by Derek Gunn
He saw bullets strike the lead vampire and then he frowned as he saw the vampire contort and drop from the sky. A second vampire was struck beside him and he heard the vampire scream in pain. Von Kruger didn’t know what was more worrying, the fact that the vampire dropped to the ground helpless or the fact that he screamed like a stuck pig all the way down.
Vampires did not feel such pain. Bullets could not kill them. His mind refused to accept what he was seeing; though his instinct made him slow his descent and let others pass him by. He was not afraid, just cautious.
The fire continued in short bursts and their accuracy was frightening as each burst struck and brought down a vampire. Were the vampires more injured that he had thought? No, he decided, it was the bullets. Each vampire struck screamed in such pain that it appeared that the bullets were burning them from within. There was something about the bullets that caused such damage. He had never thought it possible. More vampires tumbled to the ground and he pulled up, motioning for those around him to do the same. They kept pace with the racing train as Von Kruger thought furiously. Time was not on their side as the dawn would be here in two hours or so and he would have to return to safety.
He studied the train and an idea came to him. Much as he would like to tear this enemy apart he did not know enough about this new weapon, and it was not worth dying needlessly. Although he was an ancient and impervious to almost all weapons he had seen, at least one other ancient vampire had already fallen to those deadly bullets. He would wait. Though there was no reason why he could not relieve this new enemy of their stolen booty. He chuckled as he ordered his men toward the carriages.
Harris watched the vampire’s spiral down toward the carriages about half way down the train. They were too far away to waste ammunition on. He only had four rounds left anyway so he could do nothing but watch helplessly as they set about uncoupling the carriages and taking back the people he and his men had fought and died for. Tears of frustration burned in his eyes as the vampires alighted on the back carriages.
The majority still flew above the train; many of them swooped closer and closer to the engine as if testing the range of his weapon so they could determine how many carriages they could uncouple without losing more vampires.
“If they knew we were out of ammunition they’d tear us apart and everything would be lost.” Sandra placed her hand on his shoulder, “At least this way we get to save more than we thought we would. It’s still a huge victory.”
“But at a higher cost than I wanted to pay,” Harris said bitterly.
“Harris,” she sighed as she turned his face towards her, “when are you going to realise that it’s not your sacrifice to make? Their lives are their own and their sacrifice is theirs to make. Don’t cheapen it by thinking it’s all about you.”
Harris was shocked by the harshness of her words but he could see in her eyes that she was not trying to hurt him.
“You might come up with the plans, love,” she added as she placed her hand against his cheek, “but they follow you because they believe in you and what you are trying to achieve. War will always have casualties. Honor them by continuing what they set out to achieve.”
Carlos Ortega saw the first of the vampires settle on the racing carriage and he pressed himself down between the gap of the second and third to last carriages. At his back he could hear the frightened whimpers of the humans in the carriage and he tried to keep his hands from shaking too much as he set the charges.
He needed a few more minutes to complete his plan but if the vampires descended as quickly as they appeared to be then it would be too late. He was having trouble setting the timer on the charges as the vibration of the train was disrupting the mechanism and he couldn’t get the timer to set to the five minutes he had hoped to give himself to get clear.
It wasn’t going to work. He felt his heart begin to thump heavily in his chest as he began to realise what he would need to do. If he delayed any longer then any sacrifice would be useless and the vampires would pass him and make their way further up the train. His mind was clear and his path decided but, strangely, he found that he couldn’t move his legs.
Suicide is painless, he thought as he tried to pull himself up. He saw a shadow pass above him and he knew that he had already delayed too long. They were already on the carriages he had hoped to save.
He took a deep breath and reached down to the coupling at his feet and pulled the lever. At first it didn’t move but as he shifted his weight he felt it begin to give. Once it moved that first bit the rest came easily and he jumped over to the empty carriage and raced up to the roof of the carriage, pulling his pistol and firing at the vampires on the other carriage.
His bullets were not coated with the special liquid but they had the desired effect anyway. The vampires on the other carriage launched themselves into the air and flew at him. Before he even saw them move he felt the weapon knocked from his hand and his throat was gripped in a grip like a steel claw.
He felt his mind swim as his oxygen was cut off and he barely had the presence of mind to allow his hand to release the device in his hand. He had just enough time to spit in the face of the vampire in front of him before the explosives shattered the night.
“That’s Carlos!” Sandra shouted as she saw the figure jump to the roof of the second of the two carriages that were dropping back from the main train. The vampires swarmed over the carriages like seagulls behind a trawler heavy with the day’s catch. The vampires had been so maddened and frustrated by their inability to approach the engine that such an easy target was too much for them to ignore.
A number of them still hovered high above but the majority flew downward to the helpless figure.
“You see.” Sandra griped Harris’ hand tightly as they watched their friend’s sacrifice. “His choice, not yours.”
