Red Serpent: The Falsifier (27 page)

The transport ship diverged towards the Vatican library, deploying a hundred fighters in the air. The fighters circled around the clouds way above the Vatican. The transport silently sped down into the forest and hovered three feet off the ground. The three Generals dropped down along with their men.

The Vatican was completely different from what it had been in Pre-WWIII times. Long ago, it had been the home of the leader of the second largest religious group on the planet. Now it was an impenetrable fortress where the ancient secrets of the vampires were hidden. Access remained granted only to Erik, Daniel, and the Elder Council. The Library itself was a large, square building, about ten stories tall and gray in color. To look at, there was nothing extraordinary about it. The most striking thing was the heavy security around it. There were electric fences and barbed walls around its perimeter, and heavily armored guards stood patrol 24/7. In total there were three hundred guards. Another one hundred guards stood fifteen feet in front of them. Since most of Europe was now full of forests hiding secret buildings, this library, far from the original spot of the Vatican and Rome, remained hidden in the enveloping shadows of the trees. Places like Rome, London, and New York were full of metal, iron and glass. They were inhabited by millions of people who ran the economy of the Vampire Confederation.

Singh, Nakashima, Chang and their troops hid in the forest, behind trees and bushes. Through his communicator, Singh whispered, “Wait for my command. When one of them comes close to the forest, shoot him down. We don’t need any silencer; let it be as loud as possible so we can distract the majority of them. Once that’s done, move towards the central gate and we’ll ambush them. If we’re lucky, they’ll move inside the forest to investigate and that will give us a better chance of getting in quickly. All we can now do is wait.”

Meanwhile, the fighters, still hidden by the dark clouds below them, waited for the command to strike.

*****

The splattering rain created deafening, rapid sounds as the fighters descended faster to get a better view of the giant base. Already, the prescribed units for John and Richard scurried about as their transport hovered above the slippery surface and ran towards the entrance.

Colonel Justus for now took charge of the men sent for John and Richard. He ran fully armed, blinking frequently under the rain as he led his men. The entire platoon activated their protective lenses to shield their eyes from the water. He turned on the communicator and tuned in to John’s frequency. “General Howe,” he said, “I have the reinforcements with me.” Stopping four meters short of the entrance, he glimpsed around the place to see if there was any danger. There were only the remains of the massacre where the ground was black with ashen rainwater. “Tell me what to do.”

All he could hear were explosions, John’s shouts and the clash of metal as he slung his sword around. “Level five.” The frequency jammed up.

“Come on!” Justus yelled and they marched towards the entrance of the base. When he reached the threshold, he narrowly missed a beheading when a large axe flew by him, scraping his chin. “Attack!” was the only word that came out of his mouth as he stood there in shock. The soldiers used flares to light the now darkened room and saw that hundreds of vampires, all sticking to the walls, in order to create an ambush, were glaring at them with fiery eyes, baring their long fangs, and hissing spitefully.

The vampires flew off the walls and glided towards the soldiers, knocking them down and pushing them off-guard. The ones still standing grabbed their semi-automatic silver proton Uzis and fired at their enemies. As the vampires flew down for a second attack, they were caught in the fire and disintegrated. Those who were lucky enough to survive fell to the floor. They ran at lightning speed, dodging the bullets and attacked those who were reloading. They grabbed a hold of them, ripped off their helmets and dug their fangs deep into their necks, feasting on what must have seemed to them like ambrosia. It had been so long since any of them tasted human blood. The sacred life-fluid splattered across the floor as they gorged on their prey.

The surviving humans screamed in fear and disgust and ran back from the carnage, gathering their will and strength. Many of them had never seen such gruesome acts. Some of them were frozen in shock. They fell prey to the second bloody assault, not able to hear Justus’s commands to back away.

“We need to fight together! Group up! Fast!” he shouted. Some of them were too horrified to react. The ones who could gave heed to his command and grouped into a giant dense circle as the powerful vampires, now filled with a fresh supply of life-blood, flew around them.

“Justus, where the hell are you?” John’s voice blasted through Justus’s earpiece.

“We’re in a bit of a situation, sir.”

