The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel

by Hawley, Ashlei D.

  Phoebe nodded and clutched her mother’s jacket and book tighter. “We have what we need. Let’s go.”

  They both ran to their agreed upon doors. Though the Rippers saw them and began moving toward the vehicle, neither of them were in any danger from the slow-moving creatures.

  “The sun really drains them, doesn’t it?” Phoebe asked as she squeezed in between the kids. With the supplies on the floor, the fit was tight and uncomfortable. She was able to get in the back with Jameson without causing too many problems, especially seeing as there was one less child to maneuver around.

  “Yeah, lucky us,” Leland agreed as he gunned the van out of the daycare parking lot. Phoebe wished she could see it out of the tarp-covered windows. She was sure it would be the last time see would ever see it.

  “Not all of us,” Jameson commented as he huddled in the corner. The blanket sat close to him, just in case. “I already want the night back.”

  PART III – SURVIVORS

  Chapter Eighteen – No Rest for the Wicked

  The city had become an impassable, wreckage-filled hell after the first night of the Ripper incursion. Though it would take them hours out of their way, Jameson suggested going around the city.

  “We’ll have to avoid the freeways,” he said. “Regrettable, but you know they’re going to be even worse than the city. Everyone and their grandmother would have been trying to get away on the highways.”

  “If we see a clear stretch, we should try for it,” Leland commented in an off-handed tone. He was keen on keeping options open. “You know the area we’re trying for?” he asked Jameson.

  “Actually, yeah. You’re going to want to go through Cedarburg, then it’s a lot of hilly, rural area until you hit Alexander. A little while after that, there’s a tiny little place called Springfield that you’ll hit about an hour before Greenville, which is where the farm is. Greenville is bittier than Alexander. I think if you sneezed while driving through, you’d miss it. Good choice, Phoebe.”

  He’d hoped to get a smile out of the girl, but she’d fallen asleep again. He frowned at her, worried about the possibility of a more serious injury than they knew. If the fall had really hurt her by causing internal bleeding or damage to her brain, what could they do? She could be dying a slow, exhausting death without any of them being able to do anything about it.

  And what about Elise? She was only a month or two away from her due date. Without a doctor or a hospital, the process of giving birth was going to be incredibly difficult; more so than usual.

  Jameson sighed and adjusted his position in the back. There was no reason to worry about things he couldn’t change or help, especially when they weren’t an obvious problem yet. He’d have to take over driving when the night came, so he figured he should get some sleep.

  Even though Joselyn had told him he could operate with little sleep for an extended period of time, he just wanted to shut down his brain for a while. He didn’t want to think about crazy, cannibalistic infected people or the girl he might have seriously damaged. Nor did he want to entertain thoughts of Joselyn; the lover he’d lost, the maker who’d abandoned him in the first days of his new life. What had she died for? Jameson felt for the flash drive and found it still secure in his pocket. He hoped he’d be able to figure that out eventually.

  Between Leland and Elise, they were able to drive for several hours. Even in the smaller towns, crashed vehicles sometimes made the passing of a large van like Elise’s impossible.

  Around 6p.m., they stopped to put gas in the van’s tank. When Leland stepped out to do the job, he noticed they were close to a freeway entrance.

  “It looks pretty clear,” he told Elise as he hopped back into the passenger seat. “I think we could risk it, seriously. Instead of driving through the boonies for another three hours, we could get on the freeway and cut that time down to a half hour.”

  “But what if we get stopped and have to turn around?” Elise worried.

  “We could do that through these small ass towns, too. Might as well do it somewhere we’ll move quicker.”

  Elise nodded and turned the vehicle toward the on-ramp. “They’ve been out a long time,” she remarked of Phoebe and Jameson. The kids were asleep again, as well. Elise envied them all.

  “He’s used to the nightlife and she’s still pretty messed up,” Leland said. “He can handle all the night driving if we need to go much longer, though.”

  Elise shivered. “I don’t want to be on the road all night again. Those things are horrible to watch prowling around, looking for anything they can destroy.”

