by Dave Hazel
“Yeah, but what the hell is gonna happen between now and then,” Mykal said with a sarcastic frown.
When they came near the body of Sergeant Klein again Mykal couldn’t keep from looking at the corpse. It brought sadness to him not only because the man took his own life, and the fact that they lost a man who volunteered to help try to find Doninka, but the fact that the man had a wife and a family back in the world waiting for him to return troubled him. Mykal couldn’t believe Finley left his 9mm pistol in Klein’s hand and didn’t retrieve it.
“Damn it, we can’t leave that there,” Mykal sighed but he didn’t want to pry the handgun from the dead man’s cold fingers.
“What Myk?” Roy Jr. asked.
“Finley never picked up his 9 mil. I’m gonna get it,” he said as men filed by. Suddenly Mykal felt terror. What if Klein reached out and grabbed him as he reached for the pistol. He had the same exact fear about seven months ago when he was new to Towbar’s world and he was going to get the US Marshall’s car. There was a dead Soso on the ground that he had to step over and he thought for sure the dead Soso would reach up and grab him just like in a horror movie. The dead Soso had his head blown open as well so there was no chance of that happening. However, Klein was bitten by a zombie and could possibly come back to life and attack the living.
“He’s dead Myk,” Roy Jr. said when Mykal hesitated. It was as if Roy Jr. knew what Mykal was thinking. “Do you want me to grab it?”
“No, no I’m fine,” he replied when it was obvious he was acting childish. “Just watch my back,” he joked to make light of it and laughed out loud. When he retrieved the handgun he handed it to Roy Jr. “Make sure we give it to Finley.”
“What if he doesn’t want it?” Roy Jr. asked as he stuck the life taking handgun into his waistband.
“If he doesn’t take it back, then you keep it if you want it,” Mykal replied. “I just don’t want some of these freaks under this mountain to get it and figure out how to use it. Can you imagine if some of these freakin bastards got a hold of our weapons and were able to figure out how to use them?”
“That would be messed up, cuz then they would mess us up,” Roy Jr. said.
“Yeah, could you see Lanorear flying around with a rifle rather than a bow and arrow?” Mathis asked. “It would make hunting down their meals a whole lot easier. Munch munch!” He said which generated the expected laugh out of Mykal.
3.
After more than an hour the column was stopped again and the signal was given for silence.
“What the hell is it now?” Mykal whispered to Towbar. “Everyone sit tight,” he whispered and put his finger to his lips. He waved to the Dosch brothers to come closer. “Do youse wanna come with me? You can give Finley his 9 mil back if he wants it.”
“Sure. Do we know what’s going on?” Roy Jr. asked and looked to Mathis.
“They haven’t called,” Mathis replied with a shrug and looked to his radio.
“I have no idea, but I’m going up there to find out. You stay here and let these guys know what we find out,” Mykal told Mathis. “There better not be some big friggin dinosaur up there since we’re only a couple of hours till we get outta this damn mountain,” he joked. Once the playful words left his mouth Mykal realized the possibility existed that it could be some sort of strange monster. He wouldn’t be surprised after all they had faced on this side of Towbar’s world.
They crept their way to the front of the column and occasionally asked others if they knew what the holdup was but no one seemed to know why they were delayed. Mykal tried to imagine all the reasons for the delay. There was no call on the radio for him so did that make it better or worse? Since they had been inside the mountain they lost a total of nine men. He didn’t want to lose any more people.
When they neared the front Mykal saw Gunnery Sergeant Ratner make his way back down the line. Ratner crouched low and when he saw Mykal and Towbar a large smile appeared on his face. But he quickly put his finger to his lips to tell them to remain silent. He rushed back to them to fill them in on what was discovered.
“Oh, I’m so glad to see you Mykal and you too Towbar,” Ratner whispered quietly. “As well as you two,” he added when he looked at the Dosch brothers. “I was just getting ready to send a runner to you.”
