Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (28 page)

Just then the train lurched forward with a screech of
brakes and steam pressure. Heads turned and thralls stopped in the
patrols as the train suddenly stopped its forward motion with
another screech of brakes and what seemed like a shudder. Then the
train began to back up slowly and Sherman sighed in relief as the
thralls returned to their patrols. Except for one. He caught a
brief view of a thrall hurrying from the command camp and beginning
to run towards the departing engine. The driver, Sherman pursed his
lips and looked at his watch.

He was no bloody hero but if that thrall raised the
alarm then it would get them all killed. There wasn’t much time
left before the whole place went up, but the time that was left was
critical if they wanted to get away safely. He looked again at his
watch and then cursed as he slipped out of the truck. He signaled
for the other truck to leave and then he slipped into the darkness,
drawing his knife and lamenting his luck.

Six minutes.

The driver grabbed the nearest thrall guard and
shouted at him as he gesticulated towards the stuttering engine.
Flemming could hear him over the noise of the engine but he dared
not peak out to see how close they were. He was doing his best to
get the train moving but he couldn’t get power evenly from the
furnace to the engine so it continued to backup in spurts that were
attracting far too much attention.

Flemming looked frantically around the cabin. The
furnace poured heat out at him and sweat ran constantly down his
face and stung his eyes. The dials continued to reverberate madly
and he expected something to give at any moment. He pushed the
large silver handle further up and the train lurched again but then
shook so badly that he had to ease it back again. He looked around.
What was he missing? Just then the driver appeared and pulled
himself up into the cabin. He shot a withering look at Flemming and
then ran his hands over the controls in a quick, but assured,
series of movements that stopped the engine from stuttering and
allowed the engine to continue backwards smoothly before he pulled
at the brake to bring it to a halt. Just then a thrall guard
appeared and began to pull himself up into the cabin. Flemming
moved before he got the chance to bring his weapon into play.

He kicked out at the thrall and sent him flying back
onto the ground where he lay stunned for a moment. The driver
whirled around and grabbed for him before he could follow through
on his attack on the guard. He felt his arm wrenched upwards as the
driver grabbed at him and pulled. The thrall’s strength was
incredible and Flemming felt his head swim with the pain. The
thrall pushed him against the furnace and the heat seared at his
flesh, burning his cheek and sending waves of agony through him. He
pushed back with all his strength as adrenaline surged through
him.

He felt the driver suddenly loosen his grip as he
stumbled back against the woodpile at the back of the cabin. It was
amazing what adrenaline could do, he though as he threw himself
forward and pummeled the thrall with a madness borne of pain and
survival.

“Hey!” he heard a shout in the distance but ignored
it until he was grabbed suddenly by the shoulder. “Hey, he’s dead.
And you will be too if we don’t get out of here.”

He looked up through the haze of pain and anger and
finally recognized Sherman. He suddenly looked towards the ground
where the other thrall had fallen. “I got him,” Sherman followed
his gaze. “Now can you drive this thing or are you going to
continue on like a demented dog in heat all the way home?”

“No, I saw what that bastard did. Jesus,” he cried as
his fingers touched his ruined cheek, “that fucking hurts.”

“The women will love it,” Sherman answered as he
helped him to his feet. “There’s no time for me to go back for the
other truck we’ll…”

The night suddenly erupted in a cacophony of light
and noise as the explosives went off all around them. Sherman
looked out of the cabin as they continued to move away from the
motor pool. A truck blew close to him and he felt the intense heat
of the blast as the fuel plumed outwards and then pulled back as
the vacuum sucked it back into the blast only to send it out again
in an upward spiral of smoke and flame. Sherman ducked back into
the cabin. He could feel the vibrations through the floor of the
train as each explosion added to the madness of the night.

Falconi heard the first thump of an explosion behind
him and he looked back just in time to see a fireball surge into
the night’s sky.

“What…?” he began and then a second came only to be
followed by another and then even more explosions followed so close
together that they rolled into one long peal of destruction. Did
they get behind us? He wondered. And then the screams began around
him as thrall forces surged from the smoke ahead of them and laid
down a withering volley of fire. His men began to fall to the
ground, though whether they were taking cover or were already dead
he really did not know.

He looked frantically around, trying to figure out
how to rally his men when huge gouts of flame gushed from the
darkness on both sides and his men were caught in a crossfire of
liquid flame that melted flesh on contact.

Bullets twanged around him, grenades exploded and men
screamed in pain and terror. Falconi couldn’t think. There was no
time to consider a response. His men were too spread out and the
enemy were packed together and extracting a heavy toll on them.

The tank, he thought suddenly as a shell thumped from
the armor closest to him. The shell whistled past him and exploded
among one of the tightly packed groups of thralls. Falconi laughed
as he saw enemy soldiers flung upwards in grotesque parodies of a
circus-balancing act. That’ll teach ‘em to pack their men so close
together, he thought as he shouted around him for his men to rally
to him. He was filled with relief when he saw many of the bodies on
the ground begin to move as his men got to their feet.

Another explosion split the night behind him, but
this one was far closer. He whirled in time to see the turret of
the tank split from the main body as the remains shuddered to a
halt. Flame still leapt from the darkness on their flanks and the
heat began to force his men inwards in a mad race to avoid the
spurting liquid death. His men had lost their shape and cohesion
and their return fire was erratic and far less effective than the
smaller enemy force’s relentless attack.

