by Tim O'Rourke
“You’re good,” he said. “You’re very good.”
My cheeks suddenly flushed red. I wasn’t sure whether it was due to the compliment Trent had just paid me or caused by the way he was looking at me. Without saying anything, I turned away and leant out of the open door. My companions were still desperately trying to hold back the vampires who were now within striking distance.
“Get in!” I shouted over the clack, clack, clack of gunfire and the deep rumble coming from beneath the hood of the truck.
One by one, Calix, Rush, and Morten climbed into the back of the truck where the humans had been conveyed like cattle. Unlike the others, Rea didn’t climb into the back but sprung up into the driver’s cab. She wedged herself tight next to me. Did she fear that if I was left alone in the cab with Trent, we might be tempted to embrace again? It was as if she dare not leave us alone for a second. Before Rea had had a chance to swing the cab door closed, Trent was stomping down on the accelerator. The truck lurched forward, and with it so did I. I struck the dashboard and bounced back into my seat. In the gloom of the cab, I was sure I saw a faint smile spread across Rea’s full red lips. Gripping the steering wheel, Trent turned the old truck to the right, forcing me to slide along the seat and into Rea. She wasted no time in pushing me away with one of her cold, pale hands.
“Put your foot down!” I heard someone shout in my ear.
I glanced left to see Calix peering over my shoulder. There was a hatch in the panel that separated the driver’s cab from the back of the truck. Calix had stuck his head through the opening.
“They’re gaining on us fast!” Calix roared.
Both Trent and Rea glanced into the wing mirrors. Peering over Trent’s shoulder and into the mirror, I could see vampires racing along beside the truck. The vehicle moved slowly through the snow. It lumbered forward, its giant black wheels throwing up snow in powdery clumps. In the wing mirror, I saw several vampires spring up into the air and cling to the side of the truck with their bony black claws. Glancing to my right, I peered over Rea’s shoulder and could see vampires hanging from the other side of the truck. Wasting no time, Rea wound down the window. Leaning out of it and taking aim, she began to shoot at the vampires.
“Take the wheel, Julia,” Trent shouted.
Without even waiting for me to acknowledge his command, Trent had taken both hands off the wheel and drawn both guns from the holsters tethered to each of his muscular thighs. And just like Rea had done, Trent thrust his upper body through the open window of the cab door and began picking off the vampires with the bullets exploding from the barrels of his guns. With his hands no longer gripping the steering wheel, the truck began to zigzag across the ice-covered road that led away from the human farm. I heard a banging noise from the back of the truck followed by shouts of dismay from Rush, Calix, and Morten as they were thrown from side to side. Stretching myself across Trent’s lap, I took hold of the steering wheel. I yanked on it with all my strength, desperate to keep the truck going in a straight line.
“Enjoying yourself?” I heard someone say.
Taking my eyes off the road ahead for one second, I looked at Rea. It was she who had spoken. She looked agog as I lay sprawled across Trent who continued to lean out the window and fire at the pursuing vampires. There was a part of me that wanted to tease Rea, wind her up, just like she was always on at me. I wanted to smile back, eyes bright and gleaming, and tell her that I loved every single moment I spent being so close to Trent. I was angry that despite the danger we were all in, Rea still sought out every opportunity to make cutting and suggestive remarks about how I might or might not feel for Trent. She was acting like a jealous schoolgirl and it was starting to piss me off.
Unbelievable! I thought.
But of course, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t seize on the opportunity to give as good as I got. It wasn’t my way. It might have been once but not anymore. I’d learnt those lessons. So treating her comments with the contempt they deserved, I looked away and back out of the windscreen. I concentrated on keeping the truck following the line of the road instead of paying Rea any more attention. She could think what she liked about me. I was fast beginning not to care. And people called me witch! There were two witches in this party and only one of us was magic.
