Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder (Book 1) (30 page)

Harris snapped out of his terror
with an almost physical wrench. He could see that everyone was
literally petrified, unable to attack or even to turn and run
away.

Twenty-five feet.

Desperately Harris raised his
weapon and shouted, “Pour it into the bastard!”

Then he opened fire. The recoil
slammed into his shoulder repeatedly. Bullets flew across the short
space and impacted with dull thuds. The volume of his shout and the
hammering of the machine gun seemed to break the spell. People
along the line shook themselves and, one by one, they all raised
the weapons and began to fire.

Twenty Feet.

The bullets flew in a merciless
hail. They burned when they hit and Thiebes felt the agony of round
after round that hit home. The two vampires he used as shields took
the brunt of the attack, but there were so many bullets that it was
inevitable that he would be hit. Any unprotected area was a target
and his legs, arms and neck were on fire with agony. The sheer
force of the attack began to slow his advance as more and more
bullets slammed into him. His strength as a vampire allowed him to
heal but did nothing to ease the pain of each impact.

Thiebes was used to pain; he had
fought through the centuries and bled in every conflict. He had
faced hoards of screaming savages and ranks of disciplined soldiers
with equal relish. He had felt cold steel hack at him and drive
relentlessly through his body. He had felt the power of explosions
as his body had lain broken and shattered after artillery had
rained down on him and he had heard the silent whisper of a
sniper’s bullet moments before it had ripped his throat out. He was
well used to pain, in fact he enjoyed it. But this time was
different. This time his body wasn’t healing. This time the bullets
stung long after they slammed into him. He could feel his body
begin to slow down as the pain made him stumble. His massive
strength was waning as the bullets continued to slam into him. He
steeled himself and lowered his head, closing his eyes and
bellowing his rage as he put his remaining strength into one last
effort.

Fifteen Feet.

Harris saw the creature falter.
Fingers froze on triggers; people dropped empty magazines, loaded
new ones and continued firing in a daze. Shell cases flew
everywhere. Men and women stood in a sea of spent cartridges.
People dropped their machine guns and picked up new ones when they
overheated or jammed.

Ten Feet.

Harris stopped firing to let his
weapon cool down and looked worriedly at the rapidly dwindling pile
of Pat Smith’s “magic” bullets.

Oh well, it won’t matter if we
don’t stop this guy, he thought and, despite himself and their
situation, he felt a grudging respect for the creature’s
magnificent effort against such devastating force.

The creature began to
stumble.

“We’ve no more treated
ammunition.” He felt the tug on his sleeve and looked down at
Sandra Harrington.

“Just use the normal stuff, but
keep firing.”

The whole corridor shook as the
creature fell to one knee. The bodies of the dead vampires he had
used as shields slid to the ground, their forms no longer
recognisable. The humans immediately pumped rounds into the
creature’s exposed chest and the creature finally slumped forward
with a final howl of defiance.

The creature was already dead
when it fell, so it was unaware that its final act would have such
important ramifications. Its massive body fell forward and its
outstretched hand came down right in the middle of the barrier. The
force of the massive limb crushed the metal of the barrier. Two men
were sent spinning into the air and vaulted out into the corridor.
They landed heavily and sat dazed for a few moments while they
recovered.

The limb had left a gaping hole
in the humans” defences and the vampires were quick to react. As
one they swarmed on the hapless humans, whose screams stopped
abruptly when the creatures swamped them.

This time the assault was
blindingly quick and the humans were not prepared for it. The
barrage of bullets, when it finally began, was sporadic and lacked
the power of the previous defence.

The vampires felt the bullets
strike their bodies, but these wounds didn’t burn like the others
and they could feel the wounds heal almost as quickly as they
struck. They pounced on the barricade and ripped at the metal to
get at the humans. Many of the metal tables and chairs had been
welded together for added strength, which delayed the vampires at
first. High-pitched squeals filled the air as metal was ripped
apart and razor claws gutted humans when the vampires pushed
through.

