The Tale of the Blood Diamond (39 page)

The monster bowed at the waist, as if thanking her for a hearty applause. “My name is Vex, and you took something quite precious from me. So now, I’m going to take
everything
from you. I’ve come to feast, and you are the
only
thing on my menu…”

****

Xzion stepped over severed flesh and stomped on
top
of bodies. If he had time, he would’ve gloated. His sister was a beast, and his respect for her towered higher as he surveyed the dead fuckers in her wake. She was gone, no doubt completing the next part of the task, and here he was, under a red sky, the air so cold it made him feel as if he were enjoying an ice bath for old time’s sake. He didn’t miss that there was a diamond mine in the not too far distance.

He turned towards the bomb. It had been created with the stellar precision he’d anticipated, but despite its fancy presentation, it was still just what it was — an atomic bomb with the power to destroy all in its path, as well as to blow the face off of the entire human world. He stooped low to the damned thing, and his core thumped like a marching band in Hell. He hadn’t had the heart to tell his sister, but he already knew that the damned thing was on a timer…

Something she’d said made it crystal clear:
There is a compartment on the side that I don’t understand; it has a triangular shaped dial…

There was no need to get her upset, and besides, he needed her to do what she did best: annihilate. Regardless of the species, Xzion figured he was
slightly
sexist, especially based on his observations of the similarities of Earthling women and Zarkstormian women. Though both were quite beautiful, Zarkstormian women a bit less flawed in aesthetic appearance and rarely having weight challenges, the internal system was where the similarities lay. Women, though equally intelligent to their male counterpart and just as good in battle, could be a bit high-strung, and he didn’t want the poor woman distracted. He knew she cared a great deal, regardless of the fact she never said it and rarely showed it.

“You did real good, sis,” he whispered.

He grunted as he gripped the back of the thing and, with all of his strength, scooted it higher. Carefully, he slid it over, his hands glossing over the thing as if it were pottery. Sweat trickled down the side of his face until he found the code box. His fingers moved quickly, his breath hitched as he watched the numbers flying frantically on the now exposed timer box. He knew someone out there had a remote to turn the damned thing off, but maybe they were dead as well. It didn’t matter anymore; right here and now, he was in this alone. The continuous sweat trickles that made their way down to his trembling lips reminded him every second, on the second, that chances were high his blood would sprinkle all over Russia as his final testament.

Jayme…Zachary…

He kept them steady in his thoughts, his incentive to not sink into despair. The complicated formula of the thing blew him away. Nothing was where it should be, just as he suspected as well. But math was universal, and so was science until you put those same principles in foreign environments. That was when things changed, and that was exactly what happened here. Though constructed similarly to a man-made atomic bomb, there were extra nuisances, a system in place so that with every disengaged area that Xzion disconnected and stopped, there was another, and yet another back-up.

“Fuck!”

He dug his fingertips into another smaller black box. Sparks flew as his flesh singed. 

Zachary…Jayme…

He said their names over and over in his mind and pressed on. He glared over the intricate pieces, dissecting the shit, looking deep behind layers and layers of wires and outlets and yes, booby-traps. Finally, he reached the smallest area, the last one, and for fear that the damn thing would roll over and crush him, he got to his feet and raced to the other side.

“Oh my God…”

There was yet another box by the one to disengage, and he then realized, it was a set-up. By outward appearances, they looked alike, but one of them would destroy all of his hard work and force him to start the process all over again. Choosing the right one would cease it all, render the damned thing useless. Slumping to his knees, his fingers bleeding, he wiped the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hand and examined them closely.

This was nothing like the American movies or bomb detonation; it more resembled things he’d learned in his intensive training. There was no magic wire here to snap so it would all be over, the day saved. No, this was far messier, riskier…a fucking nightmare. He kept studying it closer and closer, and also understood that even if there were two of these motherfuckers, and thank goodness there weren’t, they undoubtedly would not be exactly alike. No bombs were; they favored siblings — all different in their own way, only this was a special stork delivery no one wanted…

Okay, think…

The worse part of it, he didn’t know exactly how much time he had left. The numerals spinning around were going forward and in reverse, making no sense — but internally, they made perfect sense. He had no time to sit there and decode it; all he did know was that time wasn’t on his side. He was taking a chance, but he had no choice. Drawing closer to the two boxes, he X-rayed them both, careful to not change their temperature from his laser rays. He was desperately looking for that special, miniscule difference, the one that would change the tide forever.

This is the same….so is this…five wires there…five wires here…two small cotton-filled areas…similar firing systems. Cutting that wire right there though could lead to another detonator. Come on…come on!

...And then, he saw it…

Breathing hard and heavy, he reached into the left box and brought two wires together. He peered further down; his X-ray picked up the eternal flame deep within the damned thing. Where it began and ended was still a mystery, but he saw it alright and his pulse froze like ice when he acknowledged he was almost at the end of his journey, one way or the other. Taking a deep breath, he briefly closed his eyes.

Please, let this be right!

He yanked the sons of bitches at the exact same time, with the exact same amount of pressure until they were lying beside his leg. Then it seemed as if a giant machine had sucked all the sound, the air and the whole fucking area away. He waited…nothing happened. Taking another deep breath, he peered back down and glared.

“YES! GODDAMN IT!” He raised his arms and raced over to the nearby corpses to dance on their damned bodies with the glee of a Publisher’s Clearing House Winner.

The light had extinguished. The numbers went to a crawl and stopped movement. He stood atop an enormous, hearty mound of Yuledrake carcasses with his phone in hand.

