by Dave Lemel
“Whaddaya mean alone? Where’s Todd?”
“It’s a long story, and I don’t have time to get into it all now ’cause something else has come up that I need to keep an eye on till my train from the mountains departs to head down.”
“Well, you may not have a choice. I’ve got your wife on the other line, and she’s gonna wanna hear that, plus she’s got a doozy of her own to tell you about.”
Simon peeked out from the alley and saw the crew he had been stalking still in front of the large store. They were talking amongst themselves and kept glancing down the street as if waiting for something or someone else before they could proceed. “Okay, patch her through.” Simon stepped back in beside the black rock and mortar buildings.
Sasha appeared, but Simon did not recognize her surroundings. “Where are you calling from?”
“My quarters aboard the briefing room.”
Simon juggled this response in his head a moment before replying, “Your what, aboard the what?”
“You heard me. Long story short, it’s been completely bat poop crazy since we last spoke. One of the craziest parts was learning that the briefing room is actually a fully functioning transport ship.”
Simon shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wait, what?”
“Okay, I’ll start at the beginning, but I need an update from you as well, so you’re getting the CliffsNotes version for now. Remember when I told you Lombargnor had me rounding up our fams?”
Simon nodded.
“Well, once I got them all back to headquarters and in the briefing room, things started happening fast. Lombargnor raced in and transformed the briefing room into its current form. We then dropped down into one of several evacuation tunnels that are apparently located under the base. It spat us out far under the lake, where—”
“Hang on, hang on. What exactly were you evacuating from?”
“I was getting to there, but fine, if you can’t wait for the surprise… Vikards. A massive fleet of them led by your buddy, Dow. They developed some kind of new interstellar transport tech capable of transporting enormous fleets and used it for a surprise attack on Earth. We only got out just ahead of it because Lombargnor had identified Pritzley as the mole and was surveilling him.”
“Pritzley?” Simon was pacing now, trying to keep up. “And Dow? I knew he made it out of that cavern alive.”
“Yes, well, quiet so I can finish. There will be time for questions later. So Lombargnor had just enough time to get the evac message to a lucky few before racing to us and activating his secret ship at the heart of headquarters. Once we exited that evacuation tunnel into the lake, we headed up for space. We made it off the planet and out towards Mars just in time to look back and see them arriving. As I said before, the fleet was absurdly massive. We have since learned there was a brief battle, but our defenses were quickly overwhelmed. The landing forces faced stiffer resistance, but they too achieved their objectives quickly. Earth is blockaded, and North America is under Vikard occupation.”
“What about the rest of the planet?” Simon snuck a look out from the alley to check on the suspicious-looking crew. They were all in the same place, but now Benjo was receiving a firm handshake and pat on the back. It appeared he was about to depart.
“They did not have numbers for blockade and full occupation. There are a small number strategically scattered around the globe to maintain control and prevent large-scale counter attacks. The vast majority of their resources, however, are being used to heavily occupy North America.”
“What do they want?” Simon watched as Benjo walked away from the uniformed Gleebans and made his way across the street.
“So far, they’ve only asked for three things.”
“What’re those?” Simon observed Benjo skipping up onto the sidewalk on his side of the street and head down the slope in his direction.
“You, Todd, and Lombargnor. They’re clearly not going anywhere even if they get you three, in my opinion.”
“Well, that’s good, ’cause I’m in the process of heading home without Todd.”
“What? Why?”
Benjo was just a few store fronts away now, and Simon slid back and up against the corner. “It’s a long story. Actually, no, it’s not; he’s a jackass. I’ll call you back in a minute to elaborate, but I have to take care of something quick.” Simon ended transmission and waited.
Benjo walked past the corner of the alley, whistling as he went. The next thing he knew, he was being dragged into that alley by his head. Too stunned to react, he was a good twenty yards in and being shoved up against the side of a building when he realized his attacker was one of the men he had just sold out. He panicked and pushed Simon with all his might to try to escape, but the marshal hardly had to take a half step back before regaining his balance and throwing him back up against the rock wall.
“Who are those uniformed dudes you’re giving the guided tour to, Benjo?”
“Nobody. They’re just local police. They’re looking for a… a…”
Simon stepped back and sideways a few steps between Benjo and the entrance to the alley. He crossed his arms and cut him off. “Benjo. That already doesn’t hold water, so just stop. They are all wearing the special forces cop uniforms, not local ones. I watched you lead them from the direction of Penko Peak Station and then up the block. Then you pointed at the store where we bought supplies. Then at the trail we took. Who are they, and why are you leading them to us?”
Benjo leaned back into the wall and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Well, why did you guys rob that restaurant?”
Simon uncrossed his arms as his mouth fell slightly ajar, the wheels in his head spinning wildly. “Are they cops looking to arrest us? Why would you tell them where we went?”
“There is a reward for information leading to the capture of two humans who ransacked a restaurant in Jandor. It’s all over the news. They even have a picture of you two from a camera on the boardwalk.”
“And you turned us in! What happened to ‘I need you guys to clear my name’?”
