“It was you.” I stared at the hunched figure against the wall. And I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw his shoulders flinch, just a little, at the words. “You were the vampire, the Master, that sold out the other vampires for a cure to Red Lung. You were the one working with the scientists. And this place—” I glanced back at the steel door “—this was where it all happened. That was what Smiley was talking about. The experiments, the screaming. You’re the one responsible for the rabids!”
Kanin straightened, though he didn’t look at me. “That vampire is gone,” he said in the coldest voice I’d ever heard. “He was foolish and idealistic, and his faith in mankind was horrendously misplaced. It would’ve been better had he let the virus run its course—some humans would have survived, they always survive. And if our kind had starved, if vampires all went extinct, maybe that would have been preferable to this.”
I was silent, not knowing what to say. I thought I would hate him; this was the vampire whose actions had created something horrible, who was responsible for the spread of the rabids, who had inadvertently caused the enslavement of the entire human race. But even in my darkest, angriest moments, I could not match the depth of loathing I heard in Kanin’s voice, the absolute hatred for the vampire who had doomed both species, and the desperate need to make things right.
“Let’s go,” he finally said, starting forward again. “We have to keep moving. Take nothing you don’t need, we’ll want to travel light, and we have only a few hours to clear the wall and get out of the ruins.”
“I’m good to go,” I said, holding up my sword. “I don’t have anything except this.” It was kind of sad, really. That I’d lived in a place for seventeen years and had nothing to show for it but a sword and the clothes on my back. And they weren’t even mine. For a second, I wished I had some keepsake of my mom’s, something to remember her by, but the vampires had taken even that.
And then it really hit me. I was leaving. I was leaving the only place I’d ever known, the place that had been home my entire life. What lay beyond the Wall, beyond the ruins, I had no idea. From what Kanin told me, I knew there were other vampire cities, scattered about the wilderness, but I had no idea where any of them were located. Kanin always seemed reluctant to talk about his travels, about the world outside, so it rarely came up. Were there humans out there, scorning vampire protection, living free? Or was the world beyond a wasteland of dead buildings and forests teeming with rabids and other horrors?
I guessed I would find out, because Kanin was giving me no time to consider. “Hurry,” he snapped as we jogged to the elevator shaft. This would be the last time we used it. “Get up there now. They’re probably almost here.”
I scurried up the dark tube and came out in the hospital ruins, stepping aside so Kanin could follow me up. Around us, the blackened remains stood silent, but across the empty lot, slithering like the wind through the grass, I could hear footsteps. Lots of footsteps. Coming this way.
And then, over the tops of the grass and weeds, I saw them. Vampires. A whole lot of them, their skin pale under the glowing moon, moving in tandem over the lot. Surrounding and flanking them were several human guards carrying very large weapons—assault rifles. The vampires looked unarmed, but the sheer number of them, gliding noiselessly through the weeds like an army of corpses, made me bite my lip until I tasted blood.
Kanin gripped my shoulder, and I glanced up at him, trying to hide my fear. He pressed a finger to his lips and pointed silently into the city. We slipped away into the darkness, as voices and the steady march of footsteps drew closer to our location.
*
I’D NEVER RUN SO FAST in my life, or death, for that matter.
Kanin was relentless, leading me through the city, down side streets, into alleyways, under and through old buildings on the verge of collapse. It was a good thing I never got winded or tired anymore, running along behind Kanin as we fled the army at our backs. Frighteningly, our pursuers didn’t get tired, either, and had apparently called in reinforcements once they discovered we were on the run. Vehicles and armored trucks scoured the once empty streets, bright spotlights piercing the darkness, armed guards ready to open fire at anything that moved. All humans had wisely moved indoors; not even the gangs were roaming the alleyways tonight. A citywide manhunt, where even the vampires were out in the open, in large numbers, was cause enough for the bravest thug to stay off the street.
The streets rapidly became too dangerous for us to cross, but Kanin wasn’t planning on staying aboveground for long and took us into the undercity as quickly as he could. Prying up a manhole cover, he motioned me down the hole, and I dropped into the belly of the city without hesitation.
“We can’t slow down,” Kanin cautioned after he’d landed noiselessly beside me. “They’ll be searching the tunnels, as well. Perhaps even more extensively than the streets. But at least down here we’ll be out of the open, away from the trucks.”
I nodded. “Where to now?”