***
Cracking my eyes open, I felt a sudden overwhelming anxiety that captured my breath in my throat. It was early morning and my body felt like it had been run over by truck. Sitting up, my joints popped and creaked as my muscles burned in protest. All the running and searching had been more than I had done in a while and had left me in a state of exhaustion.
I had to get up, though I did not want to. I could feel the desolation creeping into my mind as the urge to give up seemed to grow with each passing moment. To stay in bed and continue to sleep would be just fine with me, and this was unacceptable. Shaking my head, I tried to regain my focus. I had to keep moving, searching and searching until we were all safe again. I could not let this depression overwhelm me and threaten to freeze me into despair.
I quickly ate breakfast, gulping down an energy bar and some bottled green tea, and dressed for the day. I slipped on some dark jeans and strapped a machete to my right thigh. I stretched as I fit the weapons on. I hung a hatchet on an axe loop at my left side, leaving it at that. I was going to go light today. My body was not into hauling too many supplies and from the experience of the search yesterday, I wouldn’t need as much as I thought I would. I checked my flashlights and slipped them into my many belt compartments. I filled the remaining pouches with water and snacks.
I finished off by pulling my hair into a tight bun that held at the nape of my neck. Done, I noticed again how gaunt I looked in the mirrors of the bathroom. I looked thin, but the sun had slowly burned its rays across my skin, giving it a slightly reddish, light brown hue. I’d forgotten to put sunscreen on the day before and groaned at the slight tingle of pain that emanated from the burn. I grabbed for a tube of the thick cream to slather on. The sun was intense here and a severe sunburn would be much more painful than sore muscles.
Exiting the compound, I loaded myself up into the van and headed off once more down the mountain. I wished I was closer to the city; the forty-minute drive sometimes irritated me down to my core if I was desperate to get there, like I was today. I swerved around the debris, cursing under my breath that some of it had shifted with the violent winds that had swept through the valley during the night. It was still a bit breezy but not as wild as the night had been.
This time, after checking the supermarket area, I drove away toward the strip to be closer to my main search area. I had made it to the Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. That’s where I had ended my search the day before. The short mile had left me exhausted. There were so many buildings to search that it had taken too long to get through that short part of the Strip. It had frustrated me to the gills.
I pulled in behind the Caesar’s Palace casino, a place I used to hold a job at. The Forum Shops was a super-long mall filled with rich displays of expensive goodies. Now it was a darkened tunnel, probably full of vampires. I wasn’t sure I wanted to start in the mall area. There were no windows in it, a completely enclosed mall. It was sure to be unsafe. The entire casino barely had any windows. I cracked a smile, thinking back to the reasoning for this. It had been done on purpose in constructing the casinos to keep people gambling their hard-earned money away without a concept of time. No windows, no clocks. Genius on the part of the casinos but bad for me, in the complete darkness with creatures that wanted nothing but to slurp up all the blood out of my veins.
I decided to enter the back way, where the employee entrance was and I had gone in many times before. At least I knew this casino’s layout well. Entering at the rear of the mall would be hazardous, but I’d have to go through there eventually anyway. Pushing the heavy double doors of the emergency exit, a black hole of nothing and dust swirled up before me, down a corridor into the insides of the building. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing but the wind softly tossing about interrupted the air. I readied my hatchet and flashlight, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. I slowly entered, letting the doors behind me close softly, right into the bubble of black.
It was suffocating. The ventilation in these places was poor, even when it had been alive with electricity and air conditioning. It always had kept the smoke clouds from burning cigarettes lingering forever in the enclosed space. Now it was stifling and stale.
I walked slowly forward, reaching the vending machines full of old snacks that stood to one side of the wide hallway. An inlet to the public restrooms stood to my left and I contemplated searching them. I flashed my light over the doorway openings that stood opposite each other. Only the dust on the floor told me that no one had been here in a long time. A year of dirt streaked across the tile floors and all around me. I decided to forgo it, feeling pretty sure that no one had ventured down this way in ages.
The hallway opened up to a large dining and entertainment area where a huge aquarium stood, half full of murky water and the stench of death. I held my breath and pulled my shirt over my nose. It was strong here, maybe from the slush of dead fish that lined the top of the aquarium water. I wasn’t too sure. Something told me to stay alert–the stench could very well be decomposing bodies in a hive of vampires. The place was wrecked. The beautiful faux marble displays and saltwater aquarium were filthy and disgusting now, a ghost of the memories I had of this place when I had strolled down these halls to work at Bath and Body store.
