Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for several reasons.

Chpt 47 The Charge of the Light Brigade

BPOV

We run on with the doomsday metronome beating out time.

Eventually conversation peters out and we're running under an uncomfortable thrall of silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

It mustn't be good for the empath because from time to time he attempts to break the spell and lighten the mood. I wish I could appreciate it more but our destination is pulling me like a lodestone and all my thoughts are consumed with what we'll find when we get there, the good and the bad.

Done with telling jokes he moves onto war poetry and while I understand that a lot of it comes from a different time, when there was glory seen in battle, it depresses the hell out of me. All that death and destruction dressed up with fancy prose.

At my side it seems that Felix isn't much of a fan either as he keeps turning his head back to glare at Jasper.

"Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them"

Oh jeez, even I recognise this one, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade.

"Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Ran the six numptys."

"Shut Up!" Felix and I roar together, turning on him as one.

"Good God!" Clarion exclaims, regarding me with wide eyes. "Its mini-me."

"What . . . ." I start to ask by Tanya beats me to it.

"I didn't think he could talk." She gasps.

"He can talk." Felix growls, setting off again with the rest of us following. "He is just a man of few words."

"A quality I appreciate." He adds, favouring a grinning Jasper with another glare.

Jasper's still laughing and Clarion's still giggling when we cross the first vampire trail.

Immediately we slow to a walk.

The scents are a few hours old and there doesn't appear to be anyone around at the moment.

With a nod to me Jasper and Clarion dart ahead while the rest of us fan out and advance at a barely dignified quick walk.

Moments later we cross Garrett and Edward's scents, old now, and it takes every ounce of my strength not to take off after them baying like a bloodhound.

At least it seems we're in the right place.

"BELLA!"

Jasper's roar has the four of us leaping forward, running flat out along his scent trail.

We thrash through a well trampled area that is clearly a camp of some sort and charge headlong into a scene from a nightmare, backlit by flickering firelight.

There's a hell of a lot more than thirty vampires crammed into this natural rocky bowl and if I didn't have a bit of Felix, Jasper and Garrett in me I would stop dead and gawp, but their combined experience keeps me moving forward.

This is the definition of the element of surprise.

With a howl of pure adrenaline I throw myself into the fray and immediately I'm submerged in a whirling blur of snarling, growling, vampires, mostly reacting with confusion to the violence that's erupted in their midst.

For brief but glorious moments the vampires around us seem to have little idea they're being attacked, never mind by whom, and severed limbs toss haphazardly above us like streamers at a party.

The first punch I throw literally stuns my opponent and it shocks the hell out of me too as he soars, majestically, over the heads of his comrades.

With fierce concentration I settle to my task, disabling as many vampires as I can while I have the chance.

Its grim work that goes against my every instinct but many things, including the fact that I've yet to see any sign of Garrett or Edward alive and well, keep me going.

Despite my focus my lamentably efficient vampire brain is still cataloguing everything going on around me. The images, single moments captured, are like Pulitzer prize winning photos from a particularly bloody war zone, burned into my brain for eternity. And the sounds. Screaming, howling, snarling, growling, and whimpering. Shouts for help, curses, barked orders, roars of rage and pleas for mercy.

Yet in spite of my ability to capture it all my overriding impression is still of chaos and fear. The fear hangs in the air like a pall of smoke.

Someone grabs me, spinning me around and I come face to face with a vampire that couldn't look more like a harmless librarian if he tried. We blink at each other in surprise for a nanosecond and then the spell vanishes and abruptly he's just a vampire who is trying to kill me. I shrug him off before he can get his arms around me but he corrects his overbalance and lunges for me again with lightening speed. This time I duck down and although he doesn't sail over my head he does effectively trip over me and crash to the ground. Instinctively I twist, grabbing one of his flailing legs and pulling back with all my strength. Unwittingly he helps me by digging his hands into the ground to avoid being dragged, and his leg comes away in my grasp with a tooth sensitizing metallic screech.

I fling it as far away from us as possible, blocking out his howl of pain and moving on to my next victim.

I'm aware that Felix's strength is starting to wane and that each blow I land and each tear I inflict, has less and less unnatural power behind it, forcing me to fight as much with my mind as my body. But in all honesty I'm relieved and more comfortable that way, I don't want someone else's gift, I would give anything not to have my own.

I'm also aware that there's a not so subtle change in air, one that tells me our element of surprise has evaporated into the night and I'm starting to feel less like I'm taking advantage of the situation and more like I'm fighting for my life.

But finally, an antidote to my rising fear that we've come too late, Garrett's voice cuts through the hubbub like a knife.

"The shed! Don't let anyone get to the fucking shed!"

"Got it!" Jasper's easy yell confirms that he's okay too.

Immediately the crush of bodies shifts because unfortunately, in a sea of mostly short vampires, Felix and Jasper are hard to miss and those that have worked out what's going on are converging on them like flies on a sugar cube.

The swirl of movement creates a gap through which I catch a glimpse of Jasper, fighting his way across the seething mass toward a rickety looking wooden structure set back against one of the bigger rocky outcroppings.

