The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 63: Arriving at the Shelter (2)

"Those people..." Luciel started, looking around in disbelief before glancing at his wife, "Helen, how many people are there?"

"A rough estimate of one thousand, two hundred thirty-four." She answered, not taking her eyes from the people, "And only fifty hunters..." Her voice sounded exhausted as she spoke the final words that reminded her of the long, exhausting month.

Countless requests for help, food, water, basic necessities, and so much more were coming her way. All that while she tried to keep things organized, call for help, figure out what those zombies were exactly, and still deal with the loss of her husband.

In a way, going outside the shelter with the hunters was kind of a vacation for her, despite the danger, but at least she managed to escape from all this mess for a bit.

"Only fifty hunters and you... Where are the rest?" Luciel clenched his fist and narrowed his eyebrows, not being able to believe what he was hearing.

"Luciel... Your eyes..." Helen whispered to him, pointing at her face to signalize him that they started to glow vibrant red. The vampire’s disguise wasn’t perfect and the glow could be seen even when covering their eyes with horizontal eyelids.

"Sorry..." He apologized, taking in deep breaths and slowly exhaling. As he was slowly starting to calm down, and so did the glow in his eyes.

"They evacuated, along with the residents that had enough money to do so, and as for the rest... You can see it yourself." Helen finally gave her answer once her husband seemed to calm down, but started to think that she might have made a mistake after seeing his face.

"Those bastards..." He growled and she could see his fangs as he spoke with his eyes starting to glow again.

"You guys hate vampires, but you humans sound worse than us." Melisa decided to jump into the conversation, looking over her shoulder at the two.

"Honestly, it’s sad that humans can fall so low at the most crucial moments," Luciel commented, trying to calm down again, feeling repellent towards human nature where most of the population only looked after themselves while vampires, from what he could see, always stuck together inside their community, helping each other out.

"And that’s why we are better." Melisa raised her head in pride, believing that vampires were always the superior creatures and this just proved that.

Luciel sighed at her remark, face-slapping himself since he couldn’t believe what she had said. She used to be human as well, even if she lived most of her life as a vampire.

"We are here." Jack announced, stopping in front of the three doors, "You will be going in one by one, after that, I’ll show you where you can sleep."

Taking a glance at the group, Jack knocked on the doors and walked in to inform the nurse about the current situation and the two vampires that they had brought with them.

"Kids first, vampires last." He said to the group after exiting the room and allowing the first kid to enter.

"This is going to take a while," Luciel complained before going to sit down, leaning against the wall and bringing his knees closer.

Helen shifted beside Luciel, her tired gaze wandering across the group as she placed her head on Luciel’s shoulder, without saying a word.

Luciel glanced towards his wife and sighed, the glow in his eyes finally diminishing. There were not a lot of civilians so late at night in the medical ward so he didn’t bring more attention to himself.

"So all this time, only fifty hunters and you were dealing with so many people?" He asked again, not being able to imagined the pressure the hunters went through, it was no wonder why everyone was so on edge.

To make things worse, there were a lot of elderly, sick, and weak people and young children.

Evacuating so many people through a dangerous road to a new colony, that might not even accept them, seemed like too big of a risk.

"That’s right," Helen answered, placing her hand on top of Luciel’s knees.

She could remember the first day when the infection took over.

Because of the warning that Luciel had sent, they managed to secure a little bit of extra food and ready the shelters in time, but nothing could have prepared them for what happened next.

They tried to contain the infection, but after a few days, the streets weren’t safe anymore and people started to bite each other left and right, turning the area into a zombie town in less than a week.

Due to the huge amount of people who couldn’t evacuate, they started to rush toward the shelters, but many of them were hiding the bite marks in fear of being killed.

There were three main shelters, but only this one was left standing thanks to Helen insisting on detailed checkups.

People got mad because of the strict protocols, but it was only because of that that they managed to save twenty percent of the population that couldn’t run away. Not everyone was able to make it to the shelter, but sometimes, you couldn’t save everyone.

"And what about outside communication?"

