Night Plague: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (18 page)

A gunshot shook the room. It was loud and sharp, not from Sorrel’s small pistol. Alex screeched.

Mason
opened his eyes to watch her clench the side of her head with both hands. She wasn’t bleeding, but grayish fluid leaked through her fingers. He didn’t want to know what it was. She’d been hit. Not fatally, but hit.

His quivering
gaze found Dale standing in the doorway, hands wrapped around a large, black gun. He grinned. “Good thing I stumbled across this old thing, eh? You might want to tell your ‘people’ to do a better job picking up after themselves. Of course, that’s bit hard when they’re dead.”

Alex stumbled
like a drunk who couldn’t quite regain balance. She lingered for a final moment, brown eyes blazing into blue, before lumbering for the window. No one stopped her when she plunged through the broken glass and vanished.

Dale heaved a nonchalant snort, trudging up and yanking the knife from Sorrel’s neck. She collapsed to the floor with an invol
untary gasp.

"You okay, double traitor?" He asked, eyes boring into her like they
could see right through her, into whatever had motivated her to side with Alex and then once more with him.

"Yes." She managed,
shakily getting to her knees and rubbing her throat. "Yes. I'm fine."

She met his gaze so steadily he couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad."
He looked to Mason instead. “Get up, boy. If that’s all it takes to get you down, then immortality is wasted on you.”

It took him a few moments longer to slog to his shaking legs. He stood with back bent, both arms cradl
ing his stomach. Beads of sweat glistened from his forehead. It was all he could manage not to cry out.

Sorrel breathed a weak chuckle. “Do you see why I was so cross with you over the whole fire iron thing, now?”

He forced himself to look at her. She seemed fine despite the gaping hole in her throat. “How do…you…?” Even talking was difficult beneath the grip of pain pouring from his stomach.

“You work through it, just like everything else.” She smiled. “We’ll have to toughen you up a bit.”

“The wound will close soon, but be careful not drop anything from your gut in the meantime.” Dale laughed. “You don’t need any of it anymore, but let’s not make a mess, huh?”

Mason managed a chocked groan that only seemed to prolong their chuckles.

…Man, he really was surrounded by weirdoes.

He looked away from them and at the girl still shivering beside her bed. Her shape was pale and tight, knees curled to her chest while she watched them silently with shuddering limbs and stretched eyes.

He dragged himself a few painful steps closer. Suspicious green orbs greeted him. That beautiful, familiar green.

I’m sorry I never told you.
Those words played in his head, but wouldn’t quite form in his mouth. “Merril…you should come with us.” He forced a smile, instead. “After all, only monsters like us can keep you safe from monsters like her.”

She said nothing, arms tightening around her legs. Her eyes
drifted to the floor, shimmering in and out of focus.

“You are letting us back in the prison, right?” Sorrel asked Dale behind him.

Dale was quiet, before he exhaled a long, slow sigh. “Why not, I suppose. We’ve just lost nearly half of us – we need everyone we can get. But…” His eyes sized up Merril, a brief hostility flickering there before it died away. “It’s fine. She can come.” He looked at the wall. “The human already knows.”

Sorrel grinned. “You’re the best, Dale!”

“Now if only you’d agreed with that a few hours ago.”

Mason tuned the two of them out and knelt
down by Merril. “Please, come with us. I’ll make sure no one hurts you there.”

She finally
held his eyes. “Mason?”

The question in her voice
dug in deep. A hush passed, before he simply nodded. “That’s right. It’s still just me.”

“How…long?”
Her voice was quiet, weak.

“About a month.”
He answered, not wanting to go into any more detail than he had to.

She looked down, gaze collapsing back to the blue carpet.

“Remember what you said this morning?” His pale lips curved into a tired smile. “As long as we stay together, then we’ll be all right. Just like always.”

She closed her eyes. She never spoke, but she nodded her head.

Chapter Thirteen: Different Monsters

Mason leaned against the grimy cell wall, knees tucked up to his chest to keep warm. It wasn’t a comfortable place – coated with stains and rust – but the vamps had done their best to make things livable. Fresh blankets looked out of place on the musty bunk, and a lit candle flickered from the bedside table. Faint gray light seeped through the barred window, while white flakes danced past it and disappeared. It was snowing.

Mason glanced at Merril and forced a smile. “Well, it looks like you’ll get your white Christmas this year.”

The cell was as silent as ever.

Merril
hunched on the lower bed beneath a blanket wrapped tight around her shoulders. Stacks of books littered the corner of her cell, and a sheet gave privacy to the old toilet. Bags of chips, fruit, and other snacks with long shelf-lives waited beside a handful of water bottles. She was the only person there who needed such things, and Mason had risked the trek to the store that morning to restock.

It was their fourth
day at the prison. Since arriving, she'd hardly said a word. Not to him or anyone else. She simply sat there staring at the gray floor, hour in, and hour out.

