The Plagues Series: Emergency

Chapter 14

At the seal of dusk on Februrary 27th, 2062, we were on a train out of Pechora. It was a long journey that was to take just under a day, us arriving on the night of the 28th. Our destination was the small town of Labytnangi, the end of the line, which sat directly on the shore of the Ob River. From there, we were to be airlifted by the Chinese military to their border with Korea.

The train was quiet – our H-VOC team were essentially the only riders. Absol and Rogers spent most of their time alone, I assumed, talking about the Korean campaign. I spent my time with Michael and Zed. We were all just trying to ride out the anxious tension that had settled over us the moment we left our barracks.

"How long do you think this campaign will last?" Zed asked, us all seated at a window table.

Michael shrugged as he sipped on his pint of chicken blood.

"I'm sure we'll be fully briefed once we're in China," I said.

Zed didn't seem to be put at ease by this. He fidgeted with his fingers in his lap.

"So, where you from, Zed," I said, trying to distract us.

"Didn't I tell you?" he said.

"You were pretty quiet during introductions."

He resignedly shrugged. "I'm from Boston."

"Oh, I can hear the accent a bit," I said with a bit of an overinflated smile.

He remained silent.

"What was it like there?"Michael said.

"Well, there was Bloody Boston," Zed said, "but that wasn't just the dock workers. It was the culture. See, since Boston is pretty Catholic, these changing times were dealt with in a Catholic way. The churches called for crusades against vamps – the infestation of Satan," his tone was mockingly authoritative, "or some shit. I don't know. It was a lot of hunting down vamps, maniacs, mutts, people who helped vamps. I mean, living killed living and undead."

"But it's illegal for civilians to engage those who have turned," I said.

Zed gave me a plain look. "You don't think the Church had influence over the authorities?"

I smiled sheepishly. "So, how'd you get turned?"

"Went out with a couple o' buddies chasing down this mutt," Zed said, then looked at me with a cheeky smile. "Yeah, I know, it's illegal. Anyway, the mutt led us to a bunch o' vamps. It seemed the mutt was used for this vamp ambush." He paused and looked down himself. "Once they realized I got bit in all the commotion, they protected me the vamps did." He looked back at us with his head gently shaking. "My friends were long gone. They left me there." His eyes became fixated on us. "The next day I stopped calling myself a Catholic." His face became startlingly serious. "I wanna win this war for those guys." His face settled. "What are you guys in it for?"

"I want vamps to be free to live their lives," Michael said on beat.

Zed nodded and looked to me, his eyes posing the same question.

I glanced around as I tried to search for an answer. I had so many reasons why I wanted to be here, but I also had none at all. I couldn't make sense of any of it.

"I just need to be here for this," I finally said, mentally kicking myself for how meek I sounded. "I just gotta be a part of this."

Michael and Zed nodded, though I couldn't tell what it meant.

At the seal of dusk the next day, after a couple of weather related delays, we arrived in Labytnangi. The station was right on the shore of the Ob River. The shore was mainly excavated dirt from construction projects, and wilting brush.The town itself was dreary and worn, with the siding peeling off many a home. The people looked sickly and bored, but it was nice seeing humans outside of H-VOC that walked passed vamps without so much as a second look. Some of the population was made of vamps too, though they seemed much more content; the climate was cold, dry, and got little sunlight for most of the year, making it ideal conditions for us.