The Guard

by Harri Aburrow-Newman

  Glen was commanding here, and Michael and Nathan were now giving us regular updates from their positions at guard posts on opposite sides of the base, letting us know the general direction that the ferals that had gotten past, and there were a lot, were heading in. He was half sat on a table with one foot on the floor and the other swinging casually in the air, content to wait until the ferals got a little closer before he got into combat mode. He caught my glance as my pacing took me past him again and winked at me with a brief, crooked grin before going back to concentrating on the chatter coming through his ear piece.

  Only another few minutes went by before Glen hopped down off of the table and swung his gun around to the front of his body from where it had been resting on the table behind him. Every eye followed him as he took a few steps forward and then spun to address the room,

  “Ok ladies and gents, we’ve got ferals heading towards the building. I need you all to stay down and stay quiet. Do not panic, you’ve got the best bodyguards you could possibly hope for and you will be fine. Hokay?”

  He shot the civilians a grin, spreading his arms out in a typically cocky ‘no worries’ kind of gesture, before beginning to direct the soldiers into a basic reverse arrowhead formation, facing the door. I moved back towards Ysabel, weaving through the people tucking themselves underneath the tables with a nervous haste. She was still standing quietly, her eyes closed, tracking the ferals in her own way. I stopped just short of her, shaking out my wings and melding my mind with hers, gently so as so not to distract her. She spared me a slight smile before her face went blank with concentration again.

  Ysabel’s eyes snapped open suddenly and a look of horror crossed both our faces as we recognised the strange blank spot in the air that signified the presence of a first generation feral. We still hadn’t worked out a way into their minds, but that very fact meant that we knew when one was around – if there was a mind that wouldn’t allow us entry, it was a first gen, and trouble. This particular one was close; right outside the room.

  There was a faint skittering sound from the corridor, a slight scratching on the wall that was inaudible to the humans over the noise of the radios and the slight, involuntary sounds of fear coming from those under the tables, but Ysabel and I started forward towards the door simultaneously. We hadn’t even managed to take two steps before the door and a large area around it shattered inwards, blasted into chunks of plaster and brick by some kind of explosive that ripped through the room in a massive, breath-stealing gout of dust and shards of wall. The door itself broke into five large pieces and a host of smaller ones, which spun off in different directions like crude arrows. The largest piece whirled towards Glen, catching his upper chest and throwing him backwards off his feet. He landed hard, his head cracking against the edge of a table awkwardly with a sickening crunch before he hit the floor in a crumpled heap. The room was quiet for a moment, even the soldiers stunned by the explosion, as unexpected as it was. In that brief pause before the ferals flooded through the gap, Glen’s heart stopped beating.

  The absence of his heartbeat roared in our heads and as one, Ysabel and I turned to look at him, disbelieving. His face was turned away from me, but through Yzzy’s eyes I saw his… they were staring and glassy. Lifeless. A pool of bright, arterial blood was spreading beneath him from the wound in his unnaturally twisted neck, where an eight inch long splinter of the door had imbedded itself.

  Before we could properly understand what had happened, time resumed its normal pace and the room was filled with the rotten-blood stench and gibbering racket of the ferals, mixed with the screams of the people underneath the tables. They came through the hole in the wall in a crush, spreading out once inside and launching themselves at the nearest human. The soldiers, whose formation had largely been lost in the confusion of the blast opened fire indiscriminately, spraying the ferals unceasingly with bullets. Ysabel and I maintained our position guarding the panicked civilians, moving in perfectly coordinated circles around each other to create a moving barrier of blades and wings. When the first gen finally threw himself into the fray though, it all changed.

  It had once been a man that I had known, a human who had been brought up in the fold of the true vampires’ society and like Archer, one who I had rejected for the turning ceremony. Unlike Archer, it wasn’t because he was particularly unsuitable, just less suitable than the others available. Not that that made any difference now. He stood in the centre of the carnage, not even flinching as bullets glanced off his armoured torso and thumped into the unprotected flesh of his arms and legs. Only when one went clean through his skull did he react, blurring towards the soldier whose gun had loosed the offending bullet and removing his head from his shoulders with a disgustingly casual swipe of one outstretched wing, always keeping his demonic eyes on Ysabel and myself.

  We remained where we were, fending off the regular ferals from around the civilians, keeping a sliver of attention on the first gen as we did. I glanced over at him to see a smug smile on his face. He knew damn well that our priority would be protecting the humans. That was why they had been sent… nothing more than a distraction. A growl tore furiously from between Ysabel’s clenched teeth and I sensed her intent a millisecond before she moved out of our mini formation, throwing herself towards the first gen with a shriek. I lurched sideways to cover the gap that she had left in front of the humans, a wave of panic flooding me with adrenaline as she clashed with the vampire. There was no way she could beat him alone. I dithered for a moment as I caught the eye of one of the people under the table, looking up at me with horror written all over his features, before I dragged my gaze away with a whispered apology that he would never hear, and raced across the short gap to Ysabel.

