The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel (11 page)

     Jameson put on a burst of vampire speed and unlocked the doors of the van. He had every door open and Phoebe resting in the very back by the time the others reached the vehicle.

     “Get in,” Jameson shouted. The Rippers had caught up with them.

     The first of the Rippers was a man wearing spectacles. His jaw dangled from his face. Part of his cheek had ragged teeth marks torn through it.

     When the Ripper came at Jameson, the vampire took him by the throat and snarled at him. The creature’s blood smelled contaminated.

     “Get in the van!” Jameson growled again as he tore through the Ripper’s throat. The creature kept coming even with the hideous wound.

     Jameson bared his fangs and snarled at the thrashing Ripper. Reaching into the mangled flesh, he grabbed for the blood-slicked bones of the beast’s spine and pulled hard. A wet, thick ‘crack’ indicated the snapping of the vertebrae.

     The Ripper instantly stopped trying to reach Jameson. The vampire dropped the limp body as two more approached with hands reaching out toward him. Jameson took the first one by its outstretched arm and swung it around with as much force he could muster into the other. They tripped over each other and went down.

     Jameson took the opportunity of their distraction to lunge for the van. Everyone else was already inside: Elise in the driver seat, Leland sitting passenger, and the kids in the back. Phoebe was still unconscious in the far rear.

     Jameson squeezed himself in the back with the children and shouted at Elise, “Drive!”

     Elise slammed on the accelerator and the van shot forward.

     “Jesus,” she murmured as they peeled out of the parking lot and away from the group of Rippers. “Holy mother of God.”

     “Out of the city,” Jameson suggested as he buckled the kids in as well as he could. He decided he would sit in the far back with Phoebe. If they crashed, he had the best chance of surviving even without a seatbelt. “We shouldn’t stay here. There are too many of those things and apparently they’re much worse at night.”

     “Do we have any idea where we should go?” Leland asked as he turned around to look at Jameson. The vampire frowned.

     “I don’t know of anywhere. The safe zones the humans were making were falling all over the place.”

     “Wait,” Elise interrupted. She weaved the van around two crashed vehicles. The warped metal wrapped around each other and smoke belched from under the hood of the more damaged vehicle. There were people inside. Elise didn’t look too closely at them as she passed.

     “What do you mean when you say ‘the humans’? Aren’t you human?” Though she chuckled at her own words, the way Jameson had spoken perplexed her.

     “He’s a vampire,” Leland said as he turned back around. At Elise’s puzzled, disbelieving expression, Leland gestured around to the world outside the van. “You think that’s any weirder than this?”

     Elise blinked hard a few times. She didn’t quite have a response to that.

     Jameson didn’t have to check the pulse beneath Phoebe’s jaw. He could hear the strong, steady beat of her heart even over Elise and Leland’s discussion and the sound of the vehicle moving.

     “Phoebe, I’m sorry,” Jameson whispered. “You were fine without us until this point. We teamed up and I injured you…twice. Sorry, kiddo. You have to wake up. The longer you sleep, the worse the damage. So please wake up.”

     Phoebe didn’t move or awaken. With a sigh, Jameson leaned back against the wall of the van. The space was cramped, but he wasn’t bothered by it. He drew his long legs up and crossed his arms over them as he watched the world roll by out of the tinted back windows.

     Dawn would be coming soon. Elise had a blanket rolled up and tucked against the backseat, which Jameson pulled toward him and unfolded. He placed it over Phoebe for the time being, but would have to take it for himself when the sun rose if he didn’t have a better option. With the sun would come the threat of death for him. If he wasn’t under cover, he would burn.

     Though being a vampire had likely saved him from the Rippers thus far, Jameson hated the weakness that came from his vampiric form. He couldn’t be out in the sun. How would he be able to be a part of this group of humans if he couldn’t even function with them in the daytime?

     Elise drove, Phoebe slept, and Jameson worried. What would happen to them when the next day came?

Chapter Sixteen – The Wrong Side of Town

     Shortly before the sun rose, Jameson curled under the blanket. He made sure every part of his body was covered and huddled against the threat of what the sun would do to him.

     “Jameson, we’ll try to find a tarp or something for you when we can,” Leland assured the vampire from the front seat.

