by Alex Dire
Chubs leapt up and completed his former trajectory, landing on top of Norman. They rolled several times along the grimy dirt floor. Norman fought desperately to gain the upper hand without hurting his former student.
“Stanley, don’t,” he pleaded. “Listen…”
Chubs wrapped his hands around Norman’s neck as he rolled on top. Norman tried to eke out more words, but nothing would pass through his trachea. This wouldn’t kill him, but he’d pass out soon if he couldn’t get any air in his lungs.
Norman looked in the youth’s eyes, hoping Chubs would see something that would tap into the little boy hidden deep within. All around, Norman heard the sounds of his friends fighting off the inevitable. He heard Declan grunting as he bashed his fists around. He heard Felicia screaming in pain and effort. He sensed Rufus’ valiant maneuvers as he fought threw his pain. He heard the screams of the vanquished. In a few moments, it would be over and Norman would hear no more.
The sounds blended together as his vision began to go dark around the edges. The high-pitched scream of a dying vampire pierced the background rumble. It sounded like Saul. Godspeed. The sounds became static as his vision became a tunnel.
A sound broke through the noise. High pitched, like a bell. No, like a little bird, tweeting on the edge of oblivion. Yes, that was it. A bird sang its song, lamenting Norman’s demise. The song became more distinct as a small portion of air leaked through Norman’s windpipe and into his lungs. The grip on his neck loosened. There was doubt in Chub’s eyes. The songbird grew louder, however, it wasn’t Norman it was singing for. It sang for Chubs.
“Stanley.”
Chubs heard it, too. He stopped squeezing.
“Stanley.”
Chubs looked up, seeking the voice.
As oxygen returned to Norman’s brain, he realized that the voice he heard was Daeshaun’s, calling through one of the holes in the roof of the structure.
Chubs looked back down at Norman. He removed his hands from Norman’s neck. The anger momentarily left his face. An instant later it returned, amplified many times as he twisted his head and stared at Skeete who watched at the edge of the combat. He hissed as his fangs flicked out. Spit and raged dripped from the tips of his teeth. His gaze radiated anger at Skeete.
Before Chubs could attack, Norman grabbed him by his shirt. “Wait, Stanley. She’ll be dead in two minutes anyway. Come with me if you want to live.”
Chubs looked back down. Norman saw the debate in his eyes as Chubs’ mouth and eyes relaxed.
“Come. For Daeshaun.”
Norman looked at his watch, then up at the holes in the building to trace the progress of the sun. Too soon. Norman feared the sun hadn’t climbed high enough.
He quickly glanced around at the melee. His friends and students wouldn’t last much longer. Felicia bled from multiple wounds in her face, neck, and leg. Declan’s clothes were soaked with blood. He had several stakes sticking out of his torso as he fought off two vampires. The biggest group of Corps. V attacked Rufus, who whirled around, landing punches and stabs at incredible speed. Rae, Hector, and Skip fought back-to-back. For all of them, enemies closed in. In a few seconds it would be too late. The whole horde converged to the center of the warehouse.
Norman snapped up. “Get to the shadows in the back when you see the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” asked Chubs.
“You’ll know,” replied Norman.
He crouched, loading his leg muscles with energy, and releasing like a spring. At the apex of his launch, he grabbed a corroded support girder. It bent from his weight as he dangled.
The beam groaned and jerked. It was more rust than metal. Some chunks of the roof broke away. Light flooded in through the small hole and shone on Norman’s face. It burned. He knew this burn. The sun. The pain. He summoned more will than he knew he possessed to hold on. He opened one eye to peer through the hole. The eye dried like a raisin. Norman close it again and felt it begin to heal. His lids burned away. His hair burst into flames as all the skin on his head seared.
