The Dark World part.03

 

     Earth, a world once bustling with humanity, now a chaotic world as the altered humans and remnants of humanity try to survive in the aftermath of the Cohora attack. The Cohora, a race once jokingly referred to by humans as the Greys. They had studied humans for centuries from afar. They devised a plan to subjugate humanity, a species that they foresaw as having a greater mental potential than themselves as well as a much higher reproductive rate. They would unleash a plague upon the world and then come in at the last moment to save the survivors thus making the humans of the future both fewer in number and beholden to the Cohora for saving them. After studying the radio, television shows, and movies broadcast into space they determined the most psychologically impacting approach. They sent pods into major urban areas around the world that unleashed swarms of microscopic nanobots that turned humans into zombies. These nanites were designed so that this effect would only infect humans and nothing else.

 

    The Cohora however were unaware that the Earth was home to none-human sentient and powerful entities, as well as a large myriad of genetically altered humans from those with enhanced abilities, odd powers, to even those able to assume bestial and monstrous transformations. These would prove immune to the nanites and become the true hope for the normal unaltered humans seeking refuge from the onslaught of their undead families, and neighbors which quickly grew in numbers.

 

     In the rubble of what used to be a city somewhere in Arizona Lucy and her boyfriend Pan are rummaging in the ruins of a department store trying to find supplies. To a human from any other Earth they would have looked like two demons, with their long black finger nails, pointed demonic tails, smallish ribbed wings coming out of their backs that couldn’t be any good for anything other than gliding. Lucy had two backwards pointing black very short gazelle like horns which started at the top of her forehead and went back going only six inches past the back of her head. Because of this she has kept her rusty red hair cut in a butch style with only a little bit of spiky gelling, giving it a look she feels of two horns sticking out of fire. Her boyfriend on the other hand had two horns which started on the sides of his head just behind the temples. They were black yet spiraled like unicorn horns; he kept his hair cut short and spiky as well, except his was gelled back and a blood red color, his river of blood look as he called it.

 

     These two skinny barely in their twenties punks were not demons however, they were Myth-Shifters. Human beings who had used a variation a gene altering formula called E.L.F. or Enhanced Life Formula. Rather than gaining animal traits or becoming were-beast or Furre like beings like most who use this they had been rich kids who parents had the money and connections to dish out for the much more expensive Myth-Shifter formula giving them traits from various animals and even completely artificial traits so they could transform back and forth from a human form to that of a mythological creature. Like all the “shifter” types as well as numerous other alterations that had come about for humans wanting a change in their lives they had been immune to the plague the Cohora had put on their world.

 

    Lucy and Pan had been just two more rich kids who had gone through the very illegal channels to get this thrill in their lives and “spice up” their sex sessions. They had even gone to various shifter events up in Canada where the procedure had been declared legal after the USA had started a crackdown arresting people just for taking it, and it being a completely irreversible procedure caused this to offend many people who only saw it as aesthetic changes (because the only ones in the public eye were Furre-Shifters who only took on the appearances of anthropomorphic animals but not the enhanced abilities like the Beast and Myth shifters do). So the nation of Canada, thanks to a contribution by a very wealthy Furre-Shifter, allowed them legal status and gave them their own town, which over the years grew into a city as more and more came from around the globe. Even the U.S.A. had been on the verge of granting Furre-Shifters legal status when that fateful day hit.

 

     What should have been a wondrous event for humanity became a nightmare, first official alien contact. These aliens however, the Cohora had other ideas for humanity though. Lucy and Pan had watched on the news as alien pods were found in major cities around the world, too many and in too populated of areas for any government to keep under-wraps. The humans never knew the name of the aliens that sent the pods as they opened and unleashed their unseen plague turning every normal human with-in a mile or so of the drop sites into flesh eating zombies; a nightmare that panicked the entire world.

 

     What ever plan the Cohora might have had was short lived though as energy domes formed around some of the major cities of the world such as New York, Las Angelus, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Before the news stations finally gave out Lucy and Pan had seen a report where a giant lanky man with angel like golden wings and a birds head was telling the people that the aliens who sent the pods were called the Cohora and urging the people to head for the domes for safety as well as scenes of a floating black castle over L.A. shooting down a Cohora mother ship with an energy cannon. A few others showed strange palaces rising from the ground around the world and that many altered humans as well as remaining normal humans were heading to them as well for safety as the zombies and even the Cohora were being eliminated by strange forces coming from them.

 

     However as they rummage through the remains of a department store that news broadcast from a few weeks back seems like a distant memory. They stay in their transformed state as the zombies won’t even look twice at them like that. In fact they had recently passed through a town where normal humans were held up in a hospital being protected by a group of Beast-Shifters (who have were-beast like forms complete with enhanced strength, speed, and agility befitting their forms). These beast-shifters were locals and in fact a crocodile one had actually been a doctor at that hospital. Of course in other cases they would find humans who would shoot at anything different, usually a few people held up inside houses or malls. The world had gone to hell and the stories of promised dome and palace safety just seemed like a lie to make people feel better.

