by Mark Tufo
The primeval guttural sounds that emanated from the soldiers snout was almost as upsetting as the rest of the situation. Dennis’ hand somehow came in contact with his weapon as his eyes were still on the scene before him. The gunney was being tossed like a rag doll through the air from soldier to soldier. The sheer agony in the eyes of the gunney told Dennis bones were breaking even without his hearing. On the fifth toss, the soldier stepped aside and let the gunney land with a shattering thud almost exactly where the explosion had deposited him. Dennis had lifted his rifle and was taking aim at the nearest shock trooper when he caught the gunney’s eye. He couldn’t hear a thing he said but the imperceptible shake of his head and mouthing of the word ‘no’ couldn’t have been any clearer. Dennis shook with rage and frustration. The gunney knew if Dennis fired his M-16 it was as good as a death sentence. Dennis knew it too, but at this point that seemed trivial. Tears streamed down Dennis’ face as the soldier that had let the gunney drop picked him up by the foot and headed off to their encampment. Dennis didn’t move as his targets got considerably smaller and then finally vanished over a low rise in the terrain. Dennis didn’t move for the better part of an hour, shock was setting in. With slow deliberation he got his body moving knowing that stagnation meant death and that would be no way to avenge his fallen comrades. That last look on the gunney’s face would be something Dennis would take to the grave.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - Mike Journal Entry 10
Tracy was next to attempt to bridge the gulf that was widening between me and everything around me. Unlike Dee, I heard her footfalls as she closed the gap, although I think she wanted me to. She didn’t say a word as she grasped my hand. The touch, the human contact, the simplicity and beauty of the act eased my soul. We didn’t say anything, we didn’t have to, I silently thanked her. After a few more hours the colonel found what appeared to at one time have been upscale apartments on the outskirts of Roslindale, the looted and burned property would never again grace the pages of good housekeeping but it would do for the night. And then Dee did what I thought wasn’t even possible; he made a joke.
“I wonder what kind of amenities they have here.”
Two of the Marines bringing up the rear, looked in shock at Drababan. I couldn’t take it, I burst out laughing. Drababan kept right on walking as if that was the most normal thing to say. I shook my head in a vain attempt to stop my gut churning laughter. Tracy kept walking a small smile spreading across her face.
Well fuck if we have nothing else, we can still laugh.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The high-pitched whine of the 30-30 caliber bullet ripped Pegged’s right ear off, even as his momentum spun him to the ground. He was right, if he had hesitated even a millisecond longer she would have blown his head clean off. As it was, he could feel the blood running down his neck. If he didn’t get moving, she would put one in his ass for all his troubles. For the first time since this mad little dance started, Pegged questioned why he had undertaken the adventure. Sure it was his snot-nosed little brother she had killed, but they had never been that particularly close. The little fuck was always ratting him out whether he committed the act or not. He definitely couldn’t turn back now though. Oh no, he couldn’t do that. If not for his brother, then she was going to pay for his ear. He crawled to the median, wondering why the fatal hammer blow had not happened.
“Oh my God!” Beth shouted. “I hit him! I really hit him!” Her joy was short-lived as she watched him put his hand to his now earless right side. She could see the menace in his eyes even from a distance, he turned from her and began to crawl toward the grass. Beth chambered another round in the bolt action rifle. She tried to calm herself as she sighted in on the only target available to her, his ass.
“It would serve him right,” she said to no one in particular. “It might not kill him but it sure as hell isn’t going to make him any better.” Beth slowly eased her finger back on the trigger. Frustration roared through her. The trigger pulled the firing pin back and struck the projectile with an audible smack. Nothing happened. “Misfire!” she screamed in a rage. She pulled the trigger two more times before enough of her senses returned to think the problem out. She pulled the bolt back to displace the unoffending bullet. As she brought the rifle back to bear, he was gone. She screamed.
“Fuck!”
A piece of bark mere inches from her face shattered, long before Beth could process that her prey was shooting back. Beth dove for the ground, as a second bullet whizzed over her head like an errant hornet.
“I bet that was pretty close!” the taunting voice yelled.
“Closer than you think,” Beth muttered.
Beth was too frightened to rise up and take a shot. She was more afraid that her rifle would prove its inadequacies than she was of missing her quarry.
“What’s a matter girlie, did the sight of blood make you lose your stomach or did you really think that you could kill me?” Pegged was afraid, she had damn near done what his mother had tried to do twenty-seven years ago when she found out she was going to be a teenage mother.
Beth had had enough, his taunting on top of all the shit he had put her through the last few days was coming to a head.
Screw him. He wants to play head games I’m all for it.
“Hey fuckhead!” she yelled, doing her best to keep any shakiness out of her voice lest she give herself away. “I just wanted to keep you alive a little longer. I want to be close enough to see your eyes when I finally kill you!”
That struck him harder than thunder. He hadn’t been ready for that and could only pull out a stock retort. “Yeah, right!” But they both knew it lacked any true conviction behind the words.
