Vampire Apocalypse: Fallout (Book 3) (30 page)

Of course, it
had taken him and the others another ten minutes to get into
position and he was out of breath as he now approached the thrall
leader. He really wasn’t adept at this sort of thing. He wasn’t
good at conflict, preferring to work through others to achieve his
goals. But, despite what others might think, he did care what
happened to the community. Yes, he enjoyed power and wasn’t beyond
playing a little dirty, if required, but he did genuinely believe
he was the man to lead these people. However, leading people in
wartime was very different to the politics he was used
to.

Everything had seemed so much
easier before news of the serum’s fatal properties had escalated
the danger to them all. And now they had a traitor amongst them and
an invading force to repel. His mind raced as he strode toward the
thrall leader. Would their traitor take this opportunity to betray
them all and reveal their deception? Would this thrall leader
believe him and go away or merely slit his throat and step over his
corpse.
God, I wish Harris was here,
he thought and then
couldn’t help letting a grin escape as the irony of his situation
hit him.

Carter saw the thrall
approaching him grin and he felt his own smile slip slightly. This
commander was obviously very confident of his position. And why
wouldn’t he be? He held all the cards. Carter began to wonder if he
had made the right choice coming here. He began to run through what
he was going to say and suddenly realised that what had made
perfect sense back in his headquarters didn’t seem quite so
compelling now.

He raised
both arms to show his
peaceful intentions
and moved forward to meet the commander with more than a little
nervousness.

Regan finally stopped in front
of the thrall commander and wondered what he should say. His legs
shook and threatened to buckle on him as he looked around at the
other thralls on the road. They were very well armed and there were
more of them than he had realised when he had started walking
toward them. Some of the jeeps had heavy machine guns secured on
plinths in the back and he paled as he noted the large bullets
trailing down to the bed of a jeep.
God, those things could cut
me in half.
Regan glanced at the commander again but he
couldn’t raise the courage to look him in the eyes so he moved his
attention back to the thrall forces.

This is a cool one,
Carter thought as he appraised the commander in front of him. He
had walked very slowly up to this point, and now he spent his time
casually marking his forces positions and taking in the whole
scene. He hadn’t even said a word yet. He was obviously so
confident he was happy to strut here on his own and totally ignore
Carter as he surveyed what he was up against. Maybe he had made a
mistake coming here, after all.

The silence
seemed to grow more palpable the longer it went
on
, but, while the other commander seemed
oblivious to the pressure, Carter was not. He felt a sudden urge to
explain himself.

“
This isn’t
exactly as it looks,” Carter broke the silence, but his voice was
dry from the journey and he sounded apologetic rather than
confident.

The other
commander took his time to respond and Carter felt the sweat
rolling down his back.

God, what do I say?
Regan
knew that he had to respond to the thrall commander, but the entire
fate of the community rested on his ability to bluff this thrall,
and his mind was a total blank. He desperately wanted to say
something clever, something that would convince this thrall that he
was the confident thrall commander that he appeared to be. Words
swam in his mind but none of them seemed to coalesce to form a full
sentence. The more he looked at the thrall the more his thoughts
seemed to scatter, so he looked away again as he surveyed the high
incline to the side of the road.
God I wish we had had time to
put some men up there,
he thought.

“So what exactly is it
then?”

The words
just seemed to pop out without conscious thought, but he was far
too nervous to look back at the commander to see his
reaction.

Jesus,
Carter thought as
the thrall before him casually scanned the incline.
He’s letting
me know that he has a line of thralls along that ridge.
He had
to respond carefully. He had hoped to converse with this thrall,
explain to him on a personal level why he was here, but the other
commander wasn’t playing ball. In fact, he wouldn’t even look at
him. It was as if he had already decided to slaughter him and his
forces and had only come out at all out of curiosity.

“
We are here
looking for a band of humans who might be crossing our border from
your state.” He had hoped that his statement would carry enough
confidence that he could get the other commander to actually look
at him. But, as he heard the words he spoke, they seemed
pathetic
- more pleading than confident.
And then the thrall before him spluttered.

Jesus, he’s laughing at me.

Regan couldn’t help it. As soon
as the other thrall laid down his theory he knew they were sunk.
They had theorised that the thralls might be here for this reason,
but he had avoided giving any credence to this. He had hoped that
this force was merely an envoy to the thralls in this state for
trade or something. To hear that this thrall commander had worked
out where the community lived was a blow and he was unable to stop
his exclamation of surprise.
Shit, I’ve really blown it
now.

“Of course,” Carter stuttered
quickly as the other commander raised a hand to his mouth, “I am
not suggesting that the humans are coming from here, exactly. But
there have been a number of attacks just over our border and I
wondered if you had had similar problems. I did send an envoy, but
they never returned.”

The other
commander stopped
spluttering and lowered
his hand as he turned back toward him.

God,
Regan felt relief
flood through him,
they don’t know where we are. They’re
fishing.
He felt a new confidence flush through him and he
finally felt bold enough to meet the other commander’s eyes. He
forced himself to stare into the thrall’s eyes and felt so giddy
that he actually managed a grin, a small one admittedly, but a grin
nonetheless.

“
Are you
seriously telling me that you are having so much trouble with some
pathetic humans,” he s
pat the last word
for effect, really getting into his role, “that you have come here
to beg for help.” He was growing in confidence now and he drew
himself to his full height as he continued. “Do you know how
ridiculous that sounds?”

