Prologue: First Encounter

(Please note that this is an Alternate Universe. It does not strictly follow the Comic Book, Television Series or the Video Games in terms of canon character story line or time line. There will be factors taken from all three universes such as characters as scenarios.)

Ashley,

I have gone to Athens to see my brother. I told you he was attacked by a sick dog last week. He isn't doing very well. I don't expect to be gone very long. Please remember to feed the cats every day and let the dogs in from the porch. There are dinners already prepared in the refrigerator. Here's my brothers home phone if you can't reach my cell phone.

Esta

Ashley crumpled the paper up bitterly as she stumbled across the kitchen tiles. Her maid, Esta, was a middle aged woman who had been in her family since her mother passed away. Her mother had always been the stay at home type; doing the cooking and the cleaning like they still lived in the 1920's. Ashley and her father would have starved or died the weight of their own garbage if not for Esta. But since her fathers death she felt like the maid had become more of a problem than a help. With the economy slowly sinking, fewer and fewer people could hire in house help and Esta had two children at college. Maybe Esta missed having a small child to take care of but it felt as though she didn't understand that Ashley was no longer a child.

Ashley was turning 27 in May and was less than 4 months away from completing her final year in her Medical Graduate program. She was far from a child and was waiting for the day when people stopped treating her like one. She pulled the front of her robe closed as she walked into the dining room. Every morning Esta would bring in the morning paper for her father who would sit at the head of the long empty table and drink his coffee.

Daniel Naylor had died nearly a year ago from a heart attack. He had been a healthy man in his late forties and his death had been sudden and swift. Few people attended his funeral and even fewer missed him after his passing. Relatives were quick to pick up their share of the fortune and return to their lives. Cruel and intelligent, her father had made a large sum of money from his investments in the stocks even in the nation wide depression. Many believed he had men in high places that owed him a few favors but nothing anyone could prove. The tradition of paper and coffee had been passed down to her whenever she was home. There was no paper or coffee on the table for her that morning with Esta gone.

Ashley opened the door and Sebastian came charging through door screaming like a banshee. She jumped and nearly fell backwards as the door slammed shut. The black cat hurried under the couch as if the ghost of Old Yeller were chasing after him.

"Stupid cat..." Ashley pulled the door open again and stepped into the warm spring air. It must have been later in the morning than she realized. She was used to the night shifts and falling asleep at the break of dawn and the late morning had never existed to her. The paper was laying in the middle of the stone walkway leading up to the house. The streets seemed to be more empty than usual. She expected to see children waiting for their school buses to arrive or wives tiding up the gardens and pools. But there was no one outside aside from a couple walking down the sidewalk.

"Oh what the..." Ashley bent down to pick up the newspaper and spotted what had scared the cat. One of the miniature lamps that lined the walkway had tipped over, the post being the only thing still in the ground, the lamp shade cracked on the cement with shards of glass scattered everywhere.

String of Murders: Gang or Coincidence?

A string of violent murders spread across the county late last night. Corpses littered back allies of the main city as dozens of missing persons were simultaneously filed between 11 PM late Monday night and 6 AM early Tuesday morning. Bodies found across the city all report to have some kind of bite wound or scratch that is consistent with humans but the possibility of animals being the cause have not been ruled out. The Athens City Police Department has refused to comment at this time but assures the public that there is a full scale investigation underway.

Con't Page A6.

Ashley stared at the large picture centered on the front page of the Athens Banner-Herald Newspaper. It was a black and white photo of a police car parked outside of a dark alleyway in what seemed like the early hours of the morning. Two police officers were talking to the Coroner over a body covered in a sheet. A dark spot below the head shaped lump indicated an injury on the shoulder region. The large stain indicated a lot of blood had poured from the wound, a possible severing of the Carotid Artery.

Scraping against the cement alerted her to the presence of another and she looked up from the newspaper. How long had she been standing in her driveway reading? The mail man slowly walked up the walkway. It was far too early for the mail to be delivered and all of the nearby houses had their papers sitting on the porches.

"Already have my paper, thanks." Ashley raised her paper in his direction and nearly dropped it when she finally looked at his face. His jaw and the front of his shirt was covered in blood and her eyes were light blue and incredibly blood shot. He shuffled slowly forward in a steady pace, barely bending his knees. "Sir, are you alright? Do you need me to call you an ambulance?" He didn't reply and continued to walk forward in the slow, staged pace. "Sir, I'm a doctor, maybe I can help you." He was less than 5 yards away when he suddenly growled and lunged at her. Ashley dropped the newspaper in shock and grabbed the sides of the mans chest. Her elbows locked and kept him at arms length as he snapped at her with his red tinted teeth. His hands clenched her biceps tightly and she could feel his nails dig into her skin under her robe.

"Get off me!" With all of her strength she pushed into his chest and he stumbled backwards, losing his grip on her arms. Time seemed to slow down as the man slowly fell backwards. A sharp piercing sound filled the air as he landed on the exposed spike of the walk way lamp and the spike poked through his chest. Ashley covered her mouth as the consequences of her actions hit her like a brick. The spike had impaled the left side of his upper chest, the exact position of his heart. She had just killed a man. Her natural reaction was to kneel by him and check for a pulse, to shake him and ask him if he was alright. But she knew otherwise, she knew that he was dead and that she was the cause of it. She needed to keep her hands off of him and not move the body or the surrounding crime scene. She needed to call the police, hours of questions, days of investigations and weeks of court hearings. Ashley watched as the blood spilled from the body onto the cement and over the newspaper.

"This blood is black... but that's impossible. Even if the blood from the wound was only spilling blood from the ventricles it still wouldn't be this dark. This blood hasn't seen oxygen for several hours..." Ashley looked around quickly and grabbed a stick from the lawn and turned the mans arm over; the backside of his arm was covered in what looked like a red rash. "Blood Lividity... This man appears to have been dead for 8 to 12 hours." She had never heard or read about the blood pooling the entirety of the body while still being alive. This was impossible or at the very least a scientific anomaly. The man suddenly twitched and grabbed onto the stick. Ashley screamed out of shock and backed away from the man she had assumed was dead. He seemed to be stuck on the spike sticking out of his chest and couldn't do anything but reach out towards her and snap his teeth.

"No... you're dead... how are you still moving!" Ashley ran back into the house and slammed the door behind her.