Road Trip To Hell

Deep

Cover: Interior of a barn. Sebastian, Ashley, and Jason are unconscious on the ground, with a police officer standing over them holding a smoking gun.

"e're all clear on the second floor," said Wilson. Or at least that's what Brian THOUGHT he said. Brian Livingston had to press the radio against his ear in order to hear what his co-worker was saying. Even then, he could only make out every other word.

"Clear down here, too," Brian replied. "Hey, can you hear me?"

"Not really," came Wilson's distorted reply. "These new radios are great, aren't they?"

"Might as well have two tin cans and a string."

"What was that you said?"

"Never mind. I'm headed down. Livingston out."

Brian returned his radio to the fancy holster on his belt, where it served its most useful purpose: counterbalancing the weight of the gun hanging from the other hip.

"Damn things," he mumbled as he trudged toward the stairwell. The hallway was deserted, as it was the first ten times he checked it... and as it would be the NEXT ten times. It was late, and even the most unruly patients had to sleep SOMETIME. About the only thing that a patrolling security guard would come upon at this hour were amorous nurses making use of a dark corner or empty room. And even THAT didn't happen often enough to make the job interesting.

Brian stepped into the stairwell and held the door as it closed so that it wouldn't slam. The nurses gave him hell when he slammed the doors. As bored as he was, he didn't need THAT kind of excitement.

With a sigh, Brian said goodby to the first floor and started down to the steps to the basement level. The basement was always fun... if you were into morgues, locked doors, and long, dark hallways. The cold air of the hospital's perpetually-chilly lower level greeted him as he exited the stairwell. Brian buttoned the top button of his shirt, as if the extra inch of cloth over his neck would somehow shield him from the cool air. He looked both ways down the hall and saw absolutely nothing.

Technically he was supposed to radio the security chief and notify him of his arrival in the basement. But the radios didn't work down here. And the chief didn't care. Besides, his 'route' consisted of only the first floor and the basement, so, logically, if he wasn't in ONE place then he was obviously in the OTHER. Why bother checking in at all?

Brian whistled to himself as he started his circuit. It was always the same: Down to the end of Corridor One, through the locked storage area to corridor Two, up to the Morgue, and then through the Morgue back to Corridor one. Sometimes, just for fun, he walked the route in reverse. This wasn't one of those times, though; Brian was saving all the excitement for later.

There was a door at the end of Corridor One that lead outside. It was the Rear Entrance.... where they brought the bodies in. The door was locked, but there wasn't an alarm any more because the paramedics kept forgetting the code. They each had keys, though, and it was part of Brian's Route to make sure the door stayed locked between 'deliveries'. He could see the door at the end of the hall.

It was wide open.

Brian stopped walking and waited for a moment to see if a paramedic was going to wheel in a new guest for the Morgue. No one came in. The exterior light was out... as it had been for the past six weeks... and all he could see beyond the door was a field of blue-black emptiness.

"Hmph," he said curiously. He grabbed the radio from his belt. "Chief?" he said.

The radio responded with a fresh blast of static.

"Chief, come in."

Nothing.

"Wilson, you there?"

Still nothing.

"Damned radios," Brian said as he started toward the door. "Work fine when yer standin' two feet away from each other... Door must be stuck again. You'd think this place could afford some WD-40. And better radios."

He was about 10 yards away from the end of the hall when something stepped in front of the door. A shadow. The sudden appearance shocked Brian's heart up into his throat. He gasped and instinctively reached for his gun. His fingers had barely grazed the weapon's metal hide when he realized that he was looking at a child.

"Whoo," he sighed as his heart slid back down into its proper place. Instead of grabbing his gun, Brian's hand snatched the flashlight from his belt. He turned it on and pointed it down the hall. "Hey, kid... what are you doing here?" The beam fell across the child's face, and instantly Brian knew that something was wrong.

The boy was strange. His face wasn't right. There wasn't anything grotesque or hideous about it, just minor things: A bit too much jaw... an odd slope to the forehead... a noticeable asymmetry around the eyes. They all added up to a definite air of 'wrongness' that sent chills skating down Brian Livingston's spine. Maybe if he'd encountered the child in broad daylight... with adequate warning... then boy wouldn't have been so creepy. But coming upon him suddenly like this, in a dim hallway...

