A/N: So, I finally got around to updating. Sorry about the delay. This chapter is pretty long though, so hopefully that at least in part makes up for it. I'll be sure to get the next one up this weekend in time for Christmas :)
Anyway, this is where things get pretty hectic – the second siege of Fowl Manor. Lots of action, lots of explosions, lots of violence. Fun for the whole family.
One thing to note – the actual size of Fowl Manor is never specified, and like many things, seems to vary somewhat. According to the description in the first book and the picture on the Wikipedia page, it's pretty huge. Imagine any of the really big English stately homes (something like Longleat House for anyone familiar with that). Basically, massive castle/palace with more than enough space for a lot of people to get very lost in. Keep that scale in mind, otherwise this chapter will not make sense.
Well, now that's out of the way, let's get into the action. Enjoy!
-Kio
Chapter 15; Siege
Fowl Manor, Ireland
Now that they were finally inside the time-stop, the sea of former humans swarmed towards the ancient Fowl stronghold like a plague, innumerable and unstoppable. They rushed towards the gates, spurred on by their mistress's bloodlust.
Several hundred metres away, in the top of one of Fowl Manor's stone turrets, lay Domovoi Butler, watching their progress through a pair of high-power binoculars. In his free hand was a remote detonator, his thumb resting delicately on the trigger. Next to him was an M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle, already loaded and trained on the grounds.
Butler watched as the formers reached the gates. He watched as they forced their way through the reinforced steel gates, completely unaffected by the electric current being pumped through the metal. He watched as they began to flood through the narrow entrance into the grounds. Still he waited; still his thumb sat calmly on the detonator's trigger.
Ten were through. Now fifteen. Now twenty. And that was when Butler pressed down the trigger.
For a split-second, nothing happened. Then, all twenty blocks of C4 high explosive placed around the gates simultaneously detonated with an impossibly loud crack. There was no spectacular fireball like in the movies – only a sudden cloud of thick smoke – but the force of the explosion shook the manor to its very foundations. The blast tore a massive chunk out of the metre-think stone walls that surrounded Fowl Manor and left a huge, smouldering crater where the gates had been. There was no sign of the formers that had been swarming into the grounds. In their place, the smoke began to settle, forming an eerie blanket of unnatural fog.
"Kaboom," muttered Butler, a grim smile on his face. He shifted to the side, positioning himself behind the M110. He took a moment to get comfortable, nestling the rifle's stock into the crook of his shoulder and putting his eye to the scope.
Within seconds, a fresh wave of former humans was staggering through the rubble, over the mutilated remains of their comrades. Butler picked a target at random, quickly lining up the former's head in his crosshairs and squeezing the trigger. He watched in satisfaction as the round struck the creature's skull, killing it instantly.
"Goodnight, you bastard," he whispered, already lining up another shot. Again, he squeezed the trigger. And again. And again. Every shot brought down its target, but there were too many of them. He was only scratching the surface, and the horde was rapidly approaching Fowl Manor. Soon, he would be forced to move down to the lower levels to assist Artemis and Juliet.
"D'Arvit," he swore, slotting in a fresh twenty-round magazine and casting aside the empty one. Below him in the grounds, he heard the explosion as the first of the Claymores was triggered, and the distant rattle of a machine gun as Juliet opened fire.
Pulling back the slide to chamber the first round of the new magazine, Butler brought the rifle back up to his shoulder, ready to fire again. The formers were all over the grounds now, surging towards the manor. He could see at least a hundred, and there was still more movement on the horizon.
It was going to be a long night.
He squeezed the trigger, sending another round into the darkness. This time, the bullet passed straight through the head of former he had been aiming for into the one behind.
Butler smiled slightly as he continued to fire into the horde. "Double kill," he said to himself. "Nice one."
Artemis couldn't quite suppress a sigh as he watched Butler detonate the C4 around the gates to the estate. Those walls had stood for five hundred years. They were irreplaceable. Soldiers had no respect for history.
Forget about it, he told himself. If it helps keep us all alive, it's worth it.
Next to him, Juliet was knelt behind the machine gun, eyes fixed on the crater where the gates had been a few moments before. She knew that more of the creatures would soon emerge through the smoke. She had to be ready.
