Land Of Shadows: Chapter XXVII - Surrender

Sandy helped the old man settle back into the couch in lobby.  They had been here three days.  She still had no idea what this place was or why they were here.  But Puck insisted that the man and who had kidnapped the old man's daughter was headed here.  Whenever she pressed him on the matter he would only mutter something about the man killing his father, sometimes he would say the answers were in his father's journals.  The details all seemed rather fuzzy and would change and shift.  She did not doubt that he was being honest, but she did doubt if he was being factual.  The last few days he had been operating at a fever pitch.  He had been driving like a madman and would rarely let her behind the wheel.  She loved him but had begun to fear him. 

The old man was barely hanging on.  His belly was distended like pregnant sow's.  She didn't have to open his shirt to know that his whole abdomen would be a massive bruise.  She could see the little fuckers moving about just under the skin.  He smelled like he was dead already.  She checked the load on her .45, there was one in the chamber and five in the magazine.  At most there would be four of them more likely three.  It was time to end this.  Puck would not like it.  For some reason he had a soft spot for the old man.  But he had gone off looking for something.  She had only seen him a couple of times in the last two days

She flicked the safety off the Colt and looked to the old man.  His breathing was labored.  For a moment he looked at her and she could see clear lucid calculation in his eyes.  She shivered despite the seventy-eight degrees of the lobby.  But he faded out again and she though it was just her imagination. 

Movement outside caught her eye.  She moved to one of the big broken glass panels to see if Puck had found what he was looking for and come back. 

She could barely believe her eyes.  A man leading a horse, a woman, two teens and a younger girl were approaching.  The youngest girl fit the description in the old man's daughter to a tee. 

"Jonas, is this your ... " she started to turn and ask, and found him right behind her. 

His eyes were clear and full of malevolent life.  His shirt was now a bloody rag.  She started to back away from him, but he moved with impossible speed.  He grabbed her and pulled her towards him in a hateful embrace.  She fought with him but somehow he managed to get her gun.  She heard it fire even as she felt something slicing into her own belly.  Something warm and slick found its way into her shirt and began cutting into her, frantically digging at her flesh. 

In desperation she bit into the loose flesh of the old man's neck.  She drew blood it filled her mouth with the foul taste of rotten meat.  But he loosened his grip enough that she could get free of him.  She kicked out and caught him in the hip.  He lost balance and fell to the floor in a heap.  But still she was being torn into by at least two of the abominations.  She felt herself losing her balance.  One of them was actually inside her now.  She stuck her hand in her shirt to grab it and a pair of razor sharp claws sliced her index finger off at the second joint.  She pulled her hand back stared at it. 

She saw Puck burst through the doors at the north end of the lobby.  And then everything faded. 

*     *     *

Puck could no longer clearly remember exactly why he was here.  He was going to bring more of his kind here, but why.  He was was beginning to feel oddly disconnected with them.  He was more than this withered black thing carried around in his belly.  But even among his own kind he was never fully accepted.  They obeyed him, they feared him, they were in awe of him, but they hated him too.

His memories were beginning to blur too.  He was having trouble separating his and the host's memories.  He even found phantom memories that he doubted came from either, possibly from a previous host, but he did not know for sure.  He found himself making up stories and believing them.  In his seven thousand years he had taken so many hosts, but it had not been until he was snatched from his home world and forced to take his first native host that he'd had so much trouble. 

But with Sandy he found peace and acceptance.  If he activated this human machine again, he knew that it would merge his world and the human world.  Sandy would be torn from him.  He decided that was not acceptable.  This body would eventually die, but he could find a new host and stay with Her. 

Yesterday he had found what he believed to be a control room.  The power was even still on and the machines appeared to work.  He had absently pecked at a few buttons here and there at random, but without being able to read he had no idea what if any effect he was having. 

