by Dave Hazel
“We stopped just to say, keep alert, keep eyes open and be more vigilant than ever,” Captain Diaz said when Finley stopped. “We all believe they, meaning the enemy, will try to put the squeeze on us but I truly believe we will be able to avoid them. We will figure out a way to get back to the Pass,” he added and nodded to Towbar. “As long as I have breath in my lungs I will not be giving up, so I expect the same from those under my command,” he added as if he demanded them to resist the enemy at all costs. “And should we not leave this side of the world any time soon,” he added and slowed as if he regretted taking his conversation down this road. “We will fight until there is no fight left in us.”
“What the captain is saying,” Lieutenant Finley took over and spoke his words with affirm boldness. “You do not want to surrender to the enemy,” he declared fiercely and the scene of men being impaled didn’t have to be mentioned. All those listening had that vision as the first image of what could happen to prisoners.
“I will try the green fog again later in the day,” Towbar responded to Diaz’s nod to him.
“Captain Diaz,” Mykal called out and raised his hand. “Let’s have the men take their lunch break right now. I wanna speak to you and those in leadership.”
“Sergeant Barry,” Diaz shouted to the senior transport leader. “Have your men make a quick determination to see if we are clear and safe to take an hour or so meal break.”
Sergeant Barry rushed to his vehicle and spoke to his men in the turret and made sure they communicated with the other vehicles. He returned and made it known they were safe and the area was clear for the time being.
“Men, take shifts to have your chow and ensure everyone gets to eat,” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner yelled once he got the go ahead from Diaz.
Those in leadership gathered around Captain Diaz and Lieutenant Finley. The Dosch brothers joined them not because they were in leadership, but because they were close friends to Mykal and Towbar.
“What’s on your mind Myk?” Captain Diaz said while he watched the men rush off and sit in groups to eat. The men were professionals and didn’t have to discuss who should do what or how. They just took it upon themselves to set up a guard duty roster and to eat in shifts.
“I just have a couple of ideas I wanted to throw out there and see what anyone thinks. We know the enemy is coming after us to kill us but more importantly, they wanna take the princess from us,” Mykal said and looked at all those seated around him. Mykal thought it odd that there were true military soldiers from his world, the Dosch brothers, and from Towbar’s world there sat Towbar, Nordad, Norg the Dwarf and the six Elves all seated together. He wanted to laugh and comment on what a mixed bag this group was.
He held his tongue and continued with his original thought. “They want Doninka so they can take her back to that side of the world to give her to the Sosos,” he paused and hoped Hidtotim didn’t think much of that statement since he had originally told Hidtotim they were sent by the Sosos. He didn’t care. After all this time together, if Hidtotim had a problem with it now it was too late. “After the Sosos have her they are gonna then present her to Towbar’s people to trade for her father, King Loankore III on the High Holy Day they celebrate. That holy day is just about five days away. We believe their plan is to kill both of them, which will enable Doninka’s older brother to take over the kingdom, but that’s neither here nor there right now. All of our lives are on the line for the time being so I know we’re gonna fight to the death to protect her cuz, like I said, our tails are on the line so we gotta fight for survival.”
“Got that right bro,” Roy Jr. said with a mouth full of food. “We’re gonna make them simple bastards regret coming after us just like someone who constantly puts their tongue on a canker sore,” he snickered and everyone laughed with him. “They keep putting their tongue on the canker sore an’ it ain’t getting any better.”
“That’s a good one Roy,” Ratner chortled and pointed at him.
“It’s his cowboy wisdom,” Mykal laughed. “He’s always got a good one in there somewhere. I’m gonna have to remember that one,” he continued to laugh. “It’s like someone who keeps putting their tongue on a canker sore,” Mykal repeated and laughed with the others.
“That’s what I do bro. You know I’m here for you,” he laughed and jumped up from his seated position to raise his hand so Mykal would high five him.
“For those who don’t know, me and the Dosch brothers are family,” Mykal snickered and watched Roy Jr. sit down. “We have been through every step of this journey together. We’re brothers from different mothers, but we’re brothers all the same.”
