Chronicles of the Uprising (Trilogy 1): Trilogy 1 (34 page)

Chapter 7

They’d hardly made it through the door before it slammed shut behind them. But at least they had made it.

A bird twittered as it flew overhead – Jay, their little messenger, probably heading back to the Otherkin with the news that they’d made it inside. Stryker responded, whistling a few notes back, but did not look up. He kept his vision locked on their immediate surroundings.

“Where to now?” Mira asked, feeling a little uneasy. Inside the great wall, she’d expected to enter the tunnels, but instead she found herself in an open field. The edge of New Haven city lay before her, but from where they stood, it had to have been at least a mile away. The closest buildings looked like ancient ruins from a time before the great cataclysm: half torn-down structures, rusting in places where metal doors had once stood. A few buildings looked intact but like a great wind might topple them. To her left, mountains of trash stood as high as the wall itself, and automated machines shuffled around debris into what appeared to be great incinerators. 

Too many moments of silence passed without an answer. Mira turned to Lucian. “C’mon! Which way?”

The confused look on his face did not reassure her in the slightest. “Hold on. Just getting my bearings.”

Patience was not her strong suit, and anticipation only amplified her frantic feelings. “We don’t have time for that. You were supposed to know where we were headed.”

“Just because I was Regent does not mean I know every inch of this city. I was never a maintenance worker. I was Elite. I didn’t venture into this dirty side of town, only viewed the maps of it. If you’ll calm down and be patient, I’ll figure it out, but it’s going to take me a moment.”

Lucian’s condescending tone was the last thing they needed at that moment, and Mira was just about to put his pompous ass back in his place when Stryker spoke up. “We may not have a moment. That camera caught everything before Mira took it out. They know where we are and what we are – of that I have no doubt.”

Mira pulled the rucksack from her back and tossed a soldier’s uniform at Stryker. He donned it quickly. She had uniforms for the other wolves too, if they were ordered to shift to human. For now they waited patiently at the side of their leader. Stryker took the rucksack from Mira and threw it on his back.

After what felt like too long a time, Lucian’s eyes lit with renewed energy. “There,” Lucian said, pointing to one of the free standing buildings nearby.  At the front was a pair of large rolling metal doors; an old loading bay, perhaps. “If I remember correctly, that should be our way into the underground maintenance tunnels.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” Mira’s impatient tone lessened somewhat, but still she felt the anxiety inside. Fighting didn’t scare her, it was the unknown of what lay before her that had her twitching and jumpy.

“You two. Shift. Protect the human at all costs,” Stryker ordered the wolves next to him. He dropped the rucksack on the ground, spilling out the clothes and a couple of daggers.

The other two wolves shifted, taking on their human appearances, and quickly put their uniforms on.  “Stay in between us.” Rob, the first wolf said to Lucian. Terrance, the other wolf, said nothing, but nodded to his partner as he sheathed a dagger at his belt, ready for action.

Lucian stuck close to his protection as they all headed towards what they hoped would be the entrance.

Rusted shut, this door had clearly not been used in quite some time. Mira questioned if it was in fact the maintenance back door that Lucian had said it was. Rather than add more fuel to the frustration between them, though, she remained quiet and put her efforts into getting inside the building. There was no way to open it silently, given its condition; she was quite sure the metal shriek it made as she forced it upwards would alert anyone within a mile of their location.

“So much for our stealthy entrance.” Stryker said, but there was no laughter in his voice.

“Couldn’t be helped,” Mira said.

“It was a route used by the original settlers of this town. This old building was part of a shopping center before the great cataclysm. All these buildings were interconnected and had tunnel systems built into them to begin with. They helped to lay the framework for our city’s infrastructure,” Lucian said.

“I’d heard about people using them as fallout shelters during the great cataclysm,” said Mira, impressed that buildings as old as these would still stand in some fashion.

“Some were able to take shelter in these, in areas less damaged during the quakes and storms, but most weren’t so lucky,” Lucian said.

“Is that the reason this city is here? It was one of the few places that was not hit that hard?” Mira asked. She’d been around for many years herself, but the great cataclysm had happened more than a hundred years before her birth. She often wondered what life had been like before it. Stories she’d grown up with had spoken of great cities and the entire continent filled with people. All she had known were the eight Iron Gate cities and their satellite farm communities. Everything else was badlands, supposedly uninhabitable.

“Yes. Our history books speak of…”

“Guys, I hate to break up the lesson, but let’s move,” Stryker said.

