I almost left the girl there. Now I wish I had.
I was out alone that night, which was a violation of protocol, but I wanted to stretch my legs. I hadn’t been in many firefights yet. I wanted to see the things in the real world. I wasn’t really looking for trouble as much as I just wanted to see if I could study a tussle between the vamps and dhamps.
I was a few blocks away when I heard muffled, sobbing. I followed the sound into one of the small alleys between the buildings. A girl, probably no more than 15 or so, was sitting on the ground with her hands wrapped around her knees. Her long, blonde hair looked like it had been shredded; her ripped clothes were covered in blood. Two pink lines ran down her chin where her tears had washed some of the blood away. Her bright blue eyes were wide with fear.
I slowly moved towards her. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t even look at me. I reached my hand out and she flinched.
I heard a familiar hiss in the darkness. Vampire.
I grabbed her arms urgently. “Did you ingest any of its blood?”
She stared expressionlessly at me.
“DID YOU DRINK ITS GODDAMN BLOOD?”
“No,” she whispered.
This hissing grew closer.
“We’ve got to get out of here. NOW!”
As I yanked her to her feet, something whooshed past us from behind and then there was a whirlwind of snarling and growing like dog fight. A Dhampir must have tackled the vamp. I wasn’t in the mood to watch anymore.
We ran through the streets like our asses were on fire until we got back to the old church. Once the big wooden doors were safely bolted behind us; she collapsed in my arms.
“Keep moving just a little more. We still have to get underground.”
I led her back to the rectory. She pulled back as we moved towards into the closet.
“Trust me,” I said as we stepped inside.
Once I closed the doors, the elevator took us down to the complex below.
The elevator door was barely open when I heard First Sergeant Mulvaney screaming at the top of her lungs, “Where the hell have you been Rossi?”
The girl stepped out from behind me, “He saved my life.”
Mulvaney made some sort of clucking sound and peered at the girl. “Is she infected?”
“Ma’am,” I said. “I admit that I…”
“Can it,” Mulvaney said and stepped so close to my face that all I could do was look down the narrow bridge over nose into her craggy eyes. “Take her to the infirmary and I’ll deal with you later.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
As we walked to the infirmary, the girl seemed a little calmer.
“What was that thing?” she asked.
“A Vampire.”
“No,” she said. “The other thing.”
“I think that was a Dhampir,” I said. “Half human, half vampire. They have all the vampires’ strengths and none of their weaknesses.”
She looked like she was going to faint. “H-h-how is that possible?”
“No one really knows. The vampire groupies of the 80s and 90s had something to do with it. Somehow or another, a good number of them got infected and didn’t die. Then their kids grew up and spawned more Dhampirs. The Dhampirs aren’t so bad really. They keep the vamp population under control.”
As she listened, her eyes never moved, never even blinked.
That’s when it hit me.
“It wasn’t the vampire that attacked you tonight was it?”
She looked away and whispered, “No. It was that other thing.”
She started to cry again and I lifted her chin and stroked her blood-matted hair. “We’re here. Don’t worry honey. They’ll take good care of you. I promise.”
Two hours later, the head infirmary nurse motioned me inside. The girl was quietly sleeping on a cot. I thought they had sedated her.
The nurse whispered, “Private Rossi, I have to ask this for the record. You have to answer me under oath, do you understand?’
A chill ran down my spine. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Did you know when you brought her here that she’d been raped?”
My head was spinning. As the nurse scrutinized me, I realized I’d better answer quickly. “We were about to be attacked. I had no time to question her thoroughly. I did verify that she had not ingested any blood before I took her under my care.”
“I understand,” the nurse said with a nod. “Unfortunately, that leaves us in a predicament. We can either euthanize her or administer medication to deal with any unwelcome bio matter and then sterilize her to contain the infection. I’ve already spoken with our First Sergeant. She believes that since you placed the girl under our care the decision should be yours.”
“What?” I said through gritted teeth. “You’re telling me we either kill her or ruin her chances of ever having kids? I thought our job was to protect other humans.”
Mulvaney spoke from behind me, “This is a time of war Rossi. The Vampires can be regulated, by other means, but the Dhampirs are too powerful. If their population gets out of control, they’ll overrun us.”
I looked at the innocent teenager sleeping on the stretcher and then back to Sergeant Mulvaney. “I’ll leave then. We’ll get the hell out of the city. Then she’s not my problem, not yours.”
“You’d go AWOL for the sake of a girl you hardly know?”
“Yes ma’am.” I said. “I would.”
Mulvaney laughed. “You’re still wet behind the ears. Make your decision or I’ll make it for you, but you’re not taking the girl.”
There was a clatter of metal in the background. The girl snatched the scalpel up and held it to her throat. Tears ran down her plump young cheeks as she glared at us.
“No more monsters,” she whispered.
Before any of us could react, she slashed her throat and feel back into convulsions. The nurse ran over and screamed for medical help.
As I watched her blood well in pools on the sterile white linoleum, I turned to Mulvaney and sneered, “You tell me who is worse; the monsters in the street or the monsters in uniforms who claim we’re helping people?”
—
© 2011 Anthony Conium
Anthony Conium lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia where plenty of real life monsters also reside. He writes horror fiction because it is nowhere near as scary as reality. Please feel free to leave comments or email the author directly at anthonyconium@gmail.com.
Tags: Anthony Conium
July 25th, 2011 at 1:38 am
A cruel world with humans as ruthless as the vamps… love it!
July 25th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Thank you! Don’t forget about the Dhampirs. You’ll be seeing more of them.