by Dave Hazel
“Yeah, we know what you mean cuz we encountered those blood sucking fiends,” Mykal said coldly and realized his men must have killed or re-killed their leader Dand Gulag in the group of zombies that attacked them. “But there were more than just your soldiers in that group that we encountered. We lost some men to those things as well. We were able to stop them so they are no longer under the curse of those creatures that put a horrible curse on them.”
“You were able to stop them?” Hidtotim asked.
“Yes. If you ever encounter them again, or if one of you people get bit by them you have to lob off their heads or crush their skulls so that their brain is killed,” Mykal said because he knew the man wouldn’t understand it if he told him to shoot them in the head.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes. If you get bit by one of them, there is something in the bite, in the teeth, almost like a poison,” he said because he didn’t think the man would understand the words ‘germs’ or ‘virus’, “that will go inside you and once you die, you will turn into one of those things and then you will come back as one and try to bite and eat others. Thus the new victim will become one of those things. We call them zombies or AFA,” Mykal said.
“Or UBAH,” Mathis said which caused Mykal to start snickering.
Mykal turned to Mathis and pointed a finger at him as a warning, but was laughing and couldn’t say anything to him. Mykal was glad Mathis was near him for the humor Mathis brought him in such a dreadful place.
“Are you sure of this?” Hidtotim asked.
“Yes,” Diaz said and nodded sadly.
“We had to put down two of our own,” Mykal said referring to shooting a couple of dead people in the head before they rose again. “After someone has been bitten it’s like they have a disease and when they die, it makes them come back to life and then it starts all over again. An entire nation will be wiped out if it is not stopped.”
Suddenly Hidtotim turned to two of his men and whispered to them in their native language. There was a brief discussion, almost an argument and the two men rushed off.
Mykal wasn’t sure what Hidtotim said to his two men but they dashed off toward the area in front of them. Mykal was shocked to see the two soldiers sneak up to two other soldiers who were conversing with Mykal’s men. They both raised their long thick blades up high and sliced them down into the back of the heads of two unsuspecting fellow comrades, soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl, before anything could be said.
“What the hell did you just do?” Mykal yelled at Hidtotim for killing two of his own men. It shocked Mykal’s soldiers who turned with their weapons pointed to the two attackers.
The two men who had just been killed had their heads split open while they walked along casually and never anticipated it. They never saw the blades slicing down into their skulls from behind.
Diaz yelled for his men to stand down. His people weren’t being targeted. The message spread they were victims of the AFAs. Everyone stared at the remains as they walked by. The two who lay with their heads split open thought they had been rescued and would make it out of the mountain and had no idea they had a poison, a ‘virus’ or a ‘germ’ that would turn them into the same deadly flesh eating monsters that attacked and bit them. One of the two had bite marks on his face and neck. The other had been bitten on his hands and arm.
“Those two men had been bitten by those creatures that rise to live again,” Hidtotim replied. “From what you just explained to me, when my two men die they would have come back to attack and feast on our flesh. I will not allow that.”
“Well, thank you,” Mykal said to Hidtotim. “By doing that, you not only spared your people, but my people as well, and more importantly all the people of your home.”
4.
Several hours later they neared the exit without encountering any more strange creatures or potential foes. Lanorear returned with the rest of his Hawkmen clan. Freeman and Winfield with the help of Starling, Leeno and Blair were able to tell them what the story was so the soldiers would be accepting of the Elves. Lanorear stayed away from the soldiers so he wouldn’t be questioned.
“Hey Mykal,” Mathis turned and interrupted the conversation Mykal and Towbar had with Vick Daring. “Captain Diaz is on the horn,” he said in reference to the radio handset he held up. “He would like you and Towbar to join him up toward the front of the column. He said to tell you it’s not important, it’s not an emergency, but he would like you to join him.”
“Sure. Tell him we’ll be right there. Do you wanna come with me Towbar?”
“Yes, my friend,” the giant replied happily. Towbar seemed as upbeat and energetic as when they first started this long journey to find Doninka.
“I’m amazed at you buddy,” Mykal said while they walked along.
“Why do you say that my friend?”
“You always seem like everything is okay and there is never a problem. You’re always happy and have a positive outlook,” Mykal said with a self-deprecating tone and then turned to contrast himself with the giant. “Whereas me, I’m always boo-hooing about something, or worried sick something bad is gonna go wrong. Then I’m always ticked off about somebody or something, but you always seem happy no matter what’s going on.”
“This is not true my friend. I am not always happy. There are times when I am very angry. However, I will admit that I do not show my emotions like you do at times. It does not help me if I allow anger to get the best of me and allow it to consume my thinking. Then I would be focused on the object of my wrath which in turn means the object of my wrath would have the upper hand in controlling my thoughts. I will not allow my foes to have that kind of power over me in that way.”
“Hum, that makes sense,” Mykal said just as they joined Diaz, Starling, Leeno, Blair and Nordad. “Hey guys, what’s up?”
Suddenly the three Elves and Nordad looked up to the top of the mountain ceiling.
