Bloodlines: Book Summary
The others jump out, leaving Ryan and J.B. behind to cover their backs against the attack of the Amazonian natives who are quite angry about the killing of their tribal leader, as well as so many of the elder members when they freed Jak from their clutches.
The natives are unable to get in without a huge death toll, so they pour gasoline into the redoubt to try and burn out them out. Ryan and J.B. enter the gate and jump out just in time.
They come around and discover that one of the natives nearly got into the chamber, as his hand is lying on the floor. They leave the gateway to try and locate the others, as they used the LD command to follow the group. They find the rest of the group a few minutes later after using a manual override to open the sec door to the rest of the redoubt.
The group waste no time leaving the redoubt, and they discover that they are in the swamps. Checking his sextant, J.B. determines that they are in the Louisiana Bayous, south of where Jak used to live.
While exploring, they find the corpse of a deer that was shot by one of the Japanese warriors, several months previously from the decayed state of the corpse. During the lull, they find themselves under attack from a group of muties that burst out of the dirt in which they were hiding.
The fight is brief and short lived. The muties are wiped out to a man. When the battle is over, they meet a man, Johannes Forde. He claims to be a film maker and would have loved to have been able to film to fight. They join him at his wag and learn that he found the film several years ago and has been travelling the Deathlands ever since, filming where ever he went.
Over a meal of excellently prepared gator stew, they learn about a strange family that controls the ville of Brampton. After hearing this, they decide to go and visit the ville the next day, as they want to get a decent night’s sleep first.
The next morning Dean is very lethargic, almost unable to wake up. Mildred examines him, unable to find anything too wrong, other than what appears to be a small bite mark in the crook of his elbow.
On the outskirst of Brampton they stop in a small shack. A huge ugly brute of a woman claims that she sells totems against evil spirits. They go inside to look around, Krysty and Mildred each take a trinket. They talk to the woman’s husband, and learn about the undead that haunt the swamps. She makes him shut up over it.
They learn a little more about the family that has a firm grip on the town and she wonders if Jak might not somehow be related to them due to the way he looks. When Mildred brings up blood, the woman goes crazy. The next thing they know, she opens up with a shotgun, hitting Ryan partially in the face. After killing the woman, they drag Ryan out and hit the outskirts of the ville.
When Ryan comes to, he finds that he is blinded. Mildred figures that he has a fairly good chance of regaining his sight, but she doesn’t know how long it will take, if ever. During the evening, Jak and Dean go into the ville to see where they can steal some food. They do manage to get some, but they let the others know that the ville is locked up tight for the night.
After another brief recce in the morning they head into the ville for a look around. They see few weapons, and notice that everyone is listless, even the animals are quite and tired looking. Forde offers to shoot some of the locals on film.
They get a room in a dingy hotel, where Ryan spends most of the day. That evening, after taking some film, the group heads down, even Ryan, to see it. Krysty helps him by describing what she sees. One of the more interesting aspects is that he has some film from just after the skydark, showing the ruins of Duluth, and the frozen lake near it. The film is in black and white and shows perfectly what the months following the skydark were really like.
The villagers are enthralled by the films until he pulls out a vampire film he made, which make the villagers freak out. Then, out of the blue Doc says that he believes he just saw a member of the family enter the building.
The man introduces himself as Elric Cornelius. He invites the group to come up to the mansion for supper. He suggests that they be there by six, and from the way he says it, it’s not a request, it’s an order. As he leaves, he licks a dab of blood off the sleeve of his jacket.
Outside, Forde takes pictures of the villagers, and even gets one with Elric in it. Bored, Krysty and Ryan go out for a walk in the swamps. They talk a while about his new found disability. For some reason Krysty leaves him alone near a old house. He is attacked by a horde of mutant rats and is barely able to stave them off. Krysty finally comes back to him and they decide to head back to the ville before anything else happens.
It turns out that they left too late. Krysty is attacked by a huge mutant Gator. Despite his blindness, Ryan jumps in after it, in an attempt to force it to drop her. Ryan gets it by the tail, and starts to climb it’s body. The gator tries to shake him, but he hangs on stubbornly. He stabs the mutie in the belly, causing it to drop Krysty. The gator then drags him into it’s lair.
Inside the lair, Ryan continues to fight it, finally killing it. He spends several minutes trying to figure a way out, and eventually swims out, but it almost costs him his life. Krysty finds him and is able to revive him. About an hour later they go back to the ville and join the others. By now it’s full dark.
Over diner, the mayor of the ville, John Winthrop comes to visit them. He warns them to simply leave the ville and never return. He says that family have been living near the ville for as long as anyone can remember, say’s that they have never changed. He finally leaves. After the mayor leaves, Forde shows the film he took during the day. To their disbelief, Elric doesn’t appear in the pictures. They then decide to go an pay the family a visit.
