The higher the soldiers made their way to the top, the more monsters came to them. They were still wondering whether they or the planet or both would last through the night.
“This is just like being in a traffic jam,” Pedro said. “Getting past long and slowly.”
“But traffic jams don’t always have creatures trying to kill you, Pedro,” Paula told him.
Then the monsters flew away. The squad was confused. They had never witnessed their enemies fleeing from them before and they couldn’t work out why they did.
Then something crashed near them.
Kathy gasped when she looked at it. “Rachael!” She dropped her gun down and knelt to her friend. She checked her pulse and her breathing; she got no results. Then she noticed the pike dug in where the croc’s heart was. After she took the pike out with a little help from Stu Pot, they saw the hole had let out a huge amount of blood.
The squad started to mourn their deceased friend, especially Kathy whose eyes filling up with tears.
Then Paula heard faint flapping. She looked up to see their enemies had returned. So, that’s why they fled, she thought. They thought they could pounce on us while we were in a mourning state. She grabbed their weapons and fired at them. Her friends joined her.
Then they heard a very loud trumpeting sound. They turned to see Mengy glowing with purple rage. Then she speeded past the monsters as she made her way up to the top.
An enraged Kathy picked up her Ghoul and tried to join her elephant friend, but more monsters kept blocking her. As she fired her Ghoul at the monsters, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her squad mates found her roaring more terrifying than the entire monster army.
When she reached the top, Mengy fired out of her trunk some purple sparkling orbs towards Akins. They hit him, but it did not knock him out or down.
Mengy lifted her trunk up and waved it down, whipping some small purple electric lightning bolts at Akins. But the sorcerer held his hand out. The bolts reflected and flew back towards the elephant. She just dived away just in time.
Mengy landed next to the rest of the squad who was fighting off all of the cobra sphinxes, the impundulus birds and the kongamatos. She got back up on her feet and used all of her magic to hit the monster army, but the cobra sphinxes and the impundulus birds were too quick and dodged them.
Then Squad J got pinned to the ground by cobra sphinxes from behind and kicked their Ghouls away.
Akins’s laughing took over the entire Spitzkoppe. “Do any of you have any final words before I grant you your deaths?”
“Yeah, I have.”
The squad looked up to see Rustom on the top with Akins. They were surprised and yet unsurprised at his un-dead presence.
“Paula, are you sure you couldn’t get anything out of him?” Stu Pot asked.
“No, Stu Pot,” Paula said. “No sightings, no trackings and I couldn’t even get anything from his blood sample.” Just before Mengy teleported them away from the Blyde River Canyon, she picked up some of the rhino’s blood from the ground. “If my Spy Pad can’t find anything, I don’t know what else can.”
* * *
“Well, what are your last words?” demanded Akins.
“Looking for this?” Rustom stuck out his middle finger on his metal arm; what was stuck on it was a metal ring with a small emerald stone on top of it.
Akins fearfully checked his fingers like he had lost something very precious. “How did you get that ring?”
“Magnetic finger.” Rustom took the ring off and held it.
“No!” yelled Akins. “Stop!” He pushed out his hands to send a vast dark purple cloud with lightning to attack Rustom.
But it was too late. The hard gemstone sunk in the middle of the metal hand and tiny pieces fell out of it.
After the dark clouds vanished into thin air, Rustom looked down to see the army of monsters all screeching as they disintegrated into a grey dust storm, covering Squad J up. He was pleased that those cruel creatures were finally dealt with. Then he heard some screaming. He turned to see Akins running up and down with his head baked in flames. The rhino caught him, lifted him up and walked to the ledge. “Time to join your friends in the underworld.” He threw the sorcerer down.
* * *
As they shook the dust off them, Squad J watched the flaming Akins fly past them and hitting the rocks below. They could see nothing but a pile of ash spreading out on the sand.
“You think he’s dead, Aunt Paula?” Pedro asked.
“Well, you can never be too sure, but as far as I’m concerned, he won’t be bothering anyone now,” his aunt replied. Then she saw Rustom rejoining the squad. “Hey, Rustom, I’ve never seen an emerald stone get crushed into pieces by a metal hand.”