Sure enough, a few moments later, dark shapes started moving in the fog. The shadows grew steadily more distinct, quickly becoming recognisable as human figures. The formers staggered through the wreckage, out into the grounds.
High above him, Artemis could hear the distinct crack of gunshots as Butler started putting shots downrange. For every crack, a former would stumble and fall like a marionette with its strings cut.
Artemis turned to the girl next to him, an eyebrow raised. "Well? Aren't you going to shoot them?"
Juliet's eyes never left the oncoming horde. "Wait for it," she murmured.
Once the formers were about half way across the grounds, there was a very soft click from the ground, lost in the sounds of the stampede. A former had broken one of infrared laser beams connected to a Claymore.
The Claymore was a directional anti-personnel mine that operated a bit like a mix between a shotgun and a fragmentation grenade. A moment after it was triggered, the layer of shaped plastic explosive inside was detonated, instantly killing the formers near to the mine itself and shooting a lethal salvo of superheated metal balls in a wide arc in front of the mine. At least twenty former humans were torn apart immediately, with yet more horrifically mutilated by the deadly volley.
Artemis's eyes widened. "That was a lot more violent than I was expecting. How many are there?"
Juliet's bleak features rearranged themselves into a grim smile. Even as she opened her mouth to speak, another group of formers were shredded by a second Claymore.
"Enough," she shrugged. "We just need to give them a reason to come and trigger the rest." She placed her free hand on top on the machine gun's stock for stability and squeezed the trigger, firing a controlled three second burst into a group of formers.
The horde reacted instantly. As one, the formers seemed to lock onto the gunner at the front of the entrance hall: they had located their first victim. Instead of simply charging vaguely towards the manor, they changed direction, running straight at the front entrance, screaming their bloodlust into the night.
"That's it," grinned Juliet. "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."
She squeezed the trigger again, this time keeping it pressed down, spraying indiscriminately into the mass of incoming targets. The M249 chewed up the ammunition belt at an alarming rate, spewing out a never-ending stream of high velocity rounds. Juliet swept the weapon from side to side, not bothering to aim. It was horribly effective; everywhere Artemis looked, former humans were falling, black blood splattering over the ground and their comrades.
The noise of battle was tremendous. Even from so close, he could barely hear the rattle of Juliet's machine gun over the shrieks of the formers. The periodic explosions of Claymores as the formers got closer and closer to the house only served to make it worse.
With the help of the traps they had laid in preparation, the two Butler siblings were doing a reasonable job of impeding the horde's advance. But despite their best efforts, the formers were still making progress, steadily drawing nearer to the manor. They sprinted on through the hail of bullets, leaping over the increasingly large number of bodies strewn about the grounds, unafraid of the defenders' dwindling supply of Claymores. It was clear to that it wouldn't be possible to keep them out of the manor for much longer.
"Artemis," grunted Juliet. "I'm running low on rounds and we're running low on time. In my chest pocket – no, the one nearest to you – is the detonator for the incendiaries my brother buried in the grounds. Grab it." Artemis did as he was told while Juliet kept up the fire. "Good. Activate it on my mark."
Artemis gritted his teeth, clutching the detonator between sweaty fingers. It felt oddly harmful in his hand, as though if he wasn't careful, it would explode instead of napalm outside. Next to him, Juliet had switched back to controlled bursts, making her last rounds count, carefully picking of any formers that got too close to them.
The mechanical click signalling that she was out of ammo was entirely inaudible over the sounds of the approaching formers. A split-second later, the final Claymore, positioned directly in front of the entrance hall, detonated. The nearest formers were instantly engulfed in a hail of deadly ball bearings and shrapnel, buying Artemis and Juliet a few moments longer.
"I'm out!" shouted Juliet, trying desperately to be heard over the ringing the nearby explosion had left in their ears. She gestured to the now lifeless machine gun in front of her to illustrate her point. "Now, Artemis! Hit it!"
Artemis stared at her, noncomprehension written all over his face. He was further out of his depth than he had ever believed possible. A former human was already clambering over Juliet's improvised barricade, screaming at the top of its lungs the moment it caught sight of them.
Juliet responded without thinking, bringing up the assault rifle slung over her shoulder and taking down the threat with a quick burst.
"Artemis!" she screamed, pointing frantically to the detonator sitting all but forgotten in Artemis's hand. Understanding flickered across the boy's face. He fumbled with the detonator for a moment before finding the trigger.
