The Hunger (Book 2): Consumed (31 page)

“So what’s going on then?  I mean, I know I’m out of the loop and shit, but what was chasing us?”

“Vampires.”

His mouth fell open.  I expected his brain to fall out of it.

“Are you fucking with me?”

I looked around the room, trying to find the weapon I’d been working on.  I spotted it under the pile of stuff I’d rooted through.  It had started as a large, wooden cross that I’d found hanging on the wall in the lobby of the bank.  For the past few days I’d been working to whittle the end of it into a sharp point.  The entire piece had a length of about two feet, maybe three.  I had no idea if it would work, but I didn’t have much else to do with my time.

“Does this look like a joke?” I held the cross up between us, showing him the end I’d been working on.

“Vampires?  Like Count Dracula kind of shit?”

“Yeah, the thing outside pounding on the door is wearing a cape and speaking with a shitty accent.”

“Really?”

I made a huge mistake by bringing him back with me.  His dumb ass would eat all my food, drink my water, and I could feel myself getting dumber with every passing moment.

“No, you iggit.  I’m not even sure that ‘vampire’ is the right term for them, but that’s what the last few survivors were calling them before they died too.”

I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t following me.

“Ok, you said you saw the reports about it being viral.  Those were kind of right.  It was a virus, but it spread from a bite by one of those things, not through the air.  It takes a few days for you to change, assuming they don’t just eat you outright.  Oh yeah, that’s the other thing, they eat you, not drink your blood.  Well, they do that too, but they do it
while
they’re eating you.”

“Bro, that is fucking disgusting.”

I ignored him and kept going.  “In the days while you’re turning, you become sensitive to light.  People can stay out in it for another three or four days, but their mind is eroding the whole time.  So it isn’t safe during the day or the night.  They come out at night, but those who are still converting are out during the day, and they’re half mad.  That’s why I’ve been stuck in this damn vault for so long.  Today was the first time that I didn’t see anyone wondering the streets during the day.”

“So that’s why you went back to your apartment?”

Yeah,” I said.  I didn’t tell him how much I’d already come to regret that decision.  “These things are fast and strong as hell.  I saw one tear a man completely in half and it looked easy too.  They don’t have any eyes, those fall out during the fifth day of the conversion, so they use that shriek that we heard as a kind of radar, like a bat.  When you hear one of those cries, you’re fucked.”

“Dude, you’re blowing my mind hole right now.”

“Just a heads up – all of the legends about vampires don’t seem to be true.  If these things really are vampires, that is.  Crosses and holy water don’t do a damn thing.  Stake to the heart will work, but only because it’s to the heart.  Wood doesn’t have anything to do with it.  Garlic is effective, but only because it seems to mask your scent.  Light is the best right now.  It doesn’t set them on fire, but it really kicks their ass.”

“If crosses don’t work, then why do you have that thing?”  He nodded toward my whittled cross.

“It’s the only thing I could find in the bank that I could sharpen.  Fortunately, the vamps don’t seem to have any problem-solving abilities beyond that of an intelligent dog.  That’s the only reason we’re still alive.”

We sat in silence for a while.  I couldn’t tell if what I said had sunk in or not, and figured it probably didn’t matter anyway.  Greg wasn’t exactly the kind of ally I could use at a time like this.  I needed someone with engineering skills to rig some electricity, or someone who knew a lot about guns or explosives.  Greg knew how to guzzle beer.  Awesome.

“So what do we do now, bro?”

“If you call me ‘bro’ one more time, I’m going to shove this cross up your ass.”  I held it up again, letting my point sink in.  “And now we’re going to sleep.  There isn’t much else to do at night.”

I balled up one of the shirts I’d taken from my apartment and tucked it under my head.  I’d grown accustomed to sleeping on the hard floor so it didn’t bother me much anymore.  Greg looked uncomfortable as hell, which made me smile.  I licked my fingers and extinguished the last of the candles.

“Out of curiosity, why did you come out when you heard me go into my apartment?” I asked.  “If all of the screaming, shooting, death, and explosions didn’t bring you out, why did my keys hitting the door do it?”

“I ran out of beer this morning,” he said.

God damn it.

*****

T
he screaming woke me up.

