“Mr. Davis, you have orders for me?” He asked simply. He had served in the Israeli military before he had been reborn and stayed to finish his four year term before serving the City under the Sand. He knew what an attack felt like.
That’s why Mr. Davis had been so thankful to find him first. “Efraim, collect your pack!” Mr. Davis said strongly. “Get Billy to issue out his weapons to everyone who can fight inside the city. Then I need you to collect, as two more packs, the new recruits, Russell and Clotho are their respective Alphas. Then take them to the north of the city and intercept the group of vampires coming in from that direction.”
Efraim nodded, “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find Ares and, what the…?” Mr. Davis was looking towards the south east side of the cavern and he was now able to see the indoor forest in that section spewing a column of black smoke into the air. Mr. Davis looked back at the other Enforcer, “I’m going to go head off the second part of the vampire attack coming from there.”
“It may be better to consolidate our forces and take out the different groups one at a time, instead of fighting a multi front battle,” Efraim suggested.
“If we did that our backs would be exposed,” Mr. Davis said looking off into the distance. His eyes focused suddenly, “You grab as many packs as you can, head north. I will take my pack to the south east and stall that group. Finish the vampires to the north and then join us to finish off my group in the south east. I’ll hold them for as long as I can.”
Efrain offered the larger black man his hand. Mr. Davis grabbed it tightly, “Don’t keep me waiting.” Efraim nodded and took off running down the street shifting as he went.
Mr. Davis led his pack, at speed, to Billy’s shop. Ares wasn’t there but Billy was handing out weapons with the help of a few others. The gun racks were emptying rapidly as all the city’s Shape shifters were grabbing what weapons they could, oversized handguns and rifles were being ripped from their racks as ammo was being pulled free by their boxes.
“Billy?!” Mr. Davis bellowed, “Have you seen Ares?”
The weapon smith ignored the question as he was talking to a young woman. It took him a moment to realize that he was handing Amanda Miller a rifle and giving her tips on how to hold and fire the oversized weapon.
On normal circumstances he would have said that she was too young, she was still just a teenager, and hadn’t even been reborn yet. But these were not normal circumstances and she was old enough to defend her home.
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Amanda ran out of the shop with a pack of werewolves. Mr. Davis stopped them. “Acharya! Where are you going?”
The brown werewolf stopped and turned toward him. He stood up on his hind legs with his large rifle and a magazine belt around his waist. “Mr. Davis, my pack and I were heading north.”
“No, you’re not,” Mr. Davis said calmly.
“Excuse me, what do you mean?” he asked clearly bewildered by the refusal of the senior Enforcer.
Mr. Davis shook his head. This pack was young and inexperienced. But it was the best that he had, there were only a few other packs that were more senior than Acharya’s. Besides they were Shape shifters, this was their home. Someone had to do it.
“I want the six of you to head west, find out what set off that flair. If I’m right, you’ll run right smack dab into another invading group of vampires.” Acharya nodded his jaw set and his eyes hardened. Mr. Davis stepped up to the young Sage. “Listen to me, don’t be reckless and don’t be stupid. I only need you to stall them. Buy some time for Efraim to finish his duty in the north.” He looked over the six Shape shifters. He didn’t see any fear or hesitation in their eyes, that was good. They would soon see what true battle was and that having a bit of fear was perfectly acceptable, even for werewolves.
Mr. Davis continued, “I’ll take Amanda with me.”
For once the young woman didn’t talk back. Her eyes did show fear, but also that resolve that told him she would not be kept from this fight. Right now, the City needed every last person to fight to protect her.
“Remember, shoot and move, you’re only trying to stall them, not trying to take them out by yourselves,” Mr. Davis reminded them. Acharya nodded and took off toward the west side of the city, his pack followed closely behind.
He turned toward Amanda, “Come on, we have work to do.” Amanda nodded quietly and followed behind Mr. Davis and his pack. He could feel Ares somewhere off to the west. He knew that Ares knew what he was doing. He turned toward the south east and began running, slow enough for Amanda to keep up though. He would not insult the young woman by offering to carry her. Today, she would learn what it meant to serve the City under the Mountain.
* * * * *
William found himself and his pack scooped up by his old instructor, Efraim Goldstein, and sent to help the defenders in the northern part of the city.
He had tried to tell Efraim that there was a fire in the south eastern side of the cavern as well. The Krav Maga instructor just nodded and sent him north. Aceso had met them at Billy’s place and they were all armed with oversized assault rifles. They each carried about ten magazines on a belt that wrapped around their waists.
They heard shots in the distance and the group of about five packs surged forward. Efraim sent Aceso and her pack along the street level. William and Charles immediately began pulling whatever they could find from the surrounding buildings and piling it into the street, making a makeshift barricade. It wouldn’t stop the vampires, he knew that they could easily jump to the top of the roofs of the buildings if they wanted to, but it would stop bullets. He knew that they would be armed as they invaded the city.