GUARDIAN
Part 1

By Luke Trickett

"I do not believe he is coming, comrade"
Exile looked back out into the street for the fifth time and sighed. Hunter shook his head 
and turned to face the big Russian. ”He’ll be here buddy, trust me. I know this guy as 
well as he knows himself!" 
The pair waited in the cramped alley, A strangely traditional meeting place for illicit 
nighttime encounters like this. Socorro was hardly a good place to be at night, especially 
in this part of town. The moon hung low in the sky, and the light it provided lent the alley 
a strange, silver tint. The two had waited for nearly half an hour, and Hunter secretly 
believed that they would wait for a lot longer before their contact showed. 

Their contact, That was how Hunter thought of him now. His name was Otakis, A former 
member of the second Rover team. Actually, shepherd had picked him to be the leader, 
but Otakis’ complete inability to work as part of a team had forced Shepherd to 
‘decommission’ him. Perhaps the transdogmification process had altered his mental make 
up, or perhaps there was a deeper reason. Originally a half-wolf, half-keeshound mutt 
from Oregon. When he had been selected for the position by Shepherd, and undergone 
the subsequent mutation, It had quickly become apparent that he was not the dog for the 
job. He worked hard enough, and fought very well, but he took the lead reluctantly. 
Leaving the other team members without a leader and perhaps more importantly, a role 
model. After an aborted mission, Shepherd had taken Otakis aside to “straighten him out” 
Unsurprisingly, Otakis refused to be straightened, and Shepherd had decided to return 
him to a normal state and life. The choice offered was simple: Adapt and take up the 
leadership position, or be returned to your natural form and leave. Otakis would have 
none of this, and had offered his own option: Leave me in the cano-sapien form and leave 
me alone. For a reason that no one quite understood, Shepherd agreed, and Otakis left the 
compound alone, a rejected creation that couldn’t possibly fit in with the rest of the 
world. He only ever kept in touch with Hunter, who he considered a friend. So, he and 
Hunter would meet every now and again. The meetings were always arranged in advance 
by telephone, and were usually at night. That was before the ‘incident’.

The ‘incident’, as Hunter referred to it, happened a little over six months ago and was 
quite horrific in it’s detail. It haunted Hunter still, even though he had only ever heard 
Otakis tell the story, and had not in fact been there to witness it.
“I’m telling you, he is not coming!”
Exile’s raised voice snapped Hunter out of his musings, and back to the present.
“I do not understand why we wait here in this disgusting alley for mystery guest! Tell me, 
comrade, who we wait on?”
Hunter scratched behind his right ear and thought ‘what the hell!’
“Were waiting on an old friend of mine, You might remember him, Otakis?”
Exile looked thoughtful for a moment, then frowned and said “The one the master 
released?”
Hunter nodded “that’s him”
“But I thought he would have nothing to do with us? I was told he is not to be trusted”
The big husky seemed shocked, and Hunter wondered for a moment just who had told 
him that Otakis could not be trusted.
“Hey, we can trust him, he’s just a loner bro’, a sort of friendly renegade”
“A friendly renegade? Is that how you think of me now?” A deep, low voice said from 
behind them.
Exile and Hunter snapped around to see the owner of the voice. From out of the darkness 
of the alley stepped, or rather flowed a tall, lean figure. His eyes glinted like cold steel in 
the moonlight, and the clothes he wore seemed to be part of the shadows. Exile studied 
the character with his night-vision, over six feet in height and easily recognizable as a 
mutated wolf. His left ear twitched almost involuntarily, and he stared at the pair 
unblinking, observing, and at the same time being observed. A dark gray trench coat 
covered the rest of his attire, and, Exile suspected, several weapons, at least one of which 
was partly visible: A sword, the hilt of which jutted up at an angle from behind his back.
“Otakis!” Hunter gasped “We, uh, we were just….”
“Just talking about me?” Otakis stepped forwards, still fixing the pair with his cold eyes.
“No, I mean yeah! But we weren’t saying anything bad, I was just explaining to Exile 
here about you and why you’re not with the Rovers anymore.”
“Hmm”
Exile decided to break the tension. “Greetings, comrade, I am Exile. Good friend of 
Hunter, Pleased to be making your acquaintenceness” He offered a gloved hand. Otakis 
eyed it dubiously for a moment, then gave it a firm shake.
“The word is acquaintance, Still, nice to meet you. That accent, Siberian is it? Probably 
from the Serinskaja area?”
Exile was taken aback: “Da! Siberian I am! I am please to meet a dog with knowledge of 
my homeland. I have feeling you and I will be good friends!”
Otakis nodded “You’re quite a specimen, Exile, Shepherd did quite a job on you!”
For a moment, Exile was puzzled. ”Shep…Oh, you must be meaning the master!”
Hunter interjected. “Otakis doesn’t refer to the master as that, he calls him by his name, 
Shepherd.”
Exile nodded and Otakis turned to Hunter. ”So, how goes things? Any trouble? I heard 
about the Panama mission.”
“Yeah, Parvo hasn’t been showing his face recently, and as for the Panama mission, well, 
I suppose you could say that it went as well as can be expected!” Hunter grinned widely. 
So did Otakis.

