Katrina: {She felt her body, stronger than it had ever been, tingle and vibrate with the call of battle. She knew without a doubt that it had been that tiny taste of Zach's blood that had healed her and then some. She felt clear headed and in control for the first time in a long time as she flexed her wings and killed with a vengeance. This time though, it was the righteous vengeance of good. Doing what she was destined for. What she was created for. Protecting the weak, the helpless, the needy and all that's good in the world. She was once again the Hunter. But this time, it felt as though every muscle, every sense, every fiber of her body was filled with a golden light and under her absolute and complete control.
She felt not only unstoppable, but as though she was on the path of an impossibly colossal and terrifyingly important destiny. One that just might lead her to her death. But she knew in her soul that if she didn't follow this path, the entire fate of the universe was doomed. It was as though a filter was lifted from her eyes and she could see clearly for the first time. As though his blood had healed not only her body but her mind. And possibly given her a strange insight to the future?
As she fought to save this almost surely doomed town, she suddenly realized she was, for the first time, at peace. Even with the realization of her possible fateful destiny, she knew what she was doing was right. Her sharp fangs were visible as a smile spread across her face. Unknown to her, a faint golden light began emanating from her flowing body. Suddenly she smelled Zach, in the midst of protecting a group of children from a pack of vampires. Her eyes flicked around scanning for him, just as she noticed a strange man on a nearby rooftop. She could have sworn he wasn't there a second ago, or she would have surely sensed him. Then suddenly huge stones and bricks began falling all around her. Somehow, they didn't strike any of the townspeople or even scratch them, but they did crush nearly all the monsters attacking them. Until, their little group was surrounded by a tall circle of stones. She didn't know where they came from or how in the world, they had fallen almost perfectly in place to create a wall of bricks, but now she had to figure out how to get these people out.
Just as surprisingly, and as though it had read her mind, an arching gateway appeared. She carefully exited, expecting some kind of ambush or trick. But that same strange man was standing there in front of her now. He smelled like Zach, but different. She sensed the same raw power she had felt in Zach, but instead of an untamed and uncontrolled tsunami of destruction. This man was like a million atomic bombs in the shape of a finely crafted sword. It felt like she was standing in front of the sun behind a thin but impenetrable steel shutter. As though with a mere thought, he could obliterate her, without so much as making the falling snow change its course around her. The hair on her neck stood up, as she tried to understand if he was a threat. All the while, knowing there was probably nothing she could do to even scratch this man.
Then he was gone. He didn't turn and run or jump. He just vanished. One second he was staring at her with a crooked smile that made her stomach do a strange flutter, and the next he wasn't anywhere. As if he had never been there, but she didn't have time to figure it out as she gathered the townspeople and ran toward the others.}
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Or at least that was the intended effect. Unfortunately she had other ideas and slid to the side, grabbed my wrist and twisted it behind my back so painfully I only barely managed to hold onto the sword.
"Now, now" she cooed into my ear "that's no way to treat a lady. I think you should apologize to me for being so ru... ahhh" she shrieked suddenly.
Tesla had bitten down on her leg and was growling dangerously as he tried pulling her away from me.
"Get it off!" she screamed to the other two with her.
One of the other vampires darted forward and kicked Tesla but before his foot connected my friend disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the girl and bit her other leg. She screamed even louder this time and let go of my hair finally, but wisely kept hold of my arm. They tried to kick him again but he vanished once more.
This time he came back behind the guy that just tried to kick him and while his leg was still in the air from missing my best friend Tesla clamped onto his other leg and pulled him off his feet.
He crashed to the ground with a loud yell and before he could get to his feet my lovable, trusting, kind hearted friend growled so ferociously I almost didn't recognize him and with raised hackles he bared his long canines and tore the vampire's throat out.
He vanished again as that blood sucker gurgled his dying breath and was back on the woman vampire's leg pulling her off balance. We toppled over with me landing on top. She let go of my arm as we fell and I rolled off and got to my feet.
Tesla was at her throat and was about to do the same to her as he had to her friend when the remaining vampire grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, again! What was with pulling my dang hair all of a sudden? Jeez that hurts.
He put his blood soaked clawed hands to my throat and said,
"You better tell your dog to back off if you want to live another second." He said through gritted teeth.
"Umm Tesla you might want to let her go ok?" I said carefully.
Tesla's eyes flicked between me and the vampire in his sharp teeth but when the guy holding me pressed harder with his claws and drew blood my friend opened his mouth slowly and released her. She spun around so quickly neither of us had a chance to move. The female vamp grabbed Tesla's fur and sank her fangs into his neck.
"NO!" I shouted reaching my hand out to my friend futilely.
