Chapter Twenty-Two
I entered the room where we'd been disarmed. It was devoid of vampires. I ran across the empty space. Pain hit me like a hammer. The neural network was back on. I stood up on my tiptoes out of reflex. The prickly spikes of pain danced in my whole body. I fought to travel in the network. My mind was in a vampire. He had a gun in a holster. I drew it and blew his brains out.
Pain in my body increased, but I jumped to the next vampire. This one didn't have a weapon. I jumped again. The ones with guns I killed. In an instant, I was back in my body. The neural network was shut down. Four vampires were pointing guns at me and smiling. I paused for a moment. The guns were 9mm. They wouldn't penetrate my armor.
Erin's words echoed in my mind. Better to die in a hail of bullets.
I aimed from the hip and squeezed off rounds. The first vampire fell. The other three fired. One bullet went right past my head. Another hit me on the left bicep. The last two got me on the chest. My mind was one with the gun in my hand, and I shifted to the next vampire in the line, firing as soon as I was on target.
The second vampire fell. Two more bullets hit me on the chest. Impacts from the bullets were pushing me backward, but my arm didn't fail me. My gun moved to the third vampire, and two bullets hit him in the chest. Blood everywhere.
Another bullet went right past my head. The wind told me so. My right arm shifted to the last vampire. I smiled as I fired two rounds. The blood splattered out of the vampire in a big mess on the ground.
I looked down at myself. My brain was not at full capacity. Something about those white and blue pills made everything dream like. I think this is why I failed to take ammo from those corpses. I ran deeper into the mansion. One final door stood in my way. I kicked it in.
The two female vampires I'd seen before were resting on couches. Another male vampire was there. Dawn's medicine bag was sitting on an end table. I didn't see Jarken. My trigger finger worked the trigger, and two rounds blasted into the male vampire's chest.
I wasn't big on killing females, but they had guns in their hands and were aiming for my head. Two bullets went past my skull. I blasted the vampire on the right. Two bullets hit her chest. You don't really realize how much blood is in a human body until you put a bullet in one. I guess serial killers who use knives get the same effect.
Why I was thinking about that, I didn't know. What matters is I pointed my gun at the last vampire standing, and all there was, was a click sound as I squeezed the trigger.
The vampire laughed. She started squeezing off rounds like they were freebie lottery tickets. One hit me in the right shoulder. I did my best duck and run. She hit me twice more on the chest. I didn't slow. My mind was of a singular purpose. This vampire must die. When I was almost on top of her, my right arm pulled back then I threw it forward with all my speed and momentum behind it.
She dodged out of the way, but in doing so, she dropped her pistol. I didn't think to reach for the gun. Instead, I threw another right cross at her skull. She jumped to her feet and danced backward. Her hands went up in some kind of martial arts form. Both hands were ready to jab forward. Her knees were bent just a bit, and she was bouncing on the balls of her feet.
I put my hands up in a guard and advanced. Her left foot raged off the floor into my skull. I didn't block it in time at all, and a great shock went through my face. Her right foot was even quicker, but I didn't want to get kicked in the face, so my left hand intercepted that foot.
Her right hand was balled into a fist, and it plowed into my cheekbone just above my mouth. It hit hard enough to knock out teeth. I was not having a good day, and the medicine bag was right there.
I reached out with my left hand and pulled her guard out of the way. My right hand hammered into her jaw line. She fell. I knew she was knocked out. Her breathing was in shallow little breaths.
I didn't know if I could really do it, but she was a major threat. I grabbed up one of the pistols scattered about the room. Empty. Damn. I looked around, every pistol was empty. I didn't really want to try and kill somebody with my bare hands, especially not a female.
I picked up the precious medicine bag and turned to leave.
"Are you forgetting about me?" Jarken said from the other end of the room.
I really didn't have time for that asshole.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I set the medicine bag down and flexed my fingers. The knuckles cracked. Jarken rushed me. My right hand flew at his skull, but he ducked. He brought his knee up into my groin, and I didn't block or dodge. I simply wasn't expecting such a dirty trick to start things out. Pain raged in my nuts, and I doubled over.
He hit me right on top of my head, and a kind of shock went through my skull and spine. I fell. He kicked me over and over. I'd never been hit that many times so quickly. I just wanted to cover up and hide. Soon that bastard was on top of me. He had his knees on my arms and his hands on my throat. He was choking the life out of me.
Flashes of darkness danced in my vision. I knew it was the end. I had no strength left.
