The Caitlin Chronicles Boxed Set

by Michael Anderle

  Mary-Anne rolled her eyes.

  Tom shook his head, a coy grin on his face. “Dude, you really don’t know when to stop, do you?”

  Kain leaned back, propping himself on the forest floor by his elbows. “It’s all part of my charm, dear sir. It’s all part of my charm.”

  Chapter Five

  Silver Creek Forest, Old Ontario

  Three women and two men, naked from the waist up.

  “Nice,” Dylan heard Huckle whisper from behind.

  Dylan turned, his brow furrowed and a finger to his lips.

  They stood in a small clearing, their arms linked, around a moderately sized pit of sorts. He couldn’t see how deep it was, but the edges of the hole were sharp. One wrong step and they’d slip and tumble. Strange sounds came from within.

  What are they doing?

  They watched in silence before Dylan indicated for the others to stay where they were as he snuck a little closer, using the protection of the tree boughs for cover. Gently, he eased his bow off his back and nocked an arrow, keeping it pointed at the floor for safety.

  A rustling sounded in the trees nearby. He crouched low, looking back at the others and indicating for them to follow suit.

  A man emerged from the trees, clutching a mass of pink in his arms. Dylan watched as the others made a space for the new arrival to pass. There was sadness on their faces.

  “May the mercy of the greats protect us from the Madness,” the man said. He was skinny, his ribs showing through his skin. He was older than the others, but that wasn’t saying much. None of them looked much older than teens.

  “Mercy,” the others repeated.

  The man tossed the creature into the pit.

  They paused for a moment, each in prayer, spat into the pit, then turned and disappeared back into the forest as more grunts and screeches came from below.

  “What the hell was all that about?” Ash said, appearing at Dylan’s side.

  “I don’t know,” Dylan whispered. “But we need to follow them.”

  “Three women with their tits out?” Ben said. “I’m in agreement.”

  “Perv,” Flo tutted.

  “Prude.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Dylan said as he left the cover of the brush and approached the pit. He could hear the sounds of munching and tearing before he had even gotten a good look.

  He stared down into the pit. It fell about fifteen feet into the earth. At the bottom were several Mad, their eyes lighting the darkness. They feasted hungrily on the pig’s body, stopping and smelling the air as they caught Dylan’s scent above them.

  A pair of arms grabbed Dylan’s side. He had the sensation of being pushed, his thoughts flashing suddenly to falling before he was dragged back away from the edge of the pit.

  “Gotcha!” Ben said, exploding into laughter which he failed to stifle behind his hand.

  “You son-of-a-bitch.” Dylan glared at him, his heart still thudding painfully in his chest.

  “What? Come on, man. Where’s your sense of humor?”

  Dylan pointed into the pit. Ben craned his neck to see below. “Oh. Dude, that’s genius.”

  “Genius?”

  The others joined them around the edge of the pit, their faces creasing in disgust as they looked at the Mad below who now clawed at the walls, struggling to gain any purchase. Their full attention was focused on the humans above.

  “Yeah! Lure the Mad into a big hole in the ground and keep yourself safe. Thin the herd. Genius,” Ben said.

  “That is pretty smart,” Flo agreed.

  “In which case, let’s catch up with these geniuses” Dylan stopped and thought for a moment. “Genie-i?”

  Alice sniggered. “What’s up, genius?”

  “What’s the plural of genius?” he asked.

  “I think it should be ‘why are we bothering with grammar when we should be following the tribal Mad-catchers?’” Huckle said, grinning at him.

  Dylan smiled and nodded. “Okay, but let’s be careful. If there’s one trap here, there’s nothing to say there aren’t any more ahead.”

  They left the growling Mad behind and melted back into the brush. They slowed their pace, listening for signs of the group they had just seen. They had moved out of sight, but luckily for the Revolutionaries, Dylan had experience tracking and soon spied their soft footprints leading away ahead.

  Still, he thought, this would have been easier if I had Jaxon here. That pooch can smell a bogey a mile away.

