“What the hell?”
Meg’s voice over the radio caught my attention and I looked up. Rather than turning around and driving off as I’d assumed, cars were instead being parked as far off to the sides as possible. Glass shattered as storefronts were hit in what appeared to be a frantic attempt to clear the street.
That’s when I registered the rumbling again. A school bus rounded the corner some blocks distant. It was going way too fast for the turn, and two of its tires momentarily left the ground before it righted itself. A second followed, nearly slamming into the first as they straightened out and began to speed our way taking up nearly the whole street between them.
What were they doing?
Why school buses?
Oh God, no! Not kids!
They wouldn’t.
He wouldn’t.
My eyes opened wide in panic at first, but that’s when I realized my mistake. The buses, though familiar in shape, were the wrong color – white instead of bright yellow.
In that time, the two massive vehicles continued to accelerate. Was that their gambit? Were they trying to run us down?
Cold logic replaced panic and I grinned, noting that the police on the sides of the road were even now scrambling to regroup. So this was their trump card, an attempt to scatter us as we’d done to them.
Pathetic.
I strode forward down the middle of the street, passing the wounded, and letting my aura flow free. I began to concentrate, focusing as much power in front of me as I could. It struggled against my will to shape it, almost as if it were a living thing that refused to be contained, but I persisted.
“What are you doing?”
I ignored Meg’s voice and held out my blade in front of me, channeling my power through it to the point.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I glanced behind me. The Templar had wisely cleared the street. The two witches, however, were gathering power. I smiled back at them, having an inkling of what they were planning. I didn’t need their help, but the end result would surely be something to see, more than enough to drive the final wedge of fear into our foes.
“I hope you know what you’re...”
The device sparked and fizzled at my side, the raw power coming off me finally too much for the delicate electronics inside.
Seconds from impact, the doors to both buses opened and the drivers threw themselves out. I considered the irony. They’d left their own injured lying in the middle of the road, not caring if they ran them down like deer in the headlights, yet weren’t quite brave enough to see this through to its end themselves.
Pathetic and cowardly.
And then the buses were upon me, filling up my field of vision.
There was no time left to dive to safety. Had I been what I once was, I would have been doomed.
But I wasn’t.
I was the Icon, the last defender of humanity.
CHAPTER 27
I pointed my blade at the small space between the hurtling leviathans, but it wasn’t the sharpness of the sword I was counting on.
My aura, focused along the weapon, acted as a wedge of sorts, one made of primal power. The two buses hit it simultaneously with a screech of metal. Sparks arced across their exteriors as if they’d struck a power line, and then both veered off to either side as my energy repelled their momentum.
Bursts of red-tinted magic flashed in my periphery as the two vehicles canted in either direction, and I turned just in time to watch the one on my left flip violently over onto its side. Its front tires vaporized, and it crashed into the building nearest it, sending glass, metal, and masonry flying everywhere.
Judging from the noise and plume of smoke that followed, the one on the other side of me had met a similar fate.
Dust and debris filled the air, and I was forced to bury my mouth in the crook of my arm to stave off a coughing fit. An aura of faith was good for a lot of things, but it didn’t make for a particularly effective dust mask.
With my free hand, I reached down to grab hold of the radio before remembering it was now a useless piece of plastic. I’d never fried any electronics with my power before. Then again, I’d never poured out that much energy with anything more complex than my wristwatch on me. At least that was able to take a licking and keep on ticking.
It probably didn’t matter. Some of the Templar behind me carried them, and, even if not, Meg had eyes from above. I had to trust her to do the right thing if she saw anything amiss before my vision could clear.
Mindful of the wounded I’d stepped in front of to protect, I turned and made out a figure in the gloom kneeling over the cop I’d knocked out. The Templar were no doubt using the makeshift cover to clear the battlefield in case any more surprises arose.
I stepped over to help, ready to offer my assistance, but the words died in my throat as I neared them.
Even in the settling cloud of dust the blood splatter was readily apparent – staining the area around the body. Horrified, I watched as the figure scooped a handful of flesh from its victim’s chest and stuffed it greedily into its mouth.
My first thought was vampire, but that was impossible. The sun was shining. Then, I made out the creature’s nearly skeletal arms. Another zombie. But where...?
And that’s when it hit me. What I’d foolishly assumed was some desperate suicide run was nothing of the sort. Those hadn’t been school buses after all. They’d been prison buses, holding their captive cargo – cargo that, in my arrogance, I’d set free.
“Fall back!” I shouted too late. Already I could make out more of them shambling toward us. I looked up and saw them climbing out of a hole in the side of the bus nearest me. There had to be dozens, maybe more.
One stepped from the shadows the building afforded and into the daylight. Greasy black smoke began to rise from its head and shoulders, but the creature kept walking as if barely inconvenienced. Much like with my aura, the effect was somewhat muted compared to their masters. Although slower and weaker than vampires, that and their apparent inability to feel pain made them a threat to be reckoned with.
