Back out into my dead town

He believed he could handle it when he saw John Riis under the porch in the snow.

He really truly believed he could. Because Eben Olemaun's never been a quitter and seeing John gave him hope.

He could save people. He could save them all.

And He didn't need a group of otherworldly idiots to help him. He didn't need anyone.

There was no need to put anyone else in danger. He couldn't have that on his conscience. He really truly believed that he could save them. Save all of them.

So when John's eyes open and they're inky black it's a shock beyond shocks. When he lunges at him with fangs, it's a kick in the balls in the worst kind of way.

"I'm so Thirsty Eben."

Eben's chest tightens.

"I'm so. Very. THIRSTY."

His fingers are reaching as they close on the hilt of something, gripping it and throwing it in the direction of his attacker. A plank of wood with steel on it.

No wait-That's an axe.

In a sudden burst of strength he swings it out of the park, knocking John to the side. Eben gets to his feet and pushes his former friend into the swingset they were struggling over as he chops off the head with the axe.

It takes three tries.

He's covered in blood.

I can handle it. I can handle it-I don't need help, I don't need help- He couldn't accept help, put other people in danger like he'd put Stella in Danger, his friends, his colleagues...

one foot in front of the other despite the continuing tightening pain in his chest. One foot in front of another with the cold red snow on the ground sinking into his boots. It's all a bad dream, he's going to wake up any moment and be asleep with his wife beside him, snug in their home at the end of Rogers.

Disorentiation sets in quickly in these conditions. The vampires lurk behind him, waiting, watching, prey in this town is not to be taken lightly.

His fingers slip on the doorframe of a house as he staggers inside just trying to stop the pain in his chest, "Stella-"

And he's somewhere else.

"They're Coming."

There's very little that Helen Olemaun hasn't seen.

She saw the lights shining on the man she loved as he proposed under the big christmas tree in New York City. She saw the Northern wastes that he'd decided to call home. She's seen any number of wildlife creeping through her garden or peering through her windows.

She's seen men dance and women die (Two in particular) She's seen people make love in public places and go to pieces over the slightest thing.

The best and the worst have been laid bare before her eyes.

Some part of her isn't surprised when she sees them through her window. Deep down, instinctively she thinks, people know. People know there's something out there, something that's not right.

She just thought it was god being fucking poetic. One last little genetic twinge deep within their subconcious. You abandoned me, and so I abandon you

That looking over your shoulder feeling.
That mortal feeling. Walking over your not-yet-dug grave.

That feeling had gripped her chest with the stranger's arrival. It's tightened itself when he spoke of the ones who are coming.

And it squeezed as their leader faced her.

HE said something in a reptilian tongue and Helen's only response was to clasp her hands across her chest.

Helen Olemaun has seen quite a few things in her short life. She's seen men dance and women die, lights on her beloved's face, her grandson growing up to take over his father's position. Her entrails slip-sliding across the floor before she lost conscienceness in a haze of pain and red.

And above it all the vampire, for that was what she knew in her bones he was. Smiling.


"God Made um to...Thin the Herds."

Eben only knows the dogs are dead and they can't leave. He's gone beyond all thought of saving himself. These things are in his town

Thunder crackles across a land that sees no rain as a red wet liquid falls and splatters the snow.

He wills himself to drive. He doesn't feel Stella's hand on his shoulder, her own expression tight, poised.

"Eben-"

"Not now Stell."

"Eben!-"

"Not now!"

"EBEN!"

And their Jeep is halted. It's tires spinning uselessly in the snow. Oh jesus. eben half turns, his parka restricting his movement, They stopped the jeep.

It's unreal. There are creatures in his town. They-They- They're killing his people

Stella screams and Eben's attention is diverted and he can't think about what it might mean. He's all instinct now and that's all that matters because there's thunder in the desert, and he like most animals flees before the first sign of rain.

"...And now they will take me with them...for all my service."

It started with the stranger laughing and cackling as he planned his misery to do to the town.

It ends with Eben Olemaun blowing his head off and leaving gore splattered across the concrete. He turns to his wife, "The diner."

He sent his people there. His town. Helen...no, I can't think about Helen

by the time he and Stella reach the diner it's ablaze with light and Eben can see the faint shapes of people moving around within. His hand's on his gun as he motions Stella through, "Everyone-"

And he's somewhere else.

If you go out in the snow today
You're truly in for a treat
If you go out in the snow today
You'd better be armed to the teeth

For every vampire there ever was
Has gathered there for certain because
Today's the day the vampires start their feeding

Feeding time for vampires true
They're hungry, they're fast, their waiting for you
Get your gun, raise your rifles
They're out to feed today.

If you go out in the snow today
You'd better not go alone
If you go out in the snow today
You'd have done better to stay at home

For every vampire that ever there was
Has gathered in barrow for certain because
Today's the day the vampires start their feeding.

[OOM: The Dogs Die]

Eben Olemaun is very unhappy.

He spent the weekend as a moose and a sled dog then found the door, bolting through without a second thought, walking right into every sheriff's worst fucking nightmare scenario. On the evening when you need everything to go right, everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

And somethings will go very wrong. very wrong.

Faint traces of blood stain his parka and his uniform but he and Stella were too preoccupied with helping John and Ally collect their dogs to notice their physical appearance.

Eben is thinking about what he'd like to do to the bastard who murdered John and Ally's fucking livelyhood when he gets the call from the utilidor. The chopper-Polar Tours has been completely trashed with Carter beside himself.

Someone has keys to his town.
This is more disturbing then the rest. IT goes beyond the dogs now. people's lives are threatened by this fucker.

Stella glances over to him as his hands grip the wheel, "Eben?"
"....I'm all right stella."

She puts a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze, "What are you thinking about?"

