SODIUM Trilogy Part One

by Stephen Arseneault

  Chapter 8

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  Bull and Allie were also bewildered. What was this mechanical beast and where had it come from? I wanted to know how it was moving around on its own; it was obvious to me it was not alive. It was instead something someone had made. But it clearly had reasoning abilities, as it was able to move agilely about on the rough terrain.

  Bull speculated perhaps it belonged to the military, or some secret lab, but I was confident this was well beyond man's abilities for 1957. Perhaps our science would one day progress to the point where this was possible, but it was not within our reach for the day. Mechanical things required a human brain to operate in anything more than a simple straight-line or pattern. This silvery beast did not have a living brain, and it was unlike anything we had ever seen.

  I then began to think about the dead animals. It suddenly occurred to me that if I was going to explore an alien world, I would probably do the same. I would send out a probe to gather as much information as I could.

  At that moment I had no doubt in my mind this demon was an alien scout. And with that thought I began to think about the meteor I had seen a few nights before and how it seemed much bigger than this beast. I began to feel Bull was right and we needed to make every effort to find Kyle as soon as possible.

  I wondered if he was still alive and if this thing was preparing to dissect him? Or if it had just taken him prisoner, was it going to take him back to its own planet? Was there a mothership of sorts? The questions were coming to me faster than I could make sense of them.

  For some reason I found myself now suddenly enamored with the whole mess. It was now exciting, and I just had to know what was going on. My fears quickly melted away, turning instead to obsession. It was like every scary story I had read where you knew the person should not go down into the dark basement after hearing a strange noise, but for some reason I just had to go look.

  As we stood staring at the beast, Bull turned and looked at me. He knew I now knew we had to go ahead to try to find Kyle. He knew I would no longer be the grump or the one who wanted out. Bull had known me for most of my life, and he knew when I latched onto something, it would be difficult for me to let go. It was my obsessive compulsion to meet this challenge head-on, and to solve whatever mystery there was.

  Bull pulled out his mini binoculars and stared at the demon as it stared back. It was almost seven feet tall and had three spindly legs. Each leg had three joints aside from the one where they attached to the body, and each joint had what looked like three tools. He could make out what looked like pliers, scissors, a six-inch-long blade with a serrated edge, and a drill.

  There were other appendages, but he was not certain what they were. At the bottom of the legs were the small, triangular feet that had left the smudge marks we had followed. On top of the three legs was an upside-down, shallow, dome-shaped head that was flat on top. I thought of it as a head, but it was really the body and head of whatever this was.

  The eyes were situated just under the rim of the flat top. It would no doubt have to tilt its head backward in order to look up to any degree. We would later speculate this might give us an advantage, if we could somehow attack it from above.

  As Bull watched, the eyes of the beast looked away and then turned downward as if looking at the rocks it was standing on. Then as if moving like a gazelle, it turned and sprinted away from us, up and over the ridge and out of view.

  The demon was fast, faster than us. And it was agile, given the way it bounded over the rough terrain so effortlessly. Even though I was excited to be there, a feeling of apprehension crept back into my mind. It did not look nearly fast enough to outrun bullets, and it did not appear at first glance to have any weapons. But who was I to be happy about confronting it when all I was carrying was a bat?

  I had come out of the trough of misery that had held me hostage for the past twenty-four hours, only to get onto another roller coaster. But at least I was no longer pining for home. This was the life of my brother-in-law, and even though it involved grave danger, I was committed to finding and rescuing him.

  We had a small valley ahead we had to climb down into, followed by another climb to the top of the ridge on the other side. It would then be a long walk back across a plateau to get back up to Laurel Lake. We would also have to deal with the heavy rain, which had returned with a vengeance.

  When we got down into the valley below, we were met with a once-small stream that was now a raging torrent. The rains had swollen it from six feet across to more than twenty. The water was crashing and churning over and around the large rocks that lined the normally quiet flow.

  We walked upstream for several hundred yards, but as the rains persisted, the torrent just seemed to grow. We could not safely cross, so we instead set up the tarp to sit out the rains until the torrent died down. It rained steadily for more than four hours before it slowed substantially.

  But the torrent had not gone down. It seemed like an endless stream of water coming down into this ravine that had trapped us from getting across. As we waited, the day turned to night and the stream continued to rage. We would have to wait until morning before moving on.

  The sides of the valley were steep in the area surrounding us, which meant an attack could only come from one end of the ravine or the other. Because of the canyon's shape, the demon, if it chose to, would have a difficult time attacking from above, so we had lucked into a very defensible position.

  We had taken the time when the rain had slacked off to also build a rock wall just out from either end of the tarp. I remember at one earlier point thinking I was glad we had bright red tarps. They would be easy to spot from the air if anyone had to search for us. At our new location and with the new situation, I was wishing for a forest green or granite gray.

