Something of the Night (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lashed to the side of the helicopter was a crudely
formed crate of about six-feet by four-feet. The container had been made from
timber collected out of the surrounding forest and what seemed like an endless
supply of rope, which Ben had produced from the main cabin of the Huey. The
container looked surprisingly sturdy, considering it had only taken the group
just over two hours to complete.

Ben
pulled the rope
tight, securing the makeshift crate to the right skid of the Huey. “That should
do it,” he said. The small group stood back to examine their handiwork.

“Do you think it’ll hold?”
Lieutenant Hutson asked.

“Sweetheart, that’ll hold
King Kong,” Ben told her.

“King who?” she asked.

Tate shook her head. “Never
mind, honey, but yeah, she’ll hold.”

“This plan of yours is
madness,” Jacob commented.

The huge guy at his side
disagreed. “Not insane, ingenious.”

“Yeah,” Nick agreed.

Hutson grinned. She had to
admit, this strange band’s plan was indeed incredible
and
ingenious at
the same time. “Jacob, we need the ride, and anyway we’ll still reach Ezekiel’s
camp with time to spare, in this.” Her face was a mixture of excitement and
trepidation. The object before her instilled fear and a sense of the unknown.
What would it be like to fly? She tilted her head upwards and looked at the
swollen clouds above, and her heartbeat quickened with the thought of being so
close to the churning mass.

Ben read her anxiety. “Don’t
worry. We’ll be staying well away from those.”

Hutson grinned nervously.
“I’m not worried. Tate’s got my confidence.”

“Yeah, but it ain’t gonna be
easy flying with only one leg,” Tate said. She turned to Jacob and gave him a
reproachful look.

The tracker raised his hands.

Ben came to the rescue.
“Honey, what if Jacob flies co-pilot, and if you need help operating the right
pedal then he could do it.”

“Hang on a minute,” Jacob
interjected nervously, “I know nothing about flying.”

Tate’s look of irritation
turned to one of mild amusement. “Well, I hope you’re a quick learner.”

“I don’t think I can,” Jacob
said. The thought of being so high had bleached his face white.

“Shee-yit,” Nick chimed,
followed by a whistle, “found ourselves a goddamn pussy marine.”

Jacob’s jaw twitched. “Maybe
you’d like to march through
New York
all by yourself?”

“Nope… ” Nick replied.

“Then I suggest you keep your
wise-ass comments to yourself,” Jacob snarled. It seemed he’d only just got rid
of one asshole, Banantyne, to be instantly confronted by another.

“Jeez… what did I say?” Nick
moaned.

Ben stepped between the two
men. “It’s about time we made tracks.” He turned towards the Buick, which was
parked off at the side of the highway. “What are you gonna do with your… pet?”

Inside the Buick, Jacob could
just about see the outline of the bound and gagged vampire. “Once we’ve
finished in
New York
, I’m still following the original plan,” he replied,
“so, I guess he’s coming with us.”

“Hell no,” Nick spat, “I
ain’t breathing the same air as that thing. Don’t know what you’ll catch.”

The red light that revolved
above their heads turned Jacob’s fangs blood-red. “Perhaps you’d like to test
out our new crate?” he asked.

“Wait a minute,” Hutson said,
“why don’t we put him
inside the crate?” She looked towards the vehicle.

“That’s actually not a bad
idea,” Tate remarked.

“Yeah,” Ben agreed.

“Okay,” Jacob said, raising
his weapon. “Let’s show …
Pet
his new home.”

Ten minutes later, the small
group stood back from the crate, with the vampire held securely inside.

“I still think it’s a bad
idea,” Ben said.

“Perhaps,” Jacob conceded. “But
it’s the only one I’ve got.”

“You should stay with us,
after
New York
.”

Jacob placed his hand against
the giant’s arm. “I can’t. I need to head north. Once we get The Ray of Hope,
you should head to the underground I’ve told you about. Ask for a guy named
Squirrel. He’ll help with the final stage.”

