Joseph checked his gun and placed it back inside his coat, “Things are going to get ugly soon.”

Mr. Tentin nodded and turned to Folesom, “I want a full scale alert, those vamps outside are going to storm this place.”  Mr. Tentin checked his own gun and shook his head, “Mr. Bartlett didn’t help the situation any.  We’re going to have our very own D-Day because of him.” 

The monitor room was now abuzz with men, running about, calling the reserve guards, and loading large rifles.

Joseph nodded in agreement, “At least he can hold his own right?”  After witnessing the fight upstairs through the camera monitors, Joseph knew that Mr. Bartlett was more than human.  He could disappear in clouds of smoke, and reappear elsewhere.  Mr. Bartlett also took two bullets to the chest without harm.  It scared Joseph a little, but he believed Mr. Bartlett was truly on their side.  Joseph didn’t want to know what else the man could do.

“Alright, Joseph, are you ready for a fight?” Mr. Tentin smiled and started heading for the door.  He wanted to prove his men could fight just as well as any Institute agent, and the chance to fight was nigh.  He hoped that no one would die, but he fought enough battles to know that wasn’t going to happen.  People died, and all he could do he was his best to prevent that.

“Tentin!  We may have a problem here.”  Folesom brought up what he was looking at on the wall of monitors, “This garbage truck here.”  Folesom pointed to the large screen.

Mr. Tentin stepped forward and stared at the truck for a minute, “So? I don’t have time to take out the garbage.”  Several men chuckled at the comment.  Tentin smiled, he was at least lightening the mood.

“Well, I thought the same thing but,” Folesom fast forward the video feed he was showing Tentin.  The large garbage truck had passed by many times.  “It has passed by the restaurant twenty-five times now.  This late at night, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” 

Mr. Tentin nodded.  If it was something to worry about, it would have to wait.  He looked at the security room door as gunfire rang out in the restaurant, “Folesom, stay here and radio me if anything goes on.”  At least then he would have a heads up if anything was off about that garbage truck. 

He pulled his gun out and looked at Joseph, “We’ll get you to Mr. Bartlett’s office, so you can take care of your friends,” he started walking to the door in a cool manner. “The rest of you grab a gun and follow me!”  The men in the security room shouted out in affirmation as they grabbed any gun they could find.

Joseph lined up behind Mr. Tentin with the rest of the monitor room men behind him. He glanced back to see them all holding various weapons.  “At least we’re well armed,” he whispered to himself before Mr. Tentin opened the door. 

Mr. Tentin barged out raising his gun left, then right, and then he waved at the rest of the men to follow him out.  More and more gunshots rang out across the restaurant, followed by screams of pain and death. 

Joseph could hear that the vampires had hit several spots at once with the noise coming from various directions.  “Where are we going, Tentin?” Joseph asked the lead man, not knowing any of the guard’s protocol.  They could be set up in squads, if so, Joseph would only slow them down.

Mr. Tentin stopped at the edge of a hallway right off of the main eating area, and raised his fist.  The group stopped instantly.  Mr. Tentin looked back at Joseph. “First I got to get you to the elevator.  The rest of us are fortifying the main eating area.  If you have time we can use your help.” 

Agent Flaurence nodded, “I’m sure you could use all the men you can get.” 

Mr. Tentin peeked his head around the corner slowly; the men behind him sat against the wall, waiting, their anticipation rising.  He turned his head back to the men following him, “Let’s go.”  He then charged around the corner, raising his gun, “Kill every last blood sucker!”  The men shouted war cries as they followed their leader into battle.

Joseph turned to the men behind him taking one last glance at their faces.  He wanted to wish them all luck and hope they all made it through the fight, but as he turned back to face Mr. Tentin, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. 

He pulled his gun quickly and ran out into the chaos that had undertaken the restaurant. 

Many men lay on the ground, their bodies mutilated past recognition.  Others had taken up behind a blockade of tables, firing on any vampire that came near them.  Vampires were running amok everywhere he could see.  They jumped over tables, clawing, shooting, or stabbing any man that got in their way.  Gun shots rang out in every direction.  Men desperately clung to survival as the onslaught ensued.

Joseph looked at Mr. Tentin; he had stabbed a vampire in its heart, throwing it to the ground before it burst to flames. 

Joseph raised his gun and fired at a vampire flying through the air at Tentin.  The bullets hit her square in the chest, knocking her to the ground. 

Tentin quickly looked at Joseph and gave him a slight nod before stabbing the vampire through the chest. 

Agent Flaurence looked at the men behind him, one was shot in the shoulder lying on the ground, blood pumping from his wound.  Several of the men tipped over tables, dragging the bleeding man behind the them for safety. 

Another guard pulled his fully automatic rifle to bear on a vampire lunging for his neck.  The bullets tore through the vamp as the man held his finger on the trigger, he yelled out a war cry as he expended every last bullet in his gun.  The vampire slumped to the ground and twitched for a few moments before going up in flames. 

