by Dale Mayer
"They would be helpful to carry out their unconscious members." Motre motioned to the room full of humans.
"I wish we could find them."
Motre pushed some buttons on the GPS and asked, "How many were there?"
She twisted her lips as she tried to count the group in her head. "Eight or nine, I think."
"And they went down the tunnel when you came up?" he questioned her earlier stance on the tunnel.
"Yes. And Serus and Cody went down the same tunnel and found an old staircase on the opposite side to where my father and I jumped up."
"Okay, does this look right?" He held out the small unit and pointed to something on a map. The screen was small but clear enough to see the staircase and another cavern further down.
"Possible, yes." She tapped the screen excitedly. "So does this staircase meet up with us somewhere?"
"Let me look." He clicked away. The two men came back out from the rooms. "There are thirty-five humans."
"And vamps to carry them?"
"Twenty four."
"Are any of you strong enough, in good enough shape, to carry more than one human?"
Several of the men straightened in outrage. She rolled her eyes. "I'm only considering that you were drugged. And may still be weak."
Several snorted in disgust at her. "Like that would be an issue."
"In that case, load up and let's get everyone safely out of here."
"I'm not going," Motre said, "and neither are Chad or Lenther. We're coming with you to rescue the others."
"And I'd appreciate the company, but I have to make sure that the humans are safe first."
"They'll be fine." She watched as the vampires helped load the unconscious humans onto each other's shoulders.
"Do you think they can carry them all?" she asked Motre quietly, needing to make sure they could do the job. She didn't dare leave any humans behind. They didn't deserve this.
"They are vamps. Strong and pissed off vamps. Carrying a few humans is no big deal." Motre answered her without lifting his attention from the GPS unit. "I have a route for them. That will be the fastest way out of here."
"And can they get the hell off the mountain from that point? No point in sending them up the mountain if it's going to collapse underneath them."
"True, it sounds ready to collapse at any time, but the exit looks good. They'll be fine." He looked up at her. "It's the best option at this point."
She nodded. The vamps came out in single file and none appeared winded by the burdens they carried. Motre spoke with them as a group and gave them instructions. Tessa listened with only half an ear. She was desperate to find her father, and this was once again taking too long. Both her father and Seth's energy appeared to go past these rooms, but she hadn't been able to leave her friends. Especially not now that they had a solution on how to get them all out. Finally, Motre finished and the men took off.
Bart brought up the rear – empty handed.
Naturally.
She nodded in the opposite direction to the three men that were left. "We have to go this way."
"Excellent. We should be able to meet up with Councilman Goran this way, too."
Finally good news for once.
Feeling better than she had in a long time, she raced after her father's energy trail. Maybe they'd actually get out of here safely after all.
*.*.*
Serus wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. Thank heavens Goran wasn't here to see that. He'd never live it down. Break a sweat over two humans, techs even. Yeah, that would keep Goran laughing for decades. It had to be the fatigue, lack of food...something. He was not getting old. To hell with that shit.
Now to find Tessa. Seemed like that was all he'd been doing this last week. He checked the two men's pockets, retrieving the doctor's computer unit and the matching one in the other man's pocket. This second male also had a key ring. He pocketed that too. He studied the room he was in and realized it was just one of many similar rooms he'd seen over the week. It had several beds and more equipment in a large wall cabinet. More of a lab room then. As they were looking to steal his DNA, it made sense. He strode over to the cabinet and wrenched the doors open. There didn't appear to be any cooler or other type of storage for other DNA, so maybe they were going to take the tissue samples here and move them elsewhere.
At least they hadn't gotten his. No one should have to worry about their DNA in the wrong hands.
There was only a single door in the place and nowhere else to go but out. With one last look around, he opened the door and stepped outside. Face to face with two more vamps, both in white coats.
He didn’t think, he just reacted. Up went the fist and down went the vamp. At least the first one. The second one sliced at Serus's back, catching his coat. Serus pulled free by sliding out of the sleeves then turned and kicked the vamp in the nuts.
The vamp bent over, losing his hold on whatever weapon he had as he clutched his groin. A spike. Perfect. Serus moved. He kicked the tech in the face, then dropped, scooped up the spike, and stabbed the vamp in the chest. The second tech went up in flames.
He turned back to the first vamp.
Too late.
The kick caught him under the chin, snapping his head backwards. Serus shook the stars from his mind and roared. Then lunged. The other man had some training as he managed to get Serus in a head lock for all of two seconds before Serus flipped him down to the floor. He reached for the neck and latched on tight. The spike sat in the smoldering pile of vamp ash. He snatched it up and stabbed the second vamp in the thigh. No explosion or ash. Just a horrible slow escape of air and a nasty smell as the man's flesh sizzled. He was burning, slowly.
Serus backed away, coughing. "If that's what you guys call enhanced...you are crazy to try it. If it does that to you when you're dead, what the hell do those enhancements do to your system when you're alive?"
He gave the slow burning corpse one last appalled look and took off in the direction they'd come from.