  But the demon already knew where we were, so it wasn't like we needed to hide. I then had the realization that even though we had been sitting there under the tarp all afternoon, and even though I was still soaked to the bone, I was no longer shivering. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the excitement, or maybe I was just fatigued earlier, but either way, I was once again somewhat comfortable.

  As the night came, the temperature didn't drop much from where it had been. It had been cool all day with the rain. With nothing dry to use in a fire, we would be spending the night without it. With the overcast skies and the lack of a fire, the night became pitch black. I could not remember having ever seen such blackness, as I could not make out my hand in front of my face.

  I began to think, if we got attacked, the only point of reference we would have would be those piercing, red eyes. I reasoned they would make great targets for Bull and Allie. As the darkness came, we each sat with our backs to one another for the warmth it provided, as well as to give us a 360-degree view.

  With no light to speak of, we were left with listening to every drip or splatter from rainwater saturating the surrounding trees or the constant low roar that was the raging stream several hundred feet away. The sounds all seemed amplified, and with the complete blackness, we felt it would allow the demon to move about freely without being known; that is, unless we were able to see its eyes.

  We also decided the red tarp would give away our position, so we took it down and rolled it up. We then talked quietly for an hour about what we had seen. We were all fatigued from the day’s hike and the lack of food, so Bull advised that two of us should sleep while the other two pulled guard duty. Allie and I took the first watch while Bull and Susi bedded down for the night.

  Allie could normally carry on a conversation with just about anyone, and about anything, but she was almost dead silent that night. It was as though I had to prompt her for a response to every little question or statement I put out. It would seem that even as fearless as she normally was, the whole thing was beyond what she knew how to deal with. It was the same for the others.

  For me, I never wanted to talk more in my life. I wanted to know exactly what everyone was thinking, so I
could draw better conclusions for myself. If Allie thought there was a weakness we could exploit, I wanted to know what it was. If Bull thought they ran on diesel fuel, I wanted to know so I could scheme about how to take out their supply.

  I stared into the darkness with my shift almost over. I could close my eyelids and not notice a difference. The dread of discovery had filled my thoughts. It was then when the demon eyes made themselves known. They were popping in and out of my vision, and at first I could not make out if they were getting closer. I hesitated for a moment before telling Allie and waking Bull and Susi.

  We watched for ten minutes as the eyes went from right to left and from the creek up to the canyon wall and then back toward the creek again. It looked as though the demon was searching for us in a pattern. We sat still behind our rock wall with only our eyes peering out above it.

  As we watched the red eyes move back up beside the canyon wall to our left, Bull reached out and felt in the darkness for my head with his big right hand. When he had a hold, he turned my head back down toward the creek. A moment later I saw a second set of the red, demon eyes. We had been watching the one intently as it had gone over by the canyon wall, leaving the second unnoticed as it moved up along the creek.

  I could only make out one eye, which told me it was looking up the creek in front of itself and not toward us. The first one had remained close to the canyon wall, and I could now tell it was indeed approaching us. We were a hundred feet from the wall and two hundred feet from the creek. I could only hope the angle it had taken would have it passing to our side.

  We all watched quietly and kept ourselves as well hidden as possible as the two demons slowly worked their way past us. The one by the creek moved by first, followed by the other, missing us by less than fifty feet. As they crept slowly by, they got to the point where we could no longer see their red, glowing eyes. It was very disconcerting knowing they were there, so very close to us, and yet we could no longer see them.

  Had they passed without seeing us? Were they almost as blind as we were when it came to the darkness? Would we have been noticed had we moved? I longed to know the answers to all of those questions. But I had no desire to find out in that moment.

  The red eyes had gone invisible to us for almost five minutes when out of nowhere I got a violent urge to sneeze. It was one of those where it comes upon you before you have a chance to cover your mouth or nose. I tried my best to subdue it at the last possible moment, but there was no stopping it.

  I let out a loud but short sneeze. I found myself wishing I had one of those sneezes I had seen others do where they horribly scrunched up their faces with almost no sound coming out except for a little snnnit. If the demons had ears, I was certain they had heard mine. And heard it they had.

  Two sets of eyes turned back in our direction. Two sets of eyes now searched for who or what had disturbed the rain-soaked valley. Two sets of red, demon eyes were now looking for me. My feelings of ultimate dread had returned. I worried my heartbeat would give us away.

  We sat still, each of us breathing as quietly as we could, each of us watching for the red eyes to lock onto us, each of us waiting for the inevitable confrontation that was before us, a decent-sized rotten branch on a nearby tree cracked and then fell to the forest floor with a wet thud.

  It seemed it was our lucky night. It was an event we were desperately in need of. Bull, Allie, and Susi all had their guns at the ready while I had a firm grip on my bat, but fate had seen to it we would not have to fight.

  The red eyes immediately turned toward where the branch had fallen and focused on that point. They sat motionless for several minutes before turning back away from our position. The rest of the night was spent looking up the valley toward where we they had last been seen.

