Archer Chronicles 1: Hell Town

[Harakiri]

Act 1: The First Strike

---------------------------

George Griffin sat in his rocking chair on the porch of his cabin in Arkansas. He had a straw hat over his face and a twelve-gauge shotgun in his lap. His grey hair and skin that seemed to be sagging off his bones gave him the appearance of a nintey year old, but he was only seventy. A flask of whiskey stood on a small wooden table next to the rocking chair, along with a gas lantern, moths fluttering around the light.

George Griffin snored lightly, dreaming of his younger years when he had two wives and divided his time between work, drinking, and acting better than the best actors in Hollywood could as his wives grew more and more suspicious at his activities when he wasn't with them.

A smile came across his unconscious lips. Life was good back then. Nowadays life was a mess. Sitting on his porch every night, ready to scare off the local hooligans or thieves or other unwanteds from his property with his new wife, the one he married after he used her to divorce his other wives. His Bessy was a fine shot gun and a fine wife. Obedient, quiet, and ready to kick some tail when she needed to.

The creaking of the rocking chair became monotonous and the loud sound was exactly what the two teenagers were hoping for. They used the creaking as a way to step through the forest without disturbing the old man.

Creak.

Step.

Creak.

Step.

It was a slow, deliberate way of moving toward the red pick up truck that stood in front of the cabin, toward the cabin itself. The old man was an old man. Just because he had a shotgun didn't mean he was scary. He was snoozing like a baby and his arthritis was a factor in his aiming.

The two teens made it to the pick up truck and decided that just in case, it was probably a good idea to hide next to it. He wouldn't be stupid enough to blindly shoot at his precious vehicle. Or so they hoped and assumed.

One of the teens pulled a handful of small balls wrapped in white paper from his deep coat pocket. The balls were almost the size of a pencil tip.

He smiled at his friend and then peeked over the bed of the vehicle. The old man was dreaming happy things, his smile becoming more and more insidious, drool creeping down from the side of his mouth.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" The hooligan yelled before throwing the balls at the porch.

The balls made a loud popping noise as they impacted the ground and the old man awoke suddenly.

"GOD IN HEAVEN!" He screamed before blindly firing at the woods.

The teens ran into the woods, laughing loudly. They ran as fast as they could as the old man shot again.

"DAMN KIDS GONNA GET YER HEADS 'SPLODED!" George screamed.

George sat back down in his rocking chair and gently caressed Bessy. "Thank you baby."

Another rustle of leaves coming from the same direction the kids had escaped.

Two distinct screams.

George laughed loudly. "Damn kids pro'ly fell in da crick!"

Suddenly, the rustle got louder, the person causing the disturbance getting closer.

"[bleep] OFF YA STUPID KIDS!" George screamed as the biggest wolf he had ever seen leapt over his pick up truck.

George aimed a shot at the wolf and pulled the trigger.

The wolf leapt to the side as the spot it had landed at exploded into a cloud of dirt.

George pumped the gun, aimed again at the wolf and pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

Bessy's three shells were spent.

"[cabbage] Bessy!" George ran as fast as a seventy year old could toward the door of his cabin. The wolf ran at him, faster than anything George had ever seen, almost as fast as a jet plane he thought. He pulled open the door of the cabin and slammed it as fast as he could. He ran down the hall that lead from front door to back door, into the room on the left.

His bedroom clock said it was 1:11 A.M. George went to his drawers and pulled out the top one. Inside, he threw aside his underpants to get to the three boxes of shotgun shells he had bought at the Bass Pro Shop a while back.

He snapped the gun so the barrel was exposed and started putting rounds inside.

Suddenly, the window of his bedroom exploded and the wolf leaped at him.

George turned around, snapping the shotgun back as he did, and shot at the wolf.

The wolf suddenly plummeted to the right side of it's planned trajectory, onto the flannel sheets of George's bed. Blood sputtered from the side of the wolf's stomach, all over the fine linens that covered the cheap box frame bed.

George grabbed another shell and snapped open the shotgun again as the wolf howled and leaped at him again.

Before George could even snap the barrel in place, his neck was sliced open, blood spraying all over the grey and white coat of the giant wolf.

Damn Bessy, you failed me like mah other wives, George thought before falling to the floor, dead.

