Dead by Dawn Page 29

  “Is that our ride?” asked Adam.

  Joe shook his head. “Afraid not. I never trained to fly a plane.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was a helicopter pilot.”

  The airport was surprisingly small. There were only two runways, both only slightly longer than a football field. There were five or six hangars that looked more like tin barns. By average standards, the plane sitting on the tarmac would have been considered small. For that hanger however, most of the planes were about the same size. No jumbo jets would be landing at this airport.

  Joe drove up to the first hangar and parked the truck. Adam pulled up next to him on the motorcycle and hopped off.

  The hangar had two large sliding doors that faced the runways and made up an entire wall of the building. The doors were held chained together and secured with a padlock.

  Joe fished behind the seat of his truck for a pry bar. By the time he retrieved it however he no longer needed it. Keith and Adam pulled apart the doors creating a gap wide enough for Sarah to see through. She reported back that there were two planes inside. They would have to look elsewhere to find a helicopter.

  Almost every hanger turned out to be the same, all but one. It was separate from the others, on the far side of the airport. The hangar had an office built into the side and there was an ambulance parked out front.

  When Sarah peered inside she said there was indeed a helicopter inside. Joe got to use his pry bar then, busting one of the handles, so the chain fell loose and allowed them to open the door.

  The helicopter inside was red and white. It was full of medical equipment, including a stretcher that was strapped to the wall.Life Flight, was painted above the cabin.

  Joe jumped inside and began doing what Adam could only guess was a systems check. He came out a few minutes later looking satisfied.

  “She’s got a full tank,” he said.

  The helicopter’s keys turned out to be in the front office. Sarah went with Keith to find them. While Keith was digging through desk drawers, she discovered them in a custom-made box on the wall. It had been constructed with a sturdy pine, the front was a thick glass sheet and opened from the left. She spotted it behind the front desk.

  Sarah opened the glass front and retrieved the keys.

  Meanwhile inside the hangar, Joe backed his truck close to the helicopter. Adam and Matt found chains that they wrapped around the legs of the skids. Sarah and Keith were just coming out of the office as they hooked the other end of the chains to the back of Joe’s truck.

  They had to be careful to make sure the chains were the right length. If they weren’t, then the helicopter would turn sideways and clip the hangar door on the way out.

  Matt tried to hook the chains to the truck in a hurry. Adam went back and adjusted them to his liking. He wasn’t so sure about dragging the helicopter across the ground like they were. It seemed so barbaric for such a sophisticated piece of equipment. He figured Joe would know, however, and gave him the go ahead to start pulling.

  It took everything the truck had to pull the helicopter. There was a moment when Adam didn’t think it was going to move at all. It did, and the helicopter began the slow pull out into daylight.

  Adam couldn’t help, but cringe the entire time the truck was pulling. The skids screeched in protest and left gouges in the pavement.

  “There isn’t a better way to do this?” Sarah asked. She had to yell to be heard over the trucks roaring engine.

  “Joe’s the expert,” Adam yelled back. “Not me.”

  Joe continued to pull until the helicopter was a good thirty feet away from the hangar. When he finally stopped, white smoke was pouring out in a thick cloud from beneath his hood. When he killed the engine the truck hissed its displeasure.

  Adam wondered how many years they had just taken off the truck’s life.

  Probably the rest of them. He thought.

  He leaned down and began undoing the chains with some help from Keith. By the time they were off, Joe already had the propellers gearing up.

  They began their slow spin around, picking up the pace with every second. The wind began to whip harder as their speed increased.

  The propellers made a whooshing sound as they passed over Adam’s head. It was slower at first, but picked up in speed.

  Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…

  “All aboard!” Joe yelled.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

  Matt threw his hands up and hesitated at the edge of the cabin. “We shouldn’t do this!”

  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,

  Keith pushed passed him, tossing in his drag bag then climbing in. Adam and Sarah got in behind him.

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh. The propellers reached a speed at which the chopped whooshing sound became a steady hum. They were ready for flight.

  There weren’t very many seats inside. Keith and Joe would each have one in the cockpit, but only Sarah would get one in the cabin. It folded out from the wall. The rest of the room was geared for patients who would be lying down.

  “Last chance to turn back,” Adam yelled out.

  Matt didn’t look happy, but climbed in anyway. He crawled as far away from the open door as he could get before gripping a strap on the wall until his knuckles turned white.

  Adam felt a hand grab his shoulder and looked up to see a pale faced Sarah.

  “It’ll be fine,” he tried to reassure her.

  She nodded, though her face remained colorless.

  Adam’s stomach lurched and he almost fell backwards. He leaned forward just in time to see the ground moving away. It was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time. The helicopter was in the air. The airport grew smaller and fell behind as they began passing over trees.

  There was nothing left to do after that, but sit back and relax. They were on their way.

  Chapter 43

  Sarah’s stomach didn’t settle until an hour into the flight. Watching the world fly by down below did little to help. She compared it in her head to a roller coaster that was never going to stop.

