by Dave Hazel
“What was that all about?” Boris asked as Mykal joined him.
“Ah, you know how Ski is with all his religious stuff,” Mykal tried to explain it away but couldn’t hide the fact that Ski’s words worried him. Mykal became angry and was tempted not to go. If Ski knew something or if Ski felt that ‘God told him something’, Mykal didn’t want to take a chance of getting killed before the mission even got off the ground. But at the same time he couldn’t walk away from his responsibilities.
“Don’t worry about him. He’s a religious fruit cake,” Boris said in an attempt to cheer him up.
“Yeah, I know.” Mykal sighed but deep inside fear got the best of him. Ski had never lied to him and if God did inform Ski of their return to Towbar’s world then maybe God did try to warn him about this mission. ‘But even Ski doesn’t know what it’s about.’
“Do ya want me to take care of him?” Boris asked and he could only be referring to killing him. “Whadda they gonna do? Ship me off to some world that doesn’t exist?”
“No!” Mykal said firmly. “Leave him alone. He’s a good guy. A little whacky, but he’s a good guy. Drop it,” Mykal said as they neared the group that gathered at the helicopters waiting for his arrival. He looked to the reporters. “So do you guys got it figured out as to who is going?”
“Yes, it’s this group here,” the senior man pointed to the four reporters and four cameramen.
“Good. If we land do not leave the helicopters. Let’s go.” Mykal smiled but inside he still worried over Ski’s words.
3.
The eight helicopters were soon over unfriendly territory. Should they be forced down due to mechanical failure, they would be in serious trouble. As far as the eye could see Sosos covered the ground. Many practiced combat techniques and tactics. Some ate and drank and some rested, but they had made themselves at home. There were many small tents and supply wagons throughout the mass of refugee like living conditions. All looked up at the strange sound and gazed at the sight of the strange birds.
Mykal’s mental fears were magnified the farther into the Soso occupied land they covered. After Ski’s warning he couldn’t stop thinking about his helicopter going down this far away from the Pass. There would be no way to survive. He had a gnawing fear that the floor of his helicopter would open and drop him into the sea of savages.
“I can’t believe my eyes Myk,” William gawked while looking down the side of the UH-1D Huey. “I understand why you wanted to bring such a large force and large quantities of munitions,” he had to raise his voice to be heard.
“I know I said it a million times, but these Sosos don’t mess around. They are serious about torture and killing.”
“This is the cavalry of the clouds,” Towbar spoke loud enough to be heard. He too peered down at his long time enemy.
“Cavalry of the clouds. I like that,” Mykal said. “I’ll have to remember that. Hey Captain Barstow,” Mykal spoke into his mouth piece to his pilot. “Pass it on to the other choppers to have everyone look for any vehicles.”
“Roger that Myk. Hey Myk, look down on our left side. There is a truck down there in the middle of the Sosos.”
“Yeah, it’s a PT, a payload transporter. It’s the one we left here months ago,” Mykal quickly replied. “Inside that truck is a Minuteman III missile with a live warhead. It tipped over on the side when they drove through the green fog. That’s why I told everyone in trucks to drive slow going into the green fog.”
“Damn, talk about a weapon of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands,” the pilot said with a lighthearted chuckle.
“I guess we should be thankful that they’re not much more complicated than fighting with sticks and stones,” the co-pilot joked.
“Yes, concerning the nuke, but they’re deadly with those sticks and stones,” Mykal replied
Flying over this area brought Mykal’s memories back to the first days of being lost in Towbar’s world. He remembered vividly the frustration of being lost and driving for hours upon hours into the wide open plains. At that time there was no clear explanation for having ‘been misplaced’. His frustration back then seemed immeasurable. Looking back on how everything happened he felt fortunate they came in contact with Towbar when they did, or all of the people transported to Towbar’s world June 23rd would have died. If everyone would have died from the first visit he was sure their strange disappearance would have been viewed as a Bermuda Triangle type of mystery.
