Chapter 05: Stranger
"I am lost
So I am cruel
But I'd be love and sweetness
If I had you…"
- from "Milk" by Garbage
Several hours passed by, laced only with the gentle hum of the motor... Sam took the window seat, and watched the night time landscape roll by drowsily. Mark nodded out after only a short time, resting his head on Sam's shoulder.
Almost a foot of snow fell during their trip. Subtle bumps in the road shook the whole bus, but did not wake Mark. No light entered, except for moonlight and one small light up in front where a woman stayed up reading a book.
Sam scanned the cabin, nervous around strangers after the event the night before with Dante. An elderly couple was in the back, whispering sweet nothings between them. Another street kid with many piercing -- an eyebrow, labret, and nose, to name a few -- in plaid and Doc Martins grimaced out the window, even in his sleep. A younger woman, perhaps in her twenties, with a young child slept spread out over one whole joint seat, the woman in front, and that was the whole cabin.
Sam eased her body, now, but kept her mind awake... she needed to be mentally prepared for what was ahead, and that meant not thinking rationally at any costs. Otherwise, she'd want to turn back; as if they had money to do that!
They rolled out of the city, and into bleak highway territory. The lights of the city still shined bright behind them, with only darkness marred by the occasional street light ahead. It was so perfect it almost made Sam laugh! She resisted the urge though, for fear of going insane.
She must have dozed off, because the next thing she remembered was feeling icy cold glass against her forehead. She opened her eyes to see the station sign slowly roll by as the turned the corner past it. She sat up and felt the bus slow...
"Welcome to Montgomery," the voice over the speaker boomed out so suddenly, especially for Sam's heavy, slowed brain functions. "All passengers for Montgomery please prepare to exit the bus."
"Mark," she whispered, and looked down to find his head on her bosom. She shook him awake, repeating his name. "Mark... Mark, wake up, we're here."
"Huh?" he groaned, sitting up and swatting away her hands to get her to stop shaking him.
"We're here, y'know? Montgomery?"
"Oh," he seemed to sober up quite suddenly. "Yeah... let's go."
Everyone on the bus had stood up. Sam and Mark followed. The door opened, and the passengers littered out in an unorderly fashion. Some went straight to cars that were waiting for them, and others waited for their rides, and another few just wandered off into the night.
Sam and Mark went up to a map that had been incorporated into a frame and hung on a wall. It was of Montgomery and surrounding towns. They traced their fingers over it, plotting out a path in which to take, talking it over, and then repeating it several times to each other once they had it set, before turning and prancing off into the night.
It became apparent, after about an hour or so of walking, that there were no vampires in town. Thank god, they hadn't spread! A few insomniac human beings still strolled the streets, and a bar or two still had a few lonesome early morning customers. Two hours went by, the sun beginning to spread its first light in the east, and still no vampires.
Three hours later, their legs aching desperately, they finally came to a sign reading, "WELCOME TO GATLIN". Sam froze before it for a moment, feelings flooding her like a hurricane crashing into the shore. Just beyond the sign, the railroad tracks she'd just stood... the railroad tracks that Emily had died beside.
After a moment, Mark came up to her side and guided her away from the sign, along down the road. The sky was now a pale blue with the approaching morning. One would have guess that it was already about six...
Before long, they got into the townie part of town. It looked the same as it had before, except completely and unavoidably bare... not a living, or unliving, thing stirred... it was totally silent, totally still; a barren waste land, a -- dare I say -- ghost town.
Sam felt a deep sorrow to see her town the same as it was the last time she'd seen it, and yet completely demolished by an inner darkness. It would have been worse if she'd seen the Lot, where she grew up, where she was known, where she mattered to people... but it hurt altogether, to know that she did nothing to save her home.
Well, she was back now, and she would make up for that. She would make the son of a bitch who started this pay! She would make them all pay, all their kind, until there was no more... at least now, she wasn't alone.
After wandering aimlessly for some time, they came upon a convenience store that had been unlocked, the key still hanging on the hook beside the door. They took up refuge in their, locking the building, and rested for a time, having a bite to eat from packaged food that had been in isles, or on little stands.
