Chapter 2

It had been one of the hottest summers on record. The greatest catastrophe in human history is mere days away. Vincent is a major in the air force and has much promise, he could soon make colonel.

Vincent was relaxing by the base pool on one of the rare days he had off. Some friends were lounging in the pool and on the deck when a private ran onto the deck. She was yelling, “Major Anderson!”

“Yes, Jameson,” Vincent said as he stood in front of the gasping soldier.

“Major, General West wants to see you,” she said. “It’s important. He said to come as you are.”

“I’m guessing he’s in his office,” Jameson nodded a yes. “Jameson, sit down and catch your breath while I go meet the general.”

“Sorry sir, but I have to find Major Lake before I can relax.”

“She’s in the locker room; I’ll get her out here for you.” Vincent walked over to the open door to the women’s locker room and called in for Major Lake to come out to the pool deck. He then headed into the Men’s Locker room to grab a shirt and pants before heading to the general’s office.

When Major Lake joined Vincent in General West’s office she asked, “Do you know why we were called here?”

“I know no more then you do.”

“Well I’ll tell you,” General West said as he entered. He was followed by the other Major on the base and an officer that Vincent did not know.

General West took a seat behead his desk and the officer stood next to him. Major Swanson took the only remaining chair. “This is Dr. Coxe,” the general said indicating the man standing next to him. “He is here to give each person on this base a vaccination for the new strain of the flu that is causing so many problems this season. As the highest ranking troops on this base it falls to you all to make sure everyone receives their vaccination.”

“Thanks you ge4neral,” Dr. Coxe said. “I would like to start with you three. With the fatality rate so high we are despsursing as quickly as possible, everyone will be vaccinated before the end of the week.”

“What about the civilian population?” Vincent asked.

“We hope to have the majority of the population vaccinated before the end of the next month.”

“That only gives you guys five weeks, and that means an awful lot of medication,” Major Swanson said.

“Yes, as we speak hundreds of doses of the vaccine are being created across the country. They will be given out as… rapidly as possible.”

“So, this vaccine has passed FDA regulations?” Major Lake asked. “Doesn’t it take years to get drugs like this passed for human use?”

“Normally, but the urgency required has prompted a fast track program. But don’t worry, there should be no problems as it is just a slightly modified form of a current vaccine and each batch is being tested against the okayed standard, and there is no measure of error allowed.”

“So who’s first?” General West asked.

After all the majors had been injected Dr. Coxe told them all to take it easy for a day or two and drink plenty of fluids.

Later during dinner in the mess hall, General West made an announcement about the vaccine. “Do you believe this?” a soldier asked Vincent.

“Yes, and as you can see I’ve already been vaccinated.”

“Sorry major,” the soldier said, “I didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”

“Quite alright, just be more careful from now on.”

“Yes sir.”

“Vincent,” Major Lake said as she came up near Vincent. “How about we sir together? I need to talk to you.”

“Okay, there are some vacant seats back there,” he said as he led the way to a deserted table in one corner.

“What’s up?” Vincent asked her as they sat down.

“How has your arm been?”

“A little sore, but otherwise alright. Why?”

“Swanson had to check in to the infirmary, his arm was swollen to nearly twice its normal size.”

“Was it an allergic reaction?”

“It’s possible, but if it was that simple would they have had to keep him?”

“How do you know all of this?”

“I’m the one who took him.”

“Does General West know? How about Dr. Coxe?

“They know, I told them both.”

“Okay, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

“I was going to see Swanson after dinner; would you care to join me?”

“Sure,” Vincent said as his eyes swept the room, and he got up to drop off his tray. He returned to the table to wait for Major Lake to finish her meal.

The next morning Vincent found out that at least twenty-five percent of those already given the vaccine were in the infirmary or at the local civilian hospital. All had swelling around the injection site and their skin had taken on a yellowish waxy look. Worse yet was there had been two deaths of the vaccinated-- one heart attack and the other under mysterious circumstances.

Three days after Vincent and Major Lake were vaccinated they were again called to General West’s office. “We have a problem!” General West said. “More than half of this base is laid up and nearly a quarter of that number will not be back.”

“Where is Dr. Coxe?” Vincent asked.

“He is unfortunately one of those who will not be back.” General West answered. “How are you two feeling?”

“Better than ever sir,” Vincent answered.

“And you Lake?”

“I’m okay sis,” Major Lake answered.

“You look a little pale,” General West said. “Go and get some rest, Vincent can keep this place in check, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“Major Anderson, see Major Lake to her quarters and then take a count of every able bodied member on base.”

“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed.”

Vincent stood and saluted; Major Lake stood and tried to salute, but nearly lost her balance. Vincent who had seen her listing put a hand on her shoulder steadying her. “Are you okay?” Vincent and General West asked nearly simultaneously.

“I’m fine,” she said, “I just need to get some rest.”

