by Dave Hazel
“I don’t know.”
“No, don’t say that,” Mykal said and grabbed his head with both hands. “You were gonna say something and then you stopped. What were you gonna say?”
“It was nothing Mykal. Do you want me to get Towbar up?” Mathis asked and nodded to the form of the sleeping giant.
“No. I wanna know what the friggin hell you were gonna say,” Mykal demanded and he felt a rage growing that he knew would turn into violent hostility if he didn’t get the answer to his question.
“All I was going to say was, do you have the flu or do you think those worms laid eggs in your neck?”
Mykal listened to Mathis and it sounded like Mathis’s voice had been slowed a half step. The slowed voice gave an evil tone to the words besides the vision of terror of eggs being inside his body under the surface of his skin. ‘If eggs had been laid in my neck, does that mean they could have hatched by now?’ He wondered while he felt for any slight movement under the surface of his covered throat. The only thing his fingertips felt was the material of the field dressing. “Do you think they laid eggs in my neck?”
“I don’t know Myk. It was just a crazy idea that popped into my head,” Mathis replied defensively. His voice was still slow and evil sounding.
“If they hatched in my neck, could they be going to my heart or my brain? Am I gonna hallucinate like I did before?” Mykal asked and there was genuine panic in his words.
“I don’t know Myk,” Mathis answered as if he was being interrupted with what he was focused on. Mathis looked to be tinkering with his radio.
“Well should we stop and have the medics take a look at it? I’m getting’ kinda worried. These things can kill me if they get to my heart or my brain. That’s what, that’s what, that’s what,” he stuttered and then snapped his fingers to try to remember who told him that but he couldn’t recollect who spoke that threat. “That’s what so and so said,” he added to finish his sentence.
“I dunno Myk,” the slow evil sounding response came from the back of Mathis’s head. “I’m trying to fix this,” he said as if hinting to leave him alone.
“Hey man, I might be friggin dying here. Help me dude,” Mykal snarled and grabbed Mathis’s arm and spun him around. Mykal jumped back when it was his very own face that turned to look at him. Mykal knew he was hallucinating when he saw his very own face on Mathis’s head. But the eyes before him had dark circles. The cheeks on his other face were sunken and his flesh seemed to be deathly white.
“Don’t bother me while I’m fixing my stuff,” Mathis snarled, but it was Mykal’s own face and his own voice snarling back at him. Mathis turned to both sides to make sure others weren’t looking and suddenly flashed his long pointy teeth to show he had the long pointy fangs of a Crymontox. He hissed his threat as a warning and turned back to work on his radio.
Mykal jumped back in his seat and quickly lost control of his breathing. ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute,’ he thought and tried to calm himself. ‘Was that me? Or was that Mathis who turned evil? I’m losing my friggin mind. I gotta get off this vehicle,’ he moaned in thought and wanted to start crying because he didn’t know where to turn. ‘The things in my neck are gonna kill me, but Mathis is me or is one of them and he won’t help me. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die,’ he continued to moan quietly.
“I gotta wake Towbar,” he whispered to himself as if to convince the fear in him that the giant would help.
“Don’t you friggin dare wake him,” Mathis turned and snarled a threat while pointing a finger in Mykal’s face. But it was Mykal’s hateful expression warning him not to wake his best friend. “He said if you had those eggs in your neck he would chop your head off for disturbing him when he didn’t get the meal he wanted. He’s still pissed off at you, you stupid bastard.”
“Wha’d I do?” Mykal asked and thought back to what may have happened that would make his best friend want to kill him over a meal. ‘Besides, what Mathis said didn’t even make any sense,’ he thought. “Am I really talking to you or am I talking to me?” Mykal gasped and felt frozen in his chair. The weight of his fear made it impossible for him to get up out of his seat.
“Are you that friggin stupid?” Mathis asked, but it was Mykal’s face on Mathis’s body. It was Mykal’s words coming out of Mathis’s mouth, and it was clearly Mykal’s attitude and tone not Mathis.
“I don’t understand,” Mykal gasped with a sigh and reached for his head again. “I don’t wanna die and I can feel the things in my neck. I need help,” he begged pitifully.
