by Maxey, Phil
Those that took her and her family promised a better life. A life free of being hunted by vamps. A life reclaimed from the old world. The corporation would give her and the thirteen other humans that had been shipped from the small town of Hallstock, a new start. That was yesterday, or maybe it was a week ago, she wasn’t sure.
The journey from home had been crowded but hopeful. She had told her younger brother and parents about maybe getting back into playing the piano if she could find one in the new town they were going too. They all momentarily frowned before laughing.
“I’m not sure my ears could take that again!” said Jerome her sibling, to which she replied she felt the same about his singing.
After a few hours most inside the semi-truck’s trailer were asleep and it came as a surprise when after a jolt the rear door opened. But rather than feeling joy when she stepped down from the back and onto the damp concrete, her brain shouted at her to run, or failing that climb back up and hide in the shadows, pulling her family with her. There was something wrong with the expressions of those who supposedly wanted to help them. No smiles welcomed the column of people that crowded at the entrance of a large warehouse with only darkness at the parking lot’s edges, but instead, there were just soldiers who seem devoid of emotion. When the building’s metal shutter slid up, the group shuffled forward with prods from soldiers and they moved into a large hall, with benches and tables. Plastic cups sat on the latter, neatly arranged at regular intervals. A soldier, someone who looked in charge, told them all to drink up because it might be awhile before they would have more. That seemed odd to Corine, but she looked back at her mother, who nodded to her with a smile, so she sat on one of the long benches, picked up a cup and drank. Soon after the world turned black and her drugged mind was swallowed by an abyss.
The man’s eyes in front of her flickered open then closed, and his body fell limp. The clear tubes inserted into his torso continued to flow red though.
Not long now.
Like everyone else in the cavernous space, she had been tricked. As she felt her life drain away into holes beneath her naked body, she wondered how many other places contained humans who were also fooled by the corporations sales pitch.
So stupid.
She had seen her family die. Their blood drained, they were taken from the metal cradles alongside her, and dumped onto a heap of bodies. From that point onwards when her mind was aware, every minute she was not with them was agony.
Her heart tripped and staggered in her chest, its last effort to keep what was left of her blood moving around her body, then stopped.
Finally.
The slightest of pain in her chest was replaced with a different sensation, one of an olfactory nature. An intense smell surged into her nose and then her brain.
Heaven smells like shit.
Her eyes sprung open. A moment of disappointment of still being bound by the mortal realm was replaced by bewilderment that she was still alive. More than that, she felt strong and her mind clear and present. She had already spent some time when she first became aware of her circumstances trying to move her head, or her hands, which were bound behind her but fatigue quickly overcame her efforts.
From somewhere a lightness had returned to her limbs and she pulled her wrists apart snapping the chain which held them as if it were made from paper. Quickly her hands moved to her neck, and even though she knew it was impossible that she would be able to snap open the manacle she tried anyway. Grasping both sides she pulled. Unlike the chain this did not break instantly, but she soon felt the metal warp and bend. She ignored her mind telling her she must be dreaming and kept pulling until it broke apart completely.
It was then she realized what she was doing was pointless.
I have no blood in my body.
She went to look down at the tubes that were pushed into either side of her stomach, when she caught the eyes of a woman looking at her. They were wide, white and alive with… she didn’t care, she looked down and pulled out the first tube, then the second. A trickle of crimson rolled down her waist.
A drip is all I got left.
Corine knew that everything she was experiencing wasn’t real. How could it be?
Must be some last fantasy my brain is giving me before it shuts down. Might as well enjoy one final show.
She uneasily stood, her knees which she had been resting on sent pain into her legs, making her almost collapse back to the concrete step below.
“Help… me…” The words were barely audible from the woman in front of her.
She walked forward into the space between the rows of hoisted bodies, and went to lift her hand to the woman’s metal collar when a sound rang out from somewhere in the gloom behind. She spun around trying to locate where it had come from, but instead there was just a single light dancing in the distance.
“Help…”
She turned back to the woman, immediately grabbing hold of the strip of silver around her neck and with a little effort pulled it apart. The woman collapsed to the ground, but her gaunt expression contained a smile. She looked up at Corine and took in a deep breath to force one word from her lungs. “Escape…”
“Yes, we’re getting out of here!”
Corine bent down and placing her shoulder beneath the woman’s, lifted her. Despite the woman’s depleted physique Corine was surprised how easily she picked her up, but she didn’t question it too much, none of it was real anyway.
Guess I’m a super hero in this death story.
They staggered forward, the woman’s feet mostly being dragged across the cool rough floor, so Corine lifted the woman’s weight completely, and started to walk faster, between the tortured souls, some of which also pleading with her to stop and take them too but she had no time, one rescue was enough for this charade. The unnerving sound played out again, but she was too afraid to turn around, it was more important to keep going. And then she saw it, a wall was looming, and that meant a door must be close by, one she could use to leave this fantasy.