  I darted between the two vampires and caught a swipe of the feral’s wing on my crossed swords, intercepting it as it drove towards Yzzy’s chest, and scissored my blades viciously, hoping to liberate it from his body but in fact just making a dent in the scales. He yanked the wing back and then straight back out again, striking towards my abdomen as he moved backwards slightly to allow himself more space to manoeuver. I hopped sideways, easily avoiding it, and my own wing swept around my body, the razor edge whistling towards his face with Ysabel following in its wake, arrowing towards him with talons outstretched. He jerked back away from my wing then twisted awkwardly to avoid Ysabel… she barely scratched him. He was scarily fast, even by our standards, and he knew it.

  We continued to dart around each other, laying scratches as we took them, but doing very little real damage. The battle raging in the rest of the room faded out and was ignored as we concentrated on breaking through each other’s defences. A scream cut through the room, more piercing than the rest, and my head whipped around without conscious thought, following the sound. One of the human women was being dragged out from under the table by a feral… I reached around to rip a knife from my belt and threw it towards the feral. I just had time to see it hit home in his back, although not deep enough to pierce his heart, before my own chest and stomach exploded in pain. Roaring, I jerked back, dragging the first gen with me, attached as he was by his clawed hand burrowing into my abdomen and up underneath my ribs. His murky red eyes had the gleam of victory in them. I felt my ribs shift and crack as I desperately tried to get my swords in between us, but he was too close. I dropped them then and my eyes rolled back as his talons grasped my heart and my body started to cease up, the agonising pain paralysing me, dulling my ability to think. Abruptly, and just in time, he was yanked away from me and flung back by Ysabel, whose blonde hair was drenched in red and half hanging off of her skull where she had almost been scalped during my momentary distraction. The vampire had been so absorbed in killing me that he hadn’t noticed her coming up behind him.

  Ysabel placed herself in front of me whilst I gasped, trying to catch my breath and fade out the pain as the vampire began his circling again, a disgusting parody of a grin stretching his bloody, fang-filled mouth. I reached out for Yzzy’s
mind and she yielded immediately so we merged further, her added strength giving me enough to get back to my feet. I scooped my swords up as I stood and cautiously moved so I was next to Yzzy and we turned as the vampire circled us, following him round. The carnage in the rest of the room was beginning to quiet down a little now, the majority of the ferals having been mown down as they crushed into the room through the hole left in the wall.

  The vampire shot in towards us and we leapt in opposite directions to avoid him, then closed back in rapidly with our wings spread, seeking to pen him between the two of us. He immediately realised what we were doing and jumped straight up, flipping backwards out of the circle we had created and onto one of the tables that had formed the humans’ flimsy shelter… Lexi popped out from behind him with a gun in her hand and sprayed his back before we could shout not to. He spun, furious, and made to swipe at her with his talons just as Ysabel and I automatically, desperately, flung our minds towards his. My heart sunk as I watched his movement almost in slow motion, expecting to slide off of the seemingly impenetrable barrier that surrounded him, but our merged minds collided with his and amazingly, stuck… scraping, rather than sliding off… I started, slightly shocked, and felt Yzzy do the same as he flinched, giving Lexi time to duck back underneath the table. Swinging around again, forgetting his human prey, he shrieked at us, obviously shaken as well.

  Rapidly, I ran through the possibilities of what could have changed… nothing came to mind until I realised I could sense that Ysabel was the doing the same. Usually, in combat, we didn’t merge our minds completely, preferring to maintain some distance so that we could focus on our separate battles, which meant that unless we were actively trying to, we couldn’t hear each other’s exact thoughts… but at the moment, because I had needed Yzzy’s strength, we were more closely linked than usual, so I could hear her… we looked over simultaneously, realisation dawning, and flung ourselves, physically and mentally towards each other, just as the vampire launched himself off of the table. We collided, the definite sensation of our clasped hands strengthening and quickening the fusing of our minds as we melded ourselves together completely, in a way that we had rarely done since our first bonding, and never in this kind of situation. Turning, we met the vampire’s dive head on as he crashed into us. Breaking apart slightly so he slid between us; we easily pushed aside his talons and wings, working in perfect, mirrored symmetry to use his own momentum to drive him headfirst into the wall. Grabbing hands again, we sent our minds as a finely honed spear towards his… it pierced the barrier that had so confounded us until now like it was paper and we drove mercilessly inwards, shredding the fibres of his subconscious apart as he screamed, clutching at his head and convulsing against the wall. He slumped, staring blankly as we imploded who he was, and Yzzy stepped forward, picking up one of my fallen swords and driving it downwards into his heart through the weaker scales above his collarbone.

  Chapter 45

  Michael

  The base’s voice had changed its tone now… the nerve-jangling noise of the ferals and the clattering of automatic weapons replaced by the more human sounds of hollered orders and the groaning of the wounded. I glanced around me, catching my breath as I observed the scattered bodies, both human and vampiric, and the dazed men who moved between them, checking for signs of life in both. I was shocked at the number of dead… the ferals, although still just the mindless animals we always fought, had seemed more organised than usual and had been more effective as a result. They’d known the perfect time to attack, exactly where they were going and what they’d encounter on the way. We’d been betrayed. But then they had just retreated, all at once, and my gut churned uneasily as I tried to work out why… with the number of them that had been sent, they could have killed every one of us.

