They made their way back through the mess of rusting machinery that filled the building. As they walked between the large shapes, Faith muttered, "What did this place do anyhow?"
"My Dad said it used to make motorcycles," the guy in the letter jacket replied. "Grandpa worked here his whole life, and Dad did for about twelve years. It's been closed 'bout fifteen years now… I never guessed it was because of a vampire."
"Motorcycles? Huh," Faith glanced around. She had no idea how such big machines would be used to make motorcycles, but then again, the whole industrialized manufacturing was mostly a mystery to her. Then again, being taken over as a vampire lair, even if only for a few vampires, probably didn't give a good idea of how the place was used when it was active and productive.
Heading across the weed strewn asphalt, Faith frowned at the two shapes in the darkness. "Is that a couple Volkswagens? I thought you had a car, not a pair of cars."
"We did only have one car…"
"Oh hell, it's that turtle…" Faith could only think of one explanation for a second car sized shape in the darkness. "Maybe it's asleep?"
"Try to keep those chains from rattling too much," Mort warned. "If that isn't a car, we think it might be a damn big snapping turtle."
"Snappers get big, but not that big," the other guy protested.
Faith didn't like moving closer to the lurking bulk that had to be the giant turtle. She'd gotten a close enough look at it the first time, and was quite comfortable staying away from it. On the other hand, the car would be the best way to get those guys out of here before there were….
She could feel a vampire moving towards the car. Not from the factory, but it felt like it was coming in from the road. "Quick and quiet, there's another vamp in the area, one that's awake. Once you guys get in the car, get it going and get gone."
"What about you?" asked the guy in the red shirt.
"We can handle one vamp," Faith insisted.
They staggered towards the car, the guy in the letter jacket slinging the length of chain over his shoulders, the loops rattling near his waist as he moved. He'd fished the keys out of his pockets, and there was no doubt that he wanted to take Faith's advice – get in and get gone.
"No!" the snarl had to belong to the vampire that had killed and turned the girls. The one who'd held the guys prisoner.
The guys made it to their car, and Faith turned to look at the approaching vampire. Nothing about him stuck out as unusual, he had the normal vampire ridges and yellow eyes, and the jagged fangs. The overalls, stained with grease and blood, went along with the old factory lair.
From behind here, where the guys were trying to get into their car and get out of here, she could hear swearing, and then the car made a horrendous noise. Tires squealed and the car began to move away from the other shape.
The vampire lunged, not so much towards Faith and Mort as out of the path of the car, which looked almost as rusted as those chains.
Faith had pulled a pair of stakes, and took a swipe at him, not expecting to give him a fatal strike but hoping to hit his gut and make it hurt. He twisted, dodging the stakes, and kicked out, one foot connecting to her wrist, sending that stake flying. Faith pulled back, shaking her hand and hoping that the feeling would come back before it was too late.
Mort jumped, landing with his feet on the vampire's shoulders and sending him crashing to the ground. He then jumped back up, sending the vampire's shoulders even lower, and smacking the vampire's chin against the asphalt. Instead of jumping towards Faith, he jumped backwards, his eyes widening as something that couldn't quite decide which bit of profanity it wanted to be emerged from his lips.
Faith grabbed the vampire and flung him behind her, towards the giant turtle. She twisted around, worried about what the turtle might be doing.
The vampire landed in a heap near the large shape. Once again, Faith was confronted with evidence that while turtles might be slow on their feet, they could bite very fast. The turtle's head reached out, and the vampire screamed, attempting to scrabble away. Desperation wasn't enough, and the vampire's arm was caught in the giant turtle's jaws, separating with no sign of effort at all.
The turtle seemed to like the taste.
"That's… that's a horrible way to go," Faith whispered. "I mean, I'm not a fan of the vamps, but… eaten in several bites by a giant snapping turtle?"
"The jocks car made it onto the road and away, we don't need to worry about them anymore. The girls weren't risen yet, would a stake kill them now?" Mort asked.
"It should, but there's the giant hungry turtle between us and the door. If we could get in, staking the bodies should do it. There's always cutting off the heads to make sure, but again, there's the giant turtle," Faith replied.
"I can get past the turtle, I've got the light, and it isn't that hard to stake a couple bodies," Mort murmured.
Faith nodded, and then gave him a hug, the wrist that the vampire kicked now starting to ache and the hand still numb. "Be careful."
Mort made his way into the building without the turtle moving towards him, and Faith hoped that it meant the turtle hadn't noticed that he was there. She'd spent most of her life without a decent guy, now that she had one, she didn't want to see him get eaten by an overgrown turtle! Instead, she edged towards the bike, wanting everything ready to get themselves out of here when Mort came back.
It felt like a lot more than ten minutes before he slipped back out the door, edging away from the turtle before a few of those amazing leaps brought him to her side. "You have the bike ready, good…"
Leaning in to give him a quick kiss, Faith whispered, "Everything go okay in there?"
"Just dandy with the first one, the second woke up before I could stake her, and she tried to get me," He shook his head, and Faith noticed a bruise forming on the underside of his jaw and another on his wrist. "I got her when she went for my throat. She still managed to head-butt my jaw before she dusted."
