And here is the last chapter in this year! Wish you all a happy new year and hope you have a great Sylvester-party! See you in 2011 again – to be precise in the night from Sunday to Monday. Thank you all for your support and dear comment this year. It's so great to have so enthusiastic readers here and also on the other sides and I'm quite sure that with that help I will be able to finish this story in 2011. My very best wishes, yours Jenna/Lilith
Translated by Jenna
Beta read by Jo1027
Trapped
"If you fight you might lose, if you don't you have already lost."
Berthold Brecht, 1898-1956
The vampire was back - not the wild, uncontrollable beast that could very quickly become a danger to any person; no, the cultivated vampire, with his cold determination, his alert mind and his perfectly functioning senses. Only he was able to push the panic, the memories and the unrest deep inside so far back that they could no longer hinder him. Only he was in a position to ensure that he prepared himself in the best possible way for the forthcoming battle, that he could permit the connection to Gabriel and Lance to knock out the enemy together - the enemy that was advancing now, audibly gathering behind the steel door.
Mick did not know exactly what Gabriel was planning, but he felt that he already knew what to do, that he had also prepared for a situation like this. The old vampire approached Peterson with determination, laid down his holster and the bullet-proof vest and took off his dark shirt to then hand it to the astonished professor.
"Lie down on the floor and press this to your face," Gabriel instructed him quickly as he put on the vest and holster again. His eyes flew over to Lance and Mick heard a low 'Knock him out!' in his head.
Lance grabbed Gallagher without any further hesitation by his neck and the next moment the man slumped down unconscious and was only held up enough so that his head did not hit the hard floor. Then Lance was free, drew his sword in a fluid motion and stepped closer to the door behind which it seemed a lot was happening. It would not be long until it was opened.
"Step to the sides," Gabriel ordered and reached for a cylinder-shaped thing attached to his belt. Mick's eyes widened when he realized what it was: a smoke grenade from which Gabriel pulled off the bracket the next moment.
"Hold your breath," was his next command, and the now strongly smoking cylinder fell with a clatter to the floor. It was not long before the floor section they were in was so extremely filled with smoke that you could barely see a hand before your eyes. And that was a good thing, because the mechanical noise in front of Mick told him that the door before them was now being opened. Mick pressed his back against the wall behind him and concentrated all his other senses on what was going on before him. He heard their rapid heartbeats, the sound of their blood flowing through their veins, their strained and rapid breathing, their footsteps and the rustling of their clothes… and he felt their tension, their determination to kill, but also their continuing uncertainty and reluctance. The dark shadows approaching them stood out against the smoke, although the first of them had already started to cough… and Mick lifted his gun aiming at one of their heads.
'Wait… Wait…' he heard Gabriel again and held back with difficulty, letting the enemy come closer, hesitantly moving into the smoke with their weapons at the ready and repeatedly hedging to all sides. But they could not really see them as they did not have the sensitive senses the vampires did and were affected more and more by their own coughing. Mick, however, saw not only their outlines getting clearer, but also Gabriel's opposite him, pressed against the wall. He felt the old vampire tensing up and did the same.
'Now!'
Mick pulled the trigger and the first soldier was immediately dragged to the ground by the impact of the bullet, while the others instantly opened fire. But they fired in the wrong direction as they did not exactly know where the attack was coming from and had no time to access this for suddenly Gabriel was among them, moving so fast that even Mick could hardly follow him with his eyes. It almost seemed as if the men he came close to collapsed just by his sheer presence, but Mick's eyes were practiced enough to at least perceive the silver flashing of his sword and recognize that the soldiers in reality were struck down by this dangerous weapon.
Mick did not have much time to observe Gabriel's masterful handling of the sword, however, because the first squad was followed immediately by another one and more bullets flew in their direction. Mick ducked, slammed his shoulder into the throat of the first man who stepped into his way and shot off another one's face. A bullet grazed his arm and another soldier spun around to him and aimed at Mick's face. Mick grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it upwards. Plaster trickled down on him as the bullets struck the ceiling above him. He turned pulling the soldier closer to him and buried his fangs in his throat. The man screamed gurgling and Mick let him go, letting him fall with a gaping, deadly wound. He now had a much more dangerous weapon in his hands and he immediately pointed it at the men moving in the fog. No matter what kind of ammunition the weapon was loaded with, Mick knew that the men were too close and that their bulletproof vests could not provide real protection anymore and he pulled the trigger. By this time he felt so numb inside that the cries of pain and the twitching of bodies could not touch him at all. All that mattered was to eliminate as many of the enemy as was possible and to show the Legion that even caged vampires were nowhere near easy to overcome. He would definitely not let them catch him again - never again.
