Book Two Chapter Twenty Three: The Siege

Taken in by the sketchy old man in the manor, the Kerulen horde draws near. Preparing for their final stand, our heroes dig in and give it all their all!

Chapter Twenty Three The Siege: He led us upstairs to the first floor, and grabbed some bottles of liquor of all shapes and sizes.

"Um, pardon me mister... Err... man, I hardly think this is a good time for a drink." I said.

He then pulled some bundles of cloth from the drawer.

"No, no. You see, the only way other than silver to kill those buggers is fire. To think something so common could hold the salvation to the world." He chuckled.

He stuffed the cloth threw the tops of the bottles, and lit the ends at the fire place.

"Quickly now, go to the second floor window, and drop these on 'em. You’ll be our primary line of defense.” He said to Lisa and Eric.

The two did not hesitate, and took a few of the Molotov things with them.

"You three," He said, pointing to me, Kaleen and Anara. "We'll hold the fort down here." He said with a slight grin.

I think he’s enjoying this. I was suspicious of this guy at first, but he seemed alright. He was still a bit sketchy, but he seemed to like a challenge. He was brave, too. I pulled the revolver and the knife out, ready. The old man pushed the barrel of my six shooter downwards.

"You only have six shots, shoot only when you need to." He warned.

I figured it would be wise to conserve the six bullets. I put the gun in my pocket and took the knife. I stood about thirty feet from the door, ready. When the door flew open, the Kerulen stormed in, the fire from the Molotov blazing behind them. The fire had not done much, but I noticed that a few were laying in the fire, screaming.

A Kerulen rushed me, dashing through the flames. I took the hilt of the knife and used it to punch him on the shoulder. I spun around just long enough for me to stab him between the shoulder blades. I pulled the knife out just in time to see another Kerulen, a female charge at me. Close behind it was another female. They both slammed into me and stunned me for a spilt second. They pinned me against a wall. Fear filled me. I couldn't pull my knife out, and thought I was done for, when I heard two loud noises. Bang! Bang!

At the same intervals of the noises, the two Kerulen hit the floor. The old man had reloaded his shotgun, which had only two shots, from when he shot the window near us. He reloaded again and nodded at me. We had not even killed a fraction of them and I was already getting tired, but the old man, built like a brick wall and probably tough as one, too, looked as energized as anyone could get. He pulled out his knife and slung his shotgun over his back.

We killed a few more Kerulen, when they started to overwhelm us.

"The stairs!" Shouted the old man.

"Look out!" shouted Eric from above.

Instantly I had ducked. I looked up in time to see a Molotov sail over my head and break on the ground, sending fire all across the floor. We were safe on the stairs, but not for very long. We started to ascend the stairs, the old man shot four Kerulen and changed back to his knife. The old man seemed to be loaded with ammunition. I looked down on the first floor and saw that it was ablaze. The fire did not seem to affect the wooden floor very much. For the most part it stayed confined to the alcohol that fueled it.

We were now on the second floor. The old man went to a connected bedroom and collected some more liquor and cloth from a cabinet. This time he pulled out a lighter and lit the ends. He passed one to each of us. We aimed at the stairs.

"On my count." Said the old man.

"One." He said. Footsteps were audible now.

"Two." we could hear the Kerulen coming up the stairs.

"Three!" The Kerulen rounded the bend and we all tossed our Molotovs.

They fell all over the staircase, killing any Kerulen that was on it and engulfing the entire thing in flames.

"Woo hoo!" Shouted the old man.

“Would now be a good time for a Disco Inferno joke?” Kaleen asked with a laugh.

The old man laughed back.

“I like your sense of humor, young lady!” He shouted in joy.

“See? Someone gets it!” Kaleen told me.

“Guys, this is no time for jokes!” Lisa shouted.

“Take that!” Eric yelled as he threw a Molotov outside.

The old man may have been old, but had the spirit of a twenty year old. A few Kerulen jumped up on the curved wall, above the fire and jumped around, onto the landing. The old man shot a few with his shotgun, and I ran up and gave them a few quick slashes each, spending no more than a second on each one. Soon the bodies piled on the top of the stairs. If the Kerulen overwhelmed us again, there was a window at the end of the corridor, and some pull-down stairs that led to the attic. Neither seemed like a good option, but they could be used as emergency escape routes.

The Kerulen came up the stairs still. We couldn't have killed more than half of them.

“Incoming!” Eric panicked.

There was around half the horde remaining, probably more. Me, Kaleen, Eric, Anara and Lisa all ran up with our knives and stabbed and slashed our way through them. Since it only took one hit to kill them, no one was bitten. We had actually beaten them down the stairwell quite a bit, the fire from the Molotovs had gone out, leaving the staircase black and charred. Our sense of hope had quickly died out, because a huge wave of Kerulen surged toward the stairs from the first floor.

“Oh man! We need to get out of here!” Eric panicked again.

