Ash

Chapter 1

Ash vs. The Book of the Dead.

Why would you say that I am insane? I wouldn't say that I've lost my mind simply because I've heard the voices and seen the godless things moving in the woods. If anything, I think more clearly now than ever before. I know now that there is such a thing as a 'Living Evil'. A dark and shapeless thing that lives not in the spaces we know, but between them.

In the Dark.

In the night.

And it wants the exact same thing as you and I: a chance at warm life on this Earth. It doesn't care that is already had that chance ...once. Now listen closely because there isn't much time. Listen and believe, because it's all true.

I first saw the damn thing at that blasted cabin. The Necronomicon. An ancient Sumerrian text, bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. It contained bizarre burial rites, prophecies...and instruction for demon resurrection. It was never meant for the world of the living

The book awoke something dark in the woods.

It got into my hand and it went bad. So I lopped it off at the wrist.

In order to rid myself of the foul thing, I read from a passage in the book that was supposed to open a hole. A hole in Time that would send the Evil back. And it worked.

Big time.

...I just didn't plan on coming along.

I ended up in the past, the year 1300 AD

There I was forced to fight off an army of deadites in order to save an ancient civilization. The army of the dead was lead by my evil undead self.

I managed to win, with the help of the locals. I used a spell derived from the book to return home. Okay, so maybe I didn't get it completely right, but nobodies perfect.

Things got better for a while, I met a new girl named Jenny. We started going out, and everything seemed perfect.

That is, until the dreams started. Horrible nightmares, they plagued me night and day. After a while, Jenny said it would be a good idea to return to the cabin and face my fears.

Big mistake.

Jenny was kidnapped, and I was forced to fight off everything from undead hillbillies to zombified campers in order to save her. In the end, the evil took her away into the past, and I was forced to follow.

I ended up in Ancient Damascus.

There I worked with an old philosopher, a man named Alzeez. Together... well, mostly alone really. I hacked my way through the evil with my trusty chainsaw, and ended up in a battle with a Kandarian Demon. I won, and Jenny and I were thrown back into the future once again.

The only thing was, it wasn't the same. Everything was different, the streets were empty, no little kids or puppies running around.

Nope. Somehow, the damn book that started all of this ended up as a best seller. Lost in the passages of time, it fell down for some poor idiot to pick up, and things went bad from there. Jenny and I were alone, the last survivors on a dead planet.

Or so we thought...

Late one night, while we were resting, the evil came again. Apparently it had sensed that there was some life on the planet, and came to destroy it. It took Jenny away, forever.

For a while I simply wandered, burning bookstores, and destroying every copy of that damn book I could find. I knew I could never get them all, but I had to try.

I wandered for almost a year, alone. The evil never came for me, I'm still not sure why. It just waited, hidden away in the shadows, simply watching.

Then, I found out what it was waiting for: The end of the world.

I'm still not sure how it happened, or even why. Black holes of nothingness began to suck up the planet, huge chunks of it were torn from the ground and sucked away into some unknown dimension. Fire erupted from the ground, and I waited for the end to come. Finally, the blackness took me.

That was how I came here, where I am now. I'm not sure where it is exactly, but all I see around me is sand, and endless nothingness. Maybe, just maybe, I'll find someone before I die.

Ash stumbled across the barren desert, sweat pouring down his face as he staggered, his skin red and peeling away. Far in the distance behind him, his1 973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile lie half buried in the sand. "Water...water... Oh god, I'm gonna die..."

He fell to the ground, face first in the sand. He had every intention of simply waiting there to die, but something stopped him. He looked up and realized that his forehead had struck something when he landed. He crossed his eyes and simply stared at the corner of something that poked out of the ground in front of him. "What the?"

A copy of the Necronomicon Exmortum stared back at him, half buried in the sand.

He looked at it in horror before grabbing it reflexively and slamming it into the ground. He violently jerked the cord on his chainsaw in an attempt to bring the tool to life. It choked, and sputtered, doing nothing as he attempted to start it over and over. Desperately he unscrewed the cap over the gas tank and peered inside. "No. No! NOOOOOOOO!" he cried in anguish as he saw nothing but a thin layer of sand at the bottom. He threw the book in frustration and it slid across the sand before stopping against the bottom of a particularly large dune. Ash sobbed into the dirt, and beat his fist again and again against the sand.

