Dominant Species (10 page)

It was the
eyes that he would never forget, yellowed and bloodshot, no longer able to hide the madness behind them. To the creature, for that was now what he had become, sounds were amplified and colours were brighter. Nathan watched the thing as it convulsed, bent double, as pain racked through him. For a second those yellowish, mad eyes locked on him for one last time and he knew that anything left of his once best friend had died forever.

Trent took a breath. ‘It can take a few days, sometimes more, for the change to happen, it seems to depend on how bad the bite is.’

Jake could see how difficult this
memory was for Nathan; he looked much older to him and weaker than he ever had done before. He automatically reached out a hand and squeezed his shoulder; Nathan didn’t look at him as he continued with his story.

‘However, through the infection they inherit some of the vampire’s strength. They seem to be incapable of feeling any pain and they fight like a pit-bull. They
will
fight to the death… That’s all they know. That’s how they survive and why they’re almost as dangerous as the vampires themselves, perhaps even more so.’

Nathan’s eyes closed as the final image of what was left of his friend seared into his mind’s eye and…

…
he saw his friend’s face, in the street, in the Vampire City, his eyes were yellow, his teeth longer; even his face had changed. He stood and smashed through another doorway. No pain registered as it searched, sniffing, for its next meal.

Eddy swallowed as Nathan finished the story. A heavy silence had descended on the small group, a silence that was broken by Max as he whispered to them.

‘It’s time to party, gentlemen.’

At the same time, in the Royal Chamber in what, since the War, had become the Vampire city, Rodan and Keermit knelt before the Queen. The room had an overbearing dank smell that pervaded their senses. Rodan kept his eyes fixed firmly on the floor; he knew how unstable the Queen was and how careful he needed to be, not sure how she would react to his news.

‘So,’ asked the Queen, ‘you think Karick will fail in this task?’

‘We of course hope that will not be the case, my Lady,’ replied Rodan silkily, ‘all we are saying is that if he should...’

The Queen considered this, looked down at them
both as they knelt at her feet, and then she smiled and provided them with the briefest of nods.

‘In that case,
I agree.’ She said with a crashing finality that brought an unseen smile to Rodan’s lips.

On Assembly Road, the
remains of the old industrial buildings rose up in front of Tolon and his party as they rode cautiously on towards where the Mayor’s team had previously found Eddy’s outpost. Tolon stopped and sniffed the air, held his hand up again. He turned toward the Mayor indicating that his men should split left and right.

The Mayor nodded, ushering Jackson and Josiah forward. Uncertain, each in turn beckoned their own team to join them as they walked slowly towards the deserted intersection.

From Gee Avenue Eddy’s team watched as the Mayor’s men split up, ten moving up the left hand side of the street, ten up the right. The Mayor stayed right at the back and tried to walk slightly behind Tolon, clearly attempting to use the vampire as some kind of shield. In front of them the pack of half-lings waited for a command, drool dripping from their yellowed teeth, eyes otherwise blank.

On Kay Avenue, Max and his team watched from behind cover as
half the mayor’s men passed in front of them, creeping slowly towards the hammerhead. Max looked toward Jake, who watched intently and Max noted with a grudging admiration how impassive and calm his brother had become.

Suddenly a
roar of gunfire shattered the night’s silent, as a hail of bullets erupted from the old railway carriages at the end of the hammerhead. At the same time another hail of bullets roared from Railroad Avenue. The staccato sound of the rounds echoed in the cold air as the bullets ripped through the night, the muzzle flashes almost blinding in the darkness. All around, brick dust, glass and blood, rained down.

The Mayor
’s men froze, caught in the open with no cover and nowhere to go they were immediately cut in two by the crossfire. However, Tolon reacted without hesitation. Not retreating as expected, but moving forward fast as bullets zipped all around him. Then he screamed a command, his voice just managing to sound out above the roar of gunfire, just one word, ‘Kar!’ and on this command all six of the half-lings began their awkward lope forward on all fours, oblivious to the gunfire that descended all around.

On Gee Avenue, Eddy was
screaming at the top of his lungs trying to compete with the roar of the guns, desperately trying to warn his men of the impending danger as four figures loped out of the darkness and haze and smoked created by the gunfire, directly towards them.

