by Tristan Vick
“What do you want us to do with her, boss?” asked one of his men.
“Put her in the back of one of the trucks,” Hank said motioning to the small caravan behind them. “We’ll take her to see the reverend. He’ll know what to do.”
The men did as they were told, wrapped a blanket around the woman, and placed her in the rear bed of one of the pickup trucks. Hank climbed into his red Ford F-150, stuck his arm out the open window, and waved forward, signaling for everyone to roll out. “Let's get a move on, people!”
With a rumble, the train of vehicles hit the road and left the debris of the smoldering wreckage lying in the field behind them. Silhouetted by the light emanating from the flames of the burning debris, dark hominid bodies gradually gathered around the wreckage of the crash site. Some turned toward the vehicles that roared passed with outstretched arms, hungry for fresh meat. Even though the hunger pangs caused them to let out dreadful moans, their gluttonous noises were drowned out by the din of roaring engines of the convoy tearing up the road.
Winding its way through Newcastle’s city streets, the convoy made haste toward the monolithic cathedral that sat perched atop a hill in the heart of the city. Rachael opened her eyes in time to see the intimidating sight of the twin Neo-Gothic styled spires rising up before her. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was Newcastle's oldest and largest church.
22
Blood Farm
Blood percolated down through a network of narrow plastic tubing and into the collection bags. Alyssa felt lightheaded, and her eyes blurred in and out of focus as she fought off the side-effects of the chloroform. She didn’t know where she was, but from what she could make out it appeared to be a hospital of sorts.
Green paint the color of mashed peas flaked of the walls in patches. She wanted to rub her eyes, but when she tried to raise her arms she found that she couldn’t. Looking down, she discovered her wrists were bound by thick leather straps. Blinking slowly, she stared at the small window in the upper center of the room and waited for the grogginess to wear off. Suddenly reality snapped into focus and the terrible truth of it hardened into sensate horror.
“My God,” Alyssa said to herself in disbelief as she saw about half a dozen others who were hooked up to blood collection machines just like her. It was like something out of a medieval torture chamber. The chilling fact suddenly crystallized in her mind. They were being harvested for their blood!
23
Hidden Things
Sticking to the shadows, Jared Barnes jogged down the city streets. Even though it was already past dark, the moonlight still lit up the roads with a moody glow that seemed less than inviting. As he came around the corner of Chen’s Dry Cleaning, he ducked into an upscale spa called Re+Fresh.
It had been a gentlemen’s club, back from the day when such things still existed, replete with Greco-Roman–style baths. Now it was a health and beauty spa. Barnes had agreed to meet Valentine here if anything went wrong. It was her idea. Something about the long shelf-life of nutrition bars and vitamin jellies. He loved that about her. Always planning two steps ahead. When she didn’t show he had gone back to look for her. Barnes had to know. A woman as meticulous as that doesn’t just disappear. She either was trapped alive, dead, or worse.
Of course, now he wished he hadn’t gone back and found what he had. But maybe it was for the best. Not knowing would have haunted him for the rest of his life. Worse, it would have driven him out of his mind. Ripping the bandage off was more painful in the interim, but a lot less hurtful in the long run. At least now he could have a sense of closure—for what little good it did.
Carefully opening the door, Barnes slipped into the building without a sound. He headed down to the basement, where the old bathing chambers were. The layout and design was meant to look like Greek bathing pools. They even had Greek-style pillars installed for added authenticity. The pools were still steaming hot since they were fed by a natural underground hot spring. Being two floors underground worked perfectly as a hideaway. The basement walls muffled any audible noises and allowed them to use lights while remaining safely undetected by the swarms of living dead that roamed the streets above, searching for their next meal. Their next victim.
In the palestra, light seeped in from the adjoining room, illuminating the walls with soft blue hues that rippled and danced. The entire floor and ceiling were completely laden with turquoise tiles imprinted with flower patterns. Soon enough Barnes came upon a soft yellow glow that gave him a sense of warmth and comfort.