I didn’t have to wait long to find out why the place was giving off a bad vibe. Three gaunt-looking ferals jumped into my view, snarling as their red-tinged drool hung from their fangs like gore. I wondered what they had recently fed on. It was not possible that another human was around. Or maybe I was wrong; I hadn’t encountered any in so very long that to see one would be a miracle. I backed up into the hallway with the exit at my back, pondering if I should fight the three feral vampires or make a dash for the double doors where the sun’s light would be more than enough to fry them.
I went for the latter after hearing another one plop onto the floor behind them. They crept forward, their hungry and desperate eyes scanning me greedily. I turned and ran for it. I could take out two, maybe three–but four? I was pushing it at that. I pumped my arms and legs as fast as I could, willing my muscles to move even more. The ferals were quick, super-human quick, and only my intense running and training had helped me keep out of their reach. The beam of my flashlight was zigzagging across the walls like an epileptic seizure. I wondered how much more I would have to run before reaching the doors.
I felt the grip of death as a cold, bony hands grabbed my left arm, sending the flashlight in my fist flying as I pummeled through the double doors. It sent a searing pain through my right shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the impact into the metal door. I felt the vampire latch its mouth onto my arm, gripping so tight with his fangs I thought my arm would snap. The sun’s light wrapped around me like a brilliant fire, sending me and the feral rolling to the floor as I heard the vampires scream in pain. I rolled on the hard concrete, shaking off the tumbling body of the feral as I jumped to my feet, turning to aim my hatchet at them. I didn’t have to fight anymore. The doors had gotten stuck wide open and the four creatures were writhing on the ground near me as their charcoaled skin hissed and cooked in the sun’s rays. The stench that emanated from them made me want to hurl. I backed up away from them, my heart still beating insanely fast.
I pulled my eyes away from them to stare in horror at what had arrived behind them. In the shroud of the shadows, a dozen pairs of red gleaming eyes glared right back at me. The snarls rumbled inside the hall as I gasped. A huge hive of ferals were watching me hungrily even as they avoided stepping into the light. I backed away again, contemplating slamming the doors shut. Their faces were withered into a gaunt grey, looking more like zombies, except for the flashing fangs that gleamed in the dim light around their open mouths.
I glanced down to the now-still corpses of charred flesh and ashes of the four that had almost reached me. They were no longer a threat to me at all. I ran up to the double doors, slamming them both closed as fast as I could to seal the hive insi
de the darkness. I pounced back from the doors as I heard the thud of their bodies against the metal. Swallowing the hard lump in my throat and feeling the adrenaline pumping to the point of a headache in my head, I was relieved. Their needy moans interrupted my thoughts as I slipped off the sidewalk, still backing up. I stumbled to gather my balance and continued to walk away, heading toward my van.
Their pounding ceased and the doors stilled. They would not come out into the sun, they were smarter than that. They would let me go and search for me later, after dark. Luckily, they could not pick up a scent but I wanted to get out of there so fast that I literally was tripping over my feet as I made it back to the van parked in the street between two massive concrete parking garages. This place was the definition of a concrete jungle. The garages were not safe either, they were quite dark even during the day and shrouded from most light. They could be crawling with vampires, too. The entire city was infested with those vile creatures. I was vastly outnumbered.
I peeled out of there, jumping back onto the freeway of the I-15 northbound. I took the interchange to the US-95 and followed it back toward the mountains. My heart continued to race until I reached the outskirts of town and the city skyline shrank in the rearview mirror. The tires screamed their protests as I continued on, swerving dangerously around stalled cars and debris. Glancing down for a moment, I noticed the vampire bite on my arm just below my elbow. The blood seeped from the puncture holes which were drying into dark red, clotting drips that were also staining my jeans below it. The sight of the bite seemed to pull me back into myself and out of my jumbled thoughts, like a bucket of ice being tossed onto my head.
I slammed on the brakes, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. It almost made me laugh that I didn’t pull to the side of the road like I had when other humans had been around.
“No one cares if I stop here! No one cares if I make it home!” I yelled at the windshield, pounding the steering wheel over and over until the searing pain caused me to stop. I was sobbing by then, gripping my arm and clutching it to my chest like an infant. I suddenly felt lost and small.