Then the crowd presses in again and I know it's time to move before I get cut off. Leaving Jasper to his shed I start pummelling my way through the milling vampires, lashing out at any face I don't recognise, making my way to Felix's side as quickly as I can.

I can't see anyone else from the 'light brigade' and I still haven't laid eyes on Edward, Garrett or Maria.

I know how isolated and exposed I am right now and my fear spikes as I realise I have a good ten metres of hostile territory to cross to get to Felix.

A brawling mass barrels across in front of me and I recognise Tanya's blonde hair. Without thinking I dive forward instantly getting caught up in it like a lump of rock in a comet's tail.

A female has her hands around Tanya's neck and in turn Tanya has her fingers dug deeply into the shoulders of another vampire who is squealing like a stuck pig. Growling with as much menace as I can muster I get one hand away from Tanya's throat and twist it viciously up behind the owner's back.

"Motherfucker!" She screams, jerking her head back and catching me by surprise.

I hiss in pain as I feel my nose break but my response is to twist her arm even harder. With an ominous creak it starts to give way and screaming a stream of obscenities she lets go of Tanya completely and tries to turn on me as Tanya and shoulder man tumble away.

As we struggle she manages to turn just enough to graze my left hip with her teeth. Jeez, what is she, a contortionist.

With a sinking feeling I realise I'm going to have to let go of her in order to finish her off properly. Abruptly I push her away as hard as I can. And she's up and back at me almost before I'm ready. My hands come up automatically to protect my face and at the same time I kick out connecting with her left knee at just the right time. The crunch is deafening and even I wince as she staggers back from me, her mouth open in a now silent scream.

I don't waste any time trying to finish her off, instead I turn on my heel and dash toward Felix. Tanya has already it made and to my relief I can see Alice and Edward there too, the four of them fighting together in a frugal roman square.

The closer I get the more my own relief soars and then something crashes into my side knocking me flying.

Like a bowling ball I crash through the throng, ploughing into the ground shoulder first and then tumbling end over end into a well placed boulder. There isn't even time to be surprised as a group of vampires descend on me with murder in their eyes.

With nowhere to go I close my eyes like the coward I am. And then I open them again and come back to life when the first body crashes into me. Self preservation immediately has me trying to fight him off and so it's a few moments before I realise that Jasper has waded into the fray and is furiously kicking and punching vampires away from us.

"Get a move on mini-me." He drawls. "We're about to be overrun here and no one's comin' to rescue us."

With an unladylike groan I manage to push my attacker up and away from me, regaining my feet and wrapping my arms around his neck in one fluid movement.

He panics and flails around wildly but it's too late now, with me clinging to his back like a monkey, and finally his head cleaves from his shoulders. I jump down from his headless body, kicking the head away into the trees and knocking him to the ground before joining Jasper who is deftly knocking vampires away from us like a hyped up game of whack-a-mole.

"What now?" I pant as we battle side by side.

"We need to get to Felix and the others." He growls, tossing away a disenfranchised limb. "You lead and I'll watch your back."

As a two man team we strike out toward what I can now see is a cave entrance which the others almost appear to be guarding. We're not trying to disable anyone now, we're just trying to survive.

At the last moment, like some miracle, the remaining vampires seem to part before us and we breakthrough, skirting the fire and joining our friends.

Edward seizes me in a bear hug, burying his nose in my hair, and for a brief moment I allow myself to relax against him.

He releases me almost immediately and like the others we turn to face the oncoming vampires.

Except there aren't any, just a couple of shapes disappearing swiftly into the trees.

"Are they gone?" Alice asks incredulously.

"I doubt it." Felix growls, peering out into the darkness.

Jasper shakes his head soberly.

"Then what's happening?" Tanya asks.

"Re-grouping." Felix answers, wiping the venom from his face with the back of a massive hand. "To attack us more effectively."

Jasper nods.

"Should we run?" Tanya asks, following Felix's intent gaze out into the night.

"No." Felix and I reply together.

"We would not get very far." He continues confirming my fear. "And besides we cannot. Garrett is down in the cave fetching Maria and Clarion has disappeared."

"How many of them do you think there are left?" Edward asks, surveying the twitching bodies scattered around the bowl.

"About twenty." Jasper sighs.

"Too many?" Alice asks him quietly.

"Not too many Ali." He responds gently, tucking her into his side. "Just a lot to get through."

"I'm going after Garrett." I announce turning toward the cave entrance.

"I appreciate the sentiment Bella." Felix says, reaching a hand out to stop me. "He might not be the only vampire down there, it was quite hectic here for a while, but he can manage. He is tough and he says he knows another way out. Right now I am more concerned about these barrels of fuel wired up to the shed."

I follow his gaze as he points out the various barrels ranged around the bowl and its rock walls, and now I can see the gossamer thin wires trailing between them and snaking down into the cave.

"Shit." I gasp.

Fire.

"We will rip out what we can but come back here at the first sign of an approach."

I understand his priorities, I really do, but I can't help but growl at him as I leap away with the others to carry out his instructions.

Jasper whips across the clearing toward the shed and effectively knocks it flat as he starts ripping wires away like a madman.

But the doomsday metronome has wound down and before we can make much of a dent in what needs to be done running feet and strident battle cries have us scurrying back to the perceived safety of the cave entrance.