by Dave Hazel
“Yeah, really think that through Mykal,” Ratner said. “I know Sergeant Barry will come to drive us, but he doesn’t want to be involved with staying there. But you can talk to him when you see him and see what he wants to do. I don’t know, maybe he will change his mind.”
“What are we going to do about refueling?” Mykal asked.
“They are working on that. Either we will bring an extra fuel vehicle to refuel with or we’ll bring several barrels of fuel. I don’t know for sure what was discussed, but they were working on that.”
“Have we kept Hidtotim and his three men from going deeper into the Pass?”
“Yes and we kept them surrounded by men who have built us up and played down the Sosos being a different enemy that doesn’t have anything to do with Zizmon-Tarl. And it worked out that the Elf army is much farther into the Pass so they didn’t see the Elf army. That may have raised questions.”
“I’m gonna hate it if we have to kill them cuz they have been pretty good to us and they’re gonna help us get to the castle. True they don’t know the truth that we’re really their enemies, but we’ll have to deal with that when the time comes. Hopefully we can convince them to take sides with us somehow.”
“It’s true they have been a big help, but war is war and they happen to be on the wrong side of the battle lines,” Ratner laughed cruelly. “Oh, and if you get the chance before we leave, that religious guy from your first visit here, Ski, I guess he is trying to get in touch with you. He said if you can meet with him it would be great, if not he said to talk to Captain Diaz. He was able to spend a little time with the captain earlier and if he doesn’t talk to you he’ll meet up with you when we return.”
“I will. I’ll ask Towbar when I see him, but have you heard if he said anything about someone being sent to the King to let him know about the deal that’s on the table?”
“Hmm, I haven’t heard anything about that. But you’re right. The seventh of February is seventeen days away and you said it takes about eight days one way.”
“Yeah, but if we have our stuff together we can have someone drive there and get him here much faster. Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to Towbar about it in a few minutes. Do you know anything about the three Soso prisoners we have?” Mykal thought of the three prisoners they captured in Soso occupied land to the north. “The leader of the three was named Scodtull. They were the ones who gave us the information that Doninka was taken to the other side of the world.”
“I’m sorry Mykal. I don’t know anything about them and to be honest, with all that we have gone through I forgot about them.”
“Not a problem, I’ll find out from others before we go. They could end up being important to us, as long as they weren’t pulling my leg,” Mykal said with a scoff and a slight laugh. He didn’t think they were playing him and he remembered the words Scodtull used. “Scodtull, the leader of the three is actually a higher ranking officer in their military and what makes him a fascinating catch for us,” he said more for review for himself to bring back the important information, “is he said his name among their people is ‘Lans-tanto’ which means something like ‘one who isn’t sure what god he believes in.’ But he said really his name should be ‘Lans-drandomatti’ which means ‘one who doesn’t believe in any gods.’ But if he made it clear that he didn’t believe in any gods then his own people would have killed him for denying the existence of their many gods.”
“That’s interesting,” Ratner said to be polite but his facial expression showed he didn’t care. “So are you about ready to leave?” Ratner asked and jumped to his feet.
“Yeah, I’m just getting my stuff squared away. And I take it everyone else is about ready?” Mykal watched the gunnery sergeant nod and move toward the tent opening. “I take it everyone ate cuz I don’t wanna have to be delayed by having to stop and eat.”
“No, no everyone has had breakfast and you’ll probably get a kick out of this Myk,” Ratner said and couldn’t keep from laughing. “Hidtotim and his three men never had food like ours, but they loved having Lucky Charms cereal. They loved the little marshmallow bits. They were like little kids.”
“That’s funny,” Mykal laughed and thought of his two little boys begging for Lucky Charms for breakfast. “Hey can we see if we can get them to takes some?”
“It’s already done Myk. Finley saw how much they raved about the cereal and asked Captain Diaz to pull some strings and he got them a case each,” Ratner said and laughed. “I think there are like fifty individual boxes each, but they’re all mixed up. I guess they didn’t like Raisin Bran because they thought the raisins were like little bugs in their cereal bowl.
“That’s funny. We’re buying these guys help with a case of breakfast cereal.”
“They are probably going to be disappointed when they get the Corn Flakes or plain Cheerios,” Ratner said and they laughed together. “They feel like they’re getting gold from us, like a super great treasure,” he continued to laugh. “But what they don’t know is they will eat it in no time or it will get stale if they don’t eat it.”
“Man, some of the damnedest things that come up in this world. People aren’t gonna believe this.”
“I hear that Myk. I’m going to go make sure everyone us getting packed up.”
“I’ll be there shortly.”
2.
“Hey Sergeant Barry, I’m glad you decided to come along with us,” Mykal said as he and Towbar got into the military transport vehicle. The vehicle’s metal plating would protect them if they came under attack from bow and arrows or hand hurled weapons.
“I’m not one for straying from base camp if I don’t have to,” Barry said while standing at the door to greet those entering his vehicle. “But I thought this may be the only opportunity I may get to check out the other side of Towbar’s world. So as long as we don’t have a crazy time like we did on New Year’s Eve I’ll gladly go on a little trip. And besides that if I can do anything to help rescue the missing princess, I’ll gladly help. Major Chick has explained her importance to our existence here and he explained why you and Towbar are so committed to return her here.”