“Look, can we go somewhere slightly more hospitable?” Hunter asked “And then maybe 
you can tell me why you wanted to meet with me this time.”
“Of course! Where are my manners? I wouldn’t want you to stand here while I tell what I 
have to tell, so let’s get out of this alley, and then, we’ll talk.” Otakis said, then wandered 
out of the alley and out into the deserted, moonlit street. Hunter looked at Exile, who 
shrugged, then they followed Otakis out of the alley. As they walked along the empty 
sidewalk, Otakis began to talk about the reason for the meeting. He spoke softly, with an 
almost theatrical urgency, and in places, his voice would drop to a low, secretive whisper. 
The story he told was partly known to Hunter, and completely new to Exile. It dealt with 
the ‘incident’ and the events, which had transpired afterwards. For almost an hour they 
walked, Exile and Hunter held spellbound by the tale and Otakis telling that tale, which 
by its very nature and implications fixed the others with a feeling of dread, and creeping 
horror.
“That’s about it.” Otakis breathed, his story finally done.
“I think I am going to be sick!” Exile moaned softly, to no one in particular. Hunter 
didn’t hear him; he was staring slack-jawed at Otakis. 
“We’d better go tell the master.” He sighed, eventually.
“In any other circumstance, I’d say no, but this does constitute a dire threat. Wouldn’t 
you agree?” Otakis growled.
The others simply nodded.



Several rovers (Otakis didn’t know their names) milled here and there, going about their 
respective duties as Otakis stood in the main briefing room, waiting for Shepherd to show 
up. Some of the dogs gave him inquisitive, furtive looks as they passed him, But Otakis 
paid no heed, his mind was fixed firmly on the task in hand. Hunter had decided to tell 
Shepherd that he had a ‘visitor’, nothing more. He suspected that Shepherd would be 
angry if he bought Otakis back to the compound, but Otakis’ mission required that he be 
here. No matter how distasteful he found it. Shortly, Shepherd appeared in the upstairs 
balcony doorway, looking as mysterious as he could. He saw Otakis standing below him, 
and smiled.
“So, you’re back. I wondered when you’d turn around.” He thought, almost as if he was 
talking directly to Otakis. “Why are you here?” He asked. “Have you reconsidered my 
offer?”
Otakis scowled at Shepherd, and answered: “No. Now I have news for you, Shepherd, so 
come down here and let me tell you a little story.” 
Shepherd stood dumbstruck for a minute, then thought: “A clear case of the creation 
controlling the creator, eh?”
Hunter walked into the room and looked at Shepherd with surprisingly pleading eyes. 
“Master” He began “Please just hear him out, he has news that could affect us all.”
“Very well.” Shepherd turned and disappeared.
Shortly he reappeared on the ground floor. The other rovers in the control room stopped 
to watch him as he walked to the briefing room. Quiet gasps were heard, and several low, 
hushed conversations sprang up. Shepherd never came down onto the control room floor. 
Never.

