The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (20 page)

  When we got there we were in a very good mood... laughing, joking, and teasing each other. We were just a group of friends who, because of our jobs, probably will never see each other again. So we just wanted to celebrate before we got a job. But when we got there our lives would never be same. As it turns out, those stories were true after all.

  The monster went by many different names such as, “spawn of Satan,” “Satan’s love child,” “soul consumer,” so on, but mostly it was called “swamp demon.” I guess you can call it the Apollinarian Chupucabra. It was most likely a dinosaur that was near extinction for some unknown reason. It was probably due to loss of habitat, since there were no longer that many swamps on Iraxxan. I do know that the place that we went to, the people did drain the swamps and turned it into farmland.

  I saw images, as well as a mask of Chupucabra, that came close to what the swamp demon look like, but they were nothing more than a skinny weakling of the swamp demon. The difference between it and the images of Chupucabra is; the swamp demon is four-and-a-half-feet tall, more black than green. It was bipedal with long razor cat-like claws on its hands. It could have been asexual, but I’m not too certain about that. It was smart like a human in the sense that it could create tactics. It had an eerie ghost-like howl that could send chills down the spine of the toughest of warriors. It’s eyes where like that of a wolf. Eyes that could penetrate your soul and know your weakness. Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual weakness, it could see it all with those eyes. It had the ears of a vampire bat, with the nose of a blood hound. Like a wolverine its tendons was set a little further away from its joint, giving it incredible strength. That damn thing was so fucking strong that two of my male friends, who were built like a gorilla, couldn’t take it on. They said that it was strong as a bear. And as for its bones? If it was a human being, then I would have to say that it did hard body training. It was like trying to kill a cyborg with a baseball bat. One of my friends broke a club over its back, and it still didn’t stop it, let alone injured it. You could call it a cross between Chupucabra and the Tasmania devil.

  My friend, the one who got us to go there, was too grief stricken because of what was happening to us. We told him that we forgive him and it was not his fault. But he didn’t care. After a few days of being under siege... I guess you could call it that; he wanted to leave and go get help. All of us objected to that calling it suicidal. He mentioned that the swamp demon must be nocturnal because it mostly attacked us at night. We corrected him and reminded him it also attacked during the day. He then said, ‘Then I will make certain that the sun shine in its face.’ He then started to leave and we stop him. He turned to us and said, ‘We’re warriors. We’re not supposed to be afraid of dying. We’re supposed to be afraid of doing something dishonorable.’ And with that he left.

  Later that night, what was left of us, wished that we went with him. That night, that goddamn mother fuckin’ swamp demon pulled-no-stop in attacking us. I mean that it went totally berserk. It reminded us all of how desperate our situation was becoming. We started to think that maybe it couldn’t be killed. But I knew that wasn’t true. It was just smart, very patient, and it could see our weakness. What’s more there was always the possibility that we were dealing with more than one of them. That would explain its howl. Like a wolf calling to its pack. If that’s the case, then one of them would attack, while the rest of them watch what happens.

  After that long bitter night was over, during the afternoon, we decided to leave. One of my female friends was seriously injured, and I was helping her to walk. I had her arm around my shoulder. I remember her saying that she was, ‘hurt really badly.’ I looked in her eyes and noticed they were glowing a little bit, which told me that she was beyond hope. At some point after we left the village... she’d died.

  We did found our friend, the one who left to go get help... but he was... dead. We found his body behind a tree on the side of the road. We found his body because we could see his feet from several yards away. His body was...“

  “That’s okay Vaistll. You don’t have to mention it.”

  “His sword was stuck in the tree with his severed arm still holding it.”

  “Vaistll... you don’t have to talk about it.” Ramirez said with his voice raised a little. He was trying to get her attention as she was lost in the bad memory.

  Vaistll, still caught in the memory, continued on. “I could see his rib cage and...“

  “Vaistll!”

  “...the look of horror on his face.”

  “Vaistll! Hey!” Ramirez said again. This time he put his hand on her and shook her a little, to snap her out it. “You don’t have to talk about it!”

  “By the time it was all over, thirty-seven of my friends were dead. I don’t know if it was dumb luck on my part or what. But I was the one who ended up killing it. Only two of my friends, both of them males, lived. One of them, like myself, was clawed by the swamp demon. My other friend lost his arm, a little bit above the elbow. My friend who lost his arm became an alcoholic and died because of his heavy drinking. My other friend died of natural causes when I was 263 years old. His death made it that much more easier when I had to make the decision that brought me to the Earth. No friends, no family... nothing.

  After I killed the swamp demon, I eat its heart and kept its skull. Normally I wouldn’t have done something like that, eat its heart that is. But after everything that it put me and my friends through, I thought why not. I guess I just wanted to captured the essence of its strength and use it for good. You know... I think that I must have been the first to kill it. Because 150 years later, people in the region were telling a Greek type of myth about me. I never said anything when people did something like that and got the facts wrong. I just didn’t care.

  Several years after I killed that swamp demon I was walking through some forest, and that swamp demon, along with the feelings that it put me through, popped into my head for no reason. I started to think that something was following me and... it was that damn swamp demon. Eventually the fear overtook me... so I ran. I then trip and fell and injured my knee. That’s where I got that scar from on my knee from.

  As I lay there waiting to be killed by that swamp demon, with my sword in hand, it came out of the bushes. But it wasn’t a swamp demon, it was a... rabbit. I lay there with my injured knee, cursing myself for being so stupid. Upset and angry at myself for going through all of that for nothing, I decided to kill it.

  I eventually caught it. But not before I injured myself even more. It was nothing too serious. Just some scratches, scraps, tripped and fell on my injured knee, almost broke my little finger. It just made me that much more determine to kill it.