If the bite got infected, I would surely be of no use to anyone anymore. I swallowed back the last few sobs that tried to escape my chest as I sat there, the desolate desert expanse before me on the dusty road. I hadn’t left the city quite yet, but almost. The few straggling houses seem to sit there like silent watchers of my suffering. I sighed, wiping my face with a rag that hung on the back of the middle seat. I didn’t know what it had been used for before but I tried to not think about it.
Instead, I grabbed a large bottle of water that was always left in the car for emergencies and poured its cool liquid over the wound, rinsing it out as best I could out here in the middle of the god-forsaken road. As the bottle emptied, I shook my arm to rid it of the excess water and pulled out the first aid kit from the back of the van. I sat in the rear hatch area as I smeared antibiotic ointment onto the punctures, making sure to cover the mouth shaped welts that accompanied them. After that, I wrapped it with gauze and an ace wrap, securing the band snuggly over my arm. I flexed my fingers and stretched my arm out, making sure it did not impede my use of it, but remained snug and secure.
As I stored the kit away and tossed the empty bottle to side of the road, I leaned back against the van and stared at the city. I had been so careless. A hive sat in that mall, definitely in my way and hungry now for my blood. I’d have to exterminate them. The shock of so many of them had left me skittish, like a coward. I cursed under my breath as I thought of my cowardice. How stupid to get so jumpy so easily. I had faced a hive before, why had they scared me so much this time? I rubbed my face and knew the answer immediately. I had always had my family to take care of. I had always thought that if I fought hard enough, I could save them from harm. Now they were nowhere in sight and I hadn’t been able to save them anyway. I had run like a coward into the sun’s sanctuary instead. I was nothing but a puny girl, trying to be a hero.
I gritted my teeth, grunting at my frustration. I sighed, knowing it was still too early to return home. I would search the exteriors of the casinos for the rest of the day. But first, I was going to make sure that this particular hive was exterminated. I would only rest if I knew that all knowledge of me was wiped away by their demise.
I hopped back into the driver’s seat of the van and cranked the engine on again. Turning the wheel hard, I brought the van around and headed back toward the city. I would kill them all, even if I died trying. I knew I shouldn’t have felt so strongly about it, but the rage burned inside me like a cancer, eating away at me and screaming to engulf me if I did not let it run its course. I wanted to take it out on them; the pain–the hurt. Here I was, without the ones I loved, scaring the piss out of myself by venturing into the shadows where I could breathe my last breath for sure. I hated it. I wanted to smother them in their darkness, so that they could meet the light, the ever-so-unforgiving sunlight and die for good this time.
I didn’t care that they had been human once. They had been my neighbors, friends, acquaintances. I had found out immediately that once you turned, once you were infected, you were never the same again. You would disappear and leave a ravaged, hungry beast in your place. You could turn from a bite or, like most, from the contagious properties of the viral epidemic. Get either one and you were toast. Some would die from it immediately, unable to host the devastating viral infection. Those were the lucky ones. I wasn’t so lucky at all.
I pulled up near the double door exit where I had made my escape. I paused, scanning around me for any strange movement. The two large parking structures stood like mountainous gates to each side of this access road. The casino was in front of me, leading toward the right with its expansive Greco-Roman facade, as fake as it could be but nonetheless massive. I wondered if any of the rooms up there with the curtains still drawn were crawling with vampires. I found it funny that the casinos, for the most part, had remained intact. It was more of the downtown and older buildings that were crumbling to pieces. I guess they weren’t meant to last forever. Still, if people were still around, maybe they would have survived daily use and abuse better.
I finally slipped out of the van, shaking off my reverie to concentrate on the mission at hand. Opening the rear hatch again, I pulled out a crate full of more-powerful ammunition: a grenade thrower, hand grenades and my crossbow. I smiled as I loaded myself up with all the goodies. I rarely used them because of the noise factor of the grenades. But this was no ordinary situation. I was willing to risk anything to take this hive out, even stir up the other hive pockets nearby. I almost truly wanted, no, prayed for them to show up and try to take me out again.
Go ahead, take your best shot. I’m ready this time.
I clipped on a wearable flashlight, one that hung around my chest like a beacon but was strapped down against me to avoid bouncing around and making it difficult to see. I stretched out and slipped both my machetes into my side sheaths, placed a couple grenades in a pack on my belt and held a grenade in one hand as I made my way forward, ready to swing the doors open and bring death to them.