Then it ended. With a groan and a snap, the girder broke. Norman fell. In the grasp of gravity, he felt as if he floated in space. Out of the intense beam of sunlight, shadow’s darkness repaired his face with its healing kiss. After one second, he became aware he was falling. After two, he opened his healed eyes and saw that a van-sized chunk of roof had collapsed and fallen with him. After three, gravity smashed him into the floor. He felt several ribs snap. A migraine pain surged through his head as his skull fractured in several places.
The combat stopped as everyone in the room looked up to see the new hole in the ceiling. A few vampires next to him lay under the chunks of roof material that had fallen. The ray of light that had nearly destroyed Norman fell through the hole and shone on a small group near the edge of the interrupted combat. The Corps. V danced and dodged out of the way as they smoldered.
Chubs looked at him. Norman could read the disappointment in his face. “That was it?”
Norman forced himself to his feet, despite his incomplete healing. Things were about to get a lot worse. He looked around at his comrades. They all made eye contact. Then a sound drew their attention upward again. A thud rang out from the ceiling. Dust and chunks of rust and debris showered the group. A few Corps. V shielded their eyes.
Another thud. More debris fell. A few small holes opened up in the ceiling, allowing shafts of light to pour through. The Corps. V mob shifted to avoid their stabs of searing pain.
Two more thuds sounded in rapid succession. The second produced a small hole in the ceiling. A cinder block tumbled through. It landed five feet from Norman, on top of a vampire who failed to dodge in time. Half his head slid off along with the block and fell to the ground. Norman saw his head begin to stitch itself back together. It wouldn’t heal in time.
The hole in the roof widened as more ceiling material crumbled around it. Light poured through.
Norman whispered to Chubs, “That’s the signal.”
51
Ashes to Ashes
Two more thuds vibrated the roof. Girders bent and cracked. Screams emerged from the Corps. V mob as they struggled to get out of the widening light. Their aggression turned to panic.
Norman gave a nod to the rest of his friends and they leapt out of the combat zone and into the shadows at the back of the warehouse. Chubs followed them a half-second later. Norman hoped the little, shadowy enclave beneath the old storage shelves would remain intact in the next few seconds as the roof fell all around him.
With his group safely out of the way, Norman leapt as well. An instant after he shot into the air, something snagged his foot, cutting his flight short. He smashed to the ground. A woman lifted Norman over her head. For an instant, as Norman squirmed above the crowd, he saw the roof deteriorating. Then the woman slammed him, spine first, to the ground. Her boot smashed against his head.
The screaming around him got louder as more vampires were trapped in the widening columns of light. Soon, he’d be trapped, too, and a boot to the head would seem like a tickle. He managed to twist his neck and look up. A thick tread was poised above his head. He tried to bock with his arms, but his spine was severed and they wouldn’t move. He braced for impact, wondering if he’d remain conscious after the blow. Then, suddenly, the boot was gone, its owner flying across the room. In its place hung Chubs’ face.
“You OK, Bernie?” said Chubs.
Norman could not respond.
“I got you.” In one whirring motion, Chubs wrapped an arm around Norman’s chest and leapt back into the shadows.
With a massive groan, the roof caved in. Large chunks of girder and roofing material rained down on the Corps. V horde. Some shielded their eyes from the falling rubble. A moment later, as gravity cleared the air of debris, light poured into the center of the warehouse like magma. The vampires standing there exploded into flame. Their last moments of life would be spent as fuel. A thunderous roar emerged from them as the room
became a fireball, each vampire’s burning body amplifying the sun’s effect on the rest of the horde.
Norman felt the wall of heat wash over them like a wave. Flames licked at them in their little, darkened hideout. As Norman had suspected, this part of the warehouse remained in shadow beneath the most structurally sound portion of the roof. The portion where Norman had gazed over the city with Richie all those weeks ago.
As the unison shrieks of the dying vampires punctuated the low rumble of the flesh bonfire, Norman wondered where Richie was. His concern would have to wait.
