Climax of Blood Fear, Staring Jack Primus

As Jack raced up the last four flights of stairs, the undulating horror bubbled and screamed at him from a thousand mouths.

 

“Stalwart. You life is numbered in minutes, but your agony will last you lifetimes. I will digest you slowly, never allowing you to perish. Instead you will feast on nothing but pain until the stars fade from the sky.”

“Egoic much?” Jack panted as the turned another corner in the staircase. “We’ll see who lives to see the sunrise you slimy son of a bitch.”

It roared and redoubled its effects to catch him.

Despite this, Jack reached the roof well before it. Now what the hell am I going to do? The roof stretched out before him dark and flat. A few air conditioners and other machines dotted the ice covered surface at irregular intervals. He considered dumping one down the stairs, but it would only delay the inevitable and he needed to use his time more wisely. But to use it for what? Maybe I should have had a plan.

But even as he thought this, a plan started to form. Looking around, he assessed the roof. The western side had a sag where a huge amount of snow and ice had formed. On the lip of this ice was a large air conditioning unit. He sprinted toward it. Upon reaching it, he removed his sledge hammer and began to hit the supports on the side closer to the ice. They buckled. He whacked at the other side’s legs, just enough to break the bolts holding it to the roof.

He had just moved back to the legs in front when the monstrosity burst onto the roof. Forgoing his task, Jack quickly climbed to the top of the air conditioner. He shifted his hammer to his left hand and tossed throwing knives in rapid succession at the thousand limbed horror.

“Is this suppose to hurt as, a hundred mouths drooled and caterwauled at him. We suffer more injuries moving across a floor.”

 

“All the more reason to kill you,” Jack yelled, as he threw another throwing knife into the foul glob of flesh with a meaty plop.

Fury built within the thing and it raged with frenzied movements as it dragged, rolled, and pulled its huge form across the roof.

Jack threw his eighth and final knife at the monstrous Xemmoni and then leapt behind the air conditioner. A second later, he threw his back against the large machine. At first it wouldn’t move, but then the legs he had damaged on the other side buckled more. With a yell and a mighty push he toppled the thing over. It hit the roof with a mighty clang that sent a huge vibration through the structure.

“Fool, you didn’t even hit us. Now you will join us. Enjoy your last taste of clean air Stal-” 

A huge cracking interrupted the insane babbling and its triumph turned to fear as the roof started to collapse. Knocking the machine over the weakened part of the roof proved enough to trigger a reaction. The old roof had never been designed to support the amount of weight the undulating horror had become, which Jack guessed must have weighed in the tons.

With a hundred screams the floor caved in beneath it, but its fall didn’t stop there. Floor after floor of the old apartment were smashed through and the gigantic mound of flesh kept falling.

There was a cracking beneath his feet and Jack quickly realized he was about to follow the horror in its plunge. With a yelp, he leapt for the lip of the roof just as the flooring under his feet tumbled away.

He clung on the edge as huge sections of the roof toppled into the giant hole. “Crew on that crap, you bastard.”

It took him a minute to find a safe place to stand, but once he did, Jack tore the backpack off his shoulders. More than half of his prepared Molotovs had shattered, but at least three were in one piece. He lit his oil soaked backpack and tossed it down the fissure through the apartment. The bellow that he heard when it struck the creature proved most satisfying.

Long way down

Soon though, he had new problems. Not only was the thrashing monstrosity’s limbs weakening the structure, but the fire was quickly catching and soon he would be in the midst of an inferno. He circled the hole to the stairwell, but it was already too late. It was engulfed.

“Me and my bright ideas.”

Smoke began to billow out of the giant hole like the haunted high-rise had become a manmade volcano. “This sucks. Becoming a snake might help, but I still don’t think they could survive a twelve floor drop. Crap, crap, crap.”

Sunrise appeared to be an hour away, but some of the birds had already risen. Their chatter, a normal thing he had heard ten thousand times, felt so distance. It made him feel removed from the world. Trapped and alone.

Then a murder of crows flew toward the building. “Yig is the master of all animals. My patron blessed me with a Mold Nature spell. I’ve only used it on trees so far, but maybe…”

His fingers twisted into fists as the sparks flew around him. Focusing with every fiber of his being, Jack called out to the crow on the far right. Aid me. Please. In the name of the Earth, help me. They birds kept flying. Please, in Yig’s name.