Ben huffed, “You’re a brave
man, Jacob Cain. Fangs or no fangs, I wouldn’t like to spend ten seconds in the
heart of their lair.” His woolly chin gestured towards the vampire bound inside
the crate.

“If my plan works, then it
should buy us enough time to get ready for whatever the vampires throw at us.”

“I guess,” Ben agreed.

“Hell,” Jacob began, “we
haven’t gotten through
New York
, yet.”

Hutson read something
unexpected in his eyes: fear. She twitched nervously. The thought of the man
standing before her being genuinely scared frightened her to the core.

Jacob recognised her anxiety.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”

“What’s waiting for us in
New York
?”

Jacob and Ben made eye
contact. Both seemed reluctant to speak, as if adding a voice to their fears
would somehow empower the thing that awaited them there.

Finally, Jacob said, “Hell,
Lieutenant. That’s what’s waiting for us. Hell.”

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Jacob Cain felt the cockpit tilt and he gripped onto
the sides of the flight-seat. Through the communications of his helmet, he
heard Captain Tate Williams laugh. The noise sounded tiny and distant, and not
from the mere yard that separated them. He turned in her direction and watched
in horror as the flight-stick dipped forwards. The nose of the Huey tipped
towards the ground, pushing Jacob’s guts up into his chest. He gripped the
chair for dear life, and another metallic crackle of laughter scratched at his
ears. The desolate ground below sprang to life in a blur of hard shapes and
threatening shadows.

“Enough okay. You’ve made
your point,” Jacob said.

Instantly the helicopter
straightened out.

“Like I said,” Tate began,
“it ain’t easy flying this bird with just one leg.”

“How many times can a guy say
he’s sorry?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I’m still
counting,” Tate replied.

For the last two hours they’d
been flying towards the heart of
New York
-
Manhattan
Island
. There, they hoped to find what Ben called ‘The Ray
of Hope’ - a single object that could turn the tide of battle when the vampires
launched their inevitable attack.

Earlier that day, they had
arrived at the abandoned town of
Glen
Eagle
. It had taken a few nerve-racking
minutes for Captain Tate to land the aircraft, twice having to pull up at the
last minute due to Jacob’s ineptitude. On the third attempt, however, they got
it right.

Disembarking, they quickly
followed Lieutenant Hutson to the stockpile of weapons, hidden, surprisingly,
in the ruins of a toy store. Moreover, like an over-eager child, Ben had scooped
up an armful of pistols, rifles and even a M16 assault rifle, and had returned
to the helicopter, his face beaming. Jacob had been close behind, his arms
laden with canned food. They camped inside the Huey for a while, eating a
banquet of beans and peaches. Delicious.

Without the need to operate
the right rudder, Tate had taken effortlessly to the sky. As they left the
deserted town, Jacob had chanced a look at the retreating streets and avenues.
What he saw had sent a shiver down the length of his spine.

He saw countless shapes
appear behind them, spilling from the deserted streets like liquid shadows. The
lead figure looked to be twice the size of those that followed. And, even
though he couldn’t see for sure, he imagined the beast in the fore wore a coat
of peppered fur.

Jacob shuddered. The pack had
traced his journey northward as far as Interstate 76, and then amazingly to
Glen Eagle, even though he had not taken a single step by foot. He remembered
the strange whisper of voices:
Let it be…
And,
I am your saviour…

The town dwindled to just a
tiny speck and the wolves became a dark, disturbing uncertainty. Yet, as they
crossed over this subdued landscape, the tracker failed to shake the whispering
ghosts that haunted his thoughts.

Let it be…

I am your saviour…

He concentrated again on the
advancing horizon. He had the distinct feeling that he would find out soon, and
when he did, he might wish he’d stayed ignorant.

A sudden tilt to the right
pulled him away from his thoughts. He looked out of the cockpit and found a
huge body of dark water underneath them. The
Hudson River
was a still,
lifeless mass of sluggish water. The Huey cut through the night, drawing its
cargo closer to the heart of
Manhattan
. The streets below rushed by in a dark blur. The
whole district of East Village appeared to be a ghost town and the once
thriving suburb had now become a graveyard. The helicopter banked harder, and
through the cockpit window Jacob watched the decay that had once been
Washington
Square
Park
rush by.

