Chapter 10 Wellspring

John and Luna raced off into the forest away from Bullet town. John was overflowing with grief, anger and fury. The thought of someone harming his sister filled him with fury. Despite the rough childhood John had, he still loved her. When John was young, their family could only afford to send one of them to college, and they decided to send his older sister there. John resented her for this, of course he also had dreams and aspirations, however, left with no other choices, John went of to the military. Like so many other young adults with no other options in life.

Alice, his sister had good grades, and did well in college, and eventually became a lawyer. After getting her degree, she moved to her boyfriend’s hometown, where they eventually got married. John, was still in the military at this point and didn’t show up. He blamed it on his inability to get leave, however, somewhere in his heart he knew he still resented his sister for what had happened.

Yet, when his mother died in a car crash, and his father died form cancer not long after, John almost became a full time alcoholic. He wouldn’t leave his house, and just continued to wallow in his grief and drown himself in alcohol. Even though both him and his sister showed up for their parent’s funerals, they still didn’t speak much. However one day his sister came by and told him, how sorry she was. John wasn’t a man to cry easily or at all.

However, that day they both cried rivers. After both his parents passed away, he understood that family was still important, and now the only one he had left was his uncle who would come by now and then, and his sister. Even though he understood this, he didn’t know how to approach his sister, he had resented her for so long, he wondered if she would even forgive him. However, she had understood and had taken the initiative. After that day, they got along much better and would celebrate holidays together.

Now that they had made up and were on good terms, someone had taken her away from him? Absolutely not! John’s fury was almost tangible as he ran through the forest as fast as his body would allow him. In his fury he even forgot about Luna and left her behind. While Luna didn’t want to get left behind, there was nothing she could do, she just had to keep running as fast as she could so that she could at least not lag behind to much.

Eventually John started seeing fields and fences. Event though this town was much larger then John’s hometown, there were still agriculture going on, although not now. John continued running towards the town center. He had visited his sister quite a few times and knew approximately where Alice’s house is.

At this point John’s fury had cooled down a bit, as he tried to use his heartbeat sensor, however as expected he could not see anything. John didn’t think the town was empty however, he was pretty sure his heartbeat sensor didn’t work on humans. Why else would John just strut into his own house without a worry? Of course because he had already checked the house with his sensor and hadn’t seen anyone inside. He had payed a painful price for his confidence. He was not making that mistake again.

John was still full of fury, but he had enough sense to be careful as he raced of towards his house. Luna could of course tell where John was, so she simply followed after from a distance. Even with John’s superb vision he couldn’t see anyone in the town, it was eerily empty. Even though John didn’t notice them, didn’t mean there wasn’t something lurking in the shadows.

John eventually made it to his sister’s house and directly crushed the door open, fearing the worst. Inside there was dust everywhere, most things inside were untouched. John raced through the house, breaking door ways as he went. In the kitchen he saw a knife with old dried dark blood on it. John’s fury blossomed like a flower made of anger. He raced upstairs to his sister’s bedroom. As expected, it was empty. The whole house was eerily empty. However, just as he was about to look further, Luna chimed in telepathically “Alpha there are people outside, I think they are after you”. John quickly made his way outside, where he saw seven people standing in the drive way 10 or so yards away. Luna was stationed on top of a house not far away. They hadn’t spotted her yet.

“Look what the cat dragged in, an ugly beast” the man in the middle said with an ugly smirk. He had long silver hair, a black, white striped suit, a very narrow and pointy face, and he was very skinny as well. However, the six men next to him, looked more like zombies, they had the same build, skinny bodies and pointy faces but their faces and hair looked ravaged, like they had fought a lot. There was also a distinct lack of intelligence in their eyes. They looked exactly the same as the one that had attacked Bullet town.

“Who are you!?” John asked angrily. “Who am I doesn’t concern you, however, you being in the Kazan bratva’s territory does” he said with an ugly smile in a broken Russian accent. “Luna, you take care of those things, the one in the middle is mine” John told Luna. “If you wont tell me, then I will beat it out of you” John retorted with fury in his eyes, before shooting out at top speed towards the man in the middle.

Seeing this massive beast flying at him, gave the Russian gangster quite the scare, however he quickly adjusted himself. “protect me” he told the vampire spawn. However he suddenly sensed something from behind, and promptly turned around, where he saw Luna flying towards him as well. Another one?! He thought, this wasn’t a good situation, he could deal with one beast but two? That he wasn’t sure of.

However before he got time to think, John was already in his face, slicing his massive claws straight towards his head. It was much faster than he had expected, he managed to just barely duck before the massive claws, came swiping above his head. Shit, this guy is a pure evolved? I thought he was just some henchman, this is bad! The gangster though, He was starting to panic now. With his powers he had been uncontested, for so long against anyone except his boss, nobody could hurt him. However, just from this first exchange he could tell that this beast was much more powerful than him. Luckily, he wasn’t very good at fighting.

Mikhail, had grown up on the street with no money and no power. He had to fight tooth and nail, for even a scrap of bread. However that had all changed when he managed to get some money and came to the US and joined the Kazan bratva. They had given him power, respect and money, and now the bratva had given him even more power, power beyond any human, or so he thought.

