The chaos begins
“We’re all gonna die!”
One of the bandits scream out in fear as they run into the darkness. Everyone hears their muffled screams.
Some of the Ferals run out of the darkness faster than human eyes could see. They take 2 of the bandits with them back into darkness with them, consuming them.
4 bandits still remain, including the leader.
The remaining 4 make a circle back to back, they stand their ground; they fire round after round into the darkness, hitting nothing but air.
Kilmen lays unconscious on the floor
A voice echos though his mind
“Weak, you must feed! Fill the power within you and take back what’s yours.”
Kilmen's eyes brightened and before the bandit leader knew it, Kilmen stood behind him.
Dust swirled where Kilmen once was.
The other 3 bandits' eyes went wide seeing Kilmen standing behind their leader. Kilmen’s mouth goes wide for a bite, his sharp teeth exposed, Kilmen’s hands on the leader's arms keeping him still.
The bandit leader tries to escape but Kilmen’s grip is too strong he can’t move. He begins to panic and screams
“Please don’t kill me! I’m sorry, I have a family, they need me please man don’t kill me. I’ll give you anything, food, money, women whatever you want”
Tears runs down the leaders eyes, his eyes filled with desperation
Kilmen’s teeth and fangs meet the man's neck, hitting his jugular.
Blood, so much blood.
The xera swirls around the blood consuming every drop, like black and Blue fire, covering kilmen strengthening him.
The man screams fade, the life drained out of him in seconds.
The power fills Kilmen’s body, he feels faster and stronger than before.
He drops the man's body and it hits the door with a splat and thud.
As Kilmen’s stands over the man's body, Xera swirls around his neck. The hole in his throat closes up and heals completely.
All the remaining bandits turn their attention to Kilmen with angry and vengeful looks on their faces
Kilmen speaks in a calm voice
“Do not aim your guns at me if you do not wish to die, no one else has to die”
One of the men speak out in anger and replies
“Screw that you killed Bobby, you bastard!”
The man aims at Kilmen with his small revolver
Before the man's finger could even touch the trigger his head disappeared.
Kilmen’s hand was covered in blood. Kilmen looks into the darkness taking note that all Ferals have fled in fear of him.
The xera swirls out of the the palm of his hand taking every drop of blood that remained on Kilmen’s hand
2 of the bandits drop their weapons in fear and start to beg for their lives.
One of the Bandits was not so scared. Kilmen could feel the mans hate so Kilmen spoke out
“If you draw your weapon, you will die. even if you hit me. I am immortalized though the power of xera”
One of the bandits that had surrendered walks over to the man who was just about to commit suicide by a tenting to shoot Kilmen.
The bandit spoke to his friend in a calm and worrisome voice.
“Don’t do it man, you saw what he did to David. What would Sarah and your kid do without you, you still have to rescue them”
This conversation caught Kilmen’s attention. He realized if they know where they are keeping people, his wife and son might be there as well.
Kilmen spoke out with purpose and concern
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“Where are they keeping the humans they took? My wife and son could be among them”
One of the men spoke out quickly from fear but with honesty
“All we know is it’s on a farm somewhere, it’s like a base or something to them”
One of the men speaks under his breath
“Like hell I would let a monster like you near Sarah and my boy”
Kilmen replies quickly with a soft stern voice
“Don’t do it”
The man moves quickly as Kilmen watches almost like it was slow motion to kilmen. The man picks up the gun off the ground. Kilmen thinks about his own wife and son
Kilmen reaches down with his right hand and grabs the grip of his 1911 and brings the hammer back with a click. Kilmen brings the gun up and aims down the sight faster than anyone could see. With one hand forward he fires 3 rounds. One into the man's shoulder, one in each leg.
The man screams in pain and drops the gun as he falls to the ground. smoke slowly flows out of the barrel of his gun. Kilmen lets the hammer back down on his gun and holsters it.
Kilmen begins to walk off as the men help their friend who has been shot.