Mick quickly sucked the thick air around him into his lungs, fought down the tickle in his throat, and jumped at the next opponent. And again this feeling appeared within him while he shot, kicked, stroked, and bit almost synchronously with the three other vampires who fought at his side as they massacred one man after another; this feeling that he could leave his body, leave control over his body and mind to some unfeeling fighting machine inside him - a highly effective fighting machine. He felt no pain, no fear, no worry, no compassion and had no conscience. He saw the soldiers around them not as humans but as mindless robots that had to be eliminated; their screams and raging emotions did not touch him, their personal stories and the motivations for their actions did not interest him. Enemy or friend, living or dying, to be free or imprisoned, that was all that mattered. And it was they who stood between him and that freedom. It was they who prevented him from returning to his old life so that he could again become the person he had once been. He had to fight them, had to kill them in order to finally be free again.
And then it was suddenly over. Mick dropped his last inanimate opponent as if he was a piece of junk and listened as silence began to approach. From somewhere hastily retreating steps were still heard and then a mechanical sound announcing that somewhere once again a door had come down. Then it was finally quiet. Only Peterson's low, somewhat tortured coughing and Mick's and the other's rapid breathing was still heard. Mick closed his eyes and breathed deeply in and out despite the thick air around them which caused him to cough as well. He raised his eyes and looked around. The smoke had dissipated to the point that he could now see the battlefield they had left behind. The lifeless bodies that were spread over this section of the corridor amounted to about twenty men. And judging by the way Gabriel looked probably most of the dead had been struck down by him. He was spattered all over with blood and had also received a couple of injuries that had begun to visibly heal. He was breathing very hard and his white-blue eyes still had a slightly absent expression. Mick concentrated on his surroundings, trying to find out if they could indeed rest for a moment and talk about what to do next, or if they had to expect another attack. As far as Mick could tell, they would not be attacked again so soon. The Legion had miscalculated and now had to develop a new plan to get the situation under control. And that was difficult when you could not consult with your commanders. Gallagher was still lying stunned on the floor not far from Mick, and Ritchcroft had not been able to free himself either from the hands of his enemies. Mick was hoping this was the case although his contact with Malik had broken off during the fight and after this effort he was too exhausted to try to rebuild it by himself. He could not feel either Josef or Beth anymore and that worried him a bit. Beth was indeed outside the laboratory, but who knew what she was doing now that she knew what was happening here, and most likely Josef had been attacked too. But he was still alive and unhurt, of this Mick was sure. He would feel it if something had happened to him. The question was only how long it would stay that way - how long they would all survive down here as long as the Legion still had control of the station.
Gabriel had now awakened from his rigid stance, stepped over to Peterson who was coughing and trying to get back on his feet and helped him up, while Lance walked over to Gallagher and quickly threw him over his shoulder.
"We… we should try to get out of here," Mick heard a voice behind him and Cynthia was approaching the old vampire who didn't look very favorably at her. "The others will certainly do that too…"
"The others will do what I tell them to do," Gabriel replied severely. "We're going to catch up with the other teams and then try to get out of here together. That way we are strongest."
That sounded in Mick's point of view quite logical because in large numbers the vampires had always been superior to the Legion up to now. That had been their trump card in Mexico. And yet, Mick could not help the feeling that something else prevented Gabriel from immediately taking flight with them; that he really wanted to get at least in the proximity of the control center and the rooms where the commanders had their offices. He could feel it, even though Gabriel was somehow shielding a part of his thinking, of his emotions from him. And he wondered why he did this…
It was one big massacre and its outcome depended only on who could think and act more quickly. And when it came to speed, we vampires were simply unbeatable. Max had not waited for the door to open completely before us. Instead, he had simply shot at once at the feet and legs clad in heavy boots that the opening of the door had made visible to us, and we had all emulated his deeds, grasping the genius of this idea immediately. No one whose lower limbs had been shot to pieces could stay on his legs. No one could suppress such pain and still remain capable of fighting. The men of the Legion went screaming to the ground, writhing in pain and had only taken limited shots at us which did not hit us. Of course we had not neutralized all the soldiers and because we were attacked simultaneously from two sides, the bullets were soon spattering down on us, but we had at least greatly reduced the risk of being killed.
