Full Moon Rising - 02 (29 page)

“Yeah. Good to know.” Jack still wasn’t sure what to make of the man.  For someone who was supposedly a top notch hunter in his day, first impressions must not be his thing.  “Let’s get you caught up and geared up.”

As they made their way across the hangar, Tufo was taking in everything.  His sharp eyes noticed every piece of equipment, every person who came and went, every activity that was u
nderway.  His childlike demeanor suddenly switched to one of a full-out professional.  He began questioning Jack on each station, each person at every station and the operations going on.  Jack gave him a brief overview as they walked through the hangar, and Tufo simply nodded then pointed out the next activity and asked about it.  His mind was like a sponge, taking in everything.  When they finally reached the elevators and started down, Gunnie reached over and hit the button for the next floor down. Jack shot him an inquisitive glance when Mark told him flat out, “I’ve got a lot to learn and a short time to learn it.  We’ve got seven floors to go through.  Might as well hit the next one and do them in order.”

Jack simply nodded and they did just that.  For the next five levels down, Jack took Mark area by area and explained the o
perations and the personnel who worked there.  Those who weren’t too busy working stopped to introduce themselves and Gunny made a point of learning their names, ranks and responsibilities.  When Gunnie headed for the elevator again, Jack stopped him.  “The lower two levels are restricted, Mark.  I’m afraid access is denied to them without keycards.”

“When do I get my keycard?” he asked.

Jack was slightly taken aback.  “I don’t think you will be.” He stated.  “I don’t go down there either.” Jack lied.

Mark stared Jack in the eye for a moment then raised a brow at him.  “What’s down there, Jack?”

Jack hesitated a moment then checked both sides of the hall to make sure nobody was within earshot.  “Honestly?  Not much.  Dr. Evans quarters, and some cells that are made of silver coated bars.” He told him.  “But the lowest level?  I honestly don’t know.  Nobody’s ever told me.”

Mark nodded, satisfied.  “Okay then.  Let’s get me geared up.”

“I’m beginning to feel a team player forming in you, Gunnie.”

“Keep your hands to yourself, Squid.  Marines don’t swing that way.”

Jack smiled.  “You’d never go back to women.” He laughed.

“Let me guess.  ‘Come to the dark side.  We have cookies!’ Right, Chief?”

Jack laughed.  “Something like that.”  Jack pushed open the door to the supply room and introduced Tufo to the supply sergeant.  “Gear him up.  He’s the new…er, well, the old…the new old guy.” Jack smiled at Mark.

“Funny.”  Tufo responded flatly.

“Get your gear, get it stowed then meet me back at the training area.  We’ll go over some basics.” Jack told him.  “Do you remember where it is?”

Mark tapped the side of his head with his finger.  “Mind like a steel trap.  I remember everything.”

“Steel trap, eh?  Well, let’s hope it isn’t rusty.” Jack turned and headed down the hallway.  “Meet you in twenty.”

Tufo yelled at him, “Chief!  The training area is back
that
way.” And pointed the opposite way that Jack was headed.

Jack smiled at him.  “And I have other business
this
way.  Meet you in twenty, Gunnie.” Jack smiled and shook his head as he left.  This guy was going to be a hand full, that much he was certain of.

Jack knocked on Mitchell’s door and heard a bark from the other side that he took as an ‘enter’.  He stuck his head in “Col
onel, just letting you know we’re back.”

“Come on in, Chief.”  Matt motioned him in.  “I just got word that Thorn and his people are on their way.  I had no idea how many and had Evan prepare as many rooms as we could.”

“How many are coming, sir?”

“Four.  Just Thorn and your in-laws.  And Nadia, of course.”  Mitchell dropped the file he was going through.  Jack caught a glimpse of it and realized it was Tufo’s.  “It seems that Mr. Thorn wants to be sure what our plans are before he co
mmits his people to move to any one location.”

“I was thinking about that when I was waiting for the Gu
nnies flight, Colonel.  If we’re talking hundreds of thousands of vamps…where the hell are we going to put them IF you can procure Area 51?”

“You mean Groom Lake?” Matt corrected.  “I’ve wondered that myself.  That’s a logistical problem we’ll have to discuss with Thorn once he gets here.  Another thing to concern ou
rselves with is…how the hell do we
feed
that many vampires once we get them all there?  We can’t very well just set them loose on Las Vegas.  We’ve got a lot of things to figure out.”

Jack sat down in the chair across from Mitchell and hes
itantly asked, “Any news on Dominic?”

