The Woman's Game - 4. Part One: The Book of Genesis V

We needed to discuss what needed to be done. We, of course, needed to find the other members of the resistance. I went to her house, which was round the corner. If only I had seen that rustle in the bushes, or the tone of green which didn’t quite fit with the foliage.

She let me in and started to make me a cup of tea.

‘What do you want my boy?’

‘We don’t have time to chit chat or to drink tea. We need to get down to business. Her message was ‘We Are Not Alone’.’ I paused and took a breath. ‘ I know about the resistance.’

‘How?’

‘Mother.’

‘That girl could never be trusted could she?’ She smiled with her overly done makeup lips. ‘I guess I should tell you a little more about myself. Considering how little you know about me’. She took a glass from the sink and filled it with water and took a sip. ‘I’m parched. Anyway, we know what must be done but in order to do this you must understand the past. Something every operative has been told at some point. The other members of the resistance know about this. They know how much our project means to the sanctity and the worth of the human race. For you to grasp this you must know about the Great War and then the legends… ’

‘What legends?’

‘My dear boy. The Legends of The Crystal Skulls, of course.’

I twitched my eyebrows and a feeling of bewilderment came across my face.

‘Have a drink. You are going to need it.’ She got a second cup of water for me as well as well a cup for herself. I gratefully took the cup from her.

‘The legend starts over a several thousand years ago; way back when the Mayans were about.’

I listened intensely as she told me the tale…

‘It was a few thousand years ago. There was a war. A great war. With sorcery and torture. Torture of people closest to you. They had the ability to use mind control. They made siblings torture their other brothers and sisters just because they could. Those that controlled the power ran what happened around the landmass. They called it Utopia. That was what they are going to call it again. Utopia. History was going to repeat itself.’

I looked at her in awe. She continued her story.

'And that is our mission. We must stop it repeating itself. It was the Mayans originally. They stopped the Great War. It lasted for so long that no one remembers when it ended. They managed to control the power and capture the creature… the creature that couldn’t even be classed as human. They extracted the power from her. They killed her. Sacrificed her, thinking it would release the power from her body so they could gather it. But they didn’t realise that it would leave the host and move on. That one Shrouded Figure. The Skulls were the weapons of war. Only those that have the ability to wield the skulls were able to. Many died trying. The skulls were locked away, out of the human eye. It was the Mayan’s greatest fear that they would be released again. Most stupidly a group of archaeologists actually did. After that trip, they slowly started to die.’

‘Hang on, what? This isn’t some fairytale you know, Mrs. Greenwood’.

She placed her hand upon mine.

‘Allow me to finish please.’ She squeezed my hand tightly.

‘As I was saying they slowly started to die. Something was killing them. There were four of them in that conquest. Three of them have died. Some force was eliminating them from existence one by one.’

‘Why do you know so much?’

‘I’m the last living one. I was in the archaeology team a few years ago, before my retirement. That I suppose is the curse of the crystal skulls. Even though they come with great power, what follow them is much worse.’

‘What is it?’ I smiled at her and I looked directly into her eyes.

‘Great Death.’

I looked at her in shock.

‘I’m afraid we are going to have to cut this little discussion short.’ She checked her pocket watch from her purse. ‘Yes, it is about now they are meant to be surrounding my house and taking me in. But we won’t let that happen now will we? Ready?’ She stood and wrapped her scarf around her neck and put her coat on.

‘Ready for what?’ I responded, standing.

All she did was smile at me…

**

‘Sir. Ready for your orders.’ The short soldier saluted the Commander. The Commander looked around at the circle of soldiers they had around the house. There was no escape.

The Commander took a little laugh to himself and said, ‘Charge in now. Make the order sergeant’.

**

‘Be ready to run.’

I followed my deepest instincts and I followed her orders.

I looked up into the trees outside of the small window in the corridor and saw one of the soldiers staring straight back at me from the trees. We were being watched everywhere we went and they were closing in on us.

We had to move away. We went down into her basement.

They crashed through the front door, checked the rooms above us, when one soldier shouted ‘CLEAR’ and I could hear a eruption of footsteps charging through the house.

We managed to get out behind her crates of wine and through a secret compartment. We climbed through; she was strangely active for a lady of her age. We went through the tunnel and came out into the sewers. She barely spoke a word until we reach the ladder to escape from the stinking filth into a distant street.

‘Boy. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. But you are going to be caught. Unless you can run.’

I couldn’t gather the words to respond to her. But I didn’t have time.

She had already started climbing and was already out of the sewer before we could even speak.

Then we saw the two soldiers and they saw us.

They started yelling as soon as they saw us, an old woman and a boy climbing out of the sewers.

The soldiers shouted and ran towards us. ‘Names. Get inside. You are out after curfew. You know the rules’.

They shouted more and more instructions but suddenly Mrs. Greenwood turned to me and screamed at me.

‘Now is the time to run.’

I ran deeper into the sewers; with Mrs. Greenwood behind me. She jumped from the top of the ladder and hit the floor; as the soldiers followed her into the crap filled tunnel.

I could see her as I was running but I then needed to breathe so I ducked into an alcove.

I could see that despite her age, she was an excellent fighter. Flexible and could do roundhouse kicks like the best of them.

She fought them off and stood watching them squirm on the floor. She dug the heel of her shoe into the forehead of each of the soldier. Enough to knock them out for short periods of time. Enough time for her to get away.

**

Mrs. Greenwood returned to another home of hers. She had to keep several for security’s sake; so they would never know which one she would be in.

A clever exercise.

But they knew where she would be. They would always know. They would call her up when they needed her. Currently she was disposable, so they didn’t really care about what happened to her.

**

It was about an hour later; I was exhausted and I had to rest. One of the soldiers had left the sewers and the other just awoke.

‘Hello? Anyone up there?’ His accomplice climbed back down into the sewer.

‘Yeah. I’m here.’

‘You left me. You just left me.’ There was a look of devastation upon his face.

They walked in my direction in order to have a quicker exit and to be closer to where they needed to be.

‘Stupid people.’ One of the soldiers lit a cigarette. ‘Always trying to fight when they know that they can never escape the watchful eye of The Great Shrouded One.’

The other soldier looked at his watch and smiled uncomfortably. ‘Happy New Year.’

‘How can we be happy when this is happening? This isn’t assistance. This is occupa…’

I saw the soldier cringe in pain; it was as if he had escaped from some sort of trance for a short period of time.

He curled his head into chest and began to speak.

‘We follow the leader for she is beautiful. It is her shroud that creates her beauty. Sorry, I didn’t know what I was saying earlier. She is always right. We always follow the great shrouded figure.’

‘Good. Let’s go.’

**

The date was set. They were coming. From all over the planet. From individuals to pairs to large groups.

They were gathering, those that called themselves The Cult and they each knew it was time for them to sacrifice themselves.

This sacrifice was worth it to summon those that should be summoned; to sacrifice themselves for a greater good.

All of it was there to get her attention. The Shrouded One.

It was there to get her attention; to make her give the skulls to The Montessori Cult.

By doing this, they were under the belief that they could repeat history and release a force. Release a force stronger than the skulls…

However, The Shrouded One knew that it would not be successful, so it would just be a matter of time and observance until she made her move.

The Cult needed all of the skulls because they also had heard about the legends and they needed more skulls to take over our stinking cess pit rock of a planet.

The skulls had to be won in the game and that is the greatest challenge of them all…