After Dark (19 page)

“In his time, yes,” Opal said, remaining expressionless, like he was making this speech in his sleep. “But unfortunately, the things that shine the brightest in life are often extinguished the fastest.”

“Just as I thought,” Miles exclaimed, taking a step forward. “The infection wastes you away. It's no symbiotic relationship — it's just a simple parasite that sucks the life out of you. And when it's done, it bursts out of the host, looking for a new home!”

“That's a simpleminded way of looking at it,” Opal said. “But soon you will join us, and then you will understand.”

“That's not going to happen!” Cory roared from next door.

“You
will
join us,” Opal said, and Baxter put the top back on the empty crate. “Just like your brother. And yours,” he added, turning to me.

“How long do you get to live before that thing starts to use your skull as its flowerpot?” I asked, easing my way toward the front of the cell again. Dutton was standing within arm's reach. If I could get close enough, I might be able to snatch those keys away.

“All your questions will be answered soon,” Opal said. “There's not much time until sundown, then the blossoms will awaken. Of course, there are other methods we could use, but we thought Mr. Van Helsing would be interested in seeing how it all began.”

Lennox and Baxter picked up the stretcher with the crate on it, leaving the skull sitting on the floor in front of them. I didn't want to even pretend to touch it, but I thought if I made a threatening move toward it, Dutton's police instincts might kick in and he'd try to protect it. In order to do that he'd have to come close to the bars, and then I might be able to grab his keys.

“I'll kill it!” I cried, rushing forward.

I shot my arm through the bars and reached for the skull. That gave me a close-up look at the branches. The blossoms looked like minuscule red spiders. There were thousands of them, stuck to the branches, and I flinched slightly but fought the instinct to pull away. Most of them were trembling back and forth, like they were trying to detach themselves.

“Get back,” Dutton said flatly, squatting beside the skull and sliding it away.

I reached my other arm through the bars and grabbed the ring of keys. I pulled them off his belt, wheeling backward away from the bars. Unfortunately, the keys were attached to a cord, which came whirring out of a small box-like gadget that was attached to his belt. The cord unwound for about three or four feet and then stopped. Dutton, who'd been mid-squat, was caught off guard and fell into the bars

“Stop that,” Opal said, and I thought his voice almost sounded angry. “You cannot prevent the inevitable.”

“Hand them over,” Lennox added, lowering the crate with Baxter.

“Come on and get them,” Miles exclaimed, grabbing on to the cord, too.

Dutton tried to stand up, but we yanked the cord again and he stumbled back into the bars. It's ridiculous, considering the circumstances, but I actually thought to myself that I should add
find out what kind of key-reel-doohickey that is
to my mental to-do list. It was amazingly strong. O'Rourke and I had once used something like it to try to rappel down the side of Weaver Hall, and the cord had snapped almost immediately.

While those slightly insane thoughts were flashing through my mind, Lennox, who had a ring of keys of his own, marched toward the cell door. He pulled the keys away from his belt and an identical cord whirred out of an identical gadget.

“What's happening?” Cory yelled from his cell.

“Be calm, Mr. Frog,” Victor Opal said. “This will only take a moment.”

“Be ready when the door opens,” Miles whispered to me.

My whole body tensed as Lennox slipped the key into the lock. He turned it, the bolt clicked and he pulled the door open an inch.

“Now!” Miles cried and charged at the cell door. He caught me a little off guard, but I still managed to ram into the bars right behind him.

Lennox was caught off guard, too, and under ordinary circumstances he would have been able to hold us back, but he was weaker than normal. So, when we plowed into the door, he stumbled across the hall and crashed into the opposite wall, and the door swung open, sweeping the skull to the side.

“That was a foolish thing to do,” Opal said, and he closed in on us with Baxter, while Dutton and Lennox started to get up off the floor.

“Do your worst!” Miles yelled, his fists up.

Opal took another step forward, and I braced myself for a fight, but then he froze and stood very rigid. The fingers on his hands stretched out, his jaw clenched, the muscles in his neck popped.

“What the …” I began, and then Opal and the others dropped onto the ground, shuddering. It was as if they'd all been electrocuted at the same moment.

