The Crucivire

Chapter Twenty Seven: Undead Warfare

Director Farrow tapped several buttons on an intercom from his desk before grabbing a key from one of the drawers.

"All personnel! We're under attack, and the security system isn't responding!"

"Wagner here, is it vampires?" the captain's voice asked over the intercom.

"Footage is showing a new variant we haven't seen before," said Farrow, looking at the footage from his computer. "They're outright ignoring our sensory overload weapons. I want officers with manual override keys at the door to each floor now!"

He heard a series of affirmatives as he opened up a panel on his desk, revealing a keyhole. Suddenly, another voice interjected.

"Sir! The holy water tank has been defiled!"

Farrow paused just as he'd inserted the key into his desk. The keyhole in his desk was marked, 'Holy Water Rain,' and was connected to the sprinkler system. If the water in that tank was defiled...

"What happened?"

"It was Agent Swann, Sir. She killed herself and let her body fall into the tank."

Farrow felt his blood run cold. Agent Swann? A traitor? Was it her that compromised the security system? That was a question for later.

"Agent Danner," said Farrow. "If you're still alive, I want a status update."

###

Within the mansion above the facility, a group of agents fired their weapons, held up at the end of the hall with a door and the elevator behind them. By the door, another agent had taken a panel off the wall and was trying to rewire the controls. At the other end of the hall, a seemingly endless supply of defiled vampires snarled as they ran forward. No matter how many seemed to fall to their bullets, more would run in to take their place.

"This is Agent Galloway," he said. "Agents Danner and Harlow are dead. We couldn't retrieve the manual override keys from their bodies. It all happened so fast, but a few of us are held up in front of the Stairs and the Elevators. Agent Jones is trying to hotwire the locks. We'll hold them off as long as we can, but we could really use some backup."

The hunters kept firing at the shrieking beasts. But then, after a moment, the defiled stopped attacking, hiding around the corner. The hunters seemed to have the advantage for a moment as the defiled hid around corners.

Further back, Lord Victor Sorenson stood, his army of normal vampires staying back as well. The Elder Vampire looked to his side where a figure stood that the other vampires hadn't even noticed. This person was shrouded in darkness, becoming nearly invisible as he stood in the shadows. Lord Victor could barely see this man and the red eyed raven that sat on his shoulder.

"You know what to do, Walter," said Victor.

Walter the Warlock nodded, and from beneath his feet his shadow began to grow.

The Night hunters kept their guns up even as the hunter behind them kept working on the door. A moment, later, they heard the glass shattering. Watching carefully, they suddenly saw the hallway in the distance grow dark, the lights in the roof breaking. More lights went out, and soon the hunters could see some sort of shadow creeping across the ceiling, breaking every light it touched.

"Flashlights!" cried Galloway.

The hunters activated their flashlights just as the shadow crept over them, the final light going out. For a moment, they were still, their flashlights showing no movement in the dark hallway. Little did they know, however, that the shadow that had knocked out the lights was now creeping across the floor and up their bodies. Panic began to set in when the first flashlight broke. As more flashlights popped, the hallway became darker and darker, until the final one burst and plunged the hunters into total darkness.