Chapter 27

27: Over at the next table, Bill was getting to know the members of his son's band.  "Where's Jeffrey anyway?"
  Carrionette rolled her eyes.  "You know him.  He's late to everything.  Instead of being on time, he uses Ahn time."  Everybody laughed at that.
  "Am I mistaken or is your name Carrie Annette?"  Bill wanted to see what kind of people his son was hanging out with.  He didn't seem to know his son at all, sadly.
  "It's Carrionette.  Basically, it's a play on words.  It's like a meat puppet.  A carrion marionette.  My real name is Carolyn Oneiro.  I'm Japanese.  I've got some pictures of me and my family and the band.  Wanna see them?" She reached into her purse.
  "Oh yes, I would love to see."  She handed him two photographs.
  "That's me and my parents at a restaurant the night I graduated from college.  They wanted to celebrate and brought me out for sushi.  My father is the CEO of Visencom, the local electronics company."
  "I've heard of Visencom, yes."
  "That second photograph is of the band at our first show on the lawn at the Marble Cliffs College.  The sound technician sucked so we sounded really bad."  Bill smiled at the picture where he could see them all on the little stage in mid-performance.
  "That must have been during Lowe's 'goth' phase when he wore all white because he heard that Chinese wear white to funerals."  They both laughed.  Lowe visibly blushed.  "Thank you for sharing those pictures with me."  After handing the pictures back to Carrie, Bill turned to Alexander and said, "And you.  Did I hear that you are named, Alexander Graham Taco?  Is that a stage name?"
  "Yeah, you know.  I mean, well, my real name is Alex Manchot.  My mother is Mexican and my father is French.  So you're the 'Have an iced A' dude.  That's awesome.  I've seen you on TV since I was a little boy."
  "Yes, the A Mart is our life's work," Bill replied.
  "So, like, what.  You sell, like, things that start with the letter A or what?"
  "Dude, you're such a dumbass, Alex," chided Lowe Freq.
  "He doesn't know, Lowe," said Bill.  "It's OK.  Actually, we are an Asian food store.  We specialize in Chinese and Korean groceries."
  "Oh yeah, that too.  That was my next guess," spluttered an embarrassed Alex.
  "If you don't mind, I would like to know what your shirt means."
  "I think I stole this from Jeffrey, actually.  IQ=QQXdB is a geek thing.  You know how some people think that just because they're so vocal about their complaints, it makes them somehow smarter?  QQ is computer talk for whining.  It's supposed to look like two eyes crying or something.  And obviously, dB stands for decibels.  So, basically, your smartness level equals how loudly you bitch and moan and complain."
  Bill's face was inscrutable but vaguely conveyed amusement.  Without commenting any further on Alex's shirt, he turned to Lowe.  "Last, but not least, Yong Lowe.  We go way back.  Why do they call you low freak?"
  "It's Lowe Freq.  As you know, my last name is Lowe.  And Freq is short for frequency.  I'm a bass player so I play in the lower frequencies."  It's at that point that Jeffrey finally came down from his room.
  "What up, G?  Where you been all morning?" asked Lowe.
  "Lowe, que pasa?  I took half a sleeping pill last night then I spent the entire night in bed half asleep.  'Sup, C-Note?  The Taco Man.  Yo, pops, what's the haps?"
  "Hello, my son.  I'm just getting to know your band here."  Bill fished a pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket.  He brought one up and pointed it toward Jeffrey.  "Cigarette?"
  Jeffrey looked at it blankly.  "Yes it is," he replied.
  Bill retracted his hand back just an inch and turned the pack to look at the label.  "I meant, would you like a cigarette?"
  "Oh, no thank you, dad.  I don't smoke."
  Bill shrugged.  "Would anyone else like one?"  No one in the band did.  Bill pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit up.  After a few puffs, he gestured toward the bar.  "Can I pour any of you a drink?  They have Regal Lager."  Everyone politely declined.
  Jeffrey looked suspiciously at his father.  "No thanks.  I only drink when I smoke.  Dad, why are you being so nice all of a sudden?  You're freakin' me out."
  Bill nodded then shook his head.  "Well, since I lost Sandy, I've been realizing my finite lifespan.  I hardly know you.  What is it they call you?"  Bill poured himself some Cisler's Cheap Scotch on ice.
  "Um.  Wow.  Um.  They call me G-Bomb cuz I'm a G and I'm da bomb," Jeffrey said with his practiced answer to the familiar question.  "Actually, the g-bomb, 'gook', is derived from the word 'han guk', which is Korean for Korean for those of you who are etymologically challenged."
  "I didn't realize you still remembered any of your Korean."
  "Yeah, some.  I've also picked up some Spanish over the years, living here in Arizona, but han guk mal esta taw dificil than Spanish."
  Bill looked at his son in confusion.  "What?"
  "I said, 'Korean is more difficult than Spanish.'  I just said it using words from three different languages."
  "Dude, you speak three languages?  I speak, like, three-fourths of a language," said Lowe Freq.
  "That's quite impressive, son.  Now, please forgive me, but what was the name of your band again?"
  "No problem.  We are the Maine Eleven Company.  We used to be called the Faux Pho Foe Four, but no one could pronounce it or spell it correctly so we wanted to change our name.  One day we saw a banner of the Mexican national flag with the green, white and red colors.  Emblazoned in huge bold-faced white letters, it said MEXICO with two letters in each color block of the flag.  It looked like it was broken up as ME, XI, and CO.  Naturally, we came to the conclusion that it was extolling the Maine Eleven Company.  We painted that banner onto our van as an advertisement for what became our band's name."
  "I see.  With the first name of your band, did you mean 'foe' as in English for enemy, 'faux' as in French for fake or 'pho' like the Vietnamese noodle soup?"
  "Shit, man.  Where were you when all those stage announcers called us the 'Fox Poe Foe Four'?  It was actually all three that we meant.  Like if we were the 'Fake Soup Enemy Four'.  Good job, dad.  Maybe we woulda stuck with that name if there were more people like you out there."
  "Thanks for the compliment, son.  Both of the names you came up with were quite witty and clever.  Your mother was witty like that.  I'm glad you got that from her.  So you're a rapper?"
  "Well, as I always like to say, 'I'm not a rapper, but I play one on CD.'  It's kind of my catch phrase.  I do sing also.  Not all our songs are rap.  We've got an eclectic mix of styles."  Bill found himself to be quite impressed with Jeffrey and his friends.

Chapter 26

26: The crowd at the hotel agreed that it was safe to unshackle Daniel so Barney handed Carrionette back her pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs which she put back into her purse.  It was nearly 10am and everyone was famished.  Gene invited them all to Mirabel's Kitchen, the hotel's famed four-star restaurant.  This was the first time the Untaken had a real chance to get to know each other as a group.
  Alex wanted to have some chorizo and went to the kitchen to ask if they had any.  Unfortunately for him, they didn't have it on the menu.  Disappointed, he returned to the table with just a blueberry muffin.  "Caca de burro! How do they stay in business?  Four stars my ass!"
  Lowe Freq picked up his chicken with his hands.  "If fried chicken grew on trees, then I would say that God's Chinese.  So bad for your body, so good in your mouth.  Ooh baby!  If I die, you'll know why."
  Carroinette came to the table with some pork and beans and iced tea.  "Wow, this place really is fancy!  Their iced tea is made with real ice."  She eyed her bowl of pork and beans, disdainfully noting the lack of any pork.  "If they called it beans and pork, would there be more pork?"
  Alex peeled the paper off his muffin and looked around the table for some butter.  "Aw, shit.  There's no butter. How can I eat this without any butter?"
  "There were these little individual pats of butter at the condiment table," said Lowe Freq.
  "Cool, man.  You are a life saver.  I'll be right back."  Alex left on a mission.  Lowe Freq promptly took the blueberry muffin and hid it under his napkin.  A minute later, Alex returned to the table.  "Dude, where's my stupid muffin?"
  Lowe took a bite of his bacon and answered, "I saw somebody take it, but from my point of view I couldn't see his face.  Well hey, you can have half of mine."  He took it out from under his napkin, cut it in half with a butter knife and put half on Alex's plate.
  "Thanks, man.  You didn't have to do that.  Dude, I owe you one."  Lowe and Carrionette looked at each other and burst out laughing.  Alex was too busy happily buttering his muffin half to notice.
  At a different table, Mina wanted to ask Damion something ever since she found out it was him who spoke through Stratford.  "Hey, Stratford, is Damion with you now?"
  "Oh, yes indeed.  Yes yes yes."
  "Damion, I was wondering if I could ask you something."
  "Please, ask ask-a-roony."
  "How did you find Bill's wife, Sandy, and what is it you saw that made you alert your brother?"
  "I followed a man with a dark spirit.  A dark dark spirit.  He went into a house.  There was a lady in a bathtub.  At that point, I knew knew he was up to no good goody two shoes."
  "I was at Kenn's house at that time and as I was trying to look into your front door, I felt a chill."
  "You had scared Stratford and he called me to come home.  It was my spirit you felt.  So cold so cold."
  "So that was you I felt again in the closet right before Stratford ratted me out."
  "Yes, Stratford told me someone was in the house.  I wanted to warn Kenn if he was in danger."  Stratford paused and then spoke up again.  "Now both of you stop making me speak of poor old birdy in the third third third person!" Mina and Kenn laughed uproariously at that.

