SODIUM Trilogy Part One

by Stephen Arseneault

  Bull popped up to fire off a round before being forced back down by the highly accurate throws from the mechanical pitching machine. He had spent a full clip when the demon made its next move. As Bull reloaded, the demon jumped from the ravine edge down into the flats.

  I saw the jump and turned to inform Bull of it, as I had been peeking through a crack between two of the rocks. I also informed him that the thing was picking up rocks and heaving them with each of its legs as it advanced toward us. When I turned back to check its progress, a rock hit in the crack directly in front of me. I was lucky I was not blinded as a fine but heavy spray of fractured rock came through the crack and impacted me straight on.

  I rolled away from the crack, covering my face in pain. When I pulled my hands back to look, they were covered with blood. The shrapnel from the shattering rock had come through the crack and spattered my face with a thousand tiny grains. The impacted area ran from the tip of my nose down the right side of my face and onto my neck.

  It was all surface damage, but it was extremely painful, as the larger bits had embedded themselves into my skin. Bull moved two feet to his left and popped up to fire a shot and was barely able to duck back under cover. Another baseball-sized missile skipped off the rock he had popped up behind and shattered on the boulder behind us. The open expanse did not offer any cover to the demon. It did however, offer a seemingly unlimited supply of projectiles to be heaved at us. And the alien machine had a deadly accurate throw.

  For just an instant I got the crazy notion I could take a swing at one of the rocks with my bat and maybe launch it right back at our attacker... "crazy notion" turned out to be the correct term. I timed the next three impacts and popped up ready for the fourth, swinging my bat as I rose. To my delight, I actually hit the rock dead on with the fat part of the bat. But unlike a baseball, the rock did not compress and then recoil off the bat.

  It instead shattered and again sprayed me with debris. I dropped back behind cover just as the next rock skipped off the top edge of the rock where I had been standing. It cracked on the boulder wall behind us.

  Using the same timing technique as I had, Bull then popped up and fired off one more round before ducking back down. He then informed me that the demon was continuing its advance. It had us pinned down, and he could not get off a decent shot to slow it.

  He then moved to the left a few more feet, popped up, and fired off another round. This strategy allowed him to get off a shot after each move, but he did not have time to aim with any kind of accuracy. The demon was also moving from side to side as it advanced toward us.

  The fifty yards turned into forty and then thirty. With each yard closer the demon moved, the more accurate its throws became and the deadlier it was. At twenty yards Bull popped up for the last time, as the demon had guessed where to make its next throw, catching him on his way down.

  The rock skipped off our cover and next made a glancing blow off Bull's scalp just as he descended. It was enough of a scrape to cut the top of his head open, starting a flow of blood. With this, Bull changed tactics and began to just try to pop up his hand with the gun itself to fire off a shot.

  I sat just staring at his attempts as the blood dripped from my shrapnel-encrusted face and a single line of blood made its way down his. Bull fired another round; we heard it make an impact, and the parade of rocks stopped.

  We waited a full thirty seconds, and then Bull decided to check to see if the demon was still alive before he popped up himself. He took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around a stick, poking it up above the rock. The demon took the bait and again started its barrage of stone missiles, with the first one striking the stick-and-handkerchief decoy dead on.

  All I could do was stay behind cover, lying on the ground as the debris from each shattering stone filled the air all around us. Bull made a move toward the end of our defense wall and the rocks followed him, shattering on the boulder wall just above his position. We were trapped, and it was now inevitable that we would be overtaken.

  As a distraction, I poked my bat up and down and moved it from side to side. That strategy only worked for a few throws before a direct hit on the bat almost knocked it from my hand. I entertained thoughts of having one good swing at this beast if it got close enough to me, but I knew the chance of that was slim. The demon was smart. It had been adjusting its attack all along the way in order to counter our every defensive change. And it was intelligent enough to try to trick us into coming out when it had stopped its barrage.

  The rocks continued to shatter behind us, and we were soon forced into covering our faces in order to protect our eyes from the debris. I had no doubt it was the end for us. The thrill of the hunt, which I had latched onto earlier, seemed like a curse that was going to inevitably do us in.

  I didn’t want to die, but it seemed I had no choice in the matter. Bull was attempting to get an angle on the demon by moving as far away from me as he could. All it was going to do was allow the demon to focus on him with his .45 as I sat helplessly toward the other end of our defensive line.

  As the demon closed to ten yards, the angle of the rocks began to change, with each one now starting to come in at a downward slant. This made it even more difficult to protect ourselves, as with the new angle the beast had also slowed down its throwing speed. The result was rocks that were no longer shattering but were instead now bouncing around between the boulder and our wall in front. My thoughts next turned to the fact I was now going to be stoned to death. Bull had already taken four hard hits and was showing the pain from each of them.

  As a last effort to try to distract the demon so he could get off one last shot, I began to pound the bat on the ground just hoping the noise would be enough. It worked, but not before the last rock it heaved in Bull’s direction bounced and caught him square in the forehead, knocking him nearly unconscious. As the first several rocks now began to bounce around my end of the wall, I knew the end was upon me. My demon-hunting days were over.

