Return of Victory

by Justin Sloan

  The two ducked through metal doors into a corridor and ran, looking for a spot to lie low long enough for their bodies to at least heal partially. The sounds of pursuit came from behind, so Valerie tried the closest door. It didn’t budge.

  Robin looked around desperately, then pointed and said, “There!”

  She led them to a counter, which the two jumped over.

  “What’s the plan here?” Valerie asked, noting that Robin had unslung her rifle.

  “We don’t often sit back and shoot our pursuers, but since my arm hurts like shit and your back has two red eyes staring at me every time you turn around, I think it’s time.”

  Valerie couldn’t argue that, but when she tried to unsling her own rifle the bullet wounds hurt like hell.

  “I don’t suppose you could…”

  Robin grunted and grabbed the strap, simply cutting it instead of trying to unsling it. Handing it over, she nodded, then took aim at the doors.

  A second later they burst open and Nosferatu streamed in. Bullets kept them at bay until the rifles got low on ammo, and by then the pile of Nosferatu was fairly large. It wouldn’t keep them away for long, but for now it’d work.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” Robin voiced the concern Valerie had been having this whole time. “If they’re here, why all this? Wouldn’t they be at risk too?”

  “Maybe they’re a couple floors up?”

  “Or maybe they set us up.” Robin emptied her clip, reached for another, and found she had no more. Narrowing her eyes at the doorway, she asked, “How well do you actually know Micky?”

  That wasn’t a bad question actually, but Valerie shook her head. “Diego, Cammie, the others…they vouch for him.”

  “After knowing him for many years, I’m sure.” Robin gave her a doubtful stare.

  “No way. I’ll prove to you this wasn’t a betrayal.” She stretched, glad to feel the pain at least starting to subside. “You coming?”

  “We aren’t healed yet.”

  “And I won’t wait that long.” She started walking, pulling her hip pistol to shoot through the door as one of the Forsaken showed his face. The shot hit him between the eyes and he fell back.

  Valerie ran through the halls, up more stairs, and through more corridors shouting for Lady Woo.

  “Show yourself,” she said, and each time she said it her heart filled with that much more doubt. Finally she just stopped. “I won’t accept it!”

  Robin pulled her around. “Two things. The longer you take to accept it, the more danger others could be in.”

  “And the second?”

  “Do you smell—”

  “Gas…” Valerie finished the question, processing it as she spoke.

  “The window!” Robin shouted, and pulled Valerie with her. They dove out of the hallway into the closest room, and threw open the curtains to find that, in their haste, they had forgotten about the bars on the windows.

  Valerie spun, looking for an option, and was about ready to try kicking out the bars when a young man entered the room. He had a receding hairline, black hair, and narrow eyes that seemed to be in an eternal frown.

  “So, you two made it.”

  Valerie and Robin shared a look of confusion, then turned back to him.

  “I’d hoped you would, or rather, my mother did.” He smiled, hand on the room’s light switch. “You see, I told her… I fucking told her I could do one last thing useful in this life.”

  “And what would that be?” Valerie asked. “Because if you think you have a chance here, you don’t.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “But don’t you see? It’s already over. For me it’s been over for some time—nothing they can do once they find the lumps. But for you? You were dead the moment you became the monsters you are.”

  “We’re not monster—”

  Valerie’s words were cut short by the man flipping the switch as he closed his eyes, a wide smile on his face. Instant explosions rocked the building, including a ball of flame bursting from the walls to fill the room. With vampire speed Valerie grabbed Robin and ran for the barred windows, throwing herself at them with such power that they gave. They fell to the ground below, Valerie clutching Robin to her front as she positioned herself to absorb the impact.

  She landed on the same shoulder that had taken the impact on the bars above, and a piercing pain filled her as the shoulder bones cracked.

  “Ahhh!” Valerie screamed, still rolling, then stopped to kneel and rock back and forth at the pain.

