Army of Humans and Monsters-The Book

Chapter 6

Suddenly, just as Jenkins was about to ask Bloodtooth more questions about their common history, a naga burst through the doors, panting, causing everyone to turn and look at him.

“Lieutenant Bloodtooth,” he said, gasping for breath. “I’ve just got some bad news. It’s about your niece.”

“Did that principal try to do something with her again?” Bloodtooth asked, with a low growl in her throat as she stood up. “I told him that I would kill him if he-”

“No, it’s not school related, and it’s even worse than that,” the naga said, drinking a glass of water that Tiny had placed next to him. “She was kidnapped and sold to that place on the corner of Forth Street and Harpy Drive.”

“Shit!” Bloodtooth said.

She then looked a centaur and said, “Master at Arms. Permission to-”

“Permission granted,” the centaur said, tossing her a set of keys. “Just don’t blow the whole place up this time. You remember what you did at the Dragon’s Den last week.”

“That bastard was lucky,” Bloodtooth said, with a deeper growl. “He should have known better than to call me a human lover, and eat the woman that I was talking with. He ought to be glad that it was his place of business that I blew up, and not him himself like I was thinking about.”

“Yah, but two hundred pounds was a little excessive, don’t you think?” (Master at Arms)

“Nope, it was an equivalent weight to that of the woman he ate.” (Bloodtooth)

“Well in that case, I’m limiting you to eighty pounds.” (Master at Arms)

“More than enough to cover my niece’s current weight thanks.” (Bloodtooth)

“Yah, and take as much guns and ammunition as you need. I hear that the place is owned by a lizard with a very thick skin.” (Master at Arms)

“And probably a thick head to. Hope you don’t mind me using some of those special bullets that you make.” (Bloodtooth)

“Just don’t try to use all of them.” (Master at Arms)

“In that case, thanks,” Bloodtooth said, as she quickly rushed through the door, pushing it, causing it to become eschewed.

Jenkins then turned to the man next to him and asked, “Where is she going?”

“To the armory,” the man, a vampire, said, sipping away at a cup of blood. “After that, she’ll go to the address, get her niece, as well as every other person owned by the place, pressgang a few of the patrons, threatening to kill those who don’t follow her orders, and injuring a few of them to make sure they get the message, and then, destroy the kitchen.”

“Why?” (Jenkins)

“That niece of hers is all the family that she has left. Her parents, and stepsister, got killed in a car crash, a few years back. That girl was the only survivor of the event, and Bloodtooth will do anything to keep her safe from harm, and I mean anything.” (Vampire officer)

“Well in that case,” Jenkins said. “I best go and help her, and make sure she doesn’t lose her head.”

“I’m with you on that, Uniter,” the other man said, getting up. “You best come with me, because I don’t think that she’s going to wait up for us.”

“Um, thanks,” Jenkins said, as he followed the man out of the room.

However, by the time the two had gotten to the armory, Bloodtooth was long gone.

“Damn,” the vampire said, as he picked up an open, and empty, box. “The Master at Arms will not be happy to see this.”

“What is it?” Jenkins asked.

“Bloodtooth got eighty pounds of explosives alright. HIGH explosives that is, Uniter. And if I know her, she has her K-bar, her Desert Eagle automatic pistol, her modified Colt revolver, and plenty of ammo for both of them. And if I know her still, she’ll shoot first, shoot second, shoot third, and then ask questions, and shoot some more, and then blow the place up.” (Vampire officer)

“What do you mean?” (Jenkins)


(The following is by the vampire officer)
“It’s her instincts, Uniter. If you are a member of her pack, as it were, it’s in her blood to protect you at all costs, including her own life. Trust me on that Uniter; we were once stranded in the desert, with no previsions, just me and her. Well, after a day without blood, a vampire will start to dry up, and shut down to hibernate until a live animal shows up, that they could feed off of. Well, she was in her human form, as black fur and desert do not mix too well, and she was also becoming dehydrated herself. Well, I had learned some vital information that command needed, before I’d been captured by this one group of insurgents, and she, all by herself, as she was the only person available, rescued me. She told me that I, at least, had to make it to base, and she ordered me to drink her dry. At first, I tried to refuse, but she insisted that it would be alright, and that she had no ill will towards me doing what was necessary. Well, when I refused still, she used my one instinct to make sure that I would, and using her claw, cut her neck. It was a small cut, no bigger than that of a paper cut, but it was enough to trigger the instinct for me to feed. Well, when a thirsty vampire smells blood, it will seek out the source of the blood and drain it dry. By the time that I was done, you would not have believed that that frail dried up corpse was the one people call ‘She Who Bloodies Her Teeth and Claws for Humans’, which was what the locals nicknamed her after she fought off a bunch of desert marauders, to save some nomadic humans that were camping near the base that we’d been stationed at, prior to my capture and subsequent rescue. Well, I couldn’t leave her there, so I carried her body, until I collapsed in sight of a patrol from our military. Well, when I woke up, I had an I.V. dripping blood into me, and I was soaking in a tub of blood as well. Now mind you, everyone on the base, from the guy that cleans the toilets, to a visiting general, each donated a portion to help me to become rehydrated. However, my concern was only for Bloodtooth, after all, I had drained her drier than a twig. Well obviously, the medic-mage was able to revive her, though she looked like someone who hadn’t eaten in a long time, when the medics put us in the same room, at first, but she soon filled out. After that, everyone on base called me, and still calls me, Wolfblood, because I have the blood of a wolf running through my veins.”

