Chapter Text
CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE
Chapter One
In the year 1994, from out of space came a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. Across the desert wasteland once called Nevada rides a mysterious band of unfriendly looking individuals. They are riding giant rats, with boar like tusks protruding from their mouths and bull like horns from their heads. In the middle of their backs are sharklike fins, though they don't appear to be aquatic beasts. They're being ridden by a band of groundlings, ratlike humanoids with foul dispositions and nasty tempers. There are roughly a dozen of them, wearing rough togas and carrying energy weapons which look very much like flashlights. Leading this group is a man dressed as a wizard. He wears long flowing robes of pink and white, and a dark blue mask with red glass lenses over the eyes, designed to look like the face of a demon. The groundlings call him 'Yando', though in truth that is not his real name. In fact, he's not even a real wizard. His real name is Womac.
Womac was the village scholar in the town of Beverly. He had used the ancient books he'd found at an old magic club to teach himself slight of hand and other simple optical illusions to fool the people of Beverly into thinking that he was a wizard. Then under the guise of 'Yando', he began extorting money and goods from the people of Beverly. He was getting away with it, and making a prettty good living at it, until was found out by a barbarian named Thundarr and his companions, Ookla the mok and the sorceress, Princess Ariel. Once he had been captured, Ayrlo, the village leader, had him imprisoned for his crimes. After a few years, Womac begged for forgiveness. Ayrlo finally granted Womac amnesty, but only on the condition that he leave Beverly and never return. Womac agreed, and left Beverly immediately. Eventually he made his way to the ruins of Las Vegas. The villagers living there now simply call it 'Vegas'. Womac found one building that was still more or less in one piece and decided to fix it up. It was called Caesar's Palace. Being a scholar also made Womac somewhat of a historian, and he knew that Vegas used to be a city of pleasures. He decided to make it so again. Scrounging parts from the ruins of the city, he rebuilt the casino. He also repaired the adjoining sports arena. Once the work was done, he renamed himself Caesar and opened up the first gambling house the town had seen in centuries. It took time, but eventually the thrill of betting on games and sporting events began to catch on and Womac, or Caesar, began making an honest, if not completely ethical, profit. Then one night while calculating his winnings, he came across a map indicating that a treasure granting unlimited magical power was hidden somewhere out in the desert. Thus he once again donned his 'Yando' disguise and went about recruiting henchmen for the task. Groundlings dislike humans and would never have agreed had they known the truth, but they are fearful of magic. Once Yando had demonstrated his 'powers' to them, they were eager to aid him in his search.
Now they are riding out towards the ancient ruins marked on the map. Soon they come upon a metal fencepost. Hanging from it is a metal sign which reads "Area 51: Trespassers Will Be Shot". Yando dismounts and tethers his rat to the post, and the groundlings follow suit. Yando and his groundling henchmen slip silently through the shadows. As they round one corner they see a light moving up ahead. Quickly, the trespassers duck behind a rock outcropping and watch. The light is being produced by a metal hooded lantern, being carried by a human wearing a faded, olive green uniform which Yando recognizes as that which was worn by The United States military more than two thousand years ago. In the sentry's other hand he's carrying a wooden staff, though he's holding it more like a spear. Accompanying the sentry is another guard wearing a nearly identical uniform, and carrying what looks like a very heavy and powerful crossbow. Yando signals the groundlings, who take aim with their energy weapons and shoot the guards with stun blasts. As soon as the humans fall unconcious, Yando and the groundlings dash over to investigate. Yando finds the guards choice of weapons to be very curious, especially for humans. The crossbow has a crucifix set on the front as a sight. And rather than shooting proper steel tipped crossbow bolts, it appears as though the crossbow was designed to shoot wooden stakes, as thick as the handles of spades. And the staff was in fact a spear, but it has no steel tip either. It's end was simply wittled to a sharp point and then charred for strength. Yando shrugs off the peculiarities and douses the lantern. Then he and his groundlings continue on their search, confident that these men were guarding that which they sought. Soon they come upon another pair of sentries. Once more the groundlings stun them with their energy weapons. On closer inspection, Yando and the groundlings discover that these men too are armed with sharpened sticks and a crossbow which shoots wooden stakes. They meet two more pairs of sentries, and they too are rendered unconcious with stun blasts from the groundlings' energy weapons. Finally the raiding party finds the building that they are looking for. Its roof is built in a cylindrical design, with the main doors facing north and the rear of the building facing south. The roof appears to be made of a black reflective material, which Yando recognizes as solar energy panels. The would-be wizard nods in understanding as he realizes the logic of the design. During the day the solar panels are always facing the sun, powering the machines and recharging the batteries for use at night. What concerns Yando is the series of steel oil drums spaced evenly apart surrounding the building. Inside each of these drums burns a fire, and standing next to each of these fires is an armed guard. Still, they are spaced fairly far appart. However it will still take perfect timing on behalf of all of the groundlings to keep the guards from sounding the alarm. Yando and his cohorts creep down to the building, sticking to the shadows, and surround their prey. In a single devestating attack, they render all of the outside guards unconcious. They then sneak up on the building and peak inside. There are at least a dozen armed guards milling about inside the building, all of them carrying heavy crossbows and with a weapons rack filled with wooden spears close at hand. Yando throws a handful of smoke bombs into the building successfully blinding the guards within. Before they can get their bearings and sound an alarm, the groundlings rush in blazing away with their energy weapons. When the smoke clears, all of the guards are lying unconcious on the floor.
