» Fri May 27, 2011 11:14 am The Children of Night
It was a silent night, nothing but the wind’s whisper and the darkness that fell upon the lands. I was resting by a fireplace with my dog, Bones; thinking about my life and the chain of unexpected events that happened to me…and my family. I still remember that night when raiders killed my older sister after [censored] her and the suffering I had from being a slave in the hand of the slavers. I still thank god for that old gentleman who bought me off those slavers and saved me. Just by looking at the fire; I remember lots of painful memories but Bones helps me get over it. He is a real friend of mine, better than any human companion I've ever had.
As my eyes were falling into sleep, I was awakened by Bones. He was barking at something, I turned my head and caught a sight of darkly figure walking through the trees. I couldn’t know what it was because it was dark and my eyes were tired. Then that thing started to walk toward us. I quickly grabbed my rifle and aimed at it. As he was getting closer, it turned out he was a male wastelander but Bones charged towards him and jumped on him. Bones began biting his leg but I ordered him to stop before he did any serious harm. I approached the wastelander slowly while he was lying on the ground catching his breathe. I turned on my flashlight to get a closer look of him. He was a young boy with dark brown eyes in torn clothes with blood all over it. He was terribly wounded and hardly breathing.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Some…water…” he whispered while catching his breathe
“Sam Waters?” I replied with inquisitiveness. Before he could say anything he fell unconscious. I carried him to my camp and laid him on an extra bedroll I had by the fire. I looked at him closely and wondered what creature caused all this damage. As I was thinking I fell asleep myself.
By dawn, I was awakened by Bones again but this time he found something nearby, where he attacked the wastelander to be precise. I took a close look and it was a bronze medal with demonic creatures carved on it. Looked like it fell from the wastelander’s pockets when Bones attacked him. I put it inside my pocket and got out from bed. I checked the wastelander and he was still asleep, I decided not to wake him up. I sat on a stool by the fireplace and began cooking some brahamin steaks for breakfast. While I was cooking, he was awakened by the smell of my steaks. He slowly got up from bed and sat down on nearby stool and looked curiously around him.
“Where am I?” He asked with a low voice
“We found you running from something last night. My dog attacked you and you fell on the ground and went unconscious, Sam” I replied while I was cooking the steaks.
“My name is not Sam! My name is Jacob” He said with surprise
“Wait, what? I thought you…never mind. What were you running from and why are covered with blood?” I asked quickly
“I was chased by some foul looking men while I was collecting food for my town last night. They had evil looking cat-like creatures with them, they attacked me but I managed to get away from them before their masters could capture me” He said with fear.
“Any idea who were your pursuers?” I asked.
“None! It was dark and they were wearing black robes with hoods on their faces. Freaks if you ask me but I heard them calling each other brother” He said while his stomach was rumbling
“Well, the important thing is you are safe and the steaks are done so you need something to eat if you want to get back on your feet.” Then I gave him a steak to eat. “What town you said you were collecting food for?” I asked while throwing some meat to Bones.
“Trinity” He said “It is a small town northwest from here”
“Sounds Christian to me” I joked.
“In fact, it is” He said “The man in charge is a priest himself” We both laughed about this and then finished our breakfast. I packed my things and prepared myself to my destination, Jericho. At that moment Jacob approached me
“Can you…take me to Trinity? It is not far from here, I’ll show you the way” with hesitation. For a while I thought about and then I thought the least thing I can do to this kid is taking him to his folks so I accepted.
It was noon and we were still walking towards Trinity. We ran into couple of mole rats and wild dogs but we managed it. After half hour, Jacob went searching his pockets and then he cried “Where is my medal?”
“You mean this evil thing?” I put out the demonic medal out of my pocket and showed it to Jacob.
“Yes!” he answered quickly “Give it to me” I gave him the medal wondering why this bronze thing was so important to him.
“What it is worth for you anyway?” I asked with wonder
“I found it a week ago in a dark forest 10 kilometers away from our town” he said while putting it inside his pocket “I thought it worth a lot of caps for the traders who regularly visit our town” We continued our journey. It started to rain after an hour but luckily we were near Jacob’s town.
Finally, after a half hour we arrived at the front gate of Trinity. It was a small town in the middle of a forest. The trees were dense and without leafs.The walls were built from wood which seemed to be from the tress nearby. As we approached the front gate, an armed man shouts
“Who are you?” from one of the look out places in the walls.
“It’s me, Jacob! The other is a new friend of mine” he replied. Then they opened the gate from us and we stepped to the town. There was horror on everyone’s face in the town, in fact; even Bones felt uncomfortable while stepping inside the town.
An elderly woman ran quickly towards Jacob, as she was very eager to see him.
“Jacob! My dear!” she said with surprise then she hugged him for minutes. Jacob was also pleased to see her as it turned out she was his grandmother.
“Where have you been? I was afraid something happened to you” she said with fear.