     “I can’t drive anymore,” Elise announced. Her dark eyes were bleary with exhaustion. “We need to stop so someone can switch in or I can get some sleep. Where would we be safe to stop?”

     Leland looked out the passenger window and said, “Look.”

     Throughout the night, Rippers had thrown themselves against the van, sometimes rocking it, sometimes bouncing off with furious howls. They hadn’t encountered a single one who didn’t try to get at them in some way.

     With the sunlight spilling down on them, the Rippers moved more lethargically. They stumbled into each other and didn’t try to attack the van at all.

     “I think they’re different in the daytime,” Leland theorized. “Unless they’re right near people, they seem less likely to attack, don’t they?”

     Elise squinted out the windshield. The van passed within feet of a Ripper wandering in the middle of the street. Though the mirror almost clipped what was once a pretty young woman, the creature ignored the van completely.

     “I think you’re right,” Elise agreed with wonderment in her voice. “They aren’t interested in us at all right now.”

     “When the night comes again, it might be different,” Leland guessed. “But for now, if we stay out of their sight and keep quiet…” His suggestion trailed off. He didn’t want to be the one to say for sure that they could stop and stretch, or eat, or pee. He really had to pee. But what if he was wrong about the Rippers’ disinterest? They could step out only to be torn to pieces as soon as one of the creatures noticed they were no longer in the van.

     “If we could go somewhere with some shade, that would be greatly appreciated,” Jameson piped up from the back. His voice was muffled by the blanket he’d tucked himself under.

     “There,” Leland proposed. The gas station was mostly abandoned, with only three cars in the lot and no Rippers wandering around. “You need gas anyway. We can try it and see what happens. The awning over the pumps blocks the sun. Jameson can step out and not get lit up.”

     “Sounds great,” Jameson agreed. “Let’s do that.”

     Elise pulled the van into the parking lot of the gas station and sidled up to pump three. When she cut the engine, she expected Rippers would converge on them from every seemingly empty corner of the area around them. Instead, the parking lot remained empty of movement. She didn’t trust the stillness.

     “Jameson, we’re in the shade,” Leland announced. “We need to check to see if the gas station itself is empty then I think everyone really needs a break.”

     Jameson pulled the blanket off of his head. It was only after he’d removed his protection that he realized Leland could have been lying to him. After seeing for sure he was what he’d said, Leland could have decided Jameson was too dangerous to be kept around.

     “Glad you trust me, kid,” Jameson murmured to himself as he sat up. They were indeed under the shade of the large awning.

     Phoebe groaned and rolled over. Jameson put a calming hand on her shoulder as her hazel eyes eased open. She squinted up at him and gripped her temple with one hand.

     “I don’t feel good,” she whispered thickly.

     “You lost a lot of blood and took a hard hit to the head when you fell,” Jameson explained. He reached for one of the bottles of untouched orange juice and passed it to Phoebe. “You need to drink this and eat something.”

     Phoebe grimaced. “Food is the last thing I want,” she muttered.

     “And it’s the thing you need most,” Jameson countered. “You’ll just have to deal with it.”

     Phoebe allowed Jameson to tip the bottle of juice to her parted lips.

     As she drank, Jameson said, “I can’t go into the store. There’s a stretch of space that’s exposed and I’d get flash fried. I’ll stay by the vehicle and protect it. Leland, do you think you can go in and grab some things while you check it out?”

     “Sounds like a plan,” Leland agreed as he hopped out of the passenger seat.

     Leland expected as soon as his feet touched the pavement, a dozen Rippers would explode from secret hiding places and overtake him. When nothing reacted to the small sound of his movement, his nerves became even tenser.

     “I have a credit card,” Elise told Leland as he rounded the driver’s side of the van. She’d already stepped down and headed to the pump. Stretching in relief, she arched her back and sighed happily before taking out her wallet.

     “You think it’ll work?” Leland asked.

     “The power seems to be on still,” Elise responded as she took out her gold credit card. “I’ve never had to go in before with a card.”

     As she slipped her card in the slot designed for it, Elise held her breath. There were any number of problems that could present themselves when it came to getting gas with the card. The store’s system could be down. The credit card’s company could have had irreparable technical problems since the apparent end of the world.

     With a beep, the card was approved. Elise let out the breath she’d been holding and offered Leland a smile and a thumbs up.

