“You must like her a lot for you to risk gettin’
eaten by these things,” Michelle said. She tried out a Muay Thai kick Poe had taught her and smiled at the result.
“You can say that,” he said gravely then spotted a baby dead hanging like a slug from the passenger door. “Oh fuckall! A baby!”
She would never forget the babies that had attacked her in the Los Angeles Metro tunnels. The babies were vampire spawn that had been thrown into the storm drain. “Mind if I waste a bullet by blowin’
that thing’s head off?”
“Bullet well spent, that would be,” said Maclemar.
“Damn right. I saw a bunch of these in the subway tunnels when I was still braindead cattle.
Swear-to-God-no-kidding, I peed in my pants and snapped out of my stupor,” she said as she pulled the trigger and hit the demon baby in the stomach. Like Alka-Seltzer in water, the baby fizzled in its own sauce. “They crawled on the subway ceiling defying gravity and stuck out their lizard tongues at us. I remember Poe coming with Morales in the nick of time to spray those walking abortions until they 212
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sizzled. Seems like she always shows up in the nick of time.”
“Let’s return the favor, shall we? We can’t let her go through this horrific muck alone. I can’t imagine surviving this without you here. Watch out!
To your right!” he warned as a fallen Revenent attempted to rise again and reach for Michelle’s leg.
She hacked it with the axe. “So would you say you’re head over heels?” she said.
“Michelle lass,” grinned Maclemar in the dark.
“I don’t know. But it is some powerful sentiment nevertheless.”
“Yeah, powerful enough to go through this shit,”
Michelle’s voice cracked. Her badass persona had wilted. She was on the highway full of hellish grotesqueness, and it was getting to her.
Surrounded by such abomination that once only existed in books and film, they relied on their little conversations to keep them both from losing it. “And man, don’t worry about Poe. She’s a superhero,” said Michelle. “The power in her arms and legs when we spar could take down even a big guy like you. Oh yeah, she already did in the courtyard.” Her giggle sounded faintly crazed. “And the most outlandish thing is that she held back her strength.”
Maclemar winced at the masses of ulcerous dead things headed their way. Be safe, Poe, he prayed. The creatures were half-a-block away. To keep fear from taking over, he focused his mind on making mincemeat out of the ultra-slow Revenents. “What about you? Why did you decide to go on this thankless mission?”
Michelle snorted maniacally to disguise her rising fear. “Dunno myself. Maybe I want to be a 213
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superhero, too.” Her eyes worriedly swept the grounds behind the goggles. There were so many of the silent beasts. “So when did you fall for her? The second day or what? Rumor is you’ve only known her for a few days.”
“The first hour maybe, when she was out cold from Passionada’s crack on the head,” he said. He sighed and shoved a limping creature out of his way.
“I was set to hate her for having relations with vampires. But when she opened her puffy eyelids to stare into mine, I knew then that I’d follow her wherever she wanted to go.”
“We better run, lover boy. There’s too many of them, and my arm’s getting tired. They keep getting up even after the hardest blow!”
“Right. Ready when you are,” he agreed. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket. Their sheer numbers were staggering. It was as if all the hard-to-find Revenents had been dropped off and herded to the exact spot where the stench of garlic could no longer be detected. They combed the area strategically.
The Pacheco Pass had many obstacles besides dead jerky. Rocks, stones, pieces of metal and wood tripped Poe’s would-be saviors many times.
“I think they were put here to keep any survivors from escaping during the impending raid,”
he conjectured with fear in his voice. “This is a large-scale production for so few. There are eleven of us now to be exact including the folks at the farm.”
“The fuckers really mean business this time.
They want the countryside swept,” croaked Michelle.
The axe in her hand felt as heavy as a sack of thirty Rev heads. “They’ve come all the way from Los 214
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Angeles. They don’t want to go home with a hot potato in their crack.”
“I wonder who finked on Sainvire.”
“Who knows? It could’ve been anyone. They have such an attractive offer. A human Benedict Arnold would get a villa in Beverly Hills with unlimited fresh food supply from North Hollywood.
Beef, produce, and milk. And of course, the ‘hands off, vampires’ sign on the gates. A vamp would have a Bel Air mansion of his pick and at least a hundred heads of human cattle,” she shrugged.
“It’s hard to stay an idealist when everything around you is burnt to cinder. I met Sainvire about three years ago. He was full of plans and glowing with ideas. It’s no wonder Poe fell for him. But now it’s shocking to see his transformation. He is overworked, haggard, and violent. He’s besieged from both ends by friends and enemies alike. The ultimate tragic figure of our time.”
“Too bad there won’t be anyone to write about his life,” Michelle said sarcastically. “For someone so in love, you’re real damned open-minded about your girl’s lover.”
Maclemar jumped a hurdle of child Revenents and shivered from disgust. They looked old enough to play soccer. “I’m not the jealous type. It’s good to see a different perspective, in my opinion. Keeps me grounded. But enough about that. What do you think of your vampire knight?”
“Sainvire gets all our respect. He’s kept us alive and needle-free these two years,” she said while wielding her axe freely. “But people don’t always show it. It’s easier to yap and complain than say
‘thank you,’ you know. Hey, to your right!”
