Tezcatlipoca Jaguar

Hunting in the Night

Every animal’s Fright

Jaguar mixes silence and Speed

And now that is what I Need

Tezcatlipocazz

 

Learn More About the heroes of Tezcatlipoca here!

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!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Between a Dark and a Darker Place

Lanna rolled onto her back. Her lean body glistened with a layer of perspiration. “I think that was our eighth bout since we checked into this place,” she purred.

Jack’s back was toward her as he slipped on his jeans. “Sounds about right and it works for me.” He smiled over his shoulder, “Eight is Yig’s lucky number.” 

“I hope you’re all happy. You showing up at The Joint pretty much insures that I’ll never work in Boston again. Hell, never go back to Boston again.”

 

Jack stood and watched the waves crash against the shore below them. Rain hammered the coast and showed no signs of slowing. “How long do you think it would have been before they dragged you out of that place whether or not we were around?”

“I’m not sure,” she purred. “I can usually find some what to convince most people that I can be a very useful girl.”

Lanna

He smiled, despite himself. “I’m sure you can. Still allowing some Caradon’s mutated hands to touch you… I’m not sure much is worth such a price.”

“Don’t underestimate mutates, hun. Sometimes they have things that—hey where you going?”

“I need to find Bruin and see where he stands.”

“Wait, you don’t even know where I stand.”

He flashed her another smile. “Nah, I think I do.”

*         *         *

Jack found Bruin and Phillip drinking in the hotel’s small dark bar. Shadows played over both men’s faces and Jack wondered if they had asked the bartender to dim the lights. As he drew in closer, Jack felt pleased that the Stalwart of the dark one had at least removed his hockey mask.

 

“What can I get you?” Phillip asked while hurrying behind the bar.

Jack had learned better than to ask where the bartender might have been and just requested an ale before joining Bruin at the center table. 

The man’s black locks covered his face almost as well as the hockey mask had. The rest of his wardrobe would have made a Darcarre jealous. Black jeans, met a black shirt and high boots. Even his drink looked like ink.

Bruin

“So what have you two been discussing?” He asked.

“Mostly how amazing it is that you all still draw breath,” Bruin said.

Jack leaned in. “So you’re saying we shouldn’t be trying to keep the Xemmoni from claiming the whole city and perhaps initiating a ritual what could damage the war on multiple worlds?”

“I’m not saying that at all,” Bruin whispered. “I’m just saying that I’m surprised your luck hadn’t run out and it probably would have if Lanna and I hadn’t come to your rescue.”

“We’ve been through worse.”

“Again, I’m not surprised. Your blundering methods must lead you into all sorts of trouble.”

“Hey,” Phillip said, before Jack could reply. “We were luring them back into the woods. That worked well for a while.”

“Yes,” the Tezcatlipoca follower said, “but when we’re dealing with a mixture of Magick backed up by technology, secrets don’t keep long.”

Trying to keep his voice even, Jack asked, “So what big innovate plan would you suggest?”

Bruin steepled his fingers. “There are many things I might suggest, but first we have to determine if Felix and Blaze are ready, willing, or able to join in this battle.”

Jack tiffed and took a sip of ale. “That’s your big idea? We would have been doing that anyway.”

Stalwart

“Perhaps, but I have another idea. I know where a Darcarre nest is located. I’d like to hit them where it hurts.”

“You want us all to attack it?”

“Noooooooo, just me and maybe Lanna for back up. I’m immune to their darkness Bestows. I go in, assassinate as many as possible. If any try to flee, Lanna can be waiting for them outside.”

“What if there are too many?” Phillip asked.

“That’s where your team comes in. You will go for Felix. This will perhaps empty out more of the nest when the Darcarre call for back up. Then, hopefully before they reach your battle, the Darcarre will be summoned back their own nest to keep me from slaying them all.” He favored them with a dark grin. “This way, we have a chance to free Felix, keep a huge group of Darcarre out of both our battles, and wipe out a nest all at once.”

Phillip looked over at Jack. “The plan has some merits.”

“True, if it looks like we’re heading toward Felix, they might allow us to continue into the city so we can spring the trap they have undoubtedly set for us there. The downside… they have set a trap for us there.”

“But your predictability will work in our favor instead of against us.”

“Easy for you to say,” Jack grumbled. “You’re not in the trap springing group.”

