The Pilgrims of the Damned: A Vampire Thriller, page 15
Most of the houses still looked vaguely house-like, although quite a few of them had partially collapsed from disuse, or being so open to the elements. Vines wrapped around porches and tufts of grass and weeds poked through cracked concrete garden paving.
“Where are they?” Miles asked Thomas. The two had set off at the front of the pack, with one Blood Guard on either side just behind them.
Thomas pointed up toward a several larger buildings in a row with a parking area out in front. “Used to be some shops,” he said.
“A pharmacy,” Miles said, reading the names of the shops that still had names. Five of the shops had metal shutters installed out front, which would need to be lifted up to allow anyone into the buildings themselves, which did beg the question, how did the desolate keep getting inside? “A 7-Eleven, too. Why do the desolate come here?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
Miles nodded. “Sorry, just wondering to myself. There’s a lot of buildings that they could hide in.”
“Maybe this one is just easier to get into?” Thomas theorised. “It’s more derelict than a lot of others. You know, when we found out what they were doing in Maine, we found they had done so much research about the desolate, but they didn’t actually learn an awful lot that survived the fall. So much lost.”
Miles stopped by the remains of a Mercury Cyclone GT, its original bright red paint mostly faded or worn away. The windows were smashed, the interior all but destroyed from time, weather, or if the smell was any indication, whatever had decided to use it as a toilet.
Miles looked across the road at an old church. “You ever go in there?”
Thomas nodded. “We’re going to clean it out, too. Feels like we should always make sure that places like that aren’t tainted with the evil of the desolate.”
Miles walked over the road to the church. It still stood tall, though the tiled roof had seen better days, and the cross that had once adorned it was now on the overgrown lawn at the front of the building. It was big enough that the downstairs would be a good place for desolate to hide during the day.
Thomas gathered the pilgrims together and walked through the plan. They were going to open the doors of each building in turn, and draw out any desolate inside. No one was to go into a building alone, and no one was to try and compete for most kills. If desolates were spotted alone outside of this area, the kill was made quickly, and reported in case there was a horde coming. After they were done there, they would move over to the church and flush out any inside.
Thomas started showing people how to decapitate a desolate, which honestly in Miles’s mind you should either already know, or stay on the bus out of everyone’s way. He kept that notion to himself, though, in case it upset some people.
Miles saw Amelia walking around some of the houses, filming content as she, Church, and the Blood Guard made their way slowly over to the shop area.
There was a rattle of chains as the two Blood Guard went over to the first of five shops with the metal shutters. One of them lifted the shutter as the other stood nearby, their hand on their sword hilt. As the shutter moved up, it made enough noise to presumably wake the dead.
There was a silence for a few seconds as the Blood Guard moved back from the shattered pharmacy windows. It didn’t take long for the desolates to come stumbling out of the shop. There were four in total, all of whom saw the pilgrims and sprinted toward them, roaring in a need to feed and rend flesh from bone.
Miles strolled toward the group as the pilgrims set about decapitating all four desolates, before Thomas poured fluid on their bodies and set them alight.
“You do that for all of the desolate you kill?” Miles asked, the heat of the burning bodies forcing him to keep his distance.
Thomas nodded as more desolates were released from the next two shops. Shops four and five were devoid of anything except a few exceptionally irritated rats and a metric ton of cockroaches.
When it was clear that nothing more was coming out of the shops, the pilgrims walked over to the church, where Thomas and the two Blood Guards opened the door after removing the chains. There were several desolates inside, which ran out at the waiting pilgrims.
Amelia recorded the whole thing, and went into the church with Thomas and the Blood Guard, leaving the pilgrims outside. Miles remained with the pilgrims, far enough back to not get in the way, but close enough to intervene should there be an issue.
“Hey!” Jenny shouted, pointing down the road. “It’s a lone desolate.”
“Must have come from around here somewhere,” Jeremy said.
“I’ll deal with it,” Travis told them, puffing out his chest and waving his machete about as he strolled down the moonlit street toward the desolate. The latter noticed the vampire when he was about forty feet away and rushed toward him, but one vampire against a single desolate who probably hadn’t eaten more than vermin for months on end was only ever going to have one outcome.
Travis stepped to the side of the desolate, knocking it back toward the crowd who cheered.
Miles didn’t like where this was going, and pushed himself away from the wall he’d been leaning against. He started a slow, leisurely stroll toward the desolate, who had fallen to the floor and was scrambling to get back to its feet.
It wore the tattered remains of what had once been a pair of trousers and a shirt, although neither had much in the way of material left. It was shoeless and bald, and its ribcage looked as though someone had sucked all of the contents out of it. Its grey skin hung from its emaciated body, but it still hissed and growled, looking for its next victim.
Travis kicked the desolate in the head, sending it back to the ground. He stomped on its leg, snapping the bone.
“Let me have a go!” Jenny shouted with a lot more enthusiasm than Miles was happy to hear.
Travis gave a bow and motioned for her to continue the assault. Jenny brought her boot down on the back of the desolate’s head, smashing its face into the concrete road with a noise that made several of the pilgrims wince.
