Chapter 9
Raiding Party Pt.2

I scrambled up off my back and moved into the thick bushes with Patches, abandoning the little circle of trampled foliage and my pack. Hopefully the sight of the abandoned camp would distract the vamps that I could hear approaching.

“I’m telling you, there was this little glint of light that vanished into the shrubs at the top of the hill. I could FEEL eyes on me,” the first voice said. Judging by the amount of noise they were making, they were not worried about running into anyone out here. Their mistake.

“You don’t have to keep telling me, I believe you. It’s just that we’ve traveled pretty far and not found any signifi-” he stopped abruptly. “I can smell them,” he whispered, a slight tremble in his voice.

“Waiyeeewhoah, can you hear them?” The first one sounded almost panicked, maybe he was new to their group.

“Fuck’s sake, grow a pair would you? If you want to prove you deserve to be bitten a fourth time you at least gotta be able to walk through the woods without pissing yourself,” the second voice hissed. “Now shut it,” he ordered.

During their dialogue, my hand had found the revolver Patches gave me and drawn it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Patches’ rifle leveled in the direction of the vamps’ voices.

Two shapes pushed through some low-hanging branches, I could make out wings on both bodies but couldn’t tell which was the greater vamp and which was the lesser.

“Look! They left their gear! They must be close by!” The first one exclaimed right before he was struck upside the head by the second.

“You fucking imbecile,” he hissed, barely above a whisper. “Are you TRYING to let them know exactly where we are?” I could hear his teeth gritting together.

“Actually I heard you two walking up the other side of the hill,” Patches said right before his rifle lit the entire area up with its brilliant muzzle flash.

The vamp I later identified as the lesser one crumpled as the round punched clean through his torso, leaving a hole big enough to fit my leg through. I wasted no time adjusting my aim and firing a single round at the second vamp scout. The round tore through his throat, both of his hands flew up to the fist-sized hole punched through his neck. He let out a single choked cry and shadowstepped away.

“Well that one was significantly more durable than I expected,” I muttered as I lowered the revolver.

“He’s not gonna be alive much longer, probably just going to die as soon as he lands from that shadowstep, which he probably just did… So our cover is definitely blown now and we can either run through the forest with a pack of angry vamps on our tails to hunt us down where they have an advantage. OR we can do the unexpected and charge their nest, where they have the home field advantage. But we won’t give a shit about that advantage and we’ll kill them all. Plus we get to be heroes and save their prisoners!” Patches exclaimed.

I felt a grin on my face as I trotted over to my pack and picked it up. “Oh come on Patches, anyone who knows us would totally expect us to charge in and wipe them out,” I said as I slipped the straps over my arms and started up the hill. I could almost see his grin in the dark.

“Good thing they don’t know us! So it’s a party!” He called out as he scooped up his pack and started running up the hill. “Race you!” He yelled as he passed me, laughing as he chambered another round in his rifle, his wing snagging the spent casing out of the air.

“Last one there is vamp bait!” I yelled as I started running as well, my strides maybe half the size of Patches’ gigantic steps. Thankfully the thickly layered trees and bushes prevented him from taking advantage of his impressive stride and he got tangled momentarily by several low-hanging branches. I laughed at him as I charged past. “Look at the bait hanging in the tree!” I taunted, a small part of me wondered if I had finally lost my mind, or if this was just how Patches always felt, just not giving a shit anymore. Just having fun, no matter the situation.

I heard a loud bellow from Patches, followed by more snapping branches than I could count as he charged through the trees, leaving a trail of destroyed branches and trampled shrubs in his wake. “I’m the juggernaut bitch!” He called as he passed me again. Then he tripped over a rock. I cackled as I passed him, the top of the hill was nearly in reach, I was about to beat him to the top!

Some-fucking-how he managed to launch himself off the rock and land right next to me. He lost all momentum on the landing but quickly regained speed, using his stride to his advantage again. The two of us reached the peak of the hill at the same time, panting and chuckling.

“So does this make both of us bait?” I asked, looking down at the factory town. Sure enough, the one they were using as a nest was lit up, I could make out what looked to be a sentry standing watch by the fence gate with a rifle. The post was well-lit and elevated, they really were committed to the survivor encampment facade. The sentry was bent over another figure on the ground, the vamp I shot in the throat.

“Five bits says I can hit him,” I said as I held my hand out for Patches’ rifle.