“Got that right,” Randy shouted and kept eating.
“Anyway, one of the ideas I had,” Mykal said and looked at Captain Diaz. “I don’t know how feasible this would be, but what I would like to try to do is, if we can make it to the city that me and Doninka left from, is to kidnap one of the local females. Someone about Doninka’s age and description if possible and allow her to be taken from us so the bad guys would think they have the princess and that would take the pressure from us. Then hopefully they would take the girl to the other side of the world and offer her for the trade, but we would be there to keep the King from allowing himself to be traded for her.”
There was complete silence from the group. Mykal didn’t know if they were thinking over his proposal or trying to get around the idea that they thought it was completely idiotic. As the selected leaders continued to look back and forth to each other Mykal felt more self-conscious and wished he would have kept the idea to himself.
“That’s actually a great idea,” Lieutenant Finley was the first to answer. “We would have to find the right girl and figure out how to let her be released to the bad guys like she had been captured. If we could accomplish that, it would definitely take the pressure from us in the short term.”
“I concur,” Captain Diaz said with a broad smile as he thought through the idea Mykal presented. “If we could pull that off it would give us the freedom we would need to get away from the forces pursuing us and allow us to make our attempt to get back to the Pass. My question,” Diaz said and paused while he thought through different scenarios. “What if we can not make it back to the Pass,” Diaz paused again while thinking. “And what if the Sosos, via Ziggy Stardust, do have our fake princess in their possession to submit as a trade for King Loankore?”
“Towbar can use what is called Mind Talk,” Mykal answered. “If we can’t get back to the Pass to prevent the King from giving himself up to the bad guys,” Mykal said and it was well known he meant the Sosos, the ‘bad guys’ from the other side of the world, “Towbar can do his Mind Talk with Nidious, his close friend and advisor to the King, to tell him not to allow the King to give himself up. If say, per chance, Nidious is nowhere near the Pass to stop the trade, then Towbar can use Mind Talk to make contact with anyone we know there, like Major Chick who can be trusted to make sure the trade doesn’t take place. And if for some reason he can’t make contact with Major Chick, there are a number of Towbar’s generals who would be able to stop the King from surrendering himself. I’m not worried so much about that, cuz I believe Towbar is gonna be able to get us back to the Pass,” Mykal said with a positive nod to show his vote of confidence to his giant friend and protector.
“Thank you my friend,” Towbar said quietly and gently lowered his head.
“Anyway, I think we should try to get to the city and capture a girl we could pass off as the princess,” Mykal offered again. “Hopefully that will work and get the bad guys off our back. At least for a little while.”
“If the situation avails itself, we will try that,” Diaz replied. “Since we are traveling in that direction, we will keep that in mind and we will see what will become of that. I am willing to try anything to get my men back to the Pass and to keep them from harm.”
“The other thing I wanna bring up, which kinda goes hand in hand with what Captain Diaz just mentione
d is,” Mykal said and deliberately paused to look at all the faces that were eyeing him. “I kinda brought this up as a joke before,” he snickered. “But the more I think about it, the more I’m getting serious about this idea. What I would like to do,” he stopped to pause again because he wasn’t sure how this idea would be received. “I wanna go back to the mountains we were in and capture some of the zombies from the AFAs or UBAHs,” he stopped and waited for the verbal commotion to stop. “The reason why I wanna capture some of the zombies is to let them free in Ziggy’s back yard. I wanna let them run wild in one of his cities. When the zombies go nuts and start attacking everyone and turning everyone into zombies he will eventually have to return to deal with that crisis rather than what is taking place on the other side of the world with Towbar’s people.”
“Oh man, that would be like letting a virus loose amongst his people,” Ratner said and nodded as if he agreed.
“Exactly. It would be like we’re using a secret weapon on him,” Mykal said and watched Captain Diaz’s expression as he thought through the idea. “And to be honest, it’s probably a secret weapon he created so it would be like he bit himself on his own ass,” Mykal added and some of them found it humorous.
“But that means the children would be at risk,” Sergeant First Class Lemon said.
