Amelia's Blog

        Well. That concludes the second half of the first “Adventure” of C.J. and Hitomi. I certainly hope you liked it. The whole two parts “clocked” in at just over 10k words. I never thought I had that many words in me! I know for sure that there’s more stories here for sure!         For now, though, I think I’m going to return to Rob and Deb and their search for what gave Rob and others in a small Colorado town odd powers! But, that’s for Monday. Now, enjoy your weekend! And I’ll see you Monday!

        “We are in over our head, C.J.”         “We are, yes.” They were staring at the imposing figure who was now advancing on Hem-Netjer Tepey. For once, neither of them knew what to do.         “You stand accused. What say you?”         The high-priest leaned against the wall, an eerie growl issuing from his throat. “I tried my best. I was betrayed!”         The creature’s eyes flared red, “Failure has no excuse. You were told this.”         “Should we leave?” Hitomi asked quietly.         “I don’t know.”         Unfortunately, seemed the beast heard them and turned its gaze on them. “You both shall witness this being’s fate. Such is decreed by the Great Anubis!”         “Oh, crap. Can you?” Hitomi started to ask, but before she could finish, Siege was already in motion.         “Got it!” She rushed forward, grabbed the high priest and headed for the airlock. The beast roared in rage and came after them. At the door, she shoved the priest at Hitomi and rammed the door with her sho

        The two friends sat across from each other. Both were digesting what they heard from their “host” Hem-Netjer Tepey.         “Well, so much for being reasonable.         “I’m sure he thinks he’s being reasonable, Hitomi.”         “What he thinks and what reality is are two different things, girl.”         Instead of answering, C.J. looked up. “You notice all the wiring down the halls?”         “Yeah, pretty hacked together.”         “Since we’ve known that the Fourth Reich has been eating other organizations for a long time already, and I don’t really think Buck would want to make a deal, what say we get out of here and do some damage on the way?”         “Oh! I didn’t get you anything!”         “Cute.” Siege got up and looked at the door. “We’ll follow the wiring. Ready?”         “Whenever you are.”         With a vicious kick, C.J. knocked the door on its hinges and a little ways into the hallway. Two guards tentatively looked into the room, obviously shocked. Giving a sacchar

        The guards escorted them to an enormous room. Hitomi had a hard time seeing the ceiling, but she did notice conduits and groups of wiring running high up on the walls. She must have been moving too slow, because the guard behind her gave her a vicious shove. She was going to turn around and slug the toad, but Siege caught her eye and minutely shook her head. Instead, she snarled at the guard in Japanese, who just laughed.         The guards stopped them in front of a wide dais with an obvious throne. It didn’t take long for the significance of this to sink in. Hitomi leaned in to C.J., “Well, I guess that answers the question if this guy has a god complex.” C.J. smirked, but the guard wasn’t amused. He slammed the butt of his gun into Hitomi’s back. “Quiet, worm.”         Hitomi whirled and narrowed her eyes. “Do that again, and you don’t want to know where I’ll put that gun.”         The guard backed up a pace, earning snickers from the other guards. He snarled and raised the

Underneath Antarctica          C.J. was stretched out on one of the benches in their cell while Hitomi paced slowly from end to end. They had been escorted into the cell over an hour ago and hadn’t seen anyone since.         “You’ll wear a trench in the floor if you keep that up.”         Hitomi didn’t bother responding. Siege could almost hear the gears grinding in her friend’s head. It didn’t take a genius to know she was furious for being caught, even though they went in knowing it was almost certainly a trap.                 “’Omi, sit. They’ll get us eventually.”         Hitomi glared at her. “This is maddening.”         “Of course it is,” C.J. raised a brow. “He’s trying to get us riled by making us wait.”         “I know that!” Hitomi snarled, then deflated and sank onto the floor in front of Siege.         “Feel better?”         “Yes.”         “Good. Glad you got it out of your system now.”         Hitomi laughed wearily and slid so her back was resting on the bench C.J. was l

        Holy Hannah! Today I just sent my very first story submission in. Don’t have much to say other than that. I’ve been kinda freaked out, even after I sent it from the post office. Yup, snail mail. Who’d have thunk, right?         Bad grammar aside, I hope everyone’ll wish me luck in getting accepted!         ‘Till tomorrow!

500 miles south of McMurdo Station, Antarctica         Unlike the crawler they used in Greenland, this one belonged to Buck. It was heated, and quieter than the standard crawler. Once on their way to the coordinates Buck relayed, they took turns sleeping. Neither of them were strangers to long trips out to check things out.         Once they approached their destination, they stopped the crawler and bundled up. Their thermal suits worked to a degree, but in Antarctica it only went so far. They had state of the art cold weather gear and they were still cold. Carefully, they went over the area.         It didn’t take long to find the signs of a concealed entrance, and a small stone obelisk, mostly buried in snow and ice. It showed signs of wear and tear and looked as it had part of the facing chipped away. They looked at each other and went back to the crawler.         Once back inside, they cranked the heat. “What do you think, Siege?”         “I think there’s more here than they let on

Kangerlussuaq Airport, Kangerlussauq, Greenland         “Okay, what now?” Hitomi asked, her surprise evident in her voice.         “I know it sounds insane, Hitomi.” Buck sounded tired over the sattelite connection. Hitomi and Siege were in the “company jet”, waiting for approval for take off.         “We don’t hear a peep for months, then get a taunting letter by mail? ‘Omi’s right, Buck. Although, I wouldn’t call it crazy as much as an obvious trap.”         “I agree Cynthia. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t investigate. Low profile, though. Just because it’s a trap doesn’t mean it needs to be sprung.”         C.J. nodded slowly. “I suppose with just the two of us, we have a good chance of going in and getting out undetected.”         Hitomi nodded, “Trap or no... Where we going?”         “Don’t stow your cold weather gear yet. The coordinates the letter provided are in Antarctica. South of McMurdo Station, about five hundred miles. You’ll make a couple of hops down to Argentina, from there

        Okay, for those of you curious, a week ago on Thursday, I got laid off. AS you can imagine, I wasn’t feeling all that inspired to write anything. I am feeling better now, but I’m also looking for work. While I expect (as always) to be back on track, I’m also hoping to do some job interviews. So keep the fingers crossed.         Also, as much as I’m not comfortable with the whole self-promotion thing, if anyone out there has need of a writer for something, please drop me a line! As much as I enjoy the whole computer thing, I do want to write, and no matter what I’m writing, it’s good practice for the craft. I need examples for my clip file and all that, too.         My next thought is I’m going to find an editor to go over the first parts of my stories. I know that we’re supposed to edit our own stuff, but I’m not sure I’m good enough to really recognize what need editing yet. Eventually, I’d like to get there, but for now, I want help.         Other than that, that’s what is go

North Central Greenland; Unrecorded Ice Caverns         Hitomi was freezing. No, not freezing. That would require that she had any feeling left. It was warmer, if you could call it that, in the caverns away from the wind, but even the thermal suit under her parka didn’t help much. She walked as quietly as she could in the hard-pack of the glacier, dim blue hand lamp playing across the ice of the dead end in front of her. She clicked the radio in her gauntlet and whispered into it.         “Siege, you got anything? I haven’t run across anything down here. Not even animal traces.”         “Same here,” came the whispered reply, “I think we can write this one off, partner. I’ll radio for pick up. Meet you up top.”         “Sounds good to me. It’ll be nice to feel.” She thought she heard a snort as the radio clicked off. Shaking her head, Hitomi started back up the tunnels. Hidden bases my rear end, she thought to herself. They still had to check out these reports she knew. Especially if