“Why what’s going on?” Mykal asked and didn’t like the sounds of the situation.
“Well, we just stumbled onto a battle that has been taking place,” he answered and pointed back to the front. “This path that we’re on, this tunnel so to speak, winds around this bend over here and then overlooks a big open area. We’re about forty feet or so above the opening below.”
“Is there a way to get down there?” Roy Jr. asked.
“Yes. That’s not the problem,” Ratner replied. “If we just follow along this path it winds along the wall in a downward motion like a flight of stairs, but it’s not stairs. It goes all the way down to the floor that is below. From up here you can see the exit on the other side,” Ratner said and pointed to the far direction. “So we would have to go across the opening to get to the other side which will lead us out of this mountain,” Ratner said and paused.
“But?” Mykal asked because he anticipated a problem.
“But the problem is there is a battle taking place down there right now.”
“A battle? A battle with who?”
“It looks like there are a large group of Goblins to our left,” he explained and pointed. “And on the right side of us they have a number of what looks like Zee-Zees soldiers. Soldiers like those we fought along the river in the gorge.”
“Who do the numbers favor?” Towbar finally spoke.
“The numbers favor the Goblins for sure. It appears to the left there is a cave or openings into the mountain that leads to their home or lair or whatever it would be called. In the center of the floor there seems to be a number of dead from both sides where they may have clashed. The soldiers of the Zee character have taken advantage of some cover they have. There is a large buildup of rocks and some rocky crags, and openings they can hide in. What seems to keep the Goblins from just charging forward and rushing in is the soldiers are shooting at them with arrows and holding them off. But, the Elves pointed out that the numbers of the Goblins are growing so they must have reinforcements or a home base that they are drawing from.”
“Can’t the soldiers just run to the exit on the far side that you pointed out?” Randy asked.
“Maybe if they try to climb over the large rock formation they are hiding behind, but the Goblins are shooting at them with crossbows so it seems they’re pinned down for right now. They could try to make a mad dash for it,” Ratner continued to whisper, “but then the Goblins would cut them off and have them outnumbered. Uminair, one of the Elves seems to think the Goblins are building up till they have an overwhelming force and then they will go all out to take them down. As it stands from what we’ve seen in just the past ten minutes the soldiers are outnumbered two or three to one right now. Either way, they are blocking our only way out.”
“Can we just wait them out?” Mykal asked.
“We don’t think so,” Ratner answered and rubbed his face. “Lanorear flew over the opening and the soldiers shouted for help I guess. That’s what the Elves said. They know Lanorear belongs to the evil Zee guy and now the Goblins saw Lanorear fly up here so we are all leaning toward the idea that the Goblins will come up here to hunt Lanorear down after they kill all the soldiers. Which means it’s possible that if we just wait here we’ll be next in line to fight the Goblins after they are done with the soldiers.”
“Can we have the Elf bird fly out through the exit to make the Goblins think he’s going to get help?” Roy Jr. asked.
“They’re already bringing that up to Lanorear. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already flown away,” Ratner said with an agreeing nod. “But that doesn’t mean the Goblins won’t come up here next anyways. And remember, we found twenty-seven dead Goblins b
ack there,” he added and pointed back the way they came. The consensus is these soldiers are the ones who killed those Goblins so they also believe the Goblins may come looking for their missing who happen to be dead.”
“Damn it,” Mykal hissed harshly but quietly. “I don’t wanna be on the friggin run from Goblins under a mountain again.” Mykal shook his head in anger and tried to think of what they could do to escape. “Not with the exit just over there as you say.”
“What is the plan thus far?” Towbar asked.
“I was just about to send a runner to come and get you two up here so you could help us put together a solid plan.”
“Alright let’s go up there and we’ll see what we gotta do,” Mykal sighed. He didn’t want to be trapped when they were so close to getting out from under the mountain. He was tempted to make himself invisible and go by himself to wipe out both sides though it would be time consuming.
