Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (11 page)

The plan had been set in motion remarkably quickly
and Carter suspected that this had been planned for some time now
and they had merely been waiting for an excuse to put it in motion.
They had good intelligence on the town and the map that he had
received after the briefing had held all his objectives, his route
and even a suggested deployment. It was just as well that he had
not taken a single note during the briefing. He was to attack from
the southeast; his main objective was to take out the local
military headquarters. The expected garrison was in the region of
two hundred in total and for that he had a force of seventy-five
guards, two armored trucks and three tanks. Easily enough to crush
an unsuspecting enemy force without armor, but pathetically few to
take on a fortified town that lay in wait for them.

He looked at his watch and signaled the radio
operator in his truck to give the order to advance. He ducked down
into the armored cage as the engines revved around him and built to
an impressive crescendo. He sighed as they passed the
dirt-encrusted sign that welcomed them to Michigan, though the
words were no longer visible. There were very few signs left on any
of the roads now, though some trappings of the old world could
still be found dotted around.

Most, however, had been torn down long ago for their
precious metal as resources had become more and more scarce. He
suspected that Wentworth had left this sign in place to make sure
there would be no excuse for crossing the border by mistake.
Mistaken border crossings would be the least of his worries when he
saw this battalion coming towards him, though. The trucks rumbled
over the border and Carter felt his stomach suddenly settle for the
first time since he had woken from surgery. He was committed now
and that knowledge seemed to have a calming effect. If they were
expected then it would be a short battle, and if they were not then
he could look forward to more glory. It was too late to worry now
either way.

Harris watched the convoy pass the border and head
into enemy territory. He felt conflicting emotions as he watched
the thralls invade Wentworth’s state. He felt some responsibility
for the carnage that was sure to follow. Hundreds would be killed
or maimed as a result of his plans, and even though they were
thralls, they had been human once. He countered this responsibility
with the argument that these men and women had chosen to become
thralls and no one had forced them to treat humans with the
contempt that most of them did.

He thought of Evans, the General whom Steele had told
him about. He had resisted the control the vampires had over him
and had helped them all survive the assault on the ‘Cave’. If he
had done his job properly he would have stayed out of the range of
the rebels’ guns and merely leveled the upper floors with his
artillery, burying their small community under tons of rock. But he
hadn’t. He had deliberately delayed the heavy armor and then sent
it through the waterlogged approach. Finally, he had blown up that
same artillery and, in so doing, exposed his own complicity.

If Evans had still retained some part of his true
self was it not possible that others did as well? Some of the
thralls had jumped at the chance to gain the favor of the vampires,
but others, he knew, had only done so to try and save their
families. The plans he had set in motion would not distinguish
between those who deserved to die and those who did not. It gave
him nightmares that he had to balance that against the extinction
of every captive human over the next few months from the serum’s
effects. Things had grown far more complex than they had been when
they merely bit at the thralls’ heels with their infrequent and
ineffectual raids. Now, his decisions had to take into account far
too many issues and he really was not sure he was up to the job. It
was a hell of a responsibility, and one that he wished he could
pass to someone else, even someone like Phil Regan, who obviously
craved the power.

It seemed that such decisions sought him out though.
He had not wanted to lead during the Vampire War but circumstances
had conspired against him and thrust him forward. He had not asked
to lead now either but he had no choice. He had failed before and
been responsible for his team’s deaths, though he was not sure what
he could have done differently. He still had no idea why he had
been the only survivor, and he still woke most nights in a sweat
with his team’s cries fresh in his mind. Was he about to do the
same now?

The responsibility ate at him constantly and his fear
of another failure was what kept him going. Father Reilly had told
him a few months ago that he could only relinquish the
responsibility when he was happy that the job would be done as
well, or better, than he could do it. The only problem was that he
knew that there was no one he could trust to do as good a job.
Whether he liked it or not, he was good at it, despite his previous
failures. He had not told Father Reilly about his previous command;
every time he had tried the words would just not come. He felt deep
shame for his own survival and worried that others would think that
he had somehow purchased his survival with the blood of his
friends.

He pulled away from his position and made his way
carefully down the rocky outcropping towards the small cave where
the others waited. He sighed deeply as he descended with troubled
thoughts heavy on his mind. It was still early and the sky was
still in transition with the horizon painted in the dull grey of
false dawn. The breeze carried with it the stink of fuel and he
shuddered, though whether it was from the cold or from the
anticipation of the day’s events, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Well?” Warkowski asked him as he dropped to the
level ground in front of the small cave. Harris always marveled as
how quiet the big man could be. He had a knack for blending into
his surroundings that was uncanny and Harris was happy that the big
man was on their side. He had discovered earlier that it had indeed
been Warkowski’s shot that had saved his life and, true to his
word, he had hugged the big man and planted a kiss on his cheek. It
had given them all a much needed light relief, especially in light
of Steele’s and Rodger’s wounds.

Rodgers would be fine, if a little sore for a while,
but Steele would take longer to heal. He had been hit three times.
While none of the bullets had hit anything vital, thank God, one of
the bullets had merely grazed his side but it had torn a chunk of
flesh away and it had bled terribly. The second bullet had struck
him just above the kidney but, luckily, he had been turning at the
time and the bullet had missed the organ and had exited in a neat
hole just below the left rib. The third bullet was still lodged in
his back and caused him agonizing pain every time he moved as it
grated against the bone. He was sleeping now.

He was lucky to be alive at all but it complicated
their return to base. They had planned to walk and so avoid the
vampire patrols, especially in light of the attack that was
beginning just a few miles away. They had not expected there to be
such a reaction from their first raid, and certainly not such a
quickly organized retaliation. They had expected that it would take
a number of raids over the next few weeks before anything major
happened. Now the vampires would be more vigilant with all that was
happening.

