by J. J. Fowler
Mifune looked up at the ceiling and scanned it carefully in the dim firelight.
Murphy could hear it now, too—zombies moaning above them. He reached for his gun, but Mifune shook his head and held his index finger against his lips. Murphy understood he must remain quiet so as not to disclose their location. A gunshot rang out above them, stirring the other men and vampires from their slumber.
Mifune shushed them and they froze, immediately realizing the situation. For several tense moments, the men and vampires listened anxiously until the moans drifted off into the distance.
“Do you think they knew we were here?” Murphy asked Drake.
“No. Just the same, everyone lock and load your weapons. Sleep with your fingers on the triggers. Those things are everywhere out there.”
Murphy noticed the vampires were asleep again. He asked, “How do they do it?”
“They’re dead,” replied Mifune. “It’s easy to sleep when you’re dead.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Drake looked at the four destroyed zombies before him and noticed something odd. Two of the deaders were trained. The weapons lying next to them indicated this. The other two were untrained. This wasn’t what made Drake feel uneasy though.
Casey stood next to Drake smoking a cigarette, wondering what the hell the holdup was. “Sir, can we get the fuck out of here? They’re a buncha wasted deaders.”
Drake grabbed the cigarette out of Casey’s mouth and took several deep drags on it. He exhaled the smoke slowly thinking what this might mean.
“Sir?”
“Look at how these four were killed. Notice anything?”
“Head shots took them out,” answered Casey.
“Sure, but the shots are so accurate. The bullet holes were from a sniper rifle.”
“So what? Nomads probably did it.” Casey tried to take the cigarette out of Drake’s mouth but his hand was swatted away.
“This wasn’t nomads. They can’t shoot for shit and they sure as hell don’t have sniper rifles that use these kind of caliber rounds.”
Now Casey was stumped.
“One of our guys?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
* * *
The team traversed along the top of a collapsed skyscraper, which stretched well over a kilometer. They hoped the height of the fallen building would give them a better idea of where to go to find the zombie training camp. Whoever constructed it long ago built it deep into the Dead Mountains, which Drake found odd. He didn’t dwell on the logic of its construction too much though. It gave his team a distinct advantage. Maybe they were building a new city out here when the plague started? he thought.
When the skyscraper fell, it landed on one of the mountains and wrapped up and over the summit, thus giving Drake’s team a higher vantage point than if they were on the mountain itself. So far, however, it wasn’t very helpful, and was more problematic given the myriad of broken windows the team must avoid along with the risk of structural collapse in some areas.
Drake confided his worries regarding the destroyed zombies they passed earlier to Mifune, but the sergeant dismissed his concerns out-of-hand. He argued nomads had certainly destroyed them. No Alpha patrols go this deep into deader-infested territory. Drake wasn’t so sure.
When they reached the end of the skyscraper, Drake ordered everyone to rest and decided to consult the two vampires, neither of whom he’d spoken with since the altercation outside the nomad camp. Vlad and Chosin, as usual, stood erect while the humans rested and were surprised Drake joined them.
“Yes, Captain?” Chosin said.
“I want to know if you or your boss have ever heard of any of our patrols being this far out?” Vlad let Chosin speak for him. He was still bitter at Drake’s interference during what the old vampire believed was a rightful feeding session.
“No, we haven’t,” Chosin replied.
“Can’t he speak?” Drake said, gesturing toward Vlad.
“I will talk for now,” Chosin said.
“Oh, cut the crap. Let’s act like adults here.”
“We were adults long before you came out of your mother, Captain,” Chosin said with no intent to offend.
“Fuck you, Chosin.”
“Silence!” Vlad bellowed so loudly it frightened the other humans seated fifteen meters away. Mifune even pointed his assault rifle at the vampires, almost hoping they’d try something so he could pump a few pointless rounds into them. Vlad now spoke in his normal, deep, and condescending voice. “The nomads don’t come this far out, but I have rarely been this deep into the unknown. Those shots you saw did not come from nomads. As you suspected, they came from men trained as you.”
“Goddammit!” Drake yelled.
Mifune stood up and asked, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but it ain’t right.”
“What’s not right?”
“It wasn’t nomads.”
“The vamps said that?” Mifune snickered. “They lie.”
In what felt like the blink of an eye, Chosin suddenly appeared before Mifune. The vampire towered over Mifune’s medium height and the human took several steps back.
“Chosin!” Vlad hollered. “Return!”
Just as quickly as he threatened Mifune, Chosin was back at his master’s side.
“We must not antagonize our allies.”
“They are no allies of ours,” Chosin said in an ancient language only vampires understood. “That much was clear when the captain saw us feeding.”
"End,” Vlad retorted in the same language.
“You two done?” Drake said to the vampires. Vlad bowed his head and then Drake continued, “I’m lost as to where to go.”
“You’ve been lost for sometime, Captain Drake,” Vlad replied with barely concealed disgust.
“You may be right, but so are you.”
“No. I know where to go.”