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Maclemar massaged his sore arm after thumping a stiff over the head.
“But you know,” Michelle continued. “Sainvire is so fucking hot. Too bad he’s not the type to take advantage. I would’ve done a Poe, too, and jumped his bones.”
“Nice one there,” the Welshman grunted.
“Hey. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do you too if Poe wasn’t my guru and stuff.” She laughed a little too violently. The girl was overwhelmed by the walking rot. “You’re gorgeous, too, with your tight body and face—”
“Okay. No more descriptions of me, please,” he said and cleared his throat.
“Oh fuck!” escaped her lips as the axe blade irretractably lodged in the spine of an unfortunate Revenent. Michelle was left clutching a wooden handle with a Made in China stamp.
“Mae hi wedi cachi arna i!” slipped from his mouth.
“Huh? What the fuck did you just say?” asked Michelle, pulling out an extra gun.
“I said we’re buggered. For the chop! We’d better run for it!”
“Uh, we’re already running nimrod.”
“We’ve got to do better.”
Maclemar took the lead. He struck left and right at the Revenents to create an opening wide enough for the two of them to pass through. The orbs weren’t that mindless after all. They knew how to create barriers with their otherwise sluggish bodies. The rancid sheen on their skin was overpowering. Power in numbers, he thought wryly. The sound of clicking bones set his teeth on edge.
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“What are you doing? Keep up!” Maclemar said acidly. The line held from the main road to the fringes, and it made him nervous. They couldn’t escape from any side. They’d have to punch their way through. And Michelle, the fierce pierced, was dawdling.
“I’m looking for something to hit them with,”
&
nbsp; she said in a panic.
“That’s bollocks! We need to get ahead and outrun them. This is no time for shell collecting!”
He sheathed his gun and grabbed hold of Michelle’s sleeve. He ducked and continued with the tire iron onslaught, shouldering cold, hard bodies out of his way. He did not expect the line to be four men thick.
“Ouch! You buggers!” yelled Maclemar as he clutched the tire iron tighter with his bleeding hand.
A Rev took a bite of his forearm. After kicking the creature away from him, two more lunged at his throat. Each whack gave him ten seconds before the Revs would be clicking back into shape. These raccoon-eyed pests wrestled the weapon away from him after a third wraith bit him on the forearm.
“Bum gravy bastards!” he yelled. He punched every lurid corpse that came his way.
Michelle began firing incoherently and chanted,
“Can’t go back to cattle. Can’t go back.”
“Michelle! Don’t waste your bullets, lass!” he ordered. “More of them will come. Shoot only the aggressive ones,” he added to calm the girl down.
“The Revs have nothing viperous in their bite. They were humans nearly dead when they were turned.
They’re weak”
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The smell of blood from his wounds awoke the Revenents. Michelle had no choice but to shoot.
Seconds later even Maclemar started using his piece.
The line had converged to the middle of the street, surrounding the two humans in a thick circle.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Michelle intoned as she fumbled with a replacement cartridge for her Browning 9mm. Her hands shook so much that she dropped two cartridges before successfully loading her gun. “Shoot me clean in the head, man, if it comes to that.”
A succession of shots spooked Maclemar and Michelle and momentarily stopped them from fending off the walking dead. The dense bodies around them thinned as each creature crumpled with a bullet smack center in their heads. 23 bodies lay sprawled on the highway like trodden-down gnomes.
The two looked up to see Poe hastily replacing magazines and shoving the guns into her shoulder holsters. The faithful Penny, tail wagging, stood by her companion.
“What up, guys,” she said in her funny looking helmet. “Stupid thing to do following me.”
Maclemar wiped the water from his upper lip.
“Yes it was, but we all know how useless you are in situations like these.”
“Positively inept,” agreed Michelle.
Still catching her breath, Poe shook her head.
“You guys are freaks,” Poe said, gulping much needed air and holding the stitch on her side. Once she took a swig of water and poured some on her palm for Penny to lap up, she said, “Let’s go then,”
and broke into a run.
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“She must’ve run back when she heard the gunshots,” Michelle said to Maclemar and shook her head. “I don’t know if I’d have the cojones to loop back to Revs congregating like Sunday church goers.”
“That’s my Poe,” he said proudly. He leapt over the bodies of Revenents scattered around their feet and tailed Poe. Michelle, with a sigh, followed.
The two caught up with Poe. Again she told them how insane they were.
“You’re the one to talk,” Michelle mouthed off.
“And I can’t let my guru fly solo on a fucked up mission like this, right? Otherwise how would we earn our capes?” Feeling a little embarrassed that her words sounded like hero worship, Michelle mumbled, “I’ll go check out what’s ahead.”
Poe scrutinized Michelle’s departing back with a puzzled look. “What’s up with that girl? A few lessons in kicking and I’m suddenly Yoda?”
“Well you obviously like living in the swamp because you haven’t stopped smiling since she called you her guru,” he said with a grin.
“Shut up there, Welshman. You read into things too seriously. Must be your useless university learning,” she intonated. She fired at a Revenent behind Maclemar.
