Blood Slayer (3 page)

Chapter 6

     The drive lasted around twenty to thirty minutes. Theirs was the third of a caravan of five SUVs. No one talked through most of the trip. Jessica watched as the other slayers kept their heads down while riding in silence. The caravan pulled off the road, onto a trail leading back into
the woods. The trail wound around deeper into the woods as sunlight shone through the trees in single blades of light.

     “Where are we going?” Jessica asked. No one looked up and no one
answered. “Does anyone know?” still no response. “Adam? Hey Adam, where are we going?”

     “Will you shut up?” The slayer with the sword shouted. “We’re about to go into battle. Our minds need to be right!” He said, pointing at his temple. “We can’t do that, with you yelling and asking a bunch of questions.”

     “It’s ok Cedric,” Adam chimed in. “She’s still learning.”

     “Learning what?” Jessica asked. “Where are you taking me?”

     “This is where the vampire nest is supposed to be, somewhere out here. You’ll see, just hang tight. Ok?”

     “Ok,” Jessica agreed. She glanced at Cedric who was staring out the window. She leaned up to Adam and whispered, “He’s mean!”

     Adam just looked at her then looked back ahead as the caravan slowed. Adam said something into a hand held radio then turned to the slayers in the back.

     “Ok guys, this is it. Keep an eye out. Just because it’s daytime, doesn’t mean it’s totally clear. Got it?”

     “Yes sir!” They shouted. Jessica looked around and watched them as they climbed out of the SUV.

     “Jessica, stay with me,” Adam ordered.

     “Where are we going?”

     “There,” he pointed to a small hillside covered in branches and vines. Just through it she saw an opening.

     “Is that a cave?” She asked.

     “It is indeed.”

     “We’re going in there?”

     “Yes we are. They’ll go in first.”

     “Don’t you guys have to make a plan or something?”

     “No, we’ve cleared caves like this before and we’ve been working together a long time. So we all know the drill.”

     Jessica watched as three other teams formed up in groups of four and filed into the cave. Cedric’s team was staying outside of the cave as the others went in.

     “Cedric’s team is staying out here for security,” Adam explained.

     “Security against what?”

     Before he could answer there was a scream from above one of the SUV’s. They looked up and there was a woman on top screaming something Jessica couldn’t understand. The woman’s eyes were solid white, and her hair was disheveled long with her clothes which were ripped and tattered.

     “Crap, it’s a grub!” Adam yelled. The woman crouched with her arms up as if she were about to leap onto them when a wooden arrow pierced her head, sending her tumbling to the ground. Jessica looked to see Cedric lowering his crossbow.

     “I got her,” he said. “Keep an eye out. They are usually in groups.”

     “What are grubs?” Jessica asked. “No one said anything about grubs. Are they vampires?”

     Adam was barely paying attention as he looked around the area. One of Cedric’s men circled behind the SUV’s to make sure no one else has snuck back there.

     “All clear,” He shouted. There was another scream, this one near Cedric’s direction. There was another grub standing over one of the shorter guys hacking at his face with a hatchet. Cedric pulled out his sword. Jessica had thought it was like a samurai sword at first, but now she could see it was a huge, broadsword. The kind you’d someone named Stark fighting with. With one quick swipe, Cedric cut off the grub’s head.

     Before he could put the sword down, three more grubs came from over the hill. Some of the men shot bolts at them from the crossbows, while Cedric charged one up the hill, thrusting the huge sword through its face.

     “Look out!” One of the men shouted, pointing toward Jessica and Adam. They turned to see a dozen more running out of the woods, toward the SUV’s. These were men and women, some looked like kids. They were carrying axes, knives, bats, pipes, swinging them wildly as they charged the group.

     “Adam! What do I do?” Jessica cried.

     “Stay behind me!” He yelled raising his crossbow and firing a shot and hitting one right in the forehead. The others fired as well in an alternating pattern. Several would fire while the others reloaded. Then that group would fire. It was similar to how the colonists fought with muskets during the Revolutionary War.

     “Cease fire!” Cedric screamed as he ran toward the mob of grubs waving his sword over his head.

     “What is he doing?” Adam said as they watched Cedric charge into the middle of the pack, swinging his sword and moving about as a madman doing a dance of death. Blood, heads and brains splattered about as Cedric dispensed of the grubs faster than they could approach him. After a minute, all was quiet as he stood over the body of the last grub, holding his sword and looking around for more, but none came. Cedric was breathing heavily and covered in sweat as he glanced around. The rest of the team stood still as well. They weren’t sure if they should be more concerned about the grubs, or Cedric.

Chapter 7

     Once things calmed down, the other teams emerged from the cave.

     “We got them,” One slayer said. “There were at least fifty down there. A few grubs on the way, but not too bad.”

     “Fifty?” Adam said. “I’ve never seen that many in one nest.”

     “Me either. Not sure what that was about.” The blond haired kid suddenly noticed all the bodies and body parts strewn about. “What happened here?”

     “All the grubs were out here. Cedric took care of most of them.”

     “Wow, well remind me not to piss him off,” the kid said and strolled over to his team.

