Mykal's Return to Towbar's World

by Dave Hazel

  “Let’s go talk to the experts and see what would be the best way to accomplish this.”

  “I am grateful that you gave the Goblins on the flatboats a taste of your power, my friend.”

  “Believe me, if I woulda known we woulda come across them I woulda brought some bigger fire power and wiped all their asses out,” Mykal laughed. “They look evil.”

  Mykal and Towbar joined Captain Diaz who was in the middle of debriefing Major Chick and the two battalion commanders, Innes and Taylor. Mykal watched the reporters and cameramen of camp surround those who returned from the mission to hear their stories. He watched Marines and others of the camp join the returning Marines to learn what they experienced. He saw his friends join with others from the first stay in Towbar’s world to relay their exploits. Though everyone came from different backgrounds it amazed him how much everyone acted in a similar manner. The reporters had a portable viewing station to watch videotape from the flight into the danger zone.

  Danny Weller, the injured police officer, had been taken to the make shift medical station behind the pit. Mykal told the pilots and their crews to make sure the helicopters were ready to fly out again as soon as possible. He wanted them to chow down, rest up and be ready to fly out on a moment’s notice.

  Mykal caught sight of all the pilots returning from the mobile mess hall with trays of food. “Hey Captain Barstow, and all you guys. You did one hellova job back there. I mean it.”

  “Appreciate that Myk,” Barstow said with a nod and a wink. “That’s what we do,” Barstow said and circled his index finger to include all the pilots. “This is a great team of air jockeys I have under me,” Barstow added. “We are ready whenever you give the word.”

  “The birds should be just about refueled,” Lieutenant Lewis said with a wink and a clicking sound with his mouth. He snapped his fingers and pointed his index finger to Mykal. It reminded Mykal of something corny he’d seen in an old black and white war movie from the 1940s.

  “Good. As soon as you eat, try to get some rest. I wanna leave as soon as we have a good plan put together.”

  “Will do Myk,” Barstow said for the group.

  “Hey Mykal, you wanted me to find you after the doctors released me,” Danny Weller said. He had several bandages on his head and face.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Now that I’m away from the Sosos, I am alright. I’m doing great,” he said and cracked a smile though it hurt his face when he smiled. He had to reach for the pain in his lip “I really thought they were gonna kill me a couple of times,” he shook his head sadly. “My friends are stuck in the middle of that camp. But please, tell me, what the hell’s going on here?”

  “We’ll get to all that. Are you hungry?” Mykal asked.

  “Yeah, I’m starved,” Danny replied. “Those people barely fed us any food. They were hard to understand but they called themselves Sosos. From your story I knew who they were.”

  “Good, we need to get some solid info from you,” Mykal said while his friends joined them.

  “I figured you would be hungry,” Jake said and handed Danny a plate of food.

  “Oh thank you,” Danny gasped and shook his head. “They are some mean sonsabitches. They knocked us around and beat some people pretty bad. Earlier this morning one of the guys I was with asked if they were going to feed us. One big mean bastard said something to the effect that he would kill one of us and prepare the body as the meal for the rest of us to eat.”

  “Yeah, you’re dealing with Sosos alright,” Larry cackled.

  “You are very lucky, cuz they never take prisoners,” Jake said while Danny tried to eat the food handed to him. “We’re all surprised that they didn’t kill you out right. How were they?”

  “They were very cruel to us. They beat the shit out of us and I think one man back there is going to die if he hasn’t died already. One Soso clobbered him with a war hammer and he hit him so hard that it looked like his head caved in. But he was still alive. He was still breathing. Then another Soso, this bug ugly bastard that looked like a caveman with a big forehead, got so angry at the one with the hammer that he chopped his arm off. He chopped his fellow Soso’s arm off like it was nothing. That Soso died. He bled to death. If they’re like that to their own, I can’t imagine what they’re gonna do to us.”

