Vampire in Chaos by Dale Mayer Page A

opened the last cupboard. And found her clothes. “Of course. I should have started at the other end. Damn fool.”
    She straightened with her clothing in her hand and stacked them on the counter. They hadn’t been washed since the mine. Gross. She wrinkled up her nose and wished there were other options. Still, she wasn’t leaving right now. Maybe she could at least hand wash these and lay them on the railing in the bathroom to dry.
    Feeling better, she searched her pockets for her cell phone.
    Nothing. She turned to the rest of her clothing. Also nothing. She cast her mind back to the mine. Did she have a phone then? Sure. But…the battery died. At least she thought it had. Things were still foggy. The bottom line was, she didn’t have a cell phone. There was no phone in the room, so the only way to contact anyone was to go out in search of another phone to use. That meant clothing. And that meant her old dirty clothes.
    Or not. She assessed her own health and sinking energy level. If she could wash her clothes then sleep for a while, her clothes could dry in the meantime. She’d have asked about laundry here if she’d seen anyone, but outside of remembering seeing David, she didn’t think she’d seen anybody else.
    A horrible thought struck.
    Was she all alone? She knew it was a foolish thought, but it was a hard one to shake. She stumbled to the door, hating the fatigue once again catching hold. She turned the knob to open the door. Only it wouldn’t budge.
    It was locked.
    She dropped her forehead against the wood in front of her. Please, not again.
    *
    Serus’s grip tightened convulsively. His DNA? Seriously? This bullshit again? “Who is behind it?”
    The man’s eyes bulged. “I don’t know. We don’t know who is really behind this mess. There is almost no one down here. You triggered the alarm, and that’s the only reason the alert went out.”
    Serus released the man so he could catch his breath. The man bent over coughing and choking. When he finally straightened, his face no longer looked like a beet, but didn’t look quite normal either.
    “Is this place completely uninhabited?” David asked. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
    “It’s not supposed to be. But I haven’t been down here in decades.”
    “And then there’s the matter of the Ghost,” Serus snapped. “If he’s here, then how can it be empty?”
    “He’s a Ghost. They aren’t real.” The man shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know. It always is empty though. That’s why the alarms.” He turned on the charm with a hopeful smile. “You entered and that triggered the alarm. The camera feed picked you up and the security men told the bosses. Your faces were visible and when they saw who you were, they sent us down to get you.” He shrugged and looked around. “There have been odd rumors about this place for decades. I’ve not been here in so long, I’d forgotten how creepy it was.”
    “Why was it built? It’s too big to be a hospital.”
    “Originally, I think it was supposed to be an end of the world bunker with room for most of us to hibernate here for decades until the humans killed themselves and everything else off.” His face twisted oddly at the idea. “But that never happened. Most vamps have forgotten about the place.”
    “I did,” Serus said, nodding. “It’s been more than a few decades.” He frowned as he stared at the cement. “Looks like it’s been refinished somewhere in the last couple of years though.”
    The other man nodded. “It wasn’t cement originally, but as new material became available…” He motioned toward the darkness behind him. “This doesn’t go all that far into the mountain before it becomes dirt again.”
    “Like a mine tunnel?” David asked, his tone hard.
    The man looked at him nervously. “Could be, but the whole area is full of those.”
    “Easy, David. There’s not likely a connection.”
    “Really?” He looked at Serus. “What about that whole