The Pit in the Woods: A Mercy Falls Mythos

by Nathaniel Reed

  “Be prepared for anything my friends,” Marcus said. “We’ve underestimated them thus far. We outnumber them, but they have been quick and cunning, especially being led by Blake!” He said the name like a curse. “He’s destroyed my lovely Vivien, one of my star pupils. For that, and all the others of our kind he’s slain over the years, he shall pay!”

  11

  “Do you hear… talking?” Jeremy said.

  Blake shushed them with his finger, perking up his ears. “Yes,” he whispered. And as soon as it started it stopped, as if the talkers had sensed their approach. They looked at each other intuitively, and knew that they were all thinking the same thing. With stolid faces they ventured forth into the abyss.

  12

  The room they entered was filled with them, and the

  vampires were looking at the six of them, but particularly Blake.

  Fulton Blake, however, saw only one of them, far back near the throne. “YOU!!” The anger emanating off him didn’t need Myron’s ability to gauge. It was palpable like heat stroke. Despite himself, and their obvious advantage, for a moment, Lucio Brindisi was afraid. “You killed my wife! I watched you kill my wife!!”

  The five of them beside Blake exchanged the same look; one of pity. It said, Is there no end to this man’s pain?

  “I watched you crush her head!” Blake raged, his face red with tears and hatred.

  Lucio grinned. “Yes, quite a show, wasn’t it?”

  “And I kidnapped your daughter,” the Brit Walter chimed in. “You killed two of my mates that helped, although I’m sure you wouldn’t know.”

  Blake turned his venom momentarily to Walter. “And I’ll kill you too!”

  From his throne Marcus spoke, almost calmly with a deep baritone, “Of course, I turned her. Such a special sweet was she. And you killed her, my beautiful sweet Vivien.”

  “Your Vivien?” Blake glared at him with utter disbelief, “Your Vivien?!” He gritted his teeth, and launched himself at them. “I’ll kill you all!” he roared.

  “Blake NO!” the group cried, and grabbed his arms. It took the full force of all of them to hold him back.

  “You can’t take them alone,” Jeremy said, “Not like this.”

  “You should listen to the little cubby,” Walter said. “No chance in hell you can take us.”

  “I think you misheard,” Johnny said. “What he actually said was he can’t take you alone. Doesn’t mean the six of us won’t give you bloody hell trying you English muffin! And I’m sure we’ll take more than a few of you with us.”

  Johnny looked at Jeremy as if for confirmation. Jeremy nodded. They aimed their weapons and unleashed Blake.

  Staci fired her crossbow into the crowd. Johnny fired his gun. And Blake was running on pure adrenaline, shooting and staking in close quarters. The vampires rushed over them like a wave, and they shot and slashed and staked their way through them. Jeremy’s whip lashed at any vamp that got too close to clawing or sinking its teeth into one of the others. They were dealing with the pawns but the pawns were ferocious.

  We are not going to make it out of this alive, Myron thought. I wish I had taken the gun. He nearly dropped his stake as a vampire leapt on top of him, pinning his arms. A loud crack and a diagonal slash crossed the vampires face and bulging eyeball as if by magic. It let out a yelp of pain, and fell back, as Jeremy drew back his whip.

  Yes we are Jeremy thought back at him, having picked up Myron’s thought. Unfortunately Jeremy couldn’t be everywhere at once. A vampire grabbed Staci by the arms, sending her crossbow shot awry, flying into the air above them, rather than to one of her intended targets, and sharp talons gouged through the flesh in her arms. Johnny, just done staking a vamp, heard Staci’s cry, and fired his gun into the bald vamp’s melon, splattering its brains all over the monster’s buddies, and unfortunately Staci. She cringed with disgust, fervently brushing the foul matter off of her. She wasn’t hurt horribly but badly enough. When she set her bow right and aimed again, her aim wasn’t so accurate. She was hitting arms and legs and torsos, and in some cases completely missing, due to the flaring pain in her arms.

  Tony was fairing rather well staking and slashing with his, until two vampires got a hold of his arms, and one sunk its fangs into his left shoulder. He swooned at the sharp pain, and felt the warm blood running in rivulets down his arm.