     She started pumping gas as Jameson climbed out of the van’s far back door. The strange man was somewhat of an enigma to her and she watched him with what she considered was healthy suspicion.

     “Two of the kids need new pull-ups on,” Jameson spoke. “They all need to stretch and the oldest needs to use the bathroom in the store if possible.” The kids had managed to fall asleep throughout the night. They’d woken up hungry, uncomfortable, and two of them were wet.

     Elise didn’t know if he was talking to her or himself. “There should be some stuff in there if it’s clear,” she said. She hoped she wasn’t intruding on his personal, verbal musings.

     Jameson smiled at her. Elise realized there was something more attractive about the man than his oceanic eyes, tall, muscular form, and smooth voice. There was something enigmatic and otherworldly about him. Vampiric allure? Perhaps, she thought. It was still hard to believe one of her unexpected travelling companions was a vampire.

     Phoebe leaned her legs out of the back of the van and looked around. With dismay, she realized they were out of town, but that they had gone the wrong way from her uncle’s ranch. By not telling anyone her idea about a safe place to go, she’d allowed them to be taken farther away from her goal.

     “Dang it,” she whispered to herself.

     Jameson popped his head around the corner of the vehicle. “Something wrong?” he questioned.

     Phoebe’s pulse picked up and she scooted to the side away from Jameson. It was just a few inches done without conscious thought, but it stung Jameson a little. He cleared his throat and stepped back.

     “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

     Phoebe worked to calm her breathing. Jameson hadn’t done anything she shouldn’t have expected. Even if it had taken a blow to the back of his head to get him off of her, he hadn’t killed her. And he felt bad about it. She could see it in the curve of his frown and the sadness in his expressive blue eyes.

     “It’s fine. I’m just jumpy. I think we all are,” she said. “But we’re going the wrong way.”

     Jameson’s frown deepened. Concern replaced the sadness in his gaze as he came around the van fully and leaned against it.

     “What do you mean we’re going the wrong way?” he asked. “I didn’t know we had anywhere specific in mind.”

     “We didn’t,” Phoebe agreed guiltily. “I wanted to wait to see if you guys were trustworthy before I told you about the place I wanted to go.”

     “After last night, I’m pretty sure you don’t have any trust for anyone.”

     Phoebe fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She regretted the loss of her mother’s book and wished she had it to squeeze.

     “I don’t really have much of a choice,” Phoebe said at last. “You’ve told the truth to me so far, as crazy as the truth has been. And I just want to get somewhere safe. We can figure things out when we get there. Frankly, we wouldn’t be alive if we hadn’t been together by this point.” She gave him a look that indicated she thought the statement had been dumb and said, “Well, maybe you would. Those creatures don’t seem to stand much chance against you.”

     “A few of them at a time, maybe,” Jameson agreed with a nod. “But I want to be with a group of humans. I’m looking for other vampires, but I don’t want to be locked down during the day. I think even vampire strength wouldn’t be enough if I got overwhelmed by a large group of these things. Having humans who can keep us mobile helps me more than you realize.”

     “Well, at least we have something to offer.”

     Jameson’s gaze fell to her neck and Phoebe flushed at the contact. It was almost as though a phantom hand had brushed against the skin instead of just his eyes focusing on the healing bite wound.

     Before the conversation could continue, Leland swung the door of the store open.

     “Phoebe, you okay to help me gather some stuff up?” he called out to her.

     Phoebe stood and walked as fast as she could without getting dizzy over to him.

     “Don’t be so loud,” she whispered. “What if those things are around somewhere?”

     Leland gestured her in, looking contrite for his earlier loudness. There were no carts in the store, so Phoebe scoured the backroom for something she could use to gather things up and carry them in.

     “Here, take this,” she told Leland as he joined her in the storage area. One cart had been in use in the back area for returned cans. Phoebe dumped them out and pushed the cart toward Leland.

     She took a large cardboard box for herself. “Pull ups for the kids and size six diapers if you see them. Carmen still wears them occasionally. I think we should grab light food and water. Anything you see you think might be useful.”

     Leland grabbed a few small sewing kits, three dark blue tarps, several rolls of duct tape, and two gas cans before he even looked at food.