Five vampires swamped the gap
left by Thiebes, and the others attacked the structure itself.
Rodgers saw the danger, immediately grabbed the defenders next to
him, and pulled them with him to defend the breech. The vampires
were so fast that, before they got to the gap, one had made it
through, jumped at a lone defender and ripped his head clean from
his shoulders in one fluid motion.

Rodgers had brought four men
with him. Two went down almost immediately when the vampire
pirouetted gracefully and gutted both with its sharp claws. Rodgers
still had the axe he had used earlier. He swung the weapon with all
his strength when the vampire prepared to launch another attack.
The blade flew through the air and struck the vampire in the side
of the head. The axe split its skull with a load crack and the
creature dropped dead to the floor. Rodgers was caught off balance
by the blow and unable to defend himself from the second vampire.
He felt himself thrown into the air and struck the wall with such
force that the crack of breaking bone was audible even over the
noise of the battle.

More men began to arrive at the
breech. Two vampires had made it through now, and dead bodies were
strewn everywhere. The lead vampire reached for the first human,
but had over-stretched and slipped on a pool of blood. It fell to
the ground and tried vainly to get back to its feet, but the humans
threw down their now useless guns and hacked and prodded the
creature with wooden stakes, spears and any other weapons they
could find. More reinforcements arrived and pushed back against the
other invading vampires. Slowly but surely their very numbers
forced the creatures back.

Harris saw Rodgers thrown from
the breach and strike the wall. His heart sank when he saw the limp
form slide to the ground, but then a creature suddenly appeared
before him. It rocked slightly as it fought to regain its balance
on the barrier’s unstable surface. Harris was distracted
momentarily when he heard a scream. He looked down to see Sandra
Harrington fall to the ground with blood spurting from a wound at
her neck.

Harris threw his machine gun
down and ripped a machete from its holster at his side. The rage he
felt was like a jolt of adrenaline and he swung at the creature
before him. The blow was badly aimed, but the sheer force behind it
cleaved the creature’s skull in two. Desperate to get to Sandra,
Harris hacked and slashed his way through the arms which poked
through the failing barrier and finally gained a gap. He dropped
down and turned her prone form to see how badly she had been
hurt.

“Thank God,” he sighed when he
saw the gaping wound at her shoulder and realised the wound was not
fatal. “Dan!” he shouted and grabbed the older man.” Gather up half
those that are left and take up position behind the next barrier.
Bring the wounded with you and we’ll hold them as long as
possible.” He shoved Sandra’s unconscious body into her father’s
arms.” Take care of her,” he said. Dan Harrington seemed to
hesitate. “Move!” Harris shouted. Harrington seemed to shake
himself and then ran along the line, taking every second
defender.

Harris watched while half his
force limped back toward the final barrier further down the
corridor. The vampires had slackened their assault and they paused
to take stock. Bodies littered the ground and hung at impossible
angles across the remaining pieces of the barrier. Twelve humans
lay dead. Five vampires had been destroyed, leaving both sides
about equal in number, if not in power.

The remaining humans, some
twenty people, steeled themselves for the next assault. Father
Reilly caught Harris” eye and smiled. His face was covered in blood
and his grin looked maniacal. The vampires seemed to sense the
weakening of the defences and began to shuffle forward. Just then,
everyone, including the vampires, stopped when a pounding noise
came from the top of the corridor. Nero appeared and grinned like a
Cheshire cat. Behind him loomed the massive form of Pollock.

Oh Shit! Thought Harris.

Chapter 31

The vampires attacked en masse
and with such ferocity that the humans couldn’t hope to stop them.
Vampires poured through the gap, scaled over the top of the
barrier, and ripped flesh with their claws and teeth. Men and women
fell and blood splattered everywhere. The coppery smell of the
blood only sent the creatures further into frenzy.

