Chapter 71

December Twenty-fifth 9:30 p.m. EST

Susan followed at a run several paces behind Arthur, who kept glancing back at her, probably to see if she was ready to drop to her knees and beg for forgiveness to avoid whatever he had planned for her. She refused to give him the satisfaction. Truth be told, she was so emotionally numb after more than a month of torment and the dashed hopes of the prior night that she couldn't bring herself to care what else he did to her. What could possibly be worse than what he'd already done?

When they had met up with Hoffhamner, the former general had a half dozen civilian prisoners waiting. To her surprise, Arthur had insisted that she feed on them all. Afterwards, they had traveled steadily northeast, delayed only by the occasional skirmish with ferals. Apparently seeing no reason to waste his monsters, Arthur had merely left them crippled and writhing on the ground before moving on.

Susan didn't see the point in trying to spare the beasts. Even she could smell the groups of survivors holed up in barricaded buildings along their path, fearfully watching them go by through gaps in the boards that had been nailed over windows. Surely they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to put an end to the helpless ferals once the larger group of armed vampires had vanished in the distance. Then again, she could also smell their terror, sharp, pungent and incomparably sweet; perhaps they would just cower in their hidey-holes until it was too late and they again became the hunted.

They were well into Mount Ranier when she heard the growl of a number of large diesel engines ahead. Her spirits began to rise as she imagined that the distant, unseen vehicles were full of soldiers who would somehow manage to kill Arthur, that bitch Alicia, and her. The idea of rescue and freedom was now so unimaginable that she didn't even entertain it in her daydreams. With a sigh, she quelled the fantasy of her own release through death. To take a phrase from her favorite video game, "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

Nevertheless, she couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed when four large cement trucks with slowly revolving drums came into sight. One was missing its front bumper and its grill was bent and twisted from forcing its way through the debris that clogged the streets. The drivers huddled in the cabs, flinching away any time one of the armed vampires who guarded them came near. The bodies of a dozen or so ferals scattered around the area demonstrated that their fear had not gone unnoticed.

The trucks were arrayed in a line along the side of a large vacant field that had been excavated down several feet. A brightly painted sign proclaimed the area to be the future site of an underground parking garage. Two thick metal poles with tarps around their bases protruded straight up along the central axis of the field.

Noticing their arrival, one of the fledglings approached and nodded to Arthur. "This is the best we could do, sir. There isn't much heavy construction in the city during the winter."

Arthur surveyed the area solemnly, his bond to Susan oozing the icy amusement that often presaged a particularly cruel and wanton act. "It's absolutely perfect. You did well. I'm impressed that you were able to find the drivers and materials I requested."

"It wasn't all that difficult. We got the drivers' names and addresses from the employee files of a shipping depot. While some of the houses we checked were empty, most people didn't realize that it was any safer to go out during the day than it is at night, and barricaded themselves in their homes.

"With the utilities out, getting the cement and enough water to mix with it into the trucks was a bit more difficult, but we managed." He hesitated for a second, his expression becoming anxious. "We brought the water up from the Potomac in barrels. It's probably so polluted that the cement won't meet building codes. I hope that's okay."

Arthur waved a hand dismissively as he strode over to one of the upright poles. "It hardly matters. I doubt the project will ever be completed or that anyone will bother digging up what we do tonight."

He pulled the tarp at the base of one of the posts aside to reveal a hole roughly four feet in diameter. "How deep is it?"

"It was meant to be a primary support for the garage, so it goes all the way into the bedrock and then some. The lower half is lined with a steel sleeve to prevent collapse and keep ground water out until they filled the hole with cement and rebar."

"Perfect." He leaned forward to peer down into the hole. "I can't see the bottom. Come and take a look, Susan, and see if you're able."