Tandem of Terror (44 page)

Jason pouted but did as he was told.

After a moment of tension they waited for the
signal that would launch the attack. An owl called through the
night like a beacon of hope. A shiver shot right through Ray as he
climbed closer to Liz...it was time. One last owl call and the air
filled with arrows.

Mona and Jessica launched their arrows,
hitting their marks with the precision of marksmen. Foul yellow
smoke erupted from the bodies of the vampire guards as they slumped
to the ground. Seconds later they were eroding into ashes that blew
away on a night breeze.

The rebels rushed the station like a stampede
of cattle gone mad. They bashed the doors in with ease and the
first confrontation of humans and vampires clashed in a brutal
frenzy.

The humans mounted an onslaught of balloons
filled with holy water, stakes and arrows as the vampires used
their hellish powers and inhuman strength to fight back.

Jessica rushed in with her bow drawn but was
thrown right through a glass window to her death. Her vampire
attacker laughed out loud.

Ray nailed an undead right to his chair with
a well-placed arrow that tore right through his black heart. His
ashes fell to a pile in his seat.

Sarah was nearly overpowered by a vampire
until Taylor smashed it in the back with a balloon. The holy water
washed over him like acid, smoldering and burning, his howls
reaching a deafening pitch as he burst into flames. He stumbled to
the floor consumed as the fire ate every last piece of pale, white
flesh.David forced himself onto a bloodsucker, driving a stake into
his with all his strength as a cloud of yellow smoke enveloped his
face.

The vampires retreated, attempting to make an
escape but the humans would not allow any to escape their fury.

One of the rebels rushed a vampire but was
stopped dead in his tracks as the thing grabbed him by the throat
and sunk his fangs deep into his head, sweet blood spraying his
face.

Liz's attention was drawn to the chubby guard
trying to escape through a door in the back. With a sudden reaction
she whipped a balloon straight at him. She hit her target and one
more monster fell to the floor writhing and screaming in
flames.

Many of the vampires took bat form and raced
out the broken window where Jessica had met her maker. One bat
latched onto the face of a male rebel and began shredding it, layer
by layer into deformity.

Lymora ran upstairs to the outer doors of the
station. A human jumped in her way but she snapped his neck
effortlessly, a crackle of bone echoed through the air as she threw
him onto the oncoming Sarah.

Liz took aim with a bow and fired. "Damn it,"
she stomped her foot as the arrow narrowly missed the fleeing
vampires.

"
This is station V-6 we are
under attack. Humans, many of them have infiltrated us."

"
Lymora quickly," the gruff
male voice called back through the radio she was using. "Report to
us all you can on their strength and weapons. We need to know the
severity of this new threat. Then report to blood depot 10 on the
east side of Boston."

"
I don't think so death
breath!" Jason cried as he and Mona finally confronted the
demoness. Jason pulled a stake from his belt and rushed her head
on.

Lymora laughed, smacking the stake from his
hand and taking him up by the throat. She gave him one quick bite
and threw him across the room.

"
You vermin bitch!" Mona
screamed, tears in her eyes, knowing all too well what Lymora had
done. Mona lifted her bow as Lymora hissed at her, fangs dripping
with Jason's blood.

She raced at Mona, hell in her eyes, a mask
of rage and insanity on her face. Mona panicked, falling off her
feet in fear but releasing her arrow as she did.

Mona closed her eyes but heard an ungodly
screech. When she opened them again, she saw the last vestiges
Lymora disintegrating into ashes. The dreaded Lymora was no
more.

Jason coughed from the corner of the room. He
was still alive but the wound on his neck was pulsating. It was a
wound that meant untold evil if he was stayed alive. "Mona, honey,
you know what to do," his voice cracked and his breathing was weak.
"I'm a danger to us all now. Do it."

Mona took the stake from her belt and put her
other hand on Jason's shoulder. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"You're a good man Jason," she said softly. "Never forget that we
all loved you. You gave your life for us and the cause."

"
I know darlin'," he said
with a wink. "But if you don't shut up and get to it I'm gonna be
another one of those damn bloodsuckers." He closed his eyes. "Do
it."

With one swift thrust, Mona forced the stake
into his heart and standing up she left the room without looking
back.

Ray and Liz watched Mona rejoin them,
noticing the distraught look on her face. There had been many hard
casualties but the humans had won their first fight. The few
remaining vamps flew off into the skies and were gone.

"
Now we can start using this
place to our advantage," David announced. They could detect the
pride in his voice, the joy he took in the victory over the
vampires.

"
I think we should wait,"
Mona spoke up. "I just found out that there is a blood depot on the
east side. It could be storing thousands of gallons of our people's
blood. If we can take the depot and drain all the blood it will
cripple the vampire forces in the city."

"
That's a great idea," David
agreed. "Good work Mona. Let's scout it out right now. Mona you and
Taylor go check out the depot and the rest of us will regroup at
headquarters and handle the casualties."

They hauled up their dead as Mona and Taylor
made another dangerous journey to find the depot.

By now it was no doubt the vampires knew that
a resistance had formed and was already growing in strength, with
their first victory they were sure to be filled with hope and a
rush that could prove to be dangerous. The rebellion had to be
especially cautious. Their existence was no longer a secret.

Within a few hours Mona and Taylor had
reached the location of the depot. An electrified fence surrounded
a large building that connected to a giant tower or tank, it looked
like a water tower but they knew it was filled with blood.

"
Mona let's split up and
scout the joint," Taylor said. "Meet me back here in ten minutes.
Ok?"

"
Alright. But be
careful."

The two parted and crawled off in different
directions.

After finishing his exploration Taylor
returned to his posted but noticed that Mona had not. He waited
another ten minutes but nothing still. Cold air ravaged his face
and arms. A voice whispered in his ear. Where the hell was she? He
looked around for her but couldn't make anything out.