Once again she screamed, drawing her head back, red blood running down her throat. The blood pouring from her mouth was hers this time though because I could see her fangs had broken off.
"What the hell?" the guy holding me said.
"Oww bad move" I said, "You see my friends got this skin condition. Yeah I know, I keep telling him he needs to moisturize but he never listens."
The vampire holding me just looked at me in confusion and back at the screaming female, clearly not knowing what to do next. Using his momentary confusion I flicked the sword up scoring a gash across the arm at my throat.
Where the sword touched his skin it smoked and burned like it was white hot. He pulled his arm back hissing at me. The whispering sound came back and before I knew what I was doing I had tossed the blade to my other hand swung it behind and up over my head severing the hair pulling arm from its former owner.
The vampires hissing became a scream but not for long as the blade soon plunged into his chest and he quickly turned to ash. Spinning around the sword easily found the remaining vampire and soon she was dust in the wind also.
"Well" I said as Tesla nuzzled my hand, already seeing the red soul lights rising from the ashes to join the multitude of the other ones on my body. "I don't think they'll be pulling anyone else's hair for a while. Thanks for having my back buddy."
"Woof" he said and looked around for the next threat as the spinning red orbs shot into my body.
Just in time too as the blinding snow cleared and a large black and grey creature that had no legs but had six arms that it walked on and fought with come charging toward us. It had six eyes around its blob shaped body that were a milky red color and long stringy greenish spikes that hung down its back like hair.
"What the heck" I said and had to jump back when its hair suddenly lashed out with snake like speed and punctured the ground where I had just been standing.
"GEEZ!" I yelled looking at Tesla and back to the creature. "You think it made its point yet?"
He growled and circled around the thing dodging in to nip at its arms and jumping back out of the range of those spikes. I was able to cut off several of the hair spears but it seemed like it just grew more of them.
As soon as I tried to attack any of its arms five or six of those deadly shafts shot out and I had to dive to the side to avoid being impaled. I was trying to figure a way to distract it or something when something swished by me and an arrow pierced one of its eyes.
A second later another one flew by me and it was down to four red eyes. I couldn't look around for my helper as the monster freaked out, attacking me with those pointed follicles and it was all I could do to fend off the flying spikes.
Another couple arrows struck home and soon it only had one eye left and that was when Tesla darted in, grabbed an arm it was standing on and wrenched it off balance. I jumped in after him just as the monster sent all its hairy spikes flying at my friend.
I swung the sword and it sang its terribly beautiful humming song as it cut the air in front of me. It also cut the mass of spikey hairs in one giant sweep too thankfully.
A few had enough speed to reach my friend but they just bounced off his, what I was quickly realizing was an incredibly tough hide. The sword hummed again as I swung it in a complete circle and cut the thing in two.
The silver inscriptions on my blade flashed white as the monster died and its life orb soon spun around in the air above it momentarily before slamming into my chest.
"Geez" I yelled, "I am never going to get used to that."
"Pal it seems as though we both have some secrets that need explaining huh" I said as he once again took his place next to me. He just looked up at me with those big blue eyes and grinned at me.
I saw that most all of the villagers had made it to the alleyway when I heard a loud piercing whistle that rose and fell coming from between the buildings.
"Retreat!" Alexei yelled and the men turned as one and bolted toward the alley, the demons and vampires hot on their trail, with the walking dead shambling slowly behind.
"Whoa" I said and turned to run also before I got left behind.
Looking over my shoulder as we ran pell-mell through the blowing snow I could see as the wind gusted and cleared the snow for a second that it looked like the entire vampire army was chasing after us.
Then the snow curtain closed and all I could see was the red and black eyed monsters right behind us. We ran like the hounds of hell were behind us and with as many monsters as I had seen I wouldn't doubt it if they actually were behind us.
Alexei took to the air and I thought he would fly ahead of us but he flew back and forth along our running lines beating back the monsters that got too close. Giving the men the time they needed to get between the houses.
One good thing I immediately noticed upon entering the alleyway was that it blocked the blowing wind and snow. Meaning we had a mostly clear view all the way down the alley. But it wasn't as brightly lit since the buildings blocked the light from the fires outside creating a lot of dancing shadows to be wary of.
"Keep running!" Alexei shouted as we filed in, almost catching up to the end of the line of villagers who were also running as fast as they could down the corridor.
He paused near the entrance doing his best to hold back the overwhelming tide of monsters. Those black wings were nearly as deadly as the swords in each hand effectively giving him four weapons to fight with.
It was impossible to hold them for long that was obvious. But he only needed to gain a few precious moments to allow the slower women and children a chance to reach the end of the alley.