On top of that they would now need transport to carry
Steele back and that meant leaving a trail. They had only survived
till now because the vampires did not know about them. Even before,
when they had attacked the town openly, they had survived only
because the thralls had grown so complacent that they did not
really consider the rebels a threat. If they had known then, it
would be a completely different story, one that he was not sure
they could have survived. It was essential that they continue to
grow their numbers in secret.

“They’ve crossed the border,” Harris answered and he
could see that the different emotions that crossed the faces of
those before him. Elation for their success was tempered by the
realization of what was about to happen.

“What do we do?” Rodgers asked as he stood and
crossed over to Harris.

“We’ll have to split the team, I’m afraid,” Harris
sighed as he scanned the faces in front of him. “Aidan, you’ll have
to stay here and watch Steele until he wakes up.” Aidan Flemming
nodded. “Dave,” Harris looked over at Dave Sherman where he sat
cleaning his weapon, “we’ll need to get as many civilians out while
the fighting is going on as we can. Can you get transport for us,
something that will blend in?”

Sherman nodded and rammed a clip into the XM8.

“Rodgers, Ortega, you’ll come with me,” Harris
continued. “We’ll try to sneak out as many as we can in the
confusion. Dee and Warkowski can give us covering fire.” Harris
looked at the faces in front of him and nodded. “Okay, people.
Let’s move out.”

The rumble of the tanks seemed to roll through the
hills like distant thunder. At first those few guards on the early
shift thought that a storm was coming and cursed their luck at
being on sentry duty. The town was spread out over a mile and it
nestled in a low valley that protected it from the southern winds
but left it open and unprotected to the northerly winds that cut
through the town far too often for the guards’ liking.

It was a small enough town but it had still retained
a large company as it was the first town of any size close to the
border, and so it served as the only base for a hundred miles. Most
towns lay abandoned all across the state with most of the surviving
population held further south where the weather was warmer. Duty in
this area was normally a punishment and morale was low at the best
of times.

Their strategic location meant that they had vampires
resident in the town so, no matter how low morale got, desertion
was unheard of and guard duty during the day was maintained with
surprising dedication. They had built a low wall all around the
town in the early days of the vampire’s rule but had quickly fallen
into a bored routine that had left the wall unfinished and far too
low to serve any real defensive purpose. Guards on the night shift
were only vigilant while the vampires were near but when the
creatures returned an hour or so before dawn the guards tended to
return to the warmth of their barracks.

For this reason the first anyone knew of the attack
was when the tanks crashed through the low walls surrounding the
town. The sudden roar of engines and sustained cacophony of noise
as the attacking forces opened fire caused guards to spill out of
their barracks in total confusion. The guards were completely
unprepared for an attack and the sudden noise and appearance of the
metal behemoths sent most of them running back into their barracks
where they crashed against those still coming out. Deep booms
shattered the morning air as the tanks spit forth shells and the
ferocious noise of the explosions as the shells slammed into their
targets woke any who had not heard the initial approach.

The thump of more shells and the shriek of explosions
were joined by the lower stuttering of machine gun fire as the
attacking forces spilled from trucks and armored cars and began to
fire relentlessly into the throngs of confused defenders. Many of
Wentworth’s guards were cut down before they had a chance to
organize any sort of defense but a few did manage to overcome their
shock and began to return fire. They took a heavy toll as they
retreated back towards the relative safety of their barracks and
used the building as cover to lay down severe fire against the
unprotected attackers. While the building may have been effective
against small arms fire it did not afford any protection against
the tank’s heavy shells and they were soon torn to pieces as the
tanks destroyed them piteously.

Carter smiled as he watched Wentworth’s men crumble
as their barracks were destroyed one by one. In the distance he
could hear the dull thump of explosions as the other strike forces
took out their targets and crippled communications, possible
retreat and re-enforcement routes and took control of the humans
that were held here for the small contingent of vampires.

They had their orders regarding any vampires they
might find and those orders had been very clear. On no account were
the vampire lords to be harmed or even disturbed in any way. Their
food, however, was fair game and Carter wished that he had been
leading that attack. Intelligence put the number of humans at two
hundred, quite a lot, he thought, to support ten vampires. But, by
all accounts, Wentworth had more than enough resources to spare
that number to keep his clan happy. Von Kruger, however, had very
limited resources where blood was concerned and he would be well
pleased with the influx of fresh food. The guard delivering two
hundred humans would likely receive a large reward.

The cacophony of battle rose around him as the last
of the enemy guards fought back as best they could but they were
hopelessly outgunned and it did not take long for the remaining
guards to surrender. He was well pleased, although it did nag at
him that Wentworth’s men had not expected them. Surely they would
have had patrols in place to warn of such an attack, especially
after their own recent raid. Maybe the raiding party was part of an
elite squad and the regular guards had not been informed. That must
have been it; he decided and stepped down from the safety of his
armored car to accept the enemy’s surrender. This war might work
out all right after all.

Harris pressed himself against the corner of a
building and waited till the armored car rumbled past. He held a
grenade in his hand with the pin out but the clip still clasped
firmly in place. The guards traveled with reckless confidence.
Those few defenders who had tried to form a resistance had been
viciously dealt with by a bombardment from the three tanks that
poured their fire into the buildings they had occupied. Nothing
remained now but rubble and a few shell-shocked survivors who
stumbled from the wreckage. The armored car was now headed for the
pen in the town square where the humans were kept.