A Town Called America (28 page)

Yes
, Samantha replied.

“I can’t,” Chris said out loud, with no further explanation.

Before the sun came up over the mountains the next morning, Samantha awoke in a place she recognized. Somehow, someway, she had returned to her parents’ home, which she had left months earlier.

Samantha had run off with Brad against the will of her mother and father, and now the only indication that any of the previous night had indeed happened were the two bite marks on her wrist.

FORTY

A
lthough Chris was feeling divine after feeding she needed to move on, as a town called America was waiting. She rode her powerful horse with speed and determination until she arrived at the spot where she had left the War Machine.

She jumped off the horse and fueled up the car with gas she had taken from Samantha’s house. With a swat to horse it was off, a minute later she felt a rush she hadn’t felt in a long time: excitement to see old friends she missed dearly.

Chris drove through the night, knowing that a town called America wasn’t far off. Off the interstate, through a few small towns, she came to the River Charlie, at which point she knew she was very close. Only a few miles later, she came to a stop and stepped out of the car. Unsure what she was looking at, Chris questioned whether this actually was the right town. Could this really be a town call America?

This certainly wasn’t how Chris remembered it. A town called America was simply a farmhouse when she left. There were no fortification; that was the entire point.

There hadn’t been guard towers or telephone poles cut into giant spears placed around the perimeter.

Whatever this place is, it looks like a prison
, Chris thought.
How is this possible? America was established as a new hope for humankind, a place free
from fighting and death. It couldn’t possibly have turned into this. This place is everything America isn’t supposed to be
.

Not thinking twice Chris left the War Machine, slung her duffel bag over her shoulder, and started walking. As she walked closer and closer to town, she saw more and more devastation. Bodies that had to be months old were scattered around the outside of a wall that was twelve feet tall and made of plywood, sheet metal, and logs. The wall appeared to have been made in a hurry, without much care or thought.

Am I too late?
she wondered.
What the hell could have happened here?

After walking past the junked cars and scorched ground, Chris made her way through an open space in the wall that looked as if it had been created from an explosion from the inside.

Now that she was inside, there was no doubt that this place once had been a town called America. In the distance she saw the white farmhouse where she, Rick, and Robbie once had lived.

There was no sign of life anywhere. Nearly all the buildings had been destroyed; only a few still stood, and they looked burned from the inside out.

If Chris hadn’t seen the farmhouse with her own eyes, the only thing that would have convinced her this was a town called America was a sign on the ground that read,
THE CABIN
.

Where were the survivors? Were there any? Who had done this? As Chris stepped over body after body, she realized the townspeople had been burned alive.
This had to have been the work of the M.M
., she thought.

As Chris walked through the center of town, she sensed she wasn’t alone. It wasn’t a person she sensed, and it wasn’t a vampire, so what was it?

Silence, a slight breeze, and then it happened. Standing at the other end of the street was her father, Billy, wearing his duster and black cowboy hat. Chris just looked at him, thinking,
nothing ever really changes
. Then again, having lived her life, she thought,
well, some things really do change
.

“My God, it’s good to see you,” Chris yelled to Billy as she quickly moved toward him.

Billy was still standing in the street, looking at her, silent and motionless.

“Billy, what happened here?” Chris called out. “Are you OK?”

As Chris walked closer, it became apparent that this entire scene was somehow wrong; Billy wasn’t acting right.

As she moved down the street, the realization that she had made a huge mistake by coming to America became very clear. Walking out of two burned buildings on the left and right were two more men dressed just like Billy. They walked over to Billy and stopped on either side of him. The only thing Chris knew at that moment was that none of these men were Billy.

Chris stopped twenty feet from them. “Let me guess. You’re the Ghost of Christmas Past, and you’re here to teach me a lesson,” she said to the man in the middle. “Hmm…and you two dipshits must be Christmas Present and Future,” she added, trying not to laugh.

“We’re here to reclaim what you’ve stolen from the Nine,” the man in the middle said.

“Ah, you want my life. Is that it? Next you’re going to tell me I don’t have the right to be a vampire, and I can’t be human, so you’re going to take my life.”

“That’s correct.”

“I don’t think today is the day I’m gonna let you take my life. Trust me, my friends will be here soon enough. What you don’t sense their presence as I do?”

Suddenly Billy leapt from a nearby rooftop, landing at her side as Robbie stepped out from inside the same building.

“See, I told you so. Doesn’t this even the odds a little?”

“Hey, it’s good to see you again,” Robbie told Chris.

“Yeah, it’s good to you too, Robbie.”

“Billy,” said the Ghost standing in the middle, “we need to stop meeting like this. It’s always something with you.”

“Well, you three know me well enough,” Billy said, “and if you think I’m going to stand by and do nothing, well, you’re out of your minds. Don’t forget that I’m a Ghost too, but if you want to dance, let’s go!”

“Perhaps once upon a time you were a Ghost,” the man said, “but now all I see is a sad old man trying desperately to cling on to something he had no right to create. You were a Ghost, and then you got greedy. You knew the consequences, and you still deliberately stole from the Nine.”

“Billy?” Robbie said. “What’s he saying about you stealing?”

Billy shrugged. “Well, I may have kind of borrowed something from the Nine before I left the M.M.”

“You drugged Mr. Black and stole his blood,” the man in the middle said. “You knew as a half breed you were forbidden to do so, but you did it anyway.”

