i think i'm ready to rap this story up - i don't really want too many pointless chapters from here on in. i'll try and get into the action as quickly as possible and move ahead with Jo and damien/nate's love life. hopefully i'll wrap this up within ten more chapters - i don't really care for the idea of fifty chapters when half of those are useless (sorry if you were hoping for that, but i'm a bit of a perfectionist like that). wish me well and keep being amazing!
tigerlily_x
Chapter 15: Questions, questions and more questions.
It took Jodie twenty minutes to work with Nate and Damien in a mad rush around the rock waking everyone up. Jodi ran to Laurie to wake her and looked frantically around the room trying to find Marge before realising with a burning ache in her heart the reason why Marge wasn’t there.
Sighing she dragged Laurie behind her to meet up with Damien and the men in the meadow.
On the raised platform in the meadow, Sheila and Samuel were standing with the two who had been following the vampyres; Turk, 192cm of muscle-bound male and Cody, blond, blue-eyed, the family resemblance between him and his fraternal twin Cory clearly visible. They were standing straight backed and covered in dust, their faces revealing nothing. Jodi went to stand beside Steven, Laurie standing right behind her.
“what’s going on Steven?” Laurie hissed.
“oh no you don’t.” Steven whispered back. “there’s no way I’m saying anything that’s not my job to say. This is way too important.”
Jodi frowned and opened her mouth to interrogate Steven when she felt a hand take hers. She turned to her other side and found Jake grinning at her. She smiled back at him even as she felt Laurie’s eyes boring into the back of her head, but could not bring herself to return his grip.
They used your brother to entice you back.
“is everyone here?” sheila’s voice rang out loud and clear despite the size of the room. There were nods all around. “good. Then if everyone would please be silent, Turk and Cody have some important news to report.”
Cody stepped forward, and with a nod from sheila, spoke in a loud, deep voice. “we are all in great danger. The vampyres are no longer affected by moonlight.”
Gasps rang around the crowd and Jodi fought back the impulse to retch. Their one advantage over the monsters, gone! Cries of despair rose up as panic surged.
“how is that possible?”
“what are we going to do?”
Samuel banged his walking stick on the ground three time, the sound of wood against rock loud enough that the crowd became silent again.
Cody spoke again. “we have no idea what changed but that is not all.”
“tell us the whole story,” sheila said.
Cody nodded and turned to the crowd and began to narrate his tale.
One week earlier:
“the billabong’s right ‘round here.” Turk called out to Cody.
“shhh!”Cody held one finger in front of his lips, flashing Turk an alarmed look. The operation required stealth above everything. Their mission would be ruined if the vampyre caught wind of them.
“Sorry” Turk mouth and pretended zip his mouth closed. Cody shook his head and looked around. Found a cluster of rocks from which they could park their bikes, within sight of the bushes where the billabong lay behind. Landing carefully, he and Turk removed their guns from their bikes and held them ready to shoot at any moment’s notice. They carefully scouted the rocks, in case any hid a lone Vampyre.
Cody was about to signal to Turk that everything was safe when something caught his eyes. In a sand dune, about two and a half metres high, there was a strange protrusion.
“Turk,” he hissed to the other man. “come, take a squiz at this.”
Turk lumbered up to his and together they approached the object. Cody nudged it with the barrel of his gun. It’s didn’t move.
“it’s attached to something.” Cody stated. Turk leaned forward and brushed some of the surrounding sand away from it.
“looks like metal.” He observed. “and whatever it’s attached to must be huge.”
Together they cleared away more sand until it was clear what it was.
“it’s the side mirror of the water truck.” Cody gasped.
“how come it’s still here?” Turk murmured. “there’s no way the Vampyres could’ve missed it, and Jo and Damien were running for their lives. How could they’ve hidden it?”
Cody stared at Turk for a while, lost in thought. “if the Vampyres were in the vicinity, they would have searched around a bit right?”
Turk rolled his eyes. “that’s why I said they couldn’t have missed it.”
Cody ignored his contemptuous tone. “but they did miss it, which meant they didn’t look around.”
“what are you implying?”
“I’m saying that instead of looking around they left.”
Turk stared at him confusedly. “that doesn’t sound like vampyre behaviour.” He frowned. “why would they leave like that?”
Cody shook his head. “I dunno. But whatever the reason is, we have a job to do.”
Turk rubbed the back of his neck and stared off in the direction of the billabong. “mate, I have a bad feeling about this. “
“I hear you, Turks”
They hid their bikes in the sand dune and proceeded to move to the billabong, guns loaded and ready.
The billabong was a wasteland. Evidence of vampyre activity was everywhere, though a quick check confirmed is was now deserted. The water was red with rust, reminding Cody of blood. He swallowed hard as he thought about poor Marge who had died here. On either side of the water, the surrounding trees had been crushed to splintered messes and the tracks of Vampyres and the huge pile of metal they had dragged around with them were clear even now.
“why did they crush the trees?” Turk wondered.
“hmm?” Cody stared at the destroyed trees
“don’t you remember? They usually use that disgusting smelling fire to destroy trees.” Turk stared at the splinters. “this was clearly not done with fire. Why would they annihilate the trees like this instead of torching them?”
Cody stared for a while. “if it were me.” He mused. “I’d do it to stop the ash from getting into the water. The flames would get uncontrollable in this sort of heat, and soot would get everywhere.”
“sure, that’s reasonable.” Turk said. “but are you telling me that those creatures were capable of logical thinking?”
Cody looked at Turk. “I know it’s peculiar. But then so is finding Vampyres this deep in the desert. So was finding the truck.”
Turk shook his head. “I hate to say it, Cody, but someth’n just ain’t right. Let’s just find those Vampyres and work out what the hell is going on.”
Turk examined the tracks. “they wandered around this place a bit, but I’m pretty sure they went that way.” He point in a south west direction.
“where did they come from?”
Turk went back and looked over the tracks, heading in the opposite direction to where he was pointing. About a metre outside of the treeline he stopped and turned back. “it’s stops about there.” He explained to Cody. “Looks like there was a sand storm here. But the tracks definitely indicate they came in that direction.”
“what’s over there?” cosy frowned.
“more desert.” Turks shrugged. “There are a few small towns, but if we were to ignore the fact that the creatures are travelling around the desert, even though they used to avoid it like the plague, I’d estimate they either came from Broome or Darwin.”
“Broome?” Cody asked.
“medium-sized town on the coast of the Kimberly” Turks replied. “but I doubt they’re from there. The Vampyres who lived in Broome would have been driven out because of lack of food after the first few years. There’s hardly anything out there.”
“so they’re from Darwin?”
“I don’t know where they’re from, but from that general direction, yeah.”
Cody turned and began walking back towards the rocks where they left their bikes. “let’s just go track down the monsters, shall we? The sooner we find them, the sooner we’ll get some answers.”
Present time.
“it took us three days of searching and almost a thousand kilometres of travel before we sighted vampyres. But we have no idea if those were the ones that Jodi and Damien saw.” Turk interrupted Cory’s narration.
“what the hell do you mean?”Damien called.
“when we caught sight of the Vampyres, we were in really hilly desert area. We hid at the peak of a particularly large hill-”
“think it was a mountain, it was so big.” Cody interrupted.
“when we looked down at the group of Vampyres we saw the most horrendous sight.” Turk gaze turned inwards, as though seeing the scene before him. “there were Vampyres everywhere; as far as the eye could see. They looked like ants moving towards food, they were swarming to the south-east corner of the country. Even as we watched, small groups of Vampyres were joining the mass as they moved.”Turk shuddered and shut his eyes.
“they were moving towards Victoria.”Cody continued on. “They moved quickly, and worst of all they never stopped. Some of the Vampyres would drop dead from exhaustion, but most of them kept walking, even through the night. The moon didn’t affect them. They weren’t even frightened of it.”
