by Hood, E. B.
Over the hill in the middle of the graveyard, someone had yelled an order. The noise made an image in my head. There was a group of gunmen heading up to the top of the hill. There were trees and gravestones up there. Once they were in position, they could shoot us dead.
I looked over at Carrie. "Watch over David, Carrie. I have to slow some of them down."
I could see Lizzie with tears in her eyes. "Kelly, mom… gets ready. They're coming for us. We need… we need to fight."
They started to cast spells; now they understood what must be done. I just hoped they could do it. I flashed over to another set of gravestones. As I moved from stone to tree, to stone again, gunfire erupted. I had to move fast, as streaks of light flew by.
They were using tracer ammo; if they hit me, the bullets could ignite my blood. I moved quicker; by the time I reached the crest of the hill, the gunfire died away.
Whoever was shooting at me must have lost their line of sight when I reached the highest point of the graveyard. I didn’t have much time to think about it because, with my second sight, I could see four or five people working their way through the trees and gravestones.
They were heading right for me. I moved behind a stone so that I could surprise the first one. I could tell that they had rifles; I needed to keep them at close range.
The man walked right by me; he was moving like a soldier. He had an M16 assault rifle, and he appeared to be wearing some kind of body armor with a helmet. The man was in black, head to toe. Wearing black at night might work with humans, but I could see him like it was day.
He spoke into his microphone, "all clear, fall into positions." He said this quietly; he may as well have been yelling it with my hearing.
I flashed so that I was standing right behind him. Without a noise, I reached up and grabbed his head. With one strong, fast twist, his face was now looking at me. He grunted, but I gave it one more twist.
Snap… was the noise that came from his neck. His body went limp.
I was about to drop him, when my second sight caught movement from behind. I spun around using the body of the dead man as a shield.
Just in time, as a barrage of gun fire slammed into the dead man's body.
Soon as the gun stopped firing, I figured he was out of bullets. I snuck a look around the dead man's body, and the man in front of me was dropping his clip and reloading another mag.
I reached over the dead man and grabbed the handle of his rifle that had been hanging from his strap.
I fired… I was shooting without aiming; it was a good thing his rifle was loaded with tracer ammo. It helped me find the target; I put the stream of gunfire right into his face.
The man’s head exploded, and his body fell to the ground dead; I guess he should have worn face armor. No time to celebrate; I moved forward.
I dove behind another tree as a fireball whizzed by my head.
I was now standing next to the body of the man that I just killed. He had an array of weapons on him. Two weapons caught my eye, his reloaded M16, and a large knife strapped to his boot.
Using my second sight, I could see two figures moving toward me. The man straight ahead of me was the one who threw the fireball at me, he must be a wizard. The second one was trying to flank me from my left.
I went for the weapons.
Knowing that I didn’t have time to bend over and grab them, I tried something else. I did a cartwheel right over the dead man’s body. I placed my left hand on the handle of the rifle and my right hand on the handle of the knife. In one fluent movement, I landed back on my feet with weapons in hand.
I didn’t wait to even look around me; I flashed back behind the tree from where I just came out of.
As soon as I was safely behind cover, I watched as another fireball zipped by where I was just standing.
Then I could hear whoever threw that fireball let out a string of curses. She also yelled at the other man that I was now armed. Clearly the fireball shooter was a girl.
I flashed and moved behind some more gravestones. I could see, from my second sight, that the witch took cover when she saw me recover the gun. I took that moment to move; she didn’t even see me leave. Her partner just finished moving into a position behind a large gravestone, and he had his rifle trained to the tree I was just hiding behind…too slow.
I quickly moved, and, without a sound, right behind him, I put my hand over his mouth, and then pulled back his head.
With one fast motion, I sliced his neck open.
With blood spilling out, I couldn’t help myself. I bit into his neck and started to feed.
“Bitch!” I jerked my head up from the man’s neck to see who had said that. I had been too busy feeding and had not realized the witch had moved, and now we were staring at each other.
The witch was not in military body armor like the men, and I couldn’t see any kind of weapon on her... no knife, rifle or club; this made me more nervous than the heavily armed men. She was wearing all black: a shirt, skin tight jeans, and a leather trench coat that hung to her knees.
We stared at each other for a second more… then her lips began to move.
She was casting a spell.
I wasn’t going to wait to see what it did. I whipped my M16 up to my shoulder.
At the same time, she lifted both her hands up; for a mere second, I thought she was surrendering.
I didn’t wait to find out; I pulled the trigger.
The ground in front of the witch lifted into the air making a wall of dirt. My bullets slammed into the dirt.
The dirt fell back to the ground. The witch was still standing there. She should have used this moment to move. I opened fired again.
Her body fell apart. People don’t fall apart because of bullets, and there was no blood.
Damn it, it was a spell; I used my second sight… too late.
The witch was standing to my right. I turned my head only to see her push her hand at me. A wave of air hit me like a tornado.