He started laughing at me. “No, I’m not going to go into this fight with you only having one working arm. This thing will either break or dislocate your shoulder,” I could hear the smile on his face.

“Then I’ll hold it with my wings,” I said with an air of finality.

“Well if you fuck one of those up it won’t matter as much I guess,” he said as he handed the massive cannon to me. “Not like you ever use them for anything,” he teased as my fingers closed around the rifle.

It was really fucking heavy, like drop it on your cat by accident and kill it heavy. I quickly dropped into the prone and propped the buttstock of the rifle against the large plate that covers the shoulder-like muscle on the top of the wing. It was an awkward way to aim a rifle, I felt like I was aiming an artillery piece. My wings took the positions normally reserved for one’s hands when holding a rifle.

“No wind, target is approximately 800 meters away,” I talked myself through the shot as the sentry turned around and shouted into the building, waving for someone to come out. I tipped the barrel up slightly to compensate for the drop the large round would undoubtedly suffer traveling such a distance.

“Wait, you do have five bits, right? Beca-” Patches asked as my feather squeezed the trigger, the resulting blast from his rifle drowned out whatever else he was going to say.

I think the round hit the sentry in the collarbone, it doesn’t really matter though. His torso literally flew apart as the round entered its top and exited at about his hip. Ribbons of his skin and flesh flew several feet in every direction, whoever was about to come outside had apparently stopped their advance.

“Well shit, I owe you five bits,” Patches said, a bit of disbelief edging into his voice. “That was fucking AWESOME, high five dude,” he said as he raised a hand. I gladly obliged then handed his rifle back to him.

“So that kickback,” I said as we started down the hill.

“Real bitch isn’t it?” He asked.

“I’m not flying for a little while I think…” I reached up and rubbed at the sore muscle. “I think I fractured something…”

“Hah! I knew it.”

“So how do you want to do this little raid? Try to pick them off or just charge in and tear the place apart?” I asked as we picked up the pace and jogged down the hill.

“I thought we just finished the part where we pick them off!” Patches said with a laugh. “I mean we did take three of them down before even setting hoof in the nest,” he added.

“Alright, let’s get to work then!” I called as we reached the light of the fires that were illuminating the sentry’s post. It was a real mess up close, the Bat I had shot in the neck collapsed right next to the sentry into a pool of his own blood. I doubt he was even able to say anything or warn him. Shit, it’s a wonder he was even able to shadowstep at all after I put that round through him. A quick glance confirmed that I missed his vertebrae, keeping his brain and heart connected. I thought they couldn’t bleed out... So how did he die then?

I squatted in front of him for a moment and inspected him further. He didn’t seem to be breathing at all so I started my first test. I waved my hand in front of his eyes, no reaction. Time for test number two.

“Hey Patches you got a stick?” I asked, looking up from the body.

“Umm, no… Why?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Never mind,” I waved a hand dismissively as I rose and turned toward the sentry’s last position.

The sentry was mostly paste from the hips up… I spotted his head a few feet away. He had been dressed in, well something… Was hard to tell by looking at what little was left after that round tore through him and coated all his clothes in blood and pulverised entrails.

“Eugh, don’t slip,” Patches joked as we continued past the mess.

The Bat I thought dead rose as I showed my back to him and grabbed my leg, yanking me into the muck. His vocal cords had been shredded by the gunshot and all that came from him were the angriest sounding gurgles I’d ever heard. Every time he inhaled air got sucked directly through the hole in his throat, making a stomach-lurching gasp.

“Oh fuck! He’s still alive!” Was all I thought to shout as I tugged against his surprisingly strong grip. I kicked at his face with my hoof, trying to stun him and free myself. The Bat raked his claws across the metal plates on my legs, the surfaces screeching loudly in the night as they were forced across each other.

“I got it!” Patches called as he literally brought the hammer down on the Bat clawing at my armor. His favorite sledgehammer effortlessly passed through the creature’s skull, crushing it like a melon as it made contact with the ground with a wet smack. The contents of his skull painted my armor red and pink. I’m so fucking glad I closed my eyes right as he did it.

“Patches I fucking hate you,” I spat, making sure none of the skull’s fragments or its contents were in my mouth.

“Ooooh yeah… That was kinda messy,” Patches said as he looked down at his arms and legs, he was covered in the stuff as well. He slowly grimaced and shook his hands. “Eeeewww,” he scrunched his nose up and helped me back to my hooves.

