“No, Greaves has more important things to attend to than acting as taxi driver for potential privates. It was kind of a fluke that he met with you last night. Sounds like he just wanted to meet the officer who went toe to toe with a neck biter and managed to kill it with nothing but a 9mm.”
“Yeah, that was crazy. I was sure he had me. I…”
“Just don’t get too full of yourself, kid,” the captain interrupted with a snicker. “Not saying you are, it’s just this job can prove to be the end of the arrogant, just as much as it is for the green or unskilled. That said, if you can keep a hold on the attitude and fully develop your abilities, I’m sure you’ll become quite the hunter. Well, that is, so long as the bloodsuckers don’t have other ideas.”
He paused, halted by a thought.
“You know, before we move on, I suppose I should ask you how serious you are about all this. You can still get out of this car and pretend like last night never happened. It’s not too late.”
“I said I wanted to enlist, and that’s what I intend to do,” said Asher without a second thought.
“Well, OK then.” Kilgore smiled. “I’m sure you’ve heard it several times already, but we do need all the personnel we can get.” The captain frowned as he gazed out the windshield.
“Better get going if we want supper at the base.” Kilgore turned the key in the ignition and revved up the engine in a way that suggested juvenile intent. “You got to ride in one of these new Mustangs yet, Blackthorn?” He spoke loudly over the sound of the engine.
“No, not yet.” Asher shook his head.
“You’re going to enjoy the ride back to base then. They’ve really souped up these new models. Got tons of horsepower, maybe even more than they need.”
Kilgore pulled the car away from the curb and started down the road, annoyed when he couldn’t speed away as he wished due to the heavy traffic, no matter how many times he revved the engine.
“Hey, so if Greaves doesn’t usually do the initial recruitment, then who does and how does it go down?” asked Asher. The engine’s rumblings were now low enough that he could speak without having to yell.
The traffic light in front of them gave them the green arrow.
“I’ll answer your last question first,” said Kilgore. “Before anyone tries to recruit you at all, you must either encounter a vampire and survive its attack, like you did, or otherwise uncover evidence of their existence. I wish there was a better way, but since the enemy is basically a fairy-tale monster come to life, it’s hard to convince anyone that they exist without sounding crazy.” He smirked. “It’s important that people discover the bloodsuckers for themselves. Leaves a lasting impression. It doesn’t help keep our numbers up, though.”
“Yeah, but who usually does the recruiting?” Asher was unwilling to let Captain Kilgore get away with only answering half his question.
“After it has been determined that you know about the existence of vampires and possess the proper skills, you’re approached by one of our recruitment agents.”
“What? Why did you guys have to grab me like that? You had me knocked out, tied, gagged, and thrown in the back of a cargo van!”
“Well, I suppose you could try, but I don’t believe you’ll get anywhere,” Kilgore chuckled, ignoring the intensity of Asher’s reaction. “Yours was a special case anyway. Our people only received intel about what was going on at those premises after those four officers were killed. You went into that house just before we had a chance to stop you. Our people got there as fast as they could hope to.”
“So are you saying if the Legion had gotten there just a little bit sooner, they could have saved Nelson and Hernandez?” Asher hadn’t been satisfied with Greaves’s answer from earlier.
“Just relax, Blackthorn,” said Kilgore as they came to a stop at another red light. “There’s no reason to come unglued. The kind of vamps we usually take down don’t act like the one that attacked you. It’s not like them to hang around like that. Figured by the time anyone got the call, all the vamps would be long gone.”
“Why would you assume something like that?” Asher’s rage reignited. “You know what those monsters can do!”
“Come on. You can’t keep this up. It’s bad for your health.” Kilgore remained surprisingly calm. “Hey, even when the Legion arrives on time, it doesn’t always mean the day is saved. The vamps are just that hard to kill. It’s not entirely uncommon for us to send in a four-person assault group and have them all slaughtered when the odds were only one to one. You’re just lucky there was only one vampire in there. Add in a couple more of the bloodsuckers, and there wouldn’t have been an ounce of flesh left on your bones.”
Asher sighed, unable to think of a comeback. It was early, and he was still in denial about Nelson and Hernandez’s deaths. He had spoken to them no more than 24 hours ago, and now they were gone forever, reduced to carved-up, mangled corpses. It was all so hard to process. “Yeah, I suppose there was nothing to be done for it,” he relented. ”Kind of hard to stay calm. Everything is happening so fast.”
“I can understand that.” Kilgore placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You just got to roll with it. You see a lot of gruesome things on this job, a lot of bad things that you can’t do anything about. You can’t blame yourself, and you can’t internalize it all at once.”
“Suppose so,” said Asher. Though he found the captain’s words helpful, he didn’t care to hear them. It reminded him too much of something Nelson might say. They made their way past another traffic light as they continued toward the interstate, the sun sinking ever lower in the sky. The remainder of the snow glistened in the sunlight.
* * *
“Aren’t we arriving a little late, sir?” Asher tried not to sound overly concerned. “I mean, the sun’s getting pretty low in the sky, and we’re still not there.”
The Mustang sped down a winding road, through the hills of a heavily wooded area, somewhere off the interstate. The sun hung low now, a mosaic of majestic reds, oranges, and purples cascading across the sky. All of the snow had melted away, leaving a landscape of dead, brown grass, bare-naked trees, and clear roads.
“Don’t worry about it.” Kilgore brushed him off. “We don’t keep regular hours at the base since somebody always has to be up to keep an eye out for the vamps. Most of our operations take place at either dawn or dusk, when the vamps are getting ready to get up or go down. Not sure if Greaves told you this or not, but even though these vamps don’t burn up in the sun, they still don’t see well during the day. We figure the best time to hit them is when they’re still active but fixing to be blinded by the sun should they still be out. It makes for some crazy hours. Sometimes we run ops during the day if we want to catch them by surprise, but that’s only if we know the location in advance. Other than that, it’s attack at dawn or dusk.”
“I don’t remember it taking this long to get to your base last night,” Asher interjected.
“You getting hungry?”
“No, sir,” Asher lied. He felt the question was preemptive, meant to scope out weakness. In truth, he hadn’t eaten since he went through the drive-thru on the way back to his apartment.
“They said you were pretty out of it when they drug you down here last night. Said you had some kind of reaction to the sedative. Had them thinking you wouldn’t make it there for a while.”
“I did feel pretty sick.” Asher decided to answer this one truthfully, unable to deny it.
“You know, since we’re so close to the base, I might as well start coughing up the intel. Save some time on the tour I’m supposed to give you. As you might be able to guess, the base is located outside the suburbs in an officially undisclosed area. The exact location is classified, and I’m not at liberty to give anyone the exact coordinates. That information is for privileged ears. It’s common knowledge only for officers.”
They suddenly rounded a sharp corner, continuing along as they shot down an aggressively steep hill. The moti
on of the car made Asher nauseous, causing him to forget about his hunger for the moment.
That’s Missouri backroads for you, he thought to himself. All over the place and never in the best shape.
“You know, speaking of officers.” Kilgore acted oblivious to the fact that Asher was turning green. “I suppose I ought to tell you about our ranking system at some point before we get to the base. Make things a little less confusing. It should be real easy for you to understand, given your background. It’s a hybrid system, partially inspired by both the military system and the ranking systems of most police departments. This means there are fewer ranks and no officer grades. Starts at private and then goes corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain. After that, it goes to commander and ends at high commander. Only have one of those.”
“I think I can remember it, sir,” said Asher, smirking.
The road had straightened up somewhat, causing the pain in his stomach to subside.
“So at the very top, we have High Commander Witchburn.”
“I thought Greaves was the one in charge,” Asher interrupted.
“He’s only in charge of this region’s base. Witchburn is in charge of the whole operation. Last I checked, the Legion had ten bases scattered throughout the country. We expand as the number of vampires rises. Each base has up to 1,000 soldiers garrisoned within it at a time. Since Witchburn is over everything, she has command over 10,000 soldiers.”
“You know,” said Asher when Kilgore had finished. “I was kind of surprised I got picked up by a captain. I was sure it wouldn’t be anyone above a sergeant.”
“Normally it would be. I’m actually coming back from leave. They figured that since I was coming through here anyway, I might as well be the one who picks you up.”
“Makes sense.”
The car slowed significantly, jolting Asher forward slightly as they turned down a nearly washed-out gravel road. Asher saw a large and rather elegant house surrounded by a chain-link fence in the distance. Connected to the house was a peculiar-looking garage. It seemed made out of cement, and its shape was overly square and angular. The effect was chimeric; the house and garage fused as though they were two animals of vastly different species stitched together.
“Here we are.” Kilgore stopped in front of the gate and opened his door. “That fence is electric. We don’t want to take any chances of someone accidentally stumbling in on us. I’ll go open the gate.”
The captain pulled a card from his back pants pocket as he made his way to the gate. Once there, he swiped the card through the scanner, causing the metal box beside it to slide open. Then, he leaned towards the box, remaining motionless for his retinal scan.
The locks came unlatched automatically, and the gate swung slowly inward.
“This house surely isn’t the base is it?” asked Asher as the captain shut the driver’s side door.
“Rest assured, this is the base.”
“You have to be joking.” Asher frowned in disbelief.
“The base is actually underneath all of this. The house is just a front, though we do have cameras planted in and around it to keep a lookout. Nobody gets over that fence without us knowing about it.”
Kilgore put the car in gear, continuing through the fence gate before stopping in front of the garage. He reached up over his visor and pushed down on what appeared to be a very ordinary garage door remote. The garage door opened, and the sun’s dying light rushed in, brightening the inside.
Metal struck metal as the door completed its ascent, revealing a car lift so heavy duty it could move tanks.
“As you can see,” said Kilgore, the car slowly rolling through the open door. “This garage is actually the entrance to our elevator. It’s the base’s backdoor.”
“It didn’t seem like they took me down a lift last night.”
The lift locked the car in position, nearly interrupting him.
“Probably took you through the front.” Kilgore raised his voice slightly so that Asher could hear over the hum of the closing door.