Brian felt his heart easing back up to his throat. The acids in his stomach began to churn uncomfortably.

"Uhh..."

The kid's eyes, which had been staring unfocused at some point just short of infinity, snapped to Brian's face. The boy's head tilted slightly to one side. The child blinked. Brian nearly leapt out of his uniform.

"Chief-" he said into his useless radio. "Chief, you there? Wilson? Anybody?" When there was no response, Brian considered retreating upstairs to summon help. Then he realized just how ridiculous he was being. It was just a child, after all. He started toward the boy, and had taken exactly one step when a second figured appeared in the doorway, stepping out of the darkness like a wraith. This one was bigger... taller... a man. The boy moved aside to let the older man enter first, and then they both started down the hallway toward Brian, walking calmly as if out for an afternoon stroll.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Brian shouted. He jammed his radio back into its holster and drew his gun. He aimed the weapon at the unusual pair of trespassers "HOLD IT, I SAID!"

Suddenly, Brian's right hand... the hand holding the gun... began to burn. It wasn't as if the weapon had grown hot... no, it was something else. His skin... His SKIN!

"AAAAAA!!!"

Brian cried out as the pain hit him. Not burning... STINGING! He stared wide-eyed at his right hand... the hand which SHOULD have been holding a gun, but was instead clutching a WASP'S NEST! Dozens of the vicious, angry insects were buzzing all over his fist, jabbing their venomous barbs into his flesh over and over and over again. He felt the stingers tearing at him, pumping poison into the wounds!

"AAAAAAAAA!!!!!" Brian flailed his hand frantically in the air, trying to fling the insects off. His gun flew across the hallway and hit the floor somewhere between him and the strangers, but he never saw it. He never heard it land. All he knew was that the wasps were multiplying... crawling all over him! "HELLLPPP!!!" He turned to run...

...and they were gone.

His hand was empty... devoid of wasps and weapon. But if the insects were gone, then why could he still hear them? Where was the buzzing coming from? The first sting hit him like an electric shock... like a red-hot ice pick in his brain. And that's exactly where it was. That's where the buzzing was coming from.

His head.

As impossible as it was, the rampaging insects were INSIDE him, now! He felt them crawling around under his skin! He heard their angry buzzing get louder and louder... HUNDREDS OF THEM, stinging him from the INSIDE! He felt the painful barbs burst out through the flesh of his forehead and scalp... and then his face!

"NOOOOO!!!!" Brian's hands went to his face, and he felt the hundreds of tiny lumps squirming around under his skin... circling his eyes and moving down his cheeks. He felt their stings tearing out through the skin and piercing the palms of his hands, stabbing him twice with one jab. He felt them in his ears, tunneling and stinging their way to his brain! They were stinging his EYES from the INSIDE!

Brian begged the trespassers for help.

"GET THEM OUT!! GET THEM OUT," he pleaded. "PLEEEEAAASSEEE!!" Brian didn't wait for a reply. He did the only thing he could do... carried out the only thought that would fit into his pain-saturated mind.

He dug his fingernails into the skin of his flesh... and ripped.

"AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!" he bellowed. His hands came away bloody, his fingers clutching chunks of flesh and a few dead wasps. The pain was deafening... he couldn't even hear himself scream. But it was nothing compared to what the wasps were doing.

So he tore away more flesh. And more. Brian ripped the skin off of his face one bloody fistful at a time. Somewhere around the moment he tore off his left cheek, Brian fell to his knees...shattering one of them in the process... and then collapsed into a shivering ball of pain and blood. His mind was long gone... to far away to notice that there wasn't a single wasp on him.

"That's enough," said the tall, old man. He spoke with a thick, gentlemanly southern accent. The boy looked up at him. For a moment, the child's face contorted into a mask of disappointment so intense that it bordered on malice... but the man either didn't notice or didn't care. Braxis' attention was focused on the man bleeding on the floor at his feet.