“Speaking of that day,” Mykal said and pointed to the vehicle next to theirs. “Do you remember that general of Towbar’s name Dalisid? He was the one who translated the things I wanted to say.”
“Oh yeah. I remember him,” Staff Sergeant Barry said and cracked a smile. “He thought you were a little nutty for wanting to taunt the Sosos, but then he thought we did a great job.”
“Well see this guy right there who is getting into that vehicle?” Mykal asked and pointed to a group of men. “He is the fifth one to the right of the soldiers there. He is actually Dalisid’s brother. His name is Malidon. He’s not a general like his brother but from what Towbar tells me he’s a great warrior.”
“He is a great warrior and he will be a fine military leader in time,” Towbar said without looking at the soldiers. “He has four older brothers and he is following in their footsteps to be great military leaders.”
“He has been on all three of these trips to the other side,” Mykal said to keep the conversation going. “His close friend Shayup was injured twice and he still wanted to go back with us.”
“That is correct my friend. He was angry that I ordered him to stay behind for his own health and welfare. However, he relented. He did not want to be a liability to his friends.”
“While we’re waiting for everyone to get loaded up, anything been happening with you guys since we last worked together?” Mykal asked.
“Nothing really Myk. Just doing our transportation job,” Barry said and then snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah. When the last group arrived with Colonel Fisher, they brought our biggest request that we had. As you know each one of our vehicles have a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on them. And now all six of these vehicles we are taking with us also have the Mark 19 attached,” he said with pride and pointed to the second weapon on the vehicle.
&n
bsp; “What is that?” Mykal asked and was surprised. Without looking close he thought the vehicles were mounted with double .50 caliber machine guns. “I don’t know what a Mark 19 is.”
“Oh wow, well here, let me show you because I just love this little baby and if we happen to face any of those dragons again or any of those Things, I’ll gladly put this little baby to use. You know what an M-203 grenade launcher is right?”
“Yeah,” Mykal said and looked closer to the mounted weapon.
“Well this is a belt fed Mk 19 grenade launcher. It shoots 40mm grenades at a cyclic rate of 325 to 375 rounds per minute, but the practical rate is more like about 60 rounds per minute at rapid fire and 40 rounds at a sustained rate of fire. They say you can level a good size house with one of these. The effective range of fire is 1500 meters or about 1600 yards. The ammo comes in cans that hold belts of 32 or 48 rounds but they sent us the 32 round belts with the equipment. And even though they are 40mm rounds they’re not interchangeable with the M-203s because the primary ammunition for it is the high-explosive dual-purpose M430 grenade. They can kill anyone within a radius of five meters, and injure them within a radius of about 15 meters.”
“Oh damn I would love to see them in action,” Mykal gasped with excitement and looked closer at the weapon. “That’s good. I actually heard of these but I just never knew the name of them.”
“These will be great when the Sosos attack,” Barry said. “Since they always attack in big group formations these are especially effective when used against enemy infantry formations. We also have the M3 tripod so we can detach them from the vehicles and set them up where we would need them.”
“That is so good to know,” Mykal said with a happy smile.
“I’m surprised you didn’t know we have these. When the last group of personnel arrived we were told you had ordered all the equipment and said these were items you specifically ordered.”
“Well I know I ordered a bunch of stuff,” Mykal joked. “But I actually had help picking equipment and supplies if you know what I mean,” he snickered because he actually had others make the list of equipment, weapons and supplies that should be brought but he was glad to get the credit. “But damn, some time when we get back I wanna have someone show me how to use it cuz I would like to drive out to the Soso camp and open up with this damn thing.”
“We may just do that,” Sergeant Barry laughed. “You always have a way of mixing it up to make it exciting for the guys.”
Mykal was going to comment but realized his ‘mixing it up’ usually caused him problems when ‘mixing it up’ for the excitement and thrill of it all would usually get out of hand. “Well cool, I’m glad you think so. But listen, you guys are gonna play a real big part in helping us. From what Hidtotim told me, he’s one of the soldiers here with us who is helping us who thinks--”
“Yeah we have been briefed that Zizmon-Tarl is an ally,” Barry cut him off to show he already knew the ‘correct story’ to be spread should it come up in conversation with the four soldiers of Zizmon-Tarl. “So we have to be careful what we say,” Barry said while some of his Army four-man transport teams came closer.
“Good, good. We need his help. But anyway, based on what Hidtotim was telling me, where we were, we were on a piece of ground that would take about five or six days travel at a slow march across the plains and hilly ground to get to the forest we need to get to. From the forest it should take us a day to two days to reach the castle where I hope Princess Doninka is being held. You guys should be able to get us to the forest by the end of the day so that will save us I guess four, five or six days. Our deadline is the seventh of February which right now gives us seventeen days. Make sure your men and anyone we talk to other than Hidtotim and his men that time is of the essence and we have a deadline of the end of this month.”
“I thought you just said the seventh of next month?” Barry asked with a look of misunderstanding.