  “I’ll tell you, Danny, you really don’t know how lucky you guys are,” Larry repeated. “They normally don’t take prisoners. Ain’t that right Towbar?”

  “You are correct. They must have a purpose for their change in character,” Towbar said and looked unsure. “To what end, I do not know.”

  “Did they give the reason why they were keeping you as their prisoners?” Boris asked.

  “At times they were hard to comprehend. I take it that you know they don’t speak English. Some of them spoke what is called the common tongue,” he said and they all nodded they understood. “They said something about a great leader, not a king, but a great leader or someone important wanted to talk with us. They kept questioning us as to why we were helping the evil people of the south lands. When we tried to explain we didn’t know what they were talking about, then that was when the beatings started. The big caveman looking guy who came across as their leader allowed them to beat us, but he told them they could not kill us. He was the same one who chopped off the other Soso’s arm. Then he tried to make it sound like we owed him a favor for keeping them from killing us,” Danny explained and shook his head with disgust. “They didn’t take our weapons from us and we agreed that we would not pull them out unless they were going to kill us. If we tried to defend ourselves, there was nowhere to go and they would have surely killed us. We were hoping we could make a break for it sometime soon, but it just didn’t--”

  “You woulda never made it man,” Larry said, stroking his facial hair.

  “At any time, when they spoke of the leader, did you hear the name Zizmon-Tarl?” Towbar asked with deep interest.

  “I’m not really sure, I’m sorry,” Danny said after he gave it some thought. “They could have, but honestly I don’t know. We were worried what they were going to do with us. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s alright. You’ve been through a lot. You don’t need to apologize for anything,” Mykal said. “Tell us everything that happened to you,” Mykal requested. His hope was to hear information related to the mysterious Mister X.

  “Sure, but could you tell me what’s going on? Why are all these American soldiers here? What’s going on that I don’t know about? I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

  “You’re not going crazy,” Larry laughed. “Cuz if you’re going crazy, I’ve been like this for over a half a year.”

  Jake sighed. “I wish it was only a case of losing my mind.”

  “We’ll get to all the details later,” Mykal answered. “But just to ease your mind all of us are here to rescue you people who disappeared that day. We were sent here on behalf of the President of the United States. Everyone here is a volunteer and there are troops, elite troops, from all over the world to assist in this rescue mission. So now we need your help. I want you to fill us in on what happened to you guys and what’s gonna happen. Any plans you may know of, may be of some help to us.”

  “Who’s in charge here? Shouldn’t I be talking to the military commander in charge?”

  “You’re talking to him,” Larry declared while tugging on his own beard. “Mykal’s the one in charge. I know we look kinda scruffy, but we’ve been here for six months now and we’re friends of his.”

  “Yeah, we’re kinda like his entourage,” Sam laughed.

  “Or bodyguards,” Boris laughed too. “You never know, he may need bodyguards,” he snickered at their odd looks.

  “Oh, I’m sorry I just thought one of the military people would be in charge. I didn’t see any rank on your shirt,” he said and examined Mykal’s camouflaged shirt for rank or title.

  “You can’t see his rank cuz he wears the invisible seve
n star cluster,” Larry laughed. “He’s a seven star general. He’s a big shot.”

  The others including Mykal all laughed. “No, Larry’s been hit in the head a few times. That’s why he thinks he sees so many stars,” Mykal replied.

  Mykal’s uniform didn’t have any rank insignia. His new shirts had the Towbar One patch that all the military people wore above their name tag over their right pocket. Over the left pocket displayed their branch of service, Mykal’s was blank. On the right sleeve flew a flag of their home country.

  *******

  Jake smiled while he listened to the conversation. He remembered a time not too long ago when Mykal would do all he could to avoid responsibility or leadership. Now Mykal was actually in charge, leading this mission of great importance to the President of the United States. Mykal had been placed over majors and below. Jake had a deep respect for his friend for taking on a monumental task. Much had changed in the last six months. Jake was impressed that Mykal stepped up to the plate to lead the operation. He didn’t know that Mykal didn’t have a choice.

