Finn jumped behind cover and bullets whizzed past him. Not fast enough. A shot caught him square in the chest, knocking him to the ground with the force of a sledgehammer. He gasped for breath and coughed up blood as his squad Hammond pulled him to cover. "Fuck!" Hammond screamed. Finn felt at his chest, scowling at the pain. There was blood, but the vest had caught the bullet. He was alive, and he would still fight. He pushed to his feet, "I'm all right Sarge!" Before Hammond could argue, Finn leveled his weapon and shot off a burst of automatic fire at the enemy. An armored vampire fell screeching as the UV rounds found their mark and disintegrated it from the inside out.
Hammond roared over the cacophony, "The agent is behind held 20 meters down the passageway! Carter! Light 'em up!"
Carter, a black armored grunt same as Finn, plucked a grenade from his vest and hurled it down the passageway. It landed and the vampires scattered in panic. Not fast enough as a blast of UV radiation absorbed them all, burning their skin and subjecting them to excruciating pain. Hammond, Carter, and Finn sprinted from their cover to the door at the end of the passage. Finn shot out the lock with his AA-12 shotgun and Hammond kicked in the door. Hammond and Finn charged in, scanning for hostiles, while Carter watched the door. Like the entire Vampire complex the room was unlit except for their gun mounted lights. Finn's gaze landed on an unconscious woman tied to a chair in the center of the room. She had been stripped to her underwear and was as pale as a ghost. Her long red hair covered her face, but not the savage bite scars on her neck. The girl couldn't be older than twenty.
Finn tore off his glove and felt for her pulse, "She's alive sir."
"Thank Christ," Hammond breathed, before switching on his com-link, "This is Hammer Team. We have Needle and require extraction. Over."
The sound of static filled the room as Finn cut the woman free of her bonds. She moaned in pain, "Lieutenant Catherine Sharpe, six-nine-eight-two-one, British Army."
Finn grimaced. She thought she was still being tortured. "Don't worry Ma'am. My name is Corporal James Finn. You're safe now." Finn finished freeing her and picked her up in his arms. She seemed too light.
A voice came through the static, "Extraction en route. ETA five minutes." Hammond's head snapped to Finn, "Are you ready."
"Yes Sir."
Hammer Team sprinted down the hall, Hammond and Carter with their guns up, and Finn holding the girl in his arms. She still murmured her rank, name, and serial code in her fugue state.
"Contact!" Carter roared and blazed his weapon down a hallway, terminating a squad of vampires. They writhed as the UV bullets did their work, disintegrating them to dust.
They weaved their the stone passages, before breaking their way up to the ground level. Here there were windows. Smashing their way out, they saw the grounds. The flat grassy lawn had no cover, and the busted gate they had entered through was swarming with armed guards.
"Shit." Carter hissed, "What now Sarge?"
Hammond took a second, and made his commander's choice, "We make our own exit."
He jumped to the ground, followed by Carter, and then Finn. Within moments a searchlight found them. "Carter! Covering fire! Finn, with me!" Hammond ordered, and he and Finn made a break across the open ground.
Carter pressed himself close to the wall of the building and emptied his magazine into the mass of black armored guards. Some fell, some went to ground, and some scattered behind cover. Carter quickly changed his clip and fired full auto on the guards. More fell, but others fired right back at Carter, and worse, right at Hammond and Finn.
Finn's heart pounded like a piston and drove him forward like a rocket. Hammond ran ahead of him, making for the iron fence. A brilliant flash illuminated the grounds for an instant, and was followed by screams of burned vampires and blinded men. He felt a flicker of hope in his chest. They were going to make it! A deafening scream killed his hope. Hammond slammed into the ground ahead of him, riddled gunshot wounds. Finn hesitated for a second, unsure if he should keep running or try to carry Hammond and the girl, but then something clamped around his boot. Finn slammed to the ground with a thud and the unconscious girl tumbled to the ground, falling near Hammond, who had lost consciousness. Finn twisted, trying to escape the vice on his leg, and saw his attacker. A full grown hellhound, with fur as black as midnight and eyes like hellfire glared at him and then tightened its jaws. Finn screamed as his bones cracked. Twisting and squirming in panic, he drew out his combat knife and stabbed the beast in a frenzy of blood. The silvered blade seemed to have no effect on the beast, and it smashed him onto the ground, driving the wind from his lungs and cracking his head back against the ground. It pinned him where he lay with its humanlike hands and opened its jaws over his face.