Drake laughed mockingly. “Then, by all means, where the fuck do we go?”
Vlad pointed to the northwest. Drake and the others followed Vlad’s bony finger with their eyes and saw nothing of interest. Then Drake said, “It looks the same as everywhere else in this wretched world: dark, endless, and dead.”
“No. Look closer. Use your binoculars.”
Drake pulled out his binoculars and peered into the northwest. It took him several moments of adjusting the binoculars before he finally saw it—a faint light on the horizon.
“You see it,” Vlad said.
“I do,” replied Drake. “Why didn’t you point this out before?”
“I was annoyed.”
“Annoyed?”
“Yes.”
“You were annoyed,” Drake responded with a touch of venom. He cleared his throat, calmed his anger, and said, “Whatever. Let’s move.”
Mifune glared at the vampires and wondered if they were leading them into a trap. He would find out soon enough, but in the meantime, he would do his best to prepare just in case. He leaned over, picked up a foot long broken piece of wood, and added it to his tattered backpack. Bullets were worthless against vamps, but a wooden stake to the heart? That might just do the trick.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Murphy crouched next to Casey behind a small, broken piece of concrete as deader bullets ricocheted all around them. Just another day in this madness. When will it end?
He never imagined himself so far out into deader territory, heading toward a destination none knew what to expect when they found it—if they found it at all. He wondered what his family would think of his adventure into the unknown. Would they finally see him as an equal to his brother who died on the front years ago? He wasn’t sure, but he knew his family would never know anything about his actions unless he survived. So survive he must, if only to tell the tale to his loved ones.
Traveling toward the faint light proved more arduous with each passing day. It was difficult to go even a kilometer before suffering an ambush by zombies, trudging th
rough a blinding dust storm, or warding off packs of ravenous rats swarming for food. These zombies were different too. They were better shots and better organized. They even communicated in an intelligible language, which shocked everyone except Drake. For Murphy, it was a nightmare he couldn’t wake from. What was worse, he knew this terrible part of their mission would likely pale in comparison to the true hell awaiting them.
“Snap out of it!” Murphy heard Casey scream in his face. “Fire back, Murph!” Casey demanded. “Stop looking all dazed.”
Murphy wanted to shoot back at the beasts trying to kill them, but his body wouldn’t respond. It was tired and worn out. He saw Casey stand up and let blast the raging inferno from his flamethrower. Two deaders covered in flames stumbled past them and collapsed. Then Casey shoved Murphy and continued to yell at him. Murphy gazed into his frenzied eyes and saw his mouth move; yet he could not hear his comrade’s words. Time slowed to a crawl. His vision became blurred and his mouth was drier than the dust swirling all around them. Then all went dark.
* * *
Murphy felt a pinch on his cheek and his eyes opened. He saw a face lean in toward his. He blinked several times before it came into focus. It was Mifune.
The firefight was over.
“Will he be okay?” a voice said. It took Murphy several moments to realize the voice was Drake’s.
“Yes. He’s severely dehydrated,” responded Mifune.
“We all are,” replied Drake.
“We need water, sir.”
“I know. Here, give him more of my water.”
Drake handed Mifune his canteen. Mifune tilted it toward Murphy’s mouth. “Drink this, private. You need it more than us.” He felt the cool water splash into his barely opened mouth. It overwhelmed his senses to feel such pleasure in his mouth again. He swallowed. Then more water came into his mouth. He swallowed again. “That’s good, kid. Keep drinking,” Mifune said soothingly. Murphy gulped down several more mouthfuls and closed his eyes to rest again. Mifune looked at Drake with his typically worried eyes.
“I know, Sergeant,” Drake said with genuine concern. “I know.”
Mifune stood up. The flickering light of the fire warming the men showed the gauntness of his face. “We have to do something about this now. We’re all becoming weak from the lack of water and food.”
“I said I know.”
“What do you think they’ll do when we become too weak to resist?”
Mifune nodded his head toward the vampires, who were speaking softly to one another in the corner of the crumbling small house in which they found shelter.
“Vlad, I need to speak with you,” Drake said.
The vampire walked toward Drake and Mifune.
“Sir,” Mifune whispered. “What are you doing?”
Now Vlad was next to the two soldiers. Vlad replied, “The captain is going to ask if Chosin and I can find you food and water before you die.”
“I sent Casey out,” replied Drake.
“He’ll find nothing, just like the last time. Or, like before, he may return with a horde of living dead we must fight off. Or, like before, he’ll…”
“I get it, Vlad,” Drake said sourly.
“Chosin and I can find you food and water.”
“Are you nuts? Trusting them?” Mifune angrily said to Drake.
“What alternative do you have, Sergeant?” Vlad seethed. “You hate us for what we are and assume we will feed on you as you become weakened. I assure you, Sergeant, we could have fed on you at any point. There would be nothing you or anyone else could have done about it.”
“Yeah. Well, if not for us you’d have been cut to pieces by those nomads.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. We did escape our cage on our own. It would not have been the first time Chosin and I escaped from a difficult situation.”
