Vampire Apocalypse: Fallout (Book 3) (34 page)

“
I showed the
people at the plant what to do to keep it under control,” he
continued, “but it is a complex procedure and needs to be
alternated depending on where the issues arise. If they continued
to perform the same tasks regardless of the symptoms, then it is
likely that they are already seeing the cooling system go into the
red.”

“
What
timeframe are we talking about?” Harris pressed the scientist as he
recognised the glazed look coming back into his eyes. He signalled
for Mendez and Warnback to put the scientist onto the stretcher.
Atkins tried at first to resist and then suddenly collapsed into
the stretcher with a sigh. “Once the system begins to red-line, it
would take a day or two for it to go too far that a meltdown
becomes a real possibility. You understand; it was never envisioned
that there would be no one there to monitor it…” He trailed off and
the others looked at each other. Warnback was about to say
something but a withering look form Harris shut him up. Suddenly
Atkins rose up in the stretcher and shouted. “You have to get me to
the controls so I can shut…” and then he collapsed back onto the
stretcher and squirmed restlessly as the men struggled to keep him
from falling off.

“Fucking marvellous,” Warnback
muttered.

Moving the former prisoners was
proving far more difficult than Sandra had expected. She had hoped
that, once they had started walking, that the serum junkies would
plod along in a relatively straight line. Unfortunately, some of
them continuously broke ranks and walked aimlessly in any direction
that took their fancy. When she stopped the main group and went to
gather them in, some of the others took the opportunity to wander
off or simply slumped to the ground and fell into a coma-like
trance. They had travelled no more than half a mile in two hours
and already her wounded were showing signs of deterioration.

In
fact
, the only thing that was going in
her favour was the fact that the sun had gone in behind heavy cloud
cover. But, by their appearance, this good fortune might very well
be short-lived. A storm was something that she really did not need.
The roads they travelled on were covered in thick, dry dust, and a
heavy rainfall would turn them into treacherous mud that would
grind them to a halt for certain.

Were they far
enough away if the plant blew? Did it even matter? If Peter died in
that plant, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go on anymore. She was
tired and scared, both physically and emotionally, and she really
couldn’t tell anymore if they were helping these poor wretches or
not. Would it be so terrible to just walk away? Could she walk away
and ignore Pat Smyth’s dire warnings? She was too tired to think.
Too tired to care if the plant blew and killed them all. She looked
around at her charges and sighed heavily. She knew she couldn’t
walk away now. It wasn’t in her to abandon others, and she cursed
herself for her weakness. These people depended on her. She
couldn’t give up now. She would see them safely back or die trying.
She pulled herself to her feet and winced at the pain in her
muscles.

But once they
were safe. Then she would have to re-evaluate the
situation.

The snow was heavier now and
Tanya couldn’t feel her toes anymore. The dawn had come and gone
and the sun was already high in the sky, but it was still dark.
Thick, heavy clouds roiled above her like snakes in a pit and threw
the whole camp into darkness.
Would the vampires risk coming
out?
The thought struck her like a slap and she forced herself
to keep going. If the vampires came out, she was dead anyway, so
she might as well keep going. Her children were just ahead of her.
She couldn’t stop now. Josh Harris ran beside her as well as two
others that she had never seen before.
Why would they risk their
lives and their freedom for her?
Of course, she reminded
herself, it wasn’t for her that they were doing it. It was because
Harris had asked them.
Who was this guy?
She wondered as she
ran.
How can anyone command such loyalty?

The others
had gone to help the rest of the prisoners escape. They were
already too late to stop the initial surge from running straight
for the path she herself would have gone for before Harris had
pointed out that the thralls would anticipate such a move. She
could see Harris’ men try to stop the panicked mob and direct them
to the other
, less obvious route. Some
stopped and listened, most did not. She couldn’t let that distract
her though. She had to get to her children.

Suddenly she
was at the gate and her heart pounded as she tried to get the key
into the lock with fingers frozen by the cold. All around her she
heard screaming and shouting and the sharp crack of gunfire as the
thralls tried vainly to stop the escape. Already bodies littered
the clearing, but far more were already surging over the rubble to
freedom – she hoped.

She heard a click and the lock
suddenly dropped away. She felt relief flood through her. They did
use the same locks. She had hoped that they would be lazy enough to
have one key for all locks, but now that the door was suddenly open
in front of her, she couldn’t go in.
What if they’re not
here?
No, they have to be.
I saw Emily. Didn’t I?

“
C
ome on, we don’t have much
time.” Harris gently but firmly helped her past the gate, and then
she was in and her paralysis broke.

“
I’m fine,”
she assured him and then raced off to the left, scanning the glazed
faces around her as she ran. The faces meant nothing to her. She
didn’t look at them. She was looking for children. There were so
many bodies pressed into this prison and she had so little
time.

Suddenly
there was a high-pitched scream that broke into even her fevered
search. She glanced out through the prison walls and she saw three
vampires swoop down and tear three hapless people to pieces. The
vampires swooped up into the dark sky as if taunting the sun itself
as they flaunted their power. The surge to freedom suddenly became
a demented flight as people trampled others in their rush to get
away from the vampires. People ran everywhere, heedless of where
they were going. Most just followed those in front, trusting that
they knew where they were going.

The vampires
laughed and shrieked their pleasure as they tore into the fleeing
humans again and again and left decapitated and bleeding corpses
behind them with each attack. Tanya cursed and turned her attention
back onto the camp. She heard her name shouted over to her left but
she ignored it. There was no way she was leaving without her
children. She ran on, the sea of faces blurring in her
haste.

