Transition, Undead Chapter 6

Note: Rough Draft

Under the overpass….

Ash looked curiously at the kid that just jumped onto the platform and smiled.  Blaine looked up at Ash and suddenly remembered why he was here.  Ash locked eyes with Blaine as he fought the horde of vampires and proclaimed, “Enter new challenger!  Haha.”  Blaine broke away from the fight once again and tackled Ash to the ground, Ash was still laughing.  Blaine exclaimed as he grabbed some debris from the debris that had resulted from the bike exploding, “You’re fucking insane Ash!”  “Me?  You’re the one fighting your own kind,” Ash said to Blaine as he grabbed him by the wrist and threw him to the ground, “you know how to fight, you could be invaluable.”  “Is this the part where you offer me a benefits package?”  Said Blaine to Ash as he proceeded to kick Ash in the face and send him reeling back.  As Ash began to get back on his feet, he noticed that the rest of his team was not doing too well against Christopher.  It dawned on Ash that although agile and strong, he and his team were evenly matched with these two considering all the combat training they have undergone, one a marine and the other a CIA agent.  Ash turned to his team, “Vampires disengage combat.” He yelled to the others.  The vampires looked confused, but as only a fraction of them were still conscious it occurred to the breathing that the boss may be taking the proper course of action.  “As intriguing as it was to take you two on in combat, it seems that you may have us at a disadvantage.  I mean its nothing that we probably couldn’t overwhelm you with in the long run, but there are too few of us at the moment to use as fodder.”  Ash was addressing Blaine and Christopher.  “Yeah, I was wondering about that,” Blaine began to conversate with his opponent, “How we all came about.  As far as I could tell I was a fluke.”  “Well yes, I guess you could say you were a fluke, but we’ve discovered a way of expanding our roster.  These humans that you so vehemently protected were being tested; of course we were going to drink of most of them.  But we have methods of conversion that bypass the “zombie” stage per se.”  The humans in the herd were beginning to stir; Christopher caught sight of this and gave a stern headshake.  It was obviously not a good idea to antagonize these creatures since the agent still had no idea where the conversation between this stranger and this vampire was going.  Wait.  Did the stranger just say “we”?  Is he saying that he is a vampire as well?  Christopher took a hard look at Blaine, he was wearing a military leave uniform that was barely hanging on by a thread and covered in dust, it looked as though his hair was buzz cut but was growing these last few weeks and getting shaggy.  His uniform had burns, bullet holes, and what looked like several tears.  Christopher all of a sudden stopped thinking and tries to immerse himself in the conversation once more; perhaps there is a thread of information that could be useful.  Blaine continued to speak with Ash, “Zombie stage?  Perhaps I do somewhat remember being something like that, but it’s all very hazy.”  Ash stopped him right there, “Don’t bother trying, you won’t. We discovered the link by accident.  As were hunting down another group of surviving humans we had to contend with zombies after the same target a few weeks ago, at first we had believed we had lost our food source after engaging a horde of zombies and let me tell you, those bastards are getting smarter all the time.”  One of the vampires approaches Ash and whispers in his ear.  “Apparently, you have met some of the members of my crew before.”  “What?  This is the first time I’ve ever fought vampires.”  “Well according to Jordan over here, you fought them as a zombie; it seemed that your particular horde of zombies was very clever.  And they had thought they had left you completely lifeless in an alley.  Only explanation is that you didn’t completely perish because the vampirism was already beginning to course through you.” “Okay, so back to that.”  “Oh yes.”  Ash made a gesture at some of his team and they walked towards the parked cars by the overpass.  They opened the rear doors of an older car, presumably the make was sometime in the seventies.  Out came two humans, young, one a boy and the other a girl.  Ash turned back to Blaine and Christopher, “It would seem that some humans have a genome, well I who the fuck am I kidding?  All I know is they have something inside that when fed upon by a zombie changes their composition to that of a vampire.”  Christopher finally spoke, having extensive lab time under his belt, “You may be on the right track, since we’re being civil at the moment I figured I may as well join in.”  “By all means Secret Agent Man.”  Ash smirked at Christopher as the agent continued to elaborate on his theory, “It sounds like there is a genome or a certain chemical make-up that certain people may be carrying that would change –sigh- I can’t believe I’m saying this, one undead species to another.  Although honestly no one knows what constitutes undead.  The reason I can say this to some degree is that some people contain certain genes that when introduced into the right environment can change their chemical composition entirely.  I being a case in point, since these people are out there it must work in the same way, except now it works on a different species.”  “Wow, that’s all kinds of craziness.”  Ash remarks, “okay here is the deal, we will leave you be and end our little debate and fight here if you do not put up a resistance, I have gone so far as to share some of what we know.  We have a plan and I don’t expect that we won’t be on opposite sides in the near future, but I call a temporary truce.”  Blaine and Christopher turn to each other and nod, “agreed,” they both respond.  “Awesome, look kids if you guys need some sanctuary, then you’ll probably wanna look elsewhere, because I promise although we didn’t convert these folks, there will be others whose skills we can use.  Tata.”  Ash smirks and runs towards one of the cars with his posse in tow.  As the headlight beams begin to turn on, the cars all become visible, but what got the attention of everyone were the zombies that were chained in a large pickup truck.  “That must be how they first turn them,” Blaine says to Christopher, “By the way my name is Blaine and you are?”  “Christopher Ariaso, agent in the CIA.”  “Uh yeah, so um, you don’t have a division that you work in?”  “No, it’s a long story, but let’s say that I don’t do this because I filled out an exam, if there ever was an all around MI6 kinda guy then I guess I would be it.”  “Ok guy, I strongly suggest you go talk to the civilians, they may not trust me at the moment, considering I am a vampire, although honestly, your looks don’t really look any less unsettling.”  “Noted, I’ve done this a few times now.”

