Book Three Chapter Five: Riders Of Destiny

Chapter Five Riders Of Destiny: "Thank you all for being so brave." I said. Anara said "If we are going to save the world, we need a plan." Hale joined in. "Well, to start you should meditate and try to contact the spirits of anyone you knew in the past, maybe they know something about Vladimir?" I nodded. "Good idea, I'll try right now, it's worth a shot, right?" I ducked back down into the jeep and sat in the seat next to Kaleen. I closed my eyes to concentrate and relax. I focused on my inner being, and the energy around me. Soon, I pictured my friends from Ectoclis. After a while, nothing happened, but then, like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, something in my head clicked, and away I went.

            I found myself standing in a dark space, it seemed to go on forever. In front of me, stood my friends that helped me thwart Saja on Ectoclis. Kai, Anna Maria, the king, the queen, Luna, Serena, Fenton, Luna and Federov. "Nick?" Asked Kai. Everyone turned to face me. Seeing their faces brought memories. A wave of nostalgia took over my mind. "Hey." I said. They all looked like they were punched in the face. "Are... Are you dead too?" Asked Serena. "No, I am contacting your spirits, I am meditating in the back of a jeep." Serena cocked her head. "A jeep?" She asked. I shook my head. "It isn't important." I said. Kai looked at me and said "Well? Is the world saved? Is Saja dead?" I said "Well, yes, Saja is dead, but her brother Vladimir has thrown the world into chaos, and I am contacting your spirits to ask if you have any advice." Luna then said "If Vladimir is Saja's brother, you should talk to Saja's spirit." She told me.

            "Thank you, I promise I will visit you all again soon." I said. "Farewell, Nick." They said in unison. More nostalgia took over me as I thought of visiting them again. I thought of Saja, and the room moved so fast that I thought it would vanish, but soon enough, Saja stood before me. "Hello Saja." I said. She looked at me. "Hello, Nick." She said warily. "I need your help." I admitted. She cocked her head. "What possible help could I offer you? I am dead in case you hadn't noticed." She said it in a way that almost made me miss her cocky tone. "Yes, I see, I need your help on the matter of your brother, Vladimir." She nodded. "Ah, yes, the demon who would kill his own sister for power. Whatever you need, I'm sure I can prove to be of some assistance." I began. "Does he have any weaknesses?" I asked. "I only wish." She said. "Is there anything that can kill him? Anything?" I asked. "Well, like me, he is part of the Black Reqrium's faction. Before Irene, the Black Reqrium, died, she put a spell on both of us, making it so A) we can only be killed with a certain sword, which Vladimir has no doubt destroyed by now, or B) we can only be killed in the original world, otherwise known as Tigiti's realm, Drottingheim. Tigiti once killed me there, or so he thought, he reduced me to such a state where it would take centuries to ascend back to power." I asked "How would I transport myself and Vladimir to Drottingheim?"

            Saja answered: "Nick, you have the power to open gateways to the different worlds. I can feel it. I can also sense that a great power lies within you, Nick. You have countless abilities, waiting to be discovered. I believe, that when you defeat Vladimir, your friends will be resurrected." I could open portals to the worlds? That was so cool! But could I really resurrect my friends by killing Vladimir? "Thank you Saja, you have been a great help." Saja smiled. "One more thing, Nick." She said. I inclined my head. "You are a noble soul. You have always stayed on the pure path, while those around you became corrupt. You were a worthy adversary, and I hope to see you one day restore balance to the world, but promise me one thing." I looked at her. "What?" I asked. "Promise me that you will make Vladimir atone for his sins." She said. I nodded. "I promise."

            I thought of reality, and I was back in the jeep. I looked up and smiled. My friends we not with me in the jeep, but I could hear them in a nearby house, the jeep was in the driveway. I got out of the jeep and went inside. "Well?" Asked Hale. "I did it, I contacted the spirits of my old friends and of Saja, and Saja told me I could open portals to the worlds." Everyone was amazed. "And can you?" Asked Anara. I went outside and they followed. I pointed to a section of road and closed my eyes. Ectoclis! I thought as hard as I could. I could feel a great power surge through me. I opened my eyes as the power drained out of me through my fingertip, and I saw that I had opened a portal the size of a man. I jumped through, as did my friends, and we soon ended up on the flat plains of Ectoclis. "That is so cool!" I shouted.

