Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (30 page)

It beat the army, though, no matter how cold it got.
The power that ran though his veins was intoxicating. He had his
pick of the human women, after his superiors, of course. Life was
good. It was just a shame that the attack couldn’t have been
organized for the spring.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a small
two-storey detached house a few yards ahead blew outward just as
one of the scouts opened the front door to check inside. The scout
was picked up and sent halfway across the road with the force of
the explosion and landed in a broken heap some yards away. Wood
flew everywhere as shrapnel from the explosion burst outward and
filled the air with deadly projectiles. He threw himself down and
covered his head. He heard cries of surprise and pain around him.
Damn, he thought as fear gripped him. That was too close. If he had
been any closer to that explosion he’d be burger meat right
now.

He looked up and surveyed the scene. There was a
heavy dust in the air and the snow continued to fall gently through
it. For a second he was captivated by the way the moonlight seemed
to diffuse though the mist and catch the snow, and then he shook
himself as the first rifle shot split the night. One of his men
surged to his feet right beside him and was already running towards
cover when his head exploded like a ripe melon. Shit, that was some
shot. He pressed himself harder against the freezing road as the
dead thrall stumbled and fell just in front of him. A second shot
rang through the night and another cry answered it. Thralls could
survive almost any wound from a bullet but a high-powered shot to
the head was well beyond even them. They couldn’t stay here; he
raised his head again to see what options he had.

Angelo was not a coward but his own health came
first. He shouted for his men to move forward using the buildings
around them for cover while he remained in place and watched their
advance. There was plenty of time to follow them when they had
flushed out their sniper.

His men were well disciplined and set about their
task despite the danger of the sniper. They were far more afraid of
what might happen to them if their vampire masters were informed
that they had disobeyed an order. Each one knew that there were far
worse things than death if the vampires decided to make an example
of one of them. Each of the men surged to their feet and ran to
each side of the street using abandoned cars and building walls as
cover as they leapfrogged forward towards the sound of the
firing.

Two shots rang out and two more thralls dropped to
the ground and didn’t move again. The rest of the soldiers reached
cover and started to return fire in the general direction of the
sniper. Angelo watched his men from the ground. The cold seeped at
his body and already his flesh was numb but he remained in place
and continued to watch. Two more shots rang out and one thrall
slumped forward while the other screamed as he pressed his hand
against his ruined face where the bullet had torn his cheek and
most of his lower jaw away.

They moved after each shot, Angelo noticed, as he saw
the sparks of light come from different locations ahead of them.
They were both on the same block of buildings though and that meant
that he could surround them. He shouted out and smiled as his men
snapped their heads towards him almost in unison. He signed for
seven of his men to retreat back toward him and continue around the
back of the buildings to flank the snipers. He signed for seven
more men to take the right flank and ordered the remainder to
continue forward. There seemed to be only two snipers so if he
split their attention he would have a better chance to reduce their
effectiveness. He rolled off the road into the grass verge and
then, when there was no sound of a shot, he surged to his feet and
joined the men on the left flank.

Warkowski watched the thralls split their forces and
whistled to attract Dee’s attention. He signed for her to pull back
and she nodded and slipped away, keeping low. He checked the
thralls once more and sent a shot over their heads to keep them
honest and then eased himself back from the edge. He stopped
briefly to pull a thin wire from its housing and stretched it until
it reached the handle to the roof’s door. He tied off the wire and
then eased the door closed as he pulled it behind him.

Rodgers watched anxiously as the last of the
high-powered shots echoed faintly into the night air. He felt his
stomach knot and his heart race as he watched for Dee to return. He
no longer got any pleasure from these raids. At first, it had been
exciting—fun even, despite the fact that it was dangerous. In the
past the raids had all gone well and they had always come back as
heroes, adding to their ever-growing community. No one died, except
thralls and vampires, and, though life was not easy, he had coped
with it. But that had all changed when Nero had attacked them.

Suddenly people around him were dying and fear began
to eat away at him. He had always been a loner, using his humor and
smart comments to hide a deeply felt insecurity with others. He had
always felt he had to be the funniest person in a room just to be
noticed. He wasn’t what you would call good looking, so compensated
for this by forcing an outward appearance of good humor in the hope
that his personality would attract those that his looks would
not.

He had only volunteered for Harris’s group because he
did not have any other skills that the community could use, and he
did not want to be singled out as useless. Though, increasingly
over the last two years, he had realized that he had used his humor
to hide his terror. He was petrified each time he went on a raid
now; terrified each time he had to shoot his gun, and especially
when they encountered thralls. He was afraid of losing anymore of
the people he loved more than he was of dying himself.

He had continued to go on the raids. He feared
ridicule much more than he did dying though, he had lost far too
many friends for humor to hide his fear any longer. Lately he had
just remained quiet and sullen as he tried to reconcile his fear of
rejection with that of a violent death.

He had spent some time trying to get up the courage
to talk to Father Reilly, but the priest’s intimidating appearance
and stern face always put him off. He realized now that he had been
dying inside for some time, that his confidence had been slowly
eroding away. It seemed every time he made a good friend—they died.
The faces of Scott and Bill Anderson and Vince Crockett flashed
across his mind, and then he imagined Dee Ratigan’s small body torn
apart by bullets, and he gripped his weapon tighter as he strained
to see through the darkness.

It had come as a complete surprise to him when Dee
had grabbed him and kissed him yesterday. He had noticed her, of
course, but considered her far out of his league. Her inclusion in
the team had only made him more sullen at first as he tried hard to
impress her but, no matter what he did, he just couldn’t pull
himself from his depression. That had changed when she had kissed
him. They had not had long together, but one night had been enough
to show him what he had to live for now. Dee had shown him that,
while it was possible, even likely, that he would lose more
friends, that they were all fighting for something bigger than any
of them.