The wolf took a bite from the neck of the old man, lapped at his blood for a moment, staining the fur around his muzzle before jumping onto the bed, through the window, and into the woods, toward a place where it could tend to it's wound.

 

 

Act 2: Undesirables

----------------------------

"Who the hell are you?" The fat policeman took a steaming cup of coffee from the young deputy who had just come back from Dunkin' Donuts.

"You play into stereotypes quite well officer." The man in a fedora and wearing a flannel shirt, jeans and a pair of steel-toe boots said. He walked with the officer toward the "Do Not Pass" tape that encircled the cabin outside of the small town of Eureka.

"And you play into [wagon] stereotypes quite well. Who are you?" The officer took a sip of the coffee and put his hand on the butt of his pistol in a holster at his waist.

"Name's Zach Archer, I work with the FBI." Archer pulled his wallet out of his back pocket slowly and flipped it open. Inside was an FBI badge with his name and picture on it.

"What the hell are the feds doing at the murder of an old man? There's something fishy about you Mr. Archer." The officers southern accent was drawling, annoying.

"I was driving through town anyway. Thought I'd check in because you never know when something is...beyond what a regular cop can handle."

"You making fun of me man? You still ain't answered my question."

"I did. I'm here of my own volition because I had a feeling this was something beyond just a regular murder."

"You ain't seen the body."

"Intuition."

"You're suspicious as any man I've ever met."

"I got my credentials. Now let's set that coffee down and check out this scene."

Archer ducked under the yellow tape and walked toward a small pit in the ground in front of the pick up truck of the murdered man.

"This pit is not from an animal, nor a digging tool of any sort. It's from a bullet. A shotgun more like. See the tiny dimples in the ground all around the main hole? There's a paw print discernible here as well."

Archer stood up and stepped around the popper wrappers laying on the ground in front of the cabin's porch.

Inside the cabin, Archer found the body and almost wretched. The smell of blood was pungent, awful. The man had dropped a load before dying, and that didn't exactly help the rancid smell of the room. Blood was everywhere, on the floor, on the open dresser, on the bed, on the broken window. It even trailed from the window into the forest.

Archer bent to examine the old man's wounds.

"Jesus Christ, whatever did this left his head hanging on his neck by a thread!" Archer put a finger into the old man's blood and put that to his mouth. He then walked over to the bed and tried that blood.

"These two bloods are different."

The fat officer decided to walk in when Archer was putting the blood in his mouth.

"What the [bleep] you think you're doin'?"

Archer smacked his lips and then pointed at the blood on the bed. "That's synthetic. I can tell. Whatever attacked him was a lab experiment."

The officer laughed. "You tellin' me Dr. Frankenstein is on the loose?"

Archer nodded. "Quite possibly."

Another officer ran into the room, a young lady with bleach blond hair and the build of cheerleader. "Sir, we found two others in the forest. Kids..."

"God dammit!" The fat officer stomped out. The blond woman, much to Archer's enjoyment, stayed in the room.

"So who are you?" The woman asked.

"You know, I hate how much people ask me that."

The woman smiled. "You look like a modern day cowboy."

"I try. What can I say?" He looked up at her and smiled back.

"You have blood on your lip." She licked her lip a little after saying that.

Archer raised an eyebrow. "You're not a cop. The pretty ones never are."

The woman laughed lightly before she fell on top of Archer and started making out with him. Archer struggled, his whole body now covered in the blood on the floor.

"Take me!" The woman screamed, fangs thrusting forth from her mouth.

"Great, a [bleep]ing second tier vampire." Archer looked around for something to put in her mouth as he pushed her jaw up, away from him. He saw a small blanket under the bed and grabbed for it. He shoved it in the vampires mouth.

The vampire was stunned for a second, just enough time for Archer to roll them over, so he was on top and she was on the bottom.

"How the hell am I going to get out of this?"

Suddenly, claws raked at his chest, tearing huge gouges out of him. His flannel plaid shirt turned into tatters as the vampire tried to kill him.

His eyes turned red suddenly, and he screamed out insidiously, like a demon from hell.

"DIE YOU [bleep]ING [bleep]!"

Archer punched the vampire in the face again and again, turning her face into a mushy, bloody, fleshy mess.

That's when the fat officer walked in. Again.

"What the [bleep]?" He pulled his gun out and Archer turned on him, kicked out. The pistol fell from the officer's hand and to the floor.

"Dammit, that's assault [bleep]. I knew you weren't right!" The fat officer rubbed his arm as his cop buddies ran in.

Archer grabbed the gun from the floor and shot the vampire through the heart. He then ran onto the bed and jumped through the window, just like the wolf had the night before.

His chest burned, but the gouges were healing faster than any wound should.

Who was this man possessed by a demon?

 

Act 3: Night Fight

------------------------

Archer lay in the forest, far away from the cabin and Eureka. He kept himself occupied by dismantling the pistol, and building it again. He knew the cops wouldn't follow him this far. Especially when they were trying to figure out why that vampire [bleep]'s body had dissipated like all dead vampire bodies do.

Archer took a nap around three in the afternoon.

------

He awoke at about eleven to an odd feeling in his lower region.

He didn't need to look up to understand what was happening.

"Oh [cabbage]." His pants had been pulled down. He was laying in an odd position among the leaves, not against the tree as he had been when he fell asleep.

The vampire lady was grinding on top of him. He reached for the pistol which he had left beside him but it was gone. When he looked back at the vampire lady, she had it pointed at his head.

"You're a heavy sleeper Mr. Archer." She said.

Archer gritted his teeth, his pelvis felt like it had a ton of bricks against it.

"And you're just heavy in general Ms?"

"Rei."

Archer put his hands in the air as she aimed the gun at his heart.

"A heart for a heart?"

"Apparently not. I killed you!"

She laughed, throwing the gun over her shoulder. "You beat the [cabbage] out of me. You really hurt me."

Archer felt a surge of anger, suppressed it. "And I assume in return you want to hurt me?"

Rei licked her lips, fangs protruding over the bottom lip. "Be with me Archer."

Archer laughed. He searched for some kind of weapon. Something to beat Rei with. He needed a stake.

The rustle of leaves became louder and the woman laughed. "I at least let my victims enjoy themselves before they die, isn't that nice?"

There was another sound, very slowly coming toward the two.

Suddenly, the sound got louder, the crunching of leaves and snapping of branches.

In the blink of an eye, a giant wolf collided with Rei and knocked her naked body off of Archer.

She screamed and fought the giant monster, but it ate at her flesh in a sickening display.

Archer decided the best idea at the moment was to pull up his boxers and run for it. He didn't need pants.

Archer ran toward the pistol and grabbed it from the ground before heading for the cabin.

"The shotgun. Be better than this lousy thing."

Archer ran faster than he knew he could, the sounds of tearing and ripping growing more and more distant.

After a minute, the sound of running came closer and closer.

"[cabbage] [cabbage] [cabbage] [cabbage] [cabbage]!" Archer screamed as he ran across the crick and toward the cabin.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the giant wolf fast approaching.

Archer made it to the truck in front of the cabin. The wolf was ten foot behind him. It jumped.

The truck was unlocked. Archer jumped inside and shut the door as the beast knocked the truck on it's side.

"Oh [cabbage]!" Archer ripped the panel behind the wheel open and started hot wiring the truck.

The wolf jumped in front of the turned over car, readying a run into the windshield.

"[bleep]!" Archer heard the engine start and pushed as hard as he could against the floor of the car to put it back on it's wheels.

The wolf ran toward the car.

"[bleep] YOU!" Archer shoved again and the truck turned over, onto it's wheels again. The wolf ran past the righted car and stopped to turn around. Archer stomped on the gas and drove down the road as fast as he could.

"Where the hell am I gonna go?" He looked at the gas. Half a tank. About a hundred miles. And he had no money on him at the moment. Could sell the pistol at a pawn shop, Archer thought.

He looked in the rear view mirror.

"OH [cabbage]!" Archer slammed on the brakes.

The wolf that had just hopped into the bed of the truck flew out and fell onto the pavement.

"I am not going to get rid of this [wagon]!" Archer screamed, backing up and trying to run over the wolf.

Suddenly, he felt the car lift a little. And then it fell with a thump.

Another wolf stood in the road in front of Archer's original pursuer. It was growling.

Holy [cabbage], did that wolf just lift a truck? Archer thought.

Archer used his elbow to smash the driver's side window. He aimed out and started shooting madly with the pistol.

The wolf protecting the fallen pursuer took all the shots like a pro. After half it's head had been blown off, it still continued to walk back and forth.

"Jesus."

Archer drove away. He knew the wolves would need to recuperate. And they wouldn't get any time to do so with a man shooting at them and running them over.

Archer needed to get to Little Rock overnight, about sixty miles away. In that time, he also needed to get some money.

Well, after the pill incident a month before, Archidemus did owe Archer some money.

 

Act 4: Archidemus

--------------------------

"Archer." Archidemus nodded at him politely before returning to staring at his crystal ball.

"How's it going?" Archer walked into the plush carpeted room in the house on the north side of Purgatory, the large city on the verge where immigrants to the afterlife were sorted out between Heaven and Hell.

Archidemus was an ancient Greek who had set up shop in this particular spot about three thousand years before. He was a fortune-teller, and could see the future and use his crystal ball to watch people on Earth. If somebody had any questions about their loved ones back on Earth before they left to their new world, then they came here and paid up to get the question answered.

"How's your mom doing?" Archer asked, sitting across from Archidemus.

"Fine."

"Good." Archer looked into the ball, saw nothing spectacular, a man watching a pornography video on his TV.

"Can you do this when you don't have a guest around?"

"Sorry." Archidemus waved his hand and the crystal ball turned opaque.

"I need money."

"And I need to pass on. But I can't because God likes me where I am."

"And I do too. I need to buy some guns and a new car and have a couple thousand left over just in case."

Archidemus laughed. "I'm gonna pull thirty thousand dollars out of my ass?"

"Thirty-five."

"Holy [cabbage], you're insane."

"Remember the pills? I almost died saving your great-great-great-great-great-"

"Dammit. Fine."

Archer nodded. "I know you have millions of dollars. Your just greedy."

"I'm just sick of being your friend."

"And a good friend you are."

"I feel more like your [bleep]."

Archer laughed. "You aren't quite as scary as the [bleep]es I've been fighting lately."

Archidemus smiled. "It looked like she was winning. Until the wolf..."

"YOU WATCHED!?" Archer was wide-eyed.

"It was pretty funny to watch you struggling. And if that lady wasn't a vampire, she would be pretty damn hot."

"Jesus Christ. Just give me the money."

"Fine, fine. Bad sport."

"Your Mom would be pissed."

"My mother [bleep]ed every great man who came by her temple. When I was born, I came out of a museum of all of Greek's greatest men's unborn babies. Which is kind of creepy that she can stop sperm from fertilizing her."

"A lot of things about her are creepy. She was the [bleep]ing Oracle at Delphi, just meeting her would scare me. She is about as all knowing as God."

Archidemus stood. "Thirty-five you said?"

 

 

Act 5: The Opposing Forces Meet

-----------------------------------------------

Archer walked out of the gun store with an armful of pistols, shotguns, rifles, and ammo. He still needed a machine gun, but you couldn't buy one from a weapons store.

It would be harder without a rapid fire weapon like that, but then again, while it may not be as portable, he did have a friend with a pretty cool weapon to meet up with outside of Eureka.

He threw his weapons into the pick-up truck. He then drove toward Eureka, with a quick stop in the forests outside of town.

He had a full tank of gas and was ready to get the final preparations ready.

He swore to himself that he was going to kill those [bleep]ing wolves that night. Maybe trace them back to their holes and see just what the hell they really were...

...Though he had an idea.

-------

Archidemus stood in a clearing in the middle of the forest. Beside him was a large thing with a tarp over it and tons of metal plates and sheets of glass. He had two giant toolboxes sitting next to those.

"Do you know how hard it is to get a pass to Earth?"

"Can't be too hard. I saw George Washington walking around Valley Forge about three months ago. He told me he only got an hour pass. You got a whole day pass."

"At least he went to see a place where he could pray have a good cry about what took place. He can have an emotional moment. Here I am helping you build a [bleep]ing armor plated truck and attach this thing to it. Do you know how hard it was to get this thing here?"

"I can guess."

"We got..." Archidemus checked his watch. "about seven hours to seven. We can head into Eureka, find a place to hide til' eleven. Listen to the radio or something. Where are we going to wait for our wolf friends?"

Archer snickered.

"What?" Archidemus asked.

"Downtown. Main street."

Archidemus looked at Archer. "You're stupid."

"No, I just want to see those cops reactions."

-------

They sat in the armor-plated, bulletproof glassed truck. Something sat in the bed of the truck, but the blue tarp covered it. They were listening to the vehicle's radio as they waited for eleven o' clock to come around.

"Country, country, country. Metal."

"Oh hell." Archidemus sighed. He hated rock.

Walk With Me In Hell by Lamb of God was playing.

"I'm sometimes considered a fortune teller." Archidemus said. "And if I had to read our fortunes right now, I would say this song is not making the future look too bright."

"If you die you go back to the Verge, to Purgatory. It's nothing new."

"No, but I really don't want to experience dying again. Once was enough."

-------

Eleven rolled around and downtown was quiet except for the local diner and a small pub.

Archer drove the truck onto the stretch of pavement known as Main Street. It started from the small road that branched off from the highway, and ended at an intersection leading to a small residential district.

Behind all the buildings was forest. A town situated in the middle of the darkest forest Archer had ever been in.

Archer stopped the truck in the middle of the road so that the passenger side faced the road coming into town and the drivers side faced the road going toward the residential area. They took up both lanes, the coming and going, of the street. Hopefully nobody wanted to use the road.

"Watch it." The radio was currently playing Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N' Roses.

"Archer. There's some people coming at us."

"Archidemus, there appears to be five super wolves coming at us."

"Archer, we appear to be [bleep]ed.

"Archidemus, nobody's [bleep]ed when I'm around."

"That vampire lady kind of..."

"QUIT BRINGING THAT UP!"

"I meant when she was eaten up by the wolf. Not..."

"I GET IT!"

Archer got out of the truck and jumped onto the hood. The cops to the left approached, carrying guns in their arms. They had them aimed, not at Archer, but at the approaching wolves.

Archer noticed something about the cops.

They all had fangs.

"Yikes..." He muttered.

"Zach Archer, you almost killed the Count's daughter, but then these furballs went and finished her. She was naked too, I guess she got you Archer?" The deputy from the cabin said.

"I wish people would quit bringing that up."

"You weren't FBI, that was a fake badge. You aren't no investigator, the Count told us hisself. You a damn dead man walking!"

Archer looked over at the wolves. They were just snarling and spitting everywhere. Five on five with a self-proclaimed demon hunter and an oracle.

This ought to be a great fight, Archer thought.

"So dogs, you wanna kill this [wagon] and his friend, or you wanna go at each other first?"

Archer raised his hand. "US FIRST! US FIRST!" He danced around on the hood while Archidemus slipped out of the passenger door and into the bed of the truck, under the tarp.

"We have a taker. The Count want's your body though, so I gotta hide it before the damn vultures over there eat your body up."

The wolves snarled and prepared to leap. The vampires raised their shotguns at Archer.

And Archidemus threw the tarp over the side of the truck. It flew right into the wolves as he pressed the button down that fired up the 50mm machine gun that he and Archer had bolted to the bed of the truck.

The machine gun's bullets exploded through the tarp and into the wolves. It was hard to tell which ones had been Archer's assailants the night before, but hopefully Archidemus had cut them into swiss cheese.

As blood started to fly on the wolf end of the street, Archer jumped off the truck. He pulled a samurai sword he had bought from the gun store (they had a whole collection of them) from where he had hid it in his long duster. He slid under one of the cops shotguns and cut his hand off before twirling, sword outstretched.

The head of the cop flew into the air and a burst of blood exploded from his neck stump.

Shotguns turned toward Archer, whose green eyes had become the yellow of a demons. A man possessed.

--------

'Archer?

Yes.

Welcome to Purgatory. You will have to wait another hundred years before you can be filed through with the rest of the immigrants.

And while I wait?

You can find a house on the outskirts of town or an apartment in-town. We provide free housing and such. We also provide you a weekly allowance for food and such.

Even in Purgatory I have to pay for food?

We can't produce a surplus of everything. We have to make sure there is some check on how much food you and everyone else are getting.

OK then.

Enjoy your stay in Purgatory!'

-------

Archer pulled a pistol from his waist and shot on of the cops in the face before stabbing him through the heart with his sword. The officer from the cabin took a shot, but Archer faced the body of the cops companion at the gun. The body squirmed like a beached fish and blood exploded from it's back as the shotgun's pellets raced into him.

-------

'Have you ever wanted to become more powerful?

I let down my family. They were all killed by robbers. I was the only one who survived.

Do you want to be able to move into Heaven and meet them with more power than you could ever imagine? Enough to protect everyone you love?

Yes.

Accept me then. And I will show you the way.

I do accept you, but is there a catch.

No.

AUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'

-------

Archer threw the sword, and the body, now missing a face, a back, and with a maimed heart; to the street and grabbed the shotgun of the next cop. He kicked the vampire in the stomach, prying the weapon from his hands. Archer shot the vampire with his own shotgun in the stomach five times, turning guts and blood exploding from the wound.

"YOU!" BOOM! "[bleep]ING!" BOOM! "VAMPIRES!"

Archer bent down and shoved a knife he had hidden in his boot into the vampire's heart.

And turned around just in time to meet the dark barrels of the two shotguns held by the last two vampires.

And hear the shout of Archidemus as he was tackled from the machine gun and eaten alive.

-------

'Why do you suppress me?

You are a demon. And the last thing I need is to be possessed by a demon.

There will come a day when you will need to let me take over.

Never will there be a day such as that...'

------

Archer heard the tearing, ripping sound of his friend being ripped apart.

He then heard the howl of the wolves.

And he saw them run at him out of the corner of his eye.

-------

'What's going on?

You are being taken to the real world.

Why?

It appears someone is pulling you back.

I don't like this. '

-------

Archer gritted his teeth.

-------

'For a new guy to Purgatory, you know your way around!

And you are?

Archidemus. Nice to meet you. Got any family back on Earth you want to see?

No. They are all dead.

In Purgatory?

No. Heaven.

Man, they had to be the purest of the pure to not be held back a couple hundred or thousand years. You know when you are going to be processed through the pearly gates?

A hundred years.

Not bad. I'm stuck here. God likes what I do, so wants me to keep doing it. He provides me with everything I want. I can make money appear from nothing if I wanted.

Not a bad deal.

Not at all. '

-------

Archer saw blood film over his eyes and felt a warm sensation run through his whole body.

-------

'Welcome back to Earth Mr...

Archer. But, I'm dead. I was shot in a back alley.

And we brought you back good as new.

I didn't want to be back!

I've never heard such an ungrateful person in my life. '

-------

Archer didn't know why it happened, but it did. Time slowed down, he was in a dark room. He saw himself standing before him.

'Let me take over.

Why?

I don't need a demon taking me over.

Did you see your friend? He'd probably die to have a demon take him over...oh, too late!

Get the hell out of me you [bleep]ing [wagon]!

You can't rid yourself of a demon Archer. Me and you are bonded. I'm basically your soulmate. [bleep] your wife, it's me who you're stuck with for the rest of eternity. The pearly gates? [cabbage]! When God sees that you have a demon in you, he won't exorcise you, he'll send you through the gates of Hell!

I swear to God! I'LL SEND YOU TO SATAN RIGHT NOW!

"TRY ME!"

Zach Archer suddenly found himself lying on the floor of the dark room, blood escaping from his every pore.

I own this body now you piece of [cabbage]!'

---------

Archer screamed and tackled both of the cops as the two surviving wolves flew towards him.

Archer grabbed the shotgun from the cop at the cabin and shoved the butt of the weapon through his teeth. The teeth shattered into the back of the vampires mouth, the fangs became nothing more than white, jagged stumps. He screamed.

Archer then rolled over, rolling the cop on top of him as a werewolf leaped at him. The wolf landed on top of the cop and tore him in half. Literally. With claws as large as knives the officer's body was torn into two pieces and blood and guts splattered against Archer. He threw the two pieces away and kicked the wolf in the muzzle.

Archer turned on the other vampire, the last one, still in one piece. He simply threw a fang spit out by the cabin-cop at the vampires heart. Through the heart it went.

The strength needed for such a feat would have to be ungodly. But Archer suddenly possessed it.

Archer ran at one of the two remaining wolves as it ran at him. At the same moment they jumped and time stopped in mid-air.