Agent Ariaso threw his hands in the air to signify that he was coming in unarmed as he approached the rest of the camp.  “My name is not important, but I work for your government, this is indeed a rescue mission and I will be calling for transport out of here momentarily. What I need to know is if there any infected amongst you, if so please surrender yourselves now and we may be able to put you into suspended animation in the meantime.  If not, I will need a headcount of all survivors to arrange for pickup.”  More and more of the herd began to walk away from the spots that they were hiding or had taken cover.  The ones that were holding weapons finally proceeded to lower their guard and some of them almost collapsed from the adrenaline.  “I just want to extend my gratitude to you both,” a voice from amongst the crowd almost lyrical in its execution comes from a black man with graying hair and a cross pin on his collar, “God has answered our prayer and delivered our saviors from these demons.  Blessed be Jah that you have smiled upon your flock this day.”  “You must be the Reverend, we’ve been keeping tabs on your group via satellite surveillance.  We aptly named this group “The Herd” since they were a flock being led by a Holy man.”  Came the response from Christopher.  “Well truth be told young man, our saving grace in the past few weeks have been from missing members of our flock.”  “Oh shi….iiii,”  Blaine paused and reworded what he was going to say in front of the Reverend out of respect.  “You’re talking about Janice, Eric, Carlos, and Colleen yes?”  “That I am my boy, have you seen them?”  “Yes, I left them a few miles back.  I am Eric’s cousin, Blaine.”  “Blaine?  Good god boy what happened to you?  Eric had sent the flock on a search for you a few weeks back, we thought you were dead and here you turn up as a creature, but one on our side.”  “Reverend just because I appear this way does not make me evil in any way, just throwing that out there.”  “No need to defend yourself son, Lucifer was the most beautiful Angel in Heaven, I am not here to judge, only HE can pass judgment but I accept you into my fold with open arms youngin’”  “You don’t know how much that means to me right now. Christopher, did you say you were arranging a pickup for these people?”  “Yeah, should be arriving in about forty minutes.”  “The sun is rising and I really can’t be out there for too long or else I burn, can you possibly have your people pick up the other survivors?  By the way there is an extra person who saved us a few miles back.”  “I’ll see what I can do kid, but the resources being used to get these people out of here at the moment seems a bit much to stretch.  The government has had their hands full lately with this and the all out war in Miami.”  “Jesus! That’s still going?”  “It’s winding down, but yes.  Reverend, I still need a headcount so we can send enough transportation and medical supplies.”  “We’re on it as we speak, ah, here comes a disciple now with a list.  Says here there are forty-two men and women and sixteen children. What are we going to do with the fallen bodies?  We do not want them to be desecrated by the damned.”  “I’m sorry Reverend, but we can only handle the living at this time, our resources are being stretched to the limit.”  “To the limit?  How is that with all the soldiers they have around the world and the Navy, The Marines, The Army…..”  Blaine interrupted the Reverend.  “Sir, I’m sure he’s telling the truth there has been upheaval in China and other parts of the world as of late, there is a good chance that our own government may find us expandable at the moment.”  Christopher looked at Blaine and thought to himself about how expandable they all were if it were not for the leaks.

