The trash rained upon the shell of what remained of the boom town after the explosion. Previously Jed had been the sufficient level of sneaky to rob dynamite from a slain henchmen and then plant it under the boards where all Killin Hood's men partied. He escaped the scene without being seen, and shortly after the booby-trapped saloon was blown to pieces.

So far he had got away from danger with plenty of time to spare, but where to go next? The big rig sitting behind him was on the rails without tires, while venturing into the surrounding desert without sufficient supplies was a bigger death sentence than hiding in the rubble. The dismembered bits of the dead coated the deserted street and a fiery barbecued body smashed a car's front window. The glass broke off the dust-caked exterior melting the paint as the heat spread from the charred machine.

The man took off his sunglasses to spot vultures circling the three mooned skyline for a midnight snack. The last remnants of the saloon’s wooden and lead piped skeleton was slowly falling apart out in the open. The intensifying wind whistled through the dark alleys, bounced off walls, and hit chimes hung in hidden areas. The eerie desert was only growing colder as the night crept into after hour. The fierce winds blew a signs and wood shingles off the buildings left standing around town. A palm tree and cactus blew off as dust blew into Jed's eyes. He fought against being swept away looking for cover as a sandstorm started to be brewed.

A soundtrack production stage for an old radio program provided Jed refuge from a growing sandstorm. He pushed the main entrance shut fighting against the fierce outside pressure blowing against him. The sand pile getting bigger at his feet every second making shutting out the elements difficult. He was losing the fight with his feet pushed back skidding against the floor. The door was opening more, and more. The sand was beginning to crowd the room like an hourglass.

“Need help with that soldier?” brayed a voice, as a set of four hooves had joined the fight.

The door was rapidly pushed closed, and the latch bolted. Jed slumped against a trunk folding a cardboard cutout of a long running serialized cowboy, and trusted alien steed eating space cactus behind. The rest of the stage was composed of many different microphones, crystal balls, and props fitting different stage genres. A rack of dull stage swords sat under ropes leading to hanging bags of filler next to magic boxes to saw. Near the garage door exit an industrial treadmill that could fit an elephant ran empty in front of a blank canvas intended for painted moving picture backgrounds.

“Oh man, I'm kinda glad to see you Mule, Uh creature,” said Jed.

“No problem and I’ll always be a Mule no matter the shapes I take to smuggle,” replied Mule, swatting away a fly behind with his tail.

“Well darn tootin with the state of things I can take any friend I can in getting the payload over the finish line, shoot i'm sorry about going a bit cuckoo when I learned about your true nature was just a shock,” said Jed, struggling to his feet.

Mule gently bit into him and gave him a helping hand pulling him upright.

“Thanks,” said Jed, shaking hands with the hoof of the creature looking similar to a donkey, but slightly different.

“I’m an ancient being alright, but I try to have fun sometimes because just because I have some powers compared to you doesn't make me all that powerful in the grand scheme of things. You see this form was what I was born shapeless putty out of a void and then malformed into something with no form in a crystal cavity of all 12 varieties until I cultivated myself to live basically forever,” explained Mule.

“Alright, good information to keep in mind for the future, but I take it you also need the cash from transporting the jungle juice like a regular mortal or you wouldn't be doing it with me,” said Jed.

“Yes, I wasted much time with my previous wizard master swerving through other dimensions looking for things to alter our consciousness while not getting much done outside our imaginations,” said Mule.

“I see I’m good at working with my hands to build and smash,” said Jed, frowning.

Jed struggled to pull off one of his armored sneakers while loudly grunted as the shoe finally yanked off and sand trickled out like a waterfall. With both his feet cleared of debris they were back in action. They walked past a giant movie camera on rails and he was reminded of the cargo. He checked his rifle and saw three bullets remaining, plus the one in the chamber.

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“So why is a donkey of all things your preferred form?” asked Jed, stepping over 2x4s snapped in half.

“Oh you see I have very limited strength before I will tear myself to pieces with something like being a dragon while another important thing to remember is that using my powers goes by the Elf tier ranking of living beings so being an ass uses almost none of my strength,” said Mule.

“I see,” said Jed, breaking down a barrier into the next chamber.