Out of the darkness ahead of me, I could see two gates looming. They looked big and strong – forged out of black iron. They were guarded by more of those hooded vampires. They turned to face us upon seeing the approaching headlights of the truck. But instead of turning and running out of the path of the truck, the vampires came racing toward it. Easing Trent’s foot from off the accelerator, I pressed down on it with my own and sped up. The truck shook and the engine made a deep groaning sound as I pushed the vehicle to its limits. I aimed the nose of the truck at the gate and the vampires. And in the glare of the headlights, I saw their twisted and hateful faces, eyes burning red with rage. Then they were gone – beneath the truck – or so I thought. With my eyes growing wide, I saw the first of the white bony hands reach up and claw at the truck. Then another and another appeared as the vampires crawled at speed across the hood of the truck and toward the driver’s cab. With Rea’s and Trent’s attention still focused on the vampires they were trying to shoot free from the side of the truck, I could only sit and watch in horror as the vampires crawled toward the windscreen.
Their jagged claws scraped over the green faded paintwork that covered the hood. The sound their claws made was ear-piercing – like fingernails being dragged across a sheet of ice. I peered over the hooded heads of the vampires and could see the gates were drawing nearer and nearer as the vehicle sped faster and faster toward them. I doubted the truck was strong enough to smash through the gates without destroying the vehicle and us completely. But what should I do? If I slowed the truck the vampires would take us. Still leaning across Trent’s lap and gripping the wheel, I watched the vampires raise their fists and begin to beat against the windscreen. The glass began to splinter and crack, forming what looked like a giant spider’s web. Over the thunderous boom and roar of Trent’s and Rea’s guns, I doubted they could hear the sound of the windscreen smashing. Desperate to get at us, one of the vampires began to drive his head forward into the cracked glass. Like a frenzied woodpecker, the vampire began to smash its own face into the windscreen. His desire to get us was more overwhelming than the pain it must have felt. I watched in revulsion and shock as the vampire’s face became little more than a bloody pulp. And then the windscreen was gone, exploding in a violent shower of razor-sharp chunks. But the glass didn’t explode inwards, but outwards. Turning my head away to avoid any flying shards of glass, I saw that Calix was once more leaning through the hatch and into the driver’s cab. Clutched in his fists were two of the guns he had taken from the coffins hidden in the crypt beneath the church. With pinpoint accuracy, Calix blasted away the vampires that had scrambled up onto the front of the truck. Then closing one eye, Calix took aim at the gate and fired. To my relief, I saw the lock that held the gate shut fly away in a twisted knot of metal. At the very same time, the front of the truck hit the gates. They swung open and I steered the truck through at speed. And in that one moment, I was so eternally grateful to Calix, I could have kissed him. Such a thought lasted all but a mere moment in my head before I forced it away.
Chapter Three
Picking off the last of the remaining vampires that swung from the side of the truck, both Rea and Trent slumped back down into their seats. Trent took hold of the steering wheel. I inched away from him, sitting once more next to Rea. Sliding her guns back into their holsters, Rea took a cigar from the top pocket of the denim shirt she wore beneath her coat. She lit it, filling the cab with smoke.
“Well, that was a complete and utter waste of time,” she said, looking front and into the dark.
“What was?” Trent said, steering the truck at speed along the narrow and twisting country road that we continued to make our escape along.
“Goi
ng to the human farm,” Rea said, blowing out a throat full of smoke.
I fought the urge to look in her direction and kept my eyes on the road ahead as I said, “Why, because we didn’t kill any human babies you mean?”
“Because all we’ve done is draw attention to ourselves,” Rea said.
“And killing all those children wouldn’t have done?” I asked.
“But the vampires would have been weaker now.”
“And to do that we would not only have had to kill all those children but all the mothers and any other humans that were hidden away in that farm,” I said.
Rea cocked an eyebrow at me. “And your point is?”
Taking a deep breath and trying to stay calm, I said, “My point is that we don’t find peace by adding to the body count. We don’t go around killing innocent people.”
