Chapter 6
Beka's eyes were closed as she waited for the blinding pain to strike, followed by the blissful oblivion of her death.
She felt fangs scrape her neck, then a sudden rush of air as her captors' bodies were pulled away from her. Her eyes snapped open. "Tyr!" she exclaimed, as the Nietzschean hit Doug with an uppercut that sent him sprawling to the ground. She'd never been happier to see anyone in her whole life.
When the two men who had attacked Beka were on the ground, writhing in pain, Tyr picked up his Gauss Rifle, spraying them with rounds of rifle fire. They slumped to the ground, unmoving.
Tyr nodded with satisfaction. That takes care of those two. Still, he was puzzled as to why Beka, who was a competent fighter and excellent shot, hadn't been able to dispatch her opponents on her own. Had she been injured when they'd come upon her? Perhaps due to their fall from the sky to this strange world.
He held out his hand, helping her to her feet. Without the support of her captors, she'd slumped to the ground and remained there, unable to move. He visually inspected her, looking for injuries. Blood was oozing from scrapes in her neck, otherwise, she appeared unharmed.
"Tyr," Beka said urgently. "Turn around."
He gave her a puzzled look. "Turn around?"
She pushed him around, pointing to the two men, who were climbing back to their feet. "These things don't die when you shoot them!"
Tyr's eyes widened. Now that was new. But still, there was one way to take care of them. As the first attacked, he grabbed his neck, snapping it with a sickening crunch.
The second man, the blond man known as Ray was moving more cautiously, crouched in a fighter's stance.
Tyr feinted left, distracting the other man, then moved in to the right, capturing Ray's neck in one large hand. "I look forward to snapping your scrawny neck," he growled.
The blond began to laugh uproariously. Obviously, these people knew nothing about vampires. And he wasn't about to enlighten them. No matter how many times he and Doug were 'killed,' they would always return, unless they were staked or decapitated. And those two didn't look like they were packing stakes.
Tyr fought viciously, using his expert skill to subdue the other man, breaking his neck and tossing him next to his friend.
"Are you all right?" he asked Beka.
She merely nodded, her throat burning from when she'd been grabbed. "Thanks," she rasped.
"Don't mention it," he smiled. "Do you have any idea why those men were trying to kill you?"
Beka shook her head. "No. But they were trying to bite me. I'm starting to think we landed on a planet of insane super-human cannibals."
Tyr's eyes narrowed. Admittedly, the attackers were stronger than normal humans, and they did appear to try to bite Beka, but a planet of cannibals seemed highly improbable. Then again, he and Beka had been thrown through a mysterious time/space tunnel, lost their ship, and landed on a strange new planet populated by people impervious to gunfire. "Let's go. Undoubtedly someone will come looking for these two...sooner or later."
Beka nodded. "Getting out of the alley is good." She'd nearly died more than once here today. She'd like to put as much distance between herself and this alley as was humanly possible.
The two headed for the exit from the alley, but were stopped short in their tracks by an unbelievable sight. Despite their broken necks, Ray and Doug were on their feet...and they looked pissed.
"Uh, I think this is the point where we make a run for it," Beka suggested, only to find any hope of escape cut off by the appearance of two more men near the opening to the street.
The two new arrivals, like their adversaries, had ridged foreheads and large, fang-like teeth. Beka involuntarily took a step backwards. Their attackers weren't just gun-proof, they were immortal. She and Tyr were going to die.
Tyr stared, dumbfounded, at the men before him. How could anyone be on his feet after having his neck broken in two? They hadn't been breathing, their hearts hadn't been beating. They'd clearly been dead. Wait. He stared at the four. Walking and talking, certainly, but still not breathing, still lacking a heartbeat.
"They're dead," he told Beka.
"Zombies?" she wondered. "Like the Bokor?"
"Does it really matter what we are?" asked one of the newcomers, a tall, lanky man with wearing jeans and a leather jacket. "You'll be equally dead no matter what."
"That remains to be seen," Tyr cautioned. Despite the overwhelming odds and seemingly unstoppable opponents, Tyr Anasazi, out of Victoria by Barbarossa, was not ready to die.
"You can't kill us," Doug growled, then suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust.
"They might not be able to," interrupted Cordelia, brandishing her crossbow. "But we can." Behind her stood Angel, Gunn, and Fred -- all armed.
"That's right boys," quipped Gunn, gripping his axe tighter. "It's time to die."
Suddenly, the alley was a blur of activity. A vampire rushed Angel, who swung out with his left hand, beating back his opponent, while pulling a stake from his right sleeve. Angel's opponent stared in disbelief, then was quickly dusted.
