40. Silas

For a few hours,I dare to hope that maybe Sutton was right. I entertain fantasies that maybe the National Guard were simply herding the Afflicted into a death pit somewhere, exterminating the last of the vampires' disastrous medical experiment with fire. Since we left Milledgeville, maybe something had occurred, some rebuilding effort. Maybe Boston had finally gotten their shit together.

But just as the sun begins to set, the wail of a siren breaks through the deep silence. Juliet had dozed off on my shoulder, but with a start she sits up, her eyes wide.

"Oh shit," she murmurs, her hand over her mouth.

Before I can respond, there's an explosion, distant, but close enough to have the ground beneath us quaking gently. The National Guard are indeed shooting first and asking questions later.

Juliet scrambles to her feet and goes to the window, pushing aside the curtains and looking out into the growing dark.

"Jules, be careful." I'm at her back, looking out the window over her shoulder. Orange glows in the distance, over the tops of the buildings, and the siren continues to drone. "They're trying to blow out the perimeter."

"With a tank that won't be hard," Juliet says. "Dammit. She's just killed all these people."

"They might still not get in. If Sutton can communicate with them, they might stop the attack."

At that moment, the loudspeakers whistle, and Sutton's voice rings out over the colony.

"You are attacking a human colony! Halt your advance! I repeat, this is a human colony. There are no vampires here!" Sutton's voice is measured and commanding, not a hint of a waver.

Juliet exhales heavily after a moment, as though she was holding her breath. "God, I hope they heard that. They won't come in now, will they?"

I shake my head, but even as I do, I hear it. Dread rushes through me. I clasp Juliet to me, and she sucks in a breath.

"Silas?"

"Whatever happens, stay behind me, OK?"

"Silas? What-"

I press a kiss to her mouth. "I love you, alright? I need you to know that."

Her fingers curl around my shirt, her hands starting to tremble. "Silas, what? What's happening?"

Screeching and screaming starts to sound below us. Juliet's eyes don't leave mine as realization washes over her. She simply shakes her head, biting her lower lip as she nods.

"They're here, angel." I could hear them coming. The National Guard blew open that fucking perimeter and sent them in, without even thinking. Without even knowing. And now they have no way to stop them.

I can hear them bashing against the exterior of the building below us, hundreds of heavy footsteps and their shrieking getting louder and louder.

"Come on." I grab Juliet's hand and head for the door. One solid kick, and the wood splinters, the door flying outwards. "We need to get out of here."

"Where do we go?" Her voice is tight with fear.

"If we get to the roof we can avoid them, head for another building, barricade ourselves up there." I pull her down the corridor behind me, the rhythmic battering from downstairs becoming louder and louder. "Stairs, stairs, fucking stairs, where are they?"

"Silas!" Juliet jerks me to a stop and points at a blue door at the end of the corridor. We sprint for it as the banging downstairs stops, and the shrieking of the Afflicted fills the building. They've made it inside.

I push Juliet up ahead of me, and she takes the stairs two at a time, rounding each curve of the stairwell until it ends in a solid black door. She steps aside to let me shoulder it open, and it gives way with a loud groan.

Out on the roof, the last of the evening light is fading. Juliet is panting beside me as I close the door, looking around on the roof for something to barricade it with. But there's nothing, the rooftop is bare. But the roofs on either side of us are low, and within jumping distance.

"Let's go." I snatch up her hand and run for the edge of the building. Before we reach the edge, I scoop her up in my arms, and she yelps as my feet leave the ground and I jump across the distance between the buildings. As we land on the other side, the door on the rooftop we just left bursts open, and Afflicted flood out into the open. Juliet's sharp intake of breath covers a scream, and her arms wrap around my neck.

"We're alright, angel." I race for the next rooftop, underestimating just how far this expanse is. We make it, but I stumble at the other end, losing my footing and crashing to my knees.

"Are you OK?" Juliet cries.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I look over my shoulder, at the Afflicted that are pouring over the edge of the building. They're driven purely by instinct, scenting us on the breeze and trying to get to us.

I get to my feet at the very moment that the door of the rooftop we now find ourselves on flies open, and three Afflicted stumble out, hands extended as they shriek and scream, looking for us.

Juliet claps a hand over her mouth, trying not to scream, but it makes no difference. They can smell us. I put Juliet on her feet and shove her behind me. She holds on to my shoulders, breathing rapidly.

"Oh my god," she cries, unable to suppress her scream anymore as the Afflicted begin to barrel towards us.

The first one is small and lithe, and looks as though it could snap in half. It does, in fact, when my boot lands in its middle. It folds in half like a broken clothesline, and lies on the ground shrieking, bloody fingers scraping at the ground. The next two are decidedly bigger, and have the hollow cheeks and bared teeth of very hungry predators.