“That’s because my special hand have been modified to break through anything,” Rustom explained.
Paula was not convinced. I’d like to see you try to break up lava with it.
“Can someone help me?”
Stu Pot and Kathy followed that cry. They found Lukeson hanging on a ledge and helped him up.
“We did it, sir,” said Stu Pot. “Akins and his army are ash and dust.”
“Excellent job, guys,” said Lukeson, as he tried to catch his breath. “Mission accomplished.”
“But Rachael is dead, sir,” Kathy sobbed.
The zebras took Lukeson to Rachael’s body. He checked the crocodile’s pulse and breathing and got no different results than when Kathy did. He knew that G.C.A. had lost many soldiers in the past two days and he was deeply saddened by their deaths, but no death upset him like Private Rachael Rhodes. She was a very strong, witty, loyal crocodile and she was his most trusted soldier. All the other soldiers in Squad J weren’t as disciplined as she was. Stu Pot had problems, Kathy was too idealistic, Mengy was clumsy, Paula was too technology-dependent and Pedro and Larissa were troublemakers. Rachael was the most down-to-Earth soldier out of them all.
“Everyone, stay where you are while I call Skipton,” Lukeson said to the others as gently as he could. He walked off, leaving the squad to mourn for Rachael.
As she turned away to rub the tears out of her eyes, Paula saw something and wasted no time to check it out. It was what she thought it was: the broken pieces from Akins’s emerald stone. She carefully put them in a small glass jar to take it back to Blackpool for analyzing. She knew if things were not carefully checked, history could and would repeat itself.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lukeson and Squad J had not moved from the bottom of the Spitzkoppe since they defeated Akins. It had been three hours since sunrise and they had not slept a wink, said a word, eaten or even drank, no matter how dehydrated they felt. They were so distraught over Rachael’s death.
Kathy had been crying the most and had not stopped since the battle was over. Mengy had been sitting next to her. As she couldn’t speak, she tried her very best to comfort the zebra by wrapping her arms around her and using her trunk to wipe any tears.
“I hate sphinxes, Mengy. Impundulus birds, kongamatos, everything. I hate them all.” Still sobbing, Kathy wrapped her right arm behind Mengy’s back. “I don’t want to see another thing in the sky as long as I breathe!”
“Me neither.” Larissa sniffled and put her wings around her zebra friend who returned the hug back with her left arm.
Kathy liked all the gentleness and comfort she was receiving, but the real truth was it wasn’t filling the emptiness that Rachael had filled in her heart. Even though she had been with the other soldiers for three years, Kathy never felt close to them as much as her crocodile friend. They had developed a very strong sisterhood between them. She doubted she would ever have something like that ever again.
Mengy looked up to the sky, pointed with her trunk and trumpeted.
“I don’t know how to make you understand, Mengy,” snapped Kathy, “but I said –”
“She’s only trying to tell you that your buddies have finally arrived to pick us up, you pink and white twit,�
�� interrupted Rustom.
“Hey, be careful about how you speak to her!” Stu Pot snapped. “She’s very depressed.”
“Is that your gratitude to the rhino that saved your asses and killed the bastard along with his pests?” Rustom snapped back. “Kidnapping me and giving me lectures?”
Lukeson was not surprised. Rustom wasn’t the first creature that felt he was being kidnapped from G.C.A. rather than being saved. He knew some of the animals G.C.A. protected thought they just kidnapped and hid them from the world, but he always viewed his organisation as a way of keeping animals away from the uneasy human beings who would do anything to hunt down and cut them up for medicine and meat. Not only did G.C.A. support, nurture and give opportunities to the animals but in return the animals also helped G.C.A. to expand their business. He always believed that there was more freedom that way than being at risk of being hunted down.