“Yes, I’m in the wipe out a whole nest from the inside by myself group.”

Phillip shrugged. “I’m not sure what else we can try, Jack. We keep thinning their ranks, but more pour into my city every day. At least this way, maybe Bruin can take down a few leaders.”

“Perhaps,” Jack leaned back in his chair. “It’s time for Felix to either join us or leave town. At least with this plan, he’ll have that chance. I do agree with Bruin on one thing. We’ve been mostly spinning our wheels killing the rabble while their leaders probably grow closer to their real agenda.”

“Yes,” Bruin said through clenched teeth. “If we don’t get our act together your end game will be fighting pudwacks and then wondering what’s happening while you and Phillip fade into nothingness.”

Jack stood up. “Alright, we’ll review this with the ladies, but Bruin, I want you to do me a favor.”

“Which is?”

“If you do run into some high ranking Darcarre. Try to take one of them alive.”

To be continued next Monday

Find out how Jack’s Adventures Started Here!

Rolling Trouble

An older woman glared at Rollie as she passed the outdoor seating at Scallywags. He was used to such things when he went out with his boyfriend. It probably didn’t help that Will wore a bright pink shirt and had his hair spiked up in some sort of slacker Mohawk.

Skallywags

“You see how she looked at me?” Will joked. “You know she was mad because she wanted some.”

Will

“I think she looked like she wanted was a super big pair of channel-locks to pull that bug out of her-”

“You want something else, Rollie?” Sammy asked. He’d known Sammy for a while and she always made sure he had anything he needed whenever he had enough money to treat himself to a trip to his favorite place.

 

“You want another round?” he asked.

“Maybe, but I might want to shift gears.”

Sammy tried to smile, but he could tell she was beat. “What’re you in the mood for? Wine or maybe a mixed drink?”

Will looked over at him with a wicked grin.  “Let’s do some shots.”

“It’s not even five yet,” Rollie laughed, “I think-”

A shout interrupted him. “What the,” Sammy said.

Will had already bolted up from his chair. “It’s that old lady. Some dude is grabbing her.”

Rollie’s gut reaction would be to say, ‘screw her,’ but he knew his knight in shining armor wouldn’t let it go. He finished his beer, because with the way these things tended to go, he might not get a chance later.

Turning, he saw a man in a business suit grabbing and pulling at the woman who had scowled at them. 

“Leave me alone,” she cried.

Then, after a savage pull, the man leaned forward and bit her neck. Rollie just stared for a moment, but when his mouth came away with a huge bloody piece of her neck, his pint glass slid out from between his fingers and shattered on the floor.

Bloody Business Suit

He still starred, but Will had already sprinted toward the fight. Rollie had barely left the courtyard by the time Will had reached the man’s side and pushed him hard enough to knock the guy off his feet. 

But the woman had lost her footing as well and lay on the pavement moaning. Rollie figured Will could handle himself, so he ran to help the woman. She didn’t look good. His gut told him she wouldn’t be making it. He applied direct pressure anyway and screamed toward Sammy. “Call 911!”

His eyes looked toward Will again and he saw that the man he fought refused to stay down. Will pushed him away again and again, but no matter how much abuse he took, the man kept coming. Rollie almost lost his lunch when the man opened his flesh filled mouth and growled.

Two bouncers showed up. One’s name was Jack, but the big black guy was new to him. Jack stopped by Will side and drew him back. “Let Diamond handle this.”

The man, Diamond, crashed into the red mouthed man and slammed him against a brick wall, but Rollie looked back toward Sammy because she was screaming.

First Zombie

Rollie saw that a man had leaned over into the courtyard and had attacked a pair of women and one was being pulled onto the pavement by her hair. But as soon as he looked that way, his attention was drawn back to the men, for Diamond shrill scream now competed with the others. Rollie looked on in horror as the suited man went in and took a second bite out of his arm.

To be continued next Saturday.

You can discover where Rollie entered the Eternal Aftermath Here!

They are coming to get you Rollie

A Shameless Plug or Jack Primus faces the Eternal Aftermath, and with the help of Skinjumpers, fights Dalsala Den

Collapsing Shack Arizona: This week, in a hope to increase book sales, I have taken it upon myself to interview America’s newest hero as he takes on his most difficult challenge yet.

