by Brandon Hale
Chapter 9
Charlotte’s Web
Abbie sat in front of the computer, listening to the various reports through her earpiece. The teams had been gone for a week, and so far nobody had anything significant to report. The first facility explored was empty. The second was filled with vampires hiding from the purge. The team that found them finished what the new vampires started.
There had been no communications from Wallace, but that didn’t concern Abbie. She didn’t expect to hear from him for a very long time. Baxter’s team’s last report simply stated they were well on their way to Arizona and had nothing significant to report.
No news is good news, Abbie reminded herself. Although, she thought, some good news would be good news too.
“Any news?”
Abbie glanced back to see Charlotte standing behind her.
“No,” Abbie said. “Nothing yet. But you know what they say. No news is good news.”
“That’s a pretty pessimistic saying, if you ask me,” Charlotte said.
Abbie chuckled. “I suppose it is.”
“How long have they been gone?” Charlotte asked.
“A week,” Abbie said. “The first two facilities were dead ends, and the remaining four will take weeks to get to. Right now, all we can do is wait and hope.”
“Yeah,” Charlotte said. After some hesitation, she added, “So the teams that already found facilities… what will they do next?”
“They’re merging with nearby teams,” Abbie said. “Finding other troops is our only chance to win this thing. They’ll do no good holed up here.”
“Makes sense,” Charlotte said with a single nod. “I just worry about them. I hope that transmitter holds up. I’d hate to lose contact.”
Abbie looked back at her. “It should hold up just fine, dear.”
“If it fails,” Charlotte said, “will they come back?”
“If it fails,” Abbie said, “we’ll go up and fix it. That’s an odd thing to be concerned about.”
“I worry,” Charlotte said. “About absolutely everything. It’s my curse.”
Abbie turned back to her monitor. “I suffer from the same affliction. I’ve been trying to distract myself by reading up on your data here, but I must admit it’s quite boring.”
Charlotte chuckled. “Yeah, we’re experts at finding new and exciting ways to reach dead ends.”
Abbie stretched and stood up. “How about we make some entertainment. I wouldn’t mind a full tour of this place.”
“No problem,” Charlotte said. “I thought you’d already had the grand tour.”
“I’ve seen most of it,” Abbie said. “I saw a lab mentioned in some of your reports. I wouldn’t mind seeing that.”
Two other researchers were in the room, monitoring transmissions. When Abbie asked about the lab, they both turned and looked at Charlotte.
“Oh,” Charlotte said with a smile, “the lab. You’re in it.”
Abbie looked around the room. “Looks like a communications center to me.”
“I agree,” Charlotte said. “Most of our lab equipment was removed a long time ago. Our research for the past few years really amounted to examining data found at other facilities.”
Abbie stared at Charlotte for a moment, then said, “Why are you lying to me?”
“What?”
“You’re lying to me,” Abbie said. “Why?”
“Abbie,” Charlotte said, “I don’t know what makes you think that, but—”
“I know when someone is lying,” Abbie said. “Especially when they’re bad at it.”
“Abbie—”
“Charlotte, I think you’d better explain this right now,” Abbie said. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions that could be dangerous.”
Charlotte’s eyes were wide. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. “Abbie, I promise you, I’m not lying. We don’t have a lab.”
Abbie drew her gun and pointed it at Charlotte.
“Abbie, please—”
“Shut up, dear,” Abbie said. She activated her communicator. “Charles, are you there? I need you to report to the communications center immediately.” When she received no answer, she said, “This is Abbie. All soldiers in the facility, please respond now.”
“Maybe they’re not wearing their earpieces,” Charlottes said.
Abbie’s eyes grew cold. She pressed the barrel of her gun against Charlotte’s forehead. “They know better. Where are my people, Charlotte?”
“I do not know,” Charlotte said. The panic on her face was unmistakable. “If you can’t accept that, I guess you’ll have to shoot me.”
“You’re still lying,” Abbie said. “I can see it in your eyes. Why are willing to die for a lie?”
“I’m not lying,” Charlotte said again.
“Oh my dear sweet Lord,” Abbie said. “You’re being controlled.” She looked at the other two researchers in the room. “All of you.”
Charlotte sighed. “I’m sorry, Abbie. I really am. I was hoping you’d go with the other teams. You’re a hero to humanity. You deserve better than this.”
“Better than what?”
A young man wearing a Day Soldiers uniform ran into the room and immediately fell to the floor. “Abbie,” he said through gasping breaths, “get out of here… now.”
“Charles?” Abbie said. She lowered her gun and started to walk toward the soldier. “What happened?”
“Go!” Charles screamed. “Everybody’s dead.”
Abbie looked at Charlotte. “What have you done?”
“He’s right,” Charlotte said. “They’re all dead by now, I’m sure. I was sent to keep you busy. Abbie, if you leave now, there’s not much I can do to stop you.”
“I’m not leaving,” Abbie said. She looked at Charles. “He’s not dead.”
“No,” Charles said as he climbed to his feet. His skin began to change from pale to white. “I’m worse than dead.”
