Imperfect.

The weather was calm and balmy as she watched the empty scenery pass by on the other side of her window. Not a cloud was present, and as a result, the warmth outside would soon rise to a high heat as noon approached. The outside was dry and barren from the endless cycle of sun and heavy rain exposure. There was nothing too exciting, unless the occasional tumbleweed or bush was considered exciting. To her it was as exciting as the rest of the dirt. Ruby was sitting bored in a greyhound bus on her way to a city in Texas. She was on vacation time, and headed to see an old friend who once lived near her, in California. The bus was now basically travelling now in the middle of nowhere. In her boredom, she had forgotten exactly where she was currently. All she knew was that the bus had crossed from Arizona into the next state about an hour ago.
Ruby wished she could have taken a flight to Texas, but she didn't have the money to afford the flight. The bus was cheaper, but obviously slower. But as a result, she did see landmarks, including the Grand Canyon. She looked around inside the bus. It appeared there were no other people on the bus save for a single boy on his laptop and her. He was dressed in a black and green plaid button shirt and jet black jeans, which were slightly baggy over his black and white Vans. Her attention broke as he looked up at her with dark emerald eyes, screened with transparent black-rimmed glasses. His messy black hair rested lightly over his forehead, framing his face casually. He looked up from his laptop at Ruby and smiled. Ruby, feeling embarrassed at having been seen eyeing him, almost grew red and awkwardly smiled. She returned to her window-watching post.
The road went on empty for what seemed endless expanse, but the bus began to come to a stop. Ruby became curious on what was going on. She sank back into her seat after standing up to look around, having figured the bus has perhaps broken down in some way and needed to stop. It was unusual since there was no town, no road signs, and no signs of civilization for miles. She was startled when she heard an almost bestial voice speak: the bus driver's voice.
"Off of the bus, now!" the bus driver barked gruffly and rudely.
"But this isn't even a sto—"
"NOW!" the driver cut the protests of the other passenger off sharply.
Ruby didn't make any complaints. She gathered her travel bags. Both of the travelers disembarked from the bus hastily. Ruby looked at the bus worriedly, as if there were some mistake. It had to be some mistake… They were in the middle of nowhere! But the buss drove off quickly, leaving behind nothing but its black smog. She then heard the boy speak to her.
"How unfortunate for this to happen to us," he began. "This is really going to make my vacation so much more exciting," he finished sarcastically. Ruby looked at him and sighed in agreement. She looked around hopelessly at the dry landscape dotted with few rocks and occasional desert shrubbery. "My name is Buckley, by the way. But you can just call me Buck." He smiled at Ruby.
"Well then, my name is Ruby," she responded, looking back at Buck. "What do you suppose we do now?"
"I figure we can try to follow the road. There has to be a town around here somewhere down the road."
Ruby nodded. She then took out her cell phone and turned on the screen. Then a slightly hurt look appeared on her face.
"No reception. Go figure at a time like this. Brilliant." She let out a deep sigh. "It would have helped to have service right now."
"No kidding! Anyway, we should get going now. Dilly dallying won't get us anywhere."
They simultaneously looked at their bags. Buck had his laptop folded closed under his arm, and he stooped down to put it within his bag. Luckily for the both of them, their luggage was on wheels.
Ruby and Buck walked down the middle of the road since not a single car was in sight. The rising heat bore down on them like a heavy burden on their shoulders. The sun blazed ceaselessly in the hard blue sky. There was hardly a breeze, but all that did pass their forms was hot, dry air that made them cough from its dryness. At first they walked in silence, but it broke as Buck spoke up.
"So, where are you headed Ruby?"
"Texas, to see an old friend."
"Oh? I was headed that way myself! I've gotta see some family I hardly know. My parents forced me." He let out a chuckle at his own predicament. Ruby laughed a bit as well.
"Well maybe you don't have to now, considering…" She smiled at the joke about their misfortune. It had been a long while since Ruby had ever spoken to anyone. She never had any real friends, save for the friend she was visiting. She was a quiet person, only outspoken within her own imagination. Ruby pushed her black-brown hair out of her eyes as she looked up at the hard blue sky. Buck had smiled at her comment, and looked curiously at Ruby. He noted that she had scarlet eyes, framed with glasses. Those were a dark red metal. She wore a black fitted t-shirt with a red vest over, and dark blue jeans that faded down to black down the legs. She also had a watch on her right wrist. Her hair fell just above her shoulders, tipped with red coloring.
They continued on in silence. In an hour of travel, they had in fact come upon a town. As they looked around the small settlement, there was something unsettling about it. Both Buck and Ruby picked up quickly on this.
It was a small town. There were a few different shops surrounding the road, including the gas station and its mini mart, a small motel, and a bank. It was clear that the town had been built around the solemn black flat that continued on through the desert for miles. There were a few houses a bit off from the town and a single small apartment building with only about ten dwellings. However, everything seemed to carry an air of emptiness, including the residential areas. The sun bleach buildings stood hollow from absence of life.
"Is it just me, or does this seem like…a ghost town?" Buck questioned.
