‘Fuck!’
Khalida was flung forwards, her seatbelt strapping tight across her chest as Mitch slammed the brakes on. They had come to a stop at a junction at a hamlet, just before a tractor pulled out in front of them. The driver swore at Mitch.
‘That was close,’ Cain panted, as the hay-laden trailer slowly moved by.
‘Not close enough,’ Clarence muttered, peering around in his seat. The red car was fast approaching. ‘Can’t that godforsaken thing move any faster? Wait – don’t turn left.’
‘What?’
‘That black car,’ Clarence said, ‘on the left. It’s Rebirth again.’
Khalida turned to look, and this time she was able to get a good look at the people in the front seat. Both were, again, wearing sunglasses; the driver was a woman in her early forties, with her hair tied back in a firm bun. The passenger was a younger man with dreadlocks.
‘Turn right,’ Clarence hissed.
‘They’ll be expecting us to do that,’ Mitch said, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. His eyes flickered to the mirror; the red car was nearly behind them now. The side windows had been rolled down. ‘They’re trying to herd us. We go left.’
‘That’s stupid, it’ll lead us right back to the house – go right!’ Clarence said.
The car launched forward with a screech of the tires. Khalida was thrown to the side as Mitch made a hard left. The black car shot forwards. The four of them were thrown about in the car as it hit the side of the Bentley. Mitch put his foot down, and with the piercing shriek of grating metal, they pulled away.
‘Get down!’
Khalida had no time to react, she just felt Cain’s hands pushing her down and covering her. There was another impact from behind as the red car hit them. She gagged; the seatbelt caught around her as she was thrown forwards. The ringing of gunshots filled the air, echoing with the sound of glass shattering. Someone cried out. The car lurched forwards again, this time colliding with something solid. She had only enough time to catch a glimpse of the brick wall of a house, as they finally broke away.
Breathing heavily, she sat up, wind whipping around her hair. The red car was inching around the black one, which was stuck in the middle of the junction. A few people had got out of their houses to see what was happening.
‘Bastards!’ Mitch yelled.
The side of the car had been crushed and torn with bullet holes, the windows shattered.
‘Everyone okay?’ Cain asked.
Khalida nodded; her body was sore, and her fingers stung.
‘I think so,’ she panted.
‘They shot at the car,’ Cain said, frowning as he pulled a bullet out of his shoulder and wincing as the car jolted down the road. ‘Pass the coconut water, Clarence.’
‘Forget the coconut water, I need some blood,’ Clarence muttered, picking at a bullet now lodged in Mitch’s seat. As the side of his face moved, Khalida realised with a jolt that where his eye had been, there was now a bloody hole, and the hair at the back of his head now had a scarlet stain where the bullet had exited his head. With a horrid, squelching sound, he pulled out another bullet from his chest.
‘Thank God these weren’t wooden.’
‘That gave us some time,’ Mitch muttered, his eyes focused on the road, ‘but we can’t continue to drive like this. We’ll get stopped in no time at all; then we’ll be fucked.’
‘So, what do you suggest we do?’ Clarence said.
‘We’ve got to get back to the house,’ Mitch said. ‘That way, we can stand and fight.’
‘We’ll be killed,’ Clarence said.
‘But we don’t have any other option,’ Khalida said. ‘Where else can we go right now?’
‘We head for Bath,’ Clarence said, ‘then we separate.’
‘We’ll never make it to Bath,’ Mitch said, his eyes glancing at the mirrors. ‘We can’t even make it out of the parish.’
‘Our only option is to root ourselves somewhere, and fight.’
‘Then what?’ Clarence said. ‘They’ll be calling for reinforcements.’
‘Then, we’re fucked either way, aren’t we?’ Mitch said. ‘Bath is ten miles away; we’ll never make it.’
‘Clarence, we have to fight,’ Cain said. ‘Even if we were to ditch the car and run, they’d catch up to us. It’s going to be dark soon, too. Mitch is right; we’ll never make it to Bath.’
‘Seriously, Cain?’ Clarence said. ‘The one time in your entire life where running away would be justified, and you decide to be committed to this idiotic decision?’
