I was sitting with Alex next to the smashed car, outside Sandra's small hideout in the jungle. I could hear gunfire and explosions in the distance, and the tiny hideout was located next to a mosquito-infested swamp. My conscience and my paranoia gave me terrible thoughts.
I couldn't feel any remorse over influencing the attack dogs to turn against and kill Jesus' men. I was now a murderer with empath powers, responsible for several homicides. The men were my captors, and they had intended to murder Alex, the love of my life, but I had still willingly traded several of their lives to save my own and his. This new, dark side of my personality terrified me.
Apart from my inner conscience, there was something else bothering me. My distrust for Sandra, the Mexican drug lord's girlfriend. I knew that she had saved us, but her reasons didn't hold up. There was something fishy with her behaviour, and I wanted to get as far away as I could from her. But it was too late, Alex had already revealed our destination to her: The Sun Pyramid.
Obsessively, I looked through the wrecked remains of Sandra's makeshift convertible, and I found something chilling in the glove box. I found a futuristic-looking monocle, the same monocle that Pierre Beaumont, Ben Yehuda and Szymon Yehuda had worn. I was alarmed when I saw it. Sandra was part of the conspiracy against us, and Alex had told her where we needed to go, so running away from her wouldn't help.
Alex noticed that I was terrified and tried to comfort me. "It'll be okay, Sabina. Sandra will find us a transport, so we can fulfil our mission in Mexico, leaving this wretched place and go back to Sydney," Alex said softly.
"I don't think Sandra is planning to help us," I replied. I showed Alex the monocle that I had found inside the glove box.
"A monocle? I don't understand the significance. What is so special about it?" Alex replied.
"Ben Yehuda, Szymon Yehuda and Pierre Beaumont all wore the exact same model of monocle. I remember this clearly as I have a photographic memory. Monocles are rarely seen among people of our times, so it must be a secret code for something," I stated.
"Hmm... Or, it could be a high-technology device for top-secret communications." Alex speculated.
Alex was right. It could be advanced technology, way ahead of our times, hidden in plain sight as a meagre sheeny monocle. Being reborn in this time, I had not seen it before, and my premonitions had not told me anything about the monocles. I put on the monocle on my right eye, hoping to get some clues from it. I was amazed when the device suddenly elevated in the air, glowing immensely, expelling some type of spider web-like silky nets from the rims and attached itself straight into the optical nerves on my right eye. This surprised me and caused me anguish.
After regaining my composure, I saw an enhanced and detailed view of my surroundings. The futuristic monocle device was highlighting objects of interest in glowing red and enemies or targets in neon green. I could also see other nearby users, and I realised that Pierre Beaumont was in Mexico!
Suddenly, the device started beeping, and an error message came up in view. UNAUTHORISED ACCESS, Preparing to Terminate the User.' I felt immense pain and screamed in agony, as a needle-thin puncturing device appeared from the centre of the monocle and was pushing further and further into my right eye, moving deeper and deeper to enter my brain and kill me. Alex panicked and screamed, and forcefully pulled the monocle away from my right eye with no luck. This blinded me even further and caused excruciating pain.
I screamed my lungs out in extreme agony, and I pulled the horrid device out with all my might. I managed to pull it out, gouging out my own right eye in the process. I threw away the monocle, leaving my poor eye on the ground. I put my hand in my inner pocket and pulled up my lifesaving Zeto Crystal. I held it to my hollowed eye socket. Like magic, my right eye instantly grew back, and I looked in horror at the discarded monocle which contained the bloodied tissue and sad remains of my eyeball.
My agonizing screams alerted Sandra, and she came out of the hut wielding a tiny pistol. "Damn, you weren't meant to see that device. I must have forgotten to hide it", Sandra said with a sarcastic tone. Sandra studied the discarded monocle and turned her gaze back to my face. Suddenly, her arrogance turned into fear. "What is happening. You are not a normal girl. You just lost an eye-ball, and yet you have two healthy eyes, you look unhurt." Sandra said in awe.
"I am sent by the True Maker to save the future of humankind. There is still time for you to repent and change your evil ways, Sandra. Now tell me everything you know." I replied with conviction.
"No, no, no, this cannot be!" Sandra stuttered nervously.
"There is still hope for you, Sandra. Tell me what you know." I said gently.
"No! I cannot abandon my mission just because I witnessed a miracle," Sandra shouted and fired her gun to the sky, to make her point clear. She continued her rant: "Pierre Beaumont and the others are on their way. They'll know what to do with you."
"Sandra, this is your last chance. Help us and save yourself" Alex said.
Sandra fired her pistol at me and shot me in the knee cap. I screamed in pain as I collapsed to the ground, tightly hugging my left leg. A second later, there was an artillery projectile shooting from above, and Alex was knocked to the ground from a shockwave of its explosive blast. As I looked up, there was now a crater where Sandra had stood, and not much remained of Sandra. The True Maker had intervened and caused one of the army men to misfire an artillery shell, hitting Sandra.
I put the Zeto Crystal on my kneecap, and it instantly healed. I looked at the lifesaving Zeto crystal. It emitted a dimmed light now, much fainter than it had done just a few days ago. I realised that we had to hurry up and avoid more mishaps before the Zeto crystal became de-energised.
Alex got up on his feet and spoke: "What do we do now?"
"We drive to the Sun Pyramid, using Sandra's car" I replied.
"With that broken car?" Alex asked in disbelief.
"That car will take us to the closest town. From there, we can take a cab.", I replied.
After that, we hurried into the sub-par convertible to get away from the unpleasant jungle hut, out of the battle zone that we were in.