In high school biology, Joe had read that some vultures can digest bone. When it comes to digestion, almost nothing is better than a scavenger. Their bodies are designed to get every scrap of energy possible from whatever refuse the animal could find. Joe knew that the hound wasn't a vulture, but it sure as hell looked like one, and maybe in magical monster land, that amounted to the same thing. That was his hope anyway.

Joe wanted the monster to ingest the berries and couldn't think of a way to make it happen short of giving up a hand. Nik had suggested poisoning some bait like they would a wolf or coyote, but Joe had worried that the monster's sense of smell would give the trap away. Ultimately they had wrapped the berries individually in plastic wrap that Mike had scavenged. Nik had downed the groundhog earlier in the day and carefully made an incision through the fur and into the gallbladder. He'd stuffed the plastic-wrapped berries inside and tied the organ shut with a bit of twine.

That giant gamble was why Nik had so few berries to work with when he poisoned his arrows. It was a big part of why they locked the monster in the carwash bay with them. The hearthound had eaten the bait. Now it all rested on whether the monster's stomach would break everything apart fast enough to make a difference. Joe had initially thought that four level threes and some barricades in favorable terrain would be enough to hold the monster at bay. Once again, he was wrong. He was getting tired of being wrong all the damn time. Joe swore that if they made it out of this mess, he would make plans rather than react with fear and emotion. It had been a crazy week and change, but enough was enough.

If Diana had been aware of the thoughts going through Joe's head, she would have given him a thumbs up, maybe even a high five if she felt generous. Well, she would have done that in normal times. Unfortunately, given their situation, her thoughts were more of the 'Oh, shit, we are all gonna die" vein of thought. Still, she brandished her spear next to Joe while Deena grabbed Mike's spear out of the corner.

The monster paused and considered them again while keeping an eye on Nik. On cue, he fired a shot, and the beast dodged to the side with frightening speed. The arrow dug a small furrow through the fur and skin of the monster's flank, but the damage was minimal at best. It continued the slow walk toward the group in the corner. Joe couldn't tell where those cold black eyes were looking, but the monster seemed to ignore the women next to him. He tested his theory, and it jumped back farther when Joe swung his glaive than for any of the spear thrusts from the ladies.

It made sense. The hearthound didn't feel sapient, but it wasn't stupid either. Joe's weapon, wielded with his high strength, could do a lot more damage than some makeshift spears. Joe stayed in the middle and tried to harass the beast anytime it came close. The hearthound was in no hurry and continued to prowl back and forth in front of them. Nik hit one more glancing shot on the beast's back before he swore vigorously. Joe knew he was out of ammo.

Joe's attention had been focused solely on surviving his staredown with the engine of destruction in front of him. When he glanced around, he saw well over a dozen arrows littered around the carwash bay. Nik had done his best, but the otherworldly speed had made it a challenging target even in the confines of their current battlefield. The monster charged again, and Joe stabbed his glaive forward, trying again to skewer the hound. It danced back and to Diana's side. It had marked her as the least dangerous and favored that direction when it retreated.

The hearthound stopped and blew a loud breath out in Joe's direction. The smell was nauseating. There were hints of roadkill and halitosis, but the overwhelming scent of blood hit Joe in the face. Joe faced the beast down but retched involuntarily. The monster was on him in a moment, beak flashing forward more like a kingfisher than any vulture Joe had ever seen. He ducked back behind the ladies and still took a ragged cut along his recently healed shoulder. Blood welled forth instantly, and Joe did his best to ignore it and keep his face forward.

Deena had stabbed the monster twice in the ribs, but it ignored the attack. The other spear coming for its eyes made the hound flinch back and dance out of range. It stopped and stared at them, eyes unblinking and lifeless. Joe popped a berry into his mouth, and Diana mushed one into a paste and applied it directly to his shoulder. The berries and Joe's own skills started to repair the damage, but blood still flowed steadily without pressure to keep it inside. Joe knew that without his glaive, they were screwed, so he gritted his teeth and held on with both hands.

Joe took a deep, shuddering breath and fought to not cough from the lingering rank aroma mixed with the acrid smoke from their torches. The hound started towards him again, ducking towards one of the women and then back again. It was testing them or playing with them. At this point, the difference seemed academic. As it darted forward once again, another belch came forth. This one wasn't directed at any of the humans and seemed to surprise the hound as much as anyone else. It stuttered to a stop, and Joe took his shot. He swiped his blade horizontally with all his strength, desperately trying to inflict some injury.

A line appeared in the fur on the monster's chest. It didn't appear deep, but it did bleed fresh crimson down towards the ground. The same awful roar from before assaulted Joe's ears, and he fought the urge to cover them as he retreated. A wave of dizziness rushed through his head, but he forced it back and did his best to still the shaking in his hands. The hound bolted forward again, going straight at Joe this time. Joe knew he wouldn't survive if the hound pinned him down. He braced his glaive and decided he'd at least take this ugly bastard with him if it was a full charge.

Nik jumped out of his makeshift perch like a damn Valkyrie. He didn't make a sound, but his spear was held in both hands and pointed straight down, aiming at the monster's spine between its shoulders. The hound's attention was focused on Joe, and it didn't notice the man plummet from the rafters until it was too late to get entirely out of the way. The spear missed the monster's spine but lodged firmly in the meat of its back. The hound went berserk, screaming and bucking while twisting its neck to bite at the human that dared to actually injure it. Nik tried to dive off towards the group, but his foot slipped on the bloody beast, and he was thrown clear to the other back corner of the carwash.

He was close to the other three, but they were out of position. The hound ran toward him, though slower than before. Joe could relate. Getting stabbed with a spear tended to slow someone down. He and the two women rushed to cut off the monster's approach, but Joe knew that they weren't going to make it. His heart clenched, and his mind burned as he realized that he would watch the other man die. Nik would die, and it would be Joe's decisions that put the hunter in the grave. Joe pushed his tired body, desperate to stop the future that was written large in his mind.

Suddenly, the hound stumbled and fell to the side. It missed Nik by a foot and crashed into the cinderblock wall before falling back to the center of the room. Nik seemed to be unconscious, or at least Joe hoped it was that. The light was too dim to see if he was still breathing. A raspy keening came from the hound as it unsteadily reached its feet. Another wet belch that emerged preceded the rankest vomit Joe had ever smelled, and he had helped clean up after a high school party that featured mango pineapple hard cider.

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The hound looked confused and unsure of itself for the first time. It turned and ran straight for the bay doors. The boom from the hound slamming into those doors would have been jarring if the group hadn't been under sonic assault for the last ten minutes. Thick plexiglass shattered, and metal screamed, but the door held. The hound reared up and clawed at the door, eliciting more metal screeches. Joe's heart beat hopeful in his chest, and he found his voice as the door continued to bar the beast's path.

"Now! With me. We finish it!"

Joe's scream echoed through the room, shocking the other two into action. Diana had been moving to Nik to check on the other man, but she listened to Joe, and they all charged the hound. The monster didn't turn to defend itself, too intent on fleeing as the wounds on its back and the poison in its belly finally did their work. The ladies stabbed as best they could, and Joe ran bodily towards the beast. His glaive punctured the hound's side and ran upwards at an angle to where he hoped its heart and lungs lay. The monster screamed and lashed out with its feet like an angry donkey. The women dodged away towards the makeshift barrier, but Joe was too close and took a foot to the chest. He felt his ribs compress, and at least one broke as he flew backward and joined Nik along the back wall.

The hound keened again but softer now. It had turned to stare at the group with pain and rage in its eyes. At least Joe thought it was there, as those awful black doll eyes still gave almost nothing away to the observer. With a coughing lunge, it surged towards the women, seemingly intent on taking someone with it. The barrier slowed it and caught on the glaive, driving it deeper, but the monster still moved forward. A swipe of its claws caught Deena along the arm, and she screamed. The monster joined her a second later as Diana's spear found its left eye.

The women retreated to join Joe and Nik along the wall as they watched the monster thrashing getting weaker and weaker until it died with an almost silent whimper. Joe noted all of this while fumbling for another berry. His chest felt like shards of glass had been inserted into the muscles at random places. Joe's head was pounding as well from the blood loss, and there was darkness in the corners of his vision. He shook his head and fought it off. They didn't have time for him to pass out.

"Little help here."

Diana was there in seconds, with the other woman looking at Nik. Joe was relieved to see that he still breathed, though he was lost to the world at the moment. Diana ripped Joe's sleeves apart and began to stop the bleeding while shoving several berries into his mouth. Joe dutifully swallowed and dove into his inner world to push the magic as best he could. The arm sucked, but Joe focused all his attention on his chest. He needed to be able to walk so the others could carry Nik if the man didn't wake up.

"Fuck, that was stupid," Nik mumbled as he returned to the world. "I'm assuming that we somehow pulled that off since I didn't wake up to a vulture dog ripping my chest open."

"Somehow," Diana replied while continuing to bind Joe's open wounds. Joe didn't have any attention to spare for the conversation. Even with the berries assisting his regeneration, Joe knew that he wouldn't be at full strength for a while. The broken bones were a whole new level of damage compared to patching up some flesh wounds.

