The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel (8 page)

     “We have to go,” Jameson told Leland under his breath. He tugged on the younger man’s arm, trying to get him to come along.

     “Why didn’t you let her come with us?” Leland asked.

     His accusatory words were too loud. Jameson saw one of the creatures who’d remained outside snap her head toward them. Not even fair, Jameson thought. Their senses were heightened. What a drag.

     “We’d be just as dead as her,” Jameson hissed. “That kind of person, that’s not the type of person who survives something like this. If you want to be one of the ones who does, you follow me now.”

     Leland trusted the fire in Jameson’s eyes. He nodded and stood. They moved forward two steps and Leland kicked a watering can that sat beside a collection of gardening supplies.

     Jameson didn’t even turn to see if any of the crazies had been alerted by the sound. He grabbed Leland by the arm and pulled him hard.

     “Time to go.” They ran for their lives.

PART II – THE NEW NIGHT

Chapter Eleven – Apartment 2B

     Leland and Jameson fled toward the more populated area of the small town. Though Jameson didn’t like the thought of going toward more potentially insane people, higher population meant more buildings to hide in. Jameson wanted to find a place and hole up until he could figure things out.

     Leland began to heave breaths. He wasn’t used to running so much and Jameson was ridiculously fast. He didn’t think he could keep up but every time he faltered, the other man was there to encourage him. Jameson dragged him along a few times.

     “There!” Jameson shouted. He pointed to a squat apartment building surrounded by pine and oak trees.

     Thundering footfalls echoed through the street behind them. Leland could see evidence of the crazy people attacking others the same way the two had at his family party. Windows had been busted through. Doors had been pried open or broken down.

     The insane people Leland saw as they ran were occupied with other things than the two running men. They tore into the flesh of people they’d dragged out of their homes and bathed their faces in the blood pouring from the wounds they created with rending hands and ripping teeth.

     Leland knew he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of the crazy people’s cannibalistic rage. When Jameson pointed out a potential safe area, Leland jumped at the chance to get inside.

     He went for the front door, but Jameson jerked him away from his path.

     “Back!” he shouted as he pointed to the rear of the building.

     Leland didn’t understand Jameson’s decision to go around back until he realized the front door of the apartment building was undoubtedly locked. When they rounded the back side of the building, Leland saw the fire escape ladders that went up to the highest level of the apartments, three floors up.

     It hurt so much to breathe, Leland almost didn’t want to continue gasping for air. Every breath burned into his chest as though he inhaled acidic vapor instead of oxygen.

     “Up!” Jameson roared as he jerked one of the ladders down.

     The first of the crazies rounded the corner as Leland jumped for the ladder. He scrambled up, scraping his palms against the old, rusted metal. Jameson was right behind him, urging him up with his shouts.

     “Go!” Jameson hollered. “Get up! Hurry!!”

     Leland reached the first platform with Jameson hot on his heels. He looked down and saw the infected people had no intentions of stopping or becoming confused by the introduction of the ladder in their path. The first one reached the metal, looked up at Leland, snarled, and then began to climb.

     “Shit!” Leland exclaimed as he reached for the next ladder. “They can climb!”

     Jameson followed Leland up. He tried to watch the infected people as they fought to climb up all at once. They knocked each other back and spit and snapped at one another. They still tried to climb, though, and Jameson knew they would eventually make it up.

     There wasn’t time to barricade whatever apartment they got into. Jameson didn’t want to show Leland anything inhuman, but he knew he didn’t have a choice.

     Two of them had reached the first landing and started up the second ladder. If something wasn’t done, the infected would be up with Jameson and Leland in short order.

     When they reached the second landing of the fire escape, Jameson took the ladder in his hands. With a grunt, he twisted the metal until it snapped off of the landing in his hands. He shoved it down the fire escape. It plunged through the metal on the lower landing, taking two of the infected with it.

     Leland gaped at Jameson. He didn’t know how the other man had caused such destruction with his bare hands. He felt fear and adrenaline course through him. Whatever Jameson was, he wasn’t human.

     “I’ll explain,” Jameson insisted in a soft voice. Leland realized he wasn’t even breathing hard. “We have to get somewhere safe first.”

     Leland bent over, hands on his knees, and gave into the agony in his lungs. He’d never run like that before in his life. He’d be glad to never have to do it again.

     The infected howled and prowled in tight circles below the ruined fire escape. Jameson made sure to look at how many others there were. From the apartment on the edge of the landing they stood on, they could reach a second escape to their left. He noted that in his mind and put his hand on the window.

     Before he could open it, a hand from the inside pushed the curtain away. A pair of wide hazel eyes set in a pretty young face widened as they locked on Jameson’s blue-eyed gaze.

     After a moment of hesitation, the girl unlocked the window and pushed it open.

     “Can we come in?” Leland asked from around Jameson’s muscular form.

     The girl hesitated. She bit her bottom lip. Her eyes went even wider when she saw the infected people on the ground level trying to get up to where Jameson and Leland sought to enter the building.

     “Um, sure,” the girl said. She backed away from the window, pulling two children with her as she did. She kept them behind her as Jameson and Leland slipped through the window.

Chapter Twelve – Dinner in Apartment 2B

     “I’m Phoebe,” the girl introduced herself as Jameson closed and relocked the window. He closed the curtain and turned back to face the girl as Leland stepped forward.

     “Leland,” the teen said as he held out a hand.

     Phoebe was hesitant, but she shook Leland’s hand after the slightest delay.

     “The kids are Eli, Hannah, and that’s Carmen over there on the couch,” Phoebe explained. “We…she…she’s not speaking. We’ve seen something terrible. What about you?”