            I opened a portal to Earth and returned to reality. How long was I able to do that? "That is amazing!" Said Kaleen. "Saja also said that I have countless other powers, waiting to be discovered, and if they are powerful enough, we'll have Vladimir and his council on the run." I said. "You will need to discover more of your powers if we want to win against Vladimir, no need to rush things." Said Hale. We went back in the house and I said "Alright everyone, we need every door and window in this house covered, if someone comes in, blast their head off." Everyone seemed agreeable because they grabbed their guns and took a watch post near the doors and windows.

            I sat in a chair by the front door with my shotgun pointed at it. If someone came in, I'd be ready. Thankfully, no one did, and after a few hours the humans from the group went to sleep, while Kaleen and I stayed up. A few hours after that, still nothing. Needless to say, the night was fairly drab. Kaleen came over to me shortly after I was starting to really get bored. "So how are you handling your transformation?" She asked me. I thought to all the things I was able to do. "It has its moments." I said with a smirk. I wonder if I have any powers like you." Said Kaleen. To comfort her, I said "I'm sure you do, you just need to look inside yourself." She frowned at me. "It's easy for you to say, you have Tigiti giving you visions on how to do this stuff." I nodded. "Alright, I guess it is important for you to find out your power, so I'll help you in any way I can."

            Shortly after our conversation, Kaleen left, leaving me to my watch duties again, the others would be up in an hour or two I'd imagine. The rest of the time until the others awoke passed soon enough and they joined Kaleen and I. I heard Kaleen ask Hale if he and I would test her to see if she had any powers. He agreed and they both came to confront me. "Kaleen here wants to know if she has any talents, want to train her with me?" I nodded. "Sure." We went to the backyard, which was fenced in. "Alright." Said Hale. "To get in tune with your inner spirit, Tigiti says to meditate." Kaleen sat down, closed her eyes, and began to calm herself. "Good, now analyze yourself, what talents do you think you have?" He asked her. "I think I can... I don't know!" She said. "It's alright, just relax, and analyze yourself." He said.

            Kaleen sat there for over an hour, not speaking, not moving. I could tell she was getting frustrated. Just then, Kaleen made a noise in the back of her throat, then Hale said "There was just a change in your spiritual energy, what did you do?" Kaleen's forehead started to crease with concentration. Then, I saw Hale grip the sides of his head and double over, I was going to ask what was wrong, when my thoughts became severely scrambled and distant, they became a fuddle. I held the sides of my head, trying to push aside the irrational thoughts, I couldn't think straight, I was starting to get dizzy... then my thoughts began to take form again. "Did you do that?" Asked Hale to Kaleen. "I think so." She said. Hale smiled. "You have improved upon the vampire ability of fuddling thoughts! Although, I haven’t seen an ability that rare in a long time." Hale said. Kaleen's mouth dropped open. "That talent is rare?" She asked. Hale nodded. "About one in ten thousand vampires have it." He said. "I always thought that it was a standard ability, and I could only ever do it to one person at a time before." It was my turn to smile. "That could prove useful, good job Kaleen."

            Kaleen then had a thought. "There is no way our talents went unnoticed for all these years, something must have happened that gave them to us." She said. "Well, the council of the Black Reqrium did invade our world, do you think that might have done it?" Asked Hale. "How should I know, you're mister spiritual." Said Kaleen to Hale. Hale continued; "Maybe since the council of the Black Reqrium is from another world, it could have shifted the balance of this world, and gave us powers?" Kaleen shook her head. "But Saja and Vladimir invaded our world, we didn't have powers then." She said. "Maybe it has something to do with this 'judgment day?'" I asked. "Could be." Hale said. "We should get the others out here and see if they have talents." Said Hale. And that's what we did, sadly, after an hour, no one showed any signs of talent, so we got back inside.

            We sat around for a while, not knowing what to do, I even sat and meditated for an hour like Kaleen did, and nothing came to me, so I could open portals to the worlds, that was cool, I'd settle for that, but Saja said I had countless abilities waiting to be found, Saja wasn't the most honest vampire in the world, she was probably the least honest, but something made me think she was telling the truth. I went to the door and assumed watch once again. My shotgun was still leaning against the chair where I had left it. I picked it up and watched the window by the door.

            "Hey, you!" Shouted Anara. I ran into her room and saw her shouting to a figure in the distance, around a hundred feet away. The figure began to retreat. I considered shooting the figure with my shotgun, but I didn't know who it was for sure, so I didn't want to shoot. I wonder who it was. A survivor trying to rob us? Was it a member of the council of the Black Reqrium? I decided that as long as the person was gone, it couldn't do us any harm. I resumed my watch at the front door.

