10

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
                          
Calponia's merry band of fanged marauders zipped along at a mind-numbing clip that left her stomach several few miles back. The land blurred to an unpleasant shade of brown that made the surrounding forest appear like a high speed trek through a giant colon. To add insult to injury, her backward facing position gave her a wind burn on her rear cheeks that stung like the dickens with each passing mile.

                          
The béte noir showed itself when the captain abruptly slammed into a tree. It was a miracle of physics she wasn't a red smear from the impact. It jarred her bones and sent her flying into a handy pile of leaves with only a few minor scrapes and bruises to show for it. The captain wasn't so lucky. It was a bad injury when her first reaction was to feel sorry for the soldier. No one deserved to be skewered through the neck by a blunt low hanging branch, though she could call it karmic balance. An wound like that would be fatal for a normal person, but this was a tough crowd. The others helped him down, supporting the captain, frowning at her as he slapped a hand on his gushing throat. She gulped at the expression, made all the more eerie by his blood filled eye. It was the expression of someone considering her worth, one she was all too familiar with as she spent years attempting to hold down a job beneath the weight of her curse. 
                          
After a long moment, with his neck neatly tied off, the captain gestured to his men. One of them reluctantly stepped forward, a short, young soldier who had to be younger than Calponia herself. He handled her like a malfunctioning grenade, gingerly draping her over his shoulder. She could almost feel sorry for the guy. 
                          
They didn't make it another five minutes before her new ride hit a hidden sinkhole and disappeared into the ground. The fall dislodged her. She rolled away as the vampire vanished. The ground released a satisfied squelch. The vampires panicked falling away from the hole as if it were a living thing. It might be. Calponia knew jack squat about this realm but their reaction shocked her. None of them darted forward to try to pull their comrade free as the sinkhole made a few bubbles to mark his presence. 
                          
"What are you doing? Help him!" Calponia shouted, rolling to her knees. The second impact left her covered in muck and thoroughly battered but her conscience hit her nerves like a taser. The vampire captain was a jerkwad to the nth degree, but this guy was just following orders. Right? She stared at the bubbling ground, torn by indecision and her pesky morality when a desperate hand broke the surface, clawing for purchase. The surrounding vampires didn't twitch, watching with morbid intensity as their fellow soldier struggled. Calponia fell forward, wriggling closer on her belly until she grabbed the hand.