  *******

  “But that’s fine Danny,” Mykal shrugged it away. “Just tell us everything that happened and don’t leave anything out. It’s all important. And try to remember everyone that you can think of.”

  “I’ll write everything down,” Sam said and opened his notebook. “I have one good arm. I can say I helped.”

  “Alright, I might as well start at the beginning,” Danny sighed as if it had been a bad dream. “We were at the White House waiting for a special secret meeting to end so we could escort certain people to the airport. The meeting with the President finally wrapped up about two in the morning and our sole job was to take these VIPs to the airport. The meeting was so secret that we, the motorcycle escort, were not allowed to know where we were going until we were instructed in which direction to travel. Only the special drivers knew the destination. The fewer ears told the better. I don’t even care about that,” Danny said and shook his head.

  “I wonder what the hell was going on.” Jake said. “It all seems a little mysterious.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” Mykal lied to keep their focus from the meeting or the people involved with the meeting. “All that’s important now is to get these people back from the Sosos and get them home all in one piece. That’s what the President himself told me.”

  “So continue,” Larry prodded.

  “Our convoy departed the White House and everything was going smooth. The next thing I knew we were spinning out of control. The first thing I thought was that we hit a patch of ice, but I never lost control of my bike and I didn’t fall over. One of the drivers of the vehicles told me later the vehicles never spun out of control but we all shared the same dizzy feeling. After we stopped we knew we were no longer on pavement and we were spread out all over the land. Only, we weren’t sure what happened. Everyone drew their weapons and we expected there would be some kind of kidnapping or an attack of some sort. Nothing happened. When we regrouped and tried to determine what took place the green slime and the green fog was gone. As everything cleared we found some of our people were missing and there were some people with us who weren’t a part of our group. And like I said, we were spread out all over the place.”

  “What do you mean?” Jake asked.

  “We had some civilians with us who didn’t start with us. There were two motorcycle policemen who never joined up with us as well as a car with three U.S. Marshals and one of the vehicles we were escorting didn’t meet up with us.”

  “Was there anyone special in the vehicle that was missing?” Mykal was quick to ask and tried not to sound overly concerned. This would be a terrible setback if Mister X was in the vehicle that didn’t re-join with the group.

  “I guess so, because they were all part of the special meeting with the President. Each of the vehicles had a VIP with two or three secret service on board. They were all important, but I don’t know how important or why.”

  “Yeah, I know. I was briefed on how many people went missing that night. But I wasn’t told about any civilians. They were probably caught up in the green fog accidentally by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Like the civilians who got caught up with us,” Jake mentioned. “So who knows how many really disappeared?”

  “As I was saying we had some civilians join us. One car had three teenagers, all male,” he explained and patted the swelling on the side of his head and eye. Another car had a couple in their fifties. There was a car with a single male, a business man from L.A. and the last car was with a family of five. There was a father, mother, two teenage daughters and a younger teenage son. It was the father who I think may die if he hadn’t already passed away. The Sosos raped the man’s wife and two daughters and one sick bastard raped the son. They did all this in front of him and he tried to fight back. That was when the one Soso struck him on the head. We were all split up and we couldn’t retaliate. If we did they would have killed us all,” Danny explained as if he felt he had to defend their lack of actions in the terrible situation.

  “You need not say anything,” Towbar stopped him. “You would not be living if you tried. The Sosos are too powerful. You are right when you say you would have all been killed.”

  “I was so glad to see that one bastard get his arm chopped off,” Danny shook his head in shame and looked away from them.

  “You don’t have to explain,” Jake said and frowned sadly. “We know how rotten those bastards are. I just feel terrible for that family.”

  “So they didn’t say much about this big boss who was coming to interrogate you guys?” Mykal continued the questioning. “This is really important,” he said while Danny wiggled his jaw with his hands as if he discovered a new pain. “We can have the doctors look at you again if you need it.”

