“We won’t go hungry, no not tonight,”

“Flesh is so tender you don’t need a knife.”

“Eating yer buddies.”

Eating Your Buddies

The group sung as one, except for Pitch, who led them quickly through the night. Talon had dropped back as far as Mucci would let him. He had given Pitch the basic instructions and the man knew the way.

The night came alive around him as the cannibals continued their eerie chant. Shadows clung to the refuse that lined the road, looking like fields of dead bodies. The taste of the meat bubbled up into his throat, staining his lips, bringing back what he had done. He could feel it. It clung against the side of his stomach like a solid lump putrefying his insides. He knew he was tainted, but he couldn’t worry about that now, he had to see this through.

They were nearing the bridge. In the distance, the lights of the other side of the city shined like the stars the smog denied.

“Keep an eye on him,” Pitch hissed back to Mucci, and then began to jog under the bridge. A light could now be seen on the far side. ”Rick, is that you?” He called out.

Talon knew he had to act fast. “Hey look out,” he said to Mucci, grabbing his arm.”

“What the hell?”

“The guy I pushed over the ledge, I saw him. The fall didn’t take him out.” Without waiting for a reply, Talon took off back the way they had come. Mucci, uncertain at first, followed. As soon as they had reached thicker shadows, Talon spun around and punched Mucci in the nose. The young man wasn’t expecting such a sudden turn, and the fist broke Mucci’s nose in an explosion of blood.

Talon Fights Back

While Mucci stumbled back, Talon’s left hand grabbed the bat and his right hand punched him again. Grunting, Mucci released the bat. The blow caused him to trip over a rock and he went crashing down onto his back. Talon choked up the bat, like he was going to head in to finish the job, but that was when a helicopter floodlight began to illuminate under the bridge. A garbled voice started shouting orders and then moments later gunfire rang out.

“Good luck dumb ass,” he yelled back at the battered punk and began to sprint out of there. “And thank you, Brian Whitney; sorry about the hassle they’ll be putting you through after all this.” That guy must have been loaded, Talon thought to himself. If the reported kidnapping brought out Helicopter support, Talon must have picked the right guy to call in a false report with. The cops wouldn’t find Brian there, but they had found enough to make sure the trip wasn’t a waste and even if any of Pitch’s crew survived the encounter, he doubted he would be seeing them for a while.

He had almost made it back to one of the main roads, when a large figure blocked his path.

At first Talon thought it was some random dreg or maybe a cop who had moved around to cut them off, but then he saw the glint of the helicopter lights shining off glasses. It was Rick-the-dick. The man could barely stand without swaying and blood dripped from the middle finger of his disfigured left arm, slowly creating a muddy black pool where it mixed with the sand below.

Rik The Dik

“You narcing bastard. Can you comprehend what you have done?”

“Rid the world of a bunch of freaks is what I’m thinking.”

With a roar, Rick rushed forward swinging his nun-chucks. Talon still had the bat and used it to block the attack. Moving faster, his back swing took Rick in the temple with a loud crack.

Talon brought the bat behind his shoulder, like he was waiting for a pitch. Rick came in and he swung the bat. It connected with the chucks and sent them flying into the dead bushes.

Rick called out, “I’ll kill you for ruining everything,” and leapt forward. His long lanky arms got past the bat and he began to clutch and pull at him. Before Talon knew what was happening, long teeth had buried themselves into the flesh of his shoulder. His cried out in pain as the jagged teeth quickly tore through his tie shirt.

Dropping the bat, his hand began to fumble into his back pocket. Pulling out the steak knife, he stabbed it between two of Rick’s ribs. The man gasped out and stumbled away, taking the knife with him. “Try to eat me will you,” Talon spat at him while clutching his bleeding shoulder. “You are the one who is going to get carved like a steak.”

After yanking out the knife, Rick came at him again, but Talon snatched up the bat and swung into him before Rick could use the small blade. There was a resounding crack as the tip of the bat broke Rick jaw. He tumbled off of the path with a wet grown.

