by Charles Rye
Once they were out of the way, they watched intently as Caliphar lit a match and threw it down on top of the bodies before quickly running away to where the others were.
In an instant, the guard station along with the bodies burst into flames that seemed to reach upwards several feet.
"Oh that certainly won't attract attention like three dead bodies would have on their own," Aurelia remarked sarcastically, glancing sideways at Caliphar.
"Hey, come on now, its not those dicks deserved a fucking burial,"
"Let's get the fuck out of here before we draw any more attention to ourselves," Soraf said.
"Agreed," Koriphus replied as they headed back to the bus.
They quickly boarded the bus and took their seats; Aurelia started the engine and revved it as she shifted it into drive pulling out from behind the building onto the road.
"Were you able to get any info out of those guys before killing them?" Caliphar asked Soraf.
"They didn't tell us a damned thing and called us bitches. What the fuck is with these assholes and calling women bitches anyway?" She replied, reclining into her seat.
"At least we got rid of some more of their men, so that should get them nice and pissed off," Aurelia said glancing at Caliphar in the rearview mirror.
Suddenly out of nowhere, a military issued Jeep sideswiped them, causing the bus to spin out of control throwing everyone out of their seats.
Aurelia slowly pushed herself up onto her elbows, wincing in pain as she looked around at the others.
"Caliphar‚ Soraf‚ Koriphus‚ Zxeron‚What‚"
She suddenly blacked out and collapsed against the floor of the bus.
Leave No Survivors
Shaking off the pain from the collision, Zandrem quickly jumped out of the Jeep and ran over to the bus.
Looking in through the windowed doors, she spotted a white cat-girl lying on the floor, unconscious from the wreck.
"Hey! Wake up!" Zandrem shouted through the door, trying to pry it open with her bare hands.
The sounds of someone shouting and trying to break into the bus woke Zxeron, who ran to the door and began to bark and growl at the stranger as he stood over Aurelia protectively.
"Holy shit‚ How did that thing get inside there‚?" Zandrem wondered to herself, staring at the creature in bewilderment.
"Hey, you! Wake up now!" She started banging on the door in an attempt to get the girl's attention.
Aurelia blinked her eyes open to see Zxeron standing over her before looking at the door, noticing the stranger standing outside.
"I'm all right. It's okay, boy," She reassured Zxeron as she pulled herself up with the aid of the driver's seat.
Slowly getting to her feet, she hit the button that opened the doors; startled when the wolf-girl darted inside with her weapon aimed at Zxeron.
"Drop the gun!" She demanded, grabbing her gun from beneath the driver's seat and aiming it at the stranger.
"Are you crazy, lady?!" Zandrem exclaimed as Zxeron stepped behind Aurelia, who still had her gun trained on the newcomer.
"I think I should be asking you that. Zxeron here is our pet," Aurelia replied.
Zandrem looked incredulously at Aurelia, wondering if she really was crazy.
"I have to check on my friends. You stay right here. Zxeron, watch her," Aurelia said, hitting a button that locked the doors.
She cautiously turned away from the stranger and quickly ran to Caliphar's side, gently shaking his shoulder.
"What the hell happened?" He choked out, pulling himself up into his seat.
"We were sideswiped by our guest over there. Zxeron is guarding her," Aurelia explained.
Soraf suddenly came to, rubbing away the throbbing pain in her head.
She glanced up at Aurelia and Caliphar before looking around to see who was by the door.
"Who the fuck is she?" Soraf asked.
"The one who hit us; unwanted company," Aurelia replied glancing over her shoulder at the girl.
"Hostage is more like it," Koriphus muttered from the back of the bus as he rose slowly to his feet.
"Excuse me; what the hell did you call me?" Zandrem questioned looking at Koriphus, causing Zxeron to growl at her.
"You heard me,"
"Seeing as you were the one who ran into us and judging by the force of impact you no longer have a working vehicle,"
"You can either be a hostage or a sacrifice to the Destroyers," Koriphus explained coming to stand before her.
"Hey, far as I'm concerned you lot ran into me,"
"I mean honestly, who the fuck is dumb enough to travel the main roads?"
"They run along as sorts of check points for those fugly soldiers that are all over the damned place," Zandrem replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
"We've traveled the main road for the last three days and haven't had a problem yet,"
"We only ran into some soldiers our first night but we killed them all," Aurelia spoke up, moving to stand beside Koriphus.
"How did you kill them!?" Zandrem questioned, bewildered by the statement.
"We shot them, it was actually quite easy since they seemed to be mindless drones once I killed their commander," Caliphar explained looking at her.
"Were they guarded by those evil creatures?" Zandrem continued, eyeing Zxeron.
"No, they weren't," Soraf replied.
But we've killed plenty of strays," She quickly added.
