Part 5 Part 7
The answer came to him rather quickly: run like hell.
Sheriff Sam adjusted his hands on the grip of his big Magnum .44, eyeing the at least seven, more like thirteen, big, purple gargoyles. Each was snarling and clawing the air, with big grins on their demonic faces.
"I say we try and make a break for it," the Sheriff said to Lilith calmly, his gun at the ready.
"Nay; they will catch us."
"Better to die on your feet or something like that," Sam mumbled, praying for some kind of random miracle to occur.
The staccato of rapid fire filled the misty air, and he had to wonder just what god had picked up the tab for the bill this time as the two rows of beasts fell over in short order.
"Get out of here!" a man yelled, appearing from the mist wearing an MP uniform and waving an SMG (looked like an Ingram from Sam's POV). "Head for that schoolhouse!"
As one the trio turned, and lo and behold, an elementary school did indeed stood out of the mist like a strange beacon. Sam nudged Mike in the back, suggesting he get a move on, while Lilith fired a round or two into the few monsters that were starting to rise.
"Anyday now, Your Highnessship," the Sheriff shouted, making it to the sidewalk and wrought iron gates that surrounded the schoolyard. Holstering her pistols, Lilith dashed forward just as Sam was boosting Mike over the tall fence.
"Alley oop?" he inquired of her as she approached, earning another of her special looks reserved for him (okay, maybe it was just an upraised eyebrow that signaled she thought he may have been growing a third head, but Sam liked to think of it as 'her special look'). "Do you want me to help you over?" he explained further.
A grunt in the affirmitive was all he got as the Gunslinger Baroness placed a boot into his open hands. Sam hefted her, and Mike was able to catch her as she landed on the other side. The Sheriff then went about lugging his own frame over the spires of the fence, and somehow succeeded.
"Okay gang, now what?" Mike asked.
"We... wait?" suggested Sam.
"They could probably fly over the fence."
The Sheriff examined the (realtively) low fence and nodded. "Good point. How about waiting in the school?"
"As good a place as any," Lilith said, ending the discussion and walking up to the school. Sam and Mike exchanged shrugs and trailed behind.
The wooden doors opened easily enough, and the Baroness was the first in, both hands near her guns. The intrepid Sheriff was taking no chances and kept his pistol at the ready, and Mike lugged his rifle across his back.
The doors revealed a hallway which ran to either side of the three. Sam dove into his pants pocket to pull out a coin with which to make the all-important decision on which path to take, only to be stopped as Lilith went left.
"Good as any, right Lil?"
She nodded curtly, eyes and ears peeled for any sign of disturbance in the school. The wooden floor looked slightly warped with age, and much of everything was coated in dust. A murky light served to illuminate the place just enough to stumble around in.
"At least it isn't misty in here," Sam observed.
The Baroness stopped and held out her hand, bringing both men to a halt.
"Do you hear that?"
"Eesh, my ears are still ringing from that unknown benefactor who was firing off the smug. Who'd you think that guy was, anyway?"
"Quiet!" she hissed at him.
The normally good-natured sheriff was slightly stung with her harsh treatment. "You know Lil, we really should work on your people skills. A please here, thank you there, would just work wonders. Try it --"
"If you don't quiet now, fool, I'm going to remove your tongue from its sorry excuse for a head with a rusty spoon." Her voice was full of such lethality that the Sheriff went silent instantly.
Then he heard what she had been listening for. A soft sound, almost like a shuffling.
The big Magnum was up instantly. "The closet?" he asked, to which Lil nodded.
Mike dropped back on a knee, gun aimed at the door, while Lil took point to open the door.
A slight scream emitted from underneath a pile of children's coats, and Sam peeled the layers back to reveal a young girl who looked at the two gun-toters as if they were a pair of disgruntled postal workers.
"Don't be afraid, girl, we're no monsters," Lilith assured her, holstering her pistols. The Sheriff wasn't as confident in himself, and only lowered his handgun.
"What's your name?"
"SaraH, with an H."
Sam grinned. "Oh goody, another Beamer!"
Part 5 Part 7 Email the Sheriff