The Night Shadow

by William J Gaskins

  An average human on Earth stands around five feet ten weighing in at around 170 pounds. The average person on this planet stands seven feet eight inches, and can easily topple the scales at almost 450 pounds. These are BIG people. Their animals are also abnormally large. It probably has something to do with all the moons and suns floating around. I’m sure that the gravitational pull plays a part in that somewhere.

  I guess the thought process from upstairs is they think we can just show up, put a flag in the ground, throw up a few Wal-Marts and Mickey D’s, educate and train, and attempt to make productive citizens out of these people. I still can’t help but to laugh at the thought process some people have. Some will just never learn, but rest assured…it will always be repeated.

  The United States finally had met their match. These people were a primitive group, almost cave man like, but they were content and happy with their ways, and had no intentions on someone else coming in trying to tell them how they were going to live their lives. Surprisingly, they were receptive and kind at first, I think being as intrigued as we were upon discovering that “other” life actually exists somewhere out there. They kindly asked us to leave after we had overstayed our welcome, and naturally, we didn’t. When we didn’t leave, they didn’t form some politically correct organized rally or protest telling us to leave. There were no votes amongst councils. They hit us, and hit us hard.

  They started hacking down our patrols, then satellites, radios, and FOB’s (Forward Operating Bases.) It was good times I tell you. The boys and I, we knew it was coming. We had been in this type of situation before. We can smell a fight in the air. There’s always an eerie silence on patrols, a distinct smell in the breeze, and tingling up the spine when you wake up at three in the morning in a cold sweat, and just don’t know why.

  Some people are born for battle. Bloodlines run thick with war where we come from. We knew it would take up to six months for help to arrive if we even had clearance to call for it. So we did what any good trained soldier would do. We made a Plan B to get the hell out of dodge. We have played this game enough times to know that when someone higher up says “we got this under control” it really means that they have no idea what to do if things go south. There was never enough time for a Plan C, so Plan B was good enough. We would have to build our own ship to get home in case the worst case scenario occurs. We found a hidden underground cave a good ten miles out and called it home. We called this place “the hole.” For two months we smuggled out food and munitions. Anything we needed to survive and build.

  The raid happened sooner than we expected. They cut off our power supply and came in during one of their double eclipses. No light…no loom. So we fought our way out and took to the only thing we knew…the woods. Slowly but surely the five members of my team and myself made our way back to the hole. We wasted no time. I sent out teams of three to gather supplies and materials to build a ship of our own. This was a top secret mission and there were probably only two people back on earth that knew we were not in a country on earth pulling another mission. So the chances of help arriving were again, slim to none. From what we figured they would probably shred all evidence of us leaving and forget about us. What were the chances of these people coming to earth and tattling on us? Once again, slim to none.

  They started picking off my men, one by one. Billy was the first to go. I saw it happen and to this day it haunts me. I was pulling guard and saw him catch an arrow through the face when he was about two hundred meters out. They drug him away into the wood line while Josh and Skills ran for cover. Josh went next, falling into a snare while we were out on a hunting party. Snapped his leg clean off. I held him until he was gone. He was a good kid.

  Now there were only four of us, including myself. The ship was done, aside from the fact that we needed a power source, i.e. some type of fuel to get us home. It’s not like there was any gas stations in this hell hole, so I can’t just pull the ship up and say “fill ‘er up Bob”. We knew we hit a barrier but we still didn’t give up. I felt that the hole was being close to being compromised so we abandoned it, covering our tracks. We couldn’t afford to lose the ship which we unofficially named “Dixie”. Without her, there would be no hope for returning home to our families.