  “Come on, Jax.” Caitlin paused once again to find that Jaxon had fallen behind the group. He sniffed at the trunk of an old pine, its base littered with dried leaves.

  “Whose great idea was it to bring the pooch?” Tom asked.

  “Now that’s just rude,” Kain said with a smile.

  “Why does he keep stopping? What is it he’s smelling?” Laurie asked.

  “Could be anything,” Caitlin said. “An animal. People. Anything, really. Whatever it is, we should keep alert.”

  Jaxon walked around in a circle several times, then cocked his leg up against the tree. A thin stream of urine left a dark trail on the bark.

  “Or maybe he just needed to piss?” Kain said.

  They had left the airship as soon as they were all awake, fed, and ready. Now, an hour or so into their journey, they were sweaty and warm. The clammy air of the woods grew stifling as the heat rose and the walking seemed more difficult. There had been no sign of any Mad as yet, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have to remain on their guard.

  Caitlin consulted her map often along the way. She relied on Tom’s sense of direction and the position of the sun to guide them towards the place they were looking for. Joe wandered along quietly at the back, trailing them with his shotgun held over his shoulder.

  They reached an area of what appeared to be flat grass, only realizing as Tom’s foot slipped into the water that it was actually a small pond, overgrown and stagnant. Its surface was now deceptively covered in a thick carpet of moss and grime.

  “Easy now.” Caitlin pulled Tom back.

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Kain tossed his canteen to her. “Here. Fill her up, would you?”

  Caitlin looked into the boggy pond. The small area of water that was visible from Tom’s foot was already closing up with moss as the water began to settle again.

  “You’re probably better drinking Jaxon’s piss,” she said. “My ma used to tell me that still water left over the years grows diseases and messes with your stomach.”

  “Oh, no. I wouldn’t want to get a wittle tummy ache,” Kain teased in response.

  “You don’t speak much about your parents,” Mary-Anne said quietly enough for only Caitlin to hear. “What happened to them?”

  She lost herself in her thoughts for a moment, then simply replied, “The same thing that happened to everyone else. One minute they were here. The next minute, they were Mad.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” Caitlin waved it away. “That was all a long time ago. I’ve got new family now, anyway.” She smiled. “Even if they are a bit dysfunctional and weird.”

  Caitlin watched Jaxon as he yipped happily, jumping into the water and disappearing beneath the surface. For a moment, her heart stopped as she envisioned some kind of mammoth fish dragging Jaxon beneath the surface—surely there must be some hideously mutated creature in a pond like this?—until his head appeared and he paddled excitedly across to the other side. A neat line of clear water followed in his wake.

  “He’s certainly got the right idea,” Tom said, shaking off his boot and holding it upside down as water poured back into the pond. “Somehow, that water is freezing. Definitely cooled my foot down.”

  Caitlin crouched and studied the water. The smell was hideous and thick. She closed her eyes and imagined swimming in clean water, her entire body cooling down.

  “What d’ya reckon, Kitty-Cat?” Kain said. “Fancy a swim?”
/>   “I wouldn’ts if I weres you,” Joe said, plopping himself on his ass and taking a breather.

  “Not today.” Caitlin pulled her map out and ran her finger along the parchment.

  “How much farther?” Mary-Anne asked as she settled at the base of a tree.

  “Not far at all.” She turned on the spot, pointing a finger ahead of her as she spun. “Should be right around…”

  “Caitlin?” Laurie said, appearing from the trees on the other side of the pond. Caitlin hadn’t even realized she had left the group.

  “Where did you go?” she asked, for a second thinking that she could see something in the trees not too far to Laurie’s left. A shadow of an animal—a dog, perhaps?—before it melted into the shadows.

  “To water the flowers,” Laurie replied, nodding at her crotch.

  “Gross,” Mary-Anne said.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Kain said, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

  “That’s exactly why, perv.” Laurie grinned. “Caitlin, there’s something you need to see.”

