by Joe Fowler
They split as they got closer. About ten or so for each of us. I was glad my first time facing them would be against smaller numbers. Their movements during the attack were ridiculously slow. When you can move faster than the human eye can see, regular movements at human speed become super slow motion. At least the average vampire could move three times faster than a human. These ghouls were easy targets. I was wishing I had followed Rosalyn’s advice about switching my knife for a machete though. It took a huge swing to cut their heads off with my knife.
We made progress during the next few hours. We never faced more than one hundred fifty at a time, but the groups were coming back to back so we were always fighting. There weren’t any old vampires among them. I kept myself on alert for a vampire moving faster than the rest but none showed.
The attacks finally started to space themselves out. I looked at the watch of a fallen vamp and saw it was only a little after two o’clock. Rosalyn and I turned east again hoping to find enough vampires to keep us busy. We only encountered small groups after that. We started back to the meeting place around four thirty to give ourselves plenty of time in case we were attacked again. There were a few more vampires along the way but no real groups.
I was learning about war. We had been fighting off and on since I was turned into a vampire. Instead of nights of fun with Rosalyn, I was reborn into a war. I never dreamed of being a soldier as a kid and I wish I weren’t having to play the part now. Trudging from one battle to another. Resting only to rise and do the same thing again the next night. I knew Rio would be a constant for the next month at least, but I began to wonder if my next few years would be spent putting down vampire uprisings. These were my thoughts as we arrived back at the building where we started.
“Any luck?” Seth was waiting on the steps with a case of warm beer. We sat and grabbed a beer.
“Some. We had to turn north a little to find larger groups but overall it was productive.” Rosalyn answered. “What about you? How does it look on the western side?”
“I would have liked larger numbers too. I stayed busy but was having to search for them some. Maybe Josh found some hotter spots. It’s getting hard to keep looking at all the dead humans laying around.” Seth sounded tired.
“Did you come across any older vamps? All we saw were young.” I asked.
“There was one who could have been around five hundred or so. It is hard for me to judge. He was the only one though.” Seth didn’t give any other details.
“We found one group of ghouls. About twenty of them.” Rosalyn mentioned. I had almost forgotten about them since they seemed too slow to cause a problem. If Seth and Josh would be going around during the day they needed to know the ghouls were here. I guessed that was why she brought them up.
“For ghouls that is a large group. They don’t like each other enough to stay together in groups. I will let Josh know to watch out for them.” Seth laid back and closed his eyes for a while. I figured any rest he could get would be welcome.
Rosalyn and I were quiet out of respect for Seth. We waited on the steps until Josh came walking up just before dawn. He had a big smile on his bigfoot face. He had left his clothes here so he waited until he reached the steps to turn back human.
“You must have found a bunch of them.” Rosalyn said to get him talking. Seth stirred when she spoke.
“I’m pretty sure I am in the lead now. They were having a big meeting a little ways south of here. I wanted to listen and see what they were saying but they smelled me and attacked. I would guess there were about fifteen hundred of them at least. I’m pretty sure I got them all.” Josh sat down with a beer.
“We didn’t have anywhere near that much luck. We were fighting small groups most of the night.” Rosalyn stood as she said that. “We have to go now. There was a couch in an office that looked comfortable to me.”
We headed into the building at a run and up the stairs to the seventh floor. We had to move the couch to a large storage closet to get away from the windows. We covered the crack under the door with rags and got comfortable on the couch. We didn’t have time to talk. The sun began rising.
The next two weeks were much the same. We would relocate our home base building every couple of days to keep the vampires from knowing where Rosalyn and I slept. They could send ghouls since Josh and Seth would be out searching for their sleeping areas. We kept splitting up and taking directions at random each night. Some nights one or more of us would find huge numbers of vampires, other nights were mostly wasted on small groups of them. The monotony was bad, the smell was worse. The dead bodies were decomposing now. Even if we succeeded in clearing Rio of vampires, I wasn’t sure if it would be habitable again.
Chapter 23
I was feeding off of Seth every few days now. I would supplement my diet with vampire blood to help with the volume. Our nightly patrols were netting less and less vampires. We knew something was up but we had no idea when they would attack in force. Rosalyn was getting nervous but she wouldn’t talk about what was bothering her. Seth and Josh were just taking it day by day doing what they needed to do. When Rosalyn and I left our room, we found Josh and Seth waiting on us.
“You two need to take any time before we head out?” Seth asked.
“No we’re ready.” Rosalyn answered.
We left the empty apartment we stayed in and headed for the stairs. Smoke billowed out forcefully. We stepped back momentarily shaken. Josh ran through the closest apartment and looked out the window to see the bottom two floors blazing. He also saw the building was being surrounded by vampires and ghouls. We were on the eighth floor and in trouble.
“How did we not smell that?” Josh asked stunned.
“The smell here has our noses out of whack. We have to find another way down. Rosalyn and Austin won’t survive a fire.” Seth looked around and saw the elevator. He ran to it and pried the doors open. The fire could be seen at the bottom so that way was out. “To the roof, maybe we can jump to another building.”