Now that Mykal had an understanding of what really happened including knowledge of the strange green fog that transported them here, he was focused. His mind set on one track; find Mister X and the special package, return it to the President so he can finally be freed of his obligation to the Government and this strange world of Towbar’s. His only desire after he completes the mission, is to spend the rest of his days at home as a family man. This was his new driving force. He wouldn’t allow it to be taken from him.
“Mykal, one of the other pilots spotted some vehicles down to our right. We’re going down for a closer look. Do you have any objections?”
“No, not at all,” he stretched his neck but couldn’t see the vehicles. “Go for it and where are they?”
“Now, they’re at our twelve o’clock. Right in front of us,” The pilot answered while he turned the helicopter and lowered it slowly.
“I see them,” Mykal replied as a surge of adrenalin shot through him. This was the first clue and piece of evidence to the mystery of Mister X’s whereabouts. “Though no Sosos are near the vehicles, tell everyone to have weapons ready. After we land they’re gonna come outta the woodwork like cockroaches.”
“Mykal, you do want us to land?” The co-pilot asked.
“Yes. I wanna check these vehicles out. Make sure to keep all the engines running.”
“Copy,” the pilot replied. “No one would dare shut down.”
All eight helicopters landed and most disembarked. Without having to be instructed Captain Diaz ensured the majority of his Marines set up a defensive position facing all directions to watch for Sosos who would be alerted to their activity. The reporters and cameramen rushed out of the helicopters despite Mykal’s instruction to stay inside.
Mykal didn’t have the luxury of time to confront them and would have to address it later. What caught Mykal’s eye were a police motorcycle and two automobiles. The motorcycle lay on its side. All three vehicles looked to have been beaten with clubs, axes and swords. The vehicles had hundreds of dents and gashes.
Everyone seemed hesitant to move around except for Mykal, Towbar, Boris, Jake and Larry. They performed like they had been through this many times before. Mykal knew their time to inspect the vehicles to be limited. They had to move quickly.
“I’m telling you,” Mykal yelled to those near enough to hear. “We are gonna get hit so make sure you are ready to open fire. Keep your eyes open,” he yelled out as he ran to the first car. Mykal clearly remembered his first confrontation with the Sosos. He had actually been afraid and hesitated to shoot for fear of serious repercussions with the military. Due to the strict rules for engagement imposed by the U.S. Air Force his entire team was tentative to open fire during the first attack back on June 24th. Knowing what Mykal knew now, and what he had experienced during his 37 day stay, he would easily shoot a Soso as he would look at one. “Check it out over that way.” Mykal pointed to the west. “Here they come. Once you have a clear shot, take it and don’t waver.”
The Marines seemed unsure. Mykal guessed they had the same fear he experienced in his first encounter with Sosos months ago or maybe it was the fact Mykal wore no rank on his uniform but he was telling them to initiate hostilities.
“Are you sure? Can we just open up on them?” One of the Marines lying prone called out.
“Like this, damn it,” Mykal yelled. He stopped and raised his rifle, sighted in the closest Soso charging their location and he squeezed the trigger. The Soso’s hand held war hammer flew into the air and h
e flopped backward. “Don’t wait until they’re on top of us. Diaz!” Mykal shouted.
“Damn, did y’all see that? Ooh-rah!” A Marine bellowed and then aimed his rifle.
“Yeah Myk,” Diaz responded to his frustrated call.
“Tell them to open fire for crying out loud,” he demanded while standing near the first car. “I’m busy over here.” He knew the men wanted to hear the order from their true leader, the Company Commander Captain Diaz.
“Obey him men. Commence firing when you have a clear shot. Don’t dilly-dally. You men are Marines. You’re not dog breath Army soldiers.”
Mykal had to laugh when he heard the quiet Captain Diaz order his men to shoot. He wasn’t expecting that type of a verbal response. Suddenly there were many gunshots popping off repeatedly as if Diaz flipped a switch. Mykal looked inside the red Nova. The vehicle didn’t have any bodies inside, but the windows had been smashed, seats slashed and the doors were nearly ripped off their hinges.