“You look like an X-wing pilot with that ridiculous helmet on,” said Maclemar. He knocked on her head gear.
“Hey!” complained Poe.
“Dw i’n dy garu di.”
“Did you just say I’m gross and sweaty?”
“No,” he said and almost tripped over Penny.
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“Aren’t you going to tell me then? I mean you followed me all the way here?”
“Nope. It’s a secret,” he said and sprinted ahead to join Michelle.
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CHAPTER 9
THREE THREADING THROUGH FUNEREAL darkness were better than one. Courage was an inestimable thing to lose in such a dire and unpleasant situation.
With great relief Poe, Maclemar, Michelle, and the terrier found themselves jogging in a setting akin to a battle zone, but they were lighter of spirit and better prepared.
Mettle was tested, like the thin membranous façade that it was, when the sound of wreckage getting bulldozed crushed the silence.
“What the fuck’s that?” Michelle queried.
“That’s heavy machinery clearing traffic behind us,” answered Maclemar. He and Michelle looked at Poe. “That means they’ve found the headquarters, and they’re clearing space. I’m thankful most of us have been sent away.”
“At least it’s coming from the opposite side of the pass,” said Poe. She thought about Morales and Piper.
“And we were all doing so well,” said Michelle, breathing hard and stretching her calf muscles that seemed to have turned into balls of knotted beasties.
“How long do you think we’ve been at it?”
“Eight or nine miles, easy,” said the tall Welshman who was likewise stretching his legs. He felt the bites on his skin and they didn’t seem to 221
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bother him. “They’ll probably get all this cleared up for Trench’s stretch limo before we get there.”
“And when we do get there, we’ll be hella dead weight to the folks we’re trying to rescue,” said Michelle, stating the obvious.
“Don’t care,” said Poe. “We keep running.”
Before her two companions could speak, she dashed away. Penny, who didn’t exhibit any signs of fatigue, followed.
With tightly wound limbs Maclemar and Michelle ran as if Freddy Krueger was hot on their heels. The crushing of automobiles to clear the pass for more virulent vehicles was a constant reminder that the invasion was all too real. They didn’t stop until they reached the tree Poe had practiced her kicks on just outside the farmhouse.
While her companions held the stitches to their sides and waited to regain control of their breathing, Poe shared a Kit Kat and a protein bar with an unpronounceable name with her dog. She finished off one of her three water bottles but still replaced the empties outside her pack.
“Do you throw nothing away, luv?”
“Not anything I’d reuse again,” Poe answered.
She scanned the quiet farmhouse. Not even a trace of movement could be seen. “You guys ready?”
“You’ve got to leave me, Joseph,” Megan pleaded.
Her blue lips barely moved. “I’m dying. I can feel it.”
She sought her great-uncle for help. “Kaleb, tell him.
Convince him.”
“I’ll tell him no such thing, Megan,” the vampire said matter-of-factly. He avoided the horizontal line 222
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of red along her bandaged middle. “The helicopter is almost repaired. A few more minutes and we’ll all be out of here.” The lie lay bitter in his tongue for he knew that the flying machine was in no state to hover a measly inch in the air. The remaining eight were stuck at the farm as the sounds of the enemy clearing the main highway became louder and more imminent. “You have a beautiful baby daughter to hold and feed. You cannot
give up now.”
“Hear that, Meg? Piper is with her godparents, Morales and Poe, and they’re waiting for us,”
encouraged Joseph. His trademark mirth was absent from his face. Megan’s hand was cold and limp in his. “You remember her tiny little fingers, don’t you?
She has fully formed bitty nails and everything.”
Too tired to speak, Megan nodded. Her red hair was slick with ebony sweat. The color didn’t suit her at all. “Poe won’t let anything happen to her.”
“No, she won’t,” assured Joseph. He caught Kaleb’s hard stare. “You know our Poe. She’s a fighter.”
The two friends left the sick room as soon as Megan dozed off. There was no one in the room to attend her. Miriam, the elderly midwife, had succumbed to a fatal stroke after suturing Megan’s Caesarean cut closed. Her body lay in the next room.
Joseph was grateful that the woman had waited until her task had been completed before taking her last breath.
“Is it ready?” asked Joseph.
“Far from it,” said Kaleb. He raked his black hair with his fingers in frustration. “It’s my fault for betting on Rufus to fix and fly the helicopter. The man can barely read. He’s only good at playing video 223
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games. Why didn’t he study up on landing?
Goddammit!”
“Too late for recriminations, Kaleb. The question is, what’s the backup plan?” asked Joseph who tucked an errant hair behind his ear. “How are we getting Megan out of here?”
“If worse comes to worse and the helicopter can’t fly, I’ll carry her off somewhere while you and the rest fend off Newbitt and Trench.”
Joseph nodded grimly. “That’ll do. As long as Megan’s safe.”
Sainvire put an arm around his best friend’s shoulder and squeezed. “She’ll be safe, Joseph. She has you and the child to live for.”
The four had been resting under the tree Poe had used for kicking practice the day before. They could see the farmhouse clearly though no light shone through the windows. The only source of light was behind the barn where major overhaul and repair of the battered helicopter was occurring.
Dead Surround - The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles Page 19