Eben smiled, "...Everything that can go wrong will go wrong."
She laughed, her laugh music in the night, "This isn't murphy's law at work."

No. Eben says as he turns onto the main drag, It's something else..
----

They watch the car drive away. The leader of the town Marlowe surmises. The law was never able to defeat him as a man and it will not defeat him now. Somewhere the stranger is no doubt putting into play the final stages of their plan.

It is time.

Marlowe raises his hands to the heavens and Screams and the Kaminskys and the wyns shudder in their sleep as the vampires move toward the sleepy hamlet.

The Home of John and Ally Riis.
5:30

They have names that the humans gave them. Some are named for Alaskan gods and goddesses, some are named for creatures of legend, fantastic and powerful.

Some are just named because Ally is a gentle soul and she longed to have a dog she could actually call spot.

Even though there's nothing Spotty about him.

Their human names are Stranger, Buck, Spot, and Skywalker.

They know each other by different names. By scents and smells and words their mother used in the warm kennel towards the back of their yard. Stranger can see it if he turns an eye, but right now he's more interested in the humans.

The dark would come soon and the humans would flee indoors where it was warm. Even the master and the missus would flee, stepping outside only occasionally to say hello and feed them. He'd be left with his brothers and sisters and cousins to romp and dream and talk of things that once were and are and might be again.

Stranger didn't mind. He liked the dark. There was an ache in his bones that it soothed, an ache that reminded him of days when his family back so many generations ran wild in the woods beyond the borders of the town and feared no creature. Princes of the woods and fields, in harmony with mother earth and father turtle and sister sky.

Brother! Buck was barking from the back, Brother, the master is throwing out some bacon gone bad.

Buck was the youngest of the group, the one their cousins laughed at the most, Brother I can smell it! It smells good. Can we have some?

Skywalker was silver and sky colored and beautiful. Stranger loved her as much as he could love any of the mates the master and missus gave him. You'll make yourself sick again.

Buck whined. But I'm hungry!

Food will come if we wait. stranger said with a yawn And we will wait. The humans are busy now He saw Master and Missus moving indoors

Buck shook himself, practically stomping off to the back of the kennel again.

Skywalker walked as far foreward as her chain would allow, resting her nose a few inches from her mate He is young

Fucking runt of the fucking litter. Stranger said with another yawn, He needs to grow up. The dark is coming.

The dark comes and he grows up a little more with each year. Our lives are shorter then the humans. Skywalker lifts her nose skyward, A little innocence does us all good. It reminds us of better days

I ought to know better then to argue with you. Stranger's lips twitched upward, Go back and tell him he may have the bacon if he wishes. I just don't want him getting sick again

You are a good brother. Skywalker rose to her feet And a good leader.

I rue it every passing day. stranger said with a laugh, the noise thrown away on the wind, Hurry quickly-the night is cold.

Skywalker twitched her tail and bounded off, flakes of snow kicking up in her wake.

Stranger gave himself over to the dreaming, nose curled against one paw as the sky started to darken overhead.

There were wolves.
A great pack of them. Twenty, perhaps thirty. At their head ran an albino wolf with bright red eyes that saw everything and left nothing unchecked.

They tore through herds of caribou without so much as a whisper. Their footprints made the land tremble and the trees shudder, but it was when they brought down packs who dared defy them that Stranger bared his teeth.

No one kills as such. That is the law.

To go on all fours is the law
To do no harm to one's own kind is the law.

He watched the pack incredulous. Even the humans remembered that much from their days in the trees. The bond between them was sacred and to damage it was in violation.

But the pack came and killed.
The white wolf tore out the throat of a wolf who dared to raise fang to him and stared at stranger and that's when the dog saw that these were not wolves but men, horrible preversions of men with teeth like wolves and eyes as black as night.

And that was no wolf throat but the master's throat and these were not his pack but the human pack. The people of the town. Master and Missus were flung at the violator's feet. Their leader was there too with the star on his chest and his mate.

To go on all four is the law
To do no harm to one's own kind is the law

Stranger rears, smelling the blood thick on his tongue. To guard the apes is the law. They were mother earth and father turtle and sister sky's chosen people. It was his joy to watch them and they were dead.

The blood choked him, filling his nose with foul scents as he reared, opening his eyes-

To see the knife right before his nose.
-----------

The last one left is spot.

Bleeding like a stuck pig. Spot had asked Stranger what his name meant-when he figured out what a spot actually was, he was amused to see he was leaving them all over the snow.

Bright spots of red soaking into the wet. Hey, I finally became my name.

The remains of his brothers and sisters are still hot and warm. Staggering a few feet, He drops in front of Stranger You said you'd protect us, you promised...

Stranger did not reply. His throat was opened from ear to ear.

The missus was looking out the window and screaming. When the master bolted through the door Spot raised himself off the ground shakily, trying to stagger toward them. They had failed. They wouldn't be able to protect the humans from what was coming, the violation of the laws of nature. Mother earth and father turtle and sister sky were weeping
Spot tried to express his disapproval as his mama's arms wrapped around him and he collapsed against her chest. The missus was more mother then his own, it was she who'd fed him, named him, loved him...

And now I failed her the thought was too terrible for words. I'm so sorry mama...

His body shuddered, one last dark red spot against the world as his missus held him tighter.
-------

Ally Riis looked up from the dead body of the dog and instinctively tried to wipe his blood off her shirt, "...John..."

John Riis had his shotgun and he might as well have been alone, "Put him down Ally."

"What should-" Ally Riis was in tears, "We should-"

"I called the sheriff." John said, his gaze scanning the horizon, "Eben'll fix this. Him and Stella will find this bastard and stop him honey."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as a vampire slid out of the darkness behind them, hands raised.

"Don't worry."