“How far down are we going?”
“We’ll be going down four levels to get to the lower level. About one hundred feet or so, I think. Greaves brought you down there last night. He prefers to use the garage for his special interrogations and meetings. Likes to turn on those big lights and really put the pressure down on you.”
The door closed behind them, enveloping them in total darkness. Captain Kilgore kept silent, sensing nothing out of the ordinary. Asher started to ask him what was happening, but the low humming sounds of the activated machines beneath the lift stopped him. The lights that ran along the side rails of the lift flickered on, bathing the concrete walls of the garage shoot in dull, red light.
“Here we go,” said Kilgore.
The lift lurched slightly before beginning its descent. There was little to see as they made their way down to the garage. The red-lit concrete walls of the shoot made glass-smooth with only the occasional crack.
The lift was slow, and Asher grew certain that they were descending at a rate of less than a foot per second. Just when Asher thought they would never reach the bottom, a line of white light appeared over the lift’s lower edge, welcoming them to the garage.
The lift stopped, hanging just a few feet in the air before suddenly lurching downward.
The platform fell to the ground, slamming against the concrete floor and its metal frame. The side of Asher’s head violently struck the car’s ceiling.
Chapter VII
The Phantom Legion
“Hope that didn’t bang you up too much, Blackthorn,” said Captain Kilgore. He was about to laugh, unaffected by the fall. “Lift could use some work. Someone ought to tell maintenance.”
Loud clicks sounded as the locks holding the car in place released.
Kilgore put the car back in gear, driving off the lift and onto the metal ramp, continuing downward until they reached the garage’s concrete floor.
“Looks way bigger with all the lights on,” said Asher.
He gazed off into the Legion base’s vast parking garage, now recovered from his blow to the head. He reasoned the garage’s total area had to be that of several football fields. The space was filled with vehicles of all varieties, cars, trucks, military transports, a few things that looked like tanks. The walls were like that of a cave, jagged and rocky, skirted by strings of white lights, which accented the floodlights that hung overhead.
“Got a pretty good setup down here.”
Kilgore took a turn down one of the driving lanes, continuing past the vehicles parked on either side.
“I know you said there were up to a thousand soldiers stationed here, sir,” said Asher as they passed vehicle after vehicle. “But there’s a lot down here. Are you sure you need all this?”
“Oh yeah. In addition to all the personnel vehicles, we got a lot of special-purpose rigs. We can’t be pulling up in the same jalopy every night. The vamps would be onto us. Got to have lots of different types of transport, and sometimes we got to show ‘em the big guns.” He nodded toward a group of tank-like vehicles.
They continued onward, weaving through the lanes past vehicles innumerable. Asher briefly caught a glimpse of a small clearing near the garage’s center amid all the vehicles. He was certain that was where his interrogation had occurred.
“And here we are.” Kilgore pulled into one of the few empty parking spaces, this one marked with a sign bearing his title. He took off his seatbelt and opened his door, pausing to rise from his seat as he spoke to Asher. “Suppose I might as well show you what we got down here.” He paused to think. “We’re proud of what we have. Some of them were actually kind of hard to get. You know what? What the heck, might as well give you the whole tour.”
Kilgore climbed out of the car, as Asher did likewise, their doors slamming shut simultaneously. “This way.” He pointed toward the group of mini tanks, taking off across the lot, causing Asher to break into a near run to keep up.
/> They covered ground quickly, going between the lanes and weaving between cars to reach the grouping of metal behemoths.
“Some of my favorite armored vehicles right here.” Kilgore turned back around to address Asher. He rested an open palm on the metal hide of one of the mini tanks as he leaned against it, an M2 Browning machine gun looming overhead. “I’m sure you already know what these are.”
“Yeah, those are Strykers.” Asher was impressed by the machinery, though he didn’t want Kilgore to see it. “Didn’t see many of them during my service time. They used to be one of the Army’s go-to’s for quickly deployed heavily armored vehicles until they started to get old. How did you guys get ahold of so many?”
“We just got a few that were so heavily damaged that the Army didn’t want to put out the time or money to have them fixed. We needed something similar to a tank, and this is what they gave us. Had our guys fix them up and repurpose them for our uses.”
“What do you use them for?” A frown crossed Asher’s face. “I mean, I can see the need for armored vehicles, but why these in particular?”
“We use the Strykers primarily to bust through and blow up structures to get at the vamps. It seems like they get more and more organized every day, and with that organization comes more vampire-controlled buildings and facilities, mostly for human slaughter and feeding. You can really give it to them by taking those out. Not sure if Greaves told you this or not, but the vamps have minions—humans that work for them thinking they’ll turn them one day. The minions carry guns, and the Strykers are one of our defenses for that. Crazy as things are getting, a lot of the vamps have begun to carry guns as well. So there you have it. The Strykers are the Legion’s mobile, all-purpose, mow-down weapon.”
“Huh. Sorry, I asked that question, sir. Pretty obvious now that you said all that.”
“Don’t sweat it, Blackthorn.” Kilgore’s smile returned. “There are very few stupid questions here.”
Fall Prey: The Hunt Page 10