Onio

by Jeppsen, Linell

  Police cars and tactical units surrounded the sasquatches on all sides, and armored officers shouted orders at them from their hovering white birds. Blue, red, amber and purple lights etched the road and caused some of the sasq children to weep in fear and confusion. An entrepreneurial taco-wagon owner seized the day and crept along the road slowly, selling tacos, burritos, tortilla chips and cold Coca Cola’s and sweet tea to the delirious crowds.

  It was a carnival, a dark dream, a crazy circus, and the people who joined the rapidly expanding crowd snapped pictures with their cell phones and texted back and forth in a frenzy of disbelief and astonishment. The warm morning air was heavy with the smell of cooking oil, diesel fumes and the distinctive, woodsy musk of the sasquatch people.

  A loud horn rose and fell, its bleated warning advising the small humans closest to the base that an attack was imminent, while the fire bells within the city limits played a discordant harmony. City cops and state patrol officers donned full Kevlar protective armor and tried to walk between the monsters and the general population. Many of the officers lost focus however, when they couldn’t keep from watching the sasq. They also sensed, in the way cops do, that the monsters were peaceable and meant no harm.

  ***

  One young policeman named Cody saw Mel walking hand in hand with a tall, handsome sasq and shook his head. She was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen, with her long, blond hair, large gray eyes and pale lips which, at the moment, were tight with worry, but he had no doubt would be as pink and soft as tulip petals when she was relaxed and happy.

  What are these creatures, he wondered, and why is she with them? Then, distracted, he turned away to keep his eye on a truck-full of rednecks who were careening along the side of the road, hurling beer cans and insults towards the monsters. He was just about to hit the squawk horn on his patrol car when a tall, redheaded female, who looked almost human but not quite, stepped away from the others and lifted her hand.

  Cody raised his pistol in alarm but lowered it again, almost immediately. He thought she carried some sort of weapon but that wasn’t the case. Whatever she did seemed to have a profound effect on the rednecks. The truck screeched to a standstill and crept slowly backwards and out of sight. Cody felt the small hairs on the back of his neck stir. He did not know what just happened but he could feel it in the air, like charged particles of electricity after a lightning strike.

  ***

  Onio held a hand above his eyes to cut down on the sun’s glare. He could see guard towers about a half a mile away and a long, white bar that blocked access into the Army base. His heart pounded in his chest and his senses were taut with nervous anticipation. He and his people played a dangerous game today. He believed in the high king’s theory and felt that this was the sasq’s only viable action, but he had seen the look of fear that came over Blue Sky’s face when he spoke of the small soldier’s leader.

  “There is such insane hatred in his eyes, Onio,” he had whispered last night, before they left the tunnels and came out into the open. Blue’s face was still gaunt from his forced captivity, and his eyes were dark with worry.

  “New Moon thinks to reason with this soldier, but I don’t know if it can be done,” he added, softly.

  Onio felt a chill. He knew that Blue Sky was smart and courageous. He fought the spiders with almost reckless abandon and, with the help of his friend Ann, found a way to escape from the soldiers’ prison. Now though, he seemed to lose heart. His fingers shook and it was easy to see that the young sasq warrior was frightened. The fact that New Moon had asked Blue Sky to be the sasq’s spokesperson did not help matters.

  Blue Sky, Onio and Melody had been chosen to talk to the small humans and ask for the sasquatch hostages’ freedom. Onio didn’t like it but their orders were clear. Besides, he acknowledged, he and Blue were the only sasq who really knew how to address the smalls in their own tongue. Mel couldn’t speak, but would be present to demonstrate to the army that small humans were treated kindly within the tribes.

  Still, the spokesperson should not be so obviously frightened. Blue’s previous experience had soured his normal bravery and now that the time was at hand, Onio feared for his people, and at their chance for success. The sun moved behind a cloud and he saw large, mechanical beasts moving into position behind the gates of the base. They were what the small human soldiers called tanks.

  They were painted with the colors of the desert; buff, tan, and sage green. They had long snouts with large black holes that were aimed at the sasquatches, like the malevolent eyes of hungry predators. Two of the soldier’s black birds, or helicopters, lifted into the sky behind the tanks and moved toward them as well. The gate bars lifted up and a column of Humvees coasted slowly down the two lanes, stopping about fifty feet or so away from the sasqs.

  Onio, Blue Sky and Mel faced the idling vehicles and the soldiers who sat inside of them. Many soldiers stood on the SUV’s side steps, as well. These men held machine guns and looked only too willing to use them. Onio knew that, right now, he and his wife’s lives hung by a thread.

  Mel trembled with anxiety and Onio took her hand in his. It was frightening to face such open hostility, but they were not alone. Although they stood ten paces ahead of the rest of the sasquatches, the fiercest and mightiest of their warriors formed a wall behind them. Each of them held spears, clubs and hammers in their fists. Onio knew that although the small humans could paint the ground red with sasq blood, it would not be before the sasq warriors killed every single man and woman in the convoy.

  Even the weakest sasq warrior could throw his spear at least fifty feet with uncanny accuracy and do it in the blink of an eye. Two Horses’s war hammer could easily bend one of the soldiers cars in two, and Onio did not even want to contemplate the toll any hand-to-hand combat would have on the far smaller humans.

  The sky was growing darker and darker and Mel saw lightning scratch white fingers across the top of some low hills to the north. A cool breeze swept her hair back and she heard a mechanical voice growl, “Release the girl, and retreat!” The words were amplified in her mind telepathically, through her husband’s ears. She felt, more than heard, Onio’s gasp of shock and dismay.

  It had not occurred to the sasquatches that the small humans might assume Mel was a prisoner, and it introduced a completely new sense of urgency and danger into an already tense situation. Onio saw an older man climb out of one of the Humvees and he heard his friend Blue groan.

  “It’s him,” Blue whispered. “It’s the leader.”

  A tall, white haired soldier approached. He was distinguished looking and handsome but for the frown lines that etched deep furrows around his electric blue eyes and bracketed thin lips. He held one hand casually on his sidearm as he approached. His eyes studied Blue with a look of loathing so profound it made Onio’s heart sink in his chest.

  His friend was correct…for some reason, this war was a personal campaign waged against the sasquatch people by this man alone. It was fueled with hatred and powered by the rage this leader held deep in his heart. Blue lifted his spear in sudden fear and Onio spoke loudly, so all could hear his words.

  “Stop, please! Stop and hear our words,” Onio pleaded. “We have come to take our people back from you, that’s all. We come in peace, and we will leave in peace if only you give us our relatives. Then we will go to the far northern lands and deep into the mountains so you will never have to see us or hear from us again.”

  When Onio first opened his mouth and spoke, the man paused for a moment in surprise. He looked at Blue and growled, “I suppose you can talk too?”

  Blue Sky nodded and said, “I was always able to speak but was afraid to try.”

  Onio studied the sky overhead. Giant cumulous clouds were piling up, one on top of the other, like grey boulders, and ground against each other ominously. The helicopters blades whipped the air, sending tails of dirt, smoke, bits of weed and grass far into the sky and swirling around the sasq people and the human b
eings who watched.

  For a moment, as sheets of dust covered the area, obscuring and separating the sasquatches from their emissaries, the only people who existed in the entire universe were the two young sasq warriors, a human girl, and an Army colonel whose heart had long ago shriveled and died from bitter sorrow, loss and revenge.

  Onio knew from the look in the soldier’s eyes that nothing he said would ever make a difference in stopping this war. The die had been cast, somehow, long ago, and the only thing left for him and his people now was to fight and probably die in this dismal land of sand and tears.

  Chapter 36

  Onio saw the soldier’s hand drop to his pistol and he knew that the colonel had decided to kill Blue Sky and as many sasquatches as possible, despite the risk to his own people. Onio stepped up to the soldier, and before O’Dell could react at all, plucked the gun from the man’s holster. Immediately, a metallic clatter filled the air as rifles and machine guns were cocked, ready to fire.

  Then, a distorted voice shouted, “Colonel, stand down! Do it, now!”

  The colonel, whose face was as red as blood, paused and looked back over his shoulder as another vehicle approached slowly from the rear of the convoy. A fat soldier sat in the passenger seat. He wore a uniform much like the other soldiers but his glittered with stars and ribbons. When the Humvee came to a stop, the man got out and waddled toward O’Dell and the sasquatches.

  As he approached, every soldier he passed raised his right hand in a salute, effectively disarming them, at least temporarily. Keeping his brown eyes fixed on O’Dell, he muttered to the soldiers he passed, “As you were, for God’s sake…as you were!” The weapons came up again, immediately.

  He came to a full stop in front of O’Dell, who, reluctantly it seemed, tipped his right hand in a salute. Then the old soldier barked, “What’s the meaning of this O’Dell, and why have you gone dark?”

  O’Dell’s cheeks flushed and he responded, “I felt that my men could handle these creatures without incident or threat to the base, sir!”

  “You thought that, eh?” The short, fat Army officer turned and studied Onio and his companions. Although he was portly, and much older than the colonel, the keen intelligence in the general’s warm brown eyes impressed Onio, and made him feel like there might be hope in salvaging this operation yet.

  Shading his eyes, the soldier looked up at Onio and said, “Can you talk?”

  Onio nodded and said, “Yes, Blue Sky and I can both speak.”

  The soldier replied, “You speak very well. My name is General Thomas Liddy.” He stuck his hand out. “Pleased to meet you.”

  Onio gently took the man’s hand in his and gazed into the man’s eyes. He could feel his lungs filling with air, as though a tight band of tension had been loosened, and now he could breathe again, without fear.

  General Liddy gazed past Onio’s shoulder, his eyes as wide and bright as a child’s, and murmured, “I’ve heard about you and your people, but never thought I would get a chance to actually meet you.”

  Onio frowned and said, “You did not know then, that this man has been capturing and experimenting on us? That, even now, he holds almost a thousand of our people in an underground facility to the north of here?”

  The general turned to O’Dell with a grimace. “Is this true, Colonel? Because if so, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

  O’Dell glared and barked, “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

  Liddy’s face flushed with anger at the barely concealed contempt in the colonel’s voice. “Permission granted, Colonel, but I warn you…be careful what you say at this point, because if you’ve been running ops out of this base without my approval or authority it would be considered insubordination and could result in a court-marshal.”

  O’Dell nodded and replied, “Begging your pardon, General, but I’m working with the N.S.A. now, and Homeland Security. I’m taking my orders from them, sir, not from you!”

  Liddy nodded and growled, “Maybe so….” The little general was vibrating with rage as he stepped up close to O’Dell and hissed, “But, if you EVER use that tone of voice with me again, I’ll have you thrown in the brig. ARE WE CLEAR?”

  O’Dell blinked and stepped back. “Clear, sir!”

  General Liddy stepped away from the colonel and turned to face Onio and Blue Sky. Onio had pushed Mel behind him when it looked like the colonel was going for his gun, but she had crept forward again when the general showed up. Liddy’s eyes fell on her and he said, “Well, hello there…who are you, miss?”

  Mel glanced up at her husband, who nodded in encouragement. Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth and said, “Hi, my name is Melody Carver. This is my husband, Onio, and these people are my family.” She knew her words were not clear but the kindly general watched her eyes and mouth carefully. It took a few seconds, but she could see that he understood what she said, and he nodded.

  “So, you are not being held against your will?” he asked, gently.

  Mel shook her head emphatically, and said, “No! I love him…I love all of them!”

  Liddy smiled and turned away. Calling out to his personal guards, he ordered, “Take the colonel to holding, and escort these people to the gymnasium. Call medical to see to their needs and tell the kitchen to bring—”

  “What’s that?” O’Dell gasped, staring at Onio with real fear on his face. Onio stared back at him in confusion, and then looked down at the rock that hung from the cord around his neck. He had felt the rock’s temperature rise but thought it was just the heat of the sun, or the tension in the air. He was amazed however, to see that the rock was blazing with color and pulsed like a beacon in alternating bands of white, blue and purple flashes of light.

  After the spider attack in the underground tunnels, Onio understood that this was some sort of alien technology that, when needed, served as a weapon. He did not activate it though, and could not understand what it was doing now. He held his hands up in a shrug and started to remove it from his neck, but forgot that he still held the colonel’s gun in his right hand. Immediately, the colonel shouted out a warning, and two huge MPs moved in to flank the general.

  The lieutenant colonel was whispering something into General Liddy’s ear. Although Onio slowly and carefully knelt, placing the officer’s weapon on the ground, he knew by the look of consternation and sorrow in the general’s eyes that any ground he and the sasq had gained was lost now through his own carelessness.

  Then, he heard queen Tanah say, “Terry…is that you?”

  ***

  If not for the thunder that rumbled overhead in black clouds that seethed and swirled through the yellow sky, every sasq, human, and soldier could have heard a pin drop. Lieutenant Colonel O’Dell, who was in the act of retrieving his pistol from where Onio had placed it on the ground, froze and slowly turned around to face a voice from his distant past.

  He stood up and stared at a wild woman who was standing about ten feet away from him. She was the strangest and ugliest thing he had ever seen. She wore furs, beads and leather. Her hair was braided, and had been dyed with every color of the rainbow and festooned with bone, wood, and pieces of broken glass. She was covered from head to toe in tattoos, and one of her eyes was gone; in its place a piece of blue stone gleamed dully. The other eye, as blue as a robin’s egg, as blue as his own, stared at him in shocked recognition.

  “Terry, my brother, are you the one who has done these things to my people…to my son, your own nephew?” The queen’s voice shook with sorrow and betrayal.

  O’Dell stared at the woman and at the gigantic sasquatch by her side, remembering the day, so long ago, when that same beast commanded him not to interfere, even as it stole his beloved sister away forever.

  He had spent a lifetime vowing revenge against these creatures, in truth, because he thought that Tonya was long gone…killed…raped, maybe even eaten by the beasts that haunted his dreams. To see her now, alive and well, and so ugly…deformed by the creatur
es she called family, made his blood boil in his veins. How dare she address him this way, like an equal, rather than the evil, deceitful bitch she was?

  He heard a babble of voices rise up around him but those voices seemed far away, as a high, buzzing whine filled his ears. He saw nothing but Tonya, his beautiful sister, a stranger now, embodying everything he hated and had vowed to destroy. He didn’t see the sorrow in Tanah’s eye, or the shock in Blue’s face, or the fear and dread in Two Horses’s expression as he lifted his gun and shot two slugs into the lying bitch’s chest. The only thing O’Dell saw was red.

  Then, Two Horses’s spear entered O’Dell’s body so hard he flew through the air and crashed into one of the parked Hummers, pinning him to the metal like a butterfly on felt. The last thing he heard was the sound of automatic gunfire. Two Horses, mighty as he was, jerked like a puppet on a string as bullet holes etched their way over his body. Groaning harshly, the northern king managed to find his way to the body of his queen and gather her up in his arms before he died.

  Then, what might have been a meeting of two races, a melding of two minds, degenerated into a colossal battle under the hot grey sky. The MPs rushed General Liddy into one of the Humvees and sped away, while the Army soldiers shot indiscriminately into the crowd of sasquatches. Males, females, little ones…it didn’t matter. Bodies fell bleeding, while the sasq warriors flung spears, clubs and war-hammers.

  As Onio suspected, the sasq’s weapons tore through the small human’s flesh like hot knives through butter. He saw one of the warriors’ spears skewer three small humans, one after the other, so the soldier’s bodies were pinned to the ground like pieces of meat. He watched as his mother Petal turned the soldiers own weapons into the stuff of nightmare. One by one, the small humans dropped their rifles and handguns, screaming in fear as giant snakes, scorpions and centipedes crawled away and disappeared.

  With every victory, however, the sasquatches suffered defeat. Onio turned to face an advancing soldier, taking a knife wound to the shoulder before hitting the soldier hard enough to knock him unconscious. Hearing a shout of alarm, Onio turned around and saw that Pony was on the ground, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. The king’s personal bodyguards, Ramsey and Willow, had fought furiously but were also down now, either dead or dying. Onio saw that his father was fighting two small humans at once, and then he spotted Blue Sky, who was threatening a small human soldier with his spear.