Then he too turned and flew down the corridor toward us and the so far thwarted vampires howled in rage and frustration and charged headlong after him nearly blinded by their bloodlust.
Hopefully this was what he wanted them to do as he reached us and landed softly before me smiling with grim satisfaction.
"What now?" I asked him, for as far as I could tell we merely gained a little breathing room.
"Patience brother" He said grinning wickedly at me.
Soon the alley was filled wall to wall with screeching and howling creatures of all shapes and sizes. They crawled up the walls and swung along balconies, but they all followed in one way or another not wanting to miss out on the kill.
It was a long and wide alley probably almost a street so there was almost enough room for them all. But I could see that there remained more outside, not many but it was enough.
Alexei returned the same whistle I had heard earlier, a distinct high pitched rise and fall that echoed eerily off the walls of the alleyway. A few seconds later a wind blew past us from one side of the alleyway to the other.
It was only a gust of wind but I now knew what that wind was although I doubted anybody else even saw it. Soon the wind whipped my hair again and Katrina was standing next to her brother snowy white feathers folded behind her back.
Alexei turned around and shouted, "I want you all to close your eyes, cover your ears but keep you mouths open. If you do not want to go deaf or blind do as I say now!" he said and turned back as every last one of the townsfolk obeyed his command including myself.
The two twins took up a position in front of us, drew their swords, opened their wings to the fullest extent and braced themselves. I didn't know what was happening but I didn't have long to wait as no sooner had they unfurled their wings a large boom was heard back near the entrance of the alley.
This was followed by another and another and another. Soon dust and rocks shot out of the buildings as explosion after explosion shook the buildings up one side of the corridor then down the other.
After the last blast showered the vampires with dust and rocks back near the entrance again it went graveyard quiet. All you could hear with ringing ears was falling rubble and blowing snow and of course groaning zombies since they don't really care what's going on around them.
The vampire army shook themselves off, more shocked than injured and laughed at the lame attempt to trap them. But just as they began advancing toward us again the first building near the entrance began to wobble strangely.
Almost like there was an earthquake, even though the ground wasn't shaking, well at least not anymore. Soon it tilted and with a long groan of twisting timbers and shattering stone fell over, crushing hundreds of monsters beneath it.
The next one did the same and soon it was like a giant game of dominos as each house twisted and toppled over killing more and more creatures with each falling stone. The alley was quickly filled with deadly flying stones and splintered shafts of wood.
But the twins' protective wings and flashing swords blocked the majority of the missiles from harming the villagers.
The sound was deafening almost more so than the explosions and seemed to go on forever as the long alleyway was filled with dust and debris so that you couldn't see anything beyond your own nose.
We were coughing and waving the dust away trying to breath as the last building fell back at the entrance. It took a long time for the air to clear but when it finally did we saw that there was now a wall of rubble ten feet tall in front of Alexei and Katrina.
It filled the whole alley all the way back to the entrance and spilled out into the street beyond. Not a single thing moved amongst that pile of rock and wood as we all stared at it in disbelief.
Suddenly all the townsfolk were shouting and cheering. Some people danced, some laughed, and others just sat down and cried in relief. My Dad found us and gave me and Tesla big hug and then gave the twins a hug too after they shook off their wings and put their swords away first that is.
The people were all dancing around us in a big circle singing and laughing, going around and around. Somebody had either found or brought with a few bottles of wine and soon everyone was passing them around.
"Well" my Dad said to the twins, "that was very well done. Where did you learn that tactical move from?"
Alexei looked at us and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know" he said, "I was just looking around for a way out when I saw this big alley and it just came to me."
My Dad smiled and said, "Well that was a classic military strategy that has been used over the centuries when fighting an overwhelming force. William the conqueror used it very successfully at the Battle of Hastings by pretending to retreat when he was actually leading the enemy into a trap where he would turn his Norman Calvary around and charge into his enemy slaughtering them."
Alexei looked at him thinking, "It was strange because it was almost as if I had done it before too. But of course I have never even heard of such a thing much less done anything like that so tell me, how would I know how to do something like it?"
"Your uncle" I said suddenly remembering, "He prayed that you would be granted his knowledge to be used in the battle against evil. Don't you remember?"
"Oh" They said at the same time as I saw the memory flash across their faces. It was filled with both sadness and appreciation. Katrina hugged her brother tightly as they remembered their uncle.
"But how did you know what he was thinking?" I asked Katrina.
"Ve are tvins" she said like that explained everything. "Ve have alvays been able to read each other's thoughts vhen ve vant to." She said, her accent coming back as she struggled with her grief over losing her uncle.
"Um, oh" I said not knowing what else to say "I didn't know twins could really do that."