“Major, you keep an eye on her,” General West said.

Vincent led Major Lake out of the office and asked, “Would you like me to carry you?”

“I can walk.” Major Lake said as she stared to walk to the front door. She did not even get past the first step before Vincent had to pick her up off the floor.

Vincent carried Major Lake back to her quarters and put her into bed. He then fixed some tea and gently forced her to drink it. She was asleep in no time.

When Major Lake was asleep Vincent jogged the short distance to his quarters where he collected his book, a bedroll and his laptop before heading back to Major Lake’s.

Vincent set himself up for the day thinking and hoping that everything would be okay and that the government would find why their new miracle cure was causing so many problems.

Vincent tried to get some work down; paper work he had been putting off, but every time he started, his mind would wonder. He tried to buckle down, but it was useless. Eventually Vincent picked up his book to start reading, but he opened the book and started flipping through, not really seeing what he was looking at; his brain was occupied with other thoughts.

Vincent was amazed when he opened his eyes and saw the setting sun. More amazing still was the figure standing silueted in the window, obviously watching the last rays of the sun disappear behind the low hills to the west.

“What are you doing up?” Vincent asked.

“I’m hungry,” Major Lake answered.

“Would you like me to fix you some soup?”

“No, I want you to get me a glass of water,” she said as she turned from the window.

“How about some cheese and crackers?”

“No, I want you,” Major Lake said in a voice not her own.

“What did you say?” he asked, as major Lake seemed to glide toward him. After she had cut the distance in half she jumped.

Vincent found himself pinned to the chair, looking up into a pair of eyes he did not recognize. He thought quickly and said in a voice he used on new recruits, “Attention.”

Major Lake’s trained mind pulled her body into an attentive state. Vincent was able to catch her off guard and push her off himself. He scrambled out of the chair and to his feet. Vincent looked at the thing that had been Major Lake; it horrified him to think that this was someone that had been such a close friend, now reduced to this state.

In a move that was nearly invisible to the human eye the thing that had been Major Lake was off the floor and was about to sink its teeth into Vincent’s neck. Before it bit, the door to the room was kicked in and a ‘man’ entered, he was caring a shotgun and was dressed in very dark colors.

Startled the thing that had been Major Lake stared at the intruder. With a snarl the thing pushed off of Vincent and toward the ‘man’.

The ‘man’ fired two shoots and the thing that had been Major Lake hit the floor, landing just in front of the figure in the doorway. He proceeded to pull two long stakes from his belt and drove one into each of the creature’s arms, effectively pinning it. “Vincent, Come over here,” he said, a deep rambling voice, but gentle and calm.

“Have we met?”

“Not yet,” he answered standing up.

“Then how do you know me?”

“There is much to tell, but most of it will have to wait for another time. The one you knew as Major Lake is gone, what is left is something no longer human.”

“What do you mean no longer human?”

“You would recognize the term vampire. This is close to what they really are; an experiment to create the perfect killing machine. It failed, and created this creature and many more like it.”

“But why? Why?”

“Do you remember the injections that you were given?”

“The flu vaccination?”

“Yes, it started the process, making your own body work against itself. Not unlike the AIDS virus.”

“Why did they do this?”

“The final test of their wonder drug. An accident on purpose by a madman. A way to create the ultimate soldier; untiring, undying, perfect.”

“Why did they experiment on soldiers first? Why not volunteers?”

“Control ability.”

“What?”

“They were looking to create something they could control.”

“Why humans? Why their own?”

“These are answers you must figure out yourself. I must take my leave, but we will meet again.”

The thing that had been Major Lake choose this moment to start trashing about. The ‘man’ in the doorway pulled another stake from his belt and tossed it to Vincent before sweeping out of the door and into the darkened hallway.

“So what do you want me to do?” Vincent yelled after him.

“Use your head. Remember what you know.”

“You mean a stake through the heart?”

The only answer was the snarling of the thing pinned to the floor. Vincent looked at the wooden stake in his hand, “What am I going to do now,” Vincent thought. He looked at the struggling figure and said, “What the hell.”

With the rising sun to his back Vincent walked away from the only home he had know for many years. The sky behind him was a reddish orange, only it was not because of the sun. The bade was a blazing inferno and sirens could be heard in the back ground. A single thought raced through the exhausted mind, “What do I do now?”

The next day, half the globe away in a small farming village, a young mother awoke to the crying of her twin children.

“What’s wrong my sweet ones?” she asked as she reached into the crib that they shared. As she picked Rena up, she noticed that her fingers came away sticky and damp. The young woman picked up the candle from the ledge where she had put it.

She nearly dropped Rena as she recoiled from the horror before her eyes. Her only son had the squirming body of a cat locked in his jaws, sucking on it like a bottle.