Braxis knelt down and pulled Brian's hands away. He replaced them with one of his own. Braxis' left hand stroked Brian's flesh, drawing a path across the man's ruined face. And wherever the hand went, it left healing in its wake. Skin, muscle, and cartilage began slid back into place.. regenerating... weaving itself back together. Braxis as moved his hand down to Brian's knee. The second Braxis touched it, the pieces of the shattered kneecap snapped painfully back into place like pieces of metal drawn together by a magnet. With the security guard's body was now whole, Braxis stood and looked down at him. "You'll have to forgive the boy," said Braxis. "He's a bit over-zealous. I trust you won't be a problem?"

All Brian could do was shiver. His mind was too far gone to even realize that someone was speaking. He wasn't even looking at the man who'd healed him. His eyes were fixed on the boy... fixed and frozen, like those of a terrified animal.

The boy was looking down at him, as well. He blinked. A dark stain began to spread across the front of Brian's trousers.

"Come along, Tomas... we have patients to see..."

"o... just HOW LONG has there been a tracking device in my car?" said Jason.

"It isn't a tracking device," Sebastian. "It's a GPS transmitter. There's a difference."

"But HOW long have you been keeping tabs of MY CAR!?!"

"You'd think you'd be grateful that we could track it down after you let it get stolen."

"Let? LET!?! Did you SEE what happened? Were you PAYING ATTENTION when-"

"You don't have to shout," said Ashley. "We're all sitting, like, TWO inches away from each other."

The three of them... four, including Donovan, were crammed into Sebastian's Mitsubishi 300GT... a polished, high-performance machine that could THEORETICALLY seat four people. However, since the 'disappearance' of Jason's Corvette the day before, the difference between theory and practice was becoming painfully obvious.

"This car was not constructed for passengers," Sebastian said with his typical arrogant sneer.

"Nooooo, really? I never would have guessed. And all this CRAP you're carrying back here doesn't help much." Ashley was sharing a space with a large footlocker which took up 3/4ths of the almost nonexistent back seat. It left Ashley with barely enough room to breathe. Moving around was out of the question.

"It's equipment," said Sebastian. "Don't touch anything."

"Its touching ME!" Ashley tried to elbow the box further over the side to give herself more room. All she did was bruise her elbow.

"Don't do that. You might jostle the explosives."

"The WHAT!?!?"

"Okay, back to the question at hand," said Jason. He pointed to the digital display mounted in the car's dashboard. The tiny screen showed a blinking red dot, an arrow, and some coordinates that presumably represented the longitude and latitude of his car down to plus/minus 10 feet. "HOW long have you been tracking me?"

"Since before I met you," Sebastian replied dryly. "The transmitter has always been there. I activated it remotely when I realized you'd taken the car."

"So... I'm wanted by every cop in Rock Springs, and there's a TRACKING DEVICE in my ride?"

"The signal is encrypted. They couldn't have used it to find you."

"Encrypted with WHAT?"

"Excuse me?"

"RSA? 64-bit? 128 Bit? What?"

"It's... encrypted."

"In other words, you don't know SQUAT about encryption!"

"I-

"You're using it and don't even know what the hell it is... don't even know that the feds can already BREAK-"

"It's 128-bit encryption, Jason," said Donovan. "They can't break it."

"Oh yeah? Which algorithm?"

"What? It's.... ummm..."

"YOU don't know either, so hush! And when we FIND my car, I'm yanking that electronic BULLSEYE out and tossing it over the first bridge we come to. ...and you call yourselves professionals..."

"Can I ask something?" said Ashley. "Why are we even trying to FIND the car?"

Jason Brooks turned around in his seat and looked at Ashley as if she's just escaped from the circus.

"It's a Corvette," he said.

"But... it was taken by a giant lizard!"

"It's a Corvette," Jason repeated.

"Jason... a DRAGON swooped down out of the sky and GRABBED IT! It's gone!"

"It. Is. A Corvette."

"It WAS a Corvette... it's probably in a million pieces by now."

"Don't say that. I don't even wanna think about that."

"It's just a car-"

"No it isn't. It's a Corvette."

"So what are you gonna do when we find it? ASK for it back?"

"That's a start."

"It's just a dragon," said Sebastian.

"Uhhh.... 'Just?'" said Ashley. "Just?"

"The Corvette stopped moving four hours ago." Sebastian pointed to the flashing red dot on the screen. "That means the creature is probably resting. If we can reach it before it starts moving again, we can take it out before it even knows we're there."

