The Between (Earth Exiles Book 3)

by Mark Harritt

  Hank Bethel yelled out at him, “Hey, what’s the hurry?”

  There was a good chance that Jen was back in the medical area. Joan’s office was there. With more of the women getting pregnant, Joan was now acting as the camp gynecologist. Dr. Humphreys was a good guy, but the women felt a lot more comfortable with Joan. The five wives usually spent their time in the office when they had down time, and many of the women in the compound liked to come back and spend time away from the men. Joan’s office had turned into their haven from the rigors of their lives in the compound.

  So, when Rich ran up to the door, he found Jen, Joan, Tracy, and unexpectedly, Dr. Randall there. They were drinking tea, discussing the next upgrade to the mech neuro/computer interface. Four sets of eyes swiveled to look at him when he appeared in the doorway. Strangely, he felt shy when Dr. Randall looked at him.

  Since it was Joan’s office, she spoke, “Can I help you, Rich?”

  He stammered. He didn’t know why he stammered. He usually didn’t stammer, but he was doing so right now. And, to make matters worse, he started blushing.

  The four ladies were enjoying his sudden inability to speak. Jen had a mischievous smile when she spoke, “Well, come on, spit it out. You know us.”

  Rich stopped, and took a deep breath, then spoke, “Sorry, I don’t know what happened.”

  Crandall looked at him coolly, “Well, I don’t know why you’d be embarrassed around us. You seem to know your way around a woman.”

  Rich blushed a full, deep crimson now. He and Stephanie had been caught in the tree line by Rita and Diane. Evidently word had gotten round.

  Even quiet Tracy chimed in, “Oh, I heard he definitely knows his way around Stephanie.” She looked at Joan, “Stephanie and I are BFFs.”

  Joan smiled at his discomfort, but then she hushed the other women, “Come on, quiet down, let the poor boy talk. Take a deep breath. They’ll leave you alone.”

  He nodded, and rubbed his hands down the sides of his pants, “You need to come out to the compound wall. I, we think that the team is back.”

  Tracy’s hand went to her mouth. Jen leaned forward in her eagerness, “Where? Where are they?”

  He started to explain, “Well, John and Scott were out on the wall when they started hearing pinging off the cliff face on the far side of the wall. Turns out, somebody was throwing rocks. We used binoculars, and tried to use the optics of the Mechs, but the mist is setting in up there. We saw thermal images that might be them, so, John is going to send the drone up to get a … better … look!”

  His words were drawn out at the end because he had to dodge as Jen, Joan, and Tracy moved quickly past him out the door. He said the last word of the sentence to their retreating backs. He watched them hurry down the hall. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Dr. Randall looking at him.

  “Yes, all the women know about you and Stephanie. We’ve heard very good things.”

  She smiled, and moved her finger to trace his jaw line from his ear down to his chin, “Very good things.”

  He was back in full blush mode now. He started stammering again, without even trying to say anything. Dr. Randall laughed, and moved past him, swaying her hips as she walked. She looked over her shoulder at him, winked, and then turned forward and walked down the hall.

  He gulped. Suddenly, he was very aware of why he had started stammering in the first place.

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  Jen, Joan and Tracy walked with a purpose as they entered the armory. Jen was in the lead, and walked over to the display. John and Luis had the drone’s pelican case open and they were making sure everything was working. With the fixed cameras hung on the sides of the cliffs, and the treacherous winds off of the mountains, they very rarely sent the drone up for reconnaissance anymore. So now, since it hadn’t been used in a while, they were doing a systems check before they sent it up.

  Latricia and Michelle were already standing there. Latricia had been working on the weapons with Joe, and Michelle had been keeping her company while Latricia worked.

  Latricia noticed them first, and spoke, “You heard?”

  Jen nodded, “Yeah, the team might be back?”

  Michelle shrugged, “It’s possible. Of course, it could be somebody else entirely as well. Who knows what’s up in the mountains?”

  Joan smiled at Michelle, “Well, at least they don’t seem like they’re trying to attack us. If they’re pitching stones at the rock face, it sounds like they’re trying to get our attention.”