She arrived at the end of the blood siphoning rows, her feet slapping across the sticky concrete and pivoted, the woman now over her left shoulder, and was about to keep moving when a solid streak of green light cut across her path. She froze. The sound of muffled voices and the patter of boots drifted on the air with the stench of bodily fluids.
She swung around, pushing off from the wall near to her, and surged in the opposite direction, when two more laser beams stopped her again.
“No… no…”
She looked across the emaciated individuals, being held like cattle amongst a sea of iron and steel, for hope of survival, but the green sparkles were now greater in number and seemingly moving towards her. Laughter filled the air, a cackling she knew not to be human in origin.
“Now how did you get out of your harness?”
She pivoted, turning towards a figure in the shadows. As it stepped forward she could see it was almost twice her height and almost completely covered in black and dark gray body armor. She had heard rumors on the internet during the early days of the Scourge that not all vamps were insane killing machines, that some kept a part of their humanity, some had control.
The bald giant of a man, smiled. She noticed his lower jaw was smeared with red.
“Leave… me…” said the woman she was carrying.
“No… I won’t leave—”
“Yeah blood bag, don’t leave… you haven’t been drained yet… Guess I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.” The man’s mouth began to open.
Corine stepped back until she felt the wall behind. Her chest and arms felt warm. She looked down to dozens of small bright green dots across her body.
Strange fantasy this.
The large vamp person walked towards her, his jaw open, revealing rows of razor like teeth. She placed the woman on the ground and waited for her own end to come… for a second time.
As she felt the hybrid’s teeth penetrating the flesh on her shoulder, a strange
thought wanted to be heard from the back of her mind.
What if this is real?.. Nah...
What little life force that was left within her was leaving, and her heart began to stutter.
But what if I’m different? What if—
Her heart pumped one more time, then stopped…
*****
“We have to go…”
“What…” Corine’s eyes opened to the woman’s wrinkled face hovering close to her own.
“More will come…”
Corine blinked but that did not help make sense of the scene in front of her. It was as if she had awoken inside a machine. Limbs, detached, laid scattered amongst a mass of iron beams and columns, bent and twisted from ceiling to roof. A metallic chaos which contained bodies, some wearing uniforms. The woman tugged on her arm. Corine slowly got to her feet. “I don’t understand…”
“I think there’s a way out along here.” The woman looked to a far wall. “I saw them come through it.” For the first time Corine heard the woman’s southern accent.
The woman pulled on Corine’s hand and the young woman obliged. They both staggered along a narrow path, sometimes stepping over or under pieces of metal that jutted out from the mess that filled up the large space they were in. She forced herself not to look at the death, the bodies, but instead pushed on into the darkness until finally the wall felt smooth and with a push a door swung open.
Their world filled with intense light and for a moment she wondered if it were still all a dream, and she had finally entered the afterlife, but then through watery eyes, sky, trees and a beige yellow concrete parking lot came into view. A number of vehicles, some military looking were just a few yards away.
The women went to move forward but then wilted, the effort proving too hard. Corine ran to her, lifting her back up. “Where are we?” Corine asked.
“I don’t… know,” said the woman breathlessly.
Corine was exhausted as well, but still had the strength to almost completely lift the woman, and carry her to the nearest vehicle, a black Humvee. She tried the front passenger’s door, which to her relief opened, and she placed the woman against the seat. She looked past her to the obvious lack of keys.
“We… must… not stay. They… will send…”
“I know, but there are no keys!”
The women looked past Corine to the place they had just come from and Corine’s heart sank.
“I can’t go back…”
“One of those bastards…will have the… keys.” The woman climbed up onto the seat and pulled her legs in.
Corine turned slowly to the three story high warehouse, a place of nightmares despite the early afternoon sun above.
“Quickly, get the—”
Corine closed the passenger’s door. “I know. Get the keys, I heard you the first time, lady.” She looked at the fields, fences and the small groups of trees which swayed in the light but brisk wind. It appeared they were alone, that there was nobody else at the facility, but the women was right. How long before reinforcements came. Vamps that could talk and think like humans? She let out a breath, then jogged forward, regretting each step but soon arrived back at the door which was still open. A stench radiated outwards, making her wince as she was sure it would seep into the pores in her skin, but forced herself to peer inside, into the gloom. The interior of the vast building looked even more insane than the first time. “Did a bomb explode?” she said under her breath. That was the only explanation. The stupid vamp people had somehow ignited a bomb and killed themselves and everyone else. It was lottery win lucky that she and the old lady didn’t get caught in the blast.
She stepped inside, using the light from the door as a guide but feared walking too far into the shadows in case someone or some thing was still alive. She scanned the torn bodies, looking for the ones wearing the black uniforms. Locating one she walked forward, being sure to keep her left hand touching the wall until she was parallel with it. Its flesh hung in parts, forcing her to not look directly at the scene of devastation, but she kneeled and pushed her hand into what pockets she could find.
