As it happened, we were approaching another tiny little town along the road to Donner as the sun set. On the map this place wasn't even listed. It had maybe twenty buildings, all of them boarded up and shuttered. Still, Aahz figured there was no point in taking any chances, so we walked into the tiny town.
We were just about through the town when, at once, every door in the town slammed open. It was a dark and quiet night, with the sun down and the moon not yet up. That much sud den noise and movement darned near scared me right out of my skin.
"What's happening?" Tanda asked.
I didn't have a clue. From what I could tell, every person in the town, all dressed in different clothing, some in night shirts, walked into the street like zombies, turned, and in a line headed out of town to the west.
We quickly stepped up onto the sidewalk to get out of the way as the chain of people moved past down the center of the road. There was no life in any of their eyes or fighting against what was happening to them.
"Be ready to take us back to Vortex #6," Aahz whispered to Tanda.
"Oh, I've been ready for days," she said.
The last person moved past us, leaving the town empty and every door standing wide open. I had no idea what we should do. I took the canister out of my pouch and downed the last of the second glass of carrot juice, just to be ready for whatever was coming.
Aahz motioned that we should follow them, so, moving slowly about thirty steps behind the last person, we followed the line of people out into the countryside, along the very same road we had planned on traveling.
The farther out we got, the more I expected to see the cows waiting for us, watching the zombie townspeople now. But there were no cows to be seen.
But there were a lot of naked people, yawning and stretch ing scattered around the fields, as if they were just waking up from a long nap.
The townspeople kept doing the zombie march as the na ked people in the fields moved toward them. The first naked guy to reach the line near us grabbed an old man in a nightshirt, tipped back the old guy's head, and bit into his neck.
"Vampires," Tanda whispered.
Behind us the full moon was easing up over the edge of the hill, shining light on the feast as more and more vampires picked a meal and bit in. So this was what the round-up was all about? I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
The cows were vampires, and their feeding stock was the people. No wonder all the people in all the towns all ate vegetables and were afraid of the night. The people who lived in the towns were nothing more than cattle, being fattened for slaughter every month.
It was the cows that were the masters.
"You are not in the round-up line," a deep and pleasant voice said from behind us.
All three of us spun around as one to face two naked people. One was a man, one a woman. Their bodies were perfectly formed, their muscles toned, their eyes large and brown, like the cow's eyes along the road every night.
The woman was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen without clothes on. No, make that the most beautiful. And with one glance into her eyes, I wanted to give myself to her. I didn't care if she bit me or not.
The next instant the dust storm on Vortex #6 slammed into me, snapping me out of my desire to make a fool of myself with a beautiful woman for the second time in a week.
Chapter Ten
"I can quit anytime."
S. HOLMES
The hundred slogging steps through the dust storm to the cabin seemed to get longer and longer every time I had to do it. I had no idea why we just couldn't D-Hop right into the cabin and skip all this dust and wind. I was going to ask Tanda that, as soon as things settled down.
As we got near the cabin, Tanda held up her hand for us to stop. I could barely see the dark shape of the building in the storm. There was no light in the window this time.
She did something with both arms I assumed was some sort of scanning magik that assassins knew, then motioned that it was clear and we should move forward. Therefore, Glenda wasn't here waiting for us.
I had the sudden image of one of the cow-vampires bend ing her over and sucking on her neck in the middle of some road somewhere. Considering what she had done to me, it was one of the nicer thoughts I had had about her in days.
We got inside and the door closed against the storm.
"Are we shielded?" Aahz asked Tanda.
"Up and solid," she said. "Skeeve was right; there is power ful energy here. I can hold the shield for as long as we need it."
"So Glenda can't pop in and surprise us?" I asked, moving to the stove to get it started before I took off my coat.
"Not a chance," Tanda said. "She hops back here, she's going to get awful dirty standing out there in the dust."
Aahz laughed. "Couldn't happen to a nicer demon."
"Want something to eat?" Tanda asked, working around in the cabinets as I sat at the table.
"Just more carrot juice," I said.
I could feel my body starting to get really tired, as if some one had pulled the energy plug and what I had left was draining onto the floor.
I dug into my pouch for the canister that I had been carry ing. It was gone. I checked again and it was still not there. I couldn't remember doing anything with it, but I might have dropped it in the excitement of watching cows become vampires and bite on people.
"You have the other canister of juice?" I asked Aahz. "Afraid not, apprentice," he said. "Left it back on Kowtow when we hopped out of there."
My first reaction was not to believe him. Then it became clear that he had left the rest of my carrot juice, and my reaction was anger.
"How could you do that?" I shouted. "Easy," he said.
He showed me by reaching into his pouch, taking out an invisible canister, and dropping it to the floor. "But what am I going to do without it?" Again I shouted. I needed that carrot juice; right down to the very bottom of my soul I needed it.
"You're going to sleep for a long time," Tanda said, smiling at me.
Just her mention of sleep made me sleepy. I couldn't believe they had done this to me.
"Taking a guy's carrot juice isn't nice."
"I know," Tanda said. "But we're doing it for your own good. You haven't slept in at least three days. You need to stop moving and just lie down."
The tiredness was washing up over me like a wave on the beach. It was everything I could do to even think about saying I didn't need sleep.
How dare she tell me what I needed? How dare Aahz leave my juice behind? Hadn't I trusted him with that juice?
"I don't need to rest," I said, my voice sounding funny to my ears.
"How about you just lie down for a few minutes and then we'll talk about it," Tanda said, helping me to me feet and moving me over to the soft-looking bed against one wall.
"Well, maybe just a minute," I said.
What could a minute hurt? I'd get back some of my en ergy, and then convince Tanda to hop me back to get my juice.
"Only one minute," I said.
Or at least I think I said that. I might not have, because from the moment my head touched the pillow, I don't remember another thing.
I woke up with a blinding headache and a taste in my mouth that was a cross between horse droppings and stale carrots. I rolled over and the pain hit me even harder, smashing into my head like someone was taking a hammer and pounding me right between the eyes.
"Ohhh," I said, putting both hands to my head trying to stop the agony.