by Dave Hazel
“Will do Myk,” the co-pilot replied. “We have the other choppers looking as well.”
“Towbar, do you have the magic wands with you?” Mykal asked loudly into the giant’s ear.
“Yes my friend,” Towbar answered and reached for the small leather sack attached to his waist. “Do you wish them back?” He asked while he started to untie the opening of the leather bag.
“No, no. I want you to use one. If we can stop a small group of Sosos, maybe use the one that causes extreme fear. I remember sensing that if the enemy is really close they will drop to the ground in fear and then we can overpower them and grab them. If we’re not too close they will flee.”
“You are correct my friend.”
“There is one that will also allow you to change them into small little creatures. As a small creature we could grab them. However, since we have not experimented with that one I do not know how they will react as a small creature.”
“Hey Mykal,” the co-pilot called into his ears. “It must be meant to be,” he added with a slight laugh. “One of the other choppers spotted five Sosos casually walking along, heading to the north. They are separated from any large group.”
“Where? Where, where?” Mykal asked excitedly and turned to look through the front windshield.
“Down to our two o’clock,” he said and pointed to where the five Sosos walked along at a slow pace.
“I see ‘em, I see ‘em,” Mykal laughed and clapped his hands together. “Tell the choppers to spread out but to encircle them so when all the men disembark they will be completely surrounded. Tell the men not to shoot unless they are in danger. Towbar is going to cause them to drop in fear. Tell the men, if anyone is close by and they see the Sosos drop to the ground they are to rush to them and secure them. But tell them not to endanger themselves. I don’t want anyone to get hurt during this.”
“Will do Myk.”
“Are you ready?” Mykal turned to Towbar and raised his hand. “There are five down there. You’re gonna have to be quick so they won’t attack. Do you think you can do it?”
“Yes my friend. I think I should not have any trouble with this,” the giant said after he pulled the four wands from the leather bag.
The helicopters all landed in a circular pattern around the five stranded Sosos. The men all exited the mobile vehicles quickly showing the enemy they were greatly outnumbered. If the five Sosos had any understanding of the metal beasts then they knew the metal beasts always brought death and destruction. Mykal’s greatest fear was they would die fighting and rush the invaders, possibly injuring some of his men. Mykal wasn’t even sure if these men would have any helpful information and if they did they probably wouldn’t be willing to give up any information easily. He knew he would have to worry about those questions after, and if, they captured any of the five Sosos.
*******
The first couple of metal monsters landed to the north of the five. The Sosos stopped in their tracks and watched as many of the strangely dressed soldiers rushed from the ‘metal beasts’ and formed a blocking line. Their moves of precision coupled with their uniformed clothed forms were striking to behold. They acted as if they had one mind.
Without words spoken, the five turned to run from the overwhelming number of the odd enemy being rapidly birthed from loud metal creatures. Each direction they turned there were more of the strange creatures landing to block them from escaping the circle the ‘metal beasts’ started to form around them.
The creatures had no teeth, nor large talons like dragons. The creatures didn’t have wings that enabled them to stay in flight like dragons, but they swung whirring blades so fast that they created a terrifying noise. The creatures’ weapons would surely slice through their bodies, however they seemed to be holding their weapons high so as not to kill. The five turned to the south in an attempt to escape and join large forces of comrades to gain the safety and security of being in larger numbers.
*******
Mykal, Towbar, the Dosch brothers and the others on his helicopter rushed out to complete the trapping circle around the five desperate Sosos. All the helicopters except the four Cobras landed and helped encircle the five Sosos. The four Cobras stayed in the air and watched for an air counterassault by the dragons that the enemy supposedly had as allies.
The five Sosos raised their weapons as if they knew they could not get away. They were willing to fight to the death in order to attempt an escape from the strange overwhelming force of enemy that had encircled them. The five stopped and raised up with weapons in hand when they recognized their longtime nemesis, Towbar the giant, was part of the overwhelming force that trapped them. They surely had to wonder how the ‘metal beast’ birthed out their longtime foe.
