Cold Open.

“You can’t run from me, yer motherfuckers!” Marta yelled as she ran after her two foes, sword in one hand. She wanted them dead. She didn’t have time to care about what they had just released from the horse box. There were enough people who could deal with that.

Rowena and Tallon stuck together as they ran down the side of the blood bank building.

“Actually, why are we running?” Tallon asked.

Rowena came to a stop. “I don’t know Tally. It just seemed the fun thing to do. Oh no wait, we were trying to get into the blood bank after THE DISTRACTION WE CAUSED, DUMBASS!”

Marta came to a stop a few metres by the arguing pair. “What the fuck was that thing?” she asked.

“Have you been out of the loop that long?” Rowena toyed. “It’s what’s beginning to happen now when we sire new vampuras. Some of them turn into that kinda thing. Isn’t it mesmerising?”

“Mesmerising? It’s scary as fuck! It’s dangerous and… you said it happens when we sire?”

“Yeah,” Tallon said. “I think it’s why the blood has been tasting rank.”

“You just heard that opinion from another vampura. You were stupidly oblivious before then, so don’t pretend,” Rowena said.

“Woah. There’ll be more of that then?” Marta clarified. Her anger for Rowena and Tallon was subsiding somewhat as she processed the news she was hearing.

“’That’ was our pet, Jessica,” Rowena said, looking offended. “But yes. Bad blood, bad pets. Hence we’re here at the blood bank, TRYING to survive. We could all die out if we don’t feed on fresh blood. You know that, right? Why are you trying to stop us?”

“Always stopping us, you are Marta,” Tallon snapped.

“You should be helping us,” Rowena suggested, trying to charm Marta into her way of thinking.

“Help us break into here for fresh blood and join us as we feast on it!” Tallon coaxed.

“And when it all runs out, then what?”

“There’s a boarding school in the next town we could-”

And just like that, it was like a light bulb switching on in her mind. And despite Tallon’s stupidity, he also saw that light bulb go on and he knew he had said too much, and too much of the wrong thing.

Marta remembered what was more important here. She’d worry about the blood and the zombies later. But in this moment, it was all about the revenge, and it came flooding back to her, clearing her mind of any doubt and distraction.

She charged, sword pointing out in front of her which went on to impale Tallon right through their middle. He had no time to react, and the reality of the situation spread across his face. Nearly two hundred years, coming to an end in an alley down the side of a blood bank. All Rowena could do was stare horrified at the sword’s point that had come through her partner.

Marta pulled the sword out, and Tallon completely disappeared in a shattering of shards of dust. Rowena hadn’t even said goodbye.

“You cunt!” Rowena screamed at Marta who simply stood there, euphorically satisfied. A grin across her face.

“Now it’s your tur-” an explosion from the front of the blood bank went off, and then a second straight after, making Marta jump and impulsively turn to look back. With there not being anything to see, she turned back round and saw that Rowena had already gone. “Son of a bitch,” Marta muttered.

She was so close, but now she just had one more to kill.

Chapter Thirteen.

Henry rolled over onto his back, which sent pain up through his right side. There was an intense heat that blanketed him, making him sweat under all the leather and underneath the helmet. He tried to reach to take it off, but it hurt to do that.

A harsh ringing in his ears made hearing anything going on almost impossible, but after a minute it slowly seemed to lessen, allowing other noises to be heard. Shouting, mostly. Sirens could also be heard too in the background. Something must’ve happened.

Shit, what happened?

Dazed and confused, he couldn’t quite remember how he’d ended up on the road.

David’s face appeared, looming over Henry. It took a few shouts of his name to register what David was calling out.

“Henry! Henry! Fuck sake Henry!” he shouted, giving him a shake by the shoulders.

“Wh-what? What happened?”

“Are you ok?” David waved a hand from side to side in front of Henry’s face.

“What happened David?”

“Here, let’s get you up and away from that.” David gently pulled Henry into a sitting position, using the wincing on Henry’s face as a gauge of how easy to take it.

“Whoa- what. The. Fuck?” Henry said, seeing the burnt out car ten metres away from him.

“You don’t remember?” David asked.

***

Ten minutes ago.

“What the fuck is that?” Henry said out loud. He wasn’t the only one to say that. It screamed demonically and ran out. Henry couldn’t help but watch in frustration as Marta dodged it and ran after Rowena. She has a fucking sword! What do we have? Wood?! The zombie continued running and even the vampuras began to back away, running back towards the Nassices, back in the direction of where they came from.