“It is but I don’t wanna put us in the spot of having to win the game with only a couple of seconds on the clock.”
“Great point,” Barry replied and looked at the half dozen, four man, teams under him. “We are ready and we are good at what we do. And we took the time to train on the Mark 19s after we received them and attached them to our vehicles. We are bringing 5,000 rounds for each of the .50 calibers and ten cans of 32 rounds for each of the Mk 19s so we will be ready for anything that may happen along the way. The nice thing is we will be driving in vehicles so the poor men won’t have to lug around all that ammo while walking as all your men had to do with the M-60 and M-203 ammo cans you guys carried.”
“Yeah, you’re right but we didn’t wanna be without that special ammo. This is gonna be like a dream with you guys driving us as opposed to us walking all that distance. So once again, and in advance, I wanna thank you and your men cuz you don’t know how much of a relief and a change this will be from walking.”
“It’s really our pleasure to serve and to help,” Barry replied.
“Well thanks, but I don’t think you guys know how important your roll will be in possibly saving Towbar’s people from being annihilated. This really is far more important than you guys just giving us a lift to our next destination.”
3.
Captain Diaz and Lieutenant Finley split up and rode in other vehicles to be spread among the men. Mykal explained that he wanted Hidtotim to ride with him. Mykal felt concern that the survivors they left behind from the last battle would make it back to the castle or the military camp and expose their presence. He feared they would warn of Mykal’s destructive ability which would enable them to be prepared for his arrival. It could also alert those in charge of protecting Doninka that a rescue attempt may be tried and that would hurt their chances of approaching covertly if not put her life in greater danger.
Towbar, Mathis, the Dosch brothers, Vick Daring with his camera man and a couple others rode with Mykal along with Hidtotim and his three men. Mykal had the convoy ride out of the Pass to the east, past the piles of dead bodies that had decayed into a large mass of bones, clothing, leathery flesh and hair. He refused to look at the long lost remains since some of his friends were in that pile of discarded, decaying carcasses. Amid all that rotted flesh and bones, dried blood, hair, tattered clothing and some armor were Towbar’s soldiers, townspeople but mostly Soso remains.
Newer bodies had been placed beside that pile from the last battles at the end of the year. When the Sosos pulled out of the Pass Towbar’s soldiers worked hard to get the dead out of the Pass. They tried to burn most of the corpses, but not all were burned due to the time involved with the threat of Sosos not far away. They didn’t want to spend the time outside of the Pass for the generals feared it would risk tempting the Sosos to attack. There was still a lingering funk in the air, but those bodies that didn’t burn would become like the leathery skeletal remains from earlier in the year.
Mykal asked Towbar to conjure the green fog and instructed the giant to have them appear at the ‘Tree of Strange Happenings’ because it was a solid reference point. Despite the fact that it was not as far as they had travelled before coming back to the Pass it was a good place to focus on. The lone tree in the middle of the plains would be easy to recall and it showed Mykal they would be able to find the exact spot should they return with the British and Australian soldiers who wanted to return to excavate the area where the World War One artifacts were discovered based on the weapons and helmet that were found. If this truly was the place where the Lost Battalion of August 12th 1915 disappeared to, it would be the answer to a long unsolved mystery. But that was for another time. Finding and rescuing Doninka was the most important objective to complete first.
When they arrived at the Tree of Strange Happenings the vehicles were spread over a large area about a square mile but it wasn’t as bad as some of the travels had been in the past. All the men examined the area to ensure nothing had been left behind and to confirm they were where they wanted to be. They could se
e for miles in all directions and Mykal was pleased that they had vehicles to cover the many miles of land as opposed to walking. He didn’t mind the cross-country hiking if it came to it, but this would help get him closer to Doninka that much faster than if they had to walk.
While they all stood looking into the distance, a slight breeze blew through the plains or the flats as Towbar and the people of his world called it. A sudden fearful thought struck Mykal. ‘What if Captain William Roberts is out there?’ Mykal wondered. William tried to kill him after he killed Boris to shut him up for Percy and the President. Mykal allowed the Goblins to take him alive because he believed the Goblins would torture him to death. He regretted not killing William himself and after a couple of nightmares where William threatened Mykal, and even Towbar experienced a dream where William threatened the giant so he believed William might still be alive and might be a pawn to Zizmon-Tarl. No matter the case, if William was alive as a pawn of Zizmon-Tarl, in league with Zizmon-Tarl or a prisoner of the evil genius and being tortured by the ultimate bad guy, Mykal vowed if he ever laid eyes on William again that he would kill him where he stood. Should William Roberts make it back to the real world and happen to be standing beside his old friend, the President of the United States, Mykal swore to kill him where he stood he pondered with burning hatred.
‘Why the hell am I thinking of that scumbag? I don’t need to think about that piece of shit and I don’t wanna think about him. He’s dead! Or he will be,’ he told himself in thought. His angry thoughts changed his facial appearance.
“What troubles you my friend?” Towbar asked.
“Huh? What?” He asked and looked around to see who was standing near him. He didn’t want to say anything in front of others but most were not near enough to hear him.
“I can see your mood suddenly changed and I wanted to know if there was something I could do to help you.”