I felt oddly satisfied, almost giddy, as the adrenaline rushed through my veins, pumping like ecstasy into my head. It was always exhilarating and I was ready for more, wanting to let them come.

Making sure the rest of the exhibit rooms were empty, I returned to the second floor and stepped down a staircase to the main casino floor. It was in shambles too, with overturned tables, cards and chips everywhere. A panic had ensued here; I could almost feel its vibrations still lingering in the air. I scanned it quickly and made my way to the rear of the casino. If I had not visited these places before when they had been alive with flashing lights and the hum of people, I would have gotten lost for sure. Even so, the back hallways into the employee areas were nothing to be happy about. The long basement-like passageways were endless and had so many turns, I feared the way out would be a treacherous route indeed. Luckily I found an exit and came to find myself on the west side of the building, facing the huge parking garage of the massive casino, which it shared with two others.

Closing the door behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back on the warming metal of the double exit doors. The sun blazed high noon on my face and the stale air from the inside of the building was replaced with fresher desert air. I inhaled it with pleasure, glad to be free of the stifling dark. Only then could I relax somewhat as I rubbed a knot on my shoulder that had seized up from landing on the ground.

I stared down the strip towards the next casino: the Excalibur. It was a huge looming giant that reminded me how big they were and how small I really was. It would take eons to search every building and the more time that passed, the less likely I was to find Jeremy and Mom. Stuffing the flashlight away and sliding the Katana into my belt, I hit the pavement running. The pillars and concrete of the parking garages flew past me as the wind whipped its fingers across my face, teasing my hair out of its ponytail. I loved running. It was the closest feeling I ever got to really getting away from it all. The land rushing by with the pavement smacking against the heels of my shoes and gulping lungfuls of dry cool air was exhilarating.

I skidded to a stop as I reached the sidewalk along Tropicana Ave. Glancing down both ways, the aloneness hit me again. I sighed, reaching for my canteen of water to take thirsty gulps of the sensational fluid. It was still autumn and the heat of summer was all but gone. The drifts of cool air were gaining strength as winter grew closer. It felt great on the sheen of sweat building on my skin from the run.

The Four Corners crossroad sat desolate and quiet. The litter that flew about seemed to sway in its own ballet like a star in a silent film. I still felt so small, staring up at the Excalibur and New York, New York casinos. They were enormous and promised me a thousand hiding places within. I felt almost at a loss. Should I search them all like the last two? Should I just randomly look in them? I could be way off the trail or close to it, I couldn’t even be sure. I felt it was almost useless to search them all. They could be in a warehouse right off the strip, in the back alley ways that lined the outside edges of the boulevard or even farther, far away in the bordering cities of Henderson or North Las Vegas even. I hoped not. I prayed I was at least getting closer than anything else.

Chapter Seven

The day had yielded nothing and my patience had grown extra thin. I hadn’t even hit any feral vampire hives. I had managed to dispatch several lone ones, heading toward me in the bowels of the smaller casinos. Apparently, these were easier to break into for them than the larger casinos. Still, I was more frustrated than ever and my head ached with a throb that surged through my temples as I ended the day’s search, driving away toward home, once again without my family.

The drive was even harder this time than it had been the prior evening. As I drove, feelings of failure and disappointment stabbed at me like daggers in my chest. The pavement seemed hypnotizing as the sun’s light drained away over the horizon. I was leaving a little later than I had wanted but my desperation had grown to a fever pitch as I had frantically searched as much as I could in the last hours of daylight. Slashing down the ferals I had encountered left me more empty than satisfied. I just wanted to see my mother and brother’s faces again–longing to see their smiles and listen to their contagious laughs and giggles in the loneliness of the night that awaited me.

Pulling up to the house in the mountains filled me with dread. Another night alone, another night left wondering what had happened to what was left of my family. Would I ever receive the answers to the questions that seems to run marathons through my head as I lay in bed at night, praying that the alarms would trip and it would be them banging on the door to come in? The deep searing pain I felt as I wearily peeled my equipment and weapons off my body, letting them clank onto the cold concrete floor inside the cell that I called home, ate away at my brain.