"Oh sure" my father said, "There have been countless studies on the link between twins over the years. I myself had a theory that it was a form of quantum entanglement but so far no one has been willing to let me perform any tests on them." He said disappointedly.
The brother and sister took a step back from my dad and looked as though he wanted to perform autopsies on them right here and now.
Catching their apprehensive looks he quickly added,
"Oh no" he said laughing, "don't worry I didn't want to do anything bad, I merely wanted to see if I could detect any quantum communications going on between them."
They relaxed and we all shared a laugh as the townspeople danced around us and celebrated our victory.
I was still wondering to myself how we had actually survived when a woman screamed. Everyone turned in unison to see coming around the buildings behind us two, three, four, five, six, seven, holy cow EIGHT bulky, red, giant armored Enforcers! And of course they weren't alone.
Yep here came hundreds of black and grey demons of all shape and sizes and oh joy more vampires. Ok so now, oops wait there was more. Sure enough there were the rest of the zombies that the kid had been talking about. Geez the street was filled with them now.
There had to be over five hundred walking dead people shambling down the cobblestone road toward us.
Well that was just great! Where were our reinforcements huh? The dang vampires sure don't seem to have any problems getting recruits. This was getting tiresome I mean come on already how many of these things were there?
"Oh Crap!" Alexei said behind me.
"Yeah, Oh Crap is right" I said in agreement.
"Now what" Katrina asked "any more bright ideas in that thick skull of yours brother?"
"Hey it's your turn sis, besides I got nothing" he retorted back.
"Guys" I said nervously, "now would be a really good time for one of those brilliant escape plans."
"I am sorry Zachary" Katrina said in that sultry Russian voice of hers, "I think we are, how you say, drilled?"
"Drilled?" I asked.
Alexei laughed, "What my sis means is we're screwed. Well you guys might be screwed but not me" and he unfurled his big powerful wings and flapped them once rising off the ground a foot or so. "I'm outta here man."
I was staring at him open mouthed in shock and disbelief that he would abandon us now after all we've been through.
"Hahaha" Alexei busted out laughing at the look on my face, "Chill man, I'm just yanking your chain bro. Nope," he said and rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his swords and spun them around in a blur of motion, sniffed and said, "You sit back and relax I got this one" and strode forward as though he would take on the entire remaining army before us.
He probably would have tried too but over the growl of monsters, the howling snowstorm, moaning zombies and crying, terrified villagers I heard a familiar sound that seemed so out of place in this world that it stood out like a sore thumb for me.
"Wait" I yelled for him to stop "I hear something"
Katrina cocked her head to the side and listened and then smiled so wickedly and with more teeth than was humanly possible I almost took a step back.
"Help is on the way" she said and brandished her swords too. "We just need to hold this filth off long enough for them to arrive."
She stretched her arms and wings trying to loosen stiff and sore overused muscles. Her brother was doing the same as they advanced slowly on the line of bloodthirsty monster arrayed in front of them. There was nowhere to run to as we were effectively boxed in and by our own hands none the less.
"Form ranks!" One of the burly men shouted to the remaining upright and combat capable villagers.
Whom-ever had any kind of weapon quickly took up positions in a line behind the two winged warriors. My father and I joined them. Someone thankfully handed me a box of ammo for my gun and I loaded it as fast as I could handing my dad the remaining rounds for his pistol.
"Nope" he said shaking his head, "I don't need it, you keep them."
I stuffed the remaining ammunition in my pockets and prepared myself to make our last stand, again. The noise was getting louder now and some of the vampires began looking around worriedly.
A couple of the Enforcers looked up in the air trying to place the sound but they didn't seem very concerned and turned their attention back to us. It seemed as though they were waiting for a signal or someone to give them the attack command.
I sure as heck wasn't going to give them a reason to,
"BOOM!" a gun went off to the left of me as an old lady nearly fell over from the recoil of the shotgun she had just fired. Her intended target however did fall over. He fell over dead from a missing head.
"Yeah take that you bastards!" she yelled shaking a fist at the enraged nightmares before us all. "That's for my daughter, and this," she said "BOOM!" the gun fired again, "Is for my husband." Another vampire fell over dead. That seemed to be all the signal they needed and all hell broke loose once more upon this poor town.
Alexei waded into the mass of Enforcers trying to keep them from getting to the villagers and Katrina did her best to hold back the horde of other monsters while the rest of us picked off the ones that got by them. We fanned out keeping well back from the twins' spinning swords and flapping wings.
My Dad put a hand on my shoulder and yelled into my ear so that I could hear him over the chaos around us,
"Is there anything you can do son?" he asked looking at me seriously.
I looked around at everything that was happening and shrugged my shoulders,
"I don't know" I yelled back at him.