Loud whirling noises made everyone stand up and watch the two dark green Merlin helicopters with solar panels on the rotor blades land. On the right-hand side of each one, it had a giant golden badge of a mountain with a human, a mermaid and a human with wings on the left side and a lion, a shark and a falcon on the ride side. This was nothing more than the symbol of Global Creature Alliance. No knew anything about a human with wings, but Lukeson insisted it was put on the badge as it meant to show that G.C.A. cared about the creatures that flew in the sky as well as the ones on the land and in the sea.
As the solar panel blades stopping spinning and the flying sand ceased, Lukeson turned to the team. He ordered the zebras to pick up Rachael’s body, the penguins to collect the weapons and Mengy to keep an eye on Rustom as they made their way to the helicopter.
“Which side do you want me to take?” Stu Pot asked Kathy as they gathered around Rachael. Despite his low self esteem and nervousness, he was always still persistent in trying not to disappoint Lukeson and his squad mates, especially Kathy. Out of all his squad mates, Kathy was the one Stu Pot was the shiest around with. It wasn’t just the fact he thought she was the most beautiful zebra he had ever seen in his life, but he fell in love with her intelligence, kindness and above all her optimism. Disappointing Lukeson was nothing compared to letting her down.
“Do you mind taking the legs, Stu?” Kathy asked, taking Rachael’s head.
Meanwhile, Rustom asked Mengy in Old Chinese where they were going and all he got from her was a point with her trunk. Then he was zoomed to the nearest helicopter and crashed into it. Mengy giggled like a hyena as she got in.
Rustom sorted himself out. “Think you’re very funny, don’t you?” he snapped to her in Old Chinese.
The elephant childishly nodded and gave him a wink.
* * *
On their way to rendezvous with Skipton, Lukeson noticed the deceased bodies of Squad G were in the middle of the helicopter. A salamander soldier told him that Skipton ordered every deceased soldier from Blackpool and Egypt G.C.A. to be picked up to be given a sea burial. That surprised Lukeson a great deal. He never thought Skipton would do this very kind deed to these animals. He didn’t know he had it in him. Maybe the lieutenant was only doing this because of his rank and it was part of his responsibilities. But he was glad he was doing it nonetheless. It was better than leaving the poor animals to rot in the sand.
“Sergeant Lukeson, ETA to H. M. S. Seaweed, twenty seconds,” said the pilot, who was a pelican.
Lukeson looked through his window and saw nothing on the African Coast nothing except a giant freighter. It looked like a normal UK Navy freighter and was the same size; only it was made completely out of wood with hundred solar panels and fifty wooden wind turbines without rotating blades on deck.
“Okay, pilot, let’s land,” Lukeson said.
The helicopter landed on the helipad and everyone got out on the deck. They were greeted by Skipton and the rest of Blackpool G.C.A. staff from the Egyptian Western Desert camp.
Lukeson was delighted to find out that had been no further deaths aside from Rachael. “Team, salute!” He, Squad J and even Rustom saluted.
The rhino angrily looked at Mengy. She gave him an ‘It’s For Your Own Good’ look. He highly doubted it would be.
“Squad J, at ease.” Skipton turned to Lukeson and gave one of his very rare things he has ever given in his life: a smile. “I’ve never been so happy to see you in my life,” he said, hugging his sergeant. “We are safe. The whole world is safe now that nasty man has gone up in smoke. Thanks to you guys.”
Lukeson gave a sad smile. When he called his lieutenant last night, all he managed to do was tell him was that Akins was dead. Skipton was so delighted that he immediately ordered everyone from Egyptian G.C.A. back to their bases and everyone from Blackpool G.C.A. back on their freighter they came from. He wouldn’t even let Lukeson tell him about Rachael’s death.
“I’m even amazed that you all have made it in one piece.”
“Not all of us, sir.” Lukeson pointed to Rachael’s body being carried on a stretcher by Stu Pot and Kathy.
“Good God!” Skipton immediately went over to inspect the crocodile and was sad to accept that she was really dead.
Lukeson was surprised again to see his lieutenant act like this. He knew he wasn’t a bad person; he was just the least sociable of the three leaders. He had never been as fond of the animals as much as he had. Sometimes the sergeant thought that Skipton took his job because he wanted to rise into power. But today seeing the lieutenant show concern for the animals, both alive and dead ones, made him see that there was humanity still in this human being because that was another thing he rarely showed.
