Dominant Species by Guy Pettengell Page A

stop, the signal was quickly and silently passed back from one person in the line to the next in total silence, until the entire group had stopped moving.
    There followed a long pause, then Jake heard Max whisper something up ahead. ‘What is it?’
    Jake was unable to make out the reply. He breathed quietly through his mouth, his ears staining for any sound that might be out of place. Two lamps moved past him creating a line of four white dots ahead. The four lights then began moving forward in unison and on into the darkness ahead, leaving the group behind in fast growing blackness. Then, as Jake watched the four lamps moved further away, they must have suddenly walked around a kink in the track ahead and the lights disappeared altogether, leaving them in complete and utter darkness.
    No one moved. An uneasy feeling began to spread down the line. It seemed an eternity before the lights returned. Jake waited for the watchmen to pass him in order to retake up his position.
    ‘What was it?’ he asked.
    ‘ Nothing; Bret thought he’d heard something, that’s all,’ whispered the tall watchman next to him, as the group started moving forward again. ‘I think he’s getting jumpy in his old age.’
    ‘Aren’t we all?’ muttered Jake almost to himself as the group carefully picked their way ahead still looking all around and listening for anything else out of the ordinary. Ten minutes later they had reached their exit. Bret, the lead watchman with the bushy moustache nodded the all clear and the party crept forward and out of the tunnel and into an old subway station. Slowly the figures squeezed through the tall barriers and crept out into the cold night air, where they were briefly silhouetted against the slightly lighter sky outside. The two rear watchmen took up positions near the station and blended into their surroundings as the others continued on into the night.
    Jake knew that there was only so far you could go using the underground network and a part of him was glad to out of the claustrophobic surroundings, but there was now even more danger and he was now on an even higher alert as the possible dangers of the night fought to paralyse him. The resistance fighters slowly walked through the barren landscape, dodging round wrecks of abandoned and burnt out cars, their feet clambering over rubble and piles of rotting bones.
    Derelict buildings rose in defiance to the general destruction all around. Smashed windows and fallen bricks littered the ground. Streetlights that hadn’t worked for years look ed down in mocking silence. Up ahead the watchmen would move forward, checking the route, before stopping to signal the all clear to the group behind. On this signal the rest of them would move forward carefully until they had caught up to the watchmen, then the watchmen would set off again. This shuffling procession continued for about thirty minutes before Max suddenly raised his hand on hearing a small sound. Shotguns pivoted as everyone jolted to a stop, all of them holding their breath as one. Suddenly a half staved, stray dog tipped into the road. As one, the men relaxed.
    Max signalled the all clear and the group trooped on quietly again in their peculiar relay race. After another ten minutes Jake picked out a small light in the distance as it blinked quickly, once, then twice and the group proceeded forward at a slightly faster pace.
     
    Within the bowels of the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations building chaos had returned. Anger burned in the air as a tall pale faced vampire stood, all eyes fixed on him. His name was Shallock, one of the vampire Lords who ran the South Side . More importantly, Karick knew he was one of Rodan’s loyal followers.
    He spoke with a strong New York accent layered with a slight Irish lilt.
    ‘The resistance grows stronger by the day. We simply want to know what you are doing about it,’ he demanded to rousing support.
    Karick struggled to quieten the rising discourse.