Chapter 29

Clare sat her father down on the couch and explained what had happened. No one had been bitten; no one here had even seen the outside since the start of the apocalypse. They did, however, barrage me with questions.

I tried to explain the system to them, but most of them were in their fifties or older, and it was hard to get them to understand.

“Okay.” Mike said, loud enough to cut me off mid conversation. The lights above us in the room were dimmer.

in the corner, two people ran on stepping machines that fed into a stack of connected batteries.

More people had filtered out of the back rooms, including some kids who stared wide eyed at me. No one had the gall to ask what I was. Everyone gathered around, ready for Mike to talk.

“Gather everything up. We’re going to group with other survivors south of here. Clarissa says they’re building a fortified castle of a spot and stockpiling goods. Looks like there might not be many people left in the city. Let’s move fast so we can help find others. Clare, Eli, Lenny, help us load the trucks.”

Mike led us to a garage in the back. Sealed vault doors occupied one side. People started pouring in with supplies, loading up two twenty-six foot long trucks with goods. The back of the trucks were fitted with chairs.

“Why do you guys have piles of dirt?” I asked, after one of the bags spilled and covered me in the stuff.

“It’s fertilized dirt for farming, incase we need to grow indoors.” Mike said.

I helped an old woman onto the truck. She pressed a dollar into my hand, smiling kindly as she clambered up to sit on the side. Everyone contributed with remarkable efficiency. Then Mike worked to open the vault-like doors at the edge of the garage. Only once they were open did the trucks rumble to life, headlights illuminating the dark tunnel ahead of us.

Mike slapped the front of one of the trucks.

“You want to ride in the front with us?” He asked.

I shook my head.

“We should move slow. Let me and Clarissa walk on foot incase we run into any monsters.”

“And your friend Steve outside?” He asked.

“He’ll walk with us.”

“Then lead the way.” Mike said. “Do you need a flashlight?”

“No.” I said, turning back to the tunnel. “Is this… under the road?”

“We bought up most of this block. All the private businesses were owned by us so that we could run this tunnel under it. Now, strictly speaking, we didn’t have all the permits, but from what I gather, the city isn’t enforcing laws anymore.” Mike shrugged, popping the door open and hopping in. Then he rolled the window down.

The tunnel started to smell like grease and diesel.

Clarissa joined me at my side and we trekked on into the dark.

“I have no idea when they built this.” Clarissa said. “He never opened the vault doors.”

The floor was covered in a fine layer of dust. It must have been years since anyone came through the tunnel. The lights in the ceiling didn’t power on as we walked almost a block in the dark before we came to a ramp, leading up and into a warehouse.

The concrete walls still stood, though the windows and skylights had melted or broken. Most of whatever was stored in the warehouse was damaged too. Huge shelves collapsed against the side of the walls in piles of damaged goods and debris.

There were, however, smaller concrete rooms with their own metal doors. Whatever was stored in those was probably fine.

My raised Intelligence had given me an incredible ability to process information, but I didn’t feel like there was anything I could do with it. I was so absorbed in looking at all the supplies stored here that when Clarissa spoke, it caught me off guard.

“Do you hear that?” She asked.

Once I focused on my hearing, I did. There was a terrible wet crunching noise, like a dog eating wetfood, and beyond that, dozens of skittering footsteps.

“Shit.” I said. The trucks slowly rumbled behind us.

Clarissa’s chainsaw rumbled to life, and all the other noises in the room stopped.

A monster dropped from the ceiling.

I reached out with [Move the Earth,] raising a column of concrete from the floor to intercept it. A dozen monster’s screeched.

“Shit, we’re outnumbered.” I said. An instinct I didn’t know I had reared its head at the slightest provocation of fear. My Willpower tugged on the connection between myself and my Minions, activating [Dread General.] I felt the Blood-Spawn and Blood-Thrall I had captured start to rush towards our location, leaving Steve alone at the church entrance.

The Blood-Thrall, the Blood-Spawn, and Russo.

But there was no time to think about that.

I stomped forward, slamming a hand onto the Blood-Spawn that had fallen from the ceiling before Clarissa could cut it to pieces.

[Willpower check succeeded! You have taken control of another’s minion. Strelix has been alerted.]

[Blood-Spawn Dominated!]

[Minions: 4/4]

“Kill them!” I shouted at the Blood-Spawn.

