by Milo Spires
When Regina had stopped screaming she looked at him in his eye and said,
“One day I will leave here you fucking ugly bastard, one day Heaven will realize that I have done no wrong and that your evil creature attacked me and killed my daughter, then you’ll fucking pay for keeping me here.”
Satan laughed at the comment, only as he’d laughed in his mind there was just the slightest edge of concern too. The angels wouldn’t be impressed that he’d taken her, and then if they ever found out they’d punish him for it too.
Satan then roared with laughter and told her that they’d never know that she was there, and then walked out of the cell again.
Only as she’d sat there and more flames had suddenly engulfed her, and whilst she was suffering the most extreme levels of pain that were destined to be for eternity, a feint blue light appeared above her.
Chapter 28 – Watching
Dracus and Laouse were walking through the woods with their 8 feet tall bear by their side, or at least that’s what it looked like.
Claudius hadn’t trusted the tablets from Laouse and to prove it, his thick bear coat was completely done up and his hood was down so far over his head that you couldn’t see his face at all, and with his legs also in bear furs and thick bear skin boots; this vampire was unrecognizable as such. Claudius had really looked like he was a Grizzly bear that was walking on his hind legs.
Then a mile into the forest Dracus’ keen senses had ensured that there was no need for a compass because he was fully tuned into the surroundings, and apart from the diesel engines that were drumming in the distance guiding him, his other worldly senses had told the way to go too.
Some ways a head the other two with him had picked up on the noises of the soldiers marching ahead in their square mile of ice too. Their vampire hearing which was hundreds of times better than a humans but not better than their bowman friends, had suddenly dialed into the stern German voices, and in response their glistening fangs had thrust down and they were ready to kill.
Laouse looked across at Dracus for his reaction but there was none. The bowman had simply kept on walking forwards with his eyes flicking from left to right so fast that you could hardly see them move.
Laouse was also very much unaware that he’d been listening to their noises from half a mile back, and that the lightening fast killer from Eldor was fully prepared for any attack.
A second past and Claudius had suddenly clenched his fists realizing that soon he would be confronting those responsible for kidnapping his son.
Then half a mile on and unaware that on the other side of the woods a team of soldiers had already entered under orders from Adolf, the three friends had finally seen the foreboding darkness between the tall pine trees that they were walking through, suddenly replaced by a sheer wall of light.
Realizing that they were nearing the edge of the woods, the three of them had then prepared themselves for whatever they’d find.
The soldiers after Adolf had been warned about the demonic roar that the snipers had heard earlier; were given their orders to scout the forest. A team of ten in full combat gear and walking two abreast, armed with MP5 machine guns with silver tranquiliser bullets, were scanning the forest all about them.
They’d entered only ten minutes after Laouse had roared and were now over a mile in.
All the while back in the warmth of the chopper, the priest sat with his legs to one side relaxing in the leather seats, whilst listening to the next program from the Vatican. The music was so relaxing and consisted of a choir singing, surrounded by the extreme echo of the 136 metre high, and 186 metres in length, Basilica di San Pietro located in the centre of The Vatican City, Rome.
He’d turned the volume up to nearly full and the surround sound speakers were recapturing the mesmerizing sounds perfectly, as they were being beamed across by long wave the thousand or so kilometres to him.
All the while, the priest was completely unaware that the narrow winding snow covered pathway that they’d seen from the air, and only three quarters of a mile away, was now host to a team of genetically modified soldiers that were marching his way.
Dracus had left him with a bracelet similar to Regina’s but in silver with red rubies across the face, and told him that should anything happen, to simply place four of his fingers on it and the bowman would be alerted to his trouble.
Back in the woods Dracus and his two vampire buddies were on all fours crawling slowly through the snow to within twenty feet from the edge of the forest.
The sun was masked overhead by the pine trees dense canopy of evergreen leaves, but as it rose, so the light was shafted down diagonally through the face of the forest, and lit up the snow drifts before them.
Claudius fearing the sun, pulled in his hood even tighter so that he only had the tiniest of cracks to look out through, whilst Laouse squinted heavily from the rays that were tingling his eyes.
The solar tablets that they’d taken earlier worked, but they hadn’t got long left before they’d have to take some more, and the tube had only got eight in it to start with. One more round of two tablets each, and they’d only be able to stay out in the sun a couple more hours max. Then they’d have to retire to the chopper and once inside then quickly pull the blackout shades down.
