The Monster Hunters

  “Take it easy for a sec. Holly, cover the other doorway. Keep it on white light. Our vision is shot, and the lights disorient them.”

  “That was disoriented?” Trip asked.

  I speed-reloaded the shotgun. I did not dare load any more breaching rounds since they were useless past contact distance. “Anybody see my pistol?”

  Lee handed it to me, scuffed, but undamaged. I changed magazines and reholstered. The bunk I was leaning against had a picture of a sailor’s wife and kids standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. I shined my light on the vampire’s body. The flesh was slowly bubbling and melting into a tarlike substance, leaving only sticky bones. The eyeless skull appeared to be watching me.

  “So that’s a Master vampire. They aren’t so tough,” I said.

  Julie surprised us all by laughing. It was a genuine sound of merriment, and was totally out of place in the splattered crew quarters. She paused in cleaning the slime off her prescription goggles long enough to look at all of us poor befuddled Newbies. She shook her head and smiled.

  “That was just a baby.” All of the Newbies had some choice words at that. Holly swore so creatively that it was almost poetry. “Masters can move so fast you can’t hardly see them. They can eat a stack of Bibles and wash it down with a lit Molotov cocktail. This guy was probably turned in the last week. Abnormally quick regeneration, but the more powerful the creator, the stronger the creation. Whatever started this mess was one bad son of a gun. It would have to be to create those wights to serve as daylight guardians too.”

  Satisfied that she could see again, Julie pointed toward Holly and the passage to the engine room. “Owen on point again. Trip, stay by Lee and help him if he needs it. Holly, you bring up the rear. If we come across more vamps, stop, then throw in some grenades first. All right, let’s move.”

  I took my place at the door, light stabbing ahead, searching for targets. Julie took the second position. She spoke softly in my ear.

  “Parley-vous, mother effer?”

  “It sounded good at the time,” I shrugged. “Hey, if we don’t die in the next few minutes, are you doing anything for dinner tonight?”

  She thumped me in the shoulder to indicate that it was time to move out. I took that as a no. I moved quickly, the light from the flashlights behind threw my hulking shadow down the hall. I had pulled something in my leg in the struggle with the vampire. My head and chest ached from my earlier adventure in the water. My stomach and throat hurt from all of the heaving. My nerves tingled with adrenaline and terror-induced endorphins. I was still seeing purple ghosts in one semi-blinded eye, and I was covered in vampire juices. I was having a great time and had never felt more alive.

  Finally a voice came over the radio. It was Harbinger.

  “Lights coming near the engine room. Who is it?”

  “Hold your fire. It’s me and the Newbie team,” Julie answered.

  “Stop where you are. There’s a mess of hostiles about thirty feet from your position through the door on your left. We’re at the end of the hall on the other side of that. Why ain’t you up top?”

  It was good to hear Harbinger’s voice. I pointed my shotgun at the indicated compartment. Anything that came through that portal was going to get a snout full of buckshot.

  “We lost radio contact after you got ambushed. The deck got swarmed with wights. We killed them, but the boat crew wasn’t going to stick around, and the Hind was low on fuel. The Newbies did good, only minor injuries. We decided to come find you guys. I thought for a minute we had lost you, Earl,” Julie answered.

  “Nope. But Boone lost a man. Roberts got swarmed in the ambush. We have some others wounded, but nothing critical. It was bad. There had to be at least twenty vamps. And they rigged the lights to blow when they attacked.” His voice sounded tired and ragged.

  “That doesn’t sound right. Undead don’t coordinate,” she said.

  “These do. It was planned. We killed most of them, and the rest are holed up in that engine compartment. There are at least five.”

  “Fire?” Julie asked, sounding hopeful.

  “Negative. Fuel storage is through there. Same with explosives. We set anything off in that room and we’re swimming home. Plus the room that Darné and his men are locked in is on the other side of where the vamps are.”

  “Plan?” she asked.