“It is a pretty nice reward. For a drifter like me, it would be a lot. I decided I didn’t need my name cleared if I just stayed away from certain solar systems.”
Simon ejected his wand into his hand and pointed it at Benjo’s face. “Don’t you move an inch.” He swapped the wand to his left hand, keeping it trained on Benjo. “Call Todd,” he said into his link. Simon’s link instantly buzzed, indicating that the link it was attempting to call had been removed from its wearer and shut itself off. Simon suddenly recalled Todd shouting at him as he walked away and then throwing something. “That idiot,” he muttered to himself as he ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes.
He heard the sound of heavy feet attempting a quick getaway, and opened his eyes to find Benjo sprinting for the alley exit. He fired once, and the pulse struck the fleeing Gleeban in the back of the head. He launched forward, landed on his face, and stopped just short of the sidewalk. Simon strolled over, glanced around to be sure nobody had seen their interaction, and dragged Benjo back into the alley beside the building.
As he returned to the corner and looked out, he found the group of uniformed Gleebans looking down the street. He turned to see what exactly they were watching. Coming around the corner at the bottom of the hill was a large vehicle that looked like a cross between an A.T.V. and an armored truck.
Simon pulled his hood up and ran. The Gleeban special police unit was not expecting their suspect to be anywhere near their current location. They hardly even glanced in his direction as he ran by on the other side of the street. Once he made it to the park and out of sight of his pursuers, he pulled his sleeve up and tapped his link. “Cruiser, track me and get to my location as quickly as possible.”
Far down from the mountainous terrain, in a small parking garage off the boardwal
k of a coastal city, a black and chrome star marshal cruiser came to life. It lifted off the cold dark floor, rotated, and blazed out to track down Simon.
Chapter 27
Simon had barely made it a quarter mile up the trail when a thought occurred to him. He flung his pack off, stopped, and ejected his wand. After switching it to cutting mode, he studied the thickest trunked trees along the trail immediately beside him. He selected one naturally leaning slightly over the trail and pressed the wand firmly into the dark green tear-drop-patterned bark at the base.
As the wand gashed its way through, the meat of the tree smoked and crackled. He tilted his wand a bit to an upward angle. He worked the wand back out and around, and a wedge was now missing from the trail side of the trunk. Simon slipped around to the opposite side and gave the tree a series of hard pushes.
The forty-foot-tall behemoth creaked and groaned and finally bent hard over the wedge. A loud crack echoed through the woods, and the long green trunk came crashing down on the trail. The ground shook, and red, orange, and yellow leaves clinging to their thick limbs filled the path.
Simon went for his pack and heard voices. A grumbling, throaty engine sound followed. It was coming from the beginning of the trail. He kicked the pack off the trail and jogged up the path and away from the approaching sound.
A little over a mile up the trail, Todd sat on the ledge in front of his father’s makeshift mountain home. The almond grass was particularly interesting to observe from his current elevated vantage point over the small valley. The dark, chocolaty brown tips swaying in the breeze, revealing glimpses here and there of the creamy beige stalks underneath, was borderline hypnotic.
The only sound not being generated by the breeze was his father’s snoring behind him. Their nearly all-night chat had left Doug tired, and he had succumbed to the urge for a nap a little while earlier. Todd had known his own mind was too busy, and he had not even bothered trying. He stood up from the ledge, stretched, and decided to walk down to the lake to pack up the tents. It really didn’t seem necessary, he simply felt the need to do something, and they were sitting there taunting him, a constant reminder of his fallout with Simon.
As he hit the first switchback of the thin, trampled path down from the cave, he heard a series of snapping sounds from the forest. He paused and attempted to identify the source. It stopped, so he continued descending.
There it is again , he said to himself. He stopped once more. Now he was certain it was getting louder. He retreated up the switchback path and peered out at the forest.
He tried to fight the rising tension in his muscles as he desperately tried to locate the source. Finally, he spotted them. Slowly meandering their way through the trees was a group of large creatures. As they emerged from the tree line, Todd counted four enormous—what he assumed to be adults—followed by two youthful versions that were approximately a quarter of the size of the first four.
The animals were noticeably longer than tall. It wasn’t that they were not tall, they absolutely were; Todd estimated the largest to be at least fifteen feet in height. It was that the proportions were off in a way that their length stood out. From this distance, they seemed to be hairless and had dark green skin quite similar to tree trunks. Possibly even more noticeable was their big, astonishingly yellow eyes. Todd could not see pupils in them at all and wondered if the surface of them was actually a sort of protective coating.
The largest of them tilted its head back and opened its long, flat, wide snout. A short howl emerged before the creature headed down through the valley in the direction of the lake. Todd observed silently as they made their way straight for his tent. They nosed and pawed at it until one stepped firmly on it before biting down on the top and ripping it open with its teeth. Another grabbed Todd’s pack with its mouth and swung it around wildly until the contents flew out in every direction.
