Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (21 page)

It was still a major worry for the small community to
spread themselves too far. If they were discovered they needed to
have everything and everybody close to hand if they were to have
any hope of surviving an attack. The hospital was small but
sufficient for now.

Sherman walked through the main doors and immediately
noted the positions of everyone he could see. There was no
receptionist; there wasn’t the need in such a small community at
the moment. He could see two nurses; one was checking a list
against a trolley filled with vials, bottles and tablets, while the
other was hurrying from one room to another in answer to a low but
incessant beeping. Neither nurse paid him any attention and he
smiled. This was going to be easier than he’d thought.

The nurse with the list picked up a number of
bottles, balancing them in her arms, and then turned and
disappeared into a room further down the corridor. The second nurse
had still not re-appeared but the beeping had stopped so she could
appear at any moment. Sherman crossed swiftly to the trolley and
surveyed the jumble of pills and bottles before him. He had no idea
what he was looking at. Each bottle was carefully marked, each tray
of tablets noted and identified, but his knowledge of medications
was by no means up to the task. Maybe it would be more difficult
than he thought after all.

“Can I help you?” He turned so quickly towards the
voice that he startled the nurse and she almost dropped the papers
she was carrying.

“I’m sorry.” Sherman smiled a wide and disarming
smile that immediately put the girl at ease. “I didn’t mean to
startle you,” he continued and dropped his eyes to the floor as if
embarrassed. The girl was no more than nineteen or twenty. She was
very pretty with dark features, soulful eyes and a jumble of auburn
hair tied into a bun under a small white headdress. Pity she wasn’t
a bit younger, Sherman thought as he noted the girl’s body under
her clean-pressed uniform.

“I’m looking for my boss. Steele. He came in
earlier.” Sherman blushed as he brought his eyes upward to meet
hers before he dropped them again. He had a lot of practice acting
embarrassed and lost with women. He found that no matter how young
or old, all females responded to a helpless male, and he was not
disappointed this time.

The nurse reached out and took his arm and began to
lead him down the corridor. “Mister Steele is in number four. Were
you with him on the raid?” she asked and he could see her interest
as her eyes roved over his large frame.

It would be so easy, he thought. If only she was
younger.

“Yes,” he answered and met her gaze for a moment as
he noted her smile.

There was a brief moment of silence between them, as
if she was about to say something, and then the second nurse
reappeared and the moment was gone.

“Amanda,” the older woman snapped, “stop fraternizing
and get back to work.” The older nurse didn’t even break stride as
she disappeared again into another room.

“Is she always like that?” Sherman nodded his head
towards the room where the older woman had disappeared and he
smiled again as he let his eyes linger.

“Oh, she’s not too bad, I suppose,” Amanda answered,
and then she blushed as she realized she still held his arm. Maybe
I could make an exception in this case, he thought. It has been so
long after all.

“I hope you won’t think me too forward.” Sherman
dropped his eyes again as he continued. “But would you be free
later? Maybe we could …”

He left the sentence open ended and waited.

She reached for his arm again. “I’d love to.” She
smiled and her smile was far more knowing and mature than her
years. They arranged to meet later after her shift, and she quickly
shuffled back towards the medication trolley. He continued looking
at her as she hurried away, and he shrugged. This might work out
better than he had thought. He might even be able to learn a little
about the more toxic medications from her before he gutted her. He
preferred them far more innocent, but any port in a storm would do
for now. Whistling gaily, he followed her directions and knocked on
the door to number four and entered to visit a pleased, but
surprised, Steele.

Preparations continued all through the day, and Major
William Carter watched it all with a growing sense of dread. It was
only when the sun rose that the full reality of the night’s
violence had become clear. He had stood shaking on his armored
vehicle as he watched the darkness peel slowly back, revealing more
torn bodies and shredded metal than he could count with each
passing moment. The dawn’s weak orange glow cast its eerie light
over the grisly scene. Smoke from the gutted vehicles spread a thin
veil, almost like a morning mist, that thankfully obscured the
scenes in the distance. He had no doubt that the carnage hidden
beyond the veil mirrored the slaughter he could already see but he
was thankful that he was spared the full impact of the night’s
madness. He considered clearing the worst of the debris and burying
the bodies, if for no other reason than because the sight of the
terror on some of the faces of the thralls unnerved him. But there
just wasn’t time.

He had to prepare for when the vampires came back. He
couldn’t give a shit what they did further along the border, but he
wanted his designated area to be presentable and defensible. The
border he was now in command of spanned a distance three times the
size of that which he had been in charge of last night. And he had
no more guards or resources to police it and prepare for the coming
darkness.

That was another problem, as well. Von Kruger had not
left any word as to his plans for the oncoming night so Carter
would have to prepare his men both offensively and defensively so
as to cater for whichever mood Von Kruger woke up in. He had seen
the brief and violent meeting of the vampires, thankfully from a
distance, but the unexpected escalation terrified him.

He had never seen vampires attack each other
before—for that matter; he had never seen vampires actually attack
anyone before. Their power was more assumed than witnessed, mainly
because there were no survivors of any action taken against the
vampires themselves. Once they had revealed their presence to the
world two years ago they had already gathered a large number of
soldiers and it had been the thralls who had fought and died for
their new masters. It seemed that they were about to fight and die
again now two years later, only this time the masters themselves
were doing some of the killing. He knew that the vampires
frequently disagreed over territory and resources, but he had never
heard of those disagreements escalating to this scale before.

His main worry now was not the actual extent of the
deaths he had witnessed but more that it had been his report that
had set this whole situation into motion. This was no time for any
of the vampires to begin to question what had led them to these
circumstances in the first place. He would have to make sure that
he was ready for anything and had everything under control so they
did not look to apportion blame in his direction.

