Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (38 page)

For his own part he now commanded a sizable number of
thralls, enough to allow him to decide his own fate. He would no
longer bow to the vampires, but he was prepared to work with them
if a deal could be agreed upon. They were vulnerable during the day
and the human rebels had proven that they were not invulnerable
during the night either. His own actions tonight proved that he
would be able to negotiate his position. If the vampires wanted
protection during the days to come they must pay for it or face
annihilation. He would send word to the other thralls in the
neighboring states and word would spread.

Vampires would no longer rule alone. They must share
if they wanted the loyalty of the thralls. There would be many
changes after tonight and he planned to be ready for the new dawn.
It was a new world, and he smiled as he anticipated his role in
it.

April wandered the corridors, working through her
grief. Steele was dead. She had known that he would not return when
he had left. But, now that a week had gone by, the realization was
only really hitting her now. She had had a lot of support from
Sandra and Harris but they were still learning sign and she missed
Steele’s easy smile and quiet company.

The whole community had been thrown into disarray
when Harris had returned with nearly a thousand refugees, and it
had forced the community to change despite itself. That number of
new and helpless additions to their community meant that everyone
had to help and make sacrifices. Strangely, there had been little
grumbling—even from the committee.

She had been kept busy in keeping the hospital
supplied with medicine and food as more and more of the people
began to regain their wits and their appetites, but she still felt
an emptiness in her that no amount of work or company could fill.
This had been her first opportunity to get away on her own. She
took the route that she and Steele liked to walk. It brought her to
the edge of the community’s territory and she hoped to find
something of the happy times she had spent here. She hadn’t passed
another soul in the last ten minutes but the peace she had expected
to find eluded her. These deserted corridors did not hold any
attraction anymore. She looked around at their bare walls and low
lighting and began to wonder why she had wanted to come back here
at all. Steele’s memory was in her heart, not in these corridors.
She came to a decision and turned back towards the community. There
was more for her back at camp now than there was here.

Dave Sherman watched the deaf girl as she stopped and
looked around the corridor. He had followed her for some time,
nodding genially at all who passed by. He had become somewhat of a
celebrity when he had returned with his truckload of survivors, but
he had been quickly overshadowed when Harris and the others had
arrived with their haul. Talk about being upstaged. He had hidden
his anger well and embraced Harris and the others like long lost
brothers as everyone had begun to expand the community to cater for
their new additions.

Things had been so hectic that he had not had the
time to find another victim and his urges were growing stronger
each day. The body of the little nurse he had disposed of before he
had gone on the raid had been discovered while he was away. People
were shocked at the terrible things that had been done to her and
there was an air of suspicion in the community towards any male
over the age of twenty. No one suspected any of “Harris’s Heroes,”
as people were calling them though and he had been able to pass
among people easily.

Patrols now walked the community’s halls, and fear
from within now overshadowed the fear of the vampires, so he had to
be careful. It had been pure luck that he had seen Steele’s squeeze
going off on her own and he had followed with growing excitement as
the girl had wandered into increasingly deserted areas.

Now she looked as if she were about to return so he
would have to act quickly if he was to satisfy his lust. He moved
out from the wall and approached her swiftly. She would be an easy
mark. She wouldn’t even hear him or be able to cry for help. It
didn’t get any better than this.

April sensed something behind her and was about to
turn when she felt a powerful arm grab her from behind and pull her
backwards. She struggled but the man’s strength was far too much
for her and she began to panic. She felt her clothes tear as the
man’s other hand pawed at her. She screamed silently and tried to
pull away but the man gripped her more tightly until she began to
see black spots in her vision.

Suddenly she felt a calm come over her as she
remembered the lessons that Steele had thought her about how to
defend herself. She forced herself to stop struggling and she let
her body go limp. The sudden increase in weight made the man shift
forward as he struggled to hold her up and stop her from moving.
April felt the shift in the man’s weight move from his heels to his
toes as he leaned forward. She reached up suddenly and grabbed his
thumb and wrenched it away from her neck.

The move elicited a cry of pain from the man and he
was forced to fall to one knee or have his wrist broken. Steele had
taught her many moves where her small size could cope with someone
far larger and heavier. He had not been able to sign their correct
judo terms but she had made up her own descriptions and she was
pleased when she saw the result of the wrist-lock move he had shown
her.

She felt elation swell within her, but then Steele’s
advice came to her again. She might have succeeded in getting free,
but defeating such a large opponent was beyond her. When in doubt,
run, Steele had warned her and she swung a swift kick at the man’s
groin to keep him down before turning to run.