            "Hey Nick, I'll relieve you for a bit." Said Chibata. I turned around to face him. He wanted to take me off of watch duty for a while. "Thanks." I said. "You've earned it." He said. Now that I think of it, my throat was starting to burn a little. Time to feed again. I didn't bother getting Kaleen, I would make it quick. I leaned my shotgun by the door, and I ran out the front door, listening for any sounds of life, breathing in an alleyway, a heartbeat behind a wall, hushed murmurs of chatter, anything. I then heard something; a voice, and it was familiar. "You want my blood, you parasites?" Said the man's voice, quiet, but angry. I then heard a gunshot. I followed the sound of the shot, it was a few hundred feet away, but I finally found where it came from.

            A man stood holding a hunting rifle, in front of him were three or four Kerulen, one of them was dead. I heard the shk shk of the bolt being pulled back on his rifle. The next noise was not a good one for the man. Click. He pulled the trigger three more times. "Blast it." He said to himself. He turned the rifle to the side as the Kerulen lunged at him, the only thing keeping the Kerulen away from him was his own muscles, and the rifle. He wouldn't last long like that. Despite my nagging thirst, I ran over and caught the Kerulen on his left. I tackled it into a wall, found a hold on its neck, pulled, and took its head clean off. Woa. Wasn't expecting that. The other one was closing in on me, I spun around in time to land a solid kick in its gut, then cave in the side of its head with a punch. I didn't realize I was that strong!

            I turned to face the familiar looking man. He looked at me, and a small smile cracked his dry lips. "Ceisul Grant." He said. He slowly laughed. "I thought I'd seen the last of you back at the gas station." I nodded. "I thought the same thing Theodore." I said. He smiled wider. "Thanks for getting me out of that little pinch there mate." He said. My eyes widened. "Little pinch? You were almost killed by three Kerulen." I said. He waved his hand, as if swatting a fly. "I've been in worse situations before, show those things a little fire and they run off with their tails between their legs." He said. His eyes narrowed. "I knew I was right about you, I knew you were tougher than the others, that's why I asked you to join my group." He said. I shook my head. "You wouldn't want any part of the things I get wrapped up in." I said. Theodore raised his hands. "Your past is your past mate, no need to elaborate." He said while shaking his head.

            Just then, I noticed the burning in the back of my throat. "You should get out of here." I said. He just stood there, then said "Ceisul, I hope our paths cross again some day, and hopefully you will rethink my offer of joining me." He said, he reached out his hand to shake. I shook it and he was off. I ran in the opposite direction, looking for someone to drink.

            I ran across the rooftops, enjoying the sensation of flying through the air. I did not find any people so far, but that was sure to change in a minute or so. I had to be patient. I looked around, I eventually heard the faint murmur of voices. I stuck to the shadows cast by the streetlights. I came upon a modern house, there seemed to be three or four different voices, but I couldn't be sure. I got closer and looked into the window. There were two males, and two females, sitting at a table, cleaning their guns, there was a wooden stake on the counter. I debated about going in or not. They were defenseless, not counting the stake. They had their guns taken apart, that would make it easier for me to kill them, and it was probably the easiest kill that I would get in a while. I was going to break the window and jump in, but I heard something behind me.

            "Excuse me, what are you doing?" Asked a girl who sounded maybe sixteen or seventeen. I turned around and saw a short girl who had short black hair, tan skin, brown eyes, and she was wearing a black cloak, so as to decrease her level of visibility in this eternal night. She was holding a bag of supplies, and didn't appear to have any form of weapon on her. I couldn't control myself much longer. I needed blood. The fire in my throat flared. I took off after her. I closed the twenty foot space between us and tackled her to the ground. I pinned her arms, just in case she had a hidden weapon and went to grab it. She screamed. "Maxwell! Wendy!" She yelled. A second later, a man and a woman ran from the house. The fire in my throat burned all the more furiously at the scent of two more humans.

            The man, Maxwell, had a stake in his hand, he was very tall and thin as a pencil. Maxwell ran at me. I got off of the girl and turned to face Maxwell. Maxwell held the stake high, and started to plunge it down on me. I calculated its trajectory and predicted where it would be a second or two later. I lifted my leg in a fast kick right as his stake was above my foot. Crack! The stake snapped in half. "Your kind has taken much from us!" Shouted Maxwell in an enraged voice. He threw the snapped stake aside and ran inside, probably to get a gun. I didn't think he'd put one together fast enough to kill me, but I still went after him. I ran, jumped, and kicked him in the lower back, breaking his spine. He let out a high pitched yelp, then fell to the ground. I turned to see that the other man and the other woman were now out of the house. The four remaining people came at me with stakes. The girl I had pinned to the ground did have a stake after all.

