Tandem of Terror (42 page)

"
Rebecca does not remember
the birth. She took to fainting when the birth became so painful
she could bear no more. We told her it was dead, I took the
creature my daughter and I created and drowned it in the river. But
it did not die...it returned from the waters, bigger, stronger,
unnatural, a beast that should not be alive, a soul twisted and
older than the earth. It killed my wife and now it has come back
for its mother. Forgive me..." he put down the gun and reached his
hand out to Rebecca. "I am guilty before our Lord."

A crash rocked the room as the child of sin
burst through the window in a shower of glass. It leapt upon Amos,
forcing him to the floor with brute strength. Sarah and Rebecca's
screams resounded through the house, their fits growing into
hysterics as the creature used razor sharp nails to slash Amos'
throat. His blood pooled onto the floor in crimson globs as the
beast gnawed into his face with jagged teeth.

Suddenly it looked up at Sarah who stood
frozen, gasping for air, heart slamming against her chest. It got
to its feet, sacks of bloated flesh rippling over its body, fingers
and toes fat. It looked like a deformed baby, grossly oversized and
bred to the night, feral eyes now settling on Sarah.

She backed herself to the door as it
stretched and bent its legs, ready to pounce on her until the
deafening crack rang through the house.

A hole burst in the creature's chest, a wave
of blood splattered across Sarah's face as she watched the thing
fall limp to the floor and saw Rebecca standing behind it, holding
her father's shotgun.

A quiet came over the house and for the
longest moment the two girls stood and stared at one another.

Finally Rebecca began to cry and at the first
whimper, Sarah held open her arms.

Without hesitation, Rebecca dropped the gun
and ran into them. They would hold each other, sobbing softly until
someone came to find them and unleash the secret darkness that
nearly came between them.

Caviler
Arms

Eric S. Brown

Shannon awoke to the beeping of the alarm
clock. He reached over Brook to shut it off. She stirred as he did,
rolling over to glance up at him with sleepy eyes. He leaned down
to kiss her gently on the forehead before he climbed out of bed and
quietly slipped out of the room. Feeling his way through the early
morning darkness of hallway, he made his way to the bath for quick
shower. His red uniform shirt and black jeans lay crumbled on the
tile floor of the bathroom where he had discarded them the night
before. After he showered, he put them back on. On days like this,
when he opened the morning after being the one who closed the
store, he never felt he had a lot of time and was forced to make
do.

His apartment, like all those in Cavalier
Arms, was roughly L shaped with the long part of the "L" leading
straight back into the bathroom with the doors to the guest bedroom
and the main bedroom to its left and right. At the other end of the
"L" shape lay a small kitchen area and living room. Shannon
stumbled down the hall into the kitchen still feeling only half
awake despite his shower. His work hours at the video store had
been long over the last few days and were beginning to take their
toll on him. Two members of the store's tiny staff had quit
recently and he found himself picking up all the slack. It didn't
seem fair but he was up for a promotion and didn't want to do
anything to hurt his chances at getting it.

He opened the refrigerator door searching for
something that would be quick and easy for breakfast. Nothing
caught his eye. He closed the door and decided to pick up something
from out on the way on there. He yanked his jacket from where it
hung on the back of chair at the kitchen table and headed out into
the morning chill. Winter hadn't quite loosened its hold on the
mountains yet.

Cavalier Arms was a low income housing
project set up by the government and its parking lot was well lit
by numerous street lights. There were twelve buildings that ran the
length of the lot on either side, each containing two apartments.
His silver Dodge Shadow was parked beside the large green dumpsters
of the complex. He walked towards the driver's door, fishing around
in his pocket for the keys.

Something thumped loudly from inside the
closest dumpster. Shannon figured it was just one of the
neighborhood cats again. They often got inside the things trying to
find food and were unable to get out but as the sound came again
the whole massive dumpster shook as if something were moving around
it inside it that was far larger than any cat.

