Dominant Species (9 page)

‘With Rodan there is no path. He simply wishes to lead. He has for some time. Is it not far easier to deviate, create problems, concerns, than it is to maintain harmony? Especially when you do not fear any consequence, Drameer hesitated, not sure how far to go, not sure whether to make the next point, but he decided he needed to.

‘You also have to ask why they follow.’

‘What do you mean?’ Karick asked, a frown forming on his face.

‘Do they follow
you because they believe that the path you show them is right, do they believe that only you can lead them along this path… or do they follow you because deep down they simply fear you?’

‘I do not lead by fear.’

‘No, but it is because they fear you, and your strength, that you have been able to lead them down a path that is not natural to them. The fact that the path is, I believe, the only right one, is almost irrelevant.’

‘Does it matter why they follow?’

‘Of course it does. Unfortunately it is because of your strength that the Queen has also become uncomfortable with your rule. Because of eth constitution she knows she must have a council, or there would be War eternal, but she would much prefer the council to be led by her puppet. If Rodan can use that fear against you, your strength will inevitably become your greatest weakness.’

Karick waited, weighing the full impact of Drameer’s words before he asked his next question.
‘And do you believe that Rodan has the power and the support necessary to achieve this?’

Drameer considered
Karick’s question carefully before answering.

‘No, I don’t think so
… not yet, but he only needs the Queen to believe that others have lost their faith in you and…’ He shook his head.

‘But without order, balance, without food we will all die. You have shown me that
, Drameer.

Drameer turned to look at his old friend and simply
sighed. ‘But unfortunately it is not me that needs to be convinced, is it?’

At the Brooklyn Naval Yard, now
nothing but a derelict industrial area, the old factory walls rose high from the ground creating an enclosed courtyard. Twisted cranes rose into the dark sky, like giant, warped plants. Jake and Eddy had climbed up an old stone stairway and were now standing on the first floor of one of the old buildings, its gable wall fallen away exposing them to the cold night air.

‘It’s
really good to see you Jake,’ Eddy was saying.

‘You too Eddy
, it’s been a long time.’

‘Too long, so how goes things
with you?’

‘
It’s been difficult round our way the past couple of months. We’ve seen far more of the Mayor’s men, so much so in fact, that we’ve been thinking we should make him an honorary member of our group.’ Jake grinned.

Eddy nodded.
‘Then you’re letting your entry standards slip dramatically.’ He paused, his face clouding with concern, serious once more as if he couldn’t maintain the levity. ‘There’s been far more activity further out too. Something's changed. I think we’ve pissed somebody off, although I have no idea how.’

Jake looked down at the activity that was going on
below. ‘So what’s happening here?’ he asked, gesturing to the line of men and women below.

             
Eddy looked down and sighed.

‘We needed to move
our supplies. We used to keep some of our stores near the outpost. We used to like keeping things separate, didn’t think it was such a good idea to keep everything in one place, but once the outpost was busted…’ He didn’t need to finish his sentence as he watched the crates being passed quickly from one hand to another, down a human chain and into the bowels of one of the derelict factories.

Jake glanced
down and across at Max who was in some sort of discussion with Nathan, and he remembered why they were here.

‘
Eddy, I don’t think we can survive like this for much longer,’

Eddy looked at him,
‘What else can we do?’

Jake considered the question
carefully.

‘
Well we were thinking…’ but before he was able to say more a low call went up. The watched people below panic. Unloaded boxes spilled from the carts as the people broke the line. Max sprinted across the open ground and clambered up to where Jake and Eddy were watching. Deliberately ignoring Jake, he questioned Eddy.

‘What’s up?’

‘The watchman on the West side has spotted something,’ Eddy said, his face creased with concern.

Max sprinted off toward the
edge of the building, then scrambled up a rusting fire escape towards where the first watchman was standing. As he reached him he grabbed the night-vision binoculars from him, without asking, and peered through them.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Search and Destroy party,’ the watchman replied still in shock.

‘Where
,’ Max hissed.