Ruby frowned as she looked into shop windows. "It's empty here. There are signs of current life… But where is everyone?"
Both Buck and Ruby were in a quandary about the town's residents when they heard a crash, a muffled scream, then silence. It was behind the gas station building. The teenagers (Ruby was 17 and Buck was 18) went to go inspect the cause. As they went around the gas mart cautiously, they saw the exact bus that had abandoned them. Through the tinted glass they could see a figure moving. And the figure proceeded to exit the bus.
The figure stepped out, and both Ruby and Buck stared, stupefied. It was the bus driver. But now they knew there was something inhuman about the driver.
"You two shouldn't be in a place like this… I left you for a reason, so you could just die and get out of my way…" His voice was even more bestial than before, carrying a growl behind the words. Blood dripped off the bus driver's fingers—which weren't really fingers at all. They were clawed paws, as if something had taken a wolf and made it humanoid. And that's exactly what stood before them.
He was roughly eight feet tall, with grey fur. It was stained with blood, fresh and dripping. His primal eyes locked on Ruby and Buck, watching intently behind savage instinct.
"Y-you were that bus driver! Weren't you?!" Buck stammered, and began to retreat, stumbling over his baggage. He fell backwards, onto his bottom, and he stood there in fear. Ruby couldn't move. Was there really a humanoid wolf in front of them? A werewolf? Her eyes then wandered to the bus. There appeared to be people on board. But none moved, and there was a path of blood on the stairs into the bus where several bodies had apparently been carried, bleeding, and freshly killed. Bloody paw prints leaded to the conclusion that the bus driver was no nice guy to humans.
The wolf bus driver began to approach Buck, and grinned. His jowls and fangs were stained with blood.
"Pity you happened upon me. You should have went the other way or died in the heat. Pity!"
Buck couldn't move. His thoughts raced, telling him to react, but his muscles grew stiff. Ruby bolted to the bus, ready to look for anything to kill the wolf with. A knife, a gun, anything!
She stepped upon the bus. Her fears became deeper when she seen each seat occupied with death. The front seats contained half-eaten bodies, which made Ruby grow sick. The corpses were so fresh, not a fly was around yet to hover around the metallic scent of blood. There were males, females, even children. Ruby could hardly bear the scene of brutal death. Had he really done this all? There were fifty bodies! The whole town had fallen to this thing. But then again, he was not human. And it was as if each body was carefully killed, as if he took the time to kill each individual a different way. It was sickening. It wasn't even natural. Serial killer mentality and nature should have never been put together. She looked through the horrid bodies, making silent prayers, and found a cop. She took his gun. She also went through other bodies, hoping to find something else of help. A knife was found.
Meanwhile, Buck was still frozen in fear.
"I'm sure you'd like to know what I am before you go into the afterlife, right? I'll tell you…" He grinned, "I'm… Oh who gives a damn, you're just gonna die!" He said mockingly. He stopped, looked at the bus, then back at Buck. "I'm also sure you're little friend found something…amazing… Don't worry about her… She'll join you…" He grasped Buck by the neck, lifting him into the air. Buck closed his eyes as he felt the ground disappear below him, pain shooting through him as claws penetrated his skin. The grip rendered him almost unable to breathe, let alone scream. But he wanted to. He wanted to scream. Tears of fear and pain grew in his eyes. The grip grew tighter… His life began to ebb away as he clawed at the hand that held his life… All so suddenly… His mind grasped desperately for Ruby to come, to save him… Or to perhaps wake up, all this being a nightmare. But it wasn't a nightmare of the sleep; it was a nightmare in the waking world. The very world he had thought was normal, even though he wished it filled with fantastical things… But not this… Hell, even Ruby had sparked interest in his heart. He wanted her to save him. His mind fogged over in confusion. The pain grew only greater, the grip of death and the wolf tightening, his breathing smothered…
His mind continued to race, everything coming to him at once. Then there was light. A gunshot, a whimper of pain, and then the return of the ground. The pain receded to a lesser form, but his entire being rejoiced. And then it was black as the fog made way to restful darkness.
Ruby had shot the wolf-man. He whirred toward her, snarling and began to run on all fours.
"You just volunteered to go first!"
"Gladly!" Ruby yelled back, holding her ground. She held the knife tightly, and the gun was held ready.
"I'll slit your damn throat you bit—" he was cut off by another shot. But it merely stalled him, as he had stopped in surprise. He then started off again. Ruby dashed to the side, shooting again. She attempted to hit a vital area, but the bus driver's movements were too swift to gain any good shot. And he seemed impervious to the bullets. Was he a werewolf that could only be killed with a silver bullet?
The wolf-man stopped. He then began to laugh. "You think I'm a werewolf, don't you? It's a fairy tale." He stood up. "I'm an experiment, imperfect they called me. Number 014. I'm fused with wolf genes. I was a convict before. Go figure they would use us as lab rats! But I think it was the best for me. Oh, how I already love killing! And now it's so much more fun!" Ruby stared in cold disbelief. He was a monster, created by humans. "I'm the infamous serial killer, Charlie Larson!"
