Dead by Dawn (28 page)

“The vampires, there’s so many,” said one.

“They ripped the roof right off, came pouring in on top of us,” said another.

“What about the others?” asked Smith.

The first man shook his head. “All dead. We’re the only ones that made it out alive.”

“All of them?” Smith went pale.

A clanging sound echoed in the elevator shaft. The noise made Major General Smith turn from white to red.

He turned and pointed one finger at Dr. Bennet. “Send that message out now!”

The computer was set up in the laboratory to his left and Dr. Bennet ran for it. He practically fell into his computer chair, fumbling with his wallet as he did. He pulled out a small piece of paper with the ten-digit passcode and laid it out on the desk.

FE47G4H67303F

His hands were so shaky, that he fat-fingered the keys on his first try and had to start over.

He could hear screeching metal coming from the hallway, followed by a gunshot. He ignored it, keeping his eyes on the screen.

Supposedly Major General Smith managed to get this computer connected with the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. Dr. Bennet wasn’t sure if the message would go directly out or if it would end up at some relay station before being passed on to the rest of the nation. Whatever it was, he wouldn’t have the luxury of finding out. Time was up.

There was only one icon on the computer, placed in the center of a blue screen. It was a plain gray square with the letters WEA underneath.

Dr. Bennet clicked on it and a text box popped up. There wasn’t much to it, just a giant square with a send button underneath.

Bennet did his best to ignore the continuous crackle of gunfire behind him and typed his message. He kept it short knowing he had little time for details.

When he hit send, a second box popped up asking if he was sure. He clicked yes and was met with a third box asking him to type in a password.

Dr. Bennet referred back to the slip of paper, this time getting it right the first try.

When he clicked send, he was left with the small image of a rotating hourglass.

It took a few seconds, but the hourglass eventually disappeared, the computer dinged and Dr. Bennet was brought back to the text box.

-Message sent- read the new words in the text box.

Dr. Bennet exhaled and sank in his chair. For the first time he allowed himself to look back into the hallway. He could see everything through the glass wall.

The soldiers lit up the elevator with gunfire. Major General Smith was the last man in line. He fired his pistol conservatively, switching magazines when necessary. Bennet also saw that Nancy was in the room with him. She was curled up in a ball in the corner, her hands over her head. A few of his other assistants were doing the same.

Three vampires managed to break free and the closest two soldiers were tackled.

The other soldiers fired on them, shooting both man and monster alike.

Smith kept his pistol trained on the elevator, but it was too late, the dam had broken. Vampires poured out like angry hornets. The soldiers were consumed by the horde.

They fought hard, but only lasted for seconds in hand-to-hand combat. They were injured and exhausted and the vampire numbers were only swelling.

Major General Smith was one of the last to go down. He shot a vampire point blank in the forehead, and then stepped around it to stab the next one in the gut with his knife. The second vampire continued its charge, tackling Smith down and out of sight from the window. The next six vampires chased them down in what Bennet could only guess was a feeding frenzy.

The growing horde poured out of the elevator. They beat down the glass next, entering the room where Dr. Bennet was waiting.

He watched Nancy and the rest of his team go down. It was a grotesque sight, but he steeled against it, promising himself he wouldn’t cry out.

When the vampires turned to him, he closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see it coming.

They hit him hard, knocking him off his chair. As he slid across the ground he held his breath.

They were on top of him and when he felt those fangs, he broke his promise. When the vampire bit down, Dr. Bennet began to scream.

Chapter 41

              Adam was the one who started the yacht, but Sarah hit the throttle. It was the sight of a vampire crawling over a porthole that spurred her into action. She took one look at the vampire and pushed Adam out of the way. In his defense he was probably about to hit the throttle anyways.

That was two hours earlier. Now everyone was inside the cabin. Joe piloted the yacht while Keith stood at his side. Adam and Sarah sat on the couch. Matt sat next to them, his head leaned back and snoring. Sherry and Chip were noticeably absent.

