The Dead War Series (Book 1): Good Intentions (15 page)

“I know for a fact they're gotten as far as Skokie,” Vincent said, remembering Clair's predicament.

“What about the hospitals?” Sarah asked.

“The reports we were getting aren't good,” Dr. Powers said. “Rush Hospital is currently under attack, we don't know if anyone was able to make it out. Stroger was also attacked. I fear that might be the future of every hospital until we figure out a cure and how to kill these damn things.”

Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks. “What are we going to do?”

Secretly, Vincent was tired of hearing that question mainly because he didn't have an answer. All he could think of was surviving somehow, some way. Plan A was to evacuate Chicago. Plan B was to get somewhere far away from the danger zone. Hell if he knew what Plan C was going to be.

“Vincent, do you have a plan?” Sarah asked, putting him in broad view of everyone's theoretical spotlight.

Shit, not now,
he thought. He opened his mouth to give her some kind of response, but Felicia spoke first.

“Getting into SciTech Labs is our next plan of action,” she said. “Any update on that team, has it been assembled yet?” Felicia asked.

“I'm still waiting to hear back. With everything that's happening, it hasn't been easy arranging a team. The military has been doing emergency evacuations in other states and cities near Illinois in case we can't contain the outbreak to this city.”

“How far are we from Clare's house?” Vincent asked.

“We'll be there shortly,” Dr. Powell affirmed.

“Good.” Vincent nodded as he looked out of the window. He had to get to Philip's research. It was their only hope.

Chapter Five

Aaron ran past several zombies who were far too busy ripping into the flesh of their victims to bother with him, especially since he was moving far too fast for them to catch him. Having been bitten twice by those damn things trying to get to Cassian, he was making sure he avoided them at all cost. Bypassing the elevator that was covered in bloody hand prints, he chose the staircase. He opened the door to a horrific sight; more zombies were devouring the residents who didn't make it out of the building in time. He leaped pass them for several floors, racing up the stairs one flight at a time until he reached the luxury penthouse condominium on the 89
th
level.

He pulled the door behind him, jamming it in the frame in an attempt to keep the zombies off that floor. He walked to each elevator and punched through the panels, shorting it out and sending tiny sparks flying from the damaged portal. Satisfied that he'd barricaded the floor, at least long enough to do what needed to be done, he turned, heading towards the main penthouse—his destination. He banged on the door repeatedly until the human inside answered.

***

Robert had been enjoying his Blu-ray box set of the newest season of the Knights of the Darkness Chronicles when he was interrupted by the obnoxious banging on the front door. He placed his bowl of cereal on the table and climbed off the sofa. After taking a glance at the security camera, he pushed the intercom button.

“Who are you and what do you want?” he asked with more attitude than was necessary. “You look like hell, by the way.”

“My name is Aaron Young and I have to see the Master. Something's going on, something horrible and he needs to know,” he shouted through the door. “Please let me in!”

“No can do. I'm not in the habit of letting strange bloody vamps into my Master's lair,” Robert replied.

“Listen to me, you human fuck—”

“Whoa, whoa, you don't talk to me that way. I'm not just any human—”

“You're a Feeder like the rest of them, you just happened to be a little higher on the food chain. But I guarantee you this, if you don't let me in to warn the Master—”

Robert interrupted. “What will you do? You can't touch me.”

Aaron inhaled deeply as he fought to keep his calm. With a slow and steady inhale and exhale, he continued. “Please, I mean the Master no harm. But you have to let me in. It's really important. Have you seen what the fuck’s going on outside?”

Robert looked around the condo towards the windows. All he saw was an amazing view of the Chicago skyline from the Trump Towers.
What the hell was this guy talking about?
Okay, so there seemed to be a few more helicopters flying around the city than normal.
Yeah, that was weird
, he thought.

“You have my attention.”

“Good, have you seen the news?” Aaron asked him, finally happy to be making some sort of progress.

“No, can't say that I have. Look, just tell me what the hell's going on.”

