by Tristan Vick
Mia walked up and took the container from Jen, placed it back into its case, and closed the lid. Looking over at Kevin as she spoke, she said, “This settles our transaction.”
“I look forward to doing business with you again in the future,” Jen said, her smile bright and most certainly counterfeit.
Mia bowed again, without smiling, then gathered her things and turned and headed toward exit. Her entourage of armed guards turned in unison and followed after her.
“Wait,” Kevin called out. “What about me?”
Mia stopped at the exit doors, and without looking back, she replied, “You were part of the deal. Enjoy your stay.”
Without saying so much as another word, Mia and her troupe stormed out of the banquet hall.
The doors slammed shut and Kevin turned around to see a set of thin red lips and a bright white smile beneath two deeply penetrating blue eyes staring back at him with voracious intent.
“Welcome,” Jen greeted, her grin widening and her red lips growing even more taught as she welcomed her new subject.
69
No Remorse
Tokyo Skytree, Main Observation Deck, Japan
“Who are you? Who are you really?” Ijin Gen asked without turning around. Lightning flashed, then a cloudburst broke out, soaking them with an icy shower of rain just as the thunder roll caught up to the moment.
Rachael pulled herself the rest of the way onto the platform of the special observatory and knelt down, her long broadsword strapped securely to her back. Ignoring the rain, she rested on one knee and scanned her surroundings, checking for any possible threats.
Since it appeared that they were alone, she slowly stood up and wiped strands of wet hair from her eyes. “Does it matter?” Rachael replied, answering his question with a question.
Unencumbered by not knowing, Gen shrugged and turned to look at his guest. He smiled ominously at her from beneath his layers of gauze. “I suppose not. At least tell me your name so I have the pleasure of knowing who I’m about to kill.” Then, drawing his gun, a Ruger LC380, Gen aimed at her and, still grinning like a maniac, he said, “Shall we pick up where we left off?”
Lightning flashed and Gen squeezed down on the trigger. In that moment of time, as the hammer of the gun slowly slid back, Rachael rushed forward at blinding speed, sending up a spray of water in her wake. Gen’s eyes widened from behind his cloth mask as Rachael instantly closed the distance between them.
The trigger clicked, but Rachael already had ahold of Gen’s wrist and had deflected the shot, sending the muzzle flash up into the night sky. The bullet harmlessly shot into an endless canopy of darkness and was swallowed up by the night.
Another bolt of lightning streaked across the dark horizon, branching off in random directions; a brief moment of silence ensued before the rumble of thunder caught up.
Alarmed by her inhuman speed, Gen could barely react to the assault. Before he could get another round off, Rachael knocked the gun out of his hand and it skidded across the rooftop, catching on something fifteen feet away.
Feeling panicked, Gen looked furtively at the gun, quickly contemplating whether it was worth the attempt, but before he could decide what course of action to take, he felt his windpipe cave in from a quick jab.
Grabbing at his throat, Gen staggered back. Before he knew it, his gut was turned inside out as Rachael’s fist dug its way into his chest cavity. He heard his ribs snap from the impact; it was painfully apparent that she wasn’t pulling any of her punches.
Before Gen could even crumple to the ground and puke his guts out, Rachael dealt him a quick one-two, each blow sure to leave a massive welt on his face, then followed them up with a vicious right hook that dislocated his jaw.
Every merciless knock felt to Gen like being clobbered by a mace; he lurched backward from the flurry of blows. His body was sent into shock, and was pathetically unable to respond to the speed and power of her unrelenting attack. Stumbling backwards, his knees weak with fatigue, Gen knew if he didn’t break away from her as fast as humanly possible she really would beat him to a bloody pulp. Hell, he was already halfway there.
Before he could cut loose, however, she reached out and grabbed him by his collar, pulled him back into her, and head-butted him with the strength of a battering ram. Gen crumpled to the ground. Fighting through the fog, he realized he’d blacked out for a moment. He tried to push himself up, but suddenly felt a kick to the side of his already battered rip cage that sent him toppling back to the ground.
