Ashley finished pulling her body onto the beam and launched to her feet, comfortable thirty five feet above ground on a narrow beam. She had the balance and agility to move quickly and did so, hurrying to the rope holding Hector.
"Hey, Hector. You alive?" she called, unable to help her concern for the vamp who had become her partner.
He didn't answer verbally, but his squirming made the rope jerk. Ashley considered the best way to get him down or up and finally decided anything she wanted to do was going to take too long, especially with the vamp freak waiting for them below and the ambush she didn't know if they'd be able to prevent.
She returned to her rope and sawed it free from the top before returning to Hector's. She tied one end of her rope around the beam tightly and then the other end two feet down from her. Double and triple knotting everything, she tested it before sawing through his rope.
Hector dropped about ten feet closer to the ground with the extension of her rope. Ashley shimmied down to the large vamp. He was alive and clutching the noose around his neck. Ashley sawed through the rope supporting both of them.
They dropped the remaining ten feet to the ground. Ashley hit hard on one ankle and rolled to reduce the impact. She withdrew one knife as she hopped back to her feet and tested the ankle. It was sore already, a sign she'd be slower than she preferred for a bit.
Hector began coughing and gasping. Ashley drew near him, waiting for the vamp they faced to try something while Hector was down and she was recovering.
"Hey, Hector. Get up!" she ordered him. "We gotta warn Charles."
"You … should've left … me," he replied and crawled to his knees.
"Yeah, probably," she agreed. "C'mon!"
She saw the red spark of the attacking vamp a split second before he smashed into her. This time, it wasn't a glancing blow. He hit her full on and drove her onto her back. Ashley wriggled and lashed out with one elbow, smashing him in the nose.
"Hector! Go warn Charles!" she shouted and then flipped her hips to shove the vamp off her.
Hector stumbled away, back towards the door through which they'd entered.
Her attacker didn't give her time to get up but tackled her again. Ashley ducked and tagged him good with a knife. She bound to her feet. "That all you got, you idiot?" she shouted.
Suddenly, the overhead lights of the factory flipped on, blinding her. Her instincts alerted her before the sunspots cleared enough for her to see.