Save Him

by William M. Hayes

  "He dies," she said to Rydel in a soulless voice, speaking the words in English.

  The little girl's tongue slowly rolled out of her mouth, red and elongated, flickering at the tip. She started to lick Rydel's groin area in a sick, seductive way. Pulling away, Rydel fell to the ground, his arms flailing to protect himself as he landed. The demonic child squatted in front of Rydel and slapped him across the face. She then disappeared in a swirling mist of dust.

  Rydel stood up and quickly spun around, searching for the thing that was a little girl just minutes before. Coming to a stop, he faced the child's mother staring at him with concern. The woman placed a hand on his shoulder.

  "Are you all right?" the woman asked. Rydel waited for the words to translate and noticed the little girl standing by her mother's side—normal, as she was before.

  The child's mother took a step closer. Rydel stumbled backward, distancing himself from the woman. He fell to his knees and shot right back up to his feet, turning away from the woman and the child, running toward a side street. Rydel ran down the empty street, faster than he ever thought possible, fear pushing him forward. He ran for as long as he could and finally stopped to catch his breath, bending at the waist. After taking in all the air it took to breathe normally, Rydel raised his body upright.

  At the end of the deserted stone-walled side street, the cloaked man, again with his face hidden under his charcoal-black hood, waited for Rydel.

  Fear took over Rydel's body again—his body shaking in intermittent spasms, quickly coming and going. All that was in front of him was a man in black. Just a man! Nothing to fear, Rydel reasoned with himself, trying to shake the foreboding grip over his body.

  Another man in a brownish tunic trotted quickly toward the man in black, shuffling on his hands and feet—his back awkwardly arched. He sat by the feet of the black-cloaked man like a beaten dog.

  "My God—is that a man?" Rydel said in a whimpering voice to no one, the words just coming out of him.

  The man in the black cloak pointed a spearhead-like black finger at Rydel and lowered his hooded head, looking down at the thing, the man-dog, waiting by his feet. He then spoke to it in Aramaic.

  "Eat him."

  The man's legs ripped through the tattered tunic he wore. The thing galloped like a rabid animal toward Rydel. The man-dog ran at a freakish angle, its arms and legs almost running sideways—but still coming straight toward Rydel. Fast.

  Rydel fumbled with his Smartround handgun under his cloak as the crazed beast leaped in the air and landed on him. As they scampered for position on the ground, the man-dog bit into Rydel's left arm and pulled away its mouth—a chunk of cloth and a piece of flesh tearing from Rydel's arm.

  Rydel let out a scream and swung his right arm at the crazed thing, hitting it on the head with the butt of his Smartround handgun. He quickly fired two rounds into its chest. The man-dog fell to its side and began clawing at its chest in an attempt to extract the rounds. After ripping through its clothing and reaching the smartrounds, the thing stopped moving.

  With his throat feeling as if he had swallowed sand, Rydel weakly rose to one knee and heard laughter coming from the other end of the narrow street—the man in the black cloak, laughing an eerie, screeching laugh. Frozen by fear on one knee, staring at the black-cloaked man, Rydel could make out the man's eyes from under the black hood. The ice-blue eyes he saw sent another wave of fearful spasms shuddering through his body, urging him to vomit, which he was finally able to do in two rapid, bursting thrusts. What came out of his mouth and spilled on the ground was a black fluid that began to crawl back toward him, reaching out for Rydel.

  Rydel's body broke free from its paralysis at the sight of what was reaching out for him. He bolted toward the other end of the street, away from the regurgitated living black liquid crawling after him.

  The Arrival

  Through arched gateways, a line of people made its way into a lengthy stone courtyard surrounded by white pillars. Tables for exchanging coins, and open-sided tents with merchants selling animals in small wooden crates, lined the pillared courtyard.

  A man's angry shout turned the people around. There was not one person—with all the commotion going on in the courtyard—who did not hear the man's voice.