He looked up and gasped in horror. A large buzzard had landed on top of the book and looked at him purposefully. It squawked and ruffled its feathers for a moment, seemingly content with its new perch.

Ash slowly rose to his knees, and held a hand forward as he began to move slowly forward.

"Nice birdie, don't move, nice bride..."

The buzzard squawked in alarm and rose into the air, taking the book with it as it went.

"No!" cried Ash as he managed to stand finally and staggered after it as fast as he could. "Come back here you stupid bird!"

After about twenty feet, he fell too his knees again, and screamed. The endless expanse of the desert surrounding him as a hot wind blew across the desert.

About two hours later, Ash came upon an unusual looking rock formation. A huge pillar of stones that rose about two hundred feet into the air. Following the bird had been easy with nothing to hide it from his view, and he stumbled after it.

He leaned against the pillar of stone and looked up. There was a nest at the top, and he could see something resting on the ground just beside the rock formation. He staggered over and fell to his knees beside the dead body of the buzzard, it was half buried in the sand, and was clutching the ripped cover of the book in it's beak.

He snatched the cover out of its mouth and looked at it for a moment. There was only a single page clinging to the leather. He glared down at the dead bird and kicked it. "I told you to wait! Now look what happened!" He sat down with his back against the stone and sighed. "Damn it."

For several minutes he remained that way, gasping for breath and baking in the sun. He was simply waiting for death now. He closed his eyes, and then opened them again. The bird was starting to stink, and he glanced down at it. "You know, that seemed farther away last time I looked at it," he commented to himself. He frowned, and closed his eyes again, opening them a moment later and looking at the dead body. It was about a foot closer.

"Oh no," he said in an almost pathetic whine. He reached behind his back and pulled his shotgun out, pointing it at the dead bird. "Wake up. You aren't fooling me buddy. Come on." He poked the dead bird with the barrel a few times.

It remained still, not moving an inch.

"Oh for crissake," he grumbled as he fired a shot into it.

The bird jumped up, squawking loudly. It's eye falling out of its head, and several small teeth now apparent inside it's beak. It screeched at him angrily, flapping what was left of its wings.

"Yeah, yeah. Swallow my soul and all that," he muttered as he blew the thing's head off.

The remains of the bird sailed into the air, flipping several times before it landed in the sand a short distance away. Ash snorted and put the shotgun back behind his back. The bird was still twitching, animated by the evil energy, but did not try to get back up again. The man closed his eyes, and finally passed out.

He found himself in a mist filled room with no walls or doors. "What the? Where the hell am I?"

An image formed in the mist in front of him. It was the buzzard when it was still living. It landed on top of the rock formation with the book clutched in its claws. It squawked, and began to shake violently, after a moment; its eyes began to cloud over, changing to a milky white. It ruffled its feathers, causing many of them to fall away. After a moment, it began to tear the book apart, strong winds suddenly forming around it took the pages it ripped out and blew them away into the distance. Finally, with only the cover remaining in its maw, the bird fell over, and landed in the sand.

"What the hell?" said Ash as he looked at the image in confusion.

A shadowy figure appeared before him, shrouded in the mist. It was obviously an old man, but his features were obscured. "This is a dream," he stated.

"Yeah? Tell me something I don't know," grumbled Ash in retort. "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is not important, but the task you must perform is," said the old man calmly.

"Task? What task?" said Ash suspiciously.

"Necronomicon Exmortum, must not be allowed to remain in Nas Unara," said the old man firmly. "It must be destroyed, and the evil sealed away."

"Well thanks for telling me," replied Ash sarcastically.

"It falls upon you to recover the book, and destroy it," said the old man firmly.

"Yeah? Well, I hate to tell you this old man, but I ain't gonna be around much longer," said Ash with a snort. "I'm tired of chasing around that damn book. Let someone else be your whipping boy for a while. I'm through."

The old man ignored him. "You are the only one who knows that the book is here, and you are not yet fated to die."

"Yeah? Well, tell that to the desert," commented the man in reply.

"I see. It can be no one else though. If you do not destroy the book, and seal away the evil, then it will haunt you through eternity. It will hunt you down, and forever overshadow your destiny."