The half-lings screamed in rage as they closed
on the resistance and were hit by yet another hail of lead. Gunfire, muzzle flashes and smoke charged into the air, like demented fireworks. The lead animal was hit by a burst of heavy gunfire that nearly ripped it in two, but it nonetheless continued, seemingly oblivious, crawling on all fours, dragging a now useless leg behind, blood streaking the road. Tolon was still running, zigzagging fast across the pavement and into the hammerhead.

All eyes in Kay Avenue were focused on him as he passed their position behind the half-lings and the Mayor’s men.
Max’s team waited for their command, as they watched Tolon and the others move further up Kay Avenue. They waited as the figures grew closer and began to pass right in front of them. Tension grew as sweaty fingers began to tighten on the triggers and the men’s mouths ran dry.

‘Wait for the command, hold your fire, steady, steady.’ Whispered Max, then as Tolon and the half-lings
finally passed their position with their backs to them, his eyes narrowed and he screamed one word with a terrible pent up venom;

‘fire!’

Eighteen men opened fire at once. Bullets ripped into the backs of the half-lings, some staggered and fell, others clambered over them, confused, as the few humans that remained were cut down, dead.

Tolon span round, the only one aware of the
direction of the new attack, bullets ripped into his right shoulder. Ignoring the pain he charged at Max and his men, screaming a godforsaken curse in the old tongue that cut through the night and deep into the hearts of the resistance. In front of him eighteen men rose as one and fired together. Bullets rained down on the vampire who weaved and span to avoid as much of the hail of lead as possible.

Someway behind now, the Mayor crouched behind a pile of rubble shaking,
rocking slightly back and forth, his eyes tight shut. Then, taking a deep breath he slowly began to crawl away.

Eddy and his team
panicked as three half-lings rushed their position. Two of the half-lings were cut down, hit hard by multiple shots, but still they managed to drag themselves forwards clawing their way ever closer. Men scattered as the main gates and barricades crashed down as the remaining three half-lings smashed their way through.

The
third creature exploded towards one of the men, covering ground at a surprising rate. In a panic the man fumbled his re-load and was hit by the beast square in his chest. He screamed as it crashed into him and he was knocked back over ten feet. Then he was fighting, fighting for his life, as the thing bit and gauged at him. The other men tried to help him firing their bullets which seared into its back, but it remained oblivious to the onslaught having only one focus only; the kill.

The other two
creatures, although badly injured, turned abruptly and launched an attack on the remaining men, who in the panic had now broken rank. As the beasts closed the men turned and were now running for their lives as the half-lings bore down on them from behind.

A
lone and shadowy figure watched from the darkness, unseen. Then a burst of gunfire illuminated a pair of dangerous eyes, on the edge of madness.  It was Zidtool, watching, waiting and smiling.

Inside the factory, in one of the old machine rooms, where she’d been told she’d be safe, a young woman clutched her daughter close to her, the child’s head buried deep into her mother’s chest as she listened to the scratching at the steel lined door. The heavy thud bent the steel and sent splintered wood flying through the air and the woman scrabbling into a corner with her daughter, hardly able to breathe. Behind her another thud broke the door’s lower panel. The mother looked at her daughter and quickly around the room. A pile of old sacking cloth was stacked in the corner.

‘Here,’ she whispered as her terrified daughter stared up into her own, equally terrified eyes. ‘Let’s play a game, hide and seek. Can you be really, really quiet?’

The little girl nodded as behind her mother an arm pushed through the splintered door.

Outside, Eddy’s team had been split into three smaller groups by the various attacks and he was now desperately trying to get them back together.

‘Regroup, re
group’ he yelled. Then he span round as a vampire half-ling approached, its eyes red and insane. Blood and pieces of skin hung from its mouth. Bone protruded from a wound in its leg as it lurched ever closer on unsteady legs.

Eddy fumbled with the magazine on his empty rifle, and felt it drop through his sweaty fingers. It clattered and bounced helplessly away across the ground.
Weakly, he held the empty gun up in front of him as the creature attacked.

‘No!’ he screamed as the beast
lunged.

But instead of the expected impact, the creature jerked in
mid-air as one deliberate shot after the other hit it in the side, sending it crashing to the ground. It looked up at Eddy, not understanding what was happening and began to crawl forward trying to finish its attack on him. Eddy tore his eyes from the beast in front of him and saw Jake striding toward him, his eyes focused, the shotgun blaring.  The shotgun shells impacted, again and again, one after the other until they finally brought the creature to a halt.

