by Mark Harritt
“Jesus Christ,” somebody yelled. The crowd erupted in loud voices. Even Lieutenant Pang looked concerned, and she never looked concerned, about anything. She was a tough cookie for someone that weighed about ninety-five pounds soaking wet.
“Hey, everybody, calm down, calm down!” Mike yelled, his arms up, commanding attention.
“We have some good news!” Mike was still trying to quiet everybody.
This calmed the crowd, somewhat. Mike continued, “We haven’t found any more of those monsters here. There’s nothing out there bigger than a squirrel that we can see, but,” and with this, Mike motioned to John Smith, “I need you to go up there, and set up the drone so that we can see a bigger area than just the meadow. With the drone up, we should be able to see anything like that,” he pointed at the carcass, “coming from a mile away, if not further.”
John nodded his head, gave a thumbs up, and ran over to grab the laptop and controller. He shoved them into the case. He started walking fast towards the elevator shaft, and, as he was passing, grabbed Weitz by the arm, pulling slightly to get him moving up the elevator with him.
Weitz pulled back, “No way, no way. I’m not going up that elevator shaft. Something up there could kill me.”
Dr. Ed spoke, “And if you don’t go up there, some more of those creatures can come here, and kill us all.”
Mike told him, “don’t worry, I have Everett, Tom, and Rob up there in the mech armor to guard the cave entrance. Nothing can get by them. If you don’t go with John, I’m going to have to put you on a team to help drag this carcass out of here.”
Weitz looked at the carcass, and turned green. Blood, bile, ropes of meat, feces, and shards of bone changed his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was touch that bloody carcass. “Uh, okay, I’ll go.”
He caught up with Smith, and both of them walked to the elevator shaft. Mickey helped them into the shaft, and showed them how to climb to the top.
One of the airmen spoke up, a young girl, tall, thin, brunette. “Why do we have to get this thing out?” She looked green.
Mike turned and told the crowd, “I know you don’t like the idea, but we have to get this carcass out of here, otherwise, wild animals will follow the smell, and then we have to contend with other dangerous creatures coming down that shaft. Plus, in a few days, this thing will bloat up and rot, and that will draw insects and other nasty creatures. The smell alone will be horrible.”
Mickey spoke up, “and that could create conditions that lead to infectious diseases. We don’t want that, do we?”
“There’s blood everywhere, what about that?” one of the civilians asked.
“Yeah, I know, just make sure you don’t get any in your mouth or eyes. Don’t touch your face, and hopefully nothing will be infectious.”
Dr. Humphreys spoke, “Look, this creature is not of our world, wherever we may be. Wherever it came from, the odds that it has some kind of disease or parasite that we can catch, are pretty low. But, up in the lab, I have denatured alcohol.”
The crowd looked blankly at him. He chuckled, “sorry, rubbing alcohol, used for the medical instruments. I’ll bring that. We can get the mops and mop buckets from the custodian closet to clean up when we’re done. Just do what Sergeant First Class D’Inazio, and Chief Warrant Officer Duggins asks, and don’t rub your eyes, face, or get any in your mouth. We’ll be okay.”
It was a nice touch for Dr. Humphreys to throw in their rank, Mike thought. It subtly reminded everybody that they outranked the Airmen, and reinforced Mike’s and Mickey’s authority to everybody.
Still, there was grumbling, and groaning. Lieutenant Pang caught Mike’s eye, nodded slightly, and she started separating the crowd into two teams, one to lug the carcass to the elevator shaft, and one to go topside to pull the bloody parts to the surface. The one going to the surface was comprised of mostly younger, stronger men. The older men, and the women, stayed on the bottom, to drag the chunks of carcass over to the elevator, and attach them to a rope to be pulled up.
Bob walked over and looked up the elevator shaft. He walked back to Mike. As he walked, he motioned over Lieutenant Pang and Tracy Sheffield.
“Mike, I think we need some rope, some nets, and a block and tackle to get this thing out of here.”
“Do you have anything like that?” Mike asked.
