Free Ripper by David Lynn Golemon Page B

through the doors. The first one pounced on a private who had reacted too slowly to the attack. The man was up and into the poor boy’s throat before he knew what was happening. Blood flowed as one of the private’s buddies shook off his fear and fired an Enfield intothe side of the attacker’s head. The beast jerked away, taking a large amount of skin and muscle of the private with it. The soldier fired again, not waiting to be stunned once more by the lunatic before him. The third bullet hit the beastly looking creature on the lower chin, blowing most of the jaw away. Another bullet hit it before it could recover from the first of the devastating blows.
    Patton saw the second of the crazed men rise still wrapped in the large curtain that had covered the glass doors. He aimed and fired quickly. The bullets punched holes into the white lace curtains. Blood exploded, soaking the material as the man underneath lost his balance and crashed to the floor. Men fired point-blank at the still-moving lace curtains. Bullet after bullet hit the struggling man.Colonel Thomas stepped forward and emptied both barrels of his shotgun into the curtains. Blood misted in a small cloud, but still the beast fought to free itself. Patton finally placed the reloaded .45 automatic a few inches away from the outline of the man’s head and fired. The shot reverberated in the room as the large-caliber bullet slammed into the side of the man’s head. Brain matter and ared spray of blood splattered over the lace curtain and the men beyond. Then Thomas quickly reloaded and added another two rounds of solid shot to the area where the beast’s head was approximated to be. The body ceased moving.
    Outside, the screams of the 8th were now mingling with the roars and animalistic yells of the attacking force of crazed killers.
    Patton slid another clip of ammunitioninto his Colt and then stepped hurriedly out onto the veranda that looked onto the courtyard. He saw two troopers ride in through the open gates, and before they could react, he saw one of the strangely dressed men jump in front of one of the charging horses. The rider and horse reared up as the insanity-driven man hit the front breast of the huge animal. The beast bounced off as the horse rearedover it. Then to the rider’s astonishment the man sprang to his feet as if he were a gazelle. Patton took another two steps out onto the porch when the most amazing sight he had ever been witness to presented itself. The beast actually caught the forelegs of the horse before the animal could bring the sharp hooves and steel shoes down upon it. The man-beast twisted the legs of the horse until thebody had to follow. Horse and rider hit the flagstone surface of the courtyard. Patton quickly aimed and fired as did the rider’s companion. Bullets hit the killer, but they didn’t stop him from leaping over the fallen horse to take the man before he could fight his way out from under his own horse.
    Above the din of the strangest fight the young lieutenant had ever been witness to, he heard thesoldier start screaming as the attacker started to use his teeth on the fallen man. Thirty, forty shots rang out in the course of a minute as more of the man-animals broke free from somewhere inside the hacienda.
    “What in the devil are we up against here, Lieutenant?” the heavyset sergeant major asked as he tore his neckerchief free of his neck and started wiping blood from his bearded face.
    Patton didn’t answer as he took aim and fired two rounds into one of the filthy, muscled men that ran after another of the galloping horses.
    “We have at least fifteen men down, sir.” The sergeant major aimed the shotgun and fired both barrels at another of the men as he actually lifted a dead horse off of its rider just so he could sink his long, filthy teeth into his neck. “This is all wrong,Lieutenant.”
    Patton thought about the orders he had received. That after the hacienda had been taken, he was to burn