When I caught up to him, Jack Primus put down his brain splattered sledge hammer just long enough to say, “I hope you’re all getting a kick out of this. I have to face the villains from not just my world, but three others as well; just to help Michael D. Griffiths make some books sales. It might sound good for the author, but being forced to fight cyberpunk undead Xemmoni that come from an evil filled planet of high magic really sucks when you are on this side of the pages.”

Jack With an Axe

When I pointed out that selling more copies might mean he would get to be in more books, Jack said, “Hell, I’m already in a few books, loads of artwork, and a weekly blog, but what good does it do me? Oooo I get to get beat up more often.”

When the swarms of zombies that surrounded him grew closer, he thrust an axe into my hands and said, “I’m not even from a world of zombies. I hate zombies, they remind me of my first girlfriend. But now I’m stuck fighting them just to help promote my author’s Zombie Apocalypse series, Eternal Aftermath. Does he care that I’m not even in that series…? No!”

Zombie March

After we cut down enough zombies to give ourselves some breathing room for a moment, I asked him about the allies that he fought side by side with. “These Skinjumpers are the only silver lining to this whole mess, but these high tech cloned heroes brought their own cyber powered villains with them. Do you know how much it blows hitting some guy with a sledge hammer who you think is just a normal dude, but then find out he’s made of solid metal. My fingers are still numb from the last impact. And if you’ve never been hit by a laser, let me tell you something, IT REALLY SUCKS! I almost rather be bit by a zombie. Yeah, if it wasn’t for that whole plague thing. By the way, looks like you were bit. Sorry fella, but I guess I’ll be your last interview.”

I was starting to fell a little light headed, but managed to spit out a question about Dalsala Den. “Yeah, that high level magic using a-hole is the worst of the lot. I thought I had things bad on my world. Shit, I’d rather fight Vile Darken than that guy. I had a group of cops here helping me, but he turned half on them into solid ice and the other half became… crawdads. He says he wants to take over this planet. Well line up scum bag. I wish there was some way I could just let them fight against each other… and… kill… themselves… off. Hey, let’s light that trash on fire and use the smokescreen to go grab ourselves a few ales.”

Even though I was starting to bleed from my eye sockets, I agreed as long as the first round and the cheese steaks were on him.

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The Climax of Mar's Eternal Aftermath... Three students, Hordes of Zombies, and a Rapist.

“Get them,” Pritch yelled as Mar and Cindy dashed into the back room of the house. Mar saw a door leading outside and just kept running. Reaching it, she quickly scrambled to open the lock.

Lenny appeared behind them and grabbed a handful of Cindy’s hair and she tumbled back onto the floor screaming.

While Lenny continued to wrestle with Cindy, Pritch regarded her, while holding the bat that was already coated with at least three people’s blood. “Where do you think you’re going, Chippee? You want to run back into the arms of the hungry dead?”

Brain Splattered Mar

“Better them than yours,” she yelled as she flung the door open. She noticed three things at once as soon as she could see into the place’s back yard. First was a good sized truck already filled with supplies, second was the place had no fence, third was the three zombies stumbled down the alley, but had turned their attentions to her.

Should she risk it—but how could she leave her friend to be abused by these villains? Her hesitation cost her and Pritch grabbed her by the arm and tossed her across the floor.

He was just closing the door when Allen tackled him from behind. They fell into the open doorway.

Mar watched in horror as the three zombies drew near. 

Mar’s Eternal Aftermath

Uncertain as to what to do first, she hurried to her feet. Lenny punched Cindy in the gut hard enough to leave her quivering on the floor. He would be on Mar soon. Her eyes sped over the room. A pile of items that hadn’t been loaded leaned against the wall and right on the top was a rusty red toolbox. She grabbed this up over her head and brought it crashing down on Lenny’s.

He gasped once and then collapsed like a pile of wet laundry.

Looking back, she saw that Pritch had wrestled the wounded Allen onto his feet and taunted the freshman. “You want out so bad. Come on, you freaks. Want a snack?” His back was to her and he pushed Allen out before him, between him and the zombies.

Mar went to hit Pritch in the back of the head, but he proved too tall and she only hit his shoulder. Still he cried out in pain and loosened his grip on Allen enough for the man to get away.

Allen tumbled to the ground just feet away from the lead zombie as Pritch turned toward her. Behind them, she heard the sounds of the front windows being broken through.