Bob looked at Tracy and Lieutenant Pang. Lieutenant Pang nodded. Bob looked back at Mike, “I think we can find something if you give us an hour or so, then we can clear this out.”
Mike looked back at Lieutenant Pang. “Okay, you’re in charge here. Get everybody started, and let me know when everything’s in place.”
Mike waved over Mickey, and then motioned Dr. Nachman over. “Joel, I’m going to leave Mickey down here, for two reasons. First, if anybody needs a medic, I’ll have two of you here to help with injuries,” then he looked at Lieutenant Pang, “and if you need some muscle, Mickey is the man to knock heads for you.”
Mickey grinned. He couldn’t help it. He was a natural brawler.
Tracy, Pang, Joel, and Bob’s faces blanched slightly when Mickey grinned. Mickey’s smile could sometimes do that. While he was a good natured man, he struck fear in the hearts of his enemies, and sometimes his friends if they saw the amount of destruction he could wreak on the human body. Mickey was truly a beast, though strangely, s shy around women. Mike caught Tracy Sheffield eyeing Mickey with open admiration. Then she saw Mike looking at her, and she started blushing. Mike smiled at her, which she returned shyly.
“That would be a good girl for Mickey,” Mike thought.
“So, you have this, yes?” Mike asked the group. A chorus of yes, and roger came to him. He thanked them all, then turned and walked back to the elevator shaft. He grabbed the ladder and started the climb back up to the cave. He reached the top, and followed the tunnel back down to the cave entrance. Everett, Tom, and Rob were out front, and nothing had changed except for Smith and Weitz standing there with the laptop, looking at the screen.
Mike walked up to them. Smith and Weitz heard him walking up and turned around to look. Smith started to talk, but Mike held up one hand, “Wait one minute, please.”
He tapped his ear bud. “Everett, I’m back up. SITREP?”
“Everything is normal, nothing moving around up here.”
“Thanks, out.”
With that, Mike turned his attention back to Smith and Weitz. “Gentlemen, what can you tell me?” Smith and Weitz looked at each other. They looked back at Mike. Smith was as solid as a rock. Weitz looked shaken. Smith started talking.
“I can tell you that there is no trace of the world we came from. The drone is hovering at five thousand feet AGL right now, and I can’t even see Great Falls.”
“AGL,” Mike asked, “What’s the height we’re at right now?” Mike knew AGL meant above ground level, something every paratrooper knew about.
John continued, “Well, according to sensors on the drone, we seem to be about five thousand feet above sea level.”
Mike thought about this. “Isn’t that a little bit high for this area?”
“It would be if we were still in Montana, and I’m not sure that’s the case. Take a look at this,” John motioned him over to the laptop.
Mike looked, and what he saw didn’t encourage him. The meadow, which was outlined with an orange overlay, was in an irregular bowl of a valley, surrounded by high mountains on all sides, with a river that flowed through the middle and emptied out of the valley through a low pass.
Mike looked up and around. The meadow had clouds above it, and there were low lying mists further down the valley.He looked at Smith, “How can you see the valley with all of this cloud cover?”
“Well, the drone has regular, night, thermal vision, and radar to penetrate cloud cover.”
Mike shook his head, “That’s amazing, you guys know tech. When I think you’re done, you surprise me some more. But, we have a problem.”
Smith and Weitz look confu
sed, “What do you mean, Mike?”
Mike pointed at the mech armor, “The batteries are quantum batteries. You had rail guns and pulse lasers, so, the question is, what the hell else are you guys not telling me?”
Smith and Weitz looked uncomfortable.
Mike kept looking at them. This made them even more uncomfortable.
“Well?” he asked.
Smith spoke up, while Weitz looked down at the ground, “Mike, we’d like to tell you, but we can’t. We signed non-disclosure agreements. Mitchem would have our ass, if we told you everything. Hell, it’s bad enough we told you about the damn lasers and rail guns.”
Mike barked laughter at the thought of the non-disclosure agreements, “I can’t believe you guys give a crap about anything he says. Hell, I’ll be happy if we live through the night to see another day, and you’re worried about what Mitchem says. Are you kidding me?”