“it was like they were all being summoned to go to wherever they were moving towards. All of them.”Turk rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “it would have been impossible to move ahead and find out what was in that direction, there was too much open desert. We would’ve been spotted.”
“do you suppose they are getting desperate?” Laurie called out. The question was meant for everyone. “there can’t be much food for them.”
“Lack of food wouldn’t explain their behaviour.” Sheila replied. “If I were starved for food and I were a vampire I’d turn on the other Vampyres, not band together to form an army.”
“the Vampyres are getting smarter.” Cody said. “we watched as they formed traps to get animals using the metal they collected. It’s almost as though they’ve rediscovered the ability to make things.”
Murmurs of fear once again echoed around the crowd. It was clear that evading the vampires was going to be harder than ever.
“we must find a way to kill them all.” Cried a voice.
“if they are gathering in one place let’s bomb them and be rid of them once and for all.”
Laurie spoke up. “what if they are moving towards humans? We cannot risk that.”
Silence filled the meadow. Samuel nodded to Laurie. “we can do nothing until we have more information.”
Sheila nodded in agreement. “soldiers!” she called. Jodi stiffened her body and stood at attention. In her periphery vision she saw Jake see this and scowl as he let go of her hand. “I need volunteers. Who’s ready to go on this mission, come forward.”
Every one of the soldiers present moved to the edge of the stage, Jodi included. Sheila met the eyes of everyone one, pausing when she looked at her son’s. “this will be a dangerous mission. Some of you will not return. Consider carefully.” She stared at her son again, but neither he nor anyone else stepped back. She closed her eyes in resignation and then nodded again. Then Samuel stepped forward.
“there are nine people from the regiment.” He addressed the people from the rock. “who else is ready to come aboard this mission?”
No one stepped forward.
Cory turned back to the community. “we don’t expect you to come along.” He said. “we’re the Australian army. Missions like this are what we’re trained for.” His voice became louder. “but this mission is going to be difficult. And we’ll need any manpower we can get, and all of you have talents and special abilities. So if any of you don’t feel like sitting on the sidelines, we’d appreciate it.”
There was silence for a moment.
Then Nate stepped forward. He met Jodi’s eyes for a second before looking at Samuel. “I’ll go.”
“then I’m going too.” Richard called.
“well I’m not staying back.” Said Alice, and she grasped his hand. Samuel opened his mouth in protest, but shut it quickly and nodded.
Nick stepped forward, tugging his hand from Anjali’s.
Hari,
Angela,
Hannah,
and Jake.
“no.” Cried Jodi. “absolutely not.” She pointed to Jake. “you’re staying right here.”
Jake glared at her. “Why not?”
“Grandma did not spend ten years risking her neck to save yours just so you could die now.”
Jake shook his head. “you need me.”
“oh, I don’t think so.” She shook her head.
“actually we do.” Said Nick. “Jake’s the only one who has a photographic memory. He’ll remember anything we miss on this trip.”
Jake nodded. “you can’t stop me.” Jodi glared at him, but he continued. “this is a mission for information, and information is what I’m good at.”
Jodi turned to Samuel, ready to implore to him, but the older man held up his hand to stop her. “his logic is more reasonable than yours.” He said in a tone that did not leave room for argument.
He turned to sheila. “nine of mine and nine of yours. “
Sheila acknowledged him and then addressed group of eighteen. “sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, Samuel and I will work on a plan whilst you prepares yourselves and we’ll debrief you tomorrow night. Pack well, eat and drink plenty, and say goodbye to your loved ones. You have until tomorrow night to back out of this expedition.” Jodi glared once more at Jake who decidedly ignored her.
Sheila allowed silence to fill the room once more. The impending danger loomed in the room, but the need for answers was greater than fear.
“where are the Vampyres going anyway?” the voice that spoke belonged Patricia. She stood a little away from Jodi with her hands resting on her daughter, Ariel’s shoulders.
Cody opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything Jodi interrupted. “Melbourne.” Her tone was full of fear. “they’re going to the place it all began. They’re going to Melbourne.”