Other Places 2: Road Blocks (3 page)

He let Vaughn, who was clearly a leader, do the talking for him, which got the Vampires, all rather old themselves, to form a line.

"On three we go in, like described. Get out of the way and stand ready. Remember, move to the mark on the floor and stand rigid, until you're there. It doesn't feel like anything, so you'll just be there, after a small bump. Any questions?"

There weren't any.

Taking the first one in line, a scared looking pale man with a machine gun of his own, he started counting.

"One, two, th-"

"-ree."

For Zack it was a single step, and for a strong Vampire, even carrying another one using a bear hug from behind, it was just a hop. Vaughn had the timing down pretty well already too, which meant the second he dropped his passenger, he turned, ready to go back, his hand finding Zack's right arm again so he could be pulled back.

This time, instead of counting out loud, Zack bobbed in place, and on the third one, hoping that his signals were good enough, he went back. After they got the first seven Vampires into place, the room seemed full to him, but these men and women didn't seem to care about their dignity or comfort and simply laid down, so that the new ones coming in could stand on them, until there were fifteen in place. That left seven back in the little room, but no more were really going to fit, and one of the Vamps signaled this to Vaughn, who in turn stopped him as soon as they got back to the office complex that housed the Denver Node.

"They have to move some of the people out, can you watch to see when there is space? Then get the rest in?" The look from the Vampire was strange as he said the words, but what it was supposed to mean, Zack couldn't really tell. Mirror Him was silent on the whole thing, too, and instead of suggesting it meant he wanted to snack on Zack, or even date him, there was nothing. It wasn't like him to pass up that kind of opportunity either, so it was odd and got his attention.

"I'll do that. I guess everyone else should stay ready? I don't know how this kind of thing works, but if I had to fight terrorists, I'd want as many friends there to help me out as possible." It was a throwaway line, but one of the remaining fighters, who wore all black, like the rest of them, nodded. Her hair was short and a plain brown, like a buzz cut, and she looked hard enough to play in a movie about space marines. In fact, with her Hispanic looks, he thought he might have actually seen her in a role like that before.

"We all would. He wasn't asking if you'd do it for us, just if you had the ability to keep going. We were told that you might not get all of us through." She was so intense that it seemed almost like she was planning to attack him, if he said the wrong thing, but she went still, like her kind did when worried.

"Not a problem at this point. We should get you there. Just, you know, be safe on the other side and remember to send me a birthday card next year." As humor went it wasn't great, but no one hit him, so he decided it was good enough.

On the other side of the rift the bathroom was emptying, as the Vampires took his advice and went into the ceiling, using the tiles there for cover. He couldn't have done it, even with help, the whole thing taking superhuman effort and skill to pull off the way they were doing it. They left one man in the room, guarding the door, his back to the Node.

"We're up."

The rest were in place about two minutes later. All the turning around made him a bit dizzy, but going through the thing itself wasn't that hard at all. In fact... He felt refreshed. Like it was easier to be doing that than standing around, or like it had added something to him. Most beings that could do it at all, use the Nodes, complained that it was incredibly draining, so that was a strange thing to notice.

Vaughn tried to call for a chair, still holding him, like he was ready for the frail Human to fall over, or even die from the effort, but he shook his head, and tried to look a bit grim. After all, people could still die in there, and it was far from over. He ran a commentary about it for Vaughn and the Denver Ambassador, watching it through the Node, which had them both on the phone after a few seconds, repeating what he was telling them. Finally a cell phone was pushed to his head.

The voice that spoke wasn't anyone he knew at all.

"Hartley? This is Branson Meers, I'm heading the external entry team for this mission. We're set to begin on your word." Then he went silent, as if Zack was simply supposed to understand what to do or something like that. Why would they want
him
to tell them when to go in?

'Because you're so
cute
, dumbo. You've played this video game before, so
think
about it, you're their eyes. Look at what's happening and explain it all as clearly as you can. The Vamps are almost surrounding the hostage takers, but in the ceiling. The doors have booby traps on them, all that crud.' The tone was so exasperated that Zack felt a bit stupid for a moment, then told the man on the phone all of that.

"We need to reset... do we have time?"

The people in the middle of the room looked miserable and the men, and women, with guns, seemed agitated and like they were going to kill another person, but it looked like they really might not yet, not having anyone ready to die. It took nearly ten minutes. That gave them time to pick someone and get her on her knees, a little to the front, so everyone could see it happening.

The signal to start was going to be gunfire, but only from outside, which meant that when the masked person, he had a nice ski thing on his head that covered his face totally, shot the old woman in the head, no one reacted. Not on the scene, except for the crying, no doubt.

"It's a go. Go on your own volition." Zack thought it sounded cool, but was still wincing about the woman that was bleeding on the floor.

Then the place erupted, fast and hard, so much so he couldn't track even half of it really. The people he'd brought in waited for the men and women with guns to turn toward the outside, then literally dropped on them from above. It was a mess and got bloody, fast. Most of the hostages laid down and tried to cover their heads, which was what Zack wanted to do himself, just watching it from a remove, so he wasn't going to blame them for it. There were children there too, and the only saving grace that he could see was that even the attackers hadn't started to use them yet. Not even as shields, though they were right there.

One thing was clear however, these people weren't just regular folk dressed up for a bank robbery. When their weapons ran out of bullets, most of them started fighting hand to hand, with a speed that made it nearly impossible for him to track at all.

That meant they were Vampires, most likely. Or something else so similar that it wasn't a real point at the moment. They were outnumbered, and after about thirty seconds, moving from one bit of cover to the next, a military group in green came from the outside. They weren't invisible, but they hid as they did it, being careful not to make killing them too easy. It was a great plan, and Zack had to endorse it personally, since none of
them
went down, even when some of the hostages did.