"Let there be light," he whispered to himself, and flicked the switch.
The result was instantaneous. The line of napalm canisters that Butler had buried just below the surface in the grounds erupted into brilliant flame, setting the darkness ablaze. It was easily one of the most spectacular things Artemis had ever seen; jets of flame soared into the sky, while rings of fire rippled out from each explosion, scorching everything they touched before burning themselves out.
The former humans unfortunate enough to have been caught near the blasts staggered desperately away from the flames, their skin coated in a sticky layer of burning napalm, shrieking in fury.
Even though the sudden explosion of light was already fading, pockets of flame all over the grounds continued to burn, casting a flickering glow over the destruction. The night was truly aflame.
Artemis and Juliet surveyed the carnage together. The incendiaries had certainly put a serious dent in the horde, but there were still vast numbers of formers left standing. And though they were moving more warily than before and the shrieking had died down, they were still coming towards the manor. In moments, they would reach the entrance hall.
"Come on, Artemis," called Juliet, already making her way up the staircase and deeper into the manor. "You don't want to be here when I blow the hall."
But Artemis wasn't listening. He was staring at the approaching formers, fascination all over his face.
"Artemis!" yelled Juliet, pulling the boy from his thoughts. Formers were already making their way over the barricade of discarded furniture. They would reach Artemis in seconds. "Get moving! I'll cover you."
Juliet rushed up the last few steps onto the first floor to give herself a better vantage point, and turned to see how Artemis was getting on. What she saw wasn't encouraging; the boy was running as fast he could, which wasn't very fast, and a pair of former humans were quickly gaining on him. One of them had a hand outstretched, fingers inches away from Artemis's shoulder.
Juliet instinctively dropped into a stable firing stance and brought the rifle up to her shoulder. Taking careful aim so as not to hit Artemis, she tapped the trigger twice, sending two rounds into the skull of former nearest to him. The next was more easily dispatched with a quick burst to the chest. She decided to drop the next closest three as well, just for good measure.
Once she was satisfied that Artemis was no longer in immediate danger, she pulled out the final detonator. The explosives rigged up in the entrance hall were the last trap that she and Butler had had time to set up, and she wanted to make good use of it.
Artemis hurtled up the last few steps and came to halt next to her, immediately falling to his knees and clutching at a stitch in his side, taking in huge gulps of air. Behind him, the formers were now flooding into Fowl Manor, heading towards the staircase.
Juliet still waited another few seconds, letting as many of them get into the kill zone as possible. Once they were almost at the base of the staircase, however, she could justify waiting no longer. She tossed the detonator into the air and caught it, squeezing the trigger as she did so. After all, Juliet Butler never could resist trying to win a few extra style points.
The moment the signal was sent, the bricks of C4 set up around the entranceway detonated, shattering glass and stone alike and sending a huge shockwave out into the horde of formers congregating outside, ripping skin and snapping bone. But it appeared that Juliet had overestimated the amount of C4 required to accomplish her goal. The explosion spread out hungrily, annihilating everything in its path. The entire Fowl Manor entranceway was blasted apart.
Not that Artemis saw any of this. The moment Juliet had triggered the detonation, she had grabbed the boy and thrown the two of them to the ground, shielding their eyes and faces from the storm of brick fragments and glass shards that filled the air. She could feel the tiny bits of debris raking her back, ripping her clothes and burying themselves in her skin, but at least neither of them would be blinded by the shrapnel.
Finally, the sounds of the explosion began to die away, leaving only a deafening ringing in both their ears. Juliet felt Artemis try and get up beneath her, but she kept him pinned down, knowing that it wasn't over yet.
Sure enough, there came a horrible lurching sound, and a moment later, the remaining walls and pillars began to buckle, no longer able to cope with the strain of holding up the remnants of the entrance hall. Great chunks of masonry rained down and a whole section of the upper stories started to cave in, depositing massive heaps of debris in the path of the formers.
Only once Juliet was sure the onslaught was finally over did she let up pressure on the boy shielded beneath her. Standing up slowly, she took stock of her new surroundings. There was only one word for the destruction she had managed to cause: spectacular. It looked as though someone had airlifted a warzone into the manor.
