Blood Cell (20 page)

How long had he been out? Surely no more than a few seconds. There was no way Sally had made it even halfway down that corridor. Norris screamed like a wild ape and ran into the hallway. It took him a few steps to realize that there was nobody else in there with him.

“No!” He screamed, turning back.

But it was too late. Behind him, the door slammed shut and Sally slid the heavy wood back into the doors as a deadbolt again. Norris pounded frantically at the doors, throwing his body at them, but they held.

After the rage wore down, Norris slid slowly down along the doors, slumping onto his knees. His head in his hands, one eye weeping blood and the other tears, John Norris started to bawl. “What will my master do with me now?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Josh Farewell led the way on the three-man expedition into hell. With dozens of newborn vampires all around, in the cells surrounding them and above, there was really no other word to describe the block in Pod C. It was Hell. Carlos, favouring one arm and waving a cross with the other, was in the middle, and Williams was at the back, with his stake tucked into his belt and both hands on the fire axe.

“Watch the door,” said Josh as he headed into the first cell on the windowed side of the block.

There was a single vampire here, standing by the bed, hissing at him like a cornered snake. Behind the vampire was the window with a blanket hung over it, and behind the blanket was pure morning sunlight.

Josh started to talk to the vampire. “I think—“

The vampire screamed a battle cry and leapt at Josh. Josh instinctively thrust the stake forward with his right hand, awkwardly bracing it with his left, which was still holding the cross. The vampire landed chest-first on the cross, and while the impact hit Josh hard with the vampire’s body weight, the weight almost immediately lifted after the impact as the vampire—clothes and all—turned to dust. His momentum and gravity scattered the ash over Josh’s arms, and then the floor.

“One down!” Josh called, and triumphantly ripped the blanket off the window, letting in a solid column of light. It was a nice day outside. Josh didn’t take the time to look at the police presence in the yard outside.

Carlos felt the sunlight on his back and smiled. He kept his eyes out, refusing to give in to temptation and turn around to look at the light. Seeing it on the floor was enough. Josh tapped him on the shoulder.

“Alright, next cell.”

“Wait a sec.”

Josh stopped, stake at the ready, while Carlos and Williams took a quick glance outside. They could see the horizon.

Carlos nodded, “Okay.”

They moved cautiously down the corridor, and after walking another ten feet further into hell, they were at the door of the next cell. There were four vampires inside.

“Shit,” said Josh. “I can’t take them alone.”

“Alright,” said Williams, sounding very much like a cop. “We all go in. Carlos—take the door, keep anything else out. Farewell and I will kill the bastards. If you get within an arm’s reach of that window, you know what to do.” Josh nodded.

They stepped into the cell, crosses raised, backing the vampires against the far wall.

“You got the door?” Williams asked Carlos.

“I got the door.”

“Go!”

Williams lunged at the vampire on the far right, with a strong overhand swing of the axe. The axe hit the vampire where the neck meets the shoulder, and went about halfway through the neck. At the same moment, Josh made a mad dive into the other three vampires, thrusting both of his hands forward. The cross burned into one vampire’s face and the stake jabbed another in the Adam ’s apple. But the real purpose was that Josh reached the far wall. Letting go of the stake, he grabbed the blanket that covered the window and fell with it. Josh hit the steel toilet hard with his arm and rolled to the floor, exposing the window as he dragged the blanket.

The two vampires in the centre of the group burned immediately. The one on the left was in the shadows, but another swing of Williams’ axe did him in. The forth, the one who had taken the stake in his neck, screamed as the sun hit him but managed to fall to the floor and out of the light before he caught fire. He lay next to Josh for a second, amazed to be alive, before swinging an arm at Josh and trying to bite at his neck. Josh fought to get the cross up, intimidating the vampire, backing him to the corner. Without his stake, Josh could do little but keep the vampire pinned down.

“Roll right!” he heard Williams shout. He lunged hard toward the door, and as he did the red fire axe swung over him and chopped through the vampire’s neck in one swing. Josh landed in a pile of ash that had been two vampires a second earlier. He looked up at Williams, who was splashed with blood that was turning grey in the sunlight.

“Thanks.”

Williams just nodded, and kicked the stake to Josh.

Josh got to his feet, adjusting his grip on the stake. “Five down.”

Carlos grunted and chuckled a bit. “Somewhere under a hundred to go.”

Williams waved his hand—comme ci, comme ça—“Eighty-ish.”

Josh led Williams out of the cell, and the trio slipped back into formation and advanced farther into the block. With two windows open the amount of light in the room had more than doubled, and being able to see their progress was filling all three men with pride. They could see all the way down to the wall of tables in the foyer at the far end of the block.

As they moved, Josh in front and Williams in back, all three men kept their eyes moving, scanning the cells. There were vampires everywhere—in the cells, hanging from the railings, walking the catwalks above them.

Josh saw movement by the wall of tables. Someone crawled out from under the barricade and started running toward the block. The uniform looked too big and the hair was a mess. It wasn’t an inmate turned vampire, it was a woman in prison clothing.

Josh didn’t know if he should shout to warn her off or tell her to run straight to him. Either way, she was going to have dozens of vampires all over her. Ultimately, she made the decision for him.

“Josh!” she screamed as she saw him.

Every vampire shifted. Josh could actually hear them all, en masse, turn to face her. A few dozen vampires dropped into the floor between Sally and the men. They all focused on the woman.

For a second, it was a standoff. Then someone screamed.

“GET HER!”

The mass of undead inmates rushed toward her, but before they even got there, something else came crashing down the staircase and tackled Sally.

It had a black face and black hands, no hair. It was unnaturally dark, like charcoal.

The burned creature grabbed Sally by the hair and ran his tongue over her cheek.

“You lookin’ for someone? The monster on top of her spoke through pointed teeth.

Sally couldn’t speak. She was paralyzed with fear. The vampire stood, dragging her up alongside him. One of the vampires from the block opened his mouth and dove for the girl, but the burned one grabbed it with his free hand. He hooked his fingers into the vampire’s mouth, grabbed him by the chin, and with a superstrong jerk of his arm, dislocated the vampire’s jaw. The vampire collapsed, whimpering like a wounded dog.

The burned vampire held Sally in an inhumanly strong grip. “Call to him. Shout for Farewell.”

She couldn’t. The burned one laughed.

“Fare-well... You still alive in there, Farewell?”

Josh recognized the voice. It was Ox Werden. He shouted back.

“You look like shit, Ox.”

Carlos did a double-take between Josh and the burned vampire. He broke out in a chuckle.

“You got a pretty good tan for a white boy.”

Ox didn’t think that was very funny, so he slapped Sally across the face hard enough that the men could hear the smack of his skin on hers. She screamed.

The other vampires were starting to pool around Ox and Sally, forming a circle around the most interesting piece of prey. Werden’s confidence and presence somehow held them back from just pouncing on her—this was a pack, and Werden was the alpha male.

There were still dozens of vampires roaming the stacks, and the men had to keep watching, and more importantly listening, for anything that might jump out at them.

“Now listen up, Farewell,” shouted Ox.

“You come over here and join us in the circle or I’ll bite her and turn into one of us.”

Josh looked to Carlos and Williams for some advice on what to do.

Another man’s voice rang out from behind them. “She belongs to me.”

John Norris, with one bloody eye and lines of crimson running from his hairline, emerged from ad seg. “She belongs to the master.”

Josh turned to face the newcomer. “You’re a real piece of shit, Norris.”

Norris turned to Josh and snarled. This was the son of a bitch who talked back, the asshole who took his woman, and now he was trying to take the prize he had promised to the master. Norris went into a blind rage and screamed at Josh. His one good eye went wide and his bad eye squirted blood as the muscles pulled open the fresh clotting. He broke into a sprint, heading straight for Josh.

Josh put up his hands to brace himself, but he didn’t have any means of really defending himself. Norris was a human being—he wouldn’t be harmed by the cross or the light, and Josh doubted he had the strength to push a stake into a real person.

Norris tackled Josh to the ground, still screaming. He grabbed Josh’s right hand and slammed it into the concrete floor, knocking his knuckles until Josh let go of the stake. In the distance, Ox Werden screamed in frustration.

Josh was overpowered and outmatched. Norris was stronger and he was completely nuts. He was like a junkie on PCP—invincible in his own mind. Norris snapped his jaws and his teeth cracked together loudly—and Josh realized that John Norris was trying to bite him. Norris was going to get his first taste of blood, vampire or not.

And then there was a thud, and Norris’s body banged down on top of Josh, his lungs letting out a sour breath that sounded like a broken brass instrument. Norris went limp, and Josh rolled him to the side.

Above them, Matt Williams was holding his fire axe—hammer side down—where he had just swung it into Norris. Josh scrambled to his feet and looked down at the crazed former guard. Norris’s lower back was bleeding into the fabric of his blue shirt. Williams had swung the axe like a sledgehammer to the spine.

Norris choked for breath. “I can’t move,” he said.

“Good,” said Williams.

They waited a moment, watching Norris for any sign of movement. He just lay where Josh had left him, completely paralyzed. It might not have been permanent, maybe it was just a shock to the nerves, but for the moment John Norris was a quadriplegic.

              They looked back to Werden, who still held Sally by the hair and by her arm. Williams scanned the crowd of vampires and whispered to the others.

“They’re leaving the cells. They’re leaving the windows.” Williams smiled and took off away from their tightly controlled unit and slipped into the next windowed cell. A column of light emerged, followed by Williams himself. By this point, Carlos and Josh figured it out. “They’re leaving the windows, so we better open them.”

They ran now, from cell to cell, opening windows. The bottom level of C Pod’s block had thirty-six cells, eighteen on the window side. The men managed to open fourteen windows before they were too close for the vampires to ignore. As they trekked down the corridor, letting the light in, they trapped the vampires in an increasingly narrow strip of darkness between the windows of the block and the barricade between the block and the mess hall.

“Stop that!” screamed Ox. “Stop it now or I swear I’ll turn her! She’ll be my bitch until the end of time.”

A disembodied voice intoned from somewhere above. “You would presume to take what’s mine?”

The darkness from above the block flowed downward—a shadow made into matter, and flowed into the circle. The Master formed in front of them, only a step away from Ox.

He stared at his creation with contempt.

Ox felt his knees go weak. “I just wanted a fight with that man—you can have her—“

The vampire didn’t let him finish. It grabbed Ox by the throat and lifted him straight up. He let go of Sally, who dropped to one knee. The circle parted to allow the master to walk through, carrying Werden by the neck, his feet flailing well above the ground.

The vampire approached the wall of tables that leaned against the doors. With his free hand, he grabbed the first table and slammed it backward, tipping the entire line of heavy steel tables back the other way. He jammed Ox into the space between the door and the table.

There was a small one-by-six window in each of the double door, letting the sunlight pour in. The vampire’s powerful hand held Ox down as he was exposed to the sun.

Ox Werden’s already burned skin flaked away, his flesh and bones went black, and finally his body crumbled to the floor in a pile of ash.

The vampire turned back to his pack of hungry minions, and to the humans beyond.

“Now,” he said, “Let’s eat.”