A bird broke away from the pack and flew toward him. This had better work, Jack thought as he rapidly transformed into a small gopher snake. The bird landed and Jack entangled his serpentine body around the crow. It took off with a loud caw. It had trouble flying at first, but proved able to get Jack to the ground safely.

Its black pupils eyed him for a moment and then it took off with a flurry of wings. 

After returning to his human form, Jack watched the building collapse in on itself as it became a true inferno. “I don’t think even that thing can survive in there.” He sighed. “I guess I can finally visit my mother now.”

A mustang pulled up in front of him. “Need a lift,” John said with a grin.

Mustang Night Prowl

Alex leaned over. “Yeah and you might want to clean up some before you visit your mom, your a mess.”

Jack laughed and climbed into of the car behind the teens. “I sure hope you guys brought beer.” Alex handed him and cold one and Jack sunk back into the seat.

For the first times in months, he allowed himself to relax. Sure he wasn’t done with his work by any means. Vile Darken, his oldest and strongest enemy still needed to be dealt with, but for a moment, if only for his mom’s sake, he would allow himself a break.

As the vehicle left the burning structure in its rear view a pair of eyes watched them depart. “Impressive, Mr. Primus,” it whispered more to itself than the creature standing to its left. “You have some skill. I’ll let you bask in your glory just long enough to feel safe.” A cold cackle emitted from his dark form. “Yes, just long enough to feel safe. Then, spawn of Yig, we will come for you.”

Thank you for reading Jack’s newest Adventure Blood Fear

A new Adventure will begin next Monday

Find out how Jack’s Adventures Started Here!

Weatherford Haunting

 

 

 

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Burning Pillars of Death

Brown clutched his new bat as he raced toward the back of the store. He had visions of Trevor or the nameless mother slamming the door in his face and leaving him on his own against the cannibalistic dead that rushed at him.
Instead, Trevor waited with the door ajar while yelling unnecessary statements like, “run,” and, “they’re coming.”
As soon as Brown dashed through the door, Trevor slammed it shut behind him. The group stood there panting and exchanging panicked looks, until the first fists banged against the door.

The mother jerked back with a startled yell. She put her arm around her daughter and backed up until her heel hit a mop. The impact sent if falling onto the floor with a loud smack. She eyed them and wiped at her child’s face for a moment before standing back up. “You guys aren’t big talkers.”
“Sorry,” Brown apologized while removing his cowboy hat. He ran a sleeve over his brow before continuing.  “I’m Brown and this here’s Trevor. We had two other people with us that are now… part of them.” The banging on the door was a blatant reminder as to the ‘them’ he referred to.
“I’m Laura and this is Jenny.”
Jenny held up her small hand. “I’m five year old.”

 