Norman poked his head out of the cubby-like space. He looked up at what was left of the roof to see if he could spot any of his students standing up there. As he craned his head out, his nose crossed a swath of light. The flesh on the tip smoldered and bubbled as he snapped his head back.
“Do you see my brother?” asked Chubs frantically. He clawed at Norman to look for himself.
“Nothing,” replied Norman, holding him back to prevent him from repeating his mistake.
Rae gazed at the flames as they began to subside. “For a teacher, you sure can cook.”
“Not exactly my specialty, but I have to admit…”
The flames died out almost as quickly as they’d exploded to life, taking with them the last of the Corps. V souls. Their dying screams hung in the air as if seared into the very atmosphere by the flame. Their bodies released their energy so quickly that in a matter of seconds, there was nothing left to burn. A huge mass of ash and cinder remained in the center of the warehouse.
Norman heard the sounds of shoes descending the rungs on the outer skin of the building. His students would join them inside soon. He hoped the conflagration had come and gone quickly enough to avoid any notice. Norman and his friends would have to sit tight for an entire day until night released them from their fortress and their prison.
Norman stared at the pile of ash. A few embers flickered here and there. He wondered how many centuries some of those vampires had roamed the Earth. Amazing how eons can vanish in a flash.
He thought that he would feel relief at the end of the war. However, he only felt saddened. At one point he’d believed he was the only vampire left on earth, a lone survivor from an insane war he never wanted any part of. It seemed like just when he’d discovered others, he’d also discovered war right along with them.
His eyes stared into the ash sensing the lives that had vanished from the universe. Which bits of carbon belonged to Skeete? What flakes of char had been the portions of her brain that stored their shared history? Norman struggled to think of the wicked sociopath that Skeete had become. He wanted to look in the pile and see the woman who’d betrayed him and killed so many of his friends during the war, the woman who’d tortured his progeny, the monster who had transformed Chubs, an anguished boy, into a true monster.
However, Norman could only think of the day he himself had been taken into the dark tribe, of the gentle care with which she’d protected his early missteps. He could only think of how he loved her. For an instant, he wished he could bring her back, just for a moment, to talk to her, to see if he could spark those days back to life. As he stared into the spent vampire remains, he almost thought he saw the ashes stir in response to his wish as if a vampire could rise from her own ashes.
“Did you see that?” said Chubs.
Norman blinked out of his contemplative trance.
“The ashes,” said Chubs. “They moved.”
52
Skin Deep
Norman had seen the ashes move as if in a dream. “Impossible.”
Norman squinted at the ash pile.
A black hand sprouted from the thick mass of vampire coals. It reached as if grasping for the light. A soot-covered form followed the hand as an entire entity sprang forth from the charred death. The figure coughed furiously and wiped ashes and soot from its eyes.
Norman couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He shut his eyes, hoping it was a hallucination. But when he looked again, he realized it wasn’t.
Skeete Daniels stood before them on top of the pile of ash, in the full light of the sun. The strands of her white hair—stained black—stuck together and hung to one side.
She looked around the cavernous room until she spotted Norman and his friends crouching in their makeshift sarcophagi. “Ah. There you are, Norman. I have to admit. You certainly are full of surprises.” She dusted off her arms. “I think you’ll agree that I’ve got a few of my own.”
Norman’s mind reeled. How had she survived the sunlight? How was she surviving it right now? He heard Chubs’ breathing rate increase and his fangs descend. Norman moved his arm in front of the angry teen. “You’ll be dead before you reach her. You can’t win. Not this way.”
“You can’t protect him anymore, Norman,” said Skeete. “I can’t say you’ve been doing that great a job anyway.”
“You should be dead,” replied Norman. “How are you doing this?”
Skeete laughed. “How am I doing what, basking in the sunlight? A girl needs to work on her tan, you know. Or perhaps you’re referring to surviving the thrust of your wooden point…multiple times. I have to admit, those really hurt my feelings, Norman.”