"Ok well you stand back and try. I'll cover you as best I can." he hollered to me. "I believe in you son. You can do this."
Wow no pressure, I thought to myself and took a few steps back away from the line of combat. I wondered where that guy went to. He would have been really handy to have around right about now.
"Concentrate" a voice said right behind me as a hand rested on my shoulder.
"GEEZ!" I yelled almost jumping out of my shoes.
Speak of the devil and there he was all spooky like standing in his fedora and long coat. The engraved staff was gripped loosely in one hand while the other keeping me from falling over.
"Just relax and concentrate" he said, "the numbers will come. They are always there for you if you call them. You just need to concentrate. It gets easier with practice but you can't do it if you don't learn to focus your thoughts."
"Yeah I get it" I said sarcastically, "Use the force Luke."
"Well yeah" he said smiling, "it is pretty much like the force when you think about it. But Yoda ain't got nothing on you kid."
"What do I do?" I asked as I tried to calm my mind and focus.
"Just think about what you want to do" he said, "when you have it clear in your head what you want. Rearrange the numbers to do what you need. Some things are quick and don't require much thought but other stuff takes time. It will all be second nature to you in time but you just have to be careful." He said just as the numbers began appearing around me.
"Uh why is that" I said suddenly worried and just as sudden, the floating numbers vanished.
"We'll discuss that later" he said waving my concerns away, "for right now just concentrate."
"Couldn't I just" I began saying.
"NO" he said harshly cutting me off, "don't even think about doing something like that or trying that ever again."
"How do you" I started to say.
"You were going to ask why you couldn't just make them all go away like they didn't exist weren't you?" he said accusingly.
"Um well yeah, but how did" I began again before he cut me off.
"Listen Zach" he said very seriously, "the most important thing you need to remember above all else is that you absolutely must retain the balance of nature at all costs. Ok?"
"Ok" I said considering what he said as I tried to recall the numbers again.
This time they sprang to life all around me like I had just opened my eyes. The spinning vortex was there along with the haunting music and all the ghostly equations surrounding everything. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do right then.
But that teleporting thing, ... and no sooner was the thought in my head then I found myself standing on the back of one of the giant Enforcers trying to keep my balance as it bucked and reared while it attacked Alexei.
Alexei in the meantime was so shocked to see me appear out of nowhere he almost failed to block an attack by the monster as he stared at me in shock.
"Whoa!" I yelled and thought I probably shouldn't have done that, and suddenly I was back where I had been standing. Tesla's head whipped back and forth like he was watching me in a tennis match.
"Nicely done" the mysterious man said. "Now you just need to separate your mind from what you want to happen and what you are just thinking about happening. So you don't accidently 'think' yourself into a volcano or shark infested waters if you know what I mean."
"Um yeah" I laughed a little sickly thinking about what had just happened and how easily just the mere thought of doing something had caused it to become reality.
"It might help" he said "if, when you have the numbers vortex active, you form your thoughts into a kind of play list of sorts.
Then you can flip through them and when you find one you like make a mental selection to use that idea. Another thing you might want to try since the numbers are always out there is to learn exactly how it feels when you 'activate' an idea.
That way you will have more control over your ability and won't accidentally use it. Also, you know just before how it felt when the numbers flipped on like someone turned the lights on or you opened your eyes for the first time?" he asked.
"Yeah" I said hesitantly, "how the heck do you know what I am always thinking." I asked.
"You'll understand that soon enough" he said once again waving my concerns away like it was no big deal that some stranger knew exactly what I was thinking. He smiled at my worried look and right then, like a fleeting glimpse I almost remembered where I had seen him before.
That smile, and those eyes, there was something about those eyes and his face. What was it that was tugging at a memory like a piece of popcorn you just couldn't reach?
"Any who" he said interrupting my train of thinking, "That 'opening your eyes' feeling is what you need to focus on as the on/off switch for your abilities."
"Ok" I said and once again focused my attention to the battle before me.
Alexei had been pushed back several feet as he defended against the onslaught of so many Enforcers. The only thing keeping him from being overrun was the very fact that they were so dang big that only so many of them could get near him at once.
Katrina wasn't having a much better time of it. True her opponents were much smaller but there were many more of them to defend against and she had quite a few wounds to show for it. One of the vampires scored a lucky hit and one of her swords went flying to stick into the wall of the building next to her. Not that she was weaponless without it.
She flicked her wrist outwards and like wolverine, her claws extended to almost five inches. Then with a movement so fast I didn't even see it, she slashed out with those deadly sharp talons and the vampire was torn in two.
One of the Enforcers scored a hit on Alexei that caused him to stumble backwards nearly falling down but he was able to regain his footing just before the line of defense crumbled.