‘You can run away if you want,’ Cain said, ‘but I’m staying.’
‘I told you, I won’t leave Khalida,’ Clarence said.
‘You are welcome to go,’ she said.
‘If we want to stand a chance, then we are going to have to work together,’ Mitch said. ‘We don’t have many weapons, and personally using stakes against numerous opponents isn’t going to go well. I want Cain and Clarence to be the front-line of defence with the stakes; Khalida and I will be further back with the mustard seeds and holy water.’
‘Then what?’ Clarence scoffed. ‘We just hope that they’ll get bored and go away?’
‘We kill as many as we can,’ Mitch said, as they raced back through the village. The horn blared to hurry a woman with a pram out of the way. ‘If we are to die, then I’d rather we die fighting instead of disappearing after a road accident.’
‘Can’t you call your wife to help us?’ Clarence asked. Mitch shook his head as the car rounded a hard bent.
‘No; if we die, then at least we can make sure that the truth about Rebirth gets out. I won’t call Poppy or Leah back. It goes against dividing the group up in the first place.’
‘Noble,’ Clarence said, as the car clattered up the hill, shaking them around in their seats. ‘And as with most noble causes, it will end with us all dead.’
‘Run away if you want to,’ Mitch said, as the house appeared round the driveway, ‘or you can shut up, unless you have anything useful to say. We each grab a bag. Leave the suitcases. Clarence, you know the house; get us upstairs.’
He pulled the car up on the far side of the house, throwing open the door before it had fully come to a halt. Ignoring the flare of pain in her fingers, Khalida gripped the door and flung it open. The roar of the approaching engines filled the evening air, growing louder by the second. She reached into the boot, though Cain reached in first and picked up three rucksacks.
‘You’re injured,’ he said, when she gave him a flash of an indignant look, ‘and I can move faster with this than you can.’
‘Just pass me a stake and a water gun,’ she said, reaching in to pass one back to Mitch.
‘Khalida, you broke your fingers,’ Clarence said. ‘Can you even hold them?’
‘I can,’ she said, as Cain slammed down the boot.
‘Can we even get upstairs?’ Cain asked, as they ran back to the house.
‘We can,’ Clarence said. ‘Whether the floor will support us or not is a different matter. The servant’s passageway will probably be the best bet.’
He hurriedly unlocked the front doors, and quickly locked it closed behind them after they dashed through. He led them towards the back of the house, now dark and shadowed with the dusk light. The servant’s stairway looked stable enough, though it heavily groaned and creaked under their weight. Khalida could feel the wood bending with her footsteps. The sound of Rebirth’s cars was getting louder. There was a loud crash, followed by the hollow sound of wood hitting the ground.
‘God!’ Mitch cried out, pulling his leg up back through the hole in the stairs.
‘You okay?’ Khalida asked, looking at his leg. There were no cuts in his trousers.
‘I’m fine,’ Mitch said. ‘C’mon, just keep moving.’
They scrambled upwards to the first floor in half-darkness. The stairs to the second floor had been completely rotted through.
‘Can’t we get any higher?’ Mitch asked. ‘They
can probably jump up at us from his height.’
‘Only if you want to die by falling, rather than by vampires,’ Clarence said. The floor won’t hold us.’
‘Okay, where’s the best place to go?’ Mitch asked. Clarence rolled his good eye. The other was now a hole of raw red.
‘You wanted to be here, not me. Follow me.’
He led them back to the main section of the house, out onto the landing to the grand staircase, and through to a large room directly above the kitchen. There was nothing in it, except for a pile of school desks and an old bird’s nest in a fireplace.
‘Grab the desks and put them by the door,’ Mitch said. ‘We will start out fighting on the landing, then fall back here.’
Feeling her heart rise to her mouth, Khalida grabbed a few of the mustard seed stuffed balloons from their hunting supplies, and dashed back to the landing. Electricity raced through her body, though her fingers felt numb and made of cotton, as she hurriedly dropped three seeds from the window and down onto the entryway.
The sound of Rebirth’s cars now echoed up the drive. They had seconds.
‘Khalida!’ Mitch called from the landing, clutching a water gun in hand.
