The Vampire's Apprentice

It was dark by the time they made it to the outskirts of town and the very edge of the swamp. Alain stared ahead into the treeline, his eyes scanning through the haze and the murky water. There was no telling how deep it was in some places, made worse by the fact that there were no obvious footpaths for them to walk on.

If they wanted to go deeper into the swamp, they were going to have to wade through the water and hope it wasn't deep enough that they'd have to swim.

"So," Felix said. "Who wants to go first? Because it ain't gonna be me."

"Az," Sable commanded.

"Yes, my lady," Az replied. He was about to take his first step into the water when Alain stopped him.

"Hold on, Az is enormous," Alain pointed out. "I don't exactly trust his judgment on how deep this water is. Odds are, he'll be able to wade through it while the rest of us will be in it up to our waists… well, except for you, Sable; you'll probably be swimming in it."

She glared at him, but Alain ignored it. He gave a heavy sigh. "I'll go first."

"Let us know if there are any snakes in the water," Felix requested. "Wouldn't want to get bit or anything."

Alain flipped him off, then tentatively lowered one leg into the murky water. To his surprise, it only went down up to just above his knee before he felt solid ground underneath his feet. He tested it again with his other leg, even taking a few steps to be sure, but sure enough, the water was shallow enough to wade through. It was cold and uncomfortable, obviously, but they wouldn't have to swim.

"It's fine," he reported. "Sable might have some trouble, but everyone else should be okay. Az, you're tall enough that you probably won't be affected by it at all."

"Then I shall allow my lady to ride on my shoulders, should she request it," Az told him.

"Oh, shut up, all of you," Sable said, rolling her eyes. "What am I, a child? I'll be fine, the same as the rest of you."

Without any further warning, she lowered herself into the water. She sank into it up to her waist, and was clearly uncomfortable at the sensation of the dirty water soaking into her, but she didn't protest at all, instead wading over to stand alongside Alain. Felix and Az exchanged a glance, then they both joined them.

"All good," Felix announced. "Let's get moving."

​XXX

The five of them moved through the swamp for some time, searching for any signs of life. They found none, aside from the various insects and small animals that called the waters and mangroves home. Alain, Jasper, and Felix were swarmed by gnats and mosquitoes, however, and spent most of their time batting them away. Predictably, they completely avoided Sable and mostly avoided Az, though occasionally a mosquito would try to bite him, only to immediately drop dead the instant it got some of his blood.

Alain wasn't sure what to make of that, but Az was trustworthy enough so far. And besides, anything that killed mosquitoes was a positive, in his eyes.

The full moon was high in the sky by the time they first encountered movement up ahead. Alain suddenly held up a hand, stopping them all, then silently motioned for them to take a look around him. Sure enough, in the swamp water up ahead, there was a lone female figure standing there, twitching. Even from this distance, Alain could tell what she was.

"Undead," he reported, squinting to get a better look. "This one must be fresh; she doesn't look decomposed at all."

"What do we do?" Felix asked.

"Where there's one undead, there's generally more," Sable pointed out. "I vote we send Az after her, he can move through the water easily enough and if he takes her out, it'll be more quiet than if one of you shot her."

"No complaints," Jasper grunted.

"Agreed," Alain said. "Az, I guess that means you're up."

Az stepped forward, cracking his knuckles as he went. He trudged through the water like it wasn't even there, approaching the undead girl with ease. She rounded on him at the last moment, a screech escaping from her mouth, though he silenced it after just a moment by crushing her head like a grape. The now-headless corpse dropped into the water with a loud splash, and for a moment, there was silence.

"Maybe they didn't hear the scream?" Felix offered.

The instant the words left his mouth, a chorus of other screeches erupted throughout the swamp. There had to be dozens of them, and from the sound of things, they were all nearby and moving in closer.

"I stand corrected."

"You had to open your fat fucking mouth!" Alain hissed through greeted teeth as he brought his shotgun up.

"I know, I know – I'm an asshole, and I'm sorry."

"We need to move," Sable reported. "Double back, it should be clear that way."

She began to wade through the water once more, which caused Alain to roll his eyes.

"Az, would you just pick her up, already?"

Az did as he was told, taking Sable and putting her on his shoulders. She shouted in protest, but Alain ignored her, instead watching the path ahead with Felix while Az went back the way they came. As he started walking, more figures emerged from between the mangroves. From the way they were all moving, it was clear they were undead, but just like the girl before them, they seemed fresher than the corpses they'd encountered in Los Banos, for some reason.

"Guess we found our missing people!" Felix said.

"Shut up and shoot!" Jasper called to him.

At that command, they all opened up, pouring lead downrange. The undead, as expected, didn't react to the rounds that struck them in the body, only falling once they'd taken a headshot each. There were only five of them at this point, but it was very dark and they were moving erratically in the water, so many of their shots went wide or only struck the undead in the lower body. Before long, their long guns were empty, and they were down to revolvers.

"Move!" Felix said.

Alain didn't need to be told twice. He followed after Felix and Jasper, turning and running through the swamp as fast as the water would allow him. It slowed his movements as he went, and all around him he could hear more undead closing in.

He had just about made it back to where Az and Sable were when something tackled him out of nowhere. Alain fell to the ground with a startled yell, his double-barrel falling from his grasp and landing on a nearby riverbank. He fumbled in the dark for his holstered revolver, but wasn't able to pull it out of its holster before there was a sudden, sharp pain in his shoulder. He grit his teeth, and then with a final grunt of exertion, managed to force the walking corpse off of him with one hand and draw his Colt with the other. He pressed the barrel of the gun flush with the undead's forehead, thumbed back the hammer, and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains spattered against him, but he didn't care; the corpse slumped against him, and Alain struggled to his feet, pausing only to grab his discarded shotgun with his free hand.

He was just in time, too, as other undead had begun to close in on him, and were now only a few meters away. Gunshots suddenly ripped through the night, taking down a few of them by sheer chance.

"This way!" Felix called. "Follow my muzzle flashes!"

"Coming!" Alain called, charging after the flashes of light at the other side of the swamp. He stopped only to fire off an occasional revolver shot at any undead that got too close, eventually emptying the gun as he did so; once that happened, he slammed it back into its holster, hastily reloaded his shotgun while on the move, and continued on his way.

Eventually, he made it back to the others. Once he did, Az rushed ahead, taking on any undead that had followed after him. Alain watched in wide-eyed shock before sinking down into the swamp, one hand clutching at the wound in his shoulder.

Someone rushed over to him, and he just about shot them until he realized it was Sable.

"Let me see," she said gently. Alain didn't resist as she peeled away the torn piece of his shirt to examine the wound. Her expression suddenly fell, her face going pale, and Alain knew then and there what had happened to him.

"I got bit, didn't I?" he asked quietly. Sable nodded solemnly, and he let out a heavy exhale. For a moment, he searched for the proper words to sum up what he felt, but none seemed appropriate given the circumstances. Eventually, he settled on the only one that felt even somewhat right to him.

"Fuck…"