“Stop!” Nicole shouts, raising her KRISS carbine towards the snake-woman. Coaxoch abides, pausing her advance. “Move another step and I’ll figure out a quick way to end you.”
The Aztecan queen just smiles broadly as if challenging Nicole to a fight. Hopefully for Nicole’s sake, it doesn’t come to that. I know how hard it is to kill someone like her, recalling the brutal fight between me and this woman’s supposed spouse.
Speaking of that…
“If you were Nannot’s wife… What’s with the getup?” Kane asks, finally speaking up. He was staring dumbfounded at the woman too. It’s hard to get past the obvious body alterations, but her face is spotless and beautiful.
Coaxoch looks down at her body, confused by the inquiry, but then understands.
“When I fled, An’tala, at my husband’s request, I arrived here in Central America. I was originally part of the first Mayan settlers, but as time went on and regimes changed, so did my allegiances.”
She takes a quick step forward and stops, getting all four of our weapons pointed in her direction. All she does is smile again, showing off what I now see as a forked tongue.
Coaxoch continues, “I did what I could to stay in power and in control, marrying myself off multiple times. Men are so easily tamed with promises of the flesh. I also bore numerous children in the process, ensuring my bloodline will continue, and with it, my goal.”
Goal? What goal?
I’m about to ask her about that, but don’t get the chance. She continues on, “When I landed on the northern shore of the Yucatan region, I set about to claim my right as ruler and ordered my husband’s earthly remains hidden away.”
This gets my full attention. “Your husband’s remains?” I ask.
“Yes,” she replies, a look of rage building on her face. “When that treacherous bastard, Thoth, destroyed his physical body, all that was left was ash.” My face goes white. “Which I collected and put in a jar.”
“Aw, damn.”
I glance over to Kane who’s just standing there rubbing his forehead. He gets it, I think. So do the women as I look in their direction too. At least we’re on the same page.
The queen takes a step forward and keeps on coming. She gives Nicole a wink and climbs the six steps it takes to get to the altar platform. Once at the middle she stops and looks to the ground.
“This is where it happened,” Coaxoch says, lost in remembrance. “The night my kingdom was devastated by my inept son.
“Your son?” Olivia asks, speaking for the first time. “Xiuhcoatl was your son?”
Looking to Olivia with admiration, the queen looks her up and down, “That’s some fine artwork you have there. Pity you won’t be alive much longer to enjoy it.”
Then like nothing happened, Coaxoch turns back to me. “Yes, Xiuhcoatl was one of my many children and unfortunately didn’t heed his father’s warning about what the tomb contained.”
“Through the grapevine, I installed a legend about a weapon so powerful that it could literally wipe out an entire kingdom…” As she finishes, a look of honest-to-God anguish flows over her face. There is a glint of pain, but then just like that, it’s gone, replaced by anger.
“Why remove it now after all these years?” I ask, honestly intrigued, but also trying to work out a plan for us to get out of here alive.
She smiles and answers, “The world has run its course. It’s time for my family to rise and rule…everywhere.”
She must see the confused look I’m currently sporting because she elaborates further. “Those who follow me are my descendants, some of which don’t even know they are. Our numbers are such that we shouldn’t have a problem repopulating the planet when all of you are gone.”
She flashes me a wicked smile and holds out her hands. Then she closes her eyes and starts mumbling under her breath. I recognize the language, but can’t remember where.
Then, like a wrecking ball of truth, it hits me. I’ve definitely heard this language before, but unfortunately it was under the Sahara in Algeria.
“She’s speaking Atlantean,” I say with a lump in my throat, not understanding it, but clearly recognizing it from various nightmares. The only reason she would be doing that is if she—
The ground beneath our feet rumbles and all around us things start to happen.
First, the Avenue of the Dead disappears under a massive landslide of stone and earth. The pathway that was once lined with stairways and empty platforms is now just a large mound of dirt and rock. Our best bet at an escape, gone.