Mitchell shook his head.  “Nothing.  Team 2 scoured the a
rea and the video feeds came up with nothing.  It’s like he just disappeared without a trace.”

“What does your gut tell you, Skipper?” Jack asked quietly.

“Honestly?”  Mitchell didn’t like saying the words aloud, but he knew that the Chief would keep them to himself.  “I think the bad guys didn’t like the results they got on their bullshit tests so they nabbed one of our boys to torture information from him.”

Jack sat back and gave Matt a surprised look.  “Don’t suga
rcoat it, Skipper.  Tell me what you really think.”

Matt grunted.  “You shouldn’t have asked if you didn’t want to know.” Matt poked at his desk and leaned forward.  “It’s the only thing that makes sense, Chief.  We both know that Dom didn’t break a direct order and run off on his own.  I’ve tried to sow that seed with Laura to ease her guilt, but she knows it too.  This whole mess is just…a mess.” He sighed.

Jack hesitated before he asked, “Have you written him off, Skip?”

Matt stared him down.  “I didn’t write you off, Chief.  I may have wondered, and I may have suspected, but I didn’t write you off.  I’m not going to write off Dom until I see a body.”

Jack nodded.  “Good.  I’m sure the rest of the squad would appreciate it, too.”  He stood and headed for the door.  “I better go.  I gotta get Tufo up to speed on our tactics.”

Matt rolled his eyes.  “Watch yourself with that one, Chief.  He’s still got an axe to grind.”

“Roger that, sir.”

25

Dominic was shaken awake gently, foul breath near his face, “Somebody’s coming.” He heard Jake whisper.  He opened his eyes too quickly and even in the gloom, the light caused bursts of pain to shoot through his skull.

“Thanks for the warning.” He croaked back quietly.  Dom tried not to stir and closed his eyes, letting the pain subside.  Slowly he cracked his lids to allow his eyes to adjust, his ears listening to the footsteps scrape against the stone floors of the hall outside the cell.  His head was turned just enough that he could make out a figure walking to the cell door and he heard the jingle of keys.  He could hear the visitor try the lock in frustr
ation and Jake scuttled along the wall and assumed the fetal position again.

“What the hell?” the voice asked as the visitor continued to try the lock.  Dom continued to lie still against the stone floor, his eyes barely opened, watching the visitor’s every movement.  The visitor, he could now see, was dressed in a nice suit, patent leather shoes and a shiny watch.  Not your average jailor.  He reached into his dress slacks and pulled out a folding lock blade knife and fiddled with the lock.  After a few moments, he pulled out the broken piece of pen that Jake had lodged in there.  With a ‘humf’ of satisfaction he tossed it behind him.  “Did you really think that jamming the lock would keep me out?  Or were you trying to pick the lock with that little piece of trash?” he laughed.  Dom thought the laugh was heartless and without a soul.

The visitor swung the door open and stepped in.  “Let’s see… pain and suffering or…pain and suffering?  I’m sure this piece of shit has told you by now what lies in wait for you, yes?” he laughed again, this time with even less heart.  Dom could hear Jake shaking in the corner, could almost hear his heart beating out of his chest.  It took everything he had not to spring from the floor, but he knew he was in no shape to try to attack from that distance.  “I think I should go with…
pain and suffering
!” he laughed again and stepped toward Dom.  “Get up hunter!” he shouted, kicking at Dom’s outstretched leg.

As soon as he began his kick, Dom sprung like a coiled snake.  He swept the other leg that supported the visitor and knocked his only support out from under him.  As quickly as he could, he launched himself on top of the man and used his full weight to try to pin him.  Dom found out quickly that the visitor was a vampire, and was quite strong.  He rolled and took Dom with him, trying to find purchase to put him underneath him.  Dom’s free hand came up and caught the vampire under the chin, smashing his lower jaw into his skull, breaking one of his fangs off at the base.  His other hand grasped the man’s wrist that held Dom at the shoulder and pulled with all of his might to pull his weight off balance and used his own weight to drive his face into the stone floor.