Shannon backed off a couple of steps and
starred in horror as a creature like something out of a nightmare
emerged from the dumpster. It pulled itself up over the edge and
leapt to the pavement in front of him. It stood only about three
feet tall with sleek, reptilian gray scales covering its naked
form. Its body was a mass of what looked to be pure muscle tissue
and long talons stretched from where its fingers should have been.
Hunger burned in its yellow eyes. It snarled at Shannon as he broke
into a run for the door to his apartment. Shannon wasn't fast
enough however and the thing landed on his back, tearing into him
with its large claws. Shannon screamed as the thing sunk its teeth
into his neck and he toppled to the pavement under the thing's
weight. Shannon's body lay in a pool of his own blood as the thing
continued to rip and shred his flesh.

Lucas sat beside the window of his apartment
watching the scene. Mary staggered sleepily up to him. "What's
going on?" she asked rubbing at her eyes.

Lucas didn't answer. Mary glanced out the
window over Lucas and saw Shannon's corpse and the thing outside.
"Lucas! What the devil is going on?" she pleaded.

Lucas took a long drag from the cigarette he
held. "I don't have the faintest," he answered her with wide
eyes.

"
You've got to help him,
Lucas." She ordered.

"
What?" Lucas mumbled, so
stunned he nearly dropped his cigarette.

"
Get out there and
help
him you lazy bastard!" Mary screamed.

Lucas starred at her. "You help him, you
crazy cow. I ain't goin' out there."

Mary ran down the hall to their bedroom and
returned with one of Lucas's .45 autos in her hand. Lucas was a
drug dealer on the side as well as being the "super" of the
complex. He kept quite a few guns on hand. It made him feel better
just in case a deal should ever go sour. He watched as Mary slung
open their outer door. She started shooting the second she was
outside. Bullets sparked and pinged off the parking lot near the
creature. The thing dropped the part of Shannon it had been gnawing
on and darted at her. Her first round that made contact and caught
it square in the face, sending it flying from its feet but Mary
never stopped firing. She kept her pace towards the thing, pulling
the trigger over and over until the .45 clicked empty. By the time
she reached the creature, its body lay twitching on the ground,
riddled with holes that leaked black, pus like fluid.

Lights were coming on all over the complex
now. Bo, an elderly African American gentleman who had came outside
to help, hurried to Mary's side. He helped her roll Shannon over
and nearly vomited when he saw what was left of Shannon's face.

A crowd gathered around them. Melissa was
there with her three year old clinging to her blouse. Hank from
apartment fourteen shook his head at the mess. Everyone was full of
questions and wondered what on Earth the thing was that had killed
Shannon. Only Ms. Johnson stood apart from the crowd. She sobbed
loudly and wiped at the tears which poured from her wrinkled eyes.
She left them all there wondering and went back inside her
apartment. She walked slowly to her backroom and starred at the
broken chains on her son's bedroom wall. "Oh, Timothy, I am so
sorry." She cried and collapsed to the floor. She picked up a bone
Timothy had been sharpening his teeth on the night before and held
it to her chest as the sun rose over Cavalier Arms.

The Fear Monger
Calls it a Night

Eric S Brown

Miniaturized gears whirred inside the goggles
of his helmet, locking the night vision lenses in place, as Gregory
looked down into the alley below. There were two of them, closing
fast on the woman. Her screams sang out in the darkness as they
reached her. Gregory weighed his options. Touching a button on the
thick glove covering his palm, his cape became rigid and he stepped
off the fire escape. Fear was always his best weapon. The updraft
caught his now glider-like cape and he floated into the alley, an
imposing figure of impending doom. The men had the woman now.
They'd slammed her against the wall and were about to have their
way with her. Neither of them so much as glanced in his direction
as Gregory's heavy boots struck the concrete. "So much for plan A,"
he sighed. Nine times out of ten, criminals would run at the mere
sight of him and his black, high tech exoskeleton. The helmet's
amplifier kicked in giving his voice a booming, inhuman tone as he
spoke. "Let her go."

