First of all, I'd like to apologise for the wait since part four. I was hoping to get this part finished last week, but it was a bit too hectic :(

Anyway, we last left Dawn, Willow and Ian inside an derelict house with a group of Vampire cultists. Three other Vampire cultists had gone out hunting, had found Zavier and his horde of vampires and had been attacked. They are now heading towards the derelict house...

Part Five – An Alliance is Formed

Inside the house; Willow, Dawn and Ian were nervous. What would happen to them, exactly? Would Nelson find the vampires he was looking for and, if he did manage to find them, what would he tell them? Ian was certain that if Nelson did find the Vampires, it was curtains for Dawn, Willow and himself.

Dawn looked at the cultists, trying hard to avoid Darren, who was staring at her. They seemed quite relaxed about it. Dawn asked them whether they were scared about Nelson’s hunt, but Darren’s reply made it sound like a game:
“No. Nothing will happen. It never does. You walk around town, cup in hand, crossing cemeteries and graveyards in the freezing cold and find nothing. Going with Nelson on the hunt is the worst bit about this cult” he replied.

She decided that it was best to talk with Ian and Willow under these circumstances:
“We’ve got to get out of here” she whispered urgently “We’ll be trapped if the Vampires find us!”
Willow looked at Ian, expecting a reply, which he gave after a short moment of consideration.
“I have to admit that you are right Dawn. If Nelson returns, he’ll almost certainly come back a Vampire”

As they made to get up and leave, the front door burst open. Nelson was at the front of the group of Vampires. Zeladin remained at the rear, overlooking the group. The Vampires rushed into the lounge. When they heard the front door burst open, Dawn, Willow and Ian grabbed their weapons, ran past the cultists and into the kitchen in the hope that they would find another way out.

When the horde of Vampires assembled in the lounge, the cultists were a mixture of shocked and afraid of the new arrivals. Nelson walked over to them and ordered them to disclose the whereabouts of who he called “the unbelievers”. Darren noticed that Nelson was far from being his normal self.
“Nelson, are you OK?” he asked as calmly as he could.
Nelson didn’t answer, instead he repeated his order.
Darren nervously pointed towards the kitchen. “In there” he said. Nelson signalled to the Vampires to advance.

In the kitchen, Dawn and Willow were urgently searching for a way out. The second door to the kitchen, which led to the back garden, was locked and there was no key. Ian, meanwhile, was busy barricading the other door. The relatively high windows had been boarded up with thick, heavy planks of wood. Willow feebly swung at the boards with her axe, but due to the height of the windows, failed to make much impact on them.
“That’s it then” said Dawn, residing to fate “we can’t run any more. We’ve got to fight”
Ian and Willow nodded, raised their weapons and waited.

As the vampires advanced, the cultists retreated to the Kitchen door. However, Dominic didn’t, so Nelson grabbed him, pushed him to the floor and, with the aid of two other vampires that pinned him down, took a bite from his neck. The cultists recoiled in horror as their fears were confirmed - they were going to die. When the vampires resumed their approach, the group fidgeted and edged away from the door, hoping that the vampires would leave them alone. When the vampires set their eyes on them, Zeladin intervened.
“No! We’re not interested in them yet” Concentrate on the door” he said.

It took the vampires three minutes to pass the barricade. Once they did so, fifteen Vampires were facing Dawn, Willow and Ian, who fired a bolt at one Vampire which killed it. He didn’t have time for another shot as three other vampires charged towards him. Dawn and Willow were left to fend off the rest. Willow swung her axe at them confidently, whereas Dawn swung her sword rather nervously. Both seemed to keep the vampires away from them. After a few frantic moments, Dawn and Willow edged over towards Ian, who was struggling to resist the Vampires that had pinned him to the floor. Dawn swung at one and decapitated it as Willow dealt with another. Now that his legs were free, Ian kicked the third away from him, grabbed a bolt and struck it through the Vampire’s heart.

Slowly, Ian got up and reloaded the crossbow under the safety of Dawn and Willow. Still in pain, he fired a bolt, which flew over the heads of the Vampires. He realised that he wasn’t going to be of much help, so he looked towards the lounge. He could see that the cultists had been surrounded by another group of vampires. The numbers were definitely against them.

Dawn was still swiping madly, but had managed a decisive jab at one Vampire’s torso, plunging her sword through its heart, but she decided that without her endless (and exhausting) swiping, she would not keep the vampires at bay. She became increasingly worried that the Vampires would call for re-enforcements.

Willow caught a glimpse of the head Vampire. She recognised the face of Zeladin, who had mysteriously disappeared shortly before the fight with the Hellmouth. “Giles was right” she thought, angrily. It made her upset and she burnt with rage. Her eyes glowed and shot an intense beam of light through the vampires, which knocked them off their feet. It eventually caught Zeladin, who was thrown backwards into the group of Vampires guarding the cultists. The cultists seized their chance and ran towards the front door.

