The Night Shadow

by William J Gaskins

  Well, I was pretty bored during the day, and I have been called a trouble maker myself a time or two, so I decided to take him in. Worst case scenario I get annoyed and kick him out. It had to be better than this kid spending his time by himself getting into trouble, or worse because I am always getting into trouble. I walked back outside and saw him sulkily walking down the street, dragging his feet. He was about three blocks away so I shouted, “Chuck, get your butt back here, your bunking with me now!” I walked back inside and told Cory to go set up a sleeping pallet in my room with Boe. “Will, I don’t know about all this, this kid is like a leach. Once he latches on there is no shaking him,” Cory told me, trying hard to talk to me out of it. “Just do as I say and trust me for once,” I laughed.

  Chuck had made his way into the bedroom huffing and puffing from his recent sprint. I showed him his pallet and he was like a brand new puppy, looking at everything top to bottom. “Shut up and go to sleep, kid. In the morning I am going to train you to be the toughest kid in these caves. You’re going to be my right hand man.” Chuck reluctantly began to lie down on his quickly made pallet. With the lights off, I could hear him breathing. I could hear all the questions he wanted to ask in his quick rapid breaths. “Mr. Do you like…” I immediately cut him off. “Shut up Chuck.”

  The room got quiet again. I was starting to feel the effects of the herb kicking in and taking my pain away. Maybe I could finally get a decent night of sleep. I started to see my wife’s beautiful face riding behind me on my motorcycle. Hair tied back in a ponytail, secured with a bandana. She was so sexy. “Mister, I was just wondering real quick…” Chucks words blasted the picture of my wife’s face straight out of my head. “Damn it kid, I swear you are about to sleep outside if you say another word. One more word and I’m going to choke you out.” Boe let out an annoyed groan from his hidden cave underneath my bed and the room finally fell silent. Now where was I? Ah yes, beautiful blonde ponytail holding onto me tight on the back of my bike. Good dreams.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Making plans”

  The next morning came earlier than I had hoped. I woke up to Chuck setting a plate of hot food on my chest, burning my chest hairs straight to the skin. “What the hell dude, give a guy some warning or something!” I barked. Chuck gave me his apologies and I had to calm myself. I realize that he is just trying to impress me, and being rude wasn’t really helping at all. I know he wanted to prove himself useful, and what he really was trying to do was to get chosen for this upcoming mission. The pain in my chest was significantly better. I felt under my shirt and felt scabs already forming a rough lining on top of my wound. This was impossible; I shouldn’t be at this stage for another couple of weeks.

  I can’t even begin to describe what this food might be, it looks utterly disgusting. hesitantly I start to eat what he has given me. Amazingly enough, whatever it is, I found it to be very flavorful and hit the spot for breakfast. “This is pretty good, Chuck. I might have use for you after all. So what can you do besides cook a good meal entirely too early in the morning?” Chuck took a deep breath and started to answer in a very eager excited tone that was entirely too chipper this early in the morning. “I can shoot an arrow straighter than anyone I know, and I know a lot of people. I can hunt anything that moves, skin it, clean it and cook it. I know every foot path from here to the nearest five villages. I am quiet and sneaky…” I had to cut in. “I don’t know about quiet.” I laughed, but he didn’t even act like it fazed him, he just continued on his ‘I’m so awesome’ rant… “I have killed over a dozen men, only those that threatened me of course. I am a great learner, I excelled way over my classmates… when I was in school, and I catch on very quickly. I can draw really well. As a matter of fact, I have made my own maps for you, in case I ever had the honor of meeting you, which I obviously did.” I sat and thought to myself that this kid might actually be an asset to the mission.

  I am glad that he barged in and threw himself at me, instead of me having to hunt someone down with his capabilities. Already better than little Gerald. “Well, Chuck, first off, I want you to go home and get me those maps. Secondly, I would like for you to bring me every weapon that you have, and materials to build more. You know like arrows, spears, knives and so forth. We need to make a weapons cache that will be big enough to support what we have going on here. I’m not going to meet the rest of the team for another two weeks, but I think I want you to lead my men out there on a few scouting parties. That is if you can handle it. I will need to expand what we know a little bit. The more that you do… the less that I have to do. Are you tracking?” In a flash Chuck was out the door, leaving Boe and I in silence. Nice complete silence. Of course I went to back to bed. I needed a power nap, I can’t quite recoup from a long night like I used to. I was getting old after all.

  The knock on my door made me jump, yet again. Chuck came rushing in with his arms full of weapons, some elementary and others pretty advanced. He had somehow came up with a crude model of a cross bow, and I liked it. Apparently it was still too early for Boe because he snuck out the door, to go sleep in the kitchen no doubt. Lucky dog. The room was quiet and I was sure that Chuck was looking for some sort of compliment for all of his work. I know I would have wanted one. Instead, I left him hanging, as I inspected everything that he had laid out. They were in great shape. If I hadn’t known any better, they were brand new. But if you looked close enough you could see the time that he took to maintain them. This kid had all the makings of a good soldier. There were plenty of good long knives, throwing knives, machetes and axes. Over to the left were two cross bows, a regular bow, and over two hundred arrows. The arrows were grouped by tens though, every head being different. He went on to explain to me that half of the arrows had poison tips that would paralyze his prey for over thirty minutes. A group of twenty arrows in the back were deadly to the touch. A lethal arrow…I like it.