Artemis followed suit, shaking dust out of his clothes. His suit would be ruined, there was no doubt about that. But then he caught sight of the wreckage that had once been the grand entrance to his home, and he very quickly stopped worrying about his suit.
A low moan escaped his lips. "What did you do?"
Juliet shrugged, unconcerned. "Collapsed entrance hall: check. Delayed the bad guys: check. Us still alive: check. At least, for now. I would say everything is proceeding more or less according to plan."
"According to plan?" spluttered Artemis, gesturing at the rubble with a look of horror on his face.
Juliet was unapologetic. "A slight miscalculation, perhaps. Come on; we may have blocked that entrance, but there are plenty of other ways in."
As if on cue, there came the distinctive sound of breaking glass from beyond the wall of debris as the formers improvised their own entrances, smashing windows and forcing their way through any weakness they could find in the manor's exterior.
Artemis allowed Juliet to pull him deeper into the manor. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," the other girl admitted. "Away from them." An idea struck her. "Can they smell us?"
"I doubt it. Even though the parasite enhances physical attributes like speed and strength, their anatomy is still fundamentally still human. I see no reason why it would grant them superior senses. Why?"
"It's a big manor; if our only objective is to buy time, why not just try and lose them for a few hours?"
Artemis considered it. "That's not a bad idea. I don't like the idea of hiding and cornering ourselves, but I suppose avoiding them makes more sense than trying to make some kind of stand. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to evade them, though."
The pair carried on moving, leaving behind the destruction they had wreaked over the grounds and the main entrance and coming to an eventual halt on a third-floor landing. It wasn't part of the main living area and looked like no one had been there for several months.
While Artemis sat down to rest, Juliet listened carefully for any indication they were being followed.
"I don't hear anything," she said. "I suggest we wait here for a bit, unless you've got a grand scheme you want to enact."
Artemis smiled weakly. "Not right now, unfortunately."
Juliet glanced at him. "Actually, I was going to ask you something. Before I detonated the charges in the hall, you had that look on your face."
"What look?"
"You know, the look! The one you have when you figure something out, or have an idea. The one that Holly hates, because it usually means you're about to ask her to do something incredibly dangerous."
Comprehension flashed across Artemis's features. "Ah," he said. "That look."
"So?" demanded Juliet. "What idea were you having?"
Artemis's face rearranged itself into its coveted smug grin. "It was more of an observation, really. I realised that the formers were behaving differently after I detonated the incendiaries in the grounds. Didn't you notice the change?"
Juliet thought back. Now that he mentioned it, she did remember a change in their behaviour. "They were more cautious, I guess. Almost like they were shaken."
Artemis smiled approvingly. "Well done."
"So? It's understandable. I doubt you'd be as sure of yourself if your enemies had just blown up and set fire to a bunch of your mates."
"No, Juliet, it isn't understandable. At least, not for them. Butler must have blown up about fifty with his charges around the gates, but were they fazed? No, they charged right across the crater. They knowingly ran straight through a minefield, while being shot at, completely unaffected by how many casualties they were sustaining."
Juliet frowned. "You're right," she admitted. "They didn't care what was happening to them, they just kept coming. But after the napalm went off, it was almost like they were…"
"Like they were scared," finished Artemis. "And the survivors were avoiding the remaining flames as though they were afraid of them."
"So, fire is a possible weakness?"
Artemis nodded. "It would seem so."
Juliet looked briefly happy, but then her expression turned sour. "It's not very practical. How are we supposed to exploit that?"
Artemis shrugged. "I'm working on it." He raised an eyebrow at Juliet, the ghost of a smile dancing across his lips. "I suppose we could always burn down the manor. It's not like there's much left of it."
Juliet scowled. "I'm sorry about your entrance hall, but I was trying to keep us alive. Besides," she added, just loud enough for Artemis to hear. "It was in need of remodelling."
Butler had taken the explosion in the entrance hall as his cue to abandon his sniping position in the tower. Leaving the M110 where it was, the giant manservant retrieved the rest of his weaponry and began to descend the steps.
It wasn't long before he was back in the manor. He was fairly sure he could hear movement not too far from him, but there was no way to know whether it was Artemis and Juliet or a group of formers. To be on the safe side, he kept his own movements quiet, wary of drawing unnecessary attention to himself. He didn't know how much of the time-stop had elapsed, but he knew that plenty of hardship was still to come.
