“Position,” shouted Aaron as he dropped the lifeless body on the ground.
Ben had no idea what his position was supposed to be but there were four entrances to the room and one of them led up the stairs they had come down. Aaron and Alexander covered one door, Daniel and Martin another. Ben joined Joel by the third door and then they waited.
The moan became impossibly loud. Ben started to wonder if vamps were capable of feelings and that they were distraught to find out that Gabriel had been killed.
He couldn’t focus to think through the noise but what did he have to think about? See a vamp, shoot a vamp, that was all he had to know.
The lights flickered momentarily and then guttered out as a terrible wind rushed through the tunnels. Ben could see nothing save the red glow that pulsed in front of him. He aimed his gun, held his breath. The moan faded. He could hear teeth and footsteps. He wanted to shoot but he didn’t. He waited.
One beat, two beats, how many beats of his heart did he hear before it began? He counted them in his head if for no other reason than to avoid thinking about what was coming, if for no other reason than to avoid thinking about what he stood to lose.
It wasn’t just dark, it was the absence of light. It was the glowing, pulsing anti-light of a black hole into which all other darkness was drawn. It stood as a giant before them. It didn’t speak.
There were two others, smaller but hungrier for it. They pulsed so rapidly that they seemed to vibrate around the larger figure.
Ben swallowed and his mouth was dry. He wondered why no one had opened fire and then he realised that they had. Guns were going off either side of him, knocking the black shape back and forth, buffeting the smaller ones from side to side. Then he was shooting as well.
They emptied their guns and in the time it took to put in fresh clips the creatures advanced. They cried their horrible cry and he could see that they were bleeding black blood, like oil, onto the floor. They weren’t dead yet but they were hurting and that was good.
He emptied another clip and the creatures continued to advance. They were twenty, then ten, then only five metres away. They smelled of death, both their own and all those they had consumed. He reloaded his gun and fired again, fired a bullet for everyone he knew who had died.
They still weren’t dead. He only had another two clips and no idea what the others were carrying.
He moved back in line with the others, the door was behind them but they didn’t go. They kept firing until black blood soaked through their clothes, until they ran out of bullets, until the creatures writhed on the floor then lay still.
Ben dropped his gun and fell exhausted to the floor. They’d done it, whatever it was they had done it. He felt disgusting laying in the hot sticky blood but he didn’t care. He thought he might sleep or pass out.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and he knew that it wasn’t over yet. He looked up at Aaron. “It’s time to go,” he said.
Ben picked himself off the floor and his now empty gun. He could feel the slimy blood sticking between his fingers and tried to rub it off on his trousers, only to find they were as disgusting as his hands.
He followed Aaron’s dim shape through the door even as he heard the deep rumble below him. The ground shook and loose rocks cascaded down the walls.
“Run!” shouted Daniel.
Ben ran. He was at the back of the group again but pushing them forwards. He could feel the cold coming up behind him like a shockwave.
He didn’t dare look back, whatever was there he knew that he didn’t want to see it. He could feel the anger and hate coming from it like a bad smell. Then he was climbing up the stairs, slipping and stumbling on the blood wet steps, he had to brace himself against the wall to stay upright.
And all the time the thing behind was getting closer. Its angry growl so deep and loud that he wasn’t sure whether he could hear it or feel it. On he ran, pushing against Martin’s back, urging him to go quicker because neither of them wanted to be left behind and see that thing face to face.
The steps began to crumble beneath his feet, he could feel them falling away into the dark nothingness below. “Come on!” he shouted but couldn’t even hear it himself over the sound of the falling building and whatever was chasing them.
He reached the top of the stairs and threw himself forwards, just as the top step turned into rubble and fell away. The thing was still coming though.
Ben got to his feet and pulled Martin to his. He dragged the boy away from the mouth of the abyss and on towards the door.
He could see the sharp light of the day ahead but it was fading. Even in his confused state that didn’t make sense; they had arrived at the tower in the early morning and could not have been more than three hours there. It should be mid-day, the sun at its fullest and most damaging to whatever was behind them.
They burst through the doors and fell onto the grass beside the others, hacking up lung full’s of the black hate they had encountered. The white tower shook, bricks fell and tiles slid from the roof to smash on the ground metres away.
“Get up,” shouted Daniel, his voice gruff and tired as he climbed to his own feet. He helped Joel to stand.
Ben pulled Martin up and Alexander. He looked around. “Where’s Aaron?” he shouted, his ears ringing from the noise.
“Come on,” said Daniel, not waiting to answer. He ran, dragging Joel behind him, towards the barracks.
Ben looked up at the darkening sky. A swarm of darkness, like insects
(or bats)
were massing in the air. Their form blocking out the sun creating twilight and then night. He ran after Daniel, scanning the area for a sign of Aaron but he already knew his fait had been.
They burst through the doors of the barracks but Daniel didn’t stop running. He knew exactly where he was going and Ben was happy to follow him if only so he didn’t have to think for himself. The pushed through doors and ran along tunnels. He could hear wings flapping outside, thousands, millions of them beating away the sun. Then the anger of the hateful darkness. He couldn’t get away from it, it was as if it was in his head.
“Through here,” shouted Daniel and they followed him into a room. They fell into each other, panting for breath. Daniel didn’t stop. The room was filled with wooden lockers and Daniel started kicking at them. When the first one opened Ben saw that it contained weapons. The weapons they had set out to collect all those days ago. “Help me,” said Daniel.
They all started kicking doors and pulling out weapons. Crossbows that were the finest thing Ben had ever seen, they were smooth and shiny, a thousand years more evolved than the lumpy thing he had made with his dad. Arrows tipped with sharp wood and swords made out of the same. There were guns as well, they looked like they were made of some kind of plastic and the bullets that went in them were made of wood. He glanced across at Daniel and saw him putting guns and spare bullets in his pockets.
Ben grabbed a crossbow and slung two quivers over his shoulders. He also took a gun and a pocket full of the wooden bullets but he knew which weapon he favoured. It felt right, it felt comfortable.
The ground began to shake beneath them and they looked at one another. They were loaded down with wooden weapons, exhausted from the fight they had already won but as ready as they were ever going to be for another. Daniel nodded. He was in charge again and they all knew what that meant for Aaron. They would drink to him later, if any of them survived.
Outside it was completely dark. The sky was filled with the buzzing and flapping of tiny creatures. The black shape stood in full colour amongst the ruins of the white tower. When it turned towards them Ben recognised it from the paper money his father had carried, a souvenir of the time before, it was the King.