It was half a days journey to the dam but in the permanent night it was difficult to tell how much time passed. Daniel and Joel tried to start spirited conversation but it was clear no one was in the mood and the journey passed in silence. Except for the sound of the oars in the water and the black wings above them.
Ben watched the place he had called home since he was eleven years old slip away behind him. In its own way it was cathartic. The place he had called home was already gone, leaving it behind on the river was like leaving it behind in his mind.
He thought about Mary and the boys. The knot in his stomach told him that there was a good chance they were dead or turned and that if they were turned he would have to kill them and that if that turned out to be the case there was a good chance that he wouldn’t be able to. As far as he knew he was the only person on the raft who had lost someone he cared about from the village but they had all lost someone recently.
The day wore on but the darkness never changed. It was a fixed point now, until this was over it would be forever night. Ben was ready for it to be over but when they rounded the corner and the dam came into view he realised that he wasn’t ready for it to begin.
The banks of the river leading up to the dam were lined with canvas tents. Red ones, blue ones, multicoloured ones. Whatever people had been able to find. There was noise too. Hammers on wood, sawing and voices shouting. Ben looked up and saw people, black dots swarming over the giant dam like insects.
They stopped rowing and let the river take them to shore. The boat landed with a gentle thud. Daniel and Joel tied it up automatically although, Ben thought, they had to know that their chances of coming back for it were virtually non-existent. He checked his bow and his quiver and joined them on the muddy bank.
Hiding was not part of their plan. The truth was they didn’t have one; they had no expectations (only fears) about what they would find.
They walked along the path. The weeds and bushes had been trimmed back so that the cracked concrete was visible. None of them spoke but Ben was sure he wasn’t the only one who held his gun a little tighter when the figure approached.
It was with surprise that Ben saw it was his mum and that she was smiling.
“Ben,” she said and opened her arms wide.
Too dazed to protest he let her wrap him in her arms. When she let go he stood back and a terrible thought crossed his mind. He leaned forwards and examined her exposed neck for bite marks and her flesh for decomposition but found neither. She looked healthy, better than she had done before in fact.
“I’m so glad you made it,” she said. “We’ve missed you.”
The ‘we’ was filled with promise and the hope that Mary might still be alive but he couldn’t bring himself to believe it yet. “What’s happening here?” he said.
“We’re building a dam,” she said.
“Hannah,” said a voice behind him.
His mum turned to look. “Oh hello Daniel, you’re back as well then.”
“Hannah, who’s building the dam?” said Daniel.
She smiled. “We are, didn’t I say?”
“You did,” he nodded. “But who are you building it for?”
“Them?”
She nodded, a big goofy grin on her face. He realised that something was wrong but not like before. This wasn’t alzheimer’s or whatever she had. “You’re building it for vamps?” he said, afraid that he already knew the answer.
“Ben,” she scolded, “watch your language.”
“But mum they’re … vampires. They’re evil.”
She was shaking her head. Around them the sounds of construction continued to meld with the black creatures that swarmed in the air above. He wondered if it was night yet and then he wondered if he would ever see daylight again.
“We got it wrong,” she said, still shaking her head. “They aren’t evil, they’re just like you or me. Did we ever tell you about evolution?”
He had a terrible feeling she was about to try and convince him that vamps were an evolution, the next step in the human journey. He didn’t think he could hear it. It made him think of Gabriel and his insistence that the King still being alive was a god given miracle.
“Where’s Nicholas?” he said.
“The General?”
“Is he still in charge?”
“Oh yes,” said his mum. “It’s because of him that we saw we were wrong. He helped us understand the truth.”
Ben nodded but he wasn’t agreeing with her. “Do you know where he is?”
“I can take you to him if you like,” she said.
Ben turned to the others who had listened to the whole exchange. They nodded and he turned back to his mum. “Take us to him.”
It took them close to an hour to reach the dam. His mother’s mental faculties seemed much improved but her old legs and back were as bad as ever.
“The General says it’s high time we stopped living like fishes waiting to be caught,” she said as they walked. “We’ve got nothing to fear from the Omega…”
“The Omega?” said Ben dropping back a step to walk by her side.
“That’s what we call them now, The Omega.”
He nodded and let her continue.
“Really they just want to help us so we should be grateful. They’re stronger than us and smarter than us but we can be just like them.”
They reached the scaffolding that wrapped around the dam. Ben could see the people working on the structure now, familiar faces, young and old.
“Up here,” said his mum and they followed her up a narrow stone staircase. The river disappeared beneath them and from the top he could see over the green and yellow fields into the distance. Great forests seemed to have risen from the ground. The dark sheets above extended as far as he could see.
His mum walked at the front and he was directly behind her. About halfway along the narrow path he felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Daniel. “Let me go ahead,” he said. Ben stood aside and they continued walking in their new formation.
Ben had no idea what to expect but it certainly wasn’t the palatial building they found at the top of the dam. Made out of the same light stone as the dam itself it’s turrets and towers might have been carved out of a rock face.
At the front of the
(castle)
stood two large men that Ben recognised from their days guarding the Village Hall. Except they looked bigger, bolder. They didn’t so much as nod in recognition as his mum led them inside.
The smell hit him like a punch in the face. Instantly he was choking back tears. His eyes watered as they followed his mum through the wide entry hall.
Dark shapes, people
(vamps)
(omega)
hung back in the shadows. Watching them with bright eyes that seemed the shine in the gloom. He wouldn’t turn towards them, afraid that he would recognise them.
She led them to a door but there was no need to knock. It swung open as they approached and then they were in the General’s private chamber. The double doors closed behind them with a heavy thud.
There was no light but he could see just the same. The figures before him stood out, shining black shapes on a dull black background. There were a dozen of them at least but in the middle of it all a figure twice the size of any others sat on an onyx throne.
“Wait here,” said his mum.
He nodded dimly. He was vaguely aware of movement behind him but he couldn’t turn, he was frozen to the spot.
His mum walked towards the black throne where Nicholas was seated. She knelt down and he seemed to see every gnarly twisted bone ache. She bowed her head.
“I have brought them to you master,” she said.
This time Ben was ready for it. He didn’t feel any shock at his mothers words, in fact it seemed to explain a great deal. He spun around before the giant hands could grab him. There was no chance to beat the vamps-gone-wrong with strength but in his belt he still had the wooden knife he had taken from the armoury.