C.O.T.V.H. (Book 2): Judgment (10 page)

"Thanks," Chris managed to get out between gasps.  

"Come on, I'll stay with you."

"Yeah man, we'll do it together," Donnie said, picking up Chris’ axe and putting it back in his hands.

"Okay," Chris said, hesitantly.  “You guys promise not to leave me behind?”

“Tell you what, give me my twenty bucks back and we’ll call it even,”  Jake said, with a smile.

“Wait just a second!”  Donnie added.  “Ten of that twenty is mine.  We won it fair and square.”

“Fair and square my ass.”  Jake joked.  “Alright then, how about a rematch?”

"Anytime, anywhere,”  Chris said, regaining some energy.

"That’s the spirit!”  Jake slapped him on the back.  “Let’s get moving." He started off again at a steady pace.  They jogged together the rest of the way.  When Chris would fall or stumble, one of them would pick him back up.  It took them almost two hours longer than Buck but they made it.

To Jake’s surprise, Castle wasn't upset when they came in.  He simply nodded.  The three exhausted boys dropped to the ground panting.  Their hands had bled all the way through their bandages, their arms were scratched badly from carrying the wood.  Their leg muscles ached and sweat poured from their brows.  Jake couldn’t believe that just a few hours earlier he’d been freezing cold.

"Alright boys," Castle said, coolly. "Take fifteen."  Donnie, Chris and Jake dropped to the ground and began to sip from their canteens.  Buck was lying on his back on the picnic table, a wet bandana draped over his face.

“What’s with him?” Jake said, motioning his head towards Buck.

“That asshole Castle made me chop another twenty logs since I left my team behind.”  Buck said loudly.  “Thanks a lot Morris!  If you hadn’t run like a one legged old lady I'd still have marginal use of my hands.”

“It’s your own damn fault,” Donnie said, rising to his feet and filling his canteen at the water faucet off their cabin.  He poured it over his head basking in its coolness.

"So what do you guys think the girls are going through?" Jake asked no one in particular.

"I don't know," Donnie said, turning the water off.  "We didn’t have any girls in the last group.  Far as I know there's never been a female hunter.”

"Seriously?" Jake asked surprised.  "In all these years they've never had any women hunters?"

"Nope.  Kind of a tradition I guess.  The women stay behind while the men hunt."

"That's the way it should be," Buck piped in.  "A woman's place is in the kitchen."

"Buck, man could you be any more of an asshole?” Jake said, shaking his head.  “I mean seriously dude.”

"Go to hell momma's boy," he said, sitting up and taking a swig from his canteen then spit a mouthful of water in Jakes direction.  

"What Amber sees in you is beyond me," Donnie said, stretching his back.  "I'll never understand that mystery."

"Yeah, what is the deal with that?" Jake said, glad for the chance to address something that had been bothering him since he got there.

"Who knows?" Donnie sighed. "She said, something about no one knowing the real Buck.  Is that true?  Is there a big cuddly, nice Buck under that hard skin of yours?"

Buck flipped him the finger as he stood and walked to the outhouse.  When the door was closed, Jake quietly asked the others. "What's his deal?  You guys have known him for a while right?  Why's he such a jerk?"

"Well, for one his dad’s a psychopath," Chris said, lying back on the ground. 

"Yeah. You think Buck's bad; Bloody Wes Turner is a real piece of work,” Donnie added.

“I heard he likes to keep vamps alive for a few days.  Torturing them,” said Chris.

“Shoot, that’s nothing.  I heard one time he accidentally wiped out an entire family.”  Donnie said, “just burst into a house guns blazing.”

“You serious?” Jake asked thinking back to everything Cort had said about him.  “I know for a fact he’s into torture, but killing civilians?  My dad said that was just a rumor some guy that Turner beat in poker started.”

Donnie shrugged.  “Just telling you what I heard.”

"So what's next?" Chris asked, changing the subject.

Again Donnie shrugged, "who the hell knows.  These guys are the biggest bunch of hard asses I’ve ever seen.  Castle is hard as nails but he's fair; Ortega's a freaking lunatic!  Lucas . . . Lucas is the worst.  Once we start hand-to-hand combat, you will see what pain really is.  He doesn't hold back.  Word is he even dropped your old man once, Jake."

"You're kidding me?  He's like what 5'9"?  5'10" maybe?  Dad's like 6'6"!"