He had been embarrassed at this and had slowly
revealed to her the fears that he wrestled with constantly while
they had lain together. He had been surprised at her gentle
laughter, and for a horrible moment he thought she was laughing at
him. He had begun to pull away but she had held him tightly in the
dark and assured him that everyone felt fear. Her simple
confirmation that his fear was completely normal had filled him
with a relief that had brought tears to his eyes. Of course, the
fact that he now had someone to share his fears with somehow made
it all far easier to cope with.

Of course, when your girlfriend was always in the
front lines it was difficult not to worry, but he had begun see
past his self-pity. Of course, the sex hadn’t been too bad either.
He continued to look toward the rally point where she was due to
appear. Unfortunately, his over-vigilant focus on the same point
meant he neglected to keep watch over his entire allocated area and
he failed to see the movement of dark shapes as they passed between
the buildings to his right hand side.

Falconi sighed. They had managed to rescue seven
vehicles before the fire had grown too intense for his men to
continue. He had lost a total of ten thralls to the heat and the
numerous explosions. But it was a fair trade, he judged, as he
scanned the line of vehicles. Four trucks idled in front of him and
his men were already piling into the back. There was even one
armored jeep with an imposing Browning fitted to a swivel panel in
the back. He had one tank still functional and the rest were
armored pick-ups that could take a lot of damage along their metal
shields.

He ordered those who could not find room in the
vehicles to follow on foot. He also decided to keep a small, but
potent, force in the camp itself, just in case his new ally decided
to take advantage of the situation. The trucks rumbled past and he
jumped into the front seat of the armored jeep as it passed by and
headed back to town. In the distance he could hear the crack of a
high-powered rifle and he urged his driver to hurry.

Angelo hurried along an alley and motioned for his
men to spread out. They hadn’t heard any gunshots for the last few
minutes, so either the snipers had gone or they were moving to
another position. Either way, he declined to send any men into the
building they had been in before. He’d have to be stupid to think
the building was not booby-trapped.

As they came towards the end of the alley he could
see that the street opened out into the town centre. He flattened
against the wall of the alley and quickly scanned the square and
felt a cold hand grip his heart. The cage was empty. Most of the
lights around the large square were off, but there was enough light
from the moon above to let him see that most of the humans were
gone. He could see a number of people still gathered at the far end
of the cage, and he could see that a number of them were armed.
They seemed to be directing the zombie-like captives from the cage
back towards the south end of the town. Shit, he thought. There had
been almost a thousand humans in there earlier and their presence
was the only thing between the vampires’ hunger and his throat. How
the hell did they get them all out so quickly? And how the hell
were they going to transport that many?

He didn’t know who these people were. It was unlikely
that they were thralls from another state; there just weren’t
enough of them for it to be a full-scale attack. It didn’t really
matter anyway. He had to stop them or he and his men would likely
take their place on the menu. There didn’t seem to be many of them
and there didn’t seem to be scouts keeping watch. Bloody amateurs!
He sent three of his men into the square and ordered the rest to
approach around the back of the buildings that made up the town
centre on the right. He cursed the fact that he didn’t have a
radio, but the batteries were far too valuable to waste on a mere
Lieutenant. He would have to hope that his other men were still on
track and would take up their positions as ordered. He followed his
patrol into the square, keeping low and in the shadows. He had to
reach the rest of his men and get them to surround these bastards
who were putting his very existence in jeopardy. He grabbed one of
the three men with him and sent him back to find Falconi and let
him know what was happening.

Looks like he’d need the Captain, after all.

Dee Ratigan ran from the building and dodged through
the shadows back towards the square. It wouldn’t take the thralls
long to figure out they’d left their positions so they had to
hurry. The explosion had slowed the advancing thralls down, and
they had managed to kill a few but there were still too many to
deal with. Sherman had set four more traps on the route but either
the thralls had managed to avoid them or the charges had not
detonated for some reason. Either way, they had more thralls on
their tails than they could hope to deal with. Just before she had
left she had also seen the lights of a number of vehicles leave the
ruined camp though her scope. It wouldn’t be long before the main
force made their way here and overwhelmed them.

The rifle on her back was her pride and joy, but it
was damned heavy. She found it hard to slip easily through the
alleys when she had to watch that it did not catch against the
walls and she knew she was losing time. Suddenly she was through
and the square opened out before her. The cage looked almost empty
and she offered up a prayer of thanks that they were almost ready
to go.

As she approached she could hear the hissing of a
train but there were no signs of trouble so she continued on
towards the cage. She was used to Harris and his changing
strategies. A train though, she smiled to herself, Jesus, where did
he get that? The train was making a hell of a racket now that she
was in the square and she was surprised that she had not heard it
sooner. The snow or the town’s buildings must be muting the noise,
she thought as she hurried on. She saw Rodgers perk up as he
spotted her and she couldn’t help but smile as he waved at her like
an eager teenager meeting his date. A warmth flooded through her
despite the danger, and she increased her speed as she ran to meet
him. It was at that point that she heard the chatter of gunfire to
her right and her body exploded in pain.

Angelo saw a figure darting across the square, and he
held up his fist to halt his men. There was a strange hissing noise
on the other side of the square beyond the buildings but it was so
out of place in the otherwise quiet night that it took him a moment
to recognize it. Those buggers have a train, he realized with a
start. No wonder they blew the camp to pieces. He had to stop that
train.