Vampire Apocalypse: Fallout (Book 3) (29 page)

It was a
hastily constructed narrow corridor fashioned out of corrugated
steel. It was narrow and only stretched some fifty feet before it
seemed to disappear into the shadow of a small building ahead. Cold
air seeped through the many gaps in the steel and she shivered.
This must be a little-used path as the workers hadn’t bothered to
seal the metal properly.

Emma caught
sight of Lohan as she disappeared into the gloom at the end of the
path, and then the darkness seemed to envelope her like a cloak.
Emma began to run but she was forced to slow her steps as her shoes
thudded loudly on the metal floor and the noise would announce her
presence as surely as shouting after her quarry. She groped for her
walkie-talkie and told the others what was happening. Everyone
would remain with their own targets but they did have three on
reserve for just such an occurrence. One would run to get Father
Reilly and the other two would try to work their way ahead of Lohan
and pick her up from the other direction.

Emma’s heart thumped in her
chest.
Had they found the traitor? Was this it? Was she ready
for this?
The questions flooded her mind but she forced her
doubts aside as she passed into the gloom of the building ahead and
strained through the darkness to see Lohan.

There was no lighting in the
building as she passed from the metal of the tunnel to cold
concrete, and her initial relief as being able to walk quietly was
immediately replaced by a sudden fear that she had lost Lohan
again. Thin streams of light seemed to filter through cracks in the
boards which covered the windows.
Why would anyone want to block
out the light in here,
she wondered as she strained her eyes
and ears for some clue as to where Lohan had gone. It made no sense
to darken a building that was used merely as a walkthrough for the
tunnels, someone could break a leg. There was definitely something
underhanded going on. Emma felt the darkness suddenly loom around
her and she felt very exposed silhouetted in the light of the
tunnel behind her.

She moved further into the
gloom, straining for any clue. The sudden loud squawk of her
walkie-talkie sent panic flooding through her as she groped for the
machine as she searched desperately for the mute button.
Shit!
Had she been heard? How could she not have been?
Emma forced
one foot in front of the other and continued to make her way
through the darkness when, suddenly, she heard a low murmur to her
left. Voices. She turned abruptly and began to follow the low
murmur of the whispering ahead of her. Her heart seemed to beat
like a bass drum and she was certain that whoever was ahead of her
would hear each thump. She moved carefully, one step at a time, as
she waved her hand gently in front of her to avoid walking into
anything.

The whispering stopped for a
moment and she heard a strange fumbling.
What was going on?
She heard another stream of whispered words but their tone was
strange; hurried, urgent. And then they were cut off abruptly. The
noises were coming from just in front of her.

She pressed
on and stopped as she heard more rustling. She heard a low moan and
her face suddenly grew hot as she began to suspect what was
happening. She had heard enough passionate
exchanges when her mother had ‘entertained’ to know the
urgent, breathless sounds of passion. It seemed Ms. Lohan had red
blood running through her veins after all. She felt relieved as she
realised what was going on, and then a little guilty for being
there. She was about to move away when a thought struck her. Why
all the cloak and dagger secret meetings? Why hide a relationship?
The corridors were filled each night with people moving between
bedrooms as they sought comfort. She had seen them herself every
time she had been sent out for a walk by her mother during her many
‘gentleman visits’.

Most of the
people made no secret as to their destinations. Why would Lohan go
so out of her way to be secretive? Emma stopped again and turned
back toward the sounds of passion behind her. She felt dirty
somehow as she moved closer, but she had to know why Patricia Lohan
was being so secretive. That was the only way they could strike her
off their list and concentrate on the others.

The low moans
were becoming more urgent now and Emma’s heart beat faster. It
seemed that her heartbeat was almost in time with the urgent moans
from ahead and she felt strangely fascinated for a moment. She
moved closer and could see two vague shapes just ahead. Thin
tendrils of light filtered through a nearby window but only managed
to illuminate the figures as silhouettes.

She strained though the darkness
and saw one of the figures rise up and shake their head as they
cried out.
Oh my God. It all fit.
Emma had seen enough. She
rushed as fast as she could back the way she had come. The light of
the tunnel ahead seemed like a beacon that drew her on and promised
to cleanse her. She hurried on as her mind swirled. The figure she
had seen outlined in the pale light had had long hair. No wonder
Lohan was being secretive about her affair. Emma reached the light
of the tunnel finally and ran down its length, heedless of being
heard. At least they could scratch her from their list of suspects.
Though how she was going to explain what she had seen to the others
she did not know.

Of course, it also meant that
their main suspect was not the traitor and they now had to start
all over again.

Chapter 19

Peter Harris looked over his
entourage with a heavy heart. It had taken them over a day to get
this far and things weren’t improving any either. He had been
shocked to see how badly the whole team had been mauled and he felt
a deep guilt and anger at himself for leaving them so exposed.
Denis would be fine, it seemed. He still grew dizzy after walking
for extended periods so there was no telling if any serious damage
had been done at this time. With no x-rays or other medical
equipment, it was a matter of wait and see unfortunately. The deep
furrow on his skull looked nasty but at least it had stopped
bleeding.

Benjamin was
getting worse from what he could see. The wound itself wasn’t the
problem, it was the fact that they couldn’t get the bullet out and
the area around the wound couldn’t be cleaned properly until the
bullet was out. If left much longer it would go bad and he could
lose the arm. Unfortunately
, they were
still a long way from home, especially with their serum-induced
charges.

