Obstinancy A Short Story for- Finishthestory

Obstinancy

by @dirge

- Wikimedia

“I’m not going in there.” Imani took a drag from her cigarette and put her muddy boots up on the dashboard. “I’m going to sit here until the sun comes up. I don’t want to live anymore.”

Isaac groaned. He glanced at his watch. They had twenty minutes till sun up. “Hiraam and Kat are inside waiting on us.” He turned off the car.

“I hated Hiraam a hundred years ago and I hate him today. You know that.”

“I know, Imani. But it’s not like we have a whole lot of fucking options.”

She scoffed. “Here you go. Angry as always. You know, you’d think that someone could handle their fucking anger issues after a few hundred years but. Well. You’re kind of a living betrayal of that idea.”

“Eloquently spoken from a drama queen,” he murmured. Isaac rummaged through his coat pocket for a blunt. “What’s it this time? General depression? PTSD from the bloodshed? Bored with the general state of things? Let me guess. It’s just too hard now, right? Now that they’ve all gone and dropped the bioweapons on each other? Now that they’re too sick for us? Just too much work for little Miss coffeeshop revolutionary. Little Miss Make A Revolution For Fun.”

“Far more interesting to participate in their history then sit around painting all day.” Imani tossed her cigarette out of the window and lit another. Isaac lit his blunt and stared at her smoking. So beautiful in the moonlight, her black skin was smooth and supple after their recent kill. It was this time that they’d usually go back and enjoy themselves, let out whatever violent energy that had on each other before blacking out.

“You’re not serious,” he said. “This is just-“

“You’re right.” She turned to him and he saw between the growing high that she was serious. “You’re right. I don’t want to bother. There’s hardly any of them left anymore, and the ones that are still alive are all armed and fighting. It’s too much work, Isaac.”

Isaac hit his blunt and thought it over. She was right. It was different now. He glanced up at the sinking moon. The sky had shifted from the starry blackness to a deep bruised purple. Isaac was ready to speak again, to try and change her mind, when the door to the warehouse opened. Hiraam stepped out, his hands up in that universal sign of surrender. Behind him stepped three men in camo. One held a shotgun to Hiraam’s back.

“Shit!” Isaac ducked and pulled Imani down.

“How many?” she asked.

“Three.”

“Human?”

“Didn’t see.”

Isaac opened the car door. Imani hesitated. He pulled her out of the car. They ran behind trees.

Imani sat as he scouted. His eyesight shifted to inferred. The man with the gun and his buddy flared hot red. But the third one was ice blue. “Two humans,” he said, creeping back down. “The big one with a beard is vamp.”

“Smell pot?” the vamp asked

MY ENDING:

Isaac crushed the blunt under his foot and scooped some mud over the ashes; the half smoked blunt he threw under the car. He got back to the trees from where he could see the path. The Trio had advanced a few steps and the bearded vamp was speaking into a radio. "Marty get over here and keep your eyes open, there may be people around."
The man holding the shotgun spoke waving his shotgun at Hiraam's back. "We really need to get to the van. If we want to sell this "Ice Cream". The sun will rise in a few minutes."

The third man replied looking around, his right hand removing a long knife from a sleeve strapped to his thigh. "Carter be quite and be ready to shoot. Red?" He then gestured at the vamp, who pointed to the left, where the road curved around some trees, they could see Imani's car, there was nobody inside. The radio squawked "I can't drive the van past the car, you need to move it. I will cover you with my rifle."

Red spoke into the radio. "Marty smash the van into it, push it aside and get here. Marty... Reply Now."

A female voice replied with a laugh. "Sun is coming shithead and door behind you is locked."

Red turned and saw the door bang shut. "Two options shithead." The voice on the radio continued. " Kill the humans and we give you space for the day or burn. Tick Tock. And here is a gift."

Marty's head soared to about fifteen feet high before landing with a wet thud and stopping before Hiraam.

Red dropped to a crouch facing Hiraam and the two humans. "Blast open the door. we need to get back in." The scene was awkward. The two humans could not dare to turn the rifle away from the vamps. The vamps were looking nervously at the sky. Red shouted at Carter "Shoot the lock Carter."

Then something leapt out of the trees and Carter fired his gun at it. Red leapt for the gun while Hiraam kicked Carter in the groin and leapt back to face the other human. Imani and Isaac ran up the path looking at the melee. Isaac pointed at Hiraam "I'm with him." Imani saw Red reloading the rifle he had manged to snatch from Carter who was now lying on the road unmoving. Imani leapt at him before he could point the rifle. Clutching at the rifle barrel with both her hands she pushed it away, the momentum of the leap making her crash into Red. Red lost his footing as he stepped onto a squishy part of Carter's body and both he and Imani landed in a heap, the rifle between them.

Imani weathered two punches, preferring to hold on to the rifle. Then Isaac and Hiraam dragged him off. the three worked silently to tie up Red and bring the van over after moving the car. They loaded all the bodies inside and drove off with Isaac at the wheel. The sky was now grey and dark blue.

Hiraam said. "Up ahead, left side, there is an overgrown path that goes up to the old mine. There- next to the dead tree."

The van bumped onto the dirt road, grinding uphill in low gear. "We can't make it. We have maybe three minutes, five at most."

Imani spoke up. " OK if you find a thick grove of trees drive into it. Find as much shade as you can. Hiraam get the clothes off that dead guy. I will get this one. What happened to Kat?" Hiraam did not reply just shook his head in a NO. " Fuck" Imani said tearing clothes off the dead body.

Isaac spotted an outcrop with trees leaning out and vines hanging down from it. He drove the van bumping and screeching right up to the rock face. " This is the best I can do." Imani handed clothes to Isaac. "Lets pack the windows and the windshield." The back of the van had no windows, which was well, as they did not have enough clothes, even after stripping the jacket off Red.

Isaac climbed over the seat into the back of the van. "Sorry about Kat, Hiraam." He said as he slumped beside Imani. Hiraam asked " How did you get the door of the warehouse to close?" Isaac replied "I did not. Even vamps can be deceived by illusions." "And that thing that leapt from the bushes?" Now it was Imani who replied. "Stones, in a jacket. What about him?" She pointed to Red. Hiraam replied. "He is young I think." And closed his eyes in a catatonic sleep.

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