by Paul Cave
“Do not fear,” he said. “It is time for me to return you to your loved ones.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Less than three hundred yards from where Ezekiel addressed his captives, Ben finished instructing his own audience. “Okay, let’s get to it. We don’t have much time,” he said.
Like a flock of startled birds, the small gathering scattered in opposite directions. Some headed towards the corner of the cavern, where an unused generator sat idle; others assembled at the nose of Black Bird, ready to offer their help with the fixing of a metal structure to the front of the Huey.
Ben instructed the group around the Huey, anxiously, like an overprotecting parent would shield their only child. “Wait – wait,” he ordered, stopping the group from ramming the heavy framework into Black Bird’s cockpit. “Drop it slightly,” he told them, lining two struts flat against the hull. The second he gave the thumbs up, a welder appeared – a dark visor over his or her face – and immediately began to fix the framework into place. Ben winced as the Huey’s dark paintwork began to bubble and burn.
“Watch your eyes,” the welder, a woman, warned.
“Yeah – right,” Ben agreed, and turned away from the blinding arc of the welding rod.
The woman quickly moved around the helicopter, tacking the metal into place. “Okay, just a few more minutes,” she said, and then started to weld every inch of metal she could find. The immediate area filled with a choking, acrid fog. “Okay, that should do it,” she remarked, and she stepped back.
Ben reached out, ready to test its strength.
“Hang on,” the welder warned. “It’ll be red-hot.”
Unable to look at the charred mess, Ben turned away from Black Bird. The Huey looked like she’d just come through a cloud of antiaircraft flak, pitted and scarred.
“Don’t worry. We’ll give her a lick of paint afterwards,” a newcomer said.
Ben found Hutson before him. “Promise?” he asked her.
“I promise,” the lieutenant replied.
Alice and Squirrel appeared, both laden with some of the cables that Ben and Hutson had rescued from the Empire State Building. “Okay,” Squirrel began, “we need to start fixing these to the hull.”
“How?” Ben asked, nervously.
“With that,” the mechanic said, and pointed towards a heavy-looking machine cradled in the arms of a soldier.
“Oh … God,” Ben croaked, and turned away from the nail-gun. He found himself a quiet spot and did everything he could to turn his attention away from the sound of nails punching through the helicopter’s hull.
***
Most of the transports had been moved back towards the walls of the cavern to allow the swarm of bodies to go about their work. The trucks were ready to go now, piled high with civilians and goods, a team of drivers waiting eagerly for the climb to the surface - to safety. Every couple of minutes, a runner appeared with up-to-date information about the ongoing battle down in the third level. So far, Lieutenant Farr and his men were holding the vampires back, but the tight conditions were making it even more difficult to push on. Humans and vampires were locked in a fierce standoff.
Major Patterson stood near the main entrance to the cavern. He felt a squeeze against his hand and turned to find Hannah there.
“How’re you holding up?” she asked.
“Fine,” he replied. “Now you’re here with me.” He kissed her cheek, and a twang of agony pulled at his heart as he felt the protrusion of bones. Her face looked pale and gaunt, and her eyes were harder than any he had seen.
“What about you?” he asked.
It took her a while to find her voice. “Okay, I guess,” she finally said. “I just feel claustrophobic, too many people in one place.”
“Give it time,” he told her, and squeezed her hand back.
“How much longer before we evacuate?” she asked.
“As soon as the helicopter is ready, we’ll be heading west.”
“Where?”
The Major looked into his daughter’s eyes and uncertainty resided there. “To safety, I hope. I pray.”
“What about my son?”
“Have faith,” Patterson said.
“In what – God?”
“No,” the old man responded, “in Jacob.” He put one arm around her frail shoulders and hugged her tight. “He’ll find a way. I promise.”
Together, they turned towards the Huey and the hope for humankind that it prepared to carry.
***
“Down!” Lieutenant Farr ordered. A bright flash exploded behind him and the tunnel shook with another blast. “Stay down!” Farr cried to his men. They were huddled behind overturned tables and pinned down by heavy gunfire. Another line of bullets stuttered towards him and he felt pain rip into his hand as the edges of the table disintegrated in a shower of splinters. He pulled some of the larger wooden slivers out of the back of his hand with his teeth. As he spat one of them out, he looked up and saw the head of a soldier pop up from behind another table. “Get dow-” The crack of the soldier’s skull cut short his warning. In a lifeless heap the soldier slumped over the edge of the table, blood oozing from a tearful third eye.
“Goddamn son-of-a-bitch,” Farr cursed.
“They’re picking us off one by one,” the soldier at his side said.
About half his men had fallen and the constant barrage of bullets held down the other half. Twenty or so men were gathered together, huddled behind tables, barrels, or anything that could offer even the modest amount of cover. Every few second a cry of pain echoed off the carved rock as another soul fell. Injured soldiers lay in agony, their comrades unable to reach them, in fear of being cut down by the heavy weapons of the undead. The vampires had come armed to the teeth and ready to take their own casualties if need be. The space between Farr and the attackers was littered with the bodies of both men and vampires alike.
