Second Genesis

by Eric Williams

  To heal himself, his cells had spent most of their reserves fighting off the ghouls assimilation cells, along with cleaning up the toxic residue from the battle. He had traded one fever for another. His body was burning up inside from the need to feed. It felt like he had heartburn, traveling down every vein in his body as his cells begged for replenishing nutrients found only in the blood. The pain was dampening his morality, his mind was becoming feral.

  He sat up and took the pose of a hungry animal, like a crouched cat, looking over the edge of the dilapidated bus. He growled at the ghouls below. Nothing seemed to phase them. He let out a roar, again they seemed unphased, the only thing his roar did, was attract a few more ghouls coming his way.

  Xairin was like a trapped cat surrounded by a pack of dogs. He couldn’t fly, he hadn’t the energy for it. The heart burn like sensation traveling throughout his body wasn’t helping either. He needed to get off the top of this bus.

  The perched vampire chattered his teeth together, hoping his biosonar would reveal something nearby. He had the strength enough to leap off and go into a run, but a rat or two wasn’t going to cut the blood heat he was feeling.

  To his dismay, no deer were nearby. No rats, no rabbits, nothing. The ghouls mustering, were causing them to run off and hide, even though he ghouls had no interest in them.

  Xairin ran to the other end of the bus, the front of it, was flat, like most charter busses were. A hole near the driver's seat posed a problem, aged with rust, his foot fell through it. He pulled his leg up, and steadied his footing. From this end, he chattered his teeth again, hoping something useful would present itself.

  Around the street’s left corner, right at the end, the outlines of two humans held up, trying to barricade themselves by putting as many items as they could in front of a rusted door that opened inward in an effort to keep out a ghoul attempting to enter their alleyway to their hideout.

  Xairin shook his head. He knew that whatever he was to feed from wouldn’t survive. He needed too much blood.

  Xairin slumped forward, his hands rested on the edge as his knees buckled. The pain was getting worse. His control over his body was losing. Now the beast was set free.

  The alien and bat infused nature lurking inside him suppressed his humanity. The ghouls were coming to the font of the bus, the side was starting to rock now that there were almost thirty pushing against it. Each ghoul having the same red eyes. This was no concern to the starving vampire.

  Xairin leaped like a frog, and landed on his feet about fifty feet away from the bus. His nose was sniffing the air like a wolf on the hunt. His vision became pure heat seeking, seeing the infrared structures around him, and the cold bodied corpses on his trail.

  He lurked around the street, until his senses caught the location of his intended prey. He could see past the walls, inside the building. It was a brick building adjacent to a back alley entry. There the ghoul was pounding on what was left of the metal door. Xairin cocked his head and glared at the predator that he was competing with.

  His body wasn’t his own anymore, his blood was. Xairin’s body ran down the alley, and leaped, clinging to the side of the building like an insect. He growled at the ghoul below.

  He climbed upward, scaling the side of the building as his hands made him appear to be some superhuman mutant, climbing it with ease. He stopped mid-way up and looked at the brick wall in front of him. His infrared vision had enhanced to the point of seeing behind the wall. He could see the heart beats of two people continuing to build up their barricade. His vicious face just grinned.

  Inside the building, a man and a woman, both early twenties were scrounging what metal they could carry to put against the aged door. The hinges on it were wearing out. After a few large objects, they managed to lean some metal shelving, wedging it against the door.

  They were both dirty, dressed in tattered clothing, a clear sign of the scavs of New York City, that opposed a world government rule.

  The pair ran down the hallway, shutting another door. They knew that the wedge might not hold if more ghouls arrived so the attempted to block a second door. They were using flashlights, the woman, holding it, as the man used what strength he had left to push another metal shelf against the second door. There was no way to wedge this one. It simply slid against it.

  The two had been living in this building for quite some time. They had been born into the scavenger lifestyle. Both of them came from parents that opposed worldwide governorship and felt it was better to adopt such a lifestyle opposed to what the GA offered. Misguided thinking…

  The building had but the one exit on the bottom floor, the only other one they had was the roof. The roof had rope they could use to climb down the other side, hoping it fared better. Given the lack of technology, scavs were fighting the ghoul and animal outbreak on their own, they had no warnings, despite the survey crews that were coming into the city to help deliver medicine and such. Only hearsay rubbish, the man told his mate, hearsay that he now knew was real…

  “Yodi, what are we going to do?” She said sobbing.

  “The roof, we have to make it to the roof!” HE yelled.

  The woman’s hood covering her head fell back, revealing her dingy unkempt hair. She was starting to become hysterical. “THOSE THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE OUT THERE!”

  Yodi, her partner, shook her. “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF BARB, WE HAVE TO GO!”

  The sounds coming from the metal door were getting louder. They both turned to the second door to hear the bending of metal and the moaning noises the ghouls made. They knew by the sounds coming down the hallway, he wasn’t alone anymore.

