by Dave Hazel
A number of Sosos stood to their feet and looked in all directions as if trying to determine where they were being attacked from. The noise from the distance was minimal. Mykal saw one Soso busy with a prisoner tied to the back of a wooden cart. The prisoner’s shirt had been ripped off his back and he appeared to be stretched out in preparation for the lashes he was about to receive. The man’s hands were tied to the back of the wooden cart and his legs were tied together, though stretched out, and secured to a second wooden cart. The older looking prisoner’s frame was stretched tight. The whip would easily slash open the man’s back. The man’s bearded face couldn’t hide the grimace despite the long scraggly hair falling into his eyes. Depending on the severity and the number of lashes, Mykal didn’t think the frail looking man could survive the impending beating.
The man with the whip took off his shirt revealing a solid muscular build as he cracked the whip to warm up. Sosos were dropping all around the whip master. Some toppled over dead, others flipped and flopped, but the brute with the whip cracked his whip, warming up for the punishment to be dealt out. Mykal believed he saw the sadistic gleam in the bully’s eyes. The chaos taking place around him seemed invisible to the whip master when he stepped up to give the first of who knows how many lashes. The muscular bully appeared to have a one track mind and nothing was going to keep him from tearing into the frail older man’s weakened flesh.
Mykal aimed his rifle at the bully with the whip and his first thought was to drill him in the right shoulder to knock the whip from his hand, but Mykal didn’t think it would register with the bully that he was to be punished for the pain he intended to dish out. Mykal squeezed the trigger and drilled the round into the Soso’s forehead. The prisoner waiting to be whipped didn’t realize his tormentor had been killed and remained tense in anticipation of being ripped to pieces with the bull whip.
The Soso numbers dwindled quickly and the remaining mob dispersed to join other Sosos farther away. The Sosos farther away noticed something was wrong when the remaining Sosos ran to them yelling something about a “strange death.”
“Listen up,” Jake yelled out. “If we’re gonna get some of those prisoners we better get them now. Radioman, tell the choppers to get their engines going cuz they are gonna have to come in to help us.”
Mykal and about half of the men jumped to their feet and rushed down to the little camp area. A majority of the two hundred plus Sosos were dead. They were some who writhed in pain from the serious injuries the gunshots inflicted. They rushed around the little camp only to find three men who were being held captive. Mykal pointed to a couple of his men to tend to the man stretched out behind the cart. Two other prisoners were seated and they were still bound hand and foot. On the other side of the large wooden cart revealed there were two other prisoners who died under the whipping. Mykal was glad he shot the Soso in the head and killed him.
“Let’s take these guys with us,” Mykal yelled while looking at the mass of Sosos stirring and looking to their location. “I’d say we better leave them tied up.”
“I agree,” Larry shouted while helping one of the prisoners to his feet after cutting the binds at his ankles. “We don’t know these dudes from anyone. And they don’t know us or that we’re here to help them.”
Lieutenant Johnson rolled his eyes at Mykal’s suggestion and cut the binds from the third prisoner’s ankles and wrists. When the men started to pull the freed prisoners along with them, the one who had his hands freed, grabbed a dagger from a nearby dead Soso and attacked his liberators. One of Johnson’s Green Berets tried to corral the crazed freed man only to receive a vicious stab to his forearm when he used his arm to block his face. The crazed man raised the blade to stab the same Green Beret in the head who fortunately wore his helmet. Before the man could stab a third time Roy Jr. shot him in the head with his Thompson Sub machinegun. The .45 caliber slug crushed the left side of his forehead, throwing a chunk of skull with hair into the air. The wild man spun as he fell to the ground. The look on his face was as if he bit into an extremely tart lemon.
“Don’t untie these guys,” Jake yelled and looked at Johnson with disdain.
“The welcoming committee is on its way boys,” Randy yelled and pointed to the thousands of Sosos charging to their location.
Jake circled his finger overhead, pointed to the men left lying on the rise and then pointed to the enemy charging at them. He signaled for the M-60 machine gunners and others to open fire on the Sosos while they made good their escape. Just as Mykal and the others joined those laying down covering fire the helicopters landed enabling them to get aboard before the Soso army could get close enough to shoot death arrows at them, let alone engage them in hand to hand battle.