“Just like the children of Towbar’s side of the world are at risk right now,” Mykal barked and that seemed to stop any opposition. Mykal’s only concern was how Captain Diaz would take the suggestion. “And what I’m saying is, if we can’t get back to the Pass then I say we go back and try to capture some of those nasty freaks and bring them to Ziggy’s city. If we can make it back to the Pass, then I wanna get a team of people and come back here just for the sole purpose of releasing the zombies in Ziggy’s back yard. If you ever watched any of the zombie movies that have been put out back home,” he stopped and turned to the people of his world. “Then you have an idea of what will happen. It will destroy his power from within,” he said and the murmurs started again. “And I say that based on what we saw inside the mountain. Cuz all those killed by the zombies became zombies and went on the attack to eat, thus they turned more into zombies just like all the friggin zombies we’ve ever seen in the movies in our world.”
“Except these weren’t no slow ass leg draggin’ zombies in the movies,” Roy Jr. shouted.
“Dats right,” Winfield shouted his agreement. “These bad boys haul ass fast.” He was the zombie movie aficionado and zombie expert who warned everyone the AFA victims were actually zombies to be worried about. However, at the time, everyone else pooh-poohed his accurate advice.
“But wouldn’t there be the risk of the zombies attacking Towbar’s part of the world?” Sergeant Lemon asked.
“Only if Ziggy transports them to that side of the world,” Mykal answered. “I would say we would be prepared for such a thing and we could make sure we’d be on alert for zombies coming to the Pass,” he added and snickered. “But honestly, I really don’t think that would happen. I dunno. I’m just thinking. Besides, if those damn AFAs or UBAHs aren’t alien creatures from outer space then we would have to put the blame on Ziggy Stardust himself as being the creator of those damn things. He’s the one who has created or perverted all the damn things we’ve run into so far. So I say let his sorry ass deal with what he’s created.”
“Preach it brotha,” Roy Jr. shouted.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” Lieutenant Finley finally spoke up. “And if we should make it back to the Pass, I would gladly come back here to help with that mission.”
Mykal knew Finley was still angry over what had happened to his men who had been impaled after they had been captured by the strange ape like creatures. “I will take any of the people here if we come back here to do this, but if we are stuck here I think we should consider going to capture some of those zombie freaks and go down with a fight.”
“Talk about going down swinging with all you got,” Randy said and then snorted a slight laugh.
“Mykal, you know me and my brother are with you,” Roy Jr. said with a great big smile. Randy sat beside him with a big smile while he ate and gave thumbs up. “I guess it would be like lassoing a bad ass bull or more like lassoing a bad ass bear. We’d just have to be careful not to get bit.”
“Okay, okay,” Captain Diaz interrupted them with a slight sigh. “That is an option for us to consider. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. I like the idea of capturing a decoy princess and since we are heading in that direction, I would suggest that we focus on that as an objective and try to accomplish that task first. I say that because if we were to turn and travel back to the mountain to make the attempt to capture one of the zombies, we may have more problems once the army that is in pursuit of us follows us into the mountain. I fear things could go horribly wrong for us.”
“That’s fine,” Mykal agreed. “I didn’t think about the bad guys following us into the mountain. Anyway, the idea is on the table for now or for later if we do make it back to the Pass.”
“We will think that one through Mykal,” Captain Diaz said and smiled with humor. “Gunney, I want you and Sergeant Lemon to make sure all the men have had a chance to chow down, and in a few we will head out.”
“Aye aye Sir,” Ratner replied.
3.
The group had resumed their travel and they hadn’t gone very far when Mykal felt the green flesh trembling in his right hand and arm that notified him the green fog was in the area for the second time. The green flesh trembling appeared a couple more times shortly thereafter. The green fog had been used four times during the past two to three hours. Mykal’s concern was that Zizmon-Tarl was placing his forces all around them to close in on them to defeat them and re-capture the princess.
