The Inception (Book #1 of The Inception Trilogy)

chapter thirty-four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

"EVE, YOU NEED TO get out of here," Erik says, eyes wide as he grabs her arm to usher her away from the gate, from the mass of beasts rapidly getting closer.

She yanks out of his grasp. "I'm staying to help."

He looks like he wants to argue, but quite frankly doesn't have the time. His men are freaking out, unable to follow their orders as they run this way and that. Some of them fire their guns aimlessly into the clutter of bodies, unknowing if they even hit a target. Erik barks at them to stop being idiots wasting ammo, greatly frustrated as he storms over to them.

Evelyn rolls her eyes, figuring she'll take matters into her own hands. She snatches her dagger out of its sheath, cutting the wire between the metal gate posts. She takes an end of it and climbs the fence, careful of the pointy tips. She winds the jagged, sharp wire around the tops of the fence, treating it as if it were barbed wire. It won't stop the beasts entirely, but it'll take a few of them out of the fight and slow them down.

Erik notices what she's doing and yells at his men to follow suit. Though a group of them grumble about following a woman, they're too scared to not. Erik climbs the post beside Evelyn, helping her cut and wind, cut and wind. She wishes they had time to go around the entire fence, but the beasts have nearly reached the gate.

"Do you have any archers?" she asks.

Erik lets out a breath. "Not any decent ones."

"Sheesh, do I have to do everything? Where are the bows? We need to keep as many from coming over the fence as we can."

"Obviously," Erik agrees, whistling a man over to tell him to fetch a couple bows and arrows.

"You can shoot?" she inquires, raising an eyebrow.

Erik grins. "I'm full of surprises."

The man is quick to bring back two bows and two quivers of real arrows. Evelyn almost squeals at that, but the sight of the beasts helps her refrain. She and Erik climb the fence once more, positioning just behind the wire. Evelyn slices a beast's neck as he tries to push her off, and he falls backwards, taking a few others with him to the ground.

Erik is the first to fire an arrow, the tip piercing straight through a beast's forehead and out the other side.

Evelyn hates that she's impressed.

With the two of them shooting and the rest of his men hacking down the beasts as soon as they reach the top of the fence, they're doing surprisingly well. Evelyn almost thinks they have a chance until she realizes that they just keep coming. And coming.

And coming.

It's a never ending flood of them.

She curses under her breath when she runs out of arrows, exactly the same time Erik does. He climbs down first, then helps her though she tries to refuse it. He pulls out a knife and plants his feet firmly in the dirt, Evelyn matching his stance. The rest of his men have lined up along either side of them, the human bodies forming a fence behind the metal fence.

"Their throat is the only way to get them down," Erik tells her.

She snorts. "Trust me when I say that I think I know them a lot better than you."

He gives her a strange look.

The bitten-beasts-gone-wrong come tumbling over.

The two sides collide viciously, bodies instantly falling down from either army.