Embarrassed that curiosity had gotten the better of her, Mira’s face flushed red. “Sorry, yes. Inside.” She ushered them in and let the rusty door fall shut behind her. The place was pitch black, but that wasn’t a problem for Mira. She could see outlines and shapes of objects. She might not have perfectly clear vision, but she’d not trip over anything in the dark.

“Can any of you guys see?” she asked.

“Wolves have excellent night vision,” Stryker responded.

“Someone please guide me.” Frustration filled Lucian’s voice.

Mira heard someone trip and fall on the concrete ground, and assumed it was Lucian.

“I got ya.” Terrance grabbed one of Lucian’s arms and helped guide him.

“Okay, Lucian, what’s our next step?” Mira asked.

“We’re looking for a set of doors. They’ll probably have something written on them that says ‘maintenance only.’”

Mira looked around. This had to have been an old warehouse or something. She made out the shapes of boxes, and by the musty smell knew the place had a heavy coat of dust. At her feet, she nearly slipped on papers strewn about the floor. “Careful where you step,” she warned, and continued in further. At the far end she spied a couple of sets of doors. “This way,” she said, and headed toward a pair that had small windows in them. A white sign proclaimed in red letters
Authorized Personnel Only
.

“I think I found it,” Mira called over to the group. She pushed through the doors, and blew out a sigh of relief when no more alarms sounded.

“What do you see?” Lucian asked nervously.

Peering into the darkness, she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “Looks like a long hallway with doors everywhere,” Mira called back.

“Great!” The relief in Lucian’s voice was clear. “Okay, now look for ones marked ‘stairs.’”

“Stay close,” Mira said, and slowly, she made her way down the hallway, stopping every few feet to check for signs and listen for any sound of guards.

When she found a door marked
stairs
, Mira pushed it open. Alarm bells began to blare. Red lights flashed, bathing the hall and stairwell in crimson light.

Mira covered her ears against the shrill sound. “Make it stop!”

Lucian sprang to action. On the outside of the door was a security panel. He began tapping in various codes. When one appeared not to work, he tried another, and another. “They must have deactivated some of my codes,” Lucian shouted, as if anyone could actually hear him over the noise.

Sensitive as her ears were, the noise was painfully piercing. She could hear nothing else except for the shrill siren.

“Let me try one more,” Lucian, said though he was sure no one could hear him. He frantically tapped in a long ten-digit code.

Silence fell like a wet blanket over the group, drowning out the shrill call of the alarm. The lights stopped flashing, but the red glow remained.

“What happened?” Mira found herself yelling over the ringing of her ears.

“Security protocols. All entrances and exits to classified areas were armed with alarm systems. I thought since these buildings were old and no longer in use, their alarms might have been deactivated. I was wrong.”

“So, does that mean your codes work?” Mira asked.

“Mine didn’t, but I have a few others memorized.” Lucian said with a proud smile. “We changed codes so often that I needed to have a few backups on hand in case I couldn’t remember my own personal one. Comes in handy every now and again.”

The ringing began to subside, and Mira was better able to control the volume of her voice. “Let’s just hope that your codes will still be good when we get to the prison cells.”

“And we’ll have to move double time. They’ll be on to us now that this alarm has gone off.” Lucian said.

Chapter 8

Though the red lighted hallways meant almost certainly that the group were being watched and would soon be attacked, they were thankful to not have to stumble around in the dark anymore.

Lower and lower they traveled, down shaky metal stairwells and into the depths of the city’s infrastructure. When they had gone as low as they could, Lucian guided them toward a set of blue double doors. Beyond them was a hallway Mira recognized. She been so turned around the first time she’d been there; but now, standing in that hallway again, she recognized the place where she’d first set eyes on Lucian. How close she’d been to freedom then! If she’d only known.

“From here on out, there will surely be guards. And cameras,” Lucian said.

“Forget the cameras, they’ll already know we’re here. Stealth is no longer the goal; now we need deadly speed. We need to get to the prison level and release my friends,” Mira said. “Once we do that, we’ll be able to battle our way out.

“Agreed. The wolves will need to take up the lead and rear. The handlers will have UV weaponry,” Lucian reminded her.

Mira hissed involuntarily at the mention of the torches. She knew their sting all too well. “Lead the way.”

Lucian led the charge down the hallways. The first guard they ran into didn’t know what had hit him. The wolves were quick and merciless in their attack, snapping the young man’s neck before he had the idea that anyone was behind him.

The next guard was not so lucky. He saw the cadre charging him and tried to raise his weapon in time, but there was no hope.