Mykal, Diaz and even Towbar started to laugh. “My friends,” Towbar said with a smile. “I have come to learn that ‘what’s up’ is not a literal question. It is a friendly greeting.”
“Ah yes,” Nordad said and stroked his long white beard. “I remember this was brought up one time before.”
“It means nothing,” Mykal laughed at how literal they were. “It means ‘hey guys, how are you doing today? Is everything going well with you on this fine day today?’ And stuff like that,” Mykal said and laughed when he saw Diaz crack a smile into a slight laugh because of his exaggerated explanation.
“We have similar terms or slang like that,” Diaz said as Finley joined them from the front. “I could see where some of our slang could become confusing.”
“Hey, what’s up?” Finley asked and laughed when the three Elves looked up again. He heard what they were talking about and couldn’t resist to see if he could catch them again so quickly.
“Ah, very clever,” Nordad said with a laugh and looked at the Elves. “Our pointy eared friends take longer to catch on.”
“I still do not understand the humor you see in our looking up when you ask what is up,” Starling said humorlessly.
“It’s not you, it’s us,” Finley snickered. “Sometimes we’re simpletons who are easily amused like children.”
“Yeah, sometimes our humor is childlike,” Mykal agreed. “Where we come from you gotta be able to laugh at yourselves a little bit,” he joked because he knew they were close to getting out from under the mountain and was in a happy mood.
“Laugh, at ourselves?” Blair asked. “What would be humorous about our own being that would make us desire to laugh?”
“Here, I’ll give you an example of something back home that embarrassed the hell outta me, but I was able to laugh at myself or I woulda been miserable cuz of the embarrassment I felt. Officers are big important people in our military. There are some officers who far out rank Captain Diaz here,” Mykal said and nodded to Diaz.
“Well one day I had to meet an important three st
ar general. He’s a big shot. Believe me when I tell you, he’s a big shot. He’s almost the very top cuz we do have four star generals. They are always super busy and they don’t put up with any nonsense cuz they don’t have time for games.”
“I can vouch for him on that,” Captain Diaz said. He looked at Mykal with a puzzled look as if he didn’t know what Mykal was getting to with his little story.
“So I went into this room to meet this very important three star general and he was with seven or eight other highly ranked officers. Believe me I was nervous. This was just before my fame started so I was scared shitless to tell you the truth. We shook hands and he said he would have to meet with me another time because this pressing meeting just came up. He said it was nice to meet me and we’d get together soon. I turned for the door and I meant to say ‘it was nice to meet you too,’ and I meant to say ‘same here Sir’, but as I walked out the door I said ‘Nice here too,’ and I shut the damn door. Oh man,” Mykal laughed at himself with a scolding tone. “I wanted to slap myself in the head cuz I couldn’t open the door back up and correct my misspeak or that would have looked even more foolish,” Mykal said with laughter. “Cuz I’m thinking all these big shots are probably laughing at me and thinking I’m some kinda little moron.”
Diaz and Finley both laughed at Mykal’s embarrassing encounter with a three star general. They probably had their share of embarrassing encounters with higher ranking officers, but they didn’t share it now that they could laugh at someone else.
“Yep, I said ‘Nice here too’ and I shut the door. Those eight or nine officers must have thought I was a friggin idiot,” Mykal laughed again and showed he was capable of laughing at himself. “But I had to laugh at myself or I woulda been worried for something I didn’t have any control over. I had a couple of friends I told that to and we all had a big laugh over it. If something was going on that was stressful and we needed a laugh, all I had to do was say, ‘Nice here too’ and we would all burst out with laughter, just like these two,” Mykal said and pointed to Diaz and Finley who just started with new fits of laughter. “And I think the reason they’re laughing about it is cuz they have had their share of embarrassing moments so they can relate and I don’t have a problem being laughed at as long as we’re laughing together,” he added and playfully grabbed the handle of his revolver as if making a threat.
“Oh, yes, I have been there Mykal,” Diaz admitted while laughing with Mykal.
“The phrase ‘nice here too’ does not seem to make any sense,” Leeno said with straight faced seriousness and looked at his Elvin brothers who looked just as confused as him.
“That’s exactly right,” Mykal chortled again. “It doesn’t make any sense. I jumbled my words and misspoke. That’s what’s so funny. I embarrassed myself in front of some very important big shots. Important and powerful leaders,” he added to help clarify his meaning to them
Nordad seemed to have found the humor in the situation where Mykal misspoke. The older magician was snickering quietly. Towbar even chuckled and found the humor in what Mykal explained.
“Anyway, that’s not important,” Mykal said in defeat since he couldn’t get the Elves to understand what he was trying to say. ‘Elves just don’t have any damn sense of humor,’ he thought. “So what’s going on now?” Mykal asked.
Lieutenant Finley had to wipe the tears of laughter away. He understood Mykal’s struggle to explain humor to the Elves. “It’s like trying to explain fire to fish,” Finley said which caused more confused expressions among the Elves and more laughter among Mykal and the others with a sense of humor.
“Oh that’s a good one,” Mykal acknowledged. “We can do this all day,” he added in response to the expressions of muddle even with Towbar.
“Fish do not need fire,” Towbar replied.