The four vampires that had baked in the sun were nothing more than four charred piles of ash, softly floating away in the afternoon breeze. I frowned, kicking one of the piles and sending it into the atmosphere like a dance of confetti. Narrowing my eyes, I crouched forward to grab the handle of the door, feeling the warm metal under my fingers. It vibrated like it was on fire, almost burning my skin. Clenching my teeth, I sucked in a deep breath and pulled back with the most force I could muster. The ferals were not there. Nothing was there to even say they had been there. I propped the door open and readied myself, walking carefully inside, briskly but quietly. The light flashed around with the movement of my chest but created a nice area of vision for me.
I was already at the disgusting aquarium when I heard them. Glancing about the room, I saw them ducking out of store fronts and from behind pillars, dozens of them. I gulped, trying to keep
my legs readied to bolt. I backed away a little bit and found that my movement made them hurry toward me even faster, groaning and hissing as I moved away. I retrieved four grenades, pulling the pins and waited as I held steady, my heart pounding like a drummer in my head. As I eased into the hall again, I pulled my arms back and flung the grenades, one by one, as high up as I could to the far walls. I turned to head out again toward the sweet sun that beckoned me from the opened double doors. I was not about to leave but gaining cover was a must with the grenades about to burst inside there.
The hall provided more than enough shelter. I felt the blast as the walls shook, kicking up dust clouds and bellowing like an avalanche. I backed out toward the sun to wait out the cloud of dirt, as it took out the visibility. The screeches were deafening as the sound of concrete and glass shattered the silence outside. Dust clouds billowed out, swirling around like mist. I readied my dual machetes, sucking in a breath before the cloud enveloped me. I ran forward into the middle of the large room as the dirt settled down on clumps of concrete and metal. All over were feral vampires in different states of wither, some shattered beyond recovery, some struggling under debris.
The blast had not leveled the large, round hall. Instead, it had broken enough pieces of the arched roof to open beams of sunlight that streamed down into the dusty room like spikes. Some vampires were pinned under concrete chunks and writhed as they burned beneath the intensity of sun. It lit up the room well enough for me to see as the ones left untouched lunged for me. I swung both machetes, chopping into the first feral as it bared its dirty brown teeth at me, its red eyes gleaming. Its head flew off with one swing and dark crimson blood spurted from its stump of a neck and down the filthy shirt that it wore.
I continued swinging my blades, catching several through the chests or arms, leaving them with severed limbs or on the ground, missing legs and screaming at me. One reached out, grabbing my leg and squeezing its fingers around my jeans with its long, dark nails digging in. I swung one blade down, severing the hand and hacked at its head with the other blade, the sound of bone cracking and tissue squishing under it with every hit. The hand held onto my leg and I shook it loose, trying not to think about how disgusting that was. I slashed through two more that had climbed over a fallen block of roof and attempted to grasp at me with their hands. This was truly a fight of blade and teeth. I kicked one down and slashed its neck, then brought both blades to a cross in front of me and pulled back as the feral ran right into them, effectively decapitating itself with little effort on my part.
I had lost count of how many I had slaughtered. They were no match–I had become the monster killer in the room. My blades were sopping wet with thick clots of drying blood and ichor. The room took on a strong coppery smell as the dirt mixed with oily blood, swallowing the musty stench of the place with the overwhelming scent. I bit my lip to try not to think about the horrid smell. The aroma of death lingered with it, like a muck that tainted every surface of the place. The air seemed to grow thicker as I breathed hard, using up my energy quickly. The bite on my arm was screaming in protest as the muscle underneath the bite moved and stretched, contracting with every movement.
The adrenaline took care of some of the pain but I knew it would not last forever and really could not. Looking around as stillness overcame the room, I realized they were all down and dead. Every single feral that had leaped out at me was ripped to pieces, sliced into like cheese, bleeding guts and ichor all over the dusty marble floor. I waited, still semi-crouched with my knees bent and my swords out, still ready to slice into something else. Nothing came, though; they were all gone.
The silence seemed to sober me up from my intoxicated state. I slowly stood up straight, examining the damage I had inflicted. A slight smile curled at my lips as I breathed in and out hard. It was an exhilarating high and I didn’t want it to end. For that one moment, the pain of losing my mother and brother felt righted, even for just a minute. I knew this was what I was made for, to kill these insolent creatures and bring their hives down. They were as unnatural to this world as anything could be. My hatred boiled inside me and made my eyes blaze as I glared at the pieces of evil that were strewn about the room. Some were sizzling under the rays of sunlight, crackling and bubbling as they disintegrated. I wanted them all to burn; I wanted them all to suffer like I had.
