Eye of Ra (7 page)

“What you crying for?” Brick Bear asked with a seething grin. “She got off easy. Now you can give this back to me.”

Brick Bear grabbed the scepter from Laurence’s hand, while pulling his tanto combat knife from his gut. As Laurence dropped to his knees clutching his pierced stomach, Brick Bear backed up to deliver a savage boot to the side of his skull. Laurence hit the floor hard. He barely felt the shot as the concentrated pain of the knife wound and blood loss trumped the hit he took. His mind focused on Rosemary lying lifeless a couple of feet away from him also dulled his senses to all other pain. The tears that fell from his eyes were all for her.

This was his entire fault; he never wanted this for her. This was supposed to be his journey alone, and he was too weak to leave her behind. He blubbered while banging his head against the floor as he cursed his existence, which brought misery to everyone he loved.

“Now I get to beat a bitch, with my bitch stick,” Brick Bear pointed the scepter at him. “When I’m done with you, your old man’s going to be bawling at a closed casket college boy, then maybe one night, if I’m still feeling raw about this, and he’s on one of his …”

A humming sound came from the scepter halting his threat. Brick Bear’s face contorted as he held it up, witnessing the crystal parts of the shaft, along with the gems the golden cobra had for eyes, erupt with a coursing red light.

 “What the fu…”

Within a blink, the scepter transformed into an extremely large and very animated metallic king cobra. With an aggressive hiss it launched itself at him with blinding speed before he had a chance to react. It quickly wrapped itself around his neck and mimicked the coiling characteristics of a boa constrictor only with several tons more force. Brick Bear did not even have the chance to gurgle as his spinal column snapped like a twig.

“Oh fuck! Brick!” screamed Chucky.

As a very dead Brick Bear slammed lifelessly to the floor, the mechanized king cobra skillfully released him in mid-fall and landed on his chest.

A shocked Trevor raised his Beretta to open fire, but the snake beat him to the draw as its eyes illuminated with a bright red glow while opening its mouth to discharge a powerful fiery vermilion beam of energy that hit him dead center in the chest. Smoke wafted from his mouth and nose. The blast tore through the wall and kept going through several other apartments.

Profanity, yells, and screams erupted from the other residents as a dead Trevor timbered face first into the floor, leaving a horrified Chucky and a hissing cybernetic king cobra coiled and locked on him.

Chucky attempted to move left and then right, but like its organic counterpart, the inorganic creature followed his every movement.

“Hold up! Hold the fuck up!” he held out his chunky hands as shields, while pleading for his life.

“Negotiation is futile,” answered the robotic serpent in fluent English. “I intend to eliminate you.”

“Oh shit!” He squealed. “You talk!”

The cobra hissed again as its eyes and mouth emitted the same red light, powering up to fire again.

“But I didn’t do shit yo!” Chucky begged. “I ain’t wit these niggas!”

“That is a false statement,” it answered back. “You along with your now deceased associates assaulted and attempted to murder a descendant and member of the House of Ra. The only recourse for this action is the forfeit of your own life.”

The sentenced drug dealer stared in disbelief as he turned to the mortally wounded Laurence lying in a pool of his own blood.

“Dat nigga?” He pointed.

It would be Chucky’s last statement as the king cobra spat another searing energy volley from its mouth hitting him dead center between his eyes. Smoke also bellowed from his orifices including his eyes as the blast tore through the back of his skull and kept going until it dissipated. The hole was big enough for a baseball to go through. Chucky’s lifeless body toppled backwards onto the floor of the apartment, joining the rest of the dead.

Sensing no more threats, the cobra slithered its way over to Laurence, shallowly breathing and bleeding out onto the floor. As the life slowly began to leave his body he smiled at the sight of it. Its eyes projected a green beam of light that washed over his body. As the last spark within him began to flicker out, he playfully reached out with a bloody hand attempting to pet it.

The serpent instead bared its fangs, reared back, and then lunged sinking them into his right side. He groaned as his eyes flickered. He felt his heart slow down, while his eyelids turned to steel shutters unable to stay open. As his breathing stopped, a final faint smile came across his face.

It wasn’t the dragon, but finally, he got his wish.

Finally, he would not wake up. 

CHAPTER 4

Laurence’s eyes opened to bright lights.

The first thought that struck his mind was that he had passed on, that his sad pathetic life was finally over. That thought lasted for half a minute as he realized that his back was warm and laying against something plush.

He groaned as he sat up with extremely blurry vision. As his eyesight became focused again, he realized he was ninety percent naked, clean, and extremely different.

His privates were covered by some kind of white and golden loin cloth underwear that had the feel of soft leather. It matched the soft white cushion material he sat in, which was encased in a metallic golden pod. Slowly he looked around the room realizing not only was he not deceased, he was no longer in Brooklyn.

The room felt ancient and otherworldly; the walls were forged of what he could only conclude to be gold and silver. What he believed to be gems also adorned certain walls and panels along with strange markings he could not make out but seemed familiar to him.

He started to have the shakes; nervousness attacked him as his senses took in and processed everything all around him. Slowly he lifted his rear to check if any probing had been done on him, when he saw the massive gold and red metallic king cobra raising itself higher to get a better view of him.

“Oh! Oh shit!” He screamed leaping out of the pod.

As he landed, his feet went out from underneath him, sending him splattering onto the silver metallic floor which was surprisingly warm to touch. He let out a painful grunt as he lifted himself to his hands and knees.

“I advise limiting your movement to something non-strenuous,” cautioned the snake. “Some muscle atrophy may have taken place due to your inactivity while in stasis. Your broken down tissue will regenerate allowing you proper movement again.”