Mike pointed out to the tree line. “Is there anything out there that gives you the indication that the damn non-disclosure agreement has standing anymore?”
His voice increased in intensity as he talked, “What makes you think, that we’re going to be alive this time tomorrow, let alone next week? You really think that any of that crap matters anymore?”
Smith sat down the computer, showing the palms of his hands, his face pleading, “Please Mike, we just can’t do it, he’ll have our ass.”
Mike walked up to Smith, his face very serious, in a quiet level voice, one that almost made Weitz pee in his khaki pants, “And what makes you think that I won’t?”
Smith and Weitz suddenly realized that they were in a meadow, with four men that had killed men in combat, and those men were the only ones with guns. Three of those men were in the most powerful infantry weapons that the United States had ever created. All Mike had to do was turn on his ear bud, tell the team to paint the two engineers as targets, and Smith and Weitz would be history.
It was Weitz, uncharacteristically, who spoke next. The recognition that he was in a very delicate position probably had something to do with him being forthcoming.
“What do you want to know about the mech armor?”
Mike’s earlier expression disappeared like pecan pie at a church social. It was as if the sun had broken through the clouds, “Well, boys, are there any other capabilities that this armor has that we aren’t aware of? If there are, can you please unlock them so that my team can access them if any of those big monsters show up again?” The second sentence, while politely spoken, was a command, not a request.
Smith and Weitz were beaten. Smith started talking again, for Weitz and himself.
“Mike, okay, I understand. Listen, this is what I’m going to do for you. First, there’s a program that allows the mech armor to camouflage, blend into the background. We’ll put that program online. Also, we didn’t have time to do this for you in the warehouse, but we can link the drone to your mech armor, so that you can have command of the drone at all times. We didn’t do this previously, because we wanted to see what was up here. And some,” John surreptitiously glanced towards Weitz, “didn’t want you to block the signal to the laptop.
Mike considered this for a moment. “Okay, that’s acceptable, for now,” he put emphasis on the, “for now.”
“Are there any other weapons that you aren’t telling me about?” He focused on John, who was more forthcoming than Weitz. Weitz just twitched and looked at the ground whenever Mike looked at him.
“Mike, no, I can honestly say, there are no more weapons that we can attach.” John said attach with a slight inflection, and he glanced at Weitz again. He looked back when Weitz’ eyes quickly darted towards John on the inflection, but John’s eyes were firmly focused back on Mike.
Mike knew that there was something else, some other thing that might be able to help. He remembered the phrase, “big dog,” that John and Lieutenant Pang talked about previously. Maybe it had something to do with that.
“Okay, no problem then. I think it would be a good idea if we had a way to transmit what the drone was seeing back down to the warehouse. Since the rock interferes with the radio, can we set up a relay to send comms and video back down to the warehouse?”
Weitz actually looked up at Mike, no longer interested in looking at his feet. He seemed eager to talk, “Actually, yes, we can set up relays so that signal is transmitted back down to the warehouse, and we can monitor the laptop to see what’s happening up here.”
Mike looked at Weitz. Somehow, Mike felt like he had played into Weitz’ hand. Too late now, though. He had the nagging feeling that Mitchem would have the feed in his office, watching for any mistake he could find. Ah well, spilt milk. No use crying.
“So, gentlemen, I think you should tell me about the lights.”
Smith and Weitz looked guilty again. Smith spoke, “What do you mean?”
Mike motioned to the area in the meadow, “Do you see any electrical generators in the area?”
They shook their heads like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Mike continued, “So, I know about the battery in the Mech armor. I bet you have a larger battery in the facility. Am I correct?”
Smith asked, “Who told you about the batteries in the Mech armor?”
“It’s not really important who told me about them. What I do know is that somebody invented a quantum battery, kind of like a perpetual motion machine, that never runs out of juice.”
Smith nodded slowly, “Yes, it isn’t quite that simple, but, in reality, that is exactly why the lights are still on.”
Mike indicated that he was finished with his questions, “Thank you, gentlemen, that’s all I needed to know.”