Jake watched from the corner of the cell, pushing himself deeper into the corner, wishing he could become part of the wall itself.  He watched in terror as the giant soldier attacked the smaller man and the smaller man used what could only be a supernatural strength to throw the large soldier around like a rag doll.  He was amazed at how the soldier used tactics to gain the upper hand, and even more amazed how the smaller man had supernatural speed to overcome those tactics.  The soldier…he said his name was Dominic, actually
growled
like a feral beast and threw the smaller man into the steel bars, rattling the steel wall, and…yes…bending them!  But the smaller man got to his feet and rushed him, tackling him and taking him to the ground where they rolled until the soldier was on the smaller man’s back, his thick legs wrapped around his middle and squeezing for all he was worth.  Jake couldn’t believe what he was seeing, those legs looked like they would crush a normal person and yet, the smaller man tried to keep fighting.  The soldier had the smaller man…why did he keep thinking of him as a man?  He was obviously what Dominic had claimed him to be…a vampire!  Dom had the vampire in a head lock and was tearing at his shirt pocket while the vampire man was clawing at his arm, tearing the fabric of his shirt sleeve and drawing blood.

Dom pulled the flattened metal pen body from his shirt pocket and raked it repeatedly across the vampire’s throat, blood spraying around the cell and painting the walls.  Riding the vampire until he fell to his knees, Dom continued to slash at his throat until he felt the pen blade hit bone then he reached further to the side and continued to slash at softer tissue.  When he fina
lly finished, the vampire lay in a pool of its own blood, body twitching.

Dom lay on the ground, breathing heavily and slowly r
elaxed his grip.  He placed both feet against the shoulders of the vampire and gripped him by the lower jawbones, his fingers slipping in blood but finding purchase under the jawbone.  He then stiffened his legs and by using his massive back muscles, ripped his head cleanly from his body and threw it as far from the body as he could.

“Oh my god…” Jake whispered from his corner of the cell.  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Better sick than dead.” Dom said as he rolled on to his knees and placed his head against the cold floor.  Slowly he got to his feet and wavered a bit.  He reached into his pocket and popped the pill bottle and slid a few more of the aspirins into his mouth and made a face as the bitter pills hit his tongue.  He found the water bucket and ladled out a mouthful to wash down the bitter analgesics.

He went back to the body and frisked it.  Of course, there weren’t any weapons.  He was a vampire and vampires don’t feel the need for weapons.  He pocketed the keys and used the expensive Italian jacket to wipe as much blood from him as he could.  He did relieve the body of the watch.  “Let’s see if we can find a way out of here.” He said as he made his way to the door.

Jake couldn’t move, fear gluing him to his spot.  He just kept shaking his head and mumbling to himself.  Dom walked over to the head and picked it up by the hair and carried it over to where Jake was curled up in the corner.  “Look.” He barked.  Dom pulled the jaw open and displayed the remaining fang.  “
This
is a fucking vampire.  They eat people.  You are people.  That makes you food.  If you stay, you die.” He tossed the head back across the cell.  “I don’t want to get rough with you, kid.  But if you want to keep breathing, we need to haul ass out of here.”

Jake started nodding.  “Yeah.  You’re right.  We got to go.”  He picked up his pack and headed toward the open cell door on shaky legs.  “What if we run into more?” he asked.

“We kill them before they kill us.” Dom whispered.

“How?  They look pretty strong.”

“They are.”  Dom whispered back.  “They’re sneaky, strong and tough as hell.” 

“So, holy water and crosses?” Jake asked.

“Get’s them wet and gives ‘em religion.” Dom replied sardonically.  “I wish it were that simple.  They are allergic to silver.  Stake in the heart works, too.  Remove the head or burn to ash.  And sunlight works, but…since I don’t have a spare sun in my pocket, we don’t have swords, stakes or silver bullets, we’re just going to have to wing it.”

“Wing it?!” Jake whispered excitedly.  “How do we ‘wing it’?”

“Look for something that we can use as a weapon as we go.” Dom shot back with a bit of aggravation.  He turned back to the scruffy kid.  “Look.  A broom handle can be broken and shoved up their ass or a table leg can be modified into a stake.  We find a familiar and we disarm him…”

“What’s a familiar?” Jake asked, worried.

Dom sighed.  “Kid, I don’t have time to give you the entire breakdown on monsters, okay, but…a familiar is a human who protects vampires during daylight hours, okay?  They need someone to cover their asses when they’re asleep.  Got it?”

Jake nodded.  “Okay.  I’ll just follow your lead.  Obviously, you know what the fuck you’re doing.”

“Ya think?” Dom shot back sarcastically.  “Just stay close, try not to die and there’s a slight chance you’ll get out of here alive.”

“Slight?” Jake asked, more to himself.

“Slight is better than none.  And that’s what you had before I got here.”

They reached the steel door at the end of the hallway and Dom held up his hand to shush Jake.  He pressed his ear to the door to listen to the other side but heard nothing.  He knew that when dealing with vampires, this really meant little as vampires only needed to breath to talk and could stand as still as a statue for hours if not days.  But not hearing movement on the other side told him that no familiars were on the other side and if there were vampires, then they were inactive.