  It was loud; the only way they could talk was to yell. Because it took so much effort, they mostly kept to themselves. Having Adam so close went a long ways to keeping her calm. Just having his back against her leg helped.

  Joe and Keith must have known what they were doing because they very rarely turned back from the cockpit. If they ever did, it was usually Keith giving them a reassuring thumbs up.

  After they were flying for awhile and they had grown accustomed to flight, Adam asked the question that they had all been wondering about.

  “How are we planning to kill the main vampire?” He shouted up into the cockpit.

  Keith replied that they were either going to use his silver tipped knife or Joe’s stake. If it came to them needing to use guns, they were probably screwed. However as long as they beat the sun, they wouldn’t have to worry about that.

  Sarah had no idea how far away the White House was, but it felt like they were crossing the entire country. They flew for countless miles, over towns and lakes, rivers and roads.

  The earth below was a ghost land. If she would have paid closer attention, she would have seen the remains from millions of tiny battles.

  They passed over a field that held the remains of a plane. What was left of the wreckage lay at the end of a charred crater. A wing had ripped free thirty feet away.

  They passed over an army tank. It sat in the center of a suburb, resting on pieces of a white picket fence. The houses all around it were riddled with bullet holes. Judging by the size of some of the holes, the houses had taken a few hits from the tank’s cannon as well. The top latch of the tank was open, its handle bent at an odd angle as if it had been torn open.

  They passed over countless traffic jams. If they looked close enough, they could make out bloodstains on some of the hoods.

  They passed over the charred remains of hundreds of houses. The untouched houses had their front doors open, sw
aying back and forth in the breeze. Others had broken windows, or holes torn through the roof.

  They passed over an army bunker. Its sand bags and weapons were still there, but the soldiers were not.

  When the afternoon came, Sarah was beginning to wonder if they would ever land. She thought maybe they would fly straight on through the night and land when the sun rose again.

  The helicopter changed its course by then and she was pretty sure they were flying in circles.

  It wasn’t until she spotted the Washington Monument that she realized how close to the White House they were.

  The monument stood in defiance of all that was happening around it. A great white spike standing tall amidst the wreckage: A reminder of man’s resilience.

  By then the sun was hovering in the west. It had yet to begin making its final dip, but in another hour or two it would.

  The helicopter continued around in the wide arc it was making. Sarah caught a glimpse of the White House before they nosed towards it, preparing to land.

  There was a long green strip of land connecting the Washington Monument and the White House. The bright shade of the land popped against the slightly darker trees that bordered it. The strip of land looked almost like a football field, only stretched so it was far longer than it was wide.

  The White House sat overlooking the field. It’s domed ceiling and rich pillars dominating the surrounding land.

  “I see it,” she yelled.

  “None too soon,” said Keith.

  They continued in a straight path, losing altitude every second. It wasn’t long before Sarah felt she could stick her foot out the door and skim the tops of buildings. The lower they went the faster they seemed to be going.

  Joe flew them right over the top of the White House and put them down on the front lawn.

  They came down harder than she expected and Sarah bit her tongue. The pain made her eyes water. It was surprising how bad it hurt. She held her breath and waited for the initial shock of it to fade.

  The helicopter engine whistled as it began to slow. As the noise from the propellers faded, Sarah became aware of how bad her ears were ringing. It was like having millions of invisible ants screaming inside her head.

  “I bet you never expected to land a helicopter on the White House lawn,” said Keith.

  “Can’t say I did,” said Joe.

  They unbuckled themselves and began climbing out of the helicopter. Sarah followed them out.

  The grass came over her feet when she stepped down. Some of it managed to get on the inside of her pants, making her calves itch.

  The grass and general landscaping maintenance was so far neglected, that the White House lawn was more of a field than anything. At that moment, it was in no way presentable. If this grass was in her subdivision back home, Sarah was positive the neighbors would be bitching up a storm by now.

  “I don’t like this,” said Matt. “It feels wrong. We should get out of here.”

  “What the hell’s it supposed to feel like?” asked Keith.

  “I’m just saying, my gut’s telling me to run.”

  Joe shot him an irritated glance. “There’s the street.”

  Joe pulled a shotgun and his 9mm pistol out of Keith’s drag bag. He made sure they were both loaded then placed the pistol on his belt.

  He was the first to begin moving towards the White House. Its famous pillars loomed over him like the temple of some ancient Roman god.

  The others fell in behind, cautious and ever aware of the afternoon sun. Sarah thought they should run inside to save time. She didn’t say it out loud however. In the shadow of such a powerful building, she couldn’t quite find the nerve to protest caution.

  They made their way up the large front steps. They were the same steps traversed by so many others over the course of American history. Never before had a journey up those steps been so important.

  The front doors of the White House were bashed to pieces. Broken chunks of glass cracked under their feet as they stepped inside.

  Sarah wished more than ever that they had working power. It was dark in the White House and in a two hundred year old building; darkness felt all the more haunting.