  Robin went to her side and tried to help her to stand.

  “I can’t,” Valerie shouted, holding her shoulder and turning back to watch the flames shooting out of the windows above.

  “Val, we have to! If Micky was behind this, what about Garcia?”

  The pain was certainly still there, but for a moment it was pushed aside by a sudden fear for their friend. He had come to the city to help them, and for all they knew they had left him surrounded by enemies with a betrayer at his back.

  Coursing pain threatened to dull Valerie’s senses as she stood, but she managed, her body still healing from the bullet wounds and now repairing a broken shoulder. They ran in the direction of the Pod, but as they rounded the building there was a new explosion overhead, then another that sent a chunk of the building flying out to nearly hit them.

  It sounded like firecrackers going off in there, but Valerie knew it was likely explosives and munitions left to be caught in the fire and help finish her off in case the fire didn’t.

  Robin had fallen while dodging so Valerie helped her up with her good hand, and the two made it back to the front of the hospital. Before them the ground was covered in dead bodies, some human and some not.

  When they glanced that way, the Pod was shaking. Finally it fell over, and they saw the reason: Garcia and Micky were struggling, fighting. As they watched, Garcia pinned Micky to the Pod. He landed a couple punches before the ladies reached them and then Valerie took over.

  With her good hand she snatched Micky away from Garcia and demanded to know what happened.

  “He wasn’t actually shooting at them,” Garcia said, nearly out of breath. “I noticed toward the end, then saw him about to turn on me.”

  “And he led us here,” Valerie added. “Which begs the question…why?”

  Micky opened his mouth as if to argue, and but his eyes filled with tears. “Bullshit! I swear to God, or the gods!”

  “Calm the hell down and tell us what’s happening?” Valerie demanded, pushing fear into him. She took a deep breath, focusing so that she could tell if he was lying. “Were you behind this?”

  “No. But Arturo…he’s where I got most of my information. I hadn’t thought about it. I mean, he was like a brother to me.”

  “That semi-brother nearly got you killed,” Robin stated.

  “I’m not buying it,” Garcia countered. “You came at me.”

  Micky shook his head. “You and Arturo… I started piecing it together when the fire started. That he’d turned on me. I figured you and he… Maybe…”

  “No,” Valerie looked him dead in the eyes, “Garcia’s legit. I trust him and the Colonel who sent him, so I’m not buying it. But if what you say about Arturo is true—”

  “We have to get back.” Garcia finished her sentence, face turning pale even in the darkness.

  Valerie hung her head, trying not to think about what she might have done by rushing off like this, what damage might already have been caused because she trusted so easily. Everyone had always told her it was her weakness, and now it might’ve bitten her in the ass.

  “I’m not accepting yet that Arturo is on the other side,” she stated, slowly looking at each of them. “But I agree that there has been false intelligence given, and I admit that I acted rashly. I’m sorry.”

  “There’s no need for that,” Robin replied. “First we deal with the situation, then we worry about who was behind what.”

  Garcia nodded, still cautious
ly watching Micky. Valerie joined the sergeant in staring at him.

  “You’re not off the hook yet,” Valerie said to the large man, although the energy coming from him told her that he was telling the truth. “I hope my trust in you was founded, but we’ll talk some more after this. In the meantime, you’re going to have to stay out of it.”

  “My friends and family are back there, possibly at risk of death, and you want me to stay out of it?” He tried to get up, to resist her strength, but after a moment he quit. The ferocity was still in his eyes, however. “Would you be able to do that?”

  She licked her lips, shook her head, and frowned.

  “Robin, what do I do here?”

  “What?” Robin stared at her, baffled.

  “I’m too trusting; I know that. Usually I think it’s a part of me I should embrace, but I might be slowly learning that there’re limits to that. I want you to tell me what to do here.”

  “You can’t seriously be considering letting him fight,” Garcia argued. “What if he was behind this?”