I showered the dirt and dried vampiric blood off my skin, temporarily easing the soreness of the day’s activities. The water was amazing, hot and steaming. I remembered how absolutely thankful we had been to find that this underground refuge had a propane feed with a solar heater back up to heat water. Hot water, electricity–things I had taken for granted before–readily available only here. It had truly been a godsend.

I fell into my bed, barely pulling the sheets over my body before succumbing to the lure of sleep, so deep that for once, the nightmarish dreams eluded me.

*****

Cracking my eyes open, I felt a sudden overwhelming anxiety that captured my breath in my throat. It was early morning and my body felt like it had been run over by truck. Sitting up, my joints popped and creaked as my muscles burned in protest. All the running and searching had been more than I had done in a while and had left me in a state of exhaustion.

I had to get up, though I did not want to. I could feel the desolation creeping into my mind as the urge to give up seemed to grow with each passing moment. To stay in bed and continue to sleep would be just fine with me, and this was unacceptable. Shaking my head, I tried to regain my focus. I had to keep moving, searching and searching until we were all safe again. I could not let this depression overwhelm me and threaten to freeze me into despair.

I quickly ate breakfast, gulping down an energy bar and some a bottled green tea, and dressed for the day. I slipped on some dark jeans and strapped a machete to my right thigh. I stretched as I fit the weapons on. I hung a hatchet on an axe loop at my left side, leaving it at that. I was going to go light today. My body was not into hauling too many supplies and from the experience of the search yesterday, I wouldn’t need as much as I thought I would. I checked my flashlights and slipped them into my many belt compartments. I filled the remaining pouches with water and snacks.

I finished off by pulling my hair into a tight bun that held at the nape of my neck. Done, I noticed again how gaunt I looked in the mirrors of the bathroom. I looked thin, but the sun had slowly burned its rays across my skin, giving it a slightly reddish, light brown hue. I’d forgotten to put sunscreen on the day before and groaned at the slight tingle of pain that emanated from the burn. I grabbed for a tube of the thick cream to slather on. The sun was intense here and a severe sunburn would be much more painful than sore muscles.

Exiting the compound, I loaded myself up into the van and headed off once more down the mountain. I wished I was closer to the city; the forty minute drive sometimes irritated me down to my core if I was desperate to get there, like I was today. I swerved around the debris, cursing under my breath that some of it had shifted with the violent winds that had swept through the valley during the night. It was still a bit breezy but not as wild as the night had been.

This time, after checking the supermarket area, I drove away toward the strip to be closer to my main search area. I had made it to the Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. That’s where I had ended my search the day before. The short mile had left me exhausted. There were so many buildings to search that it had taken too long to get through that short part of the Strip. It had frustrated me to the gills.

I pulled in behind the Caesar’s Palace casino, a place I used to hold a job at. The Forum Shops was a super-long mall filled with rich displays of expensive goodies. Now it was a darkened tunnel, probably full of vampires. I wasn’t sure I wanted to start in the mall area. There were no windows in it, a completely enclosed mall. It was sure to be unsafe. The entire casino barely had any windows. I cracked a smile, thinking back to the reasoning for this. It had been done on purpose in constructing the casinos to keep people gambling their hard earned money away without a concept of time. No windows, no clocks. Genius on the part of the casinos but bad for me, in the complete darkness with creatures that wanted nothing but to slurp up all the blood out of my veins.

I decided to enter the back way, where the employee entrance was and I had gone in many times before. At least I knew this casino’s layout well. Entering at the rear of the mall would be hazardous, but I’d have to go through there eventually anyway. Pushing the heavy double doors of the emergency exit, a black hole of nothing and dust swirled up before me, down a corridor into the insides of the building. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing but the wind softly tossing about interrupted the air. I readied my hatchet and flashlight, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. I slowly entered, letting the doors behind me close softly, right into the bubble of black.

It was suffocating. The ventilation in these places was poor, even when it had been alive with electricity and air conditioning. It always had kept the smoke clouds from burning cigarettes lingering forever in the enclosed space. Now it was stifling and stale.

