Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) (31 page)

Shadows danced around the figure as those lights that
still cast their glow around the square swayed in the rising wind.
It was difficult to be sure, but it looked like the figure was
female. As the figure darted towards the cage he saw the large
rifle slung across her back and he cursed. That’s the bitch that
nearly took my head off. He signaled for his men to kneel, brought
up his own weapon and took aim. The train could wait a few
minutes.

There she is, Rodgers felt his heart skip as he saw
Dee burst from the shadows and cross the square toward him. He shot
up and waved as he turned back toward the others for a moment.

“Dee’s here!” he shouted and then the sound of
gunfire snapped his head back towards her just in time to see her
fall to the ground. He screamed and ran toward her, taking only
enough care to follow the noise of the gunfire with his eyes as he
ran. In the far corner he could see small spits of light from a
number of weapons as they continued to fire towards Dee. He
couldn’t be sure but he thought there were three of them, and he
opened up with his XM8 and sprayed the entire area around the
thralls with a deadly hail of bullets. He didn’t care that most of
his bullets went wild as he ran. He had to get to Dee.

The spurts of light seemed to stop as he had reached
Dee. He dropped his weapon as he fell to his knees and gathered her
in his arms.

Angelo threw himself to the ground as bullets flew
past. Shit, I didn’t see that other guard. He heard his own
soldiers grunt behind him and then they both fell to the ground.
One of them simply slumped forward, dead before he hit the ground.
The other one rolled around and screamed in pain for a moment
before he too stopped moving. Angelo paled and looked over at the
bodies. He saw bullet holes stitched along their chests and legs.
Painful yes, but nothing that should have killed them that quickly.
And Peters had screamed as if he had been torn apart. Angelo felt
fear grip him. Bullets shouldn’t kill thralls that easily. Just who
are these guys?

He saw the human fall to the ground and bend to hold
the female. He watched as the man frantically checked the woman for
wounds and then grinned as he pulled her still body towards
him.

Wouldn’t want to leave you all alone now, he sneered
as he lined up his sights.

Warkowski saw Dee fall as he reached the end of the
alley. His first impulse was to run out to her, but the thralls
were still firing so he held back and brought his rifle forward
from its sling on his back. Suddenly he heard an agonized cry and
he saw Rodgers bolt from his position and run toward her. He saw
Rodgers fire on the thralls and was surprised to see two of them
fall immediately and remain still. He frowned at their quick deaths
until he realized that Rodgers must have used his special
ammunition. It was worth noting that the thralls too were
vulnerable to their special ammunition—very vulnerable, from the
evidence. It would be worth mentioning that to the others.

Warkowski brought his rifle up to his shoulder and
used its sights to sweep the area more closely. He saw three
thralls flat on the ground. Good, he nodded and then lowered his
rifle and hurried out toward Rodgers and Dee.

Rodgers ripped at Dee’s jacket and pressed
cold-numbed fingers to her throat as his eyes swept her body to
judge the damage. She wasn’t breathing, he thought with a hollow
feeling, and then he saw her eyelids flutter. He still couldn’t
feel a pulse but his hands were so cold that he abandoned the
search and gripped her hand instead. He looked into Dee’s eyes and
felt a tear drip from his eyes.

“Where are you hit?” he asked as he grinned like an
idiot.

“That’ll do your reputation no good at all,” she
smiled weakly as she brushed away a tear.

“Shush.” He smiled, feeling relief flood through
him.

Just then he heard the metallic click of a magazine
being slammed home. He heard a shout to his left and he looked up
with a sudden feeling of dread. One of the thralls was still alive
and was already preparing to fire.

Warkowski screamed a warning but the thrall was
already firing before Rodgers could react. Bullets struck him,
rocking his body with each impact, and Warkowski watched as if in
slow motion. He heard Dee scream, first in shock and then despair
as Rodgers slipped away from her. The thrall stopped firing for a
moment, taking the time to lower his angle of fire. Bullets
stitched along the ground and then Dee’s body began to convulse as
he found the range. Warkowski drew his pistol and screamed his rage
as he ran forward, pumping shot after shot into the thrall.

