“Hey, you gonna help me up there? I can’t fly or something… like you can.”

  He wasn’t sure if he wanted her near him. What if anger got the better of him? Is that what happened to Josh?

  “Well?”

  He sighed and crept down the wooden boards, then leaned lower offering his hand. Effortlessly, he raised her up and onto the roof. “There. Now you’re up.”

  He walked back to the top and swung his legs back to the sunrise again.

  After a few unsteady steps, she was sitting next to him.

  He presumed she would start talking. An endless barrage of pointless words that wouldn’t help. But instead, they both sat in silence watching a new day break.

  *****

  Amos sat in the small cafe drinking coffee. It wasn’t particularly good coffee, but it was all they had, so it was going to have to do. Around him sat humans, most of which were in uniform, making the place feel more like a military base than a camp.

  They were aware he was an outsider, and he was aware of that because he was reading their minds.

  Some of them saw the fire from their homes, but only one of them knew who had died. He was a sergeant who had been at the house when it was announcing the camp’s location for miles around. Amos wasn’t going to be losing any tears over the dead scientists though. Scientists like to keep people like him caged up. They were not his favorite kind of people.

  He felt bad for Evan. He hardly talked to his grandfather, but when he had been close enough to read the old man’s thoughts, he seemed a good sort.

  The cafe door opened and two more outsiders appeared that drew the attention of those inside.

  Dalton sat opposite, while Kizzy sat to his right.

  “Why didn’t you wait for me?” she said.

  “Needed time to think,” said Amos.

  She picked up a laminated menu, which had three items on it. Coffee and water were two of them.

  She eyed the third choice. ‘Eggs.’ Turning, she tried to get the attention of the waitress who briefly looked at her then went back to talking to the two young soldiers close to her.

  “I want eggs before the big meeting…” said Kizzy disappointed at her exclusion.

  “You see the fire?” said Dalton to Amos.

  “Nah. Heard it got the scientists and the other old guy though.”

  “Yeah. Looks like the hybrid scientist went nuts and killed the others and himself.”

  Amos was surprised he didn’t need to read the big guys mind to see the surprise on his face.

  “Sheesh, that’s terrible,” said Kizzy.

  “Some folks can’t take the change. Makes them crazy,” said Dalton.

  Amos’s mind floated back to the journey down to the camp, and his brief vision of a disturbed mind. He wondered if it was the crazy hybrid scientist that he had glimpsed, or maybe another hybrid? He nodded. “Yeah.”

  Kizzy was still vying for the waitresses attention.

  “Hey!” shouted Dalton to the young woman across the room, making everyone jump a few inches off their chairs.

  The waitress frowned then walked over to their table.

  Kizzy’s expression widened, then took her time pondering the menu. The waitress rolled her eyes.

  Just as Kizzy went to speak, everyone started getting to their feet and the waitress walked to the counter, pulling her apron off.

  “I wanted eggs!” said Kizzy.

  “Looks like it’s time,” said Amos.

  All three stood and followed everyone else outside.

  The sky was gray and overcast and the ground wet. The main square was only a hundred yards away and people were streaming towards it from all avenues.

  “I wonder how often they have a big meeting,” said Kizzy.

  “Once a week usually,” said a uniformed woman behind them. “But if something important has happened it can be anytime.”

  Kizzy smiled in reply.

  They were soon at the edge of the square, entering it from the east. Amos figured there were already five to six hundred people gathered closely together. Unlike the last time he was in the square, everyone was facing the old courthouse. He noticed a few officers standing on the white stone steps.

  As the three of them walked forward, a Humvee entered the square from the north and parked at the bottom of the steps. They were surprised to see Carla get out alongside the general and walk to the top of the courthouse steps.

  An officer handed the general a megaphone.

  “I’ll be making this short because we all got jobs to do,” said Galloway. “As many of you know, a new group came into the camp last evening. A number of them were hybrids like me. Now, you know I don’t bullshit you. Never have, never will. One of those new hybrids went crazy and killed some of the others that he traveled here with—” A ripple of discomfort ran around the crowd. Amos tried to get a take on the crowd but there were too many minds to keep up with. The general briefly raised her hand. “— But that hybrid died in the fire. So that threat no longer exists. As for the other hybrids that came with the group, they have been taken to the old warehouse on Illmer Street, a mile outside the eastern wall, and are in lockdown. When each and every one of them has been assessed we will let them out under supervision. The other thing that needs to be said is that some of the group are other kinds of vamps…” More sounds of disconcertion filled the morning air. “Some of you have your own stories of seeing strange things. Such as wolf-like creatures, and other things. Well, we have some of them with us right now…”

  “Shit…” said Amos.

  The general was looking at the three of them which was followed by the uniformed crowd doing the same.

  Kizzy straightened her back and stood taller.

  Dalton grumbled something under his breath.

  “Don’t be shy!” shouted the general.

  “Shit…” repeated Amos.

  “Come on up here!”

  The crowd started to part, leaving a channel open to the steps.

  Kizzy leaned in to Amos. “Err… how do they know about us,” she whispered.