The noise on the door grew in volume.
“I think we need to do something,” Trevor said. “Help me move the desk in front of the door.”
“Wait, what about that back window?” Brown said while taking in the room. It was maybe fifteen by twenty feet and had cleaning supplies, about twenty boxes, and a cheap desk covered with stacks of paper.
Brown talked quickly. “Trevor, muscle that desk under the window, but don’t smash it out yet. Laura, look through those cleaning supplies for anything flammable.” While he spoke he tossed a few of the heavier boxes in front of the door. While the others worked he snapped the heads off of two of the mops, but slid the third mop toward where Laura gathered the flammable things she found.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
He handed her the mop handle and tossed the other one to Trevor. “We aren’t just escaping. We’re going to kill these freaks so they won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
“I don’t think the owner will like the idea of us burning down this building.”
“I don’t care,” Brown said, as he covered the head of the mop with black spray paint. He spied two boxes full of paper towels and dumped their contents in front of the door. Going back to the boxes he looked through them while mumbling, “Come on, come on. Here we go, potato chips will work nicely.”
“Potato chips?” Trevor said while tossing the stacks of paper from the desk onto the floor. “Why those?”
“They’re like napalm, they don’t stop burning.” He grinned for the first time since this mess had started. “You’ll like it.”
Laura spoke up to be heard over the pounding fists. “What next?”
It pleased him to see that she had kept the mop handle he had given her. “Take Jenny and wait near the window. Trevor, how far of a drop is it and are there any of those things out there?”
“It’s kinda far, like six feet, but I don’t see any of those things.”
“Okay, listen up. I’m a volunteer fire fighter. A fire like this will kill you in sixty seconds. Smoke will fill this place save for a foot above the floor. It might not hurt those creatures that people have become, but it will kill us. Having the window open will cause this to happen faster. So I want you three to be safe on the ground. Then I’ll light this. Once I make sure it’s going, when I open the window to leave… it will inferno.”
No one cared to argue and Trevor dropped to the ground first. “Still good,” He whispered.
There was a moment of indecision as to whether Laura wanted to go down first or have Jenny do it. A large crack appeared in the door. Seconds later splinters flew. “Take her first.”
Brown lowered the girl down, then helped Laura. He office skirt didn’t make things any easier. Brown kept thinking another dozen of the creatures would appear around the corner, but this still failed to happen.
Maybe my plan is working. Maybe they’re all following us into the store.
The door splintered open enough for him to see a blood drenched face on the other side.
I need to move fast.
Grabbing up the paint smeared mop, he lit it. The flames roared up quickly and once it was going, he stuffed it into a mound of paper towels that surrounded one of the boxes of chips. He watched it catch and smoke poured into the room at once. He pulled the flaming mop handle out and while ducking under the smoke, he used it to push the boxes over that were helping keep the door shut.

The door burst open and three zombies stumbled into the fire. Their clumsy feet kicked the fire to new areas and caused it to grow to greater heights.
Milky eyes stared at him and they ignored the fire in their quest for his flesh. But Brown had already reached the desk. He hopped up and looked back one time. Two of the zombies were pillars of flame.

 

When he opened the window the oxygen caused the entire room to combust He jumped outside as smoke filled the room instantly. Brown landed on the ground coughing, but when he rubbed the smoke from his eyes the others were nowhere to be seen.

To be continued next Saturday!


You can find out more about Brown and the Eternal Aftermath here!

Alex Bone’s Get Poor Quick Scheme

Flagstaff, AZ (aka, Poverty with a View)—Most people in America and the majority of the rest of the world are striving to be rich, but they’re overlooking the truly wonderful advantages of being flat broke. For instance, you will have more free time because your schedule will not be bogged down with things like trips, vacations, shopping, or eating. Things like gaining too much weight—no problem. And no one will ever asks you to borrow money! Hell, they won’t even ask you to babysit for fear you might eat their children. 

For instance, Mick Zano never said, "It’s your turn to buy a round, Bone." It’s never happened.

But how can one become poor quickly, Mr. Bone?

Great question. It’s as if I’m actually asking the question only in italics form. Sure, anyone can become addicted to meth and have their life go down the shitter in a few weeks, but then you end up needing money to support that pesky habit, not to mention the dental work. Some people are purists and when they go broke they want to make sure they do it right. For these individuals, I have written the first in my ninety book series on how to go broke in ten easy steps—without spending a dime!

Sounds good so far, Mr. Bone! Go on.

Step one: Get into as much debt as possible for about a year or so. Hell, you might as well have one last hoorah, right?

Step Two: Stop paying your phone bill. Why bother having a phone at all? You will soon be losing all of your friends, and family anyway, and why talk to creditors? It’s not like they’re pleasant.

Step Three: Consider letting your other bills lapse as well and since you won’t have money for cable or new books to read, electricity of any kind seems superfluous.

Step Four: Remember, if you are this poor, your chances of finding a mate are pretty slim, but again, think of all the extra time and money that will save on the dating process! It’s time to find a new hobby anyway, like drinking.

Step Five: You need to be productive with all of this newfound free time. You don’t want to get drunk and just stare at a tree. Although, I do know some people who enjoy that. So why not build your own shelter?! Just because you are broke it doesn’t mean you have to be one of those losers living in a box. You are not a loser! You are just a nearly penniless, single person without friends, family, or acquaintances. Some pallet wood is a good place to start then sell the last of your possessions to buy rechargeable power tools. You can always charge them up in the library (a place where all those saps that still pay taxes frequent).

