The Vampire's Apprentice

Alain finished slotting cartridges into the loops on his belt, then slung a bandoleer full of shotgun shells across his chest. He checked his weapons to make sure they were both fully loaded, then turned back to Sable and nodded.

"Alright," he said. "What's the plan?"

"For now, we're going to have to hold here until we're able to break through. Az and I will go out one of the upstairs windows and work to clear a path through the undead. Unlike you mortals, the two of us won't need to worry about being turned if we get bit – I'm already undead, and Az is immune to it thanks to whatever heritage he's got. With any luck, we'll get through them before they manage to break through the doors."

There was another loud bang on the front door, followed by more splintering wood. Alain winced. "You'd better get going, then. I don't think that thing is going to hold for very long."

Sable nodded, then beckoned for Az to follow after her. The two of them ran up the nearby staircase; Alain heard a window open and something hit the ground, followed by the sounds of combat coming from outside. Several of the other patrons in the bar seemed concerned that the two of them had just gone out on their own, but they didn't get a chance to voice any of their worries before one of the windows shattered, having finally had enough of the undead pounding on it. Redd was standing on the other side of the window, and just narrowly managed to avoid being grabbed by the living corpses as they tried to surge inward; he backpedaled, firing his rifle as he did so, a loud scream erupting from his throat.

"Aim for the head!" Alain shouted over the gunfire. "That's the only way to put them down for good!"

Redd nodded, then took a moment to calm himself and actually aim his weapon. Alain watched as he began to steadily put the undead down one by one. He was being very efficient with his shots, but unfortunately, with every corpse he dropped, another stepped in to fill the newly-opened space, the only thing keeping them from breaching the saloon being the fact that the window was far too narrow for more than one of them to fit through. Instead, they were all stuck up against the window frame, their jaws gnashing and arms flailing as they tried to force their way in, to no avail.

Glass splintered once more all around the saloon, the other three windows having been knocked out. The other men had taken care to put some distance between themselves and the windows after seeing what had nearly happened to the first, and so nobody got grabbed, thankfully – instead, they all continued to backpedal while putting down aimed, accurate rifle and shotgun fire. Corpses dropped all around them, but it just wasn't enough – more continued to flow in.

"Sure hope Az and Sable are still working to clear them out…" Alain muttered.

Right as the words left his mouth, there was a deafening crash from the front of the saloon. His eyes widened when he realized that the front door had just collapsed, and several undead were already shambling into the saloon. All the other patrons immediately turned their attention to the door, ignoring their windows.

Alain vaulted over the bar, then posted up at the door, taking out two undead with a shotgun blast each as they flowed in. He swiftly reloaded his weapon, then took out another two more. Felix backed him up with rifle fire whenever his shotgun ran dry, though it was barely enough to keep the crowd at bay.

"Watch those windows, damn it!" Alain called out to the others. "If they breach through there, we're all dead! The two of us will handle the door for now!"

The men all gave a reluctant nod, then went back to watching their windows. Alain and Felix continued to keep an eye on the door, both of them pouring fire onto the crowd of undead, but it just wasn't enough – the corpses continued to come through, no matter how many they put down.

Suddenly, there was more splintering of wood behind them, followed by a loud scream. Alain turned and saw that the back wall around the window frame had buckled, allowing undead to walk through it. Hank, who had been watching that window, disappeared under a crowd of corpses before any of them could do anything about it. Alain winced at the sight of it, but didn't let the loss of his new friend stop him from taking command.

"Upstairs, now!" he called.

Nobody needed to be told twice. They all immediately broke ranks and sprinted for the stairs, bounding up to the top of them as fast as they could. Alain held back to make sure everyone else made it, and once the last man was up, he sprinted up them himself while the others fired around him, dropping some undead who had gotten too close for comfort.

He stopped at the top of the staircase to join the others in continuing to fight the horde. His hands were a blur, emptying and reloading his shotgun with practiced ease. Next to him, the others did the same, their rifles and shotguns a chaotic symphony of destruction. Alain winced when he felt one of his eardrums finally give up and burst from all the noise. Blood trickled down the side of his head, and the pain arrived soon after, but he ignored it, knowing that if he lost focus for a moment, the undead would get that much closer to them all.

