Were Inc Uncaged

the cottage. The lights of their rifles met and quickly, they slightly lowered their weapons just enough to be able to see each other’s faces. They stood in a rather large bedroom with clearly unstable furniture, a table stood at the foot of a bed, a worn vanity table rested at the head of the bed with a dull duck egg colour of paint on the walls and a gaping hole in the floor many feet away from the bed, but perhaps most importantly, there was a woman lying face down on the bed, half naked and as pale as moonlight.

“Sergeant, are you seeing this?” he tried to shout over the screaming.

“I can only see you and Marie; the only other heat signature is underneath you,” she replied with her rifle fixed on her captain.

He sighed and approached the bed. Corporal Knightley stood back with her rifle at the ready.

He approached the woman to feel her pulse, keeping his left hand on his weapon, he lowered his rifle to his side, reaching out with his right hand to feel her pulse; but there was no pulse, he sighed heavily and looked back to Corporal Knightley shaking his head. When he took his hand away from the woman, her eyes quickly opened and her head spun to face him, her stare was so intense. Captain Quis Podex was shocked into momentary uncertainty; he didn’t know what to do! The woman suddenly seemed to come to life, springing from the bed, knocking Captain Quis Podex back onto the table at the end of the bed. He crashed through the table, breaking the legs into dangerous chunks, he tried to get back to his feet when the woman shoved Corporal Knightley into the vanity table then leapt onto Captain Quis Podex, pushing him back down onto one of the broken legs of the table that ran straight through his shoulder and into the woman’s breast penetrating her heart. Corporal Knightley and Captain Quis Podex watched as the woman let out a darting screech and began to harden and crumble like embers of a dying fire. The ash coated both Captain Quis Podex and a large section of the bedroom floor.

“Hang in there, Captain,” Corporal Knightley ordered as she got her field medical kit from her backpack.

“Sergeant, the captain’s wounded badly, we need to secure this location until I can move him. Do you copy?” Corporal Knightley asked over the communication link.

“Copy, moving in, on your six,” replied Sergeant Devonne, leaving her raised post and entering the cottage as quickly as she could.

Corporal Knightley wouldn’t be able to apply a permanent fix to her Captain, but it would be enough to tie him over until she had more time to examine the wound and treat him accordingly.

“I switched to CC (closed camera) viewer, I saw the end of the attack. Was that a goddamn vampire?” Sergeant Devonne bellowed coinciding with the scream dying down to nothing!

Captain Quis Podex struggled to stand firmly on his own; he took a deep breath as he could then pulled the wooden chunk through his shoulder slamming it to the ground, falling to the bed in a seated position, allowing Corporal Knightley to complete her patch up.

“Get used to it, you’ll be seeing a lot more of that strange crap before we’re done here,” replied Captain Quis Podex with hate dripping from each word he spoke.

“Sergeant, secure the cottage. We’re going to be here for a while. Corporal, watch that hole, we don’t know what’s down there, I want no more surprises,” he ordered.

“I’m going to give you something for the pain, hold still,” Corporal Knightley explained, giving her Captain an injection. Within moments, he was asleep and resting soundly.

“Will he be okay?” asked Sergeant Devonne.

“He’s lost a lot of blood, but he’ll pull through. He just needs to rest a while, the sedative should have him asleep for an hour maybe less,” Corporal Knightley replied, helping her captain lay down on the bed.

“I’ll get myself out of sight and secure the cottage,” Sergeant Devonne told Corporal Knightley, turning her visualiser back to the thermal vision setting then left the cottage through the back door.

It was less than an hour before Captain Quis Podex woke with a groan.

“How long have I been out?” he asked, unsure if it was Corporal Knightley or Sergeant Devonne watching over him.

“Roughly thirty-seven minutes, Sergeant Devonne is aloft. The screaming has been continuing on and off,” Corporal Knightley told him, bringing him to date on what happened while he slept. He lifted himself up, taking his rifle from the bed.

“Stand ready, I’ll be back in five,” he instructed then jumped into the hole, he didn’t allow Corporal Knightley time to argue with him.

“Dam it, Sergeant. The captain’s on his feet, get ready to move,” Corporal Knightley announced but Sergeant Devonne didn’t respond.

Corporal Knightley made her way to the front of the cottage hoping she could see Sergeant Devonne. Instead, she saw a small group of well-dressed (dressed in Victorian clothing) men dredging through the marsh lands, one of them was dragging a large burlap sack behind him.

Underneath the cottage, lay a well-walked tunnel, light by only by a single dull oil lamp. At the end of the tunnel, Captain Quis Podex could just about see the shape of red hangings, but he couldn’t see anyone. He lifted his rifle ready for combat as he crisscrossed his steps reaching the end of the tunnel. As he was about to take his first step out of the tunnel and into the room, a shadow whizzed by its end! It was quick, but he could just about see whatever it was that cast the shadow was large and imposing, so much so, he thought he needed something bigger to bring down whatever that was; his rifle just wasn’t going to get the job done.

He stood at the end of the tunnel and took a deep breath to steady his aim then sharply stood out looking left and