Joseph turned back to face Mr. Tentin, who was waving him over to the stairway which they ascended when first arriving at the restaurant.  Joseph started to dart form cover to cover, keeping his head low.  A loud twang of snapping metal brought his attention to the ceiling.  Joseph’s mouth went agape as he saw a massive crystal chandelier plummeting towards him.  He turned and sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him.  His muscles burned with exhaustion.  He hadn’t had time to rest since the warehouse, and it was wearing him down considerably.  Joseph took one last leap, hoping the chandelier wouldn’t smash him into human pulp.

The chandelier crashed down in an explosion of noise.  It crushed everything beneath it instantly, spraying broken shards of crystal in every direction.  Joseph looked back at the wreckage.  If he were a few seconds late, he would be dead.  He looked back up at the ceiling.  A lone vampire was clinging to the roof, laughing hysterically.  Several of the guards nearby focused their fire on the vampire.  In seconds, the vampire was eviscerated by a hail of bullets.  Joseph thanked the men and pushed himself back to his feet.

Joseph met up with Mr. Tentin behind a pillar by the stairway. A few of the monitor room men had followed, the rest stayed behind helping out the others trapped in the chaos of the restaurant.

Mr. Tentin looked at the man in front of him.  He was panting for air and rubbing his arm down.  Mr. Tentin wanted to crack a joke to lighten the mood, but figured this wasn’t the time for joking.  His new friend almost died.  “You ok there, Joe?”

Joseph just held up his thumb, still panting for air.

“Ok, just up the stairs and a straight shot to the elevator.”  Mr. Tentin turned to Joseph while reloading his gun, “That’s when you get in and get Mr. Bartlett and your friends out.” 

Agent Flaurence nodded and checked his gun.  He finally caught his breath and was able to speak, “I’ve been through hell and back Tentin, you can trust me on getting this done.” 

Joseph’s words caused Tentin to smile. Whether he was joking about being through hell or not was hard to judge.  He had a very strange line of work after all. 

Joseph nodded and took lead.  He darted out of the cover and charged up the stairs, raising his gun at several vampires jumping down at him. Aim for the head.  Joseph had one clear thought going through his mind, and he wasn’t going to mess it up. 

The first vamp pulled out a gun while charging him, but didn’t get far before he fell to the ground, flinging his gun into the air as he did so.  The second vamp growled at the death of her comrade and pulled a knife out of her coat.  She hurled it at Joseph with incredible speed. 

In a split second the Agent fired his gun twice, with a loud ding at first, flinging the knife outward into the restaurant, followed by the crash of a body that soon burst into an inferno.  There was no room for error now, and he definitely would not be killed by meager vampires. 

Several more shots sounded out behind Joseph.  The men had followed him and charged up the stairs with the same force as Joseph.  A slight smirk appeared on Joseph’s face, “Mr. Tentin trained some good men after all.”

Red zipped his pants up.  He sat in the stall for what seemed like an eternity.  He was trying his hardest to make sure the vampires had left the lobby, so he wouldn’t have to confront them again.  “There’s no way they are still out there,” Red whispered to himself, trying to cheer up as much as he could. 

He walked up to the mirror and turned on the faucet.  His eyes were a little red, and bags started to form beneath them.  His short buzzed head had some bruises and some blood was still caked in his nose.

He chuckled to himself, “The Institution, ain’t no rest for the wicked.”   As he washed his hands, he slowly started to think something was wrong.  It was quiet.  He should be able to hear a crowd of people talking about their latest television series or whatever else they talk about, but it was silent.  Not that Red knew enough people to know what normal people talk about.  He spent most of his days studying the psychic phenomenon, and why only a handful of people are born with such a gift.  But it was just that eerie silence.

In his line of work, silence only meant one thing, trouble.

He shifted his head slightly at the sound of a tap, or a pop.  He slowly walked to the bathroom door.  He could hear more and more. 

He propped open the door slightly to gaze out upon the restaurant lobby.  It was vacant except for the desk jockey they had encountered earlier.  Ra’ul flinched every time one of those pops sounded off, but he seemed to be relatively unaffected.

Red noticed even more of the pops, but they were louder now with the door open, then he realized it.  Those weren’t pops, but gun shots. 

Red shut the door and slumped up against it.  He quickly started to think about what was happening in the restaurant.  “What if they need my help?” Red whispered into the air.  He wasn’t a fighter, but a thinker.  Sure, he had a powerful ability, but to put it to use in a fight would mean endangering himself.

He slowly dropped to the ground and rubbed the back of his neck.  Red sat on the floor, and continued debating with himself.  He could help his partners, but then he could also get shot, which wouldn’t do him any favors. Plus, they were rather rude to him, at least the girls were.

In the end, he couldn’t let his partners die while he hid in a restroom.  Fighting his cowardice, he rose to his feet and grabbed the handle.  “Alright Red, just open the door and get to the restaurant.” 

He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the door.  He took a few deep breaths and jumped in place. “Let’s do this.”  With a final sigh, he opened the door.