I flinched, but was already turning to find the shot and return fire. I saw the standing figure, gun in hand, and had already sighted and fired at his chest before my mind had caught up to the fact that his other hand held the girl's arm, while she struggled to get away from him. He fell backward, taking the girl with him. I felt movement in time to see another man launching himself at me, but there wasn't time to bring my gun around. Another gun exploded in the room and the vampire fell beside me, a hole in his chest, but still reaching for me. I put a bullet in his head without thinking about it. He stopped trying to grab me, mouth open, so his fangs glistened. Zerbrowski was standing in the doorway, gun pointed at the fallen vampire. I wasn't sure if he'd shot him, or... Smith was kneeling behind a huge industrial-sized metal cog that was to one side of the door. His gun was pointed that way, too. I caught a glimpse of Perry lying on the ground beside him. Smith had him behind cover, which was more than Zerbrowski and I had. Another gunshot made Zerbrowski duck back through the doorway, but I was too far away; I turned and found a boy with a gun in his hand. He was standing there, so straight, so tall, so arrogant, as he took his time and aimed at me. I shot him in the chest before he could finish. He crumpled around the wound and then fell to his side. Another teenager rushed forward to grab the gun from his hand.
I slid to a one-knee shooting stance and shot him, too. Smith was yelling, "They're kids, Anita, they're just kids!" He was still behind cover; I wasn't.
I yelled out, "Touch a gun, you die! Hurt anyone, you die! Are we clear?"
There were sullen murmurs of yes, yeah, and one fucking murderer. Some of them looked scared, eyes wide. There were a few more teenagers in the group, but there were also adults. In fact, we had vampires of all shapes and sizes in the large group. "Hands where we can see them, now!"
They raised their hands up, some ridiculously high, others barely out. "Hands on your head."
Some of them looked confused by the request. Zerbrowski said, "Hands on your heads, just like you see on TV, come on, you know how to do it."
I stood up, keeping my gun aimed in their direction, but I was keeping a peripheral eye on the first one I'd shot. The girl was whimpering, trying to get his hand off her arm, but either his hands had seized up in death or he wasn't quite dead. One silver-plated nine-millimeter bullet in the chest doesn't always kill a vampire.
The vampires in the shadows did what Zerbrowski told them. Smith came out from behind his cover, and I saw Perry moving a little. He wasn't dead - good - and he wasn't hurt enough for Smith to feel he needed to keep pressure on the wound, or whatever had happened to him, even better.
I eased toward the girl and the first vampire. She looked up at me, tearstained face, eyes wide. "He won't let go," she said. She was trying to peel just one finger back so she could get away. His hand stayed closed. Vampires died weirder than humans; sometimes they seized up, but... I went slow and careful, my bare feet making almost no sound on the dirty floorboards. But he was a vampire; he'd hear my heartbeat. There was really no way to sneak up on them, not yards away, not feet away... He sat up, gun coming with him. I put a bullet in his forehead before he had the gun aimed at me. The girl was screaming again, but she was able to get away now and ran away from the vampire into my arms, trying to get comfort, but I needed to make sure he was well and truly dead, and unarmed, so I pushed her away, told her, "Go to the others. Go!" I pushed her too hard, and she fell, but I was moving to the fallen vampire. The gun was still in his hand. I needed it not to be.
I crept up on him with my gun held two-handed. If he'd twitched I'd have shot him again. I kicked the gun out of his