The Pilgrims of the Damned: A Vampire Thriller, page 33
“We should set off, then,” Miles said.
“Need to blow the hole,” the doctor said.
“What about the ruin entrance in Waterville?” Miles asked.
“We’ll have to come back here and deal with that,” the doctor said. “I don’t think we have time. Do we even have any way to blow up this one?”
Miles removed his bag and opened it, showing the doctor the dozen incendiary shells. “You think this will do? That drill has fuel in it. Can’t drill otherwise.”
It took the pair of them ten minutes to rig the drill to blow, although without a timer, they had to load a single shell into the shotgun and climb back in the hole, and Miles had to aim at the cluster bomb they’d created. “Move the tram forward a little,” Miles said. “This isn’t going to be a little boom.”
The tram started, the headlights revealing nothing but darkness in the tunnel ahead. It moved forward a hundred feet, the red rear light on the vehicle blinking as it moved. Miles held the shotgun steady, aimed it at the cluster of explosives they’d used on the drill, hoped like hell this was going to work, and pulled the trigger.
Miles was already running as fast as he could as the tunnel collapsed behind him. He leapt onto the already moving tram, the vibrations of the explosion rocking the vehicle.
“That was more exciting than I would have liked,” the doctor said after the tunnel stopped shaking.
“Doc, where we’re going, I think we’re only just getting started with the excitement.”
PART THREE
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Church didn’t really like being left behind. She’d gotten used to it, because there were some places that taking a dog, even one with her abilities, was a terrible idea, but she still didn’t like it.
She enjoyed spending time with Amelia, though; she liked Amelia. She thought that she was kind and attentive, and understood that while, yes, Church was a dog, she was also a dog with the intelligence of a human. Church understood people perfectly in several languages, and disliked it when humans or vampires spoke to her as if she were a small child.
With Miles gone, and having been placed in charge of Amelia’s security, Church had taken the job seriously. She had slept in the same bedroom as Amelia, and she had followed her everywhere she went in Bangor, although she drew the line at accompanying her in the bathroom. Some things a dog didn’t need to be a part of.
Church thought that Amelia had a nice smell. It wasn’t quite the same as a human scent, as there was something earthy about it. It reminded Church of a fresh-cut lawn, although the human scent was still there, lingering under it all. Church was certain it was the magic inside of Amelia that changed her scent.
She could tell a lot about a person from their smell, and usually that included whether or not they were trustworthy. Or at least whether or not they were happy lying to people. She’d met the Commander that everyone had been talking about, and was certain he was not on their side. He had the stink of distrust. She also didn’t trust several of the councillors after being under the table the whole time, and thought that Bethany was lying about something. Although Church had to admit that when it came to scientists, she had a… Miles called it a negative opinion.
She missed Miles. He’d only been gone a day, at most, but she was always sad when he went somewhere without her. She liked to keep watch over him. That was her job, after all. He was in charge, and she was the one to ensure he stayed safe. Miles had trusted her with an important job, so she was going to continue doing it until he returned.
Being human, Amelia had a slightly odder way of living than Miles did. While Miles was awake all night usually, allowing Church to do what she needed under the comfort of darkness, Amelia’s sleep schedule was a bit strange. Church had to admit that Amelia had tried to turn herself into a nocturnal creature for the duration of her stay in Bangor, but it was more difficult staying up all night and sleeping during the day than most humans thought.
Amelia appeared to operate on caffeine, and she wasn’t all that concerned where the caffeine came from. Coffee, tea, horrific-smelling drinks that Church was pretty sure could dissolve metal. All were drunk while Church wondered if protecting Amelia extended to protecting her from her own terrible diet.
As Church followed Amelia through Bangor toward the main entrance, several people came over to talk to her. Word had apparently gotten out that she was doing a story on the pilgrimage, and wanted to know if she might like to do another story about the largest city in Maine and how it had stood the test of time. Church had no opinion on this, but Amelia appeared to be enthusiastic about it, which made Church happy.
Church stayed out of the way as Amelia arranged interviews with several Bangor inhabitants, all of which took place in a small room just off the main entrance. Church stayed outside, watching the people of the town go about their lives, occasionally yawning to scare off anyone who felt like coming over to check what she was doing, or who she belonged to. Church belonged to no one. She was her own dog, something Miles had told her several times. She chose to stay with Miles because she liked him, and without her he would inevitably end up hurt, and she was not having any of that.
The moon was high above them when the interviews ended, and Amelia came out, crouched beside Church, and started to stroke her. “You been okay out here?” Amelia asked.
Church licked her face, which made Amelia giggle. Church enjoyed the sound of laughter. There was a loud crunch a moment later, which Church did not enjoy. She stood, almost knocking Amelia over.
“What’s up?” Amelia asked.
Church sniffed the air, getting the unmistakable scent of… death. It wasn’t close enough to be an immediate danger, but the smell was something she had caught before. Desolate. Church barked several times, and sniffed the air again just as the ground shook, and something loud and unpleasant came up from beneath her feet. Amelia drew a gun from her hip and aimed it at the floor.