            They all came at me at once, which made it difficult to kill them. The girl that came out with Maxwell, Wendy, stabbed at me first. I dodged out of the way and jumped up against the wall. I kicked off of it as a man hurled a stake at me. I launched myself towards the man, who was now defenseless because he threw the stake at me. I punched him right through the throat, killing him instantly. Unlike when I killed Maxwell, blood splattered over my hand. It was warm and smelled sweet.

            The girl I had pinned came at me at the same time the other two women did. They even stabbed at me with their stakes at the same time. I jumped up above them, bad move. They all held they're stakes up to me, waiting for me to impale myself on them. I was ten feet in the air, and falling faster by the second. I had to think of something quickly! I thought I could step on the shaft of one of the stakes, but one of the other two would stake me before I had the chance. I was now five feet above the stakes. Think, Nick, think! My mind turned up a blank. Two feet until I hit the stake. I then had an idea. It pierced my mind faster than the speed of light. I pointed below me and shouted "Ectoclis!" I felt the energy rushing through me, and I saw the vortex open, one foot above the stake's tip. I then sealed the portal as I flew out the other side. I was now falling from the sky in Ectoclis.

            I did some quick thinking. I was freefalling, it took me a minute to see the ground. Before I hit the ground, I pointed and shouted "Artemis!" I felt the energy pour out of my finger, and I was flying out of the side of a building in what looked like the city of Sven! I came out of this vortex faster than I came out of the one that took me to Ectoclis. I was at least thirty stories up, and before I hit the busy street below, I pointed and shouted "Earth!" A vortex opened below me and took me to my home world. I flew out the side of a building, because that's where the portal ended up. I closed the portal behind me, and crashed into the side of a brick apartment building, cracking the peeling bricks. I quickly got my bearings. A kilometer away, I saw the three women that had tried to kill me earlier, they stood there, dumbfounded, wondering where I had gone. I was still thirsty, and I could sneak up behind the three of them, so that's what I did.

            I killed the first two by breaking their necks, but the last one I killed by biting her right on the front of the neck, I took in the sweet blood, the rich, smooth taste and texture lulled me into temporary bliss. When I was done with her, I drank the other four dry. The fire in the back of my throat was now satisfied. I then ran and leaped across the rooftops, much like I had on the way here. I then found the house that we were staying in, and entered through the front door. I saw Chibata on watch at the front door.

            "Hey there, Nick. We're just about ready to head out, we can't afford to stay in one place much longer." Said Chibata. "Yeah, I think that person I saw outside was the one with the orange hair." Said Anara. "Silver?" I asked. Anara nodded. "I think that was her name." She said. Hale spoke up. "Guys, I've been thinking. We need a place to hold out, sooner or later we are going to get killed if we keep moving around, we need a safe place to stay in, one we can fortify and defend from Kerulen attacks, as well as the council of the Black Reqrium." Chibata nodded. "That sounds like a good idea, but where would we go? There aren't exactly any military bases around that we can hold out in." Chibata said. "Well, we could look for building supplies, wooden planks, and concrete, anything that we can get our hands on." Said Kaleen. "That sounds like a good idea, but where would we hold out? Where would we go?" I asked. "We will find a place, we'll drive out of the city, cities are a bad place to be, too many Kerulen walking around." Said Anara. I grabbed my shotgun from where I had left it by the door. I checked to make sure that it was loaded, it was. We all went outside and got into the jeep.

            I assumed my customary position at the top of the jeep. "Keep your eyes out for anywhere that we could hold out in." Said Chibata. Chibata then started the jeep, we backed out of the driveway and started driving along the road. Before we got too far away from the house, I felt a very faint consciousness invade my own, but it was so faint that it did not influence my thoughts too much. Come back here. Ordered the faint voice. Silver. I cast a glance back at the house. It was just disappearing over the rearward horizon. I shuddered thinking that the council of the Black Reqrium was back there, probably on their way towards us right now.

            I did not take my eyes off of the direction of the house until we were a considerable distance away. We passed through the next town a few kilometers away, we did not stop, we just kept going. The situation looked worse here than in the town we just left, more houses were burnt down, the few houses that remained standing were either boarded up, badly damaged, or had Kerulen inside them, in one house, I saw a fleeting pair of red eyes through the window as we drove by. As we drove, Chibata had to swerve occasionally to avoid a demolished car, or some other form of debris.

