Transition, Undead Chapter 5

Note: Rough Draft

Back to the present.

No one was giving up without a fight, even though many of them had not been trained in the use of firearms.  The survival instinct was too great to back down now. Not after all they had been through.  The sound under the expressway was an echoed mess, bullet fire and orders were flying and resonating as though it was being processed through an aluminum pipe.  The reverb was deafening but at least it let them know that they were still alive. 

It began only minutes ago, but fortunately in the absence of their local weapon handlers the reverend had devised a plan.  Underneath the expressway stronghold there was a wall that would block any oncoming attacks, which left three open areas that zombies could attack from.  The plan was to have three night guards on each side, thus making nine members of the herd volunteer for night shift.  The herd still had many hoarded supplies from the many abandoned stores and houses they ran across.  Guns were definitely top priorities on the grocery list.  In the dead of night, the guards made sure that no lights were on as to not attract unwanted attention, but there were enough night vision goggles to supply to the guards.

Two hours into the watch one of the guards spotted a fast moving object heading towards the camp but immediately darted to the left.  The guard kept still lying on his belly adjusting the sniper scope into position and keeping his finger on the trigger.  He let the others know by speaking into the wireless headset, “We have a potential target at my 10’ o clock.  This was too quick to be a zombie, keep an eye out boys this may be one of the other creatures we’ve been hearing about.  Do not change positions, guard your posts.”  Each guard scoped the area intently; each one had different types of guns, but most was in the rifle category.  There was one sniper rifle and one lucky guard commandeered a rail gun. If zombies were present they were prepared, but these were not zombies.  This was a variable that was not taken into account and that made all these men nervous. 

“Guys I’ve just spotted two more at my 12’ o clock.  He’s right they’re fast, really fast.  I think everyone should unlock safeties if you haven’t done so already.  This is about to get really ugly me thinks,” declared one of the guards on the left.  Almost before his words had penetrated the airwaves one of the vampires was already jumping over the three men from the left, as the one guard was still making his declaration over the headset, the other two had begun rising their rifles.  But it was too late, almost as if sound had ceased for a second and time began to slow down it was apparent that it was too late.  One of the creatures had made a leap over the left flank; upside down in the air he produced a chain and hook.  He thrust the hook into the throat of the third guard and landed behind him.  The guard was holding his throat unable to speak, he turned around in a stammering fashion with mouth gaping open begging for oxygen and that is when he spotted his attacker.  The attacker had a grin that alone could paralyze, but the eyes, the eyes seemed to reflect moonlight in an eerie red.  The mouth of the attacker was comprised of a multitude of jagged teeth.  Before the guard could process this image the attacker yanked on the chain and ripped the guard’s throat open.  This all seemed to take mere seconds, and as the other guards began to respond, the vampire creature swung his chain around to grapple the other two guards on this side.  One of the guards squeezed the trigger of his semi-automatic and let out a steady concentrated stream of bullets towards his attacker.  The vampire dodged the stream and leapt behind a pillar in a twirl, he had wrapped the chain around the pillar.  He pressed his feet against the pillar as he was landing and pulled violently on the chain.  The guard that had begun to fire was unable to stop as the jolt threw off his aim and the stream of bullets flew throughout the underpass. 

Many of the herd had already awoken, but now that the bullets were screaming and ricocheting past them, they had no choice but to scramble to their feet.  From the perspective of the lying on the floor, there were people rising up only to be sniped and pinned back down to the ground.   This scenario had been played out before, but never with creatures that were so agile.  Nevertheless, the members of the herd kept weapons nearby as they slept.  Many of the mothers and fathers rolled over and grabbed any weapons had nearby as the children hid in their designated hiding spots, this was a routine that had been practiced for the last few weeks.  No matter where they were to camp out for the night, the herd would scope out the area for hiding spots.  The reverend had begun to bark out orders and reassure his flock that God was with them.  The most religious members of the herd guided the Reverend towards the back of the passage of the pass.  These five kneeled in positions to protect the Reverend as the Reverend kneeled down in a praying position and asked for strength and protection for his flock. 

At the main flank to the front of the guards the rail gun was being warmed up.  People were making sure the track that the gun was positioned on was in place.  As they were preparing the heaviest weapon at their disposal, a war had begun behind them.  Six vampires had come through the open area that one their brethren had left open to them.  Four members of the herd had taken the place of the fallen guards but were without the advantage of the night-vision goggles and Bluetooth headsets to stay in communication.  Between the sound of gunfire echo and screaming, communication via shouting was next to impossible.  One of the members of the herd that had taken a guard position found the portable spotlight that they had been hauling and turned it towards the inside struggle at hand, hoping that this would help his brothers and sisters in their fate against their attackers. 