Romsky split ways with Hopkinson and took a transport tanker to the southwest coast of the British Isle. He wiped the condensation from the window. As the ship came closer to the ground, he saw at least a thousand soldiers marching towards the Command Center in the Atlantic. He sent an urgent report to the War Council, where the seven other generals were taking in messages and sending out commands. The seven generals who were assigned to this were Strauss, Smith, Wellington, Kenmore, Park, Hussein, Lawler, Anderson, Skarssen, Di-Nardo, Huron, Jackson, and Xiu. Lawler was the one who received this printed report, “By God!” he exclaimed, “We’re going to need more men,” he told his comrades.

“Well, how many more, and where?” asked Wellington, moving his office chair around.

“Romsky says that he can see at least a thousand in Britain, so he suggests sending another five hundred to himself and Hopkinson in North Africa.” Wellington’s balding head gleamed with sweat at the mention of the numbers he had deducted from the previous reports.

“Where exactly in Northern Africa?” Wellington asked. He turned on his communicator and switched to Hopkinson’s frequency. He could hear lots of gunfire and screams. “General, can you hear me?”

Hopkinson was in the middle of a duel with a vampire who was using double swords. The swords swung in such a quick rhythmic fashion that if he flinched for a second he would have his head cut off. “Abe? Is that you?”

“Yes,” said the clear voice, “Listen to me carefully.”

“Yeah,” he dodged the vampire’s attack and backed off, “Tell me.”

“Sergei says there are at least a thousand or so enemies in Britain. He’s requested reinforcements. What about you?”

“Well we sure could use it, but not now. We had them by surprise here. Over and out!” he said and the line cut.

What George had said was true, because the vampires miscalculated that the human armies would attack cities mostly located in Europe. They hadn’t thought of Africa, particularly Morocco, where they were fighting now. Thanks to the surprise attack, the humans now had the advantage. The storm raged on, spreading across England and now Morocco. Overhead, they heard fighting in the air and sometimes a fighter would plummet to the battlefield, crushing people to death. This was getting risky on his end, George thought. Their fighters were doing well but the enemy ships could land on his troops at any time.

The only reason why fighting was taking place in Moroccan airspace was because they had been ordered to reach the Command Center in order to help out President Gareng and his troops. But the human fighters made it almost impossible for them to get through.

George screamed in pain as a vampire slashed his skin. He faltered and fell to his knees in pain. His enemy’s sword chopped through the air, aiming for George’s head, but before it arrived, George slashed sideways into the vampire’s knees. The vampire screamed as his legs burned to ashes. The fire spread up his body until it charred into dust, and flew away in the high wind.

The rain and the wet sandy ground made it difficult for them to walk, but as they advanced towards the enemy troops, their resolve strengthened with each step. There were sparks everywhere and the vampires all began to shriek in harmony making the humans cover their ears. The ones who could not handle the sound fell to the ground. The vampires devoured the fallen, five or six of them feasting on one body. “Ignore the noise!” Hopkinson yelled to his troops. But he too found it difficult as the sound pained his eardrums and the cold water pounded on his slashed skin. He used his anger to his advantage as he flung his sword in the air, whipping it round and round, killing as many as four to five vampires with each slash.

They were winning. So far.

Nikolas and the other Rebels stirred from their recuperation. As Nikolas opened his eyes, he saw the most remarkable thing. John, Richard, and Alex were fighting against Daniel, Erik and twenty soldiers. As Nick turned from his left to his right he saw all the Rebels staring at him. They nodded and he returned their greeting. All of them jumped up, transformed their bodies into silver and charged towards the battle.

At the sound of their battle cry, the two opposing sides stopped and looked. Both sides believed that the Rebels would come to their defense. In the midst of their charge, Nikolas stopped, and then the others did likewise. “What are you doing?” Daniel asked agitatedly, “Get them!”

Nikolas smiled and shook his head, “Did you think you could really trust us?” He paused to see Erik’s and Daniel’s confused faces. Daniel looked at him with a mixture of sadness, shock and disgust. Erik’s demonized face reddened in hot anger.

“It doesn’t matter now!” Erik yelled. “We have you surrounded. Activate the restrainers.” He pointed to the restraint belts.