"Good, now let's get out of here," she insisted.
She didn't like abandoned factories. Especially the ones that weren't as abandoned as they were supposed to be. They were always trouble.
End part 52.
As they were nearing an older cemetery, Faith tapped Mort's shoulder, half yelling "I feel a vampire over there!"
Mort didn't try to talk, but he slowed the bike and turned into the cemetery. The headstones that they passed looked older, worn shapes of pale stone rising from the ground in ovals and slightly rounding rectangles, with the occasional cross. Here and there were larger headstones with figures of angels gazing sadly downwards. Towards the back were several larger mausoleums, where generations of the then-wealthy families could be interred together, separated from the have-nots in death as they had been apart in life.
There was a figure leaning against one of the taller rectangles, a lean shape with a hat. From the angle, it looked as if he was watching one of the mausoleums.
Mort stopped the bike, muttering, "Does that look like the vampire who said the others couldn't read a map?"
Faith considered the shape carefully, feeling the presence. "Definitely a vamp. Could be the same one… and there's more in the mausoleum."
"Want to bet that they couldn't read a map either?" Mort had a thin smile as he asked the question.
"They feel like minions, that's a given. Most of them are only a little brighter than dirt," Faith snorted. "Still, we should probably try to kill them."
"How about him?" Mort asked as they moved closer.
Faith considered what she knew about vampires, and the one encounter with the smarter, hat-wearing vampire. "He is a vamp, so we probably should if we can, but go for the minions first. If it is the hat-vamp, he's hoping for bad things to happen to the scary woman, which is great, but… that doesn't make him our friend."
"Enemy of my enemy and all that?" Mort clarified.
"Yep."
"Which is all off it he attacks us," Mort muttered.
Faith shrugged, after all, that was just basic sense. She was willing to leave the hat-vamp out of the fight for now, there would be plenty with the minions, especially if any more of them were mutant vampires.
The vampire in the hat stepped back as they approached, clearly abdicating any responsibility that he may have had for the minions in the mausoleum. He leaned against a different tombstone farther away, arms folded over his chest, the whole body language suggesting that he was here to watch the show. To be honest, Faith found that sort of behavior a bit creepy, even if it did make things a little easier.
"Looks like he's willing to step out of things for now…" Mort whispered.
Faith only nodded as they approached the mausoleum. She did notice where the moonlight caught the family name, and she wondered just why the vampires were doing something very noisy inside the Schwannstein family resting place. One door had been left open, suggesting that either the minions needed a little light, or they didn't want to bother with actually closing it behind them.
Inside the mausoleum, four minions were ransacking the coffins. One looked particularly tall and spindly, and he was snarling at a dark wooden coffin on a top shelf of the three levels, with a dulled metal name plaque. The other top slots had been left open, probably due to the sheer inconvenience that had to be involved in placing a coffin up so high, especially one weighted down with a dead body. Another didn't look more than fourteen, with piercings and a mohawk with lighter tips. Oddly enough, their clothing, even the one with the Mohawk, all had that the almost pressed tidy and presentable look of fifties televisions.
"Shades of Happy Days," Mort blinked.
"Bet they work for that woman… do we call her June Cleaver?" Faith shook her head, raising a stake. Most of the feeling was back in her hand, so she should be alright as long as none of these vamps hit the exact same place… or had any too-useful mutant powers.
"Maybe June with a cleaver," Mort countered.
"Hey!" one of the vampires shouted, spinning to face the newly arrived pair. "You shouldn't be in here! She said you would be killed!"
Faith wanted to take advantage of the minion's outraged shock and lunged forward with the stake. It slid neatly between his ribs, and he crumbled into dust, still gaping at them. She doubted that the others would go as easily.
Sometimes Faith hated being right.
There were flying fists, several kicks, though the cramped space of the mausoleum made those rather difficult. Cramped space made movement difficult, and missing your target often meant hitting the stone wall, causing an assortment of words that would have had Dick tut-tutting and Mellie insisting on a bit more effort and creativity, though more than a few of the words came from the vampires. Mort kept kicking the vampires into the walls, but it didn't keep them down very long.
Faith managed to stab the spindly one, but it didn't take, and he just laughed.
Resisting the urge to stick out her tongue, Faith tried stabbing the other side, remembering some old medical show mentioning some unpronounceable condition where the internal organs were reversed, like a mirror. Stabbing the left side worked much better, and he crumbled into dust, his laugh only starting to falter.
Things were slightly easier with only two minions, and they managed to stake them in short order, though Faith was left rubbing her elbow, and with a painful bump on the back of her head. She'd also done something to make her knee ache… Thinking back there had been that spin that left her knee finding a coffin and the mohawk'd vampire hitting the wall.
"The place is a wreck. What could they have been looking for?" Mort was rubbing at his shoulder as they stared at the now dusty but quiet mausoleum.
"No clue, but they obviously didn't find it. Might as well go home."
Neither of them could see the vampire in the hat when they emerged from the mausoleum.
"I'm hurt, you're hurt, and he's gone. Let's go home," Mort didn't quite beg.
"You talked me into it. Home, a hot shower, and a soft bed," Faith agreed.
End part 53.