How many more of these assholes could there be?
And where the hell was his daughter?
*.*.*
The halfway station appeared up ahead. Jared raced forward and opened the door. It was empty inside.
Good thing as he hadn't given a thought to the enemy possibly waiting for him.
Like last time.
"Wait. Jared, what's down this way?" David called out, pointing to the tracks running off into the distance.
Jared walked to the edge of the platform as the humans carried their burdens through to the other side. He stared into the blackness. "It must wind around to the other side of the mountain."
"Maybe to one of the other blood farms?" David stared, hands on his hips. "I wonder if we should check it out."
That was the last thing Jared wanted to do. But if more of his people were in trouble...
He glanced at the platform. All the people were through except for Wendy and Rhia, who stared down the tunnel.
"These people need to get out of here." Wendy said. "They come first."
David shook his head. "The exit is just on the other side. According to Jared, there are vehicles parked outside, you guys can drive away. Jared and I will take a quick look."
His mother snapped. "No. You stay right here. I'll deliver these two to the trucks, Wendy will stay with them, and the army can drive them off the mountain." She glared at the two men. "I'll be right back. I will go with you. Do. Not. Move."
She disappeared.
Jared turned to face David. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
David snorted. "No, it probably isn't, but we're here."
There was no arguing that. Jared sighed, jumped off the platform, and started walking. "Then let's take a look."
"Except Mom said to wait."
"Yeah, but she's your mother, not mine."
*.*.*
Goran watched as Cody dashed around the
back of the door and waited. The door swung back and forth but no one entered. "What the hell?" he whispered, "There is no one there."
"We activated the release somehow." Goran's gaze went from the open doorway to the stairwell. He'd only put his foot on the bottom step when this one had opened. That was the trigger. Still, why? Unless there was a different route and they wanted people to have that option. Or it was a trap. Something else that this place was famous for. He stepped through the doorway. It started to close and came up against Cody's foot, slowly forcing it out as it tried to close.
"There should be a trigger mechanism. Likely based on weight," Goran said. "The same as the stair I stood on when this door opened in the first place. Probably hinged on this first tile here."
"Tile?"
"Stone then. It's completely square so it’s not a natural part of the mine."
"But what's down this way?"
Cody hated the two options. He really wanted to find the one that would lead to Tessa.
Then get a move on. Lord knows I could have used your help lots already.
"Tessa!" He laughed, "Dad, I can hear Tessa." But from the look on his father's face, he was in contact with Serus. Perfect. Maybe they could meet up with them after all.
Tessa, where are you?
Darned if I know. We have a couple of fancy GPS units that show us your staircase and we're moving in your general direction, but we need to find my father first.
What? What happened to your father?
He was taken. I did find Motre and his group, a room full of volunteer vamps that are no more, and even better, I found Catherine and Jill...and many other victims.
Wow. Cody didn't know what to think. He'd been climbing stairs while she'd been out saving everyone again.
She laughed, the sound a warm loving breeze in his mind. Man, did he love that.
And I love you, she giggled. I didn't do anything. I've been wandering around here when I happened upon the two rooms. Oh, and guess what...I found Bart. He left with the group that hauled the humans back out to safety. Then again with Bart, who knows where he'll slip off to.
How did you get them out? He couldn't imagine. Neither did he want to. His mind had locked onto her first words and wouldn't let go. She loved him? Had she meant it? Or was it a casual joking comment? Thankfully she'd carried on talking and hadn't heard his thoughts.
I rescued the vamp group first. Once they had their strength back, they were capable of splitting the unconscious humans up between them and carried them away.
And now...? They'd done so much already.
Now I have Motre and two of his men helping me to find my father. He can't be too far away.
Actually, it looks like my father is talking to your father the same way we are right now.
Oh perfect! she said. Maybe he can tell us where he is. Then we can come to you. We need to get the hell away from here. The army can do the last sweep and find the others. If there are any others.
There are still the other blood farms.
Yikes. I forgot about those.
The army can worry about them.
Speaking of the army, any sign of the soldiers?
Cody's stomach sank. No. I forgot about them.
Yeah, it's not like we are short on things to worry about.
As they waited for their fathers to stop talking, Tessa filled him in on the conversation with the doctor. The doctor who'd apparently turned on them.
He wasn't surprised. Most vamps couldn't be trusted. He hoped the humans were safe with the group that had carried them out.
I did consider that, but we were short on options. Also, the vamps were more than anxious to get the hell out themselves.
And you found a room full of volunteer vamps?
It was stuffed, she explained. The men were standing room only. It was disgusting. Everyone was connected to something. The doctor said they were getting enhancements. I didn't recognize anyone. They were likely imports. Surely there couldn't be so many unknown local vamps that none of Motre's group recognized them either?
Makes sense. Not good, but understandable if they were afraid of tapping into those that might not be sympathetic to their cause.
Motre and his team were damn glad to have targets to take out.