"And just how many dragons have you killed, Sebastian?" said Ashley.

"None."

"Greaat..." Ashley leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. "My last day on earth... and I'm spending it stuck in a car with the two of you. This isn't exactly how I envisioned my final hours among the living. I'm going to take a nap now... wake me up when we're dead."

"How far away are we?" said Jason.

"At this speed? Another hour. Maybe less."

"We're going to have to slow down," Jason warned.

"Why not?"

"Sebastian. We're in Alabama. You don't drive 120mph in a sportscar at midnight in Alabama."

"We're only going 115."

"You know what I mean."

"Actually, you're making about as much sense as you usually do."

"Okay, I'll clarify it... you don't drive 120mph at midnight with a BLACK MAN in the car in Alabama. This is the deep south, you know what I'm saying?"

Sebastian adjusted the GPS receiver and proceeded to ignore Jason for the next hour.

It was around 1:00 am when they entered the small town of Miller's Grove. The 3000GT slowed to a more reasonable speed, not because of any concerns that Jason had, but because the tracking unit showed the Corvette very close by. Following the unit's directions, Sebastian exited the empty, two-lane highway and coasted down a rural dirt road that seemed to lead nowhere. They passed one farm... a church.. and so many trees that it didn't even seem that they were anywhere NEAR a town.

"Just up ahead," said Sebastian. "Another mile."

In the back seat, Ashley awoke and attempted to stretch.

"Stop kicking the seat," said Jason.

"I have to go to the bathroom," she replied.

"So you're kicking me in the butt?"

"I'm trying to get some feeling back in my legs!"

"So you're kicking me in the butt?"

"There-"

The trees on either side of the road gave way to a wide expanse of farmland. The land dipped down into a small valley, and then rose up to a slight peak... on which a large red barn sat.

"In the barn," Sebastian informed them.

"A dragon put my car in a barn?"

"That doesn't sound right," said Ashley.

"Especially since the dragon itself was much too big to fit inside a barn." Sebastian brought the car to a halt at the bottom of the hill. "We may be walking into another trap. Donovan?"

"That would assume that whoever sent that creature knew were capable of tracking it here," said Donovan.

"He says 'not likely,'" said Jason.

"That's not what I said!"

"There aren't any animals," Sebastian informed them.

It was true. Though it was dark and difficult to see, it was fairly obvious that there was nothing moving on the farm. No cows. No horses. No sheep. No chickens.

Nothing but grass.

"Abandoned?"

Sebastian rolled down his window. The strong scent of animals and manure flooded the car.

"Thank you," said Ashley. "For introducing us to that wonderful smell."

"There WERE animals here recently. But they're gone now."

"Maybe they're in the barn?"

"Maybe the barn isn't big enough to hold whole farm-full of animals, Ashley," said Jason.

"Oh. Well... I don't know anything about farms, sorry."

"So what do you think, Donovan?"

"I think our dragon came here, got his fill of animals, and is either hiding or has moved on."

"Minus the Corvette."

Sebastian got out of the car, strapped on both his swords, then retrieved a black knapsack from the trunk. Jason checked and re-loaded his weapons. Ashley put on her shoes.

"Sense anything?" Sebastian asked Jason. Jason looked around.

"This place is dead. No auras. No nothing. Ashley? You getting anything?"

"Cramps."

"Too much information, Ashley."

"You asked."

Sebastian started up the hill, with Jason and Ashley following close behind. The moon was full, thus they didn't need a flashlight to find their way to the barn. Jason carried one anyway, but he didn't turn it on. They made it to the top of the hill without a sound, and without anything reaching out and grabbing them.

"EEEEWWWW! GROSS!" Ashley squealed suddenly. She pointed at something on the ground just to the right of where they were walking.

It was a head.

"It's just a sheep," said Sebastian. He walked over to the severed head.

"Don't touch it!"

Sebastian picked it up. The neck-stump was jagged, and the flesh around the wound was pulped. The cut wasn't made by a bladed weapon... or ANY kind of weapon. The head had simply been torn off. Sometime either before or after that, something ripped a large hole down the back of the skull. As Sebastian held the head up, the sheep's brain began oozing out over the sharp pieces of shattered bone.

"That's disgusting. Where's the rest of it?"

