I need to help her. Somehow. Get her out of here and heal her.
As I’m figuring out what to do, I hear what sounds like approaching footsteps coming from behind me. I whirl around and scan the black land and rocks behind me, but I don’t see anything. Still, I’m running out of time. Vampires will be here soon, especially when they catch the scent of blood.
“Maci, can you move at all?” I ask, gently trying to help her turn over.
“I think so, but I need some help. It hurts.” She’s on the verge of tears.
“Hold on, okay… I’m going to roll you over, but you need to try and be quiet. Don’t scream.” She nods and then I place my hands under her arms and vigilantly roll her to the side.
She bites down on her lip and winces, stopping herself from crying out as the pain gets to her. I can smell the blood and it worries me, especially because she has more wounds than I thought. There’s a large gash across her forehead that looks fairly deep, blood is streaming down her cheek. I rip a piece of fabric from the bottom of my shirt and tie it around her head to try and slow the bleeding down. Then I unwrap my jacket from around my waist and gently wrap her broken arm with it. I take the sleeves of the jacket and loop them around her neck then tie them in the back, securing her arm against her chest.
Her eyes start to drift shut. That worries me as well.
“Maci, you need to keep your eyes open,” I say. She blinks at me. “We need to find a way to get you out of here…” I look for the best way out. Vampires have emerged and are crossing the land. Everywhere. There’s only one option and that’s up. Dammit. “Maci, you’re going to have to climb onto my back and hold onto me with one arm, so we can get out of here. We’re going to have to hurry, okay?” I’m not even sure she can do it, but I have to try.
She nods and I turn around, putting my back towards her. She reaches around my neck with her good arm and grasps onto me, her grip weak.
“Now make sure you hold on tight, okay?” I sense how scared she is and how much pain she’s in. I can also feel her starting to fade. I put my hands behind my back so I can hold onto her legs then freeze when I see movement in front of us.
A group of vampires, salivating from the mouth and bleeding from the eyes, creep out of the shadows of the rocks around us. Their flesh is peeling, their eyes hungry as they snap their teeth, surrounding us. I need to get out of here. Now.
“Hold on tightly,” I tell Maci and then, with one swift spring on my toes, I launch myself onto the rock, only letting her go at the last second.
She grips onto me, but I can feel her grip loosening as her arm begins to slide from around my neck. I dig one set of my fingers deep into the rock, feeling it scrape at my flesh, but I don't feel pain since I quickly heal. Then I push my boots against the surface, baring my weight on them, before I move my other arm around my back to hold onto her legs tightly. The vampires shriek, overlapping the sounds of thudding as they ram their bodies against the cliff side. One of their teeth grazes my boots and I lose my balance. We start to slip back down the hill, however I plunge my fingers and toes deeper into the rock and manage to get us to a stop just before we reach the vampires. I begin to scale up again when one of their rotten hands wraps around my ankle. I slam my boot into its face, but it continues to keep hold of me, dragging me downward, sniffing the air with the scent of Maci’s blood. It won’t let go.
I search frantically for an escape; some way out of this where they won’t devour Maci. There’s a lip on the rock nearby and I start to claw sideways towards it, while the vampire works to pull me down, using my body like a tug-o-war rope, but I get my top half over there.
“Maci, climb on it,” I shout.
She shakes her head, holding onto me tighter. “No, I’m too scared.”
The vampire jerks on my leg again, but I keep ahold of the rock. “Maci, please. I know your brave and I need you to do this for me, otherwise this is going to end badly.”
She pauses then I feel her hold loosen. She shifts and begins rolling onto the lip. I hear her groan, but I don’t have time to see if she’s okay. It’s time to kill, so I let go.
Falling into the midst of the howls and decaying flesh, I land gracefully on my feet, and with one swift movement, I retrieve Nichelle’s knife that she’s given me. I waste no time, slicing the face of the first one I come across. It howls out into the night and then the rest of them start to hover away, my scent frightening them as they deliberate whether to flee or feed. They inhale the air, blood dripping from their wounds. Their backs are hunched over and one of them dares to take a nip at me. I realize the scent of Maci’s blood is overriding their fear, and without much more hesitation, they charge.
Their eyes bleed as they snap their jaws at me. A rounded, tall one with bulging eyes dives at me with its teeth out. I drop kick it in the face effortlessly and slam it into the ground, quickly sticking my knife into its body. It explodes into dust. The other ones are hesitant again as they watch. I bare my fangs, snapping my teeth at them. They pace around me as I spin in a circle with the knife out in front of me. Then they start to cower back towards the sand stretching across the land which is blanketed with darkness.
I start to relax when Maci’s scream pierces the night. I quickly spin around and look up. Two vampires are mere inches away from her, crawling up the side, heading towards the lip in the cliff. I sprint over to the cliff and, with a spring, lunge upward, crashing into one of them. Holding onto their back, I reach around as it bites at me and plunge the knife into its chest. It bursts into dust and I quickly reach out to grab hold of the cliff’s side as the other one continues to scale up towards Maci. I grab hold of its foot and jerk on its leg, forcing it downward. Then I let go and watch it fall and splatter against the rocks below.
I begin to breathe freely again when I notice shadows below me. At least a dozen vampires have returned. Blood rivers from their eyes and bits and pieces of flesh hang loosely off their bodies. They start to climb up the rock, filled with excitement as they stare at Maci. Drops of blood drip down from their mouths, dribbling from their chins as they focus solely on feeding. I use myself as a barricade in front of Maci as they swiftly reach us and then slash one by one with the knife, cutting flesh, nicking bone, spilling blood.
I try to protect her, but slowly, I begin to become overrun by them. They’re everywhere. It seems as if there is no end to them. I continue to hold my knife, though, stabbing each of them in their hearts, spreading dust everywhere, refusing to go down without a fight. Their teeth nip toward my body, trying to rip into my flesh, but they always pull away at the last second when they get a whiff of my scent. I throw my leg out and push them back, watching them stumble over each other as they fall to the ground, yet more keep coming up; climbing and climbing, hungry, seeking blood.