“Quick!” Miles cried, grabbing my wrist and dragging me forward.

I stepped over Dutton, who was still shuddering beside the skull. As I did, I saw a single red dot float by my face. I blinked, thinking I was imagining things, but the red dot didn't disappear. Then I noticed another and another, only now I could see they weren't just dots, they were the tiny red spider blossoms that had been attached to the thornbush thing. I glanced down and saw thousands of them, all floating into the air. But they weren't just aimlessly floating, they were converging on us in cloudy swarms. I saw one land on Miles's forearm. He slapped at it, and a squirt of red goo, way more goo than I was expecting for something so small, shot across his arm.

“Cover your mouth and nose,” he said, cupping one of his hands over the lower half of his face and wiping away the goo on his shirt.

“What's happening?” Cory Frog yelled from his cell.

We rushed over to him as hundreds of the spider blossoms floated off the thornbush.

“The keys!” he screamed. “Where are the keys?”

I dashed back to Dutton, crashing through one of the red swarms. A bunch of them stuck on to my shirt. I grabbed the keys with one hand, keeping the other hand locked over my nose and mouth, and frantically swiped at them with the keys. Red goo splattered across the front of my shirt. Were they on my eyes? In my ears? I couldn't tell. It felt like tiny insects were crawling all over me.

I darted back toward the cell, the cord whirring out again.

“Quick!” Cory cried.

I got within a foot of the lock when the cord stopped. I yanked on it, but it wouldn't go any farther.

“Hurry!” Cory screamed. “Unlock it.”

Miles sprinted over to Dutton and started dragging him along the floor toward Cory's cell. The sheriff was hardly trembling anymore. I didn't think that was a good sign.

“Let me out of here!” Cory said, shaking the cell door, his eyes wild with fear.

“Cover your mouth and nose,” Miles said, rushing back, while I tried the first of four keys on the ring.

“Faster!” Cory howled. “They're getting up!”

The first key didn't work, and I tried the next one, glancing down the hall. He was right — Dutton, Baxter, Lennox and Opal were easing onto their knees, like boxers who'd been knocked down and were trying to beat the knockout count.

“You've got to get me out of here!”

“Cover your mouth!” Miles hollered, but it was too late. Just as Cory was about to scream about the keys again, he inhaled some of those spider things. I saw a small cluster of them go whirling into his mouth. A look of utter surprise crossed his face. He coughed, and red goo dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

“Let me —” he started, and then grabbed on to his throat, like he was choking. “Let —” he coughed, but his eyes rolled up in his head and he dropped to the ground, shuddering.

“This is worse than I thought!” Miles exclaimed. “The infection works almost instantly.”

“It doesn't matter anymore!” I cried. “We've got to move!”

Dutton was half-standing when we started down the hall, spider blossoms hitting my face and sticking onto my
I
h
Rolling Hills
shirt. I wiped at them desperately, smearing red goo across my shirt and hands again. I hip-checked Dutton as I passed by, sending him crashing onto the ground. Miles shoved Lennox into our old cell, and the big man stumbled and fell. Baxter and Opal clutched at us weakly, but we broke out of their grip. At least their superhuman speed and strength hadn't kicked in yet.

Two seconds later, we were standing at the end of the hallway, looking up a set of stairs. There was a door at the top, which was closed.

“Please be unlocked, please be unlocked …” I prayed as we scrambled up, both of us wildly wiping our faces and hair.

Miles reached the top first. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted. The door swung open, and I've never felt such a strange mixture of doom and joy at the same time. I didn't know if I should be screaming or dancing a quick jig. Instead, I giggled uncontrollably. I looked back and Victor Opal was standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at me. His sunglasses were gone, and his eyes were wide. He pulled back his lips in a snarl and revealed a mouthful of sharp fangs. In the flickering fluorescent lights, I thought I could see tiny red dots on those fangs. I was pretty sure that one bite from Victor Opal, and a dozen of those creepy little things would be slipping under my skin and crawling through my veins.

