Luke did his best to shake off the daze from yet another blow to the head and gave the room a quick sweep, ensuring he’d gotten them all before he walked out. The door across the hall led to an identical room, but here there were no bodies strapped to metal beds.
The third room was worse than all the others.
He thought he’d become used to the stench, but when he opened that door, it bowled him over. He slammed it shut and fell back, gagging and coughing. Shredded bodies were piled up like laundry waiting to be cleaned. Arms ripped from torsos. Heads smashed, their skulls held together only by scraps of scalp. Chest cavities exposed with jagged ribs sticking out, broken in half or ripped apart. Nothing was whole; nothing was alive.
Luke knew what he’d find in the next rooms. He’d been denying the clues that’d been laid out before him, but the evidence could no longer be ignored. He walked to the end of the hall and looked inside the small, reinforced security window. The door had been further strengthened with huge steel crossbars fixed into brackets, like a castle’s gate. It could withstand huge amounts of force, like a battering ram, or a prison riot, or a newborn vampire too young to know control.
Several of them stalked about the room, mindless predators in too small of a cage. What had likely once been bodies hung from the ceiling on thick chains, they no longer resembled the humans they’d once been. Soon they would be added to the pile of meat in the other room. The cadavers had been bled dry, but some of the vampires were gnawing on severed limbs, teething as all infants do. One of them looked up at Luke, and what he saw in that gaze chilled him to the bone. Hate and hunger and rage, not a trace of humanity left. The corners of Luke’s vision blackened, and he slid down the wall. His body had lost the will necessary to keep him upright. His breathing turned rapid and shallow as he held his hand. “It’s starting again,” he mumbled. “It’s starting again, it’s starting again,” over and over as he gasped for air that refused to reach him.
Luke didn’t know how long he’d been there before a familiar voice rose out of the deep water of his horror trapped brain.
“Luke… Are you back here? Luke! Fuck, it stinks. Luke!? Oh, there you are.” Pablo jogged up and knelt beside him. “Are you OK, buddy? I hadn’t seen you in a while and got worried. Your friend Max said you came in here to check for more survivors. Did you find any?”
Luke shook his head slowly, still looking at the floor between his knees.
WHAM!
Pablo jumped back, falling on his butt. Something continued to strike the door they’d been sitting by. Each time the steel shook a little harder.
“They heard us…” Luke whispered.
Pablo stood up and walked slowly towards it, trying to keep out of the line of sight of the window. Then he peered inside.
WHAM!
Pablo flinched, staring back at the ravenous face trying to claw its way through. “What in God’s name?”
“There’s no god in there…”
“Luke, what is this? What’s going on?”
“It’s a nursery,” Luke coughed.
“A what?”
“A vampire nursery.” Luke’s voice grew steadier as he pulled himself back to the surface. “They drain their victims, feeding on them in the process, then they feed them vampire blood. That’s what they were doing back there.” He vaguely gestured toward the other room down the hall. “They stash the newly made vampires in this cell until they learn control.”
“What?”
“Newly made vampires only know insatiable hunger, not just to feed, but to rip life apart. This jail is a vampire breeding center.”
“It’s a gateway to hell,” Pablo muttered.
Luke nodded his agreement. “Help me up?” Luke extended his hand.
“What are we going to do?” Pablo asked as he pulled him upright. “Can we go in and kill them?”
“Probably not. They’re at full strength and have zero control. I finished a handful of newly awakened ones back there, but they were still weak. I’m not sure I could handle this lot even with your help.”
His brow wrinkled. Pablo looked scared. “We can’t leave them, though, can we?”
“No…we can’t.”
Luke looked around the hallway, hoping for inspiration as the slams against the reinforced door grew more frantic. Unlike most of the condemned buildings he hunted in, this one was brand new and fully operational. It featured layers of security doors, reinforced windows, and a state-of-the-art fire suppression station; he got an idea. He jogged over and opened it. Inside was a spooled fire hose and a firefighter’s axe.
