Conquistadora

Chapter 8

Narcisa pulled up in an expensive red sportscar that had been detailed with care. She found a parking space not far from Sharky's house and walked up and knocked on the door. When Sharky opened the door and let her in, everyone could see that she was still wearing that provocative outfit she had worn at York Field. Her uniform was hot pink, with an ultra-short miniskirt and mid-calf boots. She wore a bare midriff with a vest, and a belt with some type of devices attached to holsters.

The room was silent as Narcisa entered the party. Rica whispered to Flora: "You're not the only one with a cousin who was turned down by her for a full-size transponder card. Just about everyone has a relative she turned down!"

"Would you like a beer?" Chuy asked, as he held a beer aloft for Narcisa to take.

"No thanks," said Narcisa. "I'll pass. I just came to see how you guys are treating the shrinkies!"

"Rica Luna and Soledad Suarez have both swallowed some captives," said Chuy. "You're not mad that the shrinkies are being mistreated, are you?"

Narcisa looked at him with an expression like she thought he was being ridiculous. "Please!" she said. "The Conquistadora encourages mischievousness with the shrunken slaves! She wants us to swallow them!"

"Are you serious?" Soledad asked from her perch at the computer chair, which she was straddling as she sat backwards in it with her arms crossed in front of her on the backrest. "That's so cool!"

"Does anyone want to see me swallow my first captive?" Narcisa asked.

Nearly everyone in the room said yes or yeah at the same time. Narcisa got a corn chip from one of the bags of chips Flora had brought, and dipped it in salsa. Anastasia plucked a tiny person from the table and dropped him into Narcisa's free hand, which she was holding palm-side up. Narcisa then dropped the captive onto the salsa on top of the chip, and shoved the entire corn chip into her mouth and began chewing.

"She doesn't waste any time, does she?" Rica asked Flora.

After carefully chewing the chip and swallowing, Narcisa grabbed something from a holster on her belt.

"This is a device given to all the Amazon troopers by the Conquistadora," said Narcisa. "It allows you to see what is going on inside someone's belly!"

Narcisa unscrewed the top half of the device, and pressed the bottom half to her navel. "Pass this around and take a look," said Narcisa, "you can see the shrunken captive swimming around inside my belly!"

She handed it to Anastasia, who looked at it and marveled before passing it to Rica. Soledad got up from her computer chair and took a look.

"Can I use that to see what's going on inside my gut?" Soledad asked. "I swallowed some captives not too long ago, and I want to see if they're still alive!"

"Yeah, sure!" said Narcisa, handing the device to Soledad.

"I can see Shelly!" said Rica, and Flora took a look.

"Let me see!" said Soledad, and Rica passed the top of the viewing device to Soledad. "That's so cool! I can see her swimming around! It looks like she's trying to hold her breath!" Soledad giggled.

"This is so wrong!" said Vikki. "Just because people are tiny doesn't mean you should dominate them! This is murder!"

"Aren't you the daughter of Professor De La Cruz?" Narcisa asked.

"Yes," said Vikki, "but I'm against all of this needless suffering that is being inflicted on these tiny people! If enough people would complain to the Conquistadora, maybe she would go back to her world and restore all the shrunken people to normal size again!"

"That's not going to happen," said Narcisa. "I've gotten to know her, because she stops by my house every night at 11:47 and meets with me. This is all fun and games to her, the death she is causing doesn't even seem real to her, it's like cartoon violence that her people are de-sensitized to. If anyone complained to her and demonstrated, she would probably take swift action against them, and shrink them, too!"

"Now's your shot, Chuy!" said Sharky quietly as he slid his arm around his girlfriend Cameron's back. "You can try to pick up on Narcisa!"

Chuy walked over to Narcisa and tried to pick up on her. "Hey, what's your sign?"

"That line doesn't work on me," said Narcisa. "I don't believe in astrology."

"Well we must have something in common!" said Chuy. "My name is Chuy, now that the population has been drastically reduced, it's important for people like you and me to hook up!"

"To be honest," said Narcisa, "don't take this personally, but you're not good enough for me!"

"Well, if I'm not, then who is?" Chuy asked.

"Nobody here is good enough!" said Narcisa.