"Digesting, probably." Sebastian stuck his finger into the bloody neck, then smeared the blood between his fingertips. "This happened recently. A few hours."

"But as fast as that dragon was moving, that means it could be anywhere."

"Including here."

Carrying the head with him, Sebastian approached the barn. He stopped in front of the large heavy doors and knelt down with his back to the others. He removed a few articles from his knapsack and began doing something that Jason and Ashley couldn't see.

"What are you doing?"

"Watch and learn."

There was a loud, ripping sound.

"Sebastian, if you're doing something freaky with that sheep's head-"

Sebastian held up a roll of duct-tape. He tore off another piece, making more of the ripping sounds.

"Give me your flashlight," he said, holding out his hand.

Jason tossed him the light. Actually he was trying to hit Sebastian in the head with it, but the boy caught it easily. A second later, he stood up and reached for the barn door. In his other hand as the sheep's head... which had Jason's flashlight tapped securely to the side of its skull.

"Ummmm... okay, I think Sebastian's lost his mind," said Jason.

"Stand back."

The door opened with a loud creak... as most barn doors do. There was nothing inside but darkness.

"I hear something," said Ashley. There was a soft, crackling sound that hadn't been audible until Sebastian opened the door. It didn't seem to be coming from any particular place inside the barn, it's source was distributed evenly in the black interior.

"Wait a minute." Jason squinted into the barn. "I see-"

-click-

Sebastian turned on Jason's flashlight and tossed the sheep's head into the darkness. The beam's light played randomly along the walls as it tumbled through the air... revealing-

"Worms!"

The interior of the barn was covered with them. Floor... walls... ceiling... There wasn't a single square-inch of space that wasn't completely coated with the tiny creatures. They squirmed chaotically over one another like ants pouring from a disturbed nest... thousands upon thousands of tiny, razor-sharp mouthparts clicked hungrily, making the 'crackling' sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

But as soon as the light passed over the walls of the infested barn, the sound changed. It rose to a soft roar as the worms... worms that were actually tiny serpents... sprang from their places and zipped across the barn as if propelled by magic. In seconds, the air was so full of them that it like a solid sheet of worms had descended over the barn door. They all converged on the dead sheep's head, completely covering it-

-and that's when the explosive went off.

The incendiary device that Sebastian had shoved inside the sheep's skull erupted into a bright white corona that instantly incinerated every worm within three feet. The fire continued to burn for several seconds... its bright light continuing to attract worms from every dark corner of the barn. The mindless creatures leapt to their deaths by the thousands, springing into the fire like crazed moths. Large sections of them peeled away from the walls and dove to into the flames in such numbers that their bodies threatened to choke off the oxygen. But the heat consumed them so quickly that they didn't even affect the flame. It burned and burned... filling the air with the scent of strong chemicals and scorched flesh. Finally the roaring flood of worms slowed... and then stopped. A few seconds later, the flames flickered and died. The sheep's head was gone... charred to ashes along with whatever device Sebastian had hidden inside it.

"Trap disarmed," said Sebastian. He pulled another flashlight from his pack and shined it into the barn.

"Hey, how come you couldn't use YOUR flashlight for that bomb?" said Jason. "And where's the car!?"

There was no car inside the barn. There were rows of stalls for horses, sheep, and various other livestock. Big bales of hay. Some chains suspended from the ceiling. A few pitchforks. But the closest thing to a car inside the barn was an old, rusted tractor engine.

"That-" Jason pointed to the engine. "Had BETTER NOT be my car! If THAT is my car-"

"I can't believe we came all this way for a car..."

"CORVETTE!"

"I think its safe." Sebastian drew one of his swords and held it ready as he entered the barn. He held his flashlight off to one side... away from his body... as he crept slowly down the length of the barn.

"Safe," said Ashley. "Right."

"Stay here and keep watch," Jason ordered. He drew one of his .454 revolvers and followed Sebastian. The interior of the barn was warm and uncomfortably humid...remnants of the worm-serpant infestation.

"A sodium-bomb would be exceptionally effective in here," Sebastian remarked. "The ambient moisture would keep it burning for hours."

"Is that what you used on the worms?"

"No, that was phosphorous."

"And you learned that... where?"