Everyone wanted to talk about the missing anchor and vampires, but nobody wanted to talk about their missing companions. They all lost so much already, it wasn’t fair that they should lose more. Sarah wondered if the guys were trying to downplay their affection for the couple as a coping method. If they were, they would be lying to themselves. Sherry and Chip had become just as much a part of their group as anyone else.

Sarah thought she would cry, except that was something she didn’t do anymore. She could try all she wanted, but it seemed as though her body had no more tears left to give. Instead she felt empty. Sherry and Chip were just another phase in her emotional erosion.

Adam was agitated, that’s how she knew he was thinking of them. She didn’t know if she’d ever seen him in such a poor mood. He probably felt that way when Barry died, but they were riding the motorcycle and hadn’t had much time to interact, so she couldn’t be sure.

Sarah rested her head on his shoulder and yawned. It was well after four in the morning and the adrenaline had long since worn off.

There were no signs of vampires, or land for that matter, yet they kept the yacht moving. Keith and Joe were deciding what shifts they would pilot the yacht so they could at least get another hour or two of sleep. Joe agreed on the first watch so Keith sprawled out on the bed.

Sarah found she could no longer keep her eyes open and gave up the fight. The sleep that followed was short lived. Fifteen minutes after she began to doze, both her and Adam’s cell phones began to beep.

It was a weird noise that she’d never heard her phone make before. It went off twice, four times if she was counting both phones.

Her phone was on a shelf above the couch, so she had to stand up to get it. When she did, the screen hurt her eyes. The light in contrast to the night was a shock.

“You got a message,” asked Keith, sitting up from the bed he’d recently laid down on. “What’s it say?”

Sarah blinked rapidly, forcing her eyes to focus on the screen. They began to water.

Slowly she was able to bring the phone into focus.

The text was from the number 000, she opened it.

Attention survivors, there is possibly a way to defeat the vampires. We have discovered the head vampire is taking refuge inside the White House. If you cut the head off the snake, the body will follow. If you are at all able, I beg you to go to the White House and kill the head vampire. It may be mankind's only chance of survival.

Dr. Edward Bennet

Sarah looked up from her cellphone. She wasn’t sure how to react to the text.

There was a head vampire controlling all the others. How? Was he more powerful?

Keith was waiting, so she tossed him the phone. He stared at the message for longer than it took to read. Sarah wondered if he was reading it two or three times.

When he finally looked up, he was straight faced. He got up and walked over to the steering wheel where he handed the phone to Joe.

“It’s for you,” he said.

Joe read the message and then handed the phone back to Keith.

“Think it’s a hoax?” asked Keith.

“The way things are right now,” said Joe. “Only Uncle Sam could get a message through.”

“Yea, I thought so too.”

“What do you make of it?”

Keith dropped his eyes and shook his head. “If they’re calling on us to do something so important, it means we no longer have a military.”

Joe gave a slight nod of agreement. “It means we no longer have a country.”

“The vampires won?” Sarah was surprised to hear how weak her voice came out. She hadn’t meant to sound so quiet, so scared.

“We’re not dead yet,” said Joe.

Adam leaned forward on the couch, rubbing his eyes. “What’s going on?”

“The vampires can’t win,” said Keith. “If they end up killing us all, they’re left without a food source. Everyone loses.” He lifted her cellphone and gave it a little shake. “There is a way we could win however. It’s right there, ripe for the taking.”

Sarah was taken back. “You’re not suggesting
we
go to the White House?”

“Somebody has to.”

Adam threw up his arms. “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

“Check your phone,” said Sarah.

He did, skimming through the message before dropping his phone and running both hands through his hair. “How many others do you think got this message?”

“I can’t imagine very many,” said Keith. “No one would have access to a power supply like we do. And why would they keep their phones charged if they can’t even use them.”

“We did,” said Sarah.

“Yea, and I could never understand why.”

“I wanted to be informed in case any new information came out,” said Adam. “When they told us about the evacuation zone, it was through a text. Why wouldn’t they do the same for any other important news.”

“Maybe there are others out there who feel the same way,” said Sarah

“That’s the other thing,” said Joe. “I don’t think there are very many others left.”