Cain and Clarence stepped out of the room, also holding water guns, their bright plastic catching her eyes. From the gutted windows, she could see the black car screeching up to the house, followed by two other cars; the third stood apart from the rest. It was a massive four-by-four which dwarfed them, its black paint sleek and flawless, and its windows darkened. Everything about it screamed authority.
There wasn’t the rush of urgency from them as she had expected; instead, the doors casually opened, and a group of vampires calmly got out.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Clarence said, staying back, away from the window and out of sight, his eyes pinned to the four-by-four, ‘what the hell is Tycho doing here?’
‘What?’ Khalida asked, not taking her eyes off him, as he brushed down his long coat and took off his sunglasses to reveal his bright, crimson eyes, his eyebrows drawing into a frown. She could see the grimaces on their faces at the mustard seeds.
‘I thought he would just send his people,’ Clarence muttered.
‘Does that change the situation at all?’ Mitch growled, sheltering himself from their view.
‘Not particularly,’ Clarence said, ‘though it does mean that they have even less incentive to keep you alive. But, the fact that he’s here in person…this is a risk for him.’
‘So, let’s kill him,’ Khalida said, a spasm of pain ricocheting down her fingers as her hold on the water gun tightened. Clarence gave a grim smile.
‘Though, on the positive side, this is likely a rogue mission by Tycho, so the call for reinforcements is not likely.’
‘So, we just kill all of them,’ Mitch said, firmly. ‘There are nine of them. It’s doable.’
‘Just,’ Clarence said. ‘They are formidable fighters.’
Khalida looked down at the group of vampires at the front of the house; a feeling of sudden vulnerability swooped through her as she looked into their eyes, knowing that they could see every movement she made. She moved away from the windows and pressed her back into the ivy-clad wall. She caught Mitch’s eyes, their icy blue irises burning with intensity. He nodded.
In one, smooth movement, she turned her body sharply to the window, gritting her teeth at the pain in her fingers as she pulled the trigger and fired a stream of water down below.
Tycho looked up, and calmly took a pace backwards. He gave her a look of brief impatience as the spray hit his boots. She fired again, this time at the group as a whole. They scattered with an eerie fluidity, stepping casually away from water stream, keeping their eyes up at the house.
‘Drive them inwards together,’ Mitch called, as he fired towards the outskirts of the group. ‘Don’t let them scatter.’
She nodded, and aimed at the other side. They moved closer together as a group, centring around Tycho, who calmly moved back away from the house and out of range. They kept a steady watch on the house, their faces near expressionless.
Khalida looked towards Tycho; there was still a slight, contemplative frown on his face. His lips moved, though she couldn’t hear what was being said.
‘Did you hear what he said?’ she asked Cain and Clarence, who both shook their heads.
‘What are they doing?’ Cain said.
‘Toying with us,’ Clarence said. ‘They’re in no hurry to attack, no-one’s coming. They’re probably waiting until nightfall, and in the meantime, they may as well have you waste your supplies.’
Mitch gritted his teeth together. ‘Khalida and I won’t stand a chance in the dark.’
‘Which would leave Cain and I as the defence,’ Clarence said, ‘and frankly, Cain is useless.’
‘We need to attack now,’ Khalida said, as she watched four from the group break off to circle around the building, her skin prickling as they moved out of sight. She looked around over her shoulder, not being able to shake off the feeling that something was behind her.
‘They will kill us,’ Clarence said, ‘especially if we have to fight them in the open.’
‘I’d rather die fighting than wait to be killed in the dark,’ Khalida said.
‘Me too,’ Mitch said. ‘This is one hell of a shitty situation.’
‘Clarence,’ Cain said sharply, ‘can you still get Khalida out of here?’
Clarence raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’
‘If you could just take her and run, could you do that?’ Cain said, his eyes flickering between the two of them.
‘I’m not leaving!’ Khalida said.
‘There’s a chance I could,’ Clarence said, ‘if you and Mitch created a diversion for us. There would be a better chance of her survival than if she were to stay here, at least.’
‘I’m not having Cain and Mitch die for me,’ Khalida spat.