When they finished their small meal, they decided to obtain some much need rest. A few hours late, they awoke from their sleep to find that it was already afternoon. They were quick to get to work, finding wooden objects and breaking them, fashioning them into stakes as best they could. Mark, too, pocketed some lighters, and noted where they kept the gasoline canisters. He also yelled at Sam for pocketing a few packs of cigarettes, to which she smiled innocently and hid them behind her back.
By evening, they had cleared a place on the floor where they kept their weapons packed together, and a place cleared to sleep beside it. As night drew closer, they felt their nerves whined tight, and conversation grow scarcer.
Sam stood smoking at an open window, which faced the west, and watched the sun set ever so slowly, like it was teasing them. Night, finally, descended on Gatlin, and that was when the entire world lit up again. They heard crickets singing their songs in the grass, and the street lights still knew to come on.
Even as she kept watch, Sam only witnessed a hand full of the undead, and they seemed to take no notice of the convenience store, or its living inhabitants.
She and Mark both agreed that they would wait until morning to find the vampires hiding places and burn them alive while they slept. Tonight, there was nothing they could do but keep wary... though, even as the hour of twelve midnight passed away into another, a vampire had still not come to bother them... leaning against the counter, clutching each one stake in their hand, their eyes grew very heavy, and began to droop, and before two a.m came they were out... but not for long.
Sam awoke with a start to the sound of a crash, and Mark, too, beside her; who clutched the stake in his hand so tight his knuckles turned white.
Their eyes jerked to the source of the sound. A rack that had been holding bags of potato chips fell over... but what? Sam stood, very slowly so as not to make a sound, and inched to the wall, pawing for the light switch. She found it and, glancing back at Mark to make sure he'd gotten to his feet, she flicked it.
The horrid sound of many shrill hisses bombarded their ears. They clasped their hands over them and opened their eyes to slits, blinded by the bright light... but no light was bright enough to blind them from the sight before them.
Vampires! They'd destroyed the stakes Sam had made, they were swarming in from a back door they'd broken off its very hinges. There were at least five of them in the store at that time alone!
One lunged at Sam, but she slammed the stake through its heart and it exploded in a blaze of ashes. Another came at her, and she stabbed it through the hand. It pulled the stake back and out of her grasp, ripping it out and turning it back on Sam.
She screamed, but the vampire stopped short. As it decreased to ashes that crumbled to the ground at Sam's feet, she saw Mark standing behind where the vampire had been stake in hand. She didn't have time to thank him as another one was lunging at him while his back was turned. She tried to cry out, but it was too late!
... When it stopped, just as before, and crumbled to ashes. Mark jerked around, subconsciously covering Sam protectively. The cause of the last vampire's demise, a man in his late twenties with choppy brown bangs and charcoal eyes and more then a fair share of stubble on his chin, was busy cutting down another, and then another.
Sam and Mark were frozen in awe, watching the man battle these creatures so efficiently. He must have stayed behind in Gatlin since the infestation, because he clearly had experience in, and therefore knew, how to handle them.
Although, he couldn't handle a dozen to one. As more began to pour in through the back way, he backed up and nudged Sam and Mark towards the door, shouting at them; "Move, move, move!"
They did as the stranger told them to, backing out the door and into the cold night air. Breathing heavy, they looked around them in a panic, checking for vampires hiding outside to take them. They didn't see any too near by, so all that were after them must have already poured in through the back door.
The stranger backed out now, and directed the kids towards a dark blue explorer. When they came to it, he began to order them to get in. They kid as they were told, in a breeze as the last thing they wanted was to be made one of those monsters, and the stranger jumped in the driver's seat.
He started the explorer without trouble, and sped off into the night, swerving narrowly around corners for a few blocks, until they came to a large, brown Victorian house. He parked the car out front and took a breather, resting his head on the steering wheel.
At length, he looked over his shoulder into the back seat. "You kids okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you," Sam replied. "We were getting our asses kicked, man! The fuckers swarmed us in our sleep..."
"Never sleep around these parts without a watch," the stranger told them, scornfully. "... You know what they were, right?"
"Vampires," Mark and Sam said in unison.
The stranger nodded grimly, and then climbed out of the explorer. He opened their door, and said to them, "C'mon inside, its safe here."
