by Phil Maxey
“Ain’t that locked?”
Shannon pushed her driver’s door open, slinging a backpack over her shoulder, and picked up her shotgun. “I got the key.”
“How’d you get that?” said Joel, getting out.
She walked towards the door. “Boyfriend used to work security here.”
Hardin and Joel, together with Flint, caught up to her just as she turned the key in the lock, and pulled the door back. She immediately flicked on a small flashlight, but Joel could already see the bland bare walls of the corridor they walked into. Shannon pulled the door closed behind them and locked it again.
“You sure there’s no vamps in here?” said Hardin.
“You’re safe, don’t sweat it,” she said, pushing past him and strode down the corridor.
They walked past one closed door with ‘staff room’ printed on a sliver of plastic, until they reached the only other door at the end. Without stopping, she pushed it open and stepped out into seemingly infinite darkness.
“This is the main warehouse, where they keep all the shit.” She waved her flashlight around, revealing a cathedral-sized interior. Columns of shelves twenty feet high expanded to their left and right, most packed with cardboard boxes, some sealed in clear plastic. She pointed the flashlight to the end of one of the aisles. “It says on the signs what’s on the shelves. I’m going to be back here in thirty minutes. If you’re not back I’m leaving. We all straight?”
“Yup,” said Joel.
“You got a light?” she enquired.
He didn’t, but he nodded anyway.
“Right then. Thirty minutes.” She walked away taking the source of light with her, seemingly knowing exactly what she was looking for.
Joel nodded towards a nearby shopping trolley, which was laying on its side. “Let’s grab that.”
They both picked up the trolley. Hardin watched as Shannon’s flashlight became just a twinkle in the distance.
“If you hadn’t realized, I can’t see shit in this dark, unlike you!” A few seconds passed with no response. “Joel? You there?”
A burst of light from a flashlight illuminated Joel’s face.
Hardin jumped back then bent over. “Hell boy, you looking to kill me?”
“Water, food, camping supplies, guns and ammo. In that order,” said Joel, pushing the trolley and looking up at the signs.
Flint ran off into the gloom. Hardin couldn’t help but notice the slight glow that came from the dog’s eyes. “You sure that dog of yours won’t vamp out and eat one of us?”
Joel pushed the trolley into an aisle and started placing large gallon bottles of water into it. “Well, he hasn’t yet. But that’s a good point. I need to get some doggie biscuits.”
Hardin shook his head, and snatched the flashlight from Joel’s hand. “You don’t need it. I’m going to see what else we need.”
Joel shrugged his shoulders and continued pushing the trolley along the aisle. About halfway along, he heard another door open and close in the distance. A human wouldn't have picked up the faint sound of the handle being pulled down and the edge of the wooden door sliding against the frame, but Joel knew that Shannon had left the cavernous space and had gone somewhere else. He took a few more steps forward then stopped. Curiosity was scratching at his mind. He spread his senses further into the darkness and could hear Flint lapping at something not far off and Hardin struggling with something heavy.
Safe.
He turned and sprinted to the end of the aisle, then the hundred yards past the other towering shelving units, until he reached the door he was sure was the one Shannon had passed through. He put his ear to it, but heard nothing on the other side.
He pulled it open.
Stairwell.
In the confined space was a set of stairs that went down under the super structure. Even though he was moving through almost complete blackness, he was able to quickly descend until he reached another door. From the change in temperature, and the dank smell that rose up from the floor, he could tell this was some form of basement. Probably where all the generators and plumbing for the building above were located.
He went to open the door but stopped when he heard talking. Pressing his ear to the cool metal of the door he was able to pick up the tiny vibrations of the sound waves hitting the other side. Shannon was talking to someone, but Joel couldn't hear any response.
“There's seven of them… but… they're too strong, I don't think I can get them down here. And if it goes wrong… What is it?”
Then Joel smelt it, the unmistakable odor of blood seeping through the gaps around the door.