            After we were well out of that town, Chibata said "We're running low on gas, we're going to need to make a stop soon." I kept my eyes out for any source of fuel. Gas stations, stalled out cars, anything. We drove for a while longer, when a gas station appeared on the horizon. We were around two kilometers away from it, when the jeep sputtered and came to a stop. Chibata punched the dashboard in frustration. "Well, any volunteers to go get that gas?" Asked Chibata. "I'll go." Said Hale. "I'll go with you, you might run into trouble, and I can back you up." I told him. I grabbed my shotgun and hopped out of the jeep. Hale picked up his MAC-10 and cocked it, so he was ready to go. "Stay quiet and stay alert." I told Hale. I had my knife silver knife n my pocket, in case I had to use it at a moment’s notice.

            The spot where our car broke down was not a good one, there was a tree line to our left, and houses to our right. I considered using the houses as cover to move up on the gas station, but if there was a Kerulen in one of the houses that would just slow us down, we had to get out of here quickly, for all we know the council of the Black Reqrium is on its way here right now. We stuck to the tree line, we stayed low and moved fast. So far so good. As we came up around halfway to the gas station, I saw that the tree line ended, so there is a kilometer with no cover ahead of us. There was just the road, the houses, and the field that we were coming up on. The gas station was easy to see through the trees because the lights were on. Was someone in there? I looked to Hale. "What should we do? Should we go through the houses, or take our chances with that field?" I asked. He shrugged. "The field would be quicker, but more dangerous, but the houses would be slower, and a little less dangerous." He said. "We don't have a lot of time, the council of the Black Reqrium could be on its way here, and if they catch us stalled out here, we'd be in trouble." I said. He thought about this. "The field it is then." He said with a brisk nod.

            We looked from left to right, no Kerulen were in the field. "Alright, we go across the field quick, we get in quick, and we get out quick." Said Hale. I nodded. "Sounds like a plan." I said. We looked from left to right once again, then bolted out of the tree line. I looked around, no Kerulen were around us that was good. We were around half way to the gas station by now. Two hundred and fifty meters later, I saw something peculiar in the window of the gas station, it was a light. The place was a diner, and the light appeared to be floating on a chair. We were in the parking lot now, by the pumps. I got behind a pump and peeked out. The light was there, two hundred meters away, across the lot and in the window. Hale peeked out from behind me. I then heard something that set off a survival instinct. I heard the light inhale sharply, as if in pain. It was then that I realized that it was not a light, it was the glint of the gas station light against a sniper scope. Hidden in shadow, I could make out the outline of a man.

            I pulled Hale back into cover just as a thunderous Crack! Rang out in the night, probably drawing every Kerulen within a few kilometers of the gas station. Since I was a vampire, would I die if I got shot? Probably not, but I didn't want to find out. "Put down your gun! We don't want any trouble, just gas!" Shouted Hale. "Nice try! Aint no body gettin' our gas! We need it fer the generators!" Shouted a man with a Southern United States accent. "We don't want to hurt you! Just put down the gun and give us a few liters of gas! No one needs to die today!" I shouted at the man in the window. The man laughed, sending another rifle shot our way. Had this guy lost his mind? "It's alright, we're safe for the time being, and that guy can't hit us without blowing the whole place sky high." Said Hale. I peeked out, trying to see which window he was in. I saw him. He was in the fourth window from the right side of the building.

            "Alright Hale, we can't get the gas with that guy in the window, we need to kill him, there is no other way, and he won't listen to reason." I said. Hale nodded. "Alright then, the guy is in the fourth window from the right side of the building, I'm going to run across to the other pumps, I need you to cover me, you don't need to hit him, just keep his head down." I told Hale. He nodded. "Alright." He said. Once I heard the rat tat tat of his MAC-10, I ran across to the other pump. No shots came my way. Once I was across, Hale stopped firing and ducked back into cover. I beckoned him over, and I took aim on the guy in the window. Bang! Shk Shk. Came the firing and pumping of my shotgun. I shot four rounds by the time Hale got to cover. I reloaded my shotgun, Hale fed his submachine gun a new magazine. I looked around the corner. The left side of the building was two hundred feet away, if we went from cover to cover like we just did, we had a shot of making it around the side of the building.

