I Am Eve Read online

  I frowned, confused, puzzled, and about fifty other emotions. “Darius said you could help me find my parents.”

  His scowl softened for a second and then turned to a look of concern. “Your parents? What are you talking about?”

  “Darius said you’d know where my parents are. They were taken by the zealots three years ago. Their names are—”

  “I don’t care what their names are. Three years ago? Are you kidding me?” He shook his head at me. “You should have stayed up on the mountain, kid.”

  There was a cool feel to the way he called me kid, even though I know he meant it disparagingly.

  He started down the stairs again, faster, more determined this time.

  The farther we descended, the stronger the odors of smoke, meat, and onions grew.

  “Darius said they’re alive,” I said abruptly and stopped again on the stairs.

  Diggs took two more steps and then froze once more. This time, he didn’t turn around. “Why would he say that?”

  “That’s my point. Why would he say that unless he knew?” I took another step down. “Darius taught me everything I know, too. He helped me. I have to do this, Diggs. I have to know where they are if they’re still alive.”

  “And what if they aren’t?” he asked in a harsh tone. He spun around and stared through me. “Three years? That’s a long time, kid. No one survives in the camps that long. I’m assuming that’s where they were taken for Darius to say something like that. Most of the time, the zealots just execute people as soon as they’re taken off the wagons.”

  I did my best to look certain. “They’re alive. I know they are. Darius sent me here because he said you could show me the way to the camps. That’s where he said they’d be. Without you, I’ll never get there.”

  “You might not get there even with my help, kid.”

  He took a deep breath and exhaled. His shoulders sagged as he did so. “I’ll show you a place where you can sleep tonight. Tomorrow…tomorrow I’ll take you to the camp. Just do me a favor.”

  “Anything. Name it.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up.”

  He turned back around and bounded down the stairs, seemingly in a hurry to get underground.

  I exhaled through my nose and chased after him.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs and arrived at another door. To my surprise, this one wasn’t guarded by someone on the other side. Diggs pushed the bar to open it and barged through.

  I stepped through the doorway and into a world I’d never imagined existed. The basement opened up into a giant room lit by a few candles placed in the corners and on a table in the center. People hovered around the light. Some were eating scraps of crusty bread. Their faces were pale—a stark contrast to the dark bags under their eyes—probably from prolonged absence of sunlight.

  I tried not to stare as we proceeded through the room to the other side where another doorway opened up into another area. At first I couldn’t tell what was on the other side, but as we drew closer I could see we were entering an old subway line. I guess that’s the best way to describe it. This city’s train system had been primarily above ground, with only a few sections of track submerged beneath the Earth’s surface.

  I’d been on subways when I was younger, though not often. My parents drove us most of the time. Now the tracks were still and the tunnels silent. No longer did the trains zip people around to different parts of the city. The sounds of work, progress, and travel had long since vanished.

  More people lined the walls. Some were standing, staring out into the relative darkness. Many were asleep on dirty, ragged blankets. Several dozen more curled up along the tracks in the pit running through the tunnel.

  “What is this place?” I asked in a hushed tone.

  “Not what you expected?” he asked without turning around.

  In truth, I hadn’t expected anything. When I came into the city to find Diggs, I had no misconceptions or thoughts about what I’d find. That didn’t make this discovery any less shocking.

  People were living in squalor. They looked like they were starving or sick or both. Those whose eyes were open looked lifeless.

  “How long have they been down here?”

  “Since right after the fall,” Diggs said. “When the zealots started taking anyone they deemed a nonbeliever, the rest of us went where we knew they’d be too afraid to go. Some escaped to the sewers. Poor bastards. I wouldn’t have gone there. We came here, to the old below-ground train stations. Down here, we’re safe. For the most part.”

  “For the most part?”

  Diggs stopped and looked at me with a stern glare in his eyes. “Surely Darius told you about the coming darkness. He did tell you, didn’t he?”

  There was a sense of urgency in his voice.

  “The Eliri and Setiri. Yes, he told me.”

  Diggs sniffled and gave a nod. “This place”—he waved a hand around as if showing off a two-bed, two-bath home—“is on the border of their domain. We’re in no man’s land here. The zealots are afraid to come down here because of what they might find. For all they know, the fangers and dogs already killed everyone.”

  “Fangers?”

  “Vampires, sweetheart. Came up with that one myself.” He flashed a toothy grin and kept moving.

  “They haven’t bothered you yet?” I asked, hurrying to keep up.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  I picked up the pace and caught up to him. We walked down the platform until we reached the end and then hopped down onto the tracks before continuing on.

  “So, they’ve attacked you before?”

  He snickered. “You’ve got a lot to learn about life here in the city, kid.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Yes,” he said, “they’ve attacked us. The last one was a month or so ago. We were fine for a while. The zealots wouldn’t come down because of the fangers and dogs, but also because they knew they were at a tactical disadvantage. They can only get so many men onto those stairs. We sealed off the tunnels a long time ago. Now there are only a few points of entry. That minimizes the risk.”

  I sensed there was more to the story.

  He confirmed that a moment later.