Nothing.
She went to stand when a wave of nausea made her fall backwards on her ass, and the floor felt as if it was made from rubber. Her hand felt wet. She realized in horror where she had placed it and wanted to push herself away, but instead she brought her fingers closer to her, to her nose at first sniffing the crimson black liquid, and then to her mouth. Her thinking brain reeled in disgust, but another part of her, a newly discovered part licked the blood from her fingers and in turn she felt a surge of energy pulse through her. She sprung to her feet, then backed away, hitting up against the wall.
“What’s happening to me…”
Find the keys.
She shook her head, while wiping her hand on the dusty bricks and kept on walking. A particularly compact group of bodies, replete with uniforms lay enmeshed within metal scaffolding. The scene was almost artful, and for a moment she wondered at the impossibility of it. Contrary to her initial idea of a bomb having exploded, the mound of destruction looked almost as if it had imploded, crushing the vamp soldiers within. She climbed across the wreckage and then through a number of beams and rods, reached into the crush, and started to sort through the pockets of the dead. After a few moments she stopped.
Never going to find them.
Then, almost indistinguishable from the other fragments around them, were a set of keys, hanging from the pocket of a body deep inside the framework. She leaned in, and pushed her fingers forwards as far as she could, and then strained to push them further, but they were beyond her grasp, so she changed tactic and yanked and pulled on the iron construction. Some parts bent but everything was so entangled that that her efforts were obviously not going to work.
“Arggh!” she screamed into the air.
A burst of static noise came from just in front of her and she let out a yelp, staggering backwards, but instantly she could tell the voice was not natural in form, but had come from a speaker. One of the soldier’s radios was still working.
“We’re fifteen minutes out. Do you copy? Over.”
“Shit… shit…”
She sunk to the floor again, this time pushing her shoulder inside the crumpled cage of iron, and her fingers surged towards the silver group of keys. A small glimmer of hope sparked within her. She was sure she could reach them.
“Sergeant Hawkin’s? Respond if you can. Over.”
An iron beam cut into her shoulder, but she didn’t care she needed to get those keys. Her middle finger touched them…
Close…
“Come on…”
They slid away from her and began to fall deeper in.
“No!” she screamed.
The keys jumped into her hand, as if it were magnetized. She froze not understanding what just happened.
“Ten minutes out. Over.”
The radio message jolted her back to sanity, and she crawled backwards, stood, then ran towards the exit.
CHAPTER TWO
Jankle, Alabama, now…
Joel sat in his brown sedan looking at the flurry of work under the floodlights at the train-yard. The locomotive and its long trail of wagons were now a patchwork of iron and steel plating, with slits for windows. Individuals standing on the back of pickups were welding more items, sending sparks into the night sky, while heavy machinery was being loaded onto the back of train cars that were now open.
He picked up his flask, containing the spirit he found in one of the stores earlier in the day, and took a quick mouthful. Only a sip was all he needed to quell the buzzing in his head and allow him to better concentrate.
His radio crackled then the general’s voice sprang from it.
“You out there, Joel? Over.”
He sighed. For a moment he thought about not answering. “I’m here. Over.”
“The young king is asking for you. Over.”
“Now?”
“Yup. Say’s you’r
e going to want to hear what he has to say. None of us can get a word out of him, so I regard this as progress. Over.”
Now he really was regretting answering. “It’s the old medical center right? Over.”
“Yeah. You want an escort there? Over.”
He fired up the engine. “Nope. I’m good. Should be there in ten minutes. Let them know I’m coming. Over.”
“Will do. Over.”
He set out to drive directly to the where Tyror was being held, but instead took a quick detour. A short while later he and Amos were driving south. Joel broke the silence.
“How’s Kizzy?”
“She’s good…”
Joel opened his mouth, but stopped knowing that Amos probably already knew what he was going to say.
“You want me to hang back, not let Tyror see me,” said the young man.
“Yup. We don’t know what kind of link he has with his brothers. Maybe he can communicate with them in some way. I don’t want to give them anything more than they already have on us.”
“You think we’ll be able to stop them when they get here? If they’re in control of the corporation…”
“Just because you have a lot of assets at your disposal doesn’t mean you know how to use them.”
“Yeah but they’re like kings. I saw in Tyror’s head some of the battles they fought.”
They pulled into the medical center’s parking lot.
“With wooden sticks and swords. They’re new to… well, everything. The modern world will be a mystery to them. That buys us a little time.” He turned the engine off and looked at his passenger. “How much did you sense his older brothers value him?”
“You want to know if they will try to get him back or just leave him to us?”
“Yeah.”
“They think he’s reckless, or at least that’s what he thinks they think of him. But they have a bond. I think they will come for him.”