Hiding... Zack nodded to himself. It seemed like an effective plan really.

They were doing it slightly wrong, going
toward
the violence and then, as covertly as possible, trying to pull people away, even as the battle raged. They didn't engage in it themselves, focusing on the extraction portion of things.

It was about that time that he saw one of them go down. He was just stabbed, and only once, but from behind and in the lower back. It was a man with short hair in a deep rust color and heavy glasses. He was small and had a twitchy look to him, which meant Zack had a good guess as to what he was. A Bat Shifter.

He
also
had a group of kids with him, and the attacker with his silver blade was moving in on them. It probably wasn't going to involve reassuring them that it would all be all right either, from the menacing way he did it.

"Vaughn..." He explained it quickly, and just hoped that the man would be willing to go in. They had a shortcut into the place not too far behind the scene that was playing out, right on the battle field. Floor? Maybe it was an arena of death? It was a stupid place to go if you weren't nearly immortal, but there wasn't time for him to debate the idea. Instead he held out his arm, and bad, horrible, plan or not, the Vampire with him picked up the local Ambassador with one arm around his middle and grabbed the back of Zack's arm so hard he was probably going to have bruises.

"Jump!" There was no time for counting, and they were in the mess so fast that he didn't know he'd done it himself. Before he could wet himself or dive to the floor, which was his personal plan, Vaughn threw the Denver Ambassador, like a ball, at the attacker with the knife, then ran to engage the being as well. They weren't armed, which was an oversight, but they managed to take the man out pretty fast anyway, then had to turn to fight another one, who seemed to realize there was a new threat. For his part, Zack saw the little kids, none older than nine or ten, and noticed that one of the larger ones, a boy, was trying to drag the Bat Shifter away by himself. It wasn't working very well, but seemed like a real plan, given where the bullets were going at the moment. He moved to help and together, barely, they did it, another little kid, who might have been all of five, and seemed like a girl, jumping in to do the same.

Then they all, the five kids, the Bat man and him, hid behind a heavy brick planter that made a low wall. If anyone came back there for them, one of the killers, they were dead, so they all held very still, and tried to do their crying quietly. After another few moments things started to become quieter. Calling it silent would be a lie, since the din of crying people and occasional bit of gunfire wasn't that at all, but Zack risked popping his head up.

He couldn't do a lot, being that he was holding the palm of his hand tightly over the wound on the downed fighters back. He didn't have a band aid, and first aid, while a great sounding idea, hadn't been on his home school curriculum. What he saw then was one of the masked people being driven to his knees and having his face uncovered. The Vampires doing it didn't hesitate, having three hold the fellow in place while another wrenched his head back and forth, finally ripping it off after about twenty seconds.
All
the attackers were being killed. Instantly and without trial.

Zack was good with that, since they'd wanted to kill him personally and weren't even smart enough to just walk up to him and
do
it. Any of them could have, and he would have simply
died
if they did it right. It was a thing he didn't point out, but he did manage to wave to one of the other Shifters, of a kind that he couldn't really identify, and got them to run over. It was a homely woman, but she was fit and hard, like they all were.

"Hale? Crap! Medic! We need the medic over here!" She knew what to do, and whatever else she was, got right to it, pushing him out of the way after she pulled a strange looking pad from her waist.

'Bitch.' Mirror Him said it without heat or seeming upset, so Zack realized it wasn't about calling her names, just that she was some kind of canine Shifter. True, he could have just
said
that, but it was MH, so only so much could be expected.

He carefully stood up, still behind the planter, in case hiding was needed again, ready to drop to the ground without hesitation, but no one tried to kill him or anything. In fact, all that happened was the wounded being tended to and the hostages being taken to one of the exits that the mercenaries had created in the wall.

A tough looking man that seemed to be in his forties and looked like he had enough muscle for both of them, if only he'd be willing to share, called out to everyone, not seeming to care who heard him.

"The local's are in. We need to get out of here... Except we're surrounded. We might have to fight our way out." The voice was familiar at least, being the guy from the phone.

Zack picked a likely looking shop, which seemed to sell soap products and baskets, but had a good line of sight back to the Node.

"Um... Right... Evacuation. Vaughn, can you get your people to help move the wounded? Branson, we don't have time to teach you all what to do, so get with the Vamps. I'll get us out of here." If they had time.

The first problem he realized, was that there was a sensitive trap on the Node. The room it was in was used for actual storage and had boxes and baskets all over the place, which, he realized, probably meant it was run by a powerful group, since they got the Node points as a rule, but one that was never planning to use it. He started to move things out of the way, but it was taking too long, so the Hispanic Vampire picked him up and deposited him out of the way and did it herself.

"Tell me what we're doing?"

"Uh..." He outlined the point in the air, which was about seven feet across in a circle. Higher than that too. "This space needs to be clear and a line, for people to get through."

She did not take long about getting it done, or complain that it was beneath her or anything like that. She also didn't take the time to be tidy about it, just throwing and kicking things out of the way. Before anyone came in to see about the trap, she had it ready. Then, looking at the machine guns on their stands, she just
moved
, and turned them to point at the far wall, taking a single bullet in the process. He wasn't certain, but Zack thought that one would have hit him if she hadn't moved in front of him in time. Protecting him with her own body.

"What else?"

That involved Vaughn, who started grabbing two people at once, which meant Zack had to take his arm to get it done. It couldn't have been comfortable for anyone, but the Hispanic woman laughed. He saw it on the way back into the room.

"
Damn
. I don't suppose you two do parties?" It was impressed sounding, so Zack didn't bother to worry about what she really meant.