  Jen walked over and took Michelle’s hand, “How are you doing?”

  Michelle sighed, “Okay for the most part. At least the morning sickness is over.”

  Joan nodded sympathetically, “Yeah, mine went away two weeks ago.”

  Latricia looked down at Luis, “So, you goin’ to get this thing flying?”

  Luis looked up at Latricia, exasperated at her tone, “Of course, Latricia. It’s ready to go. We’re just running diagnostics to make sure it’s working right.”

  “And, it’s done,” John said, behind Luis.

  Luis nodded, “Okay, I’ll take it outside, and you can fly it.” Luis took the drone from John’s hands, and turned to the mouth of the tunnel.

  John moved over to the display, and sat down at one of the chairs. He looked over at Jen and the others, “See, Luis knows who the best to fly the drone is. He’d just smash it into the side of the cliff.” John flexed his fingers and cracked his knuckles.

  Latricia crossed her arms, unimpressed, “Go on. You ain’t playin’ the piano. Get on with it.”

  John shook his head and sighed, “No appreciation at all.”

  He clicked on the display, and immediately, they could see the view from the two mechs standing guard outside. The names Daughtry and Kendrick appeared beside the display of the Mech they were riding. The tactical overlay of the surrounding area didn’t indicate any active threats. At the edge of the compound, there were several thermal images that weren’t tagged as either friend or foe. The thermal images weren’t current, but were positioned at the last known location.

  “Alright, here we go,” John picked up the controller and hit a button. Now, there was another camera angle as the drone powered up. The drone picked up height, and the camera remained steady.

  “Well, the winds aren’t too bad today. That’s probably why the mist is hanging around,” Luis pointed out.

  John nodded, “Yeah, that’s good for us.”

  The AGL counter showed the increasing altitude of the drone. It quickly rose from one hundred, to two hundred, then three, four, five, all the way up to eight hundred, and then stopped at eight hundred and fifty, so that it was a little bit above the height of the surrounding cliffs.

  “And, let’s go check out where the thermal images were,” John started moving the drone forward, slowly.

  The mist wasn’t too incredibly heavy. Still, it kept visibility down to about three hundred feet. But, as the drone moved forward, suddenly, they were able to see the team.

  Jen felt tears fill her eyes as she recognized Mike.

  “What the hell is that?” Luis was pointing at the screen.

  There were ten people standing in front of some kind of machine. It had some short, stubby wings with turbine engines attached, so Jen could only assume that it was some kind of aircraft.

  Luis kept talking while John concentrated on flying the drone, “Did they steal an aircraft? It looks like an aircraft. It’s got wings . . . kind of.”

  The team noticed the drone, and they started waving their hands, indicating that the drone needed to come closer. There were ten of them. Four men that had to be from Matki’s tribe. They looked like Matki and dressed like him. There was one younger boy that appeared to be from the same tribe as well.

  Then they noticed the other man. He was much different than the ones that Jen thought were from Matki’s tribe.

  “What the hell? Did they find an alien
up there?” Latricia asked.

  The man in question only had three fingers and a thumb on each hand. He had some kind of weird, blue, throat pouch that seemed to expand and contract as he breathed.

  “Where’s Roberto?” Michelle asked.

  ----------------------------------------------------

  Once the team saw the drone, they knew that they wouldn’t be targeted if they flew down to the compound. So they filed back into the aircraft, and Mike motioned for the drone to retreat. Shar didn’t even close the rear hatch. He started the aircraft and spooled up the engines, giving the drone time to get out of his airspace.

  Mike held on as the aircraft lifted. He didn’t buckle in. They were only going a short distance. The aircraft turned and maneuvered out over the compound, and started reducing altitude. Mike watched the cliff, remembering the day that they’d climbed it, and of course, thinking about Roberto, the best climber on the team.

  Shar landed the transport so that the front of the aircraft was pointed toward the compound wall. Shar quickly went into the shutdown procedure. They waited for him to finish. Once he was done, he stood up. Tom was at the back, and stood up to exit.