They crept to where the leaders were and peaked out to where they could see but wouldn’t be seen. Temporarily there was a standoff. Both sides occasionally fired arrows or bolts from their bows or crossbows. Lanorear wasn’t anywhere to be seen acknowledging the point he flew to the exit to show the Goblins there was no help up here for the soldiers.
Lieutenant Finley backed away so Mykal and Towbar could move to the front and have a look at their predicament. Mykal watched Roy Jr. approached Finley and quietly present him with his 9 millimeter pistol. Finley looked shocked and brought his hand to his face and lowered his head. Finley shook his head. He quickly took his leather holster from around his waist and handed it to Roy Jr. and took four extra magazines from his pocket and handed them over. He obviously didn’t want his weapon that a fellow soldier, a fellow Green Beret, used to take his own life.
Mykal and Towbar crawled to the position where Diaz and a couple others spied the scene below. Just as Mykal started to watch below he saw three Goblins sneaking toward the soldiers. The three Goblins came almost directly under their position and he had the idea of dropping a hand grenade on top of them, but he knew that would give his position away. Before he could even mention his idea three of the soldiers jumped up from behind their rock barricade and fired off three arrows killing all three Goblins. Suddenly a large group of Goblins shouted their angry response and hurled rocks and weapons to no avail. Mykal was impressed with the soldiers. They had to know the three Goblins were approaching and they had to act in unity and agreement in order for all to have hit their individual target at basically the same time.
Captain Diaz tapped Mykal’s leg to get his attention to wave him and Towbar back. “Have we got a plan?” Mykal asked once he and Towbar joined the leaders which included Nordad and the Elves.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do that won’t have us caught in the middle of their battle,” Diaz said. “I mean we could back track and hold up until they are done with what they’re doing here, but that could take days.”
“And that could lead to the Goblins coming after us,” Ratner brought up as a suggestion. “That means we could end up facing a situation similar to what we had the last time when we were on the run from the Goblins.”
“Yeah, we don’t wanna do that,” Mykal scoffed and shook his head. “Do we know how many of the soldiers are trapped down there? Cuz it looks like the Goblins are continuing to grow.”
“We tried to count them Mykal,” Ratner answered and we figure between thirty and forty. There may be more on the outside of the mountain. Egoneal mentioned that Lanorear said there were more soldiers heading out when he flew that way the first time.”
“This is true,” Egoneal said while standing against his large bow. Being the greatest archer he had a much larger bow. “Lanorear stopped on one of the rocks. The trapped soldiers shouted for him to go outside the mountain and get the army to return in order to aid them. That was when the Goblins tried to attack Lanorear and he flew away.”
“We know the Goblins would never make a truce with us,” Mykal said. “But do we have any idea if the soldiers would make a truce with us if we were to come to their side and assist them?”
“It may be possible,” Nordad answered while slowly stroking his long white beard. “They would have a debt of gratitude. However, with Elves in our company that may create some problems for us.”
“Are you thinking we should rescue them Mykal?” Diaz asked and pondered the idea.
“Yeah. I don’t wanna wait here until one side is dead and then have to worry about the other side. If the exit is not far from here I wanna get the hell outta here yesterday, ya know what I mean?”
Some of the men started the laugh. The Elves didn’t understand what he meant since that couldn’t be possible to depart the mountain the day before when they were still inside the mountain. They all looked somewhat confused by his words.
“I would agree with Mykal,” Roy Jr. said. “If we could wipe out the Goblins or even just chase them away, well if them soldier dudes aren’t grateful, then we could bust up their asses too.”
Marine Corporal Winfield, one of the point men who was the first to find the situation started to laugh and raised his hand to high five Roy Jr. “Word up country boy.”
“We could start to pick them off,” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner said. “And maybe lob grenades, both hand grenades and 40 mike mike high explosive rounds from the M-203s. And if they start to head up this walk way we could stop them with M-60 machineguns.”