Without thinking, she threw the tool box at Pritch. He raised his arm, but cried out again. “You fucking bitch!” he yelled. “I’m going to rape you three times a day for this!”

“You’ll never speak to a woman like that again!” Allen shouted as he rolled into Pritch’s legs from behind.

Wet Zombie

Pritch’s knees buckled and he fell back over Allen. He struggled up and raised his fist to punch the prone man, but the front zombie grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him away. Pritch struggled, but then the second and third zombie had him. He tried to grab at Allen, but Mercy smacked at his fingers with a fallen wrench.

Allen struggled to his feet with Mar’s help. “We need to-”

He began to say, but Cindy yelled, “Go!” while tossing him a set of keys. Mar saw that her friend was right, for the front of the house had already begun to flood with zombies.

While the three from the alley feasted on Pritch, the three students ran to the truck and started it up.

Allen looked over at Mar and she said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

His bruised face managed a smile before the truck raced away from Pritch’s fading screams.

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

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Walkers

Darkness, Death, and Corruption

The three Stalwarts moved into a back to back formation as the nine Xemmoni that surrounded them drew in closer. Cleo addressed Phillip, “It always was a ball of fun every time we got together.”

Alley of Doom

“I like to show a girl a good time,” he tried to joke but his words sounded tense and strained.

Jack stayed focused. “How do you want to work this? I’d just assume try my hand at that Hyades bastard again.”

“Be my guest,” Cleo said, “I’ll take the Darcarre.”

“Oh great,” Phillip groaned. “That means I have to take on all six Caradon!”

“We’ll back you up as soon as we can,” Jack shouted and then rushed toward the armored Hyades. The attack began with two tossed throwing knives. The Xemmoni batted one aside with his oversized machete and the second tinged harmlessly off its armored shoulder.

 

“Not the greatest start I’ve ever had,” he said, under his breath, as he raced toward the villain. The Hyades prepared for the charge, but Jack wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. At the last moment, he veered to the man’s left. A swing just missed his ear and he dodged through.

Jack’s weaponless hands locked onto the thing’s left arm and he tried to swing it off balance, but he might as well be trying to push-start a semi. The Hyades didn’t budge. Instead he grabbed Jack’s wrist and heaved him forward. Jack tumbled ass over elbow as he hit the icy pavement. The Xemmoni moved in to take advantage of the situation.

As Jack struggled to his hands and knees, his hands found themselves slipping through a small patch of snow, but this gave him an idea. He waited until the Xemmoni was almost upon him. During his wait, he heard the shouts and cries as his allies took on a far superior number behind him and he knew he needed to aid him as quickly as he could. But this Hyades had already beaten him once and that was when Jack was at full power, not drained of his both physical and mystical strength as he currently was.

At the last moment, Jack dove to his left. The machete made a dull clang as it hit the pavement behind him. Moving quickly, Jack regained his footing and rushed behind the Xemmoni. Snow filled his hands and he slammed the snow into the eye holes in the man’s helmet.

It swung at him wide and missed, but its free hand already clawed at the snow that obscured its vision. Jack used this time to snatch away one of the machetes the Xemmoni had built into its leg armor. The fiend hesitated as it cleared more of the snow away.

Jack picked his target, saw a weakness around the Hyades neck, and then swung. He gave out a woop as the villain was decapitated. Before the head had landed, Jack had already rushed toward his allies. 

Jack Primus with a Blade

Cleo fought the two Darcarre using twin short swords. She held her own and would have probably triumphed, but they didn’t have the time to find out. Jack decapitated his second Xemmoni as he ran past, but didn’t slow his pace as he rushed toward Phillip. Phillip had dropped two of the Caradon, but the remaining four looked like they were about to drop him.

 

The hurled machete took one of the Caradon in the back and it fell with a groan. He kicked another in the face and it stumbled back as Jack drew the sledge hammer off his back. Then it was go time. He didn’t remember how many swings it took, but before long Cleo had joined the two panting and bleeding men as they wavered over the mangled bodies of their foes.

 

“Search them for keys,” Phillip said as he leaned against the van with one hand. “We need to get our asses out of here.”

“I think they’re still in the ignition, dumb ass,” Cleo said with a smirk. Turning toward Jack she added, “Nice fighting by the way.”