  “For humans,” he said, “there are only a few ways in and out. The vampires found another way in.”

  I looked up at the rounded ceiling and noticed a metal grate. “They came in through the vents.”

  “Well, well, well. We’ve got ourselves a junior detective.”

  This guy’s attitude was starting to grate on my nerves, but I had to put up with it. He was my only chance to find my parents.

  “When can you take me to the camp?” I asked bluntly.

  “Want to get right down to it, huh? Good. I like that. And honestly, I’d rather do it sooner than later so I can get back to my life.”

  “You call this a life, living down here? Doesn’t look like much of one.”

  Diggs slowed his pace, but he didn’t turn around. Not at first. I couldn’t tell if I’d struck a nerve, but I immediately regretted the comment.

  “You’re right, sweetheart. It’s not much of a life. Most of these people haven’t seen the sunshine in years. There were kids born down here who’ve never seen it, never smelled fresh air or felt the warmth of the sun on their face. They’ve never tasted fresh produce except for the small amounts I can bring back from the surface. Not everyone was lucky enough to get away to the mountains.”

  I started to defend my parents’ decision to leave before things fell apart, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. And it didn’t matter. What was done was done. They were here now. I wondered if they would ever get out.

  I diverted the subject to a parallel track.

  “You go to the surface pretty often?”

  He gave a nod. “How do you think I get this tan?” He held out a hand that was slightly less pale than everyone else in the subway tunnel. “I go up to steal supplies from the zealots. They control all the
farms surrounding the city, though there aren’t many anymore. Most of the food they grow comes from greenhouses here in the city. Their leaders are paranoid. They think anyone who lives outside the city fences and walls might be up to no good. That’s why they pulled most of the farming operations inside the perimeter. With far fewer people to feed than before the fall, they didn’t need all that farm land anyway.”

  We stopped at a door set into the wall and climbed up onto a narrow walkway that ran the length of the tunnel alongside the tracks. He pulled the latch and swung the door open. Inside, the faint yellow glow of lamp light filled a small room.

  He stepped to the side and motioned me in. I hesitated for less than a second and then went inside. He followed immediately behind me and shut the door.

  There was a mattress on the floor in the corner and a few wooden chairs on the opposite side. A doorway in the wall led to another room that appeared to be similarly decorated.

  “You can sleep here,” he said. “I have a bed in the other room.”

  “Thank you,” I said, “but I was hoping to—”

  “Hoping to what? Get right to it and find your mom and dad? Sorry, sweetheart, but I’m not going out there tonight. It’s too dangerous. The cops are way too uptight after dark. They’ll try to shoot anything that moves. You were lucky they didn’t put an arrow in you before. And that doesn’t even include the fangers that might be out on the hunt.”

  I wanted to turn and run out of the room and go find my parents on my own, but I knew that wouldn’t work. I didn’t know the city. Diggs did. Only he could show me the way.

  “So, the vampires…they’re….” I couldn’t finish my question.

  “Yes, they are here in the city. I know you probably don’t see them much up in the mountains, but down here, yes, this is prime hunting ground for them. For thousands of years, they had to hide underground, living off the blood of rats and other vermin. Now, though, now that they’ve seen what happened to the human race, they know we’re weak and don’t outnumber them anymore. They’re getting bolder by the day. It’s only a matter of time until they start flooding these tunnels. When that happens, we’ll all be dead.”

  The grim picture he painted wasn’t exactly the best bedtime story. “The people...you said this was some kind of resistance. Can’t you fight back?”

  “I was being sarcastic about calling it a resistance. Look around, sweetheart. We’re living underground…actually, no. We’re surviving underground. It’s hardly living. None of these people can lift a weapon, much less fight back. The only thing that’s keeping us from total annihilation is the fear the zealots have of coming down, and the fear the fangers have of….”

  He stopped talking suddenly and turned away.

  “What? What do they fear?” I wondered if they’d set up some kinds of traps filled with garlic or holy water, something that the legends said would kill vampires.

  He turned and looked over my shoulder with a sinister look in his eyes. “They fear me.” He stepped into the doorway and looked down at the ground. “Get some shuteye, kid. You’re going to need it.”

  The door slammed shut, and I was alone in the dark, dank chamber. I shuffled over to the mattress and plopped down. The sheets were dirty. I didn’t want to know what the stains were near the foot of the bed. I was accustomed to a better life than this. It hit me all of a sudden just how lucky I’d been to escape the cities before the fall. My cabin home in the mountains was lonely, but it was clean and I had everything I would ever need. Everything except my parents.

  I laid my head back on the dingy pillow and stared up at the ceiling. Tomorrow, we’d find my parents and get out of this place. Tomorrow, I’d get them home.

  13

  I roused from my slumber to the sound of bells echoing through the tunnel outside. Moments later, the ringing mixed with the sounds of people screaming.

  I shot out of the bed and had my sword in hand within a second, ready for anything that came through the door.

  The inner door swung open, and Diggs appeared. A look of intense concern covered his face. He was fully dressed, just as he’d been when he left me hours before.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  He rushed to the door and threw it open again. People were running by outside, yelling incoherently.