  The aircraft was completely silent, and Mike spoke, “Tom, if you don’t mind, let me go out first.”

  Tom looked at him. Mike explained, “I want to tell Michelle.”

  Tom paused, and then nodded, “Okay.”

  Neither Mickey nor Everett spoke, both of them watching Mike. Mike stood and walked to the ramp. This was something that never grew easy, no matter how many times he’d had to do it in the past. It was even worse now, because it was Roberto. And now, Mike had to go out and tell the mother of Roberto’s child that he wasn’t coming home.

  He stepped off the ramp, and turned to the front of the aircraft. The team followed him. Behind them, the tribesmen and Shar followed.

  Jendi fell in beside Tom. Jendi must have felt the mood among the team, “Tom, what is wrong?”

  Tom put his hand on Jendi’s shoulder, “We have to tell Rob’s wife what happened.

  Jendi looked at team, then back at Tom. Tom smiled at him, squeezing his shoulder.

  A crowd had gathered and Mike walked toward them. His friends were waving and yelling, big smiles on their faces. He saw Jen, and waved at her. Then he saw Michelle.

  She was smiling as he met her eyes, but then she saw the serious expression on his face. The expression on her face faltered, waiting for his to change. Her expression changed quickly, and the smile on her face melted. She knew. Just as soon as he looked at her, and she saw his somber expression, she knew. The crowd quickly realized that something was wrong, and they fell silent.

  Mike walked to Michelle. She called to him, “Where’s Rob, Mike? Where is he?”

  Mike didn’t say anything, but he shook his head and kept walking toward her.

  She started shaking her head, “No Mike. Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it.”

  “I’m sorry Michelle . . .”

  “No! No! Don’t you say it! Damn it, Mike! Don’t you say it!”

  Michelle’s voice increased in volume as talked, until she was screaming at Mike.

  Everybody else in the crowd suddenly realized that Roberto wasn’t with the team. They put two and two together.

  Tears were running down Michelle’s face, “No, oh God, no.”

  Joan, Tracy, and Latricia quickly surrounded Michelle, but she shook them off. She walked to Mike, her finger pointed at him, “You were supposed to keep him safe, Mike! That’s your job!”

  Mike wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say. He just shook his head, “I’m sor . . .”

  She slapped him. He put his hand up to his cheek. He wasn’t expecting that. Neither was anybody else. The slap was loud among the silent crowd. Mike didn’t say anything. He just stood there, the sting of the slap bringing his emotions to the surface. A tear crested out of his eye, and ran down his face.

  Michelle watched the lone tear, then put her face in her hands and started sobbing. Mike put his hands on her shoulders, and tried to pull her to him. She resisted, and then leaned into his embrace.

  “I’m so sorry, Michelle. We tried to save him, but there was nothing we could do.”

  Michelle’s knees buckled, and Mike grabbed her to keep her from falling. Everett and Mickey quickly stepped up on either side of her.

  “I can carry her, Mike,” Mickey offered.

  Mike shook his head, “That’s okay, Mickey, I’ve got her.”

  Mike leaned forward, and gathered Michelle to him. He picked her up and carried her back toward the wall, her head buried in his chest, sobbing. The crowd stepped aside as Mike carried her through. Jen stepped next to Mike and put her hand on his arm, not saying anything, but there if either needed her. Joan, Tracy, Latricia, and Michelle’s other friends fell in behind Mike.

  Mike carried her until they reached the stairs that led up the compound wall. As he walked, her crying slowly diminished from sobbing to a quiet snuffle. Michelle quietly said, “I’m okay Mike, you can put me down.”

  Mike stopped and looked at her, “Are you sure?”

  Michelle nodded, “I’m sure, Mike. You can put me down.”

  Mike lowered her feet so that she could stand on the cobblestones. He held her until he was sure that she wouldn’t collapse. She stood there, and for a moment, leaned on him. Then she looked up into his face. Mike’s cheek was still red from the slap. Gently, she placed her hand on his face.

  She looked into his eyes, “I’m sorry I did that.”

  Mike shook his head, “You have nothing to be sorry for, Michelle.”

