The Bitter End (20 page)

"I don't know," said Aaron, following Daniel's lead. "Seems to me like something a jumped up little shit like you would make up to impress us."

"Me? Impress you? Don't make me laugh." But he didn't laugh.

Ben started to get some idea what they were doing but he still wasn't sure why. Surely they could just start shooting, the non-vamps could be taken down with a single shot and Gabriel wasn't armed. Yet no one went for their guns. He wondered if this was part of the plan, something he had slept through while thinking about home.

"I don't know," said Daniel, "even if there is a King what sort of power can he have locked away in a tower?"

"He's not locked away anywhere," said Gabriel. He had developed a tick that brought his shoulder and head together and did little to make him appear more sane.

"Because he doesn't exist?" said Aaron.

"He does too exist," said Gabriel, "and he's very powerful. He has more power than you'll ever know."

"Like what?" said Daniel.

"Yeah," said Aaron, "what's he ever done."

Gabriel smiled like he'd pulled the trump card in a poker match. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"So nothing then?" said Aaron.

"Is controlling every evolved being in the country nothing?" said Gabriel. "Is building dams to capture the last hold outs nothing?"

That was what they had come to hear. The Threshers pulled their guns and two shots each dispatched the non-vamps. They crumbled to the floor, a pile of bloody skin and bones. Ben had his own gun out but no one to shoot at. Aaron had grabbed hold of Gabriel, who was screaming, Daniel had his gun at the mans head.

"Where are they?" said Daniel.

Gabriel shook his head, his bottom lip quivered and tears ran down his cheeks.

"Where are they?" repeated Daniel, his voice louder and angrier.

"I can't..." said Gabriel.

Daniel spun the gun around in his hand and cracked it over his skull. His knees buckled but Aaron kept him upright. "I promise you," said Daniel, "that anything you think they can do to you is nothing compared to what I will do."

Gabriel shook his head again, "please..."

Daniel ignored him. "Now tell me, where they are."

But they didn't have to wait to be told. From deep within the cavern a low moan began to build. It was laced with pain and anger and seemed to shake the walls around them. Ben spun on the spot but he couldn't tell which direction they were coming from.

Gabriel started to scream. Daniel raised the gun to his head and without pausing he pulled he trigger and splattered Gabriel's brains all over Aaron. Ben thought for a moment that they could have used Gabriel for bargaining but he doubted the king vamp would give up a thing for a human life.

As if drawn forwards by the freshly spilled blood the moan continued to build until it became a cry of anger and anguish. A million human emotions caught up in a single animal sound. Ben couldn't help but notice that no one was running for the stairs.

"Position," shouted Aaron as he dropped the lifeless body on the ground.

Ben had no idea what his position was supposed to be but there were four entrances to the room and one of them led up the stairs they had come down. Aaron and Alexander covered one door, Daniel and Martin another. Ben joined Joel by the third door and then they waited.

The moan became impossibly loud. Ben started to wonder if vamps were capable of feelings and that they were distraught to find out that Gabriel had been killed.

He couldn't focus to think through the noise but what did he have to think about? See a vamp, shoot a vamp, that was all he had to know.

The lights flickered momentarily and then guttered out as a terrible wind rushed through the tunnels. Ben could see nothing save the red glow that pulsed in front of him. He aimed his gun, held his breath. The moan faded. He could hear teeth and footsteps. He wanted to shoot but he didn't. He waited.

One beat, two beats, how many beats of his heart did he hear before it began? He counted them in his head if for no other reason than to avoid thinking about what was coming, if for no other reason than to avoid thinking about what he stood to lose.

It wasn't just dark, it was the absence of light. It was the glowing, pulsing anti-light of a black hole into which all other darkness was drawn. It stood as a giant before them. It didn't speak.

There were two others, smaller but hungrier for it. They pulsed so rapidly that they seemed to vibrate around the larger figure.
 

Ben swallowed and his mouth was dry. He wondered why no one had opened fire and then he realised that they had. Guns were going off either side of him, knocking the black shape back and forth, buffeting the smaller ones from side to side. Then he was shooting as well.

They emptied their guns and in the time it took to put in fresh clips the creatures advanced. They cried their horrible cry and he could see that they were bleeding black blood, like oil, onto the floor. They weren't dead yet but they were hurting and that was good.

He emptied another clip and the creatures continued to advance. They were twenty, then ten, then only five metres away. They smelled of death, both their own and all those they had consumed. He reloaded his gun and fired again, fired a bullet for everyone he knew who had died.

They still weren't dead. He only had another two clips and no idea what the others were carrying.

He moved back in line with the others, the door was behind them but they didn't go. They kept firing until black blood soaked through their clothes, until they ran out of bullets, until the creatures writhed on the floor then lay still.

Ben dropped his gun and fell exhausted to the floor. They'd done it, whatever it was they had done it. He felt disgusting laying in the hot sticky blood but he didn't care. He thought he might sleep or pass out.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and he knew that it wasn't over yet. He looked up at Aaron. "It's time to go," he said.

Ben picked himself off the floor and his now empty gun. He could feel the slimy blood sticking between his fingers and tried to rub it off on his trousers, only to find they were as disgusting as his hands.

He followed Aaron's dim shape through the door even as he heard the deep rumble below him. The ground shook and loose rocks cascaded down the walls.

"Run!" shouted Daniel.

Ben ran. He was at the back of the group again but pushing them forwards. He could feel the cold coming up behind him like a shockwave.