The first one gets close enough that I can grab onto its arm and pull. It wails in pain as the arm detaches from its body, the sick stench of rotting flesh rising through the air. It ambles sideways, disoriented by the pain.

The third one is stronger than the first two. It wrenches me away from Juliet, who screams my name as I grapple it around the waist and slam it to the ground. Its dead, black eyes don't see me, but its nostrils flare violently as its fangs snap at my arms.

I curl a hand around its neck and slam its head repeatedly into the ground. Bones crunch, blood starts to coat the ground, and finally there's just the wet slap of brain matter on concrete. It goes still under me just as Juliet screams again.

The one-armed feeder is making a beeline for her, and I rush at it in a low crouch. I keep running until we reach the edge of the building, and fling it down the several stories to the street beneath us.

The street teeming with Afflicted.

There's hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.

Juliet comes to my side, and gazes down at them.

"I guess this is it then, huh?" She tilts her head to look up at me. "There are too many of them."

"We're going to get out of this, OK?"

There's shrieks and wailing in the stairwell, and Juliet gazes up at me sadly.

"There's too many of them."

I shake my head. "No. This isn't how this ends for you."

I rush to the door, holding it shut. I'm not going down without a fight. Juliet stands 10 feet away, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Tell me about Paris!" I call, putting my full weight against the door as the first Afflicted slams into it.

"What?" Juliet regards me with shock. "Are you kidding me?"

"Tell me about it!" Another slam into the door, nails scratching at the metal. "I've never been!"

"You're crazy!"

"Talk to me, angel!" Another thump, more frantic clawing.

She shakes her head, licking her lip and clenching her eyes shut. "There - there was this little cafe, and Kaden made himself sick on hot chocolate, and he threw up all over this cobblestone street."

Even in the situation we find ourselves in, death very likely imminent, I can't help but laugh as Afflicted shriek and groan on the other side of the door.

"Well, that sounds amazing!" I grit my teeth as the door shifts slightly, and I push my shoulder back against it. "What else, angel? Tell me-" The door gapes slightly, and I shove against the force of the Afflicted trying to get to us. "What was your favorite thing?"

"The music!" She's crying now, her jaw trembling as she watches me try to hold this horde back. "There was an accordion player on the corner of the street where we were staying, and he played Edith Piaf as the sun went down. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard!"

My eyes meet hers, and I smile. "That sounds beautiful, angel." The door gapes again, broken, craggy fingertips curling around the edge of it. "You know, I remember the first day I saw you, I was in love with you then. You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, you know that?"

She sobs, her shoulders shaking.

"I'm so glad you're my wife."

She shakes her head. We're saying goodbye. She knows it.

"Silas-" She takes two uncertain steps towards me.

"Go on, angel. Run for that roof over there, keep running. Stay safe, OK?"

She shakes her head even more emphatically. "No."

"Run, now. And don't look back."

The door creaks again, and this time when it gapes open, I can't get it back into the frame. I plead with Juliet with my eyes. Please go. Please live. Please don't stay here.

Her face crumples as she backs away from me, squaring her shoulders as she breaks into a run. I watch as that golden hair flails out behind her, her long legs stretching beneath her as she launches into the air. She makes the landing, tucking into a roll on the other side and quickly getting to her feet.

"Silas!" She jumps up and down, waving her arms. "Silas, come on!"

"I told you not to look back!"

"Get the fuck up and run!" She screams at me desperately.

I take a deep breath, and shove away from the door. It flies open with such force I'm knocked onto my back. I scramble away from the Afflicted, who are screaming and screeching.They move to descend on me with outstretched hands, and all I can hear is Juliet's cries.

The Afflicted stop in their tracks as a floodlight and the deafening whir of helicopter blades sound over us. The black hawk dips and turns over the building, and the Afflicted all stare up at it as it begins to snow.

I back away, getting to my feet. I look over at Juliet, who's holding her hands over her ears as the helicopter continues its circles over us. It does two more passes, then moves on. The Afflicted aren't screeching anymore. They're gurgling, almost like they're choking.

I look down onto the street, and the Afflicted down there begin to fall to their knees, some straight onto their backs as though they've been shocked into stasis. I turn back to look at the ones on the roof. They begin to fall, one by one.

"What is happening?" I hear Juliet's voice through a strange sort of haze.

I feel dizzy. I raise my hand to my face. It glistens with snow, sticking to my skin in the wavering glow of the distant floodlights.

No. Not snow.

My mouth goes dry, and my throat becomes tight. My heart slows.

Not snow.

Silver.