The Kidnapping

Ogre's Lead - Kidnapping Part 3

          Tires squealed around another curve as the ogre driving took another seemingly random turn. The rear window had been smashed out. The rear passenger door was caved in so much that it pressed Greg over into my seat. I hadn't seen what had done it, but it was thrown with a massive inhuman velocity.

          Greg turned, raised the pistol at the large object in the sky following us and fired. It dipped, dropping downward for a split second before raising back up. He squeezed off another round, concentration visible on his head. The dot fell backwards again. This time it didn't get up.

          "Good shot," one of the ogre's said.

          "Uh, thanks," Greg replied, not sure what else to say. It wasn't everyday someone got a compliment from an ogre. Hell, it wasn't every day that someone actually saw an ogre.

          "No need to be nervous...." He began. He never got to finish. As the ogre in the front passenger seat began to turn around and look at Greg, our entire world went sideways. Glass rained in on top of us, as if in slow motion. We were wearing seatbelts, but we still got bounced around like a couple of ping pong balls in a dryer before crashing into a wall.

          We landed on our side, against a building that seemed to reside in a worse part of town. There were no businesses on these streets. Many of the buildings were boarded up and littered with graffiti either from human gang tags or from bored blood suckers, freshly turned after being lured astray by the promise of immortality and power. From my vantage point, I could see only ancient brick a skylight and the pitch black of the night sky before an older, very powerful ancient vampire landed on my door.

          He looked as if he was fifty. Ancient pale white skin looked almost white marble in the light from the black veins that ran beneath. He wore a simple pair of trousers and a buttoned up shirt that was opened at the second button to reveal a thin patch of dry grey hair. His eyes glowed dark red with anger, hatred and hunger. I had no weapon, having lost it in the tumble. Greg had no weapon that I knew of. We had just one wailing ankle biter in a bag, and a very pissed off ancient immortal above us.

          Metal squealed as it was wrenched free from the car with brute force. Then a shape that might have vaguely resembled a door crash into the vampire, knocking it back. The creature flew upwards, glaring down at the ogre that now stood in the street with a weapon drawn on it.

          Ogre's are strong, quick, have the endurance of a work horse, and extremely smart. Unfortunately, they can't hit the broadside of a barn after a couple dozen yards. The Ogre cop emptied his entire clip and hit nothing but air. We crawled out of the twisted wreckage as the cop kept the blood sucker busy.

          "You think you can do that again," a voice rumbled, causing Greg to jump. It was the other Ogre cop.

          "Y-yeah. I know I can," he replied. Cop didn't say anything else, just held out his service revolver to him. He stared at it for a second before snatching it from his hand and turning to aim back at the sky. The vamp was gone.

          "Shit," he said, looking up and around for his target. "Come on, come on,"

          I crawled out behind Greg as he looked around. Still not seeing the vampire. I pointed up. "Greg! The mist!"

          "What?!" he cried, looking skyward. A thick cloud of dark green mist began to descend from the top of the ancient building that we had crashed into. The other ogre still stood in the street. "Go!" He shouted, then picked up a trash can, and started banging on it, taunting the vampire.

          While the driver faced off against the ancient vampire, the other Ogre ran up the stairs and kicked through the plyboard that covered the door of the building we crashed into. Splinters were strewn across the threadbare carpet. He beckoned only once, before Greg and I followed. We didn't see what happened to the driver, but the inhuman scream that came up out of the street told us all we needed to know. "I will avenge you, my brother," the first Ogre replied, a look of grim determination on his face.

          "Come on, we must go down," he said simply afterwards, then began running down the hallway. The building itself must have been an apartment complex in happier times. A thin blue industrial carpet ran the length of the darkened room, with doors that ran to the right and left of us. We both ran blindly, neither of us understanding exactly where we were going.

          "So, mist," Greg said. It wasn't a question.

          I nodded. "It's one of their rarer forms," I replied as if that would answer it. "They get more power as they get older."

          "I knew they could do bat, but mist...." Greg shook his head in disbelief.

          "They can also take the shape of a wolf" the ogre in front of us replied. "But please only shoot wolves who are actually attacking you."

         "Why," Greg asked.

          "Cause those who aren't may be your allies," He stopped in front of a massive metal door. A swift kick persuaded it to open to us, letting us into what appeared to be an industrial room of some kind. The cop slammed the door shut just as quickly. The room felt cramped and cold. Like we had been crammed into a crypt of sorts.

          We both bit our breath back as much as we possibly could, breathing in shallow huffs trying to minimize our noise. The ogre didn't seem to bother, he huffed away, standing in front of the steel door that he had just kicked open.

          "We maybe safe for now," he rumbled and then turned to both of us. His eyes glowed an eerie green in the thin light. "We have little time, for they will find this place," he said, and pointed to the bag, "and that is still calling out to his friends, giving away our position even now. You must listen and follow my instructions carefully, or we all will die. Worse than any death that will befall us. We all will fail if you do not listen."