Ruby had enough. She shot again, penetrating his heart. And she then rushed forward, knife poised to strike.
Larson yelped, the bullet hitting its mark. He then launched himself. He landed on Ruby, pinning her down. She screamed, but there was something warm on her chest. His blood was pouring onto her from the gun wound, but it wasn't weakening him visibly yet. His claws dug into her shoulders, deeply penetrating beneath the muscle and into the joint cavity. His jaws opened, ready to take her life. Then a flash of silver went into the deadly maw, right through the roof of Larson's mouth. Ruby had taken the chance to strike and defended herself. His jaws clamped down on her left arm, creating a terrible crunching noise. Ruby screamed in pain as her forearm broke within the beast's mouth. Her other hand still had the gun. She tried, slowly, to get the trigger to his neck… The adrenaline then led her subsequent actions, allowing her to ignore the excruciating pain. It made it to his windpipe, and the bullet came. A sickening gurgling sound had filled the air as Larson's life-blood poured from his neck. His windpipe was burst open, rendering him unable to breath. Nothing but his own blood now filled his lungs. And he went limp.
Ruby was trapped under the weight of the dead wolf-man. His weight made it hard to breathe, and her adrenaline had already worn off. She screamed again. His weight made her feel as if her ribcage would collapse. Her breathing grew shallow. Despite having killed Larson, she felt as if she had still lost. She was trapped, about to die. Her blood flowed freely out of her arm, the fracture having penetrated painfully through her skin. There was a bloody mess in the dirt. She couldn't remove her arm from the beast's mouth, and didn't want to because of the pain. And she prayed Buck would wake up. It was her turn to be saved now. Death tugged on Ruby's heartstrings, beckoning her to go. The promise of lifted pain seemed blissful as her blood seeped from her wounds. But she loved life too much, needed to live too badly. She pushed death away rudely, as she couldn't let it take her so early. And then a light came to her.
Air rushed into her lungs as the weight was lifted off of her. She screamed as her hand was gingerly removed from the bloody maw and set down. Buck was kneeling over her, the worry in his eyes explicit.
"Ruby… Oh my gosh! Ruby…!"
She tried to stay awake, the call of unconsciousness ringing in her ears. A better promise of painless darkness.
"Ruby! Stay awake… I'm gonna get you help… Don't die, please, don't die…"
Buck was hardly hurt compared to Ruby, and his eyes looked around madly for ways to help Ruby. He found her phone, but it still had no service. Buck ran his hands through his hair. Ruby's life was ebbing away right in front of him.
"Ruby, my gosh, what do I do… No… Please stay with me…" He ran to his luggage, pulling out clothes to try and make a makeshift cast for Ruby's arm. Ruby, being unconscious, made no response. He then wrapped up both her shoulders as best he could, ripping his own clothes to create a stoppage for the blood. His mind raced, only thinking about saving Ruby.
"Don't die… Please don't die… Don't die!"

Ruby woke up in a room of white. The first thing she noticed was the air of cleanliness and the absence of dryness that had previously filled her nostrils. For a moment, she though she wasn't alive, or maybe in a deep dream. But after a few more seconds, feeling came to her body, making her hands and feet feel numb at first before the entire feeling came back. She began to feel the things that hung on and about her body. She noticed she wore a white gown. Underneath, were wires leading to a heart monitor. Her right arm had an IV attached to it, while her left arm was bandaged, casted, and slinged up. She moved slightly, but only a little pain raced through her nerves. The drugs from the IV had prevented the pain. The cuts and bruises she had were all patched up. She then realized that this white room was a hospital room. She looked around, her eyesight coming into more focus. Of course, her glasses no longer rested on her face. But it did not take that to tell she was alive in a hospital.
It was also then she realized that there was someone else in the room with her. Buck was watching her intently, but it was now clear that he had a relieved smile on his face.
"Ruby… Y-you're awake!" He stood up from his seat on the other side of the room and walked up to the bed, "I thought they wouldn't be able to save you… They kept trying to say you were too weak to live and that you… But I told them to try… I fought with them… Anyway, it doesn't matter, you're alive!" Buck's voice shook with a combination of relief, worry, and just plain happiness. Ruby raised a brow in surprise at his concern. But she smiled. As she looked at him, she noticed his neck was bandaged, and he was also pretty bruised and cut up. She then remembered that the boy had been in Larson's clawed chokehold, and had also come real close to losing his life. But had she not been there, he would have been dead. She didn't take this for granted. She didn't take vainful pride in it either. Instead, she thought to herself the gratitude that she had been there to save him.
"Yeah, I'm—" her voice was stopped short as a ripple of pain reigned temporarily in her body.
"Don't speak… The doctors said that your lungs had practically collapsed… You have a few broken ribs, a bit of internal bleeding, but miraculously, nothing major was torn beyond any repair. Just so you know, they did do surgery on your chest. You have been out for almost two days."
Ruby was immediately astonished by what she had gone through. She had not recalled anything but darkness. Not even dreams had been within her coma. But then she smiled, glad to be alive. Glad that she had saved Buck. She now had a new friend.
Buck was just as happy.
---The end!---