I start the engine to my vehicle and take a deep breath before putting it in drive. Even if Sergio and the other vamps don’t come to the conclusion that I’m after them, they’ll still be more alert than I had hoped. Three vampires died. That isn’t something that happens every day. One, maybe, if they’re caught off guard and end up in front of a barrel of a gun. Three? That takes skill… That takes a hunter.
Chapter 10: Dead Zone
I pull up to the edge of the perimeter bordering the woods. It’s sectioned off with a sign that denotes it as private property, which it most certainly is. Old money, in the most literal sense. Sergio or the vampires that rank above him most likely bought this land from the earnings they managed to acquire after living through multiple generations.
Before I trespass, I go to the trunk of my car and stock up on munitions. Ammo, weapons, equipment; I’ll need it all to walk out of here unscathed. Not only that, but I’m considering the prisoners as well. Stopping Sergio is a huge plus, but helping any potential victims is also a win. Being left to bleed is a nightmare. It’s sheer terror watching one of those things suck out your lifeforce through an IV. It’s even worse when they get overzealous and cut you intentionally to draw blood.
There was a case Sailor, her dad, and I worked where they had this guy suspended and dripping from a series of cuts they’d made along his body. It was half torture, half fun. The feeding was an added bonus. There was a considerable amount of blood that went to waste, and vamps like to savor every drop. We managed to save the guy, but he was never really the same after that. He had to live with the scars. He’d been there for a while, and every second was like being in his own personal Hell. He told us that he tried to escape. He failed, and they made an example out of him.
I close the trunk of my car, my shotgun now resting in a sling strapped across my chest. When the vamp I interrogated gave me the details on the location he also told me what to look for. An abandoned mine. Something not hard to find but everyone wanted to avoid. With places like this, rumors of hauntings are often in the mix. Abandoned mines, closed down hospitals, shutdown bunkers, desolated living spaces… The ambience alone paves the way to such thoughts. Malicious entities can be drawn to the area, and sometimes they are, but most of the time it’s speculation and groupthink pumping fear to the hive mind. In the end, it works out. Humans stay away from potential danger zones, making the baddies come to us. Our innate fear of the unknown causes us to steer clear of the spaces where monsters lie. Part of being a Hunter means that I have to constantly face that fear and go straight to the heart of the problem. If I don’t, nothing changes, and they win.
With the moon as my source of light, I travel into the wilderness, fully cognizant of my surroundings, or at least as much as I can be. The assortment of trees, bushes, and their leaves leave a lot to my imagination. Coupled with the darkness, there’s plenty of places to hide.
I tighten the grip on my Beretta as I continue my walk through the forest, my eyes alternating from my phone to the landscape every few paces. Outside of the crinkling leaves under my feet, the area is eerily quiet. A dead zone. Even before I stepped on their turf, I saw that there was nothing out here. It’s just a strip of road and the occasional passing car sandwiched between the great outdoors. The perfect place for anything to happen and for no one to know.
Before I reach the exact coordinates, I see the opening of the abandoned mine. The opening is about as big as a double door and imperfectly shaped. Oblong, and reinforced by a wooden frame that seems to be barely holding on. There’s a distressed sign on the side of the opening warning people to keep out. It’s marked with a skull and a notice that I can’t be bothered to read. It’s a front. A sham to scare off anyone who’s made it this far. As I get closer, I realize that there’s a few wooden remains on the ground near the entrance, off to the side. I’m almost sure that at one point they were used to seal the entrance but now, they’re nothing more than scraps.
It’s dark, I remind myself as I stare at the entrance to the mine. It’s close-quarters, and it’s dark. While sunlight and vampires don’t mix, they aren’t forced to sleep when the sun comes up, they just prefer to stay indoors. For locations like this, the time of day doesn’t even matter. The sun isn’t reaching into that cave. Any source of light they use is their own.
I curse under my breath, still staring into the dark abyss. I don’t plan on backing down, but I make my peace with the reality of the situation. Today’s just another gamble in a list of many.
I softly exhale through my mouth and put away my phone. I then turn on the accessory attached to my Beretta; a flashlight with a laser sight.
After we came back, I would’ve stopped. We could have been together. Do you know how crazy it would have been if we lived normal lives? Maybe, eventually, if you were up for it, maybe we could have gotten—
“Stop,” I mutter through clenched teeth. Sailor’s voice pierces my thoughts, but I know it isn’t real. Her words are just a painful reminder of what I lost. A friend.
Grief has an odd way of showing itself, and often at the worst times. I can take the nights alone, the empty spaces of time when there’s nothing on my mind. I can indulge then. I don’t, but at least the option’s there. Sailor died a horrible death at the hands of demons, and so did her father, along with everyone else that went along with them. My family died because I killed them. Not because I wanted to, but because they had turned, and it was the only way for them to go down with dignity.
It isn’t my family that bothers me, it’s Sailor, or at least my rendition of her. I know there’s a way I can bring her and everyone else back, but there’s so much I don’t know about the book. I don’t even know its name. All I know is that it’s powerful. Would I even be able to? In the case of demons, they can feed off souls. What if they kept her alive and are using her as a vessel? The same goes for her dad. Joel Ray was one of the best. Could the book track them down somehow? Heal them?