Harris nodded as understanding finally came to him and he wept for his friend as the explosives tore the carriages to pieces. Fire erupted high into the air and the sound wave passed over them and then they threw themselves to the floor as the night was filled with millions of wooden projectiles that shot outward with terrific force, tearing into everything in their path.
Von Kruger saw the single figure on the carriage and was about to drop toward him when something stopped him. This new enemy was tricky but he had not lived for centuries by being stupid. He let some of his men approach the carriages but held the others back. He could tell that they were not happy but their fear of him was greater than their displeasure so, for now, they would follow him.
Mere minutes later he saw the explosion and watched in shock as the vampires in range of the explosion were torn apart by the force of the blast. The air around him buffeted him as the shockwave spread out, and then he noticed a strange darkness flying out from the explosion. It was hard to tell what it was at first as the explosion was so bright that his sensitive eyes were almost blinded. It appeared as a small dot in the middle of the fireball that seemed to be growing larger as it approached them. Suddenly he knew what it was.
He grabbed the vampire nearest to him and pulled the creature in front of him as the first of the wooden shards struck. The creature he held screamed piteously and Von Kruger’s own hands and feet were peppered with small and large shards, but he held his shield ahead of him and ignored the pain.
Around him the rest of his cabal screamed as they tried to avoid the missiles. It seemed that the air was filled with death and Von Kruger watched in horror as his cabal dropped from the air and disappeared into the darkness.
It seemed to go on for an age but, eventually, the shower stopped and Von Kruger allowed his shield to fall away. He looked briefly at the dead vampire and shivered as he saw the number of wooden shards in his body. He plucked the worst of the shards from his own body and screamed his defiance with the pain of each one.
He looked around and saw three other vampires, all of them badly injured and in need of sustenance. He looked back at the retreating train and fuelled his anger with a v
ow.
“There will be a reckoning!” he shouted into the night, and then they headed back to the town before the dawn finished the job this new enemy had started.
Major William Carter lowered his binoculars and whistled. He had watched the decimation of the vampires and his respect for the humans grew. He had come into the town to join up with Falconi and had seen the bodies of the thralls and the humans. At first he had not believed that mere humans could actually do such a raid but he had seen their dead with his own eyes.
Somewhere to the east these humans were growing in number, and he would need to prepare if he was to survive their next visit. He watched the vampires fly higher into the sky as they retreated back to their lair to regroup. There were still many vampires in both states though tonight’s carnage had culled them quite satisfactorily.
For his own part he now commanded a sizable number of thralls, enough to allow him to decide his own fate. He would no longer bow to the vampires, but he was prepared to work with them if a deal could be agreed upon. They were vulnerable during the day and the human rebels had proven that they were not invulnerable during the night either. His own actions tonight proved that he would be able to negotiate his position. If the vampires wanted protection during the days to come they must pay for it or face annihilation. He would send word to the other thralls in the neighboring states and word would spread.
Vampires would no longer rule alone. They must share if they wanted the loyalty of the thralls. There would be many changes after tonight and he planned to be ready for the new dawn. It was a new world, and he smiled as he anticipated his role in it.
Epilogue
April wandered the corridors, working through her grief. Steele was dead. She had known that he would not return when he had left. But, now that a week had gone by, the realization was only really hitting her now. She had had a lot of support from Sandra and Harris but they were still learning sign and she missed Steele’s easy smile and quiet company.
The whole community had been thrown into disarray when Harris had returned with nearly a thousand refugees, and it had forced the community to change despite itself. That number of new and helpless additions to their community meant that everyone had to help and make sacrifices. Strangely, there had been little grumbling—even from the committee.
She had been kept busy in keeping the hospital supplied with medicine and food as more and more of the people began to regain their wits and their appetites, but she still felt an emptiness in her that no amount of work or company could fill. This had been her first opportunity to get away on her own. She took the route that she and Steele liked to walk. It brought her to the edge of the community’s territory and she hoped to find something of the happy times she had spent here. She hadn’t passed another soul in the last ten minutes but the peace she had expected to find eluded her. These deserted corridors did not hold any attraction anymore. She looked around at their bare walls and low lighting and began to wonder why she had wanted to come back here at all. Steele’s memory was in her heart, not in these corridors. She came to a decision and turned back towards the community. There was more for her back at camp now than there was here.
Dave Sherman watched the deaf girl as she stopped and looked around the corridor. He had followed her for some time, nodding genially at all who passed by. He had become somewhat of a celebrity when he had returned with his truckload of survivors, but he had been quickly overshadowed when Harris and the others had arrived with their haul. Talk about being upstaged. He had hidden his anger well and embraced Harris and the others like long lost brothers as everyone had begun to expand the community to cater for their new additions.
Things had been so hectic that he had not had the time to find another victim and his urges were growing stronger each day. The body of the little nurse he had disposed of before he had gone on the raid had been discovered while he was away. People were shocked at the terrible things that had been done to her and there was an air of suspicion in the community towards any male over the age of twenty. No one suspected any of “Harris’s Heroes,” as people were calling them though and he had been able to pass among people easily.
