I crept through the chilly forest, scanning the soil for non-existent tracks with five dark figures stalking through the undergrowth behind me. I tilted my head to one side, looking for the cheerfully gurgling stream we'd been following for an hour. Still there.

"Get a move on slowpokes," I called softly behind me.

"Ok," came the moody reply.

Erin popped up beside me.

"Geez!" I yelped. "You nearly scared the heebi-jeebies out of me!"

Erin smiled slightly.

"I'd make a good vampire." She said regretfully.

I sighed. "Erin we've talked about this. Nobody cares that you used to work with the Vampires to destroy the Humans."

Erin's jade green eyes glistened sadly. 

"Hey! Look what we've found." Four more faces popped up around us, grinning elatedly.

"What is it?" I asked, wondering if it was another odd looking dung beetle.

"Some kind of strange plant," Quartz replied. "Come on."

I followed them to the 'strange plant', thinking this might be a bad idea. Thorns tore at my hair like claws, and a few early bats flitted through the dim, evening light. 

"Well, it was here," Rebecca said thoughtfully, smoothing back a stray strand of her honey-brown hair.

"But it's apparently disappeared?" Erin asked disapprovingly. "Or you were imagining things."

"Maybe they weren't," a silky voice purred from behind us.

We all turned, but the owner of the voice didn't seem to be there. The shadows made the dead, leafless trees look like gnarled hands, groping for the sky. The forest's hollow-branched trees and dense, thorny bushes could be concealing any amount of evil. The fireflies seemed to glow a malicious red, like eyes, peering at them through the tall, withered grass. The thin twigs poking out at random locations looked like fingers brushing against the lifeless bark of the trees, and the wind blowing through the forest caused chills to crawl up their spines like little nibbling spiders, and it made the leaf litter rustle and wriggle like little worms inching towards them.

And worst of all, they had lost the river.

"Some strange plant!" I scolded. 

"It's a trap isn't it Caroline?" Erin whispered, breathless with fear.

I turned to see Erin's face even paler than usual, making her freckles and orange hair stand out against her skin even more vividly then they normally did. Her green eyes were bright with fear.

"I don't know," I lied. "Cover your hair and be prepared to run."

Erin nodded and slipped her black hood over her hair to conceal it from watchful eyes. I looked back and all the others had done the same. I pulled the hood low over my face and counted down in my mind.

3

"Caroline?"

2

"Do we run now?"

1

"Please hurry Caroline."

Go

"Ok everyone, run!" I ordered, not bothering to be quiet.

And we all like our lives depended on it. As we ran, I flicked my headlight on and twisted my knife out of it's sheath. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Erin sliding her gun out of it's holster and the others around us catching on and pulling out various weapons and defense mechanisms. 

I risked a glance over my shoulder and I could see the ghostly white shapes bounding through the undergrowth like feral cats slipping through alleyways, and keeping up with us at ease. I turned my attention back to where I was going and noticed more shapes, flickering through the trees beside us. They were trapping us.

I tilted my head to face Erin and she caught my eye. Some silent understanding came between us and she nodded. As we kept running, I slid my gun out from it's hiding place on my thigh. Then I fired a shot at a vampire that came streaking towards us at lightning speed, killing it instantly.

The team instantly stopped running and started firing at the monsters, knifing any that got too close. A skinny vampire hurled herself at me and I drove my knife into her neck. I gutted the next vampire, spilling blood and organs everywhere and then I stabbed the third vampire where the sun doesn't shine. It howled in fury and agony and crumpled like a paper ball. I blew it's head open with my gun, and then I put a bullet in the next one's brain. The remaining vampires halted, unsure whether or not to attack after the terrifying display of fighting skills, and they held a wide circle around us, whining and keening like dogs begging for food. A brave vampire stepped forward, but then retreated just as quickly when Robin nearly blew it's head off. 

And we stayed like that for a while, swiping threateningly at any vampires that dared to step closer, and occasionally shooting vampires that made loud, warlike noises. But the vampires were edging closer and closer, and we wouldn't be able to handle a full scale attack of twenty or thirty vampires at once. So we started shooting. Vampires went down in snarling bunches and we shot one bullet after the other, doing our best not to show fear, for vampires can sense fear. And if they sensed fear, they would attack immediately. And we'd be ripped to pieces, and there'd be nobody left to save the Human race but cities of incompetent, untrained idiots.

We kept shooting till every last vampire lay at our feet with broken bones and bleeding hearts.

Then we all plopped down in an messy circle of exhausted teens. 

"Anyone up for sleep?" Erin joked, and we all laughed and made ourselves as comfortable as we could. 

But I stayed awake and listened to the screaming of vampires far off into the distance, and only when the sun cast it's first glowing rays of light over the hills did I drift off.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Do NOT chase after strange plants in a dangerous world. You have been warned.