“What’s your friggin problem now? Don’t bother me again, until I get this done,” Mathis said with Mykal’s voice.
“Can you call Captain Diaz for me?” Mykal begged and sounded like a scared child.
“He don’t wanna talk to you either. It’s cuz a you his men got killed,” Mathis said with a disgusted hate to his words, but it was clearly Mykal’s own voice being thrown at him by one of his close friends. “It’s always cuz a you,” he snarled with an accusing finger pointed into Mykal’s face. “All these men of ours have been killed and injured and crippled and messed up for life cuz you ‘gots the hots’ for that sweet ‘lil play thing of yours,” he accused him and nodded to the sleeping form of Doninka. “Is she worth it?” Mathis whispered with Mykal’s face spitefully. Suddenly Mathis flicked his tongue out of his mouth and it seemed to reach at least twenty-four inches in length and wiggled wildly. The black and red tongue ended with a fork, like a snake’s tongue. The tongue was mostly black but had streaks of bright red through the two foot long moist muscle. The end of the forked tongue was bright red. “Is she worth losing your family over and is she worth killing all them cool dudes who volunteered to help rescue her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mykal gasped and jumped back when he thought he was going to be hit by the snake like tongue. “I wanna talk to Captain Diaz,” Mykal said quietly and still felt like a terrified child.
“He don’t wanna talk to you. And let me fill you in on a little secret,” Mathis whispered and flashed his teeth. He looked throughout the vehicle to make sure no one else could hear them. He revealed his pointy teeth again and hissed but kept his tongue inside his mouth. “Towbar was supposed to get married to Doninka, but Towbar said it’s your fault she got violated by the bad guysssssss,” he said with an added hiss and flicked part of the red and black tongue at him. “So he’s gonna kill you. He said you screwed him over for the last time. Oh yeah, he is gonna kill you friggin dead, man,” Mathis said and stopped for Mykal to let that sink in. Mykal’s face stared back at him from Mathis’s body. Mathis cleared his throat three times and hacked like a cat trying to expel a hairball.
Mykal felt like he was arguing with an angry Mykal Graves, but he knew it was Mathis’s uniform under angry Mykal’s face. ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute, me and Towbar are best friends,’ Mykal thought and tried to calm himself. ‘It’s this damn thing in my neck,’ he moaned and knew he needed to talk to someone else. ‘But why is Mathis so mad at me?’ He wondered and looked into the hateful face of himself. ‘It’s not Mathis, it’s me. Does this mean that I hate myself?’
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Angry Mykal asked and started to snicker evilly. “Go ahead, dumb ass, wake him,” he taunted Mykal. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. He’s gonna friggin crush your skull after he chops your damn head off. I’ll have to watch it. And then I’ll have to clean up the friggin mess cuz you can’t keep your crying mouth shut.”
“Have I done something to make you angry with me?”
“Are you frickin stupid?” He barked and it sounded just like his own voice.
‘Is it me or is it Mathis? I‘m so damned confused,’ Mykal wondered and held his head in his hands as he tried to figure out what was going on in his head. ‘There’s no doubt that it sounds like me, but I can’t be talking to me. It just--’
“What the hell’s the matter with you? Are you listenin’ to me?”
“Who are you?” Mykal asked tentatively.
“Are you frickin kidding me? Are you bustin’ my balls now? D’ya think I’m in the mood for this shit? Maybe I oughta do Towbar and Diaz a favor and kill you myself you dumb ass bastard,” he howled and scrambled through the objects around his possessions. “I’ll friggin kill you,” he snarled under his breath.
Mykal knew Mathis or his angry self was trying to get his hands on a weapon. He believed he was going to die. He felt for the burrowing under his bandage. Whatever was under the surface of his neck had grown and was digging wildly under his neck. Either Mathis or Towbar was going to kill him, or maybe the monster under his skin would kill him once it reached his brain or his heart. His breathing increased with his rapid heartbeat. ‘Please God, help me. I’m scared,’ he thought and blinked his eyes repeatedly.
