“You can’t possibly want us to attack you.” The general frowns, walking a few steps closer. “I’m sure you’re putting on a good face, but after being hit with so many missiles yesterday?—”
Xolotl whips his hand outward, and a missile flies away from him and hits the middle of the gathered troops. There’s a massive explosion and bodies fly in every direction. “I wasn’t hit with anything.” He smiles. “Your attacks restock my toy chest, so go ahead. Once you’re done handing me gifts, I’ll talk with whoever’s still alive. I’m sure the next general in the line of command will be happy to take orders from me.”
The general’s trembling.
“Maybe cut him a little slack,” I say. “You’re a lot to take in. You can’t really blame him for being incredulous.”
“You don’t know military men like I do,” he says. “They only speak one language, and it hasn’t changed in thousands of years. Control or defeat. He must understand that I have all the power, or he’ll never submit. He wouldn’t be much of a leader if that wasn’t the case.”
“So it’s a pissing match then.” I fold my arms.
“I like that turn of phrase.” He snorts. “I’ll definitely use it.”
Oh, geez. “But?—”
He drops a hand on my shoulder. “Hush now, little one. Watch and learn.” He steps forward, blocking the general’s view of me and my view of him. “Are you ready to unconditionally surrender yet?” Xolotl tilts his head. “If so, you can be my second in command. If you’re not ready yet, I’ll escalate.”
“Escalate?” General Phillips doesn’t sound ready. “What does that mean?” Based on the crackling sounds, I think someone’s screaming into his earpiece. He’s close to us now, but still, if we can hear the noise from his earpiece, they’ve gotten really loud. “No, stand down,” he hisses. “Stand down for now. I’m negotiating.”
“It seems you need more convincing,” Xolotl says. He looks around the area, and then he closes his eyes, and his nostrils flare. He brings his hands together then, hard, clapping.
A strange creaking sound that sounds like a thousand trees breaking at the same time occurs simultaneously with a great shaking of the ground.
“What are you doing?” General Phillips asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “What did you do?”
“There’s a fault line that runs just alongside us, maybe ten miles that way.” He points west. “I’ve split it open. It’s going to continue to separate if I don’t stop it, eventually shearing a large part of the land mass you call California off, and allowing it to sink into the ocean.” Xolotl looks perfectly pleasant, like he’s explaining to the general that the bugs in the bed are now dead.
“You—you what?” The general taps his ear and starts rapid-fire asking questions. Two jets veer west, and when he hears back from them, his eyes widen. He swears loudly and for a long time. “How did you do that?”
Xolotl laughs, and the ground underneath us shakes. “You haven’t been listening.” Somehow, I have no idea how, Xolotl grows larger. He’s looming over all of us now, and dark energy’s radiating outward from him like heat waves off the desert sand in July. “I’m Xolotl, God of Death, Lord of Mictlan, also called Ta’xet. None can stand against me. I’m here to restore balance to the humans living in this time, and you can help me, or you can die.” He shrugs. “I don’t care which.”
General Phillips appears to have wet himself, but he shouts into his mouthpiece. “Hit him with everything we have, now.”
Xolotl sighs and snaps.
The general collapses, his eyes rolling back in his head.
Then all hell breaks loose. Jets dive and fire, missiles, warheads, and rapid gunfire all headed our way. Xolotl shoves me behind him again, as if that will keep me safe. He hisses, “Use what I showed you to keep stray bullets clear. I’ll do the rest.”
I barely stop a volley of bullets that were aimed right at me.
When I’m not drawing wind in front of myself to stay alive, I watch. Xolotl sets all the soldiers in front of him on fire, for fun I suppose, since I know full well he could snap and end them immediately. Then he draws every single warhead, missile, and grenade into himself, and they just disappear.
He’s still twelve feet tall, and he’s beaming like he’s on his first ride at Disneyland. What was I thinking before? No amount of burgers or theme park rides could change this being from what he is into something he’s not.
He is death.
As I watch him more carefully, I can see the souls fly through him—something I’d never seen before. They dart and flit and stream in small lines and massive surges, shooting through his body, and lighting him up. Xolotl swells with more and more energy as the army attacks and attacks and attacks.
Then in the distance I see a much larger jet coming, and I wonder what it’s carrying, but deep down, I already know.
It has to be a nuke, right?
“They’re about to hit us with a nuclear warhead,” I shout. “Xolotl, let’s portal out of here.”
“A nuclear warhead? It harnesses the power of cells?” He bites his lip and beams at me. “That’s great news.”