The boy Ricks
was the worst, though. He had taken three bullets in all. None had
lodged in his body, though each had torn out a sizable chunk when
they had torn free and he had lost a lot of blood. Without a
transfusion he would die, but giving him the wrong type of blood
could kill him just as effectively. He was at a loss as to what he
should do. They had travelled the first fifty miles in the truck,
racing over the main roads as fast as they could to get as far from
the explosion as possible.

They had
allowed three hours to get clear before the timed explosions had
been set to go off. Anymore and they risked the thralls finding
them and disarming them. As it was, three hours was still taking a
big risk. They had hidden the explosives really well and were
counting on the thralls securing the area and leaving it alone
until qualified people could be brought in to ensure the tank could
be moved safely rather than stumbling clumsily around the
wreckage.

If all went
well the explosions should happen anytime now. They would have to
ditch the truck now, though, despite their dire need for fast
transport. They were just too visible otherwise. They had rescued
twelve prisoners from the patrol, but all were doped up on the
serum so they were difficult to move with any speed. They would
have to move at night as the prisoners just couldn’t react quickly
enough if a patrol came along and would be a risk to everyone.
Travelling at night left them susceptible to any passing vampires
though. It was a matter of choosing the least threatening path at
this point, and there was no doubt in Harris’ mind that the thralls
posed the greater threat as they would be actively looking for them
after the attack. There was no reason to suspect that the vampires
would be out in any force so the odds were slightly better for
travelling at night – he hoped. That meant they had to hide during
the daylight hours. And all the time they waited their wounded grew
steadily worse.

There was just no upside to this
situation, he realised. Even if everything went to plan the best
they could hope for was spilling toxic waste over a large area of
the state and possibly killing those innocent prisoners who were
still left in the area. Their deaths weighed heavily on him; yet,
their deaths would provide a much needed diversion to help save
many others.
Did this justify their horrible deaths, though?
It seemed that every day that went by a little more of his humanity
was being eroded away.

Jake Warren cursed as the truck
thumped over the uneven surface and rattled his teeth for the
umpteenth time. He still had no clear understanding of what was
happening. Twenty minutes ago he was just recovering from another
‘red line’ incident. This had been the longest yet and he had been
seriously worried that the dial would never come back into the
relative safety of the black area. He had tried in the last week to
research what might be causing the incidents but the manuals he had
found might as well have been written in Arabic for all he could
understand.

Obviously
something wasn’t right
but, up till now,
the plant’s own safety systems were handling the situation. But for
how long? It certainly wasn’t a good sign that the ‘incidents’ were
taking longer to recover. It was only a matter of time before the
safety systems couldn’t handle the problem any more; and then what?
Would the plant actually blow or would it merely shut down? Not
that it mattered much; he’d be dead either way.

The thralls
had rushed him from the plant into a truck with no explanations. In
a rare moment of mad courage he had considered refusing to go until
they had told him where they were taking him. Adrenaline had
flooded through him and he had felt almost light-headed with his
new-found courage. One look at the anger on their faces though had
evaporated the small kernel of resistance he had managed to foster
and he had allowed himself to be led out without a word.

Now, twenty minutes later, they
were speeding across country and every bone in his body was being
shaken.
Why weren’t they using the roads
, he wondered?
What was the big hurry?

Finally, they began to slow and
he looked out ahead of the truck to see why they were slowing down.
He could see a truck on its side and another lying in a ditch to
the side of the road.
An accident
, he realised.
But why
would they bring him? He wasn’t a doctor.
And then his heart
dropped as he saw the huge tanker on its side with its squat
concrete load beside it.
Oh shit!

He looked around frantically for
some way to escape. There were too many thralls around the site,
treating wounded or laying out bodies in a line on the road. He
wouldn’t get more than a few feet, he realised.
Was it already
too late? Was the radiation corrupting his body even as he looked
at it? Why me?
The thoughts tumbled through his mind moments
before the explosives hidden under the casket counted down the
final seconds.

He saw a
thrall suddenly run from his examination of the casket. He was
shouting
something to the others and
everything suddenly seemed to stop for a moment. Then he heard a
roar and the casket suddenly belched up into the air. He didn’t
even hear the explosion before he felt the heat of the blast and
then everything went mercifully dark.

Carter waited impatiently as the
sun burned into his shoulders. It was still cold but the sun’s
glare was surprisingly strong and he shifted uncomfortably. He
could feel the sweat trickling down his back and was well aware
that only some of it was from the sun.
Where were they?
he
wondered for the umpteenth time. He had stood in the middle of the
road now for a full five minutes and no one had come forward.

If they had wanted to kill them
then they would have opened fire by now. But why wait so long to
come forward? They held all the cards. He could hear nervous
muttering behind him and he knew that the thralls in his patrol
were on a knife-edge. If something didn’t happen soon then someone
might panic and set off a fire-fight.

“
Easy.”
H
e turned toward his men as calmly as he
could and grinned with what he hoped was confidence. By the time he
returned his attention to the front there was movement
ahead.

At last.

Phil Regan’s knees wobbled as he
walked toward the enemy thrall. They had barely gotten here in time
at all after all their arguing. In fact, some of the others were
still deliberating back in the council chamber, but Regan had acted
on an impulse that he still didn’t fully understand. Corelli had
raced ahead with a small team, and they had arrived in time to see
that the thralls had advanced far quicker than they had expected.
They were already at the city limits and Corelli had taken a
reckless chance.

Before anyone
could stop him
, the boy had grabbed an
RPG from one of the men and sent a warning shot to slow the thralls
down. If the thralls had been here to invade this would have
started a conflict that they would have had no chance of winning.
However, it seemed that these thralls were here to talk and the
warning volley had worked. The thralls had stopped and their leader
had come forward to talk.