"Well tell me about your past boyfriends, what did they look like?" Chuy asked.

"I've never had a boyfriend, because I've never found a guy who met my expectations!" said Narcisa. "Consider yourself shot down in flames!"

Chuy walked back over to Sharky and his friends.

"Well, at least you tried!" said Sharky. "She's just too picky!" Sharky turned to face Nacho. "Nacho! You should try to pick up on Narcisa, just for practice!"

"I can only love one woman!" said Nacho.

Soledad set the viewing device down and approached Nacho. "You know what? I wish you were shrunk so I could put you on a nacho to get rid of you! I'm not in love with you Nacho, so get over it! You're like a guy who is flunking out of intermediate algebra, but instead of dropping out with a W, you're still attending the class and hoping for a different result! Get a clue! Learn to read the signs, I'm not interested in you!"

Nacho left the room with a sad look on his face. He turned and spoke to Soledad before he left: "You'll learn to love me, Soledad, and when you do, you'll regret how you treated me!"

Soledad threw an empty beer bottle in Nacho's direction as he left, but it missed him and hit the wall.

Flora and Rica approached Narcisa. "The world is definitely a better place now that the Conquistadora has made Mexicans the master race!" said Rica.

"Yeah!" said Flora. "I never thought things could turn out this way!"

"Would you two like to meet her?" Narcisa asked. "The Conquistadora, Maria Consuela Diaz de Montejo?"

"I'd love to!" said Rica.

"Me too!" said Flora. "Can you take us to her?"

"She's meeting me at my house at 11:47 sharp," said Narcisa.

"That's thirteen minutes before midnight!" said Flora.

"Yeah, I know," said Narcisa. "That's just a coincidence. Each Amazon trooper has an assigned time to meet with the Conquistadora and give her a daily progress report. Why don't I drive you both over to my place around 11:30, and we can wait for her?"

"Okay," said Rica.

"Sounds good," said Flora.

The party got back in full swing after that. Anastasia had some captives she was going to swallow, while Chuy filmed it on videocamera. She got a corn chip and put some salsa on it, then sprinkled some ant-sized captives onto the top of the chip.

"Oh, I feel so sorry for them!" said Anastasia. "They look so disoriented!" That didn't stop Anastasia from lifting the chip toward her mouth, and depositing it on her waiting tongue. Her lips closed and sealed, then her mighty molars began to chew the chip and salsa into a thick paste. She opened her mouth to show the videocamera what had become of the tiny ant-sized men who were trapped inside, then she closed her lips again and swallowed. "Narcisa! Can we use that x-ray thing to look inside my stomach right now?"

"Yeah, sure!" said Narcisa. "Any time, you don't need to ask!" Narcisa took the viewing device and handed it to Anastasia. "And it isn't an x-ray device, it is much more complex than that, and much safer! It isn't radioactive!"

Anastasia pressed the bottom half of the device on her abdomen, while looking through the viewfinder to observe her captives.

"Ooh, look!" said Anastasia. "They are still alive!"

"Who's going next to swallow some captives?" Chuy asked as he pointed the video camera around the room.

"I think we should send some more of them to Soledad!" said Gordo. "And they won't be getting a life sentence there, it's a terminal sentence!"

"Yeah, they're gonna be executed!" said Chuy. "How about it, Soledad? Are you up for swallowing some more captives while I get it on videocamera?"

Soledad smiled and nodded her head affirmatively. She sat down at the table as Anastasia served her some captives. Soledad stretched out her hand palm-side up as Anastasia dropped several ant-sized prisoners onto her waiting palm. Soledad smiled as she anticipated the terror her tiny slaves would experience on the way down her gullet.

"You're nothing but pawns!" said Soledad. "Tiny, pathetic pawns! No mercy shall be shown to you, whether or not you're really brave! You'll crash to the savage depths of my belly, and my guts will be your grave!" Soledad tossed the captives back onto her tongue, and closed her mouth. She tilted her head back and swallowed with finality, then smiled as she thought of where her captives had ended up.

"I like it, I like it!" said Chuy as he filmed. "You're keeping us entertained, Soledad! I didn't know you were a poet!"