His men grumbled that they had had no sleep or food
since yesterday. They also complained about the bodies and that
they would begin to smell as the day progressed. He had told them
plainly that they were free to clear away any bodies after they had
dug enough trenches, cleaned and checked the engines of those
vehicles that were still operational, topped up the fuel and
generally ensured they were ready to move out at a moments notice
if required. He had also reminded them that they were free to
explain their discomfort to Von Kruger when he returned if they so
desired. As he expected, no one was up for that so the complaints
died away during the morning.

Carter spent the rest of his morning doing an
inventory of his supplies, men and equipment so that he would be
fully briefed when the vampires asked. It wasn’t a situation he was
looking forward to reporting. He had two hundred thralls, having
added to his previous compliment with the stragglers from those
areas that had been attacked last night.

Wentworth’s men had been incredibly successful during
their raid, frighteningly so, and more than a hundred thralls lay
dead along the border. The number of dead didn’t worry him half as
much as the fact that he had been only a few feet away from being
one of the dead himself. The equipment, though, was far more
worrying. Twenty tanks had been completely destroyed, nine more
could be scrapped once they salvaged the parts that still worked,
and five more were too damaged to move but could be used
defensively. That only left him with a further eight tanks in his
section that were fully serviceable. He had twelve trucks, having
lost just three of those, and fourteen armored cars remained from a
pool of twenty-two.

He had no idea what the situation was in the other
sections but if they were anything like his then Von Kruger would
go demented when he found out. Though, based on his actions last
night Carter believed the Vampire Master was already mostly beyond
reason as it was.

He decided to spend the afternoon trying to work out
a way he could report the bad news and still retain his head.

The community was in an uproar when they heard Dee
Ratigan’s breathless report. She had driven all the way on a
motorcycle, disregarding many safety guidelines put in place to
protect the community, in her rush to tell the others what was
happening. No one thought to reprimand her when they heard her news
though. Details were carried by word of mouth more swiftly than the
official runners could hope to match, and each retelling led to
more and more embellishments to a story that, in reality, was
already terrifying. It was shocking enough that a war had started
but the news of the preparations to cater for large numbers of
humans in the border town could only mean one thing: The vampires
were coming in force. And that made their own situation a
precarious one.

“You see,” Regan spluttered as he shouted to be heard
above the general din of panicked conversation in a vain attempt to
regain control and mask his own growing dread. “This is exactly
what I warned against from the start.” He paused for a moment as he
tried to stop his hands from shaking and hid his discomfort by
slamming one palm on the table as he thrust out his other hand and
pointed at Harris. “You’ve brought them to our very doorstep,
Harris.”

The committee had hurriedly called a meeting to
discuss the situation but it had quickly degenerated into chaos.
Harris sat quietly and listened on one level to the rising din of
overly loud voices around him but his focus was miles away on a
border that was about to erupt into chaos. His mind was not on the
danger the situation posed, but on the opportunity it
presented.

“Now, it’s hardly on our doorstep.” Father Reilly
tried to calm the room by speaking calmly, though with no less
volume than Regan. The other members of the committee seemed to
sense the calm of his tone and a number of them stopped their own
conversations to listen. There was still a low din of whispered
conversations but these too dwindled away as they seemed to notice
the quiet descending over the room. “I mean,” Reilly continued in a
softer tone than still held those around the table riveted to what
he was saying. “The border is nearly a hundred miles away.”

“What if it escalates?” Regan countered. “What if
they come here?” Wisely he did not ask any other questions.
Panicked he may be, but he knew how to command a room and he could
see that he had struck a nerve.

Father Reilly, too, knew when to speak and when not
to. There was no answer he could give. The vampires could very
likely come here either to seek aid from their neighbor or even as
an independent witness in the escalating struggle. Even if they did
not come looking for Nero it would be very suspicious if Nero did
not guard his own borders with forces of his own. In such a
situation it would not take long for them to discover the fledgling
human community, and that would only serve to unite the vampires
against them.

They were in trouble either way as far as he could
see.

Reilly looked over at Harris. His presence at the
meeting in full combat fatigues made it clear that his attendance
was merely a formality as far as he was concerned. He had already
decided what his next course of action would be and it did not
involve hiding away and hoping the situation would resolve itself.
Reilly knew that even though Harris sat at the table his mind was
already planning how he could use the distraction of the conflict
to rescue some of the people that would be brought to the front to
feed the vampires. Reilly sighed. While it was admirable that he
was trying to help others, he cursed Harris’ shortsightedness. Why
couldn’t he see past his burning need to save others? Some of the
ones he had already saved still needed him. Why couldn’t the boy
see that?

“It’s not ideal, I’ll grant you.” Reilly knew
immediately that he should have kept quiet but he had felt
compelled to fill the void after Regan’s question, and it was
obvious that Harris was not about to answer.

“Not ideal.” Regan jumped on the words like a lion on
wounded prey. “It certainly isn’t ideal that all we have worked
for—in fact, the very future of the human race, as Harris
constantly reminds us—is now under such threat because of his
insistence in taking wild and unwarranted risks.” Regan leaned back
smugly as whispers rolled around the table like a Mexican wave at a
football game.

Regan smiled. “This is exactly what a number of us
have been discussing before the news arrived.” Regan paused as he
looked around the faces of the new committee. “We have been
concerned for some time now about the way things have been done
here. Certain members of this committee have wantonly put the
safety of the entire community at huge risk to salve their own
egos.” Regan let his face show sorrow as he looked earnestly at the
people before him. “We have decided - that is a number of us have
decided - that it would be better if certain responsibilities were
handled by, shall we say, more balanced people.”