“That hasn’t stopped you killing vampires ever since you got here,” Rea said.
“I said innocent.”
“And who made you judge and jury?” Rea shot back.
“I don’t call vampires that breed humans for food innocent, do you?” I said back just as quickly, my temper now beginning to flare up inside of me.
“But don’t you see? To the vampires, they are innocent,” Rea corrected me. “To them, humans are just another food source, it’s what they eat, it’s what they do. It makes them animals.”
“Not all vampires are animals.”
“Really?” Rea said, eyeing me, a thick ring of blue smoke curling up from the corner of her lips. “What makes you such a vampire expert?”
I wanted to tell Rea how I knew that not all vampires were bad. I wanted to tell her how I knew that they weren’t all mindless killers. But I couldn’t. And even if I could, what would have been the point? Rea had made up her mind about the vampires. She hated them. But more than that, she feared them and that’s what drove and bolstered her hatred.
“Well?” Rea pressed me.
For the first time since escaping the human farm, Trent spoke up and said, “Look, give Julia a break.”
Once again I felt like cringing back into my seat. I knew Trent was just trying to help me, but really he wasn’t. Every time he came to my defence, he was making the situation between me and Rea ever more impossible. Couldn’t he see that? Every time Trent told Rea to back off, he was simply adding another brick to the wall that was being erected between me and Rea. I couldn’t afford for there to be any walls or any barriers between us. I knew Rea didn’t like me but I needed her to be onside. I needed her to trust me. But I feared Rea would now only see me as the person who had come to steal Trent away, however childish and insecure that sounded. I hadn’t come to steal anyone. It wasn’t my fault if Trent no longer had feelings for Rea. Whatever had happened between them had taken place before I’d stepped off the train and into this layer. None of that was my concern. It had nothing to do with me. My best hope was to seek out an opportunity to speak with Rea alone and try and get her to see that all I wanted to do was find peace.
“I might have known that you would jump to her defence,” Rea said to Trent, speaking over me as if I was no longer in the driver’s cab with them.
“I’m not jumping to anyone’s defence…” Trent started.
“Please just stop,” I sighed, raising my hands like a referee stepping between two cage fighters. “I don’t need anyone to defend me. There is nothing for anyone to defend. I have done nothing wrong.”
As if sensing my frustration and annoyance at the both of them, the cab fell into silence. As the minutes passed, the silence became just as agonising and uncomfortable as the constant arguing.
So, I was relieved when Trent suddenly said, “It isn’t going to take long for those vampires to regroup and come after us. We can’t just aimlessly drive around these back roads. We need to find somewhere to settle – to make some kind of plan and decide what we can do next.”
Then, just like Calix had done, Morten poked his head through the hatch and into the cab. “There is a place I know of.”
“What place?” Rea asked.
“It’s deserted, it has been for some time now. But it has a wall around it. A wall that the humans built to protect them from the Beautiful Immortals,” Morten began to explain. “It didn’t protect them but it might protect us – for a while at least.”
Glancing over his shoulder at Morten, Trent said, “Where is this place? What’s it called?”
“Is not so very far away from here,” Morten said. “It’s a town called Shade.”
Chapter Four
Leaning through the hatch, Morten gave directions to the town he had called Shade. Just before dawn we reached a narrow and winding track. On both sides stood blackened trees. The many twisted and deformed-looking branches were leafless. Jutting from the snow on one side of this track was a sign that read Welcome to the Town of Shade. Trent steered the truck slowly forward, its huge black tyres flattening out the snow beneath them. In the fading darkness ahead, I could see what looked like a wall constructed of wood towering up into the sky. It stretched away in both directions for as far as the eye could see. There didn’t appear to be any entrance into the town that lay hidden by the vast wooden wall. There was no gate or drawbridge or anything wide enough for us to steer the truck through.