Mason sighed. Males used the cells on the first floor, while females used those on the second. He’d come up to try talking with her for a while, but it was to no avail. He lowered his gaze and searched for hers. “
If there’s anything you really want, then let me know next time.” He smiled. “Everything practically goes for free now, anyway.”

She never looked up. “I can go myself.”

He frowned. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea until the weather gets warmer…” Her immune system left her vulnerable to the cold, and an illness to contend with was the last thing they needed. It was already freezing in the cells as it was.

She didn’t answer, eyelids drooping.

She wouldn’t talk to him at all anymore. Not truly. She wouldn’t even look at him.

Life
in the prison was lonely.

He was something of an outsider – the boy who ran away, caused trouble, and came back with a human and one of Alex’s former followers. The recent chaos
had painted the prison walls with tension, but while many allegiances had been broken, he’d never had any to begin with. There was Sorrel. Just Sorrel. She’d invited him to lunch yesterday afternoon, but knowing what that meant for them, he’d swiftly declined. He wanted to put that off as long as he could.

He found himself pulling his phone from his pocket and holding down the power button. It was running low on battery, and he made sure to keep it off when he wasn’t using it. The prison’s electricity had been deactivated long ago
- once the cell was dead, it would stay dead - but he still needed to check to see if Martin had called every so often.

The backlight lit up his face. It didn’t take him long to skim through the menu.
Nope, nothing. He turned it off, knowing full well by now that there was no point in trying to call from his end.

Useless brother.
Always thinking he knew best, always ordering everyone else around but ignoring his own rules. What trouble had he gotten himself into now? He may have treated Mason like a child, but many times - as on a certain New Years Eve - it was Martin who behaved like one. The unwelcome image of his brother lying in an alley - bite marks bleeding from his neck - flashed through Mason’s head. After all, he hadn’t heard from him since…

No. Martin was way too proud to let that happen! He was fine.

Still…

He stood up and brushed
off the dust already clinging to his jeans. “Actually, I think I'll head out to the store again right now. Might see if I can grab some comic books or something.” He chuckled. “May as well make myself at home too, I suppose.”

“Weren’t you just outside this morning?” Merril
piped up quietly. “Aren’t there still fights going on out there?”

Was that concern? He looked back at her, surprised she’d said anything at all. “
Someone needs to check on Mol and the cats, too. I'll stop by the house while I'm out.”

She finally returned his gaze. “Just…be careful.”

He smiled. “Right.”

The violence outside had died down –
whether by human or vampire hands, Alex's troops had been confined to either the grip of final death, or prison cells locked from the outside. There was little left of the city but a panicked mess. The assault had left it in the same shambles as Rocher. Most of its buildings still stood, but many of its people did not.

He was as careful as he could be on his trips out. Thankfully, he’d both
perished and risen in the comfort of his own room – his death had never been reported, and as he wasn’t particularly memorable anyway, it wasn’t likely anyone would single him out. Nonetheless, he stayed alert. If anyone realized what he was, he was finished. He’d even gone so far as to accept when Sorrel offered him makeup from her old bag. He’d used foundation to conceal the paleness of his skin and obscured his gray lips with soft red lipstick. Lipstick. He chocked down another laugh. If anyone had told him he’d wear makeup a day in his life, he’d have thought they were mad. But such small worries just seemed stupid now.

He
undid the lock to Merril’s barred door and stepped outside before bolting it shut. Only he and Merril had keys, and she knew well enough not to open it for anyone. Some vampires weren’t particularly happy to have a human in their midst, and others weren’t quite so skilled at subduing their thirst. That it was a prison didn’t seem so bad with that in mind.

The building itself was much quieter now. Of course it was. Almost half of its population was dead. He closed his eyes and stuffed his hands in
to his pockets, plodding downstairs and towards the main gate.

A
sharp laugh reverberated across the concrete. “What are you going to do, lock me up? Are you going to let me starve to death? Maybe you’ll catch stragglers from the city and throw them in my cell every couple of weeks. Feeder mice for the snake?”

He flinched, eyes jolting open.
That voice!

Dale and a few others hauled Alex through the main hallway. Her feet dragged on the floor, brown eyes mad and wild. This time, there was no smirk on her face.

So they’d found her, then. She’d gone missing after pulling herself through Merril’s window.

None of the other vampires answered her, though many emerged from t
heir cells to watch the same way the residents of Wheldon Hill had watched Errol take a bullet to the head.

Another laugh.
“Oh, there’s not much fun in that! No hunter’s pride!”

He stepped aside to let them pass as they headed for the stairs.

No matter what Alex had said in her saner moments, a lot of it really had come down to pride, hadn’t it? Nothing more. She wasn't human anymore, she'd thought – she was something better. Something above what she'd been born as. Not a monster draped with death, but a savior shimmering with power. His nose wrinkled as they passed.