There’s a vamp in there.
He pulled the door open and was presented with a low ceiling and large pipes. It took him a few seconds to navigate between them until he came out to a wider area and Shannon standing in front of him. Against the wall to her right was a vamp, dressed in a security officers uniform.
Shannon swung her shotgun towards Joel, while the vamp growled, pulling against the chains holding him to the nearby pipe.
Joel held his hands up. “This used to be your boyfriend?”
“He still is!”
Joel couldn’t hide his sigh. The distorted serpentine face and black eyes twitched and shifted its gaze between both of them.
“It’s not the person you knew…”
“He’s fine. I get him the blood and he stays here. There’s no problem unless you make one!” Joel was acutely aware of the double barrels waving in his direction.
“He’s dangerous! Given the chance, he will—”
The growling from the restrained creature gradually changed to a cackling laugh. Even Shannon looked at it in surprise.
“He… like… me… but… not…” said the vamp who lifted its head and grinned.
Shannon looked confused. “What you mean, he’s like you?”
“Vamp…” The word squeezed out between the things large canine teeth. All the time he pulled forward against the metal links that kept him from moving any further.
Shannon looked between the thing she still thought of as her boyfriend and Joel. “He’s infected?”
“No!” screeched the vamp to Shannon. “He vamp!”
Shannon’s head whipped back to Joel and she raised the gun to his head. “You a vamp too?”
Various options ran through Joel’s brain, none of them he wanted to speak out loud. “Yeah, but I’m not like him, or any of the others. I’m different.”
More witchlike laughter came from the chained vamp. “Yessss… valuable… coveted…”
Joel looked at the former security guard, his blue shirt now covered in black patches. “What you mean valuable?” Joel was beginning to expect strange conversations with vamps, but this time he wanted answers. He stepped towards the vamp, but Shannon’s shotgun waved and he stopped. “Talk! What the hell do you mean?”
The vamp strained forward, his shoulder and joints cracking. “You are the key… he will find you—” The vamps head fell to one side. “—And make you his.”
Joel moved forward once again to grab the creature, when a deafening clatter of gunfire filled the small space and flickers and sparks of light bounced off the wall. Shannon’s boyfriend’s chest exploded in a spray of blood and he fell backwards against the wall.
“No!” shouted Shannon. She took one step towards the dead vamp, then rage covered her face, and she went to tighten her finger on the trigger, but it was too late. In a blur, Joel grabbed the barrels and wrenched the gun from her hand. A flash of hate washed past her eyes, then she ran forward and tried plugging the holes that covered the vamps chest.
Joel looked behind at Hardin holding a semi-automatic rifle in his hand.
Shannon fell to her knees and sobbed.
*****
Bill stood in the dining area of Shannon’s home with a number of electrical cables in his hands. “Will these do?” he said to Anna.
She walked to him, took a thick white lead, gripped it in both ha
nds and pulled, it immediately began to stretch then snapped.
“Wow, you’re really strong…” said Evan, sitting in a wooden kitchen chair.
Bill frowned at him. “This is not a joke!”
Evan looked down and sighed. “I know.”
Anna took the rest of the cables from Bill. “I’ll start with these, but see if you can find any chains. And be quick, we’ve only got maybe an hour or more before they return, and we need to get this done before the girl comes back.” He went to walk away when she started talking again. “What about the other thing?”
He shook his head.
“We’ll take care of it afterwards.”
He left the way he came in.
“You sure it’s a good idea doing both of us at the same time?” said Marina seated in a similar chair next to Evan. Jess was knelt at her feet, her arm wrapped around her mother’s leg.
Anna started to tie Evan’s feet together. “The sooner we do it the better—”
Evan grimaced as Anna pulled the lead tight. “Oww.”
Ignoring his pain she continued. “—As long as we can securely bind both of you, then it should be fine. You’ll just need a few minutes to adjust to the urges, then it should be okay.”