Father Reilly panted with the
exertion. He swung a wooden spear and impaled yet another creature.
Its scream sent a shiver down his spine, but he had no time to
gloat. He had carved the spear to a sharp point at either end,
which made it easier to use in close combat. He pulled the weapon
from the dead creature and continued the arc backwards to impale a
second creature attacking from behind.

There’s too many, he thought as
yet another appeared through the gap. He pulled the spear from the
dead vampire, but this creature was too quick. It grabbed the
weapon and pulled it easily from his grasp.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Father. Did you
want it back?” the creature mocked and then spun the weapon faster
than Reilly could hope to follow. The point drove straight through
Reilly’s chest. The creature’s strength forced the spear out
through his back and continued on through most of the weapon’s
six-foot length. The spear nearly touched the ground behind him and
left about six inches sticking from his chest.

“Now you know what it feels
like, priest. It hurts, doesn’t it?” the creature spat.

Reilly felt the strength leave
his legs and stumbled forward. The creature laughed and leaned in
to rip the priest’s throat out and gorge on his blood. Reilly’s
vision began to blur and the reek of the creature’s breath filled
his nostrils.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Reilly
said.

The priest grunted, grabbed the
creature by its shoulders and, before it could react, pulled the
vampire towards him and impaled it on the protruding spear. The
vampire screamed in agony, and then both of them fell to the
ground, locked in an eternal embrace.

Reiss sat on the barrier and
sprayed holy water at any vampires that came within range. His leg
was useless from his earlier fall, but the water gave him enough
range to keep the creatures at bay for now. His supply, however,
was dwindling rapidly.

Another creature lunged at him
and he flicked the bottle toward it, spraying a fine mist in its
direction. The creature screamed as the liquid burned a line across
its face. Its left eye melted on contact. Pain seared into the
vampire’s skull and it thrashed blindly into the melee. Its
frenzied flight caught another vampire by mistake and gauged deep
furrows across the creature’s face before the blinded vampire was
brought down by its own kind in a brief but violent exchange.

“Hey, don’t mind me,” Reiss
quipped. “Feel free to tear each other to pieces. I’ll just sit
here and watch.”

The vampires growled their
response, but kept their distance. Reiss smiled confidently, but he
knew that the water wouldn’t last much longer.

“Let me go!” Sandra Harrington
screamed and fought against her father. They had made it back to
the second barricade long before she had regained consciousness,
allowing her father the opportunity to clean and dress her wound.
The second barrier was merely a ragged line built with any
materials they had left over from the main barricade. It wasn’t
really meant to stop the vampires, but it had given the men
something to do while they waited for the assault to begin.

Sandra had woken with a start
and immediately looked about her. She saw the relative calm around
her and looked at her father questioningly. “What happened?” she
asked. Her voice rose as realisation hit her. “Where is he?” she
asked without waiting for a response to her previous question.

“He told us to come back here
and wait for him. You were injured…” Dan Harrington stopped halfway
through his explanation, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good.
“Look Sandra,” he put his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked
directly into her eyes, “we left them at least ten minutes ago and
the gunfire stopped five minutes after that. We…”

“No!” she screamed. “Let me go!”
She pulled away from her father and thumped her fists against his
chest while the tears streamed down her face. “He promised we
wouldn’t separate this time, he promised…!”

Her father reached out and
folded her in his arms, comforting her while she wept.

Rodgers stirred. His head felt
like it had been slammed into a wall. Then he remembered that was
exactly what had happened. He rolled over, opened his eyes, and
suddenly came fully awake.

“Oh my God!” he muttered when he
saw the carnage in front of him.

The creature swiped at Harris
and tore the flesh of his right arm from elbow down to his wrist.
The sudden pain made him drop the machete. The creature grinned
evilly and took its time advancing on its helpless prey. Harris
looked around frantically for something to protect himself with and
made a grab for a piece of metal sticking out of the barrier. His
hand had just closed on the bar when he felt it ripped from his
grasp. He looked up and saw the Minotaur creature lift the entire
barrier up and fling it with ease back down the corridor.