I walked slowly forward, reaching the vending machines full of old snacks that stood to one side of the wide hallway. An inlet to the public restrooms stood to my left and I contemplated searching them. I flashed my light over the doorway openings that stood opposite each other. Only the dust on the floor told me that no one had been here in a long time. A year of dirt streaked across the tile floors and all around me. I decided to forgo it, feeling pretty sure that no one had ventured down this way in ages.

The hallway opened up to a large dining and entertainment area where a huge aquarium stood, half full with murky water and the stench of death. I held my breath and pulled my shirt over my nose. It was strong here, maybe from the slush of dead fish that lined the top of the aquarium water. I wasn’t too sure. Something told me to stay alert–the stench could very well be decomposing bodies in a hive of vampires. The place was wrecked. The beautiful faux marble displays and saltwater aquarium were filthy and disgusting now, a ghost of the memories I had of this place when I had strolled down these halls to work at Bath and Body store.

I didn’t have to wait long to find out why the place was giving off a bad vibe. Three gaunt-looking ferals jumped into my view, snarling as their red-tinged drool hung from their fangs like gore. I wondered what they had recently fed on. It was not possible that another human was around. Or maybe I was wrong; I hadn’t encountered any in so very long that to see one would be a miracle. I backed up into the hallway with the exit at my back, pondering if I should fight the three feral vampires or make a dash for the double doors where the sun’s light would be more than enough to fry them.

I went for the latter after hearing another one plop onto the floor behind them. They crept forward, their hungry and desperate eyes scanning me greedily. I turned and ran for it. I could take out two, maybe three–but four? I was pushing it at that. I pumped my arms and legs as fast as I could, willing my muscles to move even more. The ferals were quick, super-human quick, and only my intense running and training had helped me keep out of their reach. The beam of my flashlight was zigzagging across the walls like an epileptic seizure. I wondered how much more I would have to run before reaching the doors.

I felt the grip of death as a cold, bony hands grabbed my left arm, sending the flashlight in my fist flying as I pummeled through the double doors. It sent a searing pain through my right shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the impact into the metal door. I felt the vampire latch its mouth onto my arm, gripping so tight with his fangs I thought my arm would snap. The sun’s light wrapped around me like a brilliant fire, sending me and the feral rolling to the floor as I heard the vampires scream in pain. I rolled on the hard concrete, shaking off the tumbling body of the feral as I jumped to my feet, turning to aim my hatchet at them. I didn’t have to fight anymore. The doors had gotten stuck wide open and the four creatures were writhing on the ground near me as their charcoaled skin hissed and cooked in the sun’s rays. The stench that emanated from them made me want to hurl. I backed up away from them, my heart still beating insanely fast.

I pulled my eyes away from them to stare in horror at what had arrived behind them. In the shroud of the shadows, a dozen pairs of red gleaming eyes glared right back at me. The snarls rumbled inside the hall as I gasped. A huge hive of ferals were watching me hungrily even as they avoided stepping into the light. I backed away again, contemplating slamming the doors shut. Their faces were withered into a gaunt grey, looking more like zombies, except for the flashing fangs that gleamed in the dim light around their open mouths.

I glanced down to the now-still corpses of charred flesh and ashes of the four that had almost reached me. They were no longer a threat to me at all. I ran up to the double doors, slamming them both closed as fast as I could to seal the hive inside the darkness. I pounced back from the doors as I heard the thud of their bodies against the metal. Swallowing the hard lump in my throat and feeling the adrenaline pumping to the point of a headache in my head, I was relieved. Their needy moans interrupted my thoughts as I slipped off the sidewalk, still backing up. I stumbled to gather my balance and continued to walk away, heading toward my van.

Their pounding ceased and the doors stilled. They would not come out into the sun, they were smarter than that. They would let me go and search for me later, after dark. Luckily, they could not pick up a scent but I wanted to get out of there so fast that I literally was tripping over my feet as I made it back to the van parked in the street between two massive concrete parking garages. This place was the definition of a concrete jungle. The garages were not safe either, they were quite dark even during the day and shrouded from most light. They could be crawling with vampires, too. The entire city was infested with those vile creatures. I was vastly outnumbered.