Blaine was beginning to heat up already as the sun was beginning to rise.  “You’re breaking a sweat kid,” said Ariaso.  “The rest of us are trying not to freeze out here and you’re breaking a sweat?”  “Like I said, the sun.  I’ve only been in this state for one day but I know this much.” Ariaso, listened to his barely visible earpiece and talked into it.  “Uh huh…no go huh…how about if I go out and look for them?....What?  I can’t do that!....”  Blaine and the Reverend looked at Christopher with anticipation and concern about his conversation.  Christopher immediately turned to Blaine and said, “You have to get out of here!”  Blaine was taken aback by this statement, “Blaine, right now they have captured dozens, hundreds of these creatures and it turns out that your particular evolution is attention getting, they got most of the fight picked up by satellite feeds and realized that your heat signature did not match everyone else’s.  It would be in your best interest I believe to pack up what you have and rendezvous with the rest of those kids out there.  I can only guarantee sanctuary for these people at the moment.  If they capture you, you may never be seen again.”  “I guess hadn’t really thought this through yet, but that makes sense, I wasn’t gonna leave the others behind anyway.  Thanks Chris, hopefully we’ll run into each other again soon and on the same side,”  “Take care of yourself,  I am about to get bitched out hardcore soon.  Ha.” 

The Reverend was a bit shocked and appalled by Blaine’s predicament, but decided to be civil for the sake of his flock.  Blaine picked up the dirtbike and realized that there was no time to salvage it.   He had to find transportation, not only was the cavalry on the way but the sun was quickly rising.  “If you’re looking for a vehicle man, it seems that one of those things (no offense) left a car behind.”  It was one of the herd, about mid-twenties it seemed with torn jeans and a gray t-shirt covered in stains.  “Thanks man, are there keys in it?”  “I don’t know, I haven’t checked.  But I’ll help you look.”  “Sounds good.”  The two approached the car, it was a glossy black and had a bit of customization to it, it was an older American car with two doors and a V-8 from the seventies, matching most of the other vehicles in the vampire clan that had attacked them.  Blaine reached for the door handle and found it unlocked, he opened the door and put half his body in the car then out.  “Nope, keys are gone man.  I’m guessing one of the corpses back there is carrying it on them.”  As Blaine walks back under the overpass to start checking bodies, the kid that was helping him climbs partly into the car with one leg hanging out as he scopes out the back seat.”  The kid gets out of the car and shuts the door.  “Hey!  Hey vampire guy there is a shit load of chains and hooks in the back seat.”  He exclaims as he jogs to his location.  Blaine gives the kid a bit of a smirk and walks directly to a corpse with its face smashed in.  “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say the car belonged to this dude.  The corpse was still holding a chain.  “Wow, world’s greatest detective.”  The two have a bit of a chuckle over the exchange.  Blaine begins to notice the bodies beginning to glow red.  “Gotta go kid, thanks again!”  He makes a mad dash towards the car as he feels his energy being sapped from his body. Inside he is really hoping that the tint on the windshields of this car can somewhat protect him from the sun’s rays.  He makes it to the car and touches the door handle.  It is a chrome handle and the rays of the sun are amplified through it.  First touch feels like putting a hand on a stove.  He moves his body to block the sunlight and tries again, this time successfully.  His back is burning fiercely and as he sits on the seat, it feels like possibly the worse sunburn on the hottest day of the year.  He clenches his teeth and closes the door, then nothing.  The pain starts to subside and he cannot feel the sun’s rays any longer.  He cannot believe his luck, but as he begins to think a bit more he remembers that this car belonged to a vampire as well.  The tint is so intense that as the sun rises it still looks like night time.  Even though the pain has died down, his hand still writhes as he puts it on the steering wheel.  He needs to feed again; he can feel himself weakening again like back at the farm.  He thinks for a moment and runs through a list of options, he could go back under the overpass in the car and snatch a corpse, but then he thinks about the blood and how it may be coagulating in the corpse already by the lack of blood flow.  After all this, he does not want to die but he also does not want to feed on innocent people.  He knows he has to leave these people immediately for one because government operatives are coming and want to capture him like an escaped specimen on the Lost World, and secondly he has to spare them the bloodlust.  He revs up the car and heads towards the last known location of his cousin and the others.