Jake
was running now, whilst quickly reloading his shotgun as the creature’s head looked up at Eddy and began once again to crawl towards him. Eddy realised that he hadn’t moved, couldn’t move still frozen in terror. Jake was now behind the beast and, as the half-ling pulled itself up on one arm, he kicked it hard in the back sending it face first into the earth, then he stood on the creature’s back as he brought the shotgun to his shoulder. He fired once more, into the back of the beast’s head. The creature jerked, and then slumped, finally dead at Eddy’s feet.

Max’s team
stared, awe struck, as Tolon smashed straight through a brick wall in front of them, sending grey dust pluming into the air. Their eyes widened as his roar cut deep into their subconscious minds. In a panic the men scrabbled to escape as Nathan tried to reload his weapon, trying to ignore the vampire as it strode towards him.

Max
watched, stunned, as the vampire calmly closed on Nathan who was desperately trying to reload his final round. Nathan froze as the shadow engulfed him. Then with a strange calm he looked up into the eyes of Tolon. It was the last thing he was ever to see as the vampire literally ripped him limb from limb. Then, without a moment’s pause, Tolon continued on and through the others, like a land-based tsunami.

Inside the factory there was chaos as
the remaining half-lings had broken through the perimeter defences. One half-ling fell to the ground as it was hit by a solid shotgun slug in the back of its head, whilst another thudded into the man that fired the round, leaving him screaming, sending a thin spray of blood arcing through the air in a fine mist as its teeth bit deep.

In the machine room the
monster had finally smashed its way through the steel lined door and inside. It was bleeding heavily and the running blood had partly obscured its vision, making it hard for it to see. Instead it slowly sniffed the ground, moving like some obscene spider, dragging its useless leg behind. Then picking up a scent it stopped and looked up. Through the blood it saw the woman, backed into the corner on the opposite side of the room, a look of abject terror on her face.

Outside Jake looked across and saw Max, standing, frozen to the spot, saw the carnage left in Tolon’s wake and saw the vampire closing, cutting through the men like a hot knife through butter, he could see the figures of the fallen laying on the ground and in despair screamed at his brother,  ‘Max? Max. For God’s sake pull yourself together.’

But Max
didn’t move, ‘Max!’

Jake screamed again
at the top of his lungs.

Then
Jake began to run, knowing his shotgun was empty he threw the weapon away as he grabbed his 1911, .45 Colt and racked the slide. In front of him he watched as the vampire walked almost casually towards his brother, who remained seemingly glued to the spot.

Max just stare
d at the vampire, his mind retreating twenty years to the dark alley beside the Amato theatre. He screamed then, just like the young Max had screamed twenty years before, pleading for his brother’s help, ‘Nooooooooooooo!’ and Max was transported back to that night.

The Vampire looms before them, pure evil incarnate. Its empty eyes stare into Jake’s, its teeth bared, as it prepares to attack.

Max squeeze
s his eyes tight shut waiting for the inevitable, then feels Jake move in front of him, protecting him, beginning to recite the Lord’s Prayer softly, at first but growing in strength, a tremendous inner strength that he knows he doesn’t have. ‘Our Father who art in Heaven…’

The creature leaps.

Suddenly Jake’s voice cut through the fear and the
old memories, and Max was brought abruptly back to the present, back to face the very real vampire that was closing in on him, fast.

‘Max! You bastard, you started this, for Christ’s sake, get a grip!’
He heard Jake yell. He started at the sound of the single gunshot that exploded into the night. Before him the vampire flinched, dropping to one knee as Jake fired another round.

‘I didn’t save you all those years ago for this! Now snap out of it
,’ Jake screamed at the top of his voice, as he fired a third round.

All
of a sudden Max’s eyes re-focused. In front of him Tolon sneered, blood dripping from his wounds. His teeth were formed into a snarl as he prepared his final attack, then, just as the vampire had done twenty years before, the creature leapt.

Max jerked involuntarily as Jake ran in between him and the
vampire and opened fire again. The point four five slugs hit Tolon, once, twice, three, four five times in quick succession, and then he pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He looked at the weapon and saw that the gun’s slide had locked back on the last round.