by P. T. Hylton
They entered the wide area where Mark and Aaron waited, surrounded by over one hundred of their soldiers. The rest of the army must have been searching the tunnels, Firefly figured.
The large, circular room had a raised walkway around the perimeter. The rest of the room was an open area, presumably where rainwater gathered, fed by the three smaller tunnels before flowing out of the larger fourth. Two sets of stairs led up from the main area to the walkway.
The two masters stood on the raised walkway, their backs to the wall, observing the room in front of them. From their perch, they could clearly see the entrance to every tunnel.
As the vampires carrying Firefly entered, the Resettlers all raised their weapons.
“Don’t shoot!” the vampire carrying Firefly’s legs shouted. “It’s us. And we have Firefly.”
Mark and Aaron squinted down at Firefly’s sorry condition.
“What the hell happened to you?” Aaron asked.
Firefly tried his best to answer but he was still unable to speak with the gag shoved down his throat.
Mark said, “Get that crap out of his mouth and get the metal bars out of him.”
The soldiers did as they were commanded.
Firefly groaned in pain as they pulled the metal rods from his arms and legs. As soon as they were out, he tried to stand, but he quickly fell back down. The gunshot wound in his shoulder was already nearly healed, but his legs and arms would take longer to recover.
One of the soldiers, a man Firefly recognized as Dustin, pulled him to a standing position and helped him maintain it.
Mark frowned down at him. “Give us a report, Captain.”
Firefly told them how he had located Jaden and his team, along with the GMT from New Haven.
At the mention of the GMT, a murmur ran through the room. Every one of the Resettlers respected the GMT, and most were just realizing they might have to fight them. Jaden and his vampires were an unknown quantity to the majority who hadn’t faced them the previous night, but all of them knew the GMT. And they were clearly afraid.
After Firefly explained who the GMT were to Mark and Aaron, the two vampires scoffed.
“Vampire hunters, huh?” Mark asked. “Please. They’re human. We have nothing to fear from them. Tell us what happened next.”
He told them how he had killed Robert, which brought a smile to their faces, and how he’d been captured, which removed those smiles. He explained that the GMT had left the tunnels and was headed back to Agartha.
When he finished, Mark turned to the soldiers who’d brought Firefly back. “How did you manage to rescue the captain?”
One of the soldiers responded, “We heard them coming down one of the tunnels. As soon as they rounded the corner, we opened fire and they dropped him.”
“Nice work. At least someone around here can do something right.” Mark glared at Firefly.
Aaron thought for a moment. He looked at the soldiers who had brought Firefly back. They must have been around twenty years old, and they didn’t have the look of battle-hardened warriors. “Doesn’t it seem a little strange that these children got the drop on Jaden and his vamps? And that he’d abandon his prize so easily? Something’s not right here.”
As Aaron finished speaking, something whizzed through the air and landed with a metallic clink in the middle of the room.
Every eye turned toward it, spotting the grenade a split second before it exploded.
As soon as the grenade exploded, Jaden surged forward, rushing through the tunnel and into the room where Mark and Aaron’s vampire army was gathered. He quickly scanned the area and saw the effect of the grenade he’d thrown was even more devastating than he’d expected.
Alex had given Jaden the grenade as well as the tracker. As much as Jaden enjoyed keeping things simple with his sword and his fists, he had to admit that a little technology was nice to have occasionally. After the infestation and the complete failure of technology to save the humans, Jaden had soured on it, but perhaps it was time to give human tech another chance.
He’d instructed his vampires to avoid killing the Resettlers whenever possible, but it looked like the explosion had taken out at least one of them. Eight others were on the ground with various injuries. Apparently New Haven’s brand of grenades were quite a bit more powerful than the ones Jaden had used back in the pre-infestation days. They must have an excellent weapons department turning out all these little gadgets.
The rest of the vampires inside the room reeled, momentarily stunned by the thunderous explosion on their already daysick heads. It didn’t feel so great to Jaden either, but at least he’d been prepared.
Two guards stood between him and the main part of the room, and they’d been far enough from the explosion that they still had their wits about them. They raised their weapons as Jaden charged.
Even though the purpose of this mission was to save the Resettlers, Jaden knew he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this without hurting a few of them. He held a sword in one hand and his other one was empty. He swung at the guard on the left, and his blade cut cleanly through the vampire’s wrist. The hand fell, and Jaden snaked out his own hand and snatched the gun before it hit the ground.
The other guard trained the barrel of his weapon on him, and Jaden had no choice but to defend himself. He quickly removed the vampire’s head.
His way cleared, he spun toward Mark and Aaron. He’d only get one chance at this. Though it was Alex and the GMT’s job to take care of Mark and Aaron, Jaden wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by. He rushed forward, bringing the pistol he’d stolen up as he ran. He took aim at Mark and fired.
A vampire leaped into the air, throwing herself in the path of the bullet. The round struck her in the chest and she tumbled to the ground. Jaden fired three more rounds in quick succession, but two vampires dove in front of Mark, protecting their master.