“Come on!” Jenny shouted at the desolate, stepping back to give it some room. “Come show me what you can do. You abomination.”
Travis whooped and hollered as several of the pilgrims began to turn away, uninterested in watching someone’s idea of fun when it intersected with needless cruelty.
The desolate was back on its feet, and Jenny swiped her machete across its chest, bringing it back down onto the outstretched hand of the desolate, severing the limb. She kicked the desolate back, and laughed. “Let’s get that other hand, shall we?” she asked, bringing the machete up.
Miles caught her hand as it reached its highest point, and tore the weapon out of her hand.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Jenny shouted at him, regaining the attention of everyone who had been happy to let her do her own thing.
Miles brought the machete down onto the neck of the desolate, decapitating it, before tossing the weapon at Jenny’s feet. “We don’t torture for fun.”
“They’re desolate,” Jenny said, picking up the machete. “Who gives a fuck?”
Miles turned back to Jenny, anger in his eyes. “We do nae torture for fun. We kill, we move on, we don’t linger, we don’t inflict needless suffering on those we deem lesser than us. We’re vampires, nae monsters.”
Jenny laughed in Miles’s face. “I’ll do as I please. You can’t do shit to stop me.”
“Jenny, enough,” Thomas called out.
“No, this… man thinks he can tell me not to enjoy myself.”
“We don’t torture the desolate,” Thomas said.
“I am of House Idolator, and I will rid this world of vermin in whatever manner I please.”
“You will not!” Miles’s words were mixed with his power, slamming it into Jenny’s mind with enough force to cause her to stumble back to the ground, dropping the machete.
She looked up at him with genuine fear, which was quickly replaced with rage.
Travis ran toward Miles, who avoided the punch and slammed his hand into the younger vampire’s chest, breaking his ribs, lifting him off his feet, and smashing him down onto the ground with ease.
Miles turned to Jenny, who had the machete in her hands and nothing but contempt on her face. “You do not talk to me like that,” she growled.
“If you come at me with that weapon, you die,” Miles said loud enough for everyone to hear. “No games, no second chances, I’ll take your life and forget you ever existed.”
“Miles,” Thomas said, with more than a little pleading in his tone.
Miles looked down at Travis, who remained on the ground. “Goes for you, too.”
“Miles, please don’t execute the pilgrims,” Thomas said as he strode toward the rapidly escalating incident. “Back to the bus, all of you.”
Jenny tossed her machete on the ground with a hiss of annoyance and stormed off, with Travis running after her, while everyone else stared at Miles with a mixture of horror, fear, and outrage.
“Go,” Thomas called off. “Back to the bus.”
The all did as they were told, with Jenny the last to go.
“They were torturing desolate,” Miles said by way of explanation. “They’re mindless husks, but that doesn’t mean they get to be tortured for fun, Thomas.”
Thomas let out a long, weary sigh. “I agree. Although I think Jenny and Travis might not be best pleased with what you’ve done here today. They might form a little group intent on causing you harm.”
Miles watched the pilgrims go back to their vehicles, and knew it wasn’t the last he’d hear from the kinds of people who thought that torture was a fun way to spend time. He turned to Thomas. “What else is new?”
Chapter Fourteen
Iwant to check something,” Miles said before he returned to the bus.
“What?” Thomas asked.
“The shops where the desolate were,” he replied. “Just take a minute.”
“You want assistance?”
Miles shook his head and jogged away to the buildings, which two of the Blood Guard were busy closing the shutters on.
“Do you ever go inside and check them out?” Miles asked.
“No,” the first Blood Guard said. “We are not allowed to perform a search and clear here. We protect the First Authority before all else.”
“I’m going into that pharmacy,” Miles said. “Don’t lock me in.”
“You have five minutes,” the Blood Guard said. “I don’t want to have to come in after you.”
“You won’t,” Miles assured him as he turned to find Amelia outside of the pharmacy, Church beside her.
“You’ve found something?” she asked as Miles joined up with her.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just want to look.”
“At the inside of where desolate keep appearing from.”
“Never said it would be a fun look,” Miles told her as he stepped over the broken glass into the pharmacy itself. He was about to tell Amelia and Church to stay, but they were already inside the building with him by the time he’d turned around.
“No, I’m not waiting,” Amelia said.
Church barked once in agreement.
“Fine, don’t wander off,” Miles said.
“This place stinks of shit,” Amelia said, covering her mouth with her sleeve, while she turned on a flashlight with her free hand.
“Desolate aren’t exactly the cleanliest of creatures,” Miles said as he continued through the pharmacy, stepping over the remains of old medicine boxes.
“What do you expect to find in here?” she asked.
“The answer to a riddle,” Miles said without looking back.
They reached the pharmacy counter at the rear of the shop. Miles stepped around it, and through one of two doors behind it. It took him into an L-shaped hallway with four doors. He started at the end, checking the door, which led to a small bathroom. The next door led to a stockroom that was mostly a mass of cardboard boxes and shelving units with well-expired medicine on them. The third door was a coffee room, with table, chairs, a TV, a small kitchen, and a fridge.