Alas, this was not the time to rue our lack of adequate knowledge. My aura was already burning brightly around me. Several of the undead shambled in my direction, seemingly attracted by it, but many more continued heading toward my allies.
“What the fuck?” Veronica shouted from somewhere.
Thankfully, the dust was finally settling. I made out the two witches standing several yards away. Red energy was gathering around them as a wave of the decomposing dead shambled in their direction.
Kelly saw me and waved. “You might want to get out of the way. We’re taking the safeties off.”
“Don’t worry about me.” I turned my attention to a group that had wandered close.
They ignited fully upon hitting my aura, but as before, that only slowed their advance. Where power might fail, however, steel was more than up to the task. Limbs flew as I swung my sword. If the zombies felt pain, they didn’t show it. Their end came as silent as their advance.
As if to fill the void of silence left by the undead, cries of panic and pain rose up from all around. At first I thought it was the Templar, but then I realized it wasn’t coming from the street. It was coming from inside the buildings the buses had slammed into. They weren’t empty, and presumably some of the undead had noticed as well.
Damnit! “There’s people in there!” I cried out.
“There’s people out here, too,” Kelly shouted back from somewhere near. A flash of bright red caught in my periphery. I glanced back to see at least half a dozen of the zombies either burning or lying on the ground neatly bisected. “We can’t help them if these things eat us.”
Sadly, she had a point. We needed to clear the street first if we were to have any hope of helping anyone. I said a silent prayer for those in the buildings around us, then resumed dismembering the creatures as quickly as I could.
We needed to be extra mindful on that front. Somehow,
these things could keep coming long after they should have stopped moving. If we littered this place with enough pieces, it could turn into a supernatural minefield.
Thankfully, I didn’t have a bunch of rank amateurs on my side. The Templar had joined the fray, hacking and slashing their way through the undead.
It was probably still a bit too chaotic for Meg to get a good bead on us from up above, and with my radio dead, I had no way of knowing where Bernadette’s group was. Hopefully, between the witches, myself, and a third of the Templar, we had enough to contain this mess.
It wasn’t going to happen if we were all fighting haphazardly, though. Magic, swords, and chaos were not a good combination.
“Form ranks,” I shouted, falling back despite making good headway through the horde of undead. This wasn’t the time to be the lone hero. Another beam of red hot power lanced out, missing the zombie it was intended for and fizzling harmlessly against my aura. “And let’s try not to shoot each other.”
“Sorry,” Veronica said.
Friendly fire was definitely a concern as the undead converged upon us, but it was the unfriendly fire I should have been more worried about. Just as we formed a defensive position, shots began to ring out again from up ahead. Two of the Templar at the edge of our formation cried out in pain and went down.
“Protect your brothers!” Vincent shouted to those nearest them.
Several of the undead converging on us were hit in the barrage, too, but they might as well have been slapped lightly in the arm for all the good it did.
“Oh my God,” I muttered as it hit me. That was the entire point of using the zombies. The shooters didn’t care if they hit them. They were expendable, cannon fodder to ensure we couldn’t properly fight back, at least not without exposing ourselves.
We’d set a trap, only to have one sprung around us.
CHAPTER 28
Once more, gunfire sounded from all directions.
Unfortunately, the element of surprise was lost, but hopefully the others were dug in well enough to continue to provide us with the support we needed.
We could still win this if we stayed focused.
But then, a roar of sound came from above, mocking my assertion. I turned my head skyward, already knowing what I’d see. A police chopper flew by and began to circle the surrounding buildings.
Vincent didn’t waste a beat. Before I could even open my mouth, his radio was out and he was screaming for Meg’s group to seek cover. Just as he finished, the rat-tat-tat of automatic machinegun fire began. Windows blew out, and plumes of dust rose as the tops of the surrounding buildings were peppered.
The rooftops weren’t their only target, however. The helicopter made another pass and then flew directly over us, continuing to spit lead-jacketed death.
I pushed out with everything I had so as to cover as much area as possible with my aura ... just barely filling the space in time as pinpricks of light appeared all around from the incoming barrage. Sadly, in doing so, I encompassed both the witches, causing their powers to fizzle out.
“Uh oh,” Kelly said.
“Sorry,” I replied.
“Not that, look!”
I glanced around, realizing that in shielding us from the machinegun fire I’d inadvertently set ablaze every zombie in the immediate area. It was bad enough that we were surrounded by walking corpses, but now they were also on fire.
This day just kept getting better. I could only pray Bill and his friends were having better luck. Unfortunately, that was all the thought I could spare their way right then.
More gunfire sounded from above, and I realized it was our people. At least some had survived the initial assault from the gunship and were fighting back.
“This strategy is not working,” Vincent said from my flank.
“What he said,” Kelly echoed. “We need to stop pussyfooting around here.”
I hated to admit it, but they were right. As much I wanted to believe I was here to destroy monsters, I had to come to grips that some of the people in this city were no better. They’d attacked us without mercy or regards to the innocents around us. The uniforms they wore were little more than a mockery of what they should have stood for.