While in the air Mykal communicated with the other helicopters to find out the status of the injured Green Beret. The Green Beret’s wounds had been dressed and the Green Beret said he was fine and wanted to continue the mission to attack the enemy. He didn’t want the mission to be aborted to take him back to the Pass. Mykal didn’t want to voice his opinion, but everyone knew the blame rest with Lieutenant Johnson. The men all seemed to believe Johnson cut the binds on the prisoner out of spite because he wasn’t going to be told what to do by those he considered of lower rank.
Within twenty minutes all eight helicopters landed outside of the Soso camp area to the stunned surprise of Sosos and Goblins. Without warning and without provocation Mykal and his teams opened fire on the unsuspecting “bad guys” and ripped them to pieces. By the time the Sosos and Goblins rallied to the assault and counter attacked the eight metal birds were in the air flying overhead of the attacking mobs. The choppers hovered over them so the men could drop hand grenades on them. Some of the men fired their rifles down on the enemy.
The group flew farther north and landed again to repeat the previous attacks. Mykal wanted so desperately to turn himself invisible and go among the enemy to kill them with his sword and firearms. If he did that then all the people involved in the assault would know of his secret. He couldn’t do that despite how strong the desire grew. Mykal realized he tensed up and started to sweat over the demanding desire to turn himself invisible. ‘This can’t be good,’ he speculated while everyone rushed back into the helicopters before any of the enemy could launch a counter attack. ‘This friggin ring really does have some kind of hold or control on me, but I’ll not let it control me. I will control it,’ he thought with forceful persuasion. ‘Could it really be like the control a drug addict or an alcoholic is under? I gotta find out about this later. For now there are Sosos and Goblins to kill.’
The air army flew north one more time. They traveled about twenty-five minutes and believed the next target couldn’t possibly be aware of what they were doing. ‘They don’t have telephones or radios, so they shouldn’t be alerted to what is happening,’ Mykal thought. However, the Sosos attacked in this group seemed to be more prepared and alert. They didn’t wait until hundreds were cut down to mount an offensive. The Sosos started their assault just as the helicopters landed. The Sosos attacked with such an overwhelming force that as soon as the men hit the ground and began shooting they had to turn and get back into the helicopters after only a handful of shots were fired.
“That sucked,” Larry laughed while the helicopters soared into the air.
“We’re not done yet,” Mykal said and then keyed his radio mouth piece to speak to the pilot. “Let’s fly over the center of the entire Soso camp and see if there are any large open spaces. If so, let’s land and hit them from within,” Mykal said and smirked.
“Will do,” the co-pilot replied.
Flying over the mass of Sosos, Mykal suddenly became fearful. The more he gave it some thought, the more he realized they were playing with fire. If they broke down or had mechanical problems they were completely surrounded by Sosos. He felt as if they were adrift over a sea of frenzied sharks. He wasn’t so much worried for himself because he knew he could turn himself invisible and walk
out of the camp, but he felt bad that he was playing games with the lives of those involved including four of his closest friends.
“There is a big piece of ground to our nine o’clock Myk,” the pilot relayed into his ear. “Do you want to land to hit them?”
“Yeah, but we’ll be brief. I don’t wanna take any foolish chances,” he said and realized how silly that must have sounded coming from his mouth. “Tell the men on the other helicopters to get out and form a complete perimeter around the choppers and to open fire and fire at will. Tell the guys with the 60s not to get comfortable but to shoot from the hip. We’re gonna hit ‘em fast and hard and fly the hell outta here. I want these friggin Sosos to spread the word that whenever the metal birds or the metal monsters come by they only bring death and destruction without the chance of retaliation.”
“Got it Myk,” the co-pilot responded. “All the others are fired up and raring to go.”