I flew up into the air and violently spun around in a circle. Both my rifle and my knife were flung out of my hands as I flew through the air. My head slammed into something hard.
The world got blurry. I couldn’t see straight and was having a hard time moving. I couldn’t seem to find my legs. I clawed at the ground trying to find my equilibrium.
With my head lying on the ground, I was looking down a row of gravestones. There lay the dead soldier. Standing next to him, checking his pulse, was the witch.
The look on her face let me know that he was dead. The witch stood up and looked over at me with eyes of hatred.
Need to get up… the witch grabbed the gravestone and started to chant.
Need to get up… the gravestone in her hands turned to liquid and started to wrap around her hands.
Need to get up… when the witch stood up, the gravestone was gone, and the witch looked like a stone statue.
The world spinning had slowed, and I now could feel my legs; as I got to my feet, the stone witch was three feet away and swung her hand back. I readied myself for the first blow… I thought I was ready.
I had put my arm up to block her. When her arm made contact with mine, my arm broke. Then she punched me in the ribs with her other hand.
I could hear and feel my ribs break; I lost my balance and fell to the ground.
I rolled out of the way as she tried to stomp my face. Then, with all my speed, I jumped up and sidestepped her.
She swung but missed me.
Then I kicked her with such force she lifted off the ground and slammed into a gravestone.
She pulled herself up… and she was unhurt.
The next three minutes were much of the same. She was stronger and could break my bones when she hit me, but I was fast as lightening and healed too quickly to worry about a few broken bones. As we battled back and forth, I was trying to figure out how I was going to end this.
The stone witch grabbed me and tossed me through the air. That act did not hur
t me; I used my second sight as I flew through the air.
The fifth soldier that I had forgotten about had moved in to help the witch. When the stone witch threw me, the soldier threw a grenade. Their timing was good because I was going to hit the ground at the same time and spot as the grenade.
I didn’t have much time to think about it, so all I could do was react.
I had been thrown backwards; I should not have been able to see the soldier, or the grenade that he had thrown.
The next thing I did, they could not have been prepared for. I spun around mid air and reached out with my foot. My timing had to be exact. I cupped the grenade with my toes as I was spinning.
Like a super ballerina, I landed on my other foot; I was still spinning and kicked the grenade right at the face of the stone witch.
I fell to the ground as the grenade blew up inches from the stone witch’s face.
I stood up and flashed behind a tree before the soldier could even turn his head back to see what had happened. My timing had been perfect. The soldier turned and covered his face after he had thrown the grenade, so he never even knew what happened.
The witch was sitting on her ass, and the stone had broken off, and laying in pieces all around her. Blood was coming from her head as she moaned in confusion.
The soldier ran up to the witch. “You all right… what happened? How did you get hit?”
The witch was quick to recover; she squeaked out, “vampire…”
The soldier was a fool. I flashed up behind him, pulled his sidearm right out of his holster. Reaching under his arm, I stuck the gun in the witch’s face.
I pulled the trigger.
Her head whipped back as her brains blew out of it. As she fell to the ground, I pointed the gun straight up.
My arm was still under the soldier’s arm, so, when I lifted the gun straight up, it was pointing at the soldier’s chin.
The soldier said. “No…”
I pulled the trigger.
I took the next few minutes gathering weapons from the dead soldier. I had two hand guns with extra clips, one M16 with a couple of magazines; I also slid one knife in my boot and another in my belt. I wish I would have brought Ezra’s birthday gift with me.
I had worked my way right over the top of the hill. Now I was on the other side, and had no line of sight of David and the others. I started back to the peak of the hill; worry filled my head. I stopped and took two deep breaths. Ezra had drilled and drilled that worry, that emotion, would get me killed.
My worry made me want to run at full speed to check up on them, but I must step carefully. I have no idea how many enemies there are, or where they are. I let my emotions drain away for later.
I moved carefully toward the top of the hill, using my second sight the whole time. I kept whistling. I needed to keep alert. Good thing too; from my left, two more soldiers were coming. If I would have run up the hill, I would have run right in front of them. From the direction they were coming from, I believe they are the soldiers who were shooting at me when I was heading to the top.
I had all of the advantages; I knew where they were, and I knew where they were going. I changed my direction and moved to my left. I would let them pass right by. Then I would move up from behind and finish them quickly.
As I moved in this direction, the cemetery changed. It was newer, so the stones lay flat on the ground. This would make it harder. The only cover I had now was the trees, and they were fifty feet apart in some spots.
I flashed behind a tree and hid. The two men passed right by; I didn’t have time to waste. I moved out from behind the tree and took aim. With their helmets and body armor, shooting them in the back might not work.
I yelled out; the soldiers spun around. I fired.
I was a good shot; the first solider I killed with a small burst right in the face.
I turned my gun on to the second, and I was fast. I fired again, and this time something went wrong. My aim was dead on, and, at this range, less than fifty yards, I couldn’t miss.
If I hadn’t been shooting tracer rounds, I would have no idea why I missed. The bullets spun around this solider as if he were behind some shield. I emptied my whole clip, and this gave him time to fire at me.