He ran his fingers through his own blond hair. As his hands swiped across his head, the hair fell to the floor. Blue veins seemed to crawl up the sides of his face. His lips grew thin and his teeth grew long.
He shook off the rest of his hair, revealing pointed white ears. He pointed a claw at Abbie. “I gave you a chance,” he said. His voice now had a serpentine quality to it.
“I’m a little jealous,” Charlotte said. “They promised to turn me.”
“We’ll keep that promise.”
A male vampire stepped from the hallway, followed by a female and another male. All three were bald and monstrous. “We had to improvise.”
“Refugees from the purge?” Abbie asked.
“Hardly,” the front vampire said. “This place has been our home for over forty years.”
“That’s impossible,” Abbie said. “The Day Soldiers didn’t exist forty years ago.”
The three vampires laughed. “Didn’t you think it was odd that the only map to reveal our location came from a delivery truck driver?”
Abbie looked at Charlotte. “What is this place?”
Charles worked his way back to the other vampires. “I recommend you let this one go,” he said, still looking at Abbie.
“Charles,” the female vampire said, “are you holding on to your human sentimentality?”
“No,” Charles said. “She’s a channeler. She’s the most powerful channeler in the Day Soldiers. You don’t want to touch this woman.”
“That,” the lead vampire said, “is exactly why we brought you over to our team. I recommend you put on your gloves and keep her away from your face. Just break her neck and it’s done.”
Charles hesitantly put on his gloves. “She’s killed thousands of vampires. I think we should let her go.”
“We didn’t turn you into vampire so we could hear what you think,” the female said. “Kill this woman.”
“If I kill her,” Charlotte said, “will you turn me?”
The lead vampire smiled. “Absolutely.”
> Abbie looked at Charlotte and sighed. “I’m sorry, dear. I know this isn’t your fault.” She pointed her gun at Charlotte’s thigh and fired.
Charlotte howled in pain and fell to the floor. Abbie immediately fired two quick shots at the other two researchers in the room, shooting each of them in a leg.
“Kill her, Charles,” the female vampire ordered.
As Charles walked toward her, Abbie realized with disgust that her wooden stakes were in her room. “Charles,” she said, “you know if you attack me, I’ll get away fine and you’ll end up screaming in pain.”
The lead vampire chuckled. “Are you trying to reason with someone whose mind is no longer his own?”
“Good point,” Abbie said as she scanned the room. The hall to the airlock was to her left. She knew if she tried to climb the ladder to the river, they’d just flood the room and she would drown. The only other exit was the hallway behind the three vampires.
Charles stepped closer. “Abbie, you’re not going to survive this one. How about you show a little mercy and just surrender. Since you’re going to lose anyway, is burning my face off really necessary?”
Abbie smiled and took off her jacket. The tank-top underneath allowed her to have significantly more uncovered skin. “Charles, it’s like you don’t know me at all.”
“I don’t know you,” Charles said. “We just met about three months ago.”
“Good point.”
Abbie dived toward the former Day Soldier and quickly wrapped her left arm around his neck. As soon as the skin of her arm touched his neck, he began to scream wildly. His screams grew louder when she covered his face with her right hand. After several seconds, she threw him to the ground. He continued to scream as he curled up on the floor with his hands cupped over his smoking face.
“He won’t be getting up for a while,” Abbie said as she stepped over Charles. “Who’s next?”
The vampires stepped to the side to reveal the remaining four Day Soldiers standing in the hallway behind them. Several researchers stood behind the soldiers. Abbie didn’t count them, but she guessed they were the remaining seventeen researchers who lived in the facility.
They were all vampires.
Other than the wounded researchers behind her, Abbie was the last human in the facility.
“These guys, I suppose,” the lead vampire said.
“Well, shit,” Abbie said with a sigh.
“We had a good thing here,” the female vampire said. “But we’ve read all about you, Miss Reid. We knew we couldn’t take chances.”
“Why didn’t you just get one of your humans to steal a gun and shoot me?” Abbie asked. “I’m sure that would’ve worked.”
The vampires looked at each other for a moment, then the lead vampire turned to one of the vampires in the hall. “Go get a gun.”
“A little late for that now,” Abbie said just before sprinting down the hallway to the airlock.
“Get her,” the lead vampire said.
The female placed a hand on his shoulder. “No,” she said. “We’ve got her.” She looked back at vampires in the hallway. “One of you lock the hatch to the river and shut the door to the airlock. Then flood the compartment.”
One of the new vampires ran to a computer and began typing.
Abbie stopped at the doorway to the airlock and removed her boots. She stepped inside and placed both boots in the doorway, then waited.
The airlock door swung shut, but Abbie’s boots prevented it from closing completely. She pressed the barrel of her gun against the sensor in the doorway. The light above the doorway switched from green to red. Abbie smiled. Her boots had kept the door open, but the metal in her gun had tricked the computer into thinking the door was closed.
Please don’t check the cameras, Abbie thought.
Water began to gush into the room from the river above. It came through vents lined along the top of each wall. The water quickly began to fill the room. It also poured from the room into the hallway beyond. Within a few minutes, the water was above Abbie’s ankles.