     The expressions on both of their faces would have convinced Phoebe she and the children weren’t alone in their experiences even if she didn’t know the entire world had already gone to Hell.

     “Do you know what’s happening?” Jameson asked as he moved forward.

     Phoebe took another step back. Something about the man intimidated her. Everything he did made her feel jumpy.

     “Sorry, my name is Jameson,” the vampire offered in a soothing tone. “Leland and I teamed up after his family was killed. My wife was murdered, too. I just want to know what’s going on. If you want us to leave, we can try to get into another one of these apartments. I just wanted to know if you knew anything.”

     Phoebe gestured to the television, which played mutely near where Carmen sat on the couch.

     “It’s all over the news,” she told them. “Those people, they’re calling them Rippers. Some Army experiment gone bad is how it started, I guess.” With a shrug, she led Hannah and Eli back to the couch. “I was going to make some food. Would you like some?”

     Leland surprised himself by saying, “I could eat.” After seeing the end result of the massacre at his aunt’s house, he was surprised he’d be interested in eating ever again. However, he felt starved.

     Phoebe nodded and moved toward the apartment’s small kitchen. “I’ll see what I can do.”

     Jameson sat in front of the television and watched Hell unfold on the screen. Major cities that had already fallen under the assault of Rippers were listed in a running list along the bottom.

     ‘Boston safe zone abandoned, residents directed elsewhere.’ ‘Death toll expected to reach the millions by the end of the night, billions by the end of the week.’ ‘No safe zones to report in the Milwaukee area.’ The words scrolled across the screen, crushing Jameson’s hopes of finding refuge anywhere outside of the city. It seemed nowhere had fared better than their town in the initial onslaught.

     Jameson let his eyes track the location of every safe zone that had been overrun. Hospitals. Stadiums. Churches. Community centers. Anywhere people had gathered, banded together for safety, the Rippers had discovered and annihilated them.

     And added more to their ranks, Jameson realized as he continued to watch the broadcast of the apocalypse. It seemed that if a body was not badly damaged and had been bitten, the victim would rise as a Ripper themselves. The bite was incurable, Jameson read, and not a single person thus far had been able to survive a bite.

     “Infectious,” Jameson murmured under his breath. “Insanely infectious. It
is
a virus.” He felt for the flash drive in his pocket and again wished he knew where at least one vampire was. He needed someone to see the information he possessed. The world appeared to be in desperate need of someone doing something useful with the data he carried.

     “Jameson,” Leland said as he sat beside the older man. “I still want to know what happened. What are you, man? How did you do that?”

     Jameson gave Leland a look of surprise and jerked his gaze away from the apocalyptic images on the television. He had all but forgotten that he’d shown Leland his inhuman strength.

     “What do you mean, ‘what are you?’” Phoebe asked as she approached from the kitchen. The apartment was tiny and she’d clearly heard what Leland had said.

     Jameson sighed and stood. “I’m not human, I won’t lie to you about that.” There’s no way he could lie about it, he’d decided. Not even a bodybuilder focused on lifting semi-trucks in competitions could have done what he had.

     Phoebe stopped walking. Fear filled her hazel eyes at Jameson’s admission. “Not human? What are you? Are you like them? Like the Rippers?”

     Jameson wished he could have calmed the girl, but there was little he could do. Instead, he tried to explain in his calmest voice.

     “I’m not like them, the Rippers. I’m…I’m a vampire.”

     A laugh escaped Phoebe’s lips before she took in Jameson’s serious, unsmiling expression. “You’re kidding.”

     “Not in the slightest,” Jameson assured her. “I was turned a few days ago. My maker, Joselyn, was murdered earlier today. I don’t know what’s happening, but I think her murder has something to do with what’s happening to everyone.”

     “You think she knew something about the Rippers?” Phoebe asked. Jameson thought she seemed to be taking the information about his vampiric nature quite well.

     Leland looked at Jameson with far more suspicion than Phoebe did. The girl hadn’t seen of Jameson what he had.

     “Is that why you let that woman die?” Leland asked. His stubborn tone and narrowed eyes told Jameson a fight was on the way if he didn’t give the kid a satisfactory answer. “Did you not care because you’re not even one of us? And what about those monsters? You just watch them like you aren’t even afraid of them. Is that because you’re one of them?”

     Jameson thought on the words he could give to Leland that would help him make sense of things. Seeing as he could barely make sense of them himself, finding the words was a struggle. Leland thought he was a monster and that was fine. With the seductive scent of blood in the room, thrumming beneath the surface of so much young, delicate skin, Jameson couldn’t even argue that he was a monster himself.

     “Just because you’re one of the monsters doesn’t mean you can’t be afraid of the ones who aren’t like you,” Jameson told Leland. “I may be something that’s not human, but I’m nothing like the people who’ve succumbed to this virus. They just want to kill. I’m much more interested in preserving life, believe me.”

     “But not that woman,” Leland accused. “Not Vanity.”

     “She would have gotten us both killed,” Jameson tried to explain. “That kind of person is a death sentence the way the world is now. To themselves, and to anyone they attach themselves to. I wanted to protect myself, yeah, but I wanted to protect you, too. You wouldn’t be here now if we’d tried to take her with us, I promise.”

     “But you just watched,” Leland said. The blame layered over his tone made Jameson sigh again. There was little he could do to make the kid see why he’d done what he’d done.

     “Yeah, and that sucks. I need to learn about them. I’m sorry if it makes me cold, but I need to know the enemy if I’m going to fight them.”

     “Are you going to fight them?” Phoebe asked in a quiet voice. It was her first real contribution to the conversation. Jameson weighed the query’s importance to her. He felt it would lead to her to make a decision about what she was going to do with herself and the children.