“Enough,” Drake interjected. “Get us food. You’ll need as many allies as possible where we’re going.”
Vlad grinned in his normal, devilish manner. “Naturally.”
* * *
Casey returned some hours later to find the vampires gone. Murphy was still asleep. Mifune leaned up against a wall, fighting to stay awake. Drake was cleaning his weapon. No one bothered to acknowledge him. Casey sat down next to Drake and said quietly, “I didn’t find anything, sir.”
“I figured.”
“I tried, sir. You know that. Right?”
“I do.”
“Where are the vamps?”
“Finding food and water for us.”
“They are?” Casey replied with considerable surprise.
“Yup.”
Drake spat on the muzzle of his rifle and scrubbed it with a cloth.
“That’s great,” Casey said. “Now can I get some rest?”
“Yup. Tell the sergeant to get some sleep, too. Murphy’s on watch now.”
“Okay.”
Drake couldn’t sleep even if he wanted to. Despite the weakened condition his body was in from not eating for four days and his skin hardening from dehydration, he anxiously awaited the return of the vampires. He wondered if they even would return. Why do they need us? he wondered. We must be slowing them down.
He finished cleaning his rifle and set it down next to him. Drake was seated on a wooden chair, one in surprisingly good condition considering the ruins all around him. He searched his pockets for cigarettes. He was out. Fuck it. I don’t need them. He understood if they were attacked by even a small group of deaders, they were finished. All he and his men could do was wait and hope the vampires returned with something. Anything.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Drake finally fell asleep. His mind and body were exhausted, and his stomach growled incessantly. He shut out the pain and anxiety and allowed himself at last to rest.
Then the flimsy door of the shack they rested in burst open. Drake didn’t want to wake. He wanted to keep his eyes shut, to not believe the peace he found was once again disturbed.
He felt someone shaking his shoulder. Finally, reluctantly, he opened his eyes.
“We have a situation, sir,” Mifune said.
Drake sat up and blinked his eyes several times until things came into focus. He saw Murphy and Casey huddled around Chosin, who was lying on his back in the center of the shack. Vlad stood by the entrance. A faint light outside showed the outlines of his tall, threatening presence.
“What’s up?”
“One of the vamps has been bit,” Mifune said with little concern in his voice.
“I thought they didn’t bite vamps?”
“They do on occasion,” Vlad boomed from the entrance. “Chosin and I were surrounded. We fought our way out.”
“Did you get the food and water?” Drake said.
“Yes, we did.” He pointed to a large sack near his feet. “I have lost a comrade doing so.”
“Won’t he simply heal?” Drake replied.
“No. We die too from bites, or feeding on them.”
Casey felt distraught, angry, and confused about Chosin’s fate. He mumbled, “There’s nothing we can do?”
Vlad moved inside and knelt down next to him and Chosin. “This is fate.”
“What about human blood?” Casey said.
Mifune abruptly stood up. He glared at Casey.
“It might help,” Vlad said after considering the idea. “But the donor may be left very weak.”
Casey took out his knife and placed it against his wrist. Mifune snatched it away from him immediately.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, soldier?” Mifune yelled.
“Give it back to him,” Drake ordered.
Mifune scowled at his commander and said, “Sir, this is madness.”
“I said, give it back.”
Mifune dropped the knife on the ground. Casey promptly grabbed it.
“Sir, a word please,” Mifune said.
“Sure.”
Mifune and Drake went to the far corner of the shack and the two began whi
spering.
“You want to save one of them?” Mifune said with barely concealed fury.
“We need them.”
“No. They need us.”
“We need each other.”
“What if that thing drains Casey?”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because then they’ll have to kill us all.”
“You’re not making sense, sir.”
“I don’t have to. It’s one of the perks of being in command. Now shut the fuck up and sit down, Sergeant.”
Drake cleared his throat and said to Casey, “Do it.”
* * *
Several hours later, Chosin sat up and shook his head. He felt somewhat better. Vlad stood in the entrance to the shack, barely noticing his old comrade’s survival.
“Why am I not ended?”
Murphy knelt down in front of Chosin and pointed to Casey.
“How you feeling there, Chosin?” Casey said cheerfully as Mifune checked the bandage on his wrist. “I gave you blood.”
Chosin was shocked. Why would a human willingly risk himself for a strigoi? “I do not understand.”
“Neither do I,” mumbled Mifune.
Casey disregarded Mifune’s comment and said, “It’s pretty simple. Either you got human blood or the deader bite would end you.”
Chosin didn’t know how to respond.
“Chosin,” Vlad bellowed from the doorway.
“Yes?”
“Take over sentry.”
“But he just woke up!” Casey protested.
“He has slept long enough.”
Casey looked to Drake for him to intervene, but Drake wasn’t interested. In fact, he agreed Chosin ought to get back to the regularity of the unit immediately if they were going to get moving soon.
“Have some water,” Mifune said to Casey.
Casey took several large gulps from the canteen the sergeant handed to him. He swallowed it and cleared his throat.