By One Drop of Blood

Part 5

A fist is jamming on the wooden wall.

"Sir, we need to go! There are more guards coming this way!"

Before I could access the situation bullets hit into the wooden walls. Indistinctly all the people inside the barn drop to the ground. They must have experienced this before.

"Please stay alive. We will fight of the guards and all of you got the chance to escape. The northern states will grand you freedom."

I shoot the chain that was hindering us at first. Stepping outside the barn I get a view of the battle that has ensued. The guards were holding torches which they dropped to the ground in order to avoid being so easily spotted. Of course they did not extinguished the torches which caused fire to spread over the fields. Soon after the whole plantation is set alight by the burning plants. Because of the high spiking flames sight is very much reduced. As the men and I begin our approach on the opposing forces the former slaves leave the barn to escape into the night. We advance alongside the not burning fields into the direction of the flames. Once in a while a bullet is fired in our direction. The guards are also on the offence and appear before the bright burning flames. As trained soldiers we are clearly superior even against a larger group. Bullets hit into bodies. As we reach the edge of the burning plants we had taken down eight men. Behind the flames every other guard will be waiting for us. Before we could form a plan on how we want to proceed figures holding axes dash right through the flames. The mad men doing this are the guards. Catching fire themselves these men jump right between us and start swinging. No sane man would catch himself on fire just to fend of some intruders. To no surprise the burning men find their ends in front of a rifle barrel. Stepping over the burning bodies we take the only route that is not consumed by the flames. The main route leading to the mansion is not on fire but therefore covered with guards. The flames burn high but eat away on any visual cover that the crops grant us. I did not notice it up until now but the guards did not drop their torches out of sheer carelessness. Two barns we still had to advance to had also been set on fire. The people inside are screaming over the sound of burning and breaking wood. I guess they got the orders to throw everything to waste to prevent any investigations. They would have never burned down all the plants and murdered all their workforce just to fend of some robbers or whatever we could have been. The only reason for destroying the very livestock and resources that ensures the economic prosperity of the plantation is to destroy evidence. We can not stop the fire from spreading any more and the people inside the barns are doomed but we can pursuit the guards and who is giving them orders. The mansion is still standing and not likely to be destroyed due to the master residing there. Screams echo from the barns over the open fields. The people there find their ends with us unable to even safe them. We were able to free around ten people from the first barn but that fact does not comforts compared to the many lives that are inevitably lost. We must ascend further towards the mansion! Taking out one guard at the time

The last guardsman drops to the ground after being hit with a bullet right to the chest. He does not scream in pain or role on the ground in agony. He is resting on the stairs to the balcony. Blood already dropping from his mouth he looks up to us.

"Tell me, What is it that is giving you orders?" Other than blood nothing is coming from the guards mouth, tainting the scarf around his face. I reach down for him ripping away the cloth. All guards are dead by now. His face mangled and deformed and his eyes bloated he lays on the stairs as if he had died several days ago but he just found his end seconds ago. The blood from his mouth is already stained. This man is no normal human. He was already a walking corpse when we arrived on the plantation. A vampire has turned the men into ghouls giving them the job of guarding him. Once the masks and hats are dropped the injuries become clear that reveal the influence of a vampire. Bite marks on the neck, still open wounds that will not heal. The process of decomposition is already going. Ghouls possess no long lifespan. Combined with the humid air the decay unfolds even faster. Not only the people forced to work on this plantation have been subjected to be slaves but also the very collaboratives that agreed to work for the master vampire who took their humanity in order to extract the very last drop of blood their could have been willing to give at this job. The only destination left is the mansion. Inside it must be the vampire that has enslaved this many humans both slaves and free men alike. At last we got enough evidence to pursuit the mansion to the fullest. The vampire has already taken over a hundred lives even before we could take up a fight. I order the men to get some materials ready to burn the mansion to the ground as soon as we encounter the vampire.