Caleb lifted his hands above his head and froze.

  “I’m not armed. I’m not dangerous. I mean no harm to you. I’m simply trying to heal my friend.”

  “That’s the problem…” Oliver made eye contact with Caleb, urging him to look behind the armored car.

  Johnson grinned from ear to ear when he caught Caleb’s eye behind the tinted windows.

  “Boo.” he said, maneuvering out from behind the car.

  “Boy, you look like you’ve seen a damn ghost.”

  Johnson kept one eye behind the scope of his rifle, forcing them into his crosshairs.

  Oliver looked like he sat prone, but Caleb could see his hands balled into fists. He was coiled, almost like he was ready to pounce…

  “I came here for some revenge, but this guy doesn’t look like he’s in the best of shape.”

  Johnson kicked Dave. His robotic carapace trembled and spasming. Oil leaked onto the ground beneath him, and more wires shook themselves free. The fans dotted across his body now all failed to turn. The shield around his neck intermittently blinked on and off, and Dave’s eyelids shuddered like he was in the midst of a seizure.

  “Let me heal him first. I can heal you too, if you need it. Then we can have a fair fight. How about that?”

  Provo tugged at Caleb’s shirt. “Uh, I’m all for healing the world, but is that necessarily a good idea?”

  “Shush.” Caleb said. “I know what I’m doing.”

  Provo wilted behind him.

  He’s not got the perseverance to be in this party… Caleb thought. He better not be a liability.

  “Look at me, Johnson.” Caleb said, lowering his hands and putting them in front of his head. “Look at me.” He widened his eyes and blinked.

  Johnson shook his head, unwilling to relinquish his view from behind the scope.

  “What can you see there? Just a warm body. A big mass of red. How’s Dave looking there? Pretty blue I should imagine. C’mon, there’s no honor in this.”

  Johnson puffed on the cigar in his mouth. Saliva dripped from his slack lips. “Alright, you can fix him. But only because I want him to be conscious for what I’m about to do next.”

  Caleb smiled, desperately trying to maintain eye contact. It wasn’t easy; he stared directly down the barrel of a gun.

  Johnson’s got his finger on the trigger. And he’s twitchy with it. I can’t let my guard down. Not even for a second.

  “Thank you.” Caleb inched his way over to Dave and Oliver. He crouched down, quick-equipping the Repair Kit. It left Caleb’s hands as soon as he had it in them. Each tiny bolt and screw snapped to Dave’s body and found its rightful home. Tiny glass vials neatly broke themselves on the robotic shell and poured themselves inside tiny little holes and over mechanisms Caleb had never even noticed before. A microscopic soldering drone lifted out from the bottom of the Repair Kit and got to work on the tangled mass of loose wiring.

  Slowly but surely, fans started up and lights turned from red to green to blue. Dave faded back into a state of alertness.

  “Welcome back buddy.” Caleb said. “Please don’t freak out.”

  “Oh, hey.”

  He sounds like he’s shaking off the mother of all hangovers.

  “Why would I freak ou-”

  Dave clocked Johnson and immediately realised he was under threat. His security system snapped into action before he did. Dual shoulder cannons engaged and trained themselves directly on Johnson’s forehead.

  Johnson leapt into a battle roll and fired two shots that would have caught right between the eyes if not for the laser shield.

  “Fuck!” Caleb shouted. He stamped the floor like an angry child. “You’re both making it very difficult to heal everyone.”

  Johnson landed right next to Oliver. The decorated soldier must have scuffed his hand on the gravel, he wiped blood from his palm onto his cheek.

  Oliver licked his lips.

  Johnson turned his nose up at the vampyr. “What the Christ are you smiling abou-arghhh!”

  Oliver straddled Johnson to plunge newly grown fangs deep into the soldier’s cheek. The color drained from Johnson’s face like a glass of orange juice poured into the sink. Johnson fell silent, spasmed, then fell limp.

  But still Oliver drank. The blood cascaded down his neck and he supped from Johnson with the thirst of a man who had never drunk before.

  He threw Johnson’s body back, snapping the frail corpse’s neck and folding it in two.

  “Ahhh!” Oliver exclaimed. “Refreshing.”

  “What’s happening?” Kayleigh looked to Caleb for answers.

  “We all dealt with the labyrinth in different ways. We all had different challenges to face. Oliver’s was a cave of vampyrs.”

  “Fucking hell, Caleb. Did you not think that was important information to share?”

  “It was private. I knew. He knew I knew. I think. I didn’t want to cause a panic. More importantly, I didn’t know if he was dangerous.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “He looks pretty dangerous.”

  “Yes, I can see that now.”

  Caleb turned to the vampyr. “You’ve got a little something on your chin there, buddy.”

  The blood continued to pour from between Oliver’s teeth. His eyes were blood red. Oliver wiped away some of the blood and shook his hand. It didn’t help at all.

  “Can you hear us, Oliver?”

  Dave stood tall and proud. He didn’t seem fazed at all.

  Figures. Caleb thought. He’s been through worse.

  “Yesssss. Yesss, I can hear you.” Oliver’s reedy voice was laced with venom, as if Satan himself now commanded it. “I am no monster, believe me.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to convince us.” Kayleigh said. “Dave’s just about ready to put you in the dirt.”

  Caleb shot her a look. “Don’t inflame the situation.” he whispered, but he wasn’t sure if she heard.”

  “What?” I’ve just about had enough of this shit. No more fighting, Caleb. That’s what you said. We’re healers. Let’s heal some shit. I’m not buddying up with a fucking vampyr.”

  “Wow.” Provo said. “And you all thought I was being intolerant.”

  “SHUT UP,” the group said in unison, Oliver included.

  Good. He is still with us.

  “You’re both healers now?”