“As soon as I grab this damn knife,” the words were snarled between clenched teeth. “That’s it. Today is the day you’re gonna die you worthless little kid,” he hissed his threat.
When Mykal heard Mathis or angry Mykal call him a worthless little kid, it made Mykal feel like a ten year old child. As a ten year old child he would be dependent on his parent to help, yet it was his dad who just threatened to kill him. Where else could he turn for help? If the one person he was dependent on was planning to take his life this very day, where else could he turn? Mykal felt he just experienced an out of body episode and watched his ten year old self stand there helplessly and hopelessly with nowhere to turn to. The ten year old wanted to cry because the world was a big bad place and everyone was against him, even his very own dad.
Mykal wasn’t about to let Mathis or angry Mykal finish finding his knife because he feared it would lead to his death. In one fluid flash of a movement Mykal bolted from his seat and rushed to the door at the rear of the transport vehicle. He grabbed the door handle and as quickly as he opened it he dropped out of the vehicle and hit the ground hard. The vehicle had been travelling about thirty miles per hour when his body hit the ground. He tumbled and rolled several times. Mykal yelled out when it felt like his arms and legs were snapped. His left arm pinned under his body in an odd contortion that seemed to pull it from his shoulder socket.
The sudden thud of the hard ground woke Mykal from his sleep. He heard men yelling his name. They were filled with fear and shock. They couldn’t understand what happened. Mykal tried to roll over and realized he had been sleeping when he jumped from the moving vehicle. His thinking was back to normal and he knew the past few moments had been another horrible nightmare. This was the first dream where he had reacted by ‘sleepwalking’ and it caused him a great deal of physical harm, or at least a great deal of pain. He gasped frightfully and tried to catch his breath. He knocked the wind out of himself and struggled to breathe normally.
Mykal’s vehicle stopped first and the others stopped when they realized something odd occurred. The vehicle behind Mykal’s was at least thirty yards away so the driver easily saw a body fall from the vehicle and had plenty of time to react. As the men all exited the vehicle and rushed to him, many set up a defensive perimeter and those who rushed to his injured body yelled various forms of the same question; “What happened? What did you do?”
Towbar was the first to Mykal’s body and he looked like a parent who just responded to their child being struck by a car in the street. Mykal knew the pain he felt was real, and couldn’t keep from laughing because of how bizarre and ‘how stupid’ his response to the dream was. Mykal yelled when his left arm was jerked back into place, but he was grateful and thankful to the medic who inflicted the sudden pain to help him. He was ecstatic to learn that he didn’t have any broken bones. Mykal couldn’t believe what had just happened to him. He knew his dreams and nightmares were progressing into uncharted territory. Sleepwalking and reacting while sleeping could become a dangerous situation not only for himself but for those around him.
With the flood of questions he tried to laugh it off, but now he was worried. He was always heavily armed and he feared he might hurt someone next time. He hoped this was only a one-off and wouldn’t happen again. This unique dream was so bizarre, but it felt so real. Since the Crymontox injected something into his neck that caused hallucinations, it led him to believe this bizarre dream was a carry-over from his earlier hallucinations. He gave serious thought to the idea of putting his weapons away while he slept, but that in itself could be just as dangerous for him. ‘I’ll have to take my chances and hope I don’t hurt someone else while I’m sleeping,’ he thought and knew he could never part with his weapons while in Towbar’s world. Especially while on this side of Towbar’s world.
Everyone who questioned him was given a brush off answer and he would deal with the question at a later time. The men used the break to eat their evening meal. They discussed whether they should continue traveling during the dark or to set up camp for the darkness. They agreed to set up a camp for the night after the Hawkmen informed them the army in pursuit was very far behind them. However they agreed guard duty would be doubled and tripled that of normal posting for the hours of darkness.
Mykal and Diaz wanted the men to be well rested. They believed they would either reach the road that would lead to the city the next day or they would have to confront the army that pursued them. The major concern with the army that was in pursuit of them was the fact that they had six Things with them. That wasn’t even taking into account all the other strange creatures Zizmon-Tarl was throwing at them in an attempt to take Doninka back from them. They were less than a week from the dead line that the Sosos were to present Doninka as a trade for her father the King.