His own men were terribly exposed, backlit as they
were by the flaming tank and the burning camp behind them. He had
to do something. He could hear radio chatter close by and he ran
toward one of his men who sat huddled in a hollow. He jumped down
into the hollow and demanded an update. The noise was horrendous
around them and the man was near panic but he managed to get the
main gist of the situation. The rest of his forces had encountered
little opposition as they had poured across the border, but some of
them were retreating from their own vampires who were fuelling
themselves for the coming battle with Von Kruger’s main force.
Bastards, he cursed. As if it wasn’t bad enough to have his forces
decimated and his rear command compromised and very probably
destroyed, now his own masters were attacking them and taking what
precious few men he had left.

His mind raced as he struggled to find a solution.
Even if they won out here their fate was already sealed. The
vampires were so crazed with bloodlust that they didn’t know or
care who they got their blood from. Why were they killing each
other when they should…

He stopped as an idea hit him like a brick.

Carter saw the white flag swing from side to side
like a disembodied giant butterfly and its starkness against the
surrounding darkness made him start for a moment. They can’t be
surrendering, he rationalized, they still far outnumber us. As he
peered into the darkness he could just about make out the figure of
a man as he approached bravely with his weapon raised above his
head in one hand and a white flag in the other. He saw the thrall
cringe as bullets flew around him but, to his credit, he kept
coming. A brave man. Cater shouted for a cease-fire and slowly the
stutter of fire grew less and finally stopped. He raised his head,
stood up and strode confidently towards the enemy lines.

As he drew closer he could see that the enemy
commander was blackened with smoke and that blood covered much of
his clothes. A hand’s-on commander, Carter appraised the man and
nodded a greeting.

“You want to surrender?” Carter asked
nonchalantly.

The man laughed and Carter was surprised to see that
the laughter actually reached his eyes. “Hardly, we out number you
ten-to-one at the moment.”

“So why are we talking?”

“This,” Falconi swept his hand around the
battlefield, “is not about us. It’s their fight.” He pointed up
into the black sky.

“So?” Carter asked cautiously.

“How many men have you had torn apart today to heal
their wounds?”

Carter looked into the man’s eyes and saw no
subterfuge there. This was a man who had been betrayed and had had
enough. He had been annoyed himself as the vampires had constantly
toyed with his own remaining forces as they swooped down on his men
and ripped them to pieces as they feasted. There were hundreds of
humans back at their base but they chose to play games with them
instead. He was just as pissed but he did not know what to do about
it.

“What are you suggesting?” he ventured as he watched
the other man.

Falconi watched the eyes of the other man. What he
was about to suggest went against everything they had been created
for. But he had never signed up for this madness.

“When the dawn comes and one side walks away
victorious they will not care who sustains them in their victory
gorging. We have no chance if we weaken each other much more.”

Carter smiled. “You are suggesting an alliance
against the vampires?”

“You don’t seem as surprised as I expected.” Falconi
shifted his machine gun and studied the man in front of him. He was
smaller that usual for a commander of men and his untidy appearance
and stubble spoke of a long campaign.

“We’ve already had our first encounter with our
glorious masters tonight.”

“The fact that you are still here and in such numbers
speaks volumes. And the fact that you got behind us and destroyed
our camp proves you are more than you seem.”

“The five we killed were over-confident; it may not
be as easy next time. As for your camp, I’m sorry to say we had
nothing to do with that.”

Falconi paled. This man and his men killed five
vampires and he jokes about it. God, this night really does signify
the end of the old world. And more worrying of all is the fact
that, if it was not his forces that attacked my base camp, then
there is another force I know nothing of in this play and they are
behind me at this very moment. He forced his face to remain calm as
his mind raced.

“I suggest we stop killing each other and plan for
the time when we will be forced to fight for our very lives when
our masters,” he spat the word, “come calling for their due.”

Carter couldn’t believe his luck. They could not have
lasted much longer as it was but now they really had a good chance
if they combined their forces. There was no way that they could
defeat the vampires but with any luck there would be few enough of
them left that they would gorge on the captive humans rather than
risk an armed force in their weakened state.

“I must lead my soldiers back to camp and investigate
the explosions there.” Falconi had no choice but to leave the field
of battle. The level of destruction back at his base camp hinted at
a large force behind him and he had to investigate immediately or
risk another surprise attack at a crucial time. But he had no idea
who it might be. There was just no way that anybody else could have
come so far into their state without some warning. His forces were
thinly spread over the state but he had left enough guards to cover
all possible routes—at least, enough to get a warning to him if one
of the other states used this conflict to attack his other
borders.

“I will take half my men and leave you in command of
the rest, if that is acceptable.”

“Of course,” Carter replied and grinned as the enemy
commander turned and gathered his men and began to head back
towards the town. This just gets better and better. Now I command
two forces. If the vampires would just kindly kill each other over
the next few hours I will be very well placed to rule two whole
states.

“What have they done?” Harris paled as he heard the
explosion. The night’s sky flared briefly and then suddenly plunged
back into gloom as if the darkness had rolled out a heavy blanket
and smothered the glow. Harris’ heart thumped in his chest as he
waited. Was that it, he thought as he strained his eyes through the
darkness? Suddenly there was another flare, and then another as
more explosions followed. Flames leapt high into the sky and
illuminated the entire area around the thrall camp. “That’ll draw
them for miles,” he whispered. He rushed down toward the cage where
Sandra and Rodgers were already breaking the lock on the door.

“What happened?” Rodgers asked with a worried frown
creasing his face. Harris missed the happy-go-lucky Rodgers who had
always been quick with a smile and a joke no matter how bad the
situation got. He had seen too many of his friends die lately, and
over the last few months Rodgers had grown more insular. It worried
Harris but he hoped that Dee would be able to bring him out of his
depression.

“I don’t know,” Harris grabbed the gate with them and
helped them to pull it open. “But there’s no way the thralls will
ignore that. We can expect company any minute. We’ll have to just
grab the first thirty or so and pack them into the truck we have.
I’ll go back and see if Sherman and the others need any help.”