The bullets each hit their target and the thrall
collapsed, but Warkowski continued to pump the trigger until the
magazine was empty. By the time he reached the thrall all that
remained of his head was a wet pulp.

Warkowski forced himself to calm down, and then
crossed to where Rodgers and Dee lay. He knew long before he
reached them that he was too late. He only took a moment to look at
them and tears flowed freely down his cheeks as he saw their hands
still firmly clasping each other. And then the square erupted in
more gunfire and he ran as fast as he could toward the train.

Harris saw the thralls spread out into the square,
ripping down the barriers that had only hours before held nearly a
thousand humans captive. Warkowski was still halfway across and
bullets sparked in the night as they slammed into the ground around
him. Harris laid down covering fire but there were far too many
thralls. He glanced quickly behind him but there were still too
many prisoners waiting to be loaded onto the train, and Sandra and
the others were far too busy to help.

Harris glanced over the far side of the square and
saw the still forms of Dee and Rodgers on the ground. He felt his
stomach knot. It was all happening again, he thought and a
demobilizing fear began to spread through him. He couldn’t see his
friends die, not again. It just wasn’t fair. He continued to fire
at the darting shapes of the thralls, but he was reacting to their
movements after they had already moved rather than anticipating
where they were going. All he was doing was wasting ammunition. He
had to get his head straight. They were so fast, nowhere as fast as
the vampires, of course, but faster than he could track.

Harris was overwhelmed by the impending defeat, and
it slowed his own reactions. He kept darting his attention behind
him to check on the train, and then when he looked back to the
square the thralls had advanced far further than he would have
thought and he lost more precious seconds as he tried to find them
again. His mind was flooded with doubt as his past defeat and the
death of those he was responsible for threatened to immobilize
him.

Just then Warkowski grunted and fell forward to the
ground.

“Noooo!” Harris screamed as images of the dead
flooded through him. The faces of friends, their features cold and
still in death flooded his mind. Images of the world as it used to
be fought with those of the hell they lived in now. He looked from
the still forms of Dee and Rodgers to the figure of Warkowski, and
his mind threatened to shut down. Suddenly he saw a flicker of
movement from Warkowski, and then the big man tried to rise.

Harris’ mind suddenly cleared. He could still save
Warkowski and Sandra and over a thousand others. He forced down his
doubts and concentrated on what he could control. He felt a peace
flood through him for the first time in years. He loaded a new
clip, noticing that it had red tape around it, denoting that it was
one of the specially coated ones. There was no time to change it
now. He ran out into the square towards Warkowski, firing as he
went.

With his mind now clear he was able to fire more
effectively, and he saw a number of the dark shapes fall as the
stutter of the XM8 bucked in his hands. He reached Warkowski and
bent down to check his wounds. On one level he noted that the
thralls that went down tended to stay there, whereas he was used to
them rising again quite quickly as their rapid healing kicked in.
But he did not have time to dwell on it.

Warkowski had been hit in the side and was bleeding
heavily, but he was conscious. Harris grabbed him and pulled him to
his feet, ignoring the man’s grunts of pain. Bullets shattered
concrete around them as Harris struggled with Warkowski as he made
his way back to cover. They were still thirty yards away, but the
thralls were gaining with no covering fire to send them diving for
cover. Harris felt a bullet tear at his ear and felt warm blood run
down his neck and soak his collar. Another bullet slammed into his
shoulder and he fell with Warkowski and both men cried out as they
hit the ground. The mad chatter of machine guns and bullets
striking concrete suddenly stopped as thralls rose to their feet
and fanned out as they approached them. Harris groped for his
pistol as his XM8 was tangled around his back and Warkowski was too
heavy to move to bring it to bear.