Abbie removed her gun from the sensor and watched the light above the door turn green again.
“The door is open again,” the vampire sitting at the computer said.
“How did she get the door open again?” the lead vampire said. “Stop the water and follow me.”
“What are you doing?” his female companion asked.
“I’m done with games. We’re going to attack her together and rip her apart.”
“She’s a channeler,” another vampire said.
“I know she’s a channeler!” the leader snarled. “I think we can handle a few burns. She can’t stop us all.”
“What about them?” The vampire was pointing at Charlotte.
“We’ll worry about them after we’ve taken care of the witch. Is the hatch still locked?”
“For now,” the researcher-turned-vampire said. “It’s designed to keep people out, not in. It has an emergency release at the top of the ladder, but I doubt she knows that.”
“We can’t take that chance,” the leader said. “We’ve got to show this woman that channelers aren’t immune to having their arms and legs ripped off.”
As soon as they entered the hallway, they saw the water. The facility was apparently uneven. The water got deeper as they made their way to the airlock. By the time they got to the door, the front vampires were standing in waist-deep water. The water was up to the knees of the vampires in the back of the group.
The door was still slightly ajar, held open by Abbie’s boots. The leader roared and kicked the door, causing it to rip from the hinges, fly into the room, and smash into the opposite wall.
“The door wasn’t locked,” Abbie said. She was standing by the ladder. The water was up to her chest. “You could have just opened it.”
Abbie counted the vampires as they entered the airlock. By her count, the only vampire missing was Charles. “You brought the entire family, just for me.”
“I know you religious types like to pray just before you die,” the leader said. “Now would be the time for that.”
Abbie smiled. “Funny you should say that. I was thinking exactly the same thing.” Her smile vanished and she began to chant in a language that wasn’t English.
“What’s she saying?” the female vampire asked.
The leader shrugged. “I don’t know. Sounds like Latin to me.”
Chanting louder, Abbie closed her eyes and raised her arms.
“I’ve seen many people pray for help, witch,” the vampire said. “I’ve never seen it come.” He turned to the others. “Just grab her legs and drag her under. Enough of this nonsense.”
Still chanting, Abbie placed her palms on the surface of the water. As soon as her hands touched the water, every vampire in the room began to scream.
“Oh my God.”
For the first time in four years, Charlotte’s mind was free. The pain in her leg was excruciating, but it was nothing compared to the guilt that now consumed her.
She looked at the other two researchers. “You ladies okay?”
“Yeah,” one of them said. “I think it’s over.”
“Bandage those legs,” Charlotte said. “I’ll be back.”
She climbed to her feet and limped toward the airlock. She rounded the corner in the hall and saw Abbie.
Abbie was sitting in the hall just beyond the water’s edge, tying her boot strings. The water behind her was murky and red. “I don’t recommend getting in the water right now,” she said. “It’s full of bones and melted vampire flesh.”
Charlotte stared at the crimson water. “You blessed it,” she said, awed. “You turned it into holy water.”
“Wasn’t sure it would work,” Abbie said. “I’m not a priest.”
Charlotte turned to Abbie. Tears streamed down her face. “I’ve done terrible things.”
“You look awful, child,” Abbie said as she climbed to her feet. “You’re as pale as a vampire. We
need to get that leg fixed up.”
“Abbie,” Charlotte said, “I’ve killed people. I led them to those monsters and I let them—”
“Stop it,” Abbie said as she put her arm around Charlotte’s waist and began to walk her back into the facility. “You didn’t do those things. Your body didn’t belong to you.”
“I was happy to do it,” Charlotte said.
“Your mind didn’t belong to you either,” Abbie said. “Are you happy about it now?”
“No.”
“Then shut up about it,” Abbie said.
Once they made their way to the communications center, Abbie helped Charlotte sit in one of the computer chairs. “I’ll go get some bandages. I’ll be right back.”
Charles was now leaning against a wall, still covering his face and whimpering. Abbie walked up to him, pulled a stake from his boot, and drove it through his chest. As he fell lifeless to the floor, she turned to Charlotte and said, “Remember, you share no blame in this mess, but when I get back, I’d love an explanation for what the hell happened here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Charlotte said.
Chapter 10
The March of the Werewolves
Wallace and his team of twenty-four werewolves sprinted through the dark hilly woods of Kentucky. They ran primarily on two legs, but often used their arms for extra bursts of speed. The werewolves varied in size and fur color. Some stood seven feet tall while others were closer to nine feet. The fur ranged from red to brown to black to blond. Wallace was the only wolf with completely gray fur. The only thing they all had in common was the fact that each of them was wearing a backpack.
Wallace reached the top of a ridge and stopped. A moment later, he was in the shape of man, naked except for the backpack. Thanks to the full moon’s bright blue light, Wallace could easily see the valley below.
A black-furred wolf ran up beside him and quickly changed to a woman. She had dark skin and short, wavy black hair. “You see something?”
“No,” Wallace said. “I don’t get it, Reagan. I really don’t. We should’ve found them by now. At the very least, they should have found us. It’s not like we’ve been quiet.”