When they reached the prison level and opened the door, bright white light flooded Mira’s vision, blinding her. Hissing in pain, she turned away from the light. Alarms had already been raised and every cell was flooded with overhead UV lighting. The cacophony of screams and moans from the imprisoned vampires was so loud it overwhelmed the alarms. She couldn’t see them, but Mira knew they were all writhing in pain, burning, screaming for mercy.

“Do something!” Mira shrieked, unable to enter the doorway. She clutched at her face, trying to shield her eyes.

“I’m on it,” Lucian yelled.

Strong warm arms enveloped Mira, blocking her body from much of the burning light. “Relax. I’ve got you.” Stryker’s tone was calm and reassuring. “You two, stay with the human!”

Mira couldn’t say anything; the pain was tremendous. Any small bit of skin exposed singed and burned. She tried to make herself as small as she could, hiding in the shadow of Stryker’s strong body, thankful for his immunity to the light and his size.

It felt like an eternity, but when the alarms finally hushed, the sudden silence was just as deafening as the screams had been. A few whimpers broke the silence, and then groans and grunts began to reach Mira’s ears as vampires rose up in their cells. 

“Blood. They’ll need it. Immediately.” Fearful urgency tainted her voice. “Tell Lucian to open the ration stores. The vampires when released will be a feral as dogs after what they just went through.”

“Are you okay? Can you move?” Stryker asked.

“I’m fine, but he won’t be if he releases their cages before opening up the stores of rations. Go!”

Stryker disappeared quickly. Mira blinked away the sting in her eyes and refocused through the new darkness. Footsteps, lots of them behind her, set her on edge. She knew the humans would be coming, but had hoped for a few minutes to explain to her vampire kindred what was going on before they were invaded.

Anxiously she turned and saw the hoard of guards flooding through the doorway behind her. Trapped, she was the only thing blocking their way into the prison floor.

“We’ve got company.” She barely got the words out before the lights hit her square in the face. UV torches: painful blasts of hot light. Shrieking in pain, Mira crumpled to the ground again. For all her strength, she was powerless being assaulted by so many lights at once.

A wolf snarled and something dark leapt over her. Then another shape came around her side. Guns went off and men screamed. Mira was caught up in the bodies that pushed into her like a tide against the seashore. From both sides they came at her, crashing together in a loud roar. The painful lights disappeared. Free from their blinding beams, Mira sprang into action. Wolves along with the recently freed vampires were already deeply entrenched in the fight. Blood sprayed into the air, speckling her face.

Mira found herself at a loss as to whom she could attack. All around her was a swarming mass of bodies, some dismembered, some still writhing in pain. All of her kind, the others who’d been imprisoned for so long, were feasting on the fallen soldiers. As gruesome as the scene before her was, she’d not deny her fellow inmates the pleasure of this well-earned meal, and found herself smiling as she watched them in action. Even the wolves looked to be enjoying taking down soldiers as they attempted to file into the room. 

Lucian cautiously approached her from behind. She felt his trembling hand on her shoulder before she turned.

“You did it!” Mira’s eyes glinted with bloodlust, but she tried to rein it in for his sake. 

The look on Lucian's face was not a happy one. “So much death.”

“This is war. It’s what happens.” Mira shrugged. For someone accustomed to seeing her kind slaughtering each other in the arena while he ate his steak and potatoes, he was a little too squeamish about it now.

“But those soldiers… humans…”

“Would just as easily kill me, them, and you.” He might have been on her side, but he was still human. Seeing his own kind being killed was clearly affecting him more than he wanted to say. She could see it in the faraway look and hear the hesitation in his voice.

“Needless deaths.” Lucian’s voice was almost a whisper.

“Once we change things, hopefully there will be no more need of senseless deaths,” Mira said, and truly meant it. Though the smell of fresh blood tempted her, she was sick of death.

Lucian snorted. “Don’t put so much faith in humanity.”

“I don’t; nor do I put my faith in my own kind. But I have hope.”

His eyebrow quirked up and he finally met her eyes dead on. “You constantly surprise me.”

“How so?”

“You are surprisingly softhearted, for a vampire.”

“And then you had to go ruin the moment with a statement like that,” Mira shot at Lucian. Soft… there was nothing soft about her.

Behind them, the sounds of the massacre were diminishing. Mira felt the weight of eyes falling on her, and more importantly, on Lucian. She turned swiftly and pulled him behind her. Acting as his shield, she met the icy stare of Tegan, leading the pack of rabid vampires. The hulking beast of a man lumbered toward her. Hunger and rage filling his cold eyes. Years of pent-up aggression needing to be slaked.