“It’s real! It’s actually real!” a vampura screamed as she ran away past Henry.

That’s fucking real alright, whatever it is.

“FIRE!”

Henry ducked as the command from a megaphone somewhere came for the archers to shoot, firing arrow after arrow perfectly at the crazed dead looking human. The zombie flinched and threw her arms up instinctively to protect itself from the barrage of arrows, but once the first wave had finished, and she realised nothing had happened, she continued her menacing run.

“FIRE!”

Henry ducked again as another wave of arrows flew through the air, but it just made her look like a raging, walking hedgehog.

Henry looked around and found a bin sat on the street and picked it up. He held it by the top, aiming the end outwards. Seeing him do that, a couple of soldiers from the private security firm charged from their posts with long spear like sticks.

“We can push it back into the horse box!” one of the yelled. Henry was just planning on using it to protect himself, but now he found himself being an active part of the solution.

Another Nasscie appeared with a bin like Henry had and with the spear wielding private security officers, they approached the spiked zombie head on.

“Push it back!” someone shouted and along with the others, Henry pushed out with the bin. The zombie tried to push back, so the fearless group pushed harder, walking it back.

“What do we do with it?” The unfamiliar Nasscie asked.

“Let’s just get it in the trailer first,” the private security officer suggested.

Frenzied and determined to be anywhere else but the back of the horse box again, the zombie put the pressure on and tried to push back, but with the two spears and the big bins giving her no choice but to go where the humans wanted her to be, they arrived at the ramp to the horse box.

“I need two people to be ready to lift the ramp!” a solider shouted. A couple of Nasscies who were cautiously escorting the group cajoling the zombie along in case they needed some help, came to their aide and got ready to raise the ramp up.

The zombie screeched as it stepped backwards on the ramp and tried to resist even more.

“Get it the fuck in there!”

Finally the zombie was pushed in with the long spears and the soldiers surrendered them to the zombie as the ramp was pushed up.

“Thank fuck for that,” Henry panted breathlessly. “But what now?” The zombie inside the trailer thrashed around, banging on the walls and screeching furiously.

“I’m going to drive it over the Wall of Fire,” one of the private security officers stated.

“What?” Henry asked, although he had heard perfectly the first time.

The officer ran to the front of the car which was pulling the trailer and got in.

“Stand back lad,” he said, putting the car into first gear and pulling off.

The car drove closer towards the blood bank building, stopping over the perimeter line which housed the fire jets within the ground. Henry could still hear the banging from the zombie inside the horse box. As the car stopped, the zombie must have fallen forward, dislodging the trailer ramp door and pushing it open.

“Nooo! Wait! The beast is out!” Henry started shouting and him and the other Nasscie ran towards it. The soldier had jumped out of the car, completely unaware of the escaped zombie.

The Wall of Fire, with the trailer over the top of it, burst into life, engulfing the trailer in flames. The fire soon spread to the car, the intense heat popping the tyres. Henry and the Nasscie grabbed at the zombie by the arrows protruding from it, avoiding it’s hands and face, trying to steer it back into the now firey trailer.

“Quick, now!” Henry shouted and the pair of them gave the zombie one last big push, causing it to fall backwards onto the trailer ramp. The car exploded which triggered a chain reaction in the trailer. Henry and the other Nasscie were flung back in the explosion, landing hard on the ground. Henry’s helmet took the impact of the force on his face.

He lay motionless for a few moments before managing to roll over as panic erupted all around him. The Wall of Fire was deactivated and people came running with fire extinguishers.

David appeared and crouched down by Henry.

“Henry! Henry! Fuck sake Henry!” he shouted, giving him a shake by the shoulders.

“Wh-what? What happened?”

“Are you ok?” David waved a hand from side to side in front of Henry’s face.

“What happened David?”

“Here, let’s get you up and away from that.” David gently pulled Henry into a sitting position, using the wincing on Henry’s face as a gauge of how easy to take it.

“Whoa- what. The. Fuck?” Henry said, seeing the burnt out car ten metres away from him.

“You don’t remember?” David asked. Henry was now stood up and David put his arm around him to walk him away from the scene. “You just saved everyone by getting the zombie back into the trailer after it escaped. They used the Wall of Fire to blow the car and trailer up, and by the looks of it, the zombie too!”

“Fuck me, my mind’s a blur.”

“I’m not surprised! You must’ve hit it when the explosion knocked you back. You were quite close to it. We’ll get you some help, don’t worry man.”