by Dave Hazel
He also wondered if his magic items would work in the real world. He’d have to test them first since he would be counting on the ring of invisibility to help him escape if Jill and others were planning to silence him. ‘So many worries. Silence me hell, they’re planning on murdering me.’
A couple of hours had passed when Mykal, Towbar and the three Elves picked up a distant noise. Mykal and Towbar knew the sound to be helicopters. “Yes, helicopters are coming,” Mykal yelled and laughed out loud.
“Where?” Someone yelled when they all looked to the clear sky. There was nothing in view and nothing to be heard.
“They are coming,” Towbar announced.
“We know not what the sound is,” Starling spoke up. “We do hear the strange sound similar to galloping steeds.”
“How the hell do you hear them Myk?” Jake asked. “None of us can hear squat.”
“Look, there they are,” Mykal pointed to four dots in the sky toward the north. Mykal tried to explain to the Elves, Nordad and his two men what helicopters were so they wouldn’t be frightened of the flying metal beasts.
“You say that we will all fly in the belly of these strange beasts?” Starling asked as the newcomers kept looking back and forth to each other while all the military men cheered and celebrated.
“I do not understand how men can fly,” Agnor yelled while the helicopters slowed to the ground.
“This is unbelievable magic,” Nordad gasped as he eyed the four noisy crafts land. His jaw dropped when he watched several men disembark the crafts. “I only wish my dear friend Jumbdex could have seen such a sight,” he sighed as he started to tug on his long beard.
“It’s not magic,” Jake corrected the older man. Jake couldn’t stop laughing at the terrified expressions the newcomers shared.
“Oh thank you,” Mykal said quietly when he saw one of the doctors get off the chopper. “Medic, over here,” he hollered as loud as he could and pointed to the stretcher with Diaz.
“We’re so glad to see you Myk,” Captain Little Hawk, Marine company commander of Bravo Company said as he rushed to Mykal and shook his hand. “We all thought you died.”
“Thank you Sir, but look we have some wounded who need help right now,” he explained and pointed to Diaz. “We didn’t take those arrows out of him because we didn’t know if they would do more damage to him.”
“Oh damn,” Little Hawk said with a frown seeing his close friend Diaz severely injured. “We’ll take care of them. Get the wounded on board now,” he yelled to his men but the noise of the helicopter blades drowned his words. The men understood what he requested though they couldn’t hear him.
In just a few minutes all the men were loaded onto the helicopters and they were airborne. “I have never laid eyes on such creatures,” Nordad yelled, but his words were barely audible.
Mykal placed headphones on Nordad and Starling and showed them how to speak through the microphone. “These are not creatures. These are machines. Men created them and men are operating them. I am telling you, you are going to be amazed at some of the things you’ll see here and none of it is magic.
Mykal was disappointed that there was a reporter and cameraman on one of the other helicopters. He was told they were to film his team’s return. He warned his men not to say a word until they debriefed with Major Chick. He was quietly angry because he knew they would harass the newcomers with questions that would never end. He told Jake and Towbar to pull the six newcomers away from the reporters to keep them hidden.
When the helicopters neared the Front they saw the Pass was turned into an organized camp behind the Pit. Numerous tents and vehicles were spread all throughout the width of the Pass. From the air they saw one large tent with a large red cross on top. Mykal wondered what good would it do to designate a medical tent when Towbar’s world would not know what it meant and the Sosos wouldn’t care what it meant. ‘I guess it’s for our people.’
The choppers flew over another extremely large tent and Mykal knew it was the Chow Hall because there were a couple of lines going in. When they landed they were swarmed by many people. It became chaotic, but at Mykal’s request Major Chick and Major Innes sent a majority of the men away. Mykal’s concern was for the wounded to be treated and the rest of the men to get a good meal. Mykal didn’t realize how bad they appeared until he saw all the clean shaven faces and the clean uniforms.
“Myk, what the hell happened?” Major Innes, 1st Battalion commander asked. “You men look like you’ve been through a meat grinder. Was it that bad?”
