Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (20 page)

The vampires had always remained aloof. They were
always there, but on the periphery, as if to remind the thralls
that they were there but never usually taking an active part. Last
night was the first time he had seen them fight. In reality he had
only seen them as darting shapes in the flickering light of the
surrounding fires. It had been more like a demented strobe light
show than a fight, with figures blurring and disappearing faster
than he could follow. But the destruction they had left behind them
was only too real and he was still shaking with fear hours
later.

Tanks and vehicles had been ripped to pieces like
paper models. Hundreds of thralls had been torn apart; their bodies
emptied of blood and discarded contemptuously around the
battlefield. Since he had become a thrall he had reveled in his
power. His strength and speed were far greater than any human’s. He
had begun to believe himself like a God among his captives. But his
power was nothing compared to the vampires. For the first time in
years he felt vulnerable and afraid.

He had spoken briefly with Wentworth, or, more
accurately, he had listened while the master had ranted at him. He
had never been so scared in his life. Despite the approaching dawn
Wentworth had remained behind after his surviving vampires had long
gone to make sure that his orders were understood. The vampire had
been enraged at what had happened, and Falconi could see madness
dance within his master’s eyes. He had ranted and raged about Von
Kruger, so filled with anger that Falconi had been convinced that
the vampire would strike him down at any moment. He had watched as
the vampire seemed to struggle with himself, forcing down his anger
so that he could pass on his orders coherently.

Blood seeped from everywhere on the vampire’s body;
some of the wounds were so deep that bone and organs were visible
through the lacerated flesh. Falconi could see that the vampire was
weak but he still exuded a will that was impossible to ignore. At
one stage Wentworth had been so crazed that he had attacked two
thralls who had stood on either side of Falconi. The master had
surged forward with such speed that Falconi did not even see him
until he was gorging on the two soldiers, ripping at their throats
and sucking greedily while most of their precious blood had
splashed on the ground. When he had finished, the vampire seemed to
calm slightly, though his eyes still blazed with a madness that
Falconi found deeply unsettling.

Wentworth had ordered all reserves to be called up
immediately. He had already sent his own vampires to gather his
brethren so Falconi only had to worry about his own forces. He
would also have to summon as many humans as he could, unless he
wanted his own men to be used as food for the coming hoards of
vampires. The nightmare of logistics in getting these soldiers and
humans to the front with little transport available flashed through
his mind, but he did not dare voice these concerns to Wentworth. He
did not think that the vampire would be able to refrain from
beheading him. He had merely nodded and watched meekly as the
vampire lunged into the air and disappeared into the brightening
sky.

Falconi had only managed to breathe after he had lost
sight of the vampire.

Falconi had fretted all day as more and more problems
came to his attention. The sun’s steady progress across the sky was
like a tolling bell marking the passing hours until Wentworth
returned. There just was not enough fuel to transport the humans
that the vampires would need after their long journey. There were
not enough thralls available to guard the humans and patrol the
front lines. He could strip their other borders of guards but that
would leave them open to attack should any of their neighbors
decide to take advantage. Where could they even keep the humans if
they could get them here? There just weren’t enough facilities to
cater for that number of people.

He had handled each complaint that had come to him
from his men in the same manner. He had listened calmly to the
problem, nodding as the officer laid out the issue. When the
officer had finished Falconi had merely motioned for the man to
follow him as he led him to a point where they could view the area
where the vampires had fought the night before. He had wordlessly
handed binoculars to the officer in question and indicated the
patch of ground where over a hundred thralls lay strewn around,
their bodies ripped to shreds. He had then reminded them that less
than ten vampires had caused the destruction they were now looking
at, and had then informed them that over a hundred vampires were on
their way and would arrive over the next few hours. He assured them
that at least the same number of vampires would also be arriving on
the other side of the border and that if they did not have
sufficient humans to feed them then the vampires would use the
thralls instead.

After that most of the arguments had stopped, though
the physical problems had not disappeared. Necessity was the mother
of invention though, and he had given his officers sufficient
incentive to come up with their own solutions. Falconi looked out
again at the destruction and watched as the sun began to sink
further beneath the horizon. He had done everything he could to get
his forces in place in time. It would take a few days to get them
all here and he would leave the other borders dangerously exposed,
but he would get his men and the humans here. Already he had
accomplished more than he had thought possible, though whether it
was enough or not would be decided by Wentworth’s mood when he woke
up.

He did not know what had changed that had brought the
vampires into this conflict, but, whatever it was, it had changed
everything irrevocably. The coming night would have major
repercussions for everyone. If they survived.

Dee Ratigan watched the town with a growing sense of
unease. She had remained behind after Harris and the others had
left to keep an eye on the proceedings. She had spent a long, cold
night listening to the fighting and watching the sudden flares of
light on the horizon but had not been able to keep track of what
was happening with any certainty. The previous night’s conflict had
shocked her, regardless. The thralls had never committed so many
forces to their previous border skirmishes and she was worried that
this sudden escalation was quickly getting to a point where there
would be open warfare between the states, and that was not
necessarily what they wanted.

They had engineered the current fighting to keep each
side occupied and looking the other way while the humans pilfered
supplies and rescued as many as they could while each side blamed
the other for the losses. A full-scale war would only make it more
difficult for them to move around unseen and would tie up those
very resources they wanted to steal. But, even in the planning for
a worst-case scenario, they had not catered for the carnage that
had occurred last night. It had been difficult for her to observe
the fighting with any real clarity during the night but the
cacophony of the battle and the towering flames that dotted the
horizon were like a scene from hell rather than a small border
disagreement. The yellow/orange glow that had painted the night had
only hinted at the carnage that lay hidden in its undulating
caress, but the dawn’s first probing fingers had revealed a scene
that had shocked her deeply.