Gunn jumped in front of Fred as the jeans-clad vampire attacked. He swung his axe, catching the vamp in the shoulder before taking a hard punch to the solar plexus. Fred let a bolt fly from her crossbow, but was knocked off balance by the attacking vampire and her shot hit his shoulder. Momentarily distracted by the injury, the vamp was unprepared for Gunn's next blow, the axe severing his head from his body, turning him to dust as well.
Beka and Tyr watched the proceedings with rapt fascination. These things could be killed, they realized. They just hadn't known how to do it.
Ray looked around in fear as his compatriots fell. They were vampires. They were supposed to be immortal, eternal. He couldn't die here, in the alley.
Ray's head snapped back at Tyr's first punch. He recovered quickly, blocking Tyr's next shot, but he was no match for the enraged Nietzschean. Tyr yelled, an incoherent sound of rage, then ripped Doug's head completely off his body. As he'd predicted, the man exploded in yet another cloud of dust.
Beka walked to Tyr's side, unable to do anything but stare. Not only had they landed on a planet of evil, super-human cannibals, they'd landed on a planet of evil, super-human cannibals that turned to dust when beheaded or poked with a sharp wooden stick. Truly bizarre.
Beka pinched herself. Was she dreaming? This couldn't be real, could it?
Tyr stared at the strange humans who had saved their lives. The apparent leader was a woman, tall and slim with shoulder-length dark blonde hair. She was holding some sort of ancient projectile weapon. Her companions carried other primitive weaponry. The bald black man carried an axe, the other woman had a projectile weapon similar to the first woman's. Curiously, the tall man with dark hair had held a sword, but had released it to jab at their attackers with a sharp stick.
Beka had retrieved her Gauss gun and pointed it at the newcomers. True, they'd saved herself and Tyr from certain death at the hands of indestructible cannibals, but they might have had something even more sinister in mind. She didn't know if the gun would stop them, but she felt much more comfortable with it in her hand. They'd landed on a bizarre world where guns didn't kill people, but poking them with wooden sticks caused them to explode into dust. She wasn't going to take anything for granted.
Cordy and crew approached the two slowly. If her vision had been correct -- and it always was -- the lanky blonde and the buff black man had come from a world much different than this one. Time travel, parallel universe, she didn't know exactly where they were from, just that they would play a key role in the upcoming apocalypse.
She smiled, pointing her crossbow away from Tyr and Beka. "Welcome to Los Angeles."
Beka's eyes were closed as she waited for the blinding pain to strike, followed by the blissful oblivion of her death.
She felt fangs scrape her neck, then a sudden rush of air as her captors' bodies were pulled away from her. Her eyes snapped open. "Tyr!" she exclaimed, as the Nietzschean hit Doug with an uppercut that sent him sprawling to the ground. She'd never been happier to see anyone in her whole life.
When the two men who had attacked Beka were on the ground, writhing in pain, Tyr picked up his Gauss Rifle, spraying them with rounds of rifle fire. They slumped to the ground, unmoving.
Tyr nodded with satisfaction. That takes care of those two. Still, he was puzzled as to why Beka, who was a competent fighter and excellent shot, hadn't been able to dispatch her opponents on her own. Had she been injured when they'd come upon her? Perhaps due to their fall from the sky to this strange world.
He held out his hand, helping her to her feet. Without the support of her captors, she'd slumped to the ground and remained there, unable to move. He visually inspected her, looking for injuries. Blood was oozing from scrapes in her neck, otherwise, she appeared unharmed.
"Tyr," Beka said urgently. "Turn around."
He gave her a puzzled look. "Turn around?"
She pushed him around, pointing to the two men, who were climbing back to their feet. "These things don't die when you shoot them!"
Tyr's eyes widened. Now that was new. But still, there was one way to take care of them. As the first attacked, he grabbed his neck, snapping it with a sickening crunch.
The second man, the blond man known as Ray was moving more cautiously, crouched in a fighter's stance.
Tyr feinted left, distracting the other man, then moved in to the right, capturing Ray's neck in one large hand. "I look forward to snapping your scrawny neck," he growled.
The blond began to laugh uproariously. Obviously, these people knew nothing about vampires. And he wasn't about to enlighten them. No matter how many times he and Doug were 'killed,' they would always return, unless they were staked or decapitated. And those two didn't look like they were packing stakes.
Tyr fought viciously, using his expert skill to subdue the other man, breaking his neck and tossing him next to his friend.
"Are you all right?" he asked Beka.
She merely nodded, her throat burning from when she'd been grabbed. "Thanks," she rasped.
"Don't mention it," he smiled. "Do you have any idea why those men were trying to kill you?"
Beka shook her head. "No. But they were trying to bite me. I'm starting to think we landed on a planet of insane super-human cannibals."