“Damn, we do look like shit,” Mykal said as he looked down at his ragged and dirty uniform. “Yeah, it was that bad.”
“Not only do we look like shit, Sir, but we smell like shit too, Sir,” Corporal Hall said and quickly added a salute to show some respect when he realized Mykal spoke to a major. “Sorry Sir, I didn’t realize--”
“That’s quite alright Corporal Hall,” Chick said and slapped Hall on the shoulder. “We’ll allow you men to get cleaned up and get some hot food in you. We’ll debrief after your meal. Myk, your men will get first access to the food. All the men will understand that.”
“Thank you Sir,” Mykal said.
“Thank you, Sirs,” Hall said and snapped to attention and threw out a salute to the two majors.
“Guys, come here,” Mykal called out to and waved the newcomers over. “I wanna introduce you to the two ranking men here. This is Major Chick and Major Innes. Sirs, this is Starling, Leeno and Blair of the Elvin people and this is Nordad, Agnor and Codlon. They are all from the other side of the world. Nordad had three other men who were killed,” Mykal explained while they all shook hands. “Sir, I would like to ask you to make sure the reporters leave them alone.”
“That is not a problem, I will see to it,” Chick said and happily smiled. His facial expression was like a kid in a candy store. “I will gladly have them hidden away from the media. They’re going to go ape shit,” he snickered. “But that’s their problem.”
“They are now stuck on this side of the world so I want to provide for them until we can figure out what can be done for them. They helped us and we helped them. I’ll let them debrief with the other men. There were forty-five of us that got lost. Twenty-one of them died in combat. I want them listed as heroes. You’re not gonna believe some of the stuff that happened to us.”
“I will do that and I will get the details,” Chick replied in a somber tone, though he couldn’t take his eyes from the Elves. “Go get yourself squared away and when you have time, then meet back up with me. You gave us a scare Myk. I’m glad you’re back.” He gave a friendly smile and shook his hand.
Jake joined them before Mykal stepped away. “Sir, I don’t mean to interrupt.”
“Please do Sergeant Irwin,” Chick said and waved him in closer. “Damn Sergeant Irwin, you have been through it all. Stuck here for six months, then sent to the other side of the world and the hell you endured there. You need to sit back and relax.”
“Yes Sir,” Jake chuckled. “But I just left the medical tent. Everyone looks like they’re going to be fine.”
“Great,” Mykal nearly shouted.
“Except for Captain Diaz,” Jake added which shot down Mykal’s enthusiastic excitement. “On first observation the doctor said it didn’t look too good, but that they would do everything they could to save him. They said he needs a regular hospital back in the world.”
Mykal’s heart sank. If he took Diaz back to the real world the others would want to go back as well. His return was to be a secret mission. Selfishly, he wanted his army to remain here to help Towbar’s people. “I’ll come back after,” Mykal said and excused himself. He was trying not to show emotions.
“Blair, you need to be treated too,” Jake said and pointed to his arm.
“I will be fine,” Blair replied. “I thank you though.”
Mykal walked away amid a rush of moving bodies. Men ran in all directions to help in some way with the arri
val of ‘The Lost Patrol’ as it was being called. ‘God, I don’t know what to do. I’m not a religious man, but I don’t want Diaz to die,’ he thought. ‘If I take him back to the real world that will blow my cover. Help me to--’ his internal dialogue to God stopped when the one person he wanted to see stepped out in front of him. “Ski!” Mykal yelled with excitement as Ski, Larry and Sam made their way to the helicopters.
“What, are we chopped liver?” Larry laughed out loud.
“No, not at all,” he said as both Larry and Sam hugged him. “I was just looking for Ski to ask him something. I was gonna find you guys next.”
“We’re glad to see you.” Sam pulled back and looked at him. “A lot of people were starting to think all you guys were dead.”
“I’m not gonna lie to you, it was rough. Look, I’ll catch up to you guys in a few minutes. I really need to ask Ski a couple of questions.”