  As I cowered, awaiting a certain death, a barrage of gunfire erupted from the flats! I could hear clear impacts on the demon. It was the girls! They had doubled back!

  The rock throwing ended as the shots continued. In what was probably the quickest decision I had ever made in my life, I jumped and rolled over to Bull. I picked up his .45 and popped up from behind our rock wall, just in time to see the demon recoil as another one of Allie's bullets cut through its outer shell.

  I fired off a round from Bull's cannon of a gun and put a large hole square in the middle of the beast. A spray of demon bits exited the other side as the recoil from the .45 shook the gun from my weak and injured hands and onto the ground. This happened just as the girls were reloading. And even though I had made a dead-center strike on the beast with a .45, it continued to function.

  With that one hit, the adrenaline was now pumping through my veins, and I felt as though I could now take it on hand to hand. I looked down toward my bat lying beside me. I wanted to reach for it, but it seemed time was standing still.

  The demon was on the defensive, and instead of throwing rocks, it sprayed out a green mist. It then turned back toward me and jumped. In one bound it cleared the ten yards between us and landed on the rock directly in front of me. With its next leap it went up and over the large boulder behind us, blocking it from more shots from the girls. I could hear it continuing to run as it bounded away.

  I recovered Bull's .45 and then looked back toward where the girls had been standing. They both backed up as the green mist descended upon the area around where it had been sprayed. As I watched, I could see the bits of demon that had been blown from it by our gunfire beginning to dissolve. Also, the grass and other organic matter in the mist seemed to disappear before my eyes; all that remained was dirt and rock.

  I could only reason that as a defensive move, the demons cleaned up after themselves, leaving nothing behind for an enemy to make use of. It would seem to be a very effective and well-thought-out strategy. It was evid
ent they had seen action before.

  The girls circled around the remains of the dissolving mist and made their way over to our location. Bull was now sitting upright, and although he was awake, he was groggy and confused. Allie nursed the cut on his scalp, and Susi wet a handkerchief with water from her canteen and began to clean my face.

  She then pulled a pair of tweezers from her pack and began to pick the larger bits of rock from my skin. It was painful, but the adrenaline coursing through my veins made it tolerable. I had gotten my revenge for the shrapnel when I blew the hole through the demon. I viewed my battle scars as nothing more than a badge of honor.

  There were now two new heroes to thank. After several minutes of nursing, Allie decided we had better get out of the area, as there was still one more of the aliens roaming about. We gathered ourselves, donned our packs, and made our way out of the ravine.

  We had another two hours to go to get to Laurel Lake and only about three hours of daylight left. We would need time to set up a defensive position once we arrived, as we could no longer just camp out in the open. We would also want time to tend to our wounds and to get food in our bellies. Our energy was running low.

  We had not eaten anything since our dry lunch the afternoon before. Fatigue and hunger would not be our friends if we were to be fighting for our lives. And fighting for our lives was exactly what we were doing. We reached our previous campsite at Laurel Lake, and Allie went looking for small game while I attempted to fish.

  I no longer feared death by the demons, as I had now been to the brink and had survived. After winning our small battle, I felt it had brought out a warrior in me who had been fast asleep, deep down inside. I would battle the demons with my last breath if that's what it took. I wasn't sure the others felt the same.

  Before casting into the lake, I decided to give calling Minhafa another try. I knelt down on a rock by the water’s edge and smoothed the water gently while repeating "Minhafa" three times. I looked around afterwards and was let down that seeing a mountain lion earlier, supposedly a spirit protector, was really just a coincidence.

  As I cast into the lake, I hooked a nice fish. After reeling it in, I glanced up before turning back to the others. There on a rock, five hundred feet away, stood a proud and mighty mountain lion. I was emboldened with a strong feeling it was indeed Minhafa and it would be watching over me, ready to come to the rescue should the need arise.

  The girls had protected me today, but as a superstitious chap, I took comfort in knowing my spirit protector was also watching. It was just too much of a coincidence it had appeared to me again after I had summoned it a second time. Little did I know how true those thoughts might be. After several additional casts, I returned to our camp with three large fish in tow and a grin on my scabbing face.

  Chapter 10

  * * *

  We decided to stay the night at our previous campsite by Laurel Lake. It offered open expanses going out several hundred feet to the woods. And there were almost none of the horrible baseball-size rocks lying around. To our back we had the lake. If the demons were to attack us here, they would need a new strategy.

  With our limited amount of daylight remaining, we gathered an abundance of sticks and branches, which were just dry enough to burn on our fire. We built a defensive rock wall with stones large enough to not easily get knocked away by thrown rocks, and we set up several fires that we could use to keep our perimeters lit up.

  We took a few minutes to inventory our ammo, and the count was much lower than desired. Bull had brought a box of fifty of the .45 cal rounds, of which he had used twenty-four. Allie and Kyle had each brought a box of 9 mm rounds, they had sixty-one remaining. Since we had been using Susi's .22 for hunting, she was down to twenty-eight. We would have to be careful with our ammo. Other than our guns, we were left with my bat, Bull's bear bow with four arrows, a small hatchet strapped Bull's pack, and several hunting knives.

