Descent into Darkness (Major Spoilers for House of Ashes)

Chapter Ten

Once the group had made it to the cocoon vault, they all stopped to assess the situation and discuss how to proceed, Salim scanning the area around the cocoons through some binoculars. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Jason asked, almost in awe. 

Gabrielle couldn't help but feel a little daunted by how much larger the mounds of cocoons looked up close. "Those mounds are made of cocoons. Thousands of them. If we set the charges right at the heart, they all burn." Salim confirmed, before handing the binoculars over to Jason so he could take a look.

Jason was quick to look through them. "Shit! They're hatching!" He told the group after a moment, before putting the binoculars down. "We've gotta move. Quick." He added, before turned to address everyone properly. "Ok, listen up. We've been hit hard tonight. We've lost brothers. But now, it's time to get some payback." He began, before laying down the objective so everyone knew what to do. "We plant charges on as many of those clusters as possible and then detonate them remotely. If luck is on our side, we'll do more than fry a few vampires, we'll create a diversion."

"If we die here at least we'll take some of those bastards down with us." Rachel interjected,  echoing Gabrielle's thoughts, though she didn't want it to come down to that, wanting to get home to her daughter just as much as Salim wanted to get home to his son. "Ok... who's going to place the dynamite?" Salim questioned, since that was something the group hadn't actually discussed yet. "Alright, fuck it. I'll do it." Nick volunteered after a minute of silence. 

Jason, out of concern for his friend's safety, suggested planting the dynamite together. "Nah, the more of us down there, the more chances we'll get seen." Nick insisted, before continuing on while passing the detonator to Jason. "Take the detonator. If I don't make it, I want you to blow those charges." Nick instructed. "Just don't go getting trigger happy on me." He finished. In response, Jason insisted that Nick keep in radio contact at all times.

Salim had been the next to speak up. "And if there's no radio signal?" He pointed out, wondering what they would do in the event of a lack of signal. "Then I'll pop a flare. You see it go up, you hit that detonator." Nick suggested. As soon as that had been established, he started heading towards the cocoon clusters down below, taking the explosives with him, Salim using the binoculars to keep up with Nick's position and see what was going on around him.

Everyone else just remained silent, watching the cocoon clusters intently. "There! There's one ahead of him. To his left." Salim notified Jason when he noticed movement from the creatures, Jason relaying that information back to Nick. Gabrielle had been nervous about how this was going to go deep down, but she never voiced her concerns with the others. 

"The first dynamite is down. Over." Nick said over the radio after a few minutes, before moving onto the next cluster, Jason giving him directions to help him avoid the vampires hatching out of the cocoons ahead of him.

It took Nick a bit longer to get to the next cluster and plant more explosives. The situation only just had gotten gradually more intense the further in he was. "It's getting kinda hairy down there, brother. Why don't you ditch the rest of those charges and head back?" Jason asked Nick over the radio, not wanting to lose anymore of his team to the creatures. "Look at that man, it's the motherlode." Had been Nick's response.

"It's too far!" Jason continued to insist. Nick had ultimately decided to continue onwards anyway, wanting to plant the rest of the charges further on into the nest. "Oh no... oh no..." Salim muttered to himself after a moment of assessing the situation through the binoculars, Jason asking Salim about what he'd seen. "There are too many. He's a dead man." Salim answered honestly.

Jason took the binoculars and looked through them for a moment before passing them back to Salim. It was then when everyone else noticed all the vampires swarming round the cocoon clusters. "Well shit..." Gabrielle trailed off, even more concerned for Nick once she'd noticed. The next course of action was whether to warn Nick about the extra company.