Otakis took a seat at the table, and shepherd faced him, at an opposite seat. Hunter turned 
back into the control room. The other rovers watched, intently.
“Now you all have jobs to do, yes?” Hunter raised his voice slightly, and the personnel in 
the control room scurried back to their work.
“So, you want to tell me what this is all about?” Shepherd began.
“Of course. But before you get onto your soapbox about my situation, and me I am going 
to tell you something. In a moment, I will raise my right hand, and I will begin to talk. 
When I do, you will not utter a peep until I drop my hand, is that clear?” Otakis’ voice 
was soft and deadly serious.
“Now see here!” Shepherd began. “You are in no place to…”
“IS THAT CLEAR?” Otakis boomed, his eyes flashing in the light.
Shepherd frowned. “Yes.”
“Good. Now I am going to show you something unpleasant, tell you something more 
unpleasant and finally suggest the most unpleasant thing of all. Do you follow me?” 
Otakis squinted at shepherd, who squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.
“Yes.”
Otakis smiled half-heartedly, and lifted his right arm above the table. He wore a tight, 
gray leather glove over it, to the elbow.  Flexing it, he grasped the cuff of the glove, and 
with a flourish like a stage magician, pulled it off. Underneath it shone a metal hand and 
forearm, skeletal in places, and in others, solid. It gleamed dully in the lights, and the 
small actuators inside buzzed and whirred as Otakis moved its fingers. He held it up in 
front of Shepherd. Who looked at it in disbelief.
“Listen to me very carefully.” He growled. 


“I understand that you still want me to either join your team or be returned to my original 
form. Neither of those things is possible. And this is why. If I were to be transdogmafied 
back to my canine form, I would be missing this, and I have no intention of living my life 
as a cripple. Also, The creature that did this to me, and all those like him, has become my 
sworn enemy. I cannot rest while they stalk the earth. I will now tell you of this injury, 
and those responsible for it. It is not a pleasant story, so I will try to keep the worst of the 
details out of it. Hunter knows this story already, as he and I have been in contact for a 
while now. We have come to know of this as the ‘incident’.”
Otakis drew a deep breath, and began.
“When I left you, I did so alone, and with no plan, no future and very little equipment. It 
is not impossible for a creature like me to exist, independent of your organization, but it 
is hard. The Road Rovers are well known all over the civilized world, but that is not to 
say that they are not viewed with a certain degree of bigotry and distrust. Surprising, 
since dogs have been mans partner and trusted friend since time immemorial. But a 
mutant dog, capable of speech, independent thought and action? An animal given human 
features and thought? It is in your nature to distrust that which you do not recognize. Still, 
I stray from my story. Alone into the world I went, without a purpose. Oh I made do well 
enough: a little heroism here, a little vigilantism there, I got by. Money, I had so I had no 
trouble with food and shelter. But I was still a drifter, sailing from place to place without 
any real purpose. I considered returning to you and what you do, but I knew you were not 
for me. So I wandered, until one night I found myself camped out beneath the stars in a 
forest near the town of Beaver, in southern Utah. It was a nice night, warm as it could be 
at that time of the year. I was soundly asleep, Dreaming and dead to the world, when a 
noise awoke me. Outside my tent I heard a shuffling, as if an animal prowled about my 
campsite. But I soon realized that it was no animal. It was a footstep! Someone was up 
and around my tent, creeping about and pausing every so often to sniff the air, like we 
dogs are wont to do. I sat up and searched for my lantern, lighting it to drive the intruder 
away, as the light from my campfire was poor. Oh, he knew I was there then, and he gave 
a start, jumping away from the tent and hissing like a cornered cat. After a while, he 
returned again and I decided to see him off. Reaching into my pack for a weapon, my 
hand fell upon the Colt government pistol that I had taken from a small time hoodlum 
some days back. It was not loaded, and I threw it aside, and reached for the machete 
hanging from my web gear. I did not intend to harm the intruder, simply to give him a 
scare.