Second, the ten or so step-pyramids surrounding the altar, each one of them four layers tall—about twenty-five feet tall maybe—shake and crack. As I watch the scene unfold, I can hear Coaxoch’s voice increase in volume and intensity, like she’s driving in more effort and energy into the mantra.
Then finally, each of the pyramid’s staircases break free, sliding down their respective sides, and crash to the plaza floor with an ear-shattering crunch. Through clenched eyes, I see something I wish I hadn’t. Each one of the staircases twitch and rumble…and move.
No, move isn’t the right word. It’s more like a slither…a snake’s slither.
27
Teotihuacan, Mexico
We are quickly surrounded on all sides by the ever growing army of stone serpents with the mother of them all chanting away atop the altar. Coaxoch’s eyes are closed, but her eyes dart back and forth rubbing against the underside of her eyelids. Her hands are outstretched, palms down, talon-tipped fingers hooked like she’s calling to the earth.
Which I guess she technically is, I think, looking around at our current predicament.
The four of us gather together and scurry around the altar towards the only intact staircase. It’s the one belonging to the Pyramid of the Moon—the one dedicated to the Great Goddess herself.
“We need to stop her!” Olivia shouts over the increasing rumble and groans of scraping stone bodies.
“And how exactly do we do that?” Nicole yells in response. “She’s immortal, remember?”
“If we shut her up, then maybe—”
“It’s not that easy!” Nicole retorts, interrupting Olivia.
“Quiet! Both of you! Let me think!” I roar, squelching the two women’s building argument.
“Kill the golems first, then worry about the she-snake.” I look to Nicole and Olivia, the four of us backing up as one. “Okay?”
Neither of them nods their agreement, but the fact that they don’t argue back tells me they do. The only thing I get from them is a tag-team of hate-filled eyes for berating them. They’ll get over it.
“Look,” I say almost apologetically. “We need to stay calm and stay focused. The four of us need to stick together.”
I glance at Kane, seeing him looking around at the terrain, no doubt putting together a battle plan. “Whatcha’ got, man?” I ask, aiming my AA-12 shotgun towards the closest serpent. It’s then I truly get my first good look at what we are dealing with.
They are the size of a stretch Hummer, maybe longer when fully formed. Each of them is identical in that as they slither towards us, their back halves—their unfinished halves—continue to form as they advance. The snakes have a rock trail, rolling along behind them. Each time a loose bolder touches the rear of the serpents, it fuses to it, adding to its girth and length.
The only completely finished part of the monster is the first half of its body and face, the latter of which is really odd. The mouth is frozen mid-sneer, and its foot-long teeth are bared, ready to devour us.
In fact, they look exactly like an Aztecan relief that I’ve seen that depicted a snake. It seems Coaxoch has recreated them and brought them to life to use as her own personal Dobermans.
As the bodies progress in their formation, I see what appears to be scales and feathers start to take shape. The feathers are situated atop the beast’s head and run down its back, giving it a full body Mohawk.
It’s then that the closest of the se
rpents, the first one to fully put itself together, charges me. Stone teeth go flying as I level my AA-12 and pull the trigger sending a quick burst of fully automatic 12-gauge slugs into the monster’s open maw. More gunfire erupts as Kane, Nicole, and Olivia joins in, obliterating the thing.
One down, nine to go, I think, turning my attention to the next target—
BOOM!
An ear-shattering explosion rips through the air around us. I look over and see Kane eject a spent shell from his SCAR’s grenade launcher attachment. He then opens up on the remains of the serpent’s head, effectively decapitating it.
“They stay dead with no head,” I mutter to myself, quoting Kane. He used the motto when fighting the stone man-beasts in the Atlantean underworld.
Two down.
“Back!” Yells a voice. A group of three snakes shoot forward, lunging at us. We scramble backwards, mounting the first few steps of the goddess’ monument, taking the high ground.
“Kane!” I yelp, looking for help, as one of them blows through my latest volley, head down, trying to ram me. Its thick skull takes the rounds like little more than a few bee stings. I roll away, cursing as the edge of one of the steps digs into my shoulder.