Step Six: Start stealing as much as possible. I am not talking about shoplifting as much as grabbing crap that is one degree from being thrown away. Look for things dumped in alleys and behind businesses. Or you can start a hobby, like collecting condiment packets. They also double as comfortable pillow stuffers too. Just be careful, if one breaks as it can be a bad scene. My boxmate wrongly called 911 one night, which can get expensive.

Step Seven: Now that you have a comfy little place, make sure you have a wood stove and then start burning anything you can get your hands on. Hair, magnets, family photos, murder victims. Nothing should be too good to spare from the privilege of keeping you warm at night. A simple truck tire can keep a family warm long enough for them to develop cancer.

Step Eight: Get a sidekick. It might be hard to believe after looking at yourself in the rest room mirror of the gas station, but there is always someone worse off. Just find this mega-loser and make him or her your servant. Hell, you worked hard to get where you are, no need to bother yourself with the day to day details like scraping your burning socks off the wood stove or cleaning last night’s puke off your moldy wall to wall egg cartoon carpet.

Okay, now I have a place to live and more free time than ever, so what now?

Step Nine: Great question. It’s time to start shopping for an enabler. Yep, I know it’s hard to believe, but there are plenty of codependent people out there who are so insecure with themselves that they might even be willing to date a scary creep like you. Let them pay for everything. Hell, you could even get a warm shower after a bout of sympathy sex. Warning: Breaking up with homeless people can be a great blow to their self-esteem and that’s what makes it so hilarious. 

Step Ten: Now, you are ready, finally ready, to get a job writing for The Daily Discord, because you know that is how I got my start and look where I am today! And every Christmas Mr. Winslow sends us all these pen sets that turn out to be pencils. What could be cooler than that? So I’ll see you at the stinky section of the library’s internet desks.

Now go buy my book! But not too many of you at once. I don’t want to have to buy Zano a beer.

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Stairwells, Shotguns, and The Thing That Should Not Be (Featuring Jack Primus)

Jack charged up the filthy stairwell taking three steps at a time. Below him the chaotic jabbering of a hundred mouths grew in volume. He had only made it up another level before the monstrosity poured into the stairwell on the ground floor. He paused to look over the edge to see what followed him and wished he hadn’t.

 

A horrid mix of flesh and random body parts boiled together into a howling mess. Hundreds of bloated, non-blinking, hate filled eyes stared up at him. Drooling mouths muttered and wailed while everything from mismatched feet and hands, even faces, helped propel the horror up toward him.

“Crap, I should have burned the place. Too fucking late now,” he said as he redoubled his efforts to keep ahead of the thing, even if he knew he headed toward a dead end.

He had just turned around another flight of stairs when a new figure descended toward him. Vaguely female, the antler topped Xemmoni had a flowing dark skirt that trailed behind her. But what drew Jack’s attention was the large shotgun she held in one hand.

 

As the figure raised her gun, Jack dove to the side. A loud blast sounded as the buckshot roared over his head. A few stray pellets hit his shoulder, but between the thick leather jacket and his protection of Yig it caused little damage. Getting a foot under him, Jack dove forward as another blast just missed taking off his head. At all times he remained conscious that each second he was delayed gave the thing below a better chance of reaching him.

“Guns aren’t usually your kinda style,” Jack said as he hit the shotgun to the side with a one handed swing of his axe. A dagger had filled his left hand and he went in for a gut shot only to have the figure’s free hand shot forward and grab him by the neck. A second later he was being lifted off his feet.

The creature opened its mouth, but instead of a single speaker a jumbled mass of a thousand voices spewed forth. Somehow, over this insane caterwauling, several voices joined into a jagged union and bellowed. “Soon you life will be crushed and your soul will join the rest!”

 

“That’s all I needed to know,” Jack said and then hacked the figure in the side of her face with his axe.

The thing screeched and then hurled Jack down the stairs. His body didn’t stop until it smashed into the wall. Stars spun across his vision and he tried to fling the dagger at the creature, but it got batted away by the shotgun. She cocked the gun loudly and before Jack could recover, shot him in the center of the chest.

