by Justin Sloan
Now they’re in trouble, she thought as her dance began. All around them the other fighters surged forward, and what had been two sides exchanging gunfire moments before suddenly became the biggest brawl Cammie had ever been in. If she hadn’t been worried about the people she loved, she would’ve been having a blast.
“Behind you!” Royland shouted, and she turned to see a tiger leaping at her. Its claws took her across the face, but she spun with it and plunged both blades into its torso, pulling it open like a sack of toys. Gross, bloody toys.
A vampire had gone for Royland but he ducked the strike and came up behind it, snapping its neck before kicking the body away from him. He held onto the head, twisting again as the body fell so that the head and body tore apart.
It was sick, and yet…very hot.
Cammie went for a vampire then, but had to divert her attention toward a wolf that had started tearing into someone’s shoulder. She cut through it, but was tackled by its friend and her swords went flying.
Guess that means it’s transformation time, she thought, and became the large wolf, embracing her inner beast. With a growl she went at them, tearing and clawing and overall having a grand ol’ time.
***
Espinoza took another shot at the enemy below, but it was getting harder with all the hand-to-hand fighting down there. He glanced at his boys—they were just as restless as he felt—and then stowed the sniper rifle.
“You know, forget this,” he said, waving them to follow. “Grab one of those arc batons they showed us, a baseball bat, or whatever the hell your weapon of choice is. We’re not letting Cammie and Royland kill them all while we just sit here looking pretty.”
“Fuckin’ A,” Okeland said, fixing a knife onto the end of his rifle as they started walking.
“That’s your weapon of choice?” Espinoza asked.
Okeland smiled, showing off his front gold teeth. “You know it. I’m going back to the old days here, boss.”
“As long as it makes them dead, I’m all for it.”
He preferred batons personally, and took two. Others had already run out to join the fight, so the gate was open and they were able to move out easily enough. With a glance back, he saw Arturo lingering at the wall, looking out at the water.
“Arturo, you in on this?” he asked.
The man shook his head. “I feel compelled to keep the city safe, but I’ll cover you from up here.”
Espinoza frowned. To each his own.
He led them to the tipped pod where he had seen Garcia land. Best to join up with the only other FDG soldier here, he figured. They all charged, soon finding enemies trying to tackle, stab, and shoot them from all directions.
He was starting to wonder if coming out here had been a mistake when Garcia came up from his left, slamming the butt-end of his rifle into a forehead, then turning to kick another one back, where he got plowed through by someone else’s attack.
“Arturo,” Garcia shouted as he dodged a rock and then moved for cover behind the Pod, even though it was mostly surrounded now. “You seen him?”
“He’s back at the gate. What’s up?”
Garcia cursed and was about to answer when an attacker got him with a metal rod right across the head.
Micky was there a moment later, lifting his buddy from the ground and pulling him away from the chaos as much as possible, while Espinoza fought to keep the closest enemies back.
“He was asking about your buddy Arturo?” Espinoza asked, pulling out his pistol to shoot two down.
“That’s right. We think he might’ve betrayed us. He’s with the other side.”
“Bullshit! I saw him…” He thought about it as he fought. What had he really seen of Arturo, other than someone who liked to shoot people. To kill. Even when he was killing an enemy, Espinoza felt wrong about it. Even if he did enjoy it in some weird way, he still felt bad about feeling good.
But not Arturo, he had noticed.
“Shit, he’s back there.” Espinoza motioned to the gate.
Micky nodded. “I’ll take care of him.” He slung Garcia over his shoulders and took off toward the gate.
“Need any help?” Espinoza called.
“Nah, you just take care of these other sons of bitches. I’ll deal with that one.”
Espinoza got back into the fight out of necessity because he saw a woman with a scythe running for Okeland. He lifted the pistol and aimed and the first shot hit her in the ear, but then his gun was empty. The shot had been enough to distract her at least, so he pulled out the two batons and charged into the fray.
He was in his element. One he wanted to avoid as much as possible, but when he was in it? Damn, it felt good.
***
While the battle raged behind them, Valerie and Robin reached the edge of the water. A glance to their left caught her by surprise, because somehow there was a large head and two eyes staring at her—the head of the Statue of Liberty. She remembered seeing the headless body when she had first arrived, and had wondered.
Judging by the discoloration and barnacles, it had ended up in the water, but been recovered at some point.
“Whoa,” Robin said, and it almost made Valerie laugh. That one exclamation reminded her how young the woman really was.
Past the head there was a bit of a walkway they could use to reach the point where the small flat boats were docking. Two were already there, and three more were on the way.
“Looks like we won’t be swimming after all,” Valerie said with relief.
“We have a plan?”
Valerie nodded. “Girl, I’ve always got a plan. It just usually involves the following three-step approach: run over, kick some ass, and then kick some more.
“I’ve noticed.”
Valerie started to take a step toward the boats, but Robin held out a hand.
“You have a better plan, I’m guessing.” Valerie folded her arms, waiting. “Out with it, then.”