“Lets go scare the shit out of some vamps,” I chuckled. “We’re pretty much wearing their scout and guard now,” I said as we started toward the factory.

“Yeah, it’s gonna take some serious scrubbing to get all this out,” Patches said, stomping a little on the ground.

I could see at least two other vamps inside the factory. One of them turned and ran back into the building yelling something, the other looked to be a fairly young colt. The younger one was just frozen on the spot, watching us advance. Seeing something other than savage rage or hunger in their eyes was a sobering reminder of what they used to be. He was slowly raising his hands in front of his body, starting to overcome some of the shock but was still trapped in fear’s merciless grasp.

“You takin’ this one?” Patches asked, his rifle at the alert, but not yet raised enough to fire. “Doesn’t look like it’ll take a big round to bring this one down,” he observed.

“Yeah,” I said as I raised the revolver, aiming at the T-box, the space where the eyes and muzzle meet. He didn’t say anything, didn’t move as I slowly squeezed the trigger. It was like shooting at a living doll, he just flopped over as the round punched through the part of the brain responsible for controlling the heart and lungs. The link between his brain and body was broken almost instantly, it thankfully had the same effect as beheading them.

I felt that rush of endorphins from the back of my mind, washing over my body. The most basic instinct, survival. Something died and it wasn’t me, and a part of my brain was happy to see it and flooded my body with the reward chemical that some became addicted to.

The feeling was short-lived as the Bat that had been with him came rushing back out, screaming with rage and brandishing some kind of homemade blade. It appeared to be made out of two thin metal pipes holding a free-spinning sawblade from one of the smaller machines.

“You bastards! I’ll fucking kill you!” He screamed as he charged straight toward us. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the Bat charging us, and the one I just shot. They chilled me a little...

As soon as I took aim with my revolver he shadowstepped a few feet to the left. As soon as I had adjusted my aim he shadowstepped right. He was closing in fast, and every time I took aim he’d jump through the night’s shadows. Judging by Patches’ quiet cursing he was having the same issue.

Another shadowstep, the dark shape filling my peripheral vision. I spun to the right as quickly as I could, raising my gauntlet to shield my face. That sawblade crashed into my forearm with incredible force, but it wasn’t made for cutting metal.

As soon as the blow had landed the pressure was gone, and another wild swing was aimed at my head. There was no form to this assault, it was just blind thrashing. I caught an opening during his backswing when the weapon was raised over his head and brought my left forearm blade up, slamming it through his bent elbow and completely breaking the joint. The blade continued through his forearm, splitting the limb in half as it pushed the Radius and Ulna apart. The only thing keeping his arm connected at the elbow were a few tendons, while my blade held his arm in position over his head.

His face twisted in pain as he dropped the blade, his working arm grabbing my forearm in an attempt to stop my advance. He let out a grunt of effort, but couldn’t get a decent grip on my blood-slicked gauntlet. I twisted my arm and fractured the bones, eliciting a scream of agony from my opponent as his forearm was shredded. I quickly pressed my revolver into his mouth and squeezed the trigger. I closed my eyes before the hammer snapped home, feeling warm blood spray on my right cheek and eyelid as the hand cannon roared. I did my best to dismiss the rush of endorphins as I pushed the body off myself and turned to Patches.

“Patches what the fu-” The rest of my complaint was cut off by the roar of his rifle, during my tangle with the Bat I hadn’t noticed the Gargoyle charging at us. The beast crashed to the ground minus its head.

“Face it Alex,” Patches said with a grin as he chambered another round, my ears ringing slightly. “You’d be toast if I wasn’t around to watch your tight ass.”

“I’m gonna ignore that extra adjective, think any more of them are gonna be dumb enough to come running out at us?” I asked, looking back into the factory, the lights had all been cut, leaving us in the dark. The clouds had completely overrun the sky at this point, not a single star was visible, nor was there any illumination from the moon. I worked my jaw a little, trying to pop my ears.

“We’ve picked off six of them already, so no. They’d have to be really fucking stupid to just keep coming out and getting picked off like this. I think we’re gonna have to go in there to get the rest of them,” Patches said as he started toward the building again.

We reached the large cargo doors hanging open without meeting any further resistance. We left our packs behind the open doors, hiding them from view.

“Ambush?” I asked, noting the large number of places to hide just beyond the doors.