The impact sent him crashing back into the wall and turned his jacket into ribbons. If it wasn’t for the protection granted to him by his patron, Yig, his body would have followed suit. Instead, he struggled to draw breath into his punchered lungs as the thing drew closer. Below them both the jabbering monstrosity neared.

He waited until she came closer and then healed himself. She seemed to sense what he did and raised the shotgun, but this time Jack grabbed it with his free hand and kicked up with his boot. The unexpected blow proved enough to free it from her grip. He tossed the gun away as he brought the axe around in a long arc. The blade connected with her neck with a meaty whack. The figure stumbled and Jack stuck again and then again.  

Its body collapsed once its head hit the floor, but to his horror, Jack saw that foul beast from the basement was already beginning to pool on the stairwell below him. Two things that looked like arms attached end to end lashed up at him. These grotesque appendages stretched over twenty feet in length and ended with a bloated hand. One grabbed his ankle and pulled him off his feet. A moment later, he was being dragged to the end of the stair. His axe went to chop it, but the second appendage grabbed it from his fist.

He continued to be dragged into the hundred mouth horror as the axe slammed into his head and shoulders. The blows were awkward, but still hurt like hell and didn’t make anything easier.

As he neared the edge of the stair, his groping hand landed on the shotgun. Without thinking, he aimed at the elongated arm that held him and shot it a foot below from where it held him. The arm severed and he pulled away just as the first frothing of foulness began to spill over the lip of the stairwell. Ignoring the blows from the axe that continued to rain down on his battered form, Jack hurried up the next flight of stairs. As soon as he was a floor higher, he turned and emptied the shotgun into the churning mass below.

 

Looking up, he guessed he had about four more flights to go. Without glancing back, he drew the sledge hammer off his back and headed for the roof of the haunted high rise.

To be continued next Monday

Find out how Jack’s Adventures Started Here!

Aliens Set to Invade Earth but Decide it isn’t Worth the Bother

Collapsing shack Arizona: After traveling over 300 light years and listening to the same songs 10,000,000,000 times, the invasion force from the planet Gloom 666 has turned around and decided to head back home.

 

When asked why they made the choice to return to their world without invading ours, their Admiral Wigaling had this to say. “First off this place smells. Normally we go in and steal resources, but there are barely enough here to bother. We like stealing cultures as well, but again… once we saw what you had to offer, it was another big, why bother. And don’t even get me started on your women… I’ve seen less entitlement from the twin princesses of Mollun 5.”

 

When I pointed out the huge tracks of virgin forest in Alaska and other wondrous natural resources we still had, he looked at me like I was insane and said, “What is the matter with you? You act like you want to be attacked and have your existence completely destroyed.  Are you an idiot or something? I feel like attacking your planet just so I can kill your dumb ass.”

For some reason the United Nations expelled me from the conference after that. But I think we have all learned a valuable lesson here. There is an upside to environmental destruction. Yes, just like how I avoid identify theft by having an identity no one would want, we are now protecting our lifestyles by making our Earth so useless that domination conquest will pass us right by. I might even have to vote Republican next election.

 

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Undead, Unlocked, and Anti-Freeze

The mother’s screams echoed through the abandoned convenience store and was quickly taken up by her daughter. Outside of the unlockable doors, more zombies joined in the attempt to push through the makeshift holds.
“Keep working here,” Brown ordered. “If there are some of those things inside of the store, we need to deal with them first.” Then, without waiting for an answer from Trevor, he raced in the direction he had heard the screams.
As he neared the end of the aisle, the girl raced by him. Damn, I’m going to need to learn their names, if any of us live that long. Looking down the aisle, he saw the mother throwing item after item at the stumbling figure. What was once probably the clerk that worked there had become a bloody ruin. Gore covered his right arm and it looked like a wound on his upper left shoulder had painted his once white shirt with a wide streak of red.