“I was attacked by a group of hooded men in black robes. If it wasn’t for my new friend here, I would be dead right now” Jacob’s grandmother went pale and didn’t say a thing for couple seconds. I sensed she was hiding something then she went saying
“You and your new friend must be tired now, come home and I’ll make you some warm tea to drink” then we followed her to her house which was next an old destroyed statue of an angel.
We sat down in the kitchen. Jacob’s grandmother’s name was Agnes and she was a religious Christian as most of the towns folk were. We sat down in the kitchen and she made worm tea for us. She pulled a chair and sat down with a strange look on her face.
“When you where gone for couple of days, St. Julius received threat notes from some unknown group named Children of Night” she said with fear in her tone “They kidnapped Rose without prior notice”
“What?!” Jacob cried and he was shocked by hearing this. I found out that Rose was his girlfriend and I began to think that there is something shady going on in this town. I continued listening to them.
“Why St. Julius isn’t sending men to find her?” cried Jacob while hitting the table hardly.
“Because he thinks that the town is his top priority right now since they said that they will attack us” she replied.
“This is just wrong…we have to do something about it!” he said with terror. The two looked uneasily at each other but made no replies until Jacob turned to me and asked “I know I caused you much trouble but you are my only hope now…can you…go search after Rose?” he said with hesitation. I stared at his miserable eyes and he was desperate for help so I accepted to offer my help. He quickly hugged me and told how much this means for him but there was only one problem we had, the whereabouts of Rose. I quickly went out with Jacob and we went to “Drunk Dragon” bar and we asked the bartender if he knows where the Children of Night took her. He didn’t know where it was but he pointed us to a drunken ghoul who might know where they were. He was rude and he hated religion very much. He wore some fancy pre-war black suit.
I walked to him and before I ask him, he shouted “What in bloody hell do you want with me? Did St Julius send you?” He was rude and he hated religion very much. I he wore some fancy pre-war black suit.
“Easy…I here for something else” I replied slowly.
“Oh, I thought you are from the church. What did you want?” he asked while putting his legs on the table. He didn't seem to care about anything but alcohol.
“The bartender said you might know where the kidnappers took Rose” I said firmly
“Okay, I was drinking outside the town and suddenly I heard a girl screaming. I turned around and saw four dark figures carry here to the dark woods near hear. That’s all I know” He said while drinking from a bottle of beer.
“Why didn’t you do something about it?” I asked with a bit of anger in my tone.
“I tried to tell Julius but he thought I was drunk and it was just my head playing me” he said with rage
“I take it you and Julius aren’t well with each other?” I inquired
“Ghoul bigotry [censored]…blah blah blah! Why do you care? Mind your own business kid!” he grimed at me and finished his beer. I left him alone and went out to search after Rose.
I stepped outside of the town and entered the dark woods. It was dark and foggy, every single minute a wolf howled and dark figures constantly moved among trees. Clearly, Bones was afraid too because he was very close to me. I faced couple of mutated wolves but I shot them from afar before they were able to attack me. By time, the night fell and place started to get even darker with every minute passing by.
After hours of walking, I saw a large church silhouette far from my place so I began running towards it until I noticed lots bones and carcasses of animals on the road. Nevertheless I continued walking and arrived at the front gate of the church, I ordered Bones to stay there then I opened the door slowly.
As I opened the door, the place was filled with dead human corpses with bite marks on their neck. The smell was killing me but I continued to walking forward among the bodies in the hall and I noticed an trapdoor which was an underground passage under the altar. I opened it gently and slowly walked downstairs. I heard someone talk while I was sneaking. I decided to take a peak at entrance to that room and I saw an old pale man dressed in a black robe reading some book to a group of pale men and women.
From the looks of them, they were mutated because they had red glowing eyes and sharp teeth. I had one way to describe those freaks: vampires. The man was preaching some crazy thoughts about blood, demons and their purpose in life. It all didn't make sense to me but from what I heard, it was satanic. I constantly heard them saying "Lucifir be praised".
I noticed the preacher was wearing a bronze medal similar to the one that Jacob found. I was beginning to think that they were after Jacob because they didn’t want anyone to know about their existencebut it doesn’t make any sense. Why would they kidnap someone from the town if they want to be hidden? At that moment the preacher saw me.
“We have a human here” he shouted “After him my brothers and sisters!”
I began to run back while shooting at them with my rifle. I managed to kill five and cripple three of them but there was still ten more chasing me. I ran as quickly as I could and charged through the trapdoor to the ground floor of the church; I hurt my head in the process. I was heading for the front gate of the church and they were right behind me. Suddenly, the ghoul at the bar opened the main door and pulled out a shotgun and started shooting every single one of them. He killed four of them but the others shot him in the leg. I turned and shot the remaining six. I killed them all but the last one shot me in the right arm while dying. After things cooled down, the ghoul started to walk towards me. He was struggling because of his leg injury.
“Too bad these crazy vampires svck a lot more than blood. Hehe hehe heh!” he said with an evil, low laughter “Anyone left alive?”
“Three of them are badly injured in the basemant” I replied while trying to catch my breathe “What the [censored] are these things?”