“Jayme, I hate that this went to voicemail, but hopefully you are asleep or better yet, up waiting for me because…I did it, baby. No, that’s wrong.
We
did it. I’m coming home… I-I gotta see you, kiss you, hug you. And then, I’ll get our baby, the best gift I’ve ever been given, our child, and…I’ll bring him back to you…and we…” He paused, hating that his eyes were watering. He shoved the emotions away and continued, “We will be a family…and everything is fine now, okay? You did good, baby. I’m so proud of you… I Love you…” He quickly wiped his eye and made his way back to his pod in the near distance.

Next stop: Washington D.C. to get a hit of the drug called Jayme…

*
***

“Just keep fucking running!” Cxeza navigated past a thick line of night-clubbers, cursing and pushing as she and the three Zarkstorm soldiers burned a fiery path to a destination yet undisclosed. Once she got past the packed crowd dressed in their Saturday night best, she slowed, her eye darting about, looking for the telltale signs. Confusion set in. The thumping of hundreds of feet echoed about. She’d set the stage for this shit, and it could all fall apart at this pivotal moment. After she and her men killed an alarming amount of Yuledrakes in the Altay mountains of the Russian Republic, she’d gotten the remainder’s attention all right, but her energy was zapped. She and her men were exhausted, and the fuckers just kept on coming.

Regardless, one of them spoke out, grabbing what appeared to be a megaphone of sorts, and made an announcement. Just as Xzion suspected, they wanted to negotiate, to strike a deal.

Big brother was right…

The Yuledrakes didn’t want to die, especially not on the planet Earth. She said she’d make no such deals without Xzion’s permission, that she was unable to stop their bomb, and was leaving. She led the way, and like falling dominoes, the Yuledrakes shadowed her, following her just as she’d read in the Earthling children’s nursery rhyme about the odd man playing his flute as a parade of rats tailed close behind. She was now the Pied Piper of Hamlin.

The bastards now wanted one thing: to be face to face with Xzion. They were desperate, and she had to cash in while the iron was hot. They had no idea where her brother was, but they figured she was the key to his whereabouts. Her men barely had time to land before they were hot on their trail once more, now, out for nothing but blood, but pretending to want an end to the ongoing war. Their country had been devastated by two Zarkstormian warriors — the most notorious in their history and the most infamous of their present had joined forces and slaughtered them in record time. Their leader had been murdered by the one from the new era, her dear brother, and she and her men had wiped out over half of their Earth-bound army.

The Yuledrakes knew it was over, but survival pushes even the most resistant forward. As soon as Xzion let her know he was less than two minutes away, she’d darted off like a blaze of fire that could never be snuffed.  Now, here she stood, back in Washington D.C., under a starless night and drenched in freezing rain. She stomped her boot against the slick pavement as her frustration mounted.

He said he’d be…right…here…

She looked down where she stood, as if she were trying to conjure the Devil himself. It was the damn slippery street. With off and on showers, water ran all around, flowing into pockets of the earth. The trickling of H2O snaking itself down a steamy sewer caught her attention, the sound amplified.

That’s it!

“Hey!” She screamed out to her men waiting for her instruction and the mob of Yuledrakes hot on their tail. “Come on!”

“Uhhhh!” She dragged the manhole off the damn road after quickly removing the screws as fast as her nimble fingers could manage. She looked both ways; her heart flipped as she seized the headlights of oncoming traffic.

“Hurry! The light turned green!” She hustled down into the sewer, her men following closely behind. They had additional time now as the Yuledrakes were stopped by the parade of unceasing, honking cars, no doubt being driven by angry fellows who’d spotted the uncovered thing and swerved to avoid it. Cxeza carried on, moving through the tunnel, her feet stomping and splashing about.

Damn it!

Sludge, slime and grotesque debris clung to her boots and lower leg, but she kept on trudging ahead, not daring to slow her pace. And then, she heard it…

An unmistakable movement from up ahead in the moist tunnel, and then another, as if one were wading through thigh-high water, came to her full attention. The slight glimmer of light appeared from another manhole a ways up, soon shadowed out from a passing car, and then the stream of stingy light returned, highlighting the larger-than-life form. She grinned, kept her stride and reached one, then another, and another and another. Someone powerful snatched her around her waist, their grip strong, able to snap her into two, but she laughed with glee as she ascended higher towards the open, city air, all of the hands upon her, their sharp claws not daring to tear into her flesh. They hoisted her upward to another circle of city light, until she was completely free.

Taking a deep breath, she popped her head up and hoisted herself the rest of the way, dashing like mad across the road. After she and her crew were out, the cover was slid shut. Despite the bustling people rushing to get out of the rain and into the restaurants and night haunts of their choice, they’d only caught the attention of a few. Some people that had actually noticed the now wet and stinking group crawl out the damn sewer only brought delight to Cxeza’s face. She laughed as she ran her hand down her muddy, filthy face. The petrified, muffled screams were soon to follow as the slaughter below her feet commenced. Yes, Bosi and his boys were taking care of business and Cxeza surmised that from the sounds of things.

This ‘Yogi’ and his Boo-Boo clan finally got the picnic lunch they so desired…

****

Jayme worked her way around the rooftop, keeping a safe distance from the beast. She had two choices: jump, and no doubt ensure her death, or stay up there, and prolong her demise. It would no doubt be one that was far more painful and heinous than anything she’d ever fathomed. But she was still alive, and she wasn’t going to take these extra breaths for granted.

“What do you want from me?” she shouted, her gun in front of her, though it may as well have been filled with water or assorted candies.

“To terrorize you, and I’m doing a splendid job.” The thing spoke persuasively, through the demonic tone of its voice. She felt a bit light-headed, as if it were snuffing out something deep within her, or worse, sucking her soul.