Light blinded me when I opened my eyes.  The vault should have been pitch black as usual.  That, combined with the screams that were breaking the common quiet of the day time, had me beyond confused.  I looked around the small area for Greg, but didn’t see him.  The front door to the vault stood ajar.  What had that idiot done?

The screaming stopped then, followed by a fit of laughter.  I would be lying if I said that closing the door and locking him out hadn’t crossed my mind.  Over the last few days I’d been doing my best to follow a pattern whenever I left the vault, so I went about following it.  I changed my clothes, grabbed my bag, and left the door open.

I followed the occasional guffaws and chuckles.  Greg stood outside, almost a block down the street, dancing.  At least, I think that’s what you would call the spasms that were moving him around the road.  Music of some kind, techno I think it was called, came from an open car door beside him.

Greg reached in the door and jacked the volume up.  The blaring music made me wince.  I hadn’t seen anyone in awhile, but that didn’t mean people weren’t around.  I didn’t want to think about what that shitty music could attract to us.  Greg continued gyrating, clapping his hands at random times that didn’t match the beat of the music.

I broke into a run, desperate to turn the music off.  When I’d crossed half the distance between us, I realized that I’d left the cross in the vault.  Several cars littered the street, their drivers having been pulled out of ripped off doors and shattered windshields.  The vamps had struck hard and fast one night, wiping out most of the city in a matter of hours.  After the slaughter in the streets the first night, everyone stayed inside.  It didn’t work.  People underestimated the strength of those bastards, and they ran through doors and walls, dragging everyone off to god knows where.

“Hey, bro!” Greg yelled when he saw me coming.

I ran past him, practically diving into the car, and switched off the music.  My anger was near the boiling point.

“What the fuck are you doing?”  I spun around, giving him my best death glare.

“What’s wrong, br—”

“Why in the hell would you do something so stupid?  Everything within a three block radius just heard that!”

“You said everyone was dead.  What’s the big deal?”

“I said I hadn’t seen anyone – that doesn’t mean they’re dead!”

“Oh.  I hadn’t thought of it like that.  I just missed music, ya know?”

“What were you screaming about?  I thought you were being killed.”

“I couldn’t find a car that had keys in it – I was getting mad.”  He smiled at the vehicle that had been playing music.  “But this beauty had keys
and
a CD in it.  Who the hell listens to CD’s anymore?  I couldn’t find any radio stations, so I got lucky.”

I thought about explaining to him that you couldn’t have a radio broadcast without electricity, but that seemed pointless.  My anger hadn’t abated.  I took several deep breaths, trying not to strangle him.

“You left me alone, with the goddamn vault door open.”

“Well yeah, you were still sleeping.  I didn’t want to be rude.”

“I was defenseless!  Something could have walked right in and killed me!”

He looked a little dismayed at my rage.  Or maybe the expression on his face was shock – I couldn’t tell.  “Sorry, bro!  I was just trying—”

A wail came from behind us.

“What was that?” Greg asked.

“It’s a convert.”  I would recognize that awful cry from anywhere.  It sounded like a banshee.

Right before the news went off the air, some egghead professor had guessed that their wailing was a bridge between their human speech and the vampire’s sonic screams.  My thoughts on the subject had been along the lines of ‘who gives a shit?’  I just wanted to stay away from anything that made a sound that awful.

“We need to get back to the vault.” I started toward the bank.

I only made it a handful of steps before I spotted her.  She stood between us and the bank, howling up at the sky.  Though she was a good fifty feet away from me, I could see how beautiful she had been.  Her long blonde hair flowed over her shoulders, reaching halfway down her back.

Her skin had seen better days, however.  Blue veins ran across her face like a spider web.  Judging from her insane behavior, she was far along in the conversion process.  I doubted she had any kind of rational thoughts left at that point.

“What’s wrong with her?” Greg asked.  He shifted the messenger bang hanging from his shoulder.

“She’s gone mad.”

She stopped howling and lowered her gaze to us.  Her eyes were still in place, but they’d shriveled, adding to her nightmarish appearance.

“Oh shit.” I took a step back.  “We’re going to have to run around the block and lead her away from the bank.”

“I’ve got sandals on, bro!  I can’t run too good!”