"On the job training."

"Sounds like you spent too much time on the internet, to me."

"The what?"

"The internet."

"Oh, you mean the computer thing."

"...computer...thing? Sebastian, you HAVE been on the internet before, haven't you?"

"Can it be used to track demons?"

"Ummm...well-"

"I've found it." Sebastian picked something up off the ground. It looked like a garage-door opener. "The GPS transmitter."

"Isn't that supposed to be inside the car?"

"Uhhh, guys?" Ashley called from outside.

"Obviously it isn't anymore."

"Okay, Sherlock, so tell me what its doing sitting in the middle of an empty barn then?"

"...guys..."

"The car was never here." Sebastian aimed his flashlight at the dirt floor. "No tire tracks."

"Well I wouldn't think the dragon DROVE it in!"

"Guys!"

"Something as large and clumsy as a dragon wouldn't be able to remove the transmitter... unless it tore the car apart and sifted through the wreckage. But there wasn't any wreckage outside. Not that we could see..."

"GUYS!"

"WHAT!?" Jason and Sebastian turned around-

"FREEEZE!"

There was a man in a police uniform standing in the doorway. Ashley was in front of him, facing Jason, with both hands up on top of her head. The lanky, buck-toothed deputy couldn't have been out of his twenties.... he was a skinny, awkward youth, and his light-brown uniform looked like it was made for someone a good two sizes larger. A thick mop of straw-colored hair sat atop his head like...well... straw. He had a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other. The weapon was pointed at the back of Ashley's head. The hammer was cocked. His finger was on the trigger.

"Drop your weapon!" the deputy shouted when he saw the gun in Jason's hand. The cop's weapon zeroed in on Jason even as Jason took aim at the cop. "Drop the gun! And the... uhh... sword."

"I TRIED to tell you there was somebody coming," said Ashley. "...but did you listen? nuh-uh."

"Try harder next time," said Sebastian.

"There ain't gone BE no next time!" said the deputy. "I saw your handiwork outside! What are you... a buncha satanists? Sorry to rain on ya'lls little party, but there Ain't gonna be no more cattle mutilations tonight! Now drop your weapons, and I mean right NOW!"

"Look," said Jason. "You really don't want to do this. See this kid with the sword? He's not too stable... and I don't think I can keep him from gettin' medieval on your ass if you don't back off."

"Are you threatening a police officer?" said the deputy.

"Well... if you want to get technical about it."

"Weapons on the ground! I MEAN it!"

"Jason, what's his aura like?" Sebastian whispered.

Jason tried to focus on the cop's aura, but found that he couldn't. The aura was THERE, but it was just a phantom haze that refused to resolve itself into one particular shape or color.

"Its.... strange. Like something's blocking it."

"You have 'til the count of three!" the deputy continued. "Then ah'm gonna start shootin! ONE!"

"Ashley, can you-"

"I'm tryyyinnnng...." She said through clenched teeth. Whatever she was trying to do, wasn't working.

"TWO!"

"This guy thinks he's a badass," said Jason. "Does he not see he's outnumbered? Does he not see that my gun is TWICE as big as his?"

"Why don't you just shoot him, Jason."

"Why don't YOU shoot him, Sebastian?"

"I don't have a gun."

"THREE!"

"See there..." said Jason. "Now we've gone and called your bluff. NOW whatcha gonna do-"

BLAM!

The cop fired.

But the instant the trigger of the cop's weapon started to move, Jason's senses and reflexes accelerated to something far beyond human. With both eyes focused on the barrel of the deputy's weapon, he fired simultaneously with the cop. Both weapons roared and spat hot metal... the deadly projectiles ricocheted off of each other in mid-air. As the collision occurred, Jason launched into action. His trench-coat flew out around him as he spun, cloaking his exact position for an instant as he drew his other weapon. Both revolvers blazed as he dropped to one knee.

Ashley had already thrown herself to the floor to get out of the line of fire. Jason's bullets whizzed past where she'd been standing-

-tink-tank-TINK!

The first bullet turned the firing mechanism of the cop's gun into useless metal fragments. The second two sent it spinning out of his hand.

OR... that's what was SUPPOSED to happen.

