Answers, and portals to the next story, or could I almost say previous. I've decided that after 'Blood of the Damned' is finished I'll be working on a prequel entitled 'War of the Damned'. More details coming soon but it will be set in the middle ages and explore the vampires a little more intimately than I did in this installment.

Subscription/ Table of Contents
FAQ

Previous Chapter

Blood of the Damned
Part 16

Haley flipped the soldier's corpse over onto his back and began to go through the pouches of the vest he wore. She pulled out a few M4 magazines and tossed them to Jay, or pocketed them herself. A flashlight was laying on the ground next to him, but when he clicked the button, nothing happened; the light must have been on when the soldier died, the batteries were done. She did however manage to find a few large glow sticks which she promptly pocketed.

"Why am I suddenly regretting this?" Lila said as she stared into the dark entrance on the stone compound.

"Because it reeks of death?" Jay suggested as Haley stood from the body she searching.

The vampire glanced between her two companions before cracking the first glow stick. A green glow emanated from the plastic tube, and illuminated the darkness as she walked through the entrance, and started to descend the stairs immediately inside the doorway.

Lila sighed but followed regardless, but Jay bringing up the rear, looking behind to ensure nothing snuck up on them.

At the bottom of the stairs they found themselves in a hallway that ended in a T junction. There were no lights save the green glow in Haley's hand, that illuminated the bullet strewn and partially eaten bodies that lay scattered about, and the blood splashed across the walls. They spent twenty minutes exploring, following hallways and turning at the splits.

Large windows in the hall let the three look into the various labs. Computers and strange equipment sat upon sleek metal desks. It looked like something out of a strange horror movie. They hadn't come across any of the undead, but their stench filled Haley's nose. The infection was everywhere in here, they all had to be careful, else they join the shambling hordes.

"What's this?" Jay asked as he pressed his face against a window to try and peer within. There were computers, with large processors shoved against the wall. Desks and filing cabinets were strewn about in a precise order. Like everything else in this compound, it was neat and orderly.

"Looks like some kind of record room," Lila said almost excitedly.

Haley raised an eyebrow and found the door that led within the room. She examined the steel portal, trying to find a way inside. She finally found a hand sized latch which she grasped and twisted.

With a hydraulic hiss, the door slide to the side, and Haley stepped inside.

"If there are no lights... how did that door open?" Lila asked.

"Back-up generators?" Jay replied.

"Yeah... but then why no lights?"

"Could have been the way the whole system was programmed. The limited power from the generators went into everything except the lighting perhaps?" Haley said with a shrug, showing she didn't care as to the whys too much.

Lila sighed again as Haley moved to one of the computer consoles and booted it up. She couldn't help but smirk as words began to scroll across the screen as everything loaded, small green and yellow lights in the large processors flickering as the machine came to life.

It didn't take long for a nearly blank screen to pop up requesting login and password information. Haley leaned back and shook her head, defeated by such a thin veil.

"Here this might help," Jay said, walking over from a cork board he found on the far wall. He held a small slip of paper between his fingers, which he handed to Haley. On it, scrawled in black pen, was someone's username and password. Written beneath that in the same handwriting was the message: "In case the world falls, someone may gather our knowledge."

Haley didn't think much about the bloody thumbprint in the corner of the paper, and just put in the log in information. 'Confirmed' popped up in green letters as an image of a man holding a middle aged woman, and a young girl standing in front of them with a wide grin on her face, filled the screen. Files began to appear over the image as the computer finished loading. Research notes, all with dates for names. There was a lot of information there, Haley didn't even know where to start, until the final document appeared.

"Impaler virus translated history?" Lila asked aloud.

"Check it out," Jay said, moving over to the window and peering outside.

He leapt back as a zombie smashed its face against the thick glass, smearing blood across it. His weapon was up, finger on the trigger, but he didn't shoot.

"We're okay, I don't think it knows how to open the door," Jay said.

Haley nodded and opened the file that had piqued all their interest. Two sheets filled the screen; the original documents, and the translated version. As Haley and Lila looked over both their eyes widened.

Labelled 1943. The name Himler and Dr. Von Kessler kept appearing throughout the document. Research done in Romania, on a virus found in the ancient ruins of a castle and the village beneath it. Weeks of experiments on test subjects revealed the lethality of the virus, but also the unique property of animating dead tissue.

"It's that old? The Nazis made it?" Lila said.

"Older, they just found it. The Nazis were fascinated by the occult and had been digging all over the world to find supernatural means of aiding them in the world," Haley said, as she found references to some book from the middle ages they had found. It talked about not only raising the dead, but being able to control them. It also mentioned where the virus had originated from.

"Vampires? They were using vampire genetics to make zombies?" Lila said, and Haley frowned.

"It's how they got past the barrier of death. Using the blood of something that was already dead," she told the nurse.

The German documents abruptly ended, and were soon replaced by Russian documents. How they continued the Nazi experiments. They had managed to raise the dead, but were unable to control them as the Germans had hoped to. They killed all the subjects, washing their hands of the project.

As the dates on the documents reached the early 1950's, the research turned to Chinese. There was a side note about how the Russians had sold the research to the enemies of NATO during the Korean War. It had bounced all over the other side of the world, and no one in the west was even aware this virus existed.

It stayed in Chinese, and then the dates became further apart. The last Chinese entry was 1961. Suddenly the next date was two weeks after the outbreak of the virus in England, and it was all in English. American and Canadian scientists had their hands on it, trying to find a cure. Over five years they realized that they couldn't actually stop the virus, they had to do what everyone failed to. Control them.

Work had begun on what they called Project Charon. They had found two volunteers, and three corpses to work with, hoping to make some sort of Alpha Zombie that would control the undead, and stop the destruction tearing the world apart. They were so close with someone they labelled as simply Subject 05. Then everything stopped. There was nothing else.

"What was all that?" Lila asked, waving her hand at the screen.

"Our hope turned to our demise," Haley said standing.

~~~~

John turned his head towards the door, looking away from those who may have been his brothers. Fellow messiahs they could have been had they awoken. Now though, the scent called to him.

The blood of Gods was in this compound amongst him and his kin. But the blood was tainted by will. This was his test; to deliver from these demons that wore the flesh of Gods.

John left the company of his brothers, as the undead followed him, shambling quietly into the darkness.

Next Chapter