Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder (Book 1) (4 page)

“In order to spread throughout
the world we need two things: food and security”

Newton felt sick as realisation
dawned on him. “You want us to sign on to your army.”

“In a sense. The food element we
can satisfy now by killing everyone here; however, who knows what
will happen next week or next month? Who knows when such a feast
will again present itself to us? We could kill you and carry the
dead with us, but blood sours quite quickly.”

“You want us to become a mobile
blood bank for you.” Newton gasped as the full horror hit him.
“You’re insane if you think we would stoop that low. What could you
possibly offer...?” He snapped his jaw shut, wishing he could take
back his last question, already knowing that he had played into the
vampire’s hands.

“I’m glad you asked.” The
stranger turned from Newton with a smile and faced the petrified
crowd. “You have heard what I have said so far. Your race is
already defeated but you don’t have to die, your children don’t
have to be tortured or killed. I can offer some of you power beyond
your imagination, immortality and land after the coming war is
over. To others I offer places of favour in our elite guard. Places
of power where you can walk in daylight but will have power near to
our own and access to pleasures beyond your imaginations. To those
who give their allegiance to us we will spare their families and
allow them to live in peace. To all others you will die here
tonight.”

The room was totally silent and
Newton turned and looked over the townspeople. He knew everyone
here, and while he had expected to see some of them considering the
mysterious figure’s offer – there would always be those who put
their own needs first, he really had expected to see most stand
together and declare their defiance though and he was shocked to
see so many amongst them who could not meet his gaze.

“You know you can’t trust him,”
Newton spluttered incredulously. “He will take you with him and
drink you dry only to cast you aside like a bottle off a shelf.”
Newton could see husbands whispering to their wives, men and women
standing alone with their eyes glazed, thinking of the promised
pleasures, and knew that too many were already beyond reason. The
first of them tentatively moved forward and Newton raised his gun
and fired.

The bullet tore a hole in the
floor just in front of the lead man. “Don’t do it, Jack,” Newton
warned. “You can’t trust them.”

“They’re going to kill us
anyway, Sheriff. You heard him. At least this way Jenny and little
Jack might have a chance,” Jack Thompson pleaded. Newton knew that
Thompson wasn’t a bad man; he wasn’t doing this for his own
gratification he just wanted to save his family. But they had to
see that the only way to beat the vampires was in not helping them
now when they were still weak.

“Jack, they can’t exist during
the day, they’ll never win as long as they have to hide away every
day. If we help them now then the whole world is finished. What
kind of future are you leaving for little Jack if they win?”

“Sheriff, you don’t have kids,
how would you know what it’s like to let someone threaten him? God
forgive me but I just can’t let them tear him apart.”

“Not even to save the world?”
Newton asked as the weight of his gun suddenly became too much and
he lowered the weapon.

“Not even for that.” Thompson
lowered his head and walked slowly over to the vampires. About half
of the younger fathers followed him and almost all the young men
that had remained in the town. Newton saw two of his deputies shrug
and holster their guns and join the growing group. Newton wasn’t
angry at the fathers but he shot looks of pure hatred at the single
men for their betrayal.

He jumped suddenly as he felt a
hand slide into his and turned to see Jess lean forward to kiss him
on the cheek. There were tears in her eyes and something else,
something he really should have seen before. God, was I that blind?
He thought as he looked at his deputy. I never realised, never even
recognised the signs. All that time alone and she was in front of
me all the time.

He put his arm around her and
squeezed. He saw the stranger indicate that the families of the men
should exit through the still open door. The women and children
didn’t need further prompting and soon the hall was mostly
empty.

Newton looked around at those
that remained. Most were too old to be tempted by this devil’s
promises, but some were not. Some parents stood protectively in
front of their young charges. Elsewhere sons and daughters, old
enough to make up their own minds, stood in contrast in front of
their parents, petrified but defiant. Tears rolled down Newton’s
cheek. It should be quick, at least.

The creature looked at Newton
with a quizzical look. “What do you hope to gain by dying?” he
asked.