Talon was going to make sure he finished what he started this time. Leaving a vengeful Rick-the-dick alive wouldn’t be wise. Then a sound stopped him.

Mutt Hounds

A low growling could be heard coming from the dry bushes. Another quickly followed it, then a third. Thin shadows created finger wide tiger strips on the circling pack. Rez-dogs, loose packs that preyed on the unlucky and alone. They scented blood and were more than willing to prey on the wounded.

“He’s all yours boys.” Talon muttered, as he slowly retreated holding the bat in front of him.

Rick reached out a pleading hand and moaned.

“Sorry, I guess it is your turn to fed the hungry mouths. Only I think this meal won’t be over as quickly.” The sounds on Rick’s hopeless cries would haunt him for months. Nearly as long as it would take for him to get the taste of human flesh from returning to him when it was least needed. A thousand beers couldn’t drown it. Over time it faded, but his friends always wondered why a big guy like him would suddenly become a vegetarian and they would never know.

Talon

Learn more about the chaos in New Cluster here!

New Cluster

Rolling Apocalypse

The glass continued to crack as the mad men pounded on the glass separating the patio from the interior of Scallywags. For an elongated moment, the cluster of patrons and employees eyed each other with fear filled faces until the woman who had just lost her friend outside yelled, “We have to do something.”

Breaking their way in

“Yeah, but what?” the bartender said.

“Maybe we should just make a break for our cars through the front,” Will suggested.

“As long as you’ll cool with some of us not making it,” Jack said. “Who knows what’s out there? The cops could be moving in to help us. I would hate to have people die when this whole thing could be wrapped up in a few hours. We’re safer as a group where we can defend ourselves!”

Rollie spoke up. “But if they break through the glass this place won’t be too defendable.”

As if his words brought forth a curse, the first window shattered in a rain of jagged shards. Most of the women let out screams, but Jack was quick to act. Snatching up a table, he threw it at the pair of blood soaked freaks already lumbering into the bar. This toppled them over. Then, instead of fleeing, Jack attacked them with his chair leg.

Jack

He kept smashing one in the head until it final stopped moving, but the other had gained its feet, while behind it, a full dozen followed the first two into Scallywags.  

“Come on!” Will yelled. “He needs help.” Rollie’s boyfriend grabbed up a chair and rushed forward smashing the one approaching Jack’s back.

Watch your back

Rollie still possessed the chair leg Jack had given him and joined his lover near the carnage, but almost as soon as he had, he wished he hadn’t. Blood covered people of every age and size tumbled in at them. A woman, wearing a shirt full of pictures of fat tomatoes, growled as she came stumbling toward him.

Hitting a sick person went against everything he believed in. Will screamed something at him, be the words didn’t register. She drew in closer and he could smell the blood on her.

Then she clawed at him. He might have cried out and went to push her away, but, she had a hold of his shirt. It was the sight of two larger freaks moving in behind her that snapped him into action.

With another yell, he smashed forward with his makeshift club.

She acted like she hadn’t felt a thing.

The others were almost upon him.

With a louder shout, he put everything he had into the next blow. No one would have been more surprised than he, when she toppled to the ground with a dull moan.

Will grabbed him from behind. “Come on!”

Jack yelled to the bartender. “Take everyone backstage!”

An ear piercing scream tore at his ears and Rollie saw a madman had made it past them and grabbed one of the women. This helped convince the others to retreat up onto the stage.

The dying woman sadly aided them, for Rollie, Will, Jack, and Steve made it to the stage safely. For a moment the men took in the grizzly feast and only their loud gasping for air competed with the grizzly tearing of flesh below.

Feasting

Jack addressed them. “There are still a lot of supplies we could gather in case we need to lock ourselves into there for the long haul. I only see about ten on those fuckers and they’re all screwed up. I say we take them out and then grab some food and water. Who’s with me?’

Check in every Saturday for a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

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Saving Money (Part III)

“Hey Talon, what are you doing here?” Marty was one of the cooler guys he worked with. He didn’t talk down to Talon, just because he was a lowly dishwasher and Marty was a chief. “I thought you had tonight off?”