Holding his rifle one handed, Butler used his free hand to dig out his communicator.
"Juliet?" He spoke quietly, but clearly. "Do you copy?"
"I'm here, Dom."
Butler breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god you're still in one piece – that was one hell of an explosion you set off downstairs. Where are you now? Is Artemis still with you?"
"Yep, he's right here. We're biding our time on a third-floor landing, but we don't really have a plan." Juliet paused for a moment. "Did you enjoy the fireworks from up there?"
Butler couldn't resist smiling a little at that. "I can't deny that the napalm was pretty spectacular. I thought those things would never stop coming, but I think we took out a lot of them in the grounds."
Artemis decided to make his presence on the airwaves known. "How many do you think are left?"
"Difficult to say. Easily a hundred, maybe two hundred. Opal may even have more on their way. Either way, more than enough to make our lives very difficult indeed." A noise behind him caught the manservant's attention before he could say anything. "Speaking of which," he said. "I need to go. I'll contact you later."
He put away the communicator and raised his rifle, aiming it at the pair of formers that had just emerged from a corridor behind him.
"Evening gentlemen," he said, gripping the rifle. He would wait until the last possible moment to open fire; as soon as he pulled the trigger, his position would be crawling with former humans.
The first former growled and ran at him. Butler backed up, trying to buy himself a little extra time, but the creature was on him in seconds, leaping towards him with its teeth bared.
The manservant didn't bother to aim – he just squeezed the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets that snatched his assailant straight out of the air. Without pausing for breath, he turned to the other former, dropping it with a quick headshot.
Time to move, he thought, setting off in a random direction. He didn't know where he was going, he just knew it wouldn't be a good idea to stick around where he was. He could already hear the sound of formers converging on him.
Even as he thought, however, another group of formers was rounding the corner. Knowing there was no time for subtlety, he dropped into a crouch and brought up his rifle, emptying his magazine into the group.
A sound behind him.
Butler reacted more on instinct than on any rational thought. He didn't even realise what he was doing. He just knew that a moment later, his trusty Sig Sauer was in hand and there was a former human slumped against the wall next to him, a neat hole in its skull.
The bodyguard breathed a sigh of relief. Even after all these years, I've still got it, he couldn't help thinking with a little smile. But the respite was short-lived; more formers were already pouring into the other end of the corridor.
Butler backed up, shouldering his rifle and grabbing a frag grenade from his belt. There was a soft clink as the pin fell to the floor. He immediately began a mental countdown.
Five.
The formers had spotted him and were sprinting forward.
Four.
He carried on moving backwards, running his hand along the wall next to him until it brushed against what he was looking for – a door handle.
Three.
The formers were getting closer all the time. Butler took a breath, resting his hand on the handle.
Two.
He tossed the grenade towards the formers as they rushed at him, simultaneously throwing open the door and diving inside.
One.
There was a huge crack from out in the corridor as the grenade detonated. Butler had his rifle back in hand, aiming at the doorway, waiting for any survivors. But they never came.
Cautiously, the bodyguard stepped out into the corridor. The was a charred hole a little further down where the grenade had actually detonated, and everything else bore the marks left behind by the lethal storm of shrapnel. The figures that littered the floor were just about recognisable as humanoid, but there was no movement.
Butler didn't wait around for the next wave of reinforcements. Stepping carefully around the bodies, he went straight to the hole the grenade had left in the floor and dropped quietly into the room below.
As it turned out, Butler wasn't the only one with company. A couple of former humans had found Artemis and Juliet as well. Juliet slotted a magazine into her assault rifle after she'd dispatched the last of them.
"We should move," she said to Artemis.
The youth nodded, not keen to hang around now that they'd announced themselves. He started to make a move, but Juliet wrapped a hand around his arm.
"I'll be taking point, thank you very much," she hissed. "I told you already, we're doing this carefully. Understand?"
Artemis nodded reluctantly. Since Opal had told him that the formers wouldn't kill him until the others were dead, he had decided it would make sense for him to go first. Juliet, apparently, did not share his thoughts.
The pair moved quickly and quietly, Juliet leading the way, their weapons up. Artemis hadn't been forced to shoot anything yet; he was rather hoping to keep it that way, but he doubted he would be able. As the formers spread out to search the manor, the number of safe havens would get smaller and smaller.