Mark and Sam exchanged a look, remembering the last time they'd accepted an invitation to stay with a strange man, but they knew they had no other choice... and this strange had, after all, saved their lives. Shrugging, they got out one after the other, and followed the strange up the steps and into the house.
It looked like it could have been quite comfortable, once upon a time... a house where generations lived in peace together, in spacious and homey surroundings... but not anymore. Now, the pea-soup wallpaper was pealing, the beige walls underneath bore nicotine and water stains, the brown/earth-tones carpet was streaked with mud and appeared as if it had not been vacuumed in years, and every surface down to the scratched wooden banister of the steps leading to the upstairs was covered in a layer of dust.
"Follow me," the stranger, a man of few words, told them and turned down the hall.
He led them into a kitchen where the lights were on, to windows draped and buckled to prevent the light from being visible outside the house. Another man, younger, with the same light brown hair in a buzz cut and hazel eyes, sat the table with a drink of something. He raised his eyes upon their entry, and scanned the kids as if he were sizing them up.
"Who are they?" Aw, another man of few words.
The older stranger shrugged. "I found them hiding out in the convenience store in town... they know about them, even had little makeshift stakes."
Sam smiled uneasily, as it was her who had put together the sharpened pieces of wood. The younger strange nodded, very slowly, before casting his eyes back down to the table where he traced shapes with his fingers. The older stranger turned around them, and looked at them with kindness and hospitality for the first time.
"My name is Rider," he said. "This is Davis... we're the Pike brothers. We used to run Pike's Auto shop down town. Are you locals of Gatlin?"
"I'm Sam Hennessy, this is Mark Petrie," the girl told him, gesturing lazily. "I used to live here; this is his first time visiting..."
Rider nodded in understanding. "And are you the same Hennessy girl that got arrested for vandalizing public property earlier this year?"
"Busted," she groaned. "And I would have gotten away with it, too; if it were for that pesky Jennifer Squall..."
Davis, the younger brother, smirked. Rider remained in good humor. Mark already knew the story and of her probation thereafter, which had obviously been cut short as result of the vampiric infestation. "So... how, exactly, are the two of you related?"
Sam opened her mouth to say, "we're best friends", or, "we grew up together", or something along those lines; but Mark jumped in before she had a chance, probably purposely.
"We're brothers, too," he told Rider, to which Sam smiled and threw her arm around his shoulders, proudly.
Rider offered a solemn nod, and then gave a deep sigh. "The hour is late... we shall all get a night's sleep, and fill in the new-comers in the morning. Come, I'll show you to your rooms..."
The following morning snow was falling again, in heavy gasps at times; but the sky was growing lighter because of its releases. The kids, who had experienced quite rough days and nights for some time now, slept late in fluffy beds, on feather pillows, and under feather quilts... to spite the fact that crossed hung on every door and above every window, even in closets and tapped under beds. There was holy water on every nightstand and end table, and stakes in the drawers.
As afternoon was growing near, and the snow was still blowing around in fussy breezes, the pair found their ways to consciousness, and then downstairs and in the kitchen to bowls of cereal. Davis had already been up, and was fashioning more stakes in the living room, to tell them that Rider had gone out earlier to search for the vampire's hiding place, as he did almost every day.
They sat at the kitchen table and ate their breakfast, muttering things back and forth through full mouths, until the back door (which led straight into the kitchen) came slamming opened. They jumped and jerked around to see Rider come trudging in, swearing under his breath.
He was angry because he hadn't been able to find any hiding place, he told Davis. They'd been at this for some time, and now the places were scarce... they estimated there was only two or three left, but they were certainly well hidden.
After ranting to his younger brother, Rider calmed down. He remembered the kids and his duties, and came back into the kitchen, sitting down between them at the round table. Sighing, he began to fill them in as he promised...
"August 28th, a man named T.K King moved to Gatlin, and after that four young women went missing in a matter of two days, and one girl's parents were found dead. Her father had suffered a heart-attack, and her mother severe and sudden anemia. The next day, her mother's body disappeared from the morgue. Another of those girls was my brother's fiancée... he got me into this, wanting to investigate. He knew it was King -- he's always had a kind of intuition like that -- so we snuck into his place, and found them within. The four girls, along with dozens of others, and King. We were foolish enough to sneak in as night was falling, and the creatures came alive. We were unprepared to fight them, but we escaped. When we came back, they were gone... by the night of September 10th, the entire town was infected. We've been fighting them ever since..."