Unzipping the tent, I stepped out into the night, and saw at once my intruders, for there 
were three of them. At first I believed them to be human, campers or hunters most likely. 
Until I saw their eyes, Which glowed, red like tiny censers of hells own sulfur! At first, I 
believed it to be a trick of the light. But when the first of them spoke, and I saw how his 
eye-teeth hung down lower and sharper than the rest of his teeth, I remembered a story I 
had heard once, and I recognized the creatures for what they were: Vampires! Before I 
could react, they were upon me. Two of them held me down, while the third, which I 
assumed to be their leader, pried open my hand and took from it the machete. He threw it 
away into the darkness. 
‘Oh, and what do we have here?’ The leader asked.
I made no attempt to answer him, but continued to try and break free of their grip. Try 
and break bonds of pure steel! He advanced upon me, fangs bared and gurgling softly in 
his throat. The two stood me up, and held me as the leader advanced. In a moment of 
reaction, I crouched low, and then sprung backwards in a back flip. The vampires 
released me, not expecting the move. I landed on my feet, and looked about franticly for 
a weapon. I saw nothing save a branch, some two inches thick and eighteen inches long. 
Not an overly effective weapon in itself, but it would make a decent club. Taking it up, I 
swung it at the closest vampire with all my strength, it contacted him at the jawbone, and 
I heard bones break as the blow connected. He stumbled backwards, clutching his face, 
but seemingly no worse for wear. His compatriot came on then, claws raised to strike. I 
swung again, but he lifted his forearm to parry the blow. The branch must have been 
weakened by the first strike, because it snapped when it hit his arm. I stared at the jagged 
point of the branch for a second, then turned to see the vampire bearing down on me. 
Without thinking, I stabbed at him with the impromptu stake, and felt the point of it 
scrape bone as it entered his chest. Its point speared his heart, and he fell to the ground, 
clutching the stake and making a strange spastic rattle in his throat. 
‘Ak! Ak! Ak! Ak! Ak!’ He said, his feet drumming on the ground for a moment, before he 
lay still.
Emboldened by my sudden success, I took up the second half of the stake from where it 
lay, and looked at the two remaining vampires. Their eyes flashed, and the leader spoke 
again.
‘Finish him! But quickly, and leave me his heart!’
The second vampire hesitated for a second, then came at me. A roundhouse kick to the 
neck sent him sprawling, but within a second he was on his feet again. I sidestepped 
around the campfire, putting it between him and me. The leader simply watched as he 
crept about it, hissing and cursing. I stepped forwards and kicked the embers of the fire 
into the face of the second vampire. Oh, how he screamed then, feeling their intense heat 
in his eyes! He staggered blindly and I took my chance. Leaping deftly over the flames, I 
sprang upon him, and pinned him to the ground with the stake, like some strange beetle in 
an entomologist’s collection. A little blood welled up around the base of the stake, and he 
was still. 