The roof was three stories higher than any of the surrounding buildings. This building had twelve floors and the drop from this roof to the next would wound us and might hinder us in the coming fight. I had an idea but wasn’t sure if it would work.
“Which way do the halls run? We can go to the ninth floor and jump to the next building. Wait.” I looked at the distance to the next rooftop and changed my mind. “We go to the tenth floor and try to cross to the next building from there.”
“It’s worth a shot. Let’s go.” Seth led the way.
On the tenth floor we followed the hallway and saw the window we would be jumping from. I broke the glass out and removed the blinds to clear the way. After a look to calculate the jump, Seth made the leap in his wolf form. He got a running start and leaped in full stride. He landed safely and we were encouraged. Rosalyn went next and made it safely. I was preparing to jump when I realized Josh’s wolf form wouldn’t even fit through the window.
“How will you get down? You won’t fit.” I said in horror.
“Watch.” Josh disrobed quickly and climbed out onto the outer edge of the window before turning. His knees bent and he shot out like a rocket before coming down beside Seth on the next roof. I smiled and went back so I could get a running start. I made the leap but my landing wasn’t good. My right leg broke in two places.
I didn’t have time to stress about it. Josh grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder as we headed down the stairs before they could set fire to this building as well. We emerged out of the building to come face to face with more vampires than I could reasonably count. I had a momentary flashback to Paris, then realized this was much worse. There were at least twice the number of vampires with who knows how many ghouls thrown in as a changeup. Well, we had Seth this time so maybe it was even. Except I couldn’t walk.
Josh propped me up against the wall so I wouldn’t have to defend my back. There was a few moments when neither side seemed willing to strike when a voice rang out
. We had no idea who it was or even where the voice was coming from.
“You should not have come here. This is our city now. You cannot stop us.” The vampires didn’t move. They stood there staring and ready for the attack but they did not move forward. I wondered why they were waiting.
“We have faced these odds before and will again. We will kill all of you and move on to the rest of this city. You can’t win.” Rosalyn was the one who replied. Seth couldn’t in his wolf form and I was scared enough without hearing Josh’s creepy ass voice.
“We were going to offer you safe passage from the city but since you insist, then we will fight.” At the word fight, all hell broke loose.
Seth actually charged into them disappearing among the swarm of vampires. It dawned on me that in wolf form he would fight better on the move. Josh and Rosalyn took up their spots with a noticeable hole in the middle where I was supposed to be. I tried to take a step but my leg hadn’t healed enough for me to walk yet. I made do with killing what vampires I could reach while protecting Rosalyn and Josh from behind.
After thirty or so minutes I was fairly sure I could walk again. I moved forward and was blessed by one of Rosalyn’s smiles as I took my place. This was going to be an all-nighter. These vampires were all young. I didn’t see even one who moved very fast at all. The ghouls were even more ineffective since they got in the way of the vampires who would attack much faster. I glanced Josh’s way during a momentary lull and he was actually smiling while he killed anything stupid enough to attack him. It was a few minutes before I could check on Rosalyn again. She seemed her usual calm self. She handled her attackers with ease.
These vampires tried something new at least. At a shouted order all of the vampires pushed forward not so much attacking as trying to pin us against the wall. I felt momentary panic as I was running out of room to swing my new machete. That was when I saw the wave being performed by the vampires. That was what it looked like anyway. Then a moment later the wave came back from the other direction. I almost laughed when I realized it was Seth. He was running through them knocking them off their course. Josh and Rosalyn had already regained the ground they had lost. I stepped up my fighting and managed to retake my place too.
The fighting went on long enough for the bodies to pile up like they had in Paris. I was expecting the switch call from Josh when there was an explosion in the burning building next door. The top seven floors fell into the horde of attacking vamps. I no longer felt heat and cold like I did when human but the waves of heat blasting us was more than I wanted to bear. Without a word. Josh, Rosalyn, and I started making our way through the horde to get away from the fire. Most of the vampires were milling about in confusion now. We cut off the heads of many without a fight as we made our way down the street.
We rounded a corner and found an almost empty alley. I looked back trying to find Seth. He appeared right beside me in a blur of movement that my eyes couldn’t follow. Every time I started to think myself to be powerful, one of these three did something to remind me what a real badass could do.
The four of us made our way down the alley. We crossed a few streets and put some distance between us and the vampires. Part of me wanted to be attacking them while they were confused but I knew it was better to play it smart and wait for better odds.
We ran until we were sure we weren’t followed. We entered an abandoned warehouse and sat down for a rest. We don’t get tired physically but sometimes we need a mental break. I would assure anyone asking that this was a time for a mental siesta.
“It took me a second to realize that was you running through them, Seth. I was wondering what the hell was going on.” Rosalyn smiled at him.