Mykal ran to the second vehicle. William, Boris and Jake followed him. Larry and Towbar ran back to their helicopter. One camera crew followed Mykal. The other three camera crews videotaped the first battle scenes involving Towbar One. Now it could be seen that Sosos were charging at them from three sides. There were thousands rushing to their position. The war cries grew louder. The Marines under Captain Diaz came to understand this situation was real and it was dangerous.
The second vehicle was a brown station wagon. Clearly both cars were not government vehicles, so there would be no Mister X. This family car had the remains of a family inside and out. All were dead. It looked like a family of five had been inside the station wagon; a man, his wife, and their three children all under the age of twelve. All five had been stabbed, slashed and hacked to death. Two had been pulled outside the car.
The father sat behind the wheel. His left arm must have been sticking outside of the window. It had been chopped off at the elbow. The Sosos had also decapitated him from the side window as well. The dried blood stained down the side of the door made it clear they held his head outside the window when they decapitated him, probably while his helpless family watched in horror. His head was nowhere to be seen.
The wife looked like her face had been bitten at least six times. The Soso who bit her face pulled her flesh with his teeth. Her nose had been bitten off and both eyes gouged out, all while she sat in the passenger side of the car.
The older boy who looked about twelve had been pulled from inside the vehicle and lay on the ground on the passenger side of the car. Each one of his ten fingers was twisted and deformed. The Sosos had physically broken each of his fingers and thumbs. His thighs revealed where he had been stabbed with long swords and both of his feet had been hacked off. His face looked as if it had been kicked several times. It didn’t appear that a killing blow had been delivered. It seemed the mighty Soso warriors allowed the twelve year old boy to bleed out so his death would be painfully slow.
His nine year old sister lay on the ground near him. Her shirt had been ripped open and her training bra pulled from her body and wrapped around her neck. Her chest and young breasts looked like it was used as a pin cushion for swords. The girl’s jeans had been removed and her naked body was covered in blood below her waist. Mykal didn’t want to think of what the cruel older men did to the poor female child. Her throat had been slashed so deeply that it nearly severed her head. Her head dangled loosely down onto her brutalized chest.
The younger boy of about seven years old was still in the back seat. He looked like he took axe blows to the face. His head had been forced down and a Soso stuck an ice pick like dagger into the base of his young skull. Mykal took all this in after just a couple of moments. Mykal knew how the Sosos operated and he suspected the savages laughed at the good time they were having at the expense of the family who just happened to make a wrong turn into Towbar’s world. Mykal’s heart broke for the family. He knew his sadness couldn’t bring them back and emotions wouldn’t help. He had a job to do.
“I hope you got all that on film,” Mykal barked and pointed to the car. It made him glad to hear rifle shots going off and the sound increased. He knew with every round fired a Soso could be getting killed or severely wounded. He wanted revenge. “Get this on film too,” Mykal said and pointed to the body of the motorcycle policeman several yards away from the station wagon.
“Are those death arrows?” The cameraman asked. He saw eight black arrows protruding from the bloated body of the police officer. The man still had his handgun in hand and there lay two dead Sosos not far from his lifeless form. The two Sosos were near naked which meant the Sosos stripped the dead of their own people. It brought back to memory Mykal’s first encounter with Sosos back in June.
“Yeah. Damn it,” Mykal groaned once he saw a couple of teenagers a few yards farther away from the police officer. ‘They must have been the people inside the red Nova,’ he thought. Both teens were headless and limbless. Their heads rested on their mutilated bodies. The eyes were empty bloodied sockets. It looked like human feces had been placed on both severed heads and smeared on the battered faces.
“We should go Myk,” the reporter said. He seemed more concerned with getting out of harm’s way.
“Do ya think you’ve seen enough?” Mykal asked and he didn’t seem to be concerned with the danger. He wanted evidence of Mister X or anything that would point to the whereabouts of the mysterious Mister X. Gunshots increased all around them. Mykal remained calm, but the camera crew neared panic.
