Mortal Kombat: Annihilation by Jerome Preisler

Author:Jerome Preisler
Format: mobi, epub

CHAPTER TWELVE

For Liu it began the same way it would eventually end – with the sense that he was dreaming or hallucinating, helpless to control the surreal flow of events into which he had been swept like a leaf in a gale.

His eyes flickering open, he tried to move, discovered that he couldn’t, and then realized that he was buried in sand up to his neck.

This can’t be real, he thought with a surge of claustrophobic panic. Can’t be.

He tilted his chin up off the desert floor. Night was still with him. So was Nightwolf. The young Native American was a few feet away, circling him with a torch.

“Glad you could join us,” he said. “We’ve got a ton of work to do.”

Liu squirmed and felt sand trickle down the back of his shirt, a sensation that heightened his terror to a degree that was almost overwhelming.

“Let me out!” he shouted. “I don’t have time for this!”

Nightwolf’s scoffing grin made an unwanted comeback.

“Really?” He stood over Liu with his feet planted apart and his arms folded across his chest. “Well, I don’t have time for your ignorance. So if you’ve got a problem, why don’t you do something about it, tough guy?”

“I can’t fight you. I can’t even move.”

“Excellent, some signs of intelligence,” Nightwolf said, his slantwise smile creeping higher up his face. He knelt close to Liu. “You’ve gotta learn to fight with inner strength, dude. Your moves are important, but even the best warrior can be killed. It’s the fire inside you, your everlasting faith in yourself, that can never be defeated.”

Liu’s eyes never left Nightwolf as he walked over to a ten-foot high prickly pear cactus and knocked in half with a forceful kick.

“I know this sounds like a bunch of psychobabble, but it really does work. If your soul is pure,” he said.

He lowered his torch to the ground and revealed an army of dark, furry spiders swarming from the broken cactus.

Liu’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“Here’s the deal,” Nightwolf said. “You’ve got three tests to pass before you’re ready for what lies ahead.” He knelt, filling the pouch with spiders until it bulged and jerked from the inside. Then he smiled his crooked smile. “Now the first thing we’re gonna test is your courage... this part should blow your mind.”

Liu moistened his lips. “Why does it have to be spiders?”

“Because you’re scared of them.”

Standing over Liu again, Nightwolf turned the pouch upside down and emptied the spiders onto his head.

Cringing with revulsion as they skittered over his scalp and face, Liu tried to shake them off and yelped in sudden pain.

“The trick here is to overcome your fear.”

Nightwolf watched him like a scientist studying a new lab specimen. “Every time you move, the spiders bite.” “I know! I can feel it!”

“Relax,” Nightwolf said, attenuating the a sound. “Their poison won’t kill you, just expand your mind beyond your current boundaries.”

“If you’re so damn smart and brave, why don’t you fight Shao Kahn?” Liu asked furiously.

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