The young mother noticed something; and injection site, inflamed and bright red. “I’ll get the doctor,” screamed the woman, that was when little Rena bit down on her neck and started sucking the life from her mother.

The infection had entered Europe and from there Asia and Africa. It was the beginning of a new day, the downfall of humanity had begun.

A week after setting fire to the base Vincent meet the first unchanged he had come across; her name was Erin.

Vincent had just entered a sporting foods store passing through the broken door. He was now armed with a 9mm pistol and several large wooden stakes. In the pack slung over his shoulder were a mallet and a few knives as well as the only can of food he had left. The sun was up and since the creatures (he still refused to call them vampires) seemed to dislike the rays of the sun, he was not overly concerned with what he would find inside.

“Hold it,” called a feminine voice as Vincent passed the row of cash registers. “You’re trespassing, get out!”

“Who’s there?” he asked stopping in his tracks.

“Me. That’s who.”

“Does ‘me’ have a name?”

“What’s yours, first?”

“Major Vincent Anderson, Air Force.”

“I’m Erin,” said the woman as she came up from behind the closest counter wielding a crossbow. “Put the bag on the floor and step into the light.”

“Okay,” Vincent said as he pulled the pack from his shoulder and laid it on the floor. He stepped back into the light streaming in through the broken doorway. “Anything else?”

“Ya, have a seat and tell me a little about yourself.”

Over the following hours, Vincent told Erin about what he had been doing since the ‘Fall’, hunting down the creatures and exterminating them while trying to survive.

Erin had been hold u in the store for three days; as soon as she had come across it. Before that, her father was killed fending off a pair of the beasts. Erin had been a rookie cop and an armature re-enactor, but that was before everything started to fall apart.

By the time Vincent and Erin had finished talking the sun was setting. “So, why didn’t you get the shot?” Vincent finally asked.

“I’m not a fan of doctors,” Erin answered. “What about you?

“Well I got my shot, but it seems not to have affected me.”

“So are you sure that is was the shot that caused everyone to become monsters? Could it have been something else?”

“Pretty sure, not sure what else could have happened to so many all at once.”

“Could have been aliens or demons or something.”

“Ya, right,” Vincent said. He stood and walked over to the large plate glass windows that made up the front wall of the store. Erin followed and put a hand on Vincent’s shoulder and both looked out at the final minutes of sun light for another day.

After the sun had left the sky a dark purple, Vincent said, “Erin, what was your dad like?”

“Wha…what do you mean?”

“Your father, what was he like? I can’t remember mine.”

“Well, what can I say, he was my dad.” Erin took a seat as Vincent lit a few candles, then she started talking. She fell asleep as the sun started to brighten the eastern sky.

When Erin woke it was to the smell of sausage and eggs frying. “How did you sleep?” Vincent asked her.

“Good,” she answered as stretching. “You?”

“Didn’t”

“What? You didn’t sleep?”

“No, I wasn’t… tired. Breakfast is nearly ready, so go wash up.”

“Okay,” Erin said as she went into the women’s bathroom and got cleaned up. While she was washing up, just for a second she allowed her mind to wander, dreaming about what it would have been like if she and Vincent had meet before the world went crazy. “Nah, would never have worked,” she told herself.

As she turned the water off she noticed a cold breeze blowing from where the window should have been. Erin looked around quickly and saw a still steaming body crawling toward her. She screamed in surprise.

Vincent heard the scream. He grabbed one of the wooden stakes from his pack and ran into the bathroom. The sight that meet his eyes was hilarious in a sick way. Erin was pounding on one of the creatures as it smoked in the sunlight. The creature’s moans filled the small room. Vincent could not help but smile.

Vincent let Erin pound on the no longer twitching corpse for a while, when she slowed and finally stopped, he cleared his throat. Erin looked up at him, blood on her hands, as well as splattered on her shirt, neck and face. There were tears welling up in her eyes.

Vincent did something then at worries him even now. He laughed. He laughed uncontrollably.

Erin just sat there. A lost look on her face.

Vincent slumped against the wall, still laughing. Erin just watched this man she barely knew laughing as tears streamed down her face.

It took a few minutes for Vincent to compose himself. When he did, Erin was nowhere to be seen. He took a minute to look for her.

Vincent found Erin sitting on the stoop in front of the store. He has warmed her plate back up and carried it out to her. He didn’t say anything, just handed her the plate and sat beside her.

They sat like that for a long time, Vincent thought it had been nearly two hours when Erin looked at him and asked, “Why?”

“Seeing you pound that thing like that… I don’t know. It was just something that reminded me of something from my training, pounding a dummy. It struck me strange I guess. I was not laughing at you. I’d never laugh at you like that.” Vincent turned to her and turned her face to his. Sitting there on the stoop of the sporting goods store, he kissed her eyes, to kiss away the tears, kissed her cheeks, her forehead and finally he pressed his lips to hers.