  “I think I’m fine, but no. Well, not to me anyway. Some of the savages who could speak the common tongue kept tormenting us by saying after the special leader visits us, they’re going to kill us. They would laugh when any of us showed any fear because of their threats. They really enjoyed seeing us in fear. They kept saying we don’t have much longer. A few of us agreed to hold our tongues and to take as much abuse as we could but we made a pact that when it seemed like it would be the time they were going to kill us, we were going to use our weapons to kill the special leader and then kill some of the rotten bastards who enjoyed tormenting us.”

  “Aw Myk, that’s screwed up. I think we oughta go back and rescue them tonight,” Larry said. “I’m afraid for the prisoners.”

  “We also saw little green creatures, maybe about four feet tall,” Danny said and used his hand to demonstrate the height.

  “I believe they are Goblins,” Towbar replied to Danny. “I can not be sure. I have never seen them before today. I have only briefly heard of their existence. I am sure they come from the other side of my world.”

  “I just can’t believe we’re in another world?” Danny sighed.

  “You guys question him a little more and try to answer any questions he may have,” Mykal said to excuse himself. “I need to talk to Major Chick about this rescue. I’ll be back shortly.”

  “Mykal, come here please,” Major Chick called out to him when Mykal left his group. Chick was talking with Diaz and a couple of other Company Commanders. Diaz had briefed them on the success of their mission.

  “I was coming to talk to you about the rescue mission,” he said. “The police officer we just plucked from the Soso prison camp, Danny Weller, was just telling us we don’t have much time left. They’re going to kill the prisoners soon. Sosos have been raping and beating the prisoners so we should think about--”

  “Raping?” Chick gasped at the thought of forced sodomy.

  “They have some female prisoners and it sounds like they raped a teenage boy as well. There are a few civilians with them,” Mykal added to clarify his statements. “The civilians must have been caught up randomly with them. Wrong place a
nd wrong time sort of thing.”

  “Damn, that’s terrible,” Chick sighed and looked mortified. “How would you suggest we pull off this rescue attempt?”

  “Well, we can’t rush in and try to take them. Their numbers are just too large,” Mykal said.

  “I’d suggest a night time mission, Sir,” Captain Diaz said. “From everything we were briefed on before arriving here the Sosos do not attack at night so I’m confident they wouldn’t expect an attack during the night.”

  “I agree with that completely,” Mykal replied. “That’s what I woulda suggested. Towbar’s people never go on the offensive so they’d never see it coming especially if we attempt it while it’s dark.”

  “I suggest two forces,” Diaz continued. “One to the west of their camp and the other to the east. Drop the two forces off before night and after dark have both forces sneak into the camp, quietly eliminating any foes. One force will be responsible to free and take the prisoners while the second force will have the duty of drawing the Sosos with a diversion if detected. The helicopters can then extract the group in the most danger first.”

  “Will the men be able to get in there to release the prisoners?” Chick asked. “I have not seen the layout of the camp so I need input.”

  “I would think we should be able to get it done,” Mykal nodded. “They weren’t really on top of each other, they were kinda spread out.”

  “With our training to move silently, I agree we should be able to sneak in after dark and snatch the targets,” Diaz agreed with Mykal.

  “Be sure one force has the flamethrower teams and that should be able to scare them and create a true diversion,” Mykal said and laughed at the thought of the Soso response.

  “Alright, let’s discuss this and try to put a solid plan in place,” Chick said and waved for another group of officers to join them. “I’m all for getting them while they’re stationary.”

  “Sir, may I first request that more deep pits be made through the Pass like this one.” Mykal pointed to the pit that saved their lives during the last major battle. “What we saw out there as a building force is unbelievable. Wouldn’t you agree?” He turned to Diaz who nodded. “We could use it to our advantage when they attack. It would be a great obstacle just as this one was. That was my sole purpose of the backhoes.”