"Well fuck, I've been tailed by soldiers and their demonic guard dogs," Zandrem muttered.
"You're welcome to stay with us, for protection," Aurelia said, looking at Zandrem.
"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Zandrem remarked.
"Name's Zandrem by the way," She added, looking around at the others.
"I'm Aurelia, that's Soraf, Caliphar and this is Koriphus," Aurelia said pointing around to the others.
"Guess you're one of us now," Caliphar teased, looking at Zandrem.
"Guess so," Zandrem sighed, flopping down into the seat by the window.
"Let's hurry up and get out of here, thanks to Zandrem here we've been sitting ducks for the past hour,"
"Can we please leave before any soldiers show up?" Soraf announced as she looked at Aurelia and Caliphar.
"Yes, we need to get going. No doubt someone's bound to have noticed us by now," Aurelia said as she slid into the driver's seat, revving the engine before shifting the bus into drive.
"So exactly why did you run into us?" Caliphar asked as he made himself comfortable in his seat across from Zandrem, looking up at her.
"I was trying to out run a pack of wild Destroyers, those bastards are fast. Hitting them with a Jeep is like hitting a ten point buck," Zandrem explained, crossing her legs as she reclined in her seat.
"Please tell me she did not just say she was being chased by a pack of Destroyers‚" Koriphus said, looking up at Zandrem and Caliphar from his seat at the back of the bus.
"What, that Destroyers were tailing me up until I crashed into your bus?" Zandrem replied, glancing over her shoulder at Koriphus.
"Yes, that,"
"Can we pretend you didn't just say what you said?"
"I wish we could buddy, but we can't‚" Caliphar suddenly spoke as he pointed out his window, noticing a rather large Destroyer with long gray spikes protruding from its backbone running alongside the bus.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Koriphus growled loudly retrieving his Gauss-powered rifle from within his cape.
"Keep the bus steady Aurelia, can you do that?" Koriphus said as he stood from his seat, reaching up to unlock the hatch that led up to the roof.
"Rodger! Can do," Aurelia replied gripping the steering wheel to keep the bus perfectly aligned with the road.
Koriphus disappeared through the hatch as he climbed up onto the roof; he got down on all fours as he crawled over to the edge of the roof spotting the Destroyer running along Caliphar' side of the bus.
"You're mine, sucker," He grinned to
himself as he propped up his rifle, taking aim at the Destroyer.
A bright blue light came out of his hands and surged along the barrel as he squeezed the trigger, sending out a high velocity volt of energy with the bullet as it struck the Destroyer in the side of its head, knocking the Destroyer to the ground with force.
"Damn!" Caliphar blurted in surprise, watching the bullet hit the Destroyer as it collapsed stirring up a cloud of sand and dirt.
"Hold on!" Aurelia shouted as she spotted a Destroyer with jagged spikes running down its spine leap out in front of the bus.
She revved the engine as she sped forward, running over it, its bones cracking loudly as the bus' tires crushed them.
Koriphus banged on the roof, signaling Aurelia to steady the bus as he noticed another large Destroyer run up along the side of the bus.
He took aim, his rifle still surging with energy as he squeezed the trigger, hitting the Destroyer directly in its forehead.
The force of the bullet blasted a hole straight through its skull, its blood gushing from the wound as the Destroyer fell into the sand.
Looking back over his shoulder towards the back of the bus, Koriphus spotted about twenty or more Destroyers running behind the bus.
He quickly dropped down into the bus through the hatch and ran to Aurelia's side.
"We've got a slight problem,"
"What kind of a problem?" She asked glancing up at him.
"We got twenty or so Destroyers ganging up on us," He replied looking at her.
"What the fuck are we supposed to do? It doesn't seem like we can just shake them off our asses and lose them in the dust‚"
"I might have an idea‚ See, I have this sort of 'ability' as I like to call it," Koriphus continued.
"If it gets those Destroyers off our asses, I don't give a fuck what you do. Just get rid of the bastards," Aurelia said pressing her foot harder against the gas pedal, the speedometer going past 90 MPH.
"I know just what to do; you just stop the bus when I give the signal. Got it?" He said giving her a serious look.
"Whatever you say, but if this gets us killed I'm killing you," She said, blowing air out her nose.
Koriphus ran to the back of the bus, vanishing through the hatch and up onto the roof.
He crouched down low to balance himself to avoid falling off due to Aurelia's speeding as he looked out across the large pack of Destroyers still running after them about a hundred feet away.
"This is going to be fun‚ But I have to time it just right‚"
Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath, slowly exhaling as he opened his eyes, his hands glowing almost white as electrical energy surged through his palms.
Straighten from his crouch he kicked his boot against the roof, giving Aurelia the signal to stop the bus.