He shook his head. Opal had made a mistake coming for his family. If he made it out of this alive, he was going to hunt her down like the animal she was.
The two of them managed to avoid the formers for a few minutes, but then they ran into a massive group of formers, all facing away from them.
Juliet immediately shoved Artemis back into the shadows, pulling him into a sheltered alcove. "D'Arvit," she whispered.
"What is it?" Artemis asked her.
"Those things are everywhere; there's got to be at least thirty. No way we're getting through them."
"We'll have to go another way."
Juliet never got the chance to respond. At that moment, another group of former humans emerged from the way they had come. Juliet pulled Artemis even deeper into the shadows.
"More of them," she muttered. "We're completely trapped. They haven't seen us yet, but they'll pass right by us – there's no way we can hide."
Artemis bit his tongue in frustration. "There's less behind us. We'll have to make a break for it, see if we can push."
Juliet nodded grimly. She didn't like the idea, but she couldn't think of anything better. Their options were basically go forward, go backwards, or do nothing and wait to be discovered and torn apart – which, as the formers shambled closer, was seeming like a more and more likely outcome with every second.
"There's going to be a lot on our tail once we show ourselves," she whispered. "We're only going to have one shot at this. Right; close your eyes, and when I shove you, you run back the way we came. You don't look back. You don't stop, not for anything. Understand?"
Artemis considered arguing, but decided against it. Juliet was the soldier, not him, and he knew she would never compromise, whatever he said. He closed his eyes obediently.
Juliet took a deep breath and grabbed a flashbang grenade from her belt, silently pulling out the pin. She waited one full second before tossing it out of their hiding place into the middle of the corridor, turning her back on it and closing her eyes as it detonated, filling the corridor with blinding light.
Even as it went off, she was following up, grabbing a pair of high explosive grenades from her belt and ripping the pins. One went into the massive group of formers ahead of them, the other towards the formers that had inadvertently flanked her and Artemis. The ones that were still blinded by the flashbang. At least, the ones that would have been if they had still been human; unfortunately, the formers were no longer human, and nor were they alive. They just widened their eyes slightly, faintly surprised by the sudden light, and started running towards Artemis and Juliet.
Juliet grabbed Artemis and thrust him out of the alcove towards the smaller group of formers. Towards the second grenade she had just thrown.
"Run!" she screamed. "And shield your face!"
With no time for rational thought, Artemis did as he was told, bringing up his arms in front of his face. Behind him, the first grenade detonated, tearing apart a swathe of formers.
It was followed a moment later by the second grenade, dead ahead of him.
Artemis was protected from the worst of the blast by the wall of formers between him and the grenade itself, but he still felt the shockwave slam into him, driving the air from his lungs and threatening to bowl him over. He felt his arms burn in the sudden heat and shards of wreckage leave a myriad of gashes all over his body, but somehow, he managed to stay on his feet, stumbling but continuing to run in the opposite direction to the huge group of formers.
Wincing in pain, he lowered his arms back to his sides and risked a look at his current predicament. It didn't look good. He couldn't see Juliet, and though most of the formers that he had been running towards them now lay in pieces thanks to her grenade, there were still a few survivors picking themselves up. It seemed like he was going to have to get past them himself.
Maybe I can slip by before they get back up, he thought hopefully.
No such luck. As he tried to leap by, a legless former shot out a hand and wrapped it around his ankle. Suddenly anchored in place, Artemis flailed comically in mid-air for a moment before landing hard. He lashed out wildly at the former, catching its head with his foot more out of blind luck than anything else, forcing it to release him.
He scrambled up quickly as it tried to crawl towards him, the mutilated stumps where its legs had been leaving a sticky trail of black blood behind it. Breathing hard, Artemis glanced up, looking for Juliet. She was backing up towards him, burning through her remaining ammunition to try and keep the advancing formers at bay.
He was about to shout for her to run, to come with him, but he was grabbed from behind by strong hands before he could open his mouth. The former threw him to the ground and followed up immediately, trapping one of his arms under its leg and wrapping its fingers around his next.
Gasping for breath, Artemis tried to claw at the vicelike grip with his free hand, but he couldn't prise the fingers off his throat. Already he could feel his brain crying out for oxygen; in moments, he would lose consciousness.