Suddenly two of the five shouted and charged toward the giant. Towbar held two wands in his hands. With his left hand he pointed his wand and shouted “Nesk!” Just as abruptly a fireball flew from the tip of the wand and grew in size as it approached the two Sosos. When the fireball hit the two Sosos, the size of the flame was almost as large as the two men together. A mini explosion erupted, igniting their clothing and hair. Their screams rose above the noise as the two ran deliriously in two different directions. Their flesh burned, popped and sizzled until they dropped to the ground in two burning heaps of crispy fried death. The smell of burned flesh, clothing and singed hair filled the air quickly with the help of the helicopter blades forcing the stench of their burnt death in all directions. The limbs of the two men twisted spastically into strange contortions under the sizzle and pop like that of a steak on the grill.
The three watched in horror. Before the three could counter attack, respond to their gruesome deaths or flee, Towbar raised the wand in his right hand and shouted another command word, “Blizdo!” The three reacted suddenly as if hit by an invisible force. All three raised their hands and turned their heads as if suddenly terrified. They dropped their weapons and dove to the ground with cries of fear as they covered their heads. Three of Mykal’s men behind them had been affected as well. They dropped their rifles and turned to run away calling for help with terror stricken voices.
“Get them,” Mykal shouted. He was speaking of the three Sosos and didn’t realize that three of his men had been struck and affected by the magical fear. Men near the panic stricken soldiers rushed after them to grab them in order to keep them from running away into the grounds of the Sosos. There was no telling how long the fear would maintain ahold on them but they had been stopped by their own men and returned by force to the helicopters before they ran in terror into the danger of the enemy.
Other men pounced on the three fear-paralyzed Sosos. The Sosos babbled incoherently and didn’t resist being subdued by the warriors from another time and place. They continued to shout out and cry out their fear. One of the Marines grew up as a country boy in farm country in Wyoming. From his rodeo experience back home he easily hog-tied one Soso and threw up his arms as if performing in a rodeo competition. Several men laughed, hooted and hollered. Three army soldiers from one of the helicopters were members of the Military Police and happened to have a couple of sets each of white flexi-cuffs, plastic handcuffs. Flexi-cuffs are a onetime use hand cuff that will secure an individual by locking their hands together preferably behind their back.
“Get them on board quickly,” Mykal yelled in reference to the three captured ‘bad guys’ when some of the men shouted many Sosos were coming their way. Mykal looked back and realized some of his men had suffered residual effects from the wand attack of fear on the three Sosos. Three of his men had to be ushered back to the helicopters by other soldiers. The stench of burning flesh, burning hair and smoldering clothing filled the air with the dark billowing smoke. “Oh man, that friggin reeks,” he said and nearly gagged while he grabbed his nose and mouth.
“Damn, them old boys are some stinky ass dudes,” Roy Jr. tried to laugh off the horrific stench and scene of one Soso reaching skyward with his trembling twisted claws. The S
oso’s hands and arms were blackened and crispy. “Hey Marine,” Roy Jr. yelled to several getting ready to board a helicopter. “Any ah you boys want some bar-be-q?” He laughed and made them laugh also.
“Take us back to the camp,” Mykal spoke into the mouth piece. “Tell the others we’ll come out and do more attacks later.”
“We’ll do Myk.”
“Also, call ahead and tell them we’re bringing back three real bad guy type prisoners. Not prisoners like the last two we brought back last time we picked up prisoners. Tell them we need some kind of cell put together to lock these guys up in.”
“Sure thing Myk.”
6.
Mykal joined Major Chick as soon as they returned. He was surprised to find Colonel Fisher still with Chick and his two battalion commanders. Fisher clearly feared Mykal and avoided making direct eye contact with him. Mykal couldn’t understand how the man could be so cocky and arrogant when they first met, but as soon as Mykal scared him and showed he had the upper hand he acted like a bigger version of Green Beret Lieutenant Johnson by trying to avoid him.