“That’s because you’re a retard.”  I sprinted in the other direction.  If he got left behind, there wouldn’t be much I could do.  The two of us might be able to kill her, but her strength would have already increased exponentially.  I didn’t really feel like getting my arms ripped off because Greg the Moron was wearing flip flops.

I didn’t even make it halfway down the block when I spotted another one.  A man stood on top of a car, hunched over so far that his knuckles were down by his knees.  He let out a wail when he saw us and jumped from the car.

I skidded to a stop.  Greg clopped up beside me, panting already.  Another man jumped onto the same car, howling at the sky.  There was no way we could take on three of them.  I looked around, scanning the street for an alternate escape route.  Most of the businesses were shuttered, having been closed when the worst wave of the vampires had struck.  There weren’t any alleys close enough to get to either.

“Oh shit, bro!  What’s wrong with their eyes?”

Some stairs leading to the subway sat off to our right.  I ran past Greg, heading straight for them.  I didn’t really want to go into the tunnels, but there didn’t seem to be much of a choice.  A trash can was on its side at the top of stairs, blocking the middle of it.  I had to slow down when I got to it and work my way around.

The darkness below was terrifying.  Without any lights, the bottom of the stairs looked like a black hole.  The stairs were slick, as if it had rained earlier, though I was fairly certain it hadn’t.  I slipped several times as I raced down them, trying not to kill myself in a fall.  Greg came up behind me, his sandals slapping against the ground with every step.

I jumped the last five steps before the landing that marked the halfway point.  That turned out to be a horrible decision because my right foot flew out from under me when I landed, sending me head over heels down the rest of the stairs.  I rolled into the darkness below, the harsh edges of concrete slamming against me.  My back hit the floor, bringing me to a sudden stop that almost knocked me unconscious.  The world spun in circles before me as I stared up the staircase.

“You OK, bro?”  Greg came down after me at a much slower pace.  His careful steps made me think that he was concerned with losing one of his sandals.

“I think so.”  My voice sounded small and tinny in the entrance to the subway, as if the dank environment swallowed it.

I reached up and grabbed the railing, pulling myself up.  My head pounded from hitting the floor.  I ignored the pain as best I could as I looked up, expecting to see the converts racing after us.  All three of them stood at the top of the stairs, wailing in our direction.  Greg reached the bottom and followed my gaze.

“What are they doing?” he asked.

“I don’t know.  Maybe the darkness scares them.”  That didn’t make any sense to me, but I didn’t have any other ideas.  They had us basically trapped down there.  Without any lights, we wouldn’t be able to run very far into the tunnels.

The woman let out a shriek that echoed through the tunnels, upping the creepiness of the dark.  They sniffed at the air, but didn’t come down after us.  They didn’t move away from the top of the stairs either.  We had nowhere to go but further inside the subway.

A garbage can was behind us, standing in the middle of the station.  I rummaged through my bag and found the pack of matches.  We walked to the can together, with him yapping at me incessantly.  My body felt like a baseball bat had been taken to it.  I hoped I didn’t have any internal bleeding.

I grabbed a newspaper off the floor and crumpled the pages, tossing them into the garbage can.  Greg kept yammering at me.  I did my best to ignore him.  After working the crumpled pages into the trash, I lit one of the matches and set the contents of the can on fire.  The outside layers of the paper were a little damp, but the rest weren’t bad, and the garbage was burning quickly.

The small amount of light provided by the fire was enough to help us see our surroundings a bit.  I’d never seen the subway so empty.  Then again, I guess no one else had either.  Dingy, tile floors led the way to the tunnels.

“Let’s follow the tracks down to the next station and go back up to the surface,” I said.  “Then we’ll walk back to the bank.”

“I don’t want to walk back by those things, bro!”

“As long as you don’t decide to have a rock concert in the middle of the street, we’ll be fine.”

“I didn’t—”

“How about we just stay quiet for awhile,” I said.

A janitor’s closet was on the other side of the platform.  I crossed the station and opened the door to the closet, surprised that it wasn’t locked.  A mop leaned against the far wall.  I carried it back to the fire and lit the head.  It took awhile to light and didn’t burn well.  Whatever chemicals had been used with it weren’t very flammable.  It supplied enough light to use as a temporary torch though.