 

 

Act 6: My, What Big Teeth You Have

--------------------------------------------------

Faster than anyone in the world could see, Archer fell to the ground on his feet while his wolf opponent fell to the ground with a large thump, neck broken, head twisted 180 degrees around grotesquely.

"Last one." Archer hissed as a howl came from behind him.

He turned in time to see the giant beast that was coming at him.

It knocked him to the ground and clawed at his chest.

Archer punched the thing in the muzzle, but it ended up opening it's maw and clamping down on the fist.

Archer screamed and grabbed for something, anything to kill the Alpha-Male of this wolf family that was about three times bigger than the giant wolves from before.

Archer found his sword lying on the ground, vampire body still skewered on it.

Mustering all the force he could, he pulled one of his legs from under the wolf and kicked the body off his weapon before bringing it around and into the mouth of the wolf.

He had been heading for the neck. But at least now, his other hand free, he could try and push the damned wolf off...

He screamed in pain. His hand had four huge holes in it, blood spewing from them. The Alpha-Male had bitten right through his palm.

The sword clattered to the ground, spit out by the wolf as he came for Archer's neck.

The wolf flew off Archer and into the armored truck, knocking it over.

Archer tried to stand but a hand was at his neck and a man in a black coat and dark boots, eyes alight with malice started to strangle him.

The Count. The leader of the vampires.

And the Alpha-Male was now getting up to fight the Count.

What a fun fight to be the object of interest in!

Off to the side, the top half of the cop was dragging itself, guts dangling from it's ripped open stomach, toward a shotgun.

--------------------

'Hey demon?

Wait, what?

I don't take kindly to people who steal my body.

WHAT? '

-----------------------

Zach Archer suddenly took his body over again. An internal pain was leaving him in tears, and the deep scratches on his chest, but the demon was not with him anymore. He had stabbed it in the back of the neck. How?

He let the demon think he had the advantage. But it was Archer's own mind. His domain.

He let the demon take out the vampires and wolves for him, and then killed the demon, expelled it from his body. He wouldn't need it anymore.

Above him, the Alpha-Male smacked into the count and a battle began in the middle of the street.

Archer cursed.

"I'm out of here."

He stood and ran toward the nearest car, picking up a shotgun on the way.

He shot the window of the car and unlocked the door. It was a tiny Ford that probably got thirty-five miles a gallon.

He hot wired it as the Count was thrown through the window of the diner and the Alpha-Male followed in.

------

Archer was half dead from blood loss. He ended up crashing into a tree in the forest.

The Alpha-Male, blood pouring from it's mouth and a giant scratch across it's left eye pulled Archer through the window of the car and carried Archer in it's mouth toward the forest bunker.

 

 

Act 7: The End of One Day, The Beginning Of Another

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"And the Count?"

"Ran for it. The Alpha-Male appears to be our most powerful creation yet."

"All of our Hellhounds died?"

"But one."

"And the Alpha-Male?"

"Is in the emergency room. Our doctors are fixing him up."

"And Archer?"

"Is he to undergo the metamorphosis?"

"I'm debating that as we speak."

"He was in critical wasn't he?"

"He's fine. There's something about him though. His healing abilities, his power."

"He had a demon in him right?"

"Not anymore. Yet he still retains those powers. It's as if the demon was just...there. A test?"

"From who?"

"That's the question. Do you think one of the vampires could have gotten to him?"

"No."

"What happened to the one severed in half?"

"Our clean up squad disposed of him."

"Good."

"Are you positive we should keep Archer here?"

"He won't be able to do anything. And he might be a perfect candidate for another Alpha-Male test."

"Well, he was a test subject at one time."

"Unwillingly. He was dead at the time. And our zombification testing was a success. That was six months ago. Before you joined us."

"He could be a second successful experiment."

"He could. Or we could work our magic and make him an eternal servant to you. A new test, a test to create a demi-god."

"How do I know he will be obedient?"

"Don't worry sir, we can easily make him obedient. And we will have another major contender for our war with God."

"Wonderful. You have the backing of many of the fallen."

"I know Lord Anubis."

The balding scientist in a lab coat and square glasses shook hands across the table with the tall, muscular man with a pitch black body that was half human, half jackal. His head was that of a jackal and he carried a double bladed ax weapon on his back.

"Please, call me Anubis Zeus. He may have taken our power, but we still have science."

 

END (TO BE CONTINUED)