I pumped my
arms as I ran, a futile effort to catch the ones in front of me. They moved
inhumanly fast, but I still kept them in sight as they hopped a low fence and
went down the hill. That slope went down to Quick Creek, one of the tributaries
to the Rush, and it lived up to its name. I
might be able to corner them. If I’m right they can’t cross the water, and the
nearest bridge is five miles away. God, I hope they don’t try to run it.
When I
hopped the fence, I could see them contemplating which way to go. I pulled my
gun, chambered it. I didn’t want to have to try and shoot them, but I was ready
if I needed to. I had never gotten that good a look at them, but now I could
see the overcoats didn’t seem to fit them right. They were hunched and bulky in
the wrong places. Not human.
“Okay,
fellas, that’s far enough.”
“Ssss.
Nameless One!” The words came out of a mouth not meant for human speech, but
the coat’s hood still hid the speaker. “Soon your kind will have no power over
us. We, too, will be Nameless and out of your control. We will be free!”
“Uh huh.” I
didn’t know what he meant by that, exactly. The supernatural all had some kind
of name that they could leverage into more power or made them weaker. Most tried
to embrace the former and minimize the latter.
The two
figures charged me, and while they were fast, bullets flew faster. I emptied my
clip into both of them. The silver rounds hit home, a few in each of them, and
they crumpled to the ground, sizzling.
My heart
pumped, adrenaline coursing through my body. I popped in a new clip, ready to empty into them again if they came at me. They didn’t. They struggled to stand,
then lumbered towards the creek. The first pitched himself in, and seemed to
dissolve from underneath the coat.
“You have
not won, Nameless One," the other said. "We will re-form in time, and be summoned back”
He pitched
himself in, moments later dissolving.
I stood on
the bank of the Swift, wondering what was coming.