  A man in an off-white hooded cloak covering His face down to His lips walked straight toward the money-changing tables. No one in the dense crowd got in His way or touched Him as He moved forward.

  The man reached the tables and started flipping them over. Just as He did, a stream of white light flashed in the sky above.

  __

  Inside a small stone passageway half-lit by the sun, the sound of whooshing air could be heard as members of Ray's Unit started to appear in flashing spheres of bright white light. Four members of Ray's Unit materialized with their knees on the ground and heads lowered, the hoods of their cloaks hiding their faces. The white light sending the four back in time receded into the blue sky above the passageway and vanished.

  Todd was the first to raise his head and take in his surroundings. After releasing his tight grip on the duffel-bag strap he held onto with one hand, he looked over at the other three Unit operators with him, hidden under their hooded cloaks. Beneath each hood, all three had their chins pressed against their chests and eyes closed tightly, unsure if the journey back in time was over.

  "Guys, we're here," Todd quietly said.

  Adriana, Janice, and Sal lifted their heads, following the direction of Todd's voice. The three stared wide-eyed at Todd. Steve and Jack lumbered out of the dark in a daze, followed by Ben, the men making their way over to Todd. Adriana got it together and started to search the stone passageway with quick looks over her shoulder, then turned back to Todd. "Ray and Adams aren't here."

  "Carrie and Kevin are also missing—" Janice started to say.

  Todd held up a hand at the two. "We wait. Nobody move. Quiet."

  "Todd—"

  Todd turned to face Sal, now standing by his side.

  "I said quiet, Sal."

  "Todd…my gun and the extra ammo aren't here either."

  Todd glanced over the alley, mumbling to himself.

  "Shit."

  __

  They were alone in the dark.

  Ray waited in the shadows for a few minutes with Carrie and Kevin after arriving, the eyes of the three adjusting to the darkness with only slight fragments of light ahead. Ray then ventured out of the dark into a stone passageway, placing his foot across a barely inch-thick shaft of light streaming from above. Ahead, Ray could see the way out of the narrow stone passageway—an opening outlined in sunlight was just forty feet away. He turned to where Carrie and Kevin waited in the dark.

  "Stay there."

  Ray ran and reached the end of the passageway, then leaned his back against the left side of the curved structure of stone leading out, closing his eyes for a few seconds. He then tilted his head around the corner.

  Outside the passageway, men and women were making a path to allow a hooded man to leave a very crowded courtyard. The hood of the man's cloak concealed His face as the people continued to step out of the man's way. A man of power, maybe a politician in this time, Ray thought at first. However, there was something else about Him. A feeling of purity Ray felt—an indescribably comforting feeling of warmth radiating from the man.

  Red-flag warnings began to go off in Ray's mind as his military senses kicked back in, telling him to ignore these emotions he should not be having while out on a mission.

  "What is this? What's happening to me?" Ray said aloud.

  A flash of movement caught Ray's attention. An obese man, whose weight was not hidden by the brown tunic covering his bloated body, dragged a woman into a stone passageway directly across from where Ray stood. The way he moved the woman against her will, without anyone else seeming to notice—it was clear to Ray the woman was about to be violated in some way or killed. John's orders to avoid contact with the people of this time repeated in Ra
y's head: Just get Rydel back. Ray was about to take a step out into the courtyard, disobeying orders he knew he should follow, then stopped. Suddenly it hit him what ramifications his actions might have on the people back home, just as John had warned about. So Ray turned his back on the woman and fucking hated doing it.

  As he turned away, Ray caught a glimpse of another man. The shrouded man entered the passageway where the obese man had dragged the woman. A sudden gust of wind lifted the hood of the newcomer's cloak—exposing a flash of his face to Ray.

  "Rydel…?"

  The man Ray caught a glimpse of slipped into the alley like a ghost. Not sure what he had seen, Ray sprinted back down the narrow stone passageway to check on Carrie and Kevin. The two stepped out of the dark, hearing Ray approach, and stood in front of him.