  Chunks of plaster littered the wooden floor that had been torn apart in random spots. Every step they took seemed to echo through the building before fading into the haunting void of sound. The walls and ceiling were shredded, as if vampires had spent the last few days sharpening their claws on everything.

  It was more like a building that had been abandoned for years than the home of the President. Sarah realized with dawning horror how much this building matched the state of the rest of the country. They paralleled each other.

  “Now what?” asked Matt.

  Keith racked the shotgun he was holding then looked back at his companion.

  “Now we tear this place apart looking for the son of a bitch.”

  Chapter 44

  They saw their first vampire five minutes into the search. Adam and Sarah split up to save time, taking a large marble staircase to the second floor. The other three went to check the closer rooms on the first floor.

  Adam knew from the beginning that splitting up was a horrible idea. Unfortunately, they were racing the giant clock in the sky and time was almost up. The shadows were already growing long and they still had the entire building to search. This meant their only chance to find the head vampire was to maximize their searching ability.

  In case something went wrong, if they didn’t die, they were to regroup at the front of the building.

  At the top of the staircase was a richly decorated hallway lined with silk chairs and grandiose mirrors. All of the mirrors were broken and covered in spiderweb cracks. The red carpeting was ripped in places. In some spots it was pulled back revealing hardwood flooring underneath. They could taste mildew on their tongues, the air was thick with it. It was obviously a very old building and it had the smell of age to go with it.

  Adam went to the nearest knob and twisted the handle. The door creaked and slid open of its own accord.

  Every window inside the room was boarded up. Perhaps that was why Adam didn’t see the figure at first. It was laying under the covers of a king-sized bed, pale and unmoving. Its arms were crossed over its chest like a corpse.

  Adam jumped backwards and almost knocked Sarah down. She had to take two stumbling steps to keep her balance.

  “What the hell Adam?” She had enough sense to whisper at least.

  “There’s one of them on the bed.”

  She grabbed his elbow and peered around him. Her grip tightened on his arm as she froze.

  Sarah’s voice grew so quiet, Adam had to strain to hear it. “Is that him? What do we do?”

  “We should get the others.”

  “We should kill him now,” said Sarah.

  “How? We don’t have any guns.”

  “There.” She gestured to the remains of an old dresser.

  Something (presumably the vampire) had ripped it to shreds, scattering its pieces all across the floor. She bent down and picked up a long slender piece that came to a point on one end.

  “Help me.” She began moving for the vampire and Adam was painfully aware of every squeak the wood floor made beneath her feet.

  When she reached the bed she held the wooden shard over the vampire’s chest.

  The vampire looked as though he were around their age, in his early twenties. He had chiseled features and cropped black hair that looked to be permanently gelled. The tips of its fangs were visible at the edge of its lips.

  It wasn’t wearing a shirt which was good, Adam wasn’t sure they could puncture deep through its skin and a shirt at the same time. Then again he had no idea, it would be his first time stabbing someone in the chest. Did the vampires have thicker skin? He didn’t doubt it.

  He held his breath when he got close. The idea that they might wake the vampire was frightening. They would both be dead before they could even make it to the door. />
  He grabbed Sarah’s hand and lifted them high over their heads. He made sure his grip was tight.

  “We swing on three,” he whispered.

  Sarah began to count. “One, two, three…”

  They brought the shard of wood down, just below the vampire’s chest. It broke the skin, but didn’t pass more than an inch deep.

  The vampire’s eyes flew open. It’s red pupils glared up at the round ceiling.

  “Shit,” said Adam.

  He leaned forward, putting as much weight on the stake as he could muster. The vampire brought his hand up and grabbed Adam’s wrist. He cringed as its nails cut through his skin.

  At the same time Sarah fell onto the stake, throwing her shoulder into it.

  The wood tore through its flesh, pierced its way deeper until their knuckles touched the vampire’s cold chest.

  The vampire sucked in a harsh breath. It let go of its grip on Adam’s hand and Adam was able to pull it away. A trickle of blood ran from the lacerations it left.

  Both Adam and Sarah stepped away.

  The vampire lifted its hands and latched onto the shard now sticking from its chest. It was shaking as it failed to pull the wood free.

  They could hear the sound of crackling and Adam thought the wood was turning a darker shade. The vampire’s skin began to sag like paralyzed flesh. Its features, so charming only seconds earlier, began to warp into something hideous.

  It rocked against the bed, screeching into the air. Its eyes rolled back and the color drained from its hair until every strand was ghostly white. Wrinkles grew across its face, sinking deeper and spreading wider. As the wrinkles spread the skin underneath began to dry and crack.

  The transformation continued until the vampire’s body looked comparable to that of a mummy. When it exhaled its final breath, dust flew out.

  The creature’s screeches weren't loud enough to reach much farther than the outside of the room, and Adam was thankful for that. If there were any other vampires, he didn’t want to risk waking them.

  They left the vampire with the wood protruding from its chest. Turning their back to it felt wrong, so they fled the room as quickly as possible.