  “I haven’t figured that out yet. We can go in shooting. But if we do we might hit a steam line and cook us all, or we might hit the boiler and blow a hole in the bottom of the ship. Either way we’re running out of time. We got another coded message from the French Hunters. The vamps are trying to break into their compartment—wait a second.”

  I did not turn to look. I kept my muzzle on the door. We had a great position. Both groups of Hunters could fire with impunity into the doorway, and the angles were such that the chances of ricocheting a shot into the other team were virtually nil. Trip and Holly both squeezed around me so that they would have a shot as well. The injured Lee watched our backs and Julie stayed on the radio. The walls and floor vibrated slightly from the powerful engine nearby. The air smelled of diesel and rubber and rust and the faint copper smell of blood.

  While we waited for Harbinger to get back to us, I could not help but ask, “Did any of you guys know Roberts?”

  “He was the tall, skinny, blond guy on the boat,” Trip said. “Seemed like a good guy.”

  “He was a great guy. Brave. A little crazy, but he was a dang good Hunter,” Julie told us. “Roberts has been with us since we restarted. First batch of Newbies we had. He’ll be missed. I think he had an ex-wife and some kids in St. Louis.”

  Harbinger’s voice crackled in my earpiece. “Sam says that he found something on the schematics. We’re directly under the main cargo bay. There’s an escape hatch there that leads into that engine compartment. Sam says that we can put somebody through it, and they can pierce a steam pipe in the vamp’s room, and then close the hatch before they get cooked. The steam will fry the undead, or at least flush them into the corridor where we can blast them.”

  “Won’t that kill the Frenchmen also?” Julie asked.

  “Sam doesn’t think so. Might raise the temperature a little, but judging from the schematics they should be fine. I’m sending Sam, Grant and Mead up to do it.”

  “What about Boone’s team?”

  “My team’s a little occupied, Jules,” Boone replied over the net. “Your uncle Earl neglected to mention that we have at least two more of the bloodsuckers pinned down by the shafts. One of them is the son of a whore that bit Roberts.”

  “Roger that.” She released her mike. “Wait for the cookout.”

  “I could place some claymores down the hall. Give them a surprise when they come running out,” Lee offered helpfully. Just like a former demo guy, always looking to blow something up.

  “No, we’re too enclosed.”

  She was probably right. But judging by the number of projectiles these things could soak up, I sure was not looking forward to five of them heading our way at the same time. There had been an FN MAG machine gun brought on board from the Brilliant Mistake. I had left it behind since it was so long and unwieldy inside the tight confines of the ship. However, 200 rounds of belt-fed .308 full-auto firepower would have been great right about then.

  “I’ve got some smaller stuff. It should do the trick with minimal damage to us, but it’ll turn anything that comes through that door into hamburger.” For emphasis, Lee patted a pouch that was clipped to his webbing. “I’m hurting pretty bad, so I don’t think I could throw it far enough, but one of you guys could probably land it right outside that hatch. It’s radio detonated.”

  Julie thought about it for a moment and then nodded at Trip. Lee unclipped the pouch, opened it, made a few adjustments, zipped it back up and handed it over. Trip gently bounced it in his hands a few times to test the weight, then he underhanded it with perfect accuracy, landing it on our side, just in front of the targeted hatch.
br />   “Good throw,” Holly said.

  “I helped coach the girls’ softball team too. Slow pitch.” All of us gave him funny looks. “It was a small school,” he added defensively.

  Time passed. Harbinger informed us that the captive French were sending more messages. The vampires were slowly battering their way in, looking for fresh blood. Sam checked in to tell us that the three of them were almost in position. Boone’s team was down to four, and two of them were injured, and they had problems of their own. Harbinger and Milo were in position, but since there were only two of them they were in for trouble if all of the vampires headed their way. We were spread awfully thin. It was going to be tight.

  “This is Sam. We’re in place. Main cargo bay appears empty. But there’s a mess of Conex containers up here, it’s hard to tell. We’re gonna pop the hatch. You should know if this works. Over.”