Mykal wanted desperately to volunteer to go out there alone. He wanted to turn himself invisible to decimate them completely, both sides if need be, but then everyone would know about his magic of invisibility. He couldn’t allow that. The idea of being invisible and going on a rampage to destroy the filthy evil Goblins filled him with a rush of excitement. He had to fight the urge to keep from turning invisible right there in front of all the men.
“That will also show the Zee-man soldiers what kind of power we have,” Lieutenant Finley said. “So if they don’t like the idea of our helping them from the evil hand of the Goblins we can easily turn our awesome power on them.”
“Yes, this sounds like a much better plan than waiting for their skirmish to be over,” Diaz said with his index finger pressed against his chin which gave the impression of deep thought.
“Besides, maybe we can have Lanorear tell them we’re on a secret mission for Ziggy Stardust and then maybe they’ll be okay with us,” Mykal snickered. “Hell, maybe they will actually lead us back to the palace we need to get to. And if not, me and my buddy here,” he pointed to Towbar, “will lob all their friggin heads off for not appreciating what we did,” he added with a laugh that generated laughter from the human soldiers. Only Captain Diaz didn’t display a humorous expression of agreement.
“Uh oh, uh oh,” Freeman whispered harshly. “The greenies are attacking,” he said and wildly waved his hand for them to join him.
Mykal, Towbar and several others crowded to the opening of the tunnel to oversee the battle that commenced below them. There appeared to be more than one hundred dark green Goblins charging on the position held by the human soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl. War cries and yells of the evil creatures showed their intention was to fight until all the soldiers were dead.
The men didn’t wait for the Goblins to land on top of them and jumped up over their rock cover or side stepped the rock formations to shoot their arrows. Many Goblins fell quickly. Many Goblins also fired their crossbows and hurled hand axes when the men exposed themselves. Several humans fell. The battle of missiles went back and forth but Goblins would be on them with stronger numbers in just a matter of moments. The war of attrition by overwhelming numbers would be over rather quickly.
Mykal was angrily shocked when he saw another group of fifty to seventy Goblins come from the back wall where the Goblins attacked from. ‘These men are dead unless we do something right now,’ Mykal thought. He knew the men were all in agreement to attack the large group of smaller bullies, but they didn’t know the force was going t
o continually grow which meant his men would be more at risk. He wasn’t afraid for himself due to his ability to turn invisible and thus be able to sneak away if it became a matter of survival.
Mykal tapped the arm of Diaz who laid prone on his right and pointed to the Goblins entering the battle to support their superior force. “If we’re gonna do something, we gotta do it now,” Mykal whispered harshly.
“I’m with you,” Diaz said without hesitation.
“Tell the men to take out the Goblins and hopefully we’ll be able to save a few of the soldiers,” Mykal said while he moved to a kneeling position to start shooting at Goblins at the rear of their formation. “I want grenades and M-203s to blast the hell outta them,” he ordered and looked at the battle below them. The soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl were taking a beating though they did take out a number of the Goblins. “I want people shooting these Goblin bastards,” Mykal snarled and pointed to the Goblins engaging in hand to hand combat below them.
Mykal didn’t listen to the orders given or the words being spoken around him. He quickly began shooting and took out Goblins with every round fired. He tried to aim for the head but some he settled on hitting their chest. A rolling thunder of increased gun fire grew as the men joined the battle to take out the Goblins. Explosions ripped through the battle field and Goblins were being ripped apart. They didn’t know what was happening to them and the boldness of Mykal’s soldiers became apparent when Mykal eased out into the walkway and moved downward on the ramp to the ground below. His men filed out to shoot at the enemy while they followed him downward to the ground floor below.
**********
Most of the Goblins and then the soldiers basically stopped battling to see what the horrendous noise was and where it came from. It wasn’t just the noise was loud, but the noise became deadly. Goblins were dropping dead faster than the soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl were capable of inflicting. The Goblins, who hadn’t been killed, filled the air with their shouts of pain and cries of fear. The cries of fear caught the attention of the Goblins not injured since Goblins never display fear.