He pulled on the door and it didn’t move.  He pulled the keys out and rifled through them.  Finding one that looked like it might fit, he slid it into the door and worked it.  The door popped open and he cracked it.  The immediate area looked clear and he snuck peeks down both sides of the hall on either side.  He motioned Jake to follow him and they entered the next hallway.  In whispered tones he asked, “Any idea which way out?”

“We were zonked out when they brought us in, man.  I have no idea.”

“Eeny-meeny-miny-moe.” Dom said and they turned left.  “Stay close.”

The two hugged the wall as they made their way to the end of the hall, Dom searching for anything that could be used as a weapon.  His head was still pounding and the battle with the vampire did nothing to help.  They climbed a short flight of stairs and came to another hallway.  Dom took a quick peek and found it, too, was empty.  With no sense of direction, he decided to take a right this time.  No sense in inadvertently making a ci
rcle and ending up where they started.

They crept as quietly as they could until Dom saw light ahead.  It looked like either twilight or early sunrise, but it bathed the path they were on.  He stepped up the pace and soon came to a large window.  He pulled alongside the window and peered out.  He observed a courtyard with a stone walkway and concrete table and bench, a fountain to the side, but no bodies milling about.  They were three stories above it.  He tried to see if there was a passageway leading into or out of the courtyard, but the angle from the window was wrong.  He couldn’t see the sky to tell if the skies were darkening or getting lighter and they needed to keep moving.  He knew that they had little time either way.  Either the vampires were settling down for the day or about to awaken, but the familiars could still be anywhere.

He took off down the hallway looking for any kind of doorway that would lead to a stairwell down to ground level.  He went door to door, listening before opening each door.  He found linen closets, broom closets, a bedroom and a completely empty room then something that could only be described as either a torture chamber or a sexual fetish room, he really wasn’t sure.  The last door on the left led to a staircase and he pulled Jake in behind him.  As quickly as they dared, they descended the darkened staircase with Dom in the lead.  At each landing Dom made a mental note of where they should be and when he figured they should be at ground level, he approached the door cautiously.

He held his ear to the door for what seemed like forever to Jake whose heart was thumping out of his chest.  He could a
lmost taste freedom and his knees were weak with the idea of being away from this place.  Finally, Dom reached for the door and pulled it slightly open, stealing a glance outside.  He quickly shut the door and stepped back.  Jake inhaled to ask a question and Dom quickly put a hand over his mouth and shook his head.  He pulled his hand back and placed a finger over his lips.  Jake simply nodded and hung back along the wall.  Dom cracked the door again and stole another glance, this time he continued to watch for a moment longer before slowly shutting the door.

He turned to Jake in the low light and held up two fingers then pointed back toward the door.  Jake simply nodded, his eyes wide.  He should have known.  To be so close, yet so far away.

A noise in the stairwell above them startled them both.  They could hear footsteps in the stairwell and voices, hurriedly coming down the stairs.  “They couldn’t have gotten too far.  His blood hadn’t congealed yet.” A voice stated.  Dom closed his eyes and listened intently.  Three, definitely three sets of feet coming down the stairs, fast, but not full speed for a vampire.  He made a rash decision and grabbed Jake.  “We go now!” he whispered.

Dom jerked the door open and half pulled the stumbling Jake behind him at a dead run toward the open archway he had spied when he looked out the door.  The two he had seen outside were most likely familiars as they were armed and it was still light outside.  He hit one square in the back of the head as hard as he could, surprising him and sending him spread eagle to the ground, dropping his weapon.  The other was still trying to regi
ster exactly what he was seeing when his partner flew through the air and splayed out in front of him.  His immediate reaction was to want to check on his partner rather than open fire on the escaping prisoners. 

Dom snatched up the weapon and took a bead on the other guard before he got his wits about him and brought his weapon to bear.  He fired two shots to the chest and one to the head, still dragging Jake behind him and out the archway.  They headed down the cobblestone driveway and jumped behind one of the waiting vehicles.  Dom stood guard, shooting at anything that stuck its head out near the archway while Jake searched for keys.  The first car, a Mercedes, came up short so Jake checked the Renault.  It had nothing either.  He was about to give up hope when he checked a panel van.  Above the visor was a set of keys.  He whistled for Dom who laid down cover fire and worked his way over to the van.  Jake shot him a worrisome look.  “I can’t drive a stick, man!”  Dom rolled his eyes.