Melissa Hernandez
3/22/13
Part Two:
Greyson woke up in the infirmary, angry and alone. There was a note on his bedside table which read: Greyson, I had to go calm down whoever is left. The Americans took many of us; we lost about one hundred and ten people, and fifty are hospitalized and in fatal conditions. If you wake up before I get back, there are nurses bringing you dinner around six. It turns out they only temporarily paralyzed you. I am so glad that you're alright. I love you very much. – Mama. Greyson crumpled up the letter. It was only four forty-five. If those damn Americans thought that they could counter attack so brutally with no consequence, they had another thing coming. Greyson called in his attack force in so that they could talk strategy; he had a plan, and a vengeful one at that.
It was eleven o'clock at night. Garfield put the chest on the table. He had been trying for close to four hours trying to open the ancient thing, but to no avail. It seemed to shut and repair itself however forceful he was with it, and he used all sorts of tools. There seemed to be some kind of key needed. He cursed himself for closing the box; he had the damn pearl in his hands. Greyson must be smiling right now – that dirty son of a bitch.
Suddenly, the alarms began blaring and there was a commotion everywhere of people trying to get to their stations. The door flung open. A rookie walked in drenched in sweat. He was extremely nervous, but he stuck to his training and saluted Garfield hurriedly. He did not wait for permission to speak, it was too important for that. "Sir! Code 16, sir!" Garfield left his office and hastily dragged the rookie down to the board room.
Greyson drove back into town early morning with his squad. At least, he believed it to be his town. It was more of a scene out of a horror movie. There were corpses littering the streets. He couldn't understand. At first he thought that those Americans had gassed his whole city. He was only worried about his mother, where was she? He told the men to take the Prisoner to the holding cells, then he ran to the last place he had seen his mother; the infirmary room he was in before he left. There she was, in the midst of other bodies. The room was filled with them. None were alive. Except for Greta, who sat there staring blankly at nothing in particular.
"Mother? Mother, what happened? Answer me." No answer. "Greta, are you alright? Who did this to you?"
She just looked at him and folded her hands in a plea pose. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up. She was praying. She began murmuring about how she needed help in these troubling times and how she needed God to forgive her. She kept apologizing as if it were her fault. Through her prayer, Greyson learned the story. Apparently after he had left the previous night, Lucifer paid the quaint, little town a visit. He asked for the Pearl, knowing full well it had been stolen that morning. When Greta couldn't give it to him, he placed a maliciously deadly plague on everyone who has ever lived in the village, except for Greta and her son (the direct descendants of the original soul trader), and left to have them watch everyone die.
"Your attack crew is going to die. For all you know they are already dead," whispered Greta.
Sure enough he found the Prisoner in the holding cell, but there wasn't a living soul to be seen anywhere. He was terrified, cold, and hungry – everything was going according to Greyson's plan.
He sputtered, gesturing to the freshly dead bodies on the ground, "They just grasped at their necks and began to cough violently, then… then, they were dead! I don't understand what is going on!"
"It's alright President Hartford. You will be just fine. Welcome to the enemy base."