She had remained in hiding—riveted in place was more
accurate—as she tried to piece together the night’s events through
her powerful scope. There was ample evidence of explosives damage,
tank fire, and plenty of thrall bodies littering the ground where
bullets had ripped the life from them and left them in broken heaps
all along the battlefield. But that wasn’t what worried her most.
In one section she could see the bodies of over a hundred thralls
who appeared to be have been torn apart. It was as if they had all
been torn apart by an explosion, but, from what she could see,
there were no accompanying scorch marks to explain it.

It could be that the distance and the growing heat
haze from the surprisingly warm winter’s sun was playing tricks on
her. But there was also a distinct lack of blood covering the
ground around the bodies, and the only other alternative frightened
her to the extreme. The vampires had never gotten involved before.
Why would they now? If the fighting escalated to include the
vampires, then the rebels would have no chance of moving about
undetected. She had to get the news back to the others, but she
didn’t want to report suspicions, she wanted to be sure before she
brought back her findings.

She yearned to return to their camp and check on
Rodgers. The last she had seen of him was when he had been loaded
into the truck packed with glassy-eyed prisoners. He had winked at
her but blood had been pumping from his wounds and she was sick
with worry. She knew that his wounds weren’t too bad but any wound
in this new world could be fatal with their lack of antibiotics and
blood plasma. He wasn’t as badly hurt as Steele, she knew, but she
wasn’t in love with Steele. As she thought about that she caught
her breath. That was the first time she had admitted, even to
herself, the strength of her feelings for Rodgers, and it took her
back a bit. She wasn’t even sure if Rodgers felt anything for her,
though she had dropped enough hints. He either had no interest at
all or he was particularly senseless where women were concerned.
Having talked to Sandra Harrington about it, she was fairly certain
that Rodgers was just senseless and would need a more direct
approach.

She wasn’t entirely sure where her feelings had come
from. Rodgers was not the kind of guy that she had ever gone for
before, although the fact that she spent most of her time alone
with her weapons as each successive male friend had either let her
down or wanted something far shallower than she had been looking
for made her think that maybe she had been looking at the wrong
type of guy up till now. Rodgers was different. He lived life and
enjoyed it. He was able to find good in most people, something that
she had long ago lost the ability to do. She felt a sudden warmth
spread through her despite the cold of the ground, and then she
wrenched her thoughts back to the present. If she continued to give
in to her fantasies she was likely to make a mistake and, out here,
that would mean death. And not just hers.

She continued to watch the small town from a distance
and saw the bustle of activity begin even before the light had
banished the myriad dark corners around the buildings. At first she
found it hard to gauge exactly what they were doing—they seemed to
be ignoring the town’s shattered defenses and instead seemed to
have most of their resources tied up expanding the cage in the
centre of the town. She thought about this as she watched the
thralls working and, a realization slowly began to dawn on her
sleep-deprived brain. Suddenly, all thoughts of Rodgers were
banished from her mind. Judging by the size of the new cage, the
thralls were obviously planning on catering for a huge number of
humans and that could only mean…

Oh my God, she thought and rolled back down the small
hill where she sat shaking for some time before she could make
herself move again. The others had to be told.

Dave Sherman watched as April left the building that
served the community as a hospital. The building was a short
distance from the main complex of apartments they now used as their
main living quarters. The complex had been a great find. Set on the
outskirts of the main city, it included apartments, shopping and
leisure facilities all interconnected through a series of clever
tunnels that crisscrossed the entire complex. While many of the
facilities were useless to them now, it did give them cover from
any vampires that might fly over the area. While this might a minor
risk with the insular nature of the vampires’ current setup, that
could easily change. The hospital was set apart from the complex
for the purpose of confinement in the unlikely event of a breach of
quarantine. Sherman lay comfortably on the roof of a nearby
building and watched the girl through his powerful scope. He could
see the red blotches around her eyes that betrayed the tears she
had shed while visiting Steele. I’ll give you something to cry
about, he thought as he grinned lasciviously from his hiding
place.

He felt himself grow excited and shifted his
position. He savored the feeling as adrenaline pumped through his
body but he forced himself to be patient. The community was still
too small for one of their number to just go missing, especially
someone so young. He cursed Steele for the millionth time. Before
he had shown an interest in the girl, there would have been no one
to notice her going missing. Sure there might have been a
half-hearted search, but no one really knew anything about the girl
and the rigors of their new life would soon have made her a distant
memory. And he would have had all the time in the world for his
plans.

But not now. Now, Steele would move heaven and earth
if she went missing. Sherman cursed again. He cursed his luck that
Steele had survived. When he had seen him fall on the raid he had
been delighted, but the bastard looked like he was going to pull
through. Unless of course he got the wrong medications. A plan
began to form in Sherman’s mind as he began to put his scope away.
It wasn’t as if there was any real security in the hospital. He
should be able to slip in and out without too much trouble. Sherman
watched April turn the corner and relished the way her young body
swayed. Soon, he thought and then he slipped from his hiding place
and approached the hospital.

It was time to visit his old friend Steele.

The hospital smelled funny. There were the familiar
odors that Sherman associated with hospitals of course, but,
overlying these, were strange smells that he could not place at
first. The building had been a dentist’s surgery before the
vampires had come, and most of the equipment they had found had
been pushed into storage to make way for the beds and operating
tables they needed. It would have been far easier to use one of the
city’s hospitals but there had been no usable living facilities
near either of the two, so the council had decided to move what
they needed to this surgery.