  “OH FUCK!” Barb yelled out.

  Yodi grabbed her by the arm, and drug her as he led the way. He took the flash light from her. They started running.

  They entered a room at the end of the hallway where Yodi found an old desk. The building was a supply house of some sort. Most of the goods were aged. Paper goods mostly. The desk in the room, served as a means to slow the ghouls down. He pushed with all his might to slide the heavy metal desk against the third door. It's legs began to give way from age. It fell, forcing him to push it without aid from his screaming wife.

  “SHHHH!” He tried to say. “They will hear you!”

  Breathing heavily he rushed to her and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her cries. “We have to go!”

  The took another hallway, that led upward. It was standard metal staircase that led to the roof. Quickly the two made it up the stairs. Barb whimpering the entire time.

  On the fourth floor, they began running down a hallway that had small offices on each side of the long stretch, every ten feet, they passed another room. The goal was to get to the very end where the last staircase led to the roof. “We’re almost there Barb!”

  The sounds of a large animal filled the hallway. Barb thought it sounded like a tiger. The unholy purring sounds it made, started the woman. “What was that?” Yodi wasn’t expecting such a noise either and dropped the flashlight.

  The door beside them, the last office to pass that was the closest to the stairway to the attic, was where the noise came from. The flashlight that dropped out of Yodi’s hand rolled right near that door.

  Both stood there. The sounds got louder, this time it sounded like it was coming from behind them. Whatever it was, was moving. They could hear the lion like sounds it made when it took a breath.

  :”OH LORD YODI WHAT IS THAT?”

  The two clung together, Yodi holding her tightly to him. He backed against the right wall, and slid slowly. They heard glass crash, then the growling was coming from another office, the same one where the flashlight rolled too. Something had went outside and was using the windows. Yodi was sure of that at least.

  The moaning down stairs was getting louder as well. Ghouls were flooding the building. The sounds coming from below, began to drown the noises they were hearing upstairs. Yodi knew they had to move, and it had to be now.

  He reached down and
grasped the flashlight, and shined it into the room. All he saw was a blur, a shadowy blur, that went back out the window. “FUCK THIS!” He said.

  They began running up the last flight of steps, their feet clanged on the metal, alerting the ghouls to come upward.

  The fire escape door was the last obstacle in their path. Yodi ran against it. The door didn’t seem to want to budge.

  Both of them began pushing against it. The rusted out bottom dragged the flooring, making a scraping noise. They got the door half open. Yodi slid through first. He turned around to grab Barb’s hand and help pull her through since it wouldn’t open all the way. “Give me your hand Barb!”

  Barb reached out for Yodi when his eyes widened enough in the faint light to alert her. Yodi was pulled through abruptly. “YODI!” She screamed.

  Barb pushed herself through the partially opened door and onto the rooftop. Yodi was lying there on the ground making a whimpering noise, muffled in gurgling sounds. She gasped at what she saw. A winged creature, white in color, hairless, wearing clothing was ripping into her husband's throat. The creatures wings, the clawed tips had impaled the man, while viciously clawed hands were holding him down. Barb could only scream.

  The monster looked up at her with its red eyes and snarling sharp teeth. It stood up slowly. She saw it's hideous bat like face.

  She turned around, to slid back in through the door, but a ghoul was waiting. It reached out for her, ripping her tattered shirt. She screamed again as the thing was squeezing through the opening. The sleeve to her shirt ripped, allowing the undead thing’s grasp on her to release. She fell backwards.

  Barb was crawling backward, crab walking while looking up at the nail like teeth chattering at her as the ghoul fell when another of its brethren piled on top of it, forcing the door open.

  She turned around to get up and try and run. The only thing she could think of now was leaping to her death. It was either that, or be eaten alive.

  The bat like creature was waiting on her when she stood upward. It grasped her, and bit into her throat. It's powerful wings were at the ready. Her body slumped over in its arms. It ran to the edge, and leaped, carrying the woman as it glided over to the next rooftop away from the pack of ghouls.

  The thing landed and dropped her body. Her head laid in such a way, that she was able to look over at the rooftop as the ghouls mustered around Yodi’s body. Meanwhile the thing that took her began to feed from her throat. The last noises she heard was the cat like breathing it made, this kept up, until her heart stopped.

  Xairin’s head shook back and forth as his fangs tore into her throat. He kept sucking the blood as hard as his mouth could muster. He kept on gorging until finally, the blood began to cool. The temperature change stopped his feeding.

  He sat on his knees and looked up roaring again. He looked at the night time sky above him as his beastly shrieks filled the air. Inside his body, the pain was going away. The animal furry inside him that propelled him to feed that had overridden who he was became sedated. Xairin was becoming aware. His nosferatu features reverted, until he sat here on his knees and looked down.