He found himself following Dale and the others as they hauled her up another flight, though he couldn’t quite say
why. Perhaps it was morbid curiosity. Perhaps it was sick sympathy. Or perhaps it was simply a meager bit of excitement amongst the dullness of the last few days. Several others followed suit as they took her up to the third story. She’d be joining the few of her ‘people’ lucky enough to be captured alive.

The door to her cell clicked shut, and Dale walked away without another word. Mason lingered, even after the rest of the crowd started to disperse with whispered, hateful murmurs.

Alex sat in the corner, arms and legs spread over the floor. She didn’t cry out or resist. She just sat there.

She exhaled a titter, but never looked up. “It’s not polite to stare, sweetie.”

He tensed. “S-sorry!”

Why had he just apologized? He turned away, about to walk downstairs, when her voice grabbed
him by the ears.

“Before the plague, I was going to college. I wanted to be a businesswoman.
An entrepreneur. Heh. It was in the middle of my freshman year that the plague made itself known. A teacher of mine was one of the first victims – she dropped dead during morning lecture, right in front of us.”

He paused.

“Success. Money. It was always a war, and I was ready to fight in it. But after the plague…I dropped out. I had no future. No one did. Life is war, and without something to fight for, we’re already dead. They all died long ago, they just don’t realize it, yet. They’re the walking corpses. For us, you see, things are like they were before – like they were before the pandemic. The currency may be different, but we have a reason to fight again. We have to fight. That, in fact, is what makes us oh so human. It’s what makes us alive when they aren’t.” She raised eyes filled with such conviction it sent chills down his neck as sharp as a vampire's fangs. “Don’t you see that? Doesn’t anyone see that?”

He didn’t dignify her rant with an answer. He grimaced,
turning away and making for the stairs without a second glance.

When he reached the hallway, people were gathered in gossiping clumps. Dale
talked with the others who’d captured Alex in hushes and whispers. Mason wondered if they
were
deciding just how they were going to handle their prisoner’s need to feed.

“Well
, hey there, leaving your poor little girlfriend alone for a while?”

The voice nearly thr
ew him from his skin. “Sorrel?”

A slight frown slipped across her lips.
“Haven’t seen you around much. I almost forgot you were still here.”

“Sorry.” He scratched
the nape of his neck and made a mental note that he really needed to stop saying that so much. “But she’s the only human here, so I can’t just…”

“She’s a big girl. I’m sure she can handle herself. If nothing else, the cell door will handle it for her.” Sorrel grinned. “Don’t forget to take care of yourself, too – you look awful.”

He shrugged. “Don’t we always?”

She clicked her tongue. “Is that an insult?”

“Eh?” He straightened. “Not really. I just meant, with us being dead and all –”

She laughed. “You’re fun to play with, you know that?”

He blinked. No matter how much he talked to her, he could never quite be sure where conversations with Sorrel would lead. Hell, he wasn’t even quite sure what it was they were talking about.

“I was going to go catch up with my dear old friend.” Sorrel
glanced up at the third story. “But how about we go find some excitement, instead?” Another smile. “I don’t know where we’d look, but with you at my side, I’m sure we’ll find something. Trouble seems to follow you around.”

He sighed. “You say that now, but I’m really pretty dull. I won’t deny that second part, though.”

“Oh, believe me; compared to anyone else here, you’re a barrel of laughs.” She wasn’t fazed so easily. “I would say that we should go search for that rogue again, but I’m not sure that matters now.” Her voice trailed off, just briefly. “Maybe we could still go back to the park?”

“Well…” He’d lied to Merril earlier, but perhaps Sorrel could make
herself useful if she was so desperate for excitement. “Actually, I was just about to head out and look for my brother. If you’re so bored, then why don’t you help look?”

The corners of her mouth slipped downwards. “Still haven’t heard from him?”

He stared at the floor. “I don’t understand where he could’ve gone. It’s not like he’s never walked out on us before, but it’s strange that he hasn’t even called.”

She pursed her lips. “Well, if I come with you, what do I get in return?”

He looked up with a blank blink.

“I already helped you find the girl. I’m not your personal detective, you know!” She crossed her arms. “If you expect me to help you out again, then I demand payment.”

Her voice was playful, but he wasn’t in the mood. “Don’t be like that. I came back to the prison like I agreed I would, and don’t forget that you broke into my room and left me for dead – I’d still be human if it wasn’t for you. I’d say you owe me.”

She sighed. “Oh
, come on, don’t tell me you’re still sour over that whole thing. Without me, you could be dead and buried by now, for all you know. The plague takes hundreds every hour.” She put a finger to her mouth. “Or maybe one of Alex’s followers would’ve gotten to you and your precious little pet first.”

He said nothing.

“But what do you say we forget about all that today?” She straightened, still smiling. “Let’s stick with something simple this time – how about a kiss?”

“
Wha –?” He startled, eyes growing.

“I’m joking.” She chuckled. “Well, perhaps. I’ll have to think about it, but if I decide that I want payment, then you can’t say no.” She
shot him a playful wink. “Got it?”

He just scratched the back of his head.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She smirked, already making for the front gate.