            "Alright Hale, I'll go first. Just keep his head down like last time." I instructed. Once I heard his shots go off, I ran behind the other pump. I signaled for Hale to join me. I leaned around the corner and took aim on the window. I lined the pin up with the V near my eye in a second, and pulled the trigger, but when I pulled the trigger, my arm moved slightly to the right, missing my target by a meter. I heard Hale walk up behind me. I leaned back into safety and fed my shotgun a fresh shell in place of the one I just fired. Hale loaded his MAC-10 with a fresh magazine, then took the bullets out of the other magazines that he already used, and put the bullets in the other magazines that he had used to make them full again. He leaned over the pump and began firing. I ran across to the other pump.

            I took aim on the man and fired once again. I missed. I fired twice more and missed by the time Hale joined me. I reloaded my shotgun and prepared to run again. We were on the second last pump in the row, once we got to the last one, there was around a fifty foot run to the side of the building. I spotted a door on the side of the building that we could use to get inside the diner. Hale starting firing his gun at the window and I started running. A rifle shot sounded from the direction of the window and hit the metal frame of the pump next to me. It bounced off with a loud Clang! I looked to Hale. He just shrugged. I took aim and fired all six shells from my gun at the man. I wasn't aiming for him, there wasn't enough time for that, so I aimed at and around the window. I reloaded when Hale got behind the pump with me. "Alright, good. Now we are going to run down the parking lot to the side of the building, there's a door there that’ll take us inside." I told Hale, indicating the door.

            "Yeah, yeah alright. Sounds easy enough." Said Hale. "Okay, I'll cover you on your way to the door, then I'll run over at vampire speed." I said to Hale. Hale nodded and started to run. I fired at the man, and the man fired back at me just before I peeked out. The bullet whizzed through the air, just missing me. I fired again, and he ducked back down into the building. Once I saw that Hale was across, I bolted over in a second. I hadn't used vampire speed back at the pumps because I didn't want to run too far, or else Hale might have gotten shot. We approached the door. I reached out and turned the knob, and pushed the door open. I shouldered my gun, just in case he knew where we were. I looked around. We ended up behind a counter, the bar. I peeked up and saw a short, bald man who was very skinny, like he hadn't eaten in days. In his hands was a hunting rifle, and he was looking out the window, probably for us. I brought my shotgun up to my shoulder, looked down the sight and aligned the pin on the end of the barrel with the center of the V sight near my eye. I placed the sights on the man's back and pulled the trigger.

            Bang! The gunshot went off. His body lurched forward as blood sprayed across the wall in front of him. My throat slightly burned at the sight of his blood, but I had fed recently, and there wasn't a whole lot of time to do it now. The man made a wet gurgling sound as he fell onto the ground. Beside him there was a box full of bullets that looked like the ones my old hunting rifle took. I picked up the rifle from the man's body. It had a scope, the rifle was made of wood and metal, and it had a strap, so I could carry it on my back and the shotgun in my hands.  I picked up the box of bullets in one hand and my shotgun in the other. I put the rifle on my back. I then remembered why we were here: We needed gas. I went to the back and found a big bucket. That would hold a few liters of gas. I put down the ammunition for the rifle and went outside to the pumps. Sure enough, they worked. Hale stayed back in the diner for another few seconds and grabbed the box of hunting rifle bullets. Gasoline spurted into the bucket from the pump. Once it was full, I turned towards the direction of the jeep. I then saw something that stopped me cold. Coming from all directions were thousands of Kerulen. Since it was pretty late in Saja's apocalypse, there were not as many people around, I had found that out when I was hunting, soon there would be no survivors left, and the world would be over. Even though the Kerulen were a few kilometers away, I could still hear them, and they sounded thirsty.

            "Run! Go! Back to the jeep!" I yelled at Hale. Hale turned and saw what I saw. He swore. We both ran back to the jeep with our gear, I had the gasoline in one hand, the shotgun in the other, and the rifle on my back. Hale had the box of hunting rifle bullets in the box in one hand and his gun in the other. We didn't bother sticking to the tree line this time, we were in full panic mode. We ran to the jeep faster than I thought humanly possible. "Come on, come on, and come on." I said over and over again. "What did you find?" Asked Kaleen as I unscrewed the gas cap. "Get in the jeep, now!" I yelled. I started to pour the gasoline into the jeep. Once the bucket was empty, I threw it aside. I jumped into the jeep, so did everyone else. Chibata started it wind we were off. "Now, what are so jumpy for?" Asked Kaleen. I looked behind, beside and in front of us. Kerulen were coming from all sides. I pointed it out for the others. There was a stunned silence.