  “Tony!” Jeremy screamed, but he was too far from his friend to reach the vampires with his whip to help him. Not to mention there were vampires currently rushing toward him that he had to stake with his free hand. Blake who was currently blasting away at a pack of vamps had time to swing his weapon around. The one sinking its teeth into Tony’s arm got a rain of bullets through its neck, skull, and ear. The bullets that didn’t rip through his head and into his brain tore his ear to shreds, leaving a massive bloody hole, giving Tony enough time to sink his knife into the gut of the vampire to his right. He tore with the knife, pushing it in further, cutting crosswise as he drew it upwards, disemboweling it, its intestines spilling out over Tony’s forearm. Amazingly, both vampires, although on the floor and writhing, still lived.

  The one Blake had fired at was suffering the effects of the silver poisoning its brain, and coursing through its veins, its shattered skull and ear lobe pouring out some greenish, viscous substance along with the blood and brain matter. The disemboweled vamp was only slightly more animated as it attempted to push its innards back where they belonged. Its intestines wriggled with a life of their own, some grotesque animation that made Tony look away with disgust, and a sort of indignation that these things could go on. Its continued existence was obscene.

  Four vampires piled on top of Johnny, tackling him to the ground. He fired through the one closest, blasting upward through its abdomen, the shots ripping through flesh and its spine, turning the clothes at its back to tatters. Claws dug into its skin, and he did everything he could to free himself of them, elbowing one in the face, kneeing the other in the groin. The last one grabbed a handful of hair and slammed the back of Johnny’s head into the ground. His vision swam with stars. A few seconds before he lost consciousness he raised his pistol and fired three shots into the vampire’s face before his gun clicked empty. Blood and empty shells rained down on Johnny’s face as he blacked out. Jeremy cracked his whip at the other vampires around him before they made a meal of his body.

  A vampire bit into the forearm holding the whip. Although Jeremy cried out he didn’t let go. Instead, he used his free arm, the one holding the stake to pop the vampire in the mouth. He jabbed the blunt end of the stake into the vampire’s open jaw, mashing its teeth and forcing it to release his arm. Before he could get fully free another vampire threw itself on his back, pitching him forward, but not before he caught a glimpse of the vampire’s bloody mouth (not all of it Jeremy’s blood) with its fang askew. Face down and back turned the vampire atop him pummeled him, and was ready to sink its teeth into him, when Jeremy felt a sharp pain at his back, like being poked at by the tip of a knife, and the vampire rolled off him. It was Blake, having pierced the vampire through its back and through its heart with his stake, with the considerable force needed to do so. Jeremy was lucky he’d only gotten the tip of the stake. If Blake had used Splatterer, he and the vampire would both be splattered across the cavern floor.

  Jeremy turned around and got up, Blake reaching out his hand to hoist him up. “Sorry dear boy, there was no other way.”

  “It’s okay Bl…” Jeremy started, and two vampires tackled Blake.

  This is impossible, Jeremy thought, coming around to Myron’s way of thinking. Myron?

  Where is Myron?

  Blake fired through the vamps pulling him down, but not before taking a few fists and claws. Jeremy spotted Myron. The kid wasn’t well off. He was bruised and bleeding from several cuts on his face, but still standing. There were at least five vampires circling him. He had his stake in one hand and his cross held high in the other. If anyone drew near, he pushed
one of the weapons forward, and that vampire drew back. He’s got spirit, I’ll give him that much. Jeremy switched the weapons in his hands, transferring the stake to his injured right, and the whip to his uninjured left. He wasn’t sure how well he’d fair with the whip in his left hand, but he had to try. He managed to lash it across one of the vampire’s backs in Myron’s circle, and slashed another one across the jaw, but another crack came too close to hitting Myron. It whooshed about an inch from his face, but the tip of it did hit the vampire’s forehead on the far side of him, which probably felt like a bee sting rather than a leather whip to the vampire.

