Paul also introduced another mysterious character in these scenes named Dr. Driscoll, who seems to understand what's going on. This hints at a deep government conspiracy. We all liked this idea, especially if we do a sequel, but it confused some of our beta readers. If we do wind up writing Draculas 2, no doubt Dr. Driscoll will be a key figure.
Shanna
SHE stood by Clay's suburban, watching the dark, blocky mass of the hospital. A faint, faint glow lit some of the windows, probably backwash from the emergency lights in the hallways, but for the most part it looked dead and deserted. But looks were deceiving. She knew it crawled with--what had Jenny's ex called them? Draculas. Right. Jenny and her ex were in there--still human, she hoped--and so was Clay.
She prayed for his safe return. Yes, she was going to break his heart when he did return, but she wanted him back. Because somehow the world seemed a better place with Clay than without him.
Ten minutes ago the army had roared in and heavily armed soldiers had piled out of their trucks. A large black trailer had followed the soldiers into the lot but had parked away toward the rear. The people who had emerged were civilians.
And then something scary: The army set up spotlights at the emergency entrance, around the main entrance, and at each stairwell exit. Then they'd positioned soldiers with flame throwers at each point. Looked like they'd been convinced it was contagious. She'd expected officialdom to scoff at the stories of what had gone on in the hospital, but she guessed the recording Clay had insisted on making had convinced them.
Well, she'd never said he was a dummy, just not on her wavelength.
Just then, to her right at the corner of the building, flames lit the night. A scream echoed and then died.
Her heart stumbled over a beat. That was the door she and Clay had used to escape, the door he'd re-entered. They wouldn't have burned him by mistake, would they? No...that scream had had an unearthly quality. Had to be one of those draculas trying to escape the building. Still...
She took a step in that direction to go check, just to be sure, when she noticed movement on the ground, not too far from her. She looked closer and saw one of the supposedly dead state troopers moving--one of the pair Clay hadn't shot.
Oh, God. As it lifted its head and looked her way, glow from the army headlights glinted off rows of long sharp teeth.
"Hey!" she called. "Hey, somebody! We've got trouble over here! Hey!"
Nobody seemed to hear her. The noise from truck motors revving, soldiers shouting to each other, giving and taking orders, swallowed her cries.
"Hey!" she called, raising her voice to its limit. "A little help over here."
She backed up a few steps, readying to run, fearing it was coming for her, but it veered away, toward the empty darkness.
Confused? The side of its skull looked bashed in. Too damaged to know what it was doing? Well, that was fine with Shanna...
Except if it got away and bit someone, the plague would be loose and there'd be no stopping it.
She screamed. "Will somebody please--oh, crap!" He was going to get away and no one was paying her a bit off attention.
She glanced in the rear of Clay's Suburban and saw his super shotgun, his beloved AA-something. She didn't want to touch it...she remembered Marge back in the chapel, but somebody had to stop that thing.
She grabbed the gun and went around the other side of the car in time to see the dracula passing. How hard could this be? She raised the shotgun, pointed it toward the thing, and, closing her eyes--she couldn't look--pulled the trigger.
The gun boomed but had nowhere near the kick of that pistol Clay had handed her.
She opened her eyes and saw the dracula on the pavement. She was about to congratulate herself when she realized it was still alive, if that was what you could call whatever it was, and trying to regain its feet. But it couldn't. Shanna had shredded its knee.
"Lower your weapon!" shouted a voice behind her.
She turned and found herself facing the muzzles of half a dozen guns of various shapes and sizes and a chorus telling her to drop it. She laid the shotgun gently on the pavement. After all, Clay loved that thing.
"Now you listen!" she said.
A soldier who looked like he was in command got in her face. "What do you think you're doing, firing that here?"
Shanna jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "One of them was getting away."
A couple of the soldiers looked past her. She could tell by their expressions they'd never seen a dracula before.
"Get Doctor Driscoll," the officer said.
A few minutes later a woman, one of the civilians from the big trailer, appeared. She stared at the dracula with virtually no reaction, not a hint of surprise.
After a few seconds she said, "Dispose of it."
The officer motioned behind him and a soldier with a flame thrower appeared.
"Light it up," he told him.
The soldier hesitated, then sent a stream of liquid fire at the thing, engulfing it in flame. It screamed, spasmed, rolled on the ground, then lay still.
Shanna turned away and retched. That had once been a person...
She turned back to the woman, Dr. Driscoll. "Is that the only way to stop the infection?"
The woman stared at her with an alarmed expression. "Infection? Who said anything about infection?"
"It's obvious."
"It's nothing of the sort."
And then it hit Shanna. Dr. Driscoll hadn't been repulsed by the dracula. She'd been expecting it. "You've seen this before, haven't you? You knew about this."
"Who are you and where do you get your wild ideas?"
"I was in there. I saw--"
"In there? In the hospital?" The doctor signaled to the soldiers. "Lock her in quarantine."
A pair of them grabbed her, one by each arm, and were dragging her toward the trailer when four of the hospital's third-floor windows facing the parking lot blew out, belching flame and filling the air with bits of glass and charred flesh.
"Clay? Oh, no! Clay!"
Jenny
There was a frightening moment when the whole building shuddered from some sort of explosion. One of Clay's toys? Or had the cavalry finally arrived?
Jenny continued to stare up at the military helicopter. Over the din of the rotors she yelled, "Down here!"
It hovered directly overhead, and she watched one of the bay doors open. Then they began to lower a rescue basket down on a cable.
No...not a rescue basket.
What the heck is that?
Shanna
The soldiers who had been escorting her--a euphemism--to the trailer had seemed as shocked by the explosion as she. She'd tried to use their distraction to escape but they had too secure a grip on her. They'd pulled her inside and stuck her in what they'd called "the quarantine room."
It looked improvised in some ways--a featureless space with no decorations and half a dozen one-piece polymer chairs. But the small, fixed window that had to be at least an inch thick said otherwise. The best thing about that window was it faced the parking lot. Shanna had her nose pressed against it now, hands cupped around her eyes to shut out the room light, straining to see what was going on.
What had happened? An explosion could mean only one person: Clay. But what could he have been carrying to blow out a wall like that? Better not to think about it. Who knew what Clay carried in his bag of tricks?
The door opened behind her. She turned to see four disheveled-looking kids being herded into the room by the same two soldiers who had brought her. They moved away and Dr. Driscoll stepped into the doorway. She held a squalling baby in her arms.