“I wish there was more we could have done, may God have mercy on his soul.”  The Reverend says aloud as the black machine passes by.  Christopher solemnly says to the Reverend, “I’m sure I’ll see him again soon and I will do what I can to get all those kids out of here.” “Thank you that would lift a terrible weight off my soul young man.”   “Alright Reverend I just got word that the cavalry is almost upon us, please get your people organized and in position.”  The Reverend nods and proceeds to gather The Herd,”Brothers and sisters please congregate and say a prayer for the fallen and thank the Heavens for our salvation.”  Christopher watches and cannot help but imagine the brainwashing that these people are about to endure.  He clenches his fist tightly and tries his hardest not to think about it.  In the distance the sound of air being chopped through is almost deafening, it will only get louder.  Christopher listens to his earpiece once more and runs towards the reverend.  “I don’t want to interrupt you Reverend, but we need to separate everyone into nine groups, when the choppers land everyone must get inside as quick as possible, the sound of the choppers will more than likely attract zombies in the nearby vicinity.” 

The instructions are passed on to the various men who will be heading up each individual group; these were all “disciples”.  People are still yelling to hear each other as the noise increases and ten choppers begin to descend, Chritopher begins to guide the groups to the choppers that will be picking them up.  The groups do not hesitate, they are not slow, they do not complain.  In the last three weeks the members of The Herd have lost many and only the runners and the most intelligent were able to survive this long.  These people are survivors; these are the survivors of the survivors.  After all this, this is the salvation they were all looking towards.  As group after group, person after person board the choppers in an expansive area of land, some of them look back at the corpses that are strewn about the overpass.  How could this have happened?  Why did this happen?  These questions will linger as long as they remember.  But how long will they remember any of this?  “All clear!”  Comes a simultaneous voice over the radio of each aerial vehicle.  Children look up at their parents as  mothers and fathers clutch their offspring as close as possible to them.  The choppers begin to ascend, they rise above the overpass of the expressway they were under.  The sight causes many hearts to sink into their chests and out their throats.  The expressway is swarming with the undead. Zombies, en masse down all lanes running towards the choppers.  Some of them falling and jumping off the edge of the concrete and unto the area where the Herd had just camped out. No one says a word; they cannot express the feelings that are welling inside of them at this very moment.  A whispered prayer albeit different from person is uttered in multiple whispers. All that was thought from all these survivors was that in their sleep they could have been overwhelmed at any moment, and yet with all the fighting and bullets flying, these creatures never found a way down.  In the dead of night in this quarantined area the air is so still that a gunshot can be heard miles away.  The Reverend makes a cross across his chest and lets his head hang praising and thanking all the while that they are safe.

The choppers continue to make their way across the quarantined zone on their way to take the survivors to the checkpoint to make sure no one is infected.  As the aerial vehicles make their way across the valley a child calls out to his father to look down at the ground.  A giant horde of zombies are running through the bleak landscape, a little further up is a town, the burning embers still glow in the morning  most of it is a smoldering mess.  Acutely, the boy’s father catches a glimpse of five people walking away from the town; they seem sluggish, unaware that in minutes a stampede will be intercepting their path.  The man takes the boy into his lap and away from the window.  The man looks at his son and lets a tear fall with his eyes closed.  He has an inkling of who these five are and cannot help but be grateful for what they have done, but now he is helpless to do anything.  He whispers to himself while still clutching his son, “The Holy Kingdom eagerly awaits these heroes.”