The Time Warriors and Beyond

           By and copyright of Owen Quinn

In the fifth Time Warrrros book the Veldro have rosen and invaded coastal town in Ireland. The popu;ace have been converted into infectious drones. Rachel and Nathaniel are trapped on a lonely country road when theey walk straight into vampire drones. Booknow available on Amazon.

If the others fell to the venom then it would leave just her and they would know from the others’ memories that she was immune. There was no doubt they would kill her on the spot. And if she fell, then the whole world would follow including Sarah, Maisy, Jacke’s and Tyran’s’ families, everyone they knew and had ever helped.  With the town converted she knew it would not take long for them to create enough human drones to secure the planet for the Veldrox. That was the sad thing about life here. People were so focused on their own lives that they mostly failed to see those less fortunate. Rachel could picture the homeless being consumed; easy pickings for the Veldrox drones. Rachel had to force those images out of her head as it was making her panic and that was the last thing she was determined to do.

They hadn’t gone half a mile before three dark shapes bounded onto the road in front of them from a dark block of trees. Rachel and Nathaniel had been keeping to the side of the road facing any possible oncoming traffic. Of course there was none. Rachel found herself wishing for the normality of shining twin headlights in the dark. That momentary blindness as your eyes adjusted.

“Freeze,” hissed Rachel. Her eyes flickered to the hand unit more to reassure herself that it was still on, the tiny glow of the screen lighting her chin. Nathaniel did as he was bid and he held his swords before him just in case Varran’s little device failed them.

It was two men and a woman, all infected. One was somewhere in his early twenties while the man and woman were middle aged. Judging by the older man’s weight, if he was still in his human form there was no way he would be as agile and lithe as in his infected form. His shirt was open to the navel and his stomach bounced and trembled with every move. It was all Rachel could focus on as they stood swaying, sniffing the air. They were hunting that was for sure and it didn’t take a genius to figure out for what or in this case who.

With only the slightest of hissing they began stalking down the road towards them. Rachel’s heart pounded in fear. She held the sword tightly as Nathaniel readied himself for a possible attack. Had they smelt them on the night breeze? It was a clear cloudless sky coated with stars and a partial moon but enough light to allow their silhouettes to betray them to the creatures. And from being possessed by the Veldrox, Rachel knew the infection had mutated their senses to allow them to see and sense any human heat source in the dark. To them a human or Xereban was a blaze of orange and red light in the dead of night, a beacon that led them to their next victim.

Nathaniel had stiffened as he readied himself to fight, every piece of training he had ever been given, every battle he had ever fought riled up inside him. His eyes noted every movement the creatures made, watching for that initial tensing of the body that would alert him they had seen them. His hands gripped his swords tighter indiscernibly, finding his inner calm that he needed to fight the best fight. Only hate and fear defeated a warrior. Only by finding the tranquillity within him could a warrior taste success. Rachel placed a subtle restraining hand on his arm. It seemed like a second when the younger man was suddenly next to her, sniffing the air, a low continuous growl rolling round its throat as its head swung this way and that. What if it knocks against me, wondered Rachel. Surely then it would know she was there. Even though she was immune, she didn’t welcome the feeling of being gnawed on by them. Rachel angled her body slowly to avoid contact with him, noiselessly trying to move her feet without sounding against the tarmac. She could feel its breath on the left hand side of her face as it moved past her. Nathaniel had to move his swords out of the way to avoid the fat man brushing into them. The woman had stuck to the middle of the road, her movements jumpy like a wolf spider every ounce of her tuned by the venom to be predatory. With a stealthy lance Rachel saw the woman had a silver heart shaped locket round her neck. What family photo was inside it? She knew whoever was in there would be first on the conversion list. An image of one of the infected crawling along a darkened floor towards Sarah’s sleeping form flashed in her mind. She shut her eyes tightly to dismiss it. Nathaniel winked at her encouragingly but she was too afraid to acknowledge it. They had to pirouette to avoid the infected bumping into them like some macabre slow motion dance routine.

It took several minutes for the trio of infected to pass them and disappear around the bend in the road.

Neither of them moved for minutes. They stood silent and frozen to allow distance to gain between them and the infected. They then took one look at each other and ran in the direction of the lighthouse.