Mikhail tried to get some swipes in with his long thin claws, however every time he got close, John’s claws would come swiping towards his head. Behind him Luna had already take care of four of the vampire spawns. However, that moment of carelessness cost him dearly as John’s right hand connected to his skull, sending him flying to the left into a house wall. John followed in hot pursuit, Mikhail, had four long gashes on the side of his head, which was beating and hurting like nothing he had ever experienced before. Suddenly a massive hand pick him by the neck. Mikhail tried to cut the hand, however, John was having none of his shit, and promptly ripped off Mikhail’s left arm. His right arm had been knocked out of it’s socket, when he hit the house wall.

Mikhail started screaming from the pain. Even for him, who had grown up on the tough streets of Russia, still couldn’t keep his calm when faced with this level of pain. However, John started squeezing his neck, quickly making it very hard for him to scream. “Who are you and where are the people of this town?” John asked angrily. “ack, *cough*, the ones still alive, are in a warehouse south of the town” he managed to squeeze through his almost crushed windpipe. Even though, Mikhail was a tough gangster, there was a point where even the toughest of men would give, after all, everyone values their own lives.

“Thank you for your cooperation” John said with an evil smile, before he showed his hand into the mans chest and ripped out his heart. Mikhail’s eyes went wide as he for a brief moment saw his own heart in John’s hand, before he died with disbelief in his eyes. John quickly threw the small heart into his mouth and swallowed. This heart wasn’t particularly good, it tasted tainted. However, John couldn’t deny the benefits, as he quickly felt much stronger, however, he was still not at the point where he had been before he transformed Luna. It turns out sharing your bloodline is extremely costly.

John turned around to help Luna, however she was already done with the vampire spawns. Even though Luna wasn’t as strong as John, she could still beat a couple of stick figure zombies. “let’s go, we have to find my sister” John told Luna solemnly.

John and Luna raced of towards the south, although Mikhail had been very general in his description. John still knew where he meant, since he would drive by the signs showing an industry area was ahead, when going to visit his sister.

John and Luna quickly found the main road going out of Wellspring, where they found a gravel road going of into the forest. Although they could have gone straight south, it was safer to follow the road so they didn’t miss the warehouse. At the front gate, there was a few normal humans with guns. Of course, John and Luna made quick work of them.

John used some “Enhanced” interrogation techniques on one of them and quickly found out where the majority of prisoners were held. John and Luna made their way there and found a bunch of people locked in all kinds of things. Some with chains, some with police cuffs, and some stuffed in containers. However, Alice was not there, although John was by no means a hero, he still felt sorry for these people, so he quickly sliced their chains keeping them locked up. As well as let out the ones in side containers. The prisoners started running all directions hoping to make it out alive.

However, in one container, he noticed a small fragile girl, she looked so weak and frail. Wasn’t she the one that was in his house? This poor girl had gone from one shitty situation to another. She was dirty and unconscious. John could feel that Luna felt grief and anger when looking at this weak girl. “Luna, you take her with you, I will go find Alice” John stated. He didn’t want this little girl to suffer anymore.

John rushed off to the other parts of the warehouse while Luna was letting the rest of the people out, and helping the young girl. John quickly searched through, the empty floors, until he made it too the top floor. This floor looked like your average warehouse office. Wood floor, wood walls, a few desks here and there. However there was a back room here. John quickly made his way over and smashed the door inn.

The heavy door, flew across the room and hit a man, sitting in a chair next to table. The man and the door, flew across the room and hit the wall. Opposite of the table sat another man, that looked very similar to Mikhail, his features were virtually the same. However, they looked different at the same time. John realized this man was the same type of enemy as the man he had meet earlier. John quickly made his way over. Alexi, quickly realized this massive beast, was after him. In an attempt to save himself he flipped the table up towards John. However, he had underestimated him. John fiercely punched his hand through the flimsy table and managed to grab around the throat of Alexi and punched his other hand through the table straight towards Alexi’s face. Everything happened so quickly Alexi had barely time to react. The fist came flying through the table, hitting him square in the face, and because of John holding him back, the full force of the punch went straight into his head and neck.

This punch carried with it Johns massive strength and almost knocked out Alexi. As as result of the two incredibly powerful punches the flimsy table directly fell apart. The man who got knocked over by the table, was just a normal human so he had been directly knocked out by the heavy door hitting him square in the head. John looked around and saw the man behind the door, however, he also spotted something else. On the opposite side of the room, a woman was sitting on the floor against a wall, with both her hands raised up and chained to the wall. As John saw the woman, all his worries disappeared, he could tell that she was still breathing. This was of course, his sister. However, he could tell all around her neck were puncture marks.

His fury rose, as he started beating the shit out of Alexi. Alexi who was still dizzy after the first punch, was defenseless and was promptly beaten to a pulp. After John got out most of his anger. He ripped Alexi’s heart out of his chest, not only to make sure he was truly dead, but also to enjoy the spoils. He quickly rushed over to his sister and ripped the chains out of the wall. He carefully picked up his sister who seemed so fragile, if he wasn’t careful he might break her. John hurried out of the building before meeting up with Luna. With each of them carrying a fragile woman they both rushed of back towards Bullet town. In his hurry to get back to bullet town, to find someone who could help his sister, John had forgotten to properly clean up. The man behind the knocked over door woke up and saw his bleeding, heartless friend that he had just been playing poker with. He quickly rushed outside and got into the closest car and drove off. He had to tell the boss about this guy who was able to kill a dhampir like they were ragdolls.