A gunshot interupted his thoughts.  He sprinted through the maze of corridors he had been searching and slammed through the door.  The old man with the belly full of workers was dead in a heap.  Sandy was staring at her dripping red hand she had just pulled out of the bloody tatters of her shirt.  He had experienced anger before, but rage like this was entirely alien to him.  He rushed to Sandy and eased her to the carpeted floor before ripping her shirt open.  He reached into the wounds in her belly and began yanking the infant wraiths from her belly.  There were three of them.  Each one he pulled out he squeezed in his fist till its little body popped.  They slashed and stabbed at his fingers with the sharp little claws, but it was of no consequence to him. 

He could do nothing for her, he fled from the horror of it but emerging from the front door of the building he found a woman staring at him with a weapon pointed at his midsection. 

"You have to help her!" was the first thing out of his mouth.  "Please hurry!" 

Dee stood there in shocked wonder at this turn of events.  The thing she had pursued halfway across the country was standing before her, hands dripping with blood and begging for her help.  She could easily cut him in half with the submachine gun, but for some reason she was unable to pull the trigger.  He turned and ran  back into the building.  She could hear him calling back to her to please hurry.  Allison was out from behind the UPS truck screaming.

"That's him, for God's sake don't let him get away now!" 

Whatever it was that had frozen her momentarily evaporated with that.  She sprinted after him, expecting a lengthy persuit, but he had stopped just inside the lobby.  The carnage inside told a confusing tale.  A wasted looking old man sprawled on the floor, his guts spilling all over the carpet, a pretty young blonde woman with similar belly wounds had been gently laid out on the floor.  The remnants of three emergent wraiths littered the floor around her.  Dee was no doctor, she knew some first aid, but nothing that could help here.  She turned to look behind her at the others. 

Elias moved to the girl's side and began quickly examining her.  It was hopeless.  Too much blood had already been lost.  Her liver was shredded, one kidney was gone and her large intestine bisected in several places.  Even had he had a fully equipped trauma center with staff, he doubted that he would be able to save her.  She shuddered once and was still.  Elias placed a bloody finger on her carotid artery, felt nothing.  Dee placed her hands over the girl's face and closed her eyes.  She looked to her adversary and saw the utter devastation on his face.  Though she wanted to hate him she suddenly found she could not, perhaps it was some sort of pheromone reaction like her father and Dr. Cooper had told her about, perhaps it was that he just looked so young and so lost. 

But still it needed to be done.

She stood up and pointed her weapon at him.  The safety was already off.  She fingered the trigger.  He lifted his own pistol.  But he did not point it at her.  He held it with the butt of the gun towards her. 

Puck probed inwards and suddenly found that all lines of communication were open.  Deek/Jewels welcomed a dialog with Puck.  They conferred without any conscious words.  The understanding was total, the decision, unanimous and equitable.  But there had to be a certain degree of cooperation for it to be carried out.

Dee watched in with barely suppressed revulsion as a thin black appendage emerged from the young man's belly.  He grasped it in one hand being careful of the stinger and it gently wrapped itself about his wrist.  The young man tugged and the tail tightened its grip.  It was clearly a painful process, but Dee was reluctant to interfere.  She gestured them all to stand back.  With a sound like a rubber glove being pulled off a greasy fist the parasite suddenly emerged.  It was a tiny thing, fragile and helpless without its host.  From head to the base if it's tail it was about eight inches and wrinkled, thin root like appendages trailed out from its body.  When it was clear of the wound the tail unwound from the boy's wrist and he dropped it before he himself fell to the floor.

It let out one short keening wail before a single gunshot echoed across the lobby silencing it. 

© 2011 R. Keith McBride

Land of Shadows: Chapter XXVI - Showdown

Elias looked down at the trio huddled in the shadow of an overturned truck.  They were just kids.  The oldest would have been just out of diapers when he stepped into the projector chamber.  The other two were barely older than his silent companion seated behind him on Penny.

They had obviously been through Hell.  They were clearly exhausted and somewhat battered.  A large Rottweiler lay with his head across the lap of the younger girl.  The older girl clutched the handle of a beat up square case in her sleep.  A shotgun lay across her lap. 