Newton looked at him. “The fact
that you have to ask means that you will never understand us and
that will be your downfall eventually.”

The creature shrugged and left.
His leaving was like a lever releasing a spring and the ten
remaining creatures surged forward.

Outside the survivors couldn’t
bear to look at each other and remained huddled in the cold air,
alone with their thoughts, until the screaming inside died
away.

Chapter 1

Harris winced. A cramp shot up
his leg and he shifted his position to get more comfortable in his
treetop perch. He brought the binoculars to his eyes and surveyed
the front of the house. The two-story Georgian structure was richly
covered in blooming ivy and nestled in the middle of its 100-acre
estate. From his vantage point, Harris could see the large wooden
entrance doors set behind sun bleached sandstone pillars.

Those doors, he knew, led to the
main hall and a large stairway that spiralled upward to the 10
bedrooms above. The dining room, lounge, library, toilet and
servants” quarters covered the lower floor. He ran though the
house’s interior as he waited, picturing the marble floors, the
expensive furniture and the art on the walls. None of these things
were accurate, for he had never been inside the house; they were
just what he imagined such a grand house would have. His
understanding of the layout, however, was perfect. He knew the
position of every room, window and door. He had studied the plans
for this house until he knew the layout better than the house he
had been born in, this was his first mission in charge and he was
leaving nothing to chance. His stomach churned with nerves and he
tried to distract himself by scanning the grounds around him.

They had once been very well
kept, he could still see some of the plan that those who had
planted and cared for the grounds had once had. The trees had been
planted in neat lines, guarding the driveway like silent sentinels.
Flower beds had once been dotted liberally around the manicured
lawns, providing splashes of colour to offer relief from the green
canvas. It must have been quite beautiful Harris thought as he
swept the area but the last few years of neglect had seen
everything grow wild and untidy. The trees were no longer trimmed
neatly back and their gnarled branches seemed to loom over the road
as if waiting to grab anything that ventured too close. Plants,
once ordered and regimented in neat, explosions of colour now
spilled chaotically over the beds and merged with the tangle of the
overgrown grass. Harris sighed as he pulled back his sleeve and
looked at his watch.

“Blue Leader, initiate in 5
minutes.” Harris spoke softly into the microphone positioned
directly in front of his mouth and secured with tape to his left
ear. His headset broadcasted the message clearly to his colleagues
around the grounds.

Harris suppressed the
nervousness in the pit of his stomach. He transferred the machine
gun that hung from a strap on his back to his lap. As the seconds
crawled by, he picked out his targets for the fifth time. There
were three separate patrols between his position and the house, and
a further two guards at the doors. He ignored the patrols to on
either side of his position despite their proximity; his team
members would take care of them. He was only interested in the
patrols in front of him and the guards at the entrance. He checked
his watch, eager to begin the assault, and then slipped down from
the tree. The last seconds ticked by and Harris reached for a
grenade on his utility belt.

“. . .two, one.”

Harris counted down the last
seconds and pulled the pin on the grenade. He reached back and
threw it towards the nearest of his targeted patrols. The guards
barely had time to register the dull thud of the grenade landing
behind them before it exploded and their bodies were thrown into
the air to land in crumpled heaps some feet away. Harris launched
himself from cover and sprinted towards the house, firing as he
ran.

His hail of bullets tore into
the second patrol before they could fully react and their bodies
jerked spasmodically with each impact. Explosions and gunfire could
be heard all around him as the rest of his team joined the action.
Harris leapt to the ground, narrowly avoiding a barrage of fire
that tore through the air where he had stood only seconds before.
He rolled and brought his weapon up and emptied the rest of the
magazine into the last of his targeted patrols.

Harris knelt to reload and
looked around, easily changing the magazine with practised
movements. To the east he could see Tyrone Johnson and his team
running in relays of two as they covered each other on their
approach to the house. John Kelly and his team had taken the main
gate and were already removing the bodies of the guards and opening
the gates to let Jenkins and the rest of the trucks into the
estate.