He yanked the axe off its hooks and ran back to Pablo. “The first door in this hallway, closest to the exit, is a supply closet. I think I saw some rubbing alcohol. Get every bottle and bring it back here. Bring some gauze, too. I’m going to see if I can get this window out of the door. They won’t be able to fit through.”
“Good luck, dude. That’s security glass. That’s some tough shit.”
“I know. I guess we’ll see who’s stronger?” Luke picked up the axe, and Pablo turned to run. “Pablo! Don’t look in any of the other rooms. You don’t want that in your brain; trust me.”
Pablo nodded and ran down the hall, avoiding the other doors.
Luke braced himself and began a steady, powerful rhythm. Using the pick side of the axe, he bashed at the center of the small rectangular window. Pablo made several trips back and forth from the supply closet, arm’s full of supplies. Luke’s progress was slow, so he flipped to the bladed edge and continued bashing away. Finally, the window frame gave way. The wired glass flew back into the face of the ravenous vampire on the other side.
Pablo took the caps off everything he’d brought, then stuffed lengths of gauze into the opening of several metal cans. Luke grabbed a large plastic jug of alcohol and squeezed it into the open window, soaking the vampire reaching through. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and sparked it up, careful to stay out range of the vampire’s claws. The alcohol vapors and droplets lit up and ignited the vampire. Screeching an unholy cry that hurt Luke’s ears, the vampire flailed away from the door and disappeared back into the room. Another quickly took its place, too mindless to know better.
Luke repeated the process until the vampires stopped grasping out the window. While they were relentless, they weren’t entirely without intelligent thought. Eventually, they realized what was happening to their roommates. Several more stood back, dodging the lit vamps flailing about.
“They’re not coming close enough to spray,” Luke reported. “I don’t think throwing will work, either.”
“I’m workin’ on something…” Pablo replied. “Save me one bottle of alcohol, but throw the rest in. Try to spread them around and cover as much area as possible.”
Luke did as instructed, hitting one of the watching vampires if he could. He turned to grab another bottle, but it was the last; he picked it up but didn’t throw it.
“OK, done!” Pablo had made a dozen long wicks out of the gauze; each ran into a metal tin of cleaner, plugging it closed. The rest of the gauze he’d tied into a long rope, one end still rolled up. “This industrial cleaner shit is mega-flammable. It’ll make a big bada boom! We just need to slide it through the opening. It doesn’t matter if they land on the bottom or not. The gauze will keep most of it from leaking out.”
Luke set down the alcohol and alternated back and forth with Pablo dropping the improvised bombs into the nursery. With the last one inside, Pablo picked up the rope of gauze from the ground.
“Pour some of that alcohol on this… Careful, man! Don’t spill it on me!”
“Sorry, it kind of gushed there for a second.”
“OK, that should do it. Now take the rest and squirt it over the cans.” Luke followed the instructions. Pablo took one end of the roll and held on. The rest he dropped into the window, where it unspooled down to the pool of alcohol. He looked around until he spotted the bright red axe. “That’ll work. Hand me the axe, please.”
Pablo set the axe head down on the floor, propping it against the door. With a simple knot, he tied the loose end of gauze around the handle, anchoring it in place. Next, he bent over and squished the gauze pile around on the floor, ensuring it soaked up as much alcohol as possible. He took one end of the soaked pile of gauze rope and tied it to the end of the first, securing both ends to the handle to anchor them. Leaving the axe propped against the door, he began walking his alcohol-soaked rope down the hallway.
“Let’s blow this popsicle stand,” Pablo said.
“Let’s just hope they don’t rip that gauze to pieces…”
Pablo grinned wickedly. “Don’t worry. As much alcohol as is on it, it’s already dripped all over and down the inside of the door. That’ll keep the fire moving.”
Luke followed him down the hall. The vampires surged forward, ripping at the open window, hoping to widen it enough to escape and devour them. After what seemed an eternity of carnage, Luke opened the door back into the cell block. Pablo brought the fuse through behind him.
Delilah was waiting for them. “Hey, boys! We’ve got all the injured civilians out and most of the others. You two ready to go?”
“Luke, prop that door open,” Pablo instructed, stretching out his gauze rope.
Luke and Delilah watched him work as he whistled a jaunty tune.
Someone Luke didn’t know popped their head through the exit door and yelled, “Yo, Pablo! The last of them just left the first cell block. We’re all clear here, so get your asses moving! Holly wants to go, NOW!”
“We’re on it. We’ll be hustling along shortly. We just need to light the birthday candle,” Pablo called back.
The guy in the doorway gave Pablo a strange look and disappeared back the way he came. Luke offered Pablo his lighter.
“No thanks, man! My hands are covered in alcohol. I think I’ll step back a bit and let you light it up.”
Luke turned to Delilah. “Delilah, would you like the honors?”
“What am I doing?” she asked.
“Just light the end of the gauze…and then…” Pablo pantomimed a massive explosion with both hands, complete with sound effects.
Delilah grinned.
“Get ready to run. I’m not sure how much of a bang this is going to make, but let’s not take any chances,” Luke said.
Delilah bent over and lit up the end of the alcohol-soaked gauze. The flame took hold and shot down the length.
“RUN!” Pablo and Luke yelled.
They fled toward the exit. Luke spared one last glance over his shoulder; the flame disappeared into the doorway to make its run down the cellblock. Delilah dropped back, unable to match a werewolf and vamp-juiced slayer for speed or endurance. Luke slowed to her pace; worst-case scenario, he could shield her from the blast. He would heal, hopefully.
Big bada boom was right. The flame finally reached the tins and lit them up, letting off a series of “whumps” as they exploded. Fire alarms went off as they ran, but the trio stayed dry. The sprinkler system that had been meticulously installed along every ceiling throughout the prison never kicked on.
“Where are the sprinklers?” Pablo yelled.
“No, idea,” Luke replied. “They must have disabled them.”
They sprinted through Block 1 and then out into the hallways that led to the exit, coming to a gasping halt outside.
“Fuck! The guards! We can’t leave them tied up in there,” Luke yelled and turned back around.
Sam caught him by the shoulder. “Luke, we already took care of it. We cut the zip ties from their legs and sent them away. It’ll take them a while to raise any alarm. We’re almost ready to go.” She hopped into an SUV with Holly and some other werewolves to check their progress.
The last of the civilians were boarding the pack’s buses. Luke jogged over to his car and quickly pulled off his cloak, tossing it in the back of the wagon, followed by the swords and the lorica segmentata. He left on everything else—the greaves, left wrist brace, and sheathed poniard. Finished, he slid the heavily laden tub into the back and shut the trunk behind it.
“Hey, Luke. I’ll ride with you. Also, you’ve got an extra passenger,” Delilah pointed at the small figure in his backseat, trying to look inconspicuous.
Luke sighed and reached for his keys.
“Go easy on her,” Delilah suggested with a steady hand on his shoulder. “She didn’t want to stay with the werewolves. They terrify her. She snuck out and hid in the back of one of the buses. I found her when I came out to get the second wave, sent her to your car so she’d feel safe. If you want, you can chat with her, and I’ll drive.”
Luke nodded and climbed into the passenger side. “Hello, Gwen,” he spoke over his shoulder. “It’s fine that you’re here, but we’re still not all the way out of this. You know what was in there.” Luke gestured toward the jail. “If we run into anything on our way out, I need you to listen to me and follow instructions, OK? You’re still a bit undersized and a lot undertrained to be jumping into any fights. Your best strategy is to listen to one of us.”
Gwen nodded, staring out the window as Delilah climbed in.
One of the buses sounded its horn; it was time to roll. The trucks and SUVs belonging to the pack moved out first, followed by the two buses. Delilah brought up the end of the caravan as they wound their way through the industrial north side of the St. Johns neighborhood, headed for the St. Johns Bridge. Luke stared out the passenger window into the darkness, his mind adrift, trying to protect itself from the fresh horrors of the day.