Laurence ignored the talking cobra and fearfully darted behind the pod for some modicum of protection.

“Don’t kill me yo! Please don’t kill me!” He pleaded while cowering behind the pod, attempting to use it as a shield from the metal cobra.

“My primary order is the protection and preservation of your life.” It answered, “As well as to obey your every command as long as it does not violate specific protocol guidelines that have been put into place. To cause you any form of harm would violate that primary order.”

Laurence slowly poked his head out from the other side of the pod and made eye contact with the gleaming inorganic reptile staring back at him. He gripped the pod using it for support and pulled himself halfway up looking around again.

“Where … where am I?” He shuddered.

“You are currently in the medical bay of a standard Annunaki transport,” it reported. “Current location is the Western Pacific Ocean at approximately 36,076 feet sea level.”

“We’re …we’re under water?” He choked.

“Correct,” it answered.

“And …this is an alien …ship?” He stammered.

“This is a standard Explorer Class Annunaki transport,” it corrected him. 

“Why’d you bring me here?” He quivered. “What the hell are you?”

“I am best described in your language as a familiar,” answered the mechanized serpent.

“Familiar?” Laurence slowly backed up making a cross symbol with his fingers. “You mean like some voodoo witch shit?”

“Negative,” it returned. “I am not the same as your primitive culture’s archaic belief in animal-shaped spirits believed to serve witches or magicians. Incidentally the origin of that term was derived from my kind. I am a highly advanced artificial intelligence within a cybernetic housing, powered by Awakening energy. I possess what best can be described as a nearly universal information database and serve other purposes as well. My primary order is to serve and protect you without fail.”

He groaned again as he forced himself to stand in order to get a better view of the place again. Noticing a reflective panel, he trudged over to it to see if there were any experiments done to him that he may have missed. At the sight of himself, he clutched his chest as if he was about to have a stroke.

“What did you do …to me?” quivered Laurence.

“You were about to expire,” answered the mechanized serpent. “Diagnostics revealed that the wound from the bladed weapon penetrated your large intestine while also damaging a major vein within that region. After dispatching your assailants, I had to proceed quickly to sustain your life. I injected you with microscopic agents that slowed down your heart rate and placed you in a form of stasis, while temporarily sealing the areas that were damaged in order to stop any additional bleeding. I then transported you here to repair you within one of the restructuring pods.”

A trembling Laurence took a minute to run his hands up and down parts of his body. Along with the knife wound through his stomach, the multiple tracks that once riddled different parts of his body were also gone. Tears slowly ran from his eyes as he finally realized that his once frail and sickly form had been replaced by a solid and powerful body. Better than what he had six years ago. He covered his mouth to muffle his audible cries as he slowly stretched out his right leg.

“You seem to be in distress,” observed the mechanical king cobra. “Are you in some form of pain?”

“My knee,” a choked up Laurence answered through his tears. “You fixed it. You fixed my knee.”

“You were suffering from an array of structural and nerve damage,” it answered. “An ailment easily remedied by removing the damaged tissues and nerves, and re-growing new ones in their place.”

“You, re-grew my knee?” He shook his head in disbelief.

“It was the logical protocol to execute,” it responded. “Very odd that the medical practitioners that did the initial repairs did not use this procedure and instead implanted metal to repair the damage while administering addictive medication with poisonous side effects in an attempt to quarantine your physical pain. Your planet’s current research in genetic cloning and stem cells should have made them proficient in this method of treatment.”

 “How did you clean me up? I mean, why did you clean me up?”

“Answer to
how
,” responded the serpent. “Additional scans revealed that your system was saturated with an array of deadly toxins. If left unattended you would have expired in approximately two weeks due to several simultaneous organ failures. Fortunately, due to your superior genetic makeup, there was ample material to make the necessary repairs and upgrades.”

“Superior genetics? Repairs and upgrades?” asked a baffled Laurence.

“Your genetic lineage stems from sixty percent Ethiopian DNA and twenty percent Egyptian DNA, which puts you in the class of pure Homo Sapiens, the dominant genetic human species of this planet,” explained the metallic snake. “As opposed to your species’ other divergent counterpart which contains Neanderthal ancestral history. The other twenty percent of your genetic makeup is Annunaki DNA. Based on these traits I was able to optimize the efficiency of your current form. Your body proceeded to do the rest by purifying your blood of the toxins and repairing itself from both internal and external damage brought upon by abuse and neglect. Because of the severity of the damage, it took approximately three weeks for your body to go through the process of withdrawal while making the necessary repairs.”

“I’ve been out for three weeks?” Stunned, Laurence’s shoulders slumped.

“Final scans taken fifteen minutes ago reveal that your body is now operating at its maximum potential,” the snake summated its analysis. “Although you are now immune to such toxins and poisons, I would advise no longer indulging in recreational drug use. It is not healthy for you.”

“Are you saying …I can’t get high …ever again?”

 “Your upgraded regenerative capabilities will no longer allow such toxins to remain in your system,” answered the serpent. “Your optimization also grants you superior healing from both minor and some major wounds and injury, as well as a high degree of durability, strength, stamina, and longevity.”

“Longevity?” he let out a panicky chuckle.

“At your current state,” responded the metal reptile. “You will possibly live several hundred centuries.”

Laurence stumbled as if he was about to fall on his rear.

“You made me …immortal?”

“Negative,” it corrected him. “Immortality would imply that your body has the ability to sustain itself without nourishment. You will continue to age, and your life force will eventually be extinguished due to either natural or unnatural causes. However, the current aging parameter of your species no longer applies to you.”