“About fucking time someone besides me is scared shitless,” Beth said to herself as she crawled deeper into the woods. She had nothing to fear for now, it was a good long while before he found the nerve to get his legs up from under him. If she came straight out of the woods at him, he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to do much more than wait for the inevitable.
That’s one tough bitch, he thought as he wrapped a makeshift bandage around his head, the side throbbed with every heartbeat. If he didn’t stop the bleeding soon, the girl wasn’t going to get her wish of watching him die. He shuddered as he tightened the bandage. He would have turned around if he thought he could catch up with his friends, but he was positive they had already moved on to new hunting grounds. For better or worse, he was stuck on this path. One of them was going to die and soon, he just wasn’t as sure of the outcome as he had been even fifteen minutes ago.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - Mike Journal Entry 11
As we entered into our luxury accommodations for the evening, a light rain began to fall. By the time we made it up to the third floor it was coming down in sheets. I found comfort in the steady drumming of the water on the roof. It brought me back to my childhood days when it was pouring and I would stay in the house on a cold fall day and read a good sci-fi novel. Who knew, though, if I thought I was someday going to live a sci-fi book I might not have liked those far off exotic places nearly as much. A few of the soldiers came back a few moments later as I stood looking out the window, lost in my own thoughts.
“Captain.” One of them saluted. I half turned, still not completely back from where I was journeying. “The building is empty and secure.”
“Alright, Sergeant, I want you to rotate some guards, and make sure the men get some rest, that might be in short supply soon.”
The sergeant turned to go and issue the orders.
“One more thing, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir?” he asked.
“No, lights. Not even flashlights unless they have red-lense suppressors on them. There is something amiss here, I don’t quite know what it is. This place may not be the chateau Deville, but it’s dry so why there isn’t anybody staying here is tickling something in the back of my head. If I wasn’t so friggin’ tired, I think I’d move on.”
I could tell b
y the sergeant’s expression he thought I might be a little crazy. To his credit he didn’t voice his opinion.
“I’ll take care of it, sir.” The Sergeant snapped a salute and turned on his heel.
Tracy came to my room wrapped in nothing more than a towel.
“Well, at least the water works, if not the water heater,” she said with a small smile. I turned from the rain-soaked sliding door. She was a sight for any eyes. The water dripping from her red hair on to her almost exposed breasts was more than I could take. Our slow love-making mixing with the charged ozone in the air made every touch electrified. I slept the sleep of the spent, but it was short-lived. The sound of a man screaming had me out of bed and rifle in hand in under three seconds. I was butt ass naked but I didn’t even notice. I saw Drababan coming from the end of the darkened hallway, the colonel was in his arms as he literally squeezed the life out of him, I could hear his bones snap as Drababan approached.
“Dee, what the fuck are you doing?!” I screamed. “And where the fuck did you get red body armor from?” My body may have been able to react instantly but my mind was having great difficulty coming up to speed. Dee dropped the now lifeless body of the private as he began to raise his shock rifle. Realization came in a flash, I opened fire as I watched my round fly helplessly off the armor, I raised the muzzle and watched as the Genogerian's head exploded in a spray of crimson and gristle. By now, everyone was awake and ready, I pulled my clip out and went to reload when I realized that unless I had an extra magazine shoved up my ass it wasn’t going to happen. Nobody paid any attention to my clothing or lack thereof, our number had just been reduced by one and the threat that had not been assessed was still very much imminent. Tracy came out of the door, her pistol at the ready just as what remained of our enemy hit the floor. Dee came running up the hallway from behind the dead shock trooper. He would have joined him if I hadn’t jumped in the middle of the hallway. It was then as I stood in front of God and everyone that my nakedness started to become an issue, especially since I was in a halt position, legs apart, arms over my head and outstretched—it didn’t leave much to the imagination. Still it was worth it, I had saved my friend. But had I? How the fuck had they found us? We hadn’t seen so much as a patrol as we marched there and then hours after we stop, they find us? I was about to ask Dee this, but his roar cut me off.
“Get into defensive positions, there are about twelve of them and they’re right behind me!” He bent to pick up the fallen snouter’s rifle. A moment of apprehension sliced through me like a winter wind, the rifle was at my side but at that distance I wouldn’t miss. Dee caught the gesture but said nothing as he ran past me and into my room.
“You heard him, get some cover!” I yelled. “Aw fuck, I don’t want to die with my clothes off, that’s embarrassing,” I said to myself.
“Not from where I’m standing,” Tracy added. God, I loved that girl we were about to enter into a firefight and she was making jokes.
The first shock trooper rounded the corner, the now familiar blue streaks lighting up the hallway as he fired blindly. Tracy threw me a fresh clip as I dove for the floor. She steadied her rifle against the doorframe as her shots found their mark. The second trooper had begun to round the corner and jumped back after he saw his two fallen comrades.
“Hu-mans!” came the inhuman voice, “throw down your weapons and we will not kill you here.”
They really weren’t all that good at diplomacy, he made it abundantly clear that while they may not kill us here, they most definitely were going to kill us.