“What him,” Phillip complained. “I took on six by myself. That guy with the blue jacket isn’t dead. I saved one for questioning.”

“Good, because we need to bail. We’re all spent and just this side of death’s door,” Jack said. “I guess in the end the Xemmoni won, because we will have to leave Boston before sundown.”

“It’s okay,” Phillip said. “We need to recoup. I have some allies in Concord that can put us up and at least let us recharge before we fight the leaders of these droogs.”

“Sounds good,” Jack began, but then his words caught in his throat. “Where… did that Hyades go?”

As one they all looked back the way they had come and besides a pool of blood deep enough to drown a rat, no sign of the armored Hyades remained.

Jack Primus

To be continued next Monday

Find out how Jack’s Adventures Started Here!

Three Villains and a Murder

Dave led the way into the dark house. Mar and Cindy quickly followed. Allen, who still carried Jenny’s unconscious body, came in last. As soon as the tall teen had entered, the door was slammed shut behind him. Mar turned just in time to see a man standing behind the door smash Allen in the back of the head with a club of some kind.

Allen groaned for a moment, but then he and Jenny both toppled to the floor.

Mad man behind the door

Cindy gasped in horror, as Dave rushed toward the attacker, which Mar could see welded a bat with several loops of barbwire wrapped around its business end. But before Dave could get within ten feet of the bat welder, two men leapt out of a side room and tackled him. Dave fought like a wildman, but before Mar could even think about how she might be able to help, he’d been pinned to the floor.

“Man, I think this kid broke my nose,” one of the men said. Mar could see they looked older and had to be at least twice her age.

“Shut the hell up, Lenny,” The other man wrestling with Dave yelled. His head was clean shaven and reflected the dim triangle of light that bled into the room. Looking up to the man near the door he said, “We don’t need a guy do we, Pritch?”

His face stayed cloaked in shadows, but a deep voice boomed out, “Nope, I don’t think any of us swing that way.”

“Then if you will do the honors…”

“Sure thing, Sully,” he said before bringing his bat up over his head and then slamming it down on Dave’s skull like an executioner’s axe.

Dave didn’t even have time to shout. His body when into a seizure as blood poured out of the open wound on his forehead.

The seizure didn’t last long and Cindy sobbed as she threw herself into Mar’s arms. “He isn’t dead is he?”

Mar couldn’t bring herself to answer. Instead she said, “What do you want with us?”

Mar’s Eternal Aftermath Begins

Pritch stepped in closer. She could see he had a brutal face. Years of drinking left the man looking bloated, like his skin could barely contain his stretching bulk. “What do you think we’re doing, sweet thing? It probably shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Even a little bimbo like you should be able to see that his is a good thing.”

“What do you mean?” her lips trembled as she tried to force her words out.

“Well any fool can see we got the end of the world on our hands. Me and my buddies have a hunting cabin in the woods north of Catalina. We had planned to wait until all the idiots kill themselves off and then head up there, but when Sully saw you three hotties heading by it seemed like a gift too perfect to refuse.”

Sully chuckled. “Yep, three of us and three of you.”

“What do you mean?” Cindy stammered. “You can’t take us away. I need to get to my family and see if they’re alright.”

“In the contrary, little one,” Pritch said. “At this point I think we can do whatever we want.”

Villain with a bat

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

They Never Sleep

Three Tires and a Broken Axle

This serial starts 10/25/13

If anything the roads of Tucson looked worse off than her school. Multiple car pile ups had already occurred or happened right in front of their eyes. Mad man, and the people running from them, sprinted across the street going in every direction.

“This is like a video game from Hell,” Vance yelled as he swerved around a shirtless man with a chest painted with blood.

He cased an older woman and Mar cringed when the older woman’s scream let them all know she had been caught. “Where are we going?” She cried out. “Don’t drive near campus, it might be worse around there.”

But it was too late. Vance had taken Sixth Street, which cuts just south of the University of Arizona. Students were rushing south across the street in droves. In some cases they were a hundred thick. Most sprinted like normal people, but often, in their midst, screams echoed between the tall buildings as a few of the bloody ones would enter their crowds.

“Get out of the way!” Vance yelled and then hit two young female students. They bounced off the hood of the SUV with startled cries.

“Dude!” Phil yelled. “Get on a fucking side road.”