He pumped shot after shot at the thralls, but they
didn’t do any good. He even saw some of them smile as the bullets
hit them. The low caliber bullets were more of an annoyance to them
than any real danger. Warkowski had passed out and Harris was
helpless as the seven thralls drew closer.

Suddenly the night erupted once again with gunfire,
but this time it was the thralls who screamed. Bullets stitched
among the remaining soldiers, splitting flesh and sending blood
spraying outward. At first the thralls staggered back and grunted
as the heavy caliber bullets tore into them. One or two even fell
to the ground under the relentless assault of fire, but then they
steadied themselves. The fire behind him suddenly stopped as the
shooter reloaded and the thralls brought their own weapons to bear
and began to fire.

Then the strangest thing happened. The thralls began
to drop their weapons and clutch at their wounds in agony. They
screamed terribly and tore at their wound, ripping at their own
flesh in their frenzy to get the bullets out. Harris looked back
and saw Sandra slam another magazine home and then send another
hail of fire into the thralls.

As the last one fell Harris finally freed himself
from Warkowski’s weight and struggled to his feet.

“I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” she
smiled, but her eyes held a deep worry as she saw the amount of
blood staining his clothes. He didn’t have the energy for a
response and motioned for her to help him with Warkowski. As they
finally got him to his feet they heard an explosion only a short
distance away. One of Sherman’s traps, he thought with a sinking
feeling.

“Come on,” he urged, “there’s more of them on the
way.”

Wentworth heard the explosions back toward his own
lines and called one of his lieutenants over. He was about to send
him to investigate when his scouts returned and announced that Von
Kruger’s main force had arrived. He quickly forgot about the
humans, there would be plenty of time when he had finished with Von
Kruger.

He had deployed his vampires in different tiers,
keeping his older and more battle-hardened vampires almost three
hundred feet above his main forces. Their orders were to circle
above and attack from behind when the main forces were engaged.
Wentworth did not have as many older vampires so he had to rely on
guile. He also had two other detachments far to the east and the
west hidden on the ground and waiting for his signal. The air was
filled with the scent of death and blood from the battlefield
below. It was so intoxicating that he was constantly at war with
himself as he felt himself pulled to abandon his plans and just fly
straight at his enemy and rip and tear until only one of them was
left. He knew at one level that this way would mean certain defeat
and death. But the lure was strong regardless and he had to
constantly hold his forces in line as they too threatened to
abandon their orders and lose themselves to their base natures.

He strained his eyes into the night and could see the
darkness seething ahead of them with countless dark shapes. Von
Kruger and his vampires were flying straight at him in one huge
mass of power. For a moment he felt fear grip him. There were so
many. He knew that Von Kruger had more vampires than he did, but
the sheer reality of his forces was shocking. Von Kruger had never
been a great tactician, but the bluntness of his assault was
worrying. He couldn’t be that confident of victory that he would
attack with such an obvious approach. What am I missing?

Von Kruger lost himself in the scent of blood that
rose up from the ground below. Even from this distance his senses
could pick up the scent in the air, and his mouth grew wet with
anticipation. It was intoxicating, and he relished the carnage to
come. He had formed a number of plans and strategies before he had
left, but now that he was here and could see his enemy swoop and
jostle for position ahead of him, he allowed his instinct to take
over. He drove forward with a passion and anticipation that he had
never felt before. This, he thought, was what vampires were born
for. There was a nagging at the back of his mind, something to do
with the low numbers of vampires ahead of him, but then the scent
of blood grew stronger and he lost himself to the moment

They crashed through the first line of Wentworth’s
vampires like a sledgehammer. Von Kruger saw many of his vampires
sweep through and past the enemy force as they misjudged their
braking in their eagerness to join the attack. He lost sight of
them as they continued forward and rode the air currents upward. He
lost sight of them as they disappeared into the darkness and then
he dismissed about them as he attacked the first vampire he
saw.