The watchman indicated the
general direction. ‘About a mile out, just crossing the Williamsburg bridge…around two dozen men.’

Max scanned the horizon. ‘Shit! That means we’re cut off. I count twenty riders and…’ he took the binoculars
away from his eyes slowly, ‘…and one vampire.’ He finished.

The watchman nodded, he looked physically sick.
Ignoring him, Max glanced round, quickly doing the math.’

‘A mile out, travelling at say eight to ten miles an hour
... it’ll take them around twelve minutes to get here,’ he spoke to himself. Checking his watch, he tossed the glasses back to the watchman. ‘Keep an eye on them. If they pick up speed let me know.’

‘But shouldn’t we be moving to a shelter?’

Max shook his head. ‘No, I think it’s time we stopped running.’

On Brooklyn Queen’s Expressway the sound of hooves clattered on the pavement as over twenty horses trotted up the street.
Nothing but wasteland surrounding them, half-flattened buildings all that remained of the war ravaged structures.

The Mayor jiggled uneasily on his horse. He sat third in line. To his left Jackson checked his shotgun for at least the tenth time,
which didn’t add to the Mayor’s sense of calm, whilst Josiah re-adjusted the two ammo belts that crisscrossed over his shoulders.

At the rear
of the group, Tolon surveyed his surroundings. Every so often he’d stop and cast for scent in the air. A few seconds later he spurred his horse up past the other riders until he drew level with the Mayor.

‘You said your men came across evidence of a human settlement when they were out here last
, how far now?’

‘A little way ahead, four, maybe five blocks up through Vinegar Hill’ replied the Mayor
.’

The vampire sniffed the air
again.

‘We’ll travel the last part on foot.’ He slapped the Mayor’s stomach hard. ‘It’ll do you good!’

In a derelict building
off to their right, where broken glass hung defiantly in the window frame, an unseen figure watched the approaching vampires, a silver blade spinning expertly between his fingers.

In the derelict industrial yard, Nathan watched as Jake and Max stood facing each other, anger had flared between them again.

‘You’re mad’
shouted Jake.

‘Why?’ replied Max.

‘What do you mean why? They have a vampire with them, in full battle dress, with body armour, and you’re asking me why?’

‘We can take them. It’s the last thing they’re going to expect … ’

‘… For a really good reason, it’s suicide.’

‘It just means t
hey’ll be over confident. Look we have twelve of our own men, Eddy has another forty; all armed.’

On the other side of the yard Eddy was embroiled in a hushed,
but clearly equally difficult conversation with his own men. Nathan looked between them and Jake and Max.

‘What about the women and children?’
Jake continued.

‘They’ll be safe in the factory.’

‘But Eddy’s men, they’re not soldiers,’ reasoned Jake.

‘No. But they do have motivation. They want revenge.’

‘Max. If we don’t antagonize them they’ll leave us alone. We should only fight as a last resort,’ Jake pleaded

Maybe that was right in the past, but not now. Everything’s changed. Wake up and smell the roses Bro. They’re not coming out here for the night air. Th
ey have a vampire with them. It’s a search destroy party, and you know it. This
is
the last resort.’

Max grabbed Jake by the arm. ‘Stop being such a coward, we can do this, we can take them.’

Jake shook his arm free. ‘Max, no one has been able to kill a vampire for over twenty years, not since you and - ’

‘- Then maybe it’s time that changed.’ Cut in Max. Anyway, unless it’s escaped your notice, we’re pretty much trapped here, that is unless you fancy a swim?’

Jake turned to Nathan, who had now joined them after listening thoughtfully,

‘
Jake, Max has a point. I don’t see we have anywhere else to go.’

Tolon and the search and destroy party had now reached Washington Avenue. Tolon had taken up the lead. He held up his hand, bringing the others to a halt. He spat on the ground. ‘I smell humans,’ he hissed with a smile.

The Mayor’s head jerked left and right, not sure if
Tolon really could smell them, or was just trying to create an effect, whatever the truth he succeeded.

‘Are your men ready?’ the vampire hissed.

Mayor Cooper swallowed hard and just nodded.