     “What was that?” Jessica asked. She was physically trembling from what she had just witnessed. She’d never seen so much as a fist fight up close before, let along the carnage Cedric had just unleashed.

     “They’re called grubs. Remember when I told you earlier about how the vampires hypnotize people?” Adam explained.

     “Yeah?”

     “Well, when they do that, the v
ampires have a few options. One is to eat them. And these guys don’t just suck your blood with dainty little holes in your neck like in the movies. They rip your head off and drink the blood from the stump.”

     “Ew
www, that’s gross!” Jessica said.

     “Yeah, o
ther option is to make them a slave, or grub as we call them. Since they are basically like mindless insects. They control them with their minds and use them for things like this, to stand guard outside a nest during the daytime. The only way to kill them is by destroying the central nervous system. So breaking their necks, cutting off their heads or shooting them in the head is how to keep them down.”

     “Are you serious?” Jessica asked.

     “Yes, I am. They are no joke, but easier to kill than the vampires themselves. Grubs are strong and don’t feel pain, but as you saw, they are slow and clumsy. Vampires move incredibly fast, are ridiculously strong and can jump so far and fast, it looks like they’re flying.”

     “Wow. Kind of like the Hulk?”

     Adam tried not to roll his eyes.

     “I guess so. Let’s go see the cave. It should be safe in there now.”

Chapter 8

     Jessica followed Adam into the cave. He lit up a large flashlight as they headed down into the darkness. Jessica noticed the stalactites hanging from above as Adam grabbed her hand. She felt a shiver run down her spine as his hand touched hers.

     “There are some steps here, so hang on and be careful. It's kind of slippery,” Adam explained. She held his hand tight as they navigated the steps slowly. There were at least a dozen steps that wound downward in a spiral. Jessica kept squeezing Adam's hand once they reached the bottom. He went to pull it away, but she wouldn't let go. He looked back at her with an awkward smile.

     “Jessica, I'm going to need that hand back,” he said.

     “Oh, sorry,” she said, blushing. 

     They continued through the cave, which opened into a large cavern. Once in the opening, Jessica was stunned with a horrid stench. It smelled like rot and decay. There were openings along the walls with huge pods inside them, dozens of them. Adam shined the light onto one as he walked toward it.

     “Look here,” he said. “Vampires don't use coffins. In the morning, they seal themselves inside this sticky membrane where they sleep. But it's not really sleep. It's more like hibernation, or even dying again, they are completely gone, then they re-animate when the night falls.”

     “Wow. It looks gross!” Jessica said. In the pod, it was a large opening within the rock, filled with thick, mucus like fluid. There was a figure that almost looked human inside. There w
as a large wooden stake protruding from its chest. As she looked closely, she could see the creature's face. Its eyes and mouth were opened wide as if frozen in the middle of a scream. Its razor-like teeth were exposed.

     “Is it dead?” Jessica asked.

     “Yep, they all are. This is why the best time to hunt is during the day. We try to stay in at night, but sometimes we'll send teams out to find the nests.”

     “Wow.” She continued to stare at the dead thing. This was the same kind of vampire who had approached her, but that one looked more human. This looked like something out of a horror movie.

     “So what happens when they sleep?” Jessica asked.

     “It's when they regenerate. All the blood they drank the night before settles, you see they go back to more of this ugly form and as the night falls, they look more human again and wake up.” Adam explained. “Let's get going. We'll have a team come in and seal this off. Make sure no other vampires can use it. I just wanted you to see what we are up against.”

    Jessica felt a shiver down all through her body. While she had a hard time understanding things at times, it was clear to her how dangerous these things were. And now, she was somehow in the middle of a war with them. She followed Adam back through the cave as they went back through the tunnel then back up the stairs. As they walked out, a group of guys were going back in, they were carrying sticks of dynamite and wires.

     “That's our demolition team,” Adam said. “They'll blow the cave from the inside to it collapses and can't be used or accessed.”

     “If it's so dark in there, can't the vampires stay awake during the day?”

     “No, for some reason, their body senses the time of day. No one knows why exactly. Same reason about wooden stakes being the
only things that can kill them; bullets go right through them like nothing. Cut off their head and they grow another one. But shoot them with a wooden arrow or stake them, and that's it.”

     “Wow. I saw a movie where they used crosses and holy water,” Jessica said.

     “Yeah, that stuff is worthless. They aren't a supernatural thing. They're like large rodents. Whatever causes them is more due to an illness. If they bite you and you live, you become one of them. They will turn folks once they have fed for that night. Make their nest larger.”

     “Will other vampires be mad at us for killing all of them?” Jessica asked as they climbed back into the SUV.

     “No. Each nest is its own little community from what we know. It's almost like rival gangs. They will fight each other over turf and territory. So this nest was likely one old vampire and all his 'family'.”

     As she climbed in, Cedric was sitting by the window, staring at something.  Jessica tried to look to see what it was.

     “What are you looking at?” She asked.

     He slowly turned and glared at her.

     “Nothing,” he replied.

     “Looks like you're looking at something.”

     “Just leave me alone,” he said. “You won't get it.”