Chapter 25

25: As soon as the Defectors who had fallen prey to the Scathing started to get up, Rend knew he had to get himself and the rest of the living Defectors safely away from these revenant Defectors who he knew were no longer under his control.  Each of the Nocent "chips" contained the spirit of a dead Nocent, but their minds hadn't survived the transition from Defector to Revenant.  Only their hatred for everything not Nocent was still alive within them as their driving force.  They lived only to make more of themselves: rotting, undead, mindless, hate-filled, infectious, walking killing machines.  The Revenant were an unpredictable and unstable element that Rend had no influence over.  He needed to protect the Defectors from them.  "My children, we must flee this place.  The Revenant will be a danger to us as well as to the Untaken."  At that point, some of the Defectors fled on foot in fear and Rend let them go.  He had no idea what to do at this time.
  "Master, I am a bus driver.  I know where I can have access to at least five buses.  If I can use someone's car, I can get a group together who know how to drive a bus and we can evacuate.  How many of us are left?" said a husky, middle-aged woman who had curly brown hair and a blue, flannel shirt.
  "There are maybe a hundred of us, my daughter.  Go and carry our your plan.  Be careful.  We don't know how many of these Revenant are out there.  I don't know how the Scathing transmits here on Earth.  Does anyone know where we would be able to go to be safe from the Revenant?"
  "There's an elementary school a few miles from here.  We can hold up in the cafeteria.  There would be running water, bathrooms, electricity, cooking facilities and plenty of space to sleep," said a man who had weather-worn features, rough hands and an intelligent glint in his eyes which silently spoke of years of skilled labor.
  "That will be perfect, my son.  Get a head count and we will see if five buses will be enough to get us all."  Not more than two hours later, the entire group of 103 Defectors and Rend were barricaded securely inside the Wolf Cub Elementary school cafeteria.  Rend had to regroup and come up with a plan to infiltrate the Untaken camp.

Chapter 24

24: Every eye in the crowd was focused solely on Mina and the bird.  Stratford ruffled his feathers while perched on Kenn's shoulder and said, "Yeah, so?  Mina has a green glow too."  No one saw a green glow around Mina or Daniel so they looked to Mina for any signs of comprehension.
  "It's true.  I saw that green glow around him last night.  I only told Kenn, though.  There's no way he would know that I could see it.  I didn't tell anyone else."
  Kenn put a comforting hand on her shoulder.  "I didn't tell him.  But Stratford said that you have the same green glow.  What does that mean?  Are you a vampire?  If so, how come I don't have the glow?"
  "No, I'm not a vampire.  I don't know why I have this green glow.  I've been able to see it since I can remember, but my foster parents never paid any attention to me when I would talk about it.  Eventually I just stopped thinking about it and ignored it.  No one else I've ever seen has it so I just never put my mind to it for years now.  Daniel's the first person who's seen it.
  "Wraawk!  Me too, me too!" shouted Stratford.  There were a few nervous chuckles from the crowd.
  "Yes, you too, my little friend," said Kenn.  "So, what does this mean?"
  "Well, this green aura, or glow as you call it, means that Mina and I have a connection to the Collective, which is an alien race from Sypraxia."  No one knew what to think about that.
  "You mean she's a Defector?" asked Carrionette.
  "No.  The Defectors are under the influence of the Nocent.  You see, human beings aren't the only species who have distinct races.  The intelligent Sypraxian species is made up of both the Nocent and the Collective.  The Nocent have a red aura."
  Barney had his arms crossed in front of his chest.  "But you're my son.  You're not from some distant planet.  And Mina sure as hell ain't no alien.  She's a reporter.  She works for me."
  "The Collective have been coming to Earth for millenia to study us.  I was on the shore of Marble Cliffs Lake when I saw a strange craft crash land into it.  I saw a green glow in the water.  It was dark out so I could see it bright as day.  I wasn't afraid because it filled me with warm feelings of love and compassion that I haven't felt in what seems like forever.  Vampires don't have a soul so this green glow was able to fill me completely.  The green glow was the spirits of the Collective.  I am now like Stratford with Damion.  I am the voice of the Collective.  I tell you, it takes a lot of darkness to blind you, but only a little light to help you see."