“If you’re not going to partake, at least share…” Thick with fresh blood, Tegan’s voice carried a wicked note to it. One that promised danger.

Caught between two worlds, Mira understood Tegan’s murderous glares at her human friend, their former jailer. But she’d not let him touch a hair on Lucian’s head. “No one is partaking in this one.” Mira matched his tone, promising more than just danger to him if he tried anything.

“Look who’s gone all soft for her human patron. Finally get a little action, and now look at you.” His mocking hit a nerve. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted to entertain his unasked challenge, but they had better things to do than fight among themselves. 

“If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be out here. No one touches this human. Got it?”

“Human lover,” Tegan spat. Vampires behind him cheered as if it had been a rallying call.

Baring her teeth, she snarled, “Back off, Tegan. Last warning.”

The two wolves, Rob and Terrance, were instantly at Mira’s side. Ears pinned back and growling, they were on high alert. The hairs on the back of the wolves’ necks almost stood straight up. Stryker pushed his way through the crowd, fists balled up so tight he was shaking with anticipation.

Hand twitching a the hilt of her short sword, Mira stared deep into Tegan’s eyes. “We’re prepared for a fight, Tegan. Back down now and we can talk this out. Remember, I’m not your enemy.”

“Call your dogs off! This is bullshit.” Tegan stamped his foot like a child. “We’re free now. Time to make our captors pay.”

“We will. But he’s not one of them,” Mira said, her tone still warning, but calming a bit. “He’s under my protection and the protection of the Otherkin.”

“He’s Elite. He’s a Regent!” Tegan lunged forward and tried to push Mira aside. “Ruler of this city. The one who was our jailer!”

Ready for him, Mira was a stone wall, unmoving, even with the full weight of him pushing against her. “He
was
, Tegan! Not anymore.” She hoped he would get the picture, but Tegan had always been a bit thick in the head.

Stryker twitched, ready to fight at her side. A low rumbling growl rolled up his chest. But he made no move to intercede yet.

The other vampires fanned out around them as best they could in the corridor. None stepped forward to issue a challenge. Glancing quickly into the crowd, she hoped to see George, but didn’t have time to have a good look, not with Tegan’s threatening glare directed at her. Despite the fact they all were warriors, she got the impression that Tegan was the acting Alpha in this group, and she’d have to knock him down from his throne if she hoped to get anyone else to listen.

Mira turned to Stryker. “If he wants a fight, so be it. But this fight is between me and him.”

Lucian, without prompting, sidestepped behind Stryker. The two wolves growled and bared their teeth at the vampires encircling them, but made no move.

Mira narrowed her eyes at Tegan, daring him to do something stupid.

“You’d really fight one of your own, over this human?” Tegan spat in her face.

A feral growl rumbled out of Mira’s throat as she wiped the spittle from her eyes.

Clearly satisfied he’d shamed her, Tegan stepped closer, invading her space and smiling as he looked down his nose at her.

That would be the last time he pulled a stunt like that. Moving with all her vampiric speed, Mira had his balls in her right hand, and squeezed, digging her nails into the soft yielding flesh. “Try a stunt like that again and I rip them off.”

His head came down hard against hers. Two wrecking balls colliding with a loud crack; the impact stunned them both, but Mira held firm to her prize, jerking them a little as she recovered.

“Final warning, Tegan. Submit, or become a eunuch the hard way.”

More brawn than brains, he still held to his rage. Stepping into Mira, he threw his arms around her and squeezed.

Her head squashed against his shoulder, Mira had little room to move, but she would not let go. Rather than drop her leverage and squirm away, she found an open bit of flesh and bit down. Vampire blood was a far superior source of replenishment, and after her light bath a few moments earlier, she needed it. Tegan howled and tried to back away, but realized she was still in control of his balls. He beat against her back with his fists, and she responded by digging her teeth into his shoulder while tightening her grip on his most sensitive bits. The absurdity of their embrace must have been a sight, but no one surrounding them made a sound.

Grumbling with aggravation, Tegan released her. “Fine! Have your human. Just let me go!”

Mira released him and stepped back, wiping the blood from her mouth. “He’s not just any human. He risked his life to free me, and we risked everything together to free you. Not all humans are our enemies, but the ones that are, I promise you, we will repay for the atrocities done to our kind.” Mira held out her hand in friendship to Tegan. “Trust me. He’s not our enemy.”