Barnes stepped into the well-lit room and heard the clack of the hammer of a handgun slowly being restored, followed by Noble’s foul-mouthed cursing. “Goddamn cock-sucking motherfucker, I just about blew your motherfucking brains out.”
Barnes didn’t respond, which tipped Noble off that the rescue did not go as planned. Instead, he just stood there numb with shell-shock. Noble holstered his weapon and then went over to his rucksack and began fishing through his belongings for something.
Zanato came out of the men’s room with a stupid grin on his face.
“You look happy,” Noble said, looking up to see Zanato’s dumb grin. “Did you finally find your penis?”
“Haha, very funny,” Zanato replied. “I know it’s nothing permanent, but it’s like seventh heaven down here. I think if we stay here we can probably hold out until the rest of your pals get here. ‘Go Joe!’ And all that.”
“I hate to break it to you, buddy, but helping you escape the base was it. Nobody else is coming.”
Zanato looked at Noble with a petrified gaze. “What do you mean nobody is coming? What happened to sending in the Marines?”
“The window of time to prevent the infection from getting out of the city has closed,” Barnes said, his voice emotionless and distant.
Zanato looked over at him and asked, “So, what do we do now?”
“We’ll stay here for tonight and then continue on to Bradley Air Force Base in the morning. Once there, we’ll hook up with the rest of our unit and receive our orders.”
Jennifer Hurley stepped out from behind one of the pillars and tossed a military-issue duffel bag down next to one of the pools.
Unbuttoning the top of her white blouse, she looked over at the boys and asked in a sultry voice, “Anybody up for some skinny dipping?” She flashed them all a devious smile and began to slowly unbutton the rest of her shirt.
Barnes simply ignored her and tossed his gear down, then turned and went into the restroom.
“What crawled up his ass?” Zanato asked.
“His woman got turned and he had to put her down,” Noble answered dourly. “Best give him a little space to grieve in his own way.”
Zanato looked back at Hurley, who stood there staring at the men’s restroom, her breasts threatening to burst out of her bra. Without saying a word, Jennifer followed after Barnes.
“Wait,” Zanato called out after her, “Weren’t you listening? The guy needs his space.”
“You macho men are all alike,” Jennifer said. “What he needs is a shoulder to cry on. Someone to emotionally dump on. Someone to show the slightest bit of empathy for what he’s going through.” Without any further interruptions, she pushed her way into the men’s room and let the door shut behind her.
Zanato turned toward Noble and asked, “Can she do that?”
“She just did, bro.”
“Well what the hell are we supposed to do now?”
Ulysses Noble stripped off his clothes. “Like the lady said, time for a bath.”
“Hey, I hate to break it to you, but I ain’t gay. There’s no way I’m getting naked and climbing into a tub with another dude. No fucking way.”
Giving Zanato a once up and down, Noble replied, “Don’t talk crazy-shit, pretty boy, cuz you’re gayer than a fucking rainbow cookie.”
“Fuck you.”
“Thought you said you weren’t gay?”
“You’re just a regular comedian, aren’t you?” Zanato replied, fold
ing his arms in frustration.
Noble stood naked before Zanato, showing off his Herculean form, and let it all hang out. Zanato couldn’t help but look at Noble’s stallion-sized black Johnson.
“You say you’re not gay, yet you’re staring at my cock like you want to wrap your mouth around it. You’re practically drooling.”
Zanato turned away and pouted while Noble got into one of the pools. Water flooded out and got Zanato’s feet wet. “Hey! Watch it, man.”
From inside the bathroom, Jennifer could hear the two big kids in the other room splashing each other. She rolled her eyes. They had no idea what it was like to lose someone. Approaching the last stall on the end, Jen put her hand on the door, and said, “Jared, I know it’s probably the last thing in the world you wanna think about right now, but if you want to talk about it I’m—”
“Leave me the hell alone,” Barnes snapped. “I don’t need your sympathy.”
Jennifer gently pushed open the stall’s door and looked down to see Jared sitting on the toilet with his head buried into his palms. “You really loved her, didn’t you?”