Tyr's eyes narrowed. Admittedly, the attackers were stronger than normal humans, and they did appear to try to bite Beka, but a planet of cannibals seemed highly improbable. Then again, he and Beka had been thrown through a mysterious time/space tunnel, lost their ship, and landed on a strange new planet populated by people impervious to gunfire. "Let's go. Undoubtedly someone will come looking for these two...sooner or later."
Beka nodded. "Getting out of the alley is good." She'd nearly died more than once here today. She'd like to put as much distance between herself and this alley as was humanly possible.
The two headed for the exit from the alley, but were stopped short in their tracks by an unbelievable sight. Despite their broken necks, Ray and Doug were on their feet...and they looked pissed.
"Uh, I think this is the point where we make a run for it," Beka suggested, only to find any hope of escape cut off by the appearance of two more men near the opening to the street.
The two new arrivals, like their adversaries, had ridged foreheads and large, fang-like teeth. Beka involuntarily took a step backwards. Their attackers weren't just gun-proof, they were immortal. She and Tyr were going to die.
Tyr stared, dumbfounded, at the men before him. How could anyone be on his feet after having his neck broken in two? They hadn't been breathing, their hearts hadn't been beating. They'd clearly been dead. Wait. He stared at the four. Walking and talking, certainly, but still not breathing, still lacking a heartbeat.
"They're dead," he told Beka.
"Zombies?" she wondered. "Like the Bokor?"
"Does it really matter what we are?" asked one of the newcomers, a tall, lanky man with wearing jeans and a leather jacket. "You'll be equally dead no matter what."
"That remains to be seen," Tyr cautioned. Despite the overwhelming odds and seemingly unstoppable opponents, Tyr Anasazi, out of Victoria by Barbarossa, was not ready to die.
"You can't kill us," Doug growled, then suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust.
"They might not be able to," interrupted Cordelia, brandishing her crossbow. "But we can." Behind her stood Angel, Gunn, and Fred -- all armed.
"That's right boys," quipped Gunn, gripping his axe tighter. "It's time to die."
Suddenly, the alley was a blur of activity. A vampire rushed Angel, who swung out with his left hand, beating back his opponent, while pulling a stake from his right sleeve. Angel's opponent stared in disbelief, then was quickly dusted.
Gunn jumped in front of Fred as the jeans-clad vampire attacked. He swung his axe, catching the vamp in the shoulder before taking a hard punch to the solar plexus. Fred let a bolt fly from her crossbow, but was knocked off balance by the attacking vampire and her shot hit his shoulder. Momentarily distracted by the injury, the vamp was unprepared for Gunn's next blow, the axe severing his head from his body, turning him to dust as well.
Beka and Tyr watched the proceedings with rapt fascination. These things could be killed, they realized. They just hadn't known how to do it.
Ray looked around in fear as his compatriots fell. They were vampires. They were supposed to be immortal, eternal. He couldn't die here, in the alley.
Ray's head snapped back at Tyr's first punch. He recovered quickly, blocking Tyr's next shot, but he was no match for the enraged Nietzschean. Tyr yelled, an incoherent sound of rage, then ripped Doug's head completely off his body. As he'd predicted, the man exploded in yet another cloud of dust.
Beka walked to Tyr's side, unable to do anything but stare. Not only had they landed on a planet of evil, super-human cannibals, they'd landed on a planet of evil, super-human cannibals that turned to dust when beheaded or poked with a sharp wooden stick. Truly bizarre.
Beka pinched herself. Was she dreaming? This couldn't be real, could it?
Tyr stared at the strange humans who had saved their lives. The apparent leader was a woman, tall and slim with shoulder-length dark blonde hair. She was holding some sort of ancient projectile weapon. Her companions carried other primitive weaponry. The bald black man carried an axe, the other woman had a projectile weapon similar to the first woman's. Curiously, the tall man with dark hair had held a sword, but had released it to jab at their attackers with a sharp stick.
Beka had retrieved her Gauss gun and pointed it at the newcomers. True, they'd saved herself and Tyr from certain death at the hands of indestructible cannibals, but they might have had something even more sinister in mind. She didn't know if the gun would stop them, but she felt much more comfortable with it in her hand. They'd landed on a bizarre world where guns didn't kill people, but poking them with wooden sticks caused them to explode into dust. She wasn't going to take anything for granted.
Cordy and crew approached the two slowly. If her vision had been correct -- and it always was -- the lanky blonde and the buff black man had come from a world much different than this one. Time travel, parallel universe, she didn't know exactly where they were from, just that they would play a key role in the upcoming apocalypse.
She smiled, pointing her crossbow away from Tyr and Beka. "Welcome to Los Angeles."