One of the men speaks out in confusion
“Thank you for sparing his life”
“I have seen enough death, I didn't mean to kill your friends. I am far stronger and faster than I thought possible, I am sorry”
Kilmen starts to think to himself ‘To think that a simple punch would take a man's head off his shoulders’. Kilmen then walks into the darkness before then men could reply.
Kilmen knows he must find this farm before it’s too late, ‘2 month I spent taking a nap while my family needed me’ Kilmen thought to himself while walking on the road in the dark.
Kilmen spots a car on the side of the road in almost perfect condition, taking it would be much easier than walking or running; even giving how fast he is.
As he opens the door he notices a note in the seat, it says
“We’re safe as of writing this, baby. We went to the shelter after everything went sideways. It’s only 2 miles from the house, if your finding this, you may find us there” - Marisa
“A shelter?”
Kilmen says out loud in surprise
‘So not everyone was taken..’ Kilmen thought to himself.
Kilmen knows he must find this ‘shelter’ ; it could be helpful in figuring out what is going on and what people know about these ‘xerankari’ creatures.
Kilmen gets in the car, he opens the sun blinds, and the key falls out.
“Hopefully it has gas in the tank”
Kilmen says as he looks up in the hope of a god will help him out.
The car engine starts
“Yes!”
Kilmen says in a soft tone of excitement and surprise. He puts the car in drive and begins heading towards the next town over to hopefully find this shelter, or at least other people that are not trying to rob and kill him.
Kilmen arrives at the edge of a ghost town. No people in sight and only about 3 or 4 hours till sundown.
‘I need to find shelter, before I fry in the sun’ Kilmen thinks to himself as he looks around at the surrounding houses and buildings.
He spots a house where the grass and ground rise up in a square from the outside. Kilmen knows that it is likely to have a large underground shelter.
Kilmen decides he will make shelter in the home for the day. He goes inside and secures the doors and windows trying to let as little light in as possible.
All Xerankari seem to have a “built in” fear of the sun. They also know how they can be killed, although none of them ever speak of these weaknesses or methods to kill their kind.
It’s a long day of Kilmen sitting alone in the empty old house, thinking about his family. wondering if they would even wanna be near him or even look at him without fear entering their hearts.
Finally the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon and the darkness was renewed. Kilmen’s strength and senses heighten, so did the craving for human blood. However Kilmen knows he must fight this need or it could be the end of more people.
Kilmen has the feeling that if he feeds again he would not be able to stop himself after he has more blood.
Xera craves blood, it needs it like an engine needs oil, gas and water, like the human body needs food, water and sleep. The longer he goes without the weaker he will become and the stronger the urge to drink someone dry will be.
Kilmen suddenly remembers a name, ‘Vernarii’ but he wonders where he heard this name before.
Just then Kilmen hears a gunshot
“Help!! Someone help me!! Please!!”
A woman screams with hisses followed behind her screams.
More gunshots
Kilmen runs as fast as he can, sliding around corners, moving faster and faster. He goes through the city and out into the tree line where the shot came from.
next to a wide tree a woman body, covered by a pack of Ferals, feeding on her
One of the creatures turns to look at Kilmen.
It’s eyes are blood red, same as Kilmen, yet there was no human behind these eyes. It’s the same as a rabid animal, it knows nothing but hunger.
It’s slim yet muscular body with black scales. It has a smaller frame than what his family took, much less human. It’s fangs look more like something a “sabre tooth tiger” would have with the presence to match.
It screeches with its mouth wide. It’s skull deformed and more oval than a human's. fresh blood dripped out of its mouth.
There were 4 of them all feeding on the now dead woman.
It seems they are some sort of pack? They all seemed to stop feeding on the body and turn their attention to Kilmen who is slowly reaching for his gun
One of the creatures jumps forward at Kilmen but he had already drawn his 1911 from the holster as he pulled the hammer back. As the Ferals head met the barrel of the gun, Kilmen fires the 1911 the heavy slide sends the brass out the side and a .45 strait through its forehead, sending shrapnel, blue blood and brain out the other side.
The Ferals heavy body hit the ground with a thud, Kilmen’s eyes light up with ferocity and he speaks in an irritated tone
“Poor bastards, Looks like i’m gonna have to put you down”