Authors: Mikael Aizen
"Fuck Xiaos, I need you," Jay said feebly.
"My spirit is corrupted.
I can no longer feel my soul.
I am cursed."
This time Jay didn't blame the man for being depressed.
They all were just about ready to give up.
But as long as Jay had the Tag in him, he dared to hope.
"If you're going to hell for this, you're there anyway.
Just stick with me a bit longer.
Drink it."
Xiaos stared at the drink.
It took a long minute, but he drank.
Xiaos dropped the skullcap and bowed over himself, shaking like he was in physical pain.
"I will fight Immortal Leader tomorrow.
You will choose me."
"I swear I'll shit today.
It's got to be today.
The really bad pain in my belly hasn't hit for hours.
That's got to mean that the Tag's finally moving on, right?"
"You're sicker than yesterday.
Weaker than the day before.
I do not think the Tag will come out today any more than it has any day because it is stuck, and now the Tag's poison is killing you."
Xiaos glanced at his arms, who's bones had begun to show through.
"My soul rejects this tainted sustenance.
I am a husk of a human."
He smiled.
"I will join my sons, soon."
Pain flashed through his abdomen suddenly, minutes without stop.
"Fuuuuck!" Jay screamed.
"Bitch, help me get this fucking Tag out!"
Bitch came over to him.
The guards didn't move from their places.
They even smiled at one another.
"What do I do?" Bitch asked.
"I don't know!
Just
push
it out!" Jay said.
Bitch reached out and touched Jay's stomach.
Agony cut through Jay's belly.
"Your stomach's hard as a rock.
Relax, will you?"
Bitch pushed again.
Jay screamed again.
Sweat poured down Jay's face and he felt cold and nauseous.
He was shaking.
"Don't think it's gonna work, Jay," Bitch said.
"Oh fuck, I'm dying," Jay gasped.
"Yeah, so are we all.
What the hell's wrong with you?" Bitch asked.
Jay just gasped.
Even breathing hurt.
"Don't tell me I...have appendicitis."
"Hell if I know.
Are you really dying, Jay?" Bitch looked genuinely concerned.
"...It looks like you actually care," Jay managed.
"Yeah," Bitch admitted.
"I am the only one who might kill Immortal Leader," Xiaos said.
"You should have chosen me from the beginning, when I had my full strength."
"Kidding me?" Jay couldn't laugh, it hurt too much.
"We're wearing him down...or didn't you see?"
Jay breathed real slow, it hurt less if he breathed slow.
"Quit wallowing in regret, Xiaos...I'm the one who's dying."
Xiaos didn't move from his head bowed, cross-legged position.
More pain shot through Jay, worse than any before.
Bitch walked over to the door that trapped them inside.
They were in one of Morir's buildings, holed up in a brick room with guards that were as good as Christmas decorations.
Bitch pounded on the door.
"We need a doctor!" he yelled.
One of the guards in the corner yelled at Bitch.
Bitch yelled right back.
"Get a fucking doctor!"
The door opened and another guard glanced in and jabbed a handgun into Bitch's face.
He said something.
Bitch kept on yelling.
"Doctor!
We need a doctor you asshole!"
More yelling and gun pointing and Xiaos lifted his head.
He spoke something in Korean to the door guard.
The guard glanced at Jay, who lay useless in a pool of sweat.
Xiaos said something more.
The guard looked at Jay again.
He nodded and said something else to the other guards.
Then he left.
"What'd you tell him?" Jay asked.
"That I'd be dead by tomorrow and Immortal Leader wouldn't have his fun after all?"
Xiaos nodded.
"Yes.
That's exactly what I told him."
"And that worked?"
He could barely lift his head.
"Perhaps," Xiaos responded.
"The guard is inquiring with Immortal Leader."
Another bout stabbed through Jay, and he thought he fainted because when he opened his eyes again, Immortal Leader was in the room watching in the background with a bunch more guards.
He didn't look too happy.
Karah was kneeling beside him, prodding at his stomach. "Fuck, not you again," Jay said. “What’s with you? You patch me up just so you can betray me later?”
Karah ignored him and stood up.
"His gut's entirely inflamed.
He won't make it through the night."
Immortal Leader came up.
His flat wide Asian face glared at Jay.
How can anyone worship someone so ugly?
"Die?" Immortal Leader asked.
Karah nodded like the man was an idiot.
"Yes.
He'll die unless I find out what's causing it.
And even if I do, without the antibiotics required from such an operation, it would leave him dead in a week anyway."
She looked at Jay.
"He's a walking corpse."
"Don't cry...too much," Jay groaned.
"Alive." Immortal Leader stated.
"For now," Karah replied.
"Few more hours, he's done."
"Fix him." Immortal Leader seethed.
The man looked like a gorilla.
"It's useless," Karah said.
"He's got peritonitis, or some other abdominal-itis.
That means infection, and without antibiotics I can't help him."