The belts activated and electrified the Rebels’ silver bodies. They yelled in pain, their eyes bulged out and their faces contorted in excruciation. Alex slashed at Erik.

Erik blocked the massive silver sword and spat at Alex, “You can’t do anything boy!”

John jumped to Alex’s aid only to be stopped midair by Daniel, “What do you think you’re doing? We’re not finished yet!” He attacked John maintaining a rhythm with the swords. This was a fight method all vampires had learned to keep their opponents in check and to give them the upper hand by controlling the rhythm.

Alex looked to Erik, who kept attacking him. Then he looked to Nikolas and the Rebels. He pushed Erik back with all his strength and stepped closer to Nikolas. He held out his right hand and from the tips of his fingers came a small flash of electricity, like miniature lighting. In a few seconds, it grew, filling half of the room. The sparks converged to the restraints on the Rebels’ necks. The chokers blew apart, leaving the bearers unharmed. Suddenly, Alex felt a jolt of pain in his back as Erik had slashed it open. He screamed. John looked over to his nephew and yelled, “No!”

But, to everyone’s amazement, the huge cut in his back healed up. Alex smiled and turned around to face an awe-stricken Erik. He put out his right hand, extended his index finger and waved it, taunting and questioning the might of his opponent. Erik, in a fit of rage, flew towards Alex, who was off-guard at the moment, only to have the powerful attack blocked by Nikolas. “Learn to fight with those whom you can match!” He pushed him away in one powerful shove. “Alex, get out of here and take some of us with you.”

“But–”

“Just do it!”

One of the guards left his post. He walked into the forest to breathe in the pine scented air and light a cigarette. “Okay,” Ranjit murmured, “On my command.” And just as the vampire finished his cigarette, the General yelled, “Now!” There was a large explosion in the air, creating confusion amongst the guards. A non-silver bullet hit the guard with the cigarette in the head. “Troops, follow my lead,” said General Singh. They advanced towards the entrance of the gate at the edge of the forest. They would have to run as fast as they could because he and his men would be easily noticeable.

General Singh ran with his troops towards the entrance of the gate, but they were spotted and the guards shouted out to each other. They exposed their fangs and let out a hideous and unearthly howl. “Kurt, we need you! Now!” Singh shouted into his communicator. Within thirty seconds, the vampires attacked Singh’s army and the human fighters flew down and fired upon the Anisaei. Singh jabbed his sword into the unholy flesh of the vamps until fire and embers spurted out of their hellish bodies. As the large gates opened up to spew out more soldiers, Singh’s army pushed through the gate. He called for the ionic plasma bombs, which contained silver nitrate. Forty were thrown at a time, creating a large explosion of smoke and silver nitrate particles. When the vampires inhaled these particles they burst open spreading their glowing remains everywhere.

“Evan!” Ranjit shouted, “Evan! Stay with me.”

Evan, Ranjit’s lieutenant, answered, “I’m coming.” He rushed to Ranjit’s side, hacking away at the enemy and killing at least twenty of them in his stride.

“Keep those discs safe; we’re going to need them soon.”

*****

Alex stood in the elevator with seven of the Rebels: Davik, Joqetu, Gavin, Noel, Yagnik, Hektor, and Orwen. When they reached the main landing area, they saw the vampires feeding on human bodies. Blood spilled and flowed everywhere, making the ground shiny. Justus, along with his other men, battled it out with the vampires on the ground.

“Leave this to us, Alexander,” Orwen said.

“But—”

“Just get in the ship,” Orwen barked, “Davik, Gavin and Noel: you go with him.”

Justus, who spotted Alex amidst the bloodbath, said, “Don’t worry sir! I’m coming!” He had no idea that the others were Rebels.

“Wait! Wait!” Alex shouted, “They’re here to help!”

Justus stopped in his tracks and an expression of relief covered his face. Just then, a flying vampire grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him outside. Justus gasped. He gathered his senses and with his sword tried to literally disarm his predator. The vampire flew out of range. Suddenly thunder struck and pierced the vampire’s sensitive ears. The flying vampire let go of Justus who plummeted into the sea. Alex, quick to help, ran outside with the other Rebels, trying to catch him. But they were too late. Alex dived in the sea to save him.