The dog woke up as he stood there holding Penny's reins.  Elias stood his ground as the dog started growling.  The girl clutched at his collar even as she wokeup.  In the time it took him to glance from the dog to the younger girl and then back to the older girl, she had the shotgun pumped and aimed at his face. 

The standoff was brief, none of them really felt like putting any effort into a fight even had they been so inclined.  They spend most of the afternoon talking and trying to stay cool in the shade.  They were quite enthralled by his tale, but the younger  girl, Allison, was skeptical.  Dee, however was more quietly accepting of his story, as if it verified something she already knew or had heard.  She told him of her own quest that had started out as simple vengeance, but had grown into something much more.  Since it appeared that their goals were so intertwined they decided to travel together. 

They camped that night in the partial shelter of the overturned truck.  He finally did learn the girl's name was June when she opened up to Allison that evening.  They were close to the same age.  But he was still very concerned for the girl.  The image that came most often to mind when he thought of her was a time bomb with the clock face painted over.  

Being the only one not on foot Elias scouted ahead.  He found a small town a couple miles south and returned to inform them.  By that evening they had all re-equipped themselves from a small gun shop.  The dry climate had preserved the guns perfectly.  

*     *     *

The old man in the back seat of the tow truck was dying.  Sandy recognized the signs.  Puck seemed oblivious to it, but she could smell it. 

They had picked the old man up at the side of the road, next to the smouldering carcass of a dead ATV.  He had been raving about his kidnapped daughter.  That was the only reason Sandy had not put a bullet in him already.  She hoped to reunite him with his little girl before it was too late.  

*     *     *

 Deek/Jewels contemplated the old man for some time.  It was decided that at the earliest opportunity he/they would wrest control from the parasite and eliminate this new threat it he/they could.  He/they were stronger now.  It was only a matter of time before they would be stronger than the invader.

*     *     *

The trip down through Texas was mostly uneventful.  That had seen very few wraiths.  The weather was warm but dry this far south and the wraiths liked humid conditions. 

*     *     *

Global Power Management Systems Inc.

The five of them stood staring at the sign over the main entrance checkpoint.  A chain link fence topped with rusty razor wire stretched off into the distance on either side.  Empty aircraft hangers stood nearby, barracks had been replaced with low office buildings and Air Force fighter aircraft had been swapped for an assortment of private jets and helicopters, but the place still looked and felt like the military air base it had been.  The parking lot was full of cars and unmarked company vans.  But what really dominated the scene was the large domed building loomed at the center of it all. 

Elias was the only one that knew what it was,  he had spent enough time in the Alaskan projection chamber examining the latest test subjects to recognize this one.  It was much larger and above ground, but it was close enough. 

The other three looked to him, and he shrugged before leading Penny through the checkpoint and the empty guardhouse. 

There was a circle drive at the largest office building, a glass and steel cracker box.  A large awning shaded the entrance.  A UPS van with six flat tires, ramp down and the rear door rolled up was parked near the entrance to make its last delivery.  Behind it was flatbed tow truck.  Dee was just beginning to think the tow truck looked out of place when a bullet slammed into the sidewalk at her feet.  Bits of concrete sprayed her ankles and she ducked behind the UPS van.  She was soon joined by the others. 

"You know this thing is just a pop can on wheels," Allison informed her. 

"Fine, you go out there and find me an armored car!" Dee snapped back at her.  "Let me think!"

Their own personal time warp seemed to form about them as they scanned for any possible cover, but they did not even really know where the shooter was.  Finally after what seemed like an hour but was in reality only six minutes Olly spoke up.

"We're pinned down and we have no place to go.  Why hasn't he finished us off?  If he got here before us he probably had plenty of time to set up a proper trap.  Why wait?"

It was a good question. 