“What are you expecting?” Amelia asked.
“I’m nae sure,” Miles said, trying the final door, which led to a docking area at the rear of the pharmacy. There was a metal shutter at the far end, and a truck in the middle of the floor, next to a large sinkhole.
“Jesus fucking hell,” Amelia said, her voice muffled as she tried to cram as much of her arm over her face as possible. “It smells like everything died in here.”
“Desolate,” Miles said, dropping down from where he stood at the top of a ramp onto the docking bay floor. There were several crates, the contents of which were spilled over the floor, moving down into the ten-foot- diameter sinkhole.
Miles crouched down beside the hole and peered in. Even with his excellent night vision, he couldn’t see the bottom. He listened to see if there was anything crawling up, but he heard nothing. Even so, the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention, and he quickly walked away, back to where Amelia and Church stood.
“What is that?” Amelia asked.
“That is how the desolate keep coming back,” Miles explained. “Don’t ask me how it got there, because there’s no way it was dug by hand, it’s too smooth, but I think we found the cause of the problem.”
“Maybe it’s just a natural sinkhole?” Amelia asked.
“Maybe,” Miles said, hoping they were all that lucky.
They returned into the main pharmacy room, and Miles checked the other door behind the counter, which was ajar. He pushed it open with his foot, half expecting something to run out at him, but all it did was swing harmlessly open, revealing a large hole in the wall.
“The desolate dug that?” Amelia asked.
Miles nodded. “Looks like it. Probably rats in the walls or something, they tried to get at them, ended up making a hole in the wall. My guess is these five buildings are all joined together with similar holes, or partially collapsed walls. I don’t plan on going through each to find out. They probably went through there after food, and either smashed some windows to get out farther along, to keep tracking prey, or they got stuck. If it’s the second option, I don’t want to go searching for what we might find. We should leave.”
Along with Church and Amelia, Miles left the shop without another word.
“You find anything?” one of the Blood Guard asked.
“Nothing good,” he told them. “Thomas on the bus?”
The Blood Guard nodded, but continued to stare at Miles.
“What?” Miles eventually asked.
“You stopped the girl from torturing that desolate,” the Blood Guard said.
“And I shouldn’t have?” Miles questioned, ready to hear how it was just a desolate again.
The Blood Guard shook his head. “No, it was the right thing to do. The desolate were human once, they didn’t ask for this. Didn’t ask to be turned into monsters. End their suffering and move on is the right thing to do. Thank you for stopping her.”
Miles nodded and walked back to the Winnebago, only to find Thomas sitting on the sofa inside, a pot of tea on the table, along with three mugs, a small jug of milk, and some sugar cubes. “I didn’t know how you liked it,” he said by way of explanation.
Miles smiled as Church lay on the ground between the dining-living area and the bedrooms at the rear of the vehicle. Her eyes were only on Thomas, as if expecting something she needed to be ready for.
“Your dog doesn’t trust me,” Thomas said.
“He’s fine,” Miles said to Church. “He’s no threat. Right?” The last word was directed at Thomas as Miles looked his way.
Thomas held his hands up. “I am not here to harm anyone. I don’t even like the idea of harming someone. I am an Authority. A First Authority, but still. I am an administrator, a man who would rather be overseeing the House coffers than fighting off a horde of desolate, or even fighting other vampires. My House didn’t allow me to become a vampire because of my incredible physical prowess in combat. Besides, who pours tea if they’re going to be a threat? This isn’t The Princess Bride, and I haven’t poisoned any of the cups.”
“It’s always weird when vampires who are centuries old are fans of something modern,” Amelia said, taking a seat at the table as Thomas poured three cups of tea.
“I like movies,” Thomas said by way of explanation. “I think the world of cinema might actually be humanity’s greatest invention. Or at least the one I’m most grateful for.”
Miles took a seat and dropped two cubes of brown sugar into his tea, before stirring it slowly with a teaspoon. “So, are you here to discuss what happened with that rich brat and her friends, or what I found in the shop?”
“Both,” Thomas said. “Firstly, I want to thank you for stepping in with Jenny. Several of the pilgrims were unhappy with the way she and her friends were dealing with the desolate. Like it was a game. Like it was fun. Taking the life of something shouldn’t be fun, even those who for all intents and purposes are dead compared to what they once were. She isn’t happy, by the way. I would be careful of her.”
“I got the impression she was just a combination of devout believer of all of what House Idolator offers, and a rich woman who needed people to be at her beck and call,” Amelia said. “I saw a new side of her today.”
“As did I,” Thomas admitted. “An unpleasant side. I’ll be keeping my own eye on her. I would appreciate it if you didn’t kill her, or her friends should they try anything stupid. They are true believers in House Idolator, as are all of our children, but some of us can lean toward fanaticism, and I fear that Jenny might be among them.”
“You want me to ask them nicely to stop?” Miles asked, taking a sip of tea.
“No, just don’t go all Arbiter on them,” Thomas asked. “Unless it’s strictly necessary, while on the pilgrimage. I would like all of the pilgrims to reach Bangor.”