"Neither did I!" said Soledad. "I just thought of it off the cuff! I think I'll say that every time I swallow shrunken people! That can be part of my little ritual!"

Meanwhile, Rica and Flora were talking about meeting the Conquistadora, and Vikki overheard them talking about it.

"Can I go?" Vikki asked. "I want to meet her again, too! I met her when I was with my father once, but I'd like to speak to her again!"

"I'll ask her!" said Flora.

Flora approached Narcisa. "My friend Vikki De La Cruz wants to meet the Conquistadora when we go with you to meet her!"

"The professor's daughter?" Narcisa asked. "No problem, she's welcome to come along. We'd better get going right now though, if we're going to make it on time!"

Flora, Rica, and Vikki followed Narcisa to her shiny new sportscar, and piled in. Narcisa drove them to her house, and they got there a few minutes after 11:30 pm.

"She should arrive in about fifteen minutes," said Narcisa. "She's very punctual. Her being a time traveler and all, I guess it comes with a territory."

At 11:47, the Conquistadora's starcruiser descended and landed on the surface of the street. It was larger than a motor home, but small enough to fit without blocking traffic. Narcisa invited the other girls to get out of the car. Rica, Flora, and Vikki followed her to the starcruiser. The door opened, and Maria the Conquistadora stood there.

"I see you brought guests!" she said. "I recognize Professor de La Cruz's daughter, but who are these other two?"

"Flora Flores and her friend Rica Luna." said Narcisa. "I know both of them from school, at Rio Hondo college."

"Come on in," said Maria. "You can all call me Maria! The rest of the world can refer to me as the Conquistadora, but people who know me personally can call me by my first name."

"How do you get around so fast?" Flora asked.

"I use time travel to be in many places at once," said Maria. "Right now there are scores of starcruisers around the world with past and future versions of me inside. That's how I stay on top of things! If a future version of myself warns me about something, then I'll know what to expect in advance!"

"Smart thinking!" said Flora.

"Vikki!" said Maria. "You must be really proud of your father for introducing me to the world!"

"I guess so," said Vikki, "but I feel sorry for all the people you shrunk! I had friends who were white, black, and Asian! Now they might all get killed! I just don't think it's right!"

"You have a right to your opinion, but in this new world order what you're talking about is considered treason! I'll let it slide because you're Professor De La Cruz's daughter, but try not to make a habit of it!"

"Sorry, Maria!" said Vikki. "I'll try not to disappoint you!"

"I offered to make her an Amazon trooper!" said Maria to Flora and Rica. "But she refused!"

"I didn't know that!" said Flora. "I would kill to be an Amazon trooper!"

"So would I!" said Rica.

"You might still get your chance," said Maria. "If I decide to recruit more troopers out this way, I'll let you know! But for now, I want to give you both something!" Maria went to the back of the starcruiser and returned a moment later with two boxes.

"These are captives! One box for each of you! Narcisa, I'll give you your box after they leave!"

Flora and Rica took the boxes from Maria.

"You can crush them," said Maria, "torture them, eat them, cook them, flush them, you can basically do whatever you want with them! There's no use in letting billions of shrunken captives go to waste, so I'm collecting them and giving them out!"

"Thank you, Maria!" said Flora.

"Thanks, Maria!" said Rica.

"Now if you'll excuse us, I have to meet with Narcisa for a while," said Maria.

Flora and Rica walked back to Sharky's party, where Flora had left her car. They put the boxes of captives in the backseat, and Flora drove them to Rica's house. They brought the boxes into Rica's bedroom.

"I wish this box of captives could be shrunk down to the size of a postage stamp," said Rica, so I could swallow it whole!"

"I don't understand the fascination people like you and Soledad have with swallowing shrunken people!" said Flora. "I can understand crushing them with my fist when I'm pissed off, but I don't understand the pleasure derived from eating them!"

"Let me show you!" said Rica, as she reached into her box of captives and pulled a tiny person out. She set him on her tongue, then retracted her tongue into her mouth and closed her lips. Rica swallowed.

"That was so awesome!" said Rica. "He was totally conquered by me! Do you understand now?"

"No!" said Flora. "I just don't understand what you get out of that!"

To Be Continued!