  “Someone told ’em,” he whispered back. He looked up at Dalton. A frown was plastered across the big guy's face, but he started walking forward anyway. Amos and Kizzy followed.

  As they moved through the crowd, Dalton and Kizzy caught whispers close by, but Amos caught their thoughts, and they weren’t exactly in their favor.

  They all walked up the steps and stood near the general.

  She looked up at Dalton. “Right, from right to left. This guy’s a werewolf. The girl is some kind of super gymnast—”

  “Err…” said Kizzy.

  “And the boy at the end. Well, I hope those of you standing near him when he passed you were thinking good thoughts because he can read minds.”

  Gasps broke out amongst the soldiers.

  The general raised her hand for a second time. “And before all of you get your breeches in a twist. Ask yourself this, would you rather have them on your side, helping keep this place going, or on the enemy’s side?”

  The crowd quietened down.

  Amos looked across at the general. He was starting to like her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Marina looked at Joel. She was sitting on a wooden crate near one of two exits from the warehouse. He was standing by a guardrail on a balcony which hovered twenty feet above the floor. He seemed to be looking at the sixty or so hybrids that were sitting, talking, and sleeping below him. She wondered what he was thinking. Part of her wanted to feel sorry for him. He no doubt blamed himself for the deaths. More blood on his hands.

  But a larger part still wanted him to suffer. She was beginning to hate that part.

  She looked away from him and to the same group that he was observing. Anna was moving from one hybrid to another, offering them water or blood. She admired the doctor for keeping a good grip on her humanity, despite her own homicidal tendencies.

  Marina looked down at Flint who looked up at her. She had spent enough time by now with the dog to know what the dog expression was for ‘I need to use the restroom.’ And on cue, his tail started sweeping across the floor.

  She frowned then smiled. “Okay—” He sprang to his feet and trotted to the door, jumping up against the wood and pushing it open. “Well if you can do that, why do you even need me to go with you?” she questioned into the space he had left behind.

  She stood, her legs feeling two times heavier than they did at night, and walked out into the gloomy daylight.

  Despite the slight tingling the watery sun was causing to her skin, she was glad to be out of the cathedral-like space. If she had ever wondered what sixty-five hybrids smelt like being cooped up in the same space, she now knew the answer. She was certain the Scourge-infected smelt worse than humans. Maybe it was their higher metabolism, or maybe they just forgot to wash. She lifted her arm and sniffed herself, then tried to remember the last time she had taken a shower.

  Flint’s bark shook her back to her surroundings.

  She looked towards where the sound came from. In front of her was a large parking lot with a few trucks and cars. Beyond that was the road, but Flint’s bark came from even further, somewhere behind a high wire fence which bordered a wrecking yard.

  “What the hell are you getting into now, dog,” she said to herself.

  She walked across the cement lot, then jogged across the road and through the pulled back gates of the yard. A wide muddy track traveled deeper in, surrounded by cars and other vehicles all slowly being degraded by time.

  “Ah, there you are!”

  Flint was jumping up at a secure-looking door to a small shack which, even from her distance of a few hundred yards, she could see had a sign that read. “Bassey’s home.”

  She walked across to it being mindful to use her senses to check any of the darker areas around. She wasn’t going to get jumped by vamps just because Flint had lost his mind.

  “What’s so important about the inside of this place?” she said to Flint who jumped off the door and looked up at her with his tail wagging.

  He barked again.

  She sighed. “Fine, let's see what’s so special—” She jumped back. Something moved inside. “Hey! I can hear you in there!”

  More movement. It was slight, but it was there.

  A vamp?

  She looked at the steel bar across the door, and the multiple locks. Flint barked again.

  “Yes, shush! I’m thinking!”

  Flint ignored her request and jumped at the door again.

  “Ok, so I’m going to open this door, and we’re going to kill the vamp inside. Got that?”

  Flint wagged his tail.

  She stepped to the door, and with a bit of effort pulled the steel bar free, then used that to lever the locks from their hinges. All the time she had her foot up against the door stopping it from opening.

  Finally, she placed her palm on the handle.

  She looked at Flint. “Ready?” His tongue slid about his mouth.

  “Good.”

  She pulled the handle down and stepped back. Despite the darkness, she spotted the thing immediately. It laid on the ground against the back wall, its eyes glowing green. She went to raise the steel bar but then the smell hit her and she put her hand to her face.

  She knew that smell. It smelt like Flint, who she realized had stopped barking and was now producing low whimpering sounds.

  In an instant, she understood what she was looking at. It was another dog. One like the canine outside. One that had changed. Except this animal was barely alive. She could only just hear its heartbeat.

  She looked down at Flint. “It needs blood.” Closing and securing the door, she turned and started to jog away. “Come on!” she shouted back to Flint. “Let's get some.”

  *****

  Carla sat in the passenger's seat of a Humvee at the south-most gate of the camp. In the back of it were Keller, Dalton, and Gigi. In the driver's seat waiting for the gate to open was Pachmayer, and behind them was a platoon of soldiers in a truck and another turreted Humvee.