Speeding from 5 miles down the road….

Mathias had been trying to find a way out of the quarantine for days, but had been less than successful.  He had found a dirt bike on the side of the highway that he had commandeered.  He had his fill of riding through the Kansas countryside only to dodge plethora of obstacles and zombies.  He had managed to evade a group of vampires during his last refuel at a gas station a few miles down the road.  He concentrated on riding while holding a Maglight since the dirt bike didn’t come equipped with a headlight, but it was the easiest way to evade obstacles and make a quick getaway. 

As he was travelling he could not help but wonder about the strange events in the last few weeks, well besides the obvious events.  It seemed when the creatures had approached him for an attack they almost seemed afraid of him.  It was strange, but the more research he had been doing lately the more these strange occurrences became frequent and intense.  Sometimes he would go to sleep at night and actually lay down his arms completely unafraid.  He could feel the spirits of the newly deceased watching over him. 

Mathias had spotted a glow in the distance and decided to ride over to it, as he took a left turn off of the main highway; the walls that had been obstructing his view revealed that this was not a glow from lights but the flicker of flames reaching out to the sky.  He still decided to ride towards it, and make sure that everyone in this town was alright. 

From high above….

“Agent Ariaso, we are approaching the drop zone,” came the pilot’s voice over the intercom.  Christopher Ariaso felt like he had been on this chopper forever and was eager to depart.  The president had delayed “cleaning” out the area at Agent Ariaso’s recommendation, the agent had declared that there was much about this area that was not yet explained and protested saying that there were many more in the quarantined zone that could be saved.  From satellite footage, the herd had been tracked, but was close to last on a long list of those that could be saved thanks to the prowess they had developed with weapons and unity.  The government was actually hoping to recruit some of these individuals to help in the effort to clean up and hopefully rebuild the area, everyone was aware that this could take years and that expense would be high. 

The spin doctors in the administration’s pockets were not clever enough to really put out a story that could really cover this up.  There had been too many leaks from within the quarantined area, including not shutting off satellite support from the major cell providers.  Apparently aircards were still useful as were satellite phones.  This led into major internet leaks and rumors and the administration was already under fire from the rest of the country to develop a cover that could be believable.  They had no choice than to stage rescue events and brief the survivors on what they should say, or rather….will say.  Christopher had seen what happened to some of the survivors after they were rescued by his team and the others he had briefed.  They would take survivors from the incident and tell them that they needed to be checked for infection or any other abnormalities.  Of course the survivors complied, but they had not imagined that they would IV dripped sedatives for weeks on end.  To make matters worse they introduced several drugs into their system, which they claimed would alleviate the shock of their ordeal.  The government doctors developed a concoction of several anti-depressants and hallucinogens to include in the IV drip.  In reality, the agent surmised that this was a way to erase certain memories and let everyone believe it was merely a foggy dream, if they knew it wasn’t they wouldn’t be able to recall certain details when they would be interviewed by the media. 

Ariaso snickered to himself as he thought about how his old friends would consider him a sell-out, in reality he was not a sell-out but worked for the government on his own terms.  He was one of the people that could not just go anywhere and find a job at an office.  No, thanks to his upbringing and traumatizing childhood in the island of Armaggon it insured that the rest of his life could be anything but normal.  Christopher despised the government and what they stood for, but he figured to himself that this may be the only way of making sure that more atrocities like those on Armaggon would never happen again. 

“Sir?” Christopher looked up and the soldier that was addressing him from across the vehicle immediately flinched and scoot back in his seat.  “Don’t worry kid, my eyes don’t kill people,” said Agent Ariaso to the soldier.  The soldier regained his composure and tried not to look at the agent’s glowing white eyes, “I apologize sir that was unprofessional. What I wanted to ask you was why have you decided to embark on this mission alone?”  “Did you see all the National Guard down there?  Every time we have embarked on a rescue mission we have to calm down the civilians, because they believe us to be the bad guys.  And who can blame them really?  We’ve had our men and women out there pretending to be cold and unjust, when people’s families are dying all around them.  They may as well have sent out cyborgs, the soldiers had even been ordered to shoot on site if civilians did not comply to make examples of them.  Yes, I am aware that my appearance can be unsettling as well.  But truth be told, you guys just get in my way.”

