Rotter Apocalypse (20 page)

Robson tried to sleep and save his energy for what he knew would be a difficult night, which was easier said than done. He had meant it earlier when he had told the others that Vladimir didn’t want them dead or he would have killed them back at the reservoir. What he didn’t mention was that he had no idea what Vladimir intended for them, although he knew it could not be good. Nor did Robson mean it when he told the others that as long as they lived they had a chance of getting out of this situation. He knew his group could never overpower eleven vampires and escape, especially in their condition. The only ace in the hole he could count on was Dravko.

Shortly after nightfall, activity inside the barn woke Robson from his slumber. He heard the others chatting amongst themselves, as well as the sound of footsteps approaching from outside. Pushing up into a sitting position, Robson leaned against the roof support he had been chained to and brushed himself off, wanting to display as much confidence as he could under the circumstances.

The footsteps stopped by the barn doors. Chains rattled and the doors swung open. Vladimir led the coven inside. Except for the Master, each vampire held a kerosene lamp. They spread out and formed a circle among their captives, the light from the lamps illuminating the interior. Vladimir grabbed an old wooden chair that sat inside the barn and carried it over to Robson, placing it so the rear faced him. Vladimir straddled it and rested his arms on top of the back rest.

“Do you remember me, human?”

“You’re Vladimir. You used to be part of Elena’s coven.”

“Until you banished me.”

“Banishing you was Elena’s decision. I only enforced it.”

“Fair enough.” Vladimir nodded. “Still, you both threw me out to certain death.”

Robson motioned toward the rest of the coven. “You haven’t done too badly for yourself.”

“Because I was exiled while I still retained my vampire instincts, while I still lusted for the hunt and remembered my superiority over humans. I built this coven so it’s strong. Elena turned hers into a pack of tamed dogs for you and Paul. Look what she did to them.” Vladimir motioned with his head toward Dravko. “He’s nothing more than a puppy that follows you everywhere. Tibor is the only one who still has
strigoi
blood running through his veins, and you keep him on a very tight leash.”

Robson leaned to one side to see the two vampires from his group. Tibor glared at him with the same disapproving sneer he had come to know all too well. Dravko lowered his head and refused to make eye contact. He seemed emotionally beaten down. Robson ruled out being able to rely on Dravko as his ace in the hole. He directed his attention back to Vladimir.

“If you want to take revenge on me for banishing you, go ahead. None of these people were involved, so let them go.”

“First, anything I do to you is not revenge, it’s justice.” Vladimir stood up and spun around so the others could see him. “As for the rest of you, I cannot let you go. However, you do have a choice. You can join the coven as one of my progeny, or we can feed off of you.”

“It’s not going to work,” Robson said. “None of us—”

Linda hobbled to her feet and stood on her one good ankle. “I want to join your coven.”

Vladimir stepped over to Linda. “Why do you want to be one of us?”

She met the vampire’s gaze, her eyes burning with anger and passion. “Ever since this outbreak began, I’ve been raped, beaten, and taken advantage of. I’ve had enough. I’ve seen how strong and confident Tibor is, and how he’s not afraid to take on half a dozen
walkers at once. I’m tired of being scared and vulnerable. Make me one of you.”

Vladimir clasped her hands. “You realize that if I sire you, you are beholden to me as the leader of this coven, and must give me your loyalty.”

“I’ve been forced to obey someone else for the past year. This is the first time I get to do it of my own free will.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Robson.

Linda glared at him. “Don’t you dare try and stop me. This is not personal. You’ve been good to me, but I’m tired at being at everyone else’s mercy. It’s time people fear and respect
me
.”

Vladimir flashed Robson a snide look, knowing full well that he had won.

“I’m ready,” said Linda.

“So be it. This will hurt only for a moment, and then you’ll drift off into death. When you wake up tomorrow night, you’ll be one of us.” Vladimir positioned himself in front of Linda and placed his hands on her upper arms. “Close your eyes.”