Then Skipton noticed Rustom in the far corner. He was the strangest looking rhino he had ever seen. “Who the hell is that rhino, Lukeson?”
“He calls himself Rustom, sir,” replied Lukeson. “We found him on the Blyde River Canyon. He carries a lot of weapons in his body.”
“Really?” Skipton scoffed. “I’m finding that hard to believe.”
A gunshot made Skipton jumped back. Two more made him jump back. He angrily turned to Rustom.
Sticking out of the rhino’s non-green eye was the muzzle of a rifle. It moved back inside the eye hole and the red eye came back up. “Now, do you believe him?” he asked.
The ferocious-tempered Skipton went to attack him, but was held back by Lukeson.
“Calm down, sir!”
Skipton stopped fighting his sergeant and backed away from him. He took a deep breath to vent his frustration and stress before he ordered Lukeson to continue speaking.
“I know he’s a pain in the arse, sir, but I believe that he can be useful. And because we lost ninety percent of our soldiers in the last two days, we need all the help we can get.”
Skipton sighed. “All right, but if he goes out of control, you will be on a lifetime corporal punishment.”
“Death is not what I call a lifetime punishment,” said Lukeson.
“No, not death,” said Skipton. “I meant, something like –” Skipton tried to think of something and was determined not to be defeated by Lukeson’s smug, not-so-easily fooled smile. “Something you’ll hate me for!” he managed to finally spit out. “Now, enough time wasting. Be ready for the send off service in ten minutes.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, everyone was on the bow side looking at fifty wooden caskets. Each casket had a different country flag covering it all over. They were to represent which nationality the animal soldier or staff member in the casket was.
Skipton and Lukeson stood between the caskets and the animal staff and Squad J.
“Last night, our mission was finally accomplished,” said Lukeson. “But as with every mission accomplished, there are costs to pay. And I’m not talking about the bills for the damage we’ve done in Egypt and everywhere we’ve been in Africa. I’m talking about all of the lives that have sacrificed themselves to save the world from an evil force. Their sacrifices have not been in vain and, in honour of them, we are here now t
o give them the very best send off we can give them.”
He and Skipton went to the first casket which had a Union Jack flag on it.
“Corporal Jackson,” said Skipton.
“Old friend of yours?” Rustom whispered to Squad J.
“Never even heard of him, let alone knew what species he was,” said Kathy. “But it sounds like he was a great animal.”
“… but it was his strength and leadership skills have helped us succeed through a lot of missions,” said Lukeson. “Godspeed, Jackson. You shall be missed.” He nodded to a badger and a frog that each pulled down a lever.
The first casket was lowered on the ramp. Then it slid down the ramp into the sea and started to sink.
Then the frog and badger loaded the second casket with a Belgium flag onto the casket ramp.
“Mrs. Camper,” said Skipton.
“I knew her,” Pedro whispered. “She used to make a lot of vegan cookie biscuits for us.”
“…a loyal and devoted camp maker, dedicated baker and a beloved mother of three goats,” said Lukeson. “You shall be missed along with your delicious cakes, biscuits and pies, Mrs. Camper.”
“Why didn’t she ever give us her recipe?” Skipton muttered.
“Lieutenant, please, not at a service,” Lukeson whispered, gesturing to the crowd.
Skipton looked at them and chuckled nervously. “Right, sorry. Carry on, Sergeant.”
“But, Mrs. Camper, I promise that your kids will be raised properly and no harm will come to them. Godspeed.” Lukeson nodded to the badger and the frog. The casket was soon in the sea and sunk.
Then a third one with a Japanese flag was loaded.
“Dr. Jupiter,” said Skipton.
“A real genius,” said Lukeson. “His ability to make our entire organisation and all our of vehicles run on renewable sources and our own fuel called Weed Milk without a slight touch of coal, oil and nuclear still amazes me to this day since we first started a decade ago…”
The Cult of Kishpu Page 9