The Vampire

  The next room had to have been a laboratory, she might not have recognized what all these odd typewriter machines were but it looked like test tubes and beakers were eternal. There were larger machines she couldn't guess at the purpose of, smaller ones on the long counters that looked like ones she had seen in an Ahnenerbe lab. In the end though, her eyes locked onto the large specimen tubes, each big enough to hold a man. She couldn't finish a thought before she was in front of the tubes, her eyes locking onto the emaciated figure inside. She reached out with trembling claws, slowly scratching them down the tube.

  Was it dead? A dry corpse worth nothing to anyone? It twitched and the head rose, a mindless moan silent through the thick glass. She shattered the tube without another thought. All it took was a single brutal stroke, and she was seizing the feeble creature and sinking her fangs into its throat. It barely struggled. It barely could. What she drank wasn't exactly blood, it was a viscous ichor that came out slow and heavy. It took time for the pathetic creature to die, and when she dropped the corpse her eyes locked on the next tube in line. Another one was pressed against the glass, scratching at it while trying to escape, terror in the eyes that were locked on her. Just like the other six scattered among the tubes that still moved. The glass barely slowed her down. Their struggles certainly didn't.

  When the last broken corpse was dropped to the ground she was finally back in control of herself. This hadn't exactly been a feast, these pathetic creatures weren't really better off than she was, but at least she could feel her back healing finally. She slowly used a claw to move stringy limp hair out of her face, licking the last of the ichor off her lips as she did and looking down at the body in front of her, “Were you my children? Monsters made from my blood then abandoned?” She considered the lingering taste in her mouth, lily and nightshade and something else? “Ah yes, ash and screams. You are mine then.” She considered the corpse before sighing softly, “If only my own sire had been so kind, you would have never been made at all. May the stars welcome you in their luminous embrace.”

  She checked the remaining tubes but a quick test with her own ichor on the tip of a claw proved all the rest were already fully dead. She frowned at that as she licked her claw clean again, so she was right about the fledglings. What experiments had they run then? To what end? After a moment of consideration she shrugged and started to explore the rest of the facility with more energy than before. A pathetic meal was still better than none at all. She had some luck on her side too, it was a large place yes but straight forward in design. The side labs were useless, more observation rooms with their fake one way windows but with empty cells beyond that lacked even her coffin in them. But there was a barracks area with small dorm rooms, a cafeteria, private quarters for civilians and officers.

  Even a full gymnasium, equipment left in place. Some of it she didn't recognize, but the machines with weights weren't exactly difficult to figure out. The ones with the scratchy floors that moved when she pulled at them were a mystery of sorts, but that was unimportant. While searching the barracks area she actually found a full store room, stocked with a bit of everything from unfamiliar military uniforms, to writing supplies, even rank markings and winter gear.

  It also held lumpy packages which, when she pulled one open, had smaller packages and containers that held preserved food stuff in them. Useless to her of course, but interesting anyway. A new way for the military to supply their people rations? She made a note and moved on. She also tried the water at a sink out of curiosity and only got a despondent moan from the pipes. She hadn't expected anything else really, but knowing was better than assuming.

  The armory was mostly empty unfortunately, some ammunition was left which was nice but this place either hadn't been well stocked or the weapons had been prioritized on the way out. Either way it left her empty handed. It did have generators as well, but there was no petrol to fill them with so she left the old machines dark. She didn't need light anyway. What she never found were windows to the outside, which meant this was a bunker. It made sense but she still felt a little insulted.

  Like she was some dirty secret meant only to be buried. She grumbled, “Just because I'm a walking corpse doesn't mean I want to be underground.” Then she finally found it. The thick double doors that screamed surface exit. She wasn't sure how long her search had taken, deliberately taking her time had made it take longer than it may have needed to, but she had finally found a way out of this hole in the ground. Now, how to get them open?

  She resisted the immediate urge to simply force them open, she could still use this place as a base until she found something better after all and being able to close the doors was a major plus. And unlike the other doors, this one was of a more regular design. That meant it wasn't built to keep people in but instead to keep them out. It took time to figure out the manual release, but once she figured it out she only needed to put some muscle into turning the rusty old mechanism. The door groaned as she pushed and slowly, ever so slowly, the door opened to send a crack of sunlight streaming in. And it burned.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Had she been well fed it wouldn't have been a problem, sure she would be weaker than she was normally but nothing worse. But as she was it was fire and death, sending her scrambling back into the black of the bunker with a bestial scream of pain and fear. She panted and smoked there for a long time before she finally peered back at the door. Even the sight of the sunlight hurt but she got a glimpse of greenery swallowing the area outside. So it was hidden then. Good. That done she skittered back into the dark depths of the bunker to wait for night. Some part of her was hoping some animal wandered inside in the meantime. It would save her a lot of time if one did, but she doubted any would after the sounds she had just made. Only something particularly stupid would hear that and still come here.