            "There!" Yelled Anara, pointing in front of us. "There's a break in the Kerulen horde! If we can get to it fast enough, we can out run those things!" I said, seeing that the Kerulen did not quite have us surrounded, there was a small gap just up ahead. My spark of hope slowly dwindled as that gap was slowly closed. "They're closing the gap!" Shouted Chibata. "Then we'll need to re-open it!" Said Hale. We were around a hundred feet from the small gap, and the gap was now too small for the jeep to fit through. We would need to clear some space. Hale started unloading his submachine gun into the horde. I did the same with my shotgun. My shotgun blew the tightly packed Kerulen back a few feet with every shot. Every shot affected maybe three of them.

            With the time it took for Hale and I to reload, Kaleen started firing her pistol into the horde. It was no use, if we kept reloading like this, the Kerulen would overtake us. Kaleen closed her eyes. What was she doing? Just then, I saw a group of five or six Kerulen behind us trip and fall. Kaleen had used her power! A few more Kerulen tripped and fell. More Kerulen came from the back of the horde to fill the gap caused by their fallen comrades. "That's all I can do, I have a major headache." Kaleen groaned, holding her head. "Allow me." Said Anara, seeing our predicament. She picked up her MK.22 that was loaded with incendiary rounds and fired directly in front of us. Cries of agony were let out by the dying Kerulen in front of us. Fifty more feet until we reached the gap! Anara kept shooting until the slide on her pistol locked in the rearward position, indicating that she was out of ammunition. The surrounding Kerulen fled from the fire, leaving us a fifteen foot gap to drive through. We were a few feet away. I kept my shotgun aimed at the Kerulen on our sides, but they seemed more concerned with the fire than anything. We were now through the gap, only one problem remained: The thousands of Kerulen behind us were recovering from their panic attack from the fire, and some were starting to run our way.

            By now I had my shotgun reloaded. I fired backwards, towards the oncoming Kerulen. Maybe if we shot ones who were coming early, then the others wouldn't follow? I saw more Kerulen coming our way. "Anara, fire some incendiaries behind us." I ordered. "I don't have any left!" She yelled. I gasped. "What?" I asked. "I left them back at the house." She explained. Deciding that it was more important to cover our rear than to yell at Anara, I fired at the Kerulen who were coming at us. Whenever I shot one, it would stumble, and maybe trip, but then it would get up and start chasing us again. Eventually, one got so close that I could almost touch it with the barrel of the shotgun. I aimed the point blank shot at its face and pulled the trigger. It flew backwards, out of sight.

            "Hale! We need cover fire back here!" I said while reloading. "On it!" Hale yelled back. He fired his automatic weapon backwards from his position in the front seat. Once I was finished reloading, he stopped. I resumed firing, and Hale reloaded. I fired back at the Kerulen, but it didn't seem to do too much good. My shots did have an impact, for every shot I took, I knocked down at least three Kerulen, but compared to how many of them were left, I may as well have a BB gun. Once I fired my last shot, I ducked down to reload. Hale started to fire his automatic at the Kerulen. Before I finished reloading, he stopped. "I'm out of bullets!" He shouted. "Me too!" Shouted Anara. I dug into my pocket and found that I had five shots left. I loaded them into my gun. "Take this." Chibata said to Hale. I looked back and saw that Chibata had handed Hale his automatic and his spare magazines for it.

            The Kerulen were gaining significant ground. The constant rat tat tat of Hale's automatic gunfire was constantly present in the background. A few Kerulen had made it onto the jeep, but instead of wasting a bullet on them, I used my knife. The knife could kill them. Once I found out that there were no more Kerulen close enough to use my knife on, I used up the last of my shotgun bullets. I had knocked over around fifteen Kerulen. I set the empty shotgun down in the passenger section of the jeep, and grabbed the hunting rifle from where it was slung on my back. I pulled back the bolt and inspected the chamber. Empty. I ducked down and grabbed some bullets from the box. I loaded them into the rifle. It took ten bullets. That was better than the five my other rifle took. Once the bullets were all in the chamber, I pushed the bolt forward and down, locking it into place. I rose back up and glanced at the horde. I acquired the closest Kerulen as a target. I shouldered the rifle and looked down the scope. Instead of the wind markings and mili dots on the other scope, this rifle was just a plain crosshair.

