Desolation: Chapters 33 & 34
Dominion of the Damned: Book One
In a world where zombies roam and vampires rule, how far will Hannah Jordan go to survive?
Desolation is the first book in my post-apocalyptic horror trilogy, Dominion of the Damned.
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Chapter Thirty-Three
The old jail house still stood as it had stood for the last century or so, untouched by the twister. Hannah ran inside and down the stairs, not wanting to shout and draw attention to the fact that anyone was inside. Only when she was safely in the basement did she call out, “Alek? Are you here?”
“In here.”
Hannah followed the sound of his voice to their underground lab and found him sitting on a stool with his back to her.
“We have a situation. The tornado took out the fence. Shamblers are all over the camp and everyone’s still in the shelters.”
“I thought you were going to stay put until I came to get you.”
Hannah frowned. Something was wrong—she could tell by the sound of his voice.
“I waited, but you were taking so long, I got worried. I thought someone should warn you about what was happening.” She stepped into the lab. “Is something wrong?”
He turned to face her. When he moved he revealed Zach, laid out on the table in front of him. Alek sat at his feet. The look of anguish on his face left no doubt. Zach was gone.
“Oh, God. What happened?” She set her rifle by the door and rushed toward Alek, but halted just out of his reach. “Why is there blood on your mouth?”
Alek seemed surprised at first. Then he wiped his mouth self-consciously. “It… it was all I could think to do to save him.”
It took a moment for his meaning to sink in. “You…” She swallowed. “You turned him.”
“I tried. I won’t know if it took until he wakes up.”
Hannah felt sick with grief. She moved closer and put an arm around his shoulders. “What happened?”
“He thought he had the vaccine. He tested it on one of the rats, but… I’m not sure what happened. The rat bit him. It was infected.”
Hannah covered her mouth and fought to hold back tears. “What happens now?”
He gave a defeated half-shrug. “We wait and see whether he wakes up a vampire or a shambler. Either way, he’s going to wake up.” He held up a gun that she hadn’t noticed he’d been holding. “And then I’ll do whatever’s necessary.”
“Alek…” She hesitated, not wanting to make the offer. In the short time she’d known Zach, she had already come to think of him as a friend. But she hadn’t been nearly as close to him as Alek had been, and he’d already lost too many friends in the last day or so. “I can do it. You don’t have to be the one—”
“Yes I do.” He looked over at his friend. “I owe it to him.”
She knew it was useless to argue. “What can I do?”
“Just… be here.”
“Okay.”
She pulled up a stool and sat vigil with him in silence. It took another ten minutes before the stirrings began. Zach’s fingers twitched, followed by jerking movements throughout his body. Then he sat up.
“Zach?” asked Alek. “Can you hear me?”
Hannah held her breath, hoping against hope for an intelligent response as Zach turned his head to look at Alek with bloodshot eyes. When he opened his mouth, he emitted an unintelligible groan, and snapped his teeth. Hannah let go of the breath she’d been holding, along with the tears.
Alek raised the pistol and took aim at Zach’s head. “I’m sorry, old friend.” He pulled the trigger. Then he dropped the gun and slid off of the stool to the floor.
Hannah dropped to her knees and pulled him into her arms. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as a sob ripped through him. She hated that she knew what he was feeling, and hated even more that he had to feel it. “I’m so sorry.”
She held him another moment before he extracted himself from her arms and climbed to his feet. He reached down to help her up. When she took his hand, he pulled her up and into his embrace, his mouth crashing into hers, grief and anger fueling his desperation and need. She returned his kiss in kind. She didn’t know how long they stood there ravaging each other, using each other as a means to forget for even a precious minute.
Then reality returned. Alek pulled her close against him and for a moment they simply held each other tightly.
“I love you.” His voice sounded raw, barely more than a rasp. “I know it’s sudden, and scary, and you don’t have to say anything, but I do. And I need you to know it.”
Hannah held him quietly and let his confession sink in.
The only surprise was how unsurprised she felt. She did know it. He conveyed it in his actions, in every look he gave her. She was only twenty, and she’d never really been in love before. She’d had crushes, and she’d dated, but she’d never felt anything this intense.
Was it love? She didn’t know. She only knew that in the short time she’d known Alek, he’d become an integral part of her life, and just the thought of losing him made it hard to breathe. That she hurt when he hurt, and that she’d go as far to protect him as he would to protect her, which she knew was pretty damn far. And that it was easier, and far more pleasant, to imagine a future with him than without.
If that wasn’t love, then what was?
“I love you, too,” she said.
“Hannah, you don’t—”
“Shut up, Alek.” She looked up at him, and just let him read her feelings in her face. He took her face in his hands and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before resting his head against hers.
Then, sniffling, he slowly let go and pulled away. “I need to take care of the body.”
“We can’t. Not yet. If we burn it we’ll bring the shamblers, and we don’t have time to bury it.” She put a hand on his arm. “We can put him in another cell for now and take care of him when things settle down.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but after a moment, he nodded. Gently, he picked up his friend and carried him out of the lab. Hannah found another lab coat and grabbed it before following. There were three underground cells, and one of them had yet to be modified or occupied. They placed Zach in that one and covered him with the lab coat.