Farr reloaded, then fired over the table in a blind attack. He heard the cry of pain and grinned callously with the thought of the victim’s suffering. The machinegun continued to chatter until the clip emptied. He dropped it into his lap. The muzzle scorched the front of his pants.
“I’m out,” he declared, over the thunderous noise.
The soldier at his side handed over another magazine. “That’s my last,” he said, and pulled a small firearm from his waistband.
“Okay, I’m gonna see if I can get us clear,” Farr announced.
“How?” the soldier asked.
Farr reached inside his fatigues and retrieved two grenades. “Here,” he said, and handed over the machinegun.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you a chance,” Farr responded. He took the pistol from the soldier’s hand and chambered a round, then pushed it into his waistband. “Get ready. When I move, I want you to pull the men back. Find a better location to hold position.”
The soldier nodded. “What about the canteen area?”
“As good a place as any. Now, on my mark.” Farr pulled both pins from the grenades. He took a deep breath, possibly his last, and then climbed to his feet. “GO!” he yelled. Bullets whizzed past his ears like angry hornets. He launched the first grenade into the tunnel. Wasting no time, he let fly with the second. The gunfire stopped. He heard the grenades bounce and roll from one side of the tunnel to the other, followed by the desperate footsteps as the vampires tried to flee. Then, he was up and running.
A concussive wave of heat swelled against his back, and the entire rock foundation shuddered as the grenades exploded in a hail of deadly shrapnel, killing the vampire horde in droves.
Farr entered the connecting tunnel and saw his men flee towards the canteen area. There, they would have to stop the vampires’ assault. Or risk total annihilation.
***
Rebecca sat on the flatbed truck and waited with the rest of the bedraggled group. Their truck had been positioned behind two others, waiting to be loaded onto the platform. The little terrier had
stayed at the oily newcomer’s side since he had appeared from the belly of the mechanical beast. She felt a slight pang of sadness at the loss of her friend, but she still had the glass vial to keep her company. She had it in her hands and the lights from the cavern walls made the liquid inside glitter and sparkle in a rainbow of colours. Over the last few minutes, the vial had begun to warm up, as if Rebecca’s hands had begun transferring her body heat to the clear liquid inside.
She heard the rumble of an engine and watched as the lead truck rolled closer to the platform. Another truck followed close behind, and then the one she rode in. The suspension swung the back of the truck from left to right, and Rebecca was forced to take hold of the sides. The truck bounced violently as it dropped into an open fissure. The flatbed juddered and the passengers felt themselves thrown forwards by the impact. Rebecca’s hand slipped and the crystal vial spun from her fingers. She watched with sickening dread as the tiny glass bottle arced through the air before landing on the rock-hard surface. She winced, expecting the vial to smash into a thousand pieces, taking the rainbow with it. Miraculously, it did not. Instead, it landed with a clink, rolled away from the truck, directly towards the wheels of another.
“NO… ” Rebecca gasped, jumping from the moving truck.
“Hey, what are you doing?” one of the other passengers called.
Too late, Rebecca was already racing after the crystal bottle. The vial followed the slight curve of the cavern as it continued to roll towards the thick rubber tyres of the next truck in line.
“STOP!” she yelled to the driver.
The driver saw her appear unexpectedly through the grime-coated windshield. He jumped on the brakes and the vehicle screeched to a halt. Rebecca watched as the vial rolled agonisingly close to the wheels. However, at the last moment, the truck stopped and the vial raced by undamaged. It passed the tyre on the left, disappeared underneath the truck for a moment before reappearing from behind the wheel on the right. The little girl chased after it as it bounced and spun towards the centre of the cavern.
As it raced away, bright colours of red, yellow, blue, green and orange flashed and burnt in a dazzling display of fire. She slipped between two lines of soldiers and closed in on the collage of colours. Almost there, she thought, as the vial slowed and the distance halved. She reached out to snatch it back, but it rolled out of her reach by an inch. With horror, she watched as the vial fell towards a drainage grille that was fixed into the floor. The crystal bottle balanced at the edge of the grille for a second. Then, just before Rebecca had a chance to reach it, it dropped over the edge and into darkness.
Plop.
It landed in water.
She dropped down over the grille and jammed her fingers through the metal bars. “Nooo… ” she whimpered as it bobbed out of view. Like a little glass ship, the vial floated away, a stream of dirty water taking deeper it into the drainage pipe.
“The rainbow,” Rebecca moaned. She found another grille about ten yards away. Jumping to her feet, she raced to the next. The vial passed by and moved towards the next. She followed its progress until she reached the last grille in line. After that, the pipe disappeared into a thousand tons of solid rock.
Unbelievably, the vial caught itself behind a piece of stone that protruded out of the dirty stream of water. The current pushed the crystal bottle to the stone and held it there.
“Help me,” she called towards the nearest soldier.
“What is it, kid?” the soldier asked.
“Help me,” she repeated, and began to tug at the grille.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, concerned by the girl’s strange behaviour.
“The rainbow - the rainbow,” she cried.
“What?” he asked, dropping to his knees.
“There,” she said.
The soldier followed her finger and spotted the vial half submerged in brown sludge. “Christ, kid, I ain’t got time for rescuin’ toys.”