Then as they’d looked out from the tree line they could see hundreds of soldiers facing them. The tanks and armoured personnel cars had been started since Laouse’s demonic roar and then swung around to face the forest. Machine gunners were laying down on the icy ground with their MG42 machine guns and the belt feeder soldier by his side; ready to feed in the 1800 rounds per minute straight at them. Then standing and amounting to more than fifty, other soldiers stood pointing their weapons too.
Laouse swallowed deeply as Dracus then placed a hand on his shoulder, and without speaking but using telepathy, he’d told the vampire not to move. The bowman was aware that they were very much hidden in the shadows of the dark forest, and that for now in the huge expanse of trees that they were sheltering in, unless they’d made a sound, the soldiers wouldn’t know where they were.
Suddenly from behind the huge rock doorway that lead into the hanger, Dracus was startled by something and his eyes trained forwards, staring deeply across the mile of icy tarmac. Claudius messaged him and asked what’s up, but the bowman didn’t answer.
Dracus could hear screaming coming from inside the hanger, and he was aware from the depth of the tone that it wasn’t humans either.
Then messaging both Claudius and Laouse together, he’d told them what he could hear.
Claudius was aware that his own hearing was amazing both from being a vampire and also from the lifestyle he led, living out in the hillsides of Bavaria and hunting daily for his food. The massive giant as he’d knelt on all fours next to Dracus with his fur covered arms deeply pushing down into the snow beneath him, and in response then sniggered because he could hear nothing and thought that the bowman must be joking. The giant vampire could hear nothing except the occasional locking and loading of a weapon or the diesel engines in the old German military vehicles that were heavily ticking over in the shallow distance.
Laouse on the other hand and after witnessing the bowman’s skill in Paris did believe, and telepathically asked if it sounded like vampires.
The bowman nodded and in response Laouse snarled.
Claudius suddenly picked up on the vibes that his fellow vampire believed the bowman and then the big man concerned for his own son’s safety, also clenched his fists and snarled.
Dracus told them both he had a plan but that it would involve them returning after dark when the shadows being the windows to hell were everywhere, then enabling Satan to come up and join them.
Laouse who’d instantly remembered what it had been like fleeing for his life away from the 8 feet tall hideous beast, and how he’d nearly been sucked down to hell to burn for eternity, suddenly looked across at the bowman as if he was joking.
Dracus meant it
and knew that they were outnumbered and without Satan’s help there would be no way soon that they could all get into the hanger, as his shield could only protect him.
Claudius didn’t know what to say, he’d only just met this little man by his side and already was finding himself somewhat left out from the plans. He knew his normal way to deal with situations like these and that was to go in there strong, and like Obelix from the Asterix comics, use brute force and smash them all to pieces.
Only he was well aware that this time he was seriously outnumbered and to use this tactic would probably lead him to being killed.
Dracus picked up on their vibes and started edging back into the forest. A few feet back he’d told them to come on and they did. Then turning around the three of them made their way back through the forest towards the chopper.
Chapter 29 – Tap, Tap
Just as the inside of the chopper was ablaze with sunshine, and John the priest was in his calmest state that he’d been in since having the vision a couple weeks previously, he’d heard a tapping noise on the window and looked up.
First and from the back seat of the chopper, he’d looked straight in between the two front seats and out the main windshield of the chopper, but there was no one just forest and snow. Then he’d turned his face to look to the left and again there was nothing except a huge wall of pine trees, but as he’d turned to look out the window to his right, what he’d seen made him shit himself.
Outside the chopper there were ten men over six feet tall dressed in all black wearing ski masks and holding MP5 submachine guns.
One of the soldiers was pushing the barrel of his MP5 up against the glass and looking in through the cockpit at him. The soldiers eyes heavily bloodshot from the exceptionally cold air said it all and told the priest that the weapon he was holding, he wasn’t to be fucked with either. In German the soldier was telling him to get out, but John not understanding the lingo, simply paused as his ears and subconscious mind tried to understand the foreign sound.
Looking to his left then out through the chopper towards the trees where Claudius, Laouse and Dracus had gone, John was desperately hoping he would see them walking back to the chopper through the deep snow.
Seeing no one panic began to race through him because he got the general idea that the soldier wanted him to open the door.
He didn’t need to speak the language to realise this but then in turn he also knew who the soldier must be, one of those responsible for kidnapping Kaine and Regina.
