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  They passed two to five abandoned vehicles for every hundred yards they went. Traffic had been busy whenever all these cars were abandoned. Perhaps these people had been like Sarah and Adam, trying to find a way around the traffic jam on the expressway.

  Adam slowed way down as they passed a truck that had gone off the road. He could feel Sarah crane her neck to see.

  The truck was folded around a tree. A large piece of the tree’s trunk was sheared off and laying on the ground. The truck had no windows left and the airbags were deployed. The driver’s side door was on the side facing away from the tree and had been ripped completely off. It lay on the ground under a blanket of broken glass. The missing door opened a view of the entire inside of the cab. The passenger side had collapsed inward from the impact. Twisted mettle reached out for the seats. The airbags, once white, were now red. Were the interior not so dark, Adam knew everything else would be painted red as well.

  Adam turned his head away and hit the throttle. He wished to leave the truck far behind, but knew it would be waiting to haunt him in his dreams.

  A mile up the road Adam came to an intersection and was able to turn back in the direction he needed. He might not be able to go directly down the expressway, but as long as he could run along side it they would be fine.

  The setting sun, on the other hand, was not fine. To be out on the road when night came was simply not an option. He need only look at the thousands of abandoned cars to know what would happen.

  Adam drove for a good ten minutes, cursing at how slow they were going. There were too many cars in the road. He had to keep driving on the shoulder or navigating tight gaps between the two lanes. It was rare if he ever got up to the speed limit.

  They came into a town and were passing a grocery store when Adam gave into the idea that they wouldn’t make it to the safe zone before dark. They were going to need to find food and shelter. He decided to pull into the parking lot and park the bike near the front door.

  With the bike shut off, Sarah made no attempt to move. Adam offered her his hand, enticing her to stand up before taking off the helmet.

  Sarah’s dark brown hair was knotted up and her eyes were bloodshot. The area around her eyes was ringed in red.

  “It’s been a pretty long ride, how are you holding up?” he asked.

  Sarah stared past him into the grocery store. She made no attempt to respond.

  Somebody had already broken inside. The glass was smashed out of the sliding glass doors.

  The large grocery store loomed over them. The outer wall of bricks was tinted gold under the orange sky. It was the type of store that never closed. It felt wrong being there and not having other people around.

  Adam took a step inside. “Um, I want you to wait out here okay? I’m just going in to grab some food and stuff and then we can be on our way.”

  When Sarah failed to respond he turned back towards the grocery store and headed in.

  It was shadowy in the store, but there were skylights so it wasn’t all that dark. Adam could see enough to navigate the aisles as he normally would.

  Whoever broke in before him had not been kind. A lot of clothing racks were laying on the ground, their clothes scattered. The grocery section looked as though it had just gone through a food fight. Adam was forced to walk through milk, eggs, and every kind of fruit to get to where he needed to be. It was both sticky and squishy to walk on.

  One of the only undamaged food items Adam could find was a stack of tuna fish that had survived the raiding of its shelf. He was able to stuff four cans into his pockets. It wasn’t very comfortable, but he figured he could manage.

  With his pockets full he set out on a search for garlic. He figured it was priority number three after food and water.

  There was movement to his left, a human figure. Adam jumped, slipping and almost falling on the smeared food underneath his feet. He was able to catch himself before he fell though, something he was thankful for. It would be horrible to have that crap all over his clothes.

  The figure was Sarah. She was standing just outside of the mess, in the main aisle next to a display of potato chips. She held a grocery basket in her hand.

  “Here,” she said.

  It was the first thing he ever heard her say. Her voice was soft and full of pain: hinting at some great tragedy she had endured.

  “Thanks,” said Adam taking the basket and wondering why he hadn’t grabbed one in the first place.

  The garlic cloves were nearby and they loaded all of them into the basket. They even managed to find a handful of garlic salt shakers. Adam placed his hand behind them on the shelf swiped them forward into the basket. Deep down it was something he had always wanted to do.

  With their new payload, they headed back out to the motorcycle. Along the way Adam grabbed a couple of candy bars and a handful of grocery bags, which he used to empty his pockets and the basket. He figured it would make them a lot easier to carry on the bike.

  When all of this was done and they were outside, Adam glanced up at the sun. The orange sky was turning pink and the malevolent red of sunset had already begun to blossom.

  “The sun’s going down. I don’t think we have more than a half hour of light left. We should find a place to hide out for the night.”

  “Okay,” said Sarah. She was already slipping on his helmet.

  Adam spotted a subdivision on the other side of the street. The houses were mostly two stories, though skinny. They were packed in tight, all lined up one after another. If a vampire were to go door-to-door checking everyone for people, there were enough houses that it would take him all night. That was if he decided to check them at all. Adam decided to go for it.

  Sarah clung on as he drove diagonally through the parking lot and flew across the road without checking for oncoming traffic. Of course there was none, but that didn’t stop their hearts from racing out of habit.