“Eric, get a grip!” Lisa yelled.

Fear filled me, it showed on my face and in my body language.

"To the attic! Now!" I shouted.

“But isn’t that a bad idea?” Eric shouted.

“You got a better one?” I shot back.

Eric sagged his head as he ran over to the pull down stairs. The old man was up already there and he had pulled down the stairs to the attic. He got it down and we all climbed up.

“Go! Go! Quickly!” He urged.

The old man lit some more Molotovs, the last ones.

"Alright, these are the last of the Molotovs, make 'em count." Said the old man.

He gave us the Molotovs. We heard footsteps and saw the Kerulen's shadows cast from where we were sitting. A few Kerulen rushed forward and grabbed the ladder, too close for the Molotovs to be of any use, we had to kill them fast or they would start a jam up downstairs.

Sure enough, we stabbed them through the foreheads before the others got up. We all through our Molotovs down the opening, we heard cries of anguish that told us we had some direct hits.

“Yes!” Anara exclaimed.

A male Kerulen ran halfway up the ladder too quickly for anyone to stop him, but when I reached down to stab him, He dodged around the knife and pulled me downwards into the tempest of Kerulen. I screamed in fear.

“Nick!” Kaleen screamed in fear.

I was on my feet in a second and had my knife out. My knees were now weak with fear. After watching their buddies die, the Kerulen were smarter. Two charged at me side by side, and I got them both across the chests in one swing. I took the break in the Kerulen to jump at the ladder, I was halfway up, and inches from the old man's hand. I reached out... only to be grabbed around the waist and thrown off the ladder. I tumbled across the floor, down the staircase and onto the first floor.

There were more Kerulen down here than I would have ever thought were in the entire house. The whole first floor was packed with them, side by side. I screamed out of pure fear. I couldn't go up the stairs, there were too many Kerulen blocking my path. They started charging at me and leaping through the air. I dove to the side, towards the common area and remembered the storage room. The basement! I thought. I ran to the basement door. I opened it and shut it behind me. I went down the stairs into the cold basement.

I went into the room with all of the ammunition. When I was in, I pulled out my six shooter and aimed it at the stairs. The basement was dimly lit by moonlight streaming in through the windows, so it was hard to see. A shadow passed by my sight, then into view and... Pop! Came the gunshot. The pistol kicked upwards, but I forced it down again. I saw another shadow. Pop!

I shot four more and had to reload. I grabbed a few handfuls of bullets from the box next to me and stuck them in my pocket. I reloaded in three seconds and was firing again. I did some calculations and predicted that I was going to get overwhelmed in a minute, so I grabbed the box of bullets, shot out the window of the basement, and climbed though, bringing the box of ammunition with me. I pocketed my revolver and tucked the box under my arm. I was now outside with the box. I needed to get back into the attic with the others. I then saw what I was looking for: a drainpipe. It ran up the side of the house. It looked like it went all the way up.

I climbed the drainpipe using my one hand and two feet, keeping the box of bullets under my one arm. I would shimmy upwards with my feet, then release and grab on again with my free hand. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually hauled myself up onto the roof. I found the end corridor window and smashed it, tossing the box through. What I saw when I climbed through had me stunned. The old man was on the second floor, not in the attic with everyone else. A Kerulen had the old man in a headlock with his shotgun barred across the front of his neck and was going to bite him in seconds.

I pulled up my revolver and took the only shot I had at the thing: the head. Pop! The gun kicked back and the Kerulen fell to the ground. The man reloaded his shotgun. Surprise was visible on his face.

"Alright my boy! Good work!" He yelled.

He then eyed the ammo box I had brought up.

"And even better, we have ammunition! You’ve saved us all, boy!" He shouted in glee.

He reached down passed the bullets for the handgun, and pulled some normal looked shotgun shells. There were shotgun shells under all the revolver ammunition in the box! He took a few handfuls. They must fire silver pellets.

“Back into the attic!” The old man shouted, taking the box of bullets with him and running up the ladder, using no hands to climb up.

“Nick, you’re alive!” Kaleen shouted in relief.

“What? You didn’t miss me or anything, did you?” I teased as I climbed up the ladder.

“Who would?” Anara said bitterly.

“Anara, stop.” Kaleen warned.

We were going to get overwhelmed. They were coming on too fast. We were running out of room.  

"The roof." I said.

“We’re not done here yet!” The old man said with a grin.

“Are you crazy?!” Eric shouted.

“Eh, maybe a little.” The old man said with another grin.

As soon as the first Kerulen was up the ladder, we opened fire. A split second after the first came up, lots more followed. Chibata, Eric and I fired all of our shots, then dug into our ammo reserve in the box and reloaded.