Patrols now walked the community’s halls, and fear from within now overshadowed the fear of the vampires, so he had to be careful. It had been pure luck that he had seen Steele’s squeeze going off on her own and he had followed with growing excitement as the girl had wandered into increasingly deserted areas.
Now she looked as if she were about to return so he would have to act quickly if he was to satisfy his lust. He moved out from the wall and approached her swiftly. She would be an easy mark. She wouldn’t even hear him or be able to cry for help. It didn’t get any better than this.
April sensed something behind her and was about to turn when she felt a powerful arm grab her from behind and pull her backwards. She struggled but the man’s strength was far too much for her and she began to panic. She felt her clothes tear as the man’s other hand pawed at her. She screamed silently and tried to pull away but the man gripped her more tightly until she began to see black spots in her vision.
Suddenly she felt a calm come over her as she remembered the lessons that Steele had thought her about how to defend herself. She forced herself to stop struggling and she let her body go limp. The sudden increase in weight made the man shift forward as he struggled to hold her up and stop her from moving. April felt the shift in the man’s weight move from his heels to his toes as he leaned forward. She reached up suddenly and grabbed his thumb and wrenched it away from her neck.
The move elicited a cry of pain from the man and he was forced to fall to one knee or have his wrist broken. Steele had taught her many moves where her small size could cope with someone far larger and heavier. He had not been able to sign their correct judo terms but she had made up her own descriptions and she was pleased when she saw the result of the wrist-lock move he had shown her.
She felt elation swell within her, but then Steele’s advice came to her again. She might have succeeded in getting free, but defeating such a large opponent was beyond her. When in doubt, run, Steele had warned her and she swung a swift kick at the man’s groin to keep him down before turning to run.
Her foot raced towards the man’s testicles but he was faster and moved to the side, taking the blow to his thigh. He grunted in pain but he was far from incapacitated. She felt him grab her foot and then she was suddenly falling to the ground. She landed hard on her back and felt nauseas as she fought for breath. A face loomed over her and the man grinned as she saw him for the first time. Sherman! She forced herself to remain calm as the man limped slightly from her kick, but she paled when she saw his eyes. There was no pity there, only lust. She should have run when she had the chance. She whispered a silent apology to Steele for not following his advice and scrambled back against the wall as he bore down on her.
Little bitch hurt me, Sherman cursed as he limped toward her. She’ll pay for that. He reached down for her, swiping her kicking legs easily to the side as he grabbed her. This time he took no chances and employed a full lock on her throat and ripped her shirt off. He brought his hands up to grope her when he felt his hand gripped by a force far greater than his victim was capable of.
“I knew there was something wrong about you,” he heard the voice, and it took him a moment to place the voice.
Steele! But he’s dead. He felt his hand torn from her and then forced back with incredible strength. He screamed as his wrist bones cracked and then broke. He released the girl. Suddenly he felt his neck gripped tighter than any man should be able to manage and he felt fear flood through him. He had but a moment to scream before his throat was ripped out. The last sound he heard was a terrible sucking and slurping. The vampires are here, he thought and then he died.
April felt joy erupt in her chest as she saw Steele tear Sherman from her and throw him against the wall. He was alive, she thought and thanked God for his safe return. But then her joy turned to terro
r as she saw Steele’s face. It was all wrong. It was contorted and filled with lust and hunger. Oh my God, she thought, as her joy turned to horror, Jesus no. Not him—it’s not fair. She screamed silently as she watched Steele tear Sherman’s throat out and begin to feed.
April knew she should run but she couldn’t leave Steele like that. What the vampires had done to him was the worst possible hell for a man like Steele. There must be some part of the man he used to be still inside the vampire he had become. Surely she could still appeal to that side of him. She found herself rising and approaching him before she had thought it through, and then she was reaching out for his shoulder.
“April!” She stopped as she heard the shouted warning. “Move away.” She looked over and saw Harris and a few others approaching them. Harris held his machine gun out and had it aimed at Steele. “He’s not the man you knew any more, April.” Harris reached out one hand toward her, urging her to come toward him. She took a step toward him but then felt a hand grab her and pull her back.
“She’s mine, Harris!” Steele shouted as he dropped the dead body of Sherman. “Don’t worry, you’re next.”
“This isn’t what you’d want, Steele. If there is any part of you left you must know that,” Harris urged as he moved closer. “The man I knew would never let any harm come to her. In his name, neither will I.”
“The man you knew is no more,” Steele laughed. “I am so much more now. The power, Harris, you won’t believe it. It’s fantastic.”
“Let her go and we won’t shoot,” Harris continued. “We can continue this another time. We were following Sherman, and you’ve taken care of him. We have no quarrel with you. You know what these bullets will do to you. Let her go.”