Dee flipped the safety off her Colt SMG and  stepped out from behind the van.  She ready to duck back at any sign of movement.  But nothing happened.  The others were calling for her to come back.  But she took a step forward instead.  The big glass doors were just twenty yards away.  She proceeded slowly, not knowing what their enemy had in mind.  At ten yards she paused, thinking she heard something.  She was ready to bolt when the door swung open. 

What she saw was the one thing she was totally unprepared for. 

© 2011 R. Keith McBride

Land of Shadows: Chapter XXV - Boom

Dee and Allison sat in the shade of the Flying J truck stop they had pulled into hoping to get propane for the Hummer's big empty bottles.  They kept casting nervous glances towards the pumps where Olly was working on under the big military vehicle.  It had been a week since Dotty had saved them all at the cost of her own life.  In that time they had made it most of the way down across Oklahoma without really talking about it.  But Dee had accidentally activated Dotty's security system while they were filling the propane bottles.  Olly was disarming the system now.  Dotty had never given them the ten digit code to disarm the system and her thumb was not conveniently available right now.  Olly seemed confident that he could disarm the system.  But something was bothering her about the whole situation.

"We killed her didn't we?"  Ally had asked suddenly as Dee was contemplating whether of not any of the snack foods inside would still be edible.  They had been shipped out of the factory months before the twins had even been born.  But some of them had no natural ingredients at all or were packed so full of preservatives that they would still be fresh when the final trump was blown.  She had just decided to chance the Pringles when Ally's question derailed her train of thought.  She looked into her younger sister's face and saw the anguish and guilt there and knew that like a splinter under her fingernail, it would have to be dug out now before it could fester. 

"Get this straight, those fucking monsters killed her, not us, not Olly, not you!" 
"But if we hadn't ... she would still be back in Manitowoc in her lighthouse.  She would still be alive!" 

"You can 'what if' till your blue in the face and it won't change a thing.  Dotty chose to come with us.  It was her decision.  She knew what she was doing.  She saved our lives.  She would not want us to waste that gift by wallowing in guilt."  She felt like she was handling this badly.  If only their mother were here.  She would know better what to say.

They lapsed into silence.  Dee glanced over to the Hummer again.  It was shaded by a large awning sheltering the propane pumps.  Beyond the Hummer were the big silver propane cylinders.  It suddenly clicked in her brain why she was so nervous.  She was about to call out to Olly to push the truck away from the propane tanks when she saw him emerge from under the truck.  He turned towards Dee and started running. 

Ally was still going on about being responsible for Dotty's death when Dee kicked her off the pop cases she was sitting on.  Ally started to protest but caught the expression on Dee's face.

"Run!"

Ally wasted no time and rolled to her feet and ran. 

Fifty yards and Ally started to slow down and look back. 

"Keep going!" both Dee and Olly yelled at her.

A hundred yards and Dee glanced back over her shoulder.  The look of terror on Olly's face spurred her on.  Two hundred yards and Dee wanted to duck behind a lone boxcar sitting on some rusty tracks leading nowhere.  But Olly shook his head.  Anyone else and she would have thought they were being overly cautious.  But that was not Olly's nature.  The twins had both been taught the fine art of blowing shit up by that nine fingered master, Billy Parsons.  So they kept running.  She was wondering how much time they had when Ally suddenly seemed to disappear into the dry barren landscape ahead of her.  She felt a moment of panic just before she too "found" the dry stream bed Ally had stumbled into.  Ally was already scrambling towards a big round pipe that passed under the road to the west.  Olly followed them in and sat down on the galvanized metal of the pipe. 

"Cover your ears and breath real shallow." he ordered them.  Dee was about to ask how long when Olly held up his hand fingers spread.  After about a second he put one finger down.  When he took his hand down and covered his ears Dee put her head down and exhaled, forcing as much air out of her lungs as she could.  None of the really heard the explosion.  It was more like being hit by a four ton water balloon filled with hot water.  Had their lungs been full the sudden pressure of the shockwave would have caused numerous ruptures in their lungs.  The first explosion was followed by two larger ones and several smaller ones.  In silence broken only by the ringing in their ears the three of them stumbled up onto the crumbling blacktop.  Olly was bleeding from both ears but did not seem to notice. 

