I was wishing I had someone else there, like my mother, to help me make a decision. Her infinite wisdom would be useful right now. But there was only me, and only my own thoughts and choices would get me through the day. I felt paralyzed as the minutes ticked by, my head spinning, the dull ache now a piercing pain that made me want to bang my head against a wall. Not even the coolness of the water pattering on my hair and snaking down my strands could calm it. Nothing but the beckoning in the woman’s eyes, a hint of hope spilling out of them, sent a renewed sense of peace washing over me.

“Alright.” My voice came out like a child’s, small and frightened. I straightened, bringing my eyes up to her gleaming vampiric gaze. “I’ll go with you. But I take my weapons and you promise me that my life will not be in danger.” I didn’t know why I asked that of her, but something told me that if I did, I would know if she was lying to me when she answered.

“No one is allowed to harm you; we have strict orders not to.” She paused. “Besides, we need you more than you will ever know.” Miranda tilted her head down as she gave her answer. Her face was sincere, filled with curiosity and a sort of wonderment. I began to suspect that maybe she was right. Maybe I was the only ‘full’ human left here in Las Vegas. The way she stared at me, I felt like a specimen about to be dissected. Gulping, I pushed the thought way into the back of my mind as I nodded toward her. I prayed I wouldn’t regret my decision.

Chapter Fourteen

“Hold on, where exactly are we going anyway?” I asked as Miranda began taking a few steps in the direction she wanted to go. She stopped dead in her tracks, looking like she had forgotten about something and was wondering how to go about doing it.

“We’re heading to the airport,” she stated, still glancing around, looking a bit lost for a moment.

“The airport? Why on earth would you want to go there? There’s nothing there. You really live at the airport?” My torrent of questions poured out of my mouth before I could press my lips together and stop the verbal attack. Miranda refocused on me and laughed, shaking her head at the seriousness permeating my face.

“The airport tunnel. We live down in the underground below the airport, where the tunnel is.”

I continued to stare at her as she resumed walking, realizing she expected me to follow her.

“You’re walking there? We’d never make it before sunset!” I sighed, swiping away my wet hair from my face. “We can take my car, it’s right over there.” I waved toward the car, wishing I could just drive home. Why do these things happen to me? It was bad enough I had to go with a stranger, but to her lair where surely more of her kind were lingering about? I snorted, pulling the car door open and sliding into the seat as I thought about the gravity of my situation.

Slamming my door shut, I gripped the steering wheel as I watched Miranda make her way to the passenger side. She plopped in next to me, happy to be out of the rain. She smiled, looking around my little car and eyeing the array of weapons strewn across the back seat. Her face fell ever so slightly but she tried to cover it just as fast with a flashing smile of fangs. I shuddered, turning the key as I pushed the lever into drive. The car hummed smoothly as I waited for her to give me a sign of which direction to go. The windshield wipers squeaked across the glass as the sheets of rain pummeled down. When she didn’t speak, I turned to find her still staring at the weapons, the ones strapped to my own body.

“Shall I just drive in that general direction or do you want to be dinner tonight for some hungry, hungry hippos?” I huffed; surprised I could even crack a joke with my body aching the way that it was. I eyed her, watching her dual-colored eyes searching the blades and other contraband that were my own security blankets.

“So you do kill vampires a lot, don’t you?” Her voice seemed smaller for the moment as she watched me. Watching her, I nodded my head.

“Look, they are not human anymore and they try to kill me any chance they get. Why does it matter?” My patience was growing thin with her, or maybe I was just worn out.

“They are vampires like me.” She almost sounded angered as her tone grew tighter.

“They are not like you–you speak, you are in control of yourself and they are not. You are not a wild animal, like them. They are but remnants of what they once were, not what is. I find them to be very much like ferocious, rabid animals. I’m sure they don’t think as much about me as I think about them,” I spat out at her, disgusted that I even had to say those things.

I glanced back over to Miranda, waiting for her response to my words. Her face had gone blank as she now stared out the windshield, into the street. She seemed pensive, lost in her thoughts, for what felt like forever. I hated to interrupt her reverie but I was not going to wait until her memories released their grip on her mind. The sun was starting to set and the orange purple colors of the evening sky blazed like a warning of the dark soon to come. I needed to get to shelter fast, with or without her.

I pushed on the gas, turning my car toward the freeway that would connect to the airport. I could make it in ten minutes flat, leaving plenty of time to enter the airport tunnel to whatever lay underneath it. I hoped I hadn’t miscalculated at all. I could already see some feral vampires gathering on the east sides of the buildings around us, hungrily watching and waiting for sunset. I gulped, thankful that the freeway was wide open and not really in the shadows of any buildings.

“So, how many are back where you live?” I asked, trying to ease the tension with my curiosity about my new ‘friend.’

Miranda sucked in her breath and turned toward me. I kept my eyes on the road as the debris and broken down cars kept me alert, summoning my attention and making the trip interesting.

“Hundreds,” she said quietly. I nodded, feeling my heart jump into a faster pace as I imagined the hordes of vampires that I was about to insanely waltz into. I suddenly felt the urge to whip the car around and head home. Gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles flashed white, I waited for her to continue. “It is an underground fallout shelter, fortified and well-built. After the initial chaos of the viral outbreak, those of us that had changed into vampires discovered we were not like the ‘zombified’ ones. We call them wildlings. We gathered together, at first hiding from both humans and wildlings alike. We then met another group like us that knew about this compound and it has been our home ever since.” Miranda’s voice was steady and calm as she described a chance meeting with an ex-military officer named Blaze, who had become their leader.

“So, does this ‘Blaze’ know that I’m coming with you?” I asked, afraid that I was going to run into some very surprised vampires.

“Yes, he has had me follow you for a while, ever since we discovered your hideaway. Sorry we disturbed you but we lost one of our own out there and had to return to find her. You wouldn’t happen to know what became of her, would you?” Her tone was slightly accusative, making me sit up straighter in my seat.

“Yes, I do.” I glanced at her quickly, wondering what she would do if she only knew what had gone down. “I killed her. She trespassed and I killed her.” I turned back toward the road but kept her in my peripheral vision, hoping she wouldn’t pounce on me and kill us both in a crash.

All I got was a sigh in return.

“I wish you hadn’t done that. I understand your reasons for killing her, she being a vampire on your property and all. But I have to warn you, she was part of our group and some will not be happy to hear that you dispatched her so easily, without remorse.” She watched me press my lips together in a tight line, absorbing her words with distain.

“Will they want to avenge her? Because if so, I might as well drop you off now.” I waited as I slowed the car down, exiting onto the connecting 215 freeway toward the airport. I waited quietly for her to answer, knowing we were getting very close to our destination as the sun’s light began to recede.

“They will not harm you; we are not allowed. Blaze will protect you. He is an honorable man and a great fighter, and no one messes with him.” She chuckled a bit to herself, making me wonder what she was thinking about. “He’s pretty much a badass if you ask me.”

“A badass, huh? Well I hope you know what’s going to happen, I’m going in with my gear whether you like it or not. I’m not above dispatching your pals. I only wish to find my family.” My voice came out hard but straight and to the point. I glanced at her, wondering if she was now thinking she had made a grave mistake.

“You know,” Miranda shot back. “I think that this is the start of a very awesome friendship. I don’t like many in our group; they are not so street-wise and tough like you. I think we could benefit from your insight of the world. It may not be a nice place to live in anymore but here we are, alive and as well as we can be. I’m certain many will see you as a threat. But I can tell you right now that Blaze and I see you as the future of mankind.”

Giving her a sideways look that pretty much said I thought she was out of her mind, I shook my head, half grinning at her words. She was out of her mind, that’s all it was. I was out of my own mind for that matter. Feeling like I was walking into a lion’s den with raw meat strapped about my body, dripping sanguineous blood down my clothes for the vampires to drool and snap at. I still couldn’t believe I was doing this. I still couldn’t believe that this was my life right now. The only thing I wanted was to find my family and everything I had come to believe in was now skewed.