“Run,” Brown called out. “Get your daughter.”
She stared at him through a moment of indecision, but then ran off to do what he asked.
Trevor cried something, but Brown didn’t have time to listen for the beast man was almost upon him. He just hoped the kid could hold the door. Being currently weaponless, didn’t help things, so Brown backpedaled to give himself more time to think.
He noticed that the next aisle over was the automotive section and hurried down it. I should be able to find something here. I just… But then he saw that the thing hadn’t followed him, but was once again looping toward the girls.
“Crap,” he said, before looking down. He would have liked to find a tire iron or a crowbar, but neither was seen. So instead, he settled on two big gallons of anti-freeze. With a shout, he exited the aisle and headed toward the sounds of female cries. The zombie, or whatever it was, ignored his yells and stayed focused on the girls. Brown rushed up behind it and smashed it in the side of the head with the anti-freeze. It went tumbling off its feet and fell into a potato chip stand.
Brown didn’t stop there. He hit it in the face with the container, again and again. The woman screamed at him, but he did not stop. The corner of the container tore open and splashed the green liquid everywhere, but Brown kept swinging. Eventually it stopped thrashing and Brown moved away while gasping for air.

He shared a look with the mother. Her once prim face and hair had become disheveled and he eyes bored into his over the cowering form of her daughter, who was clutched to her bosom.
“We need to find more weapons,” Brown said more to himself than to the mother and leapt over the checkout desk. Visions of shotguns and pistols were quickly dispelled, but he did find a huge stained baseball bat, which he grabbed.
He had just jogged around the side of the counter when Trevor started screaming. “It isn’t going to hold. It isn’t going to hold!”

Looking the teen’s way, he saw that Trevor had already fled from the front doors and even as Brown watched, the accumulating mass of zombies were pushing their way through the doors until the last of the bungee cords broke. At least a dozen moaning zombies forced their way into the store. The woman cried out again and before Brown could even say anything, Trevor had already rushed by him.
“Get to the back of the store!” Brown shouted. “Find an office or something. Get ready to lock it, but wait for me.”
He waited until the pair run by him and then flung his remaining gallon of anti-freeze in the lead zombie’s face. It fell back fouling up three of his kind and buying Brown a few seconds, which he used to hurry after the others.

 

To be continued next Saturday!

You can find out more about Brown and the Eternal Aftermath here!

Welcome to poor Man's Shark week

As An Avid Shark Week Watcher...

...wearing underwear full of chum on your head is bad.

The Horror with a Thousand Mouths

Jack arrived at the haunted high rise just as the sun had set. After checking his gear, he let his duffel bag ride on his right shoulder while his axe rested in a sling over his left. His new sledge filled his hands as he walked toward the front door like he owned the place.

The building groaned a warning, which sounded like a thousand dead souls trapped within dark coffins. When this was ignored, a frigid wind crashed against him. It slowed his pace only slightly and when he drew within twenty feet of the door, Jack pulled a Thor and sent the hammer flying at the glass.
A foot shy from contact, something deflected the blow, but this action also caused the wind to cease.
So their power isn’t unlimited and they need to focus on one thing at a time, he mused silently.
Then aloud he said, “What’s the matter? Scared of letting me in. I figured as much. I guess you creeps are smart enough to see your doom when it comes for you.”
A harsh series of rattling cries sounded. An angry scream followed and then the door slowly creaked open. Jack wasn’t sure if he should feel unnerved or pleased that he was able to manipulate them so easily. Either way, it didn’t deter him from snatching up his hammer and heading into the Stygian apartment.

Nothing opposed him for a few yards, but as he left the streets behind him, the doors slammed shut with a dull clang and what little light there had been was extinguished. He paused long enough to pull three flares out of his bag. One went into his jacket, next to his throwing knives, while the other two were lt. The first one he sent bouncing down the corridor, the second filled his left hand.
After throwing the duffle back over his shoulder, he froze. Not forty feet ahead of him, a young raven haired girl, in a dirty night robe, hovered near the ceiling. Her long black locks obscured her face and she wavered strangely, like her presence distorted normal reality.
“Making me fight little girls now,” Jack grumbled under his breath, but he found the sight foreboding enough that a big part of him struggled against leaving. I already rescued my mother… what do the rest of these people matter? Most likely they’re all already dead and corrupted. I should just leave…
“Screw you,” he growled. “Get out of my head!”