“Oh, I think I left my Personal here,” he lied. Talon didn’t even have enough money to own a personal, which these days meant his dating pool was pretty narrow.

“Well, the lost and found is near the register.” That was what he was hoping Marty would say.

New Cluster

Hurrying through the busy kitchen, he dodged plates and conversations. He saw a stray steak knife and tucked it into his back pocket. It wasn’t too big, but it could come in handy.

Making it to the front, he dropped behind the counter. Sassy was working, which he couldn’t decide was lucky or not. He had a hard enough time talking to her normally, but tonight, he was already feeling like his pulse rate had doubled.

The thought that he had eaten a steak of human flesh splattered across his mind. Did it somehow make him different? Could it scar you? He tried to push such feelings away. There would be plenty of time to ruminate on that horror later. Right now, he just had to make sure he had a later.

Attempting to push his tangled thoughts aside, he moved in behind her, waiting. There were worse places to be. Wearing the skintight Chinese dress did what it was supposed to do and graced her thin figure exquisitely. The scarlet dress matched her heels as well as her lips. She had a short blonde gloss cut, which belled out just over her hairline. Luminescent light blue eyes finished the look.

Sassy selected from the cream of the available undercrusties, and sometimes men who weren’t so available. She was way out of his league, even though they were of an age. This didn’t keep her from being decent to him and they joked around as much as he could manage.

Turning to face him, she smiled, “hi there Talon, just can’t stay away from the fun?”

“You got me pegged, I can’t hang here next to you while I’m not the clock, so I have to come in off shift for the privilege.“

He might have almost brought some color to her cheeks, and she eyed him slyly, but then quickly said, “Why are you really here?”

“I think I might have left my Personal here?”

“Really, I didn’t know you had one.” throwing her hip out slightly, she eyed him strongly.

“Why do you want my number?”

Sassy

“Maybe,” she pointed a scarlet fingernail towards a haggard yellow box that sat under the counter. “There is the lost and found. If you see a pair of amber earrings let me know.”

Talon was trying to kill time. He had to stay behind the counter as long as possible. Minutes dragged until he had spent enough of them to search the box three times.

“You know that if you lost it here, some scratch would swipe it anyway,” she said from behind him.

Holding up some thick red winter gloves, “here, how about these? They match your dress?”

“Hilarious. If I didn’t now better, I’d say you were lingering down there to check out my legs.”

“Man, I should have thought of that.” He was trying to joke, but things were wearing thin. Just then, what he had been waiting for happened. One of the waitresses came up with a man’s Digi-cred on a plate. Sassy quickly scanned the number. The number was only on the blue screen for a few seconds, but Talon jotted down the info on the back of his hand with a pen. Thank you Brian Whitney, he thought to himself with a secret smile. The digits disappeared before he could double check that he had gotten the right number. He had better hope that he had, the entire plan rested on this data.

After a brief attempt to part nicely with Sassy, he was on this way. Dashing out into the stagnant night, heading back to the last place in the world where he wanted to go.

*      *      *

“Yeah, he sent me back to get everyone. There are three people that we got.” Gesturing with his hands. “We need help, getting them all back.”

Pitch glared at him through squinted eyes. “Why three? Rick knows that we are only supposed to do one at a time.”

“No see that’s the thing. This is way more than what you guys got before. These three were smugglers. They had all sorts of stolen electronics. Valuable stuff. We can bury the bodies if we have to. Who cares?”

Pitch had drawn a black bladed dagger and was now playing with it while they talked. Talon tried not to stare at it. “How did you PRs take out three guys from the majors?”

“Mostly because Rick is a freak,” he answered. “The guy went sickness. The whole thing happened under a bridge over the canal. He got two of em’ and I waxed the third by pushing him over the railing.”

“You waxed a guy?” Pitch didn’t struggle to hide his disbelief.

Pitch

“Unless he can survive a thirty-foot drop.”

“Come on Pitch,” Stain was saying, while tugging at his arm. “I’ve always wanted a Ipod. It would be cool to have a Television here too and make some real money. RTD is…sick like Talon says. I could see him wasting these guys.”

