He set his jaw and turned back to his task. The vampires here weren’t the fastest he had ever met. But they were very cunning. He hadn’t seen some of the complex formations that these vampires ran in ever, by any group. They seemed to be testing his abilities as they went. They were ever attacking different parts of his sector and in different ways, sometimes sending two people, then seven, and then only one. They came up from the street, or stayed on the rooftops. With the smoke continuing to build the closer they got to the heart of the city, the harder it was to see them. He could only smell smoke in the air as it completely covered the vampire’s scent of rancid decay and death.
Suddenly he heard a loud crash and clinging noise to his right. He looked over and saw Ares without his mini gun. He thought he saw it on the ground. If Ares was discarding his primary weapon, it probably meant that the City’s Enforcer had ran out of ammunition for it.
Acharya’s heart sank. That weapon had been their saving grace since Ares had arrived. It had saved Mary’s life. Now he wondered if Ares had any weapon at all. He had known that mini guns ate through ammo, but he had hoped that it would have lasted a few more minutes. No, he had wanted it to last forever. Now reality came crashing down on him. This fight just got a whole lot harder.
They kept falling back at speed. They had to shoot and move just to stay ahead of the advancing horde of vampires that continually tried to get around them. Acharya glanced behind him and he almost stopped running altogether.
They were within a few hundred yards of the Tower.
They had retreated so fast, that they had nowhere else to retreat to. They would be driven out of the city if they continued this way and the smoke had been getting progressively worse. They couldn’t keep going in that direction. This was the end.
Suddenly bullets ripped in from his right hand side. He saw a few vampires fall as a wave of Shape shifters came south around the Tower and took out the advancing vampires flanks. Acharya raised his snout in the air and howled joyously as the bullets flew and he counted five vampires fall. The rest melted back into the west of the city.
Acharya kept an eye on where the vampires disappeared to. They could attack at any minute. For now, he was able to count ammunition and regroup with his pack.
“Aiman, see to it that everyone has resupplied on ammo. Asclepius,” he addressed the black maned Healer. “I need you to help heal everyone. That group that came down from the north might need all the help they can get.”
“What are you going to do?” Tara asked.
“You already know, so why are you asking?” replied Acharya smiling.
“We all know this is worse than any of us expected. If we let ourselves get trapped here between two or three different groups of vampires there won’t be much hope for any of us,” she said with flat sincerity.
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“Then you know that I’m going to see that we have the best possible chance of living to see tomorrow. I have to go talk with Huan Li and the Elders.” With that Acharya left the group.
“Why do you push him so hard?” Mary asked in a soft voice.
“I’m just saying out loud what all of us are thinking.” Tara reloaded her weapon with a full magazine and looked out westward.
* * * * *
Ansuya heard a last final spurt of gunfire then an eerie quiet fall on the city. She turned northward toward the final gunshots.
Staying just below rooftop level she moved in between buildings, jumping from ramp to ramp. She was getting very tired. She hadn’t regained her strength entirely and she had pushed herself so hard just to get here.
The Tower stood as a beacon to her tired senses. A dark cloud of smoke was slowing enveloping the city. The top of the Tower was obscured by it. She hoped that there was still a city left to save. No, she knew that the city couldn’t be saved, but there were good people that could be. She ran towards the heart of the city and where she hoped to find her people.
In the distance she did see various Shape shifters on the rooftops and streets. That was good. Through the haze of smoke, she could smell the overwhelming sense of dread and apprehension. Things had not gone well for them.
She ran through the outer sentries that had been posted to watch for attacks. They raised their weapons to her in salute, which she returned. She then bolted down onto the street level. She ran toward where she could feel Huan Li and Alexiares, the rest of the pack was nearby except for Derceto. She had no sense of the Sage at all. Ansuya knew that meant that Derceto was dead. She didn’t have the luxury to mourn her or anyone else right now though. There would be time to mourn their losses, but not yet.
She ran up to the sizable gathering at the base of the Tower. She jumped up and remained upright as she took a few steps to join the group.
“Ansuya, good of you to join us,” Huan Li said without emotion.
“Yes, Huan I would have gotten here sooner but the traffic is killer this time of day,” Ansuya said in a dead pan.
“That’s it?” Nicolas barked. “We thought you were dead! You’ve been gone for over a year and the only thing you have to say is ‘I got stuck in traffic’?!”
“Nicolas,” Aceso said calmly, “we have more important things to worry about right now. Elder we are all glad to see you back and safe.”
“Thank you, Aceso,” she replied. She knew the Scout had a point and that her absence and subsequent return deserved an explanation but that explanation would just have to wait. “Huan what is our situation here?”
“Bad, Ansuya,” Alexiares replied shortly. “We have all gathered in one area, which is bad in any circumstance and by our last head count we have only thirty seven Shape shifters alive left in the city.”
So few. Ansuya couldn’t and didn’t want to believe what it was that she had just heard. This couldn’t be right. “I know I’ve been gone a while. Do we have the numbers of the vampires?” Ansuya asked instead. Better to be productive than to argue and question what was.
“At last best guess,” Huan Li replied grimly, “There are still well over fifty vampires left in the city. No one has been able to get numbers for the group coming in from the south east though. So that is just a guess maybe more, maybe less.”
“Huan,” Eustace said gently, “we need to start thinking about evacuation before we don’t have any options left.”
“I’m with Elder Browning,” Billy said tiredly. “I’ve already lost one friend to these bastards. I don’t want to sacrifice any more to a losing cause.”
Huan Li nodded, “Keva? As the Alpha of your pack, what do you have to say on this?”