There! She
raced through a group of five people as she saw the small frame of
a child. She barrelled into people and sent them sprawling to the
ground, but she didn’t care. The child was facing away from her but
the build was right. The hair was long, as everyone’s was, but the
figure was definitely male. She grabbed the child and wrenched it
toward her. “Mark,” she cried out, her heart beating fiercely. It
wasn’t him. She pulled the child to her regardless, her automatic
instinct to protect a child taking over. Tears streamed down her
cheeks. Where were they?

She grabbed the boy by the arm
and dragged him behind her as she pushed her way through the press
of bodies.

“Tanya!” The shout was closer
but she ignored it. Harris would only make her leave.
What if he
had found them, though?
Her mind raced. Dare she answer him and
risk being pulled away? She pushed on. Faces streamed past her as
she pushed her way on. Screams filled the night outside the prison
as the vampires’ numbers grew. She looked up briefly and saw six of
them in the air now. Shit. Where are they?

Red curls. Did she see red curls
or was it a trick of the pale light? She pushed forward and then,
suddenly, her arm was caught by a grip that made her pull up
short.

“
Tanya, we
have to go,” Harris screamed at her as she tried to pull away, but
his grip was firm.

“
Let me
go!
” she screamed, frantic. “I see Emily.
I see her.”

Harris
hesitated for a second and she took her chance. She wrenched her
arm free and raced through the bodies. “Take care of the boy,” she
shouted behind her and then disappeared.

“Shit,” cursed Josh Harris. He
watched the space where Tanya had been a second before suddenly
fill with shuffling bodies. He looked down at the boy and took his
hand with surprising gentleness. “Come on, then,” he said to the
near comatose boy. “Let’s go find the crazy bitch.”

He had
suspected that she would do this but had been prepared to take the
chance. He hadn’t factored in the
vampires coming out though, and that really fucked
everything up. He had already sent the other two on. He couldn’t
ask them to throw their lives away with the vampires around. He
sighed deeply. Women! He pushed his way through the bodies. Women
will surely be the death of me.

Kavanagh smiled as he saw the
first of the humans gush over the rubble. He had been fairly
certain that, if he gave the humans the opportunity, that they
would run this way. It was the path of least resistance, after all.
The easiest incline and the most obvious. He had certainly been
lucky with the weather, though. He had expected to have to wait
until tonight to gather up his supply of untainted blood. Now he
and his followers could sweep down and whisk them off to his new
quarters far from here and have them safely locked away before Von
Richelieu was any the wiser.

He thought briefly about
searching through the camp for Von Richelieu, but the ancient
vampire always slept in a different place each day. He would only
waste precious time looking for him with no guarantee that he’d
ever find him. He looked up at the sky. The snow was still heavy
but he could already see small patches where the sun was beginning
to burn through the heavy cover. He would have to seek shelter soon
or risk the sun’s caress. He had much to do still though.

The fact that some of Von
Richelieu’s brood were in the air didn’t worry him too much. Von
Richelieu, or any of his main supporters, were not here. There were
only a few vampires that had risked daylight and they were far too
busy slaughtering the humans. This might just work out better than
he had thought. He had expected to fight for his supply and be
forced to expose his treachery far sooner than he would have liked.
Now, though, it might just be possible to spirit away enough humans
secretly and still come back in time to help with the cleanup and
remain a ‘loyal’ subject. Once he had flushed the tainted blood
from his system he would then be more confident in taking on Von
Richelieu.

All he had to do was take care
of those vampires in the air. He had twelve vampires with him. Just
like Jesus, he thought, and laughed at his pun. He ordered five of
the vampires to continue collecting the humans. They would take
them to the cavern they would use to keep them secure. He called
the others to him and they launched into the air. They might even
be able to take out most of the vampires in the first sweep if they
were lucky.

“Remember, no biting and use
weapons rather than claws. We must make it look like they were
attacked by the humans, or even better, by the thralls.”

Tanya Syn pushed her way through
the drugged people heedless of the wake of bodies she left behind
her like broken skittles. The faces, skin colour and ragged hair
were all different, but they all had two things in common. They all
looked through her in a serum-induced glaze and they were all
adults.
Were all the children dead?
She knew she had seen
Emily, though. Where could she be?

Snow continued to fall heavily
and her body was well past being cold. She wiped a hand across her
eyes to clear the tears and she felt the ice tear at her skin where
the tears had frozen to her cheek. She stumbled, only barely
keeping herself on her feet by grabbing onto the body of an older
woman who tottered and fell to the ground without a whimper.

Tanya cursed. Her feet were so
cold that she couldn’t walk properly. She hadn’t felt her toes in
some time and her feet felt like they were in giant moon boots. Her
rational mind tried to convince her that she would serve her
children no good if she died here, but her instinct drove her on.
She hadn’t held her children in two years and she couldn’t leave
them now, whatever the consequences.

There! She saw a glimpse of red
curls just ahead. Then they were gone and she shouted out her
daughter’s name. Blood pumped through her veins, adding heat to her
frozen extremities. She pushed frantically forward, and then
suddenly Emily was in front of her. For a moment she was so
surprised that she couldn’t move. Her body began to sag with
exhaustion as the adrenaline seeped from her muscles, and she began
to cry with relief.

Emily had grown in the last two
years, her red hair had darkened somewhat and her face now sported
a mass of freckles. And then she swept the girl from her feet and
hugged her as tight as she could. The girl looked ahead with a
glazed indifference and, at one level, she was disappointed that
the girl did not somehow recognise her. She knew how debilitating
the serum could be but she still felt that their bond would somehow
overcome the effects. She struggled to her feet with Emily in her
arms and then Josh was beside her.