  Staci managed to swing her crossbow around and fired at the vamps, managing to get at least one of them in the chest. Her aim was slightly better, now that the flaring pain in her arms had weakened to a dull throb. Either way, she fired enough to incapacitate the ones surrounding Myron, bringing them down around him like a set of dominoes. And then she was attacked from the front and both sides. Her crossbow flew from her hands. Staci fell to the ground on her back and grabbed the first thing she could get to, which was her garlic necklace and rubbed it in the foremost vampire’s face. It shrieked, its skin turning red and blotchy, bubbling in places. One large bubble pulsed above its eyebrow like a living tumor. It clutched at its face, scratching as it fell away from her. Another of the vamps seized the arm that grabbed the necklace and pinned it down. She quickly snatched one of the vials of holy water from her belt and smashed it over its head. Its matted hair smoked and the skin burned and peeled away from its forehead. He too went down. The third vampire managed to grab both her arms by the wrists and hold them down. Its fang filled face drew closer to her until it filled her vision. It was too strong for her to get out from under its grip. Okay, she thought, this is it; this is the end of the line for me. That was until the vampire’s head exploded in front of her and blood and brains splattered her face. She turned her head to the side, spitting, letting the gore slide off her face.

  “Really?” she said, “Again?”

  “You’re welcome,” Blake said, winking. His gun still smoked as he offered his hand. She hoisted herself up, and quickly picked up her crossbow again.

  “Stay close,” Blake said. “They can’t pick us off if we’re huddled together.”

  “Yeah, well, I think we lost the others,” Staci said. “I just saved Myron’s butt, but now I don’t see him.”

  A vampire dived at Blake and Blake blasted it in the throat, ending its war cry midway. He looked around. None of the other vampires were focused on them, for the moment.

  “C’mon,” he said, moving toward the entrance, “I need to reload.”

  “Same here,” Staci said.

  “We have to find them.”

  13

  Myron was running through them, prepared to stake if

  necessary, but holding up his cross so he wouldn’t have to. A couple of them inched closer, not bothered by the cross, and he had to stake them. One of them nearly tore off his arm before he could do so. His feet encountered something hard, but yielding as he ran- a body. He thought it was another vampire, but something told him to look down. It was Johnny, unconscious.

  “Oh my God, Johnny!” he crouched down next to him, holding his cross aloft. He kept his stake in his other hand, clutching it with two fingers and trying to shake Johnny awake with the rest. “Wake up Johnny! Wake up please!” He saw the gun lying next to the body, put the stake down, and picked it up. It was empty. He had to rummage through Johnny’s things to find extra shells, and in that moment a vampire dove on him.

  Myron felt the wind the creature made and he turned his body to face it. Crucifix raised, even as the vampire had his arms around him in a crushing bear hug, Myron’s forearms were up and the cross burned into the vampire’s forehead. The garlic still around his neck was causing a rash on the vampire’s arms. Forehead sizzling and smoking underneath the cross the vampire squealed and drew back. Myron noticed most of Johnny’s garlic necklace was gone; unaware he’d used it to kill his first vampire in its coffin. Underneath that was what he was looking for- the spare bullets hanging on a strap. He swung his head around several times trying to avoid another surprise attack, keeping low as he reloaded Johnny’s pistol. No sooner had he filled all the chambers and locked it (something he’d picked up from all the movies he’d watched), than a vampire was soaring through the air above him. He shot the pistol twice and one of the bullets tore a hole through one of the creature’s nostrils, and the other seemed to glance off one of its fangs, momentarily sparking, like a Colgate commercial for the undead. He knew it wasn’t enough to stop it, but the vampire dropped midways through his flight, going down like a

  sack of potatoes.

  He shook Johnny some more, and Myron finally got him to come to. Groggy and not entirely sure where he was, he asked, “Myron?”

  “Yeah, Johnny, help me please. I can’t find any of the others!”

  John Winters got up shakily, rubbing the back of his head, and then looked at Myron quizzically. “You have my gun?”

  “Yes. I… I just reloaded it. Shot one of them.”

  Johnny nodded, “Give her back.”

  Myron considered, and was about to when two more vampires rushed him. He shot them each once, the first one in the neck, the next in the forehead.

  “Not bad,” Johnny smiled with approval. “Now really, give her back.”

  Myron did, reluctantly. It was the first time he’d almost felt safe. Almost.

