Category: Action/Thriller Publisher: KHP Industries US
ISBN-10: 097679148X
Pages: 216
Copyright: September 2006
The war is over and the Vampires have won. The drying up of the world's oil resources leads to the fabled End of Days. Technology stagnates and communities grow ever more insular. With communication between cities lost and attention turned inward, the vampires rise from the shadows where they have survived for centuries and sweep across the globe. By the time word spreads it is far too late and Vampires enslave humanity and keep them in walled cities to breed.....
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The war is over and the Vampires have won. The drying up of the world's oil resources leads to the fabled End of Days. Technology stagnates and communities grow ever more insular. With communication between cities lost and attention turned inward, the vampires rise from the shadows where they have survived for centuries and sweep across the globe. By the time word spreads it is far too late and Vampires enslave humanity and keep them in walled cities to breed.
The Vampires are masters of the darkness but maintain control by day through the use of Thralls--humans who have been bitten but have not yet crossed over, and whose inhuman lusts make daylight as terrifying as night. In the midst of chaos, a small band of rebels lead a terrified existence, but their survival is threatened by the Vampire's new scanning procedures.
Peter Harris is an ordinary man. Young and reckless, he is frustrated with the group's stagnation and pushes for one more daring mission. His recklessness has exposed the group--but it has also increased the size of their community. Now, as circumstances force them to take the offensive, and accompanied by a small group of professional Vampire assassins, Peter will make one last stand for humanity's survival in the Vampire Apocalypse.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Harris winced. A cramp shot up his leg and he shifted his position to get more comfortable in his treetop perch. He brought the binoculars to his eyes and surveyed the front of the house. The two-story Georgian structure was richly covered in blooming ivy and nestled in the middle of its 100-acre estate. From his vantage point, Harris could see the large wooden entrance doors set behind sun bleached sandstone pillars.
Those doors, he knew, led to the main hall and a large stairway that spiralled upward to the 10 bedrooms above. The dining room, lounge, library, toilet and servants’ quarters covered the lower floor. He ran through the house’s interior as he waited, picturing the marble floors, the expensive furniture and the art on the walls. None of these things were accurate, for he had never been inside the house; they were just what he imagined such a grand house would have. His understanding of the layout, however, was perfect. He knew the position of every room, window and door. He had studied the plans for this house until he knew the layout better than the house he had been born in, this was his first mission in charge and he was leaving nothing to chance. His stomach churned with nerves and he tried to distract himself by scanning the grounds around him.
They had once been very well kept, he could still see some of the plan that those who had planted and cared for the grounds once had. The trees had been planted in neat lines, guarding the driveway like silent sentinels. Flower beds had once been dotted liberally around the manicured lawns, providing splashes of colour to offer relief from the green canvas. It must have been quite beautiful Harris thought as he swept the area, but the last few years of neglect had seen everything grow wild and untidy. The trees were no longer trimmed neatly back and their gnarled branches seemed to loom over the road as if waiting to grab anything that ventured too close. Plants, once ordered and regimented in neat, explosions of colour, now spilled chaotically over the beds and merged with the tangle of the overgrown grass. Harris sighed as he pulled back his sleeve and looked at his watch.
"Blue Leader, initiate in 5 minutes." Harris spoke softly into the microphone positioned directly in front of his mouth and secured with tape to his left ear. His headset broadcasted the message clearly to his colleagues around the grounds.
Harris suppressed the nervousness in the pit of his stomach. He transferred the machine gun that hung from a strap on his back to his lap. As the seconds crawled by, he picked out his targets for the fifth time. There were three separate patrols between his position and the house, and a further two guards at the doors. He ignored the patrols on either side of his position despite their proximity; his team members would take care of them. He was only interested in the patrols in front of him and the guards at the entrance. He checked his watch, eager to begin the assault, and then slipped down from the tree. The last seconds ticked by and Harris reached for a grenade on his utility belt.
". . .two, one."
Harris counted down the last seconds and pulled the pin on the grenade. He reached back and threw it towards the nearest of his targeted patrols. The guards barely had time to register the dull thud of the grenade landing behind them before it exploded and their bodies were thrown into the air to land in crumpled heaps some feet away. Harris launched himself from cover and sprinted towards the house, firing as he ran.
His hail of bullets tore into the second patrol before they could fully react and their bodies jerked spasmodically with each impact. Explosions and gunfire could be heard all around him as the rest of his team joined the action. Harris leapt to the ground, narrowly avoiding a barrage of fire that tore through the air where he had stood only seconds before. He rolled and brought his weapon up and emptied the rest of the magazine into the last of his targeted patrols.
Harris knelt to reload and looked around, easily changing the magazine with practised movements. To the east he could see Johnson and his team running in relays of two as they covered each other on their approach to the house. Kelly and his team had taken the main gate and were already removing the bodies of the guards and opening the gates to let Jenkins and the rest of the trucks into the estate.
Harris glanced at his watch and then sprinted to the left side of the house. 3:05. Not bad, he thought. Ahead of schedule.
Harris plucked a second grenade from his belt, threw it at the main doors, and dove for cover. The explosion ripped the main doors from their hinges and sent a deadly hail of splinters into the faces of the guards who had fired at him.
"How goes it?" a voice asked from behind a tree to his left.
Harris' heart lurched in his chest. “Shit!” He snapped his face sideways and saw Johnson. “You scared the crap out of me."
Bill Johnson grinned, and then let loose a long burst into a group of three guards who had suddenly appeared around the corner and were sent scrambling into the house as the bullets crashed into the stone pillars and sent shrapnel everywhere.
"Three round bursts,” Harris reminded him with a glare. “You’ll end up with an empty magazine at the worst time if you keep that up.”
“Yes, mother,” Johnson smirked as he sent another long burst towards the guards. “Oops,” he grinned.
“Cover me!" Harris snapped at him as he rushed from cover. He ran up to the main doors and threw another grenade into the hall. Harris threw himself behind one of the pillars as the grenade exploded and sent dust and plaster flying through the doorway. A window behind him shattered with the force and sent wood and glass shrapnel surging outward. Harris was thrown to the ground and he felt numerous pinpricks of pain as small shards cut through his clothes and lacerated his flesh. None were deep but Harris cursed himself for his stupidity.
“I might be a little heavy on the trigger but at least I don’t almost blow myself up,” Johnson grinned as he drew level.
"Bastard,” Harris grinned as he accepted Johnson’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. He checked the tears in his clothes but couldn’t see any major bleeding. “Right, Now for the difficult part," Harris said. The two men rose, checked their magazines, and eased into the smoke.
Professional Reviews
GOREZONE uk No. 1 Horror Magazine
"This is the book that takes Vampires and turns them into a Summer Blockbuster.....The battle scenes are outstanding .....The pace of this novel never lets up....If you want horror that is laced with action then go no further"
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