I tried to use only my weapons as long as possible for I was really not in the mood for body contact with these men, although the beast in me was already waiting full of blood lust and anticipation for the first deployment of its fangs. Very soon I had no other option but to use my hands and teeth as well to fend off this onslaught of enemies effectively. Back in the lab at the hospital we'd already had many opponents, but here it felt as if we had really poked our heads right into a hornet's nest. Reserved and cautious as the troops stationed here had behaved before - now they behaved more like a bunch of rabid and trigger-happy guerrillas. And they were not harmless I had to admit once again as the grind of a silver dagger grazed my neck and left there a burning cut before I grabbed my attacker's arm and turned it around with a crackling noise. The man's cry of pain was lost in a gurgling sound, because now I even dug my fangs into his throat, piercing his windpipe. I took a few greedy gulps of the wonderful adrenaline-enriched blood, and then threw the man into the backs of two of his comrades who had opened fire on Enrique and William. Nevertheless, some bullets hit Will in the chest and threw him to the floor. Much more of it I didn't get as from the corner of my eye I noticed that two strange looking bullets flew towards me and spun around so that they shot past me. Almost in the same motion I threw myself forward, jumping on the shooter as he aimed at me again from a few meters away. I heard him pull the trigger, changed my course a little and leaped beneath the bullet at the man. My head slammed into his chin with a crash and only seconds later we hit the floor together - only my landing was much softer than his because I landed on top of him. Bones cracked when I hit his arm against the wall next to us and the strange looking weapon slid from his fingers. Just above me two more bullets hit the plaster and another one grazed my bulletproof vest. I turned in a flash taking my astonished opponent around with me. Not a second too soon, because the next moment his body jerked under the salvo that had been meant to hit me.
The shooter had to be very close, because the wide-open eyes of the soldier with whom I was cuddling and the blood that now ran out of his mouth showed me that at least one of the bullets had penetrated his body armor and had caused considerable damage to his body. I hesitated no longer, slid my hands under the limp body of my dying 'friend' and gathered my energies.
My strength had grown immensely since I had taken in Gabriel's blood, for the dying soldier flew just seconds later with such force through the air that he not only carried the shooter, who was aiming at me again, from his feet but also the other man who was standing behind him and firing at Vincent. I jumped up so quickly that the shooter was not even able to raise his gun again as I broke his neck with a swift movement.
When I flung around to throw myself on the next opponent I realized that there were no more opponents. Vincent had taken care of his attacker and the last Legion soldier still standing collapsed as Max pulled his dagger out of his chest.
Finally. Finally I had time to take a deep breath and release my tension. Around us were many fallen soldiers, but not as many as had initially attacked us. This caused me to conclude that some of them had begun to retreat. This told me also that the metal door just a few meters away from us had been lowered again. Strangely the other door had not also closed.
A groan not far away from me quickly drew my attention and I noticed only now that Guillermo was kneeling beside the shot William and had just given him an injection that he had previously taken out of the opened emergency pack next to him. Max and I simultaneously set into motion and hurried over to them while Enrique and the also quite groggy looking Vincent stayed where they were, their weapons at the ready to be able to fight any new opponents.
William did not look well. He was pale and breathing heavily. Again and again a slight twitch ran through his body and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling. He smelled like a vampire so he probably had not been hit by one of the needles that had flown through the air but by silver bullets. By several, I found out when my worried gaze roamed over his shape. One of them had hit his neck and from the wound a gush of blood trickled and each beat of his weary heart caused the blood pool that had formed under him to grow larger.
Max grabbed a package of blood with determination, slid a hand under William's head and lifted it a bit to bring the life-saving liquid close to his lips.
"Will, you have to drink this now," he urged gently. "We cannot help you if you don't drink anything. The antidote is in your body, but what you need now is blood."
No reaction. William just stared blankly into space and a stale feeling inside me told me that we could no longer do anything for him. Max looked at him for a long moment, then shook his head and stood up. His cheek muscles twitched briefly as he took a deep breath but nothing more was seen in his face. His gaze wandered briefly over to me and then over to the rest of our allies. Vincent was breathing a little hard and blood was dripping from one sleeve of his shirt onto the tiled floor where it left a pattern that reminded me of the modern art of today. Max nodded briefly and then threw the blood bag over to him. Vincent immediately bit into it.