As the Huey levelled out, the
tall buildings on either side embraced the aircraft in an alleyway of granite.
The clatter of the rotor blades echoed along
5
^th
Avenue
like
thunder. The downwash stirred debris up off sidewalks that hadn’t felt the
footsteps of anything human in a long time.

Jacob checked his weapon, an M16
Assault Rifle. A tubular flashlight that still worked, amazingly, hung
underneath the barrel like a large, fat slug. His pockets bulged with spare
ammo clips. The toy store had yielded many playthings. He lifted the rifle and
peered into the scope. The infrared detection system failed to pick out
anything that beat with life. The weapon dropped back into his lap. “I still
think this is a bad idea,” he said.

Tate responded, “Trust me.
It’ll make things easier in the long run.”

Jacob shook his head, but the
oversized helmet smothered the gesture. He hoped this was going to be anything
but long. “Why don’t we just land out of the way and sneak through town?”

“We’ve tried that already”

“What do you mean?”

Tate’s chest tightened.

“What is it?” he asked.

“This isn’t our first attempt
at recovering The Ray of Hope,” she confessed.

“Really?” Jacob said. “How
many times?”

He received a long hiss of
silence before the answer found its way. “Three… ”

“What?”

“We’ve failed twice already,”
she admitted.

“Great… ” Jacob moaned. Then,
he understood that their mission could already have been compromised. “What if
The Ray of Hope’s been moved, or destroyed even?”

A chuckle of tinny laughter
tickled his ears. “Jacob, have you any idea where it is?”

“No… ”

“There,” she said, and her
gloved hand pointed towards the black sky above.

A dark colossus loomed over
them, stretching far into the sky, almost tearing the clouds in two at its
summit. Thousands of tons of glass, stone, iron, and man’s sweat rose from the
lifeless streets in a magnificent tower. The sheer size of the construction
filled Jacob Cain with childlike awe. Before him, rising out of the dark
skyline of
New York
, stood The Empire State Building.

“You’re kidding, right?” he
asked.

Tate glided down
5
^th
Avenue
, eventually stopping a hundred yards away from the building’s
foreboding entrance. The Huey hovered meters above the deserted street.

“Okay, Jacob, this time I
want a smooth landing, first attempt,” Tate said, lifting her visor.

Jacob turned to her and saw
her eyes glint with fear.

“Bring us in closer,” he
ordered.

“No, this is as far as I dare
get,” Tate said.

“Come on Tate, give us a
chance,” he appealed.

“That’s exactly what I’m
doing.” She nodded towards the dark base of the tower, “The airflow found at
the base of the building would send us spinning uncontrollably.”

He looked towards the dark
avenue. Debris spun and whirled about, small demented tornados made from
litter, which careered across one side of
5
^th
Avenue
to the next.

“Okay,” he agreed, “here will
do just fine.”

Tate eased off the throttle
and the helicopter dipped slightly. “Okay, she’s all yours.”

Jacob positioned his foot
over the right rudder, and then, as if trying to step on an eggshell, but not
crack it, he pressed down gently. The Huey dropped gracefully to the black
tarmac. The second the skids touched down, Tate throttled back and the rotors
above roared with power. With its rotors pitched downwards, the Huey was pinned
to the ground by the direction of the airflow, and as Tate increased the speed
of the blades, the noise of the engine deafened them.

Tate looked over her
instrument panel, scanning the surrounding buildings. Jacob understood her
fear. He followed her line of sight, examining the gaping entrances and
shattered windows of the buildings around them. At first, they were
pitch-black. But then small holes began to burn through the darkness. Blinking
to life in groups of two. Hundreds of crystalline eyes appeared among the
shadows, narrowing into tight slits as they looked malevolently upon the
arrival of prey.

In the next instant, Hell
opened its gates.