A shadow wriggled into his sight. He lifted
his bow with jittery hands.

"
Don't shoot, it's me
Mona."

"
What took you?"

"
I had to hide and wait out
a patrol of vamps. They nearly caught me but I'm fine."

"
Great, let's get back and
report what we saw."

The two made their way back through the
deserted streets of a dying city.

Ray and Liz sat together, eyes locked on the
door of the headquarters.

"
Where are they," Ray asked
with a twitch of his left eye. He always twitched when he was
nervous. Liz found that utterly annoying.

"
They must have gotten hung
up. There are bound to be lots of patrols out now that we've made
ourselves known. I just hope they haven't run into any real
trouble."

"
I'm concerned about Mona.
She had to put Jason down you know."

"
Yeah, I heard. That must
have been tough."

"
The look on her face when
she came down the stairs. I'll never forget it."

"
Could you ever do
that?"

"
I guess I would have
to."

"
What if it was me,
Ray?"

"
Don't talk like that,
Liz."

"
Well it could happen, we're
not immortal. Not like them."

"
It's never going to happen,
I won't let you---"

"
What's that noise?" Liz cut
him off.

"
I don't hear anything." The
two got up from the chairs.

Taylor and Mona closed the bus hatch behind
them and descended the stairs. Taylor started down the hall first
when Mona's calls stopped him. She sounded distressed. "Mona? Mona
what is it, what's wrong?"

"
Taylor, I need to show you
something."

"
What, what do you want to
show me," he asked, starting back down the corridor towards her.
She was nothing but a silhouette in the dark. "What?"

"
Nothing really, just the
downfall of your pathetic rebellion!" She screamed as she lunged
for him. Fangs appeared in her mouth and within seconds they were
sinking into his throbbing jugular.

Taylor tried valiantly to reach for his stake
but he was too late. She let him slip from her grip and laughed at
his fallen, lifeless body. "Long reign Namervoss!" She howled.

She stripped Taylor's jacket off his body and
closing her eyes finished her trip down the corridor. She felt her
way, jacket held out in front of her, to the headquarter doors. She
covered the silver cross with the jacket and ripped it from the
door, throwing it to the floor. She ran back to the steel ladder
and the hatch in the bus, throwing it open with glee, she screamed:
"Now!"

An entire legion of vampires stormed into the
corridor like locusts. "Long reign Namervoss!" Mona called again as
the army of night crawlers advanced on the doors and burst their
way in.

Entire families were destroyed in one swoop.
The unsuspecting rebellion had no time to reach their weapons and
were easily overtaken.

The stronger humans were converted. Children
were destroyed. David was jumped by three vampires, they tore open
his wrists and throat and fed greedily, relishing in the act of
crippling the rebellion, robbing it of their leader and destroying
all hope.

The majority of the rebels were dispatched
into nothing more than a room full of corpses. Very few made it out
alive.

One of those was Ray. With a last desperate
move, he escaped through a secret tunnel that only he and Liz knew
about, he prayed that she had used it too.

He scrambled through the junkyard, hiding
behind mounds of rubble and scrap as the screams of his comrades
filled the night air. He stumbled into a field of overgrown grass,
moonlight illuminating it as if it were a farmer's wheat field. In
the field he picked up the shape of a figure. "Who's there?" He
shouted. "I have holy water." Into his view walked his sister, the
moonlight picking up her flaxen hair, a dead giveaway.

"
Liz, ha ha, my God you made
it! Like I said, the Henbergs know how to take care of themselves."
He embraced her tightly.

"
We sure do," Liz whispered
as Ray felt a strange sensation tickle his neck before the pain
took over. His eyes opened wide with horror, disbelieving the
betrayal by his own sister. Her fangs sank deep into his throat and
she drank deeply.

"
Long reign Namervoss!" Liz
howled as her brother's blood streamed her chin.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ERIC S. BROWN
is a 34 year old author
living in NC.  He has been called "The King of the Zombies" by
places like Dread Central and was featured in the book Zombie CSU:
The Forensics of the Living Dead as an expert on the genre.
 Some of his books include Space Stations and Graveyards,
Dying Days, Portals of Terror, Madmen's Dreams, Cobble, The Queen,
The Wave, Waking Nightmares, Unabridged Unabashed and Undead: The
Best of Eric S Brown, Barren Earth, Season of Rot, War of the
Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, World War of the Dead, Zombies
II: Inhuman, etc.  He was the editor of the anthology Wolves
of War from Library of Horror Press.  Some of his upcoming
titles include Bigfoot War, The Human Experiment, Anti-Heroes, and
Tandems of Terror.  His short fiction has been published
hundreds of times.  His short fiction has appeared in
anthologies like Dead Worlds I,II, III, and V, The Blackest Death I
& II, The Undead I & II, Dead History, Dead Science,
Zombology I & II, The Zombist, and the upcoming Gentlemen of
Horror 2010 to name only a few.  He also writes an ongoing
column on the world of comic books for Abandoned Towers
magazine.

JOHN GROVER
is a dark fiction author
residing in Massachusetts, he has taken creative writing courses at
Boston's Fisher College and is a member of the New England Horror
Writers, A chapter of the Horror Writers Association.

Some of his credits include The Northern
Haunts Anthology by Shroud Publishing, The Zombology Series by
Library of the Living Dead Press, Screaming Dreams, Morpheus Tales,
Wrong World, The Willows, Flesh and Blood, Alien Skin Magazine, and
more.

He is the author of several collections,
including the recently released Feminine Wiles, sixteen tales of
wicked women as well as various chapbooks, anthologies, and more.
Please visit his website
www.shadowtales.com
for more
information.