 

    As they were rummaging a male wolf beast shifter suddenly flew at them from their right side knocking them to the ground, snarling at them he said, “where the fuck his he!? Where is that other demon looking son of a bitch?!”

 

     Pan shoved the werewolf wannabe off of him, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

 

   “That grey pointy eared teleporting bastard who just kidnapped my nephew!? That’s who!”

 

    “Woah dude.” said Pan, “We don’t anything about anything like that man. We just got here. So what the hell are you talking about?”

 

    The Wolf Beast Shifter stopped and sniffed the air, “Sorry” he said in a huff, “you don’t have my nephew’s human scent or that teleporter’s scent on you.” He pointed his grey furred nose up, sniffed the air and snarled and flew off again in a mad dash to his right.

 

   Lucy took Pan by his arm and said, “I think we should help, you know how strong these demon like bodies can be. and if some kidnapper had enough money to dish out for something like teleporting or what ever he’s doing to make it look like he’s teleporting then you know he might be one of those uber-strong bastards we heard my daddy’s friend talking about for this body type.”

 

     Pan remembered all that, remembered hearing about secret military and mafia type shit making super humans and messing around with these bodies. “Guess with the world gone to hell they had to be somewhere.” He thought as they took off in the direction the wolf guy had run in.

 

    When they caught up they found the wolf guy standing twenty feet from a very strange looking man, he was wearing a 1920’s outfit and hat, and on top of that he had grey skin, black pupil less eyes, long pointed ears and long claw like fingers. In his right arm he was holding a crying little boy who couldn’t have been more than five years old.

 

   “Its okay Timmy.” said the wolf guy, “Uncle B.B. is here to save you.” He pointed his clawed finger at the kidnapper and in a snarling voice demanded, “You better put him down or I’m going to rip your throat out!” The stranger hissed back at him, “Strange werewolf creature, this child is to be a slave for my great master the Green Kain, lord of the Central Kain Land.”

 

   “Great” thought Pan, “some nuts are making kingdoms and they brought slavery back. Stupid mother fuckers.”

 

    “Put him down right now!” screamed Lucy pointing at the kidnapper.

 

   The kidnapper stopped and stared at her for a moment, “I don’t know who you work for.” It said, “But the Green Kain has ordered me to retrieve as many humans as I can from this dieing land to work his fields. And I won’t allow the minions of a different lord to interfere!”

 

    The kidnapper threw the child to the ground and vanished into the air. The wolf guy ran over and picked him up.

 

     “Uncle B.B.” the boy said in a weak voice as the throw had knocked the wind out of him. When the wolf guy turned around he found the two demon looking people, (whose names he hadn’t learned yet) trading claw slashes with the kidnapper. The kidnapper kept vanishing before they could hit him, but he didn’t seem like he was able to hurt them either as his slashes only raised sparks for some reason against their red scaled bodies and each time before he vanished he would hold his hand like it had hurt him. In this moment the man who called himself Big Bad knew exactly what to do.

 

 

     A group of people who had been following Big Bad in pursuit of the kidnapper came over the hill just in time to see a very unusual sight. The man they knew as Big Bad lunged at the kidnapper from behind as he appeared behind the male red demon holding his arms while these two other demon like people stood in front of him, the male demon guy punched the kidnapper in the stomach knocking the wind out of him and the woman punched him across the head knocking him out. Big Bad dropped the guy to the ground and waved to the approaching people in the distance indicating that Timmy was lying on the ground about twenty feet away. Just as the relieved mother of the little boy was about to run over to Big Bad and the people to go and apprehend the kidnapper a blinding flash of light engulfed him, the kidnapper, and the two new comers.

 

     Pan, Lucy, and Big Bad were completely caught off guard by the flash of light. When it parted they found themselves in the middle of a field in a twilight lit place surrounded by humans who were turning the soil with medieval tools. Lucy looked around and said, “Oh fuck no, this had better not be some time travel bullshit right here.”

 

     The surprised people ran off at the site of two demons and a werewolf except for one old man who noticed the teleporter demon lying at their feet. The old man approached them and said, “So let me guess you three monsters beat up this bastard on the ground here correct?”

 

   “Yeah” said Big Bad, “but were not monsters.” The old man laughed, “of course not, I didn’t mean to offend you, its just I recognize the guy at your feet. He’s the same guy who kidnapped me when I was just a little boy living with my mom in Sierra Vista.”

 

    “We were just north of there.” said Lucy.

 

   The old man invited them back to his shack wanting to hear the whole story. Pan threw the teleporter over his shoulder as they walked over with the man. In his hut the man offered him some rope to tie the teleporter up but warned that it probably wouldn’t do any good when he came too. The three introduced themselves and told the events of the day from their points of view. The old man was eager to hear more about how much the world had changed and about the Cohora when Pan asked him how he couldn’t already know this, and pointed outside to demonstrate just how messed up the world had become.

 

    The old man had a worried look on his face, “so” he said, “the world really has gotten that bad huh? So bad you can’t even tell the difference between it and this terrible place. I don’t know what kind of demons you two are not to know this place…” he paused and looked up at his guests which to him were two demons and a werewolf, “well I guess you three are Earth monsters then huh? Well, this is Hell…or something close to it.”