Since Towbar couldn’t use the green fog, Mykal’s goal was to keep running from the forces of Zizmon-Tarl so they couldn’t re-capture her and force King Loankore III to surrender his kingdom by allowing his evil son, Locod, to take control of the kingdom and thus yielding to the powers that be in the Soso countries.
“One day at a time. One battle at a time and one step at a time if need be,” Mykal repeated to the men who questioned him. “We just have to keep their hands off the Princess Doninka.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 02/02/1984
1. Thursday, February 2nd 1984
0656 hours, Other side of Towbar’s World (26th Day)
Mykal sat in his seat staring at the roof of the vehicle. Though the sun was up it was still very dark inside the vehicle and some of the men were still sleeping. Mathis quietly crept by Mykal and it was obvious he didn’t want to disturb those who were snoozing. “Hey Mathis, anything special going on?” Mykal whispered.
“Oh, you’re up?” Mathis whispered. “I didn’t wake you, did I? I was trying to be quiet because some of these men pulled a late guard duty.”
“No, I’ve been up about twenty minutes or so. I’ve just been thinking about what the hell is going on with me,” he chuckled but continued to talk softly.
“Yeah, like what in the world happened Myk?” Mathis laughed quietly with him but shook his head as if saddened by the strange turn of events. “All I can say is, it’s a real good thing we weren’t inside an airplane when you jumped out of the vehicle.”
“Yeah, I agree with you on that,” Mykal admitted and turned away in embarrassment. “I’ll tell ya what man, that friggin dream I had seemed so damned real.”
“I guess it must have seemed real,” Mathis joked with him. “If you were going to jump out of a vehicle moving at a hundred miles an hour without looking first,” he laughed at the exaggerated speed, “it had to have seemed very real.”
Mykal laughed with him. “I’m just glad I didn’t get hurt any worse than I did.”
“How bad did you get hurt?”
“I got some bruising and scrapes, but my left shoulder popped outta socket,” Mykal said with a heavy sigh. “It friggin hurt when the medic popped it back into socket. I think that hurt more than falling outta the moving vehicle.”
“Well it’s a good thing it wasn’t too dark yet,” Mat
his said and looked to make sure he didn’t disturb those sleeping. “I’d hate to think if the vehicle behind us wouldn’t have seen you and would have run you over.”
“Yeah, that woulda sucked,” he laughed with Mathis. “So what’s going on? I was just sitting here trying to think of all the craziness that’s been happening around us. I really think those little worm things that got injected into my neck had something to do with my thinking crazy. Those things really injected me with some mind altering chemicals or something.”
“That really scares me. I don’t wanna get stuck by those things,” Mathis said and shook his head in fear. “Someone, I don’t remember who it was, but someone said, once those worms are inserted into the body they try to make their way to the heart or the brain and in time they will kill the host, or rather, the victim.”
“I’m so grateful they cut them outta my neck, but I really do think I’m suffering some lasting effects from them.”
“You should go to the medics and have them check you out again Myk.”
“I will, but what’s going on?”
“Captain Diaz is planning on getting everyone up in about a half an hour and after everyone has eaten he wants us to take off,” Mathis said and looked to make sure his voice wasn’t disturbing those sleeping. “He wants to keep moving. He’s hoping that whatever Zig-Zig did to keep Towbar from using the green fog will either wear off due to time, or if we get far enough away from where Zig-Zig did his little magic dance on us, that maybe Towbar will be able to use his green fog magic stuff again. And then we’ll be able to get back to the Pass with the precious little treasure,” Mathis added in reference to Doninka. “Thee precious little treasure,” he repeated with a wink and added some kissing sounds.
“Knock it off,” Mykal warned and started to laugh. He knew Mathis was teasing him about his closeness and possible in depth one on one relationship with the beautiful princess. “Don’t start,” Mykal warned with a pointed finger though he couldn’t keep from laughing. “I’m happily married. Me and her are just good friends.”