  Michelle nodded, then softly leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek. She leaned back, “I’m okay.”

  Mike nodded, and let go of her. He didn’t want to say anything, knowing how fragile she was at that moment.

  Jen stepped in and put her hand on Michelle’s arm, “Michelle, why don’t we go to Joan’s office?”

  Joan joined her, “That’s a good idea. We can go there, and I’ll make some tea for us.”

  Michelle seemed conflicted. Mike thought she looked like she wanted to run away, but then, she nodded, “Okay.” She seemed to gather herself. She looked stronger, less fragile. She nodded, “Okay, let’s go to your office, Joan.”

  Mike watched as Tracy, Willow, and others joined them. They turned, and slowly ascended the steps. Mike watched until they disappeared at the top.

  “So, lover boy’s dead, huh?”

  Mike knew that voice, but he certainly didn’t like the tone that was being used. He turned to see Joseph standing to one side of the compound. Mike looked at him, and then, noticed a chain that lead from his ankle to a ring that was set into the stone. That wasn’t the only chain though. There was another one, leading to Weitz. Weitz was sitting on the cobblestones, looking miserable. He was sitting in the shade of the staircase.

  Mike pointed at the chain, “What’s that for?”

  Joseph tucked his thumbs into the front of his pants, “Ah, well, it seems we ain’t too popular these days.”

  “That’s what happens when you threaten to kill and rape people.”

  Mike looked up to the top of the wall to see Ken, “What happened?”

  Joseph glared at Ken, then walked back to the shade to sit down next to Weitz. He crowded Weitz, so Weitz slid over, looking balefully at Joseph, who ignored him. Joseph turned his head, hawked, and spit.

  Ken continued, “Well, we had an attempted insurrection. Some people weren’t too thrilled with the status quo, and decided they would put themselves in charge.”

  Mike pointed at Weitz and Joseph, “These two?” He looked at them, “I didn’t think you two had that kind of initiative.”

  “They had help.”

  “Let me guess, Mitchem.”

  Ken laughed, “No, you’re wrong there, Mike. They did try to recruit him, though.”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  Ken laughed again when he
saw Mike’s face, “What, that they tried to recruit him?”

  Mike frowned, “No, that he didn’t go for it.”

  “Well, you’ll really be amazed about this, then. Not only did he not join them, but he told me what was happening. If Mitchem hadn’t told us, then you’d be coming back to a completely different situation.”

  Mike held up a hand, “Hang on, let me come up there, and you can explain it to me.”

  Mike trotted up the steps and walked over to Ken, “So, what the hell happened?”

  Ken hooked his thumb towards Joseph and Weitz, “Well, there were five of them, those two, Landberg, Williams, and Sustein. Landberg and Joseph approached Mitchem, and he played along. Still, we didn’t know who else was involved, though. We didn’t know whether there were more people, or if it was just them. Mitchem found out they were going to use the mechs against us. I brought in Jen, Joe, and Bobby. Bobby put an override into the mechs’ system, and Joe made their weapons inoperable by filing down the firing pins.”

  Mike shook his head, “What the hell made them think something like that was going to work?”

  “Make what work?” Everett asked. Tom and Mickey were right behind Everett.

  “What the hell’s up with those two down there?” Tom asked.

  Ken quickly explained and brought them up to speed. Mike wasn’t the only one that was incredulous.

  Tom shook his head, “That just doesn’t make any sense. Even if they took over the compound, they’d never be safe. They’d always be looking over their shoulder.

  Ken shrugged, “Well, they thought you guys were dead. They thought, that with the mechs, we’d roll over for them.”

  Everett crossed his arms, and his brow furrowed, “Jesus, that’s just . . . crazy.”

  Mickey laughed, “Well, let’s see, accidently transported a billion years into the future, give or take a few million. Attacked by angry dragons that want to kill us. Isolated, with a population that’s dying. Personally, I’m amazed we don’t have more people going off the deep end.”

  Ken nodded toward Mickey, “He has a point. Oh, and here’s the best part. They were going to share the women around.”