Werner said, placing his hand on the spear, “It has been dead for fifteen hundred years.”
Hutchinson looked puzzled at the German Count, who smiled.
“I too speak Latin. Or did you think you were the only educated man here?”
Longinus was no longer listening. He suddenly snatched the spear away from Von Werner’s touch. Von Werner grabbed it and tried to pull it back but the Roman was too strong and Von Werner was losing the fight. Petrov suddenly stepped forward.
“Enough of this,” he said.
He flicked the safety off his AK-74M and fired a burst at Longinus hitting the creature in the chest. Longinus yelled and crashed to the ground.
“Petrov No!“ Von Werner shouted.
The other creatures snarled and moved menacingly closer. Longinus turned over slowly on the ground and began to get up. He then said something short and swift in Latin. The creatures near the men with guns suddenly pounced. One sunk its teeth into the throat of a Russian mercenary and ripped it out. Dennis shoved Hutchinson back towards the way they’d come in. he grabbed Natalie’s hand, ran forward a few paces and grabbed Katya’s hand and shouted,
“RUN!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Dennis shoved Natalie and Katja towards the narrow pass in the rocks. Hutchinson had already gone through. Katja was struggling to run in her three inch heels and she took them off and kept them in her hand, refusing to let go of a pair of shoes that had cost her five hundred euros.
The cavern was filled with the sound of gunfire and the howls of men and the white skinned creatures that had so long ago been Roman legionaries.
As the women rushed for the gap Dennis turned to a scene of carnage. He saw one of Von Werner’s men firing from the hip when one of the creatures dropped down on him from the wall above. It slashed at the man’s throat with its long fingernails, then it grabbed the man’s head and twisted, breaking the neck. Slowly it turned to look at Dennis with its teeth bared dripping blood. Then it was sent crashing sideways by a burst of bullets and it roared in anguish and bounced off the wall and knelt shaking its head and growling. Dennis rushed to the dead mercenary and snatched up the fallen man’s Kalashnikov. He fired the AK-74M at the creature and was relieved to see that the bullets which struck it in the head appeared to kill it. With a last howl it slumped against the wall and stopped moving.
“Shoot them in the head!” he roared.
He saw one mercenary grappling with one of the monsters when the pair of them exploded. The mercenary’s grenades having somehow been pulled in the struggle. A rain of blood and flesh rained down.
Von Werner was trapped near the edge of the crevice. He was between the sarcophagus and Longinus who was still holding the spear. Petrov was working his way towards his boss. He was firing a Remington 870 assault shotgun he’d taken from one of the SAS men he’d murdered. Firing from the hip he was blasting the creatures. Now he was almost on top of Longinus and he blasted him in the side. Strangely no blood came from the wound and he saw the black pellet holes heal in front of his very eyes. Longinus turned towards Petrov and roared his defiance. Petrov blasted him three more times in the chest and Longinus staggered backwards towards the edge. Petrov pumped the shotgun once more and fired again. Longinus dropped the spear and stumbled backwards into open air and fell from sight. Petrov suddenly yelled in agony as one of the white skinned monsters slashed the back of his head and neck. He turned with the shotgun and fired but the creature had already bounded away. Another creature grabbed the shotgun and yanked it out of Petrov’s hands and threw it away. Petrov fumbled for his handgun and drew it and fired twice at the vile being. He hit it in the throat and it roared away clutching the wound. Then it snarled at the Russian marksman and leapt at him. It knocked the handgun out of his hand and he was able to move out of its way enough to draw out his large hunting knife. The creature leapt at him again and he drove the eight inch blade straight into the white torso. The sharp blade slid in to the hilt. The creature howled and spat it’s foul saliva into Petrov’s face. Then