‘Khalida,’ Clarence said, ‘this is insanity. You want to throw your life away, just so that when you’re being murdered, you can think that you’re being noble? Dying doesn’t work that way.’
‘I’ve made my decision,’ she said. ‘You can run if you want to, Clarence.’
‘Why do I love you when you are so infuriatingly stubborn?’ he muttered.
‘We need to attack,’ Khalida said, ignoring him and looking at the sky, the edges of which were now a dark indigo. ‘The darker it gets, the less of a chance we have.’
‘A chance to do what?’ Clarence said. ‘We’re going to die.’
‘Kill Tycho,’ she said. ‘What else can we do here? That just leaves Cecilia.’
‘She’s far stronger than he is,’ he said. ‘You will just make Rebirth more effective.’
‘If you could try and be on board, Clarence,’ Mitch growled. ‘If we get the chance, then we kill Tycho.’
Clarence looked over at Khalida and sighed. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Killing Tycho will throw them into a bit of chaos, that will – oh, Christ, they’re coming!’
Five vampires ran fast towards the house, their movements swift and fluid, Tycho at the head.
Khalida flung herself around the side of the window and fired the water pistol down onto the approaching vampires. Tears welded up in her eyes from the pressure on her broken fingers. From the corner of her eye, she saw Mitch and Cain lean out over the windows, water pistols in hand. Bullets hit the side of the house, shards of sandstone breaking loose.
As they came closer to the house, Khalida hit a man with a scarred face, who tumbled to the ground in a heap. His limbs twitching as he pulled himself back up onto his feet, he continued to run, with a limp, towards the house. She fired again, but missed, as he leapt over the mustard seeds and darted into the house.
‘Move back!’ Mitch yelled, as they scrambled backwards into the room. Khalida could hear the thuds and footsteps of Tycho’s small army coming closer to them. Her legs felt numb and heavy as stone as she propelled herself forwards. Mitch slammed the door shut b
ehind them and dragged a desk over, blocking the doorway as Clarence and Cain pulled more desks on top of it.
‘That’s not going to last for long,’ Khalida said, running her hands over the smooth wood of the stake as Rebirth grew closer. On the floor, in the centre of the room, was a small heap of more water guns, a few spare bottles of holy water, and a mound of mustard seed stuffed balloons.
‘We’ve got to make every second count,’ Mitch said.
‘So, this is it?’ Clarence said, looking down at his water gun. ‘The last stand. Never thought I’d be making it with a children’s toy.’
There was a heavy thud at the door. The four of them froze, their gaze stiff towards the door. Khalida brought her water gun up tight to her chest, ready to fire. The only sounds she could hear were their tense breathing and the pounding of her own heartbeat.
The floorboards creaked; she saw Cain and Clarence quiver. There was another heavy thud at the door, and some of the desks rattled.
‘Look out!’
A young woman sprang through the window and into the room. Khalida caught a glimpse of her mismatched eyes, and fired her water gun. The stream hit the vampire’s shoulder, skewing her landing. She landed heavily, off balance, and Khalida launched forward with her stake clutched in hand. The woman darted out of the way, her feet scarcely touching the floor.
A booted foot kicked through the door, as the woman aimed her gun at Khalida. Khalida saw the black barrel of the gun, and the world froze. A gunshot broke through the air as Cain hurled himself at the vampire, knocking her to the wall. With a deafening crash, the door was banged open, sending the desks tumbling down. Her palms sweaty and ears ringing, Khalida stepped forwards and drove her stake into the vampire’s chest, as a hail of gunfire entered the room.
Khalida felt the warmth of Cain’s body against hers as he pressed her against the wall, shielding her body with his. From the corners of her eyes, she could see Mitch leaning against a desk, blood dripping down onto the floor as his grip on the gun loosened. Patches of red seeped through his clothes. His eyes lost their focus, and his body slipped down onto the floor.
‘MITCH!’
Cain stood in front of her, his body shaking, as a cluster of vampires entered the room. Clarence was standing further back in the room, his water pistol pointed towards the door, his eyes wide.
All Rotting Meat Page 33