  Leland agreed mentally but outwardly responded with only a shrug.

  The freeway was clear for the most part from the stretch visible to them. “If it stays like this, we should be golden,” Leland said as he smiled and leaned back. He couldn’t wait to get to the farm, or anywhere else they could be safe for a night. He wanted to stretch and actually relax for a while. A shower would be even better.

  Thirty minutes into the drive down the freeway, Carmen awoke with a thick, hoarse cry. In the back, Phoebe instantly shot up. She groggily reached for Carmen and patted the girl’s thick, dark hair.

  “Shh, honey.” Phoebe’s voice was almost as bad as Carmen’s.

  “Legs hurt,” the girl whined.

  Eli was awakened by Carmen’s voice. He groaned and rubbed at his eyes. “Momma?” he queried in a confused, desolate tone.

  Phoebe stroked his hair, as well. “Honey, we haven’t found your Momma yet. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Feel bad,” Eli said. He began to cry and Phoebe’s face fell.

  Jameson sat up and put what he hoped was a calming hand on her shoulder.

  Phoebe sat back. She tried to gauge the time from the sky she could see out the windshield but all she could tell was it wasn’t quite full dark yet. The night was coming, though. She wanted to get out for a while before the world belonged to the Rippers again.

  “Can we find somewhere to stop?” she asked Elise. “I think the kids could use a stretch. I know I could.”

  She tried to work out the kinks in her back but didn’t have enough space in the back to do so.

  “There’s a rest area just up ahead,” Elise said. “I was thinking of stopping anyway. Now that everyone’s awake, it seems like a fine time for it.”

  “It’ll help everyone out,” Jameson agreed. “Leland, you and I should check it out first to make sure it’s safe. If there are too many cars, we shouldn’t stop.”

  Phoebe, who had moved up to sit between the kids, snapped her head up at that. “No,” she protested. “No, I want to be the one to go with you, Jameson.”

  The vampire’s eyebrows flirted with his wavy bangs. “Wait, what?”

  “I want to go,” Phoebe said. “I need to be more than a babysitter.”

  “Honey, you are more than that,” Elise spoke up as she began to slow the van. “I’ve only been around you for a while and I know that. You don’t have to prove anything to us or anyone else.”

  She parked the car a good distance away from the other two cars in the parking lot. Before Leland could get his seatbelt unbuckled, Phoebe had opened the back of the van and hopped out.

  “Prove it to myself and all those clichés,” Phoebe muttered loud enough for only Jameson to hear. He was just glad the sun had set when she’d decided to start her Miss Apocalypse contest.

  “I’ve got her, guys,” Jameson assured the others. “Keep it running until we come out, okay?”

  Elise nodded and ran a worried hand over her protruding belly. Leland sighed and adjusted his hold on his baseball bat. What kind of weapon had Phoebe taken for herself? She’d grabbed a piece of metal pipe from the convenience store, Leland remembered. He’d laughed when she picked it up. The thick piece of silver metal was almost half as tall as she was. He hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

  “Stay behind me and move slow,” Jameson directed Phoebe as they approached the rest area.

 
The walls, floors, and roof of the building were all creamy white. Trees butted up to it on all sides and a wide sidewalk wrapped all the way around the parking lot. It was a typical type of construction along this stretch of highway. Jameson would have rather been anywhere else than the sterile, silent place.

  “If there’s any of them here, they’re probably in the building,” Phoebe said. She ignored Jameson’s orders and jogged right beside him as they approached. “They seem to have a drive to get out of the sun when it’s daytime.”

  “Well, it’s not daytime anymore,” Jameson reminded her firmly. He took ahold of her arm and stopped her before she opened the door to the women’s area. “It’s night and they’re going to be strong and bat shit insane again, okay? You have to stick behind me and let me go first.”

  “I can handle myself, Jameson,” Phoebe said. The angry, arrogant tone begged him to believe her.

  “You can’t handle shit unless you can do what I say,” he retorted. “I’m stronger, faster, and older than you. As your elder, I get to tell you what to do.”

