The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sunday had been the longest day of Brin's life—but the day part of it was officially over. Night was here to stay.

The last of the sunlight disappeared over the mountains as Crispin's white van sped through the last of the Carson Valley signals, disappeared from civilization, and continued on the long, winding, desolate road that was US-395.

Brin looked out the window and sighed as the sky turned pitch black. She was already scared about what she was—what they all were—about to face in Bodie Ghost Town, and she didn't think it the popular choice to storm the empty compound at least until the morning sunlight appeared again.

But Brin knew she wouldn't be able to wait that long. This wasn't just a mission to put a stop to the league of evil vampires, to kill Droz once and for all. This was a mission to save her mom and Paul, to bring them back to Grisly alive.

"Do you know where you're going, Mr. Bonkers?" Justin asked from the back of the van.

"Uhh, it's Mr. Barker."

"Oh. Sorry."

"He's going the right way, Justin," Brin said, looking back at the group of frightened passengers. "There's only one way to Bodie from here."

"Yeah, uhh, so," Ash said, squirming in his seat and still trying to make himself comfortable as he tried to find room next to Anaya. "Is it about that time we talk about what's going to happen? You know, when we actually get to Bodie?"

"I don't know what you mean—"

"Is that really our destination?" a hesitating voice asked from the back. Brin looked over Ash's shoulder to see Dylan. "Of all the places we can go, of all the places we can escape to, you want to go back there, Brin?"

"Droz has my mom, Dylan. If I don't save her—if we don't save her—she'll be turned into one of them. And she'll be gone... forever. I just lost my dad last year. I can't lose my mom, too."

"I understand that," Dylan said. "But let's be honest here. Some of us have actually been to Bodie. It's not safe there. It's a war zone. And now that all those vampires know who we are, there's no telling what they'll do to us." Brin had known Dylan Wickerman since freshman year at Grisly High, but she never took him to be an emotional person. Gay, sure, but not emotional. So when Dylan started crying, she was taken aback.

"Dylan, it's OK—"

"It's not OK," he said. "I feel sympathy for your problem, I do. I don't want anything to happen to your mom. But it's not right to go in there and endanger all of us—potentially kill all of us—just to save one person."

"Well, we'd be saving Paul, too—"

"Oh, come on, nobody gives a shit about him," Dylan said, changing his demeanor from scared to spiteful. "Nobody has given a shit about that vampire from the start, except you. Just because you have some crush on the guy is not a reason to put all of our lives at risk!"

"What do you expect me to do, Dylan?" Brin said, raising her voice. "Just have us all drive past Bodie? Let my mom go? Become a goddamn orphan?"

"Of course not. I just don't see why we all have to go, too. Mr. Barker said we needed to get out of Grisly. We needed to get away from those zombies, and the other vampires, and all those other monsters that were taking over our town." He stopped and cleared his throat. Valerie looked back at the boy and he nodded. "No offense."

"None taken," the troll said.

"Anyway, we've gotten out of Grisly, and we've stayed together for the car ride all the way past Carson Valley. But now I think it's important that each of us has a say in what happens next. I for one would rather slit my own throat than take another step back in Bodie. I'm not going back there, Brin. I won't."

Brin glanced at Mr. Barker, then looked back at Dylan. She licked her lips and crossed her arms, not like she was cold, but like she was aggravated. "All right," she said. "You're right. Anaya made you go to Bodie once. But this time, I don't want to be the person who makes you go back."

"It's not that I don't want to save your mother, Brin. Please understand that. It's just... I don't think it's safe. For any of us."

Brin looked at the others in the van. Her brother, her best friend, her once mortal enemy, and her new troll friend. She looked at Mr. Barker, then Dylan, then Dylan's new boyfriend.

"Does anyone else feel this way?" Brin asked. She looked at Ash first. "Ash?"

"I'm with you, Brin. One hundred and fifty percent. I'm not letting you go back there alone."

"I agree," Anaya said. She raised her hand up and let Ash high-five it. "Now's not the time to be a coward. If your mom is there, if Paul is there, we're going to save them. And you know what else I want to do as soon as we get back to that hellhole? I want to destroy the vampires. Each and every one of them. For trying to kill us last time, and for kidnapping your mom. But I also want to take them down... because... I hope you guys haven't forgotten... they took Chace and Sawyer away from us, too."

"So you're with me," Brin said, trying not to cry.

"I'm with you, Brin. I still think you're a bitch. But you're a damn fine righteous bitch."

Brin laughed and nodded her head. "Thanks, Anaya. You've really... you've become a good friend. You know that, right?"

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Anaya said, but then laughed right along with Brin.

"What about you?" Ash said to Valerie. "Do you want to stay back with Dylan? We can drop you guys off in Bridgeport, I guess. Before the point of no return."

"Yeah, you don't have to go, Valerie," Anaya said. "And I would never make you. But you are a troll. A big, scary troll. That could help in our favor."

"We're going to look so bad-ass!" Ash said. "Valerie as a troll, and Mr. Barker as a werewolf, leading the way, as we charge in there and gut every last one of those blood-sucking freaks."

"Well, I don't really know you guys, but I can't imagine staying back and letting you all go in there by yourselves," the new girl said. "I wouldn't have gotten in this car if I didn't believe we should stick together. I don't care what happens. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying with you guys."

Brin put her hand out and let Valerie wrap her palm over it. Brin bit down on her tongue, still reeling from all the hope and encouragement from (most of) the others in the van.

She looked past Valerie, toward her brother, who was cramped in the back left of the vehicle. He had his shotgun pressed down against the floorboards.

Justin glanced at the two boys beside him, then back at Brin. "Yeah, Brin, I'm sorry but... I kind of agree with Dylan."

"You what?"

"Yeah, I mean, the more I think about it, even though I brought this gun along, I think it may be a war zone in there. It's not sensible for all of us to go in there and get slaughtered just to save one person."

"But Justin," Brin said, shocked at his response, "that one person is our mother!"

He just shook his head. "I'm sorry, Brin. I can't do it. I mean... don't you know?"

"No! Know what?" Her heart was racing. She wanted to strangle him.

"We're all going to die tonight."