The Midnight Cleaning Company

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I burst through the front door of the office carrying the deceased elderly woman, in my haste I crashed into John and Killer-Bee. The corpse fell to the ground with a sickening soft thump.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" gasped Killer-Bee, shocked at all the blood that was spilt down my face and chest.

It was a mixture of the Human blood I had spilt and of my own, but the wounds on my face from the boots of the Rogues had already completely healed.
I walked past her briskly, ignoring her inane concern.
John scooped the body up from the ground and immediately transferred it to one of the acid vats in the disposal room.

"I came across three Rogues feeding on this Human", I shouted to Charles and George who were rushing down the spiral staircase. Andre appeared through the entrance to the office extension, followed by rest of the recruits.
"Bastards were deliberately causing a mess to see where we turned up to clean it", huffed Charles. "You didn't get them all did you?" he continued with strained hope in his voice.
"Hurt one probably beyond repair but the other two got away", I said, feeling needlessly embarrassed that I had not done better against overwhelming odds.
"They will have called in reinforcements already", said Michael, emerging from the basement. "Intercept them before they find us", said John from the disposal room, finishing the communal trail of thought from the old hands.

Quickly we proceeded to retrieve our weapons and mentally prepare ourselves in our usual efficient silence, before remembering the recruits, who stood huddled together in the entrance to the extension looking lost. I was glad to see that Andre had joined us in preparing without instruction and was followed by his friend Marcus.
"Gather your gear, it's time to put your new skills to use", I beamed to the recruits, who were as surprised by my change in mood as they were apprehensive in preparing for battle.

All seventeen of us returned to the end of our street where I had first met the Rogues. It was necessary to lead them away in the opposite direction from our office. We walked slowly and carefully in two groups, half on each side of the road. Everyone was deathly quiet. In the distance I could hear the sirens of an approaching police car, responding to calls reporting my skirmish with the Rogues. We passed the row of shops and the sirens faded into the distance. Michael and John on the opposite side of the road from me, were trailing behind the group, running their fingers over the low garden walls and the lamp-posts to leave a trail for the Rogues to follow. On our side of the road, Charles and I listened closely and concentrated on tracking.
Still high from the Human blood, my senses were greater than that of my colleagues. I could feel that the Rogues were nearby. We were playing a game of cat and mouse, but I was unsure which of us was the quarry.

An explosion erupted over head. I instinctively reached behind my back for my knife and saw Charles pull out his gun next to me. A bright red and green glow splashed across his pale face. The explosion was a firework. It had come from a nearby garden, which was lit up in a whole spectrum of colours by more fireworks. I realised it was the fifth of November; Bonfire Night. I thought this could be advantageous and patted my chest to check that my pistol was holstered there.

The air filled with smoke and the smell of gunpowder prevented us from continuing to track the Rogues by scent. I could faintly hear the sound of quick feet nearby. Even with my better than perfect vision, I strained to see clearly in the combination of the dark and the smoke.

"This way", whispered Charles in my ear.
I signalled across the road to Andre and the others. We left the residential road and entered the car park where we had planned to confront the Rogues. There were far more cars than we had anticipated but the principle remained the same, to draw the Rogues to an open area away from Humans.
The car park bordered Victoria Park, a large green area with some tree cover. Our strategy was to conceal George and the most of the new recruits in the trees and draw the Rogues into the centre of the car park using ourselves as bait. They had seen all us old hands before but hopefully knew nothing of our small scale recruitment drive.

I stood shoulder to shoulder with Andre and Michael in the middle of the car park, with the rest of the old hands. We gathered round in a circle, facing out to observe every direction for movement. As we waited there in a tight formation, the distant shuffling of feet I had heard before built into an advancing crescendo. The Rogues who had been scurrying around watching us at a distance, gathered together and began to march confidently towards us. At the front of the group was Vincent, and beside him a red headed woman who's bright hair caught the wind and danced like wild flames around her head. As they advanced I could already see Vincent's gleaming smile. Without the need for verbal instruction, we adapted our formation into a semi-circle so that we were all facing the enemy now that they had been sighted. The seven of us that stood in the centre of the car park, backed away slightly and rotated to the left to subtly encourage the Rogues to walk to where we wanted them to be positioned.