  Phoebe’s hard expression faltered when confronted with Jameson’s cocky grin. His attempt at placation had worked. Though Phoebe was still angry with herself for reasons she didn’t quite understand, she was no longer taking it out on Jameson.

  “Let’s go in there and not die,” she suggested.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Jameson agreed.

  Jameson eased the door to the women’s area open. Automatic lights had already been activated by motion in the room, so he wasn’t surprised when a blond woman attacked them. Her breasts were bare through her torn shirt and hung to either side of her body by strands of skin and the few remains of her pectoral muscles.

  The Ripper lunged and Jameson finished the job of mangling her upper body. He took her neck in both hands and squeezed until it snapped.

  There were two more female Rippers inside the rest area. They charged Jameson as one and knocked him down. One stayed on top of him, trying to savage his face and neck, and the other went for Phoebe.

  Jameson flipped the Ripper on top of him over to her back and stared into her rabid blue eyes. The electric shade was almost identical to his. Under the grip of the Grissom virus’s madness, the color was the bright turquoise of ocean water on the sunniest of days. Jameson drove his fist through them until he hit the softness of brain matter.

  Phoebe darted to one side as Jameson pulverized the face of the Ripper who’d had the misfortune of attacking him first. The other, a brunette woman who looked like she’d been the one to tear through the first one’s throat, came at the teen girl with a rage-filled snarl.

  Phoebe told herself not to hesitate and swung the metal pipe she’d taken from the convenience store. All of her sadness, anger, and strength went into the swing. She twisted her lean body into the blow. The crack that echoed through the building sickened her as the woman’s head crumpled toward her opposite ear. Her dark eyes went wide for a single instant, and then she dropped to the ground as though her legs had been cut from under her.

  Jameson stood as the door to the men’s area was flung open. Phoebe was slow in her turn; enough so Jameson sprinted past her before she’d even hefted her weapon for a second attack. He hit the male Ripper with enough force to drive it back into the outside wall of the building.

  The stone cracked beneath the Ripper’s body. Jameson heard the spine crack, as well, but the creature showed no evidence of being bothered by the injury. He snapped his head toward Jameson, teeth clicking together as the vampire put one meaty forearm under the beast’s chin.

  Jameson hissed at the Ripper. He bared his fangs and leaned closer. There was something wrong with the blood. It carried the scent of disease and corruption. He didn’t want to feed from the things. He just wanted them destroyed.

  Jameson jerked what was once an attractive man forward and slammed him back into the wall. He did it again, and the blocks to either side buckled under the pressure. On the next hit, the Ripper stopped biting at Jameson’s face. On the last, Jameson let the body go and it slid in a broken heap to the ground.

  “Do you think more will come?” Phoebe asked. Her voice was low, breathy, and told Jameson everything she thought about his display of power and ferocity.

  “Even if they don’t, we shouldn’t stay long,” Jameson suggested.

  He waved the others out of the van. Nothing else moved in the area at the limit of his hearing. Because he could hear things nearly a half mile out, he was confident they would be fine to stretch for a few minutes, at least.

  “You did well,” Jameson complimented Phoebe as the others cautiously made their way from the van. “That pipe worked pretty well for you, yeah?”

  Phoebe nodded and placed the pipe against the side of the building. “My arms hurt,” she admitted. “And so does pretty much everything else.” With a laugh, she shook her head. She twisted her back a few times, stretched out her arms, and shrugged. “Guess it’s something to get used to.”

  “I wish you didn’t have to,” Jameson said.

  Phoebe nodded her agreement. There wasn’t much more to say about that.

  When Leland reached them, he helped Jameson gather up the bodies and deposit them behind the building. They would have some time before they had to move again.

  Chapter Nineteen – The Farm

  “I recognize this place,” Phoebe whispered to Jameson as they drove. He was in the front seat now, and she sat passenger.

  Elise had curled up in the far back with Leland. After some cajoling and assurances that he wasn’t being a creeper, Leland had convinced her to rest her head on his lap. He’d fallen asleep with his back up against the seat and Elise curled around his legs.