The bullets struck their intended targets perfectly, but each impact was met with a curious flash of multicolored light as they ricocheted off of something that Jason couldn't see.

"What the f-"

The deputy swiveled toward Jason

"JASON, his ARM!" Donovan shouted.

Jason saw it. On the deputy's forearm, extending from elbow to wrist... was a large, full-color tattoo. A dragon. Its wings and tail wrapped completely around the cop's arm as clinging there of its own volition.

"ITS THE DRAGON!" Jason warned as the cop fired. Jason twisted around... the bullets caught in the bulletproof padding of his coat. Jason returned fire, emptying one revolver at the deputy's head and the other at his chest.

The bullets never struck their targets. Instead, they struck some kind of invisible barrier that surrounded the deputy. Splashes of multicolored light rippled away from each point of impact as the bullets went awry. The cop kept firing, emptying his clip at Jason. Jason felt the pain of the impacts as the armored coat transferred the bullets' momentum to his body... like being repeatedly kicked by an angry mule. But Jason had already switched to his back-up weapons. More splashes of rainbow-colored light outlined the cop's body as Jason's bullets hit.

The deputy just stood there, watching Jason like a bird would watch a particularly juicy cockroach. The cop remembered his own weapon almost as an afterthought. He calmly reached for the full magazine that was clipped to his belt.

Sebastian was already on the attack. He'd gotten a running start, and was now airborne... both swords carving incredible, furious arcs in the air as his leap carried him right into the deputy.

The cop turned toward him at the last instant, and actually looked surprised. His mouth gaped, and he backed away a half-step. That's as far as he got before Sebastian was all over him. Two swords sliced toward his head from different angles. He was perhaps a centimeter away from certain death when-

CLANK!

The swords struck the same barrier that had deflected Jason's bullets. Splashes of colored light erupted from the barrier, but this time, they didn't fade away as they'd done before. This time, they gathered into thick, crackling arcs that shot up the length of Sebastian's swords like miniature lightning-bolts-

FZZZZAAAAMMM!!!

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGH!!!"

The blast flung Sebastian clear across the barn-

KA-WHAM!

-he struck a wall and collapsed on top of the rusty tractor engine... wisps of smoke rose from his arms and back. The boy didn't move.

"SEBASTIAN!" Ashley screamed.

The cop turned toward her.

"RUN!" Jason shouted.

Ashley got to her feet and ran. The cop was between her and the door, so she ran the other direction... toward Sebastian. The deputy snatched the night-stick from his belt and threw it. The crude weapon tumbled end over end and struck her across both ankles. Ashley tripped and fell

"ASHLEY!"

KLUNK!

Her head hit the side of the old tractor engine. She was out cold, instantly.

Anger welled up in Jason as his fire leapt from his guns. He could tell that both Ashley and Sebastian were alive... at least they still had auras. But he didn't know for how long.

"DONOVAN, I could use some SUGGESTIONS here!"

"Lead him away from them!" the ghost replied.

"Who are you talking to?" the deputy looked around, searching for another target. Finding none, he returned his attention to Jason.

Jason sprinted for the door. The cop raced after him.

They both exploded out of the barn. Jason made two hard rights and ran down the length of the barn, with the deputy in hot pursuit.

"JASON! DODGE!" Donovan warned.

Jason dodged. The cop's bullets zipped over his right shoulder. Jason threw himself to the left, spinning and firing as he did. In the instant that he was facing the deputy, he emptied both .357 revolvers into the man's face.

Nothing.

Didn't even slow the cop down.

Jason pretended to run to the left, then sprinted back toward the barn.

"We have to do something ABOUT THIS GUY!" he screamed. "WE HAVE TO HELP ASHLEY!"

"JASON, LOOK OUT FOR THE-"

Thinking Donovan was about to warn him of more shots from the deputy, Jason dodged to the right, cutting back behind the barn at an angle.

And then he realized what Donovan was REALLY trying to warn him about.

The barn sat on a steep hill, and the rear of it was almost flush with a high cliff. With the cliff hidden in the barn's shadow, Jason had no idea it was there until he'd already run off of it.

In the blink of an eye, the ground vanished beneath his feet and darkness swallowed him. He felt the wind rushing past him as he fell... and then...

CRACK!

[To Be Continued]

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment