The two guards that had been standing outside burst into the room along with another soldier from behind the captain. All started with their weapons trained on Wayne, though lowered them as the captain waved them off.
“Thralls are humans given enhanced durability and limited regeneration, plus a few other bits and bobs, through the ingestion of a vampire’s blood. They retain their mental faculties, but it is addictive to the point where only those with great mental fortitude will actually disobey a vampire’s orders.”
“And the vampires themselves. Inhuman strength, speed, and stamina. They’re magic capable without exception and undying save through complete destruction of their bodies, typically through flames. They create more through a small ritual involving drinking a human’s blood on three separate nights followed by eating of the vampire’s flesh. Though any fresh ones are likely ignorant of their more supernatural abilities, or simply not powerful enough to make use of them yet.”
“That makes sense,” the captain started, slowly. He reached out and brushed his fingers across the bubble surrounding Wayne as if checking that it was actually there. “We’ve had several close calls tonight with infected reaching the fence. I’ve had to double up patrols.”
Wayne nodded. “And it is the third night.”
An uneasy silence settled over the captain and his guards.
Feeling that he wasn’t in immediate danger of being shot, Wayne toned down his shield to a low shimmer. Just enough to stop a few bullets and still have time to power it up with his mental acceleration active.
“Now,” Wayne said, snatching his forged papers out of the captain’s hands, “if you will be so kind as to open the gate. I have a VIP to collect.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll… If you don’t mind my asking, how did this happen? If these creatures were known, shouldn’t there have been plans in place? Someone should have said something. Stopped all this from happening.”
Wayne suppressed a sigh. The captain’s anger wasn’t exactly unfounded. Maybe he knew someone inside the city as well. Shaking his head, Wayne answered, “Normally, vampires are mostly harmless. They don’t like to make waves for fear of being hunted down. A meal here or there will usually leave someone feeling anemic at most with few memories of what happened the night before. Mostly harmless.
“As for how this blew up into a city-wide disaster, I don’t know. People at higher pay-grades can figure that out. I’m just a soldier.”
There, increase camaraderie by likening myself to them. Blame failures on the higher-ups.
Captain Hicks shook his head. “This whole situation is fubar.”
“No arguments there, Captain.”
“Right.” The captain gripped his radio and pressed down on the button. “Attention, this is Captain Hicks. We’re opening the gate.” He glanced around Wayne’s shoulder to look out the window. “One Chevrolet Impala will be driving towards the city. The vehicle is not a target.”
Releasing his radio, the captain looked up to Wayne. “I hope you know what you’re doing, sir.”
“So do I.” Wayne extinguished his shield as he turned to the door. “So do I.”
Jumping back into the Impala, Wayne revved the engine as he waited for the gate to open.
A series of gunshots echoed out very near. Likely right on top of the wall. The loud rushing wind noise of a flamethrower sounded soon after, illuminating much of the wall at the same time.
The captain walked up to his open window and leaned over. “You’re clear, sir. Good luck. I hope you get out safely. It’d be a shame to lose more good men to this nightmare.”
Wayne nodded. “Best you just forget about me, captain. I’m sure you’ll sleep better not wondering what happened to me.”
“I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep for a long while. Even if they are zombies or vampires or whatever, they’re still American citizens. Or they were.”
Soldiers with flamethrowers moved up to the gate, leaving just enough space for a car to slip through. Something akin to an air horn went off three times and the gate started moving at the end of the third.
“Welp,” Wayne said, “good luck with your job, Captain Hicks. Give ’em hell.”
Captain Hicks stepped back and saluted Wayne as he peeled off towards the city.
Chapter 002
The good news was that there were few cars on the freeway heading towards the city, leaving the freeway mostly clear of enemies.
The bad news was that the outgoing lanes were bumper to bumper. The military had cleared away most of the ones near the wall–with a bulldozer, by the looks of things–but the rest were just blocking the road. They looked abandoned, but Wayne wasn’t about to let his guard down.
He kept one hand on his tome as he drove along. A constant trickle of magic left him ready for anything at a moment’s notice; whether that be a shield, a fireball, or something more.
It took ten minutes to reach the city proper. Every minute that passed just built up that much more anxiety in Wayne. He kept waiting for something to happen. For a vampire to jump out of nowhere and try to tear his head off. Perhaps a thrall would flag him down, pretending to be a regular human.
Or even a ghoul.
But nothing happened.
Which made a little sense. The garrison wouldn’t hesitate to put down anything that popped its head up. With the wide freeway and the stretch of cleared cars, they had quite the killing field.
Once he hit the city, Wayne started jumping at every shadow. The smoke filling the air from the half of the city that was on fire reduced visibility to about ten feet in front of his car.
Coughing lightly, Wayne decided he couldn’t delay any longer. He reached into the back of the Impala and pulled out a fire mask. The filter was only rated for three hours but he had brought along several spares along with three extra masks. It was somewhat claustrophobic, and the small window narrowed his view to a fraction of normal.
At least I won’t be getting the black lung, he thought as he slipped the mask over his head. He set a timer on his watch as well. With all the time dilation from enhancing his mind, he would surely lose track otherwise.
Mask secured, Wayne proceeded through the city at a snail’s pace.
Lansing was not an unfamiliar place. How could it be? Most of his childhood memories consisted of nothing but Lansing. Sarah lived in the city as well, and he had remained in-touch well into adulthood.
But driving through the smog-covered streets was something else entirely. The vague familiarness worked against him to create an unnatural sensation. Were there always so many side roads before the next major intersection? Did the street he needed to turn on even connect to this road?
It didn’t help that reading street signs was a near impossibility. And the cars littering the streets forced him to wind and weave around, nearly doubling the effective length of any one road.
And the noise…
Wayne shuddered as an inhuman screech tore apart the relative silence. It was far enough away to not be a threat, but that didn’t provide him with the slightest amount of comfort. The Impala was noisy enough that he would be very surprised if nothing had taken note.
That nothing had thus far charged out at him meant that whatever had noticed him was something smart.
A car wouldn’t just drive around a city like this unless the occupants were confident enough in their ability to handle vampires.
Wayne had confidence in his flames, but he would be feeling much better once Sarah was there to watch his back. Being alone was just asking for trouble.
Speaking of trouble, Wayne thought as he glanced out the side window.
The smoke had curled in the air. Like someone had run through it at speed. Not enough for a car. Perhaps a motorcycle, but those would be noisy.