“Thirty-years ago, there was a development of a drug that would make residents immune to radiation and St. Julius was the one in charge” he said with a low voice “The experiment made people immune but slowly mutated them; pale skins, growth of sharp teeth, weakness to sunlight and the [censored] thirst for human blood. I was helping St. Julius in the research and once we knew how much we [censored] up, he decided to exile them instead of searching for a cure. I disagreed with him but he won and exiled them without anyone knowing about it. He said to the townsfolk that they left the town and he covered up the truth with some made up [censored]…”
“We have to find Rose” I interrupted. Then we both ran quickly downstairs. I was searching for Rose while the ghoul tied the rest of the vampires. There was a metal door at the end of the room. Someone was knocking and crying for help. I opened the door with a key I found nearby and I saw a beautiful young girl with blue eyes and a blonde hair falling in my arms.
“Are you Rose?” I asked the girl.
“Yes!” she cried “We have to get out of here”. I escorted her and waited for the ghoul outside of the church. He came out at last and we went back to the town and they welcomed us warmly. Jacob ran toward us and he warmly hugged Rose and kissed her. He later thanked us for the help. I was happy to help and it was good to see happiness on their faces. After that me and the ghoul sat in the bar and started talking. “You know, I never got your name” I said to the ghoul.
“My name is John Sikes” he replied
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sikes” I said gently
“Hah! Nice to see well-mannered kids these days. How did you find the blood-svcking experience?” he said with laughter
“Not that good! But there is some questions left about you and the saint” I replied “How did these vampires form a cult with their own belief systems?”
“The test subjects were some crazy religion extremists like the rest of the town and it is not far that the drug messed up their mind even more. They get even crazier so they make their own bible spin-offs” he said “And the reason why they were after Jacob is because that demonic medal is the symbol of their faith. Lucifer’s Heart as they call it so they kidnap Rose in order to lure Jacob in and take back their beloved symbol. Oh, and svck the hell out of their blood too. He he he…”
“I think I see the picture now and the reason you drink so much is to forget the past I assume?” I asked
“Something like that…” he said in a low voice
“But you know the truth, why don’t you tell them?” I asked quickly
“I really don’t know. Who would believe a zombie anyway?” He complained
“I know I would. I will be on your side when you tell them. It is time to repay your sins and take that false white-knight down. Do you have any proof that we could use?” I suggested
“Well…you are not wrong! In fact, I found this journal while I was searching the vampires lair. It belongs to a woman. She wrote how the drug affected her and her mind day after day” he said with cheer.
Right after that we went to the church together to uncover the truth. At that time, everyone in the town was at the church and St. Julius was preaching. He was a fat elderly man and he was very strict and firm when it came to religion not to mention he used to be a doctor but now he became a priest. We opened the door strongly to a point where everyone in the church looked strangely at us and St. Julius stopped preaching and shouted “How do you dare to enter god’s place like this?”
“We came to uncover the truth!” John shouted “For thirty years I’ve drinking in order to forget about the past and how I couldn’t do anything about it but here now with the help of my new friend, I have a chance to free myself from that burden!”
“What…what are you talking about?” St. Julius hesitated
“Project Resistance! Sounds familiar to you?” John replied and pointed toward him “This man is responsible for The Children of Night! In fact, I was part of it too” There was horror and fear on everyone’s face and they whispered to each other about this bold accusations.
“This is nonsense” St. Julius cried
“Thirty years ago, we were doing this secret research for developing a drug that allows us to become completely immune to radiation but it went wrong! The result was a breed of mutated people who are easily described as vampires. St. Julius exiled them out of the town before they fully mutated. They probably found the old church ruins and formed a cult there. This man has been deceiving you for years!” John said to the townsfolk. Then all the eyes fell upon the saint as he was speechless.
“Do…do…you have any proof of this? He hesitated again
“This!” John pulled the journal and raised it so everyone can see it “It is a girl’s journal that was sane all these years and recorded every bit of her life”. St. Julius was utterly speechless. Everyone in the hall started talking and wondering whether if it is true or not. They finally decided that the sheriff must capture the man and throw him to jail.
Later, St. Julius got locked in jail and he got stripped from his position. I stayed there for a week and lots of things happened. Jacob and Rose got married and lived with Jacob’s grandmother. I could see that they were very happy with each other and I was glad I was the one that reunited them. I went to John to see how he has been. “I owe so much kid! Now I drink less and I’m on the road of being sober” he said with great amount of joy
“That’s great!” I said
“It is not everything! The town asked me to be their mayor but I refused” he said
“Why?” I asked
“I’m not the man for this job. I think I’ll go exploring the wastes and study radiation even more after my leg gets better. I think Jericho is my first destination” he said with excitement.
“I guess this is good bye then” I said with a great deal of sadness.
“It was nice meeting you kid. I hope we run into each other again” He replied. The expression of sadness was very obvious on his burned face.
The sun shone upon my path, I started walking forward; out of the town. Only god knows what lies ahead of me...
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