With a growl Alexei struck back with a flurry of blows that felled two of the giant monsters. One of his swords had gotten stuck in the armor plates of one of the beasts he just killed and as it fell it twisted the weapon out of his hand.
Not missing a beat the young man pulled out one of his pistols and began firing into the crowd hardly needing to aim but his shots struck home each time none the less.
He swung the gun around without even looking and shot a vampire that had slipped past Katrina and was running for the men between them. When that pistol ran out of ammo he jammed it back into the holster at his waist and pulled out the other one and continued firing.
The noise I had heard earlier was getting much louder now and most of the villagers were looking around trying to find the source of the noise in the blinding snowstorm.
It had formed itself into a recognizable whup whup sound of a heavy duty helicopter but now it sounded like more than one. I didn't know how they could possibly fly or much less land in this weather but I wasn't complaining I only hoped they were on our side and not more enemies.
I was counting on them being friends not only by what Katrina had said but by the law of averages. I mean come on, it was about time something went in our favor for once. So I didn't have to try anything drastically difficult that might back-fire I only had to buy us some time.
With all I had seen this stranger do and the boat load of ideas spinning around in my head it was kind of like being a kid in a candy store with a credit card. As each idea flashed into my head the numbers and equations shifted accordingly around me.
But this time I was careful to keep the idea separated in my head. I could see now that there were endless possibilities available to me. I was only limited by my imagination and apparently the laws of the natural balance of nature.
It all made sense now that I thought about it. I mean everything had its equal opposite. Light and dark, up and down, love and hate, heck even good and evil. Not to mention who hasn't heard of the rule that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Time slowed for me as I considered various choices and options watching in fascination as the infinite equations altered themselves as though saying, "here pick me pick me." The world was suddenly very still as though someone had hit the pause button on the remote control for universe.
"It might seem" the stranger began speaking right behind me making me jump again, "that you have all the time in the world but time has not actually stopped. Technically it has just slowed way, way down. No one," he said gravely, "including yourself has the power to completely stop time. The multi-verse has to keep moving or very bad things could happen. Think of it as a giant machine. Each universe, every solar system, and all the worlds down to the smallest living creature is a kind of a cog in the gears of this giant machine." He said as I watched the numbers spin and dance above me and through their equations they showed me the truth of what he was saying.
"What happens if you would let's say, remove one of the tiny tension springs holding the gears of a clock together?" he asked me.
"It would either break apart or jam up but it would stop working either way." I said in answer.
"Precisely" he said smiling "and that is what the mechanics of the cosmos is like. It is a finely tuned machine that relies on all its moving parts to continue to function properly. But it is a fluid system at the same time capable of healing itself of almost anything. You my young friend are the only living being that has the power to affect the very nature of the cosmos itself. So be very careful with what you do."
"Ok no pressure there" I said thoroughly scared. Geez I was only sixteen for crying out loud I was too nervous to ask a girl out on a date my entire life and now you're telling me with one wrong thought I could tear the entire universe apart? You think you have worries? How's that for teen stress.
The stranger laughed and said, "Don't worry so much, you'll be just fine."
I had so many questions rolling around in my head that it was hard to concentrate, "So you are like me then? I thought you said I was the only person?" I asked.
He laughed again said simply, "I am and you are."
"But" I began to argue.
"Sshh Later," He said pointing to my friends, "just worry about one thing at a time would you."
Turning back to the most current emergency I began 'scrolling' through ideas in my head trying to find the best solution. With my usual teenage way of thinking though everything I came up with was too big and over the top.
All I needed was something to slow them down. Something to give us some breathing room, I was thinking as another vampire blurred past Katrina and began attacking the men behind her. Dang it, I thought if only this alley wasn't so large we could probably hold them off easier.
That's it! I thought as an idea began forming in my head and the numbers arranged themselves to accommodate my thoughts. All I needed to do was find something to move like how he had moved that silo so I began looking around for something large enough.
What could I use? Maybe I could knock down another house or something. But that might just give another way in for the vampires. I needed lots of bricks and stones and... wait a minute I said to myself looking behind me.
Duh I have all the bricks and stones I need right here. I am such an idiot sometimes. Well admitting you have a problem was the first step in getting better huh?
Thinking quickly I watched the equations forming into what I hoped would work at least it had better or we were in trouble. Hoping I had it right and wouldn't end up crushing ourselves accidentally... Whoa, wait don't even think about it!
Geez didn't you learn your lesson about that already? Focusing my thoughts I figured out what I wanted to do and once the numbers settled into what looked like the proper equations I hesitated.
Ok I'm not destroying anything or trying to do anything bad I don't think. I'm just moving something from one spot to another so I should be good to go right? I said to myself and crossed my fingers.