“I like your plan, don’t get me wrong, but what if one of us joins the crews that landed while the other stays behind to put a stop to the rest of them. That way the first person—I’m guessing you—moves with this group to connect with whoever they already have in the city, and gets rid of them.”
“It would save us from having to run around looking for them,” Valerie admitted.
“Trust me. I can handle the docks, you take care of your friends.”
Valerie nodded. “Deal, dammit. But once it’s over, join me at the wall to finish the fight out there. I want to preserve as many lives as possible.”
“Roger that, Chief.”
“Don’t call me that.”
They ran forward in a crouch, careful to avoid being seen. The night breeze was colder than usual, carrying with it the stench of death. Or maybe that was just in her head. Either way, she found herself scrunching her nose and trying to keep her footsteps light.
How odd, she thought, that I have never come out to this side of the city before. It looked different from here; taller and grander, except for the top of HQ where the fire was raging. It was only somewhat visible between two buildings from this angle, but it reflected on the clouds above.
As they approached the nearest boat, they saw that the three people emerging had their attention on the fire too.
Robin took out the closest and Valerie dropped the woman who was next in line. The third turned with wide eyes, mouth opening to sound the alarm, so Valerie leaped and crushed his larynx with a fist.
“Ouch,” Robin whispered as she watched him gagging, trying to catch his breath, and then falling back into the boat. They hastily followed him onto the boat to get out of sight.
Valerie quickly went through the crews’ belongings, dressing herself as they had. She even attached a weird sort of breastplate and shoulder guard like the guy had been wearing, figuring it could be useful for the fight to come. Although her shoulder was already starting to mend, she didn’t want to risk it getting hurt again so soon after breaking it.
“These people are straight out of the days that were considered old even before the Great Collapse,” Valerie said, quickly fastening the armor. “How do I look?”
“Ancient.”
“Watch it!”
Robin smirked. “And you hurry up. Catch up to that last group.”
“You’ll be fine?”
“I’ll linger in this boat, and when the next one comes in, play vampire at the water’s edge.” Robin smiled, her pointed teeth showing. “I’m even looking forward to it. I mean, I learned all that assassin stuff, but mostly we just charge straight into situations.”
Valerie shook her head with a smile. “You’ll do amazing. Wish me luck.”
“Luck.” They hugged, and for a moment Valerie wondered, but by then Robin was pulling back. She smiled expectantly.
“Right.” Valerie nodded, then turned and went on her way.
She found the other group not too far ahead, sneaking through the city although they were armed. They didn’t even notice she was there at first, but when one of them turned and saw her he motioned to her to hurry up. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t look so different from the woman back there on the boat.
This could work, if her goal was to stay concealed. But that was a very short-term goal.
Loud shouting came from ahead, then a group of armed men ran past. Valerie’s new friends stayed hidden before darting across, pointing to a building opposite HQ.
The same building she had met Jackson in so long ago.
Now that she knew where they were going, she didn’t have any more use for them. With a silent bound she took out the rear one, dropping him by slashing her claws into his neck.
The other four kept moving forward, weapons held at the ready for anything that might come from up ahead. Little did they know that “anything” was behind them.
A shot was fired nearby and the one in the lead dropped. The others had started to run when a group of men came out and attacked. Valerie took a step back and one of the men turned his rifle on her, then froze.
“Jackson?”
He looked baffled and stayed put, and the man to his left turned on him to attack. Valerie was there in a split second to ensure it didn’t happen.
“Thanks,” Jackson hissed as the man fell, and the others moved over to see what was happening.
“Val,” Davies said, “what the hell are you wearing?”
“I’m undercover,” she replied. “We saw them coming off the water. Robin’s there, but you might want to send some vampires to help her out. HQ secured yet?”
“We think so,” Davies replied. “A couple of our men were injured, but the only ones dead—get this!—are the prisoners.”
“Damn. I sure hope they weren’t wrongfully accused then.” She took a breath and realized the healing had done its job on her. Good timing. “Listen, get more people on the walls. I’ve got this taken care of.”
“We don’t know where they hit us from or where they could be. Or if there’re more of them.”
“These people just arrived, so unless you already killed them?”
Jackson shook his head.
“Then I know where they’ll be. I got this.” She started to leave, then paused, hand on Jackson’s arm. “Wait. Sandra…is she safe?”
He nodded. “We have a team protecting the entrance to their hideout. She dropped the comm device when she was running to get back down there. We’ll find it, but haven’t had time yet. I know she was worried.”
“Thank you. I’ll have a chance to see her myself soon enough.”
They moved on, splitting up so some could go to the docks and others to secure HQ. Valerie headed for the building she had seen the invaders motioning to.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
New York
Valerie snuck into the building, doing her best to appear as if she were one of the invaders and this was the plan.
Oddly, the building was exactly as she remembered it. There was still a hole where she had smashed someone’s head once through the wall long ago. Or was this a hole one of her friends had created by smashing someone’s head through it? She couldn’t quite remember, but felt a sense of nostalgia come over her all the same.
As she walked through the hall she touched the rough drywall with her fingertips, wondering what and who she would find here.
“Where are the others?” a voice hissed, and she turned to see a woman with a rifle. Where the woman was standing she might have appeared intimidating, hiding in the shadows. Not so with Valerie.