  “The farm isn’t far,” Phoebe realized with a jolt of fear and excitement. “Jameson, we’ll be there in less than ten minutes. We made it!”

  Jameson wanted to smile at her surge of exhilaration, but he knew there were thousands of possibilities that could await them. Most of them were negative.

  “You need to stay in the car as soon as he get there,” he warned her. “Please don’t go running off. I know you’re excited about finally reaching your family, but we need to stick together.”

  “Part of my family is in this car,” Phoebe stated softly. “I won’t risk everyone just because I’m stoked about seeing my uncle.”

  “That a girl,” Jameson said with a smile. He patted Phoebe’s knee and laughed when she swatted him.

  “Should we wake the others?” Phoebe asked as she took her seatbelt off and craned forward. She wanted to see the farm more than anything. She desperately hoped there would be someone alive and aware, ready to greet them as they pulled up.

  “Let’s see what we’re getting into first, all right?”

  Phoebe nodded and they drove on in silence. When Jameson came near the turn off for her uncle’s long, winding driveway, she pointed.

  “Right here,” she instructed. She didn’t try to disguise the shake in her hand or voice, but Jameson didn’t mention them.

  The vampire steered the car into the dirt and gravel drive and dropped his speed under ten miles per hour. He scanned the large yard, open fields, and area around the farm house with his keen eyes and super sensitive hearing. What he heard and saw was not encouraging.

  A howl sounded when one of the many Rippers on the property saw the van.

  “They’ll destroy the van,” Phoebe said in a thick whisper. She place her forehead against the glass and hid her tears against the window. “Drive back. We’ll have to park it and get out. We can sneak up on them and leave the others in a safe spot.”

  “Elise,” Jameson shouted toward the back of the vehicle. He hated to wake the people who needed the sleep the most, but they didn’t have time to let any of their allies be idle when they could be helping.

  Elise groaned from the back. Leland shot forward and apologized as he rocked the pregnant woman off of his lap.

  “What’s wrong?” Leland questi
oned.

  Eli and Carmen woke and began to cry. Phoebe tried to comfort them with shushing sounds as Jameson said, “We’ve got trouble on the farm. Rippers. We need Elise to drive the van around and away if need be. Stay ahead of the Rippers and we’ll try to pick them off.”

  Leland grabbed his baseball bat and nodded. “Good an idea as any, I guess,” he said. “Let’s fuck ‘em up.”

  “We don’t have much time,” Jameson said as he reversed the van. “I’m getting out and I’ll draw these first two away. Phoebe, Leland, you’re going to have to follow me in a bit. Be safe, okay?”

  “My uncle has guns,” Phoebe told the group. “Plenty of them. If we can get in the house, can anyone shoot?”

  Leland and Elise shook their heads but Jameson nodded.

  “I can. Get one to me and our chances will be even better.”

  “Okay, we’re about to switch,” Phoebe announced as Jameson slowed to a stop and threw the van in park. “Go, now!”

  Leland rushed out of the back and waited for Elise to get out before he slammed the rear door shut. Jameson had already exited the front seat and rushed toward their attackers in a blur of speed.

  Elise heaved herself into the driver’s seat as Phoebe left the passenger side. “Keep driving,” Phoebe told the pregnant woman. “You have all the precious cargo here. If you start to get overrun, just get out of here. You know the way back. Stay safe until the sun comes up.”

  Elise didn’t have time to respond as Phoebe slammed her door shut and joined Leland in running toward the farm. Torn with worry and fear, Elise did as she’d been told and accelerated the vehicle. She would go around the small town a few times and hope the Rippers didn’t follow her.

  The first Ripper Jameson had come into contact with had a machete in hand; the edge stained crimson. The blade was thrust clumsily at Jameson, who easily avoided the attack. He took the wielding arm and broke it in half, then tore it from the socket altogether. The Ripper yowled in fury and swung the remaining arm toward Jameson’s head.