Back in the days of Mesoamerica, an empire as large as the Romans reigned for thousands of year. They were called the Aztecs and their religion was based heavily on the belief that their sun god needed human hearts to live. This led to sacrifice of innocent lives. This civilization was eventually destroyed by the Europeans, but after hundreds of years the same religious practice started to return to the new United States of America. There practices were secretly debated by the government because of the new freedom of religion and the laws against murder. Eventually, the CIA created a branch of special agents to take out groups of these elite cults in the country. They were known as the Slayers of the Tribus, or Tribal people. Major cults were taken out all over the world by this group, but the biggest colony of Tribus was in the biggest city in the world.



When darkness fell on New York City, it was never truly dark. The city was much too alive for that. It was like turning off the lights in a room with a burning hearth. The fire never died. That didn't mean Max couldn't hide in the shadows of the overgrown buildings. The city was already filled with people hiding. Of course, Max wasn't really hiding. He was pretending to, so he could get to where he needed to go unbothered.





The best part about the city was nobody gave a second glance to some creep walking in the dark side of the buildings. There were already too many creeps in the world and Madidn't't want to become one of them. However, Max wasn't the only one moving undercover tonight. There were dozens of people, men and women, traveling alone through the shadows tonight. Everyone was heading towards the same place.





Max wasn't the first one to arrive at the place, but he was the youngest. There were already several men hanging out near the dark brick wall covered in graffiti. Some had long threatening scars down the sides of their faces and others were tattooed from head to toe. They looked frightening like they might kill you any second and dump your body in the street any second now. That was the natural instinct of any human being.





"Little young for this hunt." one of the men murmured. Max shuffled nervously a few feet away from them. His clothes were as black as night, but among these men he was a broad as daylight.





"I heard the Dramir is coming on this hunt. I heard he's been in the city for days scouting it out." one of the shorter, heavier men said. Max has to smile at the mention of the Dramir. The legendary slayer of the Tribus, an ancient Aztec cult trying to revive itself, was known for taking down colonies is Albania, London and Los Angeles.





Another few Tribus Slayers turned up from the shadows. They were all armed and a few were women. Max wasn't worried. He could feel his own weapon beneath his clothes.





"Who invited the shrimp?" one of the new slayers said. Max always tried to remain calm and peaceful before a hunt, so he let the insult slip by. However, someone else did not.





"I did, Benedict. Don't you recognize the Dramir?" a familiar female voice said. Every eyes turned to see Scarlett. Well known for her flaming red hair, she was the one who called them there that night. As soon as everyone heard Max's second name, their eyes became wide like the full moon above. It was true that he was probably the most talented Tribus Slayer of his generation at the young age of seventeen.





"Alright, the colony is just beneath the surface. There's over a hundred of them. That's why I have called all of you here tonight." Scarlett said. Some of the older men remained calm. There had always been rumors of a huge clan beneath the streets of New York. Max raised an eyebrow at the number. Normally, there was around twelve Tribus in a clan. Any more than that and they would end up killing each other. No wonder there were so many Slayers tonight.





"We found the entrance a week ago." a tall man next to Scarlett said. Madidn't't like the way he said it. There was obviously something huge going on below their feet.





"Let's go, we don't have much time." Scarlett said. "We have to get down there. Once we are, every Slayer can take out as many as they want, but they all must die tonight." Her eyes rested on Max as she finished talking. She was relying heavily on him to finish the job.





The man next to Scarlett walked over to the nearby wall and started pressing random bricks in a complicated order. They shifted as he touched them to reveal stone box with engravings covering the sides. The man pulled out a bag from under his heavy, dark clothing and revealed a large, bloody animal carcass. He dropped the mess into the stone box and the wall ate up the animal like a sacrifice. Then, the walls shifted again and almost seemed to fold apart. A dark tunnel took the place of the once standing brick wall.




Scarlett was the first to enter the secret passageway followed by the rest of the Slayers. Max was careful not to be too close to the back or the front. He didn’t want to be the first one to fall in this deadly game of cat and mouse




The tunnel led to a set of stairs that were dimly lit by a few burning torches. There were no moving shadows, no suspicious tricks of the eye and everything was still. Madidn't’t like it. Tribus were sneaky humans that liked to torture their prey before sacrificing them to their sun god. If they did still posses the element of surprise, then this might be okay. However, if the monsters knew they were coming, this would most certainly end badly.




The tunnel led down into the lower levels of the city. By the time the Slayers reached the bottom, they had already walked through several levels of sewers. The bottom of the staircase wasn’t what Max expected. Normally, the Tribus colonies stayed in a few rooms that were normally bloody and smelled like death. This wasn’t a colony. It was a hive.




The room they walked into was a massive ritual hall built completely out of stone. Tall towers of sandy rocks towered over the Slayers. The giant coliseum-like room was lit by millions of burning torches and all of the strange architecture led up to one specific focal point, the alter. They had walked in on a Aztec sacrificial ritual. There was a reason they hadn’t run into any Tribus walking down the stairs. Every single member from this colony was in this room, hungry- eyed and staring at the center piece. Standing on the highest part of the temple, was a man dressed completely in sacrificial robes. Red and gold robes adorned him. Under the burning torches, you could see clearly the lust for power in his eyes.




The most horrifying part about the sacrificial scene was a teenage girl dressed completely in white being led up on to the altar. She was about sixteen and had tumbleweed colored hair and light hazel eyes with an extremely annoyed expression on her face. Max thought that was strange. Shouldn’t she be scared that she was going to be killed?