  14

  They were lined up side by side in front of him. Jeremy traded his stake for his cross this time, keeping them back. When they drew near he used the whip in his other hand, lashing across the whole row of them. The whip slashed through their clothes, leaving red welts across their midsections. They backed up and snarled at him. He cracked the whip on the ground with strength enough to reinforce the point, and they backed up some more. Then their heads exploded in a shower of blood and brains, one after another, as the sound of rapid artillery fire nearly deafened him from just beyond his shoulder. Blake and Staci stood behind him.

  15

  He was being attacked from all sides, and Tony was slashing and staking away at them, but despite his muscle and his gusto he was starting to tire, and they just kept coming. Claws and punches rained down on him. With each punch he slashed throats, faces, and sides. With each claw he staked, then stabbed, then staked, then slashed, trading blow for blow, killing some, disabling others. Tony saw the vampire that punched him in the jaw, causing him to spit up blood, a second before that same vampire’s left eye disappeared. He only heard the crack of gunfire after. It was Johnny’s .45. He bent low, as the bullets whizzed over him, and the crack of each shot was the punctuation mark, as each of the vampire’s fell one by one around him. Only when the sound of gunfire stopped completely did he dare look up.

  “Are you okay?” Johnny asked.

  “No,” Tony admitted. He saw that Myron was standing next to Johnny. “Where are…” he began.

  “Right here,” Jeremy said. Blake and Staci were with him. They joined each other, suddenly aware that the action had, at least temporarily, stopped. They stood side by side, and looked ahead, all of a sudden knowing why. They’d known it was too good to be true that it was over. There were far too many of them for that.

  16

  The bodies lay before them in heaps, a line of corpses strewn across the cavern hall from end to end, some still writhing, others still for good. Directly beyond them stood the remaining vampires, which was still more than half of them. Bloodied, battered, bruised, and exhausted they had barely survived the first wave of them, and they knew that they had only been the pawns. The ones left standing looked bigger, meaner, angrier, and a hell of a lot harder to kill, especially in their condition. Notwithstanding the fact that they would have to step over, or spring over their fallen comrades, it looked like the six of them were more or less done for.

  Marcus produced a slow clap from his throne, “Quit
e impressive, yes. I’m frankly surprised you’ve made it this far.” His words, though full of praise, were tinged with venom. Anger and annoyance, rather than respect, brewed underneath. “Really, you should give yourselves a hand. Kudos! In one day you’ve nearly destroyed my entire army.”

  Jeremy looked over at Blake, then at the thing on the throne, and his army of followers. He realized they were waiting for Marcus to be done speaking, waiting for the order to attack.

  Keep talking, Jeremy thought, keep talking. He looked over at Blake, realizing what had to be done. He sent the thought whisper to Blake. The grenades, Blake, use the grenades.

  Blake made a subtle motion with his head that let Jeremy know he had heard him. They were far enough under his coat, and his other gear to remain unseen, especially from this distance.

  Marcus was still talking. Blake reached into his coat, his gun at his side in his other hand. Fortunately Marcus was looking up as he spoke, and Blake looked as if he was gently massaging an injury, making appropriate wincing faces, when he was actually pulling the pins off grenades. This would either work, or he’d blow himself up and the other good guys trying. The grenades had a five second delay, just enough time to un-strap and toss them. He yanked the pins off two of them, plucking those grenades free. He lobbed one over the crowd, toward the back. It fell several feet to the left of the throne. He threw the second into the middle of the throng, distant from them.

  The first grenade blasted a hole in the cavern wall. The blast threw Lucio into the air on the tail end of a fireball, and pulverized the skulls that made up Marcus’s throne. Marcus was ejected forcefully from it. Arianna’s hair and face caught fire. Walter was scorched down his right side from head to toe.

  The second grenade, which fell smack in the center of the vampire crew, had a more immediate effect. Body parts flew in all directions. The explosion tore limb from limb; streamers of blood and fingers, toes, heads, arms, and legs spread through the air like anatomical confetti. The vampire hunters stooped down as flaming body parts soared through the air above their heads. The flames, however, were put out almost immediately by the rush of water entering the crater made in the cavern wall.