Chapter 23

23: I'm laying there in bed and my eyelids are getting heavy.  I begin to nod off but each time I doze away I feel a sudden sensation of sinking into my mattress.  At the same time as my eyes shut, the world around me seems to glow a fiery red and I can feel an intense heat from below me.  My eyes snap open and I'm still in bed, but again when I close my eyes, I sink into the bed.  This time, when I don't open my eyes, I start to hear the screaming of a thousand tortured souls while I see the flames and feel the blistery scorch.  Disturbingly enough, I do not feel afraid.  I'm enjoying this.  I'm in a world of fire and brimstone and I'm loving it because I know when I open my eyes, I'll be comfortable laying in my bed safely at home.  I've got a trial membership on Hell.
  Mina awoke with a start and had to look around her to remember that she was not, in fact, safe in her apartment. She was on the 13th floor of the Hotel of Wonders.  The memories of the previous night came back to her like a returning tide.  Not Hell, but close enough.  She was in a hotel room at an amusement park, but she was anything but amused.  She was just as anxious to find out more about this mysterious Daniel Reese.  Maybe he wasn't a Defector, but is a vampire any better, that is, if they even exist?  And why did he have a green glow?  Did that have anything to do with the red glow of the Defectors?
  She went downstairs to the lobby.  Despite the lavish banquets available at the Hotel of Wonders, no one seemed to be hungry so they all congregated at the door to the wine cellar.  He was in the far corner snoring like a diesel engine.  "If he really is a vampire, he could be sleeping all the way until dusk or whatever," observed Alexander Graham Taco.
  "Well, we don't have all day," said Barney who then went to shake his son awake.  To everyone's surprise, he woke right up.  With the cuffs on, he was unable to get into a sitting position unassisted.  Barney helped him up and asked, "Do you need to stay away from the sun?"  Daniel shook his head and walked up the cellar stairs.
  "Hopefully my story will help you all understand that I no longer need to fear the sun."  Everyone made their way to the hotel lobby where there was the most room to gather.
  "So, dazzle us with this amazing story that's supposed to knock my socks off," said Barney.
  Daniel looked at his father with a hurt look more filled with sorrow than anything.  "Well, to begin with, I know that I have a green aura which I'm sure only Mina and that parrot can see."  All eyes went straight to Mina and Kenn's bird, Stratford.

Chapter 22

22: After the shock of watching Kenn's reflection move independently of his body, people were left with only one obvious conclusion.  "So you are a vampire," said Barney.  It wasn't a question.
  "I've kept myself from becoming a full vampire because I have never killed a human being.  I never consume human blood.  I've lived on the blood of pigs, sheep and cows.  I can also eat human foods, but I don't gain any nutrition from it.  It just tastes good.  Anyway, because I've chosen to stay as human as possible, I still have a soul, it's just in limbo.  It hasn't gone to Infurnus where the souls of full vampires go.  Infurnus is a planet whose surface is completely made of molten magma.  On Earth, it is normally referred to as Hell.
  "When Damion's spirit started talking to me through Stratford, I was glad to know we were still able to talk to each other.  I noticed that I could see his apparition in reflections.  I did a little research and found out that many people have claimed to see ghosts in mirrors and other reflective surfaces.  I, myself, had lost my reflection when Daniel bit me.  It took a while, but I finally came up with an idea that might benefit both Damion and me.  I wanted to find the man who killed Damion so I became a detective.  I needed to be able to gain the trust of people who could aid me in my search.  I knew that no one would trust me if they knew I was a vampire so I asked Damion to use my body kind of like a suit when I go out in public.  I sometimes affectionately call him my Enantiomorph.  That's just a big word meaning 'opposite image'.
  "Of course, he doesn't always stay me.  When I'm at home, Damion goes out in search of dark spirits.  He often comes back with leads and communicates with me through Stratford and then I go and follow up on his leads.  We have developed a system that works for both of us."
  Many in the crowd were touched by the story of brotherly love and how even death couldn't keep the two apart.  "So you've never killed anyone?" asked Barney.
  "No, I only assist in the arrest of people who have done harm to my fellow humans.  I put them in jail, not Hell.  And all the while, I keep my eye out for the man who killed my brother."
  "Whoa, wait a second.  So this whole mirror thing could only work for a little while.  I mean, as you two age, you'll start to look more and more different, right?  Won't people notice?  What happens then?" asked Jeffrey.
  "Well, you've got to take into account the fact that Damion's a ghost.  He's not going to age.  I am a vampire.  I, too, will not age.  Win-win situation, or whatever you want to call it."
  "Hijo de la puta, you're right," exclaimed Jeffrey.
  "Dude, there's like, kids here," interjected Lowe Freq.
  "Oh, sorry.  I meant, golly gee willikers!" corrected Jeffrey.  Lowe shrugged his shoulders.
  Bill believed Kenn's story and turned to the crowd.  "I think we can uncuff Kenn now."  Everyone nodded their consent and Barney went to unlock the handcuff from around Kenn's wrist.  He then pulled Daniel's hands around his back and fastened his hands together behind him.  "Thanks, Barney.  It's pretty late and we don't know what tomorrow will bring.  I say we should lock Daniel up somewhere and get some rest.  There will be plenty of time to question him further elsewhen."
  Gene stepped forward and said, "I think we can lock him in the wine cellar for the night and he should be fine until morning and we can figure out what to do with him, as you say, elsewhen."

Chapter 21

21: One by one, the Defectors who had gotten the chip started falling to the floor where they stood.  They were apparently going into a deep coma of some sort.  The Defectors who did not have a chip looked to Rend for an answer.  "Master, what is going on?"
  Rend thought for a moment and it slowly dawned on him what may be the problem.  "On Sypraxia, we have a common virus that we call the Scathing.  The first symptom is this coma-like state which these people are exhibiting.  Think of it as our version of tuberculosis.  The virus must be living in those chips that we implanted.  Since you humans have not been exposed to it, it seems to be affecting you in a much more serious way than it would one of us."  The unaffected Defectors helped put the ones who had succumbed to the Scathing in neat rows lying on the floor.  "Now there is nothing to do but wait for their bodies to start fighting the virus.  They should recover within a day or two."
  When a few hours had passed, their skin became translucent and you could see their veins and muscles underneath. Then their skin dried out and took on a grayish tone.  No one knew what to do to help at all.  Rend had the unaffected stay away so that they would remain out of reach of the virus.  He then had a realization that many of the Defectors had gone into town and were all over Marble Cliffs.  People everywhere would be falling victim to the Scathing.  Their eyes, visible beneath their translucent eyelids, clouded over and became gray.  This was not even the worst of it.  After a couple more hours, they stopped breathing and began to get up.

Chapter 20

20: Barney paced around in front of Daniel and Kenn.  "I've only got one question left.  If you're not a Defector, Kenn, what is the source of your super-human strength?"
  Kenn looked at the tops of his shoes as if the answers were written there.  He slowly shook his head and balled his fists.  "After I found out that Daniel killed Damion, we had a confrontation.  Some time during that struggle, be bit me."
  "That's impossible!  You have a reflection.  And you don't have the green glow like Daniel," cried Mina.  Seemingly in answer to her interjection, Kenn's reflection in the mirror got up and stood in the middle of the crowd, away from Daniel.  Everyone stepped even further away and looked at Kenn sitting there still very much shackled to Daniel.
  Kenn didn't even look up.  He seemed to know what it was the people were reacting to.  "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to my brother, Damion Varson."