"Are you okay?" Max addressed me shortly and I just nodded, incapable of getting anything out verbally. I had received a few grazing shots that burned but otherwise I was fine and even these minimal injuries were already healing. It seemed to be the same with the others. The question was how long we could withstand such attacks down here and how many losses we had to take until we got a brilliant idea of how to get out here again. And the Legion certainly still had other tricks up their sleeves to try to wear down our strength.
They did. Something above us crackled briefly and then a whistling sound started that threatened to tear my eardrums apart and caused me to press both hands over my ears and sink to my knees. The pain was unspeakable and I cringed and cried out against it. And yet it didn't escape my impaired senses that they had come back, that the next troop was advancing behind the closed steel door. We would have no chance against them, not with this torture for our over-sensitive hearing, this was immediately clear to me. But Max managed to nonetheless pick himself up, aim his gun at the ceiling above the door and fire at it the moment the door started to move up. Sparks flew from the ceiling, it began to smoke and crack and the door went suddenly down to the floor again.
'Shoot at the speakers!' a thought that was not mine flashed through my severely impaired mind and I reacted like a robot, gritted my teeth, took my hands from my ears, picked my gun up from the floor and searched for my target. There were only a few speakers in this section of the corridor and when I fired at the first of them my friends began to stir and with pained twitching faces began to destroy the devilish devices that were inflicting such torture on us. With each destroyed device we felt better and the noise became quieter. However, the lights began to flicker and it would not take long before the power grid would collapse under this bombardment. The Legion seemed to notice this as well - and apparently did not want that to happen because the noise stopped abruptly and in sync with the others I uttered a deep sigh of relief. My ears throbbed and hummed, but the pressure and pain had finally disappeared.
Max was the one who collected himself most rapidly again. He quickly walked back to William, took his gun and the emergency kit that was still lying next to him and then walked over to us again.
"Well, we can't do this alone," he addressed me determined. "We must join the others. Can you make out where they are?"
"I can try," I replied somewhat out of breath as I closed my eyes and tried to relax as best I could. All my senses were so overwrought from the last attack on them that it was really difficult for me to build a mental connection to the others. But again it was Gabriel who met me, who told me that they too had survived the last attack reasonably well and that at least Malik was not so far away from us. The Assassin was the next one I could feel and all of a sudden I knew where to find his team.
I opened my eyes and nodded to Max.
"Okay," he turned to the others, "Josef will lead us to one of the other teams. The Legion will continue to try to attack us, so keep your senses open, hedge your bets and stay together. Together we are stronger than they are, but alone we'll have no chance. Not in this environment and not with so many opponents at once."
He was right. The Legion had always had a problem keeping the upper hand in direct combat against a group of vampires, but in the laying of traps and treacherous attacks they were true champions.
There are benefits to being a hybrid. Not only because you could take advantage in a fight of the so much stronger vampire side, but also because you could rely on your human side in a pinch. Mick would have never thought that this so much weaker side could be of such great benefit to him even once in such a violent struggle as this, but when this painful sound had resounded the vampire had automatically backed down and had left the field to the human. He had found out quickly that the tone was sent on an ultrasound frequency because all the vampires around him were prostrated, their faces twisting with pain, while Peterson only blinked at them confused and upset. Mick's eyes flew hurriedly to the next steel door they had just moved towards cautiously and he drew on his vampiric senses without turning back, just as he had been taught.
They had come. He heard their quick steps, the commands they whispered, and he immediately realized that he had no chance to fight alone against this big squad. He had to free the others from this horrible sound and make them fit for action again. His eyes flickered over the walls and the ceiling, and finally discovered something that looked like a speaker inset into the ceiling. Mick did not hesitate a second longer but sent a mental 'Shoot at the speakers' to the others and immediately opened fire on this cursed device. Sparks flew from the ceiling and the speaker sighed out its soul with a crackling and a small trail of smoke. He immediately turned to the next one. From the corner of his eye he saw that Gabriel, Lance and Cynthia had joined him, but he saw also something else: the steel door was rising.