  She breathed deeply and turned to him. “I told you I can read emotions, right? Almost like thoughts. We’ve directly asked him, and he denied it. When he said he didn’t do what you thought he did, he was telling the truth. And he has a point. If I were to tell him not to fight and then someone he cared about was killed, that would be the same as me having killed that person, as I see it. I know you are suspicious, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.”

  “I was shooting at them, Garcia. You have to believe me,” Micky pleaded.

  “Your aim just fucking sucks that bad?” Garcia demanded.

  Micky cringed, then shrugged. “I’m not saying I was scared, but… When I’m under pressure, sometimes it does.”

  “Well, fuckity-fucksticks.” Garcia kicked the Pod.

  “Hey, careful with that,” Valerie snapped. “We’re going to need it to get back in time.”

  They looked from her to the Pod, doubtful.

  “Will it make it that far?” Robin asked.

  “Only one way to find out,” Valerie replied with an ironic grin. “Faith.”

  “Also known as trust, in a sense.” Robin chuckled. “Oh, boy.”

  Valerie cautiously released Micky, then turned to Garcia. “Are we good here? You boys going to play nice?”

  Garcia considered the question, then nodded. “You say he’s good, Val, I say you’re good for it.” He extended a hand to Micky. “Friends?”

  Micky chuckled. “No fucking way. But two-guys-who-don’t-like-each-other-a-whole-lot-right-now-but-can-fight-together-and-maybe-be-friends-again-someday?” He shook the hand. “Sure.”

  “I’ll take it.” Garcia ran a bloodied hand through his hair, not realizing that he was getting gore in his mane. “Damn, I almost killed you.”

  “And once again, Valerie saved the day.” Micky chuckled as they all got into the Pod. “Let’s hope it stays that way. Saving the day, I mean. Some people back there might need it.”

  “We left them in good hands,” Valerie countered, glancing at him as she slid into the pilot’s seat.

  “Yes, but how many of those hands actually belong to other side?” Micky asked.

  “Dammit.” She made sure they were buckled in securely, considering that there were no doors, and then started to lift off. “And Fred?”

  “Let’s keep our fingers crossed for Fred,” Garcia replied. “Right now we have to ensure New York is safe.”

  Valerie nodded, and began maneuvering the Pod toward the city. It didn’t work perfectly, more than once faltering in its forward momentum, but overall they progressed in the right direction.

  Fred could still show up with others at his side to join New York. It was possible. She hoped a whole army showed up with Fred carrying Lady Woo’s head on a platter, but doubted she’d be so lucky.

  The only lucky things she could see right now were that the city had walls, and that Cammie, Royland, Davies, and some other smart and powerful people were there to keep it safe.

  She hoped.

  Just then a buzzing reminded her that the comm device had been left in the Pod. She ducked down, pain shooting through her shoulder as she picked it up. She cringed.

  “Hello?”

  “Val, thank goodness!” Sandra’s voice came through, crackling. “Get back here. They’re in the city!”

  “We’re on our way,” Valerie said, and pushed the Pod for all she was worth as the comm device clicked off. “Sandra? Sandra!”

  No response.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Outside New York

  Cammie was standing around with Royland and some of the new fighters in the ruins just outside New York, telling the story of how she had met Royland and about their first sparring match.

  “And when I saw the way he moved, I knew I had to get him in the sack,” she finished, giving him a loving look. She didn’t understand why he rolled his eyes and blushed.

  The fighters busted up laughing.

  “We thought you were going to tell us about the first time you realized you loved him or something,” one of the women at the back of the group called.

  Cammie chuckled. “Ohhh, well, I mean, that wasn’t nearly as eventful. If you all could’ve been there to see how he—”

  “Okay, okay, that’s enough.” Royland had stood and was waving to everyone to keep their cool when he stared past them and said, “Oh, shit!”

  He was looking at the city.

