“Run for it!” Gabriel screamed, and lurched forward to follow his own advice. He had meant for them to run for the base, for cover, but when he turned to look, he noticed that Daina was sprinting through the broken gate.“Daina, no!” he shouted, skidding to a stop to turn after her.Gabriel, who was furthest back, also skidded to a stop. He waved Gabriel on and called, “Go! I’ll watch her!”“Gabriel!” Aliyah called, and tossed him her shotgun.He caught it and, to Gabriel ’s surprise, continued the motion into a graceful spin taking him out of reach of a diving gargoyle. He ended the spin by raising the weapon and firing it straight into the creature’s back. It crumbled just like the first one had, and about as quickly. Gabriel ran on past.“Look out!” Jay shouted, tackling Gabriel to the ground. A gargoyle swooped by, its claws ripping at the area where Gabriel ’s head had been just moments before. He had been so caught up in watching Gabriel, he had forgotten to keep any eye out
His voice was unusual. It boomed loud and angrily, bouncing off the walls almost as if in stereo. It seemed like two voices were coming out of his throat.“What?” Gabriel heard himself say, not fully cognizant in that moment of the fact that he even could speak.“Who are you?” the creature demanded. It had not moved from its original spot. The rage had left its features, and it now regarded them with the cold disinterest of a scientist studying cell cultures.“Who are we?” Gabriel echoed. “Who are you?”“What the hell have you done to this guy?” Jay asked, stepping forward to get a closer look at the person laying on the table. It was a second man. His skin had an uneven patchwork design to it as well, but he was perfectly still. “He’s dead!”With a speed that completely contradicted the façade of calm radiating off the creature it whipped up a large, serrated surgical knife from the table and aimed it straight at Jay’s chest. “You stay away from him! He is perfect!”“Perfect?” Jay
Only one of the creatures stepped into the room, though a thundering echoing down the halls told them that the other rooms were similarly being checked.They all hunched up as much as they could, trying to reduce their chances of being detected. They couldn’t see the creature, but they could hear it moving around. And they could hear its breathing… a strange, almost gasping sound like it was sniffing the air. Like it was a bloodhound on the hunt.Suddenly they could hear its footsteps pounding to the far wall of the room. It seemed as though it had detected something they had not. A moment there came an immense crashing sound, the clatter of which was so loud and so close by that Jake let out an involuntary squeak of alarm. She immediately clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide with the terror of what consequences her own actions might have wrought.Gabriel , sitting on the outside, dared a glance around the edge of the desk.The clattering sound had come from a large, met
They followed the maze of hallways this way and that, until finally they ran out of places to run. With no other options, they took the door at the end of the corridor with hopes to find somewhere to hide.This room already had several upturned tables, chairs, and desks, and Gabriel and Jay ran towards one, leaped up and over, and came down into a crouch on the far side.“What are we gonna do?” demanded Jay between gasps for breath. “We can’t keep running forever.”“No we can’t,” agreed someone.Gabriel nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun away from Jay, facing the other direction for the first time, and discovered the others of their group were already hiding in the room.“Christ!” he spat. “Like my nerves aren’t on end enough.”“How the hell did we all end up here?” asked Jay.“It just seems like all directions lead to this room,” Aliyah said, shrugging.“Anyone else get the uncomfortable feeling like we’ve been herded like cattle?” Mac asked.They sat in uncomfortable silence a
She quickly readjusted the gun and fired again.This time the bullet ripped up through the creature’s rib cage, along its chest, and out through its lower neck. The creature dropped her, reGabriel ng back and grabbing at the two new holes in its body. It seemed to be in pain, but it didn’t seem to be dying.Jake collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Her entire body ached from where the creature had been pressed up against her. She still couldn’t see, though she had trouble knowing if that was from the lack of oxygen or the darkness of the room.The creature recovered and turn to face Jake. A fire burned in its eyes. It stormed over to her, raising a fist to strike.The roar of a shotgun filled the room. The creature, already overbalanced as it prepared to strike, was knocked clear off the ground and crashed backwards into a nearby table.Mac lowered his shotgun and stepped over to Jake, offering her his hand. She took it and he pulled her back to his feet.“Metal Health,” Jay said
He paused and looked up at Gabriel , and then back down at his hands. “You were right. But there is too much blood on these hands. I am not a monster, I am just a man. Like all men, I am sick, and everywhere I go I spread that sickness. And death. I was wrong. This is not the flood of renewal. This is the end. The time for man is over. We belong dead. All of us.”He turned and stared at the others, who by this point had all recovered and pushed themselves back to their feet. He looked over each person one by one, until his eyes came to a rest on Mac, and Mac’s shotgun.“All of us,” he repeated, louder, and the words became a roar as he dashed toward Mac.Mac’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t hesitate. He raised his shotgun and fired. The blast hit Sgt. Moore square in the chest and sent him spiraling out of control. He crashed to the ground, obliterating some tables with his weight as he went down.It wasn’t enough to stop him, though. Letting loose another roar, he rose and again barre
“That’s it,” Gabriel said, breathily. “The vampire.”“What do we do now?” Jake asked, as they all stood there staring at the creature.“We need to kill it,” said Gabriel .“We need to draw blood,” Jay reminded, lifting up his case.“We need to draw blood, and then kill it,” Gabriel corrected. He paused for a second, and then turned to look at the others. “Wait a minute, what? Why are we drawing blood?”“Paul’s idea,” explained Jake. “Just in case your little ‘theory’ didn’t pan out. He said if he could get a sample of blood from the mon…” she paused, realizing what she was about to say, and swallowed hard. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “from Sgt. Moore, and from the vampire, that it would go a long way towards helping him figuring out a cure.”“Oh,” Gabriel said, nodding his head thoughtfully. “Smart.”“How do we kill it?” asked Mac. “Can we shoot it?”Gabriel shook his head. “If the mythology for vampires is anywhere near as accurate as it is for zombies, that won’t work.
He turned his single eye and glared at Gabriel . “Give in to your nature,” it whispered, hoarsely. “Kill me.”Something about the creature’s willingness to die bothered Gabriel , sending a shiver down his spine. He looked to the others, and they nodded their heads solemnly.“You have to,” Aliyah agreed. “If your theory is right, then this saves everyone.”Gabriel turned back to the creature and found it still glaring at him with that deep, red eye. Gabriel raised his chair leg and placed it, spiked end down, on the creature’s chest. He took a deep breath, raised his baseball bat up into the air, and then brought it down like a hammer onto a nail.“Can I just say that that was not what I was expecting,” Jake said.Gabriel wiped vampire blood from his face, and then stared at his hand for a long moment. Dropping his hand he turned and looked emotionlessly at Jake. “What were you expecting?”She shook her head. “I don’t know. I thought vampires were supposed to be… like… cultured? And