Vampire Apocalypse: Fallout (Book 3) (19 page)

“
But this is
not a game.” H
e took a moment to fix each
of them with as serious a glare as he could manage. “This is a very
dangerous task; if anyone discovers what you are doing there will
be very serious problems. What I have told you about the food
stores is not known by many people, and must not become general
knowledge. We are in a very delicate position at the moment and
people must believe that there is enough food for everyone or
people will start to hoard food and people will die.” He paused and
nodded as he saw smiles slip and faces turn pale. He was getting
through. Good!

“
You can’t
tell anyone, not your parents, not even your other friends.
Understand?” He waited till each child nodded. “Now, no one knows
that I have told you this so I trust you to keep it quiet. Someone
in this community deliberately turned on the water sprinklers and
ruined all that food. I don’t know why, but, by this act, they have
ensured that some among us will die, unless a miracle happens. So
whoever it is will have no problem keeping a child silent to
protect their own skin. You follow these people, but that’s it.
Stay in pairs, stay in touch with the others, and don’t follow
anyone past the populated areas.”

“
But then how
do we find out what they’re doing?” Robert Seager interrupted and
ignored the glares from the others. “I mean, it’s not like they’ll
be doing anything suspicious in front of everyone. We’re only going
to see anything useful when they’re away out of sight.”

“That may be true,” Father
Reilly agreed, “but the fact remains that you all must promise not
to follow anyone into any area outside the confines of this
community.”

No one
spoke at first, and then, slowly, they began to
promise. He didn’t believe them for a moment, of course, but these
were desperate times. He had to weigh the danger these children
might face against the lives of all of the people in this
community. God forgive him, but he was prepared to take that
chance. He looked again at the walls around the shop. Even in
comics heroes died. Captain America had lost Bucky; Batman had lost
more than one Robin. Those two titular heroes had, in fact, died
themselves. The names of those who had fallen for what was right
flooded through his mind and he hoped fervently that none of these
young adventurers were added to that list.

“Have you noticed that the other
pens are still under the serum’s effects?” Tanya gently, but
firmly, removed the man’s hand from her arm as she regained her
balance. The man shrugged and sat on the ground beside her. She
looked over at him for a moment, taking in his ragged beard, torn
clothes and general dishevelment with a quick glance before she
turned her attention back to the thralls patrolling the area around
the pens.

The man
sighed and held up his hands and started to pick at the dirt under
his nails. “You know,” he began again, “they seem to be on a twelve
minute cycle from the time they go past here to the time they turn
that
corner down there and then are back
in sight of this pen.”

She looked
over at him again, arching her eyebrow slightly. He had a rather
high voice for such a broad physique, she thought idly. She
returned her gaze to the courtyard in front of them as she settled
back to the ground and sat beside him. They were in a large pen to
the side of a huge square. She had no idea where in the city they
were, as the buildings that had once stood here had been demolished
and cleared away sometime in the last two years. The ground was
hard and uneven, as if the buildings and the ground itself had been
hacked rather than cleared. She could see huge mounds of rubble in
the distance where it had been crudely pushed to each side of the
cleared space, and it seemed, from where she sat, that they were
surrounded by mountains on three sides.

There were
five pens that she could see from this position, but there could be
more just on the other side of the rubble, for all she knew. The
cleared area stretched for nearly a mile in each direction before
the rubble began and grew steeply to a height of some twelve feet,
though it was hard to judge from this distance.

The
stranger’s information matched her own but she wasn’t prepared to
offer anything herself at this time. She was reluctant to let
anything distract her from her goal. She couldn’t help but notice
the man’s eyes, though. They were a pale blue, almost sapphire,
with small flecks of grey that seemed to pull her in to their
depths. The dirt smeared around his face only accentuated the
paleness of his eyes, and she had to shake herself as she realised
she was staring.

The man
chuckled and his face transformed as a smile spread across his
face. It suited him, she thought as she continued to look him over.
His hair was long and flat from long neglect and she found herself
bringing her hand to her own neglected hair unconsciously. Personal
hygiene was not something one cared about under the serum and
everyone looked somewhat less than their best.

All the men
in the pen had ragged salt and pepper beards and long hair, and the
women had brambles for hair, many of which had turned grey over the
last two years without the aid of colouring dyes. This man seemed
no different than the others, at first glance. There was nothing
that stood out about him, but still, he seemed to command her
attention, not the least if which because he had bothered to map
out the guards’ patrols. She was about to turn away again but she
found herself pausing for a moment as she looked at him in more
detail.

He wasn’t
handsome in the classic sense, though there was something about him
that was easy on the eye. His nose was a little on the long side,
not quite hawkish but certainly aquiline, but his cheeks were high
and full and kept his features in balance. There were lines around
his eyes that attested to his age, which she put in his late
thirties, and the fact that, in happier times, he was never far
from a smile. He had no shoes and his feet were badly scabbed from
the rough ground. His jeans were looser than they had been when he
had bought them too. They had all lost weight while they had been
imprisoned. His shirt was dirt-encrusted and faded.

“
Have you
figured out why they’ve switched strategies yet?” he asked,
ignoring her stares. She was uncertain where she wanted to go from
here. She knew that she would need help if she was to get out of
this pen and get to her children, but she did not want to attract
people who would slow her down and be too frightened to do what was
necessary. This man seemed nice enough but was he after company or
was he prepared to risk his life to get out of here? She needed men
who were capable of handling themselves and not those who just
wanted to handle her.

