave the field of battle. The level of destruction back at his base camp hinted at a large force behind him and he had to investigate immediately or risk another surprise attack at a crucial time. But he had no idea who it might be. There was just no way that anybody else could have come so far into their state without some warning. His forces were thinly spread over the state but he had left enough guards to cover all possible routes—at least, enough to get a warning to him if one of the other states used this conflict to attack his other borders.

  “I will take half my men and leave you in command of the rest, if that is acceptable.”

  “Of course,” Carter replied and grinned as the enemy commander turned and gathered his men and began to head back towards the town. This just gets better and better. Now I command two forces. If the vampires would just kindly kill each other over the next few hours I will be very well placed to rule two whole states.

  Chapter 23

  “What have they done?” Harris paled as he heard the explosion. The night’s sky flared briefly and then suddenly plunged back into gloom as if the darkness had rolled out a heavy blanket and smothered the glow. Harris’ heart thumped in his chest as he waited. Was that it, he thought as he strained his eyes through the darkness? Suddenly there was another flare, and then another as more explosions followed. Flames leapt high into the sky and illuminated the entire area around the thrall camp. “That’ll draw them for miles,” he whispered. He rushed down toward the cage where Sandra and Rodgers were already breaking the lock on the door.

  “What happened?” Rodgers asked with a worried frown creasing his face. Harris missed the happy-go-lucky Rodgers who had always been quick with a smile and a joke no matter how bad the situation got. He had seen too many of his friends die lately, and over the last few months Rodgers had grown more insular. It worried Harris but he hoped that Dee would be able to bring him out of his depression.

  “I don’t know,” Harris grabbed the gate with them and helped them to pull it open. “But there’s no way the thralls will ignore that. We can expect company any minute. We’ll have to just grab the first thirty or so and pack them into the truck we have. I’ll go back and see if Sherman and the others need any help.”

  The others nodded and went into the cage to pull the first bodies toward the waiting truck. Shit, Harris cursed. We were so close to getting so many clear. He turned and headed towards the pulsing light of the thrall camp and began to run.

  He heard the strangest noise as he cleared the town centre. It was a deep, rhythmic pulsing intermingled with a screeching, high-pitched hissing like high-pressure steam. It was so out of place that he could not place it at first and then he saw a metal behemoth roll out of the shadows. He was stunned as the old engine materialized from the darkness with a slow, periodic clicking as the wheels hit the track breaks.

  A train, he thought. Shit, if only we could only use something like …

  “Hey, Harris!”

  He jumped as he heard the shout. He dropped to the ground as he looked behind him but could not see anyone at first. He brought his weapon to bear but it looked clear ahead of him. Orange light bled into the darkness from the flames and painted the night sky with an eerie canvas. He still couldn’t see anyone and the noise of the approaching train left him deafened to everything else as the engine spat and hissed as it labored toward him.

  “Harris!” He heard the shout again and looked towards the engine cab in time to see Flemming lean out and wave to him. What the…?

  He saw Sherman behind Flemming and his look of confusion turned to one of shock as he realized what they had planned. They can’t be serious.

  “What do you mean it’s too dangerous?” Sherman shouted over the noise of the engine. The three men were in the engine cab and Flemming was bringing it to a gentle halt towards the back of the town and close to where their truck was parked. “What exactly do you consider tonight’s little excursion? It’s no crazier than any of your other schemes, and this time you finally get to make that big impact you’re always looking for.

  Harris went quiet as he thought of the implications of Sherman’s plan. It was
sheer madness to escape with such a large and noisy vehicle. The smoke billowing from the funnel could be seen for miles and the noise was incredible. On the other hand, they would be able to fit almost all of the several hundred humans in the cage onto the train and would increase their numbers by almost a thousand if they could get them back safely. That would be enough to put up a good fight if they were discovered.

  Steele would tell the vampires of the serum’s effects, and in so doing the vampires would be made aware of the human’s existence. However, they still had two things going for them. One: the vampires would be busy trying to keep their human captives in line without the serum and two: they would not know exactly where they were. Von Richelieu only knew that Nero had requested Steele to help him with a problem. He would have to scour the state to find them, and they had hidden themselves well. If they could get these people back safely then they might really have a chance.

  He looked at Sherman and nodded slowly.

  “I thought you’d like it.” Sherman grinned at him, and for a moment Harris had the impression of a wolf regarding its prey, but then it was gone. The train shuddered to a halt close to where the others stood near the over-full truck they had arrived in. Flemming hadn’t quite got the hang of stopping yet but was improving all the time.

  “We’ll have to hurry,” Harris shouted over the hissing steam as he leapt to the ground to the shocked stares from Sandra and the others. “The damage you caused back at the camp was just too extensive for them to ignore, even with all that’s going on.”

  “Cool, we get to play John Wayne,” Rodgers exclaimed as Harris passed him. Harris was so pleased to see his friend’s old humor return, no matter how briefly, and they all laughed despite the terrible cacophony of destruction that surrounded them.