Ah, well, as tempted as I am to pretend that this is now just the adventures of Ben and Jimmy, I think you've read the story so far and know that Red's not dead (yet).
Surveying the damage "That was tough to kill," said Ben. He kicked the corpse of what I assumed was a chupacapra and it barely moved. He kicked it again, more cautiously. "And it's damn heavy too," he said. Bending down, he tried to pick it up, and while he succeeded it was clearly an effort and he only hauled it slowly off the ground. Thick black ichor dripped from bullet holes, but it was tarlike and setting already and made me wonder what we'd had to shoot to kill the thing in the first place. "Dense," grunted Ben. "Must have bones made of lead." He let it fall to the ground and sniffed his hands. "Smells like a paint-shop, too." "I'm fine, thanks for asking," I said, getting up. I stretched, feeling pain run down my left-side, and then a bunch of smaller pains over on my right side. Rolling around on the ground seemed to have bruised me. "You're welcome for us saving your life," said Ben just as smartly, and we grinned at each other. "What do we do with this?" asked Jimmy. "Leave it," said Ben. "I'm not burying something that tried to kill me. Not unless we think it won't dead unless it's buried." He looked at me, and I shrugged. "I think that's vampires," I said. "Might not hurt to cut its head off though." "What if the others find it?" asked Jimmy, and for the first time on this trip I wished briefly that he'd stop asking questions, or at least stop asking difficult questions that I should have been asking myself. "We need to get out of here," I said. "But... yeah, after this little adventure I'm not sure we can leave tonight." "Tomorrow morning makes more sense," said Ben, looking at the sun in the sky. It was already past noon. "Even if we hurry the packing we'd be setting out as it was getting dark, and we know these things hunt at night." "So we probably need to hide the corpse," I said. Jimmy nodded, and I noticed that he was still quite pale, and realised that this might just have been the most meaningful fight of his young life. "We can drag it into a building," he said. "It went in there itself, so we know there's a way in." "Not much choice," said Ben. "Unless we want to drag it back to that temple and leave it down there. We know we can lock the door at least. I did, honestly, think about it, but the idea of dragging that heavy corpse all that way was more than I wanted to think about for any length of time, so we heaved it over to the building and then started looking for a way in. The building was blackened in patches, and veins of black ran out from each patch, connecting them to other patches. When I looked more closely it looked even more like the stonework somehow had cancer; the black seemed to be different but somehow included in the stone. There was still gold plate here and there but it was brittle and crumbled when I touched it if it was near the black patches. The veins ran down to the ground too, but then they either stopped or ran underground, because they didn't run along the street. Looking down the street, the black patches got bigger and denser as the street progressed. "Found a door," said Jimmy from just round the side of the building. "And it opens too!"
Hiding the body strikes me as a very good idea. I can just imagine how its brethren would respond to finding it in the middle of the night, left in the street.
Not that I'm thrilled about the cancerous buildings, mind you.
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Ah, well, as tempted as I am to pretend that this is now just the adventures of Ben and Jimmy, I think you've read the story so far and know that Red's not dead (yet).
Surveying the damage
"That was tough to kill," said Ben. He kicked the corpse of what I assumed was a chupacapra and it barely moved. He kicked it again, more cautiously. "And it's damn heavy too," he said. Bending down, he tried to pick it up, and while he succeeded it was clearly an effort and he only hauled it slowly off the ground. Thick black ichor dripped from bullet holes, but it was tarlike and setting already and made me wonder what we'd had to shoot to kill the thing in the first place. "Dense," grunted Ben. "Must have bones made of lead." He let it fall to the ground and sniffed his hands. "Smells like a paint-shop, too."
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," I said, getting up. I stretched, feeling pain run down my left-side, and then a bunch of smaller pains over on my right side. Rolling around on the ground seemed to have bruised me.
"You're welcome for us saving your life," said Ben just as smartly, and we grinned at each other.
"What do we do with this?" asked Jimmy.
"Leave it," said Ben. "I'm not burying something that tried to kill me. Not unless we think it won't dead unless it's buried." He looked at me, and I shrugged.
"I think that's vampires," I said. "Might not hurt to cut its head off though."
"What if the others find it?" asked Jimmy, and for the first time on this trip I wished briefly that he'd stop asking questions, or at least stop asking difficult questions that I should have been asking myself.
"We need to get out of here," I said. "But... yeah, after this little adventure I'm not sure we can leave tonight."
"Tomorrow morning makes more sense," said Ben, looking at the sun in the sky. It was already past noon. "Even if we hurry the packing we'd be setting out as it was getting dark, and we know these things hunt at night."
"So we probably need to hide the corpse," I said. Jimmy nodded, and I noticed that he was still quite pale, and realised that this might just have been the most meaningful fight of his young life.
"We can drag it into a building," he said. "It went in there itself, so we know there's a way in."
"Not much choice," said Ben. "Unless we want to drag it back to that temple and leave it down there. We know we can lock the door at least.
I did, honestly, think about it, but the idea of dragging that heavy corpse all that way was more than I wanted to think about for any length of time, so we heaved it over to the building and then started looking for a way in.
The building was blackened in patches, and veins of black ran out from each patch, connecting them to other patches. When I looked more closely it looked even more like the stonework somehow had cancer; the black seemed to be different but somehow included in the stone. There was still gold plate here and there but it was brittle and crumbled when I touched it if it was near the black patches. The veins ran down to the ground too, but then they either stopped or ran underground, because they didn't run along the street. Looking down the street, the black patches got bigger and denser as the street progressed.
"Found a door," said Jimmy from just round the side of the building. "And it opens too!"
Greg - 'yet'. Hah. Hah.
Hiding the body strikes me as a very good idea. I can just imagine how its brethren would respond to finding it in the middle of the night, left in the street.
Not that I'm thrilled about the cancerous buildings, mind you.
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