They stood on the road looking to the north where the Flying J had been.  It was a flattened and smouldering ruin now.  There was not even enough left to really burn.  Debris was still raining down .  The old boxcar was now about twenty yards south of where they were standing now.  Dee looked at Olly and he just shrugged with an odd half grin on his face.

The three of the took stock and it looked rather grim.  Dee was the only one with more than a knife with her shotgun.  And she only had three shells for it in her pocket. 

They would soon be crossing into Texas on foot and unarmed.

*     *     *

The girl tugged at Elias' shirt and shoved the binoculars into his hands.  A thick plume of black smoke and dust on the horizon to the southeast.  The explosion they had heard earlier this morning had spooked Penny and only a firm hand and the fact that she was carrying a two riders, their gear and supplies kept her from bolting.  It must have been something big.  The initial explosion sounded like a car bomb.  He had heard a few of those back in the marines during basic training.  Whatever it was had set off something else. 

He pulled the reins to the left to head Penny in that general direction.  It was not terribly far out of the way and he felt that it was worth investigating. 

*     *     *

Elias was not the only one watching the smoke and wondering what it meant. 

Jonas heard and felt the rumbling and looked up to see the pillar of smoke to the south.  He didn't know if it was the man that had stolen his rebellious bitch of a daughter, but it was surely a sign.  He did not think he had much time left.  His left hand was a swollen red mess with ugly red lines just beginning to reach up to his wrist from the putrid stump of his left pinky.  The abdominal pains from the little terror gestating in his belly were stronger and more frequent.  And he was frequently blacking out because his blood sugar was fluctuating wildly.  But he intended to die with his hands around her throat and let the abomination he was carrying in his gut finish the job.  He climbed back on his battered ATV and followed the smoke. 

© 2011 R. Keith McBride

Land of Shadows: Chapter XXIV - Lane Ends Merge Ahead

Sandy stared at the young man sleeping next to her.  The man she had come to love in just a few brief days.  She was worried about him, though he was sleeping peacefully enough now, he was frequently troubled by nightmares and would spend half the night thrashing about.  Lines creased his forehead even now. She gently brushed the thick blond hair that had fallen across his face back.  She wished she could help him, but he was as tight-lipped about his nightmares as he was about that nasty vertical scar on his belly.

His obsession with Houston was even more troubling.  She had never been further south than Arkansas and that was bad enough.  Her father had died under her own hand just two miles north of the Missouri border.  It had been to spare him anymore agony and it often haunted her in her own dreams.  But it held a not of pride for her too.  She had been the one strong enough to do what needed to be done.  Her brother's could not bring themselves to do it no matter how much their father begged.  She and her brothers had burned his body and continued home.  It could be worse though, he could be headed to Florida.  Her mother was from Miami and said she had not heard of anyone coming out of Florida in ten years. 

She got up and went about getting ready for the day's travels.  It was a cool this morning but she had a feeling that by this afternoon she would be wishing the AC was working in the truck.  She wondered why anyone in their right mind ever settled this far south.  She did not realize that the blasted landscape they were crossing was the result of an uncontrolled wildfire that had swept the region two years ago, burning everything in its path.  She only saw the patchy drought starved grasses and the stunted looking twiggy little trees that were only now big enough to be called saplings.  There weren't that many buildings left standing along this stretch of highway. 

By the time Puck was awake she already had breakfast ready.  They were on the road again fifteen minutes later with him at the wheel.  She was surprised to learn that he could not drive or read and she had set about rectifying that situation.  The reading would take a while, but he had mastered driving within an hour. 