Pausing to think for a second what he should do and forgetting about Dracus’ bracelet that was dangling on the left wrist, suddenly the soldier to prove that he wasn’t fucking around, then pointed his weapon at the ground and let out a burst of firepower. The sound instantly roared its way through the dense pine trees and with it, then a huge amount of steam came up from the hot barrel and misted up the glass outside the priests rear door of the chopper.
Again in German but this time much louder, the soldier shouted the same words he’d used before, whilst taking the butt of his gun he’d also tried to break through the glass by ramming it exceptionally hard against the window.
John shuddered inside from extreme fear surging through him, and at the same time he’d found his hand that was shaking violently and against his better judgement, then reached across towards the door handle.
The priest was going to unlock the door to the chopper and that was when suddenly all hell broke loose.
The soldier outside the chopper suddenly dropped his gun and reached up with both hands grabbing for his neck. The priest blinked and then to his horror realized that there was an arrow going through the man’s neck that glistened, with the light beaming down from the early morning sun. The mans eyes behind his black ski mask enlarged instantly showing the extreme fear that he was going through as he’d looked back at the priest.
Then he fell over and disappeared from view beneath the line of the window and made strange gurgling sounds.
The other nine soldiers who were with him then spun around with their MP5 submachine guns, and lit up the trees all around them with extremely heavy firepower. Time froze for John inside the chopper, as all he could see outside was the bright flash from their weapons as hundreds of bullets blasted into the forest.
The sound inside the soundproofed cab was tremendous and the radio that was still playing the Vatican’s relaxing music, suddenly sounded like it had the background effects of machine guns added into it.
When the firing had stopped, the soldiers crouched down and still pointing their weapons ahead of them, one of them using his shoulder radio then called back to base for support.
Crackles and pops came back across the radio after the soldier had screamed into it then silence, and after a second then John heard a deep voice in their language screaming something back at them.
The soldier tried to answer but as he’d pressed the speak button in on the radio, his back tensed as an arrow smashed its way through his forehead so hard and fast that it roared through his brain and burst out the other side. Instantly the soldier collapsed backwards and then fell down into the snow with blood spraying everywhere, turning the sunlit and glorious white snow all around him into a pinkie colour.
The remaining soldiers after slamming in a new magazines on their submachine guns, then again lit up the forest with heavy firepower as they’d edged backwards taking cover alongside the chopper.
The bullets streamed into the forest with a deafening sound and ripped hand sized chunks of bark from the frozen trees in front of them.
By the time that they’d stopped firing most of them were sheltering behind the chopper, and from the radio that was laying in the snow inches away from the dead soldier, John could hear the same stern voice that he’d heard moments before. It was screaming something at them, but no one dared pick it up to reply.
Back at the base heavily armed soldiers ran outside the hanger and piled into two choppers that already were spooling up their massive four rotor heads readying themselves for take off.
Suddenly from the tree line John saw Dracus appear. He’d walked forwards towards the chopper holding up a shield about the size of a dustbin lid. The thing had strange markings over it like embossed patterns that were standing proud from the green Amarek steel beneath it.
The soldiers saw him coming and sprayed him with automatic gunfire only the bowman from Eldor kept walking forwards, and the bullets as they’d flew at him seemed to have no effect. There was some strange energy all around the shield that slightly blurred him from view, and as the bullets hit it, they’d simply disappeared into it.
John found himself glued to the window, and completely oblivious to the fact that the choir from the speakers above him were now singing again, in their mellifluous tones.
The soldiers realising that their weapons had no effect then lowered their barrels as he’d approached to with a few feet from them.
Then standing there Dracus spoke to them in the same foreign language that they were accustomed to, and asked them if they would fight hand to hand against one of his warriors. He said his warrior was in the bushes but that he wouldn’t be using weapons and they could.
In response they’d looked at each other and then as they’d reached down for their deadly sharp combat knives, and with a grin passing their faces, they’d nodded.
Then messaging Claudius and Laouse and from the tree line behind to say that they’d agreed, a second passed and through the sub zero air there was a feint cracking sound of branches, followed by the silhouette of Laouse approaching from the dark forest. Then as he’d stepped out into the brightly lit area with snow up to his waist, the soldiers pulled out their massive knives ready for the fight, but Laouse ignored them and walked around the side of the chopper grinning.
Once there he’d unlocked it and climbed in and seated himself on the lush leather seat inside the cockpit. Then after closing the airtight door, he’d flicked the switches above his head and the huge rotors
began to slowly turn.
The soldiers looked at each other confused because they’d thought they were fighting him.
