Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (22 page)

Heaving with anger, she stopped walking and turned around with a smile.  She took
the vampire by surprise and punched him in the jaw.  Her fist hurt like a mother,
but she swallowed the pain.  “You always lecture me, Kaleb Sainvire.  I won’t listen
to you anymore.  For your information, I was going for an Isaac Hayes mixed with Cheech
look, so fuck off!”

Sainvire massaged his jaw and kept quiet.  There was nothing worse than a pissed off
Julia Poe.

The Mission District seemed deserted, only used by some vamps for gaming and sporting
purposes.  Sainvire didn’t detect any movement or hear any voices, so he followed
the girl inside the tortilla factory to retrieve her Huffy bike.  Rufus had stuffed
the tremendous frame in the Cessna with much hardship.  Poe pulled out a map from
her coat pocket and pointed to the square that marked the Civic Center.  “This is
where we’re going.  Victoria said the armory might be in City Hall, but maybe we should
destroy it last in case we run out of explosives for ships and stuff,” said Poe more
to herself. 

“All the Hummers and vehicles are in the Tenderloin north of us.  We could start there.”

Poe finally looked up at Sainvire and squinted.  She groomed her mustache and nodded. 
Sainvire was eternally disturbed by the act.  She hopped on the bike, adjusted her
backpack, and said, “Get on.”

“I’ll walk, thanks,” he said as he stared oddly at his girl.

“Master vamp too good for a bicycle?  There’re pegs on the back.  Stand on them so
we can go.”

Because the girl sounded so abrupt and off-kilter, he shook his head and stepped on
the protruding metal pegs.  He rested his large hands on Poe’s shoulders.  The initial
push was hell for Poe for they hardly budged, but after Sainvire said, “You can’t
possibly carry me.  I’m too big for you and this bicycle,” Poe gritted her teeth and
pedaled harder. 
Fuck, he’s heavy
, she thought. 
My ligaments are going to snap!

Exertion cleanses the soul, her old friend Goss used to tell her.  She was most definitely
exerting and sweating away her tan.  She huffed and puffed up steep hills until she
thought her lungs were going to burst and her thighs disintegrate.  Out of sheer mulishness
she biked for what seemed like 15 miles without complaint.  Poe had the urge to tell
the vamp not to push too hard on her poor shoulders but bit her lower lip instead. 
They encountered a few custodians and plenty of scalawag leeches just waking up to
look after the blood cattle and perhaps pester them. 

The odd sight of a hooded day vamp looming over a tiny cyclist generated more than
a few curious looks.  But then again, they weren’t far from the Castro District. 
Relations between custodians and vamps weren’t such an improbability. 

The Tenderloin was one of the least attractive neighborhoods in glorious San Francisco,
and the apocalypse hadn’t changed the neighborhood much.  The place had been turned
into an open-air junk yard for car parts and a storage area for a fleet of heavy-duty
vehicles like Hummers and construction trucks.  Sainvire jumped off the bicycle before
Poe could even clutch the brakes.  Poe let the bike fall to the ground and reached
for her water bottle.  Like a lost soul in the desert, she sucked on the water bottle
until droplets fell on her chin.  Forcing herself to stop drinking and save some for
later, she placed the bottle in the outside pocket of her pack. 

“Go do some damage with your nails, mister,” she said, sitting on the ground.  She
extended her left leg and stretched.  “Destroy the engines, and let’s move on.”

Sainvire nodded and gazed at the odd looking man stretching on the road.  “Yes, boss.” 
He shuddered and moved to the first vehicle, a Hummer, and lifted the hood.  He did
a Zorro with his powerful nails and damaged the engine for life.  The homes along
the streets were empty so no soul could watch the ruin.

“You have about a hundred more to go,” said Poe the smartass.  “So hurry up!”

He threw his girl a look of horror and once again shuddered.  “Yes, sir!  Will do.”

The Blaxican watched the vampire methodically slash engine after engine, and she was
glad Sainvire was with her.  She would’ve been dead if the vamp hadn’t appeared at
the skin church in the nick of time.  But then again he habitually had arrived when
her life was at the most perilous.  And here he was serving humanity by destroying
trucks that might have been used to invade Los Angeles in the holiday season. 

The mustached girl lay on her back in the middle of the road and slept.  She hadn’t
caught some zzz’s the night before because of the bored skinheads, but she tried her
best to compensate.  Sainvire shook her awake, and she instinctively reached for her
gun.  Sainvire captured her hand and said, “It’s okay, my love.  It’s me.  I’ve killed
all the engines, so we can go.”