  The neighborhood might have been nice before the evacuation, but now it was falling apart. Maybe it was just the garbage, spread through the streets and across the porches. It looked as though a pack of wild animals had come through unchecked, digging through the trash. It smelled horrible, as though all the food were rotten. Adam had to swerve to avoid a mound of maggots squirming over a bottle of broken mayonnaise. The sight made him gag.

  When he thought they were deep enough into the sub Adam chose a house at random. He drove his bike through the yard, past small shrubs and young trees, parking it by the back patio.

  The house was a carbon copy of all the others in the sub. It followed their pattern and was tall and skinny. The patio was made of pavers making it different than the neighbor’s to the direct left and right: their houses had porches made of wood.

  Adam walked up to the back door and tried to slide it open. It was locked. He took a step back, debating how he was going to get in. A small window was cracked open a little to his left. It opened from the side, but looked big enough to fit through.

  He grabbed a chair from the patio and pulled it over. He stood on it and looked in. The kitchen was on the other side and there was a screen in his way. The sink was directly below him. The window itself looked to be operated by a little crank handle.

  Adam pushed on the screen until it buckled, creating a space at the bottom for him to fit his hand through. Adam reached inside and snaked his arm around to the crank. He turned it a few times, giving himself some more space.

  It was easy to pop the screen out from there and he was soon crawling inside.

  The first thing he noticed was the smell, or rather the lack of a smell. Compared to the rancid air outside the house smelled immaculate.

  Adam took it in, realizing he’d been breathing only shallow breaths since entering the sub.

  What light was left from the sun came through the windows and made the house bright. Standing in the kitchen he could see brown couches through an archway on his right. On his left he could see part of a railing as it guided the steps to the second floor.<
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  Adam went to the back door where Sarah was waiting.

  “Thank you,” she said, walking by him with a handful of groceries.

  She set them on the counter before proceeding to take a lap around the house.

  Adam tried the sink with no results, same with the light switches. The power was out.

  He opened the fridge and was happy to find its contents had yet to go bad. Though he still wasn’t willing to eat any meat, he found a block of cheese and cut it in half. When Sarah came back around he offered her one of the haves.

  She wrinkled her nose. “No thank you. I hate cheese.”

  He was shocked to hear her say so much. For a moment it even made him forget about the coming darkness.

  “You hate cheese? Who hates cheese?”

  Sarah closed her eyes and a look of pain shot across her face. When she opened them her face had gone blank again.

  “Me,” she whispered before walking away.

  Adam sprang into action after that. He took the garlic salt and poured a line of it outside of every door. He then cut up the garlic cloves and placed a handful in front of every door. He also made Sarah and himself eat a few for good measure.

  Sarah got in on the act, spreading garlic salt all over the house. Though she didn’t talk, she looked as though she might be enjoying herself.

  When they were out of garlic Adam found a roll of duct tape in the garage. He used it to tape sheets over every window that had a view of the living room. After that he dragged a couple of mattresses from upstairs and set them under the big screen television that hung on the wall in the living room. Sarah came down behind him, carrying blankets and pillows.

  When they were all done Adam went to the window to peek around one of the sheets.

  The night had finally come. None of the street lamps were working, but the moon cast enough light to see. A bunch of paper drifted by on the street, carried by the steady wind.

  Adam felt a creeping sensation, like he was being watched.

  He threw back the sheet and stepped away. With the sheet back over the windows it was hard to see. He almost tripped over Sarah’s bed.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’m a little jumpy. I think I’ve rediscovered my fear of the dark.”

  It was hard for him to tell, but he thought he saw her nod in agreement.

  Adam found his own mattress and lay down under the blanket. It was a little stuffy inside, but that didn’t stop him from fully covering himself under it.

  “Goodnight,” he said.

  Her voice came back so soft that he wasn’t quite sure if he had heard it or not, “Night.”

  Now that he was able to lie down and relax, the days ride caught up to him. He was pretty tired and began to doze right away.

  A faint rumble in the ground made Adam come awake. He was surprised; he hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep.

  There was a whimper that came from his right. As he listened, he became aware that Sarah was silently sobbing.

  It didn’t last long because her cries were drowned out by an explosion. It sounded like thunder, only the crack was deeper and lasted longer. The faint rumble was growing worse, even rattling a bunch of bowls that were sitting in the sink.

  He didn’t know how close the bomb had been, he supposed maybe four of five miles away, but he didn’t think they could get much closer without causing damage to the house. The fact that they could get blown up at any moment did little to put him at ease.

  As the explosion faded he could hear another farther off.

  He felt Sarah slip into his bed. She pressed her back against him and he could feel her warmth. She was shaking and he could tell she was still crying. Her body was racked with silent sobs.

  As a third bomb went off, dust shook free of the ceiling fan. Adam closed his eyes and felt a tear of his own slip free.

  Chapter 26

  Joe could feel the rumble in the pit of his stomach. It had been less than ten seconds since he heard the jet fly over his house and already there was a mushroom cloud rising up from town. It glowed in a wavering ball of fire a few mile past his property. He could see it through the trees.

  A gust of wind struck the farm, bending the fields of corn sideways as it passed.

