Alcingeria Volume Two Chapter Sixteen: Allan's Plan

Captain Allan Drei has a plan. He, along with our heroes, will be spearheading the attack to reclaim Stavon. Will it be as easy to take it as it was to lose it?

Chapter Sixteen Allan’s Plan:

Saturday July 24^th 1690

Worry and anticipation were heavy on the air.

The last four days went by slowly, with not much happening. Two days ago, Stella was brought back to Semera by a few scouts who were patrolling near Stavon. She hadn’t come to any physical harm from her time with the vampire mafia. She even said that she was treated like a guest of honor, other than the fact that she was restrained most of the time. The morning after her rescue, she and the rest of us went to Allan after a quick breakfast, and Stella told him that the vampire mafia were building something, something that would help them take Semera. Allan was really worried, as was everyone else in the room.

Allan doubled the scouts around Stavon, determined to find out what was going on. The only comfort anyone could take out of all this was that they had no witches in their ranks, which of course raised a question.

            “How do we prevent them from getting witches?” Tabatha had asked.

Allan thought for a moment, his brow furrowed in confusion.

            “Stella, you heard this two days ago, correct?” Allan had asked.

            “Yes!” She answered.

Allan had clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the window of the officer’s quarters.

            “There’s only one thing we can do. Since nothing’s happened yet, I think it’s safe to assume that they still haven’t had any luck with getting witches. I propose we lead a small scale attack on Stavon before it’s too late.” Allan said.

            “Attack Stavon?” Robert gasped.

Allan nodded.

            “I know it’s dangerous, and I’m not asking any of you to risk your lives.” Allan started.

            “Now wait just a second! We’re going. The vampire mafia is our enemy just as much as anyone else’s!” Stella exclaimed.

            “I agree. We’ve fought them since the beginning. There’s no way we can back down now.” Erin pointed out.

Allan had looked to us all approvingly. No one said anything else.

            “I admire all of your courage. I’ll speak to the section commanders and see what they think. If they’re willing to send their men off, we can start as early as tomorrow morning!” He exclaimed.

 

***

           

Needless to say, the section commanders complied. That’s why worry and anticipation were heavy on the air. We were leading a four hundred man attack on the mafia controlled village of Stavon.

We all stood behind Semera’s mighty gates, awaiting the order to move out. The officers were on horseback, the rest of the men were on foot. The soldiers towards the rear carried muskets, the men in the middle and in the front carried flintlock pistols as well as swords, lances and a variety of other melee weapons. Of course, everyone carried several stakes.

The villagers of Semera gathered around, watching us. From what I’d heard, the villagers were told that this was a training exercise.

Of course, it wasn’t. This was the real deal. We were to liberate Stavon of vampire control. That’s why we were going in broad daylight. It was around noon, this would provide us with a hefty advantage. Stavon was a few hours away if we would be walking, which would still leave us with a few hours before the advantage would be given to the vampires.

Earlier today, Allan had assembled these four hundred men in private. Everyone received a debriefing, we all knew the plan.

Just then, the gates of Semera opened, the chains clanging around as the maw before us widened. When the gates fully opened, we all went through.

My friends and I were near the front, we insisted. We knew how to deal with vampires. We relayed our knowledge to Allan in the debriefing. Now all of the men we were fighting with knew as well.

When we were a good distance away from Stavon, one of the officers in the middle spoke very loudly to us all.

            “All right men, you all know what to do! We’ll arrive at Stavon in a matter of hours. Liberate the village, take prisoners if at all possible! We need to find out what the vampires have planned!” He shouted.

We already knew this, everyone knew the plan. We moved on in silence.

 

***

           

Saturday July 24^th 1690

After a few hours, Stavon appeared in the distance. The place looked different; there were mine cars coming up out of the mine. There must have been vampires down there getting ore. A walkway with an overhead cover had been constructed. I saw cloaked people (vampires?) pushing mine cars to a building. My best guess was that it was the building that held the furnace. I briefly remembered seeing it when we were there.

It wasn’t long before we were given the order to charge.

The officers hung back on their horses, but us four hundred foot soldiers charged forward. The vampires hadn’t bothered reconstructing the fence, so we were able to charge right up, going for the mine first. The vampires who had been pushing the mine cars swiftly abandoned them and ran for cover.

            “You ten, take the mine. You five there, back them up. You four, guard the entrance so no vampire gets up!” Barked one of the soldiers.

By now, the officers had ridden up. They barked a series of orders at their respective sections, and the four hundred of us spread throughout the village. My friends and I stayed together, but near the men we had come in with. A few minutes later, our section’s officers ordered us to clear out a nearby group of houses.