“Get them. Stop them!” cried Zeladin feebly to the other vampires, who responded instantly. Unfortunately, the cultists were tired and the vampires were quick. Three cultists had managed to run out of the house and escape, but the rest were re-captured.

Willow’s intervention had allowed Dawn to be on the offensive against the Vampires, who were now in disarray. Her confidence was slowly growing and soon she had claimed four more Vampires. Ian got up again and started firing, still with little effect, but the other vampires were quickly mopped up. Once they had been, Dawn, Willow and Ian headed into the lounge and towards the front door after Zeladin.

Zeladin was still partly concussed and his vampire horde had been reduced to nothing more than a desperate band. He realised that in order to survive he had to escape. He threw his wormhole generator on the ground and ran through the newly formed hole.

“Drat!” cursed Willow loudly “You saw him didn’t you Dawn?”
“Yes, I saw Zeladin. Giles was right – we shouldn’t have trusted him” replied Dawn.
“I can’t see how you ever did” said Ian, failing to see the sense in trusting a vampire.
They continued towards the group of cultists and made to attack the Vampires standing guard around them. Faced with a choice they’d have rather not faced, the Vampires decided to face the three humans with weapons.

Just as the short skirmish between Dawn; her friends and the vampires began, the wormhole re-appeared and out of it came another large group of Vampires. Dawn spotted this and warned the others. The cultists became increasingly worried as their prospects of escaping had been dashed yet again. Seeing them standing around in a panic, Ian told them to find some sharp implements and defend themselves.

The cultists spent a few frantic moments avoiding the vampires in order to find some suitable weapons. The best they could come up with were an assortment of kitchen utensils as the vampires rushed them. They found it very difficult to keep the vampires off them, but fortunately, only one was bitten. As Dawn, Willow and Ian helped to finish the others off, they were able to have a rest and put their improvised weapons down.

There were now six out of breath people sitting in the darkened lounge. Ian quickly took charge by lighting the fire and then asking them to listen to him.
“I hope everyone learnt from what just happened. Firstly, Vampires should not be worshipped and secondly that, unless we defeat them – we will never be free of them”
The remaining cultists looked glumly down at their feet as Ian continued.
“I propose that we all w**k together to fight the Hellmouth. The more of us there are, the stronger we will be and, if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to catch them whilst they are still recovering from their last battle.”
No-one responded. Dawn listened and was thinking long and hard about the situation that she now found herself in.

*

A passing truck driver had notified the Fire Service of a burning Gas Station. The Fire Service was quick to respond to the call and, soon afterwards, the Police were also there. The Gas Station fire had been raging for a long time and the Fire Service did a good job of covering the area with foam to suppress the flames.

It took an hour to put out the fire, but it had required the joint efforts of three fire crews to do so. Once the scene had been deemed relatively safe, the fire investigators went into the remains of the forecourt building.

It was at that point that the Police inspector was summoned to his radio.
“Yes?” he said impatiently as he picked up the receiver.
He learnt that as the Gas Station belonged to a large chain of Oil Company owned ones, the Oil Company held a backup copy of the CCTV images from the time of the fire.
As he listened irritably to his junior’s rant about the technology capable of doing this, he sighed and told him to “Shut up!” and that he was on his way.

When the inspector arrived and saw the images, he recognised the faces of the two young women brandishing weapons on the forecourt. They had been reported to the Police earlier in the evening driving dangerously in what had also been reported as a stolen Car. He put these pieces together and sent a general message, ordering their immediate arrest. After putting the word out, he waited for news to come in about their current whereabouts.

*

Ian’s initial preparations had gotten underway. Dawn was getting increasingly annoyed at him as he was going over the boring, obvious points about their current situation in the hope that he could convince the cultists to stay and fight instead of doing what they wanted to do, which was to run away.
“Can’t we do this later?” she asked irritably.
“It’s very important that we do this now” replied Ian “It’s still not light yet and the Vampires could strike again”

Just then, they heard a troupe of wailing police sirens getting closer. It didn’t cause them much alarm until they saw the stationary bright blue flashing lights right outside the house. Ian darted out of the lounge and ran upstairs. It took the others a second or two to register this, but by the time they had, the Police were at the door and Ian was safely upstairs. Straight away, the Police kicked the front door in and armed Policemen burst into the lounge, demanding that they all move away from their weapons. After Dawn and Willow complied with this order, they were grabbed, cuffed and dragged into a Police van. Then, they were driven away.

End of Part Five

Reminded me a bit of Who Are You at the end there.

Just wondering but how many parts will there be? sk

I'm aiming for eight parts, but it could be nine or ten. I'm using the plan -> draft -> Type-up -> Post method - hence why the writing style varies so considerably :unsure:

i like it :thumbsup:

can't wait for the next chapter, wonder how they gonna explain everything :lol: (of course willow could magically solve the problem :rolleyes: )

Thanks :)

I will try my best to get the next part posted by Wednesday evening. I've written it, but I need to type it up and I've got to try and find somewhere to live next year :(

Sorry for the delay.