by Ailes, Derek
Allan broke through the vampire army as his bandmates slaughtered every one of them in their path. Tony signaled to him to go ahead and they’d hold them off. Allan entered the opening of the mountain and cautiously walked down the long corridor inward. Ahead of him, Kelief stood cracking his knuckles, loosening himself for combat.
“I want Carrie-Anne!”
“For several years, I heard about you and your band of misfits and your heroic deeds. You aren’t the human race’s saviors; you’re the vampire’s butchers. You see, we vampires didn’t start the war. You humans did. Believe me, we are the ones who will finish it,” Kelief said as he swung a large ax in front of him displaying his strength.
“A vampire wielding an ax. Now that’s a new one.”
“This was our weapon of choice back in the old days before our thirst for blood. It was brought on by a curse put on our kind a long time ago by a witch when vampires and man joined together to rid the world of their kind. I claimed this ax as a prize from a dear old friend I was forced to kill in battle. It’s fitting now because man will be completely erased from time by us vampires.”
“I thought Graham talked too much. Can I kill you now or do I have to listen to your history lesson?”
“Very well.”
Kelief swung the ax toward Allan who ducked barely missing being decapitated. He swung again as Allan rolled to the right.
“Give up now. I can swing the ax for eternity if I have to.”
“And miss for eternity.”
Kelief rushed him and Allan grabbed his arm. The two men fought over the ax, each grabbing hold of the handle. Kelief forcefully pushed Allan backward and lifted the ax high above his head. As Kelief swung again, Allan jumped over the ax and plunged two large stakes into his chest. Kelief dropped the ax in horror. His body burst into flames and then crumbled into ash.
Allan picked up the ax. It felt familiar to him as if he had held it before. He remembered when they had first met Ronnie and he told them they were reincarnations of vampire slayers from the past. This was his ax from back in the time when man and vampires were allies before the witch put the curse of blood thirst on the vampires. Kelief and he had been friends and it was Kelief who killed him and claimed his ax as a prize. He remembered when the ax was blessed by the water from the sacred well in his village. It possessed the power to kill vampires. He smiled as he realized he possessed the weapon that could defeat Carrie-Anne for good.
He walked forward remembering the layout of the mountain from when he had been there in the past. Her lair was in the middle of the mountain and Kelief had taken his life there.
Carrie-Anne stood before him dressed in the shiny black dress she wore when she first walked into the pub years back. She grabbed her blonde hair and ripped it and her face completely off, exposing a face that looked centuries old. She raised her arms and transformed into a large bat-like creature, which was the size of a large dragon with a large tail. Her skin was dark brown and looked to be as impenetrable as a dragon’s.
“This is my true form! My real name is Belykial and it is I, by that name, who will kill!”
Belykial swung her tail around in a fast spinning motion knocking him to the ground. The ax slid out of his hand and landed on the other side of the lair.
“Now you must fight me with your bare hands!”
The ground shook violently with each of her steps sending large rocks tumbling downward. She laughed loudly as she watched him try to avoid them.
“Death by compression! Now that would be a tragic ending for you!”
He jumped up and ran for the other side of the lair. She stomped down violently causing the ground to crack. Her throne fell inward as the ground gave way. His ax slid forward stopping inches from falling over the edge of the newly formed hole. As she stomped again, he slid across the ground grabbing the ax. He grabbed onto the back of her tail avoiding falling into the hole. She lifted her tail up several feet and violently slammed it downward. He held on tightly. As the tail landed again, he quickly climbed it and swung the ax upward slicing one of her claws off. She screamed. He swung the ax repeatedly slicing into her chest. She tried flicking him off with her other claw, but he continued to dodge it.
“Stop it, human!”
She brought her massive head down preparing to rip him in half in one bite. As her head got nearer, he swung the ax upward and it embedded into her skull. She knocked him to the side and screamed out in agony as her body shrunk back into her human form.
“Please don’t kill me,” she pleaded.
“I must.”
He grabbed one of his wooden spikes and implanted it into her heart. She screamed out one last time as her body burst into flames and she crumbled into dust.
As she died, all the remaining vampires in the world instantly burst into flames and crumbled into dust, as well.
Several weeks later, Allan was in the pub with some of the friends he met since the battle with Carrie-Anne, writing a song for the last studio album before leaving the band.
“Come on, it’s your turn. I’m going to beat you this time.”
“I only have a couple lines left to write.”
He wrote down the lyrics:
'Cause that long cool woman had it all
Had it all
Had it all
With the song finished, he smiled. Only a select few would really understand the words behind the song. Each line symbolized the events leading to his first meeting with Carrie-Anne and to her demise. He put down his pen and grabbed his darts. There was no way he was going to let his friend beat him at darts.
The end?
Claws Vs Mecha Cat
Chapter One
Melvin and Denise stood on the platform at the Dunes Park train station surrounded by several people waiting for the South Shore Line to arrive. They were anxiously waiting for the train to take them to the McCormick Place for the 2015 Chicago Auto Show.
There was a chime from the speakers above followed by an automated message stating the westbound train would be arriving in ten minutes.
Melvin smiled at his wife as he anticipated the train ride. He loved taking the train to their yearly visit to the Chicago Auto Show. The ride was not much of a scenic route mostly one rundown ghetto after another. At least, they would pass the Railcats stadium. Unfortunately, it was February and there wouldn’t be any games being played.
A couple of older gentlemen were talking about how Smart cars were a joke and real men drove gas-guzzling trucks. He wasn’t a fan of them either. He wanted a brand new Colorado truck, but Denise wanted to own a car practical for raising a family. They both possessed decent paying jobs, and he didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t afford both, but she kept reminding him she wanted to buy a fancy house in Chesterton with five bedrooms, one for each of the four kids she wanted to have.
He jumped in excitement when he saw the train’s headlights in the distance.
“Take it down a notch, Melvin. We are grownups,” Denise said, smiling.
“For now. No promises when we get to the Auto Show.”
“As long as you’re there to look at the cars, not the models.”
“Denise, do I hear a tiny bit of jealously?”
“Your days of shopping around are over. You made your final purchase.” She pointed at her wedding ring.
The train stopped in front of them and they entered the front car. They sat down on the first available seat. He was disappointed as he realized they were sitting opposite of the way the train was heading. They would be seeing things as they passed them.
Noticing his disappointment, Denise said sarcastically, “At least if there’s a train wreck, we won’t see it coming.”
He gave her a disapproving look.
“Ok, that was in bad taste.”
“Do ya’ think?”
The doors to the train car closed and the train moved forward. “Next stop Ogden Dunes,” the conductor said through the intercom system.
“
Get the tickets out,” Melvin reminded her.
Denise thumbed through her purse until she found the train tickets. Melvin looked at all of the train cars sitting in front of the steel mill as they passed by. The fog was thick today making it difficult to see the individual buildings of the mill. Through the fog, he thought he saw something moving, something big.
“What the hell?”
“Melvin, what’s wrong?”
“That.” He pointed toward the fog.
As it came closer to train, they could tell it was a gigantic black cat. It ran toward their train car and collided with it. The lights flickered as the train was instantly derailed by the impact. All the passengers were violently thrown out of their seats. The cat pushed the train causing it to completely roll onto the highway adjacent to the tracks.
As the train stopped rolling, Melvin looked over at Denise who was unconscious and bleeding. He shook her trying to wake her up. Tears ran down his cheeks as he realized she was dead. He heard metal being ripped apart from above him. He looked up as a large black paw came down and grabbed him. As he was being lifted up, he could see the cat’s sharp teeth getting closer. Within seconds, the cat swallowed him and then began grabbing as many passengers as it could to fill its belly.
Chapter Two
“Try it again,” Benton shouted from the top of the thirty foot high robotic black cat. For the past year, his research team worked diligently to finish the Mecha Cat project. With the funding from the United States government and help from his team consisting of some of the brightest engineers in the field, Mecha Cat was going to be the top of the line defense against an enemy threat. Especially, if they were attacked by an over grown feline which his girlfriend, Lucille, and he encountered while they were lifeguarding at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore over two years ago.
“His head still won’t move,” Ajit Bahri, the lead engineer on the project, informed him. “There has to be something still not attached somewhere.”
“Or it could be a software problem,” Slater Malcrens, their computer software specialist, answered in disagreement.
“Whatever the problem is, we need to solve it,” Benton stated as he climbed down the attached steps leading from its belly to its front left leg.
“Its front and rear paws are functional,” Ajit said.
They watched as it moved forward a few feet. The room shook slightly with each step.
“Now that’s impressive,” Lucille said, walking into the lab. Her raven black hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore cutoff blue jeans and a tank top displaying her perfectly tanned body. “Aren’t we supposed to be somewhere?”
“The party. I forgot.”
Benton briefly looked over at her and then back at the schematic on his computer screen. His beach tanned body was gone since he quit being a lifeguard after the incident and locked himself in the lab designing and building Mecha Cat.
“Can we pass on it tonight?”
“Benton, the party was your idea. We haven’t told any of our family about our engagement yet.”
“Guys, you need to see the news,” Lana Coast said as she ran into the lab. “There was an attack on the South Shore Line near the steel mill.” She looked straight at Lucille. “A twenty foot black cat.”
Slater turned on the large screen television, and they watched the horrific footage from the train wreckage.
Benton looked over at his team. “We need this thing fully operational, ASAP.”
“We’ll spend the whole night working out the remaining kinks,” Ajit assured him.
“I’ll contact Sergeant Alvarez and have his team rendezvous with me in Chesterton. Lucille, I’m sorry about the party.”
“I know,” she said sadly. “Be careful.”
“I will. Notify me when Mecha Cat is operational.” He quickly gave her a kiss and rushed out of the lab.
