Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (46 page)

"Can you get up," he asked her, instead of answering she forced herself to put unsteady feet
beneath her. "Good," he didn’t have to tell her they were pulling back, at the end of the hall was the
door that would lead them into open ground, where the revenants could disperse and they had the
opportunity to take the high ground as well as have room to maneuver. For the moment the way behind
them was clear, but judging from the noise coming from beneath them she didn’t think it was going to
stay that way for long. She backed up the space it took to reach the Remington, painfully bent over to
retrieve it and tossed it over her shoulder.

"We’re leaving," she shouted to the vampires who apparently insisted on staying in the rear even
though their weapons were short range. She didn’t waste her breath saying anything else just followed
Tom to the door content to believe the vampires could handle themselves. She wasn’t sure why she was
expecting it and Tom wasn’t, but the minute he pushed the door open shots went off. As they both
made their way through the door Jennifer shoved the Cyborg and herself to the right knocking them both
over before shouting at the top of her lungs, "we’re not zombies you morons!"

A cease fire was called out before Tom and her got back up and the vampires came through the
door behind them, not bothering to close it. They wanted the revenants inside, "let them in," Tom said
and Jennifer realized he was probably still wearing a radio in his ear so he could talk to his people.
"Hold your fire until they are inside," he ordered everyone else before turning to her, "I want you on the
second floor."

She shook her head, "sorry Tom but I’m not going to play sniper," she wasn’t really equipped to
do so anyway with only the Beretta’s and the Remington.

"You can’t do anything easy can you," he groused but at least didn’t secretly order to have her
towed away against her will.

"Sure I can you just never give any orders I like," she shrugged which hurt but then movement in
general had become something of a painful issue for her over the last couple days. She ignored it and
started walking backward, she was staying on this floor, it would give her the best opportunity to get
Dimitri if he showed up. She was also aware that it was likely she was going to need every last bit of her
ammo for him, so conserving was her best shot. She holstered one of the Berettas and pulled the Bowie
knife from her belt. A regular revenant she had some hope of taking down the old fashioned way, given
it wasn’t really hard to tell the difference she figured using the knife until she ran across Dimitri should
work out just fine.

She disregarded the look Tom gave her when he saw her swap the Beretta for the Bowie knife,
hating the fact that he felt it necessary to watch her every move like she was a toddler that was going to
choke on something. She was contemplating pulling further back just to put some space between the
Cyborg and his over protective streak when the first wave of revenants hit the door. The vampires
pulled back when it became clear Tom’s twitchy-trigger finger elite were going to try and take the first
wave out with a random spray of gunfire. "Bluddy idiots," the remaining twin swore when he landed
next to Ethan who consequently landed near her in their hasty leap of retreat.

"I thought these were supposed to be a group of elite," Ethan asked clearly looking to her for a
reason why currently Tom’s people were the contrary.

"Don’t look at me," she told him, she was pretty certain that Tom’s people didn’t care if they
accidentally killed the vampire help. And then there was the fact that she was pretty certain at least most
people were panicking over the prospect of the whole possible zombie apocalypse thing. It wasn’t as if
she’d reacted any better to the idea of nearly un-killable corpses that she could be riding around on a
high horse about it.

"I think I understand now why we avoid playing with others," again Jennifer couldn’t say she
blamed him, the only group that had shown even an ounce of competence so far had been Ethan’s.

"Thanks for that," she offered non-to-sarcastically, "no need to stick around and play here with
me." She offered if only to avoid having a protection detail surrounding her at all times.

"I was staying close so they wouldn’t shoot me," the vampire explained, but she didn’t believe
him for a minute, he’d gone out of his way so far to make sure she didn’t end up dead. If he hadn’t
thought ahead and covered his forearms he’d have been bitten in his rushed rescue to keep Malcolm
from her. The remaining twin growled something in that language she didn’t know and she looked to
Ethan wondering if he knew the translation. "He said your friends could at least attempt to aim," Ethan
provided though she imagined whatever the twin had said had contained more then one colorful expletive
that he’d omitted.

"Yea," she’d noticed that, "well," she paused to look from one vampire to the other, "nice chat
boys but back to work." It was taking a chance, she really didn’t want to get shot by a bunch of people
who clearly were either under informed or just plain under skilled but standing around wasn’t going to
get them anywhere either if the group on the second floor weren’t going to make head shots. The
revenant she came into contact with first was floor bound, it’s kneecaps had been shot out in a way that
had left everything from the knee down nearly severed so crawling along the floor was the only mode of
transport optional. She kicked it in the face when it tried to grab unto her ankle and while it was as
stunned as a corpse could be put a bullet in it’s head. It was probably a waste of a bullet but she was in
no mood to bend over to stab it. Bullets rained down from above her trying to cut off the next revenant
on it’s way to her, forcing her back a step and when the bullet spray finally did hit the corpse in front of
her, managed a head shot only because the shooter had hit it everywhere else first. Normally Jennifer
was used to weapons with automatic fire being your best friend, against a vampire the more bullets you
put in them the slower they’d be. In this situation she was thinking using automatic fire was a complete
waste of ammunition. She was going to have to agree with the vampires, Tom’s people were acting like
idiots.