As the chopper lowered Ariaso began to make his way to the exit on the side of the vehicle.  He suddenly got a tap on the shoulder, it was the soldier, “The pilot said that there is an obstruction in our original drop zone, we may have to find another position.”  As soon as the soldier finished speaking, Ariaso turned to him, smiled and waved goodbye.  He proceeded to simply step off the copter and plummet thirty-five feet.  He landed on the original designated spot and mulled there for a minute in a crouched position.  He violently stood up and adjusted his black leather trench coat, he walked off casually to the last place the herd had been spotted.  

2 miles west of where the herd had stationed….

The small town that Janice had originally encountered the vampires was in flames thanks to the order from their leader, Ash to torch the place with Molotov cocktails.  Now Janice, Eric, Blaine, Carlos, and Colleen spent the last few minutes devising ways to get out of this.  Blaine was the first to try not knowing the limits of his newfound abilities. Apparently vampires were extremely susceptible to fire.  He crashed backwards after trying to run through the flames. “I just need a minute to recover,” Blaine said.  Eric ran into a local shop to find a fire extinguisher, but to no avail.  He had spotted one on the other side of the flames within the store.  The fire was burning out of control faster and faster by the minute.  The town appeared to be very old and it had seemed that some of the old historic wooden buildings had been preserved to show off the town’s history, whatever it may be. 

Eric and Janice looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, flames dancing behind them, they did not speak but simply walked towards each other while sweat was profusely dripping off of them they held each other.  They locked glances once again and as they kissed a propane tank blew somewhere in the background.  Time ceased to exist at this moment and there was so much the other wanted to say to the other.  This was it, after all the zombie slayings and near misses, this was it. 

The other three looked at each other confused and slightly disgusted at the same time, they were not going to give up without a bit more of a fight.  But therein lied the problem, there was nothing else they could do.  The fire had begun in a wide circle but was quickly closing in on them; everything they tried to touch was scorching to the touch.  Chuolleen could feel herself growing faint and Blaine felt the energy leaving him at an accelerated pace.  Carlos saw that Colleen was beginning to sway and caught her, he brought them both to the ground slowly as he held her body in his arms.  “Shh, we ain’t gonna go out like this,” Carlos tried to reassure her, but he knew it was a useless gesture.  

Blaine stood up after recovering like he said he would and stared through the flames, he swore to himself that he saw something, but did not say anything in case the heat was messing with his eyes.  But then he saw it again, a light it was difficult to make out because of the brightness of the flames, but Blaine could see it.  He then saw the light move and shut off.  He panicked and began to yell over the loud crackling, “Hey!  In here!  There are people in here.  Help us!”  No response, the rest of the group looked at him.  “What?  I saw someone or something.  Its not like I have a cuddle death buddy to die with, I’m not giving up,” Blaine then continued shouted again at the possible figure he saw through the flames.  “There are innocent people in here.  No zombies with us!”  Again, no response.  Moments went by and finally just as Blaine was about to yell again.  “Hang on, I’m trying to figure something out!”  The voice came from over the crackle of the flames.  “See?  I wasn’t just seeing shit,” said Blaine to the others as they began to get up and focus on the direction of the voice.  “Fuck!  I don’t see anything I can do!” said the voice from the other side.  But almost as soon as he said that a brighter light came from beyond the flames as the fire seemed to be parting to form a path through it.  There was a silhouette of a younger man that much was obvious.  As the flames kept parting it almost seemed as the figure was sprouting glowing wings and as the “wings” spread so did his arms.  Upon closer inspection, the wings began to take shape into those of faces and human bodies.  The shapes began pouring from him and onto the flames, they were holding back the fire so that the five may pass through. 