Through his mind Billy explained to Chris something he’d never told her. After the Nine had been placed to control the population of humans, four Ghosts had been placed to control the vampire’s population. To be used by the nine, at their discretion to hunt down all vampires outside of the nine. The Ghosts weren’t vampires themselves; they didn’t require blood. They were, however, like vampires in that they couldn’t be exposed to the sun, and they held the same ability to heal as vampires did. Their original origins however had been lost to time. Not even the Nine knew exactly how the Ghost came to be, they only knew that the Ghost were humans that had been selected to carry out the hunting of vampires.

“Yeah, but after I was done with Mr. Black,” Billy said, “I became faster and stronger than any vampire and certainly any Ghost. I think it kinda pissed the Nine off a bit.”

“Oh, really you think so, Billy?” the Ghost said. “Just remember that when you watch your beloved daughter suffer, it’ll be because you were selfish.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot you were still here,” Billy stated.

All six moved toward one another with an ever-increasing pace. Running, Billy, Chris, and Robbie were ready for the fight. Chris, while running, changed into her vampire form. By the time she had moved three steps, she had her shotgun drawn and was shooting at the Ghost to the front and left of her. As fast as she was, it was to no avail, as he moved too quickly. After firing all six rounds and not hitting anyone, Chris threw her shotgun on the ground.

Robbie, running next to Chris, and to her surprise, also had changed into a vampire. He drew a samurai sword from its sheath on his back; moving toward the Ghost in the middle, he was ready to attack.

Billy, on the other hand, was using nothing more than his fists, and he moved faster than Chris or Robbie could see with their eyes.

Angry, Chris was determined to put a stop to this once and for all. Her fingers and teeth were as sharp as her mind, and she was going in for the kill. The Ghost on the left took up a defensive posture as Chris moved in, hitting him multiple times before he had a chance to react. Chris moved behind him and hit him twice in the neck, stunning him, as he had failed to make contact with the two swings he had attempted.

Billy hit the Ghost in the middle so hard that the Ghost lost his balance and fell backward, sliding on his back three feet. Billy moved faster than any vampire ever had moved. The powers he was displaying shocked him and everyone present. He drew his revolver and fired off two rounds, missing both times as the Ghost rolled out of the way.

By the time Billy had hit the Ghost on the right, the Ghost who had been standing in the middle had pinned Robbie to the ground. Caught off guard by the Ghost’s immense strength, he dropped his sword after the Ghost hit him in the face so hard and fast that he thought that he was losing consciousness. The Ghost that Chris was fighting wasn’t backing down; he turned around and threw swings at her that came very close to making contact.

At that moment Billy did something none of them had seen before. He threw two punches at the face of the Ghost who was now back on his feet. Billy swung with his left and right fists. Neither punches made contact, but for a reason even he didn’t fully understand, the Ghost went staggering back, as if Billy had made direct contact.

All were battling in the street of what had once been the great town called America. Small fires still smoldered in buildings on both sides of them, and bodies that had been burned still lay in their final resting places.

Billy, without thinking, reached his arm out toward the building on his right. He made a fist in the air with his right hand, and when
he opened it, a flame that had been burning some fifteen feet away moved through the air until it was burning in his open palm.

With a scream that came from deep inside him, he turned forward and, glaring at the Ghost from under his cowboy hat, hurled the flame at him. The Ghost tried to duck out of the way, but the flame followed him through the air, curving to the left just before it made contact, causing his body to burst into flames.

Billy moved his hands through the air like a martial artist. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and placed his hands at his waist. He then slowly moved them toward the sky as a radiant glow formed between his fingers; it could only be described as a mass of pure energy.

With a tremendous explosion like that of lightning striking the ground, Billy threw the energy at the burning Ghost. When the sphere of energy left his hand, it moved just above the ground, creating a ten-foot-long crater in its path before it made contact with the Ghost. The force was so powerful that it was as if a train had hit him. The explosion knocked all three Ghosts off their feet along with Chris and Robbie.

Dust, dirt, rocks, and debris fell on all of them. Everyone stopped fighting and looked in awe through the cloud of dust in which Billy now stood. As the dust began to settle, and his form became more apparent, Billy stepped out of the cloud toward the other two Ghosts, who were staggering to their feet.

Chris and Robbie slowly moved back, as they knew they’d just be in the way of whatever Billy actually was.

“You ever see anything like that?” Robbie asked Chris.

“Never. I don’t know what the hell that was.”

Billy walked toward the two remaining Ghosts, who were now standing. He knelt and picked up the long samurai sword Robbie had dropped. As he walked he swung the sword through the air in a figure-eight motion.

Whoosh
. He was gone in an instant. Both Ghosts looked around for him, unaware that he now stood directly behind them. Again Billy let out a scream that penetrated the ears of everyone around him. Chris and Robbie, as well as both Ghosts, leaned over, grabbing their ears in
pain as Billy ran his sword directly threw one of the Ghosts. When Billy pulled the sword from the Ghost’s torso, the man fell to his knees then to the ground, just before Billy swung his sword at him, removing his head from his shoulders.

Billy lifted the samurai sword, which now dripped blood, above his head and swung it at the last remaining Ghosts. Just as the sword cut through the Ghost’s torso, Billy lowered himself to a crouching position and spun to the right to avoid a bullet that had been fired toward him. Just as he dodged it, it struck Chris in the head.

Billy and Robbie drew their pistols and fired in the direction they thought the shot were coming from. It was indeed from the roof of a building on the left-hand side of the street.

The last Ghost grabbed Robbie by the neck and lifted him off his feet.