Gen swore to himself that if he survived this ordeal, he would relish in killing this American bitch as slowly and painfully as possible.
Picking him up by the throat, Rachael hoisted him into the air and held him out over the edge of the observation deck.
“I believe this was where we were the last time, before we were so rudely interrupted,” Rachael said.
“Ack!” Gen choked, gripping onto Rachael’s forearms for dear life as his feet dangled over the sixteen hundred foot drop. Turning his head as best he could, Gen glanced down at the black expanse that emptied out before him.
Rachael held Gen in a brutal chokehold. Drawing out her sword with her free hand, she held out the heavy weapon behind her to help counterbalance the weight of Gen’s body. His kicking and thrashing didn’t make it easy for her, but she dug her boots in and planted her footing. Her dark eyes smoldered, concealing a fiery rage within, and through gritted teeth she said, “Death will remember each and every time he’s faced the Dark Angel and lost to her. You, I’m afraid, won’t be so lucky in your encounter with Death.”
More lightning flashed, splintering in every direction, and the thunder rolled across the sky, shaking the platform of the tower. As raindrops beat down on her brow and onto the floor, Rachael squinted her eyes and cursed when, suddenly, she felt the muzzle of a gun press against the back of her head and then the dreadful click of its hammer being cocked. “Shit.”
“Don’t move a muscle you dumb fucking cunt,” a woman’s voice said. The woman pressed Gen’s pistol harshly into the back of Rachael’s head to let her know she meant business.
Straining to see over her shoulder, Rachael caught the grinning face of Gen’s loyal harlot, Maya Nishimori.
“It’s…ack… about time,” Gen wheezed.
“Put him down,” Maya snarled menacingly. When Rachael didn’t respond immediately, she shoved the barrel of the gun hard into the back of her head again and added, “I said, put him down, now. I won’t ask you again.”
“Stop!” a fourth voice rang out above the clap of thunder and crackle of lightning.
Maya and Rachael turned their heads in unison to see Saeko Sakaguchi rise up out of the stairwell of the observation deck. “Don’t come any closer!” Maya warned, nudging Rachael forward with a sharp shove to the back of the head with the gun’s muzzle.
“Okay,” Saeko said, throwing up her hands to show that she was unarmed. She desperately hoped that Maya didn’t notice the large katana strapped to her back. “Put her down and we’ll talk this through.”
Maya looked back at Gen, whose dark and wild eyes glinted in the flickering lightning storm, his face grinning manically from beneath his blood-soaked bandages. Maya turned her attention back to Saeko and smiled at her through her vicious, thinly stretched lips as she squeezed down on the trigger. BANG!
“Oopsie!” Maya said, putting her fingers to her mouth in faux embarrassment as if to apologize for having made a terrible mistake. The truth was far more sinister. She literally got off on killing the American nuisance. As far as Maya was concerned, any attack on her beloved Ijin Gen was an attack on her—and the American slut was just a pesky thorn that had to be clipped.
Slain, Rachael’s body went limp and fell backward. At the same time, Ijin Gen began to fall in the opposite direction, toward the ledge, but Maya reached out in time, catching Gen by his hand and pulling him back onto the platform, preventing him from plunging to a gut splattering demise.
Looking down at Rachael’s lifeless corpse, Maya spat on her in a show of disgust. “Say hi to Death for me when you see him,” Maya said in a patronizing tone of voice meant to rub in the fact that she had just vanquished the so-called undying and undefeatable Dark Angel.
70
Mindless Games
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, U.S.A.
“Oh! Isn’t this absolutely delicious?” Jennifer chirped excitedly, clapping her hands. She looked over at the doctor and said, “He’s so handsome.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow, partly out of concern but also still partly out of the confusion of everything that had just transpired. Had he really just been sold off like a slave? What the hell was going on? That’s what he wanted to know. But he didn’t feel that now was the best time to play twenty-one questions.
“This is Jennifer Hurley,” Doctor Hemingway informed Kevin. “You may address her as Your Majesty or as High Mistress. I’m sure the rest of the rules will become painfully clear soon enough.”