“Well speaking of calling people names, why is it that you keep calling me Uniter?” Jenkins asked. “My birth name is William Henry Jenkins the Forth.”

At this, the vampire, Wolfblood, looked at him and said, “Because you are of the blood of the one who united us, Uniter. Because of him, our country has the strongest fighting force in the world, because, ‘United and Working Together in Harmony, We’ll Stand; Divided and Eating Each Other, We’ll Fail,’ as he said to me when I saw him last year.”

Then Wolfblood looked at the weapons left on the shelves.

“Are you a good shot?” he asked, picking up an M-16 and some magazines, putting one into a slot on the rifle.

“Not really,” Jenkins said. “I’ve never even used a slingshot before.”

“In that case,” Wolfblood said, slinging his weapon on his shoulder. “A shotgun is your best friend right now.”

The man pulled a different looking gun off of the rack, and said, “This is a Mossberg 500, pump-action 12-gauge. It can have one shell in the chamber, and up to seven in the tube. After you pull the trigger, pull this part down to eject the empty shell, and push it back up to get a fresh one in the chamber.”

The man then pulled out three boxes, and set them on the table.

“Now watch how I load it. You put one here, and pull the slide up. Then you load the rest from the bottom. Now, let’s talk about your ammo. Your standard shotgun shell has what’s called birdshot, a bunch of small pellets that can scatter over a wide area. It will blow a hole through a dragon’s skin at three feet, but at a hundred feet, it won’t even make a human flinch. Next up is what’s known as buckshot, bigger pellets for bigger targets, but it won’t scatter as far. Its effective range is about three hundred feet. Finally, we have what is called a slug, which works the same way as a rifle bullet. This thing can put a hole through a dragon’s skull at four hundred yards, or one thousand two hundred feet. Now, I’m going to load this bad boy so it will fire three rounds of birdshot first, followed by three of the buckshot, and two slugs last. Now remember, the first shell you put in the tube is the last shell you shoot, with the last shell that you put into the tube being the second one that you shoot.” (Wolfblood)

With that, the man loaded the gun, and handed the leftover shells to Jenkins.

“Put these in your pockets Uniter,” he said. “It’s better to have too much ammo and not need it, than to need it and not have any. Trust me, that just so happens to be why I became a vampire. Ran out of ammo and got killed a few years back. Became one of the approximately fifteen percent that ends up turning into a vampire, when the medic-mage, who was tired, after a long day of his own, tried to revive me. I nearly drained him until another managed to immobilize me. After a few months of rehab and training, I was good to go back to fighting. Of course, my wife and kids were a little shocked when I drank a packet of blood for my meals, when I had my chance to get some leave as it were. Of course, they still care about me, much as I do them.”

“So, are there any benefits to being one of the undead?” Jenkins asked, as Wolfblood handed him the shotgun.

“Not really,” he said. “The improved strength, speed, sight, hearing, those are all defiantly benefits for a soldier of my skill and caliber. However, I can’t feel the warmth of the sun on my face, too much light bothers my eyes and gives me a headache, I feel the thirst for blood all the time, and my wife still has difficulty sharing the same bed as me when I am home, because I am as cold as a corpse. Seriously, touch my face, Uniter. It’s as cold as ice if not colder.”

At this, Jenkins touched the man’s cheek, and he had to agree, it was indeed cold, and ones face was usually the warmest part of ones body.

“Hell,” the man said. “Right now I can feel your hand on my face, but I can’t tell how warm you are, like if you have a fever or something like that. Also, you might want to get your hand off now. The vein in your wrist is kind of looking, well, attractive, and I don’t mean the kind that gets one a girl or some such thing.”

As Jenkins took his hand away from the man’s face, the man quickly moved over to his left side and said, lifting up the sleeve near his shoulder, “Stand still, I have to mark you as government property.”

“What do you mean?” Jenkins asked, as he stood still.

“Let’s just say it is an act of treason to knowingly, and willfully, destroy, or somehow damage, government property, especially that of the military,” Wolfblood said, as he finished what he was doing. “Now, I’m going to have to carry you if we are to catch up to Bloodtooth. The woman has a head start of five minutes on us, so we need to move and move fast. The woman happens to be one very loose cannon when it comes to protecting her niece. Why, last month, she stole a tank, and drove through the wall of the base, and into the school that the girl goes to, when she heard that the principal had been planning to make the girl his personal pet, and pointed that gun turret right at his head and told him, in no uncertain words, that if he, or anyone else tried to do anything like that to her niece, she’d come back and do more than crash a tank into his office.” (Wolfblood)

“Damn,” Jenkins said, as Wolfblood picked him up and started running. “I guess it is a good thing that she’s on our side.”

“I’ll say. She personally killed fifty people when she rescued me. When her blood gets riled up, she is an unstoppable force of death and destruction.” (Wolfblood)

“Then why is it that she told me that she doesn’t like blood on her teeth and claws?” (Jenkins)

“It is an emotional thing for her. Pulling ones sibling’s remains from someone’s stomach will do that. She always takes a minimal of three showers a day and the rules only allow for one in the morning and one at night. Ah, there she is, now to get her to stop before she gets herself killed.” (Wolfblood)