“That’s what’s so funny about that,” Finley guffawed even harder.
“We’re near the exit,” Diaz said loudly to break the giggle fits while he fought the laughter that both Mykal and Finley brought upon him. “Starling just informed me that Lanorear and the other Hawkmen say it’s raining pretty hard out right now so I suggest we camp out near the exit and stay dry. Besides, it’s getting late,” he added while he looked at his watch.
“I’m fine with that,” Mykal said.
“I figured you would be, but what I really wanted to bring up was,” Diaz paused and looked to make sure none of the rescued soldiers were nearby to hear him. “Are you planning to go back to the Pass after we depart the mountain?”
“I wasn’t really giving it a lot of thought, but I guess we could to resupply and get a hot meal,” Mykal answered. “We don’t have any serious injuries that need to be attended to.”
“I agree, but what about the new soldiers? If we don’t bring them back with us, we don’t really know what they’re going to say when they make it back to their homeland.”
“We could just take them back with us and promise to return them,” Lieutenant Finley suggested.
Suddenly Mykal’s eyes widened and he let out a deep sigh. “Dang it,” Mykal said.
“You know what I’m getting at?” Captain Diaz asked.
“Yes,” Mykal scoffed and shook his head. “Crap.”
“What is it? I don’t get it?” Finley asked.
“I am confused as well,” Nordad admitted and the Elves followed his lead.
“The only reason Ziggy Stardust hasn’t been able to use the green fog to get behind us in the Pass is he doesn’t have anything to focus on. If we bring them there with us, then they will have eyes on the place and if, if, and I know that’s a big if, but if Ziggy finds out they have been there he could use any of the fifteen to focus on the Pass and we would be surprised by a sneak attack to our rear. And that’s if he has a Mind Talk type of magic that Towbar uses.”
“That’s exactly what I was afraid of,” Captain Diaz declared.
“Should we strike them down?” Towbar offered.
“No, no, cuz we need them to help us find ‘the palace’. So we need to really think this through while we rest during the night. They are willing to be helpful and I hope it’s not just an act until they have a chance to get away.”
“If we take them to the Pass my friend, I would say they would have to remain prisoners until the wars are over,” Towbar said somberly.
“But didn’t you say the wars never end?”
“Yes my friend. That is what I mean. They will never be able to depart. If that is the case we will treat them fairly. They are not Sosos.”
“Oh man, we really need to think this through during the night,” Mykal said and rubbed the sudden ache that started in his temple. “Let’s try to come up with some ideas and we’ll deal with this in the morning. Cuz to be honest, if we take them back to the Pass and then bring them back here to help us find the palace, then we’ll have to kill them after we used them,” Mykal said coldly. “We’ll have to kill them,” he reiterated, “or all the people in the Pass will always be at risk.”
Only Diaz and Finley seemed effected by Mykal’s statement. Nordad couldn’t care either way and the Elves were longtime enemies of the soldiers. They had no love lost for them.
“Gunney and Lemon,” Diaz called the two senior NCOs who neared them. “When we get to the exit we’re going to camp inside the mountain at the exit. I want double sentry duty and I want the men to be extremely cautious. I don’t want there to be any mistakes or mishaps as we are right at the end of this mountain trek.”
“Aye aye Sir,” Ratner replied.
“Hooah,” Lemon barked afterward.
Mykal and Towbar walked back to the rear of the formation. He noticed the walls were moist and there appeared to be water dripping in various spots. He assumed it was due to the heavy rain taking place outside the mountain. He had a great deal of thinking to do. The soldiers could possibly be a big help in finding Doninka and he was going to take advantage of their assistance. But if it came down to it he would kill them rather tha
n allow them to be a pathway or a door for Zizmon-Tarl to attack their rear position in the Pass.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN 01/19/1984
1. Thursday, January 19th 1984
0511 hours, Inside of Mountain, Other Side of Towbar’s World (12th Day)
“Hey Myk, I see you’re up.” Mathis said when he came to wake him.
“Yeah I’m up. I’ve been up for about fifteen minutes. I just wanna get the hell out from under this damn mountain. Where’s Towbar?”
“He’s with Diaz and Finley, so are the Dosch brothers. They’re eating real quick before we go.”
“From what Sergeant Freeman was saying,” Private First Class Anka joined in. “He said the outside world is only about twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes away. He and the Elves also said the rain had just stopped a couple of hours ago.”
“So the one good thing about being under this mountain,” Mathis replied. “Is we’re dry. The Hawkmen, Lanorear’s bird thing buddies, said it was raining almost the entire time we’ve been inside the mountain.”
“Well good,” Mykal responded but his thoughts were on the fifteen soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl in their midst. He was still unsure what to do about them. Mykal believed if they understood who his people really were, and their opposition to Zizmon-Tarl, they would turn on his group. Mykal was also sure if they understood that his people killed many of their fellow soldiers along the river in the gorge then they would have a strong reason to want revenge. Mykal wasn’t sure if his emotions were getting wishy-washy because of the magic ring and its strange effect on his emotions, but he was feeling a little sympathetic to their plight.