The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell

by Douglas Howell

  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 s
mile 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.

  Vaistll continued on about her life upon her planet. “There really isn’t that much left to say, other than what Natas did to me. When I first met him I was at that stage in my life where I wanted to be something more than just a warrior. There comes a time in every warrior’s life where it is time for them to come home, and I was at that stage.

  So I used up all of my credits that I earned as a warrior, and started up a small business selling lamp oils. I owned three places that made the lamp oils. I was lucky. Everything was going good for me. If anything were to happen, I would have to start all over again trying to re-earn back the credits that I used up. Everything was going so well for me that I could look forward to retirement one day. The only other thing that I needed... was to start up a family. Life was good for me.

  I eventually found someone... err... he found me. Shortly after I’ve been with him, he started to act strange. I started to become suspicious of his behavior. At first I thought that maybe he was cheating on me. But I quickly ruled that out. Then I started to suspect that he might be working for someone. That he was spying on me. But I couldn’t figure who it might be, or why.

  Later he tried to get me to work for Natas. I told him that I’ll think about it. I did have the thought that maybe he might be working for Natas. But that to me at the time didn’t make any sense at all. What would be the point in Natas spying on me? What would he have to gain by doing that? He wasn’t some competitor of mine? I never worked for any of his enemies. So it just didn’t make any sense to me why he would spy on me?

  Both Natas and my boyfriend eventually talked me into it. They wanted me to learn more about Tsk’llk and Llyysta. What’s more, Natas was going to give me a large sum of money. The half that he already gave me was large enough to where I could buy a large beautiful home and property. The other half was large enough to give me a leg up on my competitors.

  Of course, before I actually would agree to do the work, I wanted to do research on Natas. While I was doing the research, Natas was being very friendly and helpful to me. Sometimes I thought that maybe he might be rehearsing my questions beforehand. I mean he acted like a modern day politician when you ask them a question.

  I also wanted to do that research, because I thought that it was strange that a slave trader should have so much wealth and power. When I asked him why that was, he look like...“

  “What? What did he look like what?”

  “Like a bad actor who is trying to look ashamed about something. But he said that the reason why he had so much wealth and power was because of his wives. When I asked him about his fllustl wife, he said that she’d served on a ship and died at sea during a storm. I should have asked him for the name of that ship. But I didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because he kept on dodging any questions about her. It was like trying to get a straight answer from a politician. Easier said than done. He said that he was emotionally devastated when he found out that she died. He mentioned that part of his wealth came from what he inherited from her death. So I didn’t push it any further.

  He also mentioned that only a small part of his wealth came from his family. When I asked him about his family, he once again dodged the issue. He said that all of them died in a massacre, and he was the only survivor. Beyond that he wouldn’t provide any details about what happen to them. And once again I didn’t push it. I didn’t like pushing anything about his past, at the time, because he said that there where people out to get him. One look at him and it is too easy to believe it. So it was very hard to question his honest over the matter.

  It was, however, a whole lot easier to get information about his wife’s past. Especially since she was famous to some degree. So all I had to do was to go to some Iomiyyan library and check up on her past. It was both surprising, and in a way sad, about what I learned about her past.

  First of all, she came from a small island civilization with only two major port cities. She came from the northern one called Yajk’nyo (sounds like you lack - knee-o). The name of which my people used in one of their sayings. That saying would give you an idea about, not only the city of Yajk’nyo, but also the civilization itself. What’s more, other civilizations adopted the saying as well. There is no Earth equivalent to it. But if there was, it would have gone as follows, ‘Don’t get all San Francisco on me.’ It means ultra-liberal.

  The ironic things is, his wife turned out to be ultra-conservative. I don’t know why she did. Maybe it had something to do with both the civilization that she came from, and her parents colorful past. It was something that she never talked about. And I didn’t care to know why.

  She always acted like she was open-minded, which was only partly true. But it might explain why she ended up with Natas. I mean one look at him and no woman would want him as a husband. He wasn’t born ugly. It was
his pursuit of power, and what he did to himself that made him that way. I don’t know how they met, they never talked about it. But I often wonder what she saw in him. It wouldn’t have been his looks.

  One of the things that helped to make Natas’ wife so famous was the civilization that she came from. It gave women like her, an fllustl wannabe, opportunities that all other civilizations, including mine, would have laughed at. One of which is to let them travel on a ship for long periods of time with men. A fllustl was different because there was a small chance that they would get pregnant.

  In the region where her civilization was, there was a major pirate problem. So in the city of Yajk’nyo, powerful influential people decided to put a stop to it once and for all. They commission a ship for the purpose of pirate hunting and then they hired a crew. For each pirate ship that they sunk, they got a commission. They got a larger commission for each pirate nest that they routed. His wife was made second-in-command.