“Harker!” Miles roared, grabbing me by the shirt collar and yanking me through the door. Baxter was behind Opal now, and they started taking quick, jerky steps up the stairs.

I slammed the door shut just as Miles grabbed on to the nearest desk and started pushing it toward me.

“Hurry!” I cried and leaned my back against the door, holding the knob. The knob violently twisted out of my grip, and I felt the door shoot open a few inches. Miles practically threw the desk the last few feet, and I leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding being pinned. The door didn't slam shut, though. Instead, there was a squishing crunch, and I saw that four fingers had gotten in the way of it closing completely. They straightened out reflexively and then went limp, but nobody screamed in pain from the other side.

“Outside!” Miles yelled.

There was another door across the room, and beside it was a large window that looked out onto an empty street. Rain was pouring down, and the streetlights were on. We rushed to the door and out onto the sidewalk. The rain was coming down in sheets, soaking me almost immediately. Washing what remained of the spider blossoms off me, I hoped.

“Where are we?” I asked. We weren't on Church Street anymore, although the brick buildings looked similar.

“We're on Beech Street,” Miles said, looking up and down the empty road.

I knew we had to move fast but had no idea which way to go.

“We need to hide,” Miles said, starting to run down the street. “Then we'll figure things out.”

Before we'd gone ten yards, Dr. Creed emerged a block away, with about a half dozen other people. I recognized Hamish Frog among them.

We turned to go in the other direction, but Opal and his gang rushed out of the police station, blocking our path.

We pressed together, back-to-back. A half dozen more people filed out of the Rolling Hills public library across the street. The brown-eyed girl from the Voodoo was one of them.

“Were they all just waiting for us?” I cried.

“Hive mind!” Miles exclaimed. “Telepathic communication!”

“I don't think we have long before we're going to be forced to join the hive.”

“Or colony,” Miles said, as the three groups closed in on us.

“I've never been a big fan of hives
or
colonies,” I said breathlessly, the rain dripping off of me. “I'm not really a joiner, you know?”

Before we could decide on our next move, a red Porsche squealed onto Beech Street.

We froze, along with everybody else. For an instant, the only thing that was moving was Elizabeth's Porsche, and it was hurtling straight at us.

Dutton was the first one to react. He marched into the middle of the street, his hand up in front of him.

“Don't stop,” I muttered. “Please don't stop.”

The car was maybe twenty-five yards from Dutton and closing in fast when the group from the library and Lennox marched into the street to join him, all holding their hands out in front of them.

“Don't stop!” I screamed, just as someone grabbed my shoulder from behind and spun me around.

It was Dr. Creed. She was snapping at me with jagged fangs that were crawling with little red dots. She would have bitten me, too, if Miles hadn't grabbed me and thrown me to the ground. I thought Creed was going to pounce on us, but there was a long honk and a loud, screeching skid, followed by a series of thumps. Creed staggered backward, along with all the others in her group.

“Quick!” someone shouted.

I looked up and saw Elizabeth's car about ten feet away. The windshield was cracked, and there was a dent in the hood. Jimmy Brooks, from
the Daily News
, was sitting in the passenger seat and had the window down.

“Quick!” he repeated.

Miles and I scrambled to our feet and made a mad dash for the car. Miles got there first and jumped through the window, on top of Jimmy, leaving exactly zero room for me to squeeze in.

I could see that he was desperately trying to slither inside and make some space, but I was stuck on the outside. A giddy kind of panic tore through me as I wheeled around to face the mob of zompires that was advancing on me.

Time slowed down. Even the raindrops slowed down. I could almost count the spider blossoms on Creed's teeth, scurrying in and out between them and along her gums. Behind her, ten other zompires snarled at me, baring their own thorny fangs.

Then Creed lunged. Her hands latched on to my shoulders like vice grips, and she leaned in. Sadly, I was a deer in headlights, frozen and helpless, and for the briefest of moments, my short life flashed in front of my eyes. It was just like a scene you'd see in a sappy movie. Strange memories. A birthday with Lilith when I sat on her cake. Riding a roller coaster at Disneyland with Johnny. My mom putting a bandage on a scraped knee. My dad hugging me goodnight.