Nightfall – Chapter 3.Melissa stepped out of the grey Ford and ensured her Beretta 92 was well hidden beneath her shirt. Behind her, Zhuang Ying turned off the ignition and Shu Hui filled her Glock’s magazine.
“You know, I still think you two shouldn’t return to fighting right after Su Hui deemed you fit to fight again.”
“Who cares? We have a mission. Our health can come later.” Shu Hui grinned.
Zhuang Ying ignored her two teammates and zeroed in on the relatively big building. With steady footsteps she entered through the huge glass doors. Melissa and Shu Hui followed after.
The effect was instantaneous.
A sense of dread hung in the air. Dim lights added to the eeriness of the room. Even though classy furniture filled the room, just by being there, Zhuang Ying could feel Death staring down on her. In one corner stood two pure vampires. One of them turned to face the slender vampire and scowled.
“Who the hell are you?”
Zhuang Ying’s response was a silver bullet to his face.
--
“What?!”
“If they don’t do it now, they’ll have to do it sooner or later. Someone is bound to survive and report what happened.”
Su Hui slammed her forehead on her desk. “Didn’t I tell you to give them simple missions since two of their members only recovered three days ago? Why the hell did you send them after the Leader?” she groaned.
Chun Zi sighed. “Sacrifices must be made. If you want to track down the Leader, you must be prepared to lose some hunters.”
“She’s right.” Shu Xian shrugged. “No pain, no gain. Since Zhuang Ying’s team is specialised in exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses, they’re the best choice. Once they return, they’ll give us a detailed report on the flaws of the Leader’s army.”
Angered, the usually calm medic lost her temper and slammed her fist down on her desk. “What if they don’t make it?”
“Then we send another team.” Chun Zi replied calmly.
“What the fuck do you see them as? Pawns? Stepping stones to get to the Leader? The hunters are out there risking life and limb just to hunt her down!”
“Exactly. It’s their job. It’s all part and parcel of their jobs as hunters.” Shu Xian pushed her hair behind her ear. “They know very well that as hunters, they might just die if they aren’t careful. We should feel glad that our hunters take their jobs seriously.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” See Min hissed. “The last time I checked, the hunters are our own friends. We promised to stick together through thick and thin, no matter what.”
“If you really treat them as your friends,” Chun Zi glared at the medics. “You would believe in their abilities.”
“I do believe in theirs. I just don’t believe in yours anymore.” With that, the two medics walked out and slammed the door behind them.
Shu Xian sighed and looked out the window. Chun Zi shook her head and just buried her face in her hands.
“So much for standing by one another.”
--
Carson fixed his gaze on the road before him. Turning the black Honda into another junction, he grit his teeth as he listened to his teammates bicker in the backseat of the car.
“A date won’t kill you!”
“You suck!”
“Is that an offer?”
“Drop dead!”
“On you? My pleasure!”
“Look, will the two of you just shut up?!” Carson hollered as he glared at Larry and Evelyn through the rearview mirror. Slamming angrily on the accelerator, he spun the car into a dark alley and parked it, much to the dismay of his teammates.
“This is where we get out. If you two even say anything unrelated to this mission, I’m going to get the medics to inject you with petrol.”
Evelyn and Larry immediately kept quiet. Team 3 entered the large building, opting to climb the stairs instead of taking the lift like Team 2.
Upon reaching the third floor, they exited in silence, Evelyn shooting at any vampire that got in their way. Once they reached the end of the dimly lit corridor, all three filled their guns with rounds and kicked open the door to the Leader’s second-in-command’s office.
--
“I understand you’re pissed, but trying to suck the coffee machine dry isn’t going to work.” Valerie grumbled, her eyes following Su Hui to the coffee machine for the fourteenth time.
“I don’t know them anymore,” Su Hui snarled as she gulped down a mug of steaming hot coffee. “What made me angry is that they obviously don’t treat the hunters as friends anymore. They treat us like pawns.”
“Maybe they just have a superiority complex,” Xia Yu quipped. “You shouldn’t drink too much coffee you know. You’re going to need tons of breath mints later.”
“So be it.”
“And your tongue’s turning all black and gritty.” Valerie picked up her Beretta 92. “Was Shi Chun aware of their decision?”
“I don’t know. She wasn’t in the office.” Su Hui hissed. “I’d hate to imagine her reaction when she finds out.”
Outside Team 1’s door, aforementioned vampire overheard the whole conversation and slammed the door open.
“Shit.” Xia Yu muttered.
“They didn’t tell me.” Shi Chun spat. “They didn’t tell me a single thing. This is plain ridiculous.”
Su Hui nodded vigorously. She slammed her fist against the wall.
“This group was set up based on our friendship. As one of the founding members, I’m not going to let this slide without an explanation. I’m going to protect the vampire hunters with my life, or die trying.”
Valerie threw her gun across the room in fury.
--
Team 2 made their way cautiously down the dimly lit corridor. Shu Hui shuddered as a rat scuttled across her feet and ran a few steps ahead. Melissa slowly retrieved her Beretta 92 from its holster under her shirt and wielded it.
“Do you think we’re lost?”
“Probably. Just note down whatever you can find and commit it to your memory, okay? We’ll find a way to get out.” Zhuang Ying smiled. She took out a dagger from her jeans pocket and tensed.
Melissa’s grip on her gun tightened.
A bullet flew past Zhuang Ying and hit the end of the corridor. The slender vampire spun around and deflected several other rounds with her dagger before nodding to her other two teammates. Forcing yellow into her eyes, she sped towards the source of the bullets. Even with her senses heightened, it was hard for her to see through the darkness.