In the derelict Brooklyn Naval Yard, with the decision to fight taken, Nathan was now giving orders. All around, women with small children hurried into hiding whilst an assortment of old guns was passed out to the varied and dishevelled group of men, women and teenage boys that formed the remainder of their small community. Jake and Eddy stood over Max who was now kneeling in the dirt with a large knife in his hand. They watched as he drew the road they came along in the dirt.

‘We came in on Jay Avenue,’ Max made another mark in the dirt. ‘They’ll join either here, or most likely cut down Assembly Road. Either way it’ll take them to the hammerhead. That’s where we’ll hit them. Now
, in addition to the vampire, there are twenty men to deal with.’

‘That’s the easy bit’ cut in Jake.

‘Agreed… the key is to take the men out as swiftly as possible.’ Max tapped the earth with the blade. ‘This is where we’ll be, on Kay. Eddy…’ he looked up, ‘This…’ he tapped the dirt again ‘...is where you’ll hold your men. When the vampire gets to here, the decoy team will open fire from Railway Avenue. Then, when they enter the hammerhead, you’ll open fire from their left, taking cover from these two buildings.’

Max waved his knife at the two corner buildings where watchmen were still
intently scanning the roads in.

‘We
’ll need to lay down as much gunfire as possible, you, from the left, us from their right.’

Nathan appeared beside the men and Jake
couldn’t help but notice how out of breath he was.

‘Okay
, the crossfire will get the men, but what about the vampire?’ he asked.

‘We’ll need to keep the pressure on
,’ replied Max.

‘But no one’s ever managed to kill one
of them,’ whispered Eddy in a small voice.

Max looked up
at Nathan and Jake, ‘Oh they have,’ he said, ‘it’s just not that easy. They’re ten times stronger than us, move faster than us and can regenerate and heal real quick. More than that, their hearts are smaller than ours and their blood pumps from the back of the heart…’ he touched his chest, ‘…from the top and bottom, and all that pluming is protected by a wall of bone as hard as steel.’ He tapped his own chest again. ‘But… kill their heart and they die just like anything else.’

‘Really?’ questioned Eddy, doubt written large
on his face as he absently ran the rosary through his fingers.

‘Really
,’ replied Jake hoarsely as his mind crashed back to a night some twenty years earlier as he and his younger brother stood, out of breath and petrified, beside what remained of the Amato Theatre. Jake couldn’t stop the images that flashed through his mind as he re-watched the battle between the vampire and the men who had risked everything to save him and his younger brother twenty years before. But he also remembered the look on the vampire’s face, how its eyes had widened as a young Trent drove his knife hard into its side with as much force and venom that Jake had ever seen before, or since.

Eddy glanced at Max, and then turned instead to face Jake.
‘Is that true?’ he asked, his eyes fixed on Jake’s.

Jake hesitated
for a second, ‘Yes...’ he replied as he threw a glance at Max, an edge of despair on his face ‘...but Max is making it sound easy. As he’s said their bone structure is like iron, and the armour they wear, well it’s not for show. They only had one real weakness, one fear… ultra violet light. The war took away the light and with it their fear, so now there’s only one way left to kill them… kill…’

‘The heart
…’ murmured Eddy, ‘…so you mean, like use a stake, like in the old movies I remember as a kid?’

Jake laughed, despite himself. ‘Centuries ago, maybe, but only because that was probably the most effective weapon available then. Now we have guns, knives, so why use a stake?’

Max took his cigar out from the corner of his mouth and tossed it to one side.

‘So, we hurt it. Keep the pressure on, but we still have to get through the armour. Once we’ve done that...’ Max made an upward thrusting motion to Eddy’s ribs ‘… it doesn’t matter whether you use a gun, knife… or even a stake. If you kill its heart…’

Jake closed his eyes, in his mind he was once again that lost, lonely, little boy, desperately trying to protect his brother as he stared into the eyes of the beast as it was slain. He could hear the vampire scream its unearthly scream, as Trent twisted his knife deep into the creature’s heart.