“What about the school?” asked Sarah. “And all the safe houses.”

Keith glanced at Joe then shot her an apologetic wince. “To a vampire, those places look like a giant buffet. If they decide they really want to get in, there won’t be any stopping them. Add to it the fact they have human spies on the inside, like Lindsay… the last of the safe houses probably fell days ago.”

“You don’t mean that,” said Sarah.

“I wish I didn’t.”

Joe cleared his throat. “Which means we could very well be the only people who received that message.”

“Then we have to go,” said Adam.

“We haven’t decided that yet,” said Keith.

“Then what’s holding you back? If we’re the only people who got the message, we have to go. There’s no choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” said Joe.

“And we don’t actually know that we’re the only people to get the message,” said Keith, shrugging. “It’s just a theory.”

Sarah stood up; she was finding it hard to sit still. “If the safe houses are all gone, and we’re the only ones left to receive that message, then won’t the vampires begin to starve soon? Couldn’t we just wait it out?”

“That might work,” said Keith. “Except the vampires know where we are now. They’re going to do everything in their power to stop this yacht.”

Joe leaned forward and let out a frustrated huff. “I doubt we’ll last to the end of the week, they’re bound to have some trick up their sleeve to get us. They’re smarter than we give them credit for.”

“Then we go,” said Adam. He was rubbing his hands together and looking from person to person. “It’s the only real option.”

“I think Keith and I are going to go,” said Joe. “You three should stay with the boat.”

Sarah shook her head. “Oh no we are not.”

“Yea,” said Adam. “The message was just as much to us as it was to you.”

Keith leaned in towards Joe. “They have a point, and it might be just as dangerous to stay as it is to go.”

“We don’t know that.”

“You said it yourself Joe. This yacht is a target now, anyone on it is in danger.”

Joe exhaled and looked up at the sealing, exasperated. “Fine, we go together.”

Sarah didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, there was killing the head vampire. She had no doubt it was an important task, but how in the hell did it fall to them. On the other hand they could ignore the text and continue to hide out. Unfortunately, they would be hiding on a moving target, like Joe said.

They were between a rock and a hard place, that’s what her dad would have said.

Maybe not though, there was a chance they would reach the White House only to find someone else had done the dirty work for them. With any luck, they might end up running into a whole parade of people.

She held on to those thoughts, as she tried to fall back asleep on the couch. There was a nagging sensation in her gut telling her not to hope. She did everything she could to ignore it.

Chapter 42

              When Adam woke again, the yacht was no longer moving. Sarah moaned in protest as he untangled his arms from around her and sat up on the couch. It was light out and he wondered what time it was.

Joe and Keith were gone.

Adam practically jumped off the couch.

They left us!

He turned towards the exit and threw himself through the cabin doors.

Joe and Keith were just outside. They sat at Sherry’s fold out dinner table, examining a map.

Keith looked up. “I hope you’re ready to run with the big dogs today.”

“What’s the plan?” asked Adam.

Adam realized with a start that they were tied to the dock in front of the mansion.

How long have we been here?
He wondered.

The day was already looking like another warm one. There were small clouds dotting the sky, but they didn’t indicate bad weather. If anything they would evaporate in an hour or two.

Keith placed his finger on the map. “There’s a small airport twenty minutes from here. We figure the only way to reach Washington D.C. before nightfall is by flying.”

“You guys know how to fly?”

“I know how to fly,” said Joe. “It’s what they paid me for back in the Air Force.”

“Are you good?”

“I imagine he’s rusty,” said Keith.

“I’ll be fine.”

Adam went back into the cabin and grabbed his phone. He checked to see if any more messages had come through. None had.

Sarah was sitting up on the couch, her head was propped against the cushion and her eyes were closed, but she was awake.

“Must sleep longer,” she groaned.

“Come on Sarah, the vampire apocalypse isn’t going to stop itself.”

Sarah rose to her feet as if it took every ounce of willpower she possessed. “I hate you.”