This experience was eye-opening. They had made multiple plans and even a hail mary backup plan, and at the end of the day, if they had taken even one less precaution, they would all be dead. Joe knew in his head that the world was different now, but in his heart, he still held onto as much of the old America as he possibly could. It had led to stupid shortsighted decisions based on a completely unearned sense of destiny.

Joe vowed to take the scales from his eyes. This world they found themselves in responded to overwhelming strength. Joe wanted the strength to face down monsters like the hound and end it without needing to endanger himself or others. He looked around the destroyed and bloody carwash bay. Diana frowned down at him as Deena helped Nik struggle to his feet. Everyone here could have died, and it would have been for his stupid decisions. There was a minor scrape, and Joe could breathe again.

"Could you help me up?" Diana looked like she might refuse the request, but after a moment, she relented. Joe climbed unsteadily to his feet and took a moment to regain his balance. Mike shimmied down the drainpipe outside and dropped the last five feet in a rush. His eyes were wide as he took in the scene of destruction before him.

"We should head out. The door muffled things a bit, but nothing about that fight was stealthy."

Joe couldn't argue with that. He tottered off to the entrance, and Mike gave him a shoulder to lean on. Joe was grateful for the help, but he asked Mike to retrieve their weapons from the monster. Even shitty weapons were in short supply, and there was no way that Joe was leaving his glaive behind. Mike flinched back more than once at touching the fearsome monster, but it didn't take more than a couple of minutes to collect the glaive, spear, and as many whole arrows as possible. They were leaving when Diana stopped short and called out to them.

"This thing is filled with essence and mana. It seems like a waste to just leave it here to rot." Her eyes were silver as she gazed up and down the dead monster.

"That thing ate people. A lot of people." Deena looked at Diana and didn't try to hide the disgust in her voice. Joe didn't blame her, and on a previous day, he might have joined her.

"That was yesterday," Nik said. "We can't change that, but we can use this to keep more people from dying. I've butchered enough animals. Does anything look special?"

Diana thought for a moment before replying. "It's filled with blood-aspected mana. The poison is in the blood, but the heart seems to have resisted the effects.

Joe thought it was ironic given the monster's feeding habits. It took almost ten minutes for Nik to get through the cartilage binding the ribs, but eventually, he held out a heart as big as both his hands. Diana didn't have a bag, and no one suggested putting it in the roadkill trashbag, so he held onto it, clearly second-guessing her decision. Joe smiled wryly. It was a second-guessing kind of day.

"Mike, I want its head," Joe said. His voice was rough and savage. He surprised himself with the emotion held back by those words. Joe gestured to the glaive, and to his credit, Mike barely hesitated before marching over and striking the monster's neck like he was splitting firewood. Blood trickled from the severed stump, slowly dripping down towards the grate in the center of the carwash bay.

The group made their way home with only a short detour. The fifteen-minute jog took them well over an hour at their tottering pace, but the night held less fear this time. The other hound was still out there and wouldn't be happy with their actions. Joe knew that just as surely as the sun would be up tomorrow. The real question was would it take the fight to them, or would he need to go looking for it.

That was tomorrow's problem, he decided. A wince from a deep breath spiked through his chest, and Joe amended his decision. That problem was a couple of days out, he hoped. Joe thought back to their stop on the way home and smiled. He couldn't resist one more stupid decision after all.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Frank left the town early with his four strongest guards. They were going to make a push past that damn tree today and level his skill up. He was losing control as food got tighter and tighter. The invasion, as Frank called it to himself, and the liberation of the traitor's families had damaged his credibility. It would have been better if they had killed a few people, but their mostly nonviolent approach had sowed doubt and dissension.

Everyone was on guard and tense. One scout had reported hearing the hound tearing into something metal in the direction of the rift. They approached via the main road, and the front guard stopped dead in his tracks. Frank was about to berate the man when he saw what had caused him to freeze.

Sitting in the middle of the road was the red hound's head. Its beak gaped open, and a bloated tongue lolled out one side. Even this early, big black flies were crawling over it, focused mainly around the gaping empty eye socket. The smell was bad enough that one of the younger guards gagged quietly to himself.

Frank pushed his way to the front and gaped at what he saw in the road next to the head. Crude words hand-painted in blood waited there for someone to read them. The head would have been message enough, and Frank had no doubt who had left it for him. Those words were a taunt, and Frank would be damned if he was going to give them any satisfaction if they were watching. He ordered the men into the rift, and they all moved forward again. The head and the message sat on the road, waiting for him to return.

XOXO - JOE