“Definitely,” Patches whispered, his wings snapping once so he could ‘listen’ for them. His head scanned slowly as I watched for any movement inside. “Two, no three? Shit, they’re pressed up on the backside of some of the equipment,” he hissed.

“Distance?” I asked.

“Closest one, ten meters, left. Next is to the right, a little farther. Last one on the ceiling,” he reported quietly.

“Let’s not keep them waiting then,” I said, my heartbeat quickening as we advanced. My pistol was raised, I could barely see the end of my barrel in the darkness. Fighting blind was far from my strong suit. We slowly advanced through the darkness, a deathly, almost artificial silence creeping over the room. I thought Patches was aiming left, so I turned right a little.

“My my my, looks like you two really do want to tempt fate. Just walking straight into this nest, and a second time for the big one,” a raspy voice spoke from somewhere above us. My heart skipped a beat at the sudden break in the silence, I had so much adrenaline in my system that I could feel my heartbeat in my neck and arms. I took a slow breath and tried to calm myself.

“So you remember me? I’m flattered,” Patches taunted. I felt him brush against my left wing as he turned slightly.

“How could we not forget the big red menace who tore through our nest and murdered so many?” I could hear anger, that familiar lust for violence edging into the voice.

“I’m vermillion, you uncultured swine,” Patches replied. How the fuck was he so calm right now? Was it just a facade? My eyes frantically scanned the dark room, identifying outlines of large machines, desperately looking for movement of any kind. Was it getting darker?

“Mmmm, I’m glad at least one of you is taking this situation seriously. I can hear your heart just hammering away, and all that blood rushing through your veins,” the voice said, a mixture of lust and hunger replacing the anger. “Stay scared, the adrenaline makes your blood taste so much sweeter,” the voice echoed slightly off the walls and equipment in the room.

Almost as if on queue I felt another rush of adrenaline in my veins, my fingers went completely numb. My right wing stopped hurting, and I started hearing the stillness of the air. It was getting harder to control my breathing as my eyes flicked around.

“Before we kill you both I’d like to know just one thing,” the voice said calmly. “How are you staying so calm big red?” It taunted.

“Because this whole time you’ve been running your mouth I’ve been aiming,” Patches answered.

The brilliant muzzle flash lit the room for a split second, he had fired almost straight up at the vamp on the ceiling. That little moment seemed to last forever as I took in the room. The machinery, the sawblades, the toppled conveyor belt that had knocked the wall down, the face of the Gargoyle within a meter of myself… Fuck.

I didn’t even have enough time to raise my revolver at the new threat before I felt it slam into me and hurl me across the giant room. I’m not sure how far through the room I flew, or what I slammed into, maybe it was a shelf. After I hit the concrete floor I was buried under several cut boards of wood. I inhaled a bunch of sawdust and started coughing. Yeah it was probably a shelf of some sort. I could hear Patches yelling in the distance and a dull impact of something being struck by his rifle. There was a loud yelp and a snarl, the Gargoyle was after him now.

I managed to extricate myself from the rubble and started toward the commotion when something swept my legs out from under me. I felt hands grab my right arm and roll me over, trying to pin me on my back.

“You’re not going any-fucking-where,” a voice growled. I could smell blood on his breath. His face had to be within a foot of mine and I couldn’t see it. Shit, I couldn’t even see the end of my own muzzle, what was wrong with my eyes?

I didn’t wait for my enemy to make a move, I swung my arm at him like a club and made contact with something. Judging by the grunt he made during contact and the hollow ‘thwack’ that echoed from his mouth, I hit his head. That sound was all the encouragement I needed to continue my assault. I swung my left arm at him repeatedly, angling my fist inward to punch him properly. I barely noticed his claws raking over my armor.

After the fourth strike to his face I felt him roll off me and heard him hit the floor. I wasted no time getting to my knees, and grabbing what felt like a shoulder as I punched again. I missed. There was a very loud ‘crack’ as my armored fist slammed into the concrete floor. The shock flew up my arm and rattled my joints but I drew my arm back and swung again, this time connecting with his muzzle. I lost control, I let go of the shoulder and just hammered away with both of my fists, my revolver forgotten. I lost count of my swings, the cries of pain slowly getting quieter as I beat the consciousness from my attacker, fracturing his skull.

I finally came to my senses once I noticed the softness of his skull and the lack of struggling on his part. I reached out and felt for his throat, he let out the softest groan when I squeezed it. I held him still with my left hand while I readied my right blade and pressed it to his throat. I began sawing back and forth quickly, pressing the blade through him.