Breathing heavily, Poe tugged her wig down and combed her mustache which disgusted
Sainvire to no end.  “Thanks.  How long did I sleep?”

“About an hour,” he said with a smidgeon of conceit in his voice.  He took a hit of
Plasmacore from his flask and pushed the container into the back of his pants.  “I’ll
drive this time, okay?”

Not about to argue, Poe nodded.  Her legs were leaden.  The renowned Kaleb Sainvire
pedaled a bicycle up hills with a funny looking man riding behind him.  “It’s a good
thing the dead are asleep in San Francisco,” he said in a low voice.  “Otherwise I
would never live this down.”

Poe giggled.  “Someone should’ve videotaped you kissing me in front of all the weirdos. 
That would make movie night at home.”

  Sainvire pedaled as fast as the bicycle could handle and got off when the tire hit
a nail and nearly crashed them into a ditch full of broken stained toilets.  The vampire
did a quick swing and caught Poe before she hit ground.  The girl ended up on top
of him with a smirk on her face, and it scared him.  When wiggy kissed him, he shuddered
again. 

“We better go now.  These buildings have eyes,” he said so he wouldn’t have to kiss
Poe again. 

Poe took out the map once more and said, “It says here we have to take Octavia Street
all the way then we’ll hit Lafayette Park.  That’s where they stash their air support.” 
She shoved the map in her back pocket and shook her head.  “It’s so beautiful here. 
I can see myself living here with all these nice buildings and the water surrounding
the city.  Too bad that asshole Nesbitt owns this town.  Fifteen hundred vamps and
humans.  That’s a big population to lord over.”

“They’re rebelling, Poe.  His reign will end.  Humans are dying off, and no one’s
here to replace them.  Custodian blood is still taboo because these bastards are bigoted
idiots.  There are only two alternatives – steal our people or use Plasmacore.   They
would resort to feeding on custodians as the last option.  Without custodians to keep
the human cattle alive, chaos will rule.”

Only three brightly painted Victorian homes remained standing on a part of Gough Street. 
The rest of the neighborhood had been razed.  The infiltrators paused when they heard
screaming from two of the homes across the street from each other.  Poe and Sainvire
couldn’t walk away without investigating. 

“I’ll take the pink house,” said Sainvire.

“The purple’s mine.”

“Be careful, Poe,” he said, squeezing her arm.

“You, too, buddy ol’ pal.”

Poe didn’t bother to knock and walked inside the three-story Queen Anne Victorian. 
The living room had on cots five blood slaves, their eyes staring at nothing.  They
were dead. 
Poor people
, thought Poe.

A female voice screamed bloody murder from upstairs, and with one of her guns at the
ready, Poe climbed the stairs two at a time.  The second floor contained six cots,
and she muttered curses under her breath.  The third floor where the screaming emanated
from chilled Poe to the bones.  The scene reminded her of Quillon Trench and the horrid
acts he had inflicted on her.  Two custodians, an Asian and a Latina, were strapped
facedown to the bed.  Razor blades had ripped their naked backs as vampires hungry
for fresh blood scooped and fed.  No scars marred their backs.  This was their first
experience of severe torture.  Hunger was driving vampires into blood thieves.  She
was sure these dead sucked dry the cattle downstairs.

Three vampires ladled and ate while four human leeches smoked pot and laughed at the
jokes of one the vampires.  Poe cleared her throat and called attention to herself. 
“Hola, amigos,” she said.  “What’s happening?”

“Who the hell are you?” asked the greediest of the three vampires for he never stopped
slashing and scooping.

“Help us,” begged the Asian girl. 

“Don’t worry.  I’ll get you out of here,” promised Poe.

“How you gonna do that, shit stain?” asked a leech with piss-yellow teeth.

Poe asked the women, “Do you want me to shoot their heads, girls?”

Both cried, “Yes.”

Poe pulled the gun from her jacket pocket and said, “Okidoke!”  In two seconds she
managed to shoot three vampire heads and conjure up a bad trip for the leeches.  Poe
slid out her knife and cut the women’s wrists and legs free from hemp rope.  “Get
dressed.  As for you, corn teeth, pick a friend and pull out his tongue.  All the
way out.  Sever it.  And I’ll take care of your buddies.”  The leech complied, but
the last two leeches whimpered and kept sticking their tongues back inside their mouths.

