A Darkness Below: Chapter 16

Another week, another seven days of law school kicking me in the ass. My previous suggestion that I was getting the hang of it was premature. Still, I have another chapter for y'all! As always, upvotes and comments are appreciated, as well as critique of the work.

If you're just coming to A Darkness Below, you can check out the previous chapters here:

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter15

---

He’d rolled back to his feet as soon as that bullet found its way between the eyes of the leech that had tackled him into the barracks, and now he was at the doorway, picking targets of opportunity and trying to at least slow them down.

So far, it was working; he’d already managed to hit four or five of them center mass, dropping them to the ground and forcing them to roll out of the way. Still, he knew, as he was certain they did, that this strategy wasn’t sustainable. He was effectively trapped in the barracks, along with a few hunters and a handful of scribes. Great odds, he mused, taking aim and firing another shot before the slide on his Browning pistol locked to the rear, indicating he was out of ammunition. He slammed the door shut and jammed his back against it, pulling a magazine from its holder on his belt and driving it home.

“What’s the plan, sir,” came a voice from the back. He looked up, taking stock of the personnel he had to work with. There were ten hunters here in the hall, all of whom were now dressed and ready for battle in the short time he’d given them. There were about half a dozen scribes, in various states of getting dressed. This was the men’s barracks; unlike the female ones he’d barged into, it was simply an open building with bunks and wall lockers. The women had the advantage of having separated rooms. They were small, and hardly more than a jail cell, but they offered privacy not afforded to the men on account of their gender. That would help make their position a little more defensible. Here, there was the front door, and that was it; no other layer of defense existed.

“We need to link up with the other barracks,” he said, racking the slide back on his pistol. “After that, we need to make our way across the lawn to the armory and mount a defense. Right now we’ve got stakes and about thirty bloodsuckers on the other side of this door. Won’t lie to you boys; we’re gonna end up with less than we start with. Make peace with God now, in case you don’t get chance in the morning.”

While it was hardly an inspiring speech, it wasn't meant to be.

Right now, they could be overrunning the administrative buildings on the opposite side of the lawn, and neither old, fat Brennan nor crippled Sullivan were going to present much of a challenge to them. They needed to fight back, and they needed to do it now, lest they be destroyed or, worse still, those leeches free the monster in the basement. He gave the boys a moment to steel themselves, gathering their stakes in hand, before he opened the door and peeked out.

The lawn was essentially empty now, which was surprising, but it gave them room to maneuver without worrying about being set upon immediately. Glancing to his left, his suspicions were confirmed; they had split up, with a small group focusing on the female barracks and the rest of their number focusing on the stone buildings on the other side of the interior wall. His anger seethed, but he noticed that they were still working on the heavy oak door that locked off the building. One of the girls had been smart enough to bar the door, and even with their preternatural strength, that door put up a fight. He motioned for them to fall in behind him, and he duck out of the door. Behind him were six hunters, followed by scribes that fell into a diamond formation, and the other four hunters in the rear.

Their lucky only held out to the edge of the building. As soon as they cleared the building, they were set upon by two of the creatures that had made their way onto the roof. These two in particular had been big men during their life, easily six foot and built like brick walls, so when they landed on two scribes ahead of the hunters in the rear, they did enough damage to incapacitate them. The dark ground beside them erupted into shadowy tendrils thanks to the another of the leeches that had stayed on the roof, ostensibly to provide support. They snatched another of their number and flung him at the nearby wall with enough force to crack his skull open.

The hunters in the rear drew their stakes and flung themselves at the lumbering behemoths. Thankfully, numbers were on their side, but that did nothing to help the scribes now caught in a battle against shadows that could deal serious physical harm. McKenna surveyed the situation and took aim, lifting his pistol to fire at the shadow fetishist on the roof. It wouldn’t be enough to kill him, not outright, but it would at least give them a chance to make it across the remaining four meters to the barracks door. The first round missed its target, but the other two landed center mass, burning searing holes into its chest cavity. It let out a howl of pain, losing its balance and tumbling off the roof to the grass below. The shadowy tendrils disappeared immediately once its focus was broken, and McKenna yelled at them to make it to the other barracks. As they hurried across the lawn, he turned his sights to the two larger leeches that were engaging the four hunters that had brought up the rear.

One had landed a lucky strike to the temple of one hunter, killing him instantly, but it had less luck with the remaining two now engaged with it.

They were smart enough to spread out on either side, not giving it a clear shot at either of them, and one of them had managed to dig a stake deep into its shoulder. Despite losing the use of its right arm, it still swung heavily at the other hunter, who was doing an excellent job of dodging the strikes. With expert skill, and more than a little luck, he managed to ram his rosewood spike straight through the beast’s heart, rendering him incapacitated.

The other hunter, tasked with fighting one off himself, had less fortune, and that was the beast that McKenna focused his efforts on. Drawing his pistol up, he fired another three rounds at the bloodsucker’s skull, taking his time and focusing on his fundamentals. The extra second between shots paid off; despite the smaller target, he managed to land two through the side of its skull. It dropped to the ground, twitching. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it would buy them enough time to mount an effective defense.

“Go, now!” He barked at the hunters, lifting his eyes to scan the rest of the lawn as they beat a hasty retreat to the second barracks. The rest had either made it toward the inner courtyard, or they were now engaged with his small force at the other barracks. Four down, twenty more to go, he thought grimly, turning and bolting for the other barracks door.

The situation that he and the other three hunters came across wasn’t much better than the one they’d just left: two scribes lay dead on the floor, with one of the creatures using the third as a shield while simultaneously exsanguinating him. The six hunters that had moved ahead managed to incapacitate two unsuspecting leeches and critically wound two others, despite only being armed with stakes and knives. It came at a price, though; two of their number had been impaled by shadowy tendrils turned into solid spikes. With the addition of McKenna and the three other hunters, though, they had the numerical advantage again.

Along with the scribes who, now that the initial shock had given way to adrenaline-fueled war fury, had stakes and blessed knives at the ready, they were pushing back against the force of bloodsuckers arrayed against them.

---

If you want to vote for me as a witness, cast your vote here! Scroll down until you see this text box and type in my name.

Like what you read? Follow me, @anarcho-andrei! You can also find me on PALnet and the Fiction Workshop on Writer's Block: