by Jamie Davis
Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt spotted something small come flying through the gate to bounce down the slope towards the General and his men.
Kurt recognized the bouncing object. It was the size and shape of a softball. He realized what it was at the last instant. Pivoting in place, he started running back the way he came.
He dove back behind the boulder, covering his head with his hands, just as the thermal grenade went off.
A massive wave of heat and noise from the magically enhanced explosion washed over him. A random thought crossed his mind.
Things were about to get interesting now.
Chapter 21
The explosion sent a flash of heat over and around him which Kurt felt even from his position behind the boulder. He hoped Marci and Clara were still behind cover when the grenade went off.
Crawling back to the edge of the boulder and peeking around the other side, Kurt saw the explosion had taken out about twenty of the General’s men closest to the gateway. He didn’t, however, see the leader’s body among those lying there. The fires set in the tall grass all around the portal illuminated enough of the area that he could see the remaining forces belonging to the General racing off down the hill towards the valley floor. He scowled when saw the General himself running at the back of the group. Kurt could see the pouch holding Jonesey’s box bouncing from his belt as he ran.
Dammit, the bastard was getting away. Kurt couldn’t afford to let him escape back to his fortress. Then he’d never get the box back.
He cursed under his breath and sprinted from behind the boulder down the hill after the General. He didn’t see any other option to get it back than to chase the man down. If that meant he had to take on a whole group of his soldiers, well, he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.
As he ran out from cover, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Kurt glanced over his shoulder and saw a squad of black-clad soldiers with US special forces insignia on their shoulders. They exited the gateway, weapons at the ready.
Great, Kurt thought, the cavalry is here. That was good and bad. He was a U.S. citizen on the far side of an unreported gate. It was a crime to be here, though only a misdemeanor unless they caught him doing something like running weapons to the natives on the other side, as Marci had done. He hoped she’d covered her tracks as well as she thought she had.
He started running down the hill away from the gateway towards the fleeing troops. They were pulling away from him and he thought he was going to lose them until he spotted something that might make his chase a little easier. Veering to the left, Kurt headed towards Marci’s ATV parked nearby.
Running up to it, he took a second to unhitch the wagon, then fired up the motor and gunned the ATV down the hill after his quarry.
Kurt left the lights off even though it made it harder for him to navigate across the uneven ground. The spreading grass fires helped a little but the smoke was starting to make things hazy in the darkness.
The General’s speed on foot surprised Kurt. Perhaps running downhill lent to his ability. The good news was it added to the ATV’s speed, too. He made up the distance in no time and caught up to the General. As he approached the fleeing leader, Kurt heard him wheezing from his exertion as he ran.
When he was about ten meters away, Kurt flicked on the headlights with his thumb, lighting up the General and the rearmost group of his soldiers running with him.
The General spun around in shock at the sudden brightness right behind him. Kurt hopped up so his feet were planted on the seat and dove off the ATV directly into the General as he rode by.
Kurt planned for the ATV to stop on its own as soon as he let go of the accelerator. His hope was he’d get the box back from the General quickly and be able to jump back on the vehicle to make his escape.
The General was more agile than Kurt expected, though, and he managed to deflect Kurt’s leaping attack. As Kurt sailed through the air into the General, the bigger man turned the attack into a sort of judo throw.
He launched Kurt over his head to tumble into the grass on the opposite side. Kurt sprang back to his feet, groaning a little as he felt what was surely a cracked rib or two from his impact with the ground.
Ignoring the pain, Kurt charged back at the General snapping his stun baton open with the flick of the wrist.
He had to work fast.
The General was waiting for him.
Realizing the alien leader was bigger and stronger than he was, Kurt shifted his forward attack at the last instant into a perfect baseball slide and managed to duck under the General’s grasping arms as he slid by his opponent’s legs.
Kurt swung the stun baton, connecting the rounded ball on the end with the General’s kneecap as he went past.
The leg spasmed from the charge of the baton causing the bigger man to stumble and drop to one knee. He nearly fell to the ground.
Kurt jumped back to his feet as he finished his slide and leaped back towards the General trying to take advantage of his momentary disorientation from the stun charge.
Somehow, the General recovered more quickly than he should have. He must have some sort of armor or padding under his pants on that knee. It absorbed some of the strike and charge from the baton.
Kurt shook his head. He was going to have to be more careful. He also didn’t have much time. He had to stop this fight and get it over with quickly.
The General had drawn his belt knife. It was a wicked looking blade, nearly twenty centimeters long with a razor-sharp edge and a sawtooth spine at the back of the blade.
Kurt slowed his charge to reassess the situation. The two men circled each other, looking for an opportunity to break through the other’s defenses.
The General lost patience first.
That was usually something that would lose you the fight, but Kurt wasn’t so sure that constant fit this instance. Judging from the way his opponent shrugged off the first strike by the stun baton, Kurt knew he couldn’t rely on his weapon alone to disable or disarm this guy.
The General charged him, slashing upward with his knife trying to get past Kurt’s guard and slip the knife into his abdomen and up under his ribs.
Kurt used the stun baton to parry the knife attack to the side while he brought his fist up in an uppercut punch to the General’s jaw.
The General shrugged off the punch, even though it connected hard enough to break the skin on Kurt’s knuckles. He then tried to bring his knife around for another attack.
Kurt ducked under the attack, spinning on the ball of one foot as he kicked out with the other at the General’s injured knee.
He connected, a crunch reverberating up through his foot.
The General grunted in pain and swung wildly at his opponent.
Kurt danced back from the incoming knife blow. It missed by just a few millimeters. He stepped back and to the side to set up for the next attack.
The two men circled each other, Kurt favoring his injured ribs, the General limping and favoring his right knee.
Kurt decided he needed to attack that side again, taking advantage of the limp and lack of full support.
Kurt knew he couldn’t get the sliding attack to work again so this time he charged straight in and at the last instant, fainted to the left as he switched hands with his stun baton. He struck downward at the General’s knife hand with his baton.
This time, the stun charge connected solidly with bare skin on the General’s wrist, causing the energy to discharge and unloading its full effect. The hand spasmed and the knife fell to the ground. It didn’t take the General down, though.
Kurt couldn’t believe the guy was still standing. To start with, the stun baton’s attacks should have taken him out even though they were on his extremities. This guy had the constitution of a rhinoceros.
The General shook his head as if shaking off the effects of the multiple stun charges and his cat-like eyes narrowed into slits. He growled deep in his throat and ran at Kurt, trying to captu
re him in a bear hug.
Kurt tried to dance backward and get away from the surprise attack, but he was unsuccessful. In a split second, he was captured and felt himself caught in a crushing embrace.
The big alien gathered him in and leaned backward, lifting the smaller human off the ground with his arms trapped at his sides. The General slammed his head forward into the bridge of Kurt’s nose.
Pain exploded in Kurt’s face and he felt as much as heard the bones in his nose break. Blood streamed from his nose.
Fighting through the haze of pain, along with what was undoubtedly the onset of a concussion, Kurt returned with an attack of his own stomping down with his boot on the top of the General’s foot, attacking his injured right leg once again.
He must have broken a few bones in the General’s foot as he stomped down because the other man yelled in pain and rage as he almost toppled over to the right.
Kurt managed to wrestle himself free from the bear hug and he backed away to reset for another round. He swept his hand across his face to wipe at the blood dripping from his nose.
Kurt was surprised none of the General’s men had come back to help their leader. He wasn’t complaining of course. He didn’t need the distraction or the extra people to fight. This guy was enough all by himself.
The General was unable to move much at all at this point, given his broken foot and nearly destroyed knee. He just sort of pivoted in place as Kurt circled him.
The General eyed his knife laying on the ground nearby and Kurt realized that man was going to make a play to recover it. Kurt didn’t want that to happen.
As the General made the decision to dive towards the knife, Kurt anticipated the move and charged in at the same instant. He slapped his baton down on the back of the Generals neck as he stretched out to reach for the knife.
This time the General’s entire body spasmed, apparently close enough to the brain for the stun charge to have more of an effect this time. He landed in a heap on the ground next to the knife with his twitching fingertips almost touching the knife’s hilt.
Kurt shifted to the side, ready for another attack. He kicked the knife away from the General’s outstretched hand.
He didn’t have to worry, though, because the General’s eyes were glazed over and his mouth was slack and hung open. The stun charge had finally worked.
Kurt walked over and reached down, pulling Jonesey’s box from the pouch hanging at the General’s belt. Staring at it in the light of the nearby grass fires for just a second to make sure it was intact, Kurt shook his head at the things he had to do for his work.
He turned around and started towards the ATV. It had rolled to a stop about ten meters away.
“Freeze!”
Kurt stopped in place, holding his hands out to his side. The shout came in unaccented, standard American English. The cavalry was here.
Someone ran up behind him and grabbed the stun baton from one hand, as well as grabbing Jonesey’s box from the other.
Kurt’s shoulders sagged. Was he ever going to be able to get that thing back once and for all?
A familiar voice sounded just behind him and Kurt turned around.
“Why did I know I was going to find you somehow mixed up in this whole mess, Kurt Carter?”
Kurt smiled and shook his head as his eyes fell on GEU Captain Shareen Henderson. It would have to be her behind this military operation.
“I don’t know what you mean Shareen. I am just here sightseeing with some friends.”
“Cut the crap, Kurt. We already picked up Clara and your gal pal Marci near the gate. You are clearly here on one of your little delivery missions. I am here to make sure it fails. I don’t know how you managed to cause all the trouble you caused, but I’m going to finally charge you with a crime, take you to court, and put you in jail where you belong.”
Kurt just smiled. As long as he knew where the box was and that it was heading back to earth, he could figure out a way to get it back from the GEU later.
“You have to do what you have to do, Shareen. I think you’ll find, however, that I have nothing to do with anything illegal here or back home.”
“You may think you’ve covered your tracks on this one, Kurt, but I will uncover some link between you and the break-ins at our warehouse and the National Guard Armory. It’s only a matter of time. In the meantime, I can hold you on a security warrant simply because of the loss of tactical weapons in the break-in.
Kurt started to protest because Marci had not mentioned taking anything of that size from the armory. He stopped himself, though. He needed to play dumb and act like he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“I’m just glad you’re here with your friends, Shareen. Now I don’t have to fight my way back to Earth through these crazy warlords.” He pointed at the General’s twitching body on the ground. “They are the ones battling for control of this planet. He’s the one you should lock up.”
Shareen shook her head and turned away, gesturing to two of the tactical troopers standing nearby to grab Kurt and bring him along. Kurt was only too happy to comply and he marched back up the hill with the two US soldiers. One of them held Jonesey’s box, so at least he could keep track of where it was.
The soldier on his left chuckled as he took Kurt by the arm. “Dude, I don’t know what you did to piss her off,” Sergeant Leon “Blackjack” Jackson said. “When she called us to come on this deployment and our CO agreed, I have to say I was surprised. When she told us you were behind the break-ins, I realized why our unit was brought in for security on this mission.”
Kurt smiled. “It’s all right Blackjack, I didn’t do it. She doesn’t have anything linking me to stealing any weaponry. You know me better than that. I’m done with guns.”
Sergeant Jackson had been one of Kurt’s closest friends back when he was in special ops. While Kurt had opted to end his enlistment, Jackson had opted to stay in, probably because he had nothing else to do and he enjoyed hunting occasional demons or monsters that broke through gateways and savaged areas around Earth Prime.
Together, the two comrades walked after the GEU agent back towards the blue glow of the gateway. From what Kurt could see, there was already a reinforced platoon of special forces and regular infantry arrayed outward around the portal.
The perimeter would be secured as long as was needed while government forces determined how to handle the indigenous people in this world. Especially the ones who might be guilty of stealing weapons from the National Guard.
By the time they sorted all that out, Kurt planned to be far away, back home in Baltimore.
Chapter 22
Shareen, Kurt, and his two-soldier escort walked back up the hill and crossed through the loose perimeter set up by the special ops team in concert with some National Guard troopers. Kurt wondered what would become of this world.
He thought about the General. Now that the government was aware of the gateway linking Earth Prime to this place, it was unlikely the warlord or his men would cause any more trouble for Kurt or any of his family and friends.
Clara and Marci sat on the grassy slope a few meters from the gate entrance. Federal agents, wearing navy blue windbreakers with “GEU Agent” printed in large white letters on the back, and uniformed soldiers came and went through the gate.
The frequency of the transits led Kurt to believe there was quite an operation already set up on the Earth Prime side of the gateway. There was no way he was going to be able to dash through and get away, and he still needed to get Jonesey’s box back from the GEU Captain.
“Have a seat, Kurt,” Shareen said. “I’m going to have a few words with the officer in charge of this special operations group. I believe you and he have a history. I think he will be very interested in finding out my suspicions about you were correct.
“I know you think you caught me red-handed at something, Shareen, but I have to tell you, you’re making a huge mistake. I was here on a standard pick up run. I came to get that box
that you’re holding. I don’t know anything about anything that might have happened back home over the last few days. I’ve been here the whole time. If you give the box back to me, I’ll be on my way so you don’t have to be embarrassed when you find out you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong, Kurt. I’ve think I’ve finally caught you this time and I’m not about to let you go.”
She stormed off in the direction of the small command post set up by the military nearby.
Blackjack pointed at the ground. “You might as well sit, friend. Once the major finds out we have you, I’m sure he’s going to want to have words with you himself.”
“No doubt,” Kurt replied. “Major Hicks wouldn’t miss an opportunity to dress me down again, that’s for sure.”
As if to punctuate his words, Shareen stalked back over to where Kurt sat. She had a khaki-uniformed military officer beside her.
“As you can see, Major, I’ve caught this man red-handed.”
“Good job. We’ll take him into custody and get him off your hands,” the major said. He turned and glared down at Kurt. “What do you have to say for yourself, soldier?”
“I am not a soldier anymore, Hicks.”
“Stand up when you talk to me.”
Kurt stood. “My enlistment ended and I opted out despite what you wanted. I told you then, and I’ll tell you now, I am through with that kind of work.”
“You’re through when we tell you you’re through,” Major Hicks said. “I don’t know how you tricked the Pentagon brass into letting you end your enlistment. I am still working on figuring that out. In the meantime, Captain Henderson here suspects you are involved with the recent weapons theft from the armory. If you own up to it now, I can act on your behalf. Of course, that means you’ll have to reenlist.”
Clara stood and pointed at Kurt. “I don’t know what Captain Henderson told you, Major. Kurt came here with me to pick up a delivery just like he said. We were supposed to take it back to Earth Prime right away but we got sidetracked when the warlord we made the pick up from decided he wanted to use us as a means make illegal material transfers through the portal. I guess when we refused and escaped his clutches, he took it upon himself to make the trip to earth and steal some weapons of his own.”