Questioning myself was not helping. I could only hope that the road was spread out before me in the direction I needed to go. I had no leads otherwise, and I knew that there was bound to be someone there that could help me, even if I had to risk everything to find them.

Chapter Fifteen

Pulling up to the remnants of the underground freeway tunnel situated below the runways of the McCarran International Airport, I wondered where exactly it was that Miranda’s hive lived. The tunnel had collapsed at the entrance, blocking anything from entering it. I studied the rubble of concrete and rebar dangling across the mess and shook my head, glancing at Miranda and hoping it was meant to look this way for one reason or another. The sun was fading fast, and unless we planned on dying when the hordes of feral vampires poured into the streets, we had to get to shelter fast.

I followed Miranda out onto the asphalt, leaving my car behind on the side of the road. I had my dual machetes strapped to my legs and belt and my bandoleer well-stuffed with daggers. I was willing to bet that whenever I did walk into her hive of vampires, I was going to get some challenging looks. I was dressed for war, still dirty, dusty and bloody from the explosions in the casino. My hair was in a chaotic disarray. I probably looked like hell. I really didn’t care, feeling the day’s events nagging at my sore muscles and bones. I was exhausted but I needed to get this over with, even if I had a slight hesitancy hovering in my stomach.

Miranda made her way not to the tunnel entrance but to a door on the side of the tunnel, still under the runway. Before the outbreak, planes would come rolling onto the expanse of concrete above, slamming onto the ground, making it shiver with their massive weight and rumbling turbine engines. Now only silence and an airplane graveyard filled the tarmac above. The city was desolate graveyard everywhere I went: a graveyard of people, planes and automobiles. The entire Earth was a graveyard.

I sighed, feeling eyes on me from all around, making my hair stand on end and causing me to pause often. I had to scurry to catch up to my newfound companion. She kept glancing back, as if she didn’t trust that I would still be there and hadn’t changed my mind. I almost laughed at the thought. I had never backed out of anything in my life before and I wasn’t about to start now.

We came to a stop as Miranda tapped out a code on the door. My nerves were out of control by this time. We weren’t alone and the feeling was gnawing at me as I closed the distance between me and the door. I rolled my head around, scanning the high points of the wall before us. Sure enough, that’s where I saw them. In the crevices above, a gleam of cat eyes flashed as a couple faces bobbed into view, watching me like vultures from above. I studied them, narrowing my eyes to squint at their pale, porcelain skins, looking almost like they had powdered their faces. Miranda was pale but her time in the outdoors had tinted her skin with a hint of color. Those above me looked like they liked their cave-like home quite a bit.

I snickered at them, hearing them slightly hissing at me. Miranda opened the door and pulled my eyes back down so I could prep for an assault from any side, if it was coming.

It never did.

Miranda motioned for me to follow and I did, reluctantly. Making our way in, we entered a brightly lit hall that morphed into the inside of a huge tunnel. The bulky-looking doorman eyed me with disdain, baring part of his teeth and a fang that shone in the gleaming light. I gave him a toothy smile as I passed. He huffed and shut the door behind me, locking it with the biggest bolt I had ever seen. I turned away and continued on after Miranda.

She turned along the wall of the tunnel. It was brightly lit and had been turned into a massive chamber, with the opposite entrance to the tunnel also closed off. I figured it was likely that the entrances had been purposely blasted to collapse them, seal them off, creating an underground fortified bunker. I was definitely impressed.

“April, stick close to me. I have to take you straight to Blaze; not everyone will agree with you being among us.” She motioned me closer and I lessened the space between us. I was feeling my confidence slipping as I eyed the hundreds of vampires now glancing my way, some curious, some ferociously angry. Some were now closing in and following as we made our way down the sidewalk surrounding the asphalt of the former street of the tunnel. I clutched one of my machetes, hoping it would not come to slaughter if they decided to attack me. I would take quite a few down with me if it came to that.