As soon as Mykal’s feet hit the ground he already heard others shooting. He raised his rifle and began picking off Sosos with each shot fired. He craved the desire to turn himself invisible to charge headlong into them. He couldn’t understand why the desire was like a craving. He knew he couldn’t because it would let others know what he was capable of and he wasn’t sure if his men would accidently shoot him in the back. While shooting his rifle he caught himself mentally arguing with himself and almost yelled at himself to stop as if he heard voices telling him to use the ring to become invisible.
‘I gotta figure out a way to get control over this ring, cuz I can’t give it up. I need this damn thing,’ he thought just like a person trapped by a physical addiction. Mykal couldn’t get himself to admit he could do without the ring because the mysterious powers of the government would kill him if they knew he no longer had the ability to turn invisible. ‘I know that Jill or Percy, or whoever the hell he really is and that damn President wanna use me as a secret weapon, so I gotta be careful,’ he thought while he sighted his rifle on the forehead of a Soso who raised his bow and arrow. ‘If I have to,’ he squeezed the shot and watched the Soso’s head snap back while dropping his bow and arrow. ‘I’ll destroy those friggin scumbags.’
Mykal knew he had to stop worrying about back home while he fought life and death battles here in Towbar’s world. He had to stay focused on the task at hand. ‘I’m safe for the time being cuz they think they’re gonna get access to Towbar’s world and my secrets,’ he thought and smiled. He looked over to a group of Green Berets and was impressed with Lieutenant Johnson’s shooting. Johnson quickly shot through a thirty round magazine and hit a Soso with every round fired. Johnson did that while barking orders to some of his men. ‘I wonder what his friggin problem with me is. He seems like a decent enough soldier. I don’t get it.’ Mykal shook his head and scoffed with bewilderment.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Jake yelled and broke Mykal’s train of thought.
Three other lieutenants shouted orders to board the helicopters. The men rushed into the air transport under the cover fire from the machineguns on each air ship. The precision and speed of the men was as if they had practiced these tactics for months. All the men were aboard the helicopters and the helicopters were in the air before the Sosos could deliver an attack to injure any of the men. From the air there had been no mistaken the anger and hostility of the Sosos. Thousands upon thousands of Sosos converged on the area where the helicopters lifted off from. The shouts and yells seemed deafening. All the angered Sosos raised and shook their weapons to the fleeing metal monsters.
“Take us straight to the west,” Mykal spoke to his pilots. “I wanna land and have everyone take a break, so make sure there is nothing for miles around when we land.”
“Will do Myk,” the co-pilot answered. “I passed the message on and I have to tell you Myk, I was a little worried over this idea of striking them and moving. My only concern was because of their unbelievable numbers. But, this has worked out great. As long as we don’t allow them to get close to us or allow them to get any arrows into the air we should be able to carry out this strike and move tactic for as long as we have fuel and ammo.”
Where they landed they had unobstructed view for miles in the wide open, wind-blown plains. The Sosos and their allies were about five miles away with a piece of ground rising like a small hill between them and the Sosos. A four man fire team was sent to be the look out to warn of any Soso activity that would bring them this way. From the top of the small hill it amazed the men how much ground was covered by the Sosos and their allies. From past experiences with the Sosos, Towbar and his generals guessed the Soso number to be between 500,000 and 700,000. The military men brought to Towbar’s world from Mykal’s world guessed the numbers to be more like 1.5 million to 2 million. Mykal wasn’t sure but he guessed more like the one million number, give or take a few.
The men all sat on the ground before Mykal and three of the six lieutenants. Mykal just returned from the hill where he left the four man fire team. He wanted to see for himself how far away the enemy was. The men were all given their MREs (Meal Ready to Eat).
“I’ll tell you what,” Jake said and gave thumbs up. “These MREs are amazing compared to the C-rations I’ve had to eat over the years.”
“Believe me Sarge,” a Marine Corporal yelled out in response. “These damn things get old fast. Do you know what MRE stands for?”
Before Jake could answer several Marines and Army personnel shouted some responses. “Meals Rarely Edible,” one Marine shouted with a mouth full of the food he was bad mouthing. His remark stirred laughter.