Jaden cursed silently. That was it. He was out of time. If he messed around in here much longer, the vampires would swarm him. As it was, he was already going to have a difficult time making it safely back into the tunnel. Thankfully, every eye in the room was on him now. Attacking one of their masters had been an excellent way to get their attention.
He turned and booked it toward the tunnel from which he’d emerged. Every vampire had been focused on staying between Jaden and the masters, so his path was clear. He quickly reached the tunnel and ducked into it.
“Get him!” Mark screamed. “There are over a hundred of you. Take him down!”
The rumble of one hundred pairs of boots hitting the ground in unison shook the concrete.
“Time to move,” Jaden said as he reached his waiting friends.
His vampires fell in step behind him, racing down the tunnel. Only Natalie held back for a moment, peppering the approaching vampires with gunfire to keep their interest and sell the retreat.
As he was running, Jaden heard Aaron calling in the distance.
“Wait!” the vampire master yelled. “This could be a trick. You twelve, stay here and protect us in case Jaden doubles back.”
Damn, that wasn’t good. Alex and the GMT’s job had just gotten a whole lot harder.
Though trusting humans to come through in a pinch hadn’t always paid off for Jaden in the past, he didn’t see how he had much choice this time. He raised his radio to his mouth. “Alex, we got most of them out, but twelve are hanging back with Mark and Aaron.”
“We’re on it,” Alex immediately replied. “You just keep moving. See you when this is done.”
Jaden clipped the radio to his belt and hoped the GMT was as good as they thought they were. They were about to face fourteen vampires.
In the distance, Jaden heard a howl. Dozens of more howls responded to the call.
Those sounds could only mean one thing. The Ferals were joining the fight.
“Blow the lid off, Wesley,” Alex ordered.
Wesley hesitated just a moment, scanning his teammates to make sure they were
in position. “Fire in the hole.”
He hit the detonator.
A massive explosion rocked the street, sending asphalt and concrete shooting in all directions. It rained down around the GMT like hail. They all huddled behind cover and waited for the debris to stop falling.
Alex ducked her head out and saw Wesley’s explosives had succeeded in opening a massive crater in the road. As the last rocks clattered to the ground around them, she called to the team. “Let’s move!”
She didn’t have to ask twice. They’d grown antsy listening to the explosion and gunfire below the street as Jaden drew the soldiers away, and now they were primed for battle. At Alex’s orders, they sprang into action.
Patrick pulled aside the manhole cover and disappeared downward, Chuck right behind him. Wesley and Owl ran down theirs as well.
Alex was about to start down her manhole when she glanced at the hole in the pavement. Part of the street had collapsed, forming a ramp down into the storm drain. “Ed, follow me.”
She ran to the top of the ramp and started downward. The scene below was chaos. Vampires darted around, confused, dodging the thin beams of sunlight that made their way down from the street. Others were struggling to free themselves from the rubble under which they were pinned.
All that was to be expected, but there was one thing Alex hadn’t expected, and it took her a moment to process what was happening. Dark figures were pouring into the room from the tunnels, attacking the vampires.
Ferals, she realized. The Ferals were attacking.
She saw two figures standing on the raised walkway, dressed differently from everyone else. Rather than the Resettlement outfits, they wore clothing Alex had seen on the vampires working in Agartha.
These had to be Mark and Aaron.
The vampires who’d turned Firefly and so many others. The vampires who’d caused all this trouble, who’d forced Firefly to kill Robert. The same vampires who’d killed Drew outside Agartha on that evening that felt so long ago now.
She jumped from the ramp onto the walkway. Then she raised her pistol in a two-hand grip, took aim at the taller of the two vampires, and fired.
23
As the world exploded around him, Firefly struggled to his feet. It was incredible how fast his limbs were healing after being impaled mere hours before. He might have taken time to marvel at this occurrence if the ceiling wasn’t caving in.
They were under assault from all sides, it seemed. First Jaden had lobbed a grenade into the middle of the room, hacked at a couple vampires, and run back out again. Then Mark and Aaron had ordered him and eleven others to stay and protect them. Another huge explosion had rocked his already throbbing head. Then Ferals had poured in from all sides, and—most shockingly of all—the GMT had dropped in from above.
Firefly leaped into action, his body moving without thought, his injuries forgotten. His masters were in danger, and he would tear his own body to shreds if it meant obeying his orders of protecting them.
Instinctively, he grabbed the weapon off the vampire who’d been killed by Jaden’s grenade and raised it, preparing to fire at the nearest threat. It was Patrick, that obnoxious shotgun-toting GMT member, scurrying through one of the manholes above and down the ladder. Firefly gritted his teeth as he took aim, knowing he had no choice but to fire on the man.
But then something strange happened. Out of his periphery, he saw a Feral rushing in the general direction of Mark and Aaron. The urge to destroy this Feral was just as strong as the urge to destroy Patrick. Both posed a serious threat to his masters, and each needed to be eliminated.
The order he’d been given had been to protect his masters, he realized. Mark and Aaron hadn’t instructed him to focus on any target in particular. And in the gray area of that order, he found something he’d never expected: he found free will.
