Chapter 56

December Twenty-fifth 6:50 a.m.

The sky was growing bright with the coming dawn when Maria tracked one of her bonds, the one connecting her to the fledgling she considered most likely to remain loyal to Wilson, to the Penn Warehouse. Originally, the plan had been for the vampires to congregate at the old Eastern State Penitentiary to spend their dormancy, but, obviously, Wilson had changed that plan when nearly half of his forces had rebelled upon Harris's death.

Maria and Adam wore only tatters and, despite their impressive regenerative abilities, were covered in half healed injuries. The battle to keep her son safe had not been an easy one.

In fact, it hadn't been easy to even reach him through the packs of ferals that roamed the city at will. Although Maria could smell them while they were still blocks away and they didn't seem to actively hunt their more self aware kin, they did attack any target of opportunity that presented itself other than their own kind. Such were their numbers that some battles had been unavoidable. Maria and Adam's limited supply of ammunition had been exhausted long before they reached their destination.

The thought of the ferals forced her to consider the raw knots of emotion in her head that linked her to the ones that she had created. She had drained the life from more than forty people before Harris' demise, but, fortunately, only six had risen. They throbbed in her mind like infected wounds, making her feel feverish and rendering rational thought difficult. She had to wonder, with so few rising, how many people must have died to form the huge packs?

Upon their arrival in Germantown, they had been forced to use their depleted firearms as bludgeons to drive a small pack of ferals from a house several doors down from Juan's new parents. The abuse had quickly reduced the modern weapons to garbage. Thereafter, with nothing but their hands, teeth and the occasional fence post, they had repelled what had seemed like endless waves of vampires of both types. The intelligent ones had trickled into the rich residential district all night, trying to add the wealthy residents to the packs.

Only an hour ago, the attacks had suddenly dwindled off to nothing. All they could figure was that the ferals could sense the coming dawn and had dug in for the day. They had conferred quickly and decided to pursue their current path. On the way, they had stopped by several of weapons caches that had been established over the prior weeks, but Paul from D.C. had taken all of the explosives a few days before, and the remaining weapons and ammunition had been cleaned out before their arrival. While there were certainly weapons to be had in the city, they didn't have time to search them out. This had to end today.

Unarmed except for the weapons provided by their nature, they held hands as they looked at the building where Maria's month long nightmare had started.

The other vampires were apparently already inside, and the perimeter was surrounded by men who had, until tonight, been inmates at the maximum security Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. The inmates were taking their guard duty seriously and were busily preparing defensive fortifications.

Several of them jumped up and brought their weapons to bear as Maria and Adam approached. After the pair flashed their fangs, the weapons were lowered, and the men eyed them uncertainly.

One of them offered, "The others are already inside. Don't you worry: we'll keep you safe as long as you hold up your end of the bargain."

"Good," Adam answered crisply as he and Maria pushed their way through. "We're going to take a quick look at the river, and then join the others."

Satisfied, both by Adam's words and by the fact that the pair carried no weapons, the inmates returned to constructing their defenses.

Maria and Adam marched resolutely to the side of building that faced east towards the river. As there were limited avenues of potential attack from this direction, there were only a few ex-inmates present.

"Look over there," Maria said with a gesture toward a cage made of chain link fence. The enclosure was filled with acetylene and hydrogen tanks that were used by welders to perform minor repairs on the ships that docked there.

"Huh," Adam replied. "How about that? I guess fate always provides for those seeking to atone."

Feeling a sense of growing nearness, Maria spun to see Angela leading a group of eight others, all descended from Harris. Each was every bit as ragged as Maria and Adam.

"When I felt you moving, I thought you might be planning something like this," Angela said by way of greeting. "So, what's the plan? Are we going to rush inside and kick some ass?"

Maria shook her head. "There are still nearly two thousand of them. We wouldn't stand a chance." Turning her eyes to the east, she continued, "We have something a little different in mind."