“I told you, I don’t want to talk about it.”
She stepped closer but Barnes stood up to block her from entering the stall with him. His sudden counter move startled her, but she gently put her hand on his chest. His heart was pounding furiously.
“I know you must be hurting.”
“Don’t,” he said.
She stared at where her hand was then looked up at him. There was an awkward pause, then, without warning, their lips came together. Barnes grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the side of the stall. As he choked her he forced his mouth onto hers. When he realized she wasn’t resisting him, he suddenly became frightened and let go of her neck. Clasping her throat, she gasped for breath.
Shocked at what he had done, Barnes began to apologize. “Sorry, I…” His voice trailed off. He didn’t know what to say to her. Why was she even here? What did she want?
Jennifer sensed his confusion and before he could straighten out his thoughts her fingers found his erection. Her uninvited advance merely sent him into a rage. Grabbing her by the shoulders he slammed her hard up against the metal stall. In his rage, he choked her until she seemed on the brink of consciousness, then he let go. As she clutched her throat, gasping for breath, he grabbed her by the hair and forced her to bend over the toilet. Holding her forcefully by the back of her neck, he reached down and tore off her skirt and stripped her bare. Without the slightest protest she remained still and kept silent.
Unzipping his pants, he grabbed himself and put his raging hard phallus against the opening of her vagina. She had the smoothest vagina he’d ever seen. Obviously, she had had her pussy lasered since there wasn’t a trace of hair on her. Heat radiated off of her body with a fiery yearning and Barnes, taking it as an invitation, forced himself inside of her. To his pleasant surprise, she was wetter than a water park caught in a tsunami. Even as he took her roughly, she still didn’t protest. However, this time he managed to get a small groan out of her. Whether it signaled pleasure or pain, it didn’t matter. She was more than happy to let him have his way with her.
Jennifer enjoyed the rough sex best of all. Looking over her shoulder at him, what really got her off was the look on his face. It was wrought with the pain of loss coupled with self-loathing. She could tell he didn’t want to fuck her. Not so soon after his beloved Valentine’s death. The anger, the sadness, the desperation lying just underneath that rough façade, it was all there written across his face. But it was that terrible poisonous blend of emotions which she fed on as he fucked her raw. As wrong as she knew it was, his pain excited her more than words could convey.
Barnes finished inside her and grunted loudly in satisfaction. Then, once the realization of what he’d done sunk in, he cursed. “Shit.”
“It’s okay,” Jennifer said in a soothing voice.
He pulled out, tucked himself back into his pants, and then zipped himself up. She tried to place her hands on him to show her affection but he rudely shoved her away, as if to say, “I’m done with you.”
Without so much as a thank you, Barnes exited the restroom, still in a bad mood. The pity fuck didn’t seem to help any and Jennifer began to chase after him but something caught her eye that caused her to suddenly freeze in her tracks. Something she saw in the mirror.
Slowly she made her way toward the mirror. For a second, she thought her image flickered in-and-out, like a bad digital television signal. Cautiously stepping up to the mirror, she reached out and touched the cold glass. Rubbing her fingers along its smooth, hard, surface she searched for anything that might reveal what she had seen. But there wasn’t anything of note. It’s just your mind playing tricks on you, she told herself.
Perhaps the sex was rougher than she had thought. Maybe she’d hit her head on the stall without noticing. She checked again, just to be sure. But there was nothing. With a sigh of relief, she turned to leave when she heard the melodic sound of a mocking cackle echo throughout the stalls.
Pausing, she listened attentively to a woman’s voice singing to her. The song sounded like a lullaby. But somehow, instead of comforting her, it filled her with dread. Slowly, Jennifer turned back toward the mirror and looked hard at the image which looked back at her. Suddenly her reflection’s eyes widened and then a rush of fear and dread overwhelmed her as she suddenly felt the disturbing feeling that the Jennifer Hurley on the other side of the mirror was a separate person.
