Nine: Putting up a Wall

§ Putting up a Wall §

 

It was like being injected with the essence of ice�"the soul of winter itself. I felt like ice was creeping along my veins, trying to reach my heart and make it stop for good. I thought I’d faint from the pain, but I stayed conscious for what seemed like centuries without the faux-doctor making any sounds. I shrieked like an animal in the throes of death. The vampire in the lab coat smiled sinisterly at my reaction and murmured to himself in what sounded to be a different language than my previous captors.

 

            To my immense surprise, the pain receded quickly, but�"even after two hours�"not completely.

 

            Maybe if I can get someone to speak English, I might trace their accent to a specific area�"or something, I hoped against hope.

 

            But the only person I’d seen after the human-exchange of me was that crazy vampire doctor. And he’d never directly spoken to me, only ever muttered to himself, probably about the results of whatever test(s) he was subjecting me to�"yeah, crazy much. But from the look of him…he might be from an English-speaking country in Europe, even though he was speaking whatever-language now. After all, it was traditional for some vampire clans to speak in the tongue of the clan’s origin�"usually along with Transylvanian, if Transylvania wasn’t the origin.

 

            Thank God for ROV. How would I have deducted these facts if I’d skipped ROV classes like so many others? Then again…

 

            Is this even helping me? I asked myself. Maybe I can make it work for me…

 

            The next time the creepy vampire came in, he had two other lab-coat-sporting vampires tailing behind him�"his lab assistants, from the look of it, but I couldn’t be certain. This was my chance.

           

            “Um…could I please get some water?” I asked slowly, just incase they could understand even a bit of English.

 

            There was a silent exchange between Mr. Creepy (the cruel inhumane doc) and one of his cronies, and then the former nodded, followed by the latter disappearing out of my sight�"which wasn’t saying much, since my neck was strapped so my face was facing the ceiling. In about ten seconds, someone was dribbling water into my mouth, a lot of it spilling down the side of my mouth and onto my shirt. As if I wasn’t freezing enough in this dungeon.

 

            But I’d accomplished my task�"well, half of it, anyway. I knew they�"at least one of them�"understood English. But that still didn’t tell me anything about where they were from, or where I could potentially be according to that information.

 

            “Can someone tell me where I am, or would that be asking for too much?”

 

            “Quiet, human,” Mr. Creepy barked�"in an accent.

 

            Bingo…or not?

 

            That accent was definitely German, but of course that didn’t necessarily mean I was somewhere in Germany. Not even close. Germany’s was one of the strongest human armies at this point in the war. As it continued to liberate cities, villages, and towns conquered by vampires who’d renamed those places in their own taste, the German army re-renamed the territories in German of whatever it had been in whichever language. For instance, Addie had told me once that they’d converted “Lloches,”�"“Sanctuary” in Welsh�"which the vampires had renamed something else in Latin, to “Heiligtum,” which was  “Sanctuary” in German.

 

            Basically, Germany was pretty strong in terms of military, so logic would dictate that its borders would have to be guarded well, to say the least. So Germany was definitely out of the picture in regards to where I was currently located. So much for my burst of hope from my so-called “intelligence.”

 

            Whatever I planned next, I’d have to extra cautious, lest they catch on.

 

            They drugged me again, and so I probably slept in the same clothes I’d had on when I’d first been kidnapped from school…how long ago had that been, exactly? A week? Half that?

 

            The next time I regained consciousness could’ve been the same day or night, or the next, or a week later. I was slowly losing my perception of time�"this was not good. Now I’d have to figure out what day of which month it was, as well as where I was. Of course, it would help if I also knew which clan these vampires were from�"or even the last name of the doctor, as long as it wasn’t a very common one in his area. How would I go about accomplishing that? Firstly…I’d need some food inside me for me to concentrate on developing an action plan. My stomach was growling like a moaning animal, and I realized that the last time I remembered having eaten anything was the day before I’d been abducted. Adelheid had woken me up with barely enough time to get myself ready for ROV class in the morning.

 

            Thankfully, the doctor was scribbling something from the monitors into a notepad, with file folders scattered all over his mini desk to my right, and a filing cabinet that hadn’t been there before.

 

            “Um…Doctor…whatever your name is…will it affect your�"my�"test results if I’m starving, parched, and extremely weak?” I questioned him, facing his way as much as possible without chocking myself on the neck collar-thing.

 

            He swiveled his chair my way, a frown on his middle-aged face. I squinted then, pretending to be too weak to be seeing straight. In reality, I was trying to read the nametag on his coat. Ern…Ernie? Ermenoldus Holzapfel. Now what? How did one memorize a name like that? Only if I could get a hold of pen and have a free hand to write with, then I could just put down the name on the inside of the other wrist.

 

            I hadn’t even noticed Holzapfel leave, but now he was reentering the room with a tray of food.

 

            “Vampires do not need to eat,” he explained, probably excusing himself from his forgetfulness to feed his human lab rat.

 

            And then, mother of miracles, he unbound my wrists and ankles, and sat down in his chair, watching for the slightest sign of an escape plan. I ate the apple slowly, pretending to be savouring the taste, in reality wondering how I could take advantage of my temporarily free state. I still had needles poking into my arms, and was eating on top of the wretched table, but this was as free as I’d ever felt since getting re-kidnapped.

 

            Before I’d taken a bite out of the stale-looking sandwich, Holzapfel’s two assistants barged in and frantically related something to him in German. The three vampires looked distraught, and I wondered what had happened.  Then in came another three vampires, dressed in black and navy blue, who marched upto Crazy Holzapfel and started arguing with him. To my pleasant surprise, they spoke English; unfortunately, I didn’t catch on until about a minute later.

 

            “It might be for testing war weapons, doctor,” one of the newcomers spat. “But this isn’t about you and your crazy plans, we need more humans to build the wall.”

 

            I took advantage of the moment to quickly grab a pen from the doctor’s desk and write down his last name�"but what was his first name? His back was to me now, so I couldn’t take another look at his nametag.

 

            -Holzapfel, “Ermen”(?)

            -German

            -2 assistants

            -Dimly-lit lab.

 

            In my writing daze, I’d missed the conversation between the two vampires, and now the new one was coming my way�"uh-oh. He grabbed my arm, and said, “Follow me if you don’t want any trouble.”

 

            “Where are you taking me?” I asked miserably.

 

            “You’re going to build the Transylvanian Wall.”

 

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