The five all looked at each other and without a word began to walk through the walls of fire.  “Please hurry up,” said Mathias, “I can feel them weakening.”  That was the cue for them to stop admiring this miracle and dash towards their savior.  Colleen was the last to pass and as soon as she came through Mathias collapsed on the floor and all the spirits that were holding the flame leapt into the air and back towards his body, even as he looked at them while panting his eyes were glowing a bluish white.  “Okay, let me catch my breath and we’ll exchange pleasantries in a moment.”  Mathias continued to breathe heavy, Eric kept staring at him and exclaimed, “You’re the kid my friends shot at a couple weeks ago!”  Mathias quit breathing heavy for a moment and let his vision adjust to get a better look at the kids he just rescued.  “Haha, that you are,” Mathias chuckled, “you fucking bastards should be a bit more careful, if you had shot me I wouldn’t be here now.  The only thing that worries me is that I ended up where I started again, between all the roads ending at the quarantine and the fact that all the scenery looks practically the same I keep getting lost easily.  Have you guys been travelling on foot the whole time?”  Janice answered, “Yes, we have a large group of people that we have been trying to keep alive and make it out of this f’d up situation.  And speaking of which, we have to get to them right now.”  Janice stood up and immediately fell back to the dirt.  “You probably need some water and rest before any of you can go anywhere,” Mathias lent his insight, “I’m guessing the fire really took a lot of you, in a few more minutes you probably would have passed out, one thing is for sure you need to get away from this fire now if you have any chance of recovering because I’m beginning to feel it too.”

Blaine got up just fine and looked at the group on the ground, “For the most part I feel okay.  Hey kid I wanna thank you for what you did, not matter what kinda freaky shit that was.  I’m curious to know what it is and your name, but I think that will have to wait, I need to borrow your bike and go after those survivors before the vampires finish them off.  You guys need to find a safe place, if it seems impossible or its too late, I will bring back supplies.  But I need to go now!”  “The name is Mathias….and what about vampires?  Whatever dude, just go.  Take the walkie out of my bag, I have a radio receiver, turn it to channel three, we’ll try to find a vehicle with fuel and catch up.”  “Awesome, thanks man I’ll meet up with everyone soon.”  Blaine hopped on the bike and Mathias said, “Don’t forget the flashlight; I don’t have a headlight on that thing.”  “Don’t need it, I can see in the dark.”  Mathias revved up the noisy dirt bike and travelled in the direction of the herd hoping he was not too late or that the members of the herd would not shoot at him because he is a stranger and or display vampire traits. 

2 Minutes before Blaine’s arrival…

Agent Ariaso had arrived at the last known location of the herd under the pass, so far they had not moved.  As a matter of fact a battle was under way, bullets were ricocheting and echoing within the location.  And as Ariaso arrived a stray shot ricocheted off of the spotlight and it began to pivot out of control.  Agent Ariaso was catching glimpses of the ensuing horror,  At first it shone on a vampire climbing the wall of the overpass with a male victim who was screaming before being decapitated, the lighted tour of horror continued as the light careened down to a woman with a shotgun who shot a vampire point blank in the face, but he still managed to rip the flesh of her face before collapsing to the ground.  Ariaso thought to himself, if they are strong enough to keep moving after that blast then they are probably strong enough to get up momentarily. 

This was not a foreign concept to him as he was brought up on Armaggon where he had witnessed many inhuman creatures who could do things that were not supposed to be possible, himself included.  Armaggon was an island in the Bermuda Triangle where the government had its hands entangled with various phenomenon throughout its history.  At the time his name was Kid Kaos and he was a fifteen year old with a chip on his shoulder.  During that time, he realized that he could use fifteen percent more brain capacity than normal human beings; his body was adept at channeling the energies around him thus lending him the ability to channel those energies into blasts from his hand.  He was a lot more agile and could see in the dark.  This is the reason he had asked the others to stand back, although now he felt like he bit off a bit more than he could chew.  Zombies were one thing, but these creatures were just as agile as he was and judging by the glow in their eyes they could probably see in the dark as well. 

Without any further hesitation he stood for a second and gathered up the energies around him and proceeded to dash forward leaving a swirling dust cloud in return.  As soon as he reached the elevated pavement he leapt up in the air and produced a sword from within his trench coat and proceeded to slash in a downward fashion cutting the arm off a vampire, the vampire creature turned around in shock only to see Ariaso swinging his sword horizontally and cleaving his head in half.  The body stood there for a moment with a tongue still wriggling in the air, then a steady stream of blood gurgled from the esophagus no doubt blood from a recent victim as the body fell stiffly to the floor. 