Benton passed the entrance of the steel mill and pulled over to the side of the road where the police had the area barricaded off. The other side of the road was lined with vans from every news station in the area with reporters waiting for any new tidbit about the train accident.
“Let him through,” Sergeant Alvarez said to one of the police officers as he saw Benton through the crowd of spectators.
“Did anybody see where it went?” Benton asked as he walked past the barricade.
Sergeant Alvarez was wearing a bluish camouflage uniform covered in fresh blood. “Witnesses saw it run into Lake Michigan and swim north. It left no survivors. The whole train is covered in blood. Be careful the ground is slippery.”
Benton surveyed the wreckage and listened to the coroner describe the scene while the CSIs continued to collect evidence. Judging by the impressions on the ground, the cat had to be over twenty feet tall. He looked over at the sergeant.
“I don’t like that look on your face,” the sergeant said.
“We are dealing with a kitten.”
“You’re suggesting there may be more than just one.”
“Unfortunately.”
“What’s the progress on Mecha?”
“Tomorrow hopefully.” Benton didn’t look convinced. He stared at the wreckage. “Unbelievable.”
“My troops are mobilizing. The tanks and rocket launchers should be here within the hour.”
“We are going to need them.”
Chapter Three
Patti parked her car in one of the handicap spots in front of the Kmart in Chesterton. Rusty, her tiny Pug, looked at her with inquisitive eyes.
“Yes, I will bring you back a treat.”
She got out of the car and with the help of her cane, walked toward the entrance. She could hear the “It’s A Small World” theme coming from the mini ride to the left of the front door as a little kid enjoyed rocking back and forth on it. She walked in, grabbed a cart, and then headed to the back of the store where all of the romance novels were.
As she was inside Kmart shopping, Rusty was in the car trying to stay on the front seat as the ground shook violently. The sound of multiple car alarms going off was too much for Rusty’s ears. The shaking stopped. Looking straight at Rusty through the window was an overgrown black cat. It licked its lips as it stared at him.
Rusty peed all over the seat in fear. The cat picked up the car and shook it violently causing Rusty to bounce around the car like he was a ball in a pinball machine. The cat, losing interest in the Pug, threw the car into the air.
Meanwhile, Patti looked at all of the chew toys in the pet food aisle. The little toy shaped like a duck amused her.
“I wonder if Rusty will like this one.”
As she walked out of the pet food aisle, her car crashed through the ceiling and onto the floor behind her. The driver side door popped open and Rusty’s carcass rolled out.
Chapter Four
Arris Wright sat at the head of the conference table watching Neil Lewis present his design for the new shopping mall they were planning.
Arris recently purchased some swampland near the new subdivision the city was developing outside of Chesterton, Indiana. He was warned about the dangers of building a shopping mall on swampland, but he was willing to take the risk since he was able to purchase the land cheap, because people were afraid to develop there due to the incident at the Indiana Dunes two years prior.
As Neil finished his presentation, Arris motioned to him to sit down.
“I believe everyone here is impressed with the design.”
He looked toward the board members who were all nodding their heads in approval.
“I hope everybody understands the significance of this project. Chesterton has been reluctant to allow additional discount outlets built since the rich folks and I quote, ‘don’t want the riffraff that these stores attract.’ Imagine a new Chesterton with a Goodwill, Target, Kohl’s, Golden Corral and it’s being developed by an African American,” he explained with a big smile.
“Sir, what about the incident today?” Tammy Lemstrom asked.
“I’ve been assured that the cat menace will be taken care of immediately. Besides, this will cause Chesterton’s real estate prices to drop even further. We will be able to purchase additional land at a cheaper rate.”
“Sir, won’t this cause people to shy away from the area.”
“Trust me; this will cause Chesterton to become a tourist attraction. If we can acquire the carcass of one of these overgrown felines, we can display its skeleton on a monument in the parking lot of the shopping center. People will come far and wide to have a picture taken with it. In the process, they will shop at our stores. Trust me; this is a financial opportunity,” Arris explained.
“How are we going to acquire one of these carcasses?” Tammy asked.
“The government spent a lot of money this past year developing a robotic defense system, Mecha Cat, to battle further feline threats. In return for an opportunity to acquire a feline carcass, I shared in the financial burdens of the project. Mecha Cat is en route to Chesterton as we speak.”
Chapter Five
Benton was talking to Lucille on his smart phone as five tanks including a missile launcher pulled into the parking lot of the steel mill.
“The cavalry just arrived. What’s the ETA on Mecha Cat?” Benton asked. “Good. I’ll see you soon.”
Sergeant Alvarez walked over to him followed by Lt. Marcus Moztem.
“Mecha Cat will be here within the hour,” Benton reported.
“Our feline friend has been spotted down by Kmart,” Marcus stated.
“We have multiple drones in the area. We should be able to track its movements. Once we have a location, we will strike,” Sergeant Alvarez said.
“We will finally get a chance to test Mecha Cat in the field,” Benton added. “I hope all my team’s hard work pays off.”
They almost lost their balance as the ground shook violently.
