We All Fall Down

Rachael picked her way slowly through the dead bodies that surrounded her. Her dark eyes tried not to take in the faces, especially those of the children, as she moved back towards the base camp. The wars were killing everyone; it was destroying the Earth and she knew that the combatants didn’t care. Why would they? They’d rather die than live on the same planet as the beasts.

The camp was quiet when she entered. Sun up was due presently and anyone that couldn’t stand the sunlight was tucked away safely in black tents. She moved over to one and sank to the floor beside it, dragging off her boots. Blood was clotted into the grooves on the bottom and had splattered up onto the back of her breeches from the long walk through the mud washed dead. She slammed them onto the waterproof sheet that lined the outside of her tent and then yanked up the zip. A smiling face, set on pale skin, looked back at her grimly.

“Did you walk through town?” Kim asked, eyes hooding as the sunlight weakly tried to penetrate the sky.

“Yes. I do not wish to see it again.”

Kim nodded her head. “Most of the casualties are theirs, I’m afraid to say. I-I wish that we did not have to sacrifice innocents to save our own hides.” Her mouth twitched but it remained closed.

“I did not look where I did not have to.”

“Do not take this the wrong way,” Kim yawned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. “But your kind have had an easier job than my own. Immortality gives you the poorest of jobs sometimes.”

“I know,” she mumbled. “The time of the month will be upon us, soon.”

“And when the mother blooms at her fullest, all her children shall howl at her beauty,” the older looking girl mumbled. She picked at the light fabric of the sheet she lay upon, before reclining backwards against it. “Did you see him today?”

“He was not amongst those I saw,” Rachael said weakly, laying her body flat across the blankets. She curled halfway into the foetal position. “Do you believe he still lives?”

“I believe you would know if he did not,” Kim said back.

“This war is ripping our world apart, Kim; I wish this war would end.”

Kim’s eyes lulled closed and she exhaled a soft breath. “As do we all.”

XXX

Gunfire rang through the day and did not cease as night approached. Rachael and Kim left their tent, dressed as men in their breeches and navy shirts; polished off with a brash buckle jacket. Kim’s was torn in the shoulder, but it was barely noticeable next to the blood stain that covered a thick strip around the neck.

They walked through the camp swiftly; their boots barely making a sound in the soft, muddy ground. Already the night shift was forming, those who did not have their own weapons lining up for guns, fitted with bayonets, and long swords. Sword’s already hung from Kim and Rachael’s hips, though their necessity was questionable.

“The platoon will be leaving presently,” a higher ranking officer said and the girls nodded grimly, aware of what would happen when they left. Already the stench of blood was overwhelming in Rachael’s nostril and she could see the iris’s of Kim’s eyes deepening from green to red.

“We could leave,” Kim said. She had said this numerous times before. “We could leave this life and we could hide until we had to run once more. With the war happening, we could have a human life before we had to run!”

“I cannot leave my brothers and sisters in the midst of this terrible event,” Rachael sighed.

“Not even for him? He could ride out with us, Rachael.”

The girl paused, dark hair dancing loftily in the breeze that fluttered passed. Her dark eyes regarded Kim worriedly for moments before she shook her head. “You know I cannot.”

“I do not wish to leave you behind, Rachael, but I do not know how much more of this massacre I can withstand. Do not force me to leave you behind.”

“You know that I never would,” Rachael sighed. “And that I grow weary of this battle also. But our relatives and our friends are trapped amongst this madness! Can you leave them?”

“Yes,” Kim answered, not looking at Rachael anymore. “And I will, Ray. And I believe you will, too. For him, Ray. Not even for me. For him.”

Rachael grabbed her friend’s hand as the platoon began to march towards the front line. “Always for you, sister,” she whispered.

XXX

The forest was thick and it surrounded Rachael on all sides. Her instincts prevented her from getting lost and kept her well concealed amongst the dark shadows. The rifle in her hand was weighted but her aim was deadly. From the forest she could pick off the entire army without being detected.

Kim dropped down from a tree and she smiled, eyes red and blood dripping from her jaw, further staining the circle around her neck. She licked her fangs almost greedily but kept her primal moans in check. “I smelt your love,” she told Rachael. “He is west, probably a league or so. I was going to bring him, but he fled at the sight of my skin.” She rubbed her chin, licking her fingers like a feline. “And I believed him to like me.”

“Before he knew, he liked us all.”

“He loves you,” Kim scoffed, as the colour of her eyes faded back to the green of the forest. “And he will follow you. Just ask him. I am leaving tonight.”

“Kim!”

“I do not wish to be the monster that I am within these battles, Rachael. I wish to lead the life I had strived so hard to build. Please, Rachael…”

XXX

She found him leaning against the body of a thick birch tree. His blonde hair was cropped short to his head and his green eyes shone out brightly from the darkness. At his feet, a brunette Rachael barely recognised coughed blood into an already clotted tissue. Rachael shouldered her gun and slowly materialised into the forest. She dared not utter his name.

She walked slowly into the enclosure they had found until his green eyes slowly located her form. They widened on recognition, torn between fear and affection. His mouth twitched weakly.

“R-Rachael?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“P-Please… he, he is sick.”

“I will not kill you,” she mumbled. “I could never hurt you.”

“I have to save Jack,” he whispered. “We have to save him. We have to leave. Please.”

Rachael snapped her fingers and Kim materialised out of the trees, too. Her pale skin was ghostly in the moonlight. “Be not afraid,” she smirked, then gasped at the sight of the man on the floor, his blood covered hands, tissue and mouth. “He… is dying,” she whispered, wide eyed.

“Please!” the blonde pleaded, once more.

“Take Jack,” Rachael told Kim as her body trembled gently. “I will join you in minutes, I promise.”

Kim nodded and flitted towards the side of the bleeding soldier. She offered the blonde a kind smile before she scooped the wounded into her arms and disappeared into the forest at a speed beyond human comprehension. Rachael trembled once more.

“If I change, will you ride?” she asked, quietly.

“Will you--will it…?”

“I will have complete control,” she promised. He nodded, and then shook his head.

“Just… before you change…I-I love you. I…I’m not like you, but that is okay with me. T-this war has made me realise--”

She kissed his soft mouth. “I love you, too, Zack. Now, are you ready?”

“I have been ready for so long,” he whispered and closed his eyes as Rachael’s form broke into tremors.