  The sight he saw wasn’t what he had hoped it would be. He had killed two people. The taste of their blood hinted to him they were drug users, likely dealers given the amount he was tasting. Vampires were immune to most drugs, and what they were not, they developed a resistance over time. That didn’t make him feel any better about what he did. All he could think now was how bad he wanted to help people, he had such good intentions, which paved the way for him to kill his first two humans.

  He sat back and sobbed.

  _____

  Bastion City Border Bridge, formerly known, as the Jersey Bridge..

  Xairin couldn’t believe what he had become, and what he had done. The thoughts of killing a human being caused him to sit there and weep uncontrollably. “How could I have done this?” He whimpered in the darkness.

  He remembered Ethan’s warning, about anticipating his cravings for blood. Hell, those damn videos he had to watch beat that into his head. The more you use your abilities, the more often you will need to feed until you adapt and evolve. Xairin wished Ethan would have told them about ghoul bites, but that never crossed his mind to ask.

  Xairin could only sit there in his self-loathing. Part of him wanted to let the ghouls eat him as penance for what he had just did. Another part of him thought back to the children he had come there to save. He was at a loss for words on what to do next.

  The scene at the bridge was a dire one. A truck had arrived. Not a hover truck, but an automobile. It had on the back of its bed, what looked like a cannon, but in reality, it wasn't. It was a holoprojector, a high powered one. The beam it was shooting at the aged bridge leading into Bastion city from across the ruins, looked like a movie projector, projecting onto a screen. It wasn't a screen… It was projecting a solidified wall of energy that conformed to the bridges dimensions. The wall was blue, yet translucent. On the side where Ezra and his fellow officers had mustered, they could see easily what was on the other side of the holoprojection. It was estimated that two thousand or more scavs opted to live in the ruins of New York City. To Ezra, it was clear that at least two hundred of them were now ghouls, ghouls that were beating on the holoprojectors solidified barrier it was emitting.

  More than two dozen officers had arrived along with several HKC droids. They were setting up a perimeter on their side of the old bridge that had only recently been upgraded as plans to reclaim New York were under way.

  The problem at hand, which Ezra and his partner Marine already surmised was that the battery to the shield generator was finite, it had a limit. Switching out the battery would require shutting it down, and as Ezra figured as he looked at his tablet, a second holoemmiter of this size wasn’t available to make the swap.

  Commander Fentrose was on site. She was making rounds, inspecting the weapons that were arriving, as well as dictating orders. She noticed Ezra and Marine approaching. “I was wondering if you two were in route.”

  “Aside from the obvious, what’s going on here Commander?” Marine asked.

  The cyborg shrugged. “Four hours ago one of our patrols across the bridge went missing. “She pointed at the border patrol posts that had been built onto the sides of the bridge’s entryway. “Two hours later, four guardsmen reported a single ghoul sighting on the bridge. They shot it down, but it seemed to make matters worse, more showed. We have lost nine men to the undead ranks before we were able to establish the holoshield.” She crossed her arms. “Drones have reported at least 267 ghouls on bridge, and another hundred or so coming this way.”

  Hannibal approached. He was curious as to why they just didn’t blast the bridge, or open fire. “Why don't we just blast the fuckers?”

  Marine scoffed. “Because you idiot, if we miss and hit the water, the current could carry them down stream. A ghoul won't cross water on its own, but you start knocking them off that bridge and what do you think will happen Hannibal? The current could carry them anywhere. They could wash up along shorelines for miles.”

  Ezra nodded while his eyes widened. “It would be far too hard to contain them at that point.”

  Ezra looked at his commander. “What about a laser grid? Fry them as they tried to come through?”

  The commander nodded. IT was something she had already in the works, the problem was when the equipment could even arrive. “It's already been requested Detective Huxley. We’re just waiting on it to arrive. The problem is the holoshield may not last that long. I’ve requested aid from the Society.”

  Marine nodded. “We need to get this under wraps quickly.”

  “No shit!” Hannibal said while looking at the mob of hungry mouths chattering their teeth on the other side of the wall. Hannibal zoomed in at the wall with his tablet. He could see the entrails and chests ripped open on some, while others were clearly bitten. Their bodies were covered in bite marks.

  _____

  Apartmen
t 706J

  Lillian’s watch started to vibrate. She brought up her white watch to her eye level and pressed a small button on the side. A face emitted above it, the face of a man in red kevlar, wearing a red helmet. “Miss Rutherford.”

  Her eyebrows slanted. “What is it?”

  There is a situation here in Bastion city. A ghoul infestation has been reported off of Bastion City Bridge. The humans are requesting aid.”

  “Approve their request. Just how bad is the infestation?”

  Her trooper sent her a live feed from one of the circular drones hovering off the side of the bridge. Alex and Lillian both watched the feed with distressing glares. “Approve whatever the humans need, and get a tactical team down there to assist. I myself will be on my way.”

  Lillian zoomed in on the feed, taking note of the red eyes on most of the ghouls at the bridge. “Those red eyes. Clearly it's a vampire created by the same bat Xairin was. We need to find him.”