  After I caught it, I looked into its eyes and a thought popped into my head. It was a quote from my Warrior Code Book of Honor. Which it said, ‘Forgiveness turns the most bitter of enemies, into the closest of friends.’ That thought caused all of my anger to go away, and I forgave it for what had happened.

  That quote always meant a lot to the friend of mine who got us to go to that abandoned place. But not to the rest of us... not even to me. I remembered on one of those long nights while we were trying to kill that swamp demon... he had this nightmare. I woke him up and his attitude was... that of a person who knew that he was going to die.  He said that he knew that he was going to die, and I was going to be the one that kill the swamp demon. He also said that after he dies, one day he would send me a message. And so... after I forgave that rabbit, I remember what he said. And then I realized that the rabbit was his message to me.

   I ended up keeping that rabbit as a pet. And I cried a great deal when it died of old age. The whole experience taught me something that he already knew. The value of forgiveness. And yes... I did eventually forgive that swamp demon for what it did. I mean after all... it did lose its habitat. And look at how animals, and people, behave when they lose their home.

  When I got to the earth, with all of that stuff from my planet, I told everyone not to clone that swamp demon. Unfortunately, this one scientist wouldn’t listen. He kept on saying we could learn a lot from it. After he left I lost its skull. I don’t know what happen to it. Sometimes I think that either he came back and stole it, or somebody gave it to him. Later, individuals from the US military came and started to ask me questions about the swamp demon. Including how did I kill it. I told them the truth, dumb luck, desperation, and losing most of my friends who probably soften it up for the kill. I suspected the obvious, and wanted no part in helping them if they did clone it. None whatsoever. Encountering it once was enough for me to last more than a lifetime.

  You know... I hate to say it... but Natas taught me something quite different about forgiveness.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you can’t always forgive some people for what they did.”

  While Vaistll was thinking about what to say next, she got a call from Caparzo who was at some night club. He sounded quite depressed about something, but didn’t mention why. The questions that he was asking her, made her deeply concerned for him. All she knew was that something was seriously wrong with him. He didn’t say what it was, but he said that it was nothing that he couldn’t handle. He also told her not to worry about it. But still... she couldn’t help but worry.

(10)

  Sanchez finally found Crewman First Class Caparzo; she needed to give him a message. It was late in the evening, and he was in a club where both alcohol and drugs are served. She got him to come with her to give him the private message.

  “So what’s up ma’am? What’s the big deal that you should come hear just to see me? I didn’t know you like me that much. So yeah baby... I take a little head from a hot chick like you. Just me and you doing the freak nasty.”

  “You got that right... little... man. Look... Creeps... I just came to deliver a message to you. Not to chit-chat about your perverted life style.”

  Creeps, is the handle of Caparzo and one look at him would tell a person why. But Sanchez is right about one thing, he is a pervert. He stepped closer to her and with a smile said, “Oooooh... I like it already baby. Well... you came to the right place to deliver... messages.”

  Sanchez, annoyed, looked away and mouthed the words, ‘Goddamn pervert.’ She looked back at him and said, “Do YOU SERIOUSLY think that I would come ALL this way if it wasn’t IMPORTANT!?”

  “Hey... sweetheart... I’ll come all this way too... just to stick my loooong... hard... cock... in your HOT ass. Just the way I know you like it.”

  “How ‘bout I’ll cut your dick OFF... and FUCK YOUR ASS OVER with it. And I ain’t YOUR GODDAMN SWEETHEART!”

  “Oooooh yeah... you can wear a strap-on and fuck me in the ass. I didn’t know you were into that?”

  Surprised, shocked and disgusted, Sanchez didn’t say anything. She then read him and realized that he probably would let her do that to him if she asked. She then shakes her head and disbelief.

  Creeps then said with a twisted smirk on his face, “Come on now... a beautiful... hot... babe like you... one who is sooo hot... she looks like she could make a killin’ working that street corner... comin’ down to place like this... just to give a perv like me a message? So you tell me this... why didn’t you just deliver it the normal way? Why come to a place like this?”

  Her eyes widen, she was furious with him, not because of his insolent behavior, or that of his insubordination, but rather it was what he was insinuating. Sanchez thinks highly of herself. She always tried to be a good Christian girl, despite her faults. But it became much harder for her to do that when the EOD did what they did to her. Sanchez then calm herself down, and with a smile said, “It’s not me... who wanted to deliver the message to you... it’s the mafia. I encountered the EOD before... and I need all hands to be present and accounted for.”

  “WHAT!? WHY!?” He then looked confused and said, “What were you doing seeing the mafia?”

  “Never mind about that. They said that if you DON’T... pay your gambling debts... they where goin’ send the Death’s Hand after you.” With that, Creeps, with the look of horror in his eyes, went white with fear and dread.

  Sanchez then continued on, “So you see... I just need for you to be on your toes. Don’t want any bad thing to happen to you.” With that, Sanchez patted him on the side of his face and started to leave. She then stop and said to him, “Oh... I do have some good news for you.”

  “Oh... and what’s that?”

  “They did forgive part of your debt.” She then reached into her pocket and took out a bag of drugs and gave it to him and said, “They said that you’ll need it. Enjoy.”

  Sanchez left, leaving Caparzo standing there knowing that there is only one way that he can pay off that debt - he has to die on his mission.

(11)

  After Vaistll got off the phone with Caparzo, she told Ramirez everything that he said to her. She then asked Ramirez to check up on what was the matter with him. Ramirez said that he would.

  If either one of them found out what Sanchez did to Caparzo that would have been the final straw for her. It might have ended their mission with Sanchez facing a court martial hearing. But sadly, neither Vaistll nor Ramirez ever found anything out.