Mick dropped his gun toward the now visible lower bodies of the soldiers' and just fired without aiming, quickly nearing the door. Gabriel was still a little faster than he was. He shot like a dark shadow past him with his sword drawn, slid beneath the not yet completely open door and threw himself into the middle of the heavily armed group of soldiers. A tremendous energy pulse shot through Mick and he also dashed off, jumped at the nearest opponent and broke his neck with a quick twist. Somewhere next to him appeared the barrel of a gun, but it flew almost in the same moment into the air because Lance was suddenly at Micks side and with a well-aimed kick broke the soldier's arm before smashing his nose with his palm.
Another burst of energy captured Mick causing his scalp to tingle and suddenly he felt as if his spirit could open even further, could access strange and yet familiar senses in his proximity. And it indeed seemed to be true, because suddenly he could also see and feel what Lance perceived, that the soldier at an angle from the old vampire aimed a gun at him. Mick raised his arm… not really his own but Lance's, struck the soldier's weapon into the soldier's face, grabbed his head and twisted it with a sickening crack.
'On the left!' Gabriel's voice barked in Mick's head and he saw another man aiming at him. Mick moved back slightly and the bullet missed him by only an inch, whizzing past the retreating Lance and instead hitting a fellow in the back of the head. However, the soldier could not even pull the trigger one more time, because all at once Lance's sword was in Mick's hand and was sent through the air gliding smoothly through the man's throat. Blood splattered at Mick as the man went gasping to the ground, but he did not care about him as he threw the sword back to Lance and jumped at one of the few other opponents who were still left. The man flailed around, trying to fend him off in a panic, but he had no chance. No one had a chance against a creature like him, against such forces, such energies… His teeth dug deeply into the man's throat as they both went down, and Mick was drinking as much of his blood as he could. It felt so good. This all helped him so much all of a sudden. He slowly felt as if he was in a frenzy, so invincible, so incredibly strong… all these energies. However, they also caused another feeling to come over him, this vague idea that made him break away from his victim and turn around; an instinct that told him that something was happening behind his back. And he was right. Gallagher had come around, was back on his feet and was using their distraction to stumble over to the door not far from him. And then there was this noise, this humming and this mechanical clicking…
Mick jumped up and dashed off. He was fast, but the door was moving even faster. It shot up and made it possible for Gallagher to escape into the next corridor section. Mick knew that the people who now controlled the lab from the outside would close the door again behind this devil; he let go, releasing the beast that had been lurking all this time, longing all this time to hunt Gallagher down, to finally get him in its hands. The energy boost that now shot through his body was even more violent than all the others, causing him to shoot toward the lowering door at a speed even he would have never thought could be possible for him to move at, and thus making it possible to slip through under the closing door. Someone had followed him and thrown himself under the door trying to prevent it from closing completely. But that held no interest for Mick. All that mattered was this man before him who stumbled towards the next door, the hatred and the overwhelming desire to kill which was burning in him, giving him such immense strength. He would not escape... ever. Mick took two quick steps, jumped and flew directly into the back of his so hated enemy. The impact was severe and immediately carried the man off his feet and crashing to the ground. Gallagher's chin hit the floor hard and Mick could hear the cracking of ribs before a grief-stricken groan escaped the man. But it was not enough… not enough to make up for this year full of suffering. The past year had moved within his reach again, had shaken awake his memories and upset the beast even more.
A hateful grumble erupted from Mick's throat. He grabbed the man's head hitting it once, twice with full force on the floor before he buried his fangs in his neck, tearing a deep, bleeding wound in his flesh. Gallagher was too dazed to scream. He gasped for breath trying to turn around, to defend himself against the attack and Mick let it happen, waited until this monster turned his throat to him, bared it for a moment. Mick's head shot forward, digging his fangs mercilessly deep into Gallagher's neck… only to then withdraw again and bite once again… and again… and again… to tear him apart was what he wanted… finally get rid of his hatred, show this man what it meant to suffer and die slowly. Mick's rage was not being reduced by this but becoming even stronger, more uncontrolled… kill… mangle… until nothing was left of him… of him and the memories.
"Mick!" The voice sounded distant and yet dangerously close. And there was a warning within it, a braking tone that he did not like at all. It wanted to prevent him from completing his plan, wanted to help his enemy.