Owen's Siberian Husky came out of nowhere, growling loud, plowing into Jarken. The dog was biting and snapping. I breathed in air for what seemed like the first time in ages. Jarken threw the dog to the other side of the room with a whelp. I was on my feet in an instant.
My guard was up, and part of my eyes were on both Jarken's face, his hands, and his damn legs. I rushed forward. My left threw first, right ready to block. He caught my left hand at the wrist with both his hands and tried to twist me out of shape. My right hand was ready, and it pounded into Jarken's left eye. Boom. His head jerked back. He did, in fact, bleed red. I pressed the advantage with another solid right.
He seemed so focused on turning my left into a painful position that he ignored my right. Blood was pouring out of a cut above his left eye. I hit him again. He let go of my left and fell. I was on him in a heartbeat.
I accentuated each punch with words. "I... Don't... Have... Time... For... This..."
Pretty soon I was pounding brains. And a dog licked my face. I stopped to hug and thank the dog. I picked up the medicine bag and ran. My feet almost tripped over a dead vampire, one I'd killed in the neural network. I grabbed his gun and made sure a round was chambered.
The dog stayed at my side, and we ran. Nathan almost shot me. The dog ran up to him and sat at attention.
Nathan said, "Good boy!"
"You don't know the half of it," I said. I didn't really want to admit that the dog, who didn't seem to have a name, saved my life.
I handed the bag to Dawn. I wanted to sit down.
"You're not finished," Erin said. "It's time for you to tap into the neural network, and end this."
End it? End this how? "Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't know what you're talking about."
Dawn injected her with something. Her eyes closed.
Nathan looked me in the face. "You're dumb. Millions of humans are in cages, and you stand there like an idiot? Free them!"
I headed back to what seemed to be the main control room. Jarken's helmet went on my head. I threw the power switch. The neural network surrounded me. I spoke in a loud, clear voice. "Jarken's dead. It's over. Free every human in cages."
Strangely there were no protests. Vampires freed everyone. All across the globe, it was happening. What would happen next I didn't know? Could there be peace? I made sure I called home to stop the air strikes. The next day, Erin was up and moving. The consensus was we should stay there for a while. Bury our dead.
Nathan and I dug graves for Pup, Owen, and Henry. The vampires we burned. I spent as much time in the neural network as I could. The thing I noticed. When Jarken was alive, the neural network was filled with hate for mankind. With Jarken gone, there was peace and love in the network.
I didn't know what the future held, and I still didn't know if Erin and Nathan were lovers. Neither unknown bothered me. There was no more need for slayers in the world.
Author Bio
Geoff Port
er was born in Oklahoma. Then his family moved to Montana, and from there to Iowa, then to Minnesota, then to Florida, and finally he arrived at the ripe age of 11 in Dayton, Ohio.
Mr. Porter received his first computer at Christmas when he was 11, and he plotted and schemed to develop computer based games. The first piece of software he developed professionally was a chemical weapons attack simulator for the United States Air Force. Currently, he runs four internet based wargames of his own design.
He was first hospitalized when he was 19 and put on a vicious medicine called Haldol. He was then put on a cruel medicine called Prolixin. Finally, after years of using Geoff as a lab rat, they found that a combination of Lithium, Depakote, and new drug works best to keep him out of the asylum.
He spent one year in Twin Valley, Dayton's state run mental hospital. That's when he decided to start writing. To be a writer was always his dream since he was a little kid, but he never tried his hand at it until a doctor looked him in the eye and said, "You'll be in the hospital from six to eighteen months."
Geoff penned his first two novels in that time period using only pen and paper, Juxta, Magi and The Vampire Menace. After leaving the hospital, he penned a third novel. Getting stuff published was going nowhere though, and it dawned on him, Sinclair Community College. He met two highly skilled instructors there, Tim Waggoner and Ed Davis, and Geoff's work has never been better. He has since written four more novels.
Twelve of his short stories have been selected for publication, and he now runs his own fiction zine, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind.
Links to other Books:
Codename: Bear, Secret Agent
www.facebook.com/GCPWriter/ Author Facebook Page
Juxta, Magi (Epic Fantasy)
Winter's Line (Fantasy Adventure)
R.A.E.C.E. Genesis (Military Sci-Fi)
Zombie Flick, Horror Comedy
Evelyn's Book (Fantasy Adventure)
Bullets Will Work: A Vampire Slayer Novel Page 32