Harris glanced at his watch and
then sprinted to the left side of the house. 3:05. Not bad, he
thought. Ahead of schedule.

Harris plucked a second grenade
from his belt, threw it at the main doors, and dove for cover. The
explosion ripped the main doors from their hinges and sent a deadly
hail of splinters into the faces of the guards who had fired at
him.

“How goes it?” a voice asked
from behind a tree to his left.

Harris” heart lurched in his
chest. “Shit!” He snapped his face sideways and saw Johnson. “You
scared the crap out of me.”

Tyrone Johnson grinned, and then
let loose a long burst into a group of three guards who had
suddenly appeared around the corner and were sent scrambling into
the house as the bullets crashed into the stone pillars and sent
shrapnel everywhere.

“Three round bursts,” Harris
reminded him with a glare. “You’ll end up with an empty magazine at
the worst time if you keep that up.”

“Yes, mother,” Johnson smirked
as he sent another long burst towards the guards. “Oops,” he
grinned.

“Cover me!” Harris snapped at
him as he rushed from cover. He ran up to the main doors and threw
another grenade into the hall. Harris threw himself behind one of
the pillars as the grenade exploded and sent dust and plaster
flying through the doorway. A window behind him shattered with the
force and sent wood and glass shrapnel surging outward. Harris was
thrown to the ground and he felt numerous pinpricks of pain as
small shards cut through his clothes and lacerated his flesh. None
were deep but Harris cursed himself for his stupidity.

“I might be a little heavy on
the trigger but at least I don’t almost blow myself up,” Johnson
grinned as he drew level.

“Bastard,” Harris grinned as he
accepted Johnson’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. He checked
the tears in his clothes but couldn’t see any major bleeding.
“Right, Now for the difficult part,” Harris said. The two men rose,
checked their magazines, and eased into the smoke.

Harris rolled to the floor as
bullets ripped through the air above him. They seemed to come from
everywhere at once and the noise was deafening in the hallway of
the house. He returned fire blindly and heard a scream as one of
his bullets found their mark. There was no respite though. Bullets
tore into the marble floor around him sending deadly shards flying
in all directions as guards positioned along the stairs fired down
upon him. More guards had set up in the Library and Lounge areas to
his right and they poured a relentless barrage of fire towards
them. Harris lost sight of Johnson as he was forced to roll behind
a heavy Chaise longue that had been thrown onto its side from a
previous explosion. Johnson’s team finally caught up with them and
four men appeared in the doorway and quickly added their firepower
to the mayhem in the house.

Harris rolled onto his back as
bullets thudded incessantly into the body of the sofa he hid
behind. God, the noise was terrifying. His thoughts seemed to have
trouble focusing on anything as the chaos reigned around him. God,
what was I thinking, we’re not ready for this? He wasn’t sure what
he should do but he knew he couldn’t stay where he was, either the
sofa would disintegrate and leave him helpless or one of the guards
would throw a grenade. He had to get out of here. He took a number
of deep breaths and then surged upwards and fired blindly at the
stairs above. Almost immediately his weapon stopped chattering and
he realised he had run empty. God, if Johnson knew that he’d never
hear the end of it.

Suddenly he heard gunfire but it
seemed muted somehow as if was coming from further away, either
that or his ears had been damaged. He dropped back behind the sofa,
reloaded and steeled himself to move again when he heard loud
screams coming form the Library. He looked over towards Johnson but
the man merely shrugged and raised his eyebrows. Whatever was
happening bullets were no longer thudding into the sofa so he
surged upwards with his weapon ready, but nobody fired at him. The
guards on the stairs still held Johnson and his men pinned down but
Harris was a little further in and out of their immediate field of
vision. He looked through the smoke and dust, trying to see what
was happening but everything appeared blurred. Suddenly he saw a
figure move and he took careful aim only to breathe a sigh of
relief and take his finger off the trigger when he saw John Kelly
move through the smoke and wave at him from the Library.