  More fires raged in an orange hue from horizon to horizon. Their brightness fluctuated as the echo of bombs racked the small farmhouse. It almost looked like a dull sunset except for the fact that the sun had gone down more than an hour earlier.

  They weren’t nukes, but they were by no means firecrackers.

  Joe and Keith watched all of this through the gap in the boarded up living room window. They hid in shadow, unable to look away.

  In front of Keith were his .50 Caliber sniper rifle, his assault rifle, and a .44 magnum revolver. The revolver was loaded with one single silver bullet. The bullet had been one of the most expensive ammunitions he ever bought. Before today, he always kept it on his mantle for decoration. Up until recent events, using it in actual combat seemed like a ludicrous waste of money.

  In front of Joe were a double barrel 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot, a pump action 10-gauge shotgun loaded with slugs, and his 9mm pistol. He was positive that if both shotguns failed to kill the vampires the pistol would most likely do nothing. Still, it would be foolish for him to leave it out, especially when the only alternative was nothing.

  Joe also had the jug of holy water resting on the floor next to his leg.

  Earlier that day Keith had melted down a bunch of silver coins he brought from home. He used the melted silver to coat the blade of his army knife. Now the deadly blade was tucked into its holster on his belt. He was also wearing his bulletproof vest again.

  Shadows of corn stalks waved across Joe’s yard in the glow of explosions. He had seen them make similar shadows under fireworks. This time, however, the fireworks looked as though they had sprouted from the very depths of hell.

  An artificial wind whistled every time it came in from the south, and made the stalks rustle together.

  “It’s like Armageddon out there,” said Keith.

  “There’ll be hell to pay if they hit my farm,” said Joe.

  “You think it’s working?” Asked Keith.

  “Maybe.”

  “I don’t know Joe, if one of those bombs lands close by, we’re toast. Maybe we should get down in the cellar.”

  “You think the cellar will stop one of those bombs?”

  “Good point. I just don’t like it is all.”

  “Yea, they’re beginning to piss me off.” Joe glanced away from the double barrel for a moment. He squeezed his eyes closed and then opened them a few times. They felt dry. “Look at it this way, if one of those bombs lands on us, we won’t know it.”

  “And here I thought my days of almost getting blown up had passed.” Keith tilted his head to the side until it cracked before going back to looking through his binoculars. “I mean I don’t know what’s worse, our own guys dropping bombs over our heads or the vampires.”

  “Just worry about your aim.”

  Keith leaned forward, the kitchen chair he was sitting in creaked. “I’ll find my target, don’t you worry about that.”

  “There,” said Joe. “On the left side of my driveway, coming out of the corn near the road.”

  Keith dropped the binoculars and searched through the scope of the 50. Cal. “Oh yea, there’s the ugly son of a bitch. How the hell did you see that?”

  Joe grabbed his binoculars and peered through. It was the deputy from the night before. He stared right back at Joe as if he could see him. There was a small smirk on his dead face. His police uniform had a tear in the shoulder and was stained with dark blood.

  “You going to take him?” asked Joe.

  “Let’s let him get a little closer. I don’t think we want to wander too far when we clean him up.” He twisted the end of the scope, adjusting his sights.

  The vampire took his time, strolling as he made his way up the long driveway. He wa
s almost to the edge of the cornfield before Keith spoke, “you might want to plug your ears.”

  He pulled the trigger and the house exploded with the sound of the .50 Cal. Joe’s head was ringing with the noise. He fought the pain and brought the binoculars back up to his eyes.

  The vampire was still on its feet, or rather the body of the vampire was still on its feet. The head was gone. Everything from its collarbone up had been turned into a fine mist.

  The vampire fell to its knees before collapsing to its stomach. It twitched twice and then went still.

  “Let’s see it get up from that one,” said Keith.

  There was an inhuman shriek right in front of them on the porch. Splinters shot from the wall as the board they put up was ripped from the window.

  Joe stood back, brandishing the 12 gauge. The fresh opening in the window gave him a panoramic view of the front porch and yard beyond.

  Charlie was standing there, pale and rigid. His eyes were dark red and his hands were long with fingernails that came to a point. His mouth was wide open revealing two large fangs.

  He grabbed the nose of Keith’s 50. Cal. Keith tried to pull it back, but was overpowered and yanked through the window.

  He landed stomach down on the porch as both he and the vampire let go.

  With Keith so close, Joe had no intention of firing a round of buckshot. He ignored the gun and instead came up to his full height.

  He took one look at Charlie reaching for Keith and dove. He used the bottom of the window to push himself forward.

  He hit shoulder to chest, sending both he and Charlie off the porch.

  The vampire landed on its back with Joe on top. Joe grabbed its wrist and tried to pin it down. The vampire ripped his arm out of Joe’s grip with ease.

  In any fight Joe had ever been in, he was always the superior force. He had never before met someone who could match his strength, let alone surpass it, until now.

  Try as he might, he was unable to stop the clawed hand from reaching up and grabbing his neck. He was helpless as Charlie pulled him down into those long fangs.