Alexa looked sternly at Draven. “We honor our O negative leader! I will do as she wishes!”
“As will I!”
“Come, Draven, let’s gather all of the green powder and put forth Maryl’s ingenious and live-saving plan!”
Seconds later, pouches and pouches that contained the green powder filled the sky and floated down. Many of the bags traveled more than a mile. While many were shot deliberately in-between a half-mile, and some were shot closer to their position.
Maryl hugged herself in delight while she counted the bags shot. She had brought one hundred and fifty-three bags. Using vampire speed to load and reload, Alexa and Draven fired all the sacks within fifteen minutes.
The gray and green powder had a one hundred percent rate of success; she knew that for certain. The two ingredients in the gray and green pouches were foolproof.
While the other vampires will be quite angry, she was sure no one would attack her, or she would use the powder on them.
“Go, and make sure everyone did not make it and bring our troops back,” Maryl commanded.
Alexa and Draven sped toward the devastation they knew was waiting for them.
They stopped on the property. Alexa and Draven could tell it was once a celebration. All they saw were bodies lying on the ground, some twisted in awkward positions. None were still breathing in the immediate vicinity, except for the O negative troops. They were looking around in confusion.
Alexa and Draven scoured the grounds, indoors, in the woods, and a mile in all directions. They put down sixty-eight vampires who were still convulsing. They would have died eventually, but they put the poor bastards out of their unbearable misery.
Alexa and Draven sped back to their troops. “O negatives, come! Maryl Rosser’s glorious mission has been accomplished!” Alexa yelled.
“But she killed our cousins!” one of them yelled.
“Kill or be killed!” Alexa shot back.
The vampire sped to Alexa. “I will not kill our cousins!”
“Okay,” Alexa said before she took her hand and thrust it into his chest cavity and removed his heart.
“Any other whiners?” she shouted to the massive crowd of O negatives.
The mass of Maryl’s troops returned to the car without any further complaint. They found Maryl leaning against the car with several vampires lying around her.
“Who are they?” Alexa asked.
“Loiterers of our own kind, who didn’t like my vision.” She stood up. “Let’s go home and celebrate. I still have the bottle you gave Ray, Alexa.”
“After that ordeal, it sounds wonderful!” Alexa said happily.
“By the way, how many less vile competitor vampires did we get rid of today?” Draven asked as he rubbed his hands together.
“By my count, eight thousand three hundred and ninety-five,” Alexa stated with pride.
“And if you include the five you took down, Maryl, it was eight thousand four hundred,” Draven boasted.
“All in all, it was a good day for the O negatives,” Maryl said. She whistled loudly as a signal for the O negatives to get into their vehicles. Within ten minutes, they left Octavus the Brooder’s compound.
Next on Maryl’s agenda was to find Clayton. She had something special in store for him and the traitorous Desiree Maholmes.
Chapter Seventeen
Sequencing Enzymes Institute of Technology
S.E.I.T. Present Day August 17th
Jack and his fellow scientists were hunkered down with a Petri dish under their microscopes. Clayton was sitting on a chair next to Jack.
“How far along are you with sequencing the enzyme Doctor Shelly Leadstone created?” Clayton asked Jack while Jack was looking under the microscope.
“It’s not that simple. I am getting negative results. More tests are needed.”
“We’re running out of blood, and we’ve been here for weeks.”
Jack stopped what he was doing. “Clayton, let me explain something to you in a non-scientific way. Doctor Leadstone was a pioneer in this field. It took her over ten years to create the serum. And she was human!” He pointed to his colleagues. “We are not pioneers. We have to understand the process before we can even begin to make changes.”
Clayton was perturbed at the lack of progress and Jack’s blatant disrespect. He was frustrated.
“Maybe you’re looking at this the wrong way, Jack,” Clayton said lightly.
“Oh, so now you’re a scientist?” Jack said sarcastically.
Clayton zipped to him and grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. “I am getting awfully tired of your disrespect, Jack. With a swift motion, I can snap your neck in either direction.” He lifted Jack in the air and above his head. “From now on, when I talk to you, I expect a courteous answer, do you understand?”
Jack nodded feebly.
Clayton put him down and released his iron grip. “Now, as I was saying… maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way.” He looked to Jack in case another insult was forthcoming.
“What would that be?” Jack said while rubbing his neck.
“I now think the serum is useless,” Clayton remarked with sadness.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Hear me out. The serum’s job is to strip the antigen off the red blood cells, and it does that. Introducing our blood types into the serum renders them all O types. So, without changing the DNA structure of the serum itself, it won’t matter what blood type is introduced.”
“We know that, Clayton. We have known that from the beginning. No offense, but we have been trying to change the genetic code of the serum and then introduce our blood. We can’t find the right combination to create antigens that would produce and then reproduce our blood types.”
“So, you’re no closer than when we started weeks ago?”
“I’m afraid not.”
The silence that followed was deafening. It was broken by the sound of a vehicle pulling in the parking lot.
“We have a visitor. I will see who it is. Continue your work,” Clayton said as he sped away.
He rushed down the steps and came to the large foyer. He zipped to a window, and even with his hyper eyesight, the grime from the window not being cleaned for so long, he was barely able to see outside.
A person came out of the car. It was