     Into Phoebe’s box went several large bottles of water, power bars aplenty, and a small mound of sugary snacks. If they had to be on the road for an extended period of time, things like honeybuns and snack cakes would give the most carbs in the smallest amount. Even if they’d be accompanied by a sugar crash, they were individually wrapped and light. Not ideal, but they would have to make do until they could reach her uncle’s farm.

     “I know where we should go,” Phoebe told Leland. “My uncle has a farm. It’s on the other side of the city, so it sucks that I was out on the drive.”

     “Yeah, how are you feeling?” Leland asked as they made to leave.

     “Awful,” Phoebe admitted. “I kinda just want to go back to sleep.”

     “Get back in the back, then,” Leland suggested. “Give us the address of your uncle’s place and we’ll get there.”

     Phoebe hesitated as she tucked the box into the back corner of the van’s storage area. “I don’t know the address.”

     “Well, do you know how to get there?” Leland asked. He opened one of the van’s back passenger doors and began wedging items under the feet of the children. They weren’t tall enough to reach the floor, anyway, so there was space to utilize.

     “Only through the city,” Phoebe admitted. “I don’t know how to get there from here. I don’t even know the name of the little town his farm is in.”

     “Well, shit,” Leland sighed. “Do you know any way to get the address or directions?”

     Phoebe sat on the edge of the back of the van and accepted the tarps and tape he handed her. By unspoken agreement, they’d decided to block the sunlight from the back part of the van. It would take a few moments and leave them exposed, but if they wanted to protect Jameson, it had to be done.

     Leland handed off the gas cans to Elise. “Can you fill these up, too?”

     “Doesn’t seem like I’ll have to worry about paying off the card anytime soon,” she said with a smile as she accepted the cans.

     “Let me,” Jameson suggested as he relived Elise of the cans. “Sit in the passenger seat and wait for us to be ready to go. Leland can drive the next stretch.”

     “Yeah,” Leland agreed as he helped Phoebe with the tape and tarps. “If we can figure out where we’re going.”

     Elise, instead of doing as Jameson suggested, joined the kids in the backseat and started helping them change pull-ups and pick out food. They were scared and drained by the situation, but something about Elise calmed them better than anything the others could offer.

     After she’d had her pull-up changed and chosen a honey bun for breakfast, Carmen surprised everyone by reaching a hand out and placing it on Elise’s belly.

     “Baby,” she said in a soft voice. “Mommy had baby.”

     Phoebe went a shade paler as she heard what Carmen said. Leland and Jameson exchanged looks.

     “That’s right,” Phoebe whispered. She slumped forward and dropped the roll of duct tape she had. “Carmen’s parents just had another baby. We left him there…”

     Leland didn’t know what to do to help take the crestfallen expression from Phoebe’s face. He continued to tape up the back and finished with the task just as Jameson returned to his place by the girl.

     Jameson tucked the gas cans up against the back of the kids’ seat and turned his attention to Phoebe.

     “You can’t beat yourself up over the people you couldn’t save, Phoebe,” Jameson insisted. “If that’s a habit you get into with this…you’re going to end up killed yourself. You’ve done so much more than most adults would be capable of.”

     “But he was a baby,” Phoebe interjected.

     “He was probably dead before you even showed up,” Leland said flatly.

     Jameson glared at Leland, but Phoebe nodded her agreement. “You’re right,” she said. “And me going in after him would have just killed me.”

     “We should get going,” Elise suggested, her voice as soft as when she’d been talking to the children.

     “We don’t even know
where
we’re going,” Leland said. “Phoebe has a good goal, but she doesn’t know the way there. She doesn’t know the town or the address.”

     “I think I know a place we can get it,” Phoebe said. She stared at the tarp, eyes distant, as though she looked through it instead of at it. “At the daycare…my mom has an appointment book. All of her important contacts and address information were in it.”

     “Can you tell us the way there from here?” Jameson asked.

     Phoebe nodded. “Just get us back in the city and I can guide us.”

Chapter Seventeen – Return to the Daycare

     Less than ten minutes back in the city, Phoebe was able to direct Leland where he needed to go.

     “We’ll get there in about twenty minutes if we don’t have any more problems,” Phoebe assured Leland as he swerved around another crashed car.

     The area had taken a dire turn in the first night since being overrun by Rippers. Though some people may have considered themselves safe enough by barricading homes and businesses, the evidence presented in the morning after was contradictory to that opinion.

