Cross

Book 3 Chapter XI - "Crazy" Is, I Believe, The Medical Term

"Didn't you bring more ammunition?" David was incredulous. She was an assassin, after all! Making a mistake like that could be fatal to her!

"I didn't think I would need it. I came to Rome to get away from Terror until she calmed down after Nightmare's betrayal. I never expected to need a weapon, and I certainly never expected anything like this. I only brought this gun in case I needed it for some reason." She saw the look on her brother's face and blushed. "I know, I was a moron not to be more prepared. But on my way in here, I saw a room filled with guns and knives and all sorts of weapons."

The zombie fell to the ground, devoid of whatever life it had had.

"It works," Dani said, stating the obvious. She didn't sound overly happy about that fact.

David looked at her, surprised. "You could sound a bit more enthusiastic about it."

"I suppose so." She still looked miserable, though.

David shot another of the zombies that was getting a bit too close for comfort and went over to her, leaving his sister to deal with the zombies that were advancing up the narrow passage that led to Nightmare's armoury, as the room Abi had seen turned out to be. It was far too narrow for more than two of them to come up at a time, so the assassin should be able to deal with them on her own for a few moments.

Dani was sitting on the ground near the door to the armoury, staring at the ground and looking thoroughly depressed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"Nothing..." she muttered.

"Something's wrong, or you wouldn't look like you were attending your own funeral. So, what is it?"

"Those things." She pointed in the general direction of Nightmare's "army". "They were human once, so killing them... well, it... it seems like murder!"

David groaned silently. Leave it to a human to come up with such an example of muddled thinking. "You said it yourself; they're robots. They were never truly human to begin with, either. Half of them are corpses reanimated by electric circuits that aren't able to think or feel, and the other half are a mixture of slightly-alive -"

"Have you taken leave of your senses?!" Abi yelled, scandalised. "If you're going to stand back and let me do all the work, I'm leaving and you can get out of this mess on your own!"

Her brother got up and picked up the gun, which he'd set on the floor, when something completely unexpected happened. One minute, two zombies were advanced toward Abi and she was about to fire at the first one. The next, both of them fell to the floor, decapitated.

Dani screamed, and David didn't blame her. Abi blanched (quite a feat for someone who was naturally as pale as he was). David threw his gun down. He was shaking badly and might have accidentally pulled the trigger.

"Well? Are you going to just stand there and stare?" someone demanded from behind them.

All three turned on the latest arrival.

"VLADISLAUS ALEXANDRU DRACULA!" Abi looked like she was about to commit murder. "What the hell do you think you're doing? For that matter, what are you even doing in Italy?"

"I followed you," Dracula said calmly, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about any of this. "Now, do you mind if we continue this conversation somewhere else? Because it sounds like more of those things are coming."

Abi gave him a glare that could freeze Venus, a glare that painful experience had taught David meant trouble, but Dracula didn't seem to care. David had met his cousin (several times removed) twice before, and from what he'd seen and heard of him then and now, he was inclined to think he had no sense of self-preservation. No one in their right mind would ignore Abi when she was giving them that look.