He spun toward the Feral and fired, putting a round through the creature’s head. No sooner had the first Feral fallen than he saw five more charging down the tunnel behind it.
To his right, he saw Owl and Wesley climbing down another ladder, and he felt the urgent tug of his body wanting to destroy them. But he quickly realized that if he kept his focus on the Ferals and imagined how much damage they could do to Mark and Aaron if they reached them, he could overcome the urge to go after the GMT members.
He truly believed the Ferals posed just as great a threat to his masters as the GMT, and that made all the difference.
As he took down two other Ferals, he saw some of his soldiers going after the GMT members. He had to find a way to stop them without disobeying orders.
“Resettlers, listen up!” he shouted. “We’ve been ordered to protect our masters, and our masters are in danger from the Ferals. Protect Mark and Aaron! Kill the Ferals!”
The soldiers looked at Firefly, some of them seemingly surprised by the order. A few of them nodded, understanding what he was trying to do. But all of them turned their attention on the Ferals and fought back the wave pouring through every tunnel.
Alex steadied her pistol and fired again, sending a second slug into the tall vampire’s chest. He staggered backwards, struggling to maintain his balance, but after a moment he toppled onto his ass.
As he fell, she risked a look around. Firefly and the remaining Resettlers were focused on the Ferals pouring into the room. That was the good news. The bad news was that most of her team was as well. They were all fighting to keep the seemingly endless tide of Ferals from making it into the room and destroying them all.
“Mark!” she heard the other vampire master cry out.
It was always good to know who you were killing. Alex turned back to Mark. He was still on the ground, which was a good sign, but there was no way in hell she was going to assume he was dead until she’d removed his head from his shoulders.
As she raced toward him, she saw something in her periphery: a Feral leaping at her.
She spun, raising her pistol and putting a quick two rounds in the creature’s head. Her shots were effective, killing the Feral, but that didn’t stop its forward momentum.
The Feral’s corpse slammed into her chest. She tumbled backward, going over the railing and tumbling off the raised platform where the vampire masters stood. She hit the ground below hard, the heavy, rancid creature landing on top of her.
There was one rule that applied to fights of every scale, from sparring matches in the GMT training facility to massive battles with undead hordes in the storm drains under the ancient city of Denver: you never wanted to find yourself lying on your back.
She struggled to get out from under the dead Feral. To her right, she saw an especially large Feral loping toward her, its teeth bared.
A gun nearby fired three times and the running Feral went down. Owl lowered her pistol and held out a hand to Alex.
“Guess I’m good for more than just flying the ship after all,” the pilot said with a smile.
“I never doubted it for a minute,” Alex replied, taking her friend’s hand. Owl pulled, and Alex managed to wriggle out from under the dead Feral.
When she got to her feet, she looked around and took in the chaotic scene. Firefly’s vampires were still focused on fighting the Ferals, but more and more of the mindless creatures were making it into the room now.
She looked to her right and saw the last vampire guarding the tunnel go down, overwhelmed by five Ferals piling on top of her. The eight Ferals behind them pushed past, their eyes fixed on Alex and Owl.
“Shit, heads up, Owl.” Alex raised her pistol with one hand and drew her sword with the other. She knew eight Ferals would be too much for the two of them, but there was no way she was going down without taking as many of those bastards with her as possible.
The sound of automatic fire came from her left, and three of the Ferals went down in a hail of bullets. Then a shotgun blast took out two more.
Alex turned and saw Patrick, Ed, Wesley, and Chuck all converging on the spot where they stood.
“Circle
up!” Chuck shouted. “I want every quadrant covered!”
The four of them stood back-to-back, unleashing death to any Ferals who approached from any direction.
A wave of pride ran through Alex, but she pushed it aside. There was no time. If they survived this, she would let them know how amazing they were. But there was a lot that needed to be done before that could happen.
She glanced up at the platform where the masters stood. She couldn’t see either of them from her location. “Cover me, Owl.”
“You got it.”
She dashed up the steps, and as she reached the top, she saw Mark lying where he’d fallen after she shot him. Aaron, however, was nowhere to be seen.
She heard a snarl from behind her.
“Alex, look out!” Owl shouted.
Alex turned just in time to see Aaron flying at her.
She raised her pistol and squeezed off two shots. The vampire moved with uncanny speed, dodging the first shot completely and moving out of the way of the second far enough that it just barely grazed his arm.
And still Aaron came.
From below, a Feral leaped up at her, but it fell before Alex had even fully registered it, a bullet hole in its head. She’d have to remember to thank Owl for that one later.
Alex trained her pistol on Aaron again, but before she could fire, he was on top of her. He lashed out, knocking the gun from her hand. She let it go, shifting her sword to a two-handed grip.
Aaron let out an animalistic snarl and drew back his hand.
If he’d thrown a simple punch, his quickness probably would have allowed him to land the blow, but drawing back his hand telegraphed the motion to Alex. He struck hard, clearly trying to quite literally knock her head off, but Alex was ready.
She sidestepped and the strike went wide, missing her completely. He was momentarily off-balance, and Alex was not going to let an advantage like that slip by.
She brought her sword up, swinging at his neck.