“Bernadette?” I asked Vincent.
He shook his head. “I called her already. She was splitting her forces, sending half into the buildings to help any survivors.”
It was becoming painfully obvious that she simply didn’t have enough knights to both save the residents and keep the thralls pinned down. I wasn’t about to tell him to pull them back so as to save our asses from the fire, though. That went against everything the Templar believed and, despite our differences, it was one area we were in agreement on.
Noble intention aside, that still didn’t leave us in a particularly good spot.
“Fuck!” It wasn’t often I swore. I preferred to choose my expletives carefully. But if there was a time and place for such sentiment, it was now.
“No offense, but you’re not my type,” Kelly replied.
I chuckled despite everything. Gallows humor at its finest.
Again the helicopter’s engines roared overhead, immediately followed by the sound of more machine gun fire. I raised my arms, sword held high, and refocused on protecting those around me even as the Templar did their best to hack away at the burning monsters advancing upon us.
“I can’t do anything when you’re going all flashy like that,” Veronica complained.
“V’s got a point. We need to move out of range because your power keeps futzing with ours.”
I was about to tell them to see if they could do something to dissuade the renewed attack coming from in front of us, but then I remembered our wounded. Two were down, and it would be foolish to think more wouldn’t follow. Already the quarters were getting too close for proper fighting. The Templar could only cut down the undead so fast, and I couldn’t lower my shield without risking us taking fire from above.
“Clear a path for us back the way we came,” I said at last.
“What?”
“I want an escape route. Take care of any undead that have managed to flank us.”
Numerous eyes turned toward me, more than should have considering our circumstances. I stepped in to save one Templar from a zombie which took advantage of his momentary distraction, hacking it’s head off in one fluid motion before once again concentrating on maximizing my aura.
“This isn’t a retreat,” I said, through gritted teeth, “but we need options.”
Unfortunately, I was too late in my request.
Blue lights flashed behind us as three police cruisers rounded the block and boxed us in.
♦ ♦ ♦
Police or not, these guys were quick. They stepped from their cruisers and brought their firearms – assault rifles and shotguns – to bear as quickly as their vehicles screeched to a halt.
For a moment, the warrior spirit inside me rejoiced at the thought of continued battle. Then my eyes settled upon their weapons.
So many ... so close.
Though the death raining down from the helicopter was just as lethal, it had the benefit of distance, of feeling unreal compared to the many barrels staring us down.
I’d already experienced it once this day, the flash of a weapon’s impact, the blinding pain. My head was still ringing from it.
More importantly, memories of Remington began to force their way into my conscious mind, pushing the warrior to the side.
Not now. Please!
My aura began to collapse in on itself.
It could have been disastrous, but thankfully I wasn’t alone in this fight. As my aura pulled back to the area immediately around me, so too did the dampening effect on the witches diminish.
“You want a path?” Kelly said. “I’ll give you a path. Let’s do this, V.”
Veronica raised her arms, and another purplish half dome appeared just as the police opened fire.
I clenched my eyes shut, once again sh
amed by my weakness, doubly so because I knew with my power up nothing would reach me.
I was wrong.
As the barrage increased in intensity, a hand, burning hot, grasped hold of my wrist and twisted. I screamed in surprise and spun to find one of the undead had me in its grasp. Despite my aura practically melting the flesh from its bones, it was persistent.
A monstrous report joined the gunfire, and visions of the weapon Remington had used against me flashed before my eyes. Time seemed to slow.
A jolt ran through my arm like electricity. My hand seemed to open almost of its own accord, and I lost my grip on the sword. It clattered to the pavement where the glow around it died out at once. How...?
“Blessed One!”
I forced myself to focus on the immediate danger. My wrist was a charred mess, but it was about to get worse. Although its head was little more than a skull attached to a few strips of flesh at this point, the creature’s jaw was opened and it was preparing to bite into me.
No!
This was not an enemy I would lose to.
I yanked my hand back just in time. The zombie’s teeth clattered shut, missing my fingers by inches. My focus tightened until all that seemed to exist in the world was me and it. And I was not about to lose to this...
Something slammed into me from the back, driving me down on top of the burning abomination.
A voice screamed into my ear, “Get down!” a moment before a thunderous explosion of sound and heat drowned out everything else.
CHAPTER 29
Though I’d managed to save my fingers, the rest of my arm wasn’t nearly as lucky. A crushing weight pushed me down atop the now burning skeleton. Its teeth, still refusing to give up, sank into my left shoulder.
That in itself was bad enough. That the creature was on fire made it far worse.
Though it felt like the very Earth itself was rumbling itself to pieces around me, I was more focused on the immediacy of my rapidly blistering skin.
Enough!
A flare of anger translated into one of power. Though the zombie had been resilient in its efforts to attack me, it could only take so much. The skeletonized remains crumbled, and the creature finally stopped struggling.
Shining Fury: from the Tome of Bill Series Page 12