  We would not reach the area where the meteor had previously fallen for another day, and we would then have at least one additional day after to make it back to any civilization. If we were able to find and to free Kyle, we would try for Cherry Lake dam with hope there would be a telephone.

  The others had a forlorn look to them. I was still all hopped up on the fact there were aliens out there we were fighting with, and we had evaded them once and then beaten them back. I was also excited I had a secret weapon waiting in the woods should I really need it. I had convinced myself Minhafa was real.

  Allie returned with another rabbit, and with my three fish, we had our first full, hot meal in several days. We needed every bit of it, as our bodies were tired after slogging through the rain and fighting with the demon. Our lack of sleep was of no help either.

  When I offered up the fish, I told the others of my Minhafa sighting across the lake. They all brushed it off as interesting, but further coincidence. I took it as a sign it was there to watch over me. A week before, I would have called anyone who thought such a nutcase, but that wasn't what I believed any more.

  As we sat around the campfire, we talked about the skirmish with the rock-throwing demon. It looked as though they were not equipped with any weaponry. Other than being able to heave heavy objects at us, to make use of the tools on their legs, or to spray the green fog we had seen in our last encounter, they were unarmed.

  We talked about how the girls had managed several hits on its body with the 9mms and how I had the one shot that blew a hole straight through it, yet it was still able to turn and flee. We reasoned that perhaps I had missed anything vital, or maybe they were just that tough. We had no way of knowing.

  The one thing we were sure of was we had done enough damage, or had at least offered enough of a defense, that it knew it was time to leave. I reasoned perhaps it was scared, if it was possible for a machine to be scared, and it decided to cut its losses and run. I was thankful there had not been two of them together or we would have surely been overrun. Losing was not an option.

  I was fascinated by the intelligence we had seen displayed by a machine. They could think on the fly as well as any of us. Even though our little group was now at war with them, I had a strong desire to meet the makers of the machines face to face.

  I pondered how interesting and exciting it would be to talk with a being from another world. What other technology did they have? Flying cars? Force fields? And rockets that could reach other planets... my mind was consumed with thoughts of what we might learn from galactic travelers.

  But none of that really mattered while we were at war. They had outright attacked us and possibly even kidnapped one of our own. The answers to my many questions would have to wait until such time as we came in contact with a live alien or captured one of the machines.

  As my mind continued to wander, I imagined dunking a live alien repeatedly in the cold mountain water or threatening to burn out its eyes with red-hot coals from our fire. That is, if they even had eyes. If the stories from Roswell were true, their eyes would be big and black. I imagined them telling me everything I wanted to know after I worked them over with my bat. Maybe that was just a bit of my short attitude coming through; I wasn't sure, but it was exciting to think about it as it fed into my already excited state.

  Bull interrupted my alien daydreams by telling me to hit the hay. He and Susi were taking the first watch. We would want to start early in the morning so we should maximize our sleep. With about six hours’ sleep in the last two days, I did not foresee bedding down early being a problem. As I lay in my sleeping bag, I once again began to think about the aliens and what might lie ahead for us. The fatigue took me down in only a few minutes.

  I was awakened by Bull at 1 a.m. Allie was up and Susi was fast asleep. Bull had let me sleep over the hour after several failed attempts to wake me at midnight. I thanked him for giving me the extra rest and then pressed him to get some sleep of his own.

  Bull had a nasty knot on his forehead from the ricocheting rock and a small cut on his scalp.
The knot was still prevalent, but shrinking, and the cut had scabbed over. It was the first time I ever thought of Bull as being vulnerable. It seemed he was human after all.

  When the girls had tended to our wounds at the end of our demon skirmish, they had taken the time to remove all the small pieces of rock embedded in my lower face. It was painful, but they managed to get every little piece. I then washed my bloody face in the lake before dousing it with iodine from our small med kit. I was not in need of an infection on top of my other injuries.

  The rock debris had not gone deep into my skin, but it left me with a face full of small scabs. I thought at the time it was just a few more minor wounds to add to my long list of maladies from the trip: almost falling sixty feet into a ravine, bruised ribs, rope burns, a broken wrist bone, and a long list of other bruises. The scabby face was just icing on the cake.

  Had I been lucky or was I really just that tough? I preferred to think the latter, and if anyone asked, that was what I would tell them. And to top it off, I had taken on an alien machine with nothing but a bat. Again, the feeling of being a warrior returned.

  As we sat by the fire, Allie was her same quiet self she had been the last several days. I didn't really mind this evening, as it gave me time to daydream and to plan out strategies. I thought we might have an advantage if we could lure one of the demons into a trap. Tricks and schemes swirled through my mind.

  The girls’ backtracking had worked wonders, and if we could outsmart these things with more trickery, I was all for it. They had laid their own trap on us during our last battle, when the demon waited quietly for one of us to raise our heads.

  I wondered if we could lure one of them into a ravine where we could attack it from above, or maybe we could gain advantage on a steep trail by rolling big boulders down at it. My mind was whirring away at coming up with any idea we could use.