“…So we brought back three Soso prisoners and we’re gonna interrogate them,” Mykal said. “Hopefully they can lead us to Princess Doninka and if we can rescue her then we can turn everything over to Colonel Fisher’s way of getting rid of the Soso problem.”
Fisher glanced up at Mykal with a look that reminded Mykal of a quarterback who had been benched and then relegated to the team practice squad. Fisher looked like he was going to say something, but remained silent.
When Mykal looked at the expression on Fisher’s face, he felt bad that he had to threaten the senior military man on their base. Because of his threats to Fisher earlier in the day, Mykal felt he mentally neutered the career military man. He wanted to get with Fisher later, one on one, to try to mend and patch things up. He wasn’t sure if the man would come after him later but he wasn’t really fearful of what the man would try because he knew he would defeat him. Something deep down inside really tormented him emotionally for the way he cut Fisher down. ‘Why the friggin hell am I feeling bad about this? He started this with his cocky, ‘I’m better than everyone else’ attitude,’ He wondered while Chick spoke to him. ‘He’s a grown man and he would have ruined everything I wanted to do if I didn’t put him in his place. It’s this damn ring,’ he scoffed and looked down at the gold band around his middle finger. ‘I gotta be careful not to buckle cuz of my crazy emotions. This damn ring is gonna destroy me if I don’t watch myself.’
“…and we agree with Colonel Fisher Mykal,” Major Chick continued. “After you complete your task of finding Princess Doninka, we’re going to go on the offensive and destroy the Sosos and their allies.”
“While you were gone Myk,” Major Innes chimed in. “Colonel Fisher brought up some ideas of going back to the real world to either get the supplies and equipment to lay down an air strip and then bring in some bombers. Colonel Fisher also mentioned that with his connections in the Marine Corps he is confident he could secure us a number of Harrier Jump Jets. Thus that would nullify the need for an actual large air strip.”
“And that is the short term projection Myk,” Captain Taylor added. “Colonel Fisher’s plan would entail having the air strip here, with the planes, fuel reserves, the men and the munitions et cetera to keep the land secure after the enemy have been defeated.”
“Oh that’s great,” Mykal said with feigned excitement. He found it odd they had to talk as if Fisher wasn’t sitting there in the tent with them. Mykal knew he had to fix things between him and Fisher, but he wanted to be careful not to come across as one who was kissing up to the full bird colonel. “That would be fantastic. That would be a great help for Towbar’s people Sir,” he said and looked directly at Fisher who still looked peeved and pretended to pull lint from his trousers so as not to have to look at Mykal. “Like I said, my main focus for right now is finding and rescuing Doninka, Princess Doninka, before her father is made aware of her disappearance.”
“Do you really think he would give in to the demands and surrender himself over to the Sosos for her release?” Captain Taylor asked. “He would be putting all his people at risk.”
“I know that Sir, and it stinks,” Mykal replied and shook his head with an audible sigh. “And to answer your question Sir, I don’t know what he would do. I only met the man once and he was sick, on his death bed. So there is no telling what he will do. The way Towbar explained it to me, is he wouldn’t have a problem giving himself up for his daughter because his son, Locod, would then assume the throne. The only problem is King Loankore doesn’t know his son is evil and probably the one behind the attempt on his life. So if he thinks he is leaving his kingdom in good hands to his son he may want to sacrifice his life for the chance to rescue his daughter. I honestly don’t know what would happen there. That’s why it is so important for everyone involved to know,” he continued and looked directly at Fisher, “that if we are successful in finding Princess Doninka and then rescuing her. It would make everything else go smoothly.”
Fisher finally spoke up. “In the event things do not get resolved and everything takes a turn for the worse, we must have some contingency plans in place,” he said and then paused. He tapped his finger tips on the table top. “Has there been given any thought to the idea of Towbar becoming king and denying the evil son the throne?”