“I’m still not sure.” Pointing his dagger straight at Talon’s face, there was now only a foot of space separating the tip from his eye. “It seems a bit on the, to good to be true side, for my tastes.” A pause, “why didn’t Rick come back?”

“Someone had to guard the gear. He’ll be able to scare any dregs off.” The others were getting excited and soon Pitch didn’t have much choice.

“Alright you pudwacks, we’ll check this out and we are all going.” Pointing the dagger at him still, “and you, we will be keeping a close eye on you.”

“As long as I get my share.”

“Oh, we believe in sharing everything.” As he spoke these last words the glowing eyes of the rest of them all focused on Talon. Trying not to shiver, he could only met their gaze for a moment, before he turned and led them out the door. Many of them paused to gather up weapons. Not to be outdone, Talon went to grab a baseball bat. Pitch was faster. He snatched it up and tossed it to Mucci. The dark skinned youth caught it easily. “No weapons for you yet. Mucci keep an eye on this PR. If anything goes less then perfect, keep hitting him until he stops moaning.”

Mucci pushed him forward and the group faded into the streets of New Cluster.

Learn more about New Cluster here!

Streets f New Cluster

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He would never be sure who grabbed who. Phillip had moved quickly, but then turned as if he wanted to attack Vile Darken. With a hundred Xemmoni at their backs, Jack didn’t favor their chances going up against the most powerful villain of the age.

Together they toppled back into the room covered with Felix’s viscera as a similar shower of body parts rained down as Cleo’s body continued to explode in the hallway behind them. 

Eyes of Vile

Over all this Vile’s voice boomed. “What? You think to escape? This world has never seen a gathering of Xemmoni such as I have summoned! Capture them alive. Their blood will aid with the spell. Ha, we might be able to wrap this up tonight and with the Multi-Verse heroes gone, the worlds will all quickly fall to me.”

Bedroom of Blood

“He’s always been a gabby one,” Jack said, as the pair scrambled through the gore onto their feet.

Phillip’s eyes were wide open and he yelled straight into Jack’s face. “Become a small serpent. Do it now!”

Trusting Phillip had a plan, Jack began to transform into a Mojave Rattlesnake while Phillip tossed a heavy chair through the bedroom window. At once, the growls and threats of more Xemmoni reached his ears from below, but soon those ears disappeared as his reptilian form took hold.

Vile might had shouted something, but his words would be forever lost. Phillip snatched him up and leapt onto the graded roof outside of the bedroom. But at once, Jack noticed that his friend’s body was transforming into… His pointed tongue snapped out long enough to realize that Phillip’s body was disappearing and becoming wine. 

Wave of Wine

Caught up in the small tidal wave Phillip’s body had become, Jack’s serpentine form twisted and fought to keep his head about the rolling violet wine. He might have gasped, if his body possessed such an ability, when he went spiraling over the edge of the roof. 

He hit the ground hard as wine rained down on him. The Xemmoni appeared stunned, but a big Caradon went to grab him. Jack rewarded the attack with a mouthful of venom and the Xemmoni withdrew his hand with a scream.

Then the waves of wine moved him again and he tumbled over the lawn. He could just determine they headed for the street when he felt himself falling again. It looked like it was into the sewer this time. Looking back, he saw they had passed through a storm grate. 

Phillip’s body carried him a sways further but then disappeared. Jack took this as a cue to become human again and found his drenched body standing in two feet of stagnant water. 

Phillip appeared out of the water a minute later. It relieved him to see that, like him, Phillip transformed with all his clothes and weapons still present.

“Neat trick.”

 

“I’ve learned a few things along the way, but yeah, it’s a newer one.” But then the reality of what had just occurred set in and his head dropped.

Placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder, Jack said, “I’m sorry man.”

“She… she deserved better.” But then his eyes raised and met Jack’s. “But what are we going to do? Besides Vile being here, did you see how many Xemmoni are out there? There must have been hundreds. And we just lost two of the last of our own.”