"We got an answer from the Church and told us to stay put." Helen answered, clenching her fist, "But that was the first and last time we heard from them."

"And the other colonies?"

"Nothing, after that we had multiple attempts to get in contact with the Church and other colonies, but there is no answer."

Luciel bit his lower lip as soon Helen mentioned that they couldn’t get in contact with anyone, feeling uneasy about all of this. The loss of communication after the instructions to stay put didn’t seem to be a coincidence.

"How about you rest for now, okay? We’ll deal with this like we always do, all right?" He placed his hand on top of Helen’s head, holding it tightly.

He couldn’t see any signs of it, but he was sure that Helen was overworking herself and if they wanted to get everyone out of there and save Kai, then she would need to be in her top condition.

Luciel observed his wife’s baby face once she closed her hazel eyes, letting out a long sigh.

She seemed to be under lots of stress due to how tense she was and her heartbeat started to speed up once the adults started to be called in for checkups.

’At least he returned to me...’ She thought as a small smile appeared on her lips, it was like a huge weight fell off her shoulders.

Helen still had many questions she wanted to ask, but mainly why he never came back to her. If they hadn’t found him by accident, who knows if she would be able to ever see him again.

Besides that, she also wanted to do a small research on him, wondering just to what extent did his vampirism take effect. It was extremely rare to see a case such as this and understanding it better might be the key for many further discoveries.

"Helen Ashford!"

Both Luciel and Helen looked up when her name had been called by the nurse.

"Looks like it’s my turn." She said to him before getting up, waving to Luciel before leaving.

After that, Luciel didn’t say a word as he waited for his wife to return, but he started to get worried when she was taking way longer than usual.

He got up, walking left and right with his arms crossed, but no one dared to ask him what was wrong.

Fifteen minutes had passed, then thirty and after what seemed to be forty minutes and then, the door had finally opened.

"Is everything all right?" Luciel dashed toward Helen, grabbing her arms before he quickly started to inspect her from head to toe, but she avoided his eye contact.

"Everything went fine, no need to worry, Luci." She smiled at him, but Luciel could hear that something was wrong. Her heart rhythm changed for a moment as soon she said those words before it returned to normal.

"Are you sure?" He raised his eyebrow, wanting to know the truth, "you weren’t bitten, right?"

"No, I wasn’t, trust me." Helen placed her hand on Luciel’s shoulder, feeling a lump forming in her throat after hiding important information she had just learned from her husband.

"Luciel Ashford!"

Before he could ask anything else, Luciel looked over Helen’s shoulder, seeing a female nurse who was waiting for him.

"I gotta go," he gave her a quick smooch on the forehead before walking inside the medical ward to meet with the nurse.

"Never thought that I was going to see you here again, glad to have you back." The nurse smiled at Luciel, closing the doors while holding some documents in her hand.

"You are probably one of the few people that are happy to see me." Luciel laughed ironically at the sole thought of being rejected by so many just because of his small incident.

"It’s sad honestly, but don’t worry, you are still a hero and one of my old patients. Anyways, you know the drill, take off your clothes except your underwear." The nurse instructed and as much she would love to continue chatting, one more patient was waiting for her outside and she felt tired as well after being woken up in the middle of the night for this.

"I mean, after everything, can’t blame them. I believe you heard the rumors already." He said to her before starting to take off his clothes, throwing them on the chair.

"There are... No scars." The nurse stuttered, covering her mouth with her hand as she gasped. Even without seeing the red eyes and fangs, the shape of Luciel’s body and the absence of scars made everything clear to her since she was the one who would usually care for him after receiving injuries.

"What can I say, this does have its perks." He laughed, allowing the nurse to check his body for any bite marks or signs of infection, but she sure was taking her time.

"Everything seems to be fine, can you please call the female vampire for me?" The nurse asked after clearing her throat.

"Yes, of course!" Luciel said, putting back his clothes before walking out. "Melisa, your turn!"

"Finally!" She raised her voice, feeling bored from all this waiting and talk between Luciel and Helen.