"Yeah, well that's just keen! Didn't you see what happened? The book was already torn to shreds. I guess you don't need me then huh?"

The old man gave a tired sounding sigh. "The book was merely scattered across the lands. It will cause ruin and destruction wherever its pages lie."

"Yeah? Too bad. I'm through with this hero thing," snorted Ash.

"That must not be so," said the old man calmly. "It falls too you, who brought the Necronomicon to this world, to stop it."

"Me? Hey! That book brought me here! Not the other way around!" countered Ash angrily.

"Regardless, it is your fate," said the old man.

"Fate huh?" grumbled the man irritably.

"Yes. Fate, it is possible, after you have completed your quest that you will once again be able to lead a normal life," said the old man. "I know that is what you desire; but Necronomicon will not allow that, until you destroy it. It seems to have some personal animosity towards you, and will hunt you down."

"Yeah? Well you know a lot then," countered Ash. "So? I just find these pages and burn them? Is that all?"

"No, the Necronomicon must be completed before it can be destroyed. It is the only way to seal the evil forever," explained the old man.

"Let me get this straight, you want me to crawl across this desert and put these pages back together, and then burn that damn book? No thanks!"

"The pages will not be found in this desert. They have been scattered across the entire world, by the evil wind that you saw in your vision."

"Oh! Like that's any better!" snapped Ash angrily.

"Regardless, you must compete this task," said the old man ominously.

"The fate of all Nas Unara rests in your hands, young Ashley." The old man began to fade away into the mist.

"Hey! Wait a minute! How do I know this isn't just some messed up dream?"

"When you wake up, you will no longer be in the desert," said the old man as he continued to vanish.

"Wait a minute! Why me? You know about this! Take care of it yourself! Hey! I'm talking to you!" cried Ash into the nothingness.

A disembodied voice replied. "I am not long for this world. The next time you see me, I shall be dead."

"Hey!" cried Ash as he moved towards the voice.

He snapped awake, and blinked. Wherever he was, it was dark, and wet. He glanced around, looking for something he recognized. "Where?" The walls around him groaned, and he felt the entire room shift back and fourth. There were several other people with him, huddled together and dirty inside the small confines of the room. "A ship?" he muttered in confusion.

He moved his arms reflexively, and jerked to a stop. He blinked in surprise and looked at the chains holding his good arm in place. "Wha? Where the hell am I?"

The room suddenly filled with light from above as a hatch was opened. He looked up through a wooden grate and frowned at the huge dirty looking men standing around the opening. "It's dinnertime ya worthless bunch of slime!"

The other people in the room scurried forward, moving towards the grate. A large pot of some unidentifiable liquid was dumped down on top of them, and the prisoners began to eat it voraciously, scraping it off of the floor and each other in desperation.

"Heh. We'll fetch a good price for this batch," commented one of the men above him before the hatch closed again.

"Hey!" cried Ash as he jumped to his feet and tried to stop them. "Hey! What the? Where am I? What?"

"Ye're aboard a slave ship lad," commented one of the dirty looking prisoners nearby. "We've all been captured, and are ta be sold as slaves."

"What? The hell! They can't do this to me! I'm an American!" He jerked at his chain violently and screamed in rage.

Several of the other prisoners began to laugh.

"Did ya feed the dogs?" growled the captain of the ship as he looked down at the crewmen who had dumped the slop into the hold. He was a well-dressed man in his late forties, with long gray hair, and a large decorative hat. He looked rather prim, and prissy compared to the men around him, and had a stern glare as he surveyed his ship with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Aye Cap'n," said the largest of them with a toothless grin.

"Good," replied the captain coldly as he turned away. In his grip, a single page fluttered in the sea breeze as he returned to his cabin. As he opened the door, the familiar form of the chainsaw could be glimpsed, resting on top of his desk.

On the deck, the covered form of a 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile could be seen, with several men lounging around it and watching the sea.

One of the older men looked up at the sky and frowned. "That feels like a bad wind mates."

One of the younger hands snorted in disgust. "That's just yer old sea dog talkin, pay it no mind."

"I tell ya lads, tis an evil wind that blows. We'd best pray that it passes us by."

"BRUCE CAMPBELL" "Vs" "THE BOOK OF THE DEAD"