I hear something fall in the distance and I quickly pivot to the origin of the sound, my Beretta ready to unload. It sounded like a small branch, but after looking around, I’m unable to match the sound to an object. I’m safe, but it does serve as a reality check.
All this thinking is distracting me. Letting my mind wander will just get me killed.
But isn’t that what you want?
I ignore the voice, but I take in the question asked by the darker side of my psyche. It’s…deeper than that. Hunters are death magnets and every case is a game of Russian roulette. I don’t want to die, but if I did—
Damn. I’m slipping again. Focus, Blaze. You need to focus.
I turn back to the entrance of the mine and step into the pitch-black orifice, my light leading the way.
My feet lightly tread against the dirt and rocks, propelling me forward at a snail’s pace. The same trend from outside the cavern is present here—an eerie still that bleeds into the atmosphere, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that I’m alone.
I continue my walk, going deeper into the cavern, slowly putting one foot in front of the other. The moonlight from behind me is quick to fade, leaving only the light from my gun as my source of illumination. After about half a mile, the cavern separates into two paths. Both are indistinguishable from the other, so I go to the left, my gut being the deciding factor.
I press forward through the opening and step into a clearing of some sort. A central area that I’m assuming workers used in the past to organize and transfer whatever they were mining from here. At some point in time, there were tracks in here. Every now and then I can feel part of the remains against my boots. The scraps. Everything worth value’s already been sold, probably by the vamps when they first claimed this place as their own.
I point my gun to my right and see that either way I would have went led to this area and that there used to be more paths to take, but they’ve been boarded up. Out of the boarded openings, three remain. One directly in front of me and one to the far left an
d right of it, both are catty-cornered, which I assume leads to two very different parts of the mine. I pause and shift my Beretta towards each of the paths a final time, melting away the darkness that obstructs my vision. I notice that the ceiling’s higher in this portion of the mine. Have I been going lower, somehow? It’s hard to make sense of it all in the darkness.
I lift my Berretta and follow the light until it leads to the apex of the mine. Surprisingly, there’re a few light fixtures imbedded in the wall. Scavengers haven’t made it this far in the mine…that or they don’t make it out alive.
I lower my gun back to eye-level and opt to go straight for the sake of simplicity, but as I move forward, something towards the outer edge of my light’s radius registers in my peripheral vision. Not willing to take a chance, I pivot my body in the direction the shadow darted in. Damn it. My light doesn’t pick up anything, but I can hear the sound of feet scampering on the ground. I turn faster and a blur cuts across the light in the opposite direction, bathing in the shadows once more. Immediately, I switch directions as I back up, expanding the light of my beam.
I catch the vampire in my light and he hisses as he tries to break away once more. I shoot in his direction, peppering his right side with bullets. The vamp’s run is cut short as he flails from his injuries and crashes to the floor. The light from my attachment catches the downed vamp in the peak of his agony. Rivulets of blood flow from his side and onto the cavern floor as he struggles to move.
There’re tears and rips all throughout his clothing, and his overall presentation appears to be rough. There’s one shoe missing and the other one looks like it’s been chewed into.
I pull the trigger and the growls from the wounded vamp cease. A single bullet to the head did him in.
The second I got a clear glimpse of him, I knew exactly what happened. Whoever this person was, he was recently turned and left to starve. For one reason or another, they bit him rather than feed on him. Punishment, maybe. At one point he tried to stave off his hunger by eating his shoes, but he soon found out that it wouldn’t work. A vampire’s bloodlust can only be sated by blood. Nothing else. It’s unfortunate that they did that to him, but there’s no cure… Or at least we haven’t discovered it yet. I would have saved my parents if that were the case.
I scan the perimeter of the cave with my light and see an industrial light switch near along one of the walls. From what I can tell, the cables haven’t been severed.
I flip the switch and the assortment of bulbs overhead pulse with electricity before turning on. The ceiling of the three corridors light up as well, drastically increasing the light within my field of view.
Thankful for the light, I quickly reload my Beretta and rush to the edge of the entrance to the far left before switching my handgun for the shotgun strapped to my back.
They know for sure that a hunter is here, but they don’t know if I survived or not. With three points of entry and one behind me, I can’t cover them all at once if I commit to going through one of the tunnels. It’ll only box me in. It’s better to stay and fight where I can move around and thin out the herd.
“Ah, shit… They got him,” a disgruntled voice echoes from the cavern closest to me. “Calm down,” a second vampire hisses, and I flinch from the sharp sound of metal brushing against itself. One’s got a chain, it seems. Hopefully not for me. “You’re gonna get us—”
I whip out from the side of the cavern wall and spray in their general direction. After one shell, both vampires hit the ground from the impact. One of them was armed, but the oncoming shots fired from his gun in his descent either hit his partner or ricocheted off the rocky interior of the mine. I fire another shell from my shotgun on the downed vamps, this time making sure to go for the head. It was another vampire slave, only this time he was accompanied by one of Sergio’s vamps. I slide my shotgun back into its resting position and switch back to my Berettas for better accuracy in such a tight space.