  The Poacher

  The hunter crept forward carefully, using the barrel of his rifle to push aside the foliage around the bunker door. He had been out here for nearly a week and was anxious to bag something worth his time. He had been told the exclusion zones were full of terrible creatures, many that the right people would pay a lot of money for. Or the wrong people. He shivered at the memory, the razor blade smile of the loan shark who had smuggled him in here. All he had to do was find one paracritter and his debt would be cleared. But after a week out in the exclusion zone all he had to show for his trouble was the skins of the small game from his meals. They would fetch a decent price that might pay for his food bills for a couple weeks, but nothing like the debt he owed to the Sinners.

  When he had heard the screaming Greg had thought it was a woman at first, but it carried all wrong for a person. That meant cougar, and if he was lucky it wouldn't be mundane. This zone was famous for producing parapredators, so it gave him hope he had finally found what he was looking for. Still, he wasn't oblivious to the dangers so he approached the door cautiously. This hadn't been on any maps or in any of the information on the zone, he hadn't even heard of anything like it here. It might have been the original source of the creatures that are supposed to be lurking here. That he hadn't seen any of those in a week was concerning, it usually meant something big had turned out and sent them scurrying into hiding, and he wanted to be gone before he found it. Or it found him.

  The opening was just big enough for him to slide through and the bunker beyond was pitch black, a yawning hole in the world. He eased his backpack off, carefully clipped a glow lantern to his belt and a flashlight to his rifle barrel. He slid inside cautiously, sweeping the room beyond. It was an old world military bunker by the looks of it, the smell of stale air and rust filled his nose as he stepped inside. He checked the door on his way inside and paused to get a better look. It had been forced open, and recently at that. He had definitely found something, maybe something humanoid even. That was where the real money was. So he stalked forward, taking it one step at a time. The entrance hallway was dust and destitution, the only disturbance were the claw marks dug into the concrete.

  There was no rhyme or reason to the scars in the concrete, some looked like something had dragged claws down the length of the hall like a bored child. Others were angry looking rips in the stone, like something had taken its frustrations out on the walls. Footprints led up and down the hallway to match the claw marks. He touched a rip in the concrete, jerking his hand back and sucking on a cut finger. Sharp. And fresh, they didn't look right for a big cat. Not that he knew much about animals. Whatever it was, the creature had to be worth a fortune right? That might settle all his debt, maybe even leave him with a profit on top of that.

  It wouldn't be the first time he did working for this Sinner. Should he go back for a better gun? Would he be allowed to? And what was watching him? He could feel eyes on him but playing the flash light up and down the hallway revealed no hidden watchers. He checked over his head anxiously, hundreds of horror movies flashing through his head. On second thought, maybe this wasn't worth it after all. He started to back out just as slowly, afraid any changes might be a threat. He wiped his wet finger on his pants, he should wrap it in something before his finger slipped on his rifle or something. He was going so slowly he caught the sound of something moving his way, the sound of claws scrabbling on concrete, and spun with his rifle up. And froze. It felt like the world was moving in slow motion.

  An emaciated human thing, all leathery skin, limp stringy hair, and flashing claws and teeth was charging towards him on all fours. An animal not a person. It shot down the hallway towards him, drool flying as it ran with a hungry gaze. He finally remembered to fire, a shot ringing out and deafening him in the enclosed space. It didn't even slow down. He back peddled, desperately working the bolt on his rifle and shouting incoherently at her. His second shot went wide and wild as it slammed into him.

  He felt pain as the fangs sunk into his throat, and he tried to push the monster off of him, tried to fight. Then the pain changed. Instead of the burning bite, he felt a heat surge through his body, cries of suffering turning to moans of pleasure. His struggles slowed then died away with that heat. He relaxed as it drank deep from him, and he felt it grinding its body against him with its own euphoria. A last fleeting thought went to how he would explain this to his wife. Then he stopped thinking at all.