Jack adjusted the grip on his sledge hammer. “Not like you and I can run away. We don’t have a choice. If Vile eliminated the effects of that damn scroll had on the heroes present when it was casted, we both just might cease existing even if we’re a thousand miles from here.”

“So we just attempt the impossible because we are doomed anyway?”

“No, we do everything we can, when we can do it. One thing, with all those Xemmoni here, I doubt Bruin and Lanna had to fight much. Let’s at least reach them and make sure they are safe.”

“Fine,” Phillip said, while drawing his cutlass. “If I have to go down, it might as well be with a sword in my hands and I don’t care who he is, I’m going to kill that bastard Vile.”

Jack led the way through the sewers, but called over his shoulder, “No worries, I’m sure one of your incarnations has already killed the bastard here or there.”

“Well there is this one world, where I helped an Apollo man named Narrows. I think I killed Vile there for sure. And on this other plane, I dreamt that I was a reporter…

To be continued next Monday

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Tezcatlipoca Jaguar

Hunting in the Night

Every animal’s Fright

Jaguar mixes silence and Speed

And now that is what I Need

Tezcatlipocazz

 

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Bouncers, Babes, and Breaking Glass

As soon as the four men had made it through the doorway, Sammy slammed the patio door shut. An audible click sounded over their panting and for a long moment they all eyed each other while they tried to catch their breath.

A wet slap jarred them back to reality when the man Rollie had fought pressed his bloody body against the door’s window.

“What the hell is going on?” Will demanded.

Jack looked up from where he sought to bind Diamond’s arm with a table napkin. “We’re in serious trouble. That’s what’s going on!”

Rollie only noted the woman he had helped rescue when she started talking. “My friend. He ate my friend. He ate HER!”

“I don’t have time for this,” Jack began, but when the other waitress rounded the corner, he said, “Raquel, take care of this woman.”

“Shouldn’t we make sure the front door is locked,” Will asked.

Strings of Raquel’s raven hair had already tumbled from her pony tail. “I already did when Sammy told me to.” She tried to comfort the woman, but she had broken into a high pitch keening.

“What about delivery doors?” Will asked.

Jack eyed Will who looked pretty determined despite his pink shirt and silly mohawk. A second later, he tossed Will a set of keys. “The bartender’s name it Andy, Get him to help you. Lock them up and then bring anyone in Scallywags back here.”

“Shouldn’t we just go home or something?” Sammy said.

Jack moved away from his moaning partner. “How many people do you have to back you up there? How secure is it? How much food do you have?”

“I…”

“At least we have food here.”

Rollie spoke up. “What are you talking about? Sammy’s right. If there was some sort of chemical spill nearby, we should get away from here before we end up like him.” Rollie pointed back at the man banging on the window, but took a step further into the restaurant when he saw that two more hulking forms had joined the madman out there.

“Do you know of any chemical plants around here?” Jack asked while wiping blood onto his jeans. “For all you know you could be heading into more of a mess than you’re leaving.”

“So what we’re going to get all post-apocalypse in here?” Rollie asked as the much bigger man stared him down.

Jack answer was to put his foot through the seat of a wooden chair.

Rollie jerked back and then flinched when Jack tossed him a club sized chair leg.

The bouncer said, “I heard what Sammy said about not being able to reach to police.”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying too,” Raquel said, “and it’s not working.” The women with her had started to calm down and listen to what the others said.

“That means it’s not just happening here,” Jack said. “I’m not telling anyone what to do, but,” he jerked a thumb toward the door, “I wouldn’t be in a big hurry to go back out there until we learn a lot more about what is going on.”

 

Will returned to the dining area with the bartender and five other people. Only one was female, a skinny mouse haired girl who clung to her big boyfriend’s arm. Her boyfriend spoke first. “I’m Steve and this is Zoe. We heard screaming. Now the front door is locked. What the hell is going on?”

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Jack said.

Then Rollie heard a cracking. His head jerked back toward the patio. “Look out! They are breaking through the glass!”

Check in every Saturday for a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

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