“Can’t Hank, too close,” he shouts back as I jump to my feet. I climb another five steps, eject my first drum mag, casting it aside with a clatter. I reach for another cartridge and turn.
As the empty drum rolls down the steps, it attracts the attention of the serpent who bull-rushed me. It strikes out and snatches it, crushing it to pieces with its spike-like teeth.
Okay… I definitely don’t want to get too close, I think. It’s like they are just going after anything that moves.
Huh. I suddenly get an epiphany. Are these things just going after movement based targets?
“Throw your empties away, towards the snakes!” I yell, slapping my second drum into place. “I think they are movement based attacks.”
“Like a T-Rex?” Kane asks, yelling over the cacophony of gunfire.
His assessment, while amusing, isn’t far off from the truth. Who can forget the famous scene from Jurassic Park, when Dr. Alan Grant, along with the two frightened kids, Tim and Lex, huddle in the mud as a monstrous Tyrannosaur hunts them down. The dino was so close it actually blew off Dr. Grant’s hat.
Memories for another time, I think, firing another six-round burst, finishing off a serpent that Nicole had started on.
Okay, we now have four down and six to go.
BOOM!
Kane launches another projectile from his FN40GL accessory, annihilating the back half of a “stoner” near the rear of the pack.
“Damnit!” Kane shouts, obviously upset at missing the thing’s head, although he did slow it down considerably. Now, instead of something like a snake, slithering back and forth, the monster has an almost comical herky-jerky movement, like an inch worm.
“You notice something?”
I glance to Nicole, who ejects an empty magazine from her KRISS rifle, chucking it away like a football. It sails into the growing horde of monsters as two of them dive for it, head-butting each other.
“Notice what?” I ask, pumping the rest of my drum into another beast. I, like Nicole, eject my spent mag, but instead of throwing it away, I let it fall. When it almost reaches the ground I strike out with my foot, punting it into the air.
“Nice moves,” Kane says. “Oh, and…fire in the hole!” He unleashes another explosive round, finishing off the creature he maimed earlier, shattering its front half.
We turn and flee up the stairs, arriving at the first of four platforms.
“What did you notice?” I ask Nicole again, slapping in another drum mag.
“This is a lot easier than before,” she replies, following suit and reloading as Kane and Olivia continue to fire.
“Easier?”
We look to Olivia, who has a horrified look on her face.
“Much easier,” Kane adds. “Move! Higher!”
We leave the easier footing of the step pyramid's first platform and head for the next, taking two steps at a time, another twenty steps up or so.
“It’s probably because we didn’t have these!” I say as I run up the stairs, gesturing to my much larger and more powerful weapon. We only had handguns in the desert. Having some high-powered artillery would have given us a much-needed edge.
“Or do you think it’s the fact that these things aren’t alive like the Minotaur’s were?” Nicole asks.
Huh, I wonder—
“Ow!”
But before I can contemplate her hypothesis, we hear Olivia shout out in pain.
Kane, Nicole, and I turn as one as Olivia goes down on top of the first step. Kane and I hustle down to help her, guns up but don’t fire. A serpent appears on the landing just behind Olivia, who’s holding her ankle. She’s too close for Kane or me to risk firing, especially with my weapons wider spray radius.
The monster moves in mouth agape, ready to swallow Olivia whole.
“No!” Kane shouts, leaping over the prone woman, straight into the creature’s jagged embrace.
28
Teotihuacan, Mexico
I’m stunned and can do nothing but watch as Kane lands inbetween Olivia and the beast. He arrives just as it opens its mouth, unhinging its jaw.
As Kane lands, he thrusts his rifle into the serpent’s fang-filled mouth, jamming the weapon in place. Unable to close its jaws, the creature thrashes and shrieks in anger. Then, in one fluid motion, Kane draws both of his Desert Eagles from his thigh holsters, having opted for practicality instead of the Tac-Pac’s stealth. We weren’t trying to go unnoticed here like we were in Chichen Itza.