At twenty after ten they finally show up at the mansion. They meet the butler, a small pale faced man named Norman. He takes them up to their meal, which turns out to be one of the worst that any of them have ever eaten. Elric comes to visit for a few minutes, and apologizes for the poor quality. After that, they are shown to their room and get some sleep.
At seven thirty in the morning they are ushered down for breakfast. The food is a little better this time around, but it’s still not the best. Despite the poor quality, Forde digs in with gusto. He then makes the mistake of asking Norman what it is he is eating. He tells them that it’s coffin worm, and describes how they are created. He grabs his mouth and runs out, ready to hurl.
While the others eat, they look at some stained glass windows, that have something to do with redoubt 47. Once the meal is over, they are taken to the lounge to wait until the family are ready to meet with them. They are told that they can go anywhere, except for the attic and the cellar. They all find something to do, and Forde heads out to explore. A while later, he returns, fearful and excited all at the same time. He claims that he found something very interesting to film, and promises to show them it after the evening meal.
That evening, they meet another member of the family, Thomas. He comes out and asks them if they came from redoubt forty seven. They are so taken by surprise, that they can’t deny the fact, but they claim that they just happened to stumble upon the gateway and used it for the first time. Elric lets something slip about project Eternity, and Thomas forces him to shut up.
Everyone is given a drink, and the only one who doesn’t drink it is Ryan, who gives his to Krysty. The group go to bed.
In the middle of the night, Ryan wakes up, unsure what woke him. He tries to rouse Krysty, but she doesn’t, mumbling. While trying to investigate, Ryan finds himself under attack, by something vastly more powerful than he is. His assailant nearly kills him before he is scared away by Doc.
Jak and J.B. go to check out on Forde, and return with the news that he was brutally murdered, savagely beaten to death, and all his film equipment was destroyed. Only a few minutes later, Norman shows up, letting them know that breakfast will be ready in ten minutes time.
At the breakfast meal, they meet a third member of the family, a female named Mary. She boldly states that she might be able to do something his blindness, and insists that he comes with her. Before they leave, Ryan calls for a group meeting at noon time.
Up in her room, they force him to drink some drugged wine. He learns while they have him that there were originally twelve members of the family, and that over the years eight were killed. They were all created in the hidden laboratories located in Redoubt forty seven. After the talk, he falls asleep.
When he finally wakes up, he discovers that he is having sex with Mary, and can hear at least two others in the room, watching as she takes him. He is raped by the mutant woman.
Mildred is quite bored, so decides to go exploring. She finds a hidden library filled with medical text books and books on arcane black magic. A very disturbing combination. Returning to the others, they discuss what she found, and she brings up the fact that she believes that the family are genetically engineered vampires.
Once Ryan awakens again, Thomas takes him back down to the others, telling him that there are things about the group that they wan to know.
Norman lets the others know that Ryan is finally back, then they go meet him. Ryan doesn’t tell them about having sex, but he can sense that Krysty suspects. Ever since the rape, Ryan has been the occasional flash of light in his right eye, but he doesn’t tell the others about it. They share their theory’s about the family being vampires, and agree to leave at dawn.
While they are alone, Krysty confronts Ryan about the sex he had with Mary. He tells her that it was a rape, not sex, that the woman used him for her own. She’s angry, but eventually makes up and they make love three times.
The family decide to keep the group, wanting to use them for fresh genetic material. They take Dean from them to ensure that they will co-operate. They get together to make battle plans. They decide to attack right at midnight, when the family least expect it. Ryan confides that his sight is coming back faster and faster all the time.
At precisely midnight, they go on the attack. They head to the attic first, discovering that it is empty. They then go down to the cellar. The smell is so bad, they are nearly sick, but encounter Three of the family members, Thomas, Elric and Mary. Mary and Elric manage to get past, Mary taking Dean with her. Using the last of the thermite, J.B. created a bomb and shoves it in Thomas’s mouth, destroying him.
Krysty chases after Mary, cornering her. The vampire woman wants to fight, so Krysty calls on her mutie strength. She breaks Mary’s kneecaps, then crushes the vampires head under a heave table. She gets Dean and they head outside.
Elric encounters them, and brags that they are pretty much unable to harm him. Mildred shoots him through both eyes, knocking him over the cliff. Odds are quite good that he will not be able to regenerate from that.
They decide to head back to the redoubt. One the way down, they hide from a huge lynch mob, then make their way to the redoubt by dawn. Inside they prepare to jump out, when Melmoth, the eldest and sickest of the vampire family attacks, wrapping his fingers around his throat.
End of Bloodlines