At the back of the building, Yando and his groundling henchmen find an elevator that's large enough to fit all of them. They step inside and take the elevator down into the sub-basement. It takes them deep into the earth, making for a very long ride. When the elevator finally stops and the doors open, they find four more guards sitting around a small table playing a game of cards. Before any of them can react, the groundlings stun them with their energy weapons. They carefully make their way along the corridors, searching for the treasure that is important enough to warrant such security. They find the guards' barracks, with roughly half the cots filled with sleeping men and women. They gently close the door so as to not disturb the sleeping soldiers, then Yando takes his energy weapon and adjusts some knobs on the side. He then points the weapon at the edge of the steel door and fires it. The laser melts the metal door to the door frame, welding it shut. But by the time the laser gets to the door knob, the weapon sputters and dies. In any event, the guards have effectively been rendered useless. They searched some more rooms. They found a couple that looked to be the private quarters of the officers in charge of this installation. They find the mess hall, where nearly a dozen soldiers are eating a late meal. The groundlings quickly run in with their weapons blazing and immobilize all the soldiers in midmeal. They even kick in the kitchen door and stun the chef. Yando notices that they seem to be dining on pasta in garlic sauce this evening. The kitchen is heavily decorated with wreaths of garlic. Even the bread has garlic baked into it. Yando and his crew continue their search. They come upon the compounds recreation room. There are several guards in here as well, taking time off from their daily routine of protecting whatever it is that they're guarding. There's a dark haired woman playing a game with a blonde haired man, where they hit a small white ball back and forth across a table with wooden paddles. There are two men on the far side of the room using sticks to knock coloured balls around on another table. Over in the corner are two men throwing small metal darts at a round multicoloured target. And nearest the entrance is a pair of men playing a card game with three women, a blonde, a redhead, and a ravenette. All five players are in various stages of undress, the women down to nothing but their undergarments. Yando recognizes the game as 'Poker', and realizes that they're using it as an excuse to begin mating. He sends in his groundlings, who catch the soldiers unawares and stuns them. Finally, they come upon that which they've been seeking. At the end of one long corridor is what appears to be the door of a gigantic vault. Stationed in front of it are six guards armed with heavy crossbows and wooden stakes. With them is a man who appears to be in charge. He's dressed in a blue dress uniform, which Yando recognizes from his historical research as the dress uniform of a United States Marine Corps officer. Judging from the stripes on his arm he is a captain, or at least the uniform once belonged to a captain. A saber hangs from the Marine Captain's sam brown belt. Just like with the main building above, Yando throws smoke bombs down the hall at the guards. This time the bombs fall short and the guards aren't nearly as disoriented as the others were earlier. The captain pulls the alarm to alert the rest of the guards, unaware that they're the only ones left. The other six guards fire their crossbows blindly down the corridor. Yando's groundlings fire their energy weapons wildly, more often than not missing terribly. When they do hit however, the guard is knocked down and out of the fight. Eventually only the captain is left. As the smoke from Yando's stage trick clears, the captain draws his sabre and bravely charges the intruders. Three groundlings hit him with stun blasts simultaneously before he even got half way. Yando walks up and inspects the vault door. There's no way their energy weapons will be able to cut through this contraption. He then inspects the locking mechanism. It requires an retinal scan to open. He turns and points at the Marine Captain.
"Bring him to me!" commands the phony wizard.
The groundlings are quick to obey. They drag the officer over the the scanner, force his eyelids open, and place his face next to the sensor. A laser reads his retina and a panel slides open just beneath it. The panel has the silhouette of a human hand on it. They peal off the officer's white glove and place his hand on the sensor. It scans his palm print and a microphone pops out. They search about for a guard not quite fully unconcious and pick him up. He's dead weight, but he's groaning. They hold his face next to the microphone and then one of the groundlings bites him. He screams out in pain, prompting one of the groundlings to crack him on the skull with the energy weapon to knock him unconcious. But it worked. The voice recognition program deactivated the locks on the door and the vault opens up with a hiss, as it was sealed air tight. The door opens up to a long hallway, which disappears into the darkness. Several groundlings pull out torches and soon have them lit. They are close to their goal now, they can sense it. To keep from being locked in, one of the groundlings uses his energy weapon to weld the hinges of the vault door in place. Like before, the weapon became burnt out and useless. Now they walk single file into the long dark hallway, with Yando bringing up the rear. At the end of the hall are a set of stairs that head down deeper into the darkness. Carefully the groundlings descend the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs is a large, heavy iron gate which is chained and locked with an ancient padlock. A single laser blast destroys the lock and allows the lead groundling to push the gate open. It opens up to another long and dark hallway. They continue along, cautiously eyeing every shadow. The hallway opens up to another hall which intersects it. Just as the lead groundling steps into the adjoining hall he hears a 'click'. A split second later, flames burst from the wall directly ahead of him, completely engulphing him. He screams in agony and falls dead at his comrades' feet. Yando comes up to the front of the collumn and inspects the area. Right by the dead groundling's foot is a raised flagstone. He motions for the others to step back, then presses it and throws himself flat on the floor. Once more flames shoot forth from the wall across the way.
