COMPLETE! The Wasteland. A woman screams in the night. Spotlights flash on a pile of dust in the desolate patch of land that lay just beyond the tall crosses that picket the boundary of Encampment R-34. A group of curious students leave their bunkho...
"Let's take a different way, just in case," I suggested, catching his eyes.
Before jumping off the rear of the building and onto the unsteady pile of crosses we had stacked that were yet to be staked into the ground, Bryne kissed me on the lips with all the passion he had inside of him. I moaned a sigh, took a deep breath, and followed after him the moment he rolled off the stack. The fall was brutal on my knees, but it felt better when he took my hand and we sprinted out of the encampment as fast as we could, constantly glancing back and hoping not to see a beautiful woman with dark hair, piercing eyes, and sharp teeth coming after us like the wind. I swear now, that she was there. I could almost feel her gaze nipping at the back of my legs as we ran. I heard her in the echo of our footsteps. She was coming after us. That might not have been true, but the feeling was terrible enough.
"Oscar. Oscar, what are you doing out here?" Bryne asked, in the loudest whisper he could risk.
Once in the desolate patch, we were more worried about being caught by the Watchmen on duty in the towers. The pipe heap was on the opposite end of the camp, so we needed to take him back through the expansion fence, which was noisy and took work.
When we reached Oscar, he was nothing like himself. It was almost as if he were sleeping, only with his eyes open. Never did he turn to look at us. It was only after standing in front of him and shaking his shoulders for a minute that Oscar had come out of whatever trance he was in.
"Why are you out here?"
"So dark...what time is it?"
"It's never-hour, man," Bryne said, reaching for Oscar's neck. "You're bleeding badly. Were you scratching at this or something?"
Oscar saw the blood and didn't react. "Must've been. How did I get down here? I don't remember anything."
Just as the clouds covered over the moon and we were plunged into darkness, we noticed how pale he looked in bluish glow. He had lost a lot of blood. Bryne put his arm under Oscar's shoulders and walked him back into the encampment. Before going in, I looked out at the valley and listened. I know now that it was my mind playing tricks on me, but I swear I heard someone whispering. If only the moon were still shining and I could have seen more than a hundred feet in front of my eyes. I moved backwards into the opening in the boundary and laced the wire through the fencing.
We knew we couldn't return Oscar to his bunkhouse the way he looked. With so much blood loss, he could wake up dead. It was an icy night, and his body was colder than it should have been. So I took a risk and climbed through Edie's window at Hospital House.
I approached her bed and rested a hand on her cheek. That was always our way of waking one another.
"Mell, is everything okay?"
"I need you to go open the main doors. Bryne is out there with Oscar. His bleeding has gotten worse. Can you help him?"
Edie sat up. "I think so. It's only me staying here, really. And my job head. The rest are at the bunkhouse."
"Will she hear us?"
"No, she dips into the drug supply in order to sleep through the night. She won't hear a thing."
Edie got dressed as I crawled back through the window to help bring Oscar to the front of the building. We laid him down on the table in the first room and Edie patched him up quickly. His wound looked gruesome in the light. Edie didn't want to hear what had happened to him, or why the two punctures in his neck seemed worse than before. She only wanted to move quickly so we could all get back to our bunkhouses without getting into trouble.
I kissed my sweet Edie on the cheek, and she promised to say prayers in the hallway to the framed painting of Elder Priest before returning to bed. Then we left Hospital House, knowing that the three of us were the only ones risking being out during never-hour. Or so I thought. The other person was waiting.
Bryne left me when we reached Townsquare. "You go back. Get into bed. Write, or whatever. If anyone is going to get into trouble, it will be me."
"Are you sure?"
"Go."
Oscar grabbed my hand weakly. "Thanks for helping, Mell."
I smiled at him, then noticed Bryne's worried eyes. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."
I snuck into the shadows and wove my way around the buildings until I reached the rear of our bunkhouse. If I had been looking down, I would have screamed when I saw him standing at the door, but I could see Trigger's wild gray hair and paunchy stance the moment I took the turn.
And almost as if he knew I was coming, he twirled around and tilted his head back, his mouth stretching slightly open.
"Trigger, you're not supposed to be out. Didn't Felicity tuck you in? Is she alright?"
He didn't answer any of these questions as I approached. Instead, he waited until I was close enough that he could reach out and grab my shirt. He pulled me to him and pressed his face against mine until I felt the bristles of his beard on my cheek and his steamy breath in my ear. For the rest of my days, I will remember the words he said to me tonight. I'll be lucky if they don't haunt me as I move on into the Neverdowns. I'll write what he said, and then I'll be done. I need to sleep. And if I'm being honest, I need a break from this. Just as Ezzelin had said of Dracula, it is weary on my soul.
The words that Trigger said to me before letting go of my shirt and wandering off toward the homes of the Guardians was this:
"Nearly all of you will die. Nearly all. And you will be infected, Mell. I have seen it. There is little time remaining. Be ready."
THE END VAMPIRE EPOCH: BOOK ONE
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