by Maxey, Phil
“You found some Alkrons here?” said Keller.
She hesitated in responding then nodded.
“And they know you are working for the corporation?”
She nodded again. “Copeland is coming. And he will do his best to destroy this town, and the people left in it.”
Bishop got to her feet. “You think us and a bunch of hillbillies with hunting rifles are going to be able to stop thousands of vamps? Other tac-teams and god knows what else he’s got?”
“There’s a high-security prison about seven miles north of here. That’s where I was last night with some of the Alkrons. We were taking weapons there that belonged to Holland and his people… but we ran into a lot of vamps. Today we’re going to clear them out, and start moving people and supplies there. It would take a modern-day army to take that place. Vamps will be pretty useless against it. If we can get the townspeople inside it, and with the right defenses, we can fight Copeland’s creatures off.”
Sighs came from more than one in the long room as everyone thought through their next moves.
Keller looked back at Carla. “These Alkrons really on our side? They’re going to fight for this place too?”
“Yeah.”
Keller walked to his bed and picked up his pack. “Then let’s get started.”
*****
Joel slowed the truck on the road a mile from the prison.
"I can't see anything moving," he said, scouring the landscape. Dark remains of vamps broke up the beige and green fields as well as within the high metal fencing.
He clicked on his radio. “Not seeing anything alive so far. Over.”
Carla responded that she and her people were ready.
Joel slowly pushed down on the gas, and the large truck which they had crammed the remaining smaller weapons and ammo into moved cautiously along the narrow country lane, then turned onto the track to the main prison gate.
He drove over ragged vamp bodies and past the first open gate. He noticed looking in his rear mirror that two soldiers jumped out the back of Carla’s truck, and jogged off in opposite directions around the inside of the first fence.
Joel passed the second then third and stopped outside the small entrance in the vast concrete wall they ran from just six hours earlier.
As he sat with the engine idling, Carla’s truck, and two more pickups pulled in alongside him.
“What do you think?” he said to Anna sitting next to him.
She looked up at seventy-feet-high gray walls, with spikes and razor wire running along the top of them, then to the even higher towers at each corner, half a mile away to her left and right, and felt an emotion she hadn’t felt since before the Scourge. Hope.
“Pretty impressive, right?” said Joel.
She nodded.
“It’s a mess inside though. The place is full of vamps, looks as if the wardens and guards just upped and left. Most of the prisoners got infected then turned, some of them being strong enough to break out, but most are stuck in there still, starving for blood.”
“There was probably more than what you saw last night. Those were the strongest, they must have survived by feeding off those that took longer to turn and weaker vamps.”
“We’re going to try and funnel them into one area then take them out…”
Carla, some of her soldiers, and some of Holland’s people, all well-armed ran through the entrance.
“How’s Dalton?” he asked.
“He seems to be healing, but I have no idea how or why. Alkron physiology is… umm our physiology is quite different to human, at least on the micro-biological level. It’s a whole new world of medicine.”
Joel smiled and squeezed her hand briefly. “The world will need someone to teach it.”
She gave an anxious smile back. “I guess, but it’s more Rachel’s field.”
Joel pushed open the door. “Then work together. The more we learn, the less of an advantage the corporation has over us.”
She nodded and they both got out.
Soon, he was standing at the end of the long wide corridor which he and Dalton escaped from. Carla was standing with Keller.
She looked towards the door. “That’s the cellblock you and Dalton were inside of?”
Joel nodded.
Keller peered through the small thick glass that was covered in smears of pink on the inside. Just visible beyond were mounds of vamps. Twitching limbs suggested they were alive, but sleeping.
“What you think?” said Carla.
“Four of us with semiautomatics—” He turned to Joel. “—With one of your kind to back us up, in case any break through, should be enough.”
Joel nodded. “Sounds a good plan.”
Carla walked away while talking into her radio.
“You military?” said Keller to Joel.
“FBI operator. HRT.”
“I knew there was something about you… and now you’re what? Some kind of vamp?”
“A guy trying to stop vamps.... How long you been with Carla?”
Keller smiled. “You got on first names basis with her pretty quick. Only a few months. I was assigned to her unit by someone you knew. Colvin… He was a good man.”
Joel could hear the blood flow increase around Keller’s body as well as hear his muscles tensing.
“I didn’t know him…”
Carla walked back to them. “We’re dividing into four teams. We’ll go block to block, the others are searching the other parts of the prison.”
Outside, Evan and Donnie looked at the damp sodden ground that sat within the large wall, and the covered metal cages which were the prisoners only taste of the outside world. A vamp slammed up against one of them, not understanding why it couldn’t get to the two figures a hundred yards away.
The two young men had hardly shared two words since Carla told them to go and check out the towers. Donnie had made some comment under his breath about who put her in charge, but only Evan heard it.
