Dark Corner (62 page)

Then Jahlil, the brave kid, fired his shotgun at the vampire. But it was in vain. The vampire threw the boy across
the marsh.

Nia wanted to grab her gun, leap outside, and drill the
monster between the eyes. But her good sense overcame her
fury. Shooting this vampire would be a waste of time.

In the backseat, King barked madly. The windows steamed
up from both her and the dog's frantic breathing.

Quickly, she rubbed clean a spot on the driver's side window, so she could check the side mirror.

The vampire was partly visible behind the truck. He had
his back to her.

From the sudden clamor of thunderous barks, she thought
that he was summoning his minions.

Certainly, he would know that she was in the vehicle.
Perhaps he believed that he could handle her so easily that
he could take his time. He underestimated her.

You go right ahead, she thought. Write me off you asshole.

She gritted her teeth. Then she slammed her foot onto the
gas pedal.

Please, please, move for me, please!

The truck roared out of the mud.

Kyle whirled, caught off guard.

The vehicle crashed into him, knocking him backward,
into the fog.

The snake slithered across the water.

David froze, hands raised. He held his breath. He attempted to refrain from even blinking.

His heart pounded so hard and painfully that he feared
that it would be like a drumbeat calling the snake closer.

The long serpent swam to him.

Holy God, Father in Heaven, save me, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus ...

The reptile, its venomous fangs an inch away from his
pulsing heart, seemed to see through him.

David's lungs ached from holding his breath.

The snake curled around his torso, scales glimmering. He
feared it would wrap around him like a python and squeeze
him to death. He saw himself sinking into the mud, chest
crushed, face purple, eyes bulging.

The water moccasin circled him, once, as if embracing
him. Then, it swam away into the soupy darkness.

David exhaled explosively.

Across the swamp, the truck bellowed.

He looked up in time to see Nia ram into Kyle, who had
turned around too late to move. The collision blew the vampire into the water.

David seized the opportunity. He rushed forward, to the
flamethrower. He grabbed it, and, as Mac had taught him,
opened the ignition valve and punched the button to activate
the spark plug.

The small flame at the front of the nozzle hissed, ready to
burn.

Splashing furiously, Kyle started to rise out of the swamp.

David chopped through the water, closing the distance
between him and the vampire.

Wobbling into a standing position, Kyle suddenly saw
him. The vampire raised his arms protectively, and his eyes
enlarged with fear. "No!"

David had never killed anyone, but he did not hesitate. He
pulled the fuel release trigger.

A swooshing stream of flames struck the vampire and
swallowed him, like a set of fiery jaws.

The creature screeched. Insane with pain, Kyle rocketed
into the air, to the crowns of the trees. The burning vampire
leapt blindly from branch to branch. His howls-so humanlike, yet so alien-chilled David to the core of his soul.

A splashing sound drew David's attention. Jahlil stumbled out of the darkness. The boy looked a mess, mud streaking his face and slimy vines in his hair, but he was alive.

Nia rolled down the window. "Let's go, guys! Before the
rest of them come"

High in the trees, the dying vampire continued its cries of
agony.

"You drive," David said. He grabbed the rear passenger
door.

Before he climbed inside, he glimpsed myriad shapes in
the fog, behind them. But the figures were still. They appeared to be entranced with Kyle's fiery demise.

One shadow in the mist stood taller than the others: Diallo.

He's really going to have it in for me now, David
thought. I killed his son.

David hustled into the vehicle, beside King. Jahlil got in
the front.

Nia blasted forward. They found the trail and followed it
through the rest of the swamp.

All of them were silent. The silence was finally broken by
a sound that did not come from them. It came from behind,
reverberating through the night.

A horrible, wrenching cry of grief.

None of them questioned the source of the cry. They
knew: it was Diallo, mourning his son.

The muddy path that weaved through the marsh changed
into a dusty trail that curved between thick shrubbery, and finally ended at a paved road. David was relieved to see dry
land.

His dog was relieved, too. King tried to stand in his lap
and lick his face, and David had to put the dog back on the
other side of the seat.

The thunderstorm had passed. Thin patches of clouds
scudded across the sky. Moonlight silvered the lonely road
and the dense bushes that grew alongside it.

"I know where we are," Nia said. "We're on the west side
of town. This is Rice's Bottoms Road. It'll hit Main Street
about a mile ahead"

"Good," David said. "From there, I'll know the way to
where we want to go next"

"Where are we going?" Jahlil said.

"To my father's hideaway," David said. "It's a cabin on the
north side of town, in the hills. We'll be safe there until
morning."

"You hope," Jahlil said.

"Think positively," Nia said.

"Only being realistic," Jahlil said. "I didn't expect any of
the shit that we've been through tonight. Neither of you did,
either, did you?"

David did not answer his question, and neither did Nia.
They rolled along, quietly.

The street lamps were burned out. Broken tree branches
covered the pavement, like bones emptied out of a mass
grave.

They reached Main Street. David asked Nia to turn left.
They drove into the small business district.

"It looks like a ghost town," David said.

"You aren't lying," Jahlil said.

Wind ushered leaves and severed branches across the
abandoned sidewalks. Every storefront was dark. There were only a few traffic lights in town, and they gazed at the
night with dead, unblinking eyes.

Theirs was the only moving vehicle on the street. A few
cars and trucks were parked along the curb, but judging
from the film of condensation on their windshields, they had
not been driven recently. When they passed the deserted police station, David and the others looked away.