Ariaso stood in the middle of the ensuing chaos tuning out all the bullets and screaming as he began to walk towards his next victim slowly, all sound seemed to fade as he began to charge the energies around him and into his sword.  This was a little trick he found a few years back with the help of government trainers.  Not only could he charge his hands up, but now he was able to do it with objects as well, thus creating a hot butter knife effect.  The swirling glow was all around him, but his pace did not deter others from losing concentration and focusing attention on him.  There at the end of his designated path was a group of vampires that had decimated a number of humans as they lay in a pile.  The vampire creatures spotted Ariaso making his way to them and began to rise up from where they were kneeling while feeding on the corpses.  They had hate and disdain in their eyes, but before they could make a move, their attacker had dashed forward and was off the ground slashing at them.  As Ariaso landed he kept his sword pointed up towards the air and twisted his legs in a fashion where he could rise up easily from the ground. He twisted up from his landing spot and parried at two of the vampires and then continued at the other two while the others were distracted with their wounds. One was already down from the initial attack and it was just theses four to go.  As he slashed at the other two something unexpected occurred, they were able to dodge him.  For anyone else this would not be unusual but the agent was used to being the fastest thing around.  It would seem that these vampires were just as fast.  He thought to himself as his thoughts raced faster than anyone could imagine.  In one fluid motion he flung his sword into one of the pillars and grabbed one of the vampires in a trajectory where the sword would pierce her head, he then jumped and twirled onto the pillar in a fashion where the sword was underneath him.  He pulled it out of the pillar and slashed upward and towards another vampire.  He finally flung the sword to the ground in an angle where it would bounce and spark to only fly up and strike two vampires  that were running his way.  All of this was conjured up in one thought.  This was the final part of his mini plan.  As the vampires were still connected by the blade that had been thrust into them, Ariaso took this opportunity to charge his hands and reach for the heads of these creatures, with one hand on each he let the energy flow and let go into their craniums to see them explode as though they had been stuck into a microwave oven.

Being proud of his handiwork he looked expecting that he taken a large number of the creatures out, to his detriment there were was another two dozen rising from what seemed like the shadows.  Everything had gone quiet and the spotlight shining on the cold concrete only made the environment ever so ominous.  One of the vampires stepped forward and stepped on the head of a human on the ground that was reaching for a hand pistol, breaking his neck.  The vampire calmly walked to Ariaso adjusting his fingerless gloves, cocking his head to the side and smiling.  “I just arrive and this is what I have to look forward to?  Instead of getting down and beating down a few humans I now have to deal with a freak?” The vampire grabbed another that had been clutching to a walkie talkie, “When you said it ‘was on’ you didn’t mention any of this, I had five others that promised to be a good time.  I left them to burn in a town nearby.” He threw the other vampire to the ground and proceeded to stomp on his neck till the flesh would not hold together anymore.  He pulled out a cigarette and lit it and inhaled with great pleasure as he focused his attention back to Agent Ariaso.  “Well, well what are we gonna do now.  Oh heavens where are my manners?  My name is Ash and yours my dear friend?”  Ariaso contemplated whether he was going to answer his question.  “The name is Ariaso, Agent Christopher Ariaso.  I have a question as well.  What the fuck are you?”  Ash began to laugh as did all the other vampires.  Behind them you could see the human survivors trying not to make any noise as they began to reload their guns, but stopped when they realized they had been spotted.  One of the vampires looked at them and she waved her finger in a ‘uh uh’ type fashion.

“Well, since you were so courteous and forthright with your question I can only offer this, I have no fuckiing clue.  If I had to guesstimate however I would say that we were um….bloodsucking creatures of the night.”  Ash looked at Ariaso expecting a reaction, but he did not flinch or have any trace of fear in his eyes.  “Vampires.”  “Ah yes, vampires.  Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it?  Here we are on the cusp of modern civilization and here we are a group of ‘vampires’, but I guess its no sillier than calling those brainless creatures ‘zombies’ and although I would like to offer insight on this precarious situation we face all I can say is….I like it.  Now, now my good man the question remains as my colleagues and I are, pardon the pun,” Ash looks down at the fallen vampires, “dying to know what you are.”  “All you need to know is that I am not completely human, nor am I related in any way to whatever you are”  “No, of course not.  The glowing eyes didn’t give it away or anything and remember we are….vampires.  Say it with me class….vampires.  Haha, well I can’t say that I’ll miss our little repertoire, but there are people that are in need of our attention and we can’t let you spoiling everything in the Agent No Fun zone.”  With a flick of his wrist and a point of his finger all the auxiliary made a dash for the agent. Leaping to and fro and others running right towards him.  Right at that moment a buzzing engine could be heard and as the attack commenced a dirt bike flew without a passenger into the fray hitting vampires in mid-air only to impact into the spotlight.  The dirt bike engine blew apart and sent the apparatus careening along the cement.  A new challenger jumped onto the elevated concrete and glanced at Ariaso then at the vampires.  “Well, guess I’m on your team.”