“But the rainbow,” she snivelled. Two teardrops slipped down either side of her face. She gripped his arm and begged, “Please help me.”
“Jeez…” the soldier said. “Okay, stand back.” He reached down and got a tight grip around the iron bars. Then, tensing his upper arms and shoulders, he pulled at the grille with all his might. It was fixed solid. The soldier redoubled his efforts and it eventually gave, coming free with a crack of masonry and rust.
Rebecca jumped forwards, intent on reclaiming the vial. Before she could do so, the cavern shook in response to an explosion, somewhere lower down within the complex. The vial slipped free. It bobbed underneath the surface. She plunged her arm down, but her hand closed around nothing but foul water.
“No – no,” she cried. Then, impulsively, she jumped into the drain and crouched over the pipe. Water rushed past her calves, disappearing into darkness. There! She spotted the vial as it bobbed to the surface. She ducked inside the pipe and stretched as far as she could.
“Christ, kid, be careful,” the soldier warned.
Suddenly, her foot slipped on a patch of slime and she went down onto her rear. The vile water made her retch. She lost her grip and the current quickly pushed her deeper into the pipe.
“Help!” she spluttered.
“No,” the soldier gasped. He pulled a flashlight from his belt and dropped to his knees. The beam of light revealed an empty tunnel. The little girl was nowhere to be seen.
“Help!” he called.
He looked towards the nearest crowd of people, but they seemed too preoccupied with their own tasks. When, from between their feet, a little blur of motion appeared. It headed directly towards him and, as it drew near, he heard the clatter of claws.
Scratch raced away from the Huey. His jaws opened wide as he plucked the flashlight from the soldier’s hand. Then, with a splash, he landed inside the drain. The pipe flickered for a moment with a strobe-light effect before plunging into total darkness.
***
The dark Huey looked like a giant beetle that was under attack by a swarm of oversized ants. At least a dozen bodies crawled over the hull and nose of the helicopter, rushing to finish the installation of The Ray of Hope. Ben, Tate, Nick and Alice were all busy tying the cables to the side of the hull. Inside the rear cabin, the teenager who’d been rescued with Hannah Cain was quickly handing various tools to Squirrel as he finished with the modifications to the generator.
“How much longer?” asked the teenager.
“We’re almost there,” Squirrel told her. He looked up from the connection box and offered her an optimistic smile. “I hope.”
The girl smiled back, and Squirrel realised that underneath all that grime she was actually quite pretty. Years of malnutrition had aged her somewhat prematurely. Her cheekbones were too sharp and he could almost see the ridges of her eye sockets, but she was still pretty, nonetheless.
For a second, Squirrel forgot about the gravity of their situation. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Ella,” she replied, shyly.
“That’s a pretty name,” he remarked.
She looked away and Squirrel wasn’t sure if he saw her cheeks redden underneath all that dirt. They stood silent, the awkward moment stretching out.
Alice broke the silence when she appeared at the cabin entrance. “What’s left to do?” she asked. She sensed she had interrupted something and grinned slightly when they both made an exaggerated attempt to continue what they’d previously been doing.
Squirrel cleared his throat, “Ah… have you run the cable from the gyroscope into the cockpit?”
“Done.”
“What about the searchlight itself?”
“Ben’s adding the finishing touches to it now.”
Despite the immediate seriousness of their situation, Ben had insisted on following everybody else’s progress with a can of paint and brush in hand. He was systematically covering the scratches and burn marks made from the various tools and welds that had been required to fix The Ray of Ho
pe in place. Also, an additional layer of bullet-proof glass had been roughly bolted over the glass membrane, which Squirrel had reassured would protect the lens from anything but a direct hit from a rocket attack. Without thinking he’d fired a shot at point-blank range, as if to prove the fact, and the ricocheting bullet had missed Ben’s head by a hair’s breadth.
Now Squirrel said, “Then all I need to do is this.” He bent over the connection box and placed three fuses into their housings. He closed the lid using two screws to tighten it. Then, with a silent prayer, he flipped the isolator switch up. The copper blades inside slotted home. Closing the electrical circuit.
“Hold your breath,” he grimaced.
Ella reached out and took hold of his hand. “Fingers crossed,” she said, holding her other hand up. Alice crossed her fingers also. She stood anxiously as Squirrel’s free hand hovered over a large green button.
“Here goes …” he said, and hit the switch.
Nothing happened. Not even the pop of blown fuses. Then the generator began to whine. Just a quiet hum of electrical energy to begin with, but it quickly grew into a roar of powerful machinery. Thick smoke coughed out of a vent, covering all three in a layer of black silt.
“You did it,” Ella congratulated. She leaned over and kissed his smeared cheek. They moved around to the front of the Huey. A small crowd of people had gathered around the cockpit. A bright ray of incandescent light burnt hope onto all their faces.
It was almost time for them to fight back.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Ezekiel watched as the first group of prisoners worked their way along the dirt track. About twenty in all were headed for the summit. At first, they moved away from the perimeter of the army with caution and trepidation. However, once they realised the vampires’ intentions were real, they quickened their pace and eagerly put distance between themselves and their keepers.