  "Stay hidden. I need to check something out in an alley across from this one. I won't be long." Ray put on his translator and wrapped his shemagh around his neck to hide the device.

  He ran off, leaving Carrie and Kevin once more. The two slowly eased back into the darkness around them. A hand reached out from the blackness behind the two and rested on Carrie's shoulder. Carrie spun around and threw a wild roundhouse punch at the person, which was batted away.

  Kevin stepped around Carrie with his elbow held high, ready to strike.

  "Lower your arm, Kevin."

  Kevin lowered his arm, recognizing the voice, and was now able to make out the colonel in the limited light.

  Carrie and Kevin stood in front of John Adams, both relieved, waiting for orders.

  "Did you two see the rest yet?"

  "Just Ray," Carrie said. "He saw something. Went to check it out—an alley like this across from where we are. Told us to stay put."

  "Rydel?" John asked, hoping.

  Carrie shrugged, glanced at Kevin for a second, then looked back at the colonel, answering him. "Don't know."

  John ran down the stone passageway, yelling back to the two. "Stay here—do not move."

  Ordered yet again to stay where they were after traveling back in time, Carrie and Kevin were more than happy to take a knee and wait.

  With his translator hidden and in place, John slowly stepped out of the passageway, spotted the alley Carrie had described, and began to make his way over to the other side of the courtyard, walking at a brisk pace. The colonel slowed down a bit as people started to notice him—not paying much attention, but enough. He walked the rest of the way across and entered the dark passageway. Inside, shafts of sunlight made their way in from above, and he was able to find Ray at once. He was just standing there in the light, unmoving. The colonel ran over and grabbed Ray, spinning him around. He then shut off his translator so he could speak to Ray in English.

  "Ray!"

  With his translator hanging around his neck, Ray looked at John, dejected. "Thought I saw Rydel heading in here, but it wasn't him, and I came across this—"

  "Came across what?"

  Ray nodded past the streaming sunlight. John followed Ray's eyes and saw it—a pair of bloodied legs on the ground, lit by the sun. The rest of the body cut off by the darkness inside the stone passageway. John had no idea if there was anything left in the dark connecting the legs to a body.

  Out of the shadows, the obese man walked into the light, knelt down, and reached for the other half of the dead woman in the dark, bringing her into his arms, holding her tight. John could now see that the woman's throat was slit open.

  The sight was gruesome. The slash to the woman's throat almost completely encircled her head. There was also another wound in the center of her stomach—a crimson gash dripping blood.

  At the same time, John turned on his translator, and Ray placed his translator back over his mouth.

  The obese man lowered his head and wept over the woman, letting the knife that he killed her with fall to the ground. He began to speak to the dead woman in Aramaic.

  "I loved you…"

  "And she loved you," a different, deep voice said in Aramaic from somewhere inside the darkness around them.

  The words came from behind John and Ray, and the two stared at each other, confused. They turned in the direction of the voice as the man who had tipped over the tables in the courtyard earlier stepped out of the dark. With the hood of His cloak covering His face, the man walked toward John and Ray. As He did, the man placed a hand on Ray's shoulder in a polite gesture to give Him some room so He could make His way between the two.

  The hooded man slipped between John and Ray, reaching the obese man with the dead woman. The man knelt by the dead woman's side, His black-rope gartel reaching the ground. He looked up at the corpulent murderer.

  "Why?"

  "She…she was talking with another man, talking in a way I did not like. It…it…it hurt to see," the man uttered.

  "You ended her life for talking with another man?" the hooded man asked incredulously. He glanced back down at the slaughtered mess the obese man had made out of the woman.

  The hooded man raised His head up again, and the murderer let the woman slip out of his arms. The large man ran away. The hooded man returned His attention back to the dead woman on the ground.

  The obese man ran by John and Ray, not noticing the two in any way, wanting to escape from what he had done—the remorse now caving in on him.