Melissa held on to her gun and leapt onto a wall, using her claws to keep herself there. She swung her arm to aim at the darkness, taking extra care not to hit Zhuang Ying, and fired at moving figures in the darkness. Shu Hui deflected incoming bullets for Melissa with a dagger and prayed for Zhuang Ying, looking the other way for bullets just in case.
The bullets stopped abruptly.
Zhuang Ying returned to her teammates with a confused look on her face. “Any bullets coming from the other end?”
“No. This is odd. Why aren’t they showing themselves?” Melissa detached herself from the wall and frowned. “I didn’t hear anyone screaming, so I couldn’t have killed them.”
As if to respond to her question, a silver bullet slammed into Zhuang Ying’s back, knocking her to the ground.
Shu Hui screamed.
The vampire had started to bleed ash from her gunshot wound and was slowly disintegrating into dust. Shoving her Desert Eagle weakly towards Melissa, Zhuang Ying’s eyes glazed over and the yellow faded.
“Run.”
Melissa froze. “No. We can’t abandon you.”
“I said, run.” Zhuang Ying insisted weakly. Her vision was starting to fade and her head throbbed.
“No, we won’t, come on, get up.” Shu Hui’s eyes welled up with tears and she shook her head. She reached over to touch Zhuang Ying’s arm and it immediately crumbled into ash. The woman scooped up the disintegrating ash and placed it in her pocket.
“Run, I’ll be fine.” A shadow of a smile tugged at the brunette’s pale lips. “They’ll get you if you don’t escape.”
She watched her teammates turn around reluctantly and sprint down the corridor with her Desert Eagle. It was fine with her anyway. She would wake up in the morning and everything would be peachy-keen, See Min would help her with her injuries and her precious handgun would be back with her. Yes, everything would be fine. She would live through this, she thought as her body fell slowly but surely to ashes.
After all, her guardian angel would protect her, wouldn’t it?
--
Team 3 made their way calmly over the pool of ash that lay around their feet, taking great care not to step on any stray ash. They didn’t like stepping on ash. To them, it was like stepping on corpses.
Once they had exited the building, Carson spotted a familiar grey Ford out the corner of his eye. He found it remotely puzzling that Team 2 hadn’t left the building yet.
Melissa and a sobbing Shu Hui promptly ran out of the building towards them. Team 1 held their breath and waited for Zhuang Ying to come out.
She didn’t.
“Zhuang Ying’s just held back, right?” Evelyn asked nervously as she tugged at Larry’s sleeve. He just closed his eyes.
“She’s gone,” Shu Hui sobbed. “She’s gone. Someone shot her, she told us to run. She’s gone.” Collapsing to the ground, the woman continued to weep. Melissa made no move to help her teammate up. She just stared blankly into the distance.
Carson nodded to Larry and both men opened the boot of the black Honda. Wordlessly, Larry extracted a power-drill and a hammer while Carson took out a fairly large box.
“What’s that?”
“You’ll see. Go get some rocks or matches.”
Larry approached the building and after scrutinising the structure, selected a large pillar. Using the hammer, he swung it against the pillar hard enough to create some rather big cracks. The vampire fixed the power-drill with a silencer and drilled a hole the size of two fists into the wall. Calmly, he did the same for three other pillars and beckoned for Carson to go over.
Carson opened the box.
Team 2 gasped. Evelyn just watched on dispassionately.
In the box were piles and piles of home-made explosives. Carson carefully linked the explosives together using some rope and placed a pair of dynamite sticks in each drilled hole. Extending the rope as much as possible, he placed the end of the string near the Honda and replaced the box of explosives in the boot.
“Get in the car.” Larry ordered and sat in the front-passenger seat, tossing his hammer and power-drill into the car. Carson followed and started the ignition.
“What?”
“Get in the car. Evelyn will finish the job.”
Melissa and Shu Hui obliged while Evelyn produced a box of matches. She lit a match and hurriedly got into the car along with them before winding down her car window. The human dropped the lit match at the end of the rope and wound up her window.
“Drive.”
Carson stepped on the accelerator and sped away quickly. Something dawned upon Shu Hui and she demanded, “What about the Ford? And what about the rest of Zhuang Ying’s” –it hurt to say it- “Ashes?”
“You have to learn to let go,” the tanned human sighed. “As for the car, fuck it.” He slammed on the accelerator and brought the meter up to 180km/h. Tires squealing, the car turned and screamed down the road.
Less than four seconds later, the dynamite exploded and the building burst into flames, collapsing just a mere 500 metres behind them.
--
“You exploded a building.” Su Hui stared.
“Err, yeah.” Evelyn smiled sheepishly.
“You exploded the Leader’s building.” Su Hui continued.
“That’s right.”
“Were there any people around except for you and her army?”
“No. We’re sure of that.”
“Well done.”
See Min just laughed and tended to any injuries the hunters might have had. Valerie noticed Shu Hui’s red eyes and went over to rub her back.
“What happened?” She asked gently.
“Zhuang Ying’s gone.” Shu Hui answered numbly. The room fell silent. She reached into her pocket and retrieved some of Zhuang Ying’s ashes. “This is all we have left of her. And her Desert Eagle.” She placed the gun in Valerie’s hands.
Quietly, Valerie put the gun away in a box and the ashes in a small urn while the hunters watched. Walking over to a high shelf, she placed the urn and box on there and closed her eyes. The hunters followed.
Rest in peace, Zhuang Ying.Tension between the researchers and medics was heavy that night.
--End of Chapter 3—-------------------------------------
Author's note is not present because the author is busy running from Zhuang Ying's fans.