Draculas

"Everyone get back!"

She cranked the nozzle, the compressed air blowing the front off the bottle, showering the dracula with white powder.

A moment later, the powder ignited in a tremendous fireball, the powerful WHUMP! hitting Je

The dracula fared much worse. Every square inch of it was throwing off flames. It twisted around on the floor, slapping at the inferno it had become, oily black smoke swirling up into the air and smelling a lot like bacon cooking.

Bacon, with a hint of artificial vanilla.

Thank you, Mythbusters.

Je

"Light the next one, Peter!"

Je

"Now you're fired, Lanz!" Je

But at the same time, Lanz had emptied his extinguisher, putting out the flame before it had a chance to ignite the cloud of creamer enveloping him.

Son of a--

Snarling, Dr. Lanz rushed at Je

Je

"Die, you monster! Die!"

Peter Bernacky, his teenage face defiant, stuck his arm into the dust plume, his hand on the lighter.

"Peter! Don't--"

The flash blinded Je

Both Lanz and Peter instantly burst into flames. Lanz scurried away, still holding the extinguisher, turning it on himself and dousing the fire as he fled back through the hole he'd made in the window.

Peter screamed, but the sound was instantly muffled by the flame entering his lungs. He staggered away from Je

She tried to push him back, but Peter wrapped his arms around her, setting her clothes ablaze. They did a burning dance for several steps, then fell over in a tangle of screams and flailing limbs and burning flesh.

The sprinkler finally came on, dousing the pair, and Je

Children screamed. Flesh sizzled and popped. Je

Je

Another dracula slid in through the window. Then another. They descended upon their fallen comrades, chewing and tearing and lapping up the gore.

We need to get the hell out of here. Now.

"Everyone! Come on!"

There weren't many left to follow her order. The grandmother was down on the floor, convulsing. The mother was keeled over, throwing up. Most of Peter's hair had burned off, his eyelids and nose were scorched away, and he was blessedly still. That left five children. Three listened, ru

"Into the storage closet!" Je

Then she grabbed the shirt collar of the boy on the floor and tugged him away from his grandmother, dragging him to the closet. She turned to go back for the other boy, but more draculas had infiltrated the playroom, and they were tearing through the rest of them like a piranha tornado. Forcing herself to back away from the slaughter, cursing herself for not being able to do more, Je

She gave it a cautious push, saw that it held, then watched through the small, square window as the creatures turned the playroom into a blood buffet. Horrified, yet fascinated, she couldn't help but wonder how they could drink so much. She squinted at one of them, gorging until its belly distended to practically bursting, like a pregnancy that had lasted twenty months.

But only seconds after it stopped feeding, its belly began to shrink.

Once again she thought of Randall and his old horror movies. One of his favorites was actually relevant to their current situation. The Killer Shrews, a black and white cheapie infamous for dressing up dogs as the titular rodent monsters. The film's heroes were trapped in a house, the bloodthirsty shrews everywhere, clawing to get inside and devour them. Like their diminutive counterparts, the shrews had to eat ninety percent of their body weight every day, or else they'd starve--a byproduct of their hyper-metabolism.

Apparently, the draculas also functioned at a highly increased metabolic rate, which explained why Je

Je

But even though she was trained for emergencies, Je

Strangely, it wasn't fear for herself, or the people she was with.

It was for her husband.

Please, please, please, God, let him be okay.

Lanz

DR. Lanz tore at his face, the burned flesh coming off in strips. The pain was unbearable, but not as overwhelming as the heavenly odor of his fried skin. Hunger pangs doubled him over, the agony even worse than the fire damage, and Lanz momentarily lost his self-control and began shoving his own toasted flesh into his mouth, including a walnut-size chunk that was quite possibly his nose.

Je