It was going to suck if she managed to avoid getting eaten but died because some idiot shot her,
she supposed she would reserve worrying if it came to that. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to
ignore the bullets and charged back into the mass of revenants that was pushing it’s way inside. She
walked up to a blackened looking corpse, it’s first instinct, probably because it’s movements were
strained due to all that charred flesh, was to attempt falling on her like Malcolm’s corpse had earlier. A
kick to the sternum sent it stumbling back, when it came for her again she let it get close enough that she
could stab the Bowie knife into it’s temple. She didn’t wait around when she yanked the blade out to
watch it fall over just moved to the next. She was confronted with yet another teen, this one still
clutching a can of spray paint in one hand, a large portion of it’s throat shorn out in jagged hunks. This
one was short enough so she struck out with the blade again forcing it to hilt into the eye socket. It was
the last revenant she got a good look at before she realized she was quickly getting penned in. It was an
event she imagined could prove fatal, so she took out two with the Beretta, the next with a quick plunge
of the blade. She let the fight become about the motions, the only details she absorbed were how many
she found closing in on her and what the best angle would be in shoving her blade into their brain.

She had lost count of how many she’d taken down, stopped to kick out behind her to push one
trying to ambush her from behind back a few steps before stabbing the body in front of her,
inconveniently shoving the blade in through the nasal cavity. She’d suspected more resistence because
of the cartilage there but pulling the blade out was done easily enough when she held unto the Bowie’s
handle tight enough and shoved the corpse back with a kick to the chest. She turned to deal with the
one behind her when she saw Dimitri, he wasn’t hard to recognize. As yet she’d been too absorbed in
her own fight to look and see what the vampires might be up to and she probably wouldn’t have noticed
Dimitri if he hadn’t been in her line of sight when he’d made his inhuman leap to the second floor. She
was not letting him out of her sights again, without thinking she sheathed the Bowie knife and shot the
revenant stumbling toward her in the head. Leaping over the bodies that were littering the ground at her
feet she ran to the nearest flight of stairs simply shooting any corpse that got in the way of her
destination. When she did finally reach the nearest set of steps, which turned out to be a dilapidated
looking escalator, she quickly shot three corpses stumbling their way upward before taking the steps two
at a time to reach the top floor.

There was already screaming coming from above her and before she even reached the top a
body came flying over the railing, blood leaving a streak on the edge right before the person came
shrieking over it. Swearing Jennifer started jumping over the bodies that were blocking her path up and
didn’t slow her pace until she was to the top. It was mostly revenant free up here, which in a way was
lucky because it left them free to fire down and help the people on the first floor, but was apparently just
as unlucky as they’d gotten the first vampire revenant to appear.

The scene she came upon when she located where all the struggling was coming from she
supposed shouldn’t have surprised her. One of Tom’s people came running down the hall unnoticed by
Dimitri’s corpse, only because it was locked in a struggle with a vampire. Jim was on his back on the
floor, one hand holding back snapping fangs, the other equally trying to dislodge the corpse from on top
of him. But even with all of the injuries Dimitri had sustained from her encounter with him days before he
was not functioning with any less vampire strength or speed that she noticed, just less then half his brain
capacity. "Hey," she shouted, which gave Jim a second to push Dimitri back when the corpse looked in
her direction. When it put it’s head up she fired but very true to how this revenant had behaved before it
leapt from it’s place on the floor and away from the head shot. Jennifer swore again, pulled the second
Beretta from it’s holster but never stopped shooting as she backed up away from the clumsy blur making
its way to her. She saw Jim make an attempt to get to her and the thing coming at her, but he was
forced to stop and deal with a line of revenants making their way up the same escalator she’d taken to
get here. It was the last thing she saw before the blur slammed into her, she felt the impact like hitting a
wall head-on. The force of it sending her feet out from under her with so much force she flew over the
railing with a shriek not any less terrified then the person who had gotten tossed off before her.

She landed too soon to have hit the floor, a notion confirmed when her head smacked down on
a grated surface instead of smooth tile. For a moment the world went dark, it seemed like an impossible
feat to try and force her vision back in line. She heard the impact of Dimitri’s corpse landing not far
from where she was lying prone on the ground but even that didn’t put her senses back in order. She
tried focusing on gripping the Berettas, they were still clutched in her hands, but nothing came into focus
until she heard someone shout her name. Jennifer blinked open her eyes and came face to face with the
canopy top of the carousel she remembered from her childhood, she’d landed on the second story. She
felt the surface under her groan the same instant she heard it, a sure indication that the revenant was only
a few feet away. Jennifer rolled to her side in hopes of retrieving the Remington and realized she must
have lost it in the fall, she was armed only with the hand guns and her Bowie knife. As if that wasn’t bad
enough from her angle she caught sight of Tom trying to get to her through a mass of revenants he was
bound to get swallowed by first, he was buried in the crowd within those few seconds she’d caught sight
of him. "Tom!" She made an attempt to rise off the floor and ended up slammed back unto her back
with yet another impact. She knew that she’d taken this one indirectly and that Ethan had only brushed
past her as he’d snatched Dimitri away from her. But she’d still ended up on her side, she struggled just
to manage to get unto her stomach hoping that putting her legs under her would be easier from that
angle. She’d lost hold of both Beretta’s this time so as soon as she’d made it to all fours she reached for
the nearest weapon. Her fingers wrapped around the grip of one of the 9mm that had landed not a foot
away. But when she lifted to aim, she froze as the revenant locked it’s jaws around Ethan’s arm,
something in her snapped as blood started running from the wound. The realization that Tom was gone
and her vampire was now essentially dead made something in her fracture, something in her best left
forgotten. It was like poison screaming in her veins, she wanted the revenants dead, every last one, felt
it seething out of her every pore, and like she could will it Dimitri’s jaw went slack and he fell without a
twitch. When it was done Jennifer found herself looking up at Ethan, his expression was unreadable, in
that moment it wouldn’t have mattered anyway she only hoped that whatever she’d done would save
him. She got to her feet, intent on doing what she wasn’t sure exactly but the minute she got up her
vision blackened and she was pretty certain she fell into the vampires arms.