"
What the..." Gregory
muttered as the two men released the woman, her corpse thudding to
the alley floor. Through his goggles, he could see blood on their
faces, smeared all over their lips. The woman's body appeared as if
they'd mauled her like mad dogs. These men weren't simple thieves
or rapists. They were sick and needed to be put down, hard and
fast. He jerked his right arm level with their chests as a trio of
bladed stars erupted from the cannon mounted on his wrist. The
blades spun embedding themselves in the flesh of the closest man.
He didn't so much as flinch though blood poured from his body
staining the front of the green t-shirt he wore as the blades
continued to dig into his chest and their tiny motors
purred.

Gregory took a step back. The man should be
dead but he was still standing. As the man lunged at him, he
sidestepped the attack using a martial arts move he had programmed
into the suit just days before after a rather embarrassing
encounter with a pack of thugs too large to be dealt with without
hand to hand combat. The other man was charging him now as well. He
met the second attacker head on delivering a vicious kick, boosted
by his suit, to the man's throat. The man staggered backwards with
a crushed windpipe but regained his footing and hurled himself at
Gregory again.

Both of his foes were dead. They had to be.
He'd inflicted wounds more than enough to kill them but they just
kept coming. He ducked passed the second man and raced to the end
of the dead end of the alley's back wall, spinning around so that
he could face both of them at once. It was time to end this. His
heart was thundering underneath his ribs and though it shocked him,
he actually felt terrified. Never before had any of his foes simply
refused to die.

He tossed a mini-grenade into their path and
whipped his cape in front of him like a shield as it went rigid
once more. The explosion pushed against it but he managed to hold
his ground. He lowered the cape allowing it to flow behind him and
looked to see the alley covered in the men's blood and twitching
body parts. One arm seemed to be pulling itself towards him still.
He fired a grappling hook onto the nearest roof and let the motor
in his left arm pull him up out of the alley. As he rose into the
night, his helmet's communication array came alive with every
scanner and radio station it normally monitored when he wasn't in
combat filled with people panicking and screaming. The dead were
rising to eat the flesh of the living and many were claiming it was
the end of the world. Gregory decided his patrol was over.
Retirement was suddenly becoming very appealing to him as he fled
into the night.

Empire of the Damned

John Grover

The Earth is not what it once was. It is now
2020. It began New Year's day 2010 that it began, taking only 10
years to spread worldwide. The planet was overrun by what seemed to
be some ghoulish plague but is now all too real to pass off as some
disease.

This was deliberate, calculated and well
planned. They finally made their stand, no longer hiding in the
shadows and the back alleys. No longer running in fear or remaining
invisible to the world of man.

They struck at night, always, converting and
recruiting more of their kind, growing larger and stronger into an
Empire that mankind had no defense against. They were brutal,
relentless and clever, stopping at nothing to achieve their
goal---world domination.

This new Empire ruled without emotion,
without sympathy or mercy and knew no fear except two small things,
faith and...wood.

It all started in the US, doesn't it always?
Wasn't it the US that brought the dead back to life with scientific
experiments then narrowly escaped obliteration when they were
forced to nuke the things back to kingdom come? And let's not
forget the atomic bombs that created giant carnivorous insects such
as ants and spiders that nearly laid their cities to waste. So it
came as no surprise when the world learned that the Empire of
vampires first spawned in the US.

Unbeknownst to all but a few, the leader of
the vampires, Namervoss, turned the President of the United States.
Now the entire country was under control of a vampire and he took
orders from Namervoss himself.

Soon after that government officials began to
fall into the brotherhood of blood and things began to change.
Strict laws were put into action, curfews were enforced, no one was
allowed to leave the country but plenty of people were allowed in.
Rumors of people vanishing in the middle of the night spread
through unsuspecting cities and suburbs. Citizens who once worked
and lived in the day suddenly became night owls as panic gripped
the country.