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He led her forward "There’s another one here Watch your step"

Her flashlight picked up a second puddle in the middle of the path Her face blazed hotter "Okay" She stepped over it

"And there’s a third one here" He aiasped "My God, you’re an anihed "That may be true, menina, but this one actually is rainwater"

"Oh Never ed around the puddle and followed hi

"I peeked in here earlier It lookedstrange I wanted to get a closer look" He led her through the opening

Their flashlight bea as a soccer field

"What I saas down here" He shone his light on the floor, which was about four feet lower froasped There were dozens ofdown

"I estimate about ten in each row" Carlos scanned the roith his flashlight "About twenty rows deep"

"Two hundred?" Caitlyn whispered "It reminds me of the Terra-Cotta Warriors they found in China"

"Except these aren’t warriors They’re all lying doith their hands crossed over their chest"

"Like a giant funeral" She shuddered "Maybe that’s why this is called the Telanced at the nearby wall "That looks like a torch" He unzipped a pocket on his pants, pulled out a cigarette lighter, and lit the torch

"Here’s another one" She shone her flashlight at it

Soon Carlos had six torches lit, and she was better able to see The ledge they stood on circled the large chamber, with torches every six feet or so They lit more torches, then proceeded down soures rested

"They don’t seem to have as much detail as the ones in China," Caitlyn observed "They’re very basic, and all alike"

"I wonder how long they’ve been here" Carlos knelt beside one and tapped on the clay "That’s odd"

"What?"

"It doesn’t sound very hollow" He hit the clay figure on the chest with the end of his flashlight

"You broke it!" Caitlyn’s indignation quickly turned to horror as he pulled off pieces of clay

Inside the clay figure was a hu at all the clay figures Two hundred dead people?

Carlos continued to pull chunks of clay off the skeleton "It’s hard to tell what the cause of death was, but if this is a vampire cave, then all these people were probably o in and never come out"

"I doubt all these people wandered into the cave I think they were already dead and encased in clay when they were brought here"

She nodded "And the entrance was booby-trapped to keep anyone frohtened and looked around the large cha very ritualistic about the way the bodies are arranged so neatly into rows"

"Like an ar in the far wall "Look"

Carlos took her hand, and they walked past row after row of dead people encased in clay They ascended some stone steps, then entered another room It was small, dark, and cold

Caitlyn shivered as she scanned the rooht Three stone slabs were raised like altars, and on top of each one lay a clay figure

Carlos approached the first one The clay had been shattered, as if soe A skeleton’s rib cage lay broken inside

"Sory," she murmured

Carlos pulled off sory?"

She leaned closer, aiasped It was green, caed material like they wore in the army "He’s a soldier"

Carlos broke off s and held theulped "There were some soldiers from the Vietnam War ere never found, but this is a ways from Vietnam"

"Not very far if a vampire teleports you here" Carlos strode to the second altar "This one is destroyed, too"

"I don’t understand" She followed him "Once the vampire has fed off these people till they die, then what use are they to hio to soto preserve the?" Caitlyn eyed the shattered clay "He certainly got angry when the preservation didn’t work"

Carlos nodded "I have a feeling all these bodies were part of an experiment One that failed"

She walked to the third altar "The clay on this one is intact"

"Not for long" He tapped his flashlight on the clay till it cracked, then peeled back a piece

She gasped There was a body inside A full flesh and blood body "Is he alive?"

"I don’t see how he can be" Carlos ripped off larger chunks of clay

She helped him, and soon they had the ues from the tip of his hat to the soles of his black ar, athletic build

"He’s a s "Russell Ryan Hankelburg"

She touched his shoulder It was still firm "How can he be dead for so many years, but not decay?"

Carlos studied the soldier "I’ve seen this before When a vampire transforms another into a vampire, he drains all the blood from his victim and puts him into a coma"

"This is a coma?"

Carlos nodded "But the vauy’s been waiting since the Vietnam War"

Goose bumps prickled Caitlyn’s arms "Forty years? Why would a vampire put a man into a coma, then abandon hius We’ll have to hike back to the village so we can use our cell phones"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>