"You can't," he managed to splutter as real desperation started to set in. "You can't kill me. Opal said so."
Perhaps it was his imagination, but a flicker of uncertainty passed across the former's face. The grip on his throat loosened a fraction and the former shifted slightly, shifting some of the weight off Artemis's trapped arm. With the last of his strength, Artemis wrestled the limb free, pulling it from beneath the creature on top of him.
It took him a moment to realise what was clutched in his newly freed hand; by some miracle of luck, he had managed to keep hold of the Glock through the excitement of the last minute. Without thinking, he raised the weapon and placed it under the former's jaw and pulled the trigger.
The result was instantaneous. There was a deafening crack and the former human's head simply came apart, sending shards of shattered skull in all directions and covering Artemis in a thin film of black blood.
For a moment, the boy simply lay there, ears ringing, too shocked to do anything, but then Juliet was by his side, reaching down and grabbing his arm. Her lips were moving, but Artemis couldn't make out the words over the high-pitched whine in his ears.
More formers were coming up behind her, charging towards the pair of them, but then Artemis felt himself being pulled to his feet. He didn't know what was happening; all he knew was that he was running, running harder than he ever had in his life, with Juliet ahead of him and the former humans breathing down his neck.
Artemis Fowl's Laboratory, Fowl Manor, Ireland
Beckett was crying again. Angeline clutched him close to her and whispered words of comfort, but to little avail.
"Artemis going to die," whimpered the boy for the umpteenth time. "Don't want Artemis to die."
"Don't worry about Artemis," said Angeline soothingly. "He's going to be fine."
"How can be fine? We heard 'splosions and guns and stuff."
"He will be," his mother insisted, but her heart wasn't in it. How could she sound sure when she couldn't even convince herself that Artemis was going to be anything other than dead by morning? How could she tell her son not to worry when it seemed that she could do nothing else herself?
"Won't be. There's monsters out there, I heard him talking 'bout them."
Angeline gave a husband a pleading look. "Timmy, do something."
Artemis Sr. sighed and went over to them. "Come on," he said to Beckett, lifting him up and setting him down on his knee. "You trust your brother, don't you?"
Becket nodded slowly.
"Well," said Artemis Sr. firmly. "It's settled then. He promised us he would be back and that everything would be alright, all we have to do is trust him. Now, let's talk about something else…"
He carried on trying to comfort the boy, but Angeline had stopped listening. Her gaze had found Myles. He couldn't have reacted more differently from his twin if he had tried – instead of coming to pieces, Myles had simply gone to sit in a corner. The only time he had spoken was when his mother had asked what he was doing. All he had said was "I'm waiting for Artemis."
"Myles?" Angeline asked tentatively, getting up and moving towards him. "Are you alright?"
Myles refused to look at her. "I'm fine."
Angeline reached out a hand and laid it on his shoulder, but he threw it off.
"I'm fine."
Angeline sighed, but didn't push it. Myles reminded her so much of Artemis sometimes, and as proud as she was of her eldest, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
A voice from behind her cut through her thoughts.
"Artemis…"
She spun to see who had spoken. It took her a moment to realise that the words had come from Holly's mouth. The elf had been silent for a while, but now she was starting to shake again, her face contorted in pain.
"Artemis…" she managed in a strangled whisper. "Arty…"
Afterwards, Angeline didn't know exactly what it was that made her go over to the elf. Something deep within her just told her that it was the right thing to do.
"I'm sorry," she said. "He's not here right now, but he'll be back." Holly chose that moment to gasp out in pain, as though despite not being able to hear Angeline's words, she doubted their veracity. A single blue spark hopped lazily along her arm before winking out. "He will be," insisted Angeline. "He… he promised. He'll be back."
There was a dull echo of footsteps on the ceiling above them. All the lab's occupants went silent, exchanging looks.
"Timmy," said Angeline nervously. "Do you know if Artemis had the ceiling reinforced as well?"
Artemis Sr. looked unsure. "I think so," he offered. "But I'm not certain." A few seconds passed in uncomfortable silence before he added, "I hope he did."
"The roof is reinforced, but not to the same extent as the rest of the structure. Artemis has been meaning to remedy his mistake, but what with his many absences, has not had the time."