“Soon you will have no head,” the girl called down to him in a voice that sent shivers down his spine. “But first you will have no fingers, then no hands, then no legs.” She flew at him, moving quicker than he would have imagined. “And that’s when we’ll start to PLAY!”
“Fangs of Yig,” he yelled as he brought up his hammer. A different man might have held back against a young girl, but Jack new better and batted the apparition away from him with a mighty blow.
She collided against the stairs, but leapt onto all fours in moments. Like a crazy canine, she raced at him. “I’ll eat your soul. I’LL EAT YOUR SOUL!”

“You’ll eat this first,” Jack said, and then swung his hammer upward hitting her square in the jaw. A resounding crack echoed through the barren hallway as both the Xemmoni’s jaw and neck shattered.
She struggling despite her life ending injuries and manic fingers clawed his legs while the limp necked head flopped at him trying to land a bite.
“You pukes are sick,” he said through gritted teeth and set himself to breaking her body. Foul crunches and loud snapping filled his ears. At one point, the Xemmoni made her cry like the little girl she could have been, but that only made Jack swing his hammer harder so the wailing would stop. Soon, a crashed, but yet still flailing body moved under him.
“You bastards are going to pay long and hard for this.”
But then it started again. The rumbling he had heard before. Like thousands of severed body parts slapping against stone. It came from the basement. It came for him. The last time he had run, but he came here to finish this, but how could he hope to fight something so huge, so massive?
Every nerve told him to flee. Run to the street—forget he had ever heard of this place.
And turn to flee his did, but instead of running through the doors, he headed up the stairwell he had taken before.
If they want me, they’re going to have to earn it.


To be continued next Monday


Get in on the beginning of Jack’s Adventures Here!

 

Locked doors, Empty Pistols, and No Keys

Six of what Brown as forced to admit were some kind of walking dead still moved within the desolated parking lot. Two of them were former friends, but that might not matter much, for friends didn’t walk around dragging their guts or with their neck’s torn out.
The mother and her daughter had fled to the front of the gas station’s store, but as Brown had already discovered, its doors remained locked. The two nearest moving dead had almost reached them.

“What about your pistol, Brown?’ Trevor asked as he reluctantly jogged behind him. The pair had dodged past the two that killed Nick, as well as Nick and Brown’s former best friend, Glen.
Only fifty feet separated the men from the backs of the two zombies approaching the little family. “Last time I shot one, it didn’t work.”
“Try for the head. It always works in the movies.”
He slowed down and took aim. But with the moaning of the zombies both before and behind him the shot went wide.
“Come on man, you only have three shots left.”
Instead of firing again, Brown rushed closer to the zombies that were only yards from the terrified girls. He waited until he was almost upon them and fired at the side of one’s temple. It collapsed with a bloody explosion.

The second one turned on him and Brown brought the pistol up to its forehead and shot through his skull at almost point bank range.
“Damn, dude. Nice work. But come on the others are coming. Holy shit, your gunshots must have attracted more. Oh no, more are coming from the restaurant across the street.” Looking back over his shoulders, Trevor continued, “Damn there are some coming from the rigs too. We’re screwed.”

“You’re all insane,” the mother screamed.
Despite himself, Brown noticed, now that they were closer, that she was quite an attractive woman with long flowing auburn hair. “Insane or not, we just saved your lives. Now please step aside, I have one bullet left and I’m going to use it on the lock.
Once he pointed Glen’s pistol toward the door, she hurried to move out of the way. Again, he brought the pistol in close to his target—the door lock. The moaning drew in closer as he steadied his aim.
The shot seemed louder than the others and rang in his ears.
Trevor didn’t hesitate, though, and run forward. He rattled the doors for a moment. “It didn’t work. It didn’t work!”
The zombies neared as Brown joined him.
“Mommy what’s wrong with these people. They look really sick. I‘m scared.”

“Shush, honey.”
With Brown’s help, the men were able to push through the shattered lock and open the door. “Get inside!” Brown ordered as he pocketed the pistol. There had to be ten of the lumbering shapes in view. He took the two-by-four that he still carried in his left hand and threw it into the face of the nearest zombie. A blow that would have sent a normal man stumbling back in pain, barely slowed it down a second.
Behind him, Trevor shouted, “Come on!”
Brown had no problem following the teen’s advice.
Once inside, Trevor addressed him again. “How are we going to shut the door with the lock blown off?”
“Go find something, hurry!”
Trevor ran off to comply.
Brown prepared to brace the door as the first bloody hands slapped against the window. Jagged mouths bit at the glass and dull milky eyes stared at him with gruesome hunger. “Please try to help him find something to secure the door,” he told the woman.