When she did, Vladimir morphed into his vampiric form, leaned forward, and plunged his fangs into her neck. Linda’s body tensed and she yelped when the fangs pierced her skin. After a few seconds, she relaxed as Vladimir drank from her artery, draining away her life blood. Linda’s face showed an erotic pleasure. Her expression changed to one of inner peace, and soon became vacant as the last vestiges of life slipped away. She slumped forward into Vladimir’s arms. He wrapped his right hand around her waist and held her up. Removing his mouth from her neck, Vladimir bit his left wrist. Blood flowed from the wound. He placed the wrist over Linda’s mouth.

“Drink.”

Linda slurped with hardly any effort.

“You have to take as much of my blood as you can. That’s the only way you’ll become one of us.”

Linda pressed her mouth down on his wrist and sucked. Blood pooled around her lips and ran down her chin. She drank for several seconds before slumping forward, dead. Vladimir lowered her to the floor and gently placed her head onto the dirt, then stood and pointed to Tibor.

“Take her back to the house and put her in the upstairs bedroom with the blacked out windows. No one will disturb her during the transformation.”

“My pleasure.” Tibor placed his kerosene lamp on the dirt and came forward, scooped up Linda’s body in his arms, and exited.

When Tibor had left, Vladimir walked around the barn, making eye contact with each of the humans. “You see how easy it is? A few brief moments of pain, and you drift off into immortality. When you wake up, you’ll have nothing to fear, from either the living dead or other humans. Think about it. I’ll be back tomorrow night to see if anyone else wants to join us.”

Vladimir walked out, followed by the rest of his coven. None of them bothered to look at the humans, not even Dravko. Once outside, they closed and chained the doors, leaving their captives alone in the barn with nothing but Tibor’s kerosene lamp.

The lamp cast only a meager amount of light through the barn, leaving most of the interior in shadows, which was okay with Robson. He bowed his head and stared at the dirt, grateful that no one glanced in his direction or bothered him. Vladimir had made a fool out of him. Robson had hoped that by presenting a united front they might be able to bargain their way out. Those hopes were dashed when Linda joined the coven. He felt reasonably certain some of the others would, too. Everyone who did would weaken the resolve of the others. His leadership over those whom his people had rescued from Price’s camp had been tenuous to begin with, now it had become untenable. After fighting off thousands of rotters over the past year, he found it ironic that he would lose to an overconfident vampire who had once been part of the group.

Resting his head back against the support beam, Robson closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep. Anything would be better than waiting for the next humiliation.

Ari sat on the open rear hatch of the Stryker with a bottle of water and a sand-colored MRE. MEAL, READY TO EAT was printed across the front. The military personnel in her unit always laughed at that, joking that neither was an accurate description. Ari disagreed, although she never admitted it. She thought the MREs were pretty good, especially after what she had been eating the past month. This one contained spaghetti and meatballs, one of her favorites, even if she ate it for breakfast. Ripping open the top, she emptied out the contents, picked up the Flameless Ration Heater, slipped the entrée packet inside, added water, and closed the top. She leaned it at an angle against the hatchway and checked her watch. It would take twelve minutes for the chemical reaction inside the heater to warm her spaghetti. In the meantime, she opened the packs with crackers and peanut butter and snacked on those, gazing out on the row of Jersey barriers blocking the street two hundred feet in front of the line of recon vehicles.

On the other side of the barrier, a few score of rotters clawed at the cement, frantically trying to get to the humans.

When the rest of Tango Alpha had reached the Forward Area Rearm Point across from Mineta San Jose International Airport yesterday afternoon, they had established a defensive perimeter on Route 101. In a bit of good fortune, one of the squads had discovered a number of Jersey barriers stored on one of the side streets, ostensibly for use by the local police to control the flow of traffic escaping from San Francisco and never put into play. These were used to barricade the highway and some of the adjacent roads. Barnes had ordered his men to make noise to attract the living dead, flushing out any from the surrounding neighborhoods so the troops could keep an eye on them. Not that many made it to the barricade. Apaches had spent the afternoon sweeping back and forth across San Jose. If they found any large concentrations of rotters, the pilots called in a rocket strike from the M270s or handled it themselves. The position of groups was radioed to the local ground commanders who gathered together all available information to piece together an intelligence assessment for the next stage of the operation.