They walked along the fence, being aware of where the single vamp was. It sliced and clawed at the fence which rattled then scrambled upwards like a bug, until dropping back to the ground. The metal links held firm.
“Kinda feel sorry for it,” said Donnie.
“The only ones we should feel sorry for are ourselves,” said Evan as they approached the door at the base of one of the towers. “That thing isn’t human anymore, it doesn’t feel disappointment, or hope, it just knows it’s hungry.”
Donnie went to walk towards it with his own M4 rifle raised.
“No, leave it. The others will find it. We need to see what’s in these towers.”
Evan walked closer to the black door, and extended his hearing to beyond it. Donnie went to talk, but Evan held up his hand. Donnie frowned and turned away. The infected thing wanting to eat them was more interesting.
“Can’t hear anything moving around in there,” said Evan. He looked at the keypad entry system, took a few steps back then slammed into the otherwise secure-looking door which immediately broke from its frame and fell backwards.
Evan recovered his balance and walked into a room with banks of desks running along the wall and computers sitting atop them. There was a narrow single metal staircase as well as a cage on the wall with batons clamped inside it.
Donnie ran past Evan, pulled the cage open, and pulled one of the two-foot-long thick metal and rubber sticks from its clasp. He gripped tighter, and a charge of blue sparks leapt from the end. “Cool,” he said.
“Not sure they’re going to be any good against vamps. That’s probably why they’re still there. If a guard got close enough to use one, the vamp would have killed him anyway.”
Crackling filled the air once more. “Don’t care, it’s cool. I’m keeping it.”
Evan shook his head and started the trek up the reflective steps. Each impact causing a clanging to reverberate through the rest of the stairwell. He looked upwards, trying to see anything or anyone above him, but there were only mor
e layers of mesh until it reached the top. He moved quicker and quicker and came out into the small room with three hundred and sixty degree glass windows within a few seconds.
Even with knowing how high the towers were the view still surprised him. He looked at the town to the southeast. From his vantage point he could see the entire camp and most of the fence which ran around it. He could see why Carla was so insistent on the inhabitants relocating to the prison. He also saw for the first time people moving amongst its streets. In the built up central area, small dots stopped and moved past each other as well as larger objects which he presumed were vehicles.
“Woah, you can see for miles,” said Donnie behind him. He banged the charge baton on the single desk then the back of a chair, playing in an imaginary band.
“So, you going back to your farm anytime soon?” said Evan, still looking out, but now towards the south which was a mixture of marshland and small groups of trees.
Donnie stopped and looked at the back of Evan’s head. “Not anytime soon, no. What’s it to you?”
Evan shrugged. “Just thought your parents would wonder where you are. I thought you were just getting supplies and heading back.”
“I’m not going to ditch Joel and everyone else. This is where I need to be.” He started back down. “Let’s check out the other towers.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Holland stood at the base of a stone plinth. Above and behind him a piece of turn-of-the-century farming equipment, painted and clean, sat waiting for its master to return.
Ahead of him, in the town’s square were a few thousand people, most using those standing next to them as buffers against the strong wind.
Holland leaned over slightly to Amos while keeping his eyes on the crowd. “Read them for me, what do they know?” he whispered.
Amos didn’t need to focus his thoughts, he didn’t even really need to use his abilities at all, the doubt and fear were apparent on the faces ten yards in front of him. Still, he plucked some words and phrases from a few skulls regardless. “Some are concerned about being kicked out, others that there are vamps inside the fence already. None of them know about going to the prison.”
Holland nodded then stood upright. He raised his hands and a hush descended across the masses.
“Why we out here freezing our asses off!” shouted an elderly woman.
“I won’t keep you out here long,” shouted Holland. “I got some good news and I got some bad news…”
Conversations kicked off amongst the crowd, Holland waved his hands up and down once more.
“The bad news is that there’s something coming. Something which we won’t be able to keep out of town…”
A barrage of questions came at him.
“What’s coming?”
“Why won’t the fence stop it?”
“What are you going to do about it, eh?”
Amos sensed a number of people starting to make plans to leave.
Holland waved again. “The good news is that when it arrives here, we will be somewhere else. We are getting the prison—”
This time the shouts combined to a chorus. Holland slid a large revolver from the back of his pants and fired it off into the air. Everyone froze and the only noise was the northerly gusts.
“Have I not kept all of you safe from those things outside? The fact that all of you are still breathing, eating, and shitting is down to me. I did that. And I’m telling you now that the prison is our only chance to survive what’s coming for this town. Now, you all have tonight to get your stuff together. Be outside your homes at eight a.m. tomorrow to leave. You all got that? Or I gotta fire this gun to wake you all up again?”