Carter felt as if he had been
slapped. The thrall commander actually grinned as he spoke down to
him. What made it worse was that Carter realised that he would not
have been so understanding if their roles had been reversed. He
would have slaughtered the small force well before this. What had
he been thinking? How could he have been so sure? He desperately
searched for the words that would allow him to regain some respect.
He considered arguing that the humans were not so easily dealt
with, but he could never hope to convince someone who had never
seen them in action.

He had to concentrate on getting
out of here alive now. This thrall could still signal the
annihilation of his entire force if he wanted to, He knew that, if
the positions were reversed, that he would wipe them out without a
second thought. He did not have enough men to start something now,
but he would return. This bastard had laughed at him and he would
see him pay for that. He didn’t care if he left his other borders
vulnerable. He would gather every thrall he had and come back here
and wipe this bastard’s smirk from his face.

The thrall commander seemed
about to speak again. He was openly grinning now and Carter forced
himself to remain calm as he glared at the other leader.

Regan was enjoying himself now
and allowed his relief full reign as a smile broke out on his face.
He would enjoy telling the others of this great victory. He would
tell how he had cowed this thrall with his confidence and how he
had chased him away with his tail between his legs.

He opened his
mouth to speak but a loud squawk came from a nearby radio and he
was distracted for a moment. He heard a low muttering as one of the
thralls talked quietly into the radio. He remained unsure what to
do for a moment longer
, and by then his
planned insult had disappeared from his mind so he just stood there
and grinned instead.

Carter felt like throwing
caution to the wind and smashing his fist into the thrall
commander’s face. Even though it would surely see them all die, he
was still very tempted. He closed his hands into fists and was just
about to move forward when the radio broke the silence and he felt
his adrenaline drain away. No, he would remain in control. That way
he could come back and make this bastard pay.

Besides
, the radio worried him.
Who would be sending a signal to him this far out? They never used
the long range radio except in emergencies. He had replaced many of
the cells throughout the states as he had taken control, realising
that he could not rule without the ability to communicate. He had
left specific instructions though that it be used sparingly. There
were just too many ways to intercept the signal and he did not want
the humans knowing his plans. Besides, the cells were a limited
resource and, once they were used up, there would be no
more.

“
Sir,” the
word was difficult for Carter to use but he knew that he was not in
a position of strength here and he had to bargain for all of their
lives. “It seems I was mistaken. If you will allow us, we
will…”

“Sir,” his aide had come up
behind him and stood impatiently behind him.

“
If you will
excuse me for a moment.” Carter forced a smile onto his face as he
turned to his aide with a glowering look.

It only took a moment for the
aide to relay his message but it seemed as though his whole world
had just collapsed. There had been an attack on the nuclear waste
convoy and the entire area was at risk.
Fuck the area
, he
thought.
If that plant is in the middle of a toxic area he would
have no power and without power he would be overrun by those
straining at his borders
. They had to contain the spill
immediately or risk losing the reactor. He would tear whoever had
done this limb from limb when he caught them. Right after that he
would come back here and tear this thrall a new asshole. His mind
seethed with hatred and embarrassment but he forced himself to
smile benignly as he turned back to the still-grinning thrall
commander.

“
I must
apologise.” H
e bit on the words as they
rolled from his mouth. “It seems I am needed elsewhere. With your
permission, I will take my men and trouble you no more.”

I’ve done it, Regan thought with
a surge of pride. I’ve turned back an entire force of thralls with
only my intelligence. Harris could never have achieved that. This
is why I am the leader. He swelled with pride and confidence and
raised his hand in what he thought was a dismissive wave.

“Of course,” he answered with a
shrug. “You run along now. Got to keep those unruly humans in
line.

Regan was so pleased with his
quip that he was already turning away and walking back to his
community and the glory he was sure to receive. He was far too
happy to notice the look of pure poison that the thrall commander
shot at him or to hear the muttered oath that the commander made
before he gathered up his forces and retreated.

Chapter 20

A helicopter. Jesus, I
haven’t seen one of those in years,
Harris thought as he
watched the machine race across the sky above them. Helicopters,
while they provided huge advantages in mobility, used far too much
fuel. In a world where fuel was a scarce and ever-dwindling
resource it made no sense to use them anymore. Except in an
emergency, of course. They had heard the noise of the craft from
some distance away and had left the vehicle abandoned along with
the many others they had passed on this route and then had hidden
while the helicopter carried on overhead.

“
Looks like
the charges went off
, then,” Warkowski
muttered as he watched the craft disappear from sight.

“
You don’t
agree with this mission, do you?” Harris asked as he lowered his
gaze to look the big man in the eyes.

Warkowski hesitated for a moment
and then seemed to make up his mind about something.

“No, I don’t,” he said simply.
“We are playing with forces we don’t understand and can’t hope to
control. There are just too many things that can go wrong.”

Harris looked
at the big sniper for a moment and then sighed. “You’re right, but
what choice do we have? The thralls definitely suspect something,
their forays into Nero’s territory are becoming bolder, and it’s
only a matter of time before they find out Nero isn’t in charge
anymore.”

“
I know that,
Peter,” Warkowski agreed, “but it is the misuse of nuclear power
which has led us to this whole mess. If the oil supply had not been
ruined by nuclear bombs then the vampires would never have been
able to take over in the first place. Don’t you see? We can’t
control that much power.”