With the small battle of wills won, Mike wanted to see more of the area where they were. He and John started looking at the monitor, so that Mike could get the lay of the land. As he and John were occupied with the monitor, Weitz went back to get the relays. Mike knew he would probably report to Mitchem as well.
The valley was a bowl with the stream, actually a small river, emptying out of the valley mouth to whatever was beyond. The valley was about thirty kilometers, or 18.6 miles long, surrounded by high mountains all the way around. There were a few places along the mountain walls that seemed to be passes to other places, but they would have to scout to find out more about that. There were more meadows further down the valley towards the mouth. There was also a small lake close to the mouth. It was good that there were so many ponds, streams, lakes and rivers in the area. It would make it easier to get fresh water. Mike would have to see if they could rig some kind of pump to bring water to the facility.
Mike wondered about the progress of getting the carcass parts hauled up, and started back down the cave tunnel to the shaft. He met Mickey, Luis Garcia, Mike Crandall, plus a skinny Airman named Robert Stein, hanging the block and tackle. Bob was there to oversee the placement of the block and tackle.
“So, we’re in business?” Mike asked.
Mickey nodded, Bob smiled, and the others hung back, letting the other two do the talking.
“I think we’ll be in full swing in about thirty minutes,” Bob explained.
“Yeah, right now, everybody else is down the elevator shaft, piling the meat up to get it out,” Mickey said in agreement.
Mike moved over to the edge of the shaft and looked down. There was a pile of meat at the bottom, and people moving back and forth, dragging more of the carcass onto the pile.
“Good idea to preposition. Whose idea was that?” Mike asked.
Mickey slapped the skinny airman on the back, “Well, it was Rob’s idea, and it was a good one.” The slap on the back almost knocked the airman over. He recovered, not gracefully, but able to stay on his feet. The airman turned red and started stammering. Mike grinned at him.
“Good idea, keep it up.”
Mike looked back over the edge. He saw Mitchem standing down there, asking questions. Mitchem looked up. Mike looked him directly in the eyes, then moved back
from the edge. “Gentlemen, I think trouble is going to be coming up to find me pretty soon. When he comes up, send him outside so that I can talk to him, okay.” He turned to Mickey, “Don’t break him, or anyone with him, comprende?”
Mickey had an innocent look on his face, “What if they try to break me?”
Mike gave him the ‘don’t mess with me look.’ “No provocations, Mickey. If they move on you, I don’t want you to damage any of them permanently. We need the bodies, and may need the fire power soon.”
Mickey nodded, grinning.
Mike turned around and walked back down the corridor. He walked to the top of the ridge, turned on the earbud, and asked for a SITREP from Everett.
“Nothing moving boss. I don’t think there’s anything around us right now. And we’re getting good feed from the drone. Nothing large moving our way.”
Mike acknowledged the report. “Okay, go ahead and have one person per hour on break, rotating shifts. I know you guys need to stretch your legs.”
Soon, he saw the first team of three guys dragging the head of the monster out of the cave mouth. They pulled on three lines leading to a net that was wrapped around the thick skull. One of them was Airman Stein.
“Hey, Airman, hang on, I’m coming down to you.”
The team consisted of the Airman, a civilian administrator named Ben Davis, and Luis Garcia. Mike smiled at the group and told them, “I’m going to be your security. Let’s move the carcass out this direction.”
The area that Mike picked was about four hundred feet away. The head was pretty heavy, but since the three guys were able to drag it with the netting, it moved pretty quickly. The meadow was sandy and didn’thave many rocks to get in the way.
Soon the chunks of carcass were coming out regularly. Buckets of feces, blood and gore were also being passed out of the cave. More people had climbed up to help drag it out. There were three teams of people dragging the carcass out, and six people on the rope to pull up the pieces. Once everybody got the hang of it, everything started moving smoothly.
Lieutenant Pang showed up with a rifle, and had a Beretta 9mm holstered on her hip. She walked out as security with Mike for the teams hauling meat. Whoever was on break from the mech armor sat on top of the ridge, rifle ready as back up.