He didn't dare look back, whatever was there he knew that he didn't want to see it. He could feel the anger and hate coming from it like a bad smell. Then he was climbing up the stairs, slipping and stumbling on the blood wet steps, he had to brace himself against the wall to stay upright.

And all the time the thing behind was getting closer. Its angry growl so deep and loud that he wasn't sure whether he could hear it or feel it. On he ran, pushing against Martin's back, urging him to go quicker because neither of them wanted to be left behind and see that thing face to face.

The steps began to crumble beneath his feet, he could feel them falling away into the dark nothingness below. "Come on!" he shouted but couldn't even hear it himself over the sound of the falling building and whatever was chasing them.

He reached the top of the stairs and threw himself forwards, just as the top step turned into rubble and fell away. The thing was still coming though.

Ben got to his feet and pulled Martin to his. He dragged the boy away from the mouth of the abyss and on towards the door.
 

He could see the sharp light of the day ahead but it was fading. Even in his confused state that didn't make sense; they had arrived at the tower in the early morning and could not have been more than three hours there. It should be mid-day, the sun at its fullest and most damaging to whatever was behind them.

They burst through the doors and fell onto the grass beside the others, hacking up lung full’s of the black hate they had encountered. The white tower shook, bricks fell and tiles slid from the roof to smash on the ground metres away.

"Get up," shouted Daniel, his voice gruff and tired as he climbed to his own feet. He helped Joel to stand.

Ben pulled Martin up and Alexander. He looked around. "Where's Aaron?" he shouted, his ears ringing from the noise.

"Come on," said Daniel, not waiting to answer. He ran, dragging Joel behind him, towards the barracks.

Ben looked up at the darkening sky. A swarm of darkness, like insects

(or bats)

were massing in the air. Their form blocking out the sun creating twilight and then night. He ran after Daniel, scanning the area for a sign of Aaron but he already knew his fait had been.

They burst through the doors of the barracks but Daniel didn't stop running. He knew exactly where he was going and Ben was happy to follow him if only so he didn't have to think for himself. The pushed through doors and ran along tunnels. He could hear wings flapping outside, thousands, millions of them beating away the sun. Then the anger of the hateful darkness. He couldn't get away from it, it was as if it was in his head.

"Through here," shouted Daniel and they followed him into a room. They fell into each other, panting for breath. Daniel didn't stop. The room was filled with wooden lockers and Daniel started kicking at them. When the first one opened Ben saw that it contained weapons. The weapons they had set out to collect all those days ago. "Help me," said Daniel.

They all started kicking doors and pulling out weapons. Crossbows that were the finest thing Ben had ever seen, they were smooth and shiny, a thousand years more evolved than the lumpy thing he had made with his dad. Arrows tipped with sharp wood and swords made out of the same. There were guns as well, they looked like they were made of some kind of plastic and the bullets that went in them were made of wood. He glanced across at Daniel and saw him putting guns and spare bullets in his pockets.

Ben grabbed a crossbow and slung two quivers over his shoulders. He also took a gun and a pocket full of the wooden bullets but he knew which weapon he favoured. It felt right, it felt comfortable.

The ground began to shake beneath them and they looked at one another. They were loaded down with wooden weapons, exhausted from the fight they had already won but as ready as they were ever going to be for another. Daniel nodded. He was in charge again and they all knew what that meant for Aaron. They would drink to him later, if any of them survived.

Outside it was completely dark. The sky was filled with the buzzing and flapping of tiny creatures. The black shape stood in full colour amongst the ruins of the white tower. When it turned towards them Ben recognised it from the paper money his father had carried, a souvenir of the time before, it was the King.

The King was huge. If he had been six foot tall in real life he was twice that now. A malevolent hatred radiated off of him and made Ben want to vomit. He held his stomach and his position in line between Martin and Joel. They waited.

Cold permeated the air and got into his bones. He watched the King, his head down, surveying the wreckage that he had created. He did not seem angry but sad. Ben felt it too, a deep loss that he couldn't put into words but infected every cell of his body. A tiny part of him wanted to go forth and comfort the hideous creature but the rest of him was still filled with fear and ready to fight.

The King turned towards them. "My family," he said. His voice was soft, little more than an echo.

A bird or bat cried out above them but no one looked.

"They were my family," said the King.

Ben looked down to Daniel hoping for some guidance but he didn't take his eyes off the King. When Ben looked back he had fallen to the floor. He did not look ready to fight them and Ben felt unsure whether he could kill something, even a vamp, that wasn't fighting back. It would have been easier if they had come out and one by one been killed.

Daniel raised his gun slowly. There seemed to be no rush now. The anger had gone from the air, the King was the embodiment of sorrow.

Ben raised his crossbow as well and saw the others alongside him aim their weapons. They didn't need to speak or discuss what they were going to do, they felt it instinctively.

The King turned his head up to look at them but offered no resistance. Later Ben would wonder whether he had known what would happen, if it had all been part of his plan.

They fired at the same time. The bullets and arrows pierced the King's chest and destroyed his heart. He looked at them with an expression that might have been relief but might have been something else. Then he was gone, dissolved into a fleshy pile of blood and guts.

The creatures in the sky seemed to dissolve with him, their tiny parts falling from the heavens like black snow. Ben fell to his knees, exhaustion and pain overwhelming him but at last he was safe.

14

Over the next two hours they carried all of the weapons back to the Robinson Crusoe. It was hard work but, with the vamps gone from the tower, Anthony, Kris and even Mrs Thresher were allowed to help. Their wounds were treated and they washed and put on clean clothes and before night fell they were on their way again.