            I placed the crosshair on the nearest Kerulen, on the chest. I gently squeezed the trigger. Bang! I felt the rifle kick against my shoulder, and I watched the Kerulen I had shot stagger, clutching his chest. He didn't die, but he was stunned for a good few seconds, clutching his chest. I still heard Hale firing his automatic at the Kerulen, he stopped periodically to reload, as did I. I pulled the bolt up, back, forward and down, loading a new bullet into the chamber. I aimed at another Kerulen and pulled the trigger. Bang! The hard recoil of the rifle followed. Since my skin was as hard as granite, I barley felt the kick of the rifle. The Kerulen I had shot fell to the ground. I once again pulled the bolt up, back, forward and down. I repeated this cycle a few times more until I had to reload. I ducked back down into the passenger section of the jeep and loaded ten more shots into my rifle. I closed the bolt and stood back up. I noticed that there were less Kerulen out there now than when I ducked down. Hale must have shot quite a few in the last few minutes. He kept firing, until his weapon made the telltale click sound, indicating that he was out of bullets. "I'm out of bullets guys!" Hale shouted. I looked around, I saw that Kaleen was shooting at the Kerulen horde. "How many bullets do you have?" I asked Kaleen. She ejected her magazine and examined it. "Four, and one in the chamber." She said, loading the magazine back into her pistol.

            She shot her five shots, the slide on her weapon was now locked in the rearward position, the same as Anara's pistol. I fired a few shots at the Kerulen, I made use of every shot that I had, every shot counts. The horde was so dense that it was very hard to miss. I used up my ten shots and ducked down to grab ten more bullets. There was plenty of ammunition in that box, at least six hundred rounds. Maybe even a thousand. It was a large box, around one square meter. Once I loaded the ten shots into the rifle, I closed the bolt and rose up again. I noticed that we were starting to pull ahead of the Kerulen. I kept shooting the closest ones, the ones towards the back had given up, and there were only a few hundred left, maybe a thousand. It was still a lot, but we had made good progress seeing as there were a few thousand to start off with.

            I kept firing backwards until the Kerulen were just specs on the rearward horizon. Phew! We did it! I thought to myself. "Yeah, we did it!" Yelled Hale. "Yeah, but we expended almost all of our ammunition." Said Chibata, shaking his head. "We'll need to find more, it can't be that hard, right?" Asked Kaleen. "Well, .22 ammunition is pretty common, as are hunting rifle cartridges, but ten gauge shells and .45ACP rounds are a little harder to come by. Same with the nine millimeter bullets that our submachine guns use." Said Chibata. "Where would we find more ammunition?" Asked Hale. "Well, we could start checking the houses of nearby towns, there has to be some supplies left. Maybe we can find a hunter's house, who knows?" I said. "Sounds like a plan." Said Chibata.

            We drove onwards, we had around half a tank of gas left, but we would need more soon. Gasoline and ammunition. That's what we needed. I watched as we passed by trees and other roads. We were approaching a highway, in a while we'd be seeing some overpasses, then there would probably be a city. In a few minutes we rolled underneath the overpasses. I saw a Kerulen standing in the shadows, probably waiting to ambush someone. He looked at us, but saw that we were going too fast to jump at, so he turned back around. We were now passing a few scattered houses, all of which were demolished. A few minutes later, tall skyscrapers appeared on the horizon. We arrived at the city in a few minutes. Chibata drove into a tree line on the outskirts of town. "Alright, I'll hide the jeep here, then we will go around town and loot, don't go too far into the city, come back here when you are done, everyone good with that?" Asked Chibata. "Alright, yell if you need help, good luck everyone." Chibata finished, nodding. I took the hunting rifle out of the jeep. I inspected the chamber to make sure it was loaded. It was. I slung it over my shoulder and pulled out my knife. I ran towards town.

Author's Note

The fifth chapter is here! the sixth is on the way and will be on my profile soon! Please tell me what you think :)

Reviews

[John Mcnab]

Awesome suspenseful moments! Great flow, great detail, you have talent! I love reading your chapters because they are longer and keep me occupied for quite some time! I love the storyline and I hope to see your work become published!

[Arrinae]

So far I'm loving it. I'm so enthralled that I keep forgetting to review at the end of the chapters. I can't wait to see what happens next. There was some capitilazatiPlease No Javascripts in afew of the chapters as well as teh occasional typo. But I honestly don't remember where. This is an amazing read thats got me on the edge of my seat. The suspence is perfect. The small hints of romance and even humor are placed ever so perfectly. I honestly felt like I was a character in the group along for the ride. Well don Mr. Henderson! If you'd rather i call you something different just let me know. Showing proper respect ansd honor to those around me is something I was raised to do, but I don't want to offend, if it came across offensive, you either.

[Ryan Henderson]

You can call me Mr. Henderson if you want, I am so glad that you liked my story! Thank you for reading and I hope that you choose to read book three. :)