Her foot raced towards the man’s testicles but he was
faster and moved to the side, taking the blow to his thigh. He
grunted in pain but he was far from incapacitated. She felt him
grab her foot and then she was suddenly falling to the ground. She
landed hard on her back and felt nauseas as she fought for breath.
A face loomed over her and the man grinned as she saw him for the
first time. Sherman! She forced herself to remain calm as the man
limped slightly from her kick, but she paled when she saw his eyes.
There was no pity there, only lust. She should have run when she
had the chance. She whispered a silent apology to Steele for not
following his advice and scrambled back against the wall as he bore
down on her.

Little bitch hurt me, Sherman cursed as he limped
toward her. She’ll pay for that. He reached down for her, swiping
her kicking legs easily to the side as he grabbed her. This time he
took no chances and employed a full lock on her throat and ripped
her shirt off. He brought his hands up to grope her when he felt
his hand gripped by a force far greater than his victim was capable
of.

“I knew there was something wrong about you,” he
heard the voice, and it took him a moment to place the voice.

Steele! But he’s dead. He felt his hand torn from her
and then forced back with incredible strength. He screamed as his
wrist bones cracked and then broke. He released the girl. Suddenly
he felt his neck gripped tighter than any man should be able to
manage and he felt fear flood through him. He had but a moment to
scream before his throat was ripped out. The last sound he heard
was a terrible sucking and slurping. The vampires are here, he
thought and then he died.

April felt joy erupt in her chest as she saw Steele
tear Sherman from her and throw him against the wall. He was alive,
she thought and thanked God for his safe return. But then her joy
turned to terror as she saw Steele’s face. It was all wrong. It was
contorted and filled with lust and hunger. Oh my God, she thought,
as her joy turned to horror, Jesus no. Not him—it’s not fair. She
screamed silently as she watched Steele tear Sherman’s throat out
and begin to feed.

April knew she should run but she couldn’t leave
Steele like that. What the vampires had done to him was the worst
possible hell for a man like Steele. There must be some part of the
man he used to be still inside the vampire he had become. Surely
she could still appeal to that side of him. She found herself
rising and approaching him before she had thought it through, and
then she was reaching out for his shoulder.

“April!” She stopped as she heard the shouted
warning. “Move away.” She looked over and saw Harris and a few
others approaching them. Harris held his machine gun out and had it
aimed at Steele. “He’s not the man you knew any more, April.”
Harris reached out one hand toward her, urging her to come toward
him. She took a step toward him but then felt a hand grab her and
pull her back.

“She’s mine, Harris!” Steele shouted as he dropped
the dead body of Sherman. “Don’t worry, you’re next.”

“This isn’t what you’d want, Steele. If there is any
part of you left you must know that,” Harris urged as he moved
closer. “The man I knew would never let any harm come to her. In
his name, neither will I.”

“The man you knew is no more,” Steele laughed. “I am
so much more now. The power, Harris, you won’t believe it. It’s
fantastic.”

“Let her go and we won’t shoot,” Harris continued.
“We can continue this another time. We were following Sherman, and
you’ve taken care of him. We have no quarrel with you. You know
what these bullets will do to you. Let her go.”

Harris watched Steele’s face for any show of emotion,
any sign that the man he knew might still have some influence on
the monster he had become. “Steele, please,” Harris urged. “Let her
go. Don’t let her die as your sister did.”

Harris saw a flicker of something in Steele’s face,
an uncertainty in his eyes. Suddenly April was thrown toward him
and he couldn’t move quickly enough to avoid her and they went down
in a heap. His weapon fell from his hands and Steele was upon him
in a blink of an eye.

The others around Harris brought their weapons up and
shouted in panic but the two figures were too close together to get
a clear shot.

“He isn’t going to tell the other vampires about the
serum, Harris.” Steele seemed to be fighting himself to get the
words out. “You’ll have to come up with something else.”

Harris was shocked that he was still alive. He looked
up into the vampire’s face. It looked nothing like Steele but the
eyes mirrored that part of him that spoke. Steele reached over for
Harris’s XM8. “It is intoxicating, Harris. The power is too much to
resist. Take care of her.” Harris nodded and Steele turned the
weapon on himself.

“One final thing, you have a traitor amongst you.” He
pulled the trigger and his screams easily drowned out the burst of
fire.

Harris rose and gently took his weapon from Steele’s
dead fingers. He reached forward and closed his friend’s eyes. He
felt a tear fall down his cheek. He turned to the others and saw
their shock. Von Richelieu knew where they were, he knew about
serum’s effects and was happy to let humanity die out to cull his
own race’s huge numbers.

Steele’s sacrifice had not been in vain, though. They
would not have known about the traitor if he had not come. They
were about to embark on a very different war now. They could not
rely on secrecy and subterfuge anymore, but they were prepared and
still had a few surprises up their sleeves.

Let the vampires do their worst. They would be
ready.