Adam suppressed a sudden bout of laughter. “You hate me because I’m making you get up?”

“I don’t really hate you, I just strongly dislike you right now.”

She sauntered off to the bathroom, so Adam turned to Matt. He threw a pillow from the couch, making contact with Matt’s side.

“Wakey wakey, we have a plane to catch.”

Matt rolled onto his back, keeping his eyes closed. “What’re you talking about?”

“Saving the world. Today’s the day we get to aspire to greatness. Time to pay those sons-a-bitches back for what they did to Chip and Sherry, and everyone else for that matter.”

Matt’s eyes flew open and he sat up. “What are you getting at?”

“We know where their leader is.
”

“Impossible.”

“We do, and we’re going to kill him.”

Matt stood up, letting the covers drop to the floor, revealing a pair of silky blue boxers. His chest was shaved and he had a surprising amount of muscle. He wasn’t bulky by any means, just very cut.

“How could you even get that kind of information?”

Sarah came out of the bathroom, toothpaste foaming out of the corner of her mouth and toothbrush in hand. “Somebody sent out a mass text. It says if we kill the leader, the other vampires will stop.”

“Like scissors to marionette strings,” said Adam. “Keith and Joe already have a plan to get us there before nightfall.”

“Have you even thought this through?” asked Matt. “What if it’s a trap? The vampires could be trying to herd all the remaining survivors into one area. You’d be walking us into a slaughter.”

“Last I checked, vampires aren’t very tech savvy,” said Adam. “Smart, but not when it comes to that.”

Matt’s eyes grew dark, he looked pissed. “After everything that’s happened, you’re going to take action based on the idea that the vampire’s aren’t as smart as us?”

“I think they’re just smart enough to work as a horde. They’re lucky we’ve been too overwhelmed to counter attack.”

“You’re wrong. The vampires are all powerful. They’ve been too distracted successfully taking over the rest of the world to deal with us. But when they do come for us, and they will, they’re going to out strengthen, outnumber and outsmart us. So why don’t we just relax and be thankful for what little bit of time they’re giving us.”

Sarah pointed at Matt with the toothbrush. “Maybe you should talk to Joe and Keith about it. It’s their plan.”

Matt did so, but the conversation did not go in his favor. On the contrary, it went something like,

“This plan is idiotic, we should stay here on the boat.”

“Here’s the keys, the rest of us are going.”

Whatever his convictions, it was obvious Matt didn’t want to be left alone. He bitched and moaned, but decided to go with them anyway.

Thus began the uphill battle to reach the White House before dark.

The twenty-minute drive to the airport turned out to be more like an hour and a half.

The main delay came in the form of a bridge. It was meant to be over a river that was thirty feet across. A foxhole near the ditch they passed and twisted metal jutting from the road, told Adam that the missing bridge had been the result of a military operation. Is this the border of the original evacuation zone?

Charges were set on the bridges, and did their job well. The body of the bridge had long since been swept away. All that remained now were long snaking fingers of metal. They reached out towards each other, as if the two sides of the road were attempting to reconnect.

They had to drive twenty five miles out of the way to find a bridge that would take them across.

By the time they reached the airport, Joe was in a sour mood. He let out a continuous string of complaints that were riddled with profanity.

Matt suggested they still had time to turn around and head back to the yacht. This suggestion was met with death stares. Matt grew quiet after that.

There was a small puddle jumper sitting on the tarmac near the entrance of the airport.

“Is that our ride?” asked Adam.

Joe shook his head. “Afraid not. I never trained to fly a plane.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was a helicopter pilot.”

The airport was surprisingly small. There were only two runways, both only slightly longer than a football field. There were five or six hangars that looked more like tin barns. By average standards, the plane sitting on the tarmac would have been considered small. For that hanger however, most of the planes were about the same size. No jumbo jets would be landing at this airport.

Joe drove up to the first hangar and parked the truck. Adam pulled up next to him on the motorcycle and hopped off.

The hangar had two large sliding doors that faced the runways and made up an entire wall of the building. The doors were held chained together and secured with a padlock.