  There were bundles of sticks and a bucket full of stones just the right size to make heads out of. What I was looking most forward to was the maps which he had laid out on my bed. They were small, but very well defined. Every creek bed, which I call a “waddy,” were drawn out perfectly and labeled with their depth and width. It appeared that this kid had traveled roughly twenty miles around the caverns in all directions. “Well, I have to say, I am deeply impressed with what you have here… and you have appeared to motivate me on some level, so, let’s get to work. About how long does it take you to make a cross bow?” I ask him, eager to get up and start doing something productive. Chuck, who was obviously pleased with himself, answered immediately, “Two hours tops.” The first thing that crossed my mind was yeah, right. I said, “Be realistic, man. I don’t want anything faulty. Good dependable weaponry is all I need, we have time.” Chuck dropped his head and muttered out what I am pretty sure sounded like, “a day.” “That sounds better. Let’s slow it down and make it two days. Get started, because I want two more.”

  Chuck left the room to go build my weapons and I grabbed up the maps to study. It looks like there are only five small towns within close proximity to the caves. What I would like to know, is exactly how big of an area I am working with here. Are we on a continent? Are we on an island or something? The shuttle that we came in on was blacked out so we couldn’t see anything on the entrance, and we hardly left the base when we actually got here. When we did leave, we didn’t go farther than five miles out. I had no idea of what a bird’s eye view of this land was, but I needed to find out. It was detrimental to what I had to do. It was one thing to move a group of men on foot for about 100 miles and quite another to move them 1,000 miles.

  I looked over the maps one more time. If we took the passage way out this way to the left…we would only hit one town, which we could definitely skirt. I needed to know where this man lived, and how far it was to get there. Without this knowledge I was going nowhere, and could not prepare properly. There is sure to be scouts or bases arou
nd. Something that lets the sun people know when these guys come out of the caves.

  I walked out of the room and saw Boe still being lazy on the kitchen floor. I poked my head around the corner to find Cory mixing something together in his living room. “You know bud, you should really find a girl or something, leave the house, go and smell the musty air of your cave. Do something crazy and get a life.” We both laughed for a minute. “Well Will, since you had your new friend I figured I would work on a new concoction for your chest wound. The smoke from the tavern is a risky smoke; some people react differently to it and don’t like the effects. You are healing very nicely and I think with this put into the mix you should be up and running very shortly. The sooner you are up and running the sooner that you can go home.” I couldn’t argue with that, so I proceeded to pound him with all the questions I had built up in mind.

  “Ok, here we go. One, where does this guy Q live? I want to know how far we are talking about. Half a day walk? Are we talking a week’s worth of traveling? A month maybe? Give me something here. I need to know exactly how far I am expected to go, because that will have a great effect on how many people I can bring, and what kind of training we need to get done before we set out.”

  Cory sat and thought for a while, for too long if you ask me. From personal experience, when someone takes this long to answer a question, it usually means the answer that eventually follows is pulled straight up from the middle of nowhere. They just make crap up. “If you don’t know man, just let me know that you don’t know, and let’s find someone who does know,” I butted into his deep concentrating thinking.

  “No, Will, it’s not that. I have never been there myself, but I’m trying to remember how far my dad said it was. He used to tell me stories about it. I want to say, it’s about a good three day hike from here. The terrain is pretty rough from what I have been told, so lots of breaks make up most of the time span.” I sat down on the couch and started contemplating my game plan. I could push these guys to make it there in two days, which really isn’t that bad. We would move as a small element. I might only take ten of us, maybe twelve. Being small, agile and undetectable was definitely a must in this case. If we were compromised at all, we would all be dead.

  From what I could figure, the reason in the size difference between the two nations, which were about to stand toe to toe with one another, was due mostly to the lack of protein in their diets. They didn’t get any of the meat that roamed the open plains above. There must have been something inside of the meat that beefs you up, sort of like a steroid of some type. I noticed most of the hunters, and even Chuck, were built much stronger and sturdier than their underground counterparts. I also think that exposure to the multiple suns has a bit to do with it as well. I am not a scientist, but it makes sense that it has to have some sort of effect on a person’s body and physique. I have even seen changes in myself since I have been here. I have grown a few inches and gained a good twenty pounds in muscle mass.

  I need a hunting party and I need them to eat the hell out of some meat. Sounds like a good mission for Chuck. I had sent Cory into town with a message for Gerald to come and see me immediately, and to also hunt down Chuck. I needed to get started as soon as possible. Chuck came in huffing and puffing and plopped himself into the uncomfortable couch-like seat I was sitting on in the living room. “Well kid, are you going to make it? You dying on me or what? Looks like you’re a little out of shape,” I joked. I had to speak up due to his ragged breathing. “Rule number one kid. When you’re tired, don’t show it. If the enemy finds out you are weak, you’re dead.” Chuck’s cheeks reddened at his embarrassment, and he was fighting to keep his breath low and quiet. “Here is the deal, Chuck. I need meat and lots of it. Go find a couple of buddies that you can trust, and bring back as much good meat as you can. I don’t want it to spoil, so don’t take forever. I am going to teach you how to smoke it, and make it last much longer. The deal is, the more meat you people eat, the stronger you will become. We don’t have much longer until we are leaving. You guys are going to need your strength.” Just as quickly as Chuck appeared, he disappeared out the door. I could tell he was excited to leave the cave, and for that I was grateful. I needed someone who liked an adventure as much as I did.

