The QUEEN SONG

(26) Scene 60-61

09/26/2019
Mike W McCoy

Version 2.0

<>60<>  Inside was Death.

The sunlight scorching Death Valley, California, was bright, and deserted of emotion after lancing a cloudless sky.  Its crisp glare swallowed the struggling wounded form of Agent Yoshi.  The woman limped around another cluster of full-sized smart-cactus, and nearly tumbled over a sand-covered mound of boulders.  The turquoise tinted pants, having sensed her vibrations, unfolded long barbed lined fronds.

The obvious blood loss, still oozing from the hasty bandage on her left calf, had become life threatening.  The gash had apparently opened wider during her shuffling flight from the main theater of the Resort.

The Soundtrack following her held a subdued mix of ‘Hate & Anger’ with a bass layer of her own struggling breath.  ‘Laughter’ crept around the edges just enough to be felt, while waiting for the right moment to dominate.

“Not yet,” she grunted, tried to stand, then slipped.  “Not that easy.”

Both bright colored running shoes had been lost to the concrete rubble minefield of the theater’s back side.  Now her size 8 feet were as scratched and crimson covered, like her bandaged midriff.  Her mid-length black hair was a forgotten mess, and both eyes were red rimmed from crying.

“You try to do something good,” Yoshi told herself.  “And this is what you get,” she finished as a memory of her dead brother brimmed up.

A grumbling of cultists’ voices became clearer, a dozen staggering strides later.  Afraid to stop and look, Yoshi limped left, behind another growth of smart-cactus.

The Ninja Team Six helicopter was as she remembered.  Powered down, the side hatch open, and sitting only a handful of car-lengths away.  The sight of the machine brought back a short-lived crooked, happy smile to her face.

Hobbling onward, she could imagine the vanguard of the cult crowd following, having just reached the pile of boulders that had diverted her.  She believed it was only moments now before they had her.

Yoshi tried to stand, but failed, collapsing onto her good side.  Short, loud, audio snippets drifted in from around the nearest tall clump of smart-cactus.  The excited ramblings from the disciples were getting closer.  She figured 8 or more would round the killer plants at any moment.

With accompanying painful grunts, the agent dragged herself up onto the helicopter’s deck.  Her own earlier blood stains greeted her with just a hint of ‘Laughter’s’ giggle.  Forcing the emotion aside, Yoshi rolled to the back of the vehicle, and lifted up a floorplate.  Below was a suitcase sized recessed compartment, and inside was ‘Death’.

“Thank you, Mr. Kitano.” 

Inside the cubby, sat a nuclear device of the 4 megaton range, an older model artillery round, repurposed into a self-destruct.  The safeties had already been removed, and the device armed.  Next to the firing key, was a little quickly scrawled note from the pilot.

‘Laughter’ came at last, and agent Yoshi couldn’t help herself from succumbing to a narrow high pitched burst of mirth as she read it aloud. 

“Burn, baby, burn.”  She turned the key.

WHOOSH BOOM!

The black radioactive mushroom cloud rose like an exclamation point onto the California desert diorama. 

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<>61<>  Echoed inside the gloom.

The voice of underboss Xais echoed inside the gloom of the concrete and steel walled warehouse.  “This way.”

Now dressed in an eggshell white business suit, with matching black shoes and tie, the leader of the Yellow Hand triad held out his hand.  The woman Mei Liun quickly grasped it, and joined him on the elevated catwalk. 

She was costumed like a classic stylized witch, a ruffled, flowing black silk dress with wide sleeves.  Her long black locks had been shaved off, exposing a slightly bruised bald dome.

Together, they strode softy farther down the catwalk.  Xais turned and kissed Mei Liun gently on the head.  She adjusted her stance, and hugged the last Twin child of Mother.  Xais reached over and tickled the infant’s out-stretching hand. 

“She likes you.  She told me.”

Xais looked at Mei Liun sideways and grinned.  “We must give her a name.”

The woman holding the offspring nodded in agreement, then joined Xais in gazing downward towards the fog shrouded warehouse floor.  More than a dozen Alien eggs were spaced in the low lighting.

“A name for a queen.”

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