  Dawn's first light brought an eerie pale color to the valley, but a welcome color it was. We had survived another encounter with the demons, and this gave us further hope we could somehow find Kyle. And with a little luck, we might even be successful if a fight was needed. We were thinkers... they were machines.

  Chapter 9

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  On inspection of the creek, it was decided we could make our way across. The rains had ended, and the night had given the flood of water a chance to run down the valley and out of our way. After crossing we moved down the creek to where the trail picked up to take us to the top of the ridge.

  The rain soaked granite of the trail was slick and unsteady underfoot. Before reaching the top of the ridge, we encountered several steep ascents. Bull climbed first, throwing back a rope for us to secure ourselves. Allie slung the line around her waist and secured it with a simple bowline knot. Showing off her athleticism, she was quickly up the incline, tossing the rope back for Susi.

  My sister moved up next. With a knot tied and two sets of arms pulling, she carefully walked up the rock face with a seemingly smooth effort. I was next. Considering my track record for disaster, the rope was needed.

  As I walked myself up onto the final rock, my right boot began to slide out. I tried in vain to get my balance with a stable foothold, but none was there to be had. In a most un-elegant move, I slipped and tumbled backward, falling six feet before Bull could pull tight on the line.

  The tumble brought with it more bruises and a rope burn around my waist. As I made the climb for a second time, I was again thankful for my friend. From that point to the top of the ridge offered far less danger.

  We had a long walk across the plateau to get back to Laurel Lake. The terrain was still wet and muddy, but even with my new bruises, I was still excited about our hunt for the demons. The fact there were now two did nothing to lessen my enthusiasm. Man was hunting aliens and I was a part of the team.

  As we walked, the skies began to clear and the temperature began to climb as drier air moved in. With the clouds gone, we would also have a chance for moonlight, as the sliver of moon from the previous night would be getting bigger with each passing day. Being out of the canyon would add to the brightness. I was happy to not be faced with another night of pure blackness.

  As the sun warmed my face and began to dry my clothes, I could once again imagine building a big, beautiful home in the area. As I walked, I imagined constructing a small fortress and keeping a watch on the skies; intruders would be confronted early and sent packing back to whence they came.

  I found myself consumed with different scenarios of how I would defeat the aliens or even how I might interrogate one if it was captured. I would demand it tell us its secrets or I would take it apart piece by piece with my bat. My bold and brazen train of thought was only broken periodically to look back down the trail behind us; there was no sign we were being followed.

  We had a number of smaller ravines to cross along our way. With each one we would lose our ability to see for any distance. We tried our best to get in and out of them as quickly as possible because of the added threat. As we climbed our way down into one of the ravines, our fears of being trapped became justified.

  One of the demons had walked up to the edge of the ravine several hundred yards away from us. We were in a bad position and could not attempt a retreat, as that to would leave us fully exposed. Our only choice was to turn and run down the ravine with the hope of finding a defensible position.

  We stood without motion as the demon scanned the ravine from the other side. I repeated over and over in my mind that we were invisible and that the demon would not see us. My thoughts of having magical powers ended when it stopped and locked its red eyes on us.

  On Bull's command, we all turned and began running down the ravine at our best clip. I glanced back to see the demon disappear and then reappear up on the ridge as it followed our movement. It was easily apparent it was gaining on our position.

  As we came upon a split in the ravine, Bull made the command decision to send Allie and Susi down the split while he and I led the beast away. There was no time to argue, and the girls turned and hid behind a boulder to wait for the demon to pa
ss.

  Bull and I both had to stop when the demon reached the edge of the ravine across from where the girls were crouching. Bull raised his .45 and fired a shot that skipped off a rock about two feet from it. I yelled and waved my bat. The demon turned back toward us and began bounding from rock to rock, gaining on us as we continued to run. The girls made their way safely up the split and out of the ravine as we continued to flee.

  The demon had closed to within fifty yards of our position when the ravine finally opened into a flat expanse. We kept running straight ahead to a small outcropping of rocks that would offer us cover as we attempted to defend ourselves. The rocks were four feet high in front with a much larger boulder located just behind us. Bull had his .45 and his bear bow, and I had my trusty bat. We had not seen any type of weapon on the demon other than the obvious use of the knife blade for dissecting animals.

  We crouched behind the rock, Bull with his .45 at the ready and me hoping I would not be in need of my bat. With our somewhat secure position, we hoped the demon would determine we were too well defended. I hoped it would then turn and leave. My hopes however, were not fulfilled.

  The demon remained up on the ravine edge and was now keeping itself behind a large rock as it evaluated the situation. We were in a standoff for several minutes before the mechanized monster decided to make its move. A rock about the size of a baseball was hurled at us. After just missing Bull, it shattered on the side of the boulder behind us with a loud crack.

  I was sprayed with small bits of debris. Even though the rock fragments did not break the skin, they offered a painful result, making the demon’s weapon an effective one. The rocks then began to crack on the boulder behind us one after another.