"Watch out for this stone," warns the 'wizard'.
One by one the groundlings follow their leader past the trap. They head down the hall, which turns up ahead. Shortly after making the turn, the groundling who's now in the lead sees an opening midway down the hall leading further into this compound. Moments after pointing it out he hears a 'click'. Before he can react, blades swing out from the walls at neck, hip, and knee level. The groundling falls the the floor in pieces before he even has a chance to scream. Again, Yando investigates. And again he discovers a slightly raised flagstone.
"Don't step there," he warns, pointing to the stone and then slides past it while keeping his back to the wall.
Again the groundlings slip past the death trap. When they get to the turn off the now deceased groundling had indicated, it opens up onto another hallway. It is now obvious that they are in some kind of maze, and Yando is certain that the death traps are only placed in the sections that will take them closer to their goal. The next trap they find is right in the archway leading to the next hall. The unfortunate groundling triggered it and was impailed through the groin as several six foot long wooden spikes shot straight up through the floor. The others are able to slip in between the spikes, but can do nothing for their companion. Another groundling is crushed by a deadfall. Yet another is sandwiched between two beds of wooden spikes which swing down from hidden compartments in the ceiling. Another falls through a trap door onto a bed of wooden spikes. Finally, with only six groundlings left, they make it to the centre of the maze. There they find a large pair of heavy steel doors with great bronze crucifixes bolted to them. The doors have been barred, chained, locked, and welded shut. It takes several laser blasts with the energy weapons, causing a few of them to burn out, but they finally get the doors open. Inside they see a long iron box, like a casket, in the middle of the room. All over the walls are crucifixes of various sizes and makes. Some simple wood, others gem incrusted precious metals. On the far wall is the life sized statue of a half naked man wearing a crown of thorns and nailed to a cross.
"What is that?" asks one of the groundlings.
"A warning," answers Yando, being careful to keep the uncertainty from his voice, "They're telling us that that's the penalty for attempting to steal this treasure."
"Then let us take it and be gone from here," says another groundling, and the others all nod in agreement.
"Open the box!" commands Yando, "It shall be easier than carrying out the whole thing."
The groundlings blast the locks with their energy weapons, then pull crosses from the walls and use them to pry open the casket. They did not expect what they found inside. There's no treasure, no secret power source, only a mummified corpse with a wooden stake in its chest.
"What is this?!" cries one of the groundlings, and he pulls the stake from the corpse's chest. "You promised us power! You promised us riches without end! Now what do we have?"
"Bloooooood . . ." says a raspy voice from behind the groundlings.
They turn and gasp, as they see the mummified corpse sit up and turn to look at them. Its eyes are glowing red and its teeth have grown into long sharp fangs.
"Blooooooood!" it says again, this time more urgently.
Faster than any of the can react, faster than any of them had thought possible, the corpse leaps from the casket and takles the groundling to the floor, sinking its teeth into the groundling's neck. Yando and the remaining groundlings all scream and run for their lives. Yando leaps over the pit trap which took the last groundligs life. One be one each groundling leaps over the pit of spikes. When the fourth groundling its the floor on the other side, he trips and tumbles to the ground. He quickly looks behind them to see if the last of their group had made it, only to realize that he is the last of the group. He gets back to his feet and runs after his companions. They get to the next trap and one by one they slip past as quickly as they can. The third groundling turns to help the fourth past the trap, just in time to see the last in the line up be suddenly dragged off into the darkness. Now with only three of them and Yando left, the groundling turns and bolts. Yando and each groundling slips past the impailing trap. When the second groundling turns back to see if the others are coming, he soon discovers that there are no others from their group behind them. He turns and runs, praying to any gods that might be listening to get him out of here alive. Yando is running full speed down the corridor. He sees the dimembered remains of one of his groundling companions and stops dead in his tracks. The groundling right behind him isn't so lucky. He's so terrified of the monster they'd awakened that he blindly runs right into the trap, and in seconds is lying in pieces next to his friend. Yando dives through the death trap just as the deadly blades are retracting, tumbles on the other side, and grabs the dropped energy weapon of his doomed companion. He looks behind him, and sees his final groundling companion running full out for his leader. Then the groundling screams as he is dragged off into the shadows. Yando turns and flees. He comes to the entrance to this labrynth and blots right through, ignoring the flame trap he knows he's going to trigger. The hidden flame thrower spits out a stream of fire after Yando, just barely catching his flowing white cloak. Yando throws the burning garment to the floor, hoping that the flames will keep that monster at bay. He starts sprinting up the steps, two at a time, all the while firing stun blasts blindly behind him in the hopes of keeping the monster away from him. He gets to the top of the stairs and stops dead in his tracks. There, standing in the entrance of the vault, is the very monster he was running from.