  “We’re under attack.”

  He took off down the causeway, disappearing from view for a moment. I ran out the door after him and saw the panicked denizens doing their best to flee toward the main platform.

  Diggs stopped a feeble-looking man in tattered jeans and a T-shirt. “Where are they?” he asked, to the point.

  “I,” the man gasped, “they’re at the next stop. They…they just started pouring in. I’ve never seen so many.”

  The man nearly collapsed. Diggs put his arm out and caught the guy under the armpit and eased him to the ground, leaning him against the wall.

  There was an angry look in Diggs’s eyes now. Flames nearly shot out of them when he looked at me.

  “Come with me,” he ordered and took off running down the pathway.

  I paused for a second and stared down at the injured man. It looked like he’d been hit in the head with something. A thin cut ran across his forehead from one eyebrow to the other.

  “Come on!” Diggs shouted.

  I took off running after him, uncertain what I was going to see up ahead. My mind was still sluggish from being woken so suddenly in the middle of the night. I had no idea what time it was. Being underground was strange like that.

  More screams came from up ahead. I saw shadows moving rapidly in the flickering candlelight. The figures were elongated, drawn out by the light along the curved ceiling.

  “Be ready,” Diggs warned me without turning around. He picked up his pace, charging ahead toward the sounds.

  I already had my sword in hand, ready for whatever was waiting. At least that’s what I thought: that I’d be ready.

  The second we rounded the bend, everything changed. I was so not ready.

  I saw a handful of people doing their best to hold a feeble line along the tracks, hacking and chopping at the oncoming attackers. Several men and women were lying lifeless on the ground. Other bodies, inhuman ones, were scattered around the platform and tracks.

  “Light!” Diggs shouted as he rushed toward the fray.

  The tunnel suddenly brightened. A searing white light zipped like a wave of energy through the corridor. Everyone in the fight shielded their eyes for a moment. They’d all been in the dark for so long, something so bright was almost painful.

  Diggs reached the defensive line first and jumped over it with almost superhuman strength. He landed behind the initial wave of attackers and drove his sword through the back of a vampire’s head. The tip protruded out of the creature’s eye for a second before being withdrawn, dropping the monster to the ground.

  A vampire with long blonde hair turned her attention to the new aggressor. She swung a broadsword at Diggs’s head, but he was ready for her. He ducked and jabbed his blade into her belly then jerked it to the right, yanking the edge out through her oblique.

  Black blood sprayed out of the wound as she howled and fell to her knees.

  I leaped over the line as Diggs had done. I landed on my feet and brought up my sword just as another vampire, this one with a long ponytail, was about to take a swing at Diggs’s neck. Our blades clashed. Mine gave ground. This creature was much stronger than me. He pushed my sword down with his, trying to force me to the ground.

  I saw a flash of metal go by my face. Suddenly, the vampire’s eyes went wide. A second later, his head rolled off his neck and tumbled to the ground.

  I looked back and saw Diggs already fighting another vampire. “You’re welcome,” he said as he parried a sword thrust from a black-haired fanger. He flipped his wrist to deflect another blow, sidestepped, and then ripped his blade’s edge across the creature’s neck. Blood spurted from the wound as he collapsed to the tracks.


  “Take the rest of them and get back to the next platform!” Diggs ordered one of the men in the defensive line.

  The guy, older and with thinning hair, gave a nod and motioned for the others to go ahead.

  Vampires kept dropping out of the ventilation shaft above the platform. Another one rushed at me, leaping through the air from thirty feet away. He flew at me with incredible speed. I felt the cold start to trickle through my veins again, just as it had back at the inn.

  I stepped to the side and raised my blade. Everything slowed down again, and I could see the sudden look of terror on the fanger’s face as he realized he’d screwed up.

  The edge of my katana sliced through his skull, splitting it in half and stopping only when it reached his shoulder blade. The creature fell to the ground at my feet as I pulled the sword out of the wound and turned my attention to the vent.

  Diggs was ten feet away, fighting through a horde of vampires. They were starting to encircle him. It was only a matter of time until he succumbed to their numbers.

  “Get out of here!” he ordered. “There are too many of them!”

  I wasn’t going to leave him. Admittedly, I didn’t like the guy very much. He struck me as sort of a jerk. But he was my only chance to find my parents. Without him, they were as good as dead—if they weren’t already.

  “Circle of flame,” he said, and the same orange fire wrapped around him to keep the vampires at bay.

  One brave fanger tried to charge through, but his clothes immediately caught fire and he was embroiled in flames. Diggs gave him a quick death, taking off his head with a single swing of the blade.

  Another vampire rushed at me. I jumped into the air, feeling lighter for some reason. It was as if gravity decided to give a little ground. I soared over the head of the oncoming creature and landed just behind him. I moved with incredible speed and ran the tip of my sword through the vampire’s back, puncturing his heart on the way out of his chest.

  I spun back around, yanking my weapon from the dying monster, and looked up at the vent.

  “I said you have to go!” Diggs yelled.

  His circle of fire was still burning, but it was growing weaker by the second. Apparently, his fire incantation was only temporary.