Gunfire ripped through the beast, disintegrating its head. It fell sideways, its muscled body suddenly as lifeless as a brick. Finn rolled onto his stomach.
The girl was awake, holding Hammond's rifle with a perfectly trained grip.
"Get up Corporal!" She thrust his gun into his hands. She was still pale as a china doll, but her eyes were hard set. Finn snapped into soldier mode and jumped to his feet, "Yes Ma'am!"
Finn ran to Hammond and felt for his pulse. He was alive, but he wouldn't be for long. Mustering his strength, Finn pulled Hammond over his shoulder and ran for the fence. His leg screamed in agony, but he ignored the pain. Somewhere behind him, another UV grenade and Carter made his bid to cross the kill zone.
Finn reached the fence and collapsed against it. He dropped Hammond to the ground and turned him onto his back. Three red dots spattered his body, two in his back and one in his leg. Finn swore and fumbled with his first aid kit, pressing onto the wounds and trying to stop the bleeding. The girl continued firing at the guards, covering Carter's mad dash. A few moments later, Carter slammed into the iron fence next to Finn, unscathed.
The girl turned to Carter, "We need to get through!"
"On it." Carter rifled through his vest and withdrew a mine. He ran a dozen meters down the fence and attached it to a bar before running back. He mumbled prayer and detonated it. The blast nearly knocked them all down, but Carter was the first back up, grabbing Hammond.
Finn got ahold of his gun and jumped to his feet "Go!"
The mine had blown a hole in the fence just big enough to fit an unarmored man through. Carter got through with some effort. He was followed by the girl, who scraped her unprotected skin against the metal, spilling blood. Finn took up the rear, covering their retreat and squeezing through the hole with effort. A moment's more running, and they were in the forest.
The forest was pitch black. Finn and the girl followed Carter, who crashed through the foliage like an elephant. Finn saw the girl stumble, and shot out and arm to steady her. She looked at him with uncomprehending eyes as she lost her grip on Hammond's gun and dropped it onto the forest floor. Her legs seemed too weak to take her weight and she wobbled dangerously
A voice sounded from Hammond's com link, "One minute till extraction."
Finn whisked the girl into his arms, "Pull through Lieutenant! We're almost out!" He held her with one arm, and his gun with the other.
A second later, they came to the extraction site, a moonlit clearing in the woods. Carter hurriedly laid Hammond on the ground, pulled a large gun from Hammond's vest and pointed it too the sky. He fired, and a red flare blazed into the night.
Carter growled, "If they don't show I swear I'll hunt every one of those desk jockeys to the grave."
They waited for a full minute, and then the sound of a helicopter cut through the night. Finn would have relaxed but he heard another sound, the terrifying howl of a Hellhound. And there was more than one.
The sound of blades through air grew deafening, and the helicopter emerged over the tree line, hovered above the clearing, and slowly lowered to the ground. Carter and Finn handed off Hammond and the girl, before jumping into the craft. Just in time to see their quarry board the helicopter, three hellhounds emerged from the forest slavering at the smell of blood. The pilot pivoted the craft, and the gunners unleashed a hail of fifty caliber rounds, disintegrating the beasts into a bloody mess.
A medevac team tended to their wounds. Finn didn't argue when they injected him with morphine. He just looked at his team. Carter, miraculously unharmed, clutched his gun and stared off into the night, cursing. Hammond lay on a medical stretcher, a team working desperately to stabilize him. Lastly he looked at the agent. She was covered in a trauma blanket with an IV attached to her arm. Medics obsessed with her wounds. James Finn could only look at her serene face.