"That’s what my Grandpa said."

"Man that's crazy."

"Yep.  Welcome to the wonderful world of Vampire Hunting!  The working conditions are the most dangerous on the planet, the hours suck, there are no benefits, no health insurance or retirement plan, but hey, the money is good!  Not to mention you get to meet all kinds of crazy military guys."

"Holy crap!  I just thought of something!" Chris said, laughing.

"What?  What is it?" Jake said, giving him a quizzical look.

"You know who Lucas reminds me of?  Who he looks like?"

"Who?" Donnie asked a smile coming to his face.

"He looks like the guy from
Rocky!"

"Holy crap he's right!” Donnie said, bursting into laughter.
  “
He looks just like
Apollo Creed!"

The three boys laughed together until Buck came out slamming the door of the outhouse.  "What's so funny?" he said, looking around.

"Nothing," Chris said.

"Ah come on it doesn't stink that bad!" Buck said, looking behind him at the outhouse.  The three boys laughed even harder.  "Screw you guys," Buck said, walking away.

Lucas walked up instantly stopping the laughter.  "Alright kiddies, it's time to get back to work."

Minutes later the group was seated on one side of a small circle not far from the main house.  A few minutes later a beautiful woman with short blond hair, that could only be Lt. Perry brought a very tired looking group of girls up to join the boys.  Jake noticed Diana looking at him, trying to fix her messy head of hair.

Guess she’s over being mad at me,
Jake thought.

After everyone was seated, Lucas began the lesson.  "Well boys and girls you've all spent your first day with some light training . . .”

Light training?! 
Jake thought.

“But I guarantee you haven’t seen anything yet.”  Sergeant Lucas walked around the ring.  “I am going to teach you how to not only defend yourselves, but also how to royally kick some ass.  It's not going to be fun, it's sure not going to be easy, but I promise you, if you give a hundred and ten percent, work harder than you ever thought possible, and turn your body into a piece of iron, you will be one of the deadliest creatures on the face of the Earth. Does anyone have any questions?"

Jake raised his hand.  Lucas acknowledged him with a nod.  "Not meaning any disrespect Sergeant, but what good are fists against Vampires?"

"That's a very good question Bishop.  Punching a Vampire is like punching a brick wall.  They regenerate broken bones, bullet wounds and just about every type of injury you can give them.  So like Bishop said, what's the point?  Does anyone have an answer?"

He waited several long seconds until Donnie raised his hand.  "Because Sergeant, even bricks can be broken." 

"That's right Williams.  And that's exactly what I'm going to train you to do.  I will teach you to use everything in your environment as a weapon.  When I'm done with you, the bricks will tremble."

Jake saw Buck roll his.  Though Lucas had had his back turned, he somehow caught it.  "Alright Turner.  You just volunteered to be my first assistant.”  Buck rose to his feet, his face going white as a sheet.  "Step into the ring," Lucas commanded.  "Now come at me with everything you've got!  Don't hold back."

Buck swallowed the lump in his throat and went after him, swinging wildly.  In mere seconds, he was lying flat on his chest his right arm pulled tightly behind his back.  Lucas leaned down and whispered in his ear.  “Roll your eyes at me again
boy
, and I’ll break it.”  Buck nodded then tapped out and was pulled back to his feet by Lucas.

"Who's next?  How about you Bishop?"

Crap.
 Jake thought to himself.   He walked into the ring, heart pounding.

"Now come at me," he said, waving him on. 

Over the past year Jake had learned much from training with John, but Lucas quickly taught him that he didn’t know anything.  Like Buck, he too was off his feet before he even knew what hit him.  One by one, each of the group was knocked to the ground.  Even the girls were planted hard on the ground.  Surprisingly, of them all Amber lasted the longest.  It was brutal.  It was violent.  It was hell.  But as Jake paid attention, he began to learn.  By 5:30, the lesson was over and the group was utterly exhausted.

To Jake’s complete surprise, it wasn't Ortega, or Lucas or even Castle that taught their next lesson.

Cort sat in a rocking chair on the porch of the Williams' house eating a red apple. He’d cut it to pieces with his large bowie knife and then pop it into his mouth. 

"Hi Grandpa," Jake said, stepping onto the porch.

"Howdy Jake.  Glad to see you survived your first day," Cort said, with a nod and a smile.  "Evening," he said, to everyone else as they approached.