Mick pulled away from the neck of his victim, not because reason had come to him, but to hiss at Gabriel, to demonstrate to him with bared teeth his willingness to fight. But instead of talking to him further, the old vampire acted - too quickly for Mick to be able to defend himself and too quickly to register at all what he was doing. Mick felt only the effect, a severe, narcotic pain in his temple and that he was thrown away from Gallagher and went to the ground next to him. He remained there motionless. He could no longer move because a buzzing, painful paralysis had taken possession of his body. Instead, he just stared at Gallagher who was gasping for air next to him, his eyes wide open while blood gushed from his mouth and from the big wounds in his neck. He would die in a few minutes, it would be over and the world would be free of this devil. But there was Gabriel, who bent over the seriously injured man with a frightening determination in his eyes, holding his wrist over the man's open mouth, from which dark blood was now dripping.
No! No! He was not allowed to do this! He could not turn him! Good God! Not this man! Mick gasped, mobilizing all his remaining strength but a slight lifting of his head was all he could manage. He could not do anything… not anything.
"We need him!" This was Gabriel's voice who now urgently looked at him, a hint of reproach and disappointment in his gaze. "We need his information, Mick!"
The beast screamed and raged inside Mick and did not want to listen to the old vampire, although his subconscious had started long ago calling out that Gabriel was right, that it was not the old vampire who was not sticking to the plan, who had lost control. But even his wild, and excessively strong side was unable to free his body from this stunned state. Or perhaps it was just the vampire side that suffered from the blow on the nerve point in his temple. Maybe Mick, the human, would be better able to free himself from it. Mick tried to breathe more calmly and relax as he focused on the troubled vampire inside him, tried to push him back and convince him that he was no longer needed. But it was not that easy for he had to watch Gabriel now hastily get dressings from his emergency kit and start to apply a pressure bandage to Gallagher's still heavily bleeding neck wounds.
Lance appeared at Gabriel's side, breathing heavily. His shoulder was hanging down a little and seemed to have been broken and this told Mick that he had been the one who had tried to stop the heavy steel door. Gabriel, who was still bandaging Gallagher's wounds, nodded towards his bag.
"We need the Dobutamine," he said tensely and Lance fell on his knees beside him, rummaged around in the bag and hastily pulled out a previously prepared syringe. He took off the cap and injected the drug into Gallagher's arm. Dobutamine… it was used to increase the strength of the heart, if Mick remembered correctly. With a man as badly injured as Gallagher this was quite a risky venture. But Gabriel probably hoped to speed up the transformation in this way. That was his only chance to save Gallagher.
Mick closed his eyes. He did not want to watch this anymore, did not want to have to look at what he had done, nor did he want to see how the vampires were trying to save this man who had abused and tortured him in the most brutal way last year. He could not bear this anymore, urgently had to get out of here… had to get out of this nightmare if he did not want to lose his mind.
"God… are you all right?" The voice was familiar and in some way pleasant even though Mick was still terribly angry with the professor. But it immediately appealed to his human, rational side, bringing him to his senses as it always had.
Mick breathed deeply again, then opened his eyes and looked into Frank's worried, pale face as he kneeled beside him and bent over him.
"Yes," he returned wearily and felt the vampire in him now finally pulling back, grumpy and dissatisfied, but at least he did pull back. It was amazing, but Mick now felt a little more alert and freer and was able to lift his head and move his arms. Peterson quickly came to help him, supporting him and getting him slowly into a sitting position. Franks attention was at once drawn to Gallagher and the other two vampires.
"It's better if you sit him against a wall to take the load off his heart," he advised Gabriel. "And inject him with adrenaline."
Gabriel nodded tensely, grabbed Gallagher and pulled him over to the wall to seat him there. Lance followed him while pulling up the next syringe and Mick came to his feet with Frank's help, staggering slightly.
"I'm all right," he said a bit roughly and pushed Frank's hands away although he was still trying to support him. "Gallagher is the one who needs your help."
It was hard to voice, but it was true. The man had gotten very glassy-eyed, his gaze was directed into the distance and he was breathing deeply and heavily, while his heart was performing piecework. Mick could hear that and he could also feel how Gallagher's battered organism was struggling with the transformation, how strained his whole body was. It was very doubtful that Gallagher would survive this. And there it was, slowly starting to stir despite his persistent hatred and his deep wish that this sadist might finally die - his guilty conscience peeked out from the depths of his consciousness. He had not kept his promise but had once again lost control. One could not tell yet what consequences this would have for all of them but judging by Gabriel's tension and his extreme effort to keep the man alive Gallagher's survival was of immense importance - for whatever reason.