  Oliver was transitioning from his bestial form back to humanity. His pupils reconstituted in the middle of his eyes and his fangs retracted back into his skull.

  Where do they even fit?

  “Meet Provo,” Kayleigh pushed him to the front. “An hour ago, he was a skeleton.”

  Oliver and Dave scrutinised Provo.

  “He looks fine now.” Oliver said.

  “Exactly. We healed him.”

  Dave scanned Provo in a series of green pinprick dots. “Scan shows he is at 100% health. He’s perfect.”

  “Ruh-really?” Provo raced to Dave and grabbed him by his massive silver arms. “No pre-existing medical conditions?”

  “Searching… Searching… none. You have no need for any medical intervention. Your bloodwork is clean. Your organs are all working at 100% efficiency.”

  “It’s a miracle!” Provo leapt into the air and clicked his heels. “I was a Type-1 Diabetic.”

  Dave analysed the data one more time, then clicked back to reality. “I can confirm that you are no longer diabetic.”

  “Impressive.” Oliver said, whistling. “There’s hope for me, then?”

  “I’m just glad you actually want to be cured.”

  “I might have turned into a monster, but I like being a human just fine.”

  Oliver flexed his fingers, and the blood visibly ran up his arms through bulging veins. “I don’t mind the strength, though.”

  “Just let me know if you get any… uh, cravings.” Caleb quick-equipped the pack of human blood and offered it to Oliver.

  “Keep it. I’m not hungry.” Oliver licked his lips.

  Caleb put the blood back in his inventory.

  “Okay guys, I’ve got more than enough Regen Spray. But we can’t just go out there and treat every single person.”

  “There’s millions.” Kayleigh said. Provo nodded.

  “So what’s the plan?” Oliver said. He scratched his arms.

  “Are you okay there, Oliver?”

  His arm is peeling.

  Caleb realized he was actually pretty warm. It was morning now. The sun was out. Kayleigh seemed to understand at the exact same time.

  “You’re a vampyr. And it's daytime.”

  Oliver stopped scratching his arms. The skin came away in great ashy flakes. “Oh shit.”

  He looked to the group, desperate for help. “Somebody get me to shelter.”

  Dave put his fist through the armored car behind them. Its alarm blared, and he put his fist through that too. He picked up Oliver and gingerly placed him inside the back seat.

  “You can rest here.”

  Dave pulled a door off the black van further up the road, squeezed it into a window shape then hammered it into the housing he just broke. “Here. This should keep you safe until nightfall.”

  “Thanks. But how am I supposed to get out?” Oliver’s voice was muffled by the makeshift door-window.

  “You can’t.” Dave said, his voice blunt with a robotic level of indifference.

  “But that’s okay,” Caleb interrupted. “Just stay put and we’ll come get you when it’s dark.”

  “Okay,” Oliver said, his voice shaky. “Guess I’ll try and get some rest.”

  “You must need some. Isn’t becoming a vampyr traumatic?”

  “I guess?” He sounded so uncertain. “Ugh. My skin’s flaking like mad.”

  “Hopefully it stops now you’re out of the sun’s rays.”

  “Yeah, I think it has. Still hurts though. Like a chemical burn.”

  “Sorry to hear that, bud. Stay sharp in there. We’re going to head into Squirrel City.”

  “Pfthahaha!” Oliver laughed. “That’s what it’s called?”

  “What’s so funny?” Provo scrunched his nose up in confusion.

  “Nothing.” Kayleigh assured him.

  “Catch ya later,” Caleb said.

  “We promise you’ll be safe.” Dave knocked on the car’s roof. It shook as if its wheels were about to fall off.

  “Oh okay…” Oliver sounded weak, tired and small.

  “Is he going to be okay in there?” Kayleigh said.

  “I guess.” Caleb took one last look at the armored car. From a few paces, it didn’t look any different from any other abandoned vehicle on the highway. “I don’t think there’s anybody around to notice the one difference between that car and all the others.”

  “You’re right. And at least he’s no danger to anyone in there.”

  First he was going to fire me. Now he might drink my blood. God, it doesn’t matter what world we’re living in, that guy is always a pain in the ass.

  Caleb couldn’t help but notice the deflated husk that used to house Johnson’s soul. His eyes had been partially sucked into their sunken and bloodless sockets. All the fat had been drained from his body, and the result wasn’t dissimilar to the horde of skeletons that roamed these lands.

  “So Provo,” Caleb said as he turned back and tried to shake the ghastly view from his memory. “What do you think is the most efficient way to heal all these skeletons?”

  “Hmm,” Provo considered the question. “I suppose if we could get up to the top of one of those high-rises, we could have the best lay of the land.”

  “Most of the skeletons are in those high-rises, though.” Kayleigh said.

  Dave looked up to survey the chattering hordes falling from the broken windows. “At a cursory scan, there are 12 thousand skeletons in each skyscraper. This estimate is purposefully conservative, however. I do not know the layout of each building and I do not know the total population of Squirrel City.”

  “Provo, didn’t you say you were a demolitions expert?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Could you bring down one of those towers?”

  “With the right tools, yeah, easily.”

  “And what would happen if you replaced the explosives with Regen Spray?”

  Provo mimed a mushroom cloud explosion with his hands. “Total saturation. You’d hit anyone and everyone inside that block.”

  Caleb smiled. “Then I guess that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

  Provo cleared his throat. “There’s just one problem. Remember when I said the army forced us all to evacuate? They picked my work van clean. I saw them do it. They took everything.”

  “Do you know where they went?”

  “I don’t even know how they were. The only thing I remember is the weird patch they all had on the shoulders. I remember thinking, ‘that doesn’t look like a standard army patch.”

  “What was it?” Caleb’s interest was piqued.

  “Each patch had a logo, and a name. It said ‘BRAINDEAD KILLAZ’.”