The next room was a backstage area full of dead goblins where the flies flew everywhere, dead mutton chops littered the tables in paper pulp buckets while the whole bodies littered the folding chairs. The walls were covered in stinky green goblin blood while bloody blue cutt-off goblin tongues flew on chains swaying from the spooky atrium ceiling. A window let the whistling wind smack in more sand piling up to the top of the frame. .

“Well Mule it’s always been easy mode with you around huh, pff I try to be humble but I've been living in a little bit too much fear of the latest creature features always attacking us when you can live forever dang,” pondered Jed.

“Shhh,” said Mule, cutting off his friend's mouth with a two handed human strangulation around the throat.

A puppet slowly descended from the ceiling. The strings barely visible until a stage light above lit it into action. The puppet jerked forward revealing it was actually a ventriloquist dummy on strings. Up above in the rafters a shadowy figure worked the controls where lightning flashed behind. The shadow jerked the strings and the dummy began advancing.

Mule dragged Jed out of the room in ape form, then kicked the door open with two tusks, and threw the man into an empty room with a gorilla grip. The dummy continued slowly chasing, powered by evil spiteful magic.

“Run Jed. Whatever you do don’t let that thing catch you,” cried Mule, leaping away like a donkey.

The pair burst back outside the studio knee deep in sand. The road was full of the dead walking as zombies, or crawling as the sneaking human followed by the donkey. The puppet master jerked the dead into alternate attacking animations or dancing on strings.

Out of nowhere a hearse revved out of control smashing into the stables. The zombies climbed from coffins spilled from the crashed vehicle or dug themselves out of graves in the ground. One of the dead had rotting farmer overalls and a pitchfork he stabbed at the man. Jed dodged the weapon angled in his direction from death itself. He blasted one of his four remaining rifle rounds into the face of the offender.

The dummy exited the building. It ran into the street stealthily looking for something to capture. Its mouth moved a slack jaw, while the neck hung limply without a hand for stabilization. The eyes dark beads waiting for a life-line to come into vision. The strings continued from the heavens while the boss creature creaked forward on cheap joints and stiff animation.

Jed and Mule watched from behind bins of dirty laundry. They hid in a building dubbed the hen house. The being pursuing them jerked forward down the small claustrophobic hallway. The strings clipped through the ceiling without tearing the black molded metal. The dummy entered a nail salon full of industrial hair dryers. It scanned for prey, while its teeth chattered mindlessly.

“Clang!”

A ringing sound back in the hallway had the dummies head rotate 180 degrees on a dime. The swivel was completed as the stop motion limbs cleared the door, and spotted legs being pulled into a vent. The donkey was still here, and switched to a bee. The dummy surged forward with robot-like precision guided faster than lightning from above.

“Ddisosajah blah,” squirmed Mule, turning shapes several times.

He sifted from cat to bat, as the creature increased suction level with the void in its back.The puppet master pulled the strings from above while the dummy had a donkey in the ventriloquist role. Jed crawled into the rafters heart beating getting closer to becoming prey while the figure in the shadows turned puppet control towards the winds.

Another enemy joined the battle and faced a martial arts stance. A crouching bald man in stage robes and makeup put on for maximum offense of the senses. He raised his arms, dropped sparkling glitter that fell towards the dummy.

“Bang,Bang,Bang.”

What had to be the puppeteer was gunned down full of three large bullet holes, and no longer moving. Jed threw down his empty rifle and spun up the two revolvers he had looted. It was time for dual wielding. He slid down the ladder, and past the sign marked “action”. Jed crawled back through the vent retracing his steps and eventually dropped to the floor after slamming his head three times before.

The dummy was slumped over an ironing board. Mule was slumped in the opposite direction but his hoof was still connected. The wooden control stick had fallen to the wayside.

Suddenly the dummy dragged itself forward, with Mule followed in a drooling stupor.

“Heeheehee,” laughed both the dummy and Mule together with their dead beady eyes fixed on Jed.

His friend who could supposedly live forever had been rendered a vegetable from dark magic. The threads of gut fabrics shot out in hundreds of strands to hook barbed ends into Mule. The parasitic plastic dummy slowly feasted on its victims. It was a reverse ventriloquist demon cultivated puppet controlled by a witchcraft master until one day it would eat enough to turn into a real monster with a mind of its own.