Mick closed his eyes once more trying to push back his contradictory and confusing emotions far enough that he could concentrate again on the things that were important. He could not change what he had done, could not roll it back, but he could at least use all his remaining energies to hedge their bets and do his best to get them all out of this delicate situation as quickly as possible. The Legion would certainly not wait long with their next attack, so they had to collect themselves and make new plans soon.
Mick raised his eyelids again, let his gaze slide down the hall and stopped short. His eyes flew over to Gabriel and the others and then back down the hall. Where was Cynthia?
The station was a bit of a maze with its nested corridors, dead ends and more doors that closed or opened abruptly in front of us. The fact that we hadn't come across any more troops of the Legion so far was frightening as we felt that they were still here, preparing somewhere for a nasty ambush to which they wanted to lure us. I knew where we had to go to find the others, but a few times the direct path towards them had been cut off and after a while I really wondered if we had any chance at all of reaching them as long as the Legion retained technical control over this station. Max had started to shoot out each camera we had passed and even though I understood that he did this only to take away the Legion's view of us, I had a bad feeling about it. If we somehow managed to gain control over the technology of the station, we would lack the ability to give the police team out there an insight into what was happening down here, and thus request their help. Max apparently didn't believe anymore that we would succeed, and deep inside I had to admit that I had long since given up my hopes on it as well.
What worried me additionally was the whang that we'd heard for a while now from the direction toward which we were moving. It almost sounded like small explosions which were approaching us slowly, and I wondered what new abomination the Legion was bringing for us now. Now I felt it, this other, and for me very familiar, energy that was running, groping ahead of its carrier. I stopped abruptly. Coraline. Now I felt her very strongly, her relief as she recognized me, her call that we should hurry, should quickly come to her and her team and I set into motion again and without thinking further, hurried off.
The others were a little confused for a moment, but instantly followed me without comment, their weapons at the ready. The closer we came to the Cleaners' team the more sharply I felt the distress they were in. Images pressed upon me. Shooting, screaming, and fighting Legionnaires who proceeded against Coraline's team with radical vehemence. And soon we could also hear the fray behind the closed steel door towards which we moved at a tremendous pace.
'We are here!' I sent to Coraline. 'But we cannot get through to you!'
Again an energy boost hit me, this time in the form of a warning coming with images and suddenly I knew what the whang in the background had been. I stopped suddenly, grabbed Max who was ready to storm past me by the arm and pulled him back.
"Down!" I called out and let myself fall to the ground. The others followed me immediately. Not a second too soon. Behind the door, a loud hissing was heard, then the screams of several people and then another crash, this time ten times louder than before. The steel door flew with an explosion out of the wall and over our heads, breaking off a little masonry that hailed down on us, and then crashed to the tiled floor, causing irreparable damage there. The tremendous heat of the explosion took my breath away for a moment and I put my arms protectively around my head, waiting motionlessly until the heat subsided again. Then there was silence and I ventured to lift my head cautiously. Before me in the next hallway section were, as expected, not only Patricia and the rest of her team, but also a significant number of soldiers who were so paralyzed with shock about the destroyed door that for a moment it seemed as if they had been frozen.
But unfortunately this moment of shock did not last long, for the soldiers of the Legion recovered quite quickly and lunged again not only at Coraline's team, but also at us. Bullets rained down on us. One painfully grazed my arm, another my thigh when I flung around and quickly got to my feet. But Max had not hesitated long, ramming his hard skull against the chin of one of the soldiers who were aiming at us, then jumping off and with a turn kicking into another man's face. I did not take more time to admire his fighting skills. I didn't even have the time because I had to dodge the next salvo of bullets from a different direction. The Legion was only shooting wildly around by now, not even taking care of their comrades. Maybe they could not act any differently because a group of ten vampires was a superior force with whom usually no one dared to mess. Now that we had succeeded in uniting our two teams the soldiers had no choice other than to fight to the last man - or retreat. And if I was not mistaken, the men were doing exactly that, were moving backwards to the next still intact door while maintaining constant fire on us.
It was really hard to escape the bullets. Although I was moving and trying to avoid the bullets, again and again one or another grazed me or even hit my bulletproof vest and made me stumble against the wall or stagger backwards. It was no different for the others while they tried just as I did to fire back, duck the bullets or take shelter behind a Legionnaire while fighting. I was almost relieved when the steel door glided open behind the soldiers and the men quickly disappeared behind it and left us and their dying comrades behind. Max instantly shot out the cameras in this section of the corridor and only the strained breathing and the occasional, quiet moans of a dying soldier was heard. I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath into my lungs, trying to relax at least somewhat, to allow my body and my senses a little rest.