Marina stroked her daughter’s hair. “It’ll be okay, Jess. This is the right thing to do.”
Jess looked up at her mother. “Will you become a vampire?”
Marina wasn’t sure how to respond. “Umm… I will always be your mother. Nothing will change that, Jess. But I have to do this, so I can protect you. Okay?”
Jess nodded and hugged Marina’s leg tighter.
Evan’s limbs were now a mass of bound plastic cables.
“How’s that feel?” said Anna to him.
He tried struggling, but hardly moved in his seat. “They’re pretty tight. We’re going to change as soon as you inject us with the blood?”
“I think so, that’s what happened to me. Joel’s blood appears to trigger the change.”
Bill reappeared, this time from the external doors which led to a large backyard. In his hand were long rusty chains, and more electrical cables.
“Good going, Bill. We’ll bind Marina’s legs and arms with the cables first, then use the chains.”
Marina looked across the room to Mary who had been seated in silence on a stool near the kitchen counter. “Can you take Jess—”
Jess threw both arms around her mother’s leg. “No…”
Marina’s face grew stern. “Jess! Stop being a baby! I’ll be fine. Now go with Mary into the other room.” She hated herself for the words and tone which came from her mouth. She nodded to Mary, who got to her feet and walked across to her.
Tears ran down Jess’s face as Mary gently pulled her away.
Marina forced a smile. “I’ll be okay. You’ll see me soon, I promise.”
Jess nodded and gulped down some more tears then moved around the corner into the hallway with Mary.
Marina visibly sunk into the chair.
Bill placed his hand on her shoulder. “She couldn’t be here to see this. You did the right thing making her leave.”
Marina nodded but couldn’t talk, the words refusing to leave her throat. She swallowed. “Let’s get this over with.”
Anna and Bill soon smothered both the infected with the plastic cables and chains.
“Right…” Anna walked to the kitchen counter and pulled two blood-filled syringes from her small bag. “I managed to get these from Joel just before he left.” She walked closer to the two bound individuals. “I’m going to inject both of you one after the other, starting with Evan.”
“What does it feel like? When you change?” said Evan.
“It’s hard to explain. You know when you wake up from a dream sometimes, and you don’t know where you are? And everything is confusing?”
He nodded.
“Well imagine that, with an overwhelming feeling to drink the blood of anyone around you.”
Evan sighed. “Sounds great…”
Bill squeezed his grandson’s shoulder. “I’ll be here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Evan looked at his grandfather directly, gesturing to the handgun on Bill’s hip. “Promise me if things get out of control, you’ll use that. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Bill nodded.
Anna took in a deep breath. “Evan first then.” She walked forward and tapped the vein on his arm, and slid the needle from the first syringe into it, emptying the blood. She then immediately walked a foot to her left and did the same to Marina’s arm.
She and Bill took a few steps back.
Evan smiled, looking at both of them. “Well, nothing so—” His face contorted in pain, and the chair he was on hopped.
Anna looked at Marina who was watching. Jess’s mother looked back at her with a questioning expression, then the same thing happened to her. Her eyes narrowed and her whole body stiffened.
“Hold him!” said Anna to Bill, who then grabbed Evan’s shoulder, trying to steady the chair.
Anna did the same to Marina, but the shaking was quickly becoming too violent to keep the chair upright.
“You got this, Marina, just concentrate on my voice!”
Evan’s chair bounced up and down as Bill struggled to keep it upright.
Groans and shrieks came from somewhere deep within both those fighting the agony surging through them. Then it stopped, and their heads slumped forward.
Anna and Bill looked at each other, then back at those bound.
“Is it over?” said Bill.
A gurgling noise came from Evan whose chin was still on his chest.
“Evan? Can you hear me?” said Anna.
She took one step forward when Evan started to sniff.
“Evan?” said Bill.
Marina’s head flicked upwards making them both jump backwards. Her eyes were as black as night. She grinned at both of them.