  We needed a sufficient fuel source, and I wasn’t going to stop until I found one. The plan was simple. Find a town, stake it out, and kidnap the highest elder and beat the hell out of him until he tells us what he knows of a power source. We had already done it a dozen times with the only lead being to find a man named Q whom lives north. We had gotten our hands on a crude map that might as well have been drawn out with crayons. We followed it as closely as we could and just kept pushing forward. Every town became a glimmer of hope that was immediately extinguished and usually ended with us being two steps backwards. We didn’t want to give in to the fact that we just might not ever leave this planet. We had learned that this man named “Q” runs this place with an iron fist, like a president but with more of a kingship type approach. The more we learned the more he sounded like a dictator…or tyrant if you will. Apparently we were in the middle of some war going on. It must not be too big of a war because we haven’t run into a single battle that we didn’t start ourselves.

  After a few weeks we ran out of ammo, so guns were futile. I had also lost my remaining three men all at one time. Rich, Tony and Skills were caught and beat to death by a group of men in a town just south of the hole. We had come in the middle of the night as usual, but apparently they were waiting on us. There were over a dozen men and we were not skilled experts at the bow and arrow at this point and time. Out here it’s survival of the fittest, and if you aren’t fit, you don’t survive. This tragic loss now left only two survivors, me and Boe.

  Chapter Three

  “Time to off the tooth fairy”

  I picked up my things and struck a path in a new direction. I had to leave this area if I was going to learn anything new at all. According to my map we had roughly three clicks left until the nearest town. I still had a mission to do. If I just gave up and died my men would have given their lives for nothing. I had to go home. I had to see Stephanie. She was everything to me. Forever and always…that’s what we always said, and I was not about to break that promise.

  I had met her in Fort Lee back when we were still in the Army. We had both been re-classed to a job that we both felt was far beneath either of our abilities. She had been an LPN and a damn good one at that. Already done her tour and paid her dues. I had been in the Infantry for a few years, but lost quite a bit of hearing in both of my ears due to an explosion. Now we were both working in Supply.

  I was driving up to the reception area around four in the morning, and saw her walking on the side of the road. Apparently she was headed to the same place I was, but she had the company of two guys. I was humiliated at the current condition of my truck, as I had just drove halfway across America to get there, so I just kept on driving. When she arrived, I jokingly patted the seat next to me motioning her to take a seat so I could talk. Needless to say…she didn’t. But we hit it off anyways. I knew the second she opened her mouth that she was the one for me. I had already been in the process of a nasty divorce and was by no means looking for another woman, but this beautiful blonde hair, blued-eyed girl immediately melted my heart. And she has these incredible eyes…man those eyes just made my heart skip a beat. They still do to this day.

  Boe made a slight grunt which immediately broke my thoughts of home and made me look back. He sensed something, and I could feel it too. Someone was on us. And I’m sure they didn’t want to sit around a campfire and share drinking stories or barbeque recipes. Boe was unlike any other dog I had ever seen. His head was always on a swivel…always. Listening and smelling…a true soldier. My soldier. THWACK. A quiet yet distinct sound broke through the woods. Someone stepped on a stick, and it sure as hell wasn’t a deer. Both of us took up positions on the nearest th
icket we could find. We sank into the terrain completely disappearing from sight. I slowly took my bowie knife from my leg and moved it to my hip for easier access. I took the crudely made yet surprisingly efficient and accurate bow from my back and slipped an arrow into the notch. And I waited.

  We waited for what seemed like hours until I saw the head poke up over the burm about fifty meters away. This was no ordinary hunter. He was tracking us and was not being quiet about it. I waited. I knew there would be more. And then I saw them, four of them in all. The point man was wearing a sleeveless buck skin shirt that i was for sure made out of human scalps and a necklace. I have ran into these types of hunters before. They were what we called “head hunters” back home. The kind of guy you would see out in the jungle and immediately run the other way. I couldn’t quite make out what was on the necklace. Some type of bone fragment…always a good sign. His face, rugged and fierce, had some sort of tattooing on it. I won’t lie, it added to the ambiance of this situation. I felt a spider crawl up the back side of my neck. I hate spiders with a passion. But this was no time to worry about a spider; this was a life or death situation.

  From what I could tell, the three in the back were nobodies. They were rookies. No threat. They all were wearing the same thing, cheaply woven brown fabric that fit the body snug. The pants appeared to be a slick buck skin if some type, i want to assume deer hide. The thing that strikes me odd is the fact that the three in the back, look so different than the point man. This means these were people from different areas. Me being alive…clearly is no longer a secret.

  Boe sank lower into the ground, growing ready on his hind haunches, waiting to launch. He looked at me through the dense forest and I shook my head to signal “no…not yet.” Damn this dog was smart. Neither of us wanted to fight, but we both knew it was inevitable. If they reached the town before us the mission would be compromised and we would be even more lost than we were now. So this had to happen. Here and now. This is a prime example why you don’t leave survivors. If I would have killed the guy in the last town, no one would have known we existed. They would have thought we all died out and continued to live their happy little miserable lives.

  They were now twenty meters away. Another few feet and it would be on. I drew back my bow and steadied my aim…this was it. Go big or go home. As long as I can kill the point man then I’ll be golden with the other three, especially with the help from Boe. My heart beat was racing even though I was trying my best to slow it down. No need to get excited. Just another day in paradise I kept telling myself. I hope my wife can forgive me for the lives I have taken. I swear when I get home, no more. Just her and I on a nice swing in the shaded front yard out in the country. Slow your breathing man…slower…now.

  I let my breath out slowly as I released the string and the arrow couldn’t have flown faster or straighter if I would have told it to do so myself… straight into the neck of the point man. And he charged me, catching me completely off guard. He grabbed me around my throat with these massive banana hands and lifted me high into the air against a tree. I reached behind me and pulled the knife from my waist thrusting it upwards underneath his throat and twisting. The strength from this man was like that of a bull dozer. Nothing stopping it until it ran out of gas. I could barely breathe with the weight of his hands clinching tighter and tighter around my adams apple. Damn Adams apple, don’t ask me why it has to be so big but it is, proving to be quite the hindrance in this current situation if you ask me.

  This beast of a man was still going, full throttle. I stabbed again, this time cutting clear through his spinal cord. If this doesn’t get him, than I don’t know what would. He held onto my throat for what seemed like an hour, but more realistically was probably around ten long seconds. Then…no more death grip, just a 400 pound man lying on top of me. Here I was trying to finagle my way out from underneath him, knowing that there were still three of them left. I had to move quick or it was my ass. I finally squeezed my tiny little self out from underneath this behemoth and looked around quickly for my next target.

  Boe was gnawing on his second guy apparently, which made me smile. Now there was only one, which I couldn’t find. I felt the wind rushing at me from behind, and was able to duck just in the nick of time. I spun around backwards thrusting my knife into his thigh right where the artery should be… and twisted. I spun back around landing a kick directly against his left temple and just started throwing punches to anything soft I could find. He hit me hard in my right eye, sending up sparks of stars and quick flashes of lightning. I won’t lie, the hard pressure feeling in my face after a brutal beating truly turns me on to no end. I closed in with him, pulling his massive dome into mine. I locked his head in good and tight and in a thrusting motion pulled down on his head and upwards with my knee, directly to his nose. After the third one I felt his nose break and slam upwards into his brain, dropping him to his knees. Finally. Done.

  Boe walked to my side and we sat, waiting for a good ten minutes just to be sure there was no more fight to be had. After I was certain we were finally alone again I started searching the bodies looking for any useful intelligence or supplies I could use. I got to the point man and laughed at his necklace. “What a tough guy Boe. Check this out…molars…this dude has molars around his neck! And I am pretty sure there aren’t any pliers around this joint. This dude was a beast. You mean to tell me that this dude would dig into someone’s mouth when he killed them and pull out their molars? How dumb is that? I’ve heard of ears, fingers, eyes even. But molars, now that’s just ridiculous. Let’s move out. Night fall is coming and I want to be in that town before it gets here,” I said aloud. Probably the first thing I have spoken aloud in nearly two months. I was finally me again, once again having the ability to find humor in horrible situations. Most people hated this about me, but Boe seemed to like it, and I seemed to like him.