Hannah returned to the lab to fetch the guns. That’s when she noticed the syringe lying on the worktable next to Zach’s notes.
“Alek?” she called. When he entered the lab, she pointed to the remnants of Zach’s work. “What’s this?”
Alek examined the syringe and then picked up the notebook and started leafing through it. “He said he thought he had the vaccine. He obviously didn’t, but…” His voice trailed off as he read through the notes.
“But?”
“He was close. Really close. If I could figure out what he missed…”
“Then we’d better get to work.”
Alek shook his head. “No, we have to get back to everyone.”
“I told them to stay in the storm shelters until we come get them. They’ll be safe in there. Not super comfortable, but safe. We have time.” She grabbed his wrist. “Alek, you said yourself that this is too important, that you should be here working on it. If we can figure this out tonight, it could change everything.”
He still looked like he wanted to argue, but instead, he nodded. “All right. Let’s get to work.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The good news was that they got everyone to the old fort. The bad news was that the shamblers were coming in droves. Despite the survivors’ guns and the speed of their vehicles, they barely managed to get everyone inside the fort before they had to turn around and defend it.
It was Z-Day all over again. Chris didn’t understand how there could still be so many after all this time. In some ways, it was worse. Back then, their attackers had been newly deceased. But this time most of them had been dead and walking for months on end. They were so rotted and decayed that he couldn’t see how it was even possible they were still on their feet. The smell alone overwhelmed the fort, threatening to gag everyone inside.
Chris climbed up to one of the shooting slits at the top of the fort. When originally built, it had been meant to defend the soldiers and townspeople from raids. At least there were no bullets to dodge, no arrows or buckshot. Just the relentless mass of the dead, and the only weapon that preceded them was the awful, sickly-sweet and sour smell of rotting meat.
He jammed the barrel of his gun into the slit in the wall and fired. He managed to cut about twenty of them down before he ran out of ammo. To his right and left, he heard the useless clicking of machine guns and automatic rifles running on empty.
Chucking his gun, he dropped back to the ground and sought out Captain Burell. “We’re out of ammunition,” he said. “There are more guns in the auditorium. We need to get them.”
A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. “Oh, no you don’t,” said his mother. “You’ve done enough volunteering for one day.”
“And we made it, didn’t we? We’re better off here than we were in those storm shelters, and you know it. But we could be stuck here forever if we don’t get more ammo.”
“He’s right,” said the Captain. “We need a plan to get supplies.”
“Don’t you start! Here.” She shoved the baby at him and then turned back to Chris, grabbing his face in both hands. “Son, why do you have to be so much like your father? I could barely take being married to a hero. I can’t take having my only son risking himself every chance he gets.”
His mother’s fear and worry took the wind out of his sails. He pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay, Mom. I’ve done this before. I’ll be okay.”
Reluctantly, she let him go and took Noah back from the captain. “You’d better be. If you’re not, I won’t be, either.”
“Take four men,” said the captain. “The shamblers haven’t made it around the back of the fort yet, so slipping out that way is your best bet. They’re concentrated here, so if you’re quiet you should be able to make a wide path around them and get to the auditorium. We’ll do our best to keep them out in front so you can come back in the way you came.”
Chris nodded and went to choose his team. Tim would be going with him, along with two others. There were no doors or windows in the fort besides the front gate, so they had to climb over the wall.
Silently, the team made their way along the edge of the woods that ringed the camp, skirting around the old town and sneaking toward the base’s modern facilities. That part of the base was currently a ghost town. Still, they remained on guard as they approached the auditorium.
The inside appeared to be as deserted as the street outside. The five of them ran to the stage and loaded up on weapons, as many as each of them could carry. “We need some rope,” Chris said. “And something to put the guns in to hoist them over the wall.”
Tim pointed to the curtains that lined the stage. “Those should have ropes. And we can use the curtains to wrap the guns in.”
“Good thinking. You and Ed gather as much rope as you can. The rest of us will take down the curtains.”
As everyone turned to carry out their assigned task, Tim paused. “Does anyone else hear that?”
Everyone froze. Chris thought it was only thunder at first, another storm rolling in. But the rumble had a distinct cadence, one that became distinctly recognizable as it grew louder. “Helicopters.”
“Damn,” said Tim. “They’re here.”
“They can’t be. The doc said they wouldn’t get here till tomorrow night.” Chris hopped down from the stage and ran to a window.
“Yeah, well, I bet they were all ready to come here and shut us down,” said Tim. “The doc’s hearing was just for show.”
Chris craned his neck to peer through the window at the sky. Sure enough, a fleet of black helicopters passed overhead. Commandos in the tell-tale black uniforms of the vampires dangled from ropes, rappelling to the ground. He heard gunfire as the vamp soldiers evidently started taking out the shamblers.
“I can’t decide whether this is a good thing or not,” said Tim.
“Definitely not.” Chris turned to the others. “I’ve got to find Hannah and the doc. Somebody has to warn them.”
“We don’t even know if they’re still alive,” said Tim. “And if they are, they’re probably together. They can take care of themselves.”