Mykal was terrified for his group, but for himself he wasn’t very worried because he knew he had his magic ring and could turn invisible if it came down to it. He looked at his people resting in his vehicle; Mathis, Towbar, Doninka, Roy Jr., Randy, Anka, Renner and Ferria of the original Lost Patrol, and wondered if they were all going to die today. ‘They’ve all been through so much, for me and with me,’ he thought and he couldn’t bare the idea of them all being killed by the ‘World’s Greatest Evil Bad Guy’. True sadness that verged on the edge of weeping crept upon him. He didn’t want all of them to be killed, especially all those of the original Lost Patrol of which there were fourteen not counting himself. There were another six more if he counted Starling, Leeno, Blair, Nordad, Codlon and Agnor who joined up with him from this side of the world when they became lost.
He had to hide his face when anyone in his vehicle looked in his direction because he feared tears would flow and the sobbing would start. ‘I hate this friggin ring,’ he thought and stared down at the gold band that caused his emotions to bounce all over the place. ‘But I don’t want anyone of these people to be killed, let alone all of them.’ Mykal felt that he really wanted to break down and cry.
It reminded Mykal of a situation back in the world when he heard a family friend speaking of something that almost caused him to break down into sobbing fits:
≈≈≈∞≈∞≈∞ FLASHBACK ∞≈∞≈∞≈≈≈
Lenny was an elderly man, an old friend of the family and neighbor to Pam’s parents. He came over on a Monday and spoke to Mykal and Pam since her parents were gone at the time. “I just had to do the hardest thing I ever did in my life,” the 72 year old man said as if he needed to get something off his chest. “I had to put down both my dogs on Saturday. I had a Poodle and a Chihuahua. The Poodle was eight years old and my Chihuahua was a little more than ten years old. The Poodle had throat cancer and my ‘lil Cha-Cha would run out in the yard and collapse and couldn’t breathe. So I took them to the vet and the vet said they both had cancer and for the sake of my babies I should put them down.”
“Awh, that’s a shame,” Mykal said to be polite.
“The vet said the first shot I give them will pu
t them to sleep like they are laying down for the night and then I will inject something for the lungs and the heart and basically they will suffocate while they’re sleeping,” Lenny said and looked shocked. “I wished he wouldn’t have told me that,” the older man said and looked saddened and horrified.
Suddenly Mykal was shocked and felt a genuine concern for the older man.
“My ‘lil Cha-Cha always had to be with me,” Lenny continued. “If he wasn’t on my lap, he had to be laying at my feet and always stared up at me with his pretty little puppy dog eyes to make sure I wouldn’t leave him. If I left the house without him, my wife said he would cry and run around looking for me until I returned home and when he tired himself out he would lay down and always face the door so when I came home he would run to greet me. He was my little buddy,” Lenny said and choked on his words.
Mykal truly felt saddened as the older man continued.
“The vet injected my Poodle and he laid down to sleep, but when he injected Cha-Cha, he wouldn’t lay down. He stood there rigid with his little legs out before him like he wasn’t going to allow the drug to make him get sleepy. He stood on one side of the room and I was near the door and he just looked at me like please don’t leave me here. It broke my heart. My ‘lil Cha-Cha collapsed and kept looking at me and the poor little guy crawled to me on two legs like he was begging me not to leave,” Lenny said and started to cry. “The vet told me that I should just leave, but I couldn’t leave my little buddy like that. The damn vet said it was the best thing to do,” he added and sniffled.
Mykal had to look away because he felt the man’s pain and felt tears well in his eyes.
“So I went over to my ‘lil Cha-Cha and told him ‘come on buddy, you have to lay down and go nigh’ nigh’ so you can get your rest’. And he laid down but he lifted his head to make sure I wasn’t going to leave. He looked at me and it hurt so bad that I couldn’t help but break down and cry. I’m a damn war veteran for crying out loud,” the older man said as if he had to justify his tears. Lenny started to sob again. “My ‘lil buddy looked to me to keep him safe, and because he trusted me he laid his head down to go to sleep. And that damn vet killed him. I hurt so bad over that,” the older man cried on his broken words and had to wipe his eyes. “I didn’t want my ‘lil Cha-Cha to suffer and he kept looking at me and I let my little buddy down,” he sobbed and Pam sobbed along with the older man. “And to think I had to pay that damn vet to do this,” he scoffed with tears.