He caught her staring at him for a moment, but then she rushed off, dragging her daughter along by her small hand.
Trevor returned first. “All I could find was bungee cords.”
“It’s a start. Get them through the crash bars. Trevor had begun working on his second cord when he heard the mother let out a piercing scream.


To be continued next Saturday!


You can find out more about Brown and the Eternal Aftermath here!

The Haunted Horse of Wales

The stories I have shared thus far have been of my school years and childhood, but as you may have guessed, I eventually did grow up and graduate high school. Soon after that most of my friends were off at college, while I had begun my new and somewhat strange job as an ID camera assembler. This had gone on for a few months as we headed into fall.

          Then, however, my parents had a treat for me. They were in Great Britain and agreed to fly me out. It proved fun taking an international flight by myself and nothing amazed me more than the fact they let a scruffy eighteen year old through customs, without even checking my bag. Damn, I should have brought something, I remember thinking. Maybe I looked more innocent than I thought.

          So there I was in London with my parents. I won’t go into all the fun we had there, but of course we went to the Tower of London, where one of my Walsh ancestor died while trying to escape from a tower using bed linens. They had broken and he plunged to his death on the rocks below. A funny moment did occur when I saw a sign that said, ‘stand next to the giant’s armor.’ I stood there and it looked like it would have fit my big frame perfectly and my mom has a hilarious picture of a little kid looking up at me in awe. Piccadilly circus was next and I bought some cool punky spikes and a few David Bowie cassettes.

          Next, they asked me what I wanted to do and naturally that was going to the Griffiths homeland of Wales and checking out the ancient castles. So we threw in a David Bowie tape and rushed across the green British countryside. This was great fun for me and I loved hiking around the crumbling structures and exploring their secret rooms and passages. In one old church, I found and small underground tunnel, which I followed for a hundred feet until, it became too flooded for me to continue.

          Finally we made it to Chepstow. We entered our bed and breakfast and for a while I laid in my room reading Robert E Howard’s first novel in the Conan stories, which fit in with my surroundings extremely well.

          After a while, I got antsy. I was in a foreign town in the land of my ancestors. I had to go and check out the scene. Besides the drinking age here was only eighteen, something that I certainly could not enjoy in the states.

          So donning my jean jacket, I headed out into the chill night. Now if it was today, I most likely would have headed to a pub, but for some reason I avoided that, at least at first. Instead, I wondered around the town, like a tall shadow watching people. I even hung out behind a grocery store in the thin strip of woods. Yeah, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I guess.

           So after a while, I figured that maybe I should try to dare a bar. I had never been in a pub before, let alone one in another country, so I felt nervous. As I headed back into the dark wet streets, a light fog spread over the town. Everything was oddly deserted and the fog grew thicker. Surrounded by the ancient buildings, I felt like I had gone back in time or entered some creepy horror movie, so naturally I thought that was super cool.

          Then I heard it. Clip, clop, clip clop. That the hell was that, I wondered? Clip, clop, clip clop. It was growing closer. Clip, clop, clip clop. I looked around; there was no one on the street. Clip, clop, clip clop.

          Then I saw it. Out of the mists coming strait at me was a wild-eyed black horse. Clip, clop, clip clop, clip, clop, clip clop. I could see the whites of his rolling eyes as it gazed at me. The blood froze in my veins and I felt like I couldn’t move. As it drew nearer, the black beast stared strait at me. It was only then that I saw that it had a saddle on, but no rider.

          What had happened to its rider?

          Was this a ghost horse? 

          Had it killed it rider?

          I took a step back and the thing passed slowly by, the echoing of its hoofs fading into the distance. This was enough for me and I fled back to my room. The next day we continued on our journey and my mother took some great pictures of me at the castle. I also discovered that my parents had brought me to Britain, in order to help convince me to start college, which I promised I would do the upcoming year.

          I however, never forgot that lonely night in the fog and sometimes still wonder, what happened to the rider of the great black steed?

You can check out more of my writing here!