“Look.  Either I cut your tongues or I shoot your pricks off, yeah?”

With the memory executing leeches at the assembly still fresh, she wasn’t going to
kill any more leeches.  However, she wasn’t above leaving them a permanent reminder. 
Lucky for them, Sainvire appeared on the floor.  The women screamed again. 

“Sir!” cried a leech, overjoyed at seeing a vampire.  “This man crippled my friends
so they won’t be able to talk.  He killed three vampires, too.  Sick.  It’s so sick!” 
The man was expecting help, but Sainvire grabbed at his collar instead.  With a flick
of his thumb he broke the man’s neck.

“Hey!  I thought you’d be proud of me for not killing randomly.  What’s the big idea?”

“New city, new rules,” he said.  “Ladies, set fire to this house and hide out.  I’ve
already torched the house across the street.”

“What about the cattle?” asked Poe.

“They’ve been drained dead.  They might become Revenents, so let’s fire it up.  Can
you do that, ladies?”

“Yes,” said the Latina.  “Thank you.”

“Who are you?  From the underground?”

“No.  But we’re looking for them,” said Sainvire.  “Any idea where we can find the
fighters?”

The women shook their heads in the negative.  “Burn these guys alive if you want,”
said Poe.  “Or torture them or whatever.  Your street is deserted anyway.  If some
folks are still alive, take care of them.”

The Asian and Latina thanked them both profusely and told them of a safer route to
Lafayette Park.

A hearse with open windows drove by the burning houses as Poe and Sainvire rounded
the street.  It transported stacked dead human bodies, and one leg in particular protruded
from the rear window.

“The hearse guy saw us.”

“I know.  He must be a custodian.  Let’s just hope he won’t talk.”

Once the hearse was out of sight, Sainvire picked up Poe and flew them parallel to
the thick Acacia and Eucalyptus trees that concealed the street.  They had work to
do yet.  With the help of flight, the two reached Lafayette Park which was no longer
a park in the normal sense of the word.  An expanse of concrete had transformed the
lawn into an aircraft landing station. 

Poe kissed Sainvire’s cheek as he lowered her to the ground.  The look he gave her
made her pause.  She combed her mustache and he quickly looked away.  “Are you mad
at me, Kaleb?”

“No, sweets.  I’m not.  Just anxious to destroy engines.  That’s all,” he said.  He
left her to slash engines to smithereens.  Poe had planned to release grenades to
blow up the air power of San Francisco, but Sainvire’s way was quieter.  Her pack
was heavy with small explosives and she couldn’t wait to use them.  She counted twenty-eight
choppers and three small airplanes and hoped Sainvire would be done soon.  She was
hungry.

Out of the corner of her eye, Poe saw the same hearse pass Octavia and Sacramento
Street.  Right away she hid behind a green chopper and took out her gun.  It wasn’t
a good idea to make a racket so early in the morning, but left with no choice she
would use her firepower.

A prickly feeling stabbed the back of her neck 20 minutes later.  She turned around
quickly and found a day vamp waving a gun in her face.  “What are you looking for,
Poncho?  Where’s your friend?” he asked.  Three other vamps appeared from nowhere
and surrounded her.  The one who called her out was holding a .38 Special.  Her secret
voice told her that there were no bullets in the six cylinder gun. 
You better not be wrong
, grumbled Poe.  Leeches used to spend their time shooting at cats and dogs on the
street to ward off boredom, but their stores were depleted, and no vampire condescended
to hand them much needed ammo.  As a child of eight, the glue-drunk leeches had scared
the life out of her. 

His friends carried nothing but knives.  Smiling, Poe said, “Hello, you ugly mugs. 
What’s happening?”  Her accent took a turn, sounding more like Yosemite Sam than anything.

“Where’s your friend, pal?” a vampire in yellow pants asked. 

“He’s right behind you,” said Poe, and sure enough, Sainvire magically appeared, snapping
the vamp’s neck in a blur.  Poe took out her seven-inch knife greased with garlic
oil and stabbed the vamp closest to her in the heart.  Before she could get to the
other two, Sainvire had already downed them.

“Hey.  Those two were supposed to be mine!  You’re a selfish boss hog, Kaleb,” reprimanded
Poe.

Sainvire frowned.  God help him, but he couldn’t stand looking at a flirtatious Poe
wearing a mustache and a fluffy wig.  “We should go.  That hearse has been driving
around and spying on us.”