The bullets ripped through my shoulder and part of my neck. I fell back onto the ground with a screech of pain.
The bullets hurt, yes, but they also burned. I rolled behind the tree as another spray of bullets hit the ground where I just was. I pulled myself up and leaned against the tree.
Lucky… lucky is my middle name. The bullets didn’t find bone, and he was also at close range using a high power rifle. The bullets passed right through my body, not having time to set my blood on fire. Ezra had told me this could happen but not to count on it.
It still hurt; it hurt a lot more than regular bullets. I could still feel where it burned me all the way through my body. It only took a few seconds for the pain and the bleeding to stop.
My rifle was out of reach, but, then again, it wouldn’t do any good against this guy. He had some kind of spell protecting him against bullets. Where could I get that?
I tried to stick my head out, but, as I did, he almost blew it off. Great, he can shoot. The nearest cover was fifty yards, and, even if I flashed, I might not make it, if this guy is as quick as I think he is.
He wasn’t moving in on me. I bet this spell doesn’t help him in close range fighting like with a knife. The question is how do I get that close without him blowing my head off?
Whatever the answer, I needed to figure it out quick. He will have reinforcements soon, and I need to check on David.
Worrying about David right now may be a bad thing according to Ezra, but it motivated me. I looked up into the big oak I was hiding behind, and I knew what I must do. I climbed fast but quiet. I moved around the tree and onto a large branch.
Now if the soldier was to look up, he would see me, but he wasn’t going to look up; he was using all his concentration on the base of the tree. He had to be ready because I could come out from either side of the tree.
I ran to the end of the branch. Then I jumped off and flew through the air. I spun around, and landed right behind the soldier.
He never saw me in the dark and I didn’t make enough noise for him to hear me when I landed. I needed to make sure I was well feed before I could go into the next fight, so I checked my second sight and made sure there was no one coming.
I grabbed his face, pulled him back and fed.
He tasted good; there is something about magic user’s blood. It has more kick to it than human blood. I was completely healed and feeling good. Grabbing his rifle, I headed back toward the original plan. I hope David and his family are ok.
I moved carefully to the crest of the hill. I came over the top and took cover behind a gravestone.
It took me a few seconds to process what I was seeing. There were no less than a dozen men with guns, plus four different people wearing trench coats. I couldn’t make out their faces; I was too far away.
In front of the gravestones that protected David, I could see Carrie standing. Around her feet four men lay on the ground. The four trench coats were heading toward her while the gunmen moved around looking for more targets.
It’s then that I noticed the other bodies. David's mom lay lifeless on the ground; only a few feet away I could make out the back of Kelly's head.
Then I saw her, Lizzie… her body was draped over a gravestone. A pool of blood was around the base of the stone.
She might be dead.
Things got a little blurry as my eyes began to water. I had to get a hold of my emotions; I could cry later. Lizzie is going to be fine; I tried lying to myself with no luck. I was trying to stay calm so that I could protect David and kill all these people.
"They had killed… they had killed Lizzie." As I whispered to myself, I could hear the pain in my own voice.
One of the wizards in the trench coat pushed his hands forward. Then a
beam of light came out; it was so bright. It hit Carrie, and she let out a scream, but it was cut off as she dissipated into nothing.
Now there was nothing or no one between them and David, and does that mean they had destroyed Carrie?
How could I get there in time to save David?
My worst nightmare was unfolding as David stood up from in between the gravestones. He had just awakened from Tony's spell and he was a little confused as he looked at all the men with guns. Then he looked at his dead mother and sister Kelly. His eyes swept around until they fell on his little sister’s body lying over the gravestone.
Then he just froze.
I was yelling in my mind, move, run, do something. I didn’t want to watch him die.
The next thing I did brought shame to my heart as soon as I did it. I lowered my head below the gravestone and closed my eyes. I can't watch them kill him, and it did not matter for I would be joining him shortly. I hope I see him in the afterlife.
All I heard was the sound of gunfire.
I heard screaming… screaming as if someone was in great pain.
Then I realized it was me.
I forced myself to be quiet; so much for being emotionless; I can't avenge David… and David's family’s death if I don’t get it together. I don’t expect to win tonight, but I will leave a pile of dead Order members before I die.
I started to lift my head…
Something hit me.
I opened my eyes and could see the stars.
I sat up quickly and looked around; all around me it was quiet. My M16 lay in the grass; all my other weapons were still attached to me.
What just happened?
Must have been some kind of spell; I was ready to come out from behind the gravestone and kick some ass. I picked up my rifle and got to my knees. I looked over at the gravestone where David was.
Everyone was starting to stand back up. David was still standing in the middle of the gravestones that I set up for him, and he was surrounded by ghosts. David was alive; my heart would have beaten faster if it could.
I looked a little closer. That’s when I noticed David's eyes were glowing a bright green. I noticed that the ghosts were the ghosts of his family. Lizzie stood in front with her arms crossed.