“What kind of rules?” Kevin whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
“Allow me to demonstrate,” Jennifer said looking at him like he was a mouthwatering canapé. “You there!” she said, pointing at Longstaff. “Take off your clothes and fuck these two women for my amusement.”
The two models, a blonde and a brunette, looked at each other, then, without saying a single word, stood up, stripped bare in front of everyone, and climbed upon the table, took their positions, and waited to be ravished, as their Queen had commanded.
“I politely decline the offer,” Longstaff replied tersely.
“Oh, my, my…” Jennifer Hurley gasped. “Somebody’s being awfully difficult today. What’s the matter, did my poor handsome cowboy get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”
“As I recall, I woke up in your bed chambers.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Jen laughed. “You passed out from exhaustion while you were still inside of me.” She bit her finger and moaned wantonly as she recalled their evening together. The second in what would be many.
“You then,” Jen said, redirecting her attention to Kevin. “You do it.”
Kevin laughed out of dismay. “You can’t be serious?”
Doctor Hemingway shook her head, as if to say “don’t challenge her authority,” but it was already too late. The Queen had been provoked. And when dealing with a force of nature like Jennifer Hurley, the one law that was unfailing was every action has an opposite and equal reaction.
Jen raised her hands above her head and clapped. Suddenly a host of zombies entered the room. Putting her finger to her lips, she said, “Let’s see, how shall I punish you, little boy?”
The entire room grew tense as the monsters took their positions along the back wall, surrounding the dinner guests.
“God dammit, man,” barked Captain Young. “Stop antagonizing her and just let the night move on.”
“Yes! Listen to the good captain,” Jen said, smiling at Captain Young. Jen turned her attention back to Kevin, looked deep into his blue eyes, and barked her orders for all to hear. “Kill the boy, then the girls, and then everyone in this room...after I count to, let's see…six.”
Moans rang out as the hungry zombies watched with white eyes.
Kevin looked around nervously, but everyone was either in shock or just as helpless as he was. It was a lose-lose kind of situation. The very kind he hated being in.
“One,” Jen said.
Kevin looked at the doctor. “What the hell is going on here? Who is she? Who is this mad woman?”
“She is the Queen,” Dr. Hemingway stated decisively.
“Two,” Jen said, smiling at Longstaff.
“The Queen of what?” Kevin asked, his voice stressed. Even though the question just slipped from his lips, he instantly began to feel anxious as to what the answer was going to be, since he could already guess that it wasn’t going to be good.
“The Queen of the Kingdom of the Living Dead. The matriarch of this godforsaken world. Her majesty, Jennifer Hurley.”
Kevin gulped as he scanned the faces in the room. Everyone simply went along with it, without protest. They were too terrified to even stand up to her. Nobody dared to even try. The only one who even looked remotely bothered by it was the Cowboy. Kevin assumed this was the same cowboy that Alyssa had told him about.
“Three…” Jennifer sighed, checking her nails for any nicks or dings and after inspecting them decided she could use a good manicure.
Patricia Hemingway looked over at Kevin. “I know you are new here, and I don’t expect you’re one who breaks easily. But you seem like a nice young man, and I’m betting that you won’t just let these innocent people die because of your pride.”
“It’s not right,” Kevin informed.
“Four!” Jennifer, sang out.
“Dammit man,” Captain Young grumbled, slamming his fists down on the table. “This is no time to be gambling with other people’s lives!”
Yawning, as if she were bored, Jen turned toward the monsters that lined the room like imperial guards and said, “On second thought, on the count of six, kill me instead.”
“What?” Kevin gasped.
“No!” Patricia cried out, turning toward Jennifer. “It’s neither the time nor the place.”
“Oh, fine,” Jen lamented, letting out a disappointed sigh and acting more like a petulant child who was told to come inside for dinner than any form of royalty, real or imagined. “Be that way.” Waving her hand in the air as though she were erasing invisible writing, she said, “Disregard that last order.”
