Chapter 10

Off to the left somewhere, a lonely, solitary coyote yipped at the soon to rise moon. The air felt heavy and leaden. A heaviness that lay on your soul like the moisture laden air before a storm. An uneasiness borne of long forgotten instincts that all fighting men felt before a battle. Something was out there and it didn’t like you.

A weak cup of air swirled along the top of the ridge with a hint of greenery from somewhere mixed with a little sage. It left a dry taste in the mouth and an uncontrollable urge to rinse your mouth out. A half remembered time of bad food and bad company.

Dropping his load of dried wood beside the fire, Riley poured himself a cup of fresh coffee before sitting on a nearby rock.

Watching the Gunny, Riley noticed that he wasn’t looking at the flames as most men would. He was looking around quartering the area looking for shadows that didn’t belong or that shifted. All the while keeping Riley in the corner of his eye.

Clearing his throat, Riley asked, “Have you ever heard of the jiangshi?”

Gunny looked at him for a long moment, then answered, “Legend from Cambodia and Malaysia. Supposedly a cursed person like what Europeans called a vampire. So? It’s a legend. What does that have to do with us?”

Riley thought, ‘He’s waaay too calm about this. I have a feeling he already knows something.’

“All legends have at their core, a grain of truth. Sometimes, the truth is a lot stranger than what the legends would have us believe. The problem with legends is that there is no standardization across cultures, and the subject of the legend tends to mutate or twist into what the storyteller wants us to believe.” Riley answered.

“A jiangshi,” he continued, “or vampire or a half-dozen other names refers to essentially the same creature. An undead monster that preys on the living. It’s almost unkillable, stronger than a man and much faster.”

“For almost a year, I’ve led a team fighting them and other denizens of the night. I’ve almost died a couple of times, and I’ve had to bury too many of my crew doing it.” Riley continued.

“Now, Gunny, I’ll ask you again if you want to know this. You have a chance, albeit a very small chance, of going back to your normal life when this is over.” Riley asked.

Removing his knife and a sharpening stone, Gunny sat in thought for several minutes as he stropped the already razor sharp knife.

Reaching a decision, he replaced his knife in its sheath, and looked at Riley. “Piss on it, as of this point, there is nothing normal to return to. So, yeah, tell me what you’ve gotten us into and all our crew killed.”

Riley dropped his head, and without raising his head started talking.

“The world is older than you know, and contrary to popular belief, didn’t start out as a paradise for man. But as time went on, the Old Ones lost hold on this reality and started leaving this dimension for another. As the last one left, it took its blood and mixed it with a human and thus was born the night dwellers that were known as vampire.

Into each generation is born a young girl with the...”

Gunny broke in, “Strength and speed to combat the spread of evil and stem the tide of the undead. She is the Slayer.”

Riley’s head snapped up as he stared at his teammate. “How do you know that?”

Gunny snorted, “Typical officer, think that you know all about it. With your legends and studies and charts, you think that you know all about it.”

Standing, he walked to the edge of the light and stood looking into the darkness. “I was born and raised about 10 miles beyond where we are headed. My tribe was all I had.