Gasping, I realized that tears were streaming down my face and plopping down onto my shirt. I spun around, feeling as though the room was collapsing inward, even though it wasn’t. The air seemed to thin out, small fires burned from the explosions and were growing in intensity as the bodies and trash fueled its fury even more. My eyes glanced about wildly as I felt the horror of what I had done creep into my chest and arrest in my throat. I grasped my blades and ran for the haven that only the outside air could give. Jumping over debris, bodies and rocks, I flew down the hall and spilled out onto the sidewalk.
Finally coming to a stop, my machetes clanked to the floor as I knelt over, breathing hard and closing my eyes, trying to calm the overwhelming anxiety that pulsated in my head. A bit dizzy and coming down from the adrenaline, I paused there for a moment, waiting for my heartbeat to slow and settle into a calmer pace. Standing slowly, I turned toward the double doors, seeing the beams of light cutting the darkness within like knives. Nothing came after me; they were all dead. Only I was left, standing alone. This feeling of fear and power twisted inside me like two piranhas circling each other, ready to rip into each other. I wanted to feel glad that I had killed the hive with little effort. I tried to shake the guilt off, telling myself it was okay, that I had done them a favor. They were no longer people–they were animals, unnatural and cursed. Putting them down was the only thing I could do for them now.
I reached down, grabbed my blades and slowly dragged myself to the van. Opening the side door and grabbing a rag that sat on the floor, I wiped the dark, sticky blood off my blades. I would have to wash them later but right now the fatigue was settling into my bones like a syrupy draught. I was feeling incredibly worn out and exhausted. It wrapped around me like a sedative. I slammed the door shut, leaving my blades on the floor of the van.
I looked around–the street’s silence was almost too much for me. I wanted so badly to see another person, to have someone say my name again. The feelings that swirled inside me were overwhelming, almost making me want to hurl. I swung up into the seat of the driver’s side of the van and cranked the engine. I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my fingers felt a tingle of numbness as I continued to sob. Drying blood streaked up and down my arms in intricate patterns. I wanted to scrub it off my skin and feel brand new again. Their blood was tainted and full of viral disease.
I wondered if I would turn this time, turn into one of them. I often wondered why I hadn’t turned when the vampiric virus had vanquished everyone else. My mother, brother and I had fled the city when the nights were beginning to get a little too scary and deadly in our house. It had been centrally located near the sound wall built around the US-95 highway. It was an older neighborhood, meaning that the houses there had large yards and strong construction. Unlike the newer housing tracks, they were built to last forever. We’d had a nice huge spiked gate surrounding the property which had served as our protection from the outside, where the dead had increased and feral vampires had begun roaming freely.
We had boarded up the windows to the point that no light escaped when we lit our lamps at night. Keeping to the living room, we would take shifts sleeping and guarding, never making a noise during the long dark hours of night. The dead would make the noise for us. Outside I could hear the not-so-distant screeches of the feral vampires, hunting their prey. At first it was human screams that accompanied their hisses. Then as the population grew tinier and tinier, they had turned to capturing lost dogs and cats, pets of owners that no longer came home. I heard the dogs barking and the cats screeching back at the monsters. It wasn’t long before those noises were silenced as well and the inhuman snarls faded
as the neighborhood died and the lights went out.
I came back into the present as the street, now flying by in front of me as the van cruised down it, turned onto the freeway toward home. It was now about one hour from sunset and all I wanted was to forget the day and hide in my hole in the mountains once again. The sky bled translucent oranges and blues across the horizon as I rolled the window down, letting the air whip my hair around. I still felt suffocated, still felt an overwhelming angst within my chest that did not fade with anything but the air. The rush and noise of it made my mind a bit number, maybe even a bit clearer.
I raced through the abandoned cars and pieces of debris. The tears had dried into dirty streaks down my face and I once more felt the weariness growing in my bones and down my body. I wanted to keep driving, keep on until the road faded away into the endless desert plains and disappear with them. I knew that I couldn’t and I knew that I had to stay here and keep fighting, even for nothing more than for the memory of my mother and my brother. For them, I would not let my spirit wither and fade. I would continue on, regardless.
Chapter Eight