  “You’re sure this train is where you think it is?” said Carla. “It’s a long way to go if it’s not, and what with the corporation…”

  “The intel’s pretty solid. So yeah I’m sure. And if it’s not, well you get to see some of the beauty of the state of Florida.” The gate slid back and Pachmayer pressed down on the gas, driving out along the road which followed the railway tracks. “And the camp can protect itself. If we pull this off and bring the train back. Well, that would be good for all of us.”

  “And I guess you know how to drive a train?” said Gigi in the back.

  “Not me, ma’am, but some of my soldiers. We got some real good engineers.”

  His words sounded confident. Carla just wondered if they had figured into the equation getting stuck out there after dark.

  Forests, the occasional uncut green and beige field, and simple dwellings flowed by on either side of the narrow two-lane road.

  Despite her reservations, she was glad to be outside of the camp’s walls, doing something proactive for once. Since her conscience got the better of her and she sided with Joel and the others, she felt the corporation’s oppressive force pressing down on her. A tsunami that was sweeping from west to east destroying all in its path which until she arrived at the camp she felt would inevitably catch her as well. The captain was right, the camp was well protected. She had been given a quick tour by the general earlier that day and had seen the tanks lined up along most of the walls, the three helicopter gunships, and the two warehouses full of munitions ranging from small arms to shoulder-mounted missile launchers of various kinds. If the corporation attacked, it wasn’t going to take the place without getting one hell of a bloody nose. She wondered if Copeland was prepared for that. Despite his newly acquired horned face and wings it always felt to her that the older, smaller man was lurking within, just waiting to show himself if pushed hard enough. She pictured him standing on the balcony of his apartment, thousands of vamps below chanting his name. His catlike eyes wide with excitement.

  Asshole.

  But for the first time, she felt that maybe they had a chance of turning the mountainous waves back. It was a new world, and humans weren’t fighting alone anymore.

  After passing through a small town, they took a side road and headed south again. Carla noticed the landscape looked flatter, the trees were small and round rather than tall and sharp.

  “Ever been to Florida before?” said Pachmayer to her.

  “No.”

  “Well, now you have. By my reckoning, we just crossed over the state line.”

  The world outside was lush and green. A large sign passed by offering twenty percent off liquor. But only on Fridays.

  “You drink much?” he said.

  “No.” She briefly smiled. She chastised herself for answering so abruptly. Her life for the last six months had been orders, given and taken. There had been no time for ‘small talk.’ She thought that maybe she had forgotten how to.

  Tall trees returned to both sides of the road blocking any view beyond. Pachmayer clicked on his radio. “Telford, you see the tracks still? I can’t see them. Over.”

  “Not anymore, but going by the map, they should be just west of us. Over,” said a male voice.

  The road widened to four lanes, and stores and motels started to appear.

  “Don’t think the station is far now,” said Pachmayer.

  “Good. It’s not good to keep a dog cooped up in a car for too long,” said Gigi.

  Carla and Pachmayer looked at each other and joined Gigi in laughing. Keller and Dalton remained silent, both looking out of their respective side windows.

  Storage containers, gas stations with digital displays that were still working, and single-story homes sped by as they turned onto a narrow lane which headed back out of the town. It dipped down under a bridge then curved around and rose. That’s when they all saw it.

  “Told you the intel was good,” said Pachmayer.

  Up ahead of them off the right side of the road ran rail tracks, and on them sat a diesel-electric locomotive, with a trail of freight cars that faded into the distance.

  Carla was surprised how happy she was just on seeing a train but thought there would be more to the ‘station.’ There were only a few single-story structures next to the train surrounded by some cargo containers.

  The small convoy pulled off the road and alongside the buildings, one of which had ‘freight office’ stenciled across the window. Only darkness resided within.

  Pachmayer spoke into his radio ordering the buildings to be searched before any investigation of the locomotive and train cars.

  Dalton, Gigi, Keller, and Carla stood outside the Humvee looking at the train and its freight.

  “Wonder what’s inside them,” said Gigi.

  “Kind of strange they just left this train here. We’re pretty far from any mainline stations,” said Keller.

  They all watched the soldiers move from car to car, trying to get them open, but each was securely locked.

  Dalton walked along the track to the nearest car and took a grip of the steel lock across the bolt. Two soldiers stood back watching in amazement as the bolt started to creak. Gigi ran across and joined him and, with a final effort, pulled, snapping the lock from the bolt.

  Both of them smelt what escaped from the tiny gap around the car’s door.

  Pachmayer and Carla jogged over to them.

  “There’s something rotten in there,” said Dalton.

  Pachmayer nodded to his two soldiers who were now joined with others, and they pulled the train car’s door back.

  A sea of flies filled the air, making everyone but Dalton stumble back. But even he was covering his nose.

  With the insects came a stench which seemed to blacken the air just as much as the insects had. They all were now covering their noses, peering into hell.

  Decomposing bodies looked back at them from the shadows.

  Carla was too shocked to be sick until she heard some of the soldiers throwing up, and then the queasy feeling threatened to overcome her, and she looked away.