  Cammie spun to follow his line of sight, and that was when the sound hit them. An explosion and a burst of light came from HQ, and then it started to fall—at least the top of it.

  “How the…” Cammie started to ask, but was cut off by battle cries and gunfire from the hills.

  She turned that way and saw the armies charging down at them. These weren’t just the people who had scattered earlier; there were at least three times that many. And if she was seeing right, they had a line of wolves and even some tigers in the lead. She wouldn’t be surprised if the fast-moving people right behind them were vampires, though there were fewer of them.

  With a glance back at Royland she yelled, “Let’s fucking do this!”

  “You don’t want to get behind the walls?”

  “Honey, think ‘WWBAD.’ Bethany Anne wouldn’t hide behind walls. She’d bitch-slap the hell out of these ass-munchers for daring to attack us. Am I right? Now pull yourself up by the balls and let’s go!”

  She charged, her two short blades in hand.

  When Royland caught up to her he shouted, “We’re going to have to do something about your foul mouth when you get excited, especially if you ever want to have a dog around the house. I don’t want him learning to talk like that.”

  “First, everyone knows bitches are better. Second, I’m pretty sure dogs can’t talk.”

  He shrugged and went into full-on killer mode.

  For their part, most of the people who had switched sides remained loyal now. Some ran and others held back to look for cover among the ruins, but most moved forward toward the fight.

  About halfway to the enemy Cammie noticed a shape in the distance moving their way, and for a moment wondered where the enemy had gotten a Pod. Then she saw Valerie hanging out, shooting her pistol at the enemy below.

  Only, as the Pod drew closer, it became clear that it was beat to hell and had no doors. What had they been through?

  Having spotted her, Valerie brought the Pod down and shoved it over so that it could act as a barrier as their foe charged into the open. Royland took a spot behind it and started shooting, Micky and Garcia doing the same, but Valerie and Robin went straight for Cammie.

  “What’s happened?” Valerie asked.

  “The explosion. HQ…” She pointed back. “I saw it go.”

  “Sandra called and said the enemy was in the city, but since then I haven’t been able to get through.”

  “The water,” Robin said.

  “What?”

  Robin just
pointed, and both ladies turned to the south where a shape was visible moving on the water. Then another. And another.

  “Those fuck-faced mold-eating barf-holes!” Cammie shouted. She glanced around, trying to figure out their next move.

  Valerie’d had the same reaction, but she stopped, put a hand on Cammie’s shoulder, and said, “Can you hold them off?”

  “What? I mean, yes. Hell yes!”

  “Do it. We need the outside of this city safe, and I’m leaving that up to you. Robin and I will clear it from within.”

  “We will?” Robin asked.

  Valerie nodded. “Know how to swim?”

  Robin blinked, then nodded. “Sure. Maybe.”

  “Time to learn.”

  And with that they were off, moving toward the water in the distance. Royland turned back, eyes wide.

  “Where the fuck are they going?”

  “Didn’t you say something about watching mouths?” Cammie replied, checking the enemy, who were almost upon them. “Those two will take care of whatever caused that explosion while we deal with this rat problem.”

  “So we get to be the exterminators,” he said, turning to unload several rounds before rotating back as some more came his way. With a glance at the sky, he added, “We better make it quick.”

  She frowned, then looked up and saw what he meant. While it wasn’t quite sunrise yet, the stars were fading and the darkness was turning to a silvery blue at the edge of the sky.

  “If it comes to it, get out of here while you can,” she told him. “If you’re back there in a house, you’re the best kind of insurgent should they overrun us. Out here in the sun you’re just dead.”

  He nodded and she cursed herself for not insisting he bring the sun suit. Oh, well, now wasn’t the time for second guesses—it was the time for killing.

  “Watch this,” she said with a chuckle, then ran and, using the Pod to vault, went high in the air to land right on top of the line of vampires, tearing into them with her blades. The lead Weres turned back to take her on, exposing their backs to Royland who followed her lead.