F Wilson - Midnight Mass

The following unit pulled alongside the first, high beams flashing on and off. Lacey rose in her seat, exposing herself to the glare, and waved.

"What do we do?" Carole shouted over the roar of the wind, Her expression was tight.

"Your turn."

"My turn? For what?"

"To show a little titty."

"What?"

"Yeah. I did my part, now you do yours. I'll take the wheel and—"

"Not on your life! Just shoot at them. We don't have to worry about sunlight leaking into the trunk while we're in here."

Lacey thought of that assault pistol that had fired a moment ago, and wondered if there were more of them in the units. She didn't stand a chance against that sort of firepower. Then she looked down and saw the napalm balloons.

"Slow down a little," she said as she crawled into the rear. "Here we go again."

She crouched on the back seat and pulled off her T-shirt, then she grabbed a napalm balloon in each hand.

"What are you doing?" Carole said.

"I'm about to play hide and seek. Just be ready to burn rubber when I tell you."

Could she get away with something like this again? If they were half as horny as she thought they were yeah. Maybe.

Taking a breath, she pressed a balloon over each breast, plastered a big grin on her face, then rose to her knees.

The left blue-and-white swerved as the driver hit the siren again and a couple of hands popped out the windows to wave the horn sign. The right unit did the same.

She pulled the balloon off her left breast and held it high.

The sirens wailed again.

She bared her right breast and held that balloon aloft.

Another wail.

She tossed both balloons at the cars.

"Hit it!" she yelled as she dove for the seat.

The last thing she saw as the tires screeched and the Fairlane leaped forward was one balloon splattering harmlessly on the pavement and the other breaking against the grill of the right car. The front of the car exploded, rocketing the hood toward the ceiling, and then Lacey was down, flat on the rear seat. The explosion kicked them from behind like a rear-end collision. A wave of heat rolled over them for an instant before they left it behind.

Lacey peeked over the back of the rear seat in time to see the burning unit sidewipe its companion. The second bounced off the wall with a shower of sparks, then slammed into the first as someone's gas tank exploded. The second car flipped then and landed against the first. Amid the agonized screech and groan of metal grinding against concrete and asphalt and tile, both slid to a halt across the tunnel roadway in a single, twisted, flaming mass.

Lacey shook her head. Wow. Powerful stuff.

She thought she saw something moving, a flaming man-shaped thing crawling out a window, but she couldn't be sure. Suddenly a third explosion rocked the mass. The other gas tank, she guessed.

Lacey tugged her shirt back over her head and climbed up into the passenger seat.

"That's it! The last time I strip down for these animals."

"Let's hope so," Carole said. "By the way, that was an amazing piece of indirection."

Was that a note of genuine admiration Lacey detected in her voice?

"Thank you. And my compliments to the chef on that napalm." Lacey pointed ahead at the splotch of brightness ahead in the dark of the tiled gullet. "Look. The light at the end of the tunnel."

"More Vichy there?"

Lacey grabbed the shotgun. Her stomach crawled. How long could their luck last?

But to their amazement, the Manhattan side of the tunnel was deserted. Gasping with relief, they swerved left and roared into the concrete box of an enclosed above-and-below-ground park-and-lock lot on 42nd Street.

BARRETT . . .

Neal kicked a piece of blackened metal from the wrecks and sent it spinning across the scorched pavement. He tugged on his beard.

"What the fuck?"

"What the fuck is right," Barrett said. "All seven guys gone. Just like that."

Franco was going to be pissed ... if he found out.

The relief crews had arrived on the Manhattan side at noon to find smoke billowing from the middle tube. They'd waited till it tapered off, then drove inside. This was what they'd found.

Lights from the headlights of a couple of cars illuminated the twisted mess of metal. The ceiling and walls were scorched black for hundreds of feet in both directions.

"You think it was a hit?" Neal said.

"You mean like what happened at the Lakewood Post Office. I don't know. See any bullet holes?"

Neal shook his head. "Not a one."

Neither had Barrett.

Two carloads of cowboys reduced to crispy critters. It looked like one car had plowed into the other, smashing it against the side of the tunnel. Barrett visualized a bent side panel, showers of sparks, a gas cap tearing off, then kablam!

What had they been doing—drag racing through the tubes? Assholes. One car was supposed to be stationed at each end of the tunnel, but this wouldn't be the first time they'd got bored and hung out together on the Jersey end. He'd caught them at it before and this was probably another instance. Most of these guys had the attention span of a gnat.

"Well, without bullet holes in the cars—or what's left of them—how could it be a hit? Must have been an accident. Caused by terminal stupidity."

Barrett ground his teeth. He had to get out of this job. He had to take the next step. Get turned. He'd go crazy if he had to spend another nine-plus years with these assholes.

- 13 -

CAROLE ...

"Look, Ma," Lacey said. "A double threat: no hands while walking on the third rail."

Carole knew Lacey had to be as uneasy as she, walking these subway tracks, but she was doing a better job of hiding it. She briefly angled her flashlight beam at Lacey, then back to the tracks again.

"Under different circumstances I might call that a shocking display of brashness, but after yesterday ..."

Lacey laughed.

They'd huddled in the car in the park-and-lock garage all day, venturing out only to relieve themselves. When the sun had fallen and Joseph was awake, he left alone to begin nighttime surveillance on the Empire State Building and the area around it. But he'd returned less than an hour later driving a huge Lincoln Navigator he'd appropriated from a nearby parking lot. He insisted that she and Lacey transfer to it, not because of the comfort its extra size afforded, but because of its hard top. They were already insulated by the garage's layers of reinforced concrete, but he wanted them further sealed in steel. He begged them to stay locked in during the dark hours, telling them their warm blood made them easy to pick out against the cold concrete and granite of the city. If a hybrid like him could sense them, what about the fully undead?

Carole had missed him, worried about him, but had taken his advice. She and Lacey had slept when they could, and talked when they couldn't—talked about anything they could think of. Except sex. Lacey's lesbianism made Carole uncomfortable. Or was it the fact that she felt a growing fondness for this young woman who happened to be a lesbian.

She'd been relieved to see Joseph return with the dawn. He was excited. He'd found a place where they could watch the comings and goings at the

Empire State Building in relative safety and comfort, and told them how to get there.

So now it was their turn. They'd left the garage at sunrise when the undead were no threat. Only the living.