Panic grew in her chest and all she wanted to do was leave this place and flee. When she found herself petrified with fear, so her legs would not budge, she wanted nothing more than to scream out in terror. But even her voice failed her. All she could do was stare at the woman with stunning blue eyes and who looked exactly like her but, somehow, wasn’t her. And just when her heart threatened to seize up in her chest and give way to fear, that’s when the visage spoke.
“Whore! That’s what daddy always said you were. He was right, you know? All that boyfriend swapping. All of those one-night stands. The whole lesbian episode in college. None of it meaningful. You didn’t love any of them. You can’t love. You’re incapable of it.”
“Shut up,” Jennifer said to her doppelganger.
“Want to know the really pathetic thing? Nobody will ever love you back either. You’re damaged goods, sister. Fucked twelve ways to sun down. You’re used up. Tainted.”
“I said shut up! Leave me alone,” Jennifer said in a harsh whisper, gripping her head as if she had a horrendous migraine.
“How about you stop fucking around and start listening to me for once? Or have you forgotten our little deal?”
Jennifer paused and stared at herself staring back at her with a Machiavellian grin. Then in a composed voice, she answered, “I haven’t forgotten.”
“With you spreading your legs for anything that wags its filthy cock at you, I was beginning to wonder,” the reflection said, with an unveiled loathing.
“I haven’t forgotten my promise. I’ll deal with it, just like I said I would.”
“You had better. Now stop fucking around and do what you set out to do. And don’t let us down this time, or so help me God I will leave you for good.”
“No, wait. I’ll do what you ask. Just don’t leave me. Not again.”
24
Blood Market
Dawn’s first rays of light peeked through the window shades and warmed the room with a soft amber glow. Alyssa watched drearily as dust motes danced from sunbeam to sunbeam that spread out across the room in an even pattern like the ridges on a golden Oriental fan.
Next to Alyssa’s chair was a fold-out table meant for TV dinners. On it sat a tall glass of milky white something-or-other. It was as thick as yogurt with white tapioca-like chunks floating in it. Next to that was an energy bar. The kind fitness junkies would munch on in the place of a proper meal. That was it. That was her breakfast.
Looking down, she not
iced one of her wrists had been unbound. Lethargically, she reached over and took the power bar. In her weakened state it felt like it was made of lead. She knew her body was milked of its blood supply and zapped of all energy. Holding it up to her mouth she used her teeth to tear open the wrapper. Finally getting a corner torn open, she peeled off the rest of the wrapper and then greedily ate it all down. It tasted like cardboard and cocoa but she didn’t care. She was too famished to care.
Getting up some nerve Alyssa tried to free up her other hand, but her fingers felt numb. Whatever they were doping her up with was powerful. Maybe morphine? She was about to try again when the door opened and a nurse briskly stepped into the room. Thank god, Alyssa thought. Someone who can help me. In a feeble voice, still a little groggy from the opiate slumber she’d just awoken from, she asked, “Where am I?”
The nurse came over and checked her chart, and then said, “You were sick. We had to do a blood withdrawal.”
“Withdrawal?” Alyssa asked. She knew bloodletting hadn’t been a valid medical procedure for over a hundred years, so what on earth could call for such a thing? “What was I sick with?”
“You wouldn’t have heard of it,” replied the nurse with a clinical dryness void of emotion.
“I’m a veterinarian, why don’t you try me?” Alyssa said getting a little frustrated at being given the run around. “I know about a lot of strange diseases.”
The nurse shot her a sharp look and then, without so much as saying a word, walked out of the room. A few moments later she came back in with a couple of burly men decked in dreadlocks and clad in Ethiopian colors. They looked Rastafarian to her.
The nurse pointed at Alyssa and said, “That one,” in a rather unsympathetic way. Following their orders, the two men came over and undid her restraints, unfastened her tubes, and helped her up. The nurse went to the corner of the room and grabbed a nearby wheelchair. She wheeled it over and said, “Please, get in.” She gestured for Alyssa to take a seat.