71
Be in at the Death
Tokyo Skytree, Main Observation Deck, Japan
“Rachael!” Saeko screamed reaching out her hand as she witnessed the bullet pass through Rachael’s head and tear out the other side of her skull in a spray of blood.
Almost as soon as the echo of the gunshot had dissipated, Rachael’s sword fell to the metal floor with a clangor and was quickly followed by the unforgiving thud of her lifeless body. Mouth agape, Saeko was beside herself in shock. Rachael had just been shot through the back of the skull. There simply was no coming back from that.
“I told that bitch I wouldn’t ask twice,” Maya said, her voice cruel and cold. Without a single ounce of remorse, Maya kicked Rachael’s dead body. “Serves her right.”
Drained from the assault, Gen merely sank down to his knees and sat on the ground, his lungs wheezing as he gasped for air. Suddenly, he coughed and spit up an ounce of blood. Licking his lips with lecherous excitement, Gen grabbed Rachael’s dress and ripped it wide open. “A promise is a promise, after all,” he sneered.
“Get away from her!” Saeko screamed, her eyes flickering with fiery hatred.
Without stopping, Gen barked, “Take care of that obnoxious little brat for me, I would prefer some quiet.”
“As you wish, sir,” Maya said with a twisted grin. Obeying her master’s commands, she turned to face off with the niggling school girl. Raising her gun, Maya sneered, “Master Gen wishes you to shut your mouth, slut.”
“Why don’t you come over here and make me, cunt?” Saeko said defiantly.
“Oh, believe me, you little shit, I’d love more than anything to nail those profanity laced lips of yours to the wall and then lash you to within an inch of your worthless life.”
“So be it.” Saeko cracked her neck and rolled her head on her shoulders as she loosened herself up. Then, with her steely gaze locked on Maya, she reached behind her back and drew out her katana.
Digging the heel of her boots firmly into the observation deck floor, Saeko made sure she had sufficient traction, and then slowly crouched down so she could use all her leg strength to spring forward like a panther about to tackle its prey.
Maya straightened her gun and fixed it on Saeko. “Don’t even think about it,” she warned. Fanning her hand across the sprawling cityscape that lit up in a burst of lightning strikes,
she added, “I won’t hesitate to blow your useless brains out all over Tokyo.”
Ijin Gen slowly bent over Rachael’s dead body and kissed her bare shoulder as though her were making love to her, maintaining his vile gaze with Saeko the whole time. Gen pulled Rachael’s hair back, exposing her neck, then licked her, running his tongue along her still lukewarm and salty skin. Her brown eyes stared vacantly up into the sky, unaware of what was happening to her earthly vessel.
The hot-tempered school girl shrieked with rage and flew across the rooftop like a wraith soaring straight out of Hell. Her blade dragged along the metal floor and tossed up a storm of sparks in the rain that fell all around them. As she rushed forward, everything around her seemed to slow down and the only sound she could make out was the drum-like beating of her own heart.
A flash of lightning lit up the sky and, as if on cue, a burst of fire shot forth from the barrel of Maya’s gun. The bullet whizzed past Saeko’s head, but she ignored it and continued her charge.
Another shot rang out. This time the slug clipped her cheek, drawing a trail of blood as it grazed her skin, but still she pressed forward. Yet another shot rang out, but this time it drilled into her shoulder. Even as the hot, searing pain of the bullet penetrated her flesh, Saeko reflected on what Rachael had taught her, and instead of ignoring the pain, she embraced it and let it fuel her rage.
Saeko moved faster than she’d ever moved before and amid the spray of sparks and gunfire, she raised her sword high above her water drenched head, her blade glowing white-hot in the falling rain.
Maya shot off several more rounds, but they either missed their speeding target or passed right through Saeko’s body as though she were a nothing but a phantom. Suddenly, her trigger made a blank sounding click, revealing the fact that she was completely empty. To her great horror, that’s when the shadowy visage with flaming eyes swept past her in a swirling rush of wind. It passed by so swiftly that, for one small moment, Maya thought she’d imagined it.