“I reckon they’re testing some
theory,” he continued despite her silence. “Something has happened
and they are seeing if there is a difference between those who take
the serum and those who don’t.”

Tanya pursed
her lips as she considered that. She realised with shock that she
hadn’t given any thought as to why they had been taken off the
serum. The fact that she was off it had been enough for her, but,
she suddenly realised, she had been wrong. Of course there was a
reason why they had been weaned off the serum, there must be. They
had been drugged for two years and nothing like this had ever
happened before that she knew of, so something must have changed -
but what? She looked at the man again with new respect. She might
need people who could handle themselves but she also needed some
who could think. She wasn’t good at forward planning and she would
need a plan if she did manage to get out. It wasn’t enough just to
get out and then see what happened.

“
If you do
get out,” the man continued, “you’ll need to head west, you
know.”

“Why?” she asked before she
could stop herself.

He chuckled
again. “I was beginning to wonder if you spoke at all. Well, west
is the only direction I can see where that mountain of rubble has a
pathway that you can use to get over it.”

“Why not north along that line
where there’s a gap?” she asked as she nodded in the direction she
had spoken of.

“
Well,” he
breathed out in a long sigh. “I personally wouldn’t head that way.
It’s far too obvious; even those thralls should be able to figure
out that that’s where most people would head for. You wouldn’t be
free long if you follow the easiest path out of here. But that’s
just an opinion.”

Tanya felt
her cheeks burn as she realised how stupid her suggestion had been.
God, even if she did get out of here she’d end up being captured
again in no time. She looked over toward the west and it took a few
minutes before she noticed the small path which ran diagonally up
the face of the rubble. She had missed it completely before. The
other mountains of rubble were all impossible to scale with their
jagged rocks and metal shards sticking wickedly outward like a
cunning medieval defence. Someone had purposely created that path
for some reason and it would be perfect if they could manage to get
out.

“
Yeah,” the
man continued, “once you’re over that rubble you’re into the old
Parkway district and, assuming it’s not all gone, there are plenty
of places to hide while you make your way out of the valley. Of
course, getting out of this pen is the problem.” He looked over at
her and winked.

She laughed.
It was the first time she had laughed for as long as she could
remember, and it felt good.

“
I’m Tanya.”
She offered her hand to the stranger.

“
Harris,” he
replied, taking her hand and squeezing gently, “Josh
Harris.”

Captain William Carter
approached the small knoll with more than a little trepidation.
While he had wanted this meeting to take place for some time now he
had also dreaded it almost to the point of paralysis. His former
master was as likely to rip him apart as he was to listen to any
proposal and Carter had no idea which way this meeting was going to
go. But, he realised, he couldn’t just not turn up either. If he
and Von Kruger could not agree terms then they would weaken each
other in their constant fighting and leave both of them vulnerable
to attack from their borders and from the humans and their
wonderful new weapons.

Not that he
had any intention of honouring any agreement they might come to, no
more so than Von Kruger could be trusted to keep his side of any
bargain. But an alliance of
convenience
now would allow him the time to put his own house in order,
stabilise his territory and find the humans. Once he had their
weaponry he would be able to dictate his terms from a position of
unassailable strength. And for that he was willing to walk into
hell and make a deal with the devil himself. Of course, his resolve
didn’t prevent him from being terrified, and his legs wobbled
slightly as he strode as confidently as he could toward the
designated meeting place.

He had been
surprised that the request had come from Von Kruger at this time.
He had been in the final stages of planning his foray into Nero’s
territory and he had thought at first that Von Kruger had somehow
found out about his intentions and had called this meeting to
dissuade him from his intended action. But why would he do that?
Was he afraid of an alliance between himself and Nero? Was that
even possible or was he over-thinking the whole thing?

Maybe his own
assassination of three of Von Kruger’s Lieutenants had been the
final straw, and even now Von Kruger was waiting ahead in the
darkness to return the favour and tear him to pieces. He shuddered
at the thought but kept moving forward regardless of his fear. He
wasn’t totally unprotected, of course. His men were under orders to
kill every human prisoner in the territory if he didn’t return from
this meeting. With no food supply, Von Kruger would be forced to
attack the thralls for food, and he had made sure that his men were
all prepared, well-armed and secure in fortified buildings
throughout the state. Many would die, of course, but so too would
the vampires. He really didn’t think Von Kruger wanted that. He was
so sure, in fact, that he was prepared to come to this meeting
alone.

He looked
towards the top of the knoll and saw a dark figure on the rise
silhouetted against the waning light as the sun sank below the
horizon. It seemed for a moment to Carter that the darkness was
racing up the hill as it chased the last tendrils of light. When he
had begun his journey he had easily kept pace and remained in the
light, but the veil of darkness had passed him a while ago and the
cold air made him shiver - at least, that was what he had convinced
himself of.

Von Kruger
had come alone too. But then, why wouldn’t he? He was the Supreme
Being. The all-powerful vampire. Carter chuckled. Not too
all-powerful that he had requested, not demanded, a meeting with a
lowly thrall, though.

“
You’re late,
thrall.” T
he vampire’s words reached him
easily even though he was still fifty feet away.

Was that impatience?

Carter smiled
in the darkness and then quickly wiped the smile away. The
vampire could see clearly in the darkness and
there was no point in antagonising him.

“
I had to
take more,” he paused as he finally drew level, “conventional means
of travel.” The silence grew between the two figures as they
studied each other. Carter was happy to take a few moments to catch
his breath, and besides, he hadn’t called the meeting. Let the
bastard come to the point.