There was nowhere left to go now – that staircase was the only way out of the saloon unless they wanted to risk a two-story drop, and even if they managed to survive that, there were still more living dead outside, waiting for them. This was their final stand – they had to hold off the undead here until Az and Sable came back, or they were all dead.

Alain fired both barrels of his shotgun, then dumped the spent shells out and reached for more, only to find that his bandoleer had finally run dry.

"I'm out of shotgun ammo!" he called. "Anyone have any spare shells?!"

"I'm out, too!" Rusty added.

"Running low on rifle rounds," Felix warned.

"Same," Redd said.

"What do we do?!" asked Jack.

"Keep it together," Alain said as he drew his revolver. "We need to hold here until Az and Sable come back."

"That's your plan?! They jumped straight into a horde! There's no way they're coming back!"

"You don't know them like I do. They'll be back, believe me. Unless you'd rather take your chances with the stairs or the window?"

That shut Jack up. He instead continued firing his rifle until it finally clicked empty, then he threw it down and drew his own revolver. A few seconds later, Felix did the same, and soon, they were all down to just their sidearms.

"Pace your shots!" Alain warned. "Fire at the ones on the stairs only! We need to buy time for them to get back!"

Everyone let out a shout of affirmation, then began to focus their fire solely on the undead that were coming up the stairs. The approaching continued to fall and pile up at the bottom of the stairs, but the incoming tide didn't care – they pushed their way through the small mound of their brethren, continuing up towards the five men on the second floor.

Finally, Alain's revolver clicked empty for the final time. He desperately searched for more ammunition on his person, but he was completely out. Grimacing, he looked over to the others.

"I'm out," he said.

Felix let out a muffled curse as his revolver's hammer fell on an empty chamber with a resounding click. He shook his head, then moved to hold it by the barrel, intending to use the grip like a club as the undead continued to climb the stairs. Alain followed suit, ripping his hunting knife from his belt. The other men did the same as them once their sidearms ran dry, either drawing knives or wielding their guns like clubs.

The first undead finally made it to the top and turned towards them, a low moan erupting from its throat as it shambled over, one arm outstretched. Alain tensed, preparing to rush the monster down and die fighting, but he never got the chance – a blur suddenly burst in through the front door and impacted with the throng of undead down below before racing up the stairs and decapitating the corpse that had started approaching them. The men stared in awe as Sable stood there, her entire body slick with blood and gore. She was covered in scratches and bite marks and was missing entire chunks of flesh from several areas of her body, but she was still up and active.

Sable held there for a moment, shoulders slumped over as she panted heavily. Alain noticed that no blood was dripping from her wounds – rather, it was a sort of black ichor. He tentatively reached a hand out towards her.

"Don't."

At that, Alain froze. "What's wrong?"

Between gasps of breath, Sable managed to get out, "…The only way for me to recover from this is to eat. If you touch me now, I'm liable to lose control and drain you completely."

Alarm bells began to go off in Alain's head. He tentatively pulled his hand away and looked back towards the first floor. Az came charging through the door, several undead attached to his towering frame, ripping strips of flesh away from him. As Alain stared, Az managed to shake them all off, then crushed their heads underneath his feet. To Alain's surprise, Az seemed completely nonplussed regarding his injuries – his expression was as stone-faced and stoic as always.

"Follow me," Sable said, interrupting his thoughts. "We have a way out, but it won't last. We need to go, now."

Alain nodded. "You heard the lady. Let's move!"

The men all took off after her as she ran, leading them through what remained of this current crowd of undead. They managed to make it out of the saloon, but that was just the beginning – all around town, the living dead were continuing to siege the buildings, trying to get at the people inside. Several of them had already been torn open, but a fair few still remained, their occupants occasionally fighting back, as indicated by the odd gunshot every few seconds. Alain grimaced, knowing there was nothing they could do for those people currently.

"What do we do now?" he asked Sable as they ran.

"You all need to rearm," she said without looking back. "There's a gun store in town – I figure we need to use their wares more than they need to sell them."

"If they're even still alive to care about that…" Alain muttered. "Alright. We get rearmed, and then what?"

Sable turned back to him, her eyes seeming to gleam in the moonlight.

"We head for the mine," she said.