“It looked like they were doing the wave at a football game.” I added. Rosalyn and Josh laughed. Rosalyn’s laughter was a beautiful heartwarming sound. Josh’s laughter gave you chills and goosebumps. Spooky and creepy didn’t do that sound justice.
“We need to go ahead and keep hunting. There is still too much time to waste it sitting around.” Rosalyn said what we all knew.
“Do we head back the way we came and try to finish off that bunch or move forward and find others?” I asked.
“We split up. Seth and I should go back and see what damage we can cause while they are regrouping. You two move on north and see what you can find.” Mr. Creepy suggested. He stared at Seth for a moment and said, “We meet back here before dawn.”
“Sounds good to me.” Rosalyn sighed before she got up and added, “We all need to do some shopping too. Our bags were lost in the fire.”
“True. I hadn’t thought of that.” I said.
“It’s not like we can take a hot shower but clean clothes help some. This city smells bad enough without us adding to the odor.” Rosalyn sounded disgusted as she took my hand on our way out of the warehouse.
The rest of our night was more subdued. We fought groups of eighty or less vampires as we made our way through the city. We didn’t say much. I could tell Rosalyn was depressed about something. I guessed she would tell me when she was ready. We found some shops along the way and picked up some clothes. We were productive but not the same as before. The early excitement to our night made the mundane hunting harder to concentrate on. We were back at the warehouse early having lost our motivation for the night.
“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” I asked. I tried to wait but she didn’t look like she was going to tell me on her own.
“Sorry. I just expected there to be some humans still alive here. Judging by what we’ve seen so far, they should have just firebombed Rio. We haven’t seen a single living human.” Rosalyn’s explanation made sense.
“There could still be hundreds, even thousands of survivors here. We’ve covered most of Rio, but it only takes a small area left alive to make this all worthwhile.” I tried to be reassuring and keep her hope alive.
“That is what I’ve been telling myself. It is getting harder and harder to keep hope alive when every building we enter is empty or has vampires.” She leaned into me and we sat quietly like that until Seth and Josh returned.
“Any action north of here?” Seth asked as he took a seat near us.
“Some but it was sporadic. Some groups but none larger than eighty or so. The only positive was there were less human bodies in the streets.” Rosalyn answered tiredly. Seth seemed preoccupied and didn’t notice her mood. He was usually much more perceptive.
“We had much better luck. We may have killed as many as two thousand after we split up. We kept running into large groups leaving the fire area. None of the groups posed a real threat but we felt like we made a dent tonight.” Seth wasn’t exactly cheerful. He seemed more determined to put a good spin on things than usual. That’s when I realized he was as down as Rosalyn. I looked at Josh to judge his mood but he was looking worriedly at Seth. I bet it was the lack of humans that was bothering Seth too.
“I think you guys should go north tomorrow and look for humans instead of finding the vampires’ sleeping areas. We’ve covered most of Rio now and the most likely place to find someone alive would be in the northern parts of the city.” I didn’t look to see their reactions, I kept speaking instead. “I would think the vampires would have left some food sources. The northern part of the city has the most unchecked homes.”
“I think you’re right. When the sun rises I will go north and look. I think you two need to be guarded while you sleep now. They are trying to bring the fight to us and the ghouls might be following our scents.” Josh looked to see if we agreed.
“Sounds like a plan.” Seth may have perked up a little. Maybe this would help keep hope alive for a while longer.
Rosalyn and I found a windowless room in the warehouse. We covered the bottom crack of the door to be safe. Talking seemed out of place as we lay there waiting for the sun. Sleep was welcome.
Chapter 24
We woke to good news. Josh found a few survivors. They told of more people they had seen that were
still alive as of a few days ago. Our little gang was more invigorated than ever when we started out that night.
“I say we all head north and spread out there to clean out the vampires closest to the humans. We need to keep them safe until we can finish the rest of the city.” Seth suggested. We all agreed.
With a bounce in our step, we headed north finding only small groups at first. We started to run across larger numbers the farther we traveled. The extra energy we started the night out with only increased as we cut down group after group of vampires. We finally felt like what we were doing mattered again. Having something tangible to fight for made all the difference. We even received a few cheers from a family on the third floor of a building. Josh explained how those were the humans he had found. We continued our night.
When it became time for Rosalyn and me to find a place to sleep, we were disappointed. We wanted to keep going. Seth and Josh promised they would continue as best they could. We all wanted to get this done. Rosalyn was smiling when she laid her head on my chest. I went to sleep happy.
More and more humans were being found now. They would see Seth or Josh out during the day as they came out to find food. Some of them knew of other survivors and word spread quickly. There were almost one hundred confirmed survivors by the time Rosalyn and I woke. Our time here was becoming worthwhile.
“You guys want to do the same as last night and continue on together?” Josh asked as we prepared to leave the house we had stayed the day in.
“I could be overthinking things but shouldn’t we split up and Rosalyn and I go back the way we came? I am worried the vampires will come to feed from the humans while we move on.” I wasn’t sure it was the best idea but maybe it would be better to be careful. We finally had survivors and we didn’t want to lose them.