"Good evening, sir," everyone else said.

"Ah now don't start that crap.  These jokers teaching you might be military but I most certainly am not.  So don't you dare start with that yes sir no sir horse shi . . . uh stuff. Okay?" 

"Okay," everyone said, relaxing a bit.

"Well pull up a chair," Cort said popping the last piece of apple into his mouth and sliding the knife back into the sheath on his belt.  Everyone took a seat in chairs around the porch and Cort began.  "You're probably all wondering what an old coot like myself is doing teaching you young kids?  Well I'll tell you.  I suspect I know more about vampires than any man alive.  I have been hunting them since I was fifteen years old.  

“Donald, Amber, it was my old man and me that rescued your Grandpa when he'd been kidnapped back in oh, ’57, ’58?  I forget which.  Buck, your Grandpa Tommy was my partner for over twenty years.  One of the best hunters I've ever known.  Whisper and Diana, combined, your daddy and grandpa and I hunted over two hundred times together.  Yep, I've seen it all."

"If you've seen it all how come you're here and not heading out with the others? Aren't they hitting a den somewhere in Louisiana?" Buck asked.

"Because I'm old as dirt boy!  I've got arthritis in my joints.  I can't go more than two maybe three hours without having to take a leak!  My days as a hunter are long gone. This is a young man's game.  No offense ladies."  

Diana rolled her eyes.  Cort leaned forward picking a package of chewing tobacco from his back pocket.  He dug through it then stuffed a very large pinch into his cheek.  "Vampires are the most vicious killers on the planet.  Many of them have had centuries to perfect their technique.  They can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with, to them dealing with humans is the equivalent of us making deals with cows.  We are nothing to them but food.  And when was the last time you conversed with a cow?”

Donnie laughed. 

"Now, there are two different types of vampires.  The lowliest are what we call grunts.  They are mindless, brainless monsters that only care about two things:  Staying out of the sun and eating.  Grunts are fairly easy to find.  They will hunt in one general area until they are stopped; making them the most common type of vampires you will hunt.  Just look for areas where a more than usual amount of people are reported missing in a very short amount of time.  This usually takes some relationship with local law enforcement.  Chris, your dad is
very
good at this.  He has more connections than I could ever even hope to learn."  Cort spit into a small, white Styrofoam cup. 

"Now once you find a general area where grunts are feeding, you will need a good tracker to figure exactly where the bastards are hiding.  It can be anything from a barn, an abandoned house, to an old school or even an old factory.  Once a tracker determines where they are feeding from, their den or nest, the hunt really begins.  A four to six man, uh person team.  Sorry girls.  Enters the house, makes sure there aren't any survivors and cleans it.  Once done, unless it's in a populated area, the house is torched to the ground."

"Why do you torch the house?" Jake asked.

"Well Jake, once you've hunted your first vampire den you will understand.  You will see things that will turn even the toughest man's, uh, person’s stomach.  Things no one should ever have to witness.  I've seen mutilated corpses, stacks of bodies.  The most God-awful things you can imagine.  The second reason is to make sure there aren’t any of the little bastards hiding somewhere we might have missed."

“How much can you make off a grunt’s teeth?” Donnie asked.

"Well now, it’s been a while since I’ve traded, but I believe the going rate is still upwards of ten thousand dollars apiece."

"Grandpa I've always wondered where does all that money come from?" Jake asked.

"The government mostly.  Hernandez has a discretionary fund set up under some D.O.D. bill.”

“D.O.D. bill?” Diana asked.

“Yeah, sweetie.  That’s Department of Defense.”

“Sweetie?”  She raised her eyebrows.  “Sweetie?!”

“Yeah, who you calling
sweetie
?”  Amber cracked a smile.  “
Grandpa
!”

Cort chuckled then sat forward in his chair. “Along with the government funds, there are a few private investors that will pay good money for vampire teeth.  Some grind them up and use them as aphrodisiacs, others for medicinal purposes.  I heard one man say it cured his arthritis.”

“Wait, does that actually work?” Buck asked.  “I mean, could you really use it as an aphrodisiac?”

“How the hell should I know?” Cort spit into his cup again.  “I’m not about to put anything from one of those bloodsuckers into
my
body.  But if you need some help with the ladies, Buck, do what you got to do.”