“Sure, we’re happy as hell to see you Myk.” Larry said and hugged him again.
“I appreciate that.” Mykal knew Larry wasn’t a hugging, ‘touchy-feely’ kind of man. “Ski, walk with me for a minute.”
“Sure. What’s going on Myk?” Ski asked.
“Please don’t ask me a whole lot of why’s, but I need some answers cuz I’m not a religious man. Captain Diaz doesn’t look good. He may be dying from what the doctor told Jake.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“But what I need to know, he’s a religious fanatic like you, and I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he quickly tried to correct the negative connotation.
“I know what you meant.” Ski gave a friendly nod. “He’s a born again, Spirit filled, Bible believing, Christian is what you meant to say.”
“Yeah, yeah, one of those. Anyway, after he got hurt, he told me, that God told him, that he was not going to die. So my question is. Could God be wrong? Could he have heard wrong?”
“First of all Myk, I don’t know all the details so I’m answering with limited knowledge. First and foremost it is not possible for God to ever be wrong. Okay? Now, it’s possible that he heard wrong. It’s possible he’s confusing selfish desires with God’s will and I could go through a whole list of possible answers, but I will stop to say from my brief conversations with Captain Diaz, as a believer, he has a strong relationship with God. If he said he heard from God, then believe what he said. If he wasn’t sure, Captain Diaz would have never said it. He would never guess at something and then claim to have heard from the LORD. Which is how we believers are supposed to be.”
“But the doctors said he’s bad off.”
“Myk, God is bigger than all the doctors. God is the Master Physician if you will. And if God so chooses, God can raise him from the dead. I’ve seen miracles happen when it seemed most impossible. All things are possible with Christ and I’m not just saying that. That’s in the Bible and I know the Bible to be true. But set that aside for right now. If Captain Diaz said God spoke to him and told him he wouldn’t die from these injuries, then I’ll believe what God spoke rather than what my eyes show me, or even what a doctor tells me.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’m just worried, cuz the doctors said he needs to get to a hospital in the real world, but Diaz believes that God is gonna protect him. I just don’t wanna feel guilty if he dies and makes it not to be true.”
“Stop right there Myk. Don’t allow the enemy, the devil, to beat you up with guilt and condemnation for something you have no control over. The devil is trying to make you doubt and have fear over something that only God is in control of. Understand this, if God wants him to live, then no matter what happens he will live. And if God wants him to die, then even if you get him to the best hospital and doctors ever, he will die. God is in control. Don’t allow your emotions to pull you one way or the other. One more thing, if, and I say if, God did speak to him and say what Captain Diaz said, understand, God is not in heaven wringing His hands saying, ‘oh man, how am I gonna fix this now?’ God knew this was all going to happen. It may be a time of testing for Captain Diaz to see where his faith really is. But you are trying to look at this from a human point of view when we need to look at this from God’s perspective. Also, remember, I’m answering your question on limited knowledge. I don’t know all the facts and details. I’m only going on the couple of sentences you just said to me.”
“Okay. Thanks. That takes a load off my mind.”
“Let me also say something to you Myk. From all my years of being a Christian, from all the studying I’ve done, one thing I’ve learned is when someone starts asking about spiritual matters and questions relating to God, it’s usually because God is dealing with someone’s heart and trying to draw that person to God, to Christ. Can I answer any other questions for you?”
“I, uh, I um, I, ah no, I was just asking because I care about Captain Diaz and I don’t want him to die.”
“I hear what you’re saying and that’s commendable, but I have to be honest with you Myk. I have been praying for you and I truly believe God is tugging on your heart and drawing you to Him. I see that panic look that just came over you.” Ski laughed to take the pressure off of Mykal. “I’m not going to push you and I won’t even bring it up again. But I want you to know if you have any questions, or if you want to experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ, ask Him into your heart. If you’re unsure, just ask me. I’ll keep praying for you and--”
“I’m not a bad person,” he parried quickly. Suddenly his mind accused him of the murder he committed just yesterday. He killed the dark Elf in cold blood less than twenty-four hours ago. ‘It wasn’t self-defense,’ he admitted in thought. ‘It was cold blooded murder cuz of my hateful anger and against a defenseless prisoner no less,’ he sighed in thought. ‘How the hell could I think I’m not a bad person?’ Mykal thought as Ski responded to his bogus boast.