It was nearing noon when Puck slammed on the brakes, jolting Sandy out of her nap.  The reason for the sudden stop was obvious as soon as she opened her eyes.  The behemoths blocking the road were at least twelve feet at the shoulder, their massive gray bodies forming a veritable living wall blocking the road.  Their legs were as big around as a man's body.  One of the beasts turned to them, its tusks gleaming in the sun.  It sprayed a blast of dust from a pothole in the road up onto its back from its trunk and regarded them calmly as the others slowly trod across the interstate.  Both of then just stared in awe as the herd of African elephants crossed majestically in front of them.

*     *     *

"Well, I'll be damned!"  Deek and the old man exclaimed in unison.  This was beginning to happen more often.  Puck's growing distraction with the girl was giving them much more freedom of movement, but a strange thing was beginning to happen.  They two of them were becoming as one.  Two personalities cannot exist within the same confines of the human brain without problems.  Deek was frightened tried to resist at times but Jewels viewed this with resignation.  He did not know if it would necessarily be a bad thing but the loss of self troubled him.  He had lost much since he had been taken over, and could never hope to be a whole person.  Aside from being reduced in status to the equivalent of a disembodied hitchhiker, there were gaping holes in his memory.  Deek had never been complete.  But the alterations made to the boy's brain by the parasite and Jewels' presence would allow for the formation of an entirely new and whole person.  Sadly, neither believed they would live long enough for this merger to be run its eventual course.

This crossed their converging minds in an instant, before they both returned their attention to the elephants.


© 2011 R. Keith McBride

Considering a Change of Address.

I have been considering a change of address for my story blog.  Blogger has been problematic from the beginning.  The editor is cumbersome and does not like the inclusion of photos (such as my scanned journal pages).  I am thinking about the feasibilty of moving the whole thing to facebook. 

Any input would be welcomed.

Land of Shadows: Chapter XXIII - Oklahoma

Puck helped Sandy up into the truck. He had no idea why he did this, she was perfectly capable of climbing into the cab by herself. She smiled at him as she slid into the driver's seat of the of the big flatbed tow truck. He found himself momentarily mesmerized by the curve of her backside and the fit of her jeans. He tried to put himself in a clinical frame of mind by analyzing the musculature of her leg, but that backfired as he found himself remembering how strong and athletic she had been just this morning and a felt a rekindling of lust. This was tinted by a strong desire to see her smile at him as she had afterwards. That one smile had elicited feelings in him that were unfamiliar and frightening. Lust he understood, but not this. On impulse he reached out to snap her neck and once and for all put an end to this madness. Instead his hand caressed her neck and idly traced the shape of her ear. She shivered and told him that if he kept that up they would never get moving. He reluctantly fastened his seat belt and dropped his hand down into the seat between them. She turned and smiled at him saw the look on his face and the smile melted away.


"What's wrong, handsome?" asked Sandy as she turned back around to face him. But he had no answer for her.

* * *

Dee found the old relic in a recreation of an old trapper's cabin that had been built in the east wing of Bass Pro Shop. It was a 1930 Underwood portable typewriter. It was not as refined as her father's Olympia but it seemed to work fine, a little stiff from sitting but a shot of a aerosol carburetor cleaner in the segment and the escapement would loosen it up. A good machine oil applied sparingly only if needed because oil attracts dust. The ribbon was dry, but her father had taught her a trick to fix that. She should be able to find everything she needed here.


As the blizzard raged outside she found a quiet corner of the huge mall to update her journal. It was that or hang around camp listening to Allison and Olly bicker back and forth.

Dee closed the case on the liberated Underwood, leaving the half page she had typed in the case. Then she looked down at her fingers. It had been a bit messy but the WD40 had done the trick. A little bit sprayed on the ribbon had brought the ink out nicely. Now her fingers were stained from handling the ribbon but some alcohol would take care of that.

Tomorrow they would be on the trail again, but tonight she planned to unwind a bit.

* * *

Stepping across the Kansas Oklahoma border was like stepping from winter into summer. 