  Caitlin rose and skirted the pond. Laurie led her a short distance into the trees before she saw what it was Laurie had found. The others caught up with them a moment later, gasping as the “something” came into view.

  The shell of a huge building loomed eerily from the tangled undergrowth. Corrugated iron walls and large windows were smashed and broken. Several chimneys reached up into the sky. There was an area that looked to have once been a square piece of road, with the faded remains of painted lines at small intervals.

  “What the hell is that?” Tom asked.

  Kain was the first to answer. “That, dear simpleton, is a factory. An industrial building where items were manufactured by the thousands.”

  “Thousands per year?”

  “Thousands per day,” Kain replied.

  “Thousands per…” Awe was plainly written on Tom’s face. “Impossible.” Even Joe gasped quietly.

  “You’d think,” Kain continued. “But electricity and machinery were powerful things, my friend. In its heyday, Earth had vehicles to carry you hundreds of miles in a day, machines to produce food wrapped in packages by the thousands, TVs and music players which you could carry around in your pocket. Man, those were the good days.” Kain jolted at a memory. “Oh! Sweet-fangs, do you remember ice-creams?”

  Mary-Anne nodded. “Chocolate and mint and caramel and strawberry.” She closed her eyes, licking her lips as if she were tasting it now. “Sitting in the living room and listening to David Bowie.”

  “Ah, man! Yeah, I’d forgotten about him.” Kain cleared his throat and sang, “Rocket maaaan.”

  Mary-Anne raised an eyebrow. “No, that was Elton… Never mind.”

  “I’m telling you,” Kain continued. “I haven’t seen anything like this factory in years. It’s held up pretty well, too. What do you think is inside?”

  “Our vampire, according to this,” Caitlin said, patting her map.

  Tom, Laurie, and Joe’s faces dropped as one, and she honestly couldn’t blame them. They were all great fighters in their own right, having survived and battled the Madness as well as many other things along the way. But not many of them had first-hand experiences with wild vampires. Caitlin, on the other hand, had seen what Mary-Anne was fully capable of and had been the one to track and bring her over to the good side.

  But that was different, wasn’t it? Mary-Anne was good from the start. She helped me survive. What will happen if this vampire turns out to be a shit-eating piece of garbage? Can I take them then?

  Caitlin steeled herself, forcing herself to remember how much she had accomplished since that fateful day she had set out into the wilds from Silver Creek. Dylan’s words echoed around in her head: Now head on out there and bring some color to this miserable grey-scale fuckery of a world.

  “Come on, bitches,” she said, raising her head high and walking towards the rusted iron door of the factory. “Time to recruit another vampire.”

  They searched high and low inside the factory. The damn thing was huge. Caitlin couldn’t believe that it was nearly half the size of Silver Creek in its own right.

  They split into two groups, Caitlin with Kain, Joe, and Jaxon, and Mary-Anne with Laurie and Tom, making their way through a reception of sorts and emerging out into the wide-open space of the factory floor. Conveyor belts snaked every which way with large square tubes, strange machines that apparently used to revolve, and the sound of pigeons and other birds nestled in the roof.

  When they re-grouped a short while later, both parties hadn’t found anything worthy of note. “It’s as empty as Psycho Joe’s head,” Kain said.

  “Y’alls best watch your mouths, dog-fucker,” Joe said, eyeing Kain with a warning look.

  They found a set of metal-grated stairs which wobbled precariously as they climbed. They split once more, this time able to see each other from afar over the walkways suspended above the factory floor. There were rooms on either side which they explored. Some doors stood wide open while others were locked, the mechanisms so rusted by time that a gentle push snapped them easily.

  “Over here!” Mary-Anne called as she poked her head into what appeared to be the old foreman’s office.

  Caitlin, Kain, Jaxon, and Joe made their way over to her. Jaxon raced ahead, growls creeping up from his throat.

  “What have you found?” Caitlin paused. “Are they in there?”

  The vampire held the door open for Caitlin. She walked in and almost felt she had to rub her eyes to believe what she was seeing.

  Should there be a bedroom in a factory?

