Night Plague: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (16 page)

…Things couldn’t be like this everywhere.

There was a pang
at the thought of leaving Sorrel and the others behind, but maybe getting out of there was for the best. If they just kept running, they’d eventually find somewhere peaceful...wouldn’t they? “Somewhere far away from here.”

“She’s hurt…”

He blinked, looking for the companion he hadn’t realized had wandered off. Merril knelt over Molly’s heaving shape and shoved away the chair that’d crumbled on top of her. It wasn’t terribly heavy, but the force seemed to have done some damage. The dog whimpered, tail twitching against the carpet.

A frown shadowed his features. “We’ll have to leave her. But they don’t have any interest in animals, so she and the cat should be fine.” He returned to the kitchen, refilled the bowls to the brim, and grabbed some food and water for the injured dog.

He leaned over Molly and patted her gold-furred head. She exhaled another whimper. It was difficult to say just how badly she was hurt, but there was nothing they could do about it. They’d have to leave the animals behind for the time being and hope for the best.

...He was abandoning his dog.
His home. His normal life really was over, wasn't it?

He looked away,
just about to head for the door, but hesitated. He ran back to the kitchen one last time and left a note on the counter:
Martin, we couldn’t stay here anymore. Call me.

Heh.
The body on the living room floor would tell the story well enough.

He snatched a knife while he was at it,
and then wrapped an arm around Merril’s. She didn’t resist, following him to the door with her eyes on the floor. She took the fire iron, but neither of them said anything more. They tore away the barricade to escape the safe house that’d changed into a death trap.

Mason stopped just once, stealing a last glance at the peeling old walls and stringy maroon carpet. A picture of his mother sat on the mantle.

They would be able to come home eventually, wouldn’t they?

****

Mason ran. And ran. He slowed just enough to make sure the human's legs kept up, gripping her sweaty palm in his. Everything faded away but the pulse of their feet pounding the concrete. Terror owned his body as much as he did, driving it forward. They had to get out of there. Now.

Sure, h
e hadn’t seen anyone, but he could
feel
them. His senses prickled, lurched, swam. They were there, watching him make for the city limits. Screams and shouts whirred by as they blazed the sidewalk. They were still there, somewhere.

A woman leapt from behind an abandoned car
, jaw wide open for the human’s throat. Mason’s tense muscles reacted quickly, his hands shoving Merril to safety before his mind could catch up with his body. She tumbled to her ass with a startled yelp, well out of reach of the vampire’s fangs. He lunged protectively in front of her, eyes narrow and teeth bared like a dog defending its master.

The
attacker came down on empty pavement and straightened with a snort. She shot him a brown-eyed smirk.

Alex.

He gritted his teeth. He’d expected to see Alex’s followers on the way out, but the faux leader herself? Another familiar female lingered behind her – the woman who’d threatened to report him. Apparently, she’d kept her word.

Merril scrambled to her feet,
fire iron shaking in her hands. Her wild eyes belonged to a cornered animal, not the girl he'd grown up with. They were the eyes of a creature ready to bite the next unfortunate hand to reach out. To fight for its life against a predator it couldn't possibly defeat.

Alex’s lips cur
led up and wrinkled her freckled cheeks. “Well this is cute, isn't it? Where could you two lovebirds have possibly thought you were going?”

Mason
stuck out his chin, fighting to keep the fear off his face. “Where we’re going is none of your business. I won’t cause problems for the prison anymore.”

She tilted her head. “Oh? It’s not just the prison I’m worried about. You’ve already
demonstrated your innate, utter inability to keep a secret. Who’s to say you won’t set people up in arms against our kind wherever you go? Besides, we can’t just let a traitor walk free now, can we?”

Hair bristled on the back of his neck
, tingling with anxiety as much as anger. “I’m no traitor! I'm not the one fucking everything up! It's you!” He shouted, louder than he'd meant to. He glanced back at Merril, praying she hadn’t realized what Alex was implying. “I’m not –”

“You protect a human who’s killed one of our own.
You choose her instead of us.” Alex leaned closer, breath the scent of blood and mint. “I don't know – I'd say traitor is spot on the mark!”

Alex's words drove a knife into his chest and each one deepened the wound. Each one dragged the truth out further into the light.
Each one wiped clean the secret he'd desperately tried to bury from prying eyes. From precious eyes. From green eyes on a pale face framed with blonde.

She was going to notice. She was going to piece it together. No matter how distracted Merril was, if Alex didn't shut up...

Shit.

He whirled
, scanning the sidewalk. It wasn’t just the two women. Three other vamps hovered nearby, ready to lunge. His legs ached with the urge to run but weren’t allowed an escape. If he fled, they’d strike.

This…was not good at all. They were completely outnumbered, and it was abundantly clear that Alex wasn’t going to let them go.

Alex... Even if he submitted to her, it was likely that Merril…

“If you want to live your second life, then come with me. The girl won’t last much longer – none of the
dying hunks of meat in this city will! We’re doing them a favor – we're giving them the chance to rise with us. We’re sending a message they need to hear.” Alex smiled. Not a sneer, but something more genuine. Somehow, that made it all the more frightening.

"Killing is killing." Mason growled through clenched teeth.
"I'd hardly call murder a favor. You'd kill them all for a measly 1% chance? That isn't salvation. That isn't even hunting. That's slaughter."

“
Even if we spare them the pain of slowly succumbing to illness? Of shitting themselves and losing control of their bodies while they're still alive? Even if we save just a few people who would have died a final death?" Alex stepped closer, devouring the space left between them. "Do you know what the first thing I did after turning was? I snuck into my family’s home and fed on each of them – my mother, my father, my little brother. They didn't join me like I'd wanted, but at least they didn't suffer. At least I took them quickly. I stole them from the plague.”

She'd killed them...?
Her own family? He imagined it before he could stop himself –sinking his teeth into Merril's or Martin's throat, slitting their necks or drinking from their wrists – and shuddered down a gag.

His eyes hardened on Alex. He shouldn't have been surprised, but somehow, a part of him still was. She really was one fucked up bitch.

“Oh come now, don’t look at me like that when you chose to kill for yourself. Just for yourself. Without even the smallest trace of noble intentions. Without even the smallest regard for the rest of us. For nothing but your own survival. I'd say you're the selfish one, here.” She smiled. This time it was a sneer. “Drain the girl to prove your loyalty, and we’ll let you come back to us.”

Merril threw herself away from him with such force
she nearly knocked him back.

“Merril!”
He reached out on instinct, fingers wrapping around her wrist.

She screamed. “Let go!”

Her eyes met his, wide with horror, and he knew. In that instant, he knew. His secret wasn't a secret anymore. Its remains laid exposed all over the floor, beside the shards of his hope that things could remain the same.

She didn't see him anymore. She saw a monster.

He felt his fingernails dig into her arm, so tightly that the skin beneath them turned blue. He was strong now. He didn’t have to let her go. He suddenly didn’t want to.

“I’m not…” He
tried, voice dying in his dry throat. “I’m…”

Not the
same monster as Alex. He
was
a monster, sure, but whether it beat or not, he wouldn’t forget his human heart. His body was no longer human, but he still was. He was still the same. Still the Mason she knew.

He wanted to say those things, but somehow, he couldn’t. He just dug in tighter, traces of blood welling beneath his
fingers.

…Was it that he didn’t quite believe them?

She just kept screeching, fighting, struggling. Like an animal in a snare. Time stretched on, blurring between her wails. Why…was she so afraid?

Alex heaved a
disappointed sigh and gestured to her nearest follower. “You, shut her up for our traitor here.”

The man nodded, padding up to the two of them as casually as if he’d wanted to shake their hands.

Mason let go of Merril’s wrist. He had to. He spun forward and thrust his teeth into the vampire’s throat before it could react. He sunk in deeper. It tasted terrible – dry and cold – but blood wasn’t what he was after. He pulled the kitchen knife from his pocket and sliced it across its neck.

He hadn’t pierced
bone, but apparently, it was enough. The man fell away with a half-finished scream and landed on the pavement – back first, eyes blank. He was dead.

Alex didn’t have to give the order for the others to charge.

Sudden, wild fury possessed his limbs. A man rushed him, but he dodged by leaping down instead of up. He ducked through the attacker’s legs, grabbed the back of his neck with his fangs, and shoved the dagger into the rear of his skull with all the strength he had. It broke through bone with a sickening snap, and then sunk in easily, like a knife through butter.

A second man dead.

“Merril!” Frantic eyes scanned the street, but Merril wasn’t there. The woman who’d come to their house, however, was. She lay lifeless on the sidewalk, skull dented in, broken. The rust staining her blonde hair told the story – she’d fallen to the same fire iron that’d killed her partner.

Merril had
escaped. She hadn’t waited for him.

Alex’s final follower was atop him before he returned to reality. Her arms clamped around his neck and pulled him closer, so close her cold, rancid rasps
tingled across his skin. He snapped his fangs and clawed at her wrists, but her grip only tightened. She had him. In a single careless moment, she'd won. His screech was swallowed up uselessly by the afternoon sky.

Alex clapped. “Oh my, I must say I’m impressed. You truly are the worst sort of monster, aren’t you?
You'll spare the prey, but you’ll kill your kin. It's a pity you can’t be tamed.” Her boots clicked against the sidewalk. “Finish him.”

He craned his head just enough to see the woman
raise a hammer with her free arm and ready it above the back of his skull. He shrieked and squirmed, sheer panic stealing the feeling from his limbs.

He couldn’t break free. He was trapped. There was nothing he could do. One well-placed smack from that hammer and it was over. He closed his eyes, body
kicking and fighting even while his mind braced for the impact.

It never came.

A bullet broke the dread, and all at once, he was free. His attacker fell away with a limp thud. He knew that sound by now – he didn’t have to look to know she was dead. His lungs sucked down air they no longer needed and fought against the swimming edges of his vision.

When
raw relief finally spun him around, he saw Sorrel. She throttled a handgun, finger on the trigger. “Let him go, Alex.”

For a moment, Alex said nothing. Perhaps she wasn’t able to. A few beats ticked by before the smirk returned to her lips.
“Sorrel? What’s this now? I thought you understood.”

“I do.” Sorrel nodded. “But this isn’t what I signed up for.
We won't earn the future you want by killing ourselves – at this rate, the seed will spoil before it blooms. It...wasn't supposed to be like this. This isn't what you promised us!”

“Are you sure I’m the one you should be aiming at, then?” Alex heaved a single laugh. “I’m not the
one who's been killing off my own kind all afternoon.” She glowered at Mason, eyes deliberate and narrow.

“Mason is mine.” Sorrel
positioned the barrel between Alex’s eyes. “Let him go, or I’ll pull the trigger.”

Silence
spilled across the street.

Alex scoffed, fingers clenching beneath the trigger’s glare. “Fine, have it your way. We’ve had some rather unfortunate losses here, already.” Her brown eyes found Sorrel’s
steely orbs. “But don’t be surprised if it’s you the abyss claims next.”

She fled, abandoning the bodies of her followers and
scurrying down the sidewalk. The confidence and might from her words was gone – all it'd taken was a little determination and the barrel of a gun to turn her into a rodent scuttling away from a hawk. Pathetic. And equally pathetic that he'd been so helpless against her. That he'd almost lost everything to someone like her.