Joe fished behind the seat of his truck for a pry bar. By the time he retrieved it however he no longer needed it. Keith and Adam pulled apart the doors creating a gap wide enough for Sarah to see through. She reported back that there were two planes inside. They would have to look elsewhere to find a helicopter.

Almost every hanger turned out to be the same, all but one. It was separate from the others, on the far side of the airport. The hangar had an office built into the side and there was an ambulance parked out front.

When Sarah peered inside she said there was indeed a helicopter inside. Joe got to use his pry bar then, busting one of the handles, so the chain fell loose and allowed them to open the door.

The helicopter inside was red and white. It was full of medical equipment, including a stretcher that was strapped to the wall
.
Life Flight
,
was painted above the cabin.

Joe jumped inside and began doing what Adam could only guess was a systems check. He came out a few minutes later looking satisfied.

“She’s got a full tank,” he said.

The helicopter’s keys turned out to be in the front office. Sarah went with Keith to find them. While Keith was digging through desk drawers, she discovered them in a custom-made box on the wall. It had been constructed with a sturdy pine, the front was a thick glass sheet and opened from the left. She spotted it behind the front desk.

Sarah opened the glass front and retrieved the keys.

Meanwhile inside the hangar, Joe backed his truck close to the helicopter. Adam and Matt found chains that they wrapped around the legs of the skids. Sarah and Keith were just coming out of the office as they hooked the other end of the chains to the back of Joe’s truck.

They had to be careful to make sure the chains were the right length. If they weren’t, then the helicopter would turn sideways and clip the hangar door on the way out.

Matt tried to hook the chains to the truck in a hurry. Adam went back and adjusted them to his liking. He wasn’t so sure about dragging the helicopter across the ground like they were. It seemed so barbaric for such a sophisticated piece of equipment. He figured Joe would know, however, and gave him the go ahead to start pulling.

It took everything the truck had to pull the helicopter. There was a moment when Adam didn’t think it was going to move at all. It did, and the helicopter began the slow pull out into daylight.

Adam couldn’t help, but cringe the entire time the truck was pulling. The skids screeched in protest and left gouges in the pavement.

“There isn’t a better way to do this?” Sarah asked. She had to yell to be heard over the trucks roaring engine.

“Joe’s the expert,” Adam yelled back. “Not me.”

Joe continued to pull until the helicopter was a good thirty feet away from the hangar. When he finally stopped, white smoke was pouring out in a thick cloud from beneath his hood. When he killed the engine the truck hissed its displeasure.

Adam wondered how many years they had just taken off the truck’s life.

Probably the rest of them.
He thought.

He leaned down and began undoing the chains with some help from Keith. By the time they were off, Joe already had the propellers gearing up.

They began their slow spin around, picking up the pace with every second. The wind began to whip harder as their speed increased.

The propellers made a whooshing sound as they passed over Adam’s head. It was slower at first, but picked up in speed.

Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…

“All aboard!” Joe yelled.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Matt threw his hands up and hesitated at the edge of the cabin. “We shouldn’t do this!”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,

Keith pushed passed him, tossing in his drag bag then climbing in. Adam and Sarah got in behind him.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh. The propellers reached a speed at which the chopped whooshing sound became a steady hum. They were ready for flight.

There weren’t very many seats inside. Keith and Joe would each have one in the cockpit, but only Sarah would get one in the cabin. It folded out from the wall. The rest of the room was geared for patients who would be lying down.

“Last chance to turn back,” Adam yelled out.

Matt didn’t look happy, but climbed in anyway. He crawled as far away from the open door as he could get before gripping a strap on the wall until his knuckles turned white.

Adam felt a hand grab his shoulder and looked up to see a pale faced Sarah.

“It’ll be fine,” he tried to reassure her.

She nodded, though her face remained colorless.

Adam’s stomach lurched and he almost fell backwards. He leaned forward just in time to see the ground moving away. It was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time. The helicopter was in the air. The airport grew smaller and fell behind as they began passing over trees.

There was nothing left to do after that, but sit back and relax. They were on their way.