A short distance from the wall, Trent brought the truck to a juddering halt. In silence, he eased open the driver’s door and climbed out. Rea and I followed, dropping down into the snow with a thud. It had stopped snowing a while ago and the brightening sky was clear with a crisp wind. Huge snowdrifts leant against the wooden wall and the whole place seemed to be entombed. I watched Rush, Calix, and Morten climb from the back of the truck and come toward us. With our rucksacks swung across our backs, we made our way toward the wall. We followed the line of it for some distance, searching for any way into the town that lay beyond it. The early morning was so deadly quiet that there wasn’t even the faint cry of birdsong. In single file, we ploughed through the snow that came to our knees the nearer we got to the wall. When we had gone some distance from the truck, Trent stopped.
With both hands, he took hold of one plank of wood that formed the wall. “This one looks loose,” he said. He pulled the plank to one side, forming a narrow gap in the wall. It wasn’t big enough for us to climb through. Taking another of the planks in both hands, Trent rocked back on his boots and yanked on it. The nails that held the piece of wood in place gave way. The ends of the plank splintered and broke apart, making a hole big enough for us to climb through, one at a time.
Like they had so many times before, my friends silently eased their guns from their holsters. Trent looked at us gathered around him, then without saying a word, he stepped forward. Stooping over, he disappeared through the hole in the wall. Rea was next to go through, followed by Rush, then Morten. Waving his gun at me, Calix ushered me through the hole, then followed. Holstering one of his guns, he placed the plank of wood back over the wall with his free hand.
We found ourselves in a wooded area. And just like the world on the other side of the wall, the ground and the trees were covered in a thick blanket of snow. Placing one finger against his lips, Trent warned us to be quiet as he made his way slowly and carefully through the woods. We followed in silence behind him. I glanced left and right at the faintest of sounds, the snap of twigs underfoot or the rustle of leaves in the wind. Morten had assured us that this place was deserted but I knew my jittery nerves would not settle until I knew for sure that the town of Shade was safe. We walked in silence for some time until the trees ahead thinned out and we found ourselves standing in a line on the brow of a small hill.
Standing in the cold, plumes of breath escaping our mouths and nostrils, we looked at a small town which lay below us in the distance. I could see a twisted black church spire reaching up into the sky. There was a graveyard and what looked like a park. The roads, from where I stood, looked to be narrow and lined with houses and shops. But the one thing I couldn’t see was any sign
of people. There was no light shining out from behind any of the windows and there was no smoke tumbling up from the chimneys. Feeling assured that the town of Shade truly was deserted, Trent led us down the hill toward it.
The streets were cobbled and the houses and shops which lined them looked weather-beaten, unloved, and unused. The paint around the window frames and doors looked blistered and cracked. The windows were dirty and smeared with grime. The grey slate roofs of the buildings looked cracked and were covered in patches of green moss. Together, we made our way through the winding roads. Not once did my companions put away their guns. And just as my own did, their eyes darted furtively from left and right looking for any signs of life or ambush. As we moved deeper and deeper into town and became lost in the warren of tightknit roads and alleyways, I could hear a faint whining sound, like a door swinging open and closed on a set of rusty and unoiled hinges. With guns raised, Trent and the others made their way toward the sound and I followed. My fingers twitched at my sides and I made fists with my hands. Turning a corner, we found ourselves on yet another narrow and cobbled street, but at least we had discovered what had been making the continuous wailing sound. Just ahead of us there was a pub. Jutting from the wall above the door was a sign which read The Weeping Wolf. It was the sign swinging back and forth in the wind that had created the unsettling sound. And as I stood and looked up at the sign and the picture of the white hound painted on it, the wailing sound it made could have easily been mistaken for the howl of a wolf.
“Check it out,” Trent whispered at Calix.
With his gun raised before him, Calix inched his way across the street and toward the pub. With the tip of his boot, he pushed on the door. It swung open and Calix peered inside. Looking back over his shoulder at Trent, Calix said, “The place is empty.”