“It’s not about how good or bad we are that is going to get us into heaven or hell. It’s about whether we have accepted Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior or not. Jesus took our penalty on the cross for us so that we wouldn’t have to. If we reject that free gift that God offers to us, then we will take the punishment we rightly deserve, no matter how good we think we are,” he said with air quotes. “No one is good enough in God’s eyes,” he paused for emphasis. “That’s why God sent His Son Jesus to die for us. We could never be good enough in our flesh. But God made a way for us to be cleared of all our wrongdoing by allowing His Son Jesus Christ to take our punishment for us. Jesus died on the cross for you, for me, for Captain Diaz and for everyone.”
“Oh wow, that’s what Diaz said to us just yesterday,” Mykal said.
“And I have to believe Jesus died for the sins of Towbar and the people of Towbar’s world too. God loves you no matter how you view yourself. And as a side note, I really believe God has me here to share the truth with the people here in Towbar’s world. I would even love to share my faith with Sosos because I know God can change even their hearts. But that’s something different for another time.”
“Thanks Ski. I may talk to you about this stuff some other time. I just have so much shit--oops I mean stuff, on my mind.” He smiled and blushed.
“Don’t worry about it Myk. I accept you for you. You don’t have to pretend to be something around me that you’re not. And since I just said that, that’s how God is. He loves you because of you, not because of what you do or don’t do. He wants you to come to Him just the way you are, and the things that need changing He’ll change those desires inside you so that you’ll want to change. You won’t have someone twisting your arm to make you change and be different. But we’ll talk about it if you ever want to bring it up again.”
“Thanks Ski. I appreciate that. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I’m praying for you, Myk.”
“Thanks,” he repeated. ‘He always turns it into a conversation that makes me worried about who I am,’ Mykal thought as he rushed away.
3.
Mykal rushed around doing j
ust the opposite of relaxing. His first order of business, to retrieve the “package”, the special briefcase, from Mister X. Mister X still had the attaché case handcuffed to his wrist and looked more than eager to release it to Mykal. The only question Mister X had for Mykal was when they would all be going back to the real world. Mykal comforted him with lies, because he wasn’t sure what would happen, but assured him that he and the others would be well cared for as long as they remained in the Pass.
Mykal also took possession of two other brief cases that two other VIPs had attached to their wrists. The decoy brief cases were the same in appearance so Mykal wouldn’t know they difference if the men had been killed. He wasn’t sure if he would need a decoy package but wanted to be prepared for any situation. Mykal knew he couldn’t just leave without a word or warning. He made the rounds to greet his friends and those who missed him but they could tell he acted a little strange. Mykal seemed antsy and acted as if his mind was elsewhere.
“Hey guys, I didn’t mean to blow you off a little bit ago.” Mykal put on a happy face for Larry and Sam who were with Jake.
“Jake told us Boris is dead?” Larry gasped with his mouth open.
“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Sam said and shook his head.
“I wish I was,” Mykal replied and his sadness returned. “Did Jake tell you guys what really happened?”
“Yeah, what the hell man? That’s crazy,” Sam said.
“It is. But listen I need your help. I want you to watch my back while we’re here. If certain people wanna keep me quiet, then I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more than one here.”
“Why would they do that when they know we still gotta get back to the real world?” Larry asked. “They’d be putting all of us at risk.”
“I guess they figure Towbar would get everyone back to the real world. I don’t know. I’m baffled by it too. Do me a favor and pass it on to the Dosch family cuz I have to take a trip to the Great Walled City of Beramus for Towbar.”