“They were all taken down on the way over,” Valerie replied, doing her best to sound shaken and worried. “But I’m here.”
“Get upstairs,” the woman replied, disgust heavy in her voice. “We’re getting ready to make our next move. Dammit, if you hadn’t lost the others…”
“I’ll try to keep more alive next time.”
It seemed like the woman was going to say something else, but then she just clucked her tongue and made a shooing motion.
Valerie sneered, making her way up the narrow stairs. Anticipation building, she waited at the last stair at the top.
“Kill him then, to teach his traitor father a lesson,” a woman’s voice said, muffled. That didn’t sound good, so Valerie pushed fear and stepped into the room.
Everyone turned to her at once, and to her surprise there were already approximately twenty individuals gathered.
“Who are you, girl?” a woman at the center asked. The woman looked very similar to the young man from the hospital, and Valerie knew it had to be none other than Lady Woo. so
“Who am I?” Valerie stepped forward, pushing harder with fear this time, so hard that those on the outside of the group stepped back. A trickle of piss hit the floor and a puddle formed at one man’s feet.
“What the hell is going on?” another shouted, confused.
“Keep your voices down, dammit!” Lady Woo commanded, then looked at Valerie skeptically. Her eyes widened. “It’s you, isn’t it? The one they all talk so much about.”
Valerie was about to answer but froze as she saw who they had been talking about killing—the boy, Fred’s son. She couldn’t quite remember his name, but it was something similar to Fred—she knew that much.
She raised her eyes to see who was holding the back of his shirt. Arturo!
Valerie growled, revealing her sharp vampire teeth. Her eyes glowed red, and she saw the matching glow of red from the closer people.
“Kill this bitch,” Lady Woo commanded, trying to sound much tougher than the break in her voice halfway through the sentence would indicate.
“Sorry, but…can’t let that happen,” Valerie replied, and then charged. These people had managed to sneak in through the backdoor of their city while the front was under attack and blow up the building Valerie had once considered home. It wasn’t totally gone, but it wasn’t all there either. And they would’ve tried to kill Sandra and the others, so it gave Valerie no grief to take their lives.
She went for Arturo first, but he pulled back, knife to the boy’s throat and shouted, “Stay back!” She cursed, changing direction to deal with the others instead. She was fairly certain that Arturo understood the implied contract here—if he harmed the boy, he would die.
Weapons emerged quickly and fell to the ground almost as fast, followed by their owner’s corpses.
Valerie worked in an inward spiral so that by the time she only had Lady Woo and a few others left—the few others likely being the other leaders—they were surrounded by a circle of the dead. Almost poetic, Valerie thought as she wiped her bloodied claws on her pants. She glanced at Arturo, cautious, debating whether she was fast enough to reach him before he could plunge that knife into the boy’s neck.
“So what exactly was the plan here?” Valerie asked. “Sic your cancerous son on us instead of spending the last days with him? Not good.” She killed one more of them with a simple slash across the throat. “Then attack our city, burn it to the groun
d, and create an empire by killing anyone you saw as an inconvenience…even children. Did I get any of that wrong?”
“We work for the greater good,” a tall older man to Lady Woo’s right began. “We formed the Indie Network to—”
He was cut off—literally. His head rolled, landing next to Lady Woo. She kicked it away, drawing two pistols and turning on Valerie. The remaining two men did the same, although one had a rifle, so she dove through the middle of them and came up swinging. One turned, spraying the other with bullets, and she ended the last man.
Lady Woo shot at her again, but Valerie ducked. One shot tore through the air inches from her head and the other dinged off her shoulder armor.
“Here’s the thing, lady,” Valerie said, standing tall and refusing to give this woman any of the power she had hurt so many people to obtain. “In this city we don’t cower to tyrants. In this city we fight for each other out of love. And when we kill, we kill only those who have tried to take this from us, and then we kill without mercy.”
Valerie glanced back at Arturo and the boy, and Lady Woo noticed. Dammit, she noticed! A smile played on her lips.
“Arturo,” she started, “if this vampire piece of shit so much as makes a move for either of us, kill that boy. Got it?”
“Loud and clear,” Arturo replied.
Valerie breathed deeply, hating this. She weighed her options, torn. “What’d she promise you, Arturo? You get to be a leader now, is that it?” She gestured to the dead on the floor. “Plenty of openings, aren’t there?”
He glared, and that was enough of an answer.
“I hope it was worth your life,” she said, her muscles twitching. She would have to go for it.
“Don’t you dare,” he shouted, suddenly terrified. He backed up, the knife starting to draw blood, and the boy whimpered, his wide eyes pleading with Valerie. “Don’t you dare!”
Another presence caught Valerie’s attention. She sniffed—it was familiar. But where, and why now? Another traitor? The newcomer’s aura hit her and it was clearly aggression, though not directed at her.
With a crash, Micky came through the wall right behind Arturo, knocking the blade free and wrestling him away from the boy in one quick movement. As the blade clattered away and the boy fell to his knees, Lady Woo reached for a gun, but Valerie acted first.