“Yes, yes. It’s too much,” the pale looking reporter replied after trying to describe the gory scene with his eloquent words. But nothing could match the scenes caught on the videotape. He feared the proximity of the Sosos and kept looking over his shoulder as he spouted out his impromptu report. “Please Myk, let’s just go.”
“Go? You wanna go?” Mykal asked to toy with them. “Seriously though, what really pisses me off is that those are someone’s kids. Those two with their heads cut off are from ‘back in the world’ and their parents are probably wondering where the hell they are. The cop is probably married with kids, and that family in the station wagon, I’m sure they got relatives who are worried about them too. You guys get a couple of pictures and you wanna leave? I really hope you let that little pansy colleague of yours, who was ‘incensed’ over having to carry a gun, I hope you let him know what we’re dealing with out here.”
“I will. I promise Myk, I will. We should leave!” The reporter cried out in panic.
“Ah damn it,” Mykal yelled when he saw a number of Soso archers take a stand and string their bows with arrows, probably Shay-lonk, death arrows. “Shoot the archers,” he hollered as loud as he could. “Shoot the archers. Get back to the choppers,” he barked and turned his back on them to raise his rifle. He squeezed off shots as quickly as Sosos came into his front sights. He aimed only for those armed with a bow and arrow. He knew Boris and Jake were shooting at the archers only. From all their experience it was almost instinct to take out the archers first. William followed the camera crew.
Mykal heard Towbar calling for the Marines to focus on the archers first. Larry pushed one of the helicopter gunners from his position and took over the mounted M-60 machine gun and opened fire. He mowed Sosos down as quickly as he could spray the 7.62mm rounds in their direction. Following his example the other machine gunners who had targets opened fire with their machine guns.
When the first volley of arrows flew through the air Mykal ducked down behind the car. No one was struck by the death arrows and most of the missiles fell short.
“Board the helicopters,” Mykal yelled frantically. He knew the Sosos were moving closer so they would soon fall in range of the death arrows. Mykal knew the danger better than anyone. Shay-lonk, the Soso death arrows weren’t to be taken lightly. Just a scratch meant certain death.
Captain Diaz ran around ordering his men to get back into the helicopters. The Marines where loaded up quickly. Mykal w
as the last to board and the Sosos continued to charge rather than fire another volley of arrows. Before the Sosos could get close enough for hand to hand combat all eight helicopters lifted off the ground safely out of harm’s way.
*******
The Sosos seemed stunned. Clearly they had never witnessed anything like this. Many yelled at the flying monsters that devoured their foe, but most Sosos wondered at what just occurred. How could so many of their companions have been killed so quickly? What kind of strange beast could this be? Did the flying monster eat those that wrought havoc? And why?
*******
After they were airborne Larry opened fire again and cut down several more but his accuracy wasn’t nearly as effective as when he shot the enemy on level ground. Mykal grabbed Larry’s shoulder and yelled for him to stop. “Save it for when we’re in trouble,” he laughed at the crazed expression Larry bore. “The beard makes you look a little psycho.”
“I wanna release some pent up anger,” Larry laughed back while tugging on his beard.
“In time Lumberjack,” Mykal replied back. “In time.”
“Lumberjack?” Larry gave a quizzical look.
“Yeah, with that scraggly shit on your face you look like a lumberjack. You oughta shave it cuz you’re scaring me with it,” Mykal kidded.
“Where to Myk?” Barstow’s voice spoke into his earphone. “And just so you are aware, that was close.”
“That was nothing,” Mykal scoffed into his mouth piece. “That was like a walk in the park.”
Lieutenant Lewis quipped with a Long Island Lockjaw accent reminiscent of the upper class elite. “I have no desire to venture where you promenade, my good man. Truly, that seemed extremely dangerous, ta-tah.”
“We’re fine guys,” Mykal forced a chuckle at Lewis’s attempt at humor. “Let’s keep heading north. Also, find out if everyone on the other choppers are okay. Make sure no one got hurt back there.”