Doreen stepped over to the Stryker, an MRE clutched in her hand. “Mind if I join you?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind the view.”

Doreen sat on the ground beside Ari. “A month ago that might have freaked me out. Since Site R….”

“I know. After what we’ve gone through, having those things leer at us while we eat is nothing.”

Doreen leaned over toward Ari’s MRE. “Smells good. Wanna trade?”

“What do you have?”

“Vegetarian chili with beans.”

Ari shook her head.

“Damn.” Doreen ripped open her packet. “Can’t blame me for trying.”

“Any idea what time we’re kicking off?”

“According to Mesle, we’re not moving out until tomorrow. Headquarters doesn’t want a repeat of yesterday. They’ll spend most of today conducting air recon of San Jose and the surrounding cities so we’ll know what to expect. In the meantime, San Francisco is sending down reinforcements and supplies.”

“No arguments here. I could use a day of R&R.” A chorus of moans emanated from the Jersey barriers. “Well, a day of rest at least.”

Doreen dropped the packet of vegetarian chili into the heater and added water. “Do you think the world will ever go back to normal?”

“Normal as we knew it, no,” Ari replied. “I do think we’ll see a time when there are no rotters.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you think things will be like then?” Doreen zipped the heater and laid it at an angle against the rear wheel. “I’m assuming the world will be a better place. We’ve all had to pull together to fight the rotters. Don’t you think we’ll be more unified once this is all over?”

Ari grew sullen. “I doubt it.”

“Why?”

Ari opened the heater pack, removed the MRE, and ripped open the seal. “We’re still in the middle of the apocalypse and there are those who are out only for themselves,” Ari responded. “Compton. O’Bannon. That gang in New Hampshire. The Deaders. Human nature will never change. Those things out there are more reliable than us.”

Doreen turned toward the rotters behind the barricades. “Them?” 

“They won’t betray you, or rape you, or take advantage of you. All they want to do is eat you. We know where we stand with them. I can’t say that for everyone else we’ve encountered.”

Doreen appeared as if she had the enthusiasm sucked out of her, which she had. Ari regretted speaking her mind. Too late now. She reached into the MRE with the plastic fork, dug out a chunk of spaghetti, and stuck it into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, forcing herself to do so. Her appetite had suddenly vanished. Holding out the MRE to Doreen, she waved it in front of her friend.

“Do you want this?”

Doreen shook her head. “It’s yours.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“If you’re sure.” Doreen grabbed the packet and began eating.

Ari marveled at how the simplest things now brought such pleasure in the new dead world.

The two women ate breakfast and chatted. Neither was aware of Mesle’s approach until they heard him say, “I have someone here who wants to join the squad. Is there any room?”

“Sure. We always have room for fresh meat to feed—” Ari glanced up to greet the new recruit. Her heart soared when she saw Natalie standing there. “Oh my God!”

Natalie grinned. “I’m glad you think I’m still fresh. I was feeling kind of old.”

Ari jumped up and wrapped her arms around Natalie, holding her as tight as possible and not letting go.

When the hug became awkward, Natalie reached up and patted Ari on the back. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Ari hugged tighter for an extra second, then broke the embrace and stepped back. “Sorry. I… we weren’t sure if we’d ever see you again.”

“Well, I’m back.”

“Thank God.” Ari nodded in the direction of San Jose. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said Mesle. “Your friend has seen some shit that makes what we went through seem tame. Christ knows we can use someone like her.”

“You’re really joining our squad?” Ari asked.

Natalie nodded.

“She requested to join us, and Headquarters granted it.” Mesle patted Natalie on the shoulder. “Get her settled in and brief her up. And get some rest. Word is we’re taking San Jose tomorrow.”