“We can’t assume that.”
“Do you even know where they were going?”
“The doc was headed to the old jail to get Zach. I can go with you guys that far, but then I need to look for them.”
Tim shook his head. “No. No way. If the rest of us come back without you, do you know what you’re mom’s gonna do to us?”
“She’ll be mad at me, not you. Now come on. We don’t have time to argue. If we start back now maybe we can beat the vamps to the fort.”
She knew Alek had lost control of his camp, but she’d had no idea it was this bad. Esme tore off her headset and leaned out of the helicopter to survey the damage below. The wretched dead walkers swarmed over the base. She already had troops on the ground working to clear them while she and her pilot looked for the greatest concentration of them. That was where the humans were certain to be.
Sure enough, the horde pressed up around the old U.S. Cavalry outpost. She heard gunfire over the beat of the helicopter blades as they approached. Pulling back inside, she put the headset back on and told the pilot, “Let’s end this.”
With a nod, he turned the helicopter toward the swarm, tilting it forward and lowering the blades into them. Esme put on her goggles and covered her face to protect it from the ichor that flew up from the blades.
Her troops moved behind them on the ground, making short work of whatever the helicopter had missed. “Set us down inside the fort,” she commanded.
Some of the humans actually had the audacity to fire on them as they landed in the center of the small yard. Esme took note of their faces, marking them down for discipline once the transfer was complete. Idiot humans. Even if she and her pilot hadn’t been clothed head to toe in body armor, their bullets would have been useless.
She took a perverse pleasure in the way the humans scampered out of the way, backing up along the walls in wide-eyed terror like frightened rabbits. Esme jumped out as soon as they touched down, uncovering her face as she approached them.
“It appears we arrived not a moment too soon,” she said, reminding them of the predicament she had found them in. It irritated her that these mortals weren’t greeting them as the saviors that they were. “The attacking horde has been dealt with. We have enough choppers to airlift all of you back to my camp, where you’ll be sheltered and cared for in safety. If you cooperate and help us move everyone in an orderly fashion, I’ll forget the way we were greeted as we tried to land.”
The only response was a hail of bullets. She got her arms up over her head just in time to keep it from being perforated by machine gun fire. Her pilot wasn’t so fortunate. He was just removing his armored cowl as the gunfire started. His head was obliterated. Esme got her cowl up as his useless body fell to the ground. She rushed the person holding the gun, moving faster than the young woman could aim. Esme was on her in the blink of an eye, lifting her off the ground.
“I have orders to bring everyone back alive,” she said. “That’s the only thing keeping me from snapping your neck.”
“Leave her alone!”
Esme followed the sound of insubordination to a plump, silver-haired woman, but it wasn’t the woman or her impertinence that drew her attention—it was the infant in her arms. Only then did she realize that neither Alek nor his pretty pet were present inside the fort. Had the girl actually left her precious brat unprotected? Esme found herself smiling. “Open the gate,” she commanded, still holding the woman in the air, “or I’ll break something non-lethal instead.”
In the corner of her vision someone else raised a gun. The woman in her hands screamed as Esme flung her at the offender. She collided with him and they both went down in a heap. “I was told not to kill anyone,” she announced. “But I’m not technically in violation of that order if you shoot one of your own who has graciously volunteered to shield me.” She grabbed another hostage and held them close enough that none of these plebes would dare risk firing at her.
Her threats became needless as her troops smashed through the wooden gate. It might have been useful for keeping out the brainless dead, but her people had a battering ram and the strength of a dozen vampires behind it. To her satisfaction, these people knew when they were defeated. They laid down their weapons and backed away from the vampires.
Esme released her hostage and scanned the crowd for the silver-haired woman. She spotted her moving toward the back, trying to keep the baby hidden from view. Esme shoved her way through the crowd toward the woman. “Give me the infant.”
“What? No! You leave him alone!” She tried fruitlessly to turn away and shield the baby.
Esme was tired of being defied by these people. She grabbed the woman by her hair and yanked her back around. “This is the last time any of you creatures will say no to me. Now give me the child.”
“Please,” the woman cried. “What do you want with him?”
“That’s none of your concern.” She released the woman and took the baby from her arms. Immediately the foul thing started to squirm and scream. “The sister is with Doctor Konstantin, no doubt. Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
Esme wrapped a hand around the baby’s neck. She didn’t squeeze, but the gesture was enough to alarm the woman.
“Please!”
“I only want to deliver the sweet baby to his sister,” she lied. “I can deliver him alive or dead. It’s up to you.”
“The old jail house!” she cried. “They went to the old jail house, in the lab downstairs. But I don’t even know if they made it. We don’t even know if they’re still alive!”
That filled Esme with an uncomfortable mix of dread and satisfaction. How sweet would it be if Alek and his pet had already met their demise? Not nearly as sweet as it would be if they were to meet it at her hands, she decided. She hoped she would find them alive.
She hoped she would find Alek alive, at least.
“Round them up!” she ordered her troops. “We only have a short time before sunup to get them back to the prison. Celine, Edmund, Richard, with me.”
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