It snarled, then turned, flinging itself toward three charging Blood-Thralls. Three more dashed at Clarissa.

She didn’t back away, instead moving toward them, cutting one down with her chainsaw. She screamed as gore exploded around her.

I stepped to her side, activating [Obsidian Blade] and cutting through the remaining two. Unlike with the other adapted forms, the crescent of power had a corporeal form, expanding until it ran out of power. A pillar of sharpened, jagged glass remained.

[Blood Remaining: 70%]

[Alert: Minion felled.]

[Minions: 3/4]

Russo’s face flashed in my mind, but I knew it was just the Blood-Spawn dying. I looked over. It had killed two of the remaining three Blood-Thralls, and its larger body pinned the last one down.

A honk came from behind as one of the two trucks exiting the tunnel accelerated before bearing down on the vampires. Mike was leaning out the window.

“Die, demons!” He shouted as the truck rolled over the Blood-Spawn and Blood-Thralls beneath it.

The side of the truck scraped the pillar I had raised out of the ground before stopping.

Mike threw himself out of the truck the moment it stopped, racing to Clarissa, while the driver jumped out and circled to the back, checking if everyone is alright.

“Clare, you alright? These things are ugly as sin!” He said, moving to his daughter.

“You didn’t have to do that.” She said, turning to lock eyes with him. Her chainsaw was still spinning. “We had the situation under control. You endangered everyone in the truck.”

“I — ” Mike started to reply. Then stopped. “I leveled up.”

“Good.” Clarissa said. “We’re going to need all the levels we can get.”

There was a grunt and a thump from the other side of the room. Clarissa and I both spun to see Russo, eyes burning red.

“Russ!” I said.

Russo hissed, head snapping back and forth at the humans around me as he paced to me. Then he pulled back. His eyes softened.

“You’re alright?” He said.

“We’re fine.” I replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked off. Gaunt. “Are you?”

“I…” Russo stopped, trailing off as he looked at the mangled Blood-Spawn on the ground. “I need to drink.”

He brushed me aside, pushing past me, leaning over the ground and pulling the blood out of the monster.

I hadn’t even thought about his own need for blood. Had he been avoiding people because of the thirst? Because he couldn’t bring himself to do it?”

He stood, lingering over the corpse with his back facing me. When he turned back, he looked healthier, but blood smeared his face.

Mike stared at us, pale.

“Is this what happens when one of them bite you?” Mike asked. “Do we all lose our souls?”

“I still have a soul. We still have souls.” I said, turning to look at him. “I think.”

“I…  I can’t do this. Being driven to eat monster corpses.” Russo cut in.

“It’s alright.” I told him. “We can raid the hospital for supplies. The blood bank — they should have pouches. We’ll figure it out. I’m sorry. I should’ve noticed that you…”

I trailed off as we stared at each other.

Then the Blood-Spawn and Blood-Thrall scrabbled into the entrance as well. Mike recoiled. Russo bent low and hissed. Clarissa lifted her chainsaw.

“Wait! Those are mine!” I said.

Clarissa nodded, letting her chainsaw turn off.

“Yours?” Mike asked. “You turned someone into… that?”

“No.” I said. “Someone else did. I just took control of them.”

I frowned, remembering that the Blood-Spawn had been under the control of another vampire. That vampire was no where to be found, however.

Steve followed behind the two monsters, panting as I mentally ordered them back out of the building. He lurked in the doorway.

“Eli?” He shouted into the building.

“We’re over here!” I said.

Steve struggled inside, having to climb over some of the fallen goods to make his way to us. I caught him up on what happened, also explaining that another vampire had probably dominated one of the minions before I had.

“Do you think its the same one you mentioned encountering underground?” He asked.

“Unlikely. How would it have gotten out of there? Amber barricaded the door and had guards on us last I knew.” Clarissa replied.

“We don’t know whats down there. There could be an exit. There’s at least one, possibly two sentient vampires in the territory.” I clicked my tongue. “Steve, do you want to ride in one of the trucks? Let’s get home.”

Steve was still clearly exhausted. He nodded his head.

“Walk back with us, Russo?”

I used [Move The Earth] to move the cement under the exit in a wave, pushing aside all the trash. The ground wasn’t as smooth when I leveled it out, despite how much I tried. we led the trucks out of exits of collapsed garage doors and into the night.