“Ummm, no!” I shouted as I motioned for Tracy to get me a grenade. She might be an excellent shot but she had a terrible throwing arm, the grenade nearly bounced off my skull as she tossed it at me. I rolled out of the way and placed my hand out and caught the explosive before it hit the ground.
“Nice toss,” I said.
She shrugged her shoulders and mouthed ‘Sorry.’
My hand throbbed from being driven into the ground from the heavy weapon, thank the heavens she hadn’t aimed for my crotch, it would have been hours before I felt like a man again. I pulled the pin and overhead lobbed the grenade down the hallway, but tonight my aim was about as good as Tracy’s. The grenade hit a light on the ceiling almost directly over the first snouter I had killed.
“Fire in the hole!” I yelled as I got up, grabbed Tracy and dove into the room. The explosion rocked the building like a hurricane force wind, for a moment the world lit up like a Walt Disney parade. And then everything was unsettlingly quiet. It wouldn’t stop the snouters, it would, however, give them pause for their next plan of attack and I believed that would involve reinforcements.
“Get dressed,” I whispered to Tracy. “We’re going to have to get out of here in a hurry.”
“Dee, watch the door.” He had been looking out the window, presumably for the reinforcements that were on the way.
I hurriedly began to dress, almost as fast as I had taken them off.
“It’s me they followed,” Dee said never, turning from his post at the door.
“Huh?” I said, half falling, trying to put my socks on.
“I’ve been traced,” he said with a touch of melancholy.
“How can you be sure?” I asked with my t-shirt half over my face.
“They didn’t just stumble across us, Mike. They were looking. If I hadn’t been outside doing my prayer ritual, they would have killed us or captured us all. When you leave you will have to leave me here.”
I paused, pulling up my pants. I must have looked somewhat foolish arguing with an alien with my pants halfway up my legs.
“Not a fucking chance, Dee.”
“They will find your Indian Hill if you take me.”
He was right and we both knew it.
“Fuck! How long until reinforcements, Dee?”
“I do not yet know how strong their landing invasion is, but my guess is not more than ten minutes.”
“Can we cut the tracer out of you in the next five minutes?” I asked futilely.
“Possibly, if we knew where it was,” he answered.
“Yeah, that does present a problem.” Tracy came back in the room fully clothed carrying a radio. She turned the volume all the way up. The noise was almost as disturbing as the dozen or so armed snouters.
“Any chance you could tell me what you’re doing?” I shouted.
“Infestation removal.”
My eyebrows furrowed. I thought maybe she had lost her mind. She then proceeded to sweep the irritating device across Drababan’s body. The pitch changed dramatically every time she got anywhere near his right thigh.
“I think I found our snitch,” she said as she shut off the radio. She pulled a large knife out of a sheath tied to her ankle.
“Shit, we got company,” I said as I watched two troop transports land across the street from our apartment complex. Troops began to stream out.
“Mike, you need to leave, before it’s too late.”
Who was he kidding? I thought. It was already too late.
“Sergeant!” I yelled as I ran to the doorway.
“Sir!” came the reply from two rooms down.
“Have someone light up one of those transports—we need to buy some time so we can get good and gone.”
“Done!” came the reply.
“Tracy, grab your gear we’re getting out of here.”
“What about Drababan?” she asked.
I didn’t answer her as I spoke directly to Drababan.
“We’ll take out who we can. Good luck, my friend.”
“Do not worry yourself about me, Mike. You are doing the right thing.”
“Yeah, well just because I’m doing the right thing doesn’t make it feel right. Keep the radio, Dee. If you make it out of here, I will contact you tomorrow on channel three.”
If I thought the grenade had produced a bright light I was wholly unprepared for the effects of the rocket launcher, the troop transport and a good third
of its troops had now found their way to whatever heaven they believed in.
“That’s our cue, Lieutenant. Let’s go.” I stopped to hug Dee on our way out. “Good luck, my friend.”
“Don’t believe in luck,” he answered as he hefted the large rifle.
“Well, good luck anyway, you big lizard.”
“As opposed to you, monkey man.”
I grasped his arm, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Gropytheon be willing,” he responded.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Dennis’ hearing came back minutely, the first thing he noticed was the beating of his heart, laboring with the effort as he put as much distance between himself and the aliens new outpost. The image of the dying gunney was still fresh in his mind. He had just crossed the Dedham-Norwood line when he felt more than heard a rumbling from his chest. At first he was perplexed as to its origin, he was reminded of the huge earth movers that had helped shape the new Indian Hill.
That’s it, he thought to himself, machinery. Instinctually, Dennis dove farther into the cover of the surrounding woods, moments before three huge troop transports hovered by. They were not the same as the flying transports, but they were very similar. The front was low and steeply sloped to the cockpit, the turbines that kept the machine afloat bent the trees back, so much so that Dennis feared they might snap in two and expose him. Dennis did not by any stretch of the imagination like that they were going in the same direction he was. Had the aliens not killed the gunney? But somehow got him to reveal where the Hill was? “Oh God, no!” he screamed. Dennis went farther into the woods in an attempt to pick up the railroad track and the express route to Indian Hill. He began to run for all he was worth.