“Mmmmm… what is that smell. It smells so sweet…” said Evan who slowly lifted his head. He then started to struggle against his cables and chain holding him.
“Marina? It’s me, Anna. Do you remember who you are?”
Marina nodded, while she continued to smile. “Where’s Jess? A daughter should be with her mother. Get her for me.”
Anna looked at Bill. “I think Jess needs to stay where she—”
“Get her!” The words roared from Marina’s mouth with a force that made Bill reach out to the kitchen cupboard next to him. His other hand instinctively slid around to his gun holster.
“Mom?”
Anna whipped around to face Jess standing near the entrance to the hallway. Mary soon appeared behind her, trying to pull her away. “Get her out of here!” shouted Anna.
“Come here, baby,” said Marina, her voice a full octave lower than it normally was.
Evan squirmed in his chair. “They burn, Grandfather. These ropes. Get them off me!”
Bill grabbed Evan by both shoulders, and looked into his dark eyes just a few inches from him. “Evan! Come back, my boy! You’re stronger than the scourge!”
Anna’s ears picked up Marina’s cables stretching and breaking before anyone else, but she was sure the chains would hold.
Mary pulled Jess back into the hallway, as the child screamed to be with her mother.
Anna grabbed Marina’s face, pulling it up to look at her. “Marina! Fight the urge inside you!”
Marina violently shook Anna’s hand from her. The plastic cable around her legs snapped. It was the one place where the chains weren’t securing her. In one swift movement, she stood and charged forward, slamming into Anna, sending her exploding backwards across the kitchen counter.
Marina whipped around to face Bill who fumbled for his gun. Just as his fingers began to withdraw his Glock from its holster, Marina pushed past Evan, knocking his chair backwards onto the tiled floor, and impacted the older man, knocking him back against the wall, unconscious.
She looked down at
her unconscious prey as her canine teeth began to grow.
Anna staggered back to her feet. Her own inner rage was beginning to build within her. She shifted her weight to throw herself at the newly born vampire that was about to end Bill, when she felt a presence to her right in the doorway.
“Mom!” shouted Jess.
Marina’s black eyes flicked towards her daughter.
Jess went to run forward, but Anna grabbed her. She could feel the child’s heartbeat beneath her fingers but pushed the hunger inside her away.
“Come to me, Jess. Your mother needs you…” Marina’s head dropped to one side as she spoke.
“Your mom’s not well, Jess,” said Anna, holding her, although the young girl didn’t need restraining anymore. In fact, she was trembling. Anna looked at Mary standing in the doorway, her hand over her mouth watching Marina hovering over Bill.
Marina’s smile distorted into a sneer as her head dived lower towards Bill’s exposed neck.
Before she could leap forward, there were more sounds of breaking cables and cords.
“No!” shouted Evan as he stood, the chair hanging in fragmented bits from his back. He launched himself into Marina’s midriff, and they both careered across the small dining room and smashed through the glass and wooden doors to the outside.
Anna leapt over the counter, pulling her own gun from the rear of her pants, and ran outside to the concrete.
Marina lay on the ground blinking at the blazing sun above their heads. “What happened?”
Anna switched her aim towards Evan. Who was looking back at her, his eyes as normal as her own.
A crunching noise made her jump and her gun moved to another target. This one Joel. Behind him stood Shannon, Hardin, and Flint. Anna slowly lowered her gun.
Shannon angrily looked at Joel. Then stormed past all of them, through the kitchen, and into the hallway. A door opened then slammed shut.
CHAPTER THREE
Marina looked out the front window of Shannon’s home at the cream and brown RV parked close to the front door. Even though it was a late eighties model, it looked in decent condition.
“Good thinking with the RV,” she said to Joel sitting on a stone-colored sofa behind her. Drips of soup in bowls and remains of crackers sat on the coffee table, together with empty plastic beakers.