Chapter 4- A New Breed

Multiple fiends carrying AK-47s poured through the destroyed door. Drake leveled his AK-74su on the nearest one and opened fire. The kick of the machine caused him enough pain to make him drop the gun.

"Damn it…" He hissed. "I can't shoot them! It hurts too much."

"Don't worry!" Keith said, hammering away from behind his RPK. "There's not the many of them!"

"But they sure are hard to kill!" Julie said, picking away at them with bursts from her own AK-47. "It's taking nearly twice as long to kill them as last time!"

"I realize that! Just keep firing!" Keith pulled the drum out of his RPK and locked in another one. "We have to hold out until Matt gets here!"

Drake picked up his gun again and set it to single shot. Firing it on full auto was too hard. Drake leveled the rifle on the nearest fiend and pulled the trigger. He was lucky. The fiend's head exploded with a single shot, showering everyone in blood.

"Nice shot!" Julie said.

"Just keep firing!" Keith said. Five minutes later the hospital was littered with the bodies of the deceased fiends. Keith stood up. "Grab some ammo and let's get the hell out of here." Keith walked out of the little room and started checking the discarded RPK drums. Drake and Julie looked for some extra clips. "Ready?" Drake and Julie nodded. "Right then, this way." Keith pushed open the hospital's swinging doors. There was no one behind the doors.

"Good, no more fiends." Drake said.

"Shh! Someone's coming down the hallway." Julie said. They all leveled their guns on the end of the hallway. Chancellor Bentz ran around the corner.

"Oh, thank god, you three are okay." He said. "There's about four of those things following me."

"Okay, just get down behind us." Drake said. Four of the fiends came around the corner. Bentz hit the ground as Keith, Drake and Julie opened fire on the beasts. They never stood a chance. "How'd you get out?"

"Well, I had auto-defense turrets installed in my office over the summer, just in case. They cut down the invaders, but they don't have much ammo, so I came out here to see if I could find you. And thank god I did. Are you sure you'll be okay, Drake? You look rather pale."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Right now, what we need to do is find Matt."

"You called him in? You do know that he's a convicted criminal, right?"

"Yeah, we do. He explained all that last year." Keith said. "He said he would get here as soon as possible."

"Do you think he'll bring Brooklyn along with him?" Julie asked. "That might make up for not having Flynn with us…"

"And that's the secondary objective." Drake said. "Spring Flynn from wherever he is."

"He's being held on a ship at the docks." Bentz said. "They plan to leave for the mainland in a day. But they won't be, not after this."

"Okay, good. We have plenty of time so long as the fiends don't go after the ship." Drake said. "But, uh, how do we get there?"

"We can use the teacher's elevator." Bentz said. He stopped in front of an apparently blank stretch of wall, pulled out a keycard, and inserted it into a nearly invisible slot in the wall. The wall slid apart to reveal an elevator. "Everyone in." They all stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. Bentz inserted his keycard into another slot and pressed a button marked "G." There was a soft whirring as the elevator began its descent.

"The hospital's on the top floor of the academy." Keith told Drake. "They wanted the use of the Academy's skylights. Claimed it would help the patients."

"I see." Drake said. "How long is this going to take, then?"

"Not long. The Academy's only five stories tall." A bell sounded and the doors opened. They were now in the entrance hall. The only problem was that it was crowded with fiends. Drake crouched down and started firing into the crowd. Keith crouched next to him and unloaded an entire drum into the crowd.

"There's too many!" Keith said. "Someone shut the doors!" Bentz pressed another button and the doors closed. Keith reloaded his SAW and stood up. "Okay, there's a lot of fiends out there."

"No kidding!" Julie said. "What was your first clue?!?"

Something hit the elevator door. "We need to do something about these fiends." Drake said. "Before they tear the door off its hinges."

"Or just hit the door in and crush us with it." Keith said. There was another bang on the door and it bent in a little.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Drake asked. "Try and fight out or go back up?"

"It doesn't matter." Keith said. "In any and all cases, we have to beat these guys down. And I don't think we have the firepower." The door was hit again and it buckled in a little more. Keith shrugged. "Guess we gotta fight like heroes and try to get out of here."

"We can't go back up." Bentz said. "The elevator has stalled."

"Great." Drake locked a new clip in and flipped his 74 back into auto. "Just peachy. Time to tear these things apart." The door was ripped out. Drake unloaded onto the fiends, all pain in his arms forgotten. He cut down three in a quick burst of about ten shots. More came in. Keith was prone on the ground, his RPK supported on a bipod, his gun blazing. Julie was standing in front of Bentz, hammering away on her 47. No matter how many fiends they killed more came. At least they don't have guns. Drake thought. Suddenly the normal fiends stopped coming. That's not to say that the attack stopped.

A new kind of beast was now in front of them. It was the same night black color of the other fiends, but it walked on all fours. It looked kind of like a massive dog of some breed yet undiscovered. Its rear legs were much longer than its front ones. Its tail ended in a point, like a devil's. Its jaw was as wide as its body, and filled with teeth as long as Drake's forearm. Muscles rippled under its skin.

Drake's eyes widened. When did they get pets? He thought. Then he stopped thinking and unloaded on the beast. It roared and began to advance on the elevator. Everyone was shooting it now, unloading entire clips into it, but it seemed relatively unfazed. It stuck its head into the elevator, its beady eyes searching for something. It eyes focused on Julie. Drake groaned.

Just like old times, He thought. Everyone on Julie! Drake swung the butt of his rifle and hit the monster in the head. It ignored it. It snapped at Julie but couldn't get in far enough to get her. Good, Drake thought, she's in far enough that it can't get her. Then something strange happened. The monster's neck began to stretch. Drake shot it again and again, so did Keith and Julie, but nothing happened. The bullets just bounced off harmlessly. Drake looked up at Keith.

"This isn't good." Keith said.

"No kidding." Drake said. He shot it in the neck. The monster grunted and its neck retracted. Then its eyes came to rest on Drake. "Oh, crap." The dog-thing snapped at Drake. Drake ran back toward Julie. "This is lousy."

"Yeah, and there's about four more of these things out in the hall." Julie said. "My gun jammed. I can't fix it."

"Great. We were already short one, now we're short two."

Keith walked back toward them. "We're screwed. We can't kill these things."

"Try shooting it in the neck." Drake suggested. The dog-thing stuck its head into the elevator again. Its neck began to extend again. This time, though, they couldn't see its neck, on account of the frill around the monster's head. "Well, it was nice knowing you guys."

"Yeah." Julie said. "Look's like it's over."

"Hm… yeah. See you guys somewhere else." Keith said. The dog-thing's head was getting closer. It was within three inches of Drake's face when the neck snapped back and the dog-thing roared. It pulled its head out of the elevator and began to roll around on the ground, trying to scratch its neck. Drake was confused. So were the other four dogs outside the elevator. One by one, in rapid succession, the dog's eyes widened and they began to imitate their friend on the ground. A few minutes later they were all still.

"What was that all about?" Bentz asked. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything…" Drake said.

"Neither did I." Julie said.

"Nor did I." Keith said.

"Only one explanation…" Julie said.

"Matt?" Drake said.

"Matt." Julie said. A black shadow dropped down in front of the elevator. It pulled of its hood.

"Hello, lady and gents." Matt said. "Sorry I got here so late."