"Brace yourselves, guys," Aurelia warned the others gripping the steering wheel as she slowly pressed her foot against the brake, the bus lunging into a sudden stop.
"What the heck are you doing, trying to get us all killed?!" Zandrem exclaimed jumping from her seat, eyeing Aurelia.
Ignoring the accusation, Aurelia stayed in her seat remaining as calm as she possibly could, her eyes closed.
Caliphar and Soraf stood from their seats as well, exchanging looks before both turning to look at Aurelia who simply stayed in her seat, unmoving.
Koriphus' heavy foot steps could be heard through the roof as he began to run across it before jumping off the back of the bus, coming to land several feet from the gang of Destroyers as they suddenly caught up to the bus.
Instinctively stopping in their tracks as Koriphus stood before them, all eyeing him cautiously unsure if they should approach or back away.
Having caught them off guard perfectly, Koriphus quickly slammed his palms against the sand sending a large shockwave of pure energy towards the Destroyers.
The surge of energy shot jolts of electricity upwards as the shockwave threw the Destroyers into air, their bodies electrocuted in the process as they fell to the ground one by one, all dead now.
"Holy shit!" Caliphar exclaimed as he, Soraf and Zandrem watched through the back window.
"That was fucking amazing," Soraf said excitedly, watching the dust clear as Koriphus turned around to make his way back towards the bus.
Once he was back on board, everyone surrounded him all patting him on the back and cheering excitedly.
He nodded to them as he stepped over to Aurelia, who was still sitting in the driver's seat.
"Thanks for trusting me," He smiled, gently patting her shoulder.
Disobedience
"Wake up, mutt! It's time for your training,"
Waking groggily to the sound of someone's voice, Mordren blinked his eyes open to see a solider standing over him toting a cattle prod.
"Now that I've been turned into one of your attack dogs, you are still afraid of me. Pathetic‚" Mordren thought as he stared blankly at the soldier.
He rose to his feet, his long claws digging into the concrete floor as he stretched his body before straightening.
The soldier pulled a chain-link collar and leash from his back pocket, quickly putting it around Mordren' neck, sensing the soldier was afraid of him.
"That's right, you should fear me you piece of shit," Mordren thought as the solider tugged on the leash.
Rolling his eyes, Mordren reluctantly followed the solider out of the concrete room where he had slept the night before with the other Destroyers.
They walked through a long winding hallway, Mordren noticed strange carvings etched into the walls as they came up to a door that looked like it belonged on a vault at a bank.
"Come on, you survive this you'll be thrown into a pack," the soldier said gruffly as he glanced down at Mordren.
"If you don't, we'll give you a proper burial‚" He muttered, shoving the door open.
Mordren glanced past the soldier's hip and saw that the door led outside to what looked like a desert wasteland scattered with rock formations and shrubs, all surrounded by a fifty foot high chain-link fence topped with rusty barbed wire.
"Another kill or be killed sort of deal‚ Lovely," Mordren thought as he slowly stepped past the solider through the door.
Sniffing at the air, he instantly picked up the scent of a Destroyer nearby obviously hidden behind one of the various rocks or shrubs.
He followed the scent that seemed to get stronger as he approached a shrub several feet to his right, instincts kicking in the closer he got to the Destroyers hiding spot.
Low growling emitted from inside the shrub, its leaves rustling gently as a Destroyer twice the size of Mordren slowly emerged from it, snarling and flashing its long fangs to show its annoyance that Mordren had easily sniffed him out almost instantly.
Mordren began to growl out of instinct as the larger Destroyer slowly approached him, digging his claws into the burning sand to show he wasn't about to back down since he knew size meant nothing in a fight like this.
"I am not afraid of you; I've killed others much larger than you,"
The other Destroyer only growled louder, snapping at Mordren hoping it would intimidate him, but Mordren merely stepped forward, whipping his tail back and forth angrily.
"This isn't going to end well‚ for you,"
Mordren suddenly reared up onto his hind paws, towering over the other Destroyer for a moment before throwing himself down on top of the Destroyer, knocking him backwards into the shrub where he had been hiding.
Growling fiercely and loudly, Mordren dug his claws into the other Destroyer's shoulders as his blood dripped out and stained the sand beneath him.
Mordren looked deep into the other Destroyer's eyes for several seconds before he opened his jaw as wide as possible and bit into his throat, sinking his fangs into the other's throat, crushing his windpipe as blood flowed from the open wound into Mordren' mouth.
Trying to fight back despite literally drowning in his blood, the other Destroyer struggled to free his fr
ont legs and dug his claws into Mordren' shoulders, causing him to growl at the sudden pain.
However, he did not let go of his enemy, he simply bit down even harder on his throat and thrashed his head from side to side suddenly ripping out his vocal chords before spitting them out along with his mouthful of blood.