  “Go get them, Cowboy,” Julie whispered under her breath, while tightening the grip on her M14. We were positioned so that anything stepping into the hall was going to get a big surprise. A bit of high explosives and four of us that were able to provide direct fire. Julie and I were even pretty decent shots. Who was I kidding, I was pretty good, but from what I had seen up on the deck, she was amazing. I glanced surreptitiously her way. Her brown eyes were focused through the lens of her ACOG scope. Her gloved finger was resting easily just alongside the trigger guard. She was leaning against the steel hull to steady herself. Her features were strong, and somehow she was still attractive in her relatively unflattering green body armor despite the scratches and slime all over her face. Julie Shackleford was the girl of my dreams.

  In the distance the sound of banging metal could be heard and then a rapid series of gunshots and another clang of metal on metal. Trip was prone on the floor, so he felt the vibration first. “Here we go!” he shouted.

  A metallic screeching tore at our ears, as a wall of white vapor poured out of the open hatchway. The noise was a bastardized version of the world’s greatest and most terrifying teapot. Even from where we were, the temperature rose dramatically as the scalding mist began to fill the hallway. Just under the onslaught of noise could be heard other equally inhuman screams, this time from the engine compartment’s resident vampires.

  Something moved in the hatchway. First one, then two, and finally a third vampire stumbled into the corridor. The steam was boiling their fluids and peeling their flesh far faster than they could regenerate. One of them turned malevolently toward us with blind, molten eye sockets and screamed.

  “Hit it, Lee!” Julie shouted. Our demolitionist librarian complied and compressed the clacker in his gloved fist.

  The small charge detonated. The explosion was more of a muted thump than the expected fireball. In the open, Lee’s little bomb might not have been very impressive, but in the narrow metal space, the energy of the C4 tore through the undead. Their bones were smashed into powder and their bodies were disseminated into their component materials. We were thirty feet away but we were still peppered with a fine mist of vampire.

  Two more creatures spilled from the hatchway, just having missed the bomb. One moved in our direction, the other turned toward Harbinger and Milo. Six weapons opened fire. The creature heading our way was blind, burned, and torn. Some of its internal organs had expanded under the intense, wet heat, and the creature appeared lopsided and ungainly. Our bullets tore into it, rupturing through fluids and tissues, breaking bones, and spilling the vampire’s unnatural life onto the floor. It fell to its knees under our onslaught, dragging itself inexorably toward us. One scalded claw was torn completely off by my last round of buckshot, and it still somehow continued trying to pull itself on its one functioning limb.

  It fell silent as we ran our guns dry. My ears were partially protected by the high-quality earpieces, but even with that my head swam from the barrage in the tight echoing chamber. No gunfire could be heard from the other Hunters’ position.

  “Earl. Come in, Earl. Are you okay?” Julie dropped her spent M14 mag, and inserted another, letting the bolt fly forward to chamber another round. “Can you hear us?”

  “Got it. Our vamp is down.”

  “We’re coming around the corner to finish ours. Hold your fire.”

  “Roger that.”

  The vampire was torn asunder, but already it was beginning to heal. This time Trip and Holly did the honors while I covered them. Holly put her boot down on the creature’s spine, and slammed a stake through its back with a vengeance. This vampire was too damaged to scream. Trip grimaced as he pulled out his hatchet. I suppose that the correct term was tomahawk for the Vietnam-era weapon that he had picked out of the armory. My friend raised the little ax and brought it down swiftly. The vampire had been shot through the neck so many times that it did not take much effort. The tomahawk slipped through with enough force to raise sparks on the floor. Immediately the tissue began to dissolve and drip through the grating, leaving only a black, damaged skeleton with abnormally long teeth.

  The noise of the escaping steam died off as the ship’s emergency systems took over, shutting down the boilers and locking down specific valves. The white mist in the hall slowly dissipated. The temperature had risen at least twenty degrees, and I could feel the sweat rolling down my body.

  “Julie, that should be all of these. When it cools down enough, get in there and rescue Darné and his men. Milo and I are going to help Boone.”

  “Roger that, Earl.”