I press on through the tunnel and more options present themselves. I check out each to avoid a potential ambush, but it’s nothing but stuff gated off behind an iron fence. Medical supplies. Rations. A few of the paths lead to dead ends, one of which is littered with the remains of at least four people. I know because that’s how many skulls I manage to make out from the assortment of broken bones. While walking, I catch a vampire in my peripheral vision at an intersection in the mines and shoot him in the head without him being the wiser, executing him. Screams fill the air, but quickly fall silent. I can only assume it’s from the victims of this fiasco realizing that help may be on the horizon.
“Hello? Somebody, help! Please!” It’s a voice from a different person this time. She sounds distressed and weak. Rightfully so. I don’t respond to her, but instead follow the origin of her faded voice through the mine. Eventually, I find her barred behind an iron fence, shackled with an IV stuck into her deltoid. Her face is caked with dirt and her head is hung low, even though I can see that she’s trying to lift it. The shackles on her feet are embedded in the cavern wall. The same goes for the ones that bind her arms except for the fact that they are suspended from the ceiling, forcing her to be on her feet and fatigue her muscles.
“Don’t scream… I’m here to help. I’m the one killing those things.”
“Vampires?” she asks weakly.
“Yeah,” I respond soberly, confirming her living nightmare to be true. Beyond her cell, there’re six others, two of which are open. I look both ways before crouching and pulling out a lockpick from my jacket. Without wasting another second, I feverishly work at the lock binding her cell.
“He had a key,” the woman mumbles. “A vampire who left here.”
“A blond one with a bandanna on his head?”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” a male voice answers from behind me. The cells are staggered, but from his voice, I can tell he’s fairing better.
“Good. I just killed him,” I say just as I open the padlock. “I’ll be back for you guys.” I step into the woman’s cell and rip the IV from her arm. She winces, but she doesn’t say a word. She only looks to me and nods, hope filling her eyes. “How many of them are there in here?” I ask. “Vampires.”
“I…don’t know. Five? Ten? They hook us up to a drip and the same guy gets blood from us. The one you killed. If they take us from our cell it’s only to kill us…or turn us into one of them. I saw it happen.”
“I believe you. It’s something that they do,” I confirm with a heavy heart. “But at least five?”
“I think she’s right,” the man suggests, still out of my sight. “They keep us in the dark. I’ve heard different voices, that’s for sure. About a handful of ’em. Can’t be sure, though.”
“If we’re turned…can we turn back? Be human again?”
“No,” I answer. That part’s just Hollywood. There’s no cure…at least, I don’t know of one.” I look at the woman’s bound appendages, studying the type of restraints they’ve used to keep her movements limited. I’d be better off with that key. Less noise. Quicker…
I’ve already wasted enough time as it is.
“I just want to see my wife and kids, again,” the man protests. I step out of the woman’s cell, knowing what I have to do.
“And you will,” I announce as parting words. “Yell if they show up, but other than that, don’t make a scene. It’s me they’re looking for.”
I retrace my steps and find the downed body of the blond-haired vamp, still dead, thankfully, and showing no sign of a miraculous recovery. Feigning death in a situation like this wouldn’t make for the best of situations for me. I frisk his dead body and eventually come across his key in one of his back pockets after flipping him on his stomach. Before leaving, I grab his handgun which had fallen from his grasp the moment he became a corpse. I then make it back to the holding area, keys in hand.
I rush to the woman’s cell first, freeing her from the binds around her arms and legs. With the chains on her arms no longer granting her s
upport, she falls to the ground, happy, but exhausted. I help position her against the cavern wall to help her sit upright. There’s a towel dirtied by dry blood and a bucket beside it. I’d rather her here than there, reliving her moments as caged livestock.
“Thank…you.”
I go to the next cell and put an image to the voice I’ve heard; the man who still had some fight left in him.
Unfortunately, it’s not as much as I thought. He’s older…mid-fifties if I had to guess. His age isn’t doing him any favors, plus he’s emaciated from the harsh conditions. There’s loose skin along his waist and around his chest, which is only partly covered by dried blood and grit. The contrasting colors makes his skin seem even paler than it is. At the top of his head near his bald spot, there’s a trail of dried blood. He’s suffered some sort of trauma recently, and that was the result.
I free him of the IV plunged into his arm and release him from his bindings as quickly as I can. Upon being released, he wobbles and leans his shoulder against the cavern wall for support. “Do you know how to use a gun?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he rasps as he nods his head. “It’s been ages, but I can shoot. Gladly.”
“Good.” I hand him the vampire’s handgun and he sinks to the floor to rest his legs. “What about the folks in the other cells? How are they holding up? Think they know anything?”
“We…aren’t really allowed to speak. You’ll have to see for yourself.”
“Right.” I rush to the next cell and find another man, still being drained, but unconscious. I curse under my breath before accessing his cage and undoing the IV hooked into his arm. After I free him from his shackles, I lay him onto the floor as gently as I can.
Blaze Monroe and the Tattered Heart: A Supernatural Thriller (The Hunter Who Lost His Way Book 3) Page 8