They found a big cinderblock building just off the highway that turned out to be a gun store with an indoor shooting range. Elias and the girl both took the opportunity to replenish their stock of ammunition. The guns were all perfectly preserved in the dry climate. Elias selected a vintage Winchester rifle. It was a model he was familiar with and he could almost always find ammo for it. He tested it out on the firing range after a thorough cleaning.

In the basement behind some crates he found a steel door. There was a huge padlock hanging loose from the hasp on the door. He considered just closing the lock but didn't like the idea of sleeping here without knowing what was on the other side of the door. Inside he saw what looked like an old Cold War era survivalists bunker. It was well stocked with canned goods and dried foods.

A huge old rat was gnawing open a box of old crackers nearby, unfazed by his presence. But a rat this size was actually a good sign. No wraiths nearby. Elias tossed a rusted and swollen can of beans at the rat missing completely. The rat looked at the can, looked at Elias and waddled lazily off, unimpressed.

Back behind some large shelves and racks was what appeared to be a well decorated little girl's bedroom. There was an expensive digital camera on a tripod aimed at the bed. On a desk just outside the taped off "walls" of the bedroom was a computer and printer, also on the desk were a few hundred round .22 ammo boxes filled not with bullets, but micro SD memory cards. Easily hidden, easily erased. He had little doubt what he would find were he to open the files they contained. An open folder under the desk with some color prints confirmed this. He looked behind him and sure enough she was shadowing him. She had said maybe ten words to him since she had shot her father. He sometimes tended to forget she was even there except when they were riding. She would sit behind him with her arm around him or clinging to his coat. She was terrified of Penny.

He quickly ushered the girl out of the bunker and locked the door before she could see photos.

After checking all the doors and windows they turned in. Penny was stabled in the shooting range and they were camped in one of the gun shop's stock rooms. Elias was confident that they would be within spitting distance of Houston within the week. If they survived that is.

* * *

The haze of smoke from the fires surrounding them was making it difficult to see what they were shooting at, but the fire was the only thing giving them any light. A wraith burst through a glass window to Dee's right but was dead before it hit the ground, its head reduced to a pulpy mass by Olly's pump action shotgun.

"I'm out!" Ally shouted from behind the counter she had taken refuge behind. Dee yanked a .45 from her belt, clicked the safety and tossed it to her. The gun crashed through the glass display case in front of Ally. Carefully avoiding the larger shards of glass that threatened to sever arteries if given half a chance and ignoring the smaller pieced that bit into her fingers, Ally snatched the weapon, disengaged the safety and fired a couple of rounds into the head of a wraith that was being held at bay by Duke. Dee's rifle clicked on an empty chamber so she switched to her sawed off shotgun. It was a short range weapon that had to be broke open after each shot, but would knock down a charging bull elephant with one shot. She might be able to get one or two of them before she was out. Then they would be on her.

The wall to Dee's left exploded out, raining drywall and splintered two by four studs out. The biggest master wraith she had ever seen, with claws nearly 2 feet long, burst through and landed right in front of her. She pumped her remaining two shells into the head and neck of the thing before she realized that it was already dead. Light was now blazing from the whole in the wall as the roar of the Hummer's engine filled the room.

Dotty leaned out the door and yelled at them to for Christ's sake get in. They did not need a second invitation. But before they could get in Dotty suddenly stiffened and tried scream. Two long curved swords erupted from just under her breasts and all she could get out was a sputter. The claws yanked upwards pulling Dotty out of her seat. Another pair of claws lashed out and decapitated her as neatly as a guillotine. There was, mercifully, no spray of blood from her severed neck as her heart had already stopped beating. The beast was dead from four gunshots to the head before Dotty's head hit the floor. There was no time to grieve or even to gather her remains before they had to flee. Dee sadly had to yank Dotty's body from the driver's seat and leave it there on the tiled floor next to the wraith that had killed her.

© 2011 R. Keith McBride

Working on a new story post.

I would like to apologise to my few readers for not getting a story post up in a while. Been very busy and just have not had a lot of time to sit down and put anything down. But I am curretnly working on the next chapter.