            “You got it!” Don exclaimed.

            “Okay, Macalister and I will take this one, Redmond and Erin, you two take that one there. Stella, Tabatha and Don, take that one!” Robert shouted.

            “’Oi! What about me?” Walden piped up.

            “Help Redmond and Erin.” Robert told him.

            “Righto!” He crowed.

We all went to our assigned houses. I readied one of my stakes, so did Stella. Walden just prepared to use magic.

I tried the doorknob, it was locked. I rammed my shoulder against the door a few times, but it was a no go.

            “Allow me.” Walden said with much bravado.

He aimed his hands at the door.

            “Windstorm!” He shouted.

The door was instantly torn off its hinges and it flew back into the house, hitting the back wall and falling to the floor. The three of us rushes inside. The first room was clear. We checked the other rooms, there was no one there. The three of us had split up. Stella and I went back to the door, but Walden called us back.

            “Hey guys, I found something!”  Walden shouted.

We rushed back to him. He was hovering near a cellar door. It was made of wood, but reinforced with Steel.

            “A cellar door?” Erin asked.

            “Should I blow the thing in?” Walden asked.

Erin thought for a moment.

            “If there were vampires in this house, that’s definitely where they are now.” She said coldly.

            “Blow the thing in it is!” Walden said, clapping and rubbing his hands together.

            “Combustion!” He exclaimed.

There was a flash of light and heat, as well as a hollow boom. The cellar door caved under Walden’s magic. Sunlight poured in and we heard the sizzling of flesh, followed by agonized screams as the blood sucking creatures cowered in the dark corners of the cellar.

            “You were right, Erin!” Walden exclaimed.

            “Surprised?” She asked.

            “Nah, just enthused.” He shrugged.

He aimed his hands down into the cellar.

            “Eh… I’m gonna need a stronger spell than the one I typically use here. Lemme think…” Walden muttered.

After a few seconds, he refocused.

            “Nova!” He shouted.

A series of small explosions occurred in the middle of the cellar, followed by a significantly larger one that engulfed the whole cellar in one swift kaboom!

We felt the heat wave up hear, for a brief moment the cellar filled with light, then went dark again. From what we saw, the vampires were gone. Ash.

            “Wow…” Erin breathed, awed.

            “I didn’t know you were capable of something like that Walden.” I said, impressed.

            “Ah c’mon! Who d’ya think you’re talkin’ to?” He asked.

            “Nice work, we should get back outside and clear out more houses.” Erin said.

We rushed back out into the streets, we heard pained screams coming from inside the houses. We pushed into another house, clearing each room as we went through. There was no one there, and there was no cellar. We went back out onto the street. Ahead, we spotted a mass of soldiers pushing farther into the village. Everyone regrouped on them and we continued the offensive.

 

***

 

Saturday July 24^th 1690

A few hours passed since we first arrived at Stavon. The village wasn’t very big, but it took a while to do a clean sweep of the village, even with the manpower we had. Some houses had cellars with reinforced doors that took up to twenty minutes to get through without magic. We had sent troops out to scour the outside of the village to make sure no desperate cloaked vampire was making a run for it.

A brief memory of Ignacio fleeing his cabin with the fifty thousand dollars flashed through my head. He had been cloaked, so the sun didn’t hurt him at all.

We had nearly fully complete our sweep of Stavon, when a soldier came running.

            “Captain Drei! You have to see this!”

            “What is it?” Allan asked, following the soldier.

He motioned for my friends and I to do the same. We followed him and the solider to a house on the other side of the village. We were led inside and down the sturdy metal stairs. We walked down a wide corridor in the basement, there was a sizable metal door at the end on the right hand side. Hanging on a hook at eye level next to it was a white fedora.

            “That fedora!” Erin exclaimed.

            “The symbol of the mafia…” Don muttered disdainfully under his breath.

            “Who do you think is in there?” Macalister asked.

Robert gave him a funny look, but otherwise disregarded the question.

            “It has to be Ignacio.” Allan said.

He walked forward and banged on the door three times. A few seconds later, three sharp raps came at the other end of the door. Allan growled.

            “Ignacio, listen up! We’ve taken your village by force, there is nothing you can do! Come out with your hands up and surrender!” He ordered.

From the other side of the door we heard what sounded like laughter, but the door was far too thick to be certain. I looked to Allan, not knowing what to do. He looked like he was going to get mad, but instead a smile broke across his face.