  Nathan’s voice crackled in my ear, checking in, and I responded automatically. When he’d signed off, I sent out for Glen to check in. After a couple of minutes, during which I helped in throwing ferals into a heap for burning, there was still no response. Frowning, I pressed down on the transmit button, requesting again that he check in. This time my radio crackled with a response almost immediately, a voice coming in my ear… not Glen’s.

  “Michael,” Ysabel’s voice spoke quietly, “I’m sorry, Glen didn’t make it.”

  Everything seemed to slow down around me, leaving me with just a ringing in my ears... I waited for the grief to hit, but it never did.

  “I’m coming” I replied, monotonously.

  I left the post without a word to the men around me, who looked curiously at me as I walked away, feeling surreally hollow.

  I entered the battle-torn room slowly, the blown out wall and shredded bodies giving me pause… the remaining men and Ysabel were dragging feral bodies out into the corridor, and lining up those of the soldiers and civilians inside the room. I was appalled again by how many dead there were… this was all wrong… Beth was sitting on the floor in one corner of the room, her limbs slumped and her head leant back against the wall, her skin was so pale it had become slightly translucent; I could see the bluish veins under the skin of her neck and arms. For a moment concern for her almost made me forget what had brought me here in the first place. I was dragged painfully back to the matter at hand as I glanced over the rows of dead, my eyes coming to rest on Glen.

  Ysabel spotted me as I walked across the room, and joined me as I stood next to him.

  “What happened?” I asked her, my voice low, almost breaking,

  “there was a first generation,” she explained quietly, “so the ferals were better led, better organised… they used an explosive of some kind to blow in the front wall. A shard of the door hit Glen…” she tailed off for a moment, “it broke his neck, and he bled out in seconds; there was nothing we could do. I’m so sorry, Michael.”

  I glanced down at her, her light eyes looking back at me with obvious worry. I cleared my throat, averting my gaze from both her and Glen’s blood-covered body,

  “that’s why there’s been so many fatalities then? And there was only one of the firsts? Shit…”

  I swore as she nodded slightly,

  “He had been sent to kill Beth and I, and the thralls were meant to distract us. They won’t cause so much trouble in the future though… we hope, anyway. We found the way into their minds. Turns out being a bonded guard does have its advantages.”

  “Hm. Good. What’s wrong with her?” I jerked my head towards Beth, still prone against the wall. Ysabel cocked her head slightly, hearing something I couldn’t,

  “She says sorry she’s not come over… the first gen nearly took out her heart. Literally. She’s lost too much blood to heal.”

  Ysabel lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug, making me frown.

  “Why don’t you get her some of the bagged stuff from the hospital?”

  Her eyebrows shot up in a rare expression of surprise,

  “There are scores of injured humans. They may well need the blood a lot more than Beth does…” it was her turn to frown a little, “in any case, Lexi will be back soon and she offered to donate a bit to get her back on her feet… um, you know Michael, we’ve got everything handled here. Why don’t you take a break, grab a drink and something to eat?… just, let your thoughts settle.”

  I felt my own brow furrow as I processed what Ysabel had said, the words sinking sluggishly into me,

  “Lexi is donating some? I suppose that means she’s ok, at least. And I can’t just stop anyway, there’s too much to do.”

  I raised a hand as she made to protest,

  “Ysabel, really. I need to keep moving right now… if I stop, I’m not sure I’ll be able to start again.”

  I turned away from her and left the room without a backwards glance. The image of my best friend’s blank, lifeless face was already seared into my memory and I had no desire to refresh it.

  I stumbled out of the building and headed blindly back to the post I had abandoned to see Glen. Once there, the men largely left
me alone, just assisting me to move a body when needed. Obviously, the news of Glen’s death had travelled fast. We continued in that vein for another hour or so, subdued and tired… not sure if we had been victorious or not, until my radio crackled and Ysabel’s voice came through,

  “Michael? Beth is going to try something to see if she can get a bead on the traitor. We think we know who it is… do you want to come over here?”

  I felt myself frowning, wondering how they could know who the traitor was already… how they had even known we were betrayed, then almost immediately dismissed the thought as stupid. They could easily read the mind of anyone on this base without them even knowing it.

  “Sure, I’ll be there in five.”

  Beth, Ysabel, Lexi and a few higher ranked soldiers had relocated to another room in the building where they had been before… further down the corridor, away from Glen… Nathan came in shortly behind me, clapping a hand on my shoulder with a sympathetic grimace at me as he passed. Beth was looking pretty much back to normal already, sitting on the edge of a desk, swinging her legs. She hopped up when she saw me and was in front of me in a blink, her blue eyes shadowed with pain as she looked into my own,

  “I’m so sorry, Michael. Truly.”

  She reached out one hand, lightly touching my cheek before turning and heading into the middle of the room.