"King?" Sam echoed, when they were sure he was finally done. "T.K King?"
"Yes," Rider confirmed. "We don't know who invited him, but we think it was--"
"--Stephen Reeves..."
"Y-yes, h-how did you know?" Rider stuttered in surprise.
Sam's eyes were wide and staring sightlessly at her empty bowl, moving around as if trying to see. Her face was blank, maybe from an overload of shock. Mark, hesitantly, reach out to touch her shoulder, whispers; "Hey..."
She smacked his hand away, startled, then apologized feverish, then resumed her mental malfunction, before raising her eyes to Rider. "I knew Stephen Reeves; he was a friend of-of my mom's... I knew about King, I mean; I knew that Stephen had invited him to stay with him for a while. He said King was his uncle!"
"He had taken a trip to France earlier that summer," Rider reminded her. "That must have been where he met King, and King made him his familiar."
"He committed suicide after all those girls disappeared," Sam clutched her eyes shut tight, fighting back tears. "I should have known!"
"There's no way you could have--" Rider tried to comfort her, reached for her hand, but she pulled away, standing up so suddenly she almost knocked her chair over.
"Don't... give me that," she choked out, her hands raised. "My family is dead, my friends are dead, because I couldn't put two and two together, and your god damn sympathy isn't going to bring them back so save it."
On that note, she turned and left, walking out of the room at quite the pace. Mark watched her go helplessly, knowing better then to tamper with her when she gets like this... besides, he couldn't say that in the same situation he wouldn't have responded the similarly if not in the same way.
"Has she always been this way?" Davis asked Mark from the doorway.
"What?"
"Has she always been so self-destructive?"
Mark sighed, looking away. "No... after her parents divorced, she kinda became a walking time bomb. I guess she really cared about her dad, and she liked life back home; but her mom beat him in court and took her up here."
"Divorce can do terrible things to children..."
"Tell me about it," Mark rolled his eyes.
"You, too?"
"My dad left while I was still in diapers. I haven't seen him since... don't know where he is, don't care."
Davis nodded sympathetically, and the three sat in heavy silence for a moment, before Rider spoke again. "... You better check on Sam. I wouldn't trust her alone, if I was you."
"She wouldn't do anything stupid," Mark told him firmly. "She's tougher then that... toughest girl I know." But nonetheless, he stood from the table and went along in the direction Sam had left. He would her in a back room, sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest rocking back and forth, that had only a few cardboard boxes and plastic bags in it... some empty, some full.
"Damn it!" she swore, kicking a smaller box. It tumbled a crossed the room and hit the wall, before easing to a stop. She was whipping tears from her eyes roughly, as if she couldn't stand to have them on her face.
He stopped in the doorway, mournfully watching her grieve. He felt the same inside, and he knew it, but something just wasn't there; like he wasn't even real. He couldn't find it within himself to cry, and, after all this time, he didn't even know if he could anymore.
He whispered her name, and she responded by picking up the first thing she felt next to her -- part of a broken glass figurine -- and hurling it at him. He jumped, and it hit the side of the door frame opposite him, shattering on contact. He jerked back around to look at her again. "Leave me alone!"
"No," Mark breathed, and slowly, hesitantly, crept into the room. He knelt beside her, looking her in the same, his gaze unwavering. "Come on, Sam... you made it this far. If you give up now, you leave me here alone; I would never do that to you!"
She sobbed, and then began to stand. "It's light out, okay? I'm going for a walk--"
"--You can't, not alone," Mark jumped to his feet and grabbing her arm.
She looked him in the eyes now, and her eyes were pink and red with irritation for her rubbing the tears away, but there was some sort of detachment there; some cold disconnection. "... I can take care of myself."
She broke his hold and threw on her hoodie, walking right out the back door with a single look behind, leaving Mark exposed and alone.
Ryou - Thanks again for being the only reviewer, lol! I'm glad I was able to make you feel for the kids... means I did my job. As for Barlow, I'm sorry; he's not coming back, obviously... it just didn't fit the way I already had it planned. Believe it or not, I got the whole damn thingfigured out! Just gotta write it...
Next chapter; the team loses one of their own...