“Today is a great day.” The sacrificial priest said. He raised his pale hands to the air like he was saluting someone. “Today we bring the great god, Huitzilopochtli, back to life. This young girl's heart will spill it's red blood into the mouth of the sun god. Tonight at the end of the darkness."




The crowd of monsters cheered loudly and Max spit in the dirt with disgust. This was more than just an extermination mission. It was life or death.




The girl was thrown on to the hard concrete slab that was the alter of the Tribus. She looked scared now. She was screaming something at the Tribus, but Max was too far away to hear it. Two of the monsters tied her down. She struggled, but they were much too strong for her.




That was when Scarlett stepped up. “Time to fight.” She said giving the Slayers the signal to take out the creatures. Max took a step back as a few of the men from the back launched close-range missiles at the altar where the girl was looking up at the gleaming knife of the priest. The missiles hit the dusty rocks with a smoky explosion. Then, all hell broke loose.





The tribal members, full dressed in ritual war outfits, charged at the slayers. Weapons were drawn from every corner of the room. Max had to jump out of the way to avoid being stabbed. He wasn't much of a sword fighter. His weapon of choice was a semi-automatic, custom made pistol.





He wasn't really interested in taking out the lower members of the cult. From his experience, he knew it was best to take out the leader first and the Priest seemed to be the guy in charge. Still dressed in his flashy robes, the priest was moving in on the sacrificial girl with his jagged knife. The other slayers were too busy with the cult members to notice. Max sighed and sprinted into the crowd towards the stone steps leading to the fifty foot altar.





By the time he got there, the priest was already looming right over the top of the girl. In a flash, Max had is gun out and his finger on the trigger. He could have killed the man right there in one shot, but then the dagger would have fallen on to the girl's body.





"Shoot him already!" the girl screamed. Max grimaced because he knew he couldn't. The priest froze with his hand unmoving from its position over her body holding the dagger.





"Kill me boy, and I will join the Sun god. Kill her and the life will be wasted. The sun god will die. Let me spill her blood." the crazy man said with an eager desperation. Gritting his teeth, Max made a risky decision.

He took the gun off the priest and pointed it at the girl. Max knew a lot about the Aztec civilizations. When the Europeans came over and slaughtered them on the battle field, they were shocked because it was their practice to take captives. The Tribus saw it as a waste of life. The priests eyes went wide like Max had just crossed the line as soon as the gun moved. However, the girl's reaction was much different. She started cursing and thrashing around on the stone altar trying to break free. Max's finger tightened on the trigger.

"You can't kill my sacrifice!" the priest shrieked. In that moment of confusion, the priest straightened his arm so the knife was no longer dangling over the top of the girl. Max turned and shot the priest once in the chest. He fell over backwards blood gushing from his chest. The girl finally stopped yelling and relaxed.

Max ran over to the altar and untied the rope holding her down. As soon as she was up and on her feet, she turned to face him with a cold look in her eyes. Mac expected a thank you or something, but instead the girl punched him in the stomach.

"That's for aiming a gun at me. Do it again, I dare you." she growled. Max pulled himself together slightly annoyed with the girl. There was still a fight going on, but like Max expected the members of the cult were falling apart without their leader.

"I did just save your life, you know." he said. The girl rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. She was still wearing the white sacrificial dress.

"Yeah, thanks for that. Now, can you get me out of here? I've been starved for three days and I really need some strawberry ice cream right now." she said. Max stared at this girl. He had rescued sacrifices from rituals before, but none of them were as confident as this one. He was expecting her to be crying and begging him to save her. This girl just stood there glaring at him.

"After we finish cleaning up this mess." he said simply. She didn't look happy, but Madidn't't have a choice. Especially after he heard the scream. There lying on the floor in the center of the fight was Scarlett. She was dead and blood was gushing from a wound in her chest so big that Max could see it from where he was. The man who had accompanied Scarlett earlier was at her side and he was the one who had screamed. His face was red with tears and his hands were shaking badly. Max hadn't realized earlier how close they were earlier in the day. The man dropped Scarlett's lifeless body on to the ground. He pulled out a set of twin blades and charged blindly in one direction. He slashed the blades through any of the remaining Tribus. They all fell with the same amazed look on their face, but everything changed after that. After the man ran out of Aztecs to kill, he started going after the other Slayers. Most of them were skilled enough to deflect his blows, but Max knew there were some that would not be able to. He sprinted towards the stone stairs leading back down to the ground floor. Max jumped over dead bodies and barreled right into the frantic Slayer with all of his might.

"Stop it, Scarlett wouldn't have wanted this." he yelled. The man struggled for a second before falling to his knees in tears. Max disarmed his as the other Slayers gathered around. They looked beaten up and lost without Scarlett. All of the Aztec lay scattered and dead at their feet. The girl, who was supposed to be sacrificed, had climbed down from the altar and joined them around Scarlett's body. There was an eerie whisper of death in the room. It was hard not to feel depressed.

"Max, get her out of here. We'll clean up." another older Slayer said. The girl had zoned out staring at Scarlett's body, so she as surprised when Max tapped on her shoulder.

"Hey, we gotta get you out of here." he told her. The girl lit up like a kid at Christmas.

"Are we going to get some strawberry ice cream?" she asked almost immediately. Max started at her. She had just witnessed a Tribus vs. Slayer war and she wanted to eat ice cream?


Max rolled his eyes as he spoke.” Well, we have to get you back to your parents and you'll probably have to be qu-"


"Yeah, we're going for ice cream." she said cutting him off. The other Slayers were staring at them with amused expressions. Max shoved his hands in his pocket and started to walk away. He had to smile to himself though because he had never gone for ice cream after a hunt. That was simply human.