We shot again and again, but they just kept coming! The bodies piled and piled until they were a few feet high in the attic. This formed a sort of devilish barricade. The Kerulen were pushing forward once again, and we were out of room. We all gathered around the window for a last stand, ready to smash it and jump onto the roof when we got overwhelmed. Another and another and another came around the corner, and we swiftly cut them down with bullets. Every few that came around, the Kerulen would gain a few feet more space.

Eventually, the Kerulen had almost gotten to the window. They had pushed through the bodies of their friends and through our rain of bullets.

 

“Onto the roof! The attic’s toast!” The old man shouted.

“Finally, you say something that isn’t completely insane!” Eric shouted as he kicked the window out, shattering it.

We all climbed out onto the roof. The old man took the box of bullets with him. He set them on the roof and turned around, firing his shotgun twice and killing two Kerulen who had reached the window. He reloaded.

Eventually the Kerulen forced their way out of the window. They were now on the roof with us. After shooting a few of them off of the roof, I reached into my pockets to reload and found I had no more bullets left. I went to the box and took half of the bullets that fit my gun that were still there, there was not a lot. I did not want to risk getting close to them with the knife when they were this numerous. I reloaded my revolver.

Impossible as it seemed, the Kerulen forces weren’t as numerous as they had once been. I shot about three more off of the roof as they came through the window and reloaded. Eric shot a few off of the roof as well. From our high vantage point, I saw Kerulen running off into the distance. There weren’t a lot of them, but they were there. I peered through the window. I didn’t see any Kerulen. Hope glimmered in my mind. Had we really done it? Was it over? We climbed back into the house and saw a horror surpassing that of any monster movie I had seen. There was not a millimetre in sight that was not occupied by a dead Kerulen. We all reloaded out guns. We walked downstairs and saw the burn marks from the Molotovs. The bodies were less numerous down here. We had killed most of them on the second floor, on the roof and in the attic.

We walked to the grand entrance hall and found not a trace of any Kerulen. Good thing to, because I was down to my last six bullets. It was then that we heard footsteps. They were slow, one coming every two seconds.

"Expecting somebody?" I asked the old man.

The old man just raised his shotgun.

“Do I look like the kind of guy who expects company?” The old man asked.

I had to admit, he didn’t. Maybe it was the fact that he greets his guests with a loaded double barrel shotgun?

The footsteps reached the door. The door slowly began to creak open. Standing in the doorway now was a girl. She looked about my age and had long blonde hair. She had super pale skin and dark violet eyes. I also noticed her fangs. Standing in the doorway, was Saja herself.

The old man seemed stunned. He didn't know that he was in danger, then he noticed her inhuman features.

"Shoot!" I yelled.

The second I said that, Saja jumped onto the wall, avoiding the first shotgun blast, which blew the front door into splinters. Saja jumped across the wall, grabbing a horizontal wooden support beam high up, avoiding another shotgun blast. She then took the opportunity to dove for the old man. I took two hasty shots at Saja and missed them both, leaving the old man vulnerable.

The man wasn't giving up so easily. He reeled back and punched Saja in the face so hard, she actually flew through the window across from us. Man, this guy was pure muscle! I was so amazed by this, I had to know his name.

"What is your name?" I asked.

 “The name’s Chibata." He said.

“I’m Nick.” I said quickly.

"Do you have any bullets left?" Chibata asked.

"Four." I replied. "I'm out." Said Eric.

"I’m out." Said the old man, dropping his shotgun.

“Me too.” Eric said.

Eric dropped his pistol as well. Saja then jumped up through the broken window and attacked again. She went for me first.

"I will avenge the death of Irene!" She yelled.

She had dug her fingers into my arms and pinned them to my sides. My arms started to ache so much that I dropped my knife, it cluttered to the floor with a metallic clang! Chibata came up behind her with his knife raised, but she heard him, turned around and punched him across the jaw, this didn't seem to faze him a whole lot. Like I said: built like a brick wall.

Chibata readied his knife to stab her, but Saja grabbed his wrist as he drove his knife down at her and threw him back through the door and into his kitchen.

"You're not a normal vampire, are you?" He laughed.

"How did you possibly guess?" Saja asked innocently, her violet eyes flashing in the moonlight.

"Why don't you come at me again? I'll cut that smug grin right off your face!" Said Chibata.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, but I cannot stay long. And I would not care to take our little battle into your territory." Saja said with false sincerity.

I was wondering what that was supposed to mean, then she turned and ran out the front door. I looked to Chibata and the others. They all had the same expression on: Determination.

Excitement filled me. Saja would die. Chibata led us outside and around the rear of his house, where he had a jeep parked out in his backyard. Weal jumped into the jeep. He started up the engine. I saw that he had a full tank of gas. When we got to the road, we could just barely make out the outline of Saja running down the long driveway. Look out Saja, I'm coming for you. The chase is on.

 

To Be Continued And Concluded In Book Three: Knights Of The New World...

Author's Note

The final chapter of Book Two: Soldier of Destiny is here! Please tell me what you think!