Murmurs of acceptance rippled around the crowd.
Holland walked to his pickup where Art was waiting.
The older man had a radio in his hand. “We found the pickup. Just one man hiding out in an old factory about ten miles across the border.”
“How was he talking to his boss?” said Holland.
“Looks like they can still use cell phones. Some kind of special satellite network that the corporation can access.”
“Did he send on what we wanted him to say?”
“Took some persuading, but he did it eventually.”
“Good, now he’s done that keep him there—” Holland put his arm around Amos’s shoulder who flinched. “—I want my little friend here to have a look inside his head.”
*****
Joel jumped from a second-floor balcony impaling one vamp upon landing. He pulled the broken iron pipe from the dead body and ripped it across a second vamp that had already been hit twice by M4 rounds and was about to lunge at Bishop. The creature fell, clawing at the ground just a few inches from the soldiers boot.
She pointed her rifle down at its head and let out one more burst, killing it dead. She looked at Joel and his eyes returned to their human versions. “Err… thanks.”
Joel, covered in blood from the last few hours of slaying vamps, nodded as he walked past her back into the hallway which acted as a hub between the last remaining vamp-infested cellblocks.
He leaned down, picking up an old rag which he had already left there as well as the radio, and started cleaning his hands as he clicked on the radio. He told the others that cellblocks ‘F’ and ‘H’ were clear.
Keller’s voice came through the speaker along with gunfire.
“You need our help?” said Joel.
“No—” The cracking of bullets splitting the air came to a stop. “—The dining hall is clear. Over.”
Carla’s voice then came from Joel’s radio. “That was the last location with signs of vamps. I think we’re done. Everyone meet in the dining hall. Keller, we’re coming to you. Over.”
Some of the soldiers with Keller finished piling the bodies of vamps on top of each other as Joel and Bishop pushed through the green double doors into the large square room. Twenty others sat on chairs and tables looking tired, but happy with their work.
Joel walked up to Carla. “Any injuries?”
She knew what he really meant was, were any cut and could possibly be infected.
“Lots of bruises and they will be sore in the morning, but no one’s infected.” She turned to the others. “Good work everyone. We need to get all the bodies outside. We can’t burn them because it will draw too much attention, so tomorrow we’re going to create a pit to throw them into.”
Joel noticed how different she looked from when he first saw her. This woman had hope for the future whereas the person before was just pretending they did.
Joel spotted Anna talking to some others. “Did you get a chance to check out the medical facilities?” he said, walking over to her.
“I did, one ward with five beds, a small theatre for procedures, and a small lab for blood work. It’s better than nothing.”
Twelve miles to the south-east, Amos got out of a pickup and approached the blocklike building with trepidation. The fear of the bound man deep inside was radiating off the walls like heat.
Holland and Art, along with two other guards pushed open the door, and walked inside. Amos followed.
Weaving around large pieces of metal bent into pipes, wiring, and other shapes that Amos couldn’t see any purpose for, they finally arrived at a narrow staircase which they climbed and entered a small office which looked out over the factory floor.
Even without the smell it was obvious the man had been living in the forgotten space for some time. The floor was littered with open cans, their contents rotting inside. In the center of the room sat the enemy, his hands bound behind his back, his feet tied to the chair, a gag across his mouth, and a blindfold across his eyes.
His head picked up when the new group walked past the two men guarding him.
Amos knew what Holland wanted of him, but when he discovered he could read the thoughts of others, this is not how he saw his future. Poking around the mind of a condemned man.
Holland looked at Amos. The young man nod
ded, and sighed.
“Well… do your thing!” said Holland.
Amos knew if he told Holland that he already extracted the important pieces of memory, the man would be dead a few moments later. “I need more time.”
Holland shook his head, frowning, then nodded to the others in the room to leave. He then stepped to the door. “You got five minutes. You got that?”
Amos nodded.
What the fuck do I do?
Trickles of blood ran down the man’s face, and dark red patches covered his pants and shirt. He was already in a bad way. Usually his need for blood wasn’t accelerated by the smell and sight of it, something else which made him different to most vamps, but, for some reason, the individual in front of him looked like a prize thanksgiving turkey ready to be feasted on.
Maybe I should do it. Put this guy out of his misery. Maybe…
The flimsy door opened, and before Amos had a chance to cover his ears, the small space was filled by the boom of a single shot and the stench of gunpowder. The chair and man fell over backwards.
“That wasn’t five minutes!” said Amos to the guard with the gun. A high-pitch whine resounded in his ears.
Holland stepped back in. “I know you were stalling. You’re young and even though you’re a vamp, don’t like the killing. I get it. But that’s going to have to change. So what did you learn?”
Amos rubbed his ears while looking up at the taller man. “We have to step up the schedule, they are already on their way.”