“Me and Towbar talked about this before. He will not and I will repeat it, he will not accept being the king,” Mykal replied. He looked at his watch. “I couldn’t even get him to entertain the idea. We definitely need to come up with an alternate plan or plans should both King Loankore and his daughter, Princess Doninka, get killed,” he said and tried to keep a straight face. It hurt Mykal to think of Doninka as an objective to accomplish, or a person to rescue or even to think of her as a princess. ‘She’s Doninka. My Doninka,’ he thought. ‘Oh no, not my Doninka. We’ve never done anything, but I do miss that girl. I do love that girl,’ he admitted in thought and it hurt. ‘No, I’d never do that behind Pam’s back. Damn it. What the hell is going on in my head? I’m becoming a friggin basket case. I gotta stop this crazy, mental, mind game crap in my head.’
“We will work on things from this end Myk,” Major Chick said. “You go and do what needs to be done to rescue Princess Doninka. We are waiting on you before we put any other major plans into action. Just keep us informed.”
“Yes Sir. I sure will. As a matter of fact I’m going to join them in the interrogation right now.”
“I want to caution you Myk,” Chick said and then paused as if he didn’t want the next words to pass over his lips.
“Caution me about what?”
Chick hemmed and hawed and cleared his throat. “I want you to, um, I want you to be careful.”
“Careful? Whadda ya mean?”
“What Major Chick is saying Mykal,” Innes boldly took over. “True, we’re not in America and we’re not even in our own world, but the press is here and some of them would like nothing more than to report abuse of prisoners.”
Mykal started to laugh. “Oh, you mean like don’t torture these scumbag prisoners to get info from them?”
“Yes. I don’t want the press to hear anything that would look negatively on this operation,” Chick said. “Not that I would think you would do something like that, but we have had our run-ins with the media. And I don’t want them to be able to stretch a story to make you, or us, look less favorable to the folks back home.”
“Did that friggin dipshit Chris Schultz come back with this group?” Mykal asked and suddenly he became angry. “Schultz is that moron who accused me of being like Hitler back in December. He also went on a tangent about us being here to find oil and all that damn nonsense.”
“Honestly Mykal, I don’t know if he’s here or not,” Chick answered.
“I was never made aware of any media personnel who were potential problems,” Fisher said. “I will work on my end to keep their noses from w
here they don’t belong,” he added and suddenly came to life with a new purpose.
“Thank you Sir, and back to your previous point,” Mykal laughed at Chick. “I’m not gonna torture any of the Sosos. But you gotta understand, the only friggin thing these scumbags know and relate to is brute force. But I won’t torture these sweet little innocent creatures,” he scoffed with disgust. “Anyway when I’m done, I will be turning them over to Towbar’s forces so they won’t be our responsibility. We’re just guests here in Towbar’s land.”
7.
Mykal joined Towbar outside the make shift jail cell. The holding quarters was a very large tent with three quickly built separate cells made out of transporting trailers. Metal bars were hastily installed over the front of the opening for the doors. Any experienced criminal would easily be able to escape with relative ease. They planned to keep them hand cuffed and chained to the quarters until they completed their interrogation. From there they would be turned over to Towbar’s soldiers, thus the prisoners would not be a long term concern for Mykal’s people.
Mykal was impressed with the speed in which they put together the confining billets.
“You men are dismissed for now,” Towbar said to three of his generals when Mykal came near. “We will speak when we have completed our task here.”
“Yes Lord Towbar,” one of the generals thumped his chest with his fist and bowed his head. The two others bowed their heads with him.
Mykal didn’t recognize the three generals. “So what’s going on so far?” Mykal asked Towbar and was glad to see armed Marines were pulling sentry duty around the prison area. He was sure there would be more Marine guards inside the tent.
“At this time some of your military officers with some of my soldiers are inside to help translate and communicate. Your officers are taking the approach to ask questions gently and treating the prisoners kindly. I do not think that approach will work.”