As the animals picked through the mess for the edible bits, Todd retreated the rest of the way back up to the cave. Once he neared the ledge, he could see his father had awoken and was watching the animals as well. He heard Todd approach and cleared his throat. “Was that howling one of them?”
“Yep. Been watchin’ ’em since they showed up. They seem pretty harmless. I mean, I’m not about to go try and rescue my backpack from them or anything, but compared to those grey apes, I’ll take these any day.”
“I scared a bunch of these off when I crashed. We should take one down.”
Todd shook his head sharply as if water had gotten stuck in his ear. “Take one down? What, like for fun?”
“Nah, well it may be kinda fun hunting ’em, actually. I meant for food. Looks like they’re eating through the last of our supplies.”
“Are you insane? For all we know those things are highly illegal to hunt or possibly even sentient. Even if it was legal, what if there’s some kind of license required to do it? They could also be more dangerous than they appear. Everything else around here seems to be. Plus, they clearly have young offspring dependent on them, and for crying out loud, there’s a grocery store a couple miles from here.”
Doug Jordan rolled his eyes. “Aw, you’re no fun. On a side note, I don’t think we should be making weekly trips into town. After my one trip to leave the map, I’ve been trying to stay up here at all costs. Do not want to draw attention at all.”
Todd blinked hard. “Dad, what are you talking about?”
“We’re on the run, kiddo! Can’t be too careful.”
“You gave up and sent a distress call to Lombargnor. We’re…” Todd suddenly remembered Simon was no longer there. “I’m one of the marshals that was sent to bring you in. The jig is kind of up.”
“Well, there’s still the Vikards that are no doubt interested in gutting me like a fish. Also, we’re the two-man resistance now. We made that pretty clear to your partner. We gotta start thinking like it.” Doug walked over and grasped Todd’s arm. “You ain’t a marshal anymore, son. Time to stop thinking like one.”
As Todd watched his father return to his spot on the ledge and sit down, he realized he was glad he had not eaten breakfast. His stomach was tying itself in knots, and he wondered for the first time all day if he had made a horrible mistake.
Chapter 28
Simon leaned into the base of a gargantuan specimen of the green-trunked trees. He heard a loud creak followed by a sharp snap. The giant fell, and once again left a formidable obstacle for his pursuers. This was the third tree he had left in their path, and he decided it would be the last as he called Ben.
The answer came quick. “You all right?” The gruff voice of Ben Thurston was noticeably concerned. “Your wife was gonna give it about one more minute before ordering me to head down and look for you.”
“Yeah, I’m good. Too much to explain and no time. Patch me through to her if she’s ready and waiting.”
“You got it, boss.”
Sasha was all business in expression and tone. “Marshal Cain, what is going on? And I want to know what happened with you and Marshal Jordan.”
“I left him up at his dad’s mountain hideout after they tried to recruit me to join their moronic resistance.”
“What? Their resistance? What are you talking about?”
“Look, I promise I will fill you in on all the details later, but right now I have to move. I’m trying to make it back up to where I left them so I can warn them about the police that are on their way to arrest Todd and me.”
“And why, pray tell, are the local police looking to arrest you two?”
Simultaneously feeling refreshed after his short break and worried about how long he had been stationary, Simon began walking while they talked. “To get the map Doug left, we sort of broke into a restaurant. Actually, it wasn’t sort of. We totally broke into a restaurant. Then we took the safe it was in, and wouldn’t you know it, there was money in that sucker too.”
Sasha vigo
rously rubbed her forehead. “Which you guys returned, correct?”
“Hey, I wanted to, but we were in a hurry. Plus, Todd was pissed off that we had been forced to break in in the first place by the dirt bag owner, and well—”
“Simon, you have got to be kidding me.”
“I’ve been spreading it around! I had no intention of leaving this planet with one cent of it.”
“This is absurd. And why can’t you call his link and tell him about the police?”
“Because he tore it off and threw it at me. Again, I promise I’ll tell you all the details later. I’m nearing the end of the trail. When I get there, I’m telling him the cops are coming, and then I’m jumping in the cruiser and I am out of here. I checked right before you called, and it’s getting close. Maybe he’ll come to his senses and join me, but either way, when it gets here, I am taking off for the Henrietta and I’m coming home. I took this assignment as a favor to him, and he goes and does this? And on top of that, I find out my pregnant wife and daughter are on their way to Mars after being forced to evacuate Earth. No. I’m done, Sash. Screw him.”
“Okay, okay. I get it, you’re mad, and you have every right to be. But, clearly, you’re not done. If you were done, you wouldn’t even be heading back up to warn him right now.” Simon rolled his eyes before Sasha continued. “Don’t roll your eyes. I’m right and I’m glad. It means I married a good man. There’s no way the Simon I married would abandon his best friend on a strange planet in another solar system. At least not before exhausting all possible efforts to make him come to his senses first. Put yourself in his shoes. This entire sequence of events had to be extremely stressful on him. He is your best friend, Simon, not just your partner. Be there for him.”
Simon took a deep breath. “I threw up a little bit ago. Seriously. Pulled the trigger all over some poor Gleeban’s restaurant.”