He unleashes all seven .50 caliber rounds from both of his guns, fourteen in all, down the serpent’s throat. Finding his mark with every bullet, Kane blows out the back of the monster’s skull, along with most of the top portion of its head. The only things left are its body and jammed open jaws, a massive gap inbetween the two, the latter of which is still clutching his SCAR.
Reloading and holstering his handguns, Kane kicks the hinged joint, separating the stone, releasing his weapon, and then collects it.
Nicole steps up next to him firing away at another of the inhuman beasts. “Not bad.”
Kane and I look over, but before we can correct her, Olivia does. “Not bad?” She says getting to her feet, wincing in pain at putting pressure on her injured ankle. “More like, holy shit!” She gingerly turns to Kane as the man reloads his reacquired SCAR. “Remind me later to show you those tattoos on my back.” She kisses him hard. “And anything else for that matter.”
Then like nothing happened, Olivia slaps a new magazine into her machine pistol, limps forward aiming it down the stairs, and fires. She unloads half her clip into the golem that Nicole had already started on, teaming up with the woman.
Dumbfounded, Kane and I turn and watch the two ladies dismantle the serpent with cold efficiency. Watching them in awe, I nudge Kane. “We’re pretty lucky guys, huh?”
It’s a full second before Kane responds and all he can come up with is, “Huh?” The look of confusion mixed with disbelief is too much. All I can do is laugh as I join in with Nicole and Olivia. We actually start advancing on the ever shrinking horde of stone beasts, which is now down to three.
As Kane starts to come out of his stupor over the revelation that Olivia actually likes him, he joins in, helping us take out the remaining creatures. We stay far enough away so he can use his grenade launcher. Two of the serpents lose their heads, while the other gets cut in half. It only takes another few seconds for us to finish it off, as we reload and turn our attention to the altar, that of which Coaxoch is still currently atop.
Determined to end this here and now, the four of us continue forward towards the serpent Queen, weapons up and ready for anything. I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to work, so before anyone fires, I raise my hand.
“Hang on guys,” I say stepping forward. “Let me try
this alone—try to talk to her.”
Before anyone can argue I say, “It’s fine. I have a plan.”
My friends don’t exactly look thrilled with my idea, but they abide by my request and stand down. None of them lower their weapons, though, which I’m thankful for. If this does in fact fail, I’ll need their cover fire in order to get away with my life.
I begin climbing the steps of the plaza’s altar and recall the way I killed Nannot. I weakened him with the Atlantean fire, bestowed onto me by Thoth and the other priests, an ability I had no idea I still possessed until recently.
When I grabbed the short-sword I’ve dubbed Elvis, I again had the ability to summon the electric green flames. Could doing the same thing help me now? I think to myself as I hit the top step, stepping onto the altar’s platform.
As soon as my foot lands on the stone landing, Coaxoch’s eyes snap open, revealing the same hatred and malice I once saw in Omar’s Nannot-possessed body. But I also see an ecstasy filled lust in her eyes. She wants this badly. She is going to try and tear my throat out and will stop at nothing to do so. I look down at the inch-long razor sharp claws she sports for finger nails.
Yep, that’s exactly what she is going to try and do.
“It is done.”
I don’t get a chance to question her. The earth around me shakes and buckles, letting loose a surge of energy beneath my feet.
CRACK!
POP!
I turn around and see the unthinkable.
The Great Goddess’ pyramid is moving. It shifts and grinds its way into what appears to be humanoid in shape.
Twin arms push out of the stone and flex themselves outward, like a cat stretching after a long nap. A featureless head emerges next out of the uppermost platform, giving the colossal giant an even more unnerving appearance. Lastly, its legs push out from underneath it, as more stone shifts into place, up and away from the lower sections to later be absorbed into its midsection.
Mayan Darkness (A Hank Boyd Adventure Book 2) (The Hank Boyd Adventures) Page 14