The leader growled at me then, where I crouched at the side of his dead comrade.
“Very well” He hissed. “I shall see to you myself!”
I quickly took up another branch, and broke it over my knee to make a stave with which 
to pin him. The vampire leapt at me, and I barely ducked him as he flew by. I struck him 
in the temple with the blunt end of the stake, and he moaned and fell to the ground. Now, 
the tables were turned! I advanced upon him, grasping the stave firmly, and he scuttled 
away from me like a crab. Then he stopped, and smiled at me sardonically, bearing his 
teeth. He grew calm and gazed at me with those strange, hellish eyes. I felt their pressure 
on my soul as he stared me down. A strange calm overtook me, and I relaxed a little. 
Hypnotism, beguilement, the vampires greatest weapon!
“You’ll put no stake through my heart, dog-man!” He purred.
His right arm swung forwards towards me. In its hand something flashed silver in the 
firelight. My machete!
It cleaved through my right arm just below the elbow and my arm and the stake were sent 
flying! I howled my pain, then, as the vampire stood up, laughing at me as I whimpered 
and clutched at my bloody stump. Again the tables were turned, and I found myself 
scurrying away from him as he advanced on me. He laughed as if at some obscene joke, 
and his laughter was the laughter of hell itself! As I backed away, I found my tent again, 
and my left hand fell on something cold and metallic. A magazine for the Colt 
government! Without thinking, I searched for it and loaded it as best I could with my left 
hand. The vampire simply watched, chortling to himself.
‘Oh? A gun? And what will you do with that? Shoot me? I think that your effort will be 
wasted, my friend! Go ahead then, right here!’ He pointed to his chest with the bloody 
blade of the machete.
Trembling, I pointed the gun and fired, but not at his chest. At his head! The .45 caliber 
hollow-point slug tore away the top right portion of his skull, and he toppled over like a 
felled tree. I stood, and stumbled to where he lay, motionless. 
‘Yeah!’ I panted. ‘How’d ya like the taste o’ that huh?’
I looked around for the stake, and soon located it. I set about the grisly business of 
removing it from the nerveless fingers of my own arm, and turned to the body of the 
vampire. Gone! I turned this way and that, looking for him. But he found me first! He 
stood behind me and when I turned, he punched me, square in the forehead. I reeled back, 
seeing stars, and he came at me again. Blood dripping from his ruined head into his eyes. 
His actions were robotic, jerky and almost spastic. Evidently under less control now. As 
he wound up for another blow, I shook my head to clear it, then snarled and stabbed him 
with the stake. His hands fluttered where he reached for me, as if he were plugged into an 
electrical outlet. Then, he fell down once more. Without further ado, I dragged his body 
and the bodies of the other vampires to the fire, and poured stove fuel over them to hasten 
the process of burning them. Then the pain of my injuries took me, and I went to my tent 
to bind the wound. As I secured a dressing about the stump, I became aware of a scraping 
from the fire, turning, I saw the body of the lead vampire sit up, and try to haul itself 
upright! Now, there are tenacious creatures in nature, but none so tenacious as the 
vampire. They can continue to exist in their terrible state of unlife despite injuries, which 
would kill any mortal creature ten times over! 

As I looked at the charred cadaver getting to its feet before me, I felt a strange anger 
overtake me, one such as I had never felt before, and have rarely felt since. I took the 
handle of the lantern and threw it at the vampire. Somehow, he caught it, and tried to look 
at it for a moment. Flames still licked at its feet, burning its clothes and creeping 
upwards. I aimed the pistol again, and shot the lantern. The escaping gas touched flame, 
and ignited, blowing the lantern apart in the vampires hands! Needless to say, the result 
was rather messy, and to go into detail here would be flogging a dead horse. With the 
vampires finally gone, I allowed the pain of my injury to reach me again, and I cried out 
in agony to the skies. What a noise for the locals to hear, the howling of a great beast in 
the mountains, rolling down to them where they slept, and doubtless inspiring terrible 
nightmares in their sleeping minds!

After I had regained my composure I rummaged in my pack for my tracking collar, given 
to me by you so long ago. I activated it and passed out, letting the creeping darkness of 
unconsciousness take me.

When I awoke, Hunter stood over me. He squinted at me for a moment, then turned to 
someone and said:
“Hey! He really isn’t dead! I owe you twenty!”
The 'someone' he spoke to was Alec, Who as you know, works in research and design. 
Apparently, he had constructed a cybernetic replacement for my lost arm, as I found upon 
checking for the wound. I had been unconscious for a long time. Since the night they 
found me there, bleeding and bruised, unconscious and unfeeling. A day in the healing? 
A week? Nay, two months I had been in the coma, and now, I decided that it was time for 
Otakis to be up and about! During a brief respite in the medical facility (And how they 
kept me a secret from you is beyond me.) I researched the vampire as best I could, and 
thanks to Alec, I armed myself to deal with them. I had no purpose no longer, for Otakis 
was now a vampire hunter!”

Otakis’ arm dropped, signaling that his story was finished.
Shepherd’s jaw dropped too.