     Any place that had evidence of human occupation in the previous night had been torn into. Hastily constructed barricades had been ripped off and discarded. Blood painted doorways, pavement, windows. Far fewer bodies than expected littered the streets.

     Cars which had crashed or been forcibly stopped had been given the same treatment as the van Phoebe and the kids had had stolen from them. Windshields were smashed through. Some doors had been torn off and tossed into the street.

     Any bodies on the pavement or left in doorways had been so mutilated they would be unrecognizable as the people they began as.

     “Where are the rest of the bodies?” Elise asked. Phoebe was glad someone else had the same thought.

     “Yeah, I thought the same thing,” Leland spoke up. He maneuvered the vehicle around a pile of mangled metal that used to be three separate cars. “From the looks of just the accidents, there should be more, right?”

     “That doesn’t count all of…that,” Elise agreed as she waved at a clinic which had a banner hanging drunkenly from its front windows. Though the banner declared, ‘safe,’ it was obviously the opposite.

     The front doors looked as though someone had gone at them with a supersized can opener. The warped metal was stained with blood and bits of flesh. Around the parking lot, Rippers wandered and bumped into each other. There were not nearly the level of skill, ferocity, and cooperation they’d exhibited the night before.

     Leland stared intently at two of the Rippers bumping into cars in the parking lot.

     “Anyone have the same thought I just did?” he asked as he pointed to the two men in what were previously long white coats. One had an arm ripped off and stained his pristine coat crimson. The other had part of his throat torn out and was soaked vermillion from his jaw to the middle of his torso.

     “They look like they might have been doctors at the clinic,” Elise picked up on his thought. “Wait, didn’t you watch the news?”

     Leland shook his head. “It was on when we got to the apartment, but I didn’t really pay attention to it. Why?”

     “The disease that changes the Rippers is highly infectious,” Jameson offered from the way back. “Anyone they bite who isn’t damaged irreparably will apparently turn into one of them.”

     “Oh, shit,” Leland said under his breath as he drove away from the clinic and down the road which would take them to the daycare.

     “Just past that blue house and it’ll be on the right,” Phoebe told Leland.

     Elise’s van slid into the parking lot of the daycare.

     “Oh my God,” Phoebe exclaimed as she recognized a new vehicle parked in front of the building. “Oh my God, I can’t believe they made it here!”

     As soon as Leland parked the car, Phoebe leapt out and approached the other vehicle.

     “Phoebe, wait!” Jameson snapped, but she didn’t listen to him.

     The doors of the car opened and two harried, worried adults met Phoebe halfway across the parking lot.

     “Allie, Joe, I’m so glad to see you!” Phoebe said as she began to pull them toward the van.

     “Hannah?” the woman asked as she followed Phoebe with quick steps and wide eyes. “Is she here? We didn’t…we didn’t see her…in there.”

     “I have her in the van,” Phoebe assured them with tears on her face. She didn’t know why she was crying, but the hot tears continued to streak down her face unabated as she pulled the van’s back door open.

     Hannah was unbuckled and in her parents’ arms almost as soon as the door cracked open. She cried in great, heaving wails that echoed across the parking lot as she clung to her father’s neck. Allie stroked Hannah’s back in slow circles and tried to calm her with soothing words.

     “We kept coming back…yesterday and today. I can’t believe you’re actually here, and she’s here…Thank you,” Joe said. He composed himself and continued, “We’re getting out of the state. Heading north. You should go, too. Thank you again, for Hannah.” He turned back to their car with Hannah clutched in his arms.

     “We have a place,” Phoebe assured Allie before she went to follow her husband and daughter.

     The older woman gave the teen a tight squeeze and whispered, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

     “Bye, Hannah,” Phoebe called to the younger girl. With her face buried in her father’s shoulder, she doubted the girl heard her. “Be safe.”

     “Let’s get in quick,” Leland suggested as he joined Phoebe in the parking lot. “Her crying probably drew some of them.”

     Phoebe nodded her agreement and they walked toward the daycare.

     “I can’t believe Hannah’s parents were here,” Phoebe said. She brushed tears away from her face and smiled for the first time in what felt like ages.

     “Yeah, pretty cool,” Leland agreed. “They get they’re family back. Hope it sticks.”