  John and Ray turned, watching the murderer run toward the other end of the alley. Ray turned his attention back to the hooded individual with the dead woman.

  John made sure that the obese man was gone before spinning around. He reached for Ray's translator, shut it off, did the same with his, and grabbed Ray by the arm.

  "He didn't see us. He's gone—let's get out of here, Ray." The colonel tried pulling Ray away, but he couldn't move him.

  "Ray—now!"

  "John…the man and the woman—"

  "She's dead, Ray! C'mon!"

  "Look."

  John looked back at the dead woman on the ground. The hooded man had both hands splayed out over her wounds, blood oozing between His fingers, dripping down the backs of His hands. A light brightened the passageway and seemed to shift toward the man's hands—too fast and too white to be descending sunlight, and the dead woman's wounds seemed to burn in the white light.

  The woman sat up, jolted by life.

  The blinding light faded. John and Ray lowered their arms that were covering their faces—both had instinctively shielded their eyes from the piercing brightness. The two stared at the man in natural sunlight, now standing with the woman, a woman who had been dead just moments before. John and Ray turned their translators back on.

  The man spoke to the woman, and His words translated back to John and Ray after a few seconds.

  "Go home. Your child is hungry and alone. Your husband is now leaving the city. You will never see him again. People will say he abandoned you and the child. You and your child will be cared for."

  The woman stood in front of the man for a moment and then clumsily walked away.

  Witnessing the miracle, Ray's eyes were wide open in shock. John stood, confused, not sure what had just happened.

  The woman, healed of her throat and stomach wounds, walked past John and Ray. She, like the man who had killed her just minutes before, did not notice the two. John and Ray watched from over their shoulders as the woman reentered the courtyard.

  The two turned toward the healing man, who was now staring back at them. The man then made His way down to the opposite end of the stone passageway, fading into darkness. John and Ray followed in a fog, both drawn to Him.

  With their translators off and hidden under their shemaghs, John and Ray walked deeper into the darkening passage. Light began to appear up ahead, leading toward another way out. The man stepped out of the alleyway into the light and could be seen no more. Ray quickly ran ahead. Surprised by Ray taking off so fast, John stumbled a couple of steps forward and sprinted after Ray.

  For almost half an hour, John fought with Ray to turn back, but he wouldn't.
Ray would push John away when he grabbed hold of him and wouldn't listen when being ordered to stop.

  So John had no choice but to follow Ray for over an hour, surrounded by the people of the past. Reaching a dirt road outside the stone city they had traveled through, Ray followed it toward a hillside and finally came to a stop. John grabbed him by the arm.

  "Goddammit, Ray, stop already!"

  "He's up there, on the dirt path circling the hill. See Him?"

  "Ray, listen! Listen!"

  "He touched me," Ray whispered to himself.

  John shook his head, not hearing Ray.

  "What—what did you say?"

  Ray broke away from John and started to go up the hillside, the man almost out of sight. John reached out and grabbed Ray once more.

  "Ray, stop—stop. What the fuck is wrong with you!"

  Ray stared at John with unresponsive, void-like eyes, then looked away, searching for the man on the hillside who was now out of sight. Tears fell down Ray's face as he dropped down on one knee. John crouched beside Ray, still holding his arm tightly, and tried a different approach to snap Ray out of whatever was going on in his head.

  "Ray…come back to me here, brother. I need you—and your team needs you. Some are missing."

  John's words got Ray's attention.

  "Missing? Who?"

  "Ray—for the safety of your Unit—you need to come with me. Right now!"

  __

  John and Ray reached the passageway where they had left Carrie and Kevin to wait. The fragmented sunlight coming in from above had just about slipped away.

  "What happened?"

  The sound of Kevin's voice, spoken softly from out of the engulfing darkness, spun John and Ray around in a defensive manner, both pointing their sidearms at Kevin's head outlined in remnants of sunlight with Carrie by his side. John and Ray lowered their weapons and pulled back their hoods, the two men unable to hide being unnerved.