Immortal Leader looked at one of the guys beside him who was skinnier than the others and smarter looking.
Immortal Leader didn't even understand what Karah was saying.
The skinny Korean shrugged and spoke in English.
"I do not understand either."
Immortal Leader got all red and mad.
Jay felt bad for the translator.
First nice thought he'd had for a Slant-Eye.
"An-ti-bi-o-tics," Karah enunciated.
The skinny man finally nodded like he understood, then translated for Immortal Leader.
Immortal Leader shook his head.
"No," he said.
"No?
Don't you want me to save him?" Karah demanded.
Immortal Leader spoke through the translator.
"Fix him.
One week still alive is acceptable."
"He might not make it one week.
That's if I'm lucky and I find out what's wrong with him," Karah said.
Immortal Leader nodded.
"One week," he said without the translator's help.
Karah cursed under her breath.
"Tell him that I need tools, medical tools," she told the translator.
The translator passed the message and Immortal Leader sent a man running.
But he kept his eyes on Jay, watching Jay like it was Jay's fault he was sick.
"Bitch," Jay muttered.
“Hum?” asked Bitch.
“Not you, her,” Jay said, glaring at Karah.
She nodded.
"I know.
I'm sorry about Esperanza.
I didn't have a choice."
"I’m going to kill you," Jay said.
He flexed his elbow as he laid flat on the floor, staring at the ceiling.
He pointed at the bells.
"One for Hunter.
One for you."
"That's fine.
But wait until I fix you up."
"No talking," the interpreter said.
"You shut up," Jay said.
"I'm dying.
I'll talk if I..." another wash of pain, and more gasping.
"If I want to."
Then the guy came back with a bunch of medical tools.
"Why you?
They don't have...their own doctor?" Jay asked.
"None with my skill.
Immortal Leader's figured out how valuable I am," Karah said.
"Good...for you."
"Yeah." Karah went to work, cleaning and disinfecting his stomach.
She ignored Jay's flinching.
"What are you going to do?" Jay asked.
"Cut you open side to side.
Look for the source of the infection and get rid of it.
Sew you up and hope for the best."
"Is that all?" Jay asked.
"While you're awake.
They didn't give me any anesthetic."
"Will it hurt?"
"Are you stupid?
Of course it's going to hurt."
"Hey," Jay said.
"What Jay."
"I still...think you're...knock-out."
"Just wait till I cut you open."
"You better kill me," Jay said. “Otherwise...”
Bitch bristled over them both.
Karah nodded at him.
"I'll see what I can do.
Now shut the fuck up."
She began cutting, and he began screaming.
The rest passed in endless waves of nausea.
But he forced himself to stay conscious, to watch her expression, to see what she discovered because he knew what it was that caused his pain.
When she held up a bone and showed it to Immortal Leader, Jay began to slip away.
He saw her eyes get big, and her hand palm the tiny yellow flag wrapped around a tiny metal spike ball.
He saw her hesitate.
And then he felt her hand, wedging something hard and spiky under his sweaty back.
They had the Tag.
Kaboom, you bastard.
The next day, Bitch told him that Xiaos was dead.
He said that it had been the most bloody brilliant fight he'd ever seen and that Xiaos had very nearly busted Immortal Leader's ass in two.
He said that Immortal Leader had resorted to cheating, and Xiaos' head was blown into smitherines by a watching commander, right before he would've executed Immortal Leader with a kung fu neck break.
Bitch also said that Xiaos' corpse was to be buried in a ceremony honoring him before the entire DPRK army.
Jay and Bitch were given real meat, veggies, and water this time for the first time since their capture.
Today they weren't cannibals.
Immortal Leader claimed he honored Xiaos for his valor and that Bitch and Jay would be given a pass in respect for Xiaos.
He said the fights were over.
When Karah came to check on him, she told them that Immortal Leader had everything he'd wanted, his soldiers positioned, his weapons gathered, and the DPRK were ready to leave Morir tomorrow.
Ready to invade the U.S.
It was
all
over.
Karah came with the translator at her side, there to make sure no plotting happened.
"They have no idea what's going to happen, do they?" she asked him, probing at Jay's belly.
It hurt, but nothing like it had the day before.
"Who?
The USA?"
Jay lifted his head off the wall he'd propped himself on.
"No, I don't think they have a clue.
They've been bringing DPRK in, bringing weapons and supplies, bringing anything the fuckers needed, right under their own noses."
Karah shrugged.
"They had Hunter's help.
He and some higher up diplomat has kept it under wraps from the start."
"What does the DPRK want with the US anyway?
Seems to me that they could've fight it out back home rather than way out here."
"The DPRK hate the US more than any other country.
Time and time again the US has stood in their way, and they believe that the prestige that the US has should be theirs.
Immortal Leader thinks that if they take over the US on their own soil, the world will bend to his will.
Misguided," Karah said, "but true."