I know, I know, I was about to teleport thousands of tons of rock and stone from one spot to another using only my mind and here I am crossing my fingers. Well I'd like to see you try this and not be worried.
Ok here we go, and I let the equations become reality. Time resumed its normal speed as nearly half the rubble behind me vanished like it had never been there creating a whooshing vacuum noise that caused more than a few people to look back and shout in wonder.
Just as suddenly the massive blocks reappeared overhead the vampires and just in front of the twins. Then like a Tetris game for giants the massive stones rained down, fitting themselves into shapes and forming a huge stone wall on either side of the alleyway.
They fell onto Vampires and Enforcers and Zombies alike crushing them into the ground. The monsters tried to get out of the way but there were so many of them that they effectively blocked off their own retreat. The noise was almost as loud as when the buildings collapsed but there wasn't nearly as much dust thankfully.
That might have a lot to do with the snowstorm getting worse as the minutes ticked by. More and more rubble thundered down, each piece fitting itself perfectly into the wall like a master mason had spent years shaping and forming it until finally all the stones were gone and two enormous walls were standing nearly twenty feet tall and three feet wide between us and the Vampire army.
One from the left of the alley and one from the right forming a kind of funnel so that only a few creatures could attack us at a time. Giving the Alexei and Katrina all the time they needed to easily destroy the monsters that came through that chock point one at a time.
"Whew" I said as everyone looked around in wonder.
Katrina and Alexei of course were looking directly at me in amazement. I could only shrug and smile weakly as I was still in shock that it had actually worked.
Katrina smiled that wicked smile of hers, spun her swords and turned back to face the enraged and thwarted monster hoard behind the wall. Alexei grinned and gave me two thumbs up as he took a much needed break to reload his guns and wipe blood and gore from his face and swords.
"Well done" the stranger said behind me. "I knew you could do it. You just need to stay calm and remember to keep the balance of nature."
The thudding helicopters finally came into view. There were twenty big choppers that looked kind of like the Russian Mi-24 "Hind" in our world. They were painted jet black and as the snow swirled around the spinning blades the side doors of them all opened at the same time.
I was expecting ropes to be thrown out and people to begin rappelling down since they were still easily eighty feet from the ground. Men in black body armor and bristling with weapons began jumping from them out into the snow filled sky.
There was something odd about them but I couldn't make it out in the darkness as one after another they leapt from the choppers. I wasn't sure if they were crazy or suicidal jumping from that height but as they neared the ground each one did a somersault and easily landed on their feet like it was no big deal.
I could hear when each one landed though as they slammed to the ground with such force I wasn't sure how they weren't crippled or killed.
I don't think the Vampires knew who they were or what was going on as they backed away from them and didn't attack while they stood up. After the last one dropped into the middle of the crowd of creatures the helicopters began to form a wide circle around the area.
The Vampire army was watching the newcomers warily as they formed circles around each armored jumper. The battle had come to a standstill while everyone waited to see what would happen next.
It was apparent the Vampires had no leader or the black armored troops surely would have been overrun before they had a chance to organize themselves. By the time they figured out what was going on though it was too late.
The majority of them had landed in the middle of the army of monsters while some had landed on the outskirts of the mass of creatures. They evenly spaced themselves across the road and inside the mass of Vampires they formed a loose circle facing outwards.
I wasn't sure what was going on or what to expect as the undead close to them looked around nervously wondering what to do. I was pretty sure there were about two hundred of the heavily armed and armored men that had jumped from the copters.
Even with what we had left of the villagers that still only was about two hundred against well over two or three thousand. While that may have slightly bettered the odds in our favor I still didn't see how we could possibly survi... FLASH!
I was nearly blinded as all twenty helicopters flipped on some kind of high intensity floodlights at the same time and all the Vampires beneath went crazy.
They must be using those natural sunlight bulbs like in the cave because any Vamp caught in the beams of them either went up in a puff of smoke or immediately started burning. Back and forth the beams swept the multitude of Vampires frying most of them instantly where they stood.
The men that had landed amongst them removed their weapons and began firing into the mass of monsters. Their bullets were making odd glowing blue trailers in the air as they fired nonstop.
Whenever they hit a Vampire which was pretty much every shot, it burst into flames and disintegrated into a pile of ashes. Hundreds of the enemy forces were destroyed before they even started fighting back but fight back they did then and with a vengeance.
The demons swarmed toward the circle of warriors and looked capable of easily overwhelming the small force of men.
Every other black armored man in the circle removed a small device from their harness and threw it to the ground at their feet. At first I thought they were grenades but they bounced up into the air about twenty feet above the men's heads and exploded.