Norman and his friends were stuck under the leaning storage shelving, trapped in the tiny portion of shadow they had claimed, unable to respond. This was very bad. But, for once they had Skeete outnumbered.
As long as they stayed put, she’d have to come into their little space to get them. Maybe they could overpower her. However, all she’d have to do would be to shove them into the light one at a time. Perhaps she’d just leave. Did she have more henchmen somewhere?
“Norman, I know I don’t owe you an explanation, but it’s so delightful watching you squirm that I can’t help but prolong it a little longer,” said Skeete.
Norman remembered when he’d found her ability to make light of any situation charming.
“It’s not me who’s doing this. It’s your friends.”
“We know,” replied Norman. “We know about your human heart. Why haven’t you burned to ashes by now?”
“That VR tech was soooo delicious. To think they were going to use it for peaceful purposes.” She stroked her arms and face. “My skin. My glorious skin.” Lifting her head to the sky and closing her eyes, she basked in the sunlight. “I can barely remember when I used to enjoy the feeling of sunlight on my face.” She ran her hands through her hair as if rinsing it with the rays. “It’s divine.”
Norman’s mind began to put it together. “You’ve got human skin.”
“Human DNA at least,” said Skip. “This is all our fault.”
Skeete slowly waved her head from side to side, allowing light to shine on every pour of her face. “After the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein said that if he’d known what his discoveries would lead to, he’d have become a watchmaker.” She opened her eyes and lowered her head. She smiled and gazed at the small group. “What a waste.” She then looked around at the ash heap around her. “Break’s over, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s finish the job.”
Norman braced himself for whatever surprises Skeete had left. He saw sections of the ash mound rustle as seven more figures rose out of the heap. They brushed off and stood to their full heights.
Norman heard a commotion on the opposite side of the warehouse, the side with the door. He peered through the sunlight to see his students entering. Dear God, why would they insert themselves into this situation? However, it wasn’t they who’d brought them here, it was Norman. He’d placed them in great danger from the moment he’d taken them out of their world, and trekked them underground. He’d probably placed them in danger just by being their teacher. Guilt washed over him. He’d wanted to save them, but now…
How could he have known? He thought he was the last vampire on Earth? And how could they have known any of the Corps. V would still be standing after the roof caved in?
Skeete turned and saw the group o
f teenagers entering the building. They stopped and stared when they saw the soot-covered Corps. V looking at them. Skeete turned back to Norman and smiled.
“Norman. A gift. You shouldn’t have. I was going to kill you, but I think I’d rather like you to see this first.”
Norman felt rage well up in his chest. He raged at Skeete. But more, he raged at himself. He had been those kids’ lifeline. He dragged them right to Skeete, and now he couldn’t protect them. He tensed his leg muscles to break into a sprint, momentarily blinded to the futility of the effort.
This time, Chubs put an arm in front of him as Norman had done moments ago. They locked eyes and a touch of sanity returned to Norman’s brain, but the rage remained.
“Let’s grab a quick bite before we dispatch our friends, here. What do you say?” Skeete said to her small, but invulnerable crew. They began to walk toward the stunned teens.
Norman looked around the vast empty room for some possibility to cling to. Old, rusted, metal components of some ancient machine lay here and there; chains dangled from the ceiling, some forming great upside down arches with their ends attached to a wall somewhere. Through the vast open ceiling, he saw the full moon, completing its path across the sky. He saw the blazing rays of the sun illuminating the ash pile and most of the warehouse floor.
The Corps. V vampires casually descended on his students and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do to save them. The best he could muster would be a suicide charge. Could he close the distance before searing to ash himself? Could he strike just one blow? Even if he beat the odds and managed to stake one of them in the heart, what good would it do? Would it buy his students a moment of time? Time for what? To extend the fear of the last moments of their lives? Norman grew desperate. No matter what, he’d be dead in a few minutes anyway. At least a sprint for Skeete was something.