“Meals Rejected by Everyone,” a Green Beret Sergeant hollered which got more men to laugh out loud.
“It also stands for one of the descriptions,” a Marine Lance Corporal called out with a laugh. “Meals Refuse to Exit.”
“And don’t forget, Makes Retching Easy,” another laughed out. Several others laughed though they all chowed down vigorously.
“And along that line, More Regurgitating to Endure,” a Marine Gunnery Sergeant yelled out. “I’m not badmouthing our wonderful food Sir,” he turned to Lieutenant Johnson, the only person not laughing. “I just calls ‘em likes I sees ‘em. Or as in this case I just calls ‘em like I hurls ‘em Sir,” he said playfully. He knew Lieutenant Johnson was prior enlisted and known as a “prick officer with a bad attitude” but everyone laughed.
Mykal thought it was hilarious and couldn’t understand what Johnson’s attitude problem was. On the battlefield Johnson seemed like a great warrior and a great command officer. Mykal eyed Johnson and tried to figure the man out. He couldn’t understand what his ‘beef’ or ‘gripe’ with Mykal was all about. He listened to the men talk about the Soso numbers. The discussed figure of anywhere between 500,000 and 2 million and everything in between were thrown around.
“But does it really matter?” Mykal asked. “No matter how you view it they out number us greatly. We just need to be thankful that we’re inside the Pass cuz they can’t get around us to trap us. If we need to, we can escape by going through the Pass or if it looks like they’re gonna come at us and not stop, King Krago of the mountain Dwarves will allow us to go inside the mountains so we will not be over run. The Pass will keep them from having complete victory.”
“Sir, may I say something?” Green Beret Staff Sergeant Gomez raised his hand.
“Sure,” Mykal pointed to the Green Beret.
“Amongst us,” Gomez pointed to himself, other Green Berets and several Marines. “We’re calling ourselves Mykal’s Marauders. We hit them and run and they can’t do shit about it,” he laughed.
“Well thanks,” Mykal laughed and shyly looked to the ground. He clearly caught sight of a disgusted expression spread across Lieutenant Johnson’s face. “Mykal’s Marauders, yeah, I like that.”
“Not only that, but my Army buddy here,” Marine Sergeant Folds said while placing his hand on Gomez’s shoulder. “Reminded me of an old cartoon. Gomez said we’re just like Speedy Gonzales
. A fast little mouse that the big old cat is never gonna catch. Do you remember that cartoon?”
“Oh yeah, I used to always watch it as a kid,” Mykal laughed with them while they hooted and howled.
"¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! Yeehaw!" Gomez shouted from the old cartoon and the others joined him. “We’re faster than any of them Sosos so we can hit and run. We’re like a drunk driver, hit and run, hit and run,” Gomez yelled and got many to laugh with him.
Based on the cartoon character of Speedy Gonzales the men shouted together, "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!"
“Well let’s hurry up and finish eating and we’ll hit them a couple more times and head back to the Pass,” Mykal said. He looked over to the two prisoners who were still bound at the wrists. Two men were trying to help them eat. They looked terrified but seemed to be starved more than fearful and accepted the food given to them. They desperately ate like wild animals. Their appearance came off as if they had never had a regular meal in all their lives. Mykal felt sorry for them, but quickly reminded himself they were Sosos who were prisoners for some reason. ‘They are not to be trusted, the one turned on us as soon as Johnson cut him free.’
5.
They hit the Sosos two more times along the western edge of their spread. They inflicted mayhem for the Sosos by killing hundreds in each assault. The men shouted to the remaining Sosos that they were Mykal’s Marauders, not that it would mean anything to the Sosos. Mykal noticed it grated on Lieutenant Johnson in a big way. Mykal still couldn’t figure out what the man’s problem was, but he was going to make sure Johnson would not be going on the night time attack.
Mykal had the helicopters call back to the Pass and let them know two prisoners were being brought back and to have medical personnel available to check them out upon arrival. “Hey Mykal,” the pilot spoke into his ear. “Just to give you a heads up, the camp is all a flutter since we’re bringing back a couple of Soso prisoners.”