It was Myles who had spoken. Everyone turned to stare at him in disbelief, even Beckett.
"How do you know that?" asked Artemis Sr. eventually.
Myles shrugged. "He told me."
"And… and you understood him?" The Fowl Patriarch didn't look as though he could believe the four-year old's words.
There was another wave of noise above them, with more loud footsteps and a few crashes. It was followed by another few moments of silence during which everyone in the lab held their breath, then the sound of something large and heavy being dropped above the centre of the lab, right above Artemis Sr.'s head.
Artemis Sr. looked at his wife, then upwards. "I think," he said quietly. "We should move."
Angeline nodded, immediately gathering up Myles and Beckett in her arms and carrying them to a sheltered corner. Her husband followed her a moment later, and together they crouched there, peering over Artemis Jr.'s lab equipment with their hearts in their throats. Even Holly fell silent, as though holding her breath, waiting.
Time passed, the seconds stretching into minutes. The activity above them continued for a while, but then it petered out. After about a minute of silence, Artemis Sr. exhaled loudly and wiped his brow.
"I guess there was nothing to worry-"
He never got to finish the sentence. At that moment, an explosion tore a huge rent in the ceiling, raining debris down into the lab below and filling it with billowing grey smoke. The lights flickered off. Through the smoke and wreckage, silhouettes were visible dropping down into the lab from the floor above.
Artemis Sr. counted at least five figures before the smoke became too thick too see through. Trying to contain the fear clawing at his insides, he wracked his brain, trying desperately to come up with some kind of plan.
There was a gun, he thought. I'm sure there was…
He looked around frantically, eyes scanning every surface he could see for the weapon he had spotted earlier. There! On a table, only a few metres away, lay the Five-seveN that Holly had left Artemis. It almost seemed to be taunting him, lying there, so close, yet almost completely inaccessible.
If I could just reach it… it's so close… maybe we could have a chance…
He raised his head a little higher and glanced around. He couldn't see any of the creatures that his son had brought to Fowl Manor before. If he could just dash over to the table, he was sure he could get it. It would only take a few seconds.
But then a dark shape appeared in the smoke in front of him, growing more distinct as it came forward, and he knew that it was too late. There was no hope. Artemis Jr. had left them no way out of the lab; they were well and truly trapped in here with these monsters.
The creature emerged slowly from the smoke, trudging towards the Fowls' hiding place. Only from up close could they appreciate how terrifying it actually was; only first-hand experience could really do justice to the deathly pale skin, decorated with scars, or to the sunken, lifeless eyes. The creature even smelled of death. The Fowls shrank back into the darkness, trying their best to stay quiet.
The creature came to a stop about a metre away from them. It stood utterly still, making no sound. There was no rattling breath and no beating heart, but the silence was somehow even more sinister. And then, even though it surely couldn't see them, it let out a low growl, as though it could sense them.
There was a thud as another figure dropped through the hole in ceiling, followed by a shriek from one of the other creatures. None of the Fowls dared move, but they listened carefully; there was the sound of a scuffle and then a crash as someone was thrown to the ground.
The creature that had been about to discover the them turned back to the noise, but a sword arced out of the smoke and buried itself in the creature's chest.
Artemis Sr. peeked out a little from behind the apparatus they were hiding behind; he couldn't see much, but the smoke was beginning to fade and he thought he could make out three more creatures rushing at a figure in the middle of the lab.
Even as he watched, there was a flash of steel and one of the creatures fell. The figure followed up immediately, moving impossibly fast and taking another creature's head. The last one tried to grab at the assailant before they could strike again, but they ducked under its clumsy lunge and sunk their blade into its throat.
The figure came towards the Fowls and retrieved the sword they had thrown before. Artemis Sr. peered a little further out of the shadows, trying to get a better look at their savour. The smoke had largely cleared, now; before him stood a beautiful girl, dressed all in black and clutching twin swords, both dripping with black blood.
"You can come out now," said Natalya.
A/N: Well, well, well. That complicates things, doesn't it? But then I suppose you never really can have a good slaughter without Natalya wanting a piece of the action. She's just that kind of girl, you know? She wants in on the party.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! There's plenty more action over the next few as well, and then much needed explanations. Like I said before, I'll try and get the next one up by Christmas. And please tell me what you thought in a review! I always love reading feedback :)
-Kio