“Zombies are attacking the city and they're in the lower levels of this building. We have to get the hell out of here. I've done what I can to protect this floor, but I don't think it will hold up.” Aaron stared forward at the thick, heavily enforced wooden door, wishing he was strong enough to knock it down instead of having to yield to the weak human who was currently keeping him at bay and in a dangerous predicament. He could hear the human laughing on the other side of the door and it made him want to rip his throat out.

“Listen damn it! I'm not lying. Look at me!”

He took several steps backwards hoping the camera would be able to capture his appearance. His clothes were soaked in the blood of the people he'd slaughtered in the hotel and on the helicopter. His face was covered in it. His fingers still had bits of flesh clinging to them. He hoped this would convince the servant to let him in or at least check out his story.

“Do you see?”

Robert was speechless as he gazed at the camera. He had noticed the blood on the vampire's face, but he had no idea he'd be covered in it from head to toe. It was rare for vampires to have an appetite for human blood until the sun set. This vampire had obviously gorged himself in human victims before noon and had made a mess of himself in doing so.

“What happened?” Robert asked, this time in a more serious tone.              

“I don't know. I got bit twice by those things out there. The next thing I vaguely remember is blood. Wanting it, needing it and not getting enough of it. Eventually the haze faded and I came back to my senses and I wasn't hungry anymore.  I was trying to get here to warn the Master when it happened again. I'm okay now, though,” Aaron explained it as best he could.

“If something out there bit you, then you've got to understand that I can't let you in here. I can't risk the Master being hurt.”

“I said I'm okay,” Aaron argued.

“That may be, but if you really care about the Master, then you should understand my position.” Robert held fast.

In spite of how inconvenient it was since he didn't like being exposed to the danger that was on the other side of that stairway door, he had to admit the human was right. His sanctuary would have to wait. He didn't know if he was still infected or not and he didn't want to hurt his Master.

“Fine. I'll stay out here, but you have to go to him, he needs to know,” Aaron warned.

“Yeah, that we can agree on. I'll be back.” Robert walked away from the door back toward his television. He turned off the Blu-Ray player and turned on the news for the first time that day. The bloody vampire was right. Immediately, footage of the carnage that was going on right outside was displayed over the large seventy-two inch flat screen LCD television. Amateur video footage captured a horde of zombies converging on a group of policemen who were emptying every clip they had into the unstoppable force coming at them but to no avail.

“Holy shit!” Robert gasped as he stepped away from the screen as if the zombies would come through. It was all true, but how could it be? Zombies didn’t exist. But of course, people said the same thing about vampires and he knew for a fact that wasn't true. He tossed the remote control on the sofa and ran towards the window, looking down instead of up. There he saw it—the fires, the clogged traffic and the many emergency vehicles cluttering dozens of streets. From his position high above the city, he could run to every side of the condo and get a damn good view of Chicago and that's exactly what he did. Everywhere he looked, he saw the same scene—death and more death.

How in the hell could I not know this was happening
, he thought. “Because you were too busy watching your series.” he answered his own question out loud. That explained how the news didn't take over his programming. As fast as he could, he ran to the Master's bedroom. Robert knocked gently at first and when he didn't get a response, he began to bang on the door in earnest.

Seconds later, the door swung open faster than Robert could prepare for and a hand dealt a powerful blow to his chest, knocking him backward to the ground. His back slammed into the wall as the air left his lungs in a painful rush. He looked up at the vampire who was glaring down at him.

“You better have a good reason for disturbing me.” Cassian's eyes bored into the human's, demanding an answer.

Robert rubbed the sore spot on his chest as he nodded. “Master, we have to get out of the city. It's under attack by zombies.”             

Cassian's expression grew more menacing, his eyes darkening as his lips curled into a frown.  “I am not in the mood for games, Robert or pranks, as you well know.”

Robert shook his head. “As I'm not one to play them on you, Master. It's true. I've seen it on the news.  I've also seen that there's something terrible happening with my own eyes. We have to get out of here. There's a vampire out there who told me about it,” he pointed down the hallway leading to the living room area.

Cassian gave his human one last suspicious look before stepping past him. He made his way into the living room and focused on the television screen that was still playing live video of the zombies attacking.  Like Robert, he too walked toward the windows and looked down. He saw the same disaster scene that had prompted the human to bang madly on his door. Not only that, but he could smell blood, lots of it and from different people just outside of his front door. He walked over to the security monitor and glanced at the young vampire covered in blood who stood nervously outside.

