The Bloodless (2 page)

*****
 

              I awoke in a cold sweat, the virgin dawn leaking in through the stained windows. My slumber was disturbed by scenes of death and horror invading them, but that was nothing new. Peaceful dreams were a foreign concept to me by then. I couldn’t get the shocking, gut wrenching image of Crist’s brains leaking from her skull out from behind my eyelids. I got up from my bed roll and walked outside to visit her grave, maybe talk to her.

              The Cloud seemed heavier that day, it felt as though we had thrown a pebble at a mountain. I couldn’t help but wonder if our efforts were futile, if what we wanted to accomplish could be done.

              “Hey, what are you doing up so early?” Crist came around the corner, a bucket of water in each hand.

              “I had this awful dream. Brains everywhere.”

              “Mine again?” She sat the buckets down next to her work bench and pulled up a stool.

              I stood and looked around the area, it was quite barren to match everything else in that part of the country. We were basically on the front doorstep of GoD Laboratories. We were some of the few brave or stupid enough, I can’t decide which, to be on the front lines like that. We managed to avoid detection though and the Bloodless didn’t really come around to our place, Fox had made sure of that.

              Our shack was set back behind a small outcrop of rocks, some that had slid down from the adjacent mountain. I undersell it when I say some, because there were enough to make another mini mountain. There used to be a small town here, one that was used for GoD Labs’ employees, so naturally I knew the area well. It was completely abandoned now. The town was ransacked after the appearance of The Cloud and survivors of the initial raid were smart enough to get as far away from there as possible.

              Houses were empty, every window in the town was smashed, the scorched bones of buildings dotted the landscape like a bad case of acne, and trashed belongings lined the streets.  Just imagine any stereotypical scene out of a post-apocalyptic movie and Abiyah resembled that. In that location the Cloud was the thickest, but there were still times when the sun shone through, so it was pretty lucky whenever we were even able to discern the time of day.

              “Yeah.” I shuffled up next to her as she ran a wet rag over her arms. She stopped momentarily as I kissed her on the top of her head, her favorite place.  “Please don’t get shot in the head.”

              “Who the fuck is gonna shoot me in the head?”

              “The Bloodless.”

              “Those dirty assholes don’t know how to operate guns.” She went back to cleaning herself and chuckled a little bit at the notion.

              “I know, but still, don’t get killed.”

              “I have no intentions of that any time soon, doll.” She stood up, kissed my cheek, and slapped the wet rag into my hands. “Clean up, your face looks awful!” She walked away, back behind the shack.

              I laughed and rubbed the rag across my face, letting the warm water soak into my skin. It felt soothing after the state in which I woke. I let the rag linger for a moment as I took in the feeling of still having her by my side. It was a good place to have someone you trust with you. We were the only ones willing to remain in that place for as long as we did. Somebody had to do it, though and we had to keep an eye on the area in order to keep up with Mendel’s activities

              Crist came back around decked out in her camouflaged gear, mine in her left hand. “Hurry up, we have to get a move on before it’s too late.”

              “I know,” I retorted as I grabbed my gear from her. “We’ve been doing this for how long now? Are you going to tell me that every time?”

              “No,” she grabbed her sidearm off the workbench that was cluttered with shell casings and empty clips. “Just until you stop being so damn lazy in the mornings.”

              “To be fair, sometimes I can’t even tell if it is morning.”

              “Not my fault, fix your watch.”

              I threw on my vest and pulled my shirt down over my head then walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her waist, “Will you fix it for me?” I said in my most helpless voice.

              “Fuck you’re worthless!” She kissed me again and gave me a little slap on the face. She acted tough around the others and tried to with me, but I knew her softer side. I kissed her back. Then again and then a couple more times with each kiss lasting a little longer than the previous. She turned around and our lips met. Somehow I was starting to get turned on by the soft feel of her skin, plus she was an excellent kisser. She pushed me away, “We can’t do this right now. We’ll be behind schedule.”

              “Oh come on,” I placed my hand on her crotch, “we haven’t done it in days.”

              She reached down and felt me through my pants, “That’s true.”

              I was starting to win her over, but I usually do. She was a sexual being and damn good at it too, just like she was good at everything else she did. As we kissed a couple soft moans escaped from her lips as I resumed gently pecking her neck and ran a hand down her back, onto her hip.

              “We’d better hurry up,” Crist said as she put her vest back on and as she stood there with no pants on I couldn’t help but admire. She had a great ass.

              I got to my feet and put my gear on. She soon had hers on and we loaded up to leave.

              We stepped out of the shack and headed along our usual trail. It was a carefully crafted path that kept us out of the ever watchful eyes of the facility’s tracking systems. We drudged across the scorched and barren landscape with intermittent stops to check our surroundings. The last point we stopped at was a site that held the century old remains of a stone cathedral the town was built around. It had a completely intact and structurally sound bell tower. It gave us a panoramic bird’s eye view of the entire area, a definite advantage as it also kept us out of sight.

              We entered the church and looked around for anything we might be able to use. After not finding anything we made our way up the tower and camped out at the top. Crist and I sat in the tower for a little longer that day and the leaking light gave me an even better view of the land further out than normal.

              All that light made the scene just a little more depressing as the emptiness seemed to engulf us more absolutely than at any other time. We could see all the way to the compound, it was about fifteen kilometers from our base, which may seem like a lot, but it wasn’t that much for us to walk. It was also the edge of the reach of the surveillance system. Yeah, it was that extensive.