“Screw that, we just need to get through this.”

But after Vance hit three more students, Phil grabbed at the wheel.

“Let go, you moron.”

“I’m not going to let you hit anyone else, you could be killing them!”

“Look out!” Cindy screamed.

Then Mar saw it too. A UPS truck had flipped onto its side and they headed straight for it. She had time to toss on her seatbelt and brace herself and then they collided. Vance had been going at least fifty and they hit hard.

Mar and Cindy had put on their seatbelts, but Jenny had forgotten to and went flying forward. Her head connected with Vance’s with a loud smack and they both went limp. Phil’s head bounced forward, right as the air bag smashed into him. A string of blood from somewhere made a diagonal line across Mar’s face.

A daze claimed her and for an indeterminable moment she watched the stream of yelling college students swarm pass.

Cindy voice grounded her and pulled her back to reality. “Mar are you okay? Jenny and Vance are hurt bad and Phil’s not waking up.”

“I’m okay,” she said, while wiping at her face. Her hand came back in a smear of red. “We need to get out of this car.”

Looking outside, she saw that the college students grew fewer and in their place more of the stumbling bloody figures could be seen. “We need to get out now.” She was surprised when he door opened as easily as it did and she rolled out and dropped onto all fours on the ground, just trying to catch her breath.

Cindy didn’t let her rest long. “Mary, my door won’t open. I’m stuck. Please help me!”

Mar made it to her feet right as a blood covered student in just his underwear stumbled at her. He grabbed a handful of her hair and she screamed when several strands were pulled out. She raced to the other side of the car. Cindy still fought with the door, while the other three high school students still balanced, unmoving, on a jumble of airbags.

Underwear boy growled and he moved for her again. Her eyes dazed left and right. They had crashed close to the front of a Greek Restaurant. Their sidewalk sign was held in place by a cinder block. Without thinking, she grabbed up the block and threw it into the freak chasing her. She wasn’t sure if her fury took over or if blind luck guided her hand, but the cinder block smashed underwear boy in the middle of the face and her went down hard and thankfully didn’t get back up.

Cindy still banged on her window.

Once she was sure underwear boy wasn’t moving. She grabbed up the broken cinder block and rushed back to Cindy’s window. “Get back. Cover your eyes.” Then, without looking to see if her friend had complied, she threw the cinder block at the window.

It shattered on the first try and sent small squares of glass raining down upon Cindy. Her friend didn’t care and rushed out of the window frame like the car was on fire.

Mar helped her best friend to her feet and then asked, “What about the others?”

“None of them are moving.”

She was distracted for a minute by the sight of seven sorority girls running back them. Waves of blonde followed their flight as did two stumbling figures. “Well we can’t just leave them here with the window broken out.” But even as these words left her mouth, Mar saw that the wild press of students was over and on the other side of the road nothing moved except dozens of the lumbering things. A few students fought here and there, but they were being dragged to the ground and torn apart.

“We need to get Jenny,” Mar said and leaned into the car and grabbed both of her friend’s ankles. She wasn’t strong enough. “Grab my waist and pull me.” She looked through the door she had left open and saw the few of them stumble into the street.

Cindy yelped and then pulled with impossible strength They got Jenny into the back seat and then with both of them working they got her to the ground outside of the car.

“How can we escape those while carrying her?” Cindy asked. “We have to go. We have to go now!”

“What about Phil?” Mar asked, but as she did, Vance’s eyes snapped open and be began to thrash against the air bags. He looked over at them and growled. Then, as if noticing Phil for the first time, he leaned sideways and took a huge bite out of Phil’s neck.

Both the girls screamed.

Then two big figures were upon them. Mar went to scream again, until she saw that it was three, no wait, four male college students.

“What are you standing here for?” A tall man with quite a good sized beer belly asked.

“Our friend is hurt,” Mar said, still in shock and cringing as Vance devoured his former best friend.

“This her?” the tallest one said, then without asked permission, he tossed Jenny over his back and yelled, “let’s go.”

“You heard the man,” the curly headed student said and as one the group began to jog to the south.

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Tezcatlipoca Midnight

Unthroned we dwell in the Night

As Bask in Darkness Delight

We ride the Obsidian Wind

And now our Assentation can Begin

Learn how one Hero claims the Darkness for himself!!