“Robert,” he called the human to him.

“Yes, Master?” Robert answered when he rounded the corner.

“Is this the vampire who warned you?”

“Yes, Master. But I didn't want to let him in because he told me he'd been bitten twice by those things and turned all rabid.”

Cassian turned sharply, both eyebrows raised in unconcealed shock. “What?”

“He might be infected still, Master. I didn't think it was safe to let him in,” Robert said in his defense. He was hoping that expression on his master's face wasn't for him and his decision. He was just doing was he was supposed to do—protect the Master at all costs.

“How could he have been infected? I've never known any diseases or virus that could harm us,” Cassian wondered aloud. He returned his gaze back to the monitor. He needed to know more and he knew he had to take a chance eventually if he was going to save his species. He opened the door and looked at the frightened vampire who was now going to one knee before him.

“Master,” Aaron, said with an audible reverence to his tone.

“Rise and come inside,” Cassian said, stepping away from the door to allow the vampire entry.

Aaron walked into the Master's lair, closing the door behind him. He looked around the condo in sheer wonderment, taking in the beautiful furnishings, ancient and exotic artwork and sculptures. He had overheard stories from other vampires higher up the chain of command about the Master’s home, but he never imagined it being this breathtaking.

“Tell me what happened,” Cassian demanded, getting right to the point.

Aaron snapped out of his awestruck state at the strict tone of his Master's voice.

He nodded curtly. “I was at work when it all went down. This guy comes in all bloody wearing one of those bio-suits. He asks to use the phone, so I let him. He calls the CDC and tells them that there's been an outbreak at SciTech Labs and that we need to evacuate the city. Before he leaves, he tells us to evacuate the hotel. Of course my boss didn't want to do that. I decided to lock the hotel doors and just when the guests start to panic we see people running down the street through the windows and glass doors. I knew they were running from something. I didn't have your number to call you, so I was going to come here. That's when we saw those people get attacked. It happened so fast. Before I knew it, they came busting through the windows and attacking all of the guests inside the hotel. I tried to kill one. I stabbed it in the chest with a letter opener, but it didn't even slow the damn thing down. We tussled for a bit then I managed to fling him from me, but then more of them began to attack me. One bit my arm...” He pointed to the spot on his arm where he'd been attacked. The wound had healed already, so there was no mark or scar for Cassian to see.

“Then what happened after it bit you?” Cassian asked.

“That's when everything just went black. Then I saw red. It was all just a blur. All I felt was this intense hunger. I’ve never felt the need for blood that strongly in my life, not even after I was first turned. After the
First Rise
, even that couldn't compare. It was like the
First Rise
times ten. I have no idea how many people I killed. Then I ran as fast as I could to get here when I was attacked again. It's like they came at me from all angles. I felt the same blackout and bloodlust but after I took out this helicopter full of passengers, I instantly began to feel normal again. The hunger went away like that.” He snapped two fingers together for effect.

Cassian was contemplating everything the young vampire was telling him. He was worried, whatever was affecting the humans down there—turning them into those things could do the same thing to them. What made it worse was that they were inhuman. His people would become an even bigger threat to the humans if infected. He turned toward his human servant. “Contact my lieutenants. We need to take action.”

“There's something else, Master,” Aaron began.

“Speak.” Cassian stared hard at the younger vampire.

“I know how to kill these things. At least one way. Remove their heads from their body. The same way you'd do with a vampire,” Aaron informed. “I had to take out some of them like that on the way here.”

“Interesting,” Cassian mused. He walked over to a large, ancient broadsword sitting on display on his sidebar. He ran a finger along the hilt fondly. “You've done well giving me this information.”

“Thank you, Master. Please, forgive me, but we really need to get the fuck out of this city,” Aaron politely suggested as best he could considering the stress he was under. “It's a fuckin— it's a war zone down there and the government is telling all of the citizens to evacuate.”

Cassian turned, facing Aaron. “We will, but first we need to figure out exactly what's going on. This started at SciTech Labs, you say?”