"I wonder where everyone's gone," Nia said.

"I don't wanna know," Jahlil said.

"They're safe in their homes, hopefully," David said. "At
the meeting, we gave instructions for people to stay in and
lock their doors. I hope they listened to us"

"With those bloodsuckers on the loose, it might not matter," Jahlil said. "They can bust in anyplace they want"

David blotted sweat from his face, leaned back in the seat.
Jahlil was right, of course. These vampires didn't follow any
silly fictional conventions. In their hunt for blood, the monsters would tear into as many homes as they could to satiate
their thirst. And David and the others understood that once
someone was bitten, the terrible transformation would begin.

The town might be saturated with gestating vampires that
would venture into the open tomorrow evening. The possibility curdled his stomach.

We can't take much longer to finish this, David thought.
Tonight, we nearly died. We'll never survive another night.

"Hey, look out," Jahlil said.

In the middle of the road, a trio of hulking, vampiric dogs
crowded around what appeared to be a large carcass.

"Oh my God, that's a person," Nia said.

David bent forward. "Don't slow down, Nia. Go around
them, fast"

The vampiric dogs began to snarl. They moved to block
the roadway. Nia swerved around the beasts, tires squealing.
A hound leaped at the truck; its blood-smeared snout thumped
against the side window, drawing a shout of terror from
Jahlil and a bark from King. David gripped Nia's shoulder.

"We're past them," Nia said. David relaxed his grip on her.
A glance through the rear windshield confirmed that the
fiends had returned their attention to their unfortunate victim.

He wondered who the hellhounds had attacked. He decided that he did not want to know. He had reached his limit
of anguish; any more, and he would lose his mind. Better for
the victim to remain a nameless stranger.

"Tell me where to go, David," Nia said. "Give me directions. I want to get the hell out of here"

High in the forested hills, Nia parked in the driveway beside the log cabin.

"Well," Jahlil said. "Looks like you were right, David. I
don't think anyone will find us here"

"My dad used to come here when he wanted complete
privacy," David said. "I checked out the place about a week
ago. We'll be safe here for the rest of the night."

David yawned. His watch read 1:02, but he felt as if he
had been awake all night and a day. He was eager to get inside and sleep.

They unloaded their bags. David was keenly aware of the
stillness of the night. They might have been in a remote area
of the Colorado Rockies.

Behind them, the long, tree-shrouded lane that twined
through the woods was dark and quiet.

David unlocked the front door of the cabin, pushed it
open. He reached inside the doorway and flicked the light
switch. No power up here, either.

"We can find some candles inside," David said.

They switched on their flashlights and filed inside. King
promptly set about sniffing around the edges of the room.
David gave the area a once-over, to make sure nothing nasty
awaited them inside, and then he locked the door.

The cabin had been shut for many days. The air, as a result, was stale and heavy. David cracked open a window.

They found a half-dozen candles stored inside the pantry
in the kitchen. David and Nia lit each one and distributed
them throughout the place, suffusing the cabin with a warm,
golden glow. Jahlil lingered in the kitchen.

"Hey, is there any food in here?" Jahlil asked. "I'm starving."

"Check out the cabinets," David said. "I think there's
canned foods, ramen noodles, stuff like that. No pizza and
beer, unfortunately."

"I don't care, I'll eat anything." Jahlil began to open cabinets.

Nia edged close to David. Lines of fatigue crinkled the
flesh underneath her eyes. Death had grazed them too many
times tonight. It would be a long while before either of them
looked, or felt, normal, again.

"You look so tired," she said. "Like I feel."

"I think we're all wiped out. But I won't be able to sleep a
wink until we secure this place."

She sighed. "I knew you'd say that. You're right. But that
bed looks so inviting."

"It won't take long," David said.

While Jahlil rummaged for food, David and Nia fortified
the cabin. They pushed the heavy oak dresser in front of the
door. There were four windows; they locked three of them
and left one partly open, to encourage fresh air to circulate.

"It's pretty unlikely that any of these precautions will
hold back those bloodsuckers," David said. "If nothing else,
the sounds of their breaking in will warn us."

Nia did not look comforted, and honestly, neither was
David, but it was the best they could do.

"Food's ready, folks," Jahlil said. "Come and get it."

It was perhaps the strangest meal that David had ever
seen assembled on a table: mixed nuts, granola bars, and
beef jerky. To drink, they had the bottled water that David
had packed in his small portable cooler.

King would dine on a bowl of water and a few sticks of
beef jerky.

Nia blessed the food, and they pulled out chairs and sat at
the dinette table.

"I'm so hungry, this tastes like prime rib to me" Jahlil bit
into a beef jerky.

They spoke little as they ate, each of them consumed with
the single-minded focus to feed and replenish their energy. A
breeze whisked around the cabin, making the thick logs
creak and whistle. David flinched when he first heard the sound,
then relaxed when he realized that it was only the wind.

Sipping water, Nia suddenly belched.

"Sorry." She smiled self-consciously.

"How unladylike," David said. "We ought to send you to
your room, Miss James. You know better."

"I've got a better idea," Jahlil said. "We make her sleep
on the floor with King. There isn't enough room on that bed
for the three of us. And if she's gonna burp like that there's
no telling what a mess she might make in the bed"

David laughed.

"All right, that's enough boys," Nia said. "Or else I'll make
both of you sleep on the floor with King. Isn't that right, King?"

King looked up curiously from his space on the floor, as
though wondering why they kept mentioning his name.

They laughed.