“Church!” Amelia shouted as the ground exploded all around them. Dirt, rock, and mud rained down over them, and screams found their home in Church’s ears, as the scents of blood and decay assaulted her nose.
“We need to get away,” Amelia said.
Church agreed. Amelia was human. Amelia was squishy. And Miles liked Amelia. Church liked Amelia. She took Amelia’s hand in her mouth and started to lead her away from the shouting, the fighting, as desolate poured out of the holes all around them. This was what happened in Falmouth. But this would be different. Falmouth didn’t have a Church.
When they were closer to the motel, after several minutes of Church running slower than she’d like so that Amelia could keep up, Church let go of Amelia’s hand and let out a low growl, stepping in front of her human, as desolate poured out of an alleyway.
Church let out a howl and charged the desolate, leaping at the first, her jaws gripping the desolate’s head for an instant until she crushed it like a grape. The taste was vile, but she would drink water later until it went away. She had no time to consider the bitter, disgusting aftertaste as she tore into five desolates, ripping flesh from bone with teeth and claw, and crushing the skulls of all five. When she was done, she turned to be congratulated by Amelia for her good work, but found that the human was gone.
A panic settled inside Church’s body for a moment. Her human was gone. Where had she gone? Why had she gone? Had something taken her? She forced herself to be calm and sniffed the air. The human scent was steady, and led down toward the motel.
Church set off at a run, keeping the scent in her nostrils the whole time, until she saw Amelia getting bundled into the back of a vehicle… a car… no, a truck. A big truck. Like the ones that had been on the pilgrimage. A military truck. The two people throwing Amelia in the back looked over at Church and jumped into the vehicle before it took off. She recognised two of them, they were on the pilgrimage, and there was someone else on the back of the truck she couldn’t see. A vampire—she smelled them, smelled the dead body of a Blood Guard on the ground. They were missing their head, while a second Blood Guard, who still lived but was badly injured, leaned up against the wall near the same desolate horde that congregated next to the truck. The still-living Blood Guard stank of his own blood, something that Church decided was almost certainly a bad thing. There was no time for that now, she had to get to Amelia. Had to rescue her.
Fucking hell, Church thought, barking several times to let everyone know exactly how she felt. She’d picked up swearing from Miles.
She ran at the horde of desolate just as the Blood Guard roared and charged into battle, swinging his sword around to cleave the heads from any desolate stupid enough to get in the way. It was Church’s opinion that all desolate were stupid. She’d liked Lauren, but that wasn’t the same.
She brought her thoughts back to the present and slammed into the first desolate at the legs, sending it spiralling back into the others like a bowling ball. She moved far too quickly for any of the desolate to get anywhere near her, but not quick enough to stop a group of them from killing the seriously injured vampire Blood Guard.
Before she could kill the rest, Carol Walters and a dozen guard members charged into the fray, all of them in their vampire forms. The resulting battle was bloody and quick, which was pretty much how Church liked all battles to go. When it was done, Church found Carol and barked twice.
“What is it?” Carol asked.
Church barked again, frustrated that this particular vampire didn’t know that two barks was bad.
Church ran over to the tyre tracks of the van that had barrelled away. She pawed at the ground, looked back at Carol, and pawed again, willing the stupid vampire to understand her.
“We saw the truck,” Carol said. “Who was in it?”
It was Amelia, you fucking cretin, Church thought, barking four times to get her point across.
“They took Amelia and Thomas,” a young woman said as she left the nearby motel reception area. She was covered in blood, too, and Church wondered if it was as much fun for them to roll around in it as it was for her.
“Who took her?” Carol asked.
Church forced herself to concentrate on the new woman. She smelled familiar.
“Jenny, Travis, Jeremy,” the woman said. “They knocked out Thomas, and killed Arvid.”
Church remembered that her name was Maeve. She looked around to see if anyone was going to tell her she’d done great, decided now probably wasn’t the time, and started to sniff the ground again. The truck was moving at speed, but she could catch up.
“Jenny was driving,” Maeve said. “I don’t think Thomas even knew what was happening.”
“He’s an administrator,” Carol said.
“He’s still a vampire,” Maeve said. “He was helping me kill the desolate. They came up in the middle of the common room. There were humans in there.”
“Go look,” Carol said to one of the guards with her.
Church looked between the two women and willed them to say something useful. Do you know where they are going? she asked, barking several times so that someone might actually pay attention.
“You know where they’re going?” Carol asked Church.
Church blinked. How have you survived this long? She barked a few times, and decided to paw at the tyre tracks of the military truck.
“You want to go after them?” Carol asked.
Church wondered if Miles was some sort of dog genius for actually understanding her when she did stuff. She barked once for yes. Surely these idiots understood once meant yes.
“Is one bark yes?” a newcomer asked.
Church barked once, relieved that they finally might be getting somewhere.
“Miles said she understood us,” Maeve said, looking back at Church. “Do you know where they’ve taken Thomas and Amelia?”
Church turned back to Maeve. Two barks. Now we were getting somewhere.
“Can you follow them?”
Church rolled her eyes.
“She didn’t bark,” Carol said.
Church wondered how many barks it would take for Carol to not be stupid. She barked once and looked over at Maeve, who was clearly the more intelligent of the vampires she had to deal with. She wished Miles was here.
“If you go ahead, we’ll send people with you,” Carol said.
Church barked once.
“I’ll come with you,” Maeve said.
Church snorted before she could stop herself, decided the conversation was over, and turned on her heels, running off through the town, following the truck. She had a lot of ground to make up, but the scent was strong, and she wanted those in the truck to think she wasn’t following. She wanted them to get complacent. She wanted to see the look on their face when she grabbed them by the throat and squeezed. Dog revenge was the best revenge.
She smelled Maeve before she caught up with her, quite impressed that the young vampire could actually keep up to begin with.
“We’re going to get them back,” Maeve said. “Thomas is a good man, and Amelia was nice to me.”
Church let out a low growl of determination, and continued on without slowing. They soon reached another hole, and lots of dead desolate surrounding it, along with many vampires who had died protecting their home. Many more still lived, although the large gates to the city were wide open.
Church wanted to continue on through the gates, but there was a scent in the air that made her stop. Her ears twitched as she looked around, trying to place where the smell was coming from.
Maeve went over to talk to several of the guards, and Church continued to feel something she couldn’t quite place. The scent was all desolate, although considering they were everywhere in town, that wasn’t a surprise. But it was something else. A condensed, powerful scent, like someone opening a can of fish. A wave of smell that felt as if it was continuously crashing against her senses.
Church stepped outside of the gates as the horde of desolate tore through the hillside toward them. She barked over and over, until people came to see what the trouble was.
“Oh my god,” Maeve said. “Church, you’ll have to go on alone. I’ll stay and help here.”
Church looked up at Maeve and snorted.
“Be careful,” Maeve told her.
Church barked once, hoping Maeve would understand that she was saying good luck, turned, and ran down the road as fast as her legs could carry her. The roar of desolate as they rushed toward the city gate threatened to overwhelm her sense of smell, but she pushed on, tracking the vehicle with her friend inside.
She’d run for several minutes when she stopped because the ground had shaken. She looked back at the city of Bangor in the distance. She hoped it would still be there when she found Amelia and Thomas. There were a few desolate who had broken off from the hundreds strong horde and had started toward her, but they were no threat, and were far enough away that they’d either find something easier to hunt, or they’d be unlucky enough to catch her. She was not in the mood to play with her prey.
Church continued along the road, which quickly turned into cold mud where the concrete had deteriorated or in some places been destroyed all together. She didn’t care; she only cared about the task at hand.
She continued running for some time, never stopping to drink or eat, never deviating from the trail laid out before her. The vehicle she tracked took several detours. Church assumed it was done to see if they could stop her from following them. It wasn’t going to work. The smell of diesel, the smell of Amelia, of the vampires. The fear that peppered it all. It was a cornucopia of scents that there would have been no way for Church to ignore, even if she’d wanted to. She occasionally came across a lone desolate, but they were worth neither the time nor the effort to deal with.
The landscape was sparse, with no lights except for the moon above, but that was fine; Church could see without artificial lighting. It made things easier for her, as her sense of smell was good enough to take her where she needed to go.
Eventually, she saw lights in the distance. Like all dogs, Church had red-green colour blindness. She could see other colours just fine, but she didn’t need to see the colours of red and green to notice the van parked up along the side of the road.
Church moved into the trees that nestled on either side of her, and continued on toward the van. She moved quietly, but maintained her speed, and was soon at the van, sniffing around the back of it to make sure she had the right one. She did.
She sniffed the air and followed the scents of Thomas, Amelia, and several others, as they walked along a dirt road into thick woods close to the truck. Church followed, keeping low and quiet as she moved through the darkness of the forest.
The farther into the forest, the more intense the scents got, and they were soon followed up with the sounds of voices. Church knew that vampires had a good sense of smell, considerably better than a human’s, but she also knew that beyond knowing something or someone was there, they still weren’t good enough to pick out individuals, unless they were tracking their blood. Church knew they wouldn’t have picked out her specific scent during their time in Bangor, and she doubted any of them could pick it out from the time they’d spent with her on the pilgrimage. Even so, she would need to be careful.
After a few minutes of walking, Church arrived at a large barn. There were several people outside, whose scents immediately gave them away as vampires. They were clearly the guard to the main barn entrance. Church stayed within the safety of the trees, and made a circuit of the barn, discovering it had multiple desolate sitting around it, looking out to nothing. Waiting for what? Church thought.
The light inside the barn spilled out over the surrounding area, illuminating a lot of machinery that looked to Church like something which would be used to dig. There were several military-style trucks too, and more than once, as she completed her circuit, she spotted motion detectors on trees, and trip wires, all easily avoidable.
