A man in a Hawaiian shirt walked across to them. Madison appeared bothered by his appearance. “This is Mr. Huxley, our resident computer scientist.”

  “Good to meet you both,” said Huxley, shaking Evan’s and Sasha’s hand.

  “Evan, this is where you will be working,” said Madison. She then turned to Sasha. “Follow me.”

  Sasha looked back at Evan as she walked past the desks and through a secure looking door into a similar sized space with modern clear walls creating a series of smaller rooms, each one with desks. Scientists, some in full hazmat suits, moved vials between scientific devices while others were focused on the contents of their slides under the lens of microscopes.

  “This is where we do actual science,” said Madison.

  Sasha noticed the huge bulky partition which put the door they just walked through to shame. “That’s the vault?”

  “Yup, and where we do our experiments.”

  “Experiments?”

  “You want to know what you can do, right?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Then let's get started.”

  *****

  Joel’s arms and legs thrashed against a single blanket, and his eyes flicked open into the gloom of his room. He had only glimpsed a few hours of the daylight twelve hours before and now it was to be replaced once again by the evening. His mind was full of an overwhelming feeling of loss but he had no idea how the dream he must have been having led to that, for he could remember nothing other than when he stumbled into his one-bedroom apartment and collapsed onto the bed.

  He had managed a brief conversation with Marina about Jasper before he made his way to his home and convinced her to let them keep the young boy in their custody. She agreed as long as they let her sleep nearby as well, which they did.

  Hunger pains started to make themselves known inside him, so he felt down the side of the bed to the rug and where he left the last bag of blood he had been sipping on. His fingers felt the old dry threads but nothing else.

  He wondered how much blood supplies they had in the camp. They now had a lot more mouths to feed than just the general.

  Laying looking at the ceiling and the shadows starting to merge across it, he thought about what Amos had informed them all of on the way back to the camp. The crazy hybrid who hated being the youngest of three brothers perhaps wasn’t crazy after all. Amos mentioned they were kept alive for so long in a form of stasis. Capsules that fed them over the eons, which allowed their bodies to sustain against the tides of time.

  He wasn’t sure he believed any of it, and even if it were true, what did it matter? What was important was keeping the people within the walls alive. He was zero for two so far in that department. Two towns down.

  Not again.

  Bill’s hearty smile moved into his mind, and the feeling of sadness which he had kept at bay for days swept across him. He squeezed the sheet between his fingers to try and hold back the emotion but it came anyway. As tears ran down his face, it wasn’t just the death of the old man that he was feeling but of his wife, his child, and all of the people that were no longer around due to the Scourge.

  He swung his legs around and sat up, then wiped his face.

  Some big bad vampire I am.

  He walked to the cold box and pulled out a blood bag and sipped. The usual relief which came with quenching his hunger did not move the other feelings.

  The other brothers were not going to let Tyror be held down here for long. They would be coming, and soon. And that would be their mistake. Moving too quickly before they were truly ready to take on what the camp had to offer as a defense. The kid was right about Tyror being important, but even he probably didn’t realize in what way.

  Feeling nourished, he undressed and stepped into the manual shower and exercised the lever to bring the water from the tank down upon him. In the silence of the water falling on his skin, Anna’s kiss came back to him. He hadn’t given it a second thought after he left the room. He wasn’t human anymore. The idea of that kind of human interaction felt alien to him. Something which belonged in the past… with his wife.

  He stepped out of the small cubicle and dried and was quickly dressed and standing outside his apartment block listening to the sounds of the night around him. The small town which the walls encapsulated, unlike Westlands, still operated as if civilization hadn’t ended months earlier. His enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of old people’s laughter and young couples arguing. Children singing and dogs barking. He was no longer part of that world, but it needed to be protected regardless.

  He looked at a beat-up 80s brown sedan which he had been given and was soon sitting inside the driver's seat, turning the key and igniting the engine. It sputtered a few times but then fell into a reassuring hum. He needed to visit the hybrids in the warehouse. Something told him they were going to be key if the camp was to keep existing, despite the heavy hardware the general had at her disposal.

  A short drive later and he had passed through the gate and was pulling up inside the parking lot alongside the blocklike building.

  Getting out he showed an ID badge to two soldiers standing guard at the entrance and was then inside. Being night, the hybrids were mostly awake, talking and laughing. A miniature example of the town outside. A number of them saw him enter and made a straight line for him.

  “When we getting out?!” shouted one. “When do I get to see my husband?” said another.

  He stood, holding his hand up for them to quieten. More of those inside the large space stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to him.

  Joel looked down in thought, then back up to his audience. “What do all of you want?”

  “To get out!” shouted a middle-aged man.

  Ripples of agreement ran around the area.

  “After that? You’re all strong, fast. You’re immune now to the Scourge and you can fight off vamps. What do you want to do with your lives now you have them back?”

  Silence fell across the room as each person contemplated.

  “I want to look after my son,” said a woman. A tall, squawky man looked at Joel. “They seem to be making a go of it in this town. I don’t like that they locked us in here… but, I want to help them. I used to work in retail. Had my own store. Maybe I can have that again…”

  “Why not have that again? Each of you can help this place grow. But to do that it has to exist. The forces that drove the vamps towards Westlands and the prison are coming soon to Jankle to do it again.”

  This time the ripples of sound were ones of apprehension.

  “I know most of you here are not fighters. But if you want a life here, you’re going to have to fight.”

  “I’ll fight,” said a man. Others joined in until it became a chorus of approval.

  Twenty feet above, Anna watched, leaning on the rail of the walkway which spanned the large warehouse floor. She smiled, nodding to herself.

  Five miles away within the camp walls, almost twenty soldiers guarded what was once a medical center. Five sentry posts sat around the building in its grounds and two more were on its roof. Below the modern building, in a small dark room within its basement, a hybrid king sat against the wall, his chin on his chest, seemingly asleep. Reams of chains bound him.

  Slowly he lifted his head, a grin across his face.

  “Brothers…”

  The End.

  Thanks for reading The Scourge book 4: The Forgotten Kings! I hope you enjoyed it. Book 5 will be available soon!

  If you would like news on my latest releases, special offers or a free book, you can sign up to my mailing list on my website at www.philmaxeyauthor.com .

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  About the Author

  Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.

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  Acknowledgements

  Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com

 

 

  Phil Maxey, The Forgotten Kings (The Scourge Book 4)

 

 

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