"That… that was really close," I heard a familiar voice say beside me and when I turned I looked into Coraline's pale, blood splattered face. She looked pretty worn out. "This time they came simultaneously from two sides, and here there is no possibility to take cover. Most of the rooms we passed are locked."
I nodded a little absently, because my astonished gaze now roamed over the members of the Cleaners' team and I realized that these women were more than heavily armed. Each of them carried several machine guns and ammunition belts on their bodies. I was quite sure that they had not left our shelter with this riot gear and was that thing that Patricia was holding in her hands actually a…
"A Panzerfaust 3!" burst out of Max with an enthusiastic laugh as his astonished gaze had also wandered over the Cleaner and he immediately stepped up to her to inspect the weapon more closely. Well, it had been the word bazooka that had been on my tongue, but at least I knew now where the constant crashes had come from. Patricia had simply bombed the way free for her team through the laboratory.
"Were you in the weapons store?" I turned to Coraline and she nodded quickly.
"We've stocked up a little with ammunition and other things and then set off to find you and get you out of here. It seems as if the Legion didn't like this idea. We've been constantly attacked and have already lost Bernie and Karen." Coraline's anxious gaze wandered over to a brunette vampire who was leaning back against the wall, her hands pressed to her side and her eyes closed with exhaustion. "And Hannah has also been shot. We were able to remove the bullet and inject her with the serum, but she's still not really well."
"I think now that we're together, we'll do better," I replied tensely. "They will be more cautious and wary of subjecting more troops to an open battle with us as long as no reinforcements are coming."
"But they will come, Josef," Coraline pointed out with audible concern in her voice. "They will send such a superiority of troops that we will simply have to capitulate, if we don't want to die."
"That's the reason why we need to get out of here as quickly as possible," I replied and now stepped up to Patricia. "How many shells do you still have for that thing?"
Patricia took a quick look in the bag that was standing at her feet. "Six," was the sad news that made me immediately ponder. I was not sure whether that was enough to pick up Malik and his team and then also join Gabriel and Mick, but we could not let one of the teams down.
"Have you already contacted Gabriel?" Coraline asked behind me. I looked at her thoughtfully and then nodded.
"And… did he give you any instructions?"
Again I had to nod. "We're to try to get through to Malik."
Coraline did not seem to really like my answer and I knew why. She was worried about Mick just as I was and could barely stand not knowing how he was and not having permission to immediately look for him.
"Then we'll do that," Max said in a firm voice and Patricia nodded agreeing. The two were really a perfect couple… so dutiful and combat-ready.
I hesitated for a moment - not because I was not of the same opinion, but because I was distracted again by an energetic tingling on the edge of my consciousness, a tingling that quickly became stronger and more urgent. I closed my eyes and concentrated, feeling that Coraline did the same next to me and then the first pictures appeared before my eyes. Images of battle and terror: Legionnaires, who opened fire on us, fought against us. And then there was this feeling of disappointment, anger and despair, and I found myself in Malik's body, moving backwards into the open room behind me. I shot wildly about, while the weight of another vampire weighed heavily on my shoulder. Grigori helped me, gave me coverage and inside the room I cautiously let Thomas glide to the floor, tore of his bulletproof vest and opened his shirt and looked worriedly at the bullet wound in his chest. This did not look good for my old friend who was breathing so hard and strained. My eyes flew through the room over the other figures; John and Grigori at the door were firing repeatedly at the Legionnaires, and… no one else. No one else! Ritchcroft was no longer with them. I ripped my eyes open in horror, took a deep, gasping breath. How could that have happen?
'Josef, we need you!' I heard Malik's urgent voice in my head. 'There are even more soldiers coming!'
I shook inwardly, trying to get rid of the shock of Ritchcroft's escape and to think more clearly. Malik was right. They needed us and we had no time to lose if we were going to prevent this from getting even worse. Thomas was injured and had to be provided care urgently, and who knew how long the others would last without our help.
I nodded to Patricia and she heaved the Panzerfaust onto her shoulder again to then rush ahead of us through the hallway to the next closed door. The Legion would still wonder. We would not give up that easily. And once we were all together again, they would get the shock of their lives!