  There was a bed in the far corner, the sheets all folded and near-pristine. A small unit next to the bed held a stack of books, a larger cupboard stood at the side of the room, and in the far corner, a small area looked charred from where a fire had clearly been sparked and burned some time ago.

  The room was relatively clean, too, compared to the thick carpets of dust which lined everything in the factory.

  There was no sign of the vampire who lived there. But there was a knocking from inside the wardrobe.

  Jaxon barked.

  “What is it?” Joe cried.

  Caitlin pulled open the cupboard door, jumping back slightly as the Mad rocked and raged. It was bound and gagged at the bottom of the wardrobe, it’s scent overbearing.

  In one swift movement, Caitlin stabbed her sword into the Mad’s chest. The thing wriggled a little longer before the light in its eyes died out.

  “What the fuck was that about?” Tom asked.

  “Hey, Joe! Violet beat us here. What are the odds?” Kain teased, remembering the bound-up Mad woman they had met at Joe’s trash pile house.

  Joe glared at Kain.

  “That’s not funny,” Caitlin scolded.

  “You think that was the vampire?” Laurie asked, her eyes wide as if afraid to hear the answer. “You think they…turned?”

  Kain scoffed. “And then bound themselves up in the bottom of a wardrobe. Are you crazy?”

  “You think they’re somewhere else inside the factory?” Caitlin asked, looking at Mary-Anne. She figured if anyone knew the trail of a vampire, it would be another vampire.

  “Possibly,” Mary-Anne said. “Although honestly, it’s early afternoon, so I figure they’d be fast asleep if they were here by now. No vampire in their right mind would skip out on sleeping during the day unless they absolutely had to.”

  “You mean unless they were gifted an item of clothing which blocked the sun and allowed day-walking so they could spend time with their day-walking friends?” Caitlin smiled.

  “Exactly.”

  “Then where are they?” Caitlin asked, but was immediately distracted as Kain ran excitedly over to the bed and began jumping on the mattress.

  The frame creaked in protest. “Got a great spring, this one.”

  Jaxon barked excitedly and jumped on the bed with him. With every one of Kain’s bounces, he was launched a foot or s
o in the air. He landed clumsily with a bark, his tongue drooping out the side of his mouth.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Laurie ventured, watching as the bed frame began to buckle beneath their weight. “If you’re not careful, it might—”

  Before she finished, the four legs—which had suspended the bed a foot or so off the floor—sank into the floor with a strange whooshing sound. The frame fell with it, resting flat against the floor and kicking up a small puff of dust.

  “Is there anything you can’t break?” Caitlin chided.

  “Give me your heart, and we’ll see how I do with that,” Kain said, dropping dramatically to one knee in front of her. He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it.

  Caitlin snatched her hand back and shoved Kain’s shoulder. He fell onto his back and Jaxon immediately jumped on him, licking his face as his tail wagged his enthusiasm.

  “Quite the charmer,” Laurie said.

  Kain winked. “Why, thank you.”

  “Don’t encourage him,” Mary-Anne said.

  “This room has been empty for a while,” Tom said, crouching near where the fire had been set. He ran a finger through the charred remains and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. “At least a few weeks, or so.”

  “You think they just…left?” Caitlin asked.

  “Are we’s even sure it’s a vampire?” Joe added.

  Mary-Anne took a deep sniff. Her brow furrowed. “Definitely a vampire? Yes. Look at that back wall.” She pointed to where a tar-like substance decorated the wall in patches where holes had once been. “You think someone would have gone through the effort of blocking out the sun if they didn’t want to hide from it? I can also smell them, though the trace is faint. Someone definitely lived here, ‘lived’ being the operative word. I’ve seen vampire hovels in my time, and this isn’t one. Someone didn’t just sleep here, they made it their home.”

  “A good someone?” Laurie asked hopefully.

  Mary-Anne shrugged. “Hard to say for certain. I’d hazard a guess and say probably. This vampire lived nowhere near humans so must have turned vegetarian, too.”