  The Newbie squad waited patiently. Lee was hurting bad, and Trip was doing his best to help the smaller man walk.

  “Are you going to make it?” Julie asked him softly. “We grab the French and we head back up top. We should be almost about out of undead.”

  “I’m just having a hard time breathing, is all,” he grunted.

  “Whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger,” Trip stated solemnly.

  “Remember that when I’m kicking your ass later,” Lee laughed, and then grimaced in pain.

  The vampires that had fallen prey to Lee’s bomb were reduced to pulp and bones. There was not even enough left to put a stake through. As I entered the engine compartment, the intense heat made my head swim. The air was thick with damp, hot vapor. A bit of residual steam hissed from the giant ruptured pipe that Sam had shot. Water dripped from everything. It was as if it was raining from the ceiling. The room was like a sauna, only worse, as all of the exposed metal pipes and fittings were hot enough to burn us. I could feel the heat of the floor through my boot soles. I took another swig from my Camelbak. The room was lit by red emergency lights. I turned off my flashlight to retain my batteries. Overhead, water dripped from the ladder and the hatch that led to the main cargo bay.

  I paused in front of the heavy metal door that held the French survivors. I tried the wheel. My gloves provided enough protection to touch the metal, but not for long. It was stuck. I pounded on the door. The fist falls echoed loudly.

  “Anybody know Morse code?” I asked. Everybody shook their heads in the negative. Not a whole lot of former Eagle Scouts on my team. Julie shoved past me and struck the butt of her rifle against the door. Dum-du-du-dum-dum. Shave and a haircut.

  We waited a few seconds. Dum-dum. Came the response. Two bits. The wheel began to turn. I sighed in relief and tried in vain to wipe the sweat and moisture from my face. I could hardly wait to get out of this sauna. The door opened.

  The famous French hunter Jean Darné stood before us, tall and imposing in his black body armor that differed only slightly from our own. He was a legend. Considered one of the greatest Hunters the Europeans had, he had hunted more monsters in more places than probably anybody but Earl Harbinger. His team was well respected, and he was considered by many to be the best of the best.

  He was also currently dead. As were the four other members of his team standing to his side.

  “We have been waiting for you,” the vampire said.

  Chapter 9

  None of us moved. The vampir
e and his four wights stood separated from the Hunters only by one narrow doorway. Julie and I were closest. For some reason the vampire did not move. The wights made chewing motions and stood tensed, ready to pounce. Their red eyes studied us hungrily. They were all wearing the same black body armor. Darné smiled at us, showing off his elongated incisors. He absently rapped his knuckles on the metal hatchway. S-O-S.

  “Well, if it is not little Julie Shackleford. My, how you have grown up,” Darné said. “You are the image of your mother, an absolutely lovely woman. What a pleasure.”

  “The pleasure is all yours, Jean,” she answered. She shifted her rifle slightly. The two of us were blocking the doorway. The undead were close enough to smell. I did not think I could move fast enough to get away. It would only take a single touch from one of those wights to end up paralyzed.

  “Now, now, little girl. Do not try anything hasty. The only thing holding back my ‘men’ is my will. They are bonded to me. If I lose concentration for an instant your team is doomed.” He would have been a very handsome man when he was alive, suave and distinguished with just a touch of gray at his temples and in his thin moustache; his English was impeccable. I’m sure he could have been quite the charmer except for the whole evil vampire thing and the four undead pit-bull equivalents standing beside him.

  “So why didn’t you make your move? You could have just charged us immediately and taken us by surprise.” I could tell Julie was stalling for time. But I wasn’t sure what exactly she was hoping for.

  “Americans have no flair for the dramatic. You are almost as bad as the Germans. No romance in your souls. Always straightforward.” He snapped his long fingers. “I want to make a deal.”

  “We don’t deal with vampires,” she stated flatly.

  “But you have made deals with monsters before. The truth of that is undeniable. I want to make a deal with you. I will let you live, and I will give you important information, in exchange for safe passage from this ship after sunset.”