Cody could just imagine. Motre and his team were deadly at any time – but in this situation, they were out for blood. So not a good scenario.
No, it wasn't. But he didn't go on a rampage or anything. He went really controlled. Really quiet. Damn, he was scary.
Did you check the room afterwards?
No, she whispered, the smell told me everything I needed to know.
He winced. Not a visual he cared to spend too much time on.
Goran turned. "Serus is looking for Tessa. Does she know where she is?"
Cody explained about her finding the others and having a GPS unit. Goran only nodded. "Serus has a few as well."
"Good, they should be able to find each other then. They haven't been separated that long – how far from each other could they be?”
"Is there another corner up ahead?" Tessa called out to Motre, who was studying the GPS unit again. While waiting for him to check, she sent another message out to Cody. Nothing. Damn this mountain.
"No. The hallway looks like it goes on a ways. Too bad these guys don't have some kind of subdermal implant showing us where they are all hiding."
At the term subdermal, she paled. "They injected me with a tracking device of some kind." She stroked her arm, still tender from her rough surgery. "I dug it out."
He started at her curiously. "How did you know it was there?"
Back to that again. She gave him a sheepish smile. "I could see a black spot in the energy of my arm. So I used my nail and pushed it out. Once removed, the black spot was gone too. Figured they had to be one and the same."
Lenther turned to stare at her. "I think I heard you say something about energy before."
"Yeah," she nodded. "I did."
"I wouldn't have believed any of it if I hadn't seen you actually do this stuff," Motre said, waving his hand at her arm. "So the next question has to be – if you saw that tracking device in your arm, can you see if we have any of the damned things?"
The other two men grouped around her. She opened her mouth to say it wasn't likely when she saw it. Motre's neck. Something black. Not very big. But deep and dark.
She stood on her tiptoes and leaned in.
"What is it?" he pulled back and glared at her. "What are you staring at?"
"There is something dark up here, but it's hard to see."
"Dark?" he asked suspiciously. "Like a tracking device?"
"I can't tell," she said in exasperation. "Crouch down a bit so I can see, please."
He dropped to his knees. "Now...what the hell is it?"
At eye level now, she pulled the collar of his shirt back a bit.
"Hmmm." She eyed the spot dubiously. "This is bigger and blacker than what I saw in my arm."
"You think it's a tracker? Something they shot into me while I was out cold?"
"I don't know." And she didn't. "But I suspect it's something like that. Maybe a little more complex. They were only trying to track my whereabouts – at least that's what the one vamp told me. I don't know if this is the same thing at all."
"Get it out," he snapped ominously. "I don't want anything inside me – especially not from them."
"And that's another issue. I'm thinking they took something from you and are using this to collect more data." She sighed. Or her imagination could be taking off again. She had no idea. "Or I could be completely wrong. We really don’t have time for this."
"Take it out," he roared.
"It's going to hurt," she warned.
He spun around and gave her such an affronted glare, she lifted her shoulders then dropped them. "Okay. Don't move."
"How are you going to get it out?" Lenther ask
ed. "You don't have any tools."
She snorted, held up her hand, and extended her sharp nails. The men stepped back.
"Jesus."
"How come you can do that?" Chad asked. They'd all crowded around her, watching and generally getting in her way. "And no one else can?"
"Yeah, I'm a little different." She studied the muscle running along the top of Motre’s shoulder and pressed gently until she felt him stiffen. "Does that hurt? Like that might be the spot?"
"It doesn't hurt," he snarled, "But it doesn't feel normal."
"Right." Without warning, she held her index finger beside the place she hoped held the device and extended her nail. She felt the resistance from his flesh but her nails forged through the skin and tissue like it was nothing. He stiffened and gasped as she went deeper. She twisted slightly to get a better look and managed to scoop below the black spot and then force the black upward. It came out easier than she expected. Maybe it hadn't been in long enough for the pathway to have healed. It seemed to slide right up and...there. It sat in a tiny pool of blood on his shoulder.
"Got it."
He relaxed and pivoted to stare at her. "Let me see."
"Open your hand." When he complied, she dropped the tiny unit into his palm. "There."
He hissed as he stared at the metallic dot in his palm. "I don't know what they were tracking, but you said they took something from me. What did you mean?"
"Answer me something first," she motioned to his size now that he was standing again. "Is your size natural?"
He frowned.
"I mean, is this the way you are naturally? No genetic tampering, no enhancements."
"No. Nothing. This is the size all the males in my family are." The other two men nodded, confirming his words.
"Right. Then I suspect they stole tissue samples." At his confused look, she smiled. "They took your DNA so they could find out why you are so big naturally and gift it to their creations."
He stared, his gaze widening with horror as she explained what they found in the lab. "That is bad. Like so bad on so many levels."
"How do you think Councilman Goran felt when he found out about his extended family? And," she added, "I suspect that is also why they snatched my father. He is another ancient. They kept Moltere alive as a living tissue donor all these years for their experiments. They probably didn't need to, but there wasn't any point in losing his contributions by killing him either."