Or more accurately would be to say that they activated since they didn't technically explode they merely burst open. Blue white glowing projectiles were launched out into an expanding cone shape with the men below standing inside the cone while all around them death rained down from above in an ever increasing circle.
The incandescent bullets or shrapnel or whatever they were tore apart the demons like paper confetti. When one of them was hit by a fiery shot it burst into bluish flames and disintegrated. The remaining men continued their unrelenting gunfire into the charging black and grey creatures further decimating their numbers.
Between the bullet barrage from the circle of men, the deadly glowing cones of death and the helicopters with their brilliant sunbeam floodlights, the demon hoard was quickly reduced to next to nothing. The Vampires moved in next intent on revenge for their evil brothers with the shambling and moaning zombie army bringing up the rear.
The same men that had thrown the crazy blue death cones into the air began tossing other devices out into the onrushing Vampire crowd while their comrades replaced spent ammo clips and continued shooting. By this time they must have gone through three or four clips already, I didn't know how much ammo they had but they would surely run out soon at this rate.
This time the objects they threw more resembled the effects of a grenade as it truly did explode. But instead of a huge blast there was a large blinding flash of light and thousands of those glowing blue white things exploded into the crowd in a massive circle.
What the light, which obviously must have been some kind of artificial sunlight didn't immediately disintegrate the glowing shrapnel finished off. Each grenade left huge, fifty foot circles of smoldering piles of ashes and must have easily destroyed about sixty or seventy Vampires with each blast.
That gave the men a little breathing room and I saw a few of them reach to his wrist and grab something off what looked like the same kind of watch type of device I now had on my arm and toss it to the ground behind them.
Suddenly there were a couple very large chests in the middle of the ring of fighters. The warriors then formed into two tight rings, one inside the other. The outer larger ring of men went to one knee and began firing into the undead army once again.
The smaller ring of armored soldiers continued launching grenades into the endless enemy. Three of the men began opening the boxes and started hauling out weapons and ammo, and more ammo and more ammo until the crates surely had to be empty.
But as the battle continued and the soldiers dropped jammed weapons to grab a fresh one or toss spent clips and reloaded time and time again, the men continued to unload more and more supplies.
The Vampires didn't take this lying down of course as they fought back with a ferocity I couldn't believe. A few got through the blazing hellfire that the black armored men were unleashing into their ranks and dragged some of the fighters into their masses to be torn apart and fed upon.
This probably would have happened much more had the blood suckers been more organized but without a leader they fought too chaotic and without a plan.
Meanwhile back on our side of the battle the majority of the Vamps had turned back to fight the newcomers. But there was more than enough left to keep us occupied and as Alexei and Katrina were now able to hold off the forces at the newly constructed wall it seemed we just might make it out of this in one piece.
Me and my big mouth since that was when the Vampires decided to get smart and began shooting at the circling helicopters with their own weapons or the guns they got from the soldiers they killed. Before I knew it six of the bright lights were out and two more of the choppers had to fly away with smoking and coughing engines.
The remaining lights focused on the Vampires that were shooting at them and quickly burned most of them to ashes but not before four more lights were shot out and the choppers flew away before they could be shot down.
Leaving only Eight bright searchlights to light the battlefield and turn the enemy to ashes. One of the remaining Enforcers grabbed a nearby Vampire woman and tossed her seventy feet into the air right into the doorway of one of the helicopters. I saw her dart inside and the chopper suddenly began flying erratically as blood spattered the shield.
The out of control machine crashed into another Helicopter and the two burst into flames, falling to the ground and exploding in a giant ball of fire. Unfortunately it landed very close to the circle of men and as they dived for cover to avoid being crushed or burned alive the Vampires rushed in.
Before they could regain their feet and form up into a protective ring again half of them were dead or dying. At least the fireball had killed a good many of the Vampires too but it had also destroyed their crates of seemingly unlimited ammo.
Two of the Enforcers charged the group of men while the remaining two circled around the other side to flank them. The Vampires near us renewed their attack with gusto and the twins were hard pressed to fend them all off.
"Zach!" Alexei yelled back, "We could use a little help here. Anything you can do for our friends out there would be greatly appreciated right about now."
"Umm" I said looking around for the stranger but he had vanished again. My Dad was tending to the wounded and seemed way too busy to bother so it was up to me I guessed. Great, just great.
"Well boy" I said to Tesla, "here goes nothing. You stay here ok?" I slid out the rune carved sword and it sang in the air all but pulling me off my feet in the direction of the evil army.
"Yeah, yeah" I said to it taking a firm grasp and bringing it to the ready, "Hold on a sec and you'll get your fill of Evil souls soon enough. And I'll end up with more dang tattoos more than likely." I said and grimaced in anticipation.