  Chapter Four

  “Follow me to my world”

  The night was drawing near and we had entirely too much ground to cover. It had been raining for the past week, so the mud made it a difficult task to begin with. I could see the lights from the town hazing up against the horizon so I knew we were close. That last fight put me a little behind schedule, now we can’t move in until tomorrow night. I hate thinking this, but it’s true. I really am not going anywhere anytime soon. I have all the time in the world.

  The last incline was a real doozy, even for Boe. His steps seemed to drag as heavily as mine. It was a picture perfect spot if I ever saw one. A quiet little western looking town nestled into a small valley surrounded by deep woods. The streets were small, just wide enough for an average sedan to pass through without hitting the houses on the other side. The roads were dirt and the houses were made from mud. It reminded me of the old Native Americans back home that lived in the sides of mountains in the desert. I half expected to see Clint Eastwood come up and ask me if I could “make his day.” So instead of waiting on my favorite western star to show, I hastily made my sniper hide and camouflaged my position as well as I could in the coming dusk.

  One thing about this place, you certainly don’t want to be caught out during the night. It seems like the wild life here was on steroids too. Must be something in the water, I thought, as I laughed to myself. However as dangerous as it is, it is the safest time to travel undetected. These were definitely some cornbread grown, backwoods folk. I remember my first night in these woods. Back then, I always traveled by night because I thought it was the safest and only means. But I learned real quickly their coyotes weren’t like the mangy little critters from back home. No sir. They hit me hard and with a vengeance, the whole lot of them. I barely made it out alive, and they took all my food…little bastards. Secretly I had hoped they would catch me one night so I could kill them, and take “their” food. Man, I’m losing it, coyotes don’t carry beef jerky in their pocket. Or do they? Of course not…I chuckled to myself. Good times.

  The s
leep hit me like a ton of bricks and when I thought I was well hidden, I bid adieu to my newfound companion and turned in, hoping to dream of warm campfires at the lake next to my beautiful wife. Too bad we can’t choose our dreams. I always have to be haunted by my past. It seems like I can outrun it while I’m awake, but I’m defenseless while I’m sleeping. The memories are always intruding into my precious sleep waking me up in cold sweats in the middle of the night. My eyes grew heavy and I could feel my breathing slow down my heart rate. The trick is to stay asleep and awake at the same time. To be able to hear footsteps approaching, you can never let your guard down out here. The second thing I’m doing when I get home is taking an Ambien cocktail and crashing out for a week.

  I hear whimpers in the dark which pop my eyes open in a flash. Acting out of instinct, I unsheathed my knife and get ready for the worst. I realized it was Boe. Does he hear something or is he lonely? I feel stupid asking him to come over here and cuddle. I just need to stop being ridiculous; he is after all just a dog. I finally whisper, “you hear something? You want to come over here boy? You hungry?” I pull a piece of jerky meat out of my pack and held it out to him. This time he took to it, darn near biting half my finger off in the process. I laid out several more pieces for him and patted the ground next to me. Boe gathered up his food and snuggled right into my left side. It felt good to be needed. Then I slipped back to sleep.

  I awoke the next morning probably around what I would guess to be about eight. The sun had just peaked up over the horizon. It’s not the first sun that gets you. It’s like a horrible alarm clock. You know, that annoying buzzer you always press snooze on. The first sun comes up and hits you in the eye. You say “five more minutes”. Which for the record I don’t know why we always say it when there’s no one here, but we do anyways. Well, you roll over to catch another few minutes then… BAM the second sun comes up from the opposite side taking away all your cool shade. It’s a cruel joke if you ask me. Whoever thought of this two sun business was obviously not thinking of my feelings.