              “You ready to go?” I asked as I turned from the view.

              “Shh.” Crist had become very still, this was never a good sign. I looked around too and that’s when I saw it. A counter patrol of a half dozen Bloodless, way more than two people could handle and we were lightly equipped. We hunkered down low and prayed we weren’t seen or heard. And just our luck, a spasm caused my arm to move just enough to make contact with the tower wall which sent a few bits of the stone work down to the ground below. This instantly caught the attention of the patrol. Half of the squad split off and headed straight into our cathedral. We were trapped.

              It was easy to hear them moving around in the hollowed out holy place as they went through the main level with laser like precision, leaving nothing untouched. At this rate it was only a matter of time before they found us at the top. I tried to get a look at the other three Bloodless walking around the outer perimeter; they were in a spread formation that let them see every side at any given time. Jumping was a no go. Closer the inside patrol got to us as they headed up the first flight of stairs. Soon they would be in the shaft of the tower.

              “Shit, look!” Crist whispered as softly as she could. It was futile as the Bloodless inside quickened their pace up the stairs. I looked over the edge again and saw three headless, convulsing bodies on the ground, stacked in front of the main doors.

              “What the fuck?” I stood up to get a better look and to try and see who had eliminated them. There was no sign of anybody. The footsteps in the shaft were getting louder and more rapid, they’d be there soon, but with just three left the task at hand didn’t seem so daunting. The only thing was that they had the tactical advantage with us cornered in a small room.

              Crist acted first. Using her grappling hook she jumped out of the window and swung around into a hole in the shaft, knocking two of them off the steps and all the way back down to the main floor. I sprang into action and met the third one half way up to our location. It struck first with a glancing blow to my jaw, but I ran through it and slammed it against the wall. We engaged in a flurry of hand to hand combat moves with neither side getting the upper-hand.

              Suddenly it caught me with a sweeping blow to my midsection that doubled me over and knocked out every last bit of breath I had in me. I felt myself tumbling down the stairs until I slammed head first into the wall in one of the turns. It’s hard to say what happened after that because everything was a little fuzzy. I remember the wretched thing being on top of me and then feeling a splatter on my face that I could only assume was the killing blow because after that I blacked out.

              When I came to I was laying in one of the pews. I sat bolt upright and looked around but didn’t see anybody. “Crist!” I yelled into the void in a desperate voice that was hardly my own. I was still groggy and I placed my hand on the back of one of the pews to stabilize myself. I felt another hand come down on top of mine and I spun quickly to see who it was.

              “Are you okay?” It was Fox.

              “It was you! You took out the other half?” I asked. Fox looked confused. “Have you seen Crist? Is she okay?” He looked at me funny, like I was out of my mind. “What?”

              “Crist was slain several days ago. We have attempted to establish contact with you for days now, but you never responded. I was sent out to find you and I just recently remembered your old patrol route. I saw you enter this building and it looked like you were talking to someone but I could not see anyone near you. I decided to follow you first to get an idea of what was going on with you. You do realize that Crist is deceased, yes?” There was an inkling of pity in his eyes, a look I understood too well.

              That’s when it all came crashing back to me and my head began to swim once again. I dropped to a knee and Fox came to my side, he placed a hand on my shoulder and left it there as I attempted to gather myself. A ringing in my ears grew steadily louder as that incident crept its way back into my mind.

*****
 

              We were walking along the rubble of Abiyah, the town at the perimeter of GoD Laboratories’ compound. All of us were heavily armed and ready for the fight we wanted to avoid. There was a good feeling among the group. Our plans were sound and the strategy was solid. I, of course, was running point and everyone knew their marks. The power station was less than a couple kilometers from our current location. Ready would’ve been a good word to describe us. Scared shitless would’ve been more accurate.

              It’s not like any of us were cowards, but when faced with the possibility of overwhelming numbers of Bloodless, anyone is likely to have reservations. Our mission had to be accomplished; no one else was going to do it as I was the only one left with so much intimate knowledge of the compound. Let’s be clear: some of my co-workers survived The Invasion, but none of them had any desire to continue fighting. I don’t blame them either. What we saw that day was enough to make anyone want to tear their eyes out and put a lump of hot steel through their temple. So since their fortitude was null, it was left to me to guide the counter attack.

              This was all new territory for me too. Sure, I had been the project leader at the lab but I wasn’t prepping battle plans and strategies in there. My area is science and electronic components. Cells, mitosis, DNA, and other genetic related roughage. I hadn’t ever killed a mouse let alone an undead person. How I even came to earn these people’s trust is a completely different story.

              We had been walking for about an hour when we found ourselves on the outer properties of Abiyah. I pulled everyone up, “Okay, we should probably make sure everyone knows their marks. This won’t work without absolute synchronization. Timing is key and stealth is even more key.”

              “Could one say keyer?” Pillar was the ever consummate smart-ass.

              “No, one could not say that. Shut the fuck up.”

              “Yeah Pillar, shut da fuck up.”

              “Really Burns?” I waved for them all to shut it. “Okay, so here’s what we do.” I went over the entire plan and made people parrot their parts back to me when I came to them. There was no way I was going into this unless everyone had their part down, locked and loaded. It was all timing related. There weren’t any guards to worry about since Bloodless can’t really think in that capacity, as far as we knew. The whole plan relied on constant vigilance and astute mechanical maneuvering.