            “Fritz, round up about twenty men and get them down here. If it comes down to it we’ll starve those b******s out.” He said with a wicked grin.

            “Yes sir!” The officer said with a salute, running out of the basement.

Shortly after, a different man entered the room.

            “Sir! The attack at the mine has succeeded. A total of forty seven vampires were slain.” He told Allan.

            “Excellent! Hear that Ignacio?” Allan asked the door.

There was silence. Allan turned to us.

            “I’m guessing you guys want to stay down here and guard the door.” He said approvingly.

            “That’s right!” Robert said, speaking accurately for all of us.

            “Very well. I have to check up on things upstairs, but I’ll come back as soon as I’m done. I have a little something for our mafia friend.” He said, patting his sword.

Allan walked off. Just as he vanished from sight, the officer from before came back with the requested twenty men. A few of them had brought down chairs, probably from the other houses, so we all sat down. Food was passed around, mainly just bread and cheese. I wasn’t that hungry. It had only been a few hours since breakfast, but I still ate. The crunchy, dry bread complimented the soft, milky cheese quite nicely. While half of us ate, the other half stood ready. My friends and I were part of the half eating.

            “So, what do you think will happen?” Erin asked.

            “Yeah, do you think Ignacio will surrender? I mean, we’ve taken the village, and he can’t stay in there forever.” Stella added.

Robert chewed thoughtfully.

            “Not likely. I don’t think he would surrender, but I don’t think he would just sit down and die either.” He speculated.

            “What are you saying?” I asked.

            “Do you think Ignacio has some kind of plan?” Don interjected.

Robert nodded quickly.

            “What it is, I have no idea.” He admitted.

We went back to eating. After another hour, Allan returned. The people who were guarding the door ate and my friends and I, along with the others who had already had their fill, were assigned to guard the door. We all readied our weapons.

            “Hey, what’s that?” Stella asked, pointing to the floor.

I looked down. There were twin metal streaks on the floor. They resembled railway tracks, but they were thicker. They ran up the stairs and into the house above. I hadn’t noticed them in the house, but I think I saw them on my way down. If I had, I payed them no mind. Now that we had nothing fun to do, I wondered what they could be.

            “No idea. Some kind of walkway?” Don asked.

            “A walkway?” Macalister asked, confused.

            “That’s what it looks like.” Robert said, staring at it with a furrowed brow.

Erin bent down, examining it further.

            “They go under the door.” She said, confused.

She touched them, running her fingers along them.

            “They have some kind of weird pattern on them. Little bumps.” She said confusedly.

Robert grunted, walked over and ran his boot along the stone floor. It skidded along with relative ease. He then ran it along one of the twin metal streaks. It barely moved.

            “It seems that they provide traction.” He announced.

            “But why would they need that?” Macalister asked us.

No one could give an answer. The soldiers around us had picked up on the tracks and started talking about them too.

            “What the devil do they need those for?” One laughed.

            “No idea, but the color goes with the walls!” Another joked.

Going with the mood, we laughed it off. We spent a few more hours down there, we changed the guard up three or four more times. I was starting to get bored, and a little tired. Just then, something happened. It was so different from anything that has happened so far, so out of the ordinary that all the soldiers fell silent. A strange sound came from behind the heavy metal door.

            “What’s that sound?” Macalister asked.

No one stepped up to the door for a few seconds. Looking around, Macalister stepped up.

            “Hang on, get away from there! We don’t know-“

Boom!

The door was nearly blown off its hinges! Macalister was sent flying back against the far wall. He grunted heavily on impact, collapsing on to the ground right after.

            “Macalister!” Robert exclaimed.

Don and I went to help him. We got him up with the help of a few other soldiers. Thankfully, he was still conscious, but extremely dazed. He looked around, unable to piece together what had just happened. Everyone looked to the door.

Boom!

As if on que, another explosion sounded. The door was bent and part of it was torn from the hinges, bit it still remained attached. We saw movement coming from behind the door.

            “What’s that!?” A guard screamed.

            “I’ve never seen anything like it!” Erin yelled in fear.

            “Everybody out! Regroup on the surface! We’ll address the threat from there!” Allan barked.

Everyone scrambled to get out. My friends and I stayed together, running up the metal stairs like everyone else. Just as the last man made it up…

Boom!

The door flew off its hinges, slamming in to where Macalister had been only seconds before. I looked back. Vampires were pouring out of the room. They were following the thing that was slowly making its way across the ground. I only barely saw it through all of the fleeing soldiers before I was swept up in the current. Whatever it was, it was made of metal, and really big.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!