  All was silent in the house. I drew up a blueprint to make a dehydrator for the meat. I really hadn’t done this in mass before, but the concept should be the same. Pretty much smoke them out, and then hang them to dry, and bam! We are done. I am hoping it will be just that simple. To be honest, I am not what you would call a “builder.” I would describe myself more as having a friend that can build, and I just “hang out, supply the beer and grill for everyone” type of guy. That was more of my specialty. I could grill all day long out here, but it does me no good if I can’t save the meat afterwards. There was no way to keep the meat from going bad after a few days out in the woods, and then it smells and the bugs get to you, it’s a lose-lose situation.

  The blueprints took me about half the day to draw up, and then I had the little problem of locating the right supplies. So of course, I sent for Cory to go pick them up. Nothing too crazy, I needed mainly wood. I could chop it and trim it by myself. I was feeling much better now, and I really hate sitting on my butt and doing absolutely nothing. A few days of doing nothing can be quite awesome from time to time, but a few weeks of doing nothing could kill a man, figuratively speaking, of course.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Moral Cross roads”

  Over the next few days, Cory and I had built an amazing smoker if I do say so myself. We had racks that were long enough to dry out an entire elk if we wanted to. This should definitely suffice in feeding my troops for the time that we will be gone. I’m estimating that it will take on average, about one day to dry out and prepare each animal. What day we can actually leave this place will be dependent upon on exactly how many animals Chuck is able attain on his hunt.

  Chuck drug himself, three friends and four sleds full of dead animals into the opening of the cave on the fourth day and they were all smiles. Apparently they had a good time, which is good, because happy troops are good troops. Chuck had three wild hogs that had to have weighed at least 600 pounds each. A good size buck was on the fourth sled. Not bad for a few days hunting trip. It is important to drain the blood so the meat doesn’t spoil, I am glad he knew this already.

  Out of the three men that Chuck had brought with him, there wasn’t a single one of them that weighed less than 180 pounds of solid muscle. I could tell these were most definitely the trouble makers of the town…exactly who I wanted with me. So I figure I will recruit these guys. If they are always into trouble then they won’t have any problems getting into “more” trouble with me. I need team members who will not hesitate to pull the trigger or go out on mission when told at the last second.

  “Nicely done, Chuck, I said proudly. I need you to drag the meat around to the back of the house, because we’re going to skin these guys and start smoking ‘em. When the food is done, we are rolling out the gate brother, so get your rest and say your goodbyes. It’s going to be us four, plus some nerdy guy that Mason has demanded that I let tag along for the ride. If he even shows back up that is. I doubt they are going to send anybody worth anything, so you boys will suffice. So go home, relax and get ready. We leave in the morning.” From the looks on all their faces, it seemed that I had just told them they won the lottery.

  I would much rather go out with the six of us, than go out with a team of twenty five, with twenty four complete rookies. The chances of survival and mission accomplishment were growing greater by the minute. I was so excited to go do this, I could hardly contain myself. I have to admit, the break has been nice, but I am beginning to grow quite stir crazy. I can’t sit in one spot for too long, or I come up with stupid things to do. I know we weren’t scheduled to leave for another week or so, but I was ready to go now.

  If I operate with a
six man team, I can cut the travel time completely in half, I will be able to maneuver my men completely concealed and hopefully bring most of them home, which brings me home. I personally can’t wait to get home. I bet my wife is waiting up on me right now, listening to every car pass by the window, hoping one will be me. All four of the boys just stood there and posted up by the smoker as I prepared the meat to be hanged. “I thought I said to go home to your families. This is kind of a big deal I can’t promise you that you will all make it back.” I told them. Chuck spoke up, clearly the leader of the group. “We are our family, and apparently now you.” “Well, in that case…take a seat and I will tell us some stories.”

  “I remember one mission that went bad in Russia. We went in as a small security detail for a prime minister. The prime minister really pissed off a bunch of Russians, and for some reason we had mobs of people coming after us. I barely escaped with my life, lost all of my men, with one of them being my best friend. Of course the minister himself had his own escape plan…big enough for himself. I had promised my wife, like I do ever time, that I would make it home, that there would be nothing that would keep us apart. I always tell her even if we are worlds away, I will always come home. Of course I had no idea at the time that I would be quite literally, worlds away… enough about me why don’t ya’ll tell me about yourselves.” I’m sure they didn’t just want to hear about me. “No Will, you started this, now you have to finish it.” Cory chimed in as he showed up with more chairs and huge buckets of beer for the team. The boy’s eyes lit up and we all filled our cups.