He opened his eyes and watched Max stand and tap Eddy in the middle of his chest,

‘… It’ll die just like anything else,’ murmured Eddy. Max smiled and nodded.

‘What about the ot
her creatures, the half vampires, whatever they are.’ Eddy asked with uncertainty in his voice.

It was Nathan who answered this time.

‘They were once human, before being infected by a vampire’s bite. We think the bite includes a virus, one that, if the vampire doesn’t choose to kill the person, turns them into neither a man, nor a vampire, what we call a half-ling. As far as we know these things can’t think for themselves, but are somehow controlled by one Master, usually the vampire that has turned them. All that matters to them are two things; firstly they have an overwhelming desire to protect their master, their creator if you will.... and secondly, to simply survive. However, in many ways, these half-lings are even more dangerous than the vampires themselves.

‘How do they control the
m?’ asked Eddy looking even more uncertain than before.

Nathan sighed, he was conscious of the time ebbing away, of a yet unseen enemy that was, as they spoke, getting closer and closer, but he also knew he had to explain to Eddy the reality of what Max was suggesting.

‘We think a vampire can only maintain a definitive number of these things at one time. They’re a kind of extension of the vampire that turned them. We presume that it’s these creatures that created the historic belief that once a human was bitten by a vampire they would, in turn, become a vampire themselves.’ He paused, ‘It’s funny how legends always have some element of truth in them, isn’t it?

‘How do you know all this
,’ asked an incredulous Eddy.

‘I’ve seen it for myself
,’ replied Nathan sadly.

Eddy stared at
him, noting the sorrow in his eyes.

‘You have?’ he asked.

Nathan nodded, his own mind stretching back, his eyes losing focus.

‘Yes, he was my best friend.’

Images
suddenly flashed through Nathan’s mind as he remembered watching his friend creep down an empty street late one night. He could remember the sounds, the smells. They’d drawn straws and Nathan was there to keep watch. They were both starving and had gone out after curfew in search of food. He had sensed something was about to go wrong, his friend had sensed it too. It happened as his friend walked into the open. They’d both heard the sound, both tensed, uncertainty seeping from every pore. Nathan watched as his friend checked over his shoulder. He wanted to call out, but was too afraid. Then they both heard the sound again, a kind of scuffling and before Nathan could shout a warning his friend started to run. It was then that he saw the vampire as it appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. Nathan closed his eyes as his friend screamed.

Nathan spoke, his voice cracking as he continued.

‘We used to think that all vampires could create new vampires, but that simply doesn’t happen. When a vampire bites a human, it creates this…’ he hesitated, ‘…thing, neither man, nor vampire.’

‘If that’s true, how did the first vampire get created and what’s to stop then just dying out?’ Eddy questioned.

‘We’ve wondered that for ourselves and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find out as much as we can about the way they are,’ continued Nathan calmly, ‘
trying to discover their weaknesses. We’re not one hundred per cent sure, but as far as we can work out, from things we’ve been told, stuff we’ve heard, as well as things we’ve actually seen, it’s only the bite of the Queen who can create a new vampire. But a bite from any other…’

Again Nathan’s mind stretched back.

He’d watched the attack, frozen in the shadows, utterly impotent, torn between an overwhelming desire to try and save his friend, but knowing that it would simple be the cause of his own death as well. That’s what he told himself anyway. So instead, with his head ruling his heart he closed his eyes and kept still so as not to be discovered.

But
for some reason the vampire had tired of the kill and just disappeared into the night, leaving Nathan’s friend for dead. Nathan had rescued him, or tried to at least. He’d cared for him for days, tended to the fever, not wanting to believe the worse, hoping that his friend would recover. Then it had happened. One night his friend had woken, somewhere in the abandoned house they shared with two others in the Vampire City. As if in a trance, Nathan had watched the thing; he didn’t know what else to call it as it smashed through the door with blood streaked hands and ended lying in the street. Something had stopped him from going to him, something deep down, and it had undoubtedly saved his life. Instead, he watched from the shadows of the house as his onetime friend lay still in the street. Then it suddenly looked round.