The pain brought him back to consciousness. He let out a choking gasp and both of his hands grabbed my arm, trying to stop me. The gasp took on a more desperate tone as the breathing became a gargled struggle for air, I could hear him inhaling his own blood as he started to drown in it. I could tell when I severed the major arteries because blood started spraying all over the damned place, his arms were starting to weaken. I finally felt them, the vertebrae connecting his head to his body. With one final push of effort, I snapped them and chopped his head off.

I pushed myself away from the body, feeling another endorphin rush as I tried to catch my breath in the absolute darkness. Something was definitely wrong, these shadows weren’t natural. Suddenly I felt a tightness in my stomach and I rolled over onto my hands and knees. With a single heave I felt what little water was in my stomach come charging up out of my body and splatter on the floor. The fight or flight system can be a real fucking douche sometimes…

My wing touched something cold and metal, my revolver! As I grabbed it I could still hear Patches fighting the Gargoyle, from the sound of things he was trying to beat it to death with something. Had he dropped his rifle? The more I listened the more it sounded like he was using his sledgehammer on the thing, he must have been missing its head because it wasn’t going down.

“JUST.” THWACK! “FUCKING.” THWACK! “DIE ALREADY!” THWACK!

Several loud snarls responded to Patches’ demand.

I shakily rose to my hooves and started toward the commotion. I wasn’t sure what I could do to help in this situation, but I knew I wasn’t just going to leave Patches there alone to fight one of those bastards. I managed a half a dozen steps before I tripped over something. I just barely managed to stop myself from slamming face first into the ground, instead landing on my hands and knees again. Whatever I tripped over was warm, and the iron smell of blood assaulted my nose. Was it the first vamp Patches shot earlier? At this rate I was never going to get there in time to help Patches.

I got up again and tried to ‘listen’ for objects nearby with my wings like Patches did. It was nowhere near as easy as he made it look. I could feel something in front of me though, when I reached out with my hand it felt like some kind of support beam. I carefully moved around it, still listening with my wings. I could feel two large objects moving very quickly in front of me. I could hear the Gargoyle’s claws scrabbling across the concrete a few feet away from me. A little farther away I could hear Patches’ hooves on the floor and another loud ‘thwack’ as he struck it again.

“Hey fuckface!” I yelled, hearing a loud snarl as the claws stopped moving across the concrete. I could smell and feel the Gargoyle’s breath, it had definitely turned to face me now and was growling at me. “Ahshit.”

“HAH!” Patches bellowed as he swung again, this time hitting the beast’s still skull. I heard it slam into the ground, letting out a yelp. I could hear it starting to move again, but felt a rush of air accompanied by a loud bellow from Patches. The hammer punched clean through the beast’s skull and clanged noisily as it hit the concrete. I wasn’t sure if it was chips of concrete or chips of skull that bounced off me, and at this point I really didn’t care.

“Are you ok?” I asked, still catching my breath.

“Me?” He said, panting hard. “You’re the poor bastard who got thrown across the fucking room,” he said with a tired sounding chuckle. “You blind too?” He added.

I actually felt some relief at those words. “Yeah, can’t even see my own muzzle,” I admitted.

“Might be a Master,” Patches said. I could hear him moving around and looking for something. “They can control shadows, so one either made them unnaturally thick over this entire area, or is holding them over our eyes,” he said, still moving around.

“What are you looking for?” I asked, sliding my hoof across the floor to feel around for objects.

“Dropped my rifle after I hit that Gargoyle, bastard smacked it right out of my hands,” he grumbled. I could hear his wings dragging across the floor as he broadened his search area.

“Shit, I think they could still see us just fine,” I said as I started searching too. I felt foolish, a blind person scraping across the floor looking for a firearm he couldn’t use properly.

“Aha! I found it!” Patches called out as I heard the scrape of his rifle dragging across the floor a little.

“So I still can’t see,” I said as I stood back to my full height and spread my wings, trying to listen with them.

“Yeah, we gotta deal with that Master first,” Patches said with a sigh.

“Think they’re down in the tunnels of the nest?” I asked.

“Yep,” Patches answered as he started searching for the doorway to the rest of the nest.

“Well fuck…”

Author's Note

So Raiding Party is bigger than I thought it would be! I'll be getting part three out as soon as I can!

-Jake