Out For Blood 43

Again Nicks’ gaze went from Gregg to Jill and back. ‘Straight up?’ he said his eyebrows a touch above his glasses, and his voice now a touch above alto. ‘No bullshit?’
Both Jill and Gregg slowly shook their heads. ‘No Bullshit Nick,’ they said.

‘I fuckin’ knew it, I always said they existed. Harry Sherman would never believe me when I said they were real, he’ll have to eat his words now though! I bet they’re as common as Aliens, I’ve never seen a real Alien, but I know they’re here alright.’ He then looked aloft. ‘And I bet there’s Werewolves out there somewhere too!’

Gregg could see Nick was getting a little carried away with himself. ‘So you believe us then?’ he said.
Nick halted his jubilation… ‘If it’s true I do, if it’s not…’
Gregg nodded. ‘Oh it’s true alright.’

‘Ho-ly shit… just wait till the convention gets a load of this.’ Nick then realised something. ‘I gotta go back to my car… I gotta get my camera… those convention guys are gonna be hovering over me like flies round shit!’ He then turned and hit the up button for the shutter.

Jill reached out and hit the red stop button. ‘You can’t do that Nick; if they see you you’re dead.’ She then hit the down button.
Nick turned to face Gregg. ‘But its daylight, they only come out at night right?’
Jill grabbed Nicks’ damp jacket front and spun him back round to face her. ‘This isn’t fright-night at your local drive-in Nick, daylight doesn’t affect them!’

‘Wow,’ he smiled. ‘A super-race of Vampires…? This things getting better by the minute. I guess they worked out the kinks huh?’
‘Some of them yes,’ said Gregg wanting to move on. ‘Say Nick, do you have a cell-phone I could use?’

‘Are you kidding me?’ he said incredulously. ‘If I had a cell-phone they could trace me anywhere in the world.’
Gregg and Jill looked at one another. ‘Who could Nick?’ asked Jill.
Nick simply pointed upward and mouthed… “Them.”
Jill nodded. ‘Oh right, them…’ she narrowed her eyes and looked again at Gregg, ‘One more for the funny farm.’ She thought.

‘So… when do I get to see one?’ Nick put on his best puppy face. ‘Ya gotta let me see one!’
‘As far as we know they’re all in the Town Hall,’ said Gregg. ‘And the further you stay away from there, the safer you’ll be!’
Nick frowned. ‘So ya mean I don’t get to see one?’
‘That’s right Nick, with any luck you won’t get to see one… and therefore neither will we.’

‘Well why the Town Hall, are they having some kind of… town meeting?’
‘No Nick,’ said Jill. ‘They don’t like to go out when it rains; it’s not very good for their complexion, it kinda takes their skin off, so they tend to stay indoors.’
‘Although we do think there may be another one of them still out here somewhere.’ Said Gregg.

‘Well let’s go find it, shove a stake through its heart and cut its fucking head off, I can then get my camera and we’ll go get the rest of the fuckers!’

‘No, we’re not here to kill them,’ said Gregg. ‘If we come across one of them we’ll deal with it, but they still have two, maybe three young girls captive, I need to find them first, and then get them out.’ Gregg then left them to talk whilst he walked around the back of the oil truck.

Nick turned to Jill. ‘So you’re just gonna let a shit-load of Vampires roam the country-side? We’re not even gonna try to stop them?’
‘Nick, there are over one-hundred of them up there; even if we wanted to we couldn’t get them all.’

Gregg then walked backward from behind the oil truck dragging a fan-heater across the concrete floor, he plugged it into the wall and Nick moved in front of it rubbing his hands together trying to dry off.

***

Sheldon was sat in the middle of the cinema, he was supposed to be in the garage watching out for trouble, but he preferred the cinema because it was dark and cosy in there. He, like his brother Mervyn was alone, when they’re alone they don’t like to look from windows, the watching they surrender to unnerves them, but when the rest of the Collective are around they feel more at ease. Sheldon was sixty-three-years-old but he looked no more than twenty-five, and like all the others here he was tall and thin. He had short tight curly hair and a long thin face. He was wearing dirty grey pants with patches on the knees, and a threadbare green wool jumper with a dirty grey vest beneath.

Sheldon couldn’t hear the wind and the rain in the cinema because it was virtually soundproof; he had felt the thunder though, so he knew it hadn’t stopped raining just yet. By now his eyes were accustomed to the dark which is why his flashlight was switched off and lay on the seat next to him. He saw Hal take in the young girls and carry that fucking nosey bastard investigator in before the rain had started.

Hal knew what he was doing so Sheldon felt he didn’t have to watch for trouble, not if it meant looking out at the rain anyway. He would sit there until Mervyn came for him, because he won’t be watching either, but at least he’ll know when the rain stops. Besides, the last time trouble strolled into town was yesterday, no way was it going to happen again so soon. But if it did, and it came his way, he was well prepared; a gun in either hand said so.

By now Sheldon was beginning to get a little impatient; it had been at least five, maybe even six hours since the rain had started. Perhaps Mervyn had forgot about him, or maybe he’s playing a trick on him, see how long he stays in there. Sheldon decided to take a quick look out of the front door; if the rain was still falling he would simply return to his safe haven. If it had stopped, his brother Mervyn was gonna get fucked.

Sheldon opened the inner door to the auditorium and looked out through the main entrance doors; it was still raining, and raining very heavily. But that wasn’t all he saw, a short fat man was walking past the cinema carrying a big red plastic container. Sheldon watched him through the tall side window as he moved to one of the fuel pumps and tried to operate it, and then throwing down the nozzle the short fat man shouted something Sheldon couldn’t quite hear.

He then saw the man looking up as though someone had called to him; he had dropped his container and moved closer to the garage next door, it definately looked as though he was talking to someone. ‘Fuck,’ shouted Sheldon. ‘Now I gotta go see what the fucks happenin’.’

He knew no one was supposed to be in the garage but him, although it could be any one of the Collective, if it was Ella he was gonna get fucked for not being there, he would have to go and see for himself. Sheldon looked on as the short fat man bent over and ducked under the garage shutter.

He walked back into the auditorium and when he got there it was blacker than ever, looking at the daylight had taken away his night-vision. He walked down the centre aisle feeling the seats as he went, Sheldon could not remember which row he was sat in. After walking along five of the rows checking each of the seats in turn for his flashlight he found where he had been sat and retrieved it.

He switched it on and ran to the bottom of the auditorium, in the centre of the floor he opened the wooden hatch and descended into the tunnel. Before Sheldon reached the garage steps he could hear voices, none of which he recognised. He would have gone for Mervyn but the steps leading to the schoolhouse weren’t safe, he would have to deal with this situation by himself.

He stood at the bottom of the steps and could hear something being dragged across the concrete floor, it sounded like scraping metal. Then he heard the click of a switch, and recognised the sound of the fan on the heater he had stood by so many times during winter trying to get warm. He put down his flashlight on one of the steps and took the second gun from his belt.

Not wanting to make any noise he climbed slowly to the edge of the hatch , Sheldon had both guns ready to shoot anything that moved. He was listening to their conversation, and didn’t like what he was hearing.