by Dave Hazel
“I understand what you’re saying there,” Mykal nodded.
“There are some small villages near the outskirts of the forest that these people may be a part of,” Soonme suggested. “Yet, I would not know why the One would turn on them.”
“Yes, it is a peculiar situation,” Nomorek replied. “All the peoples who live this close to the castle or the city of the One would be loyal to, or rather not anti, the Supreme Ruler.”
“But whoever did this to all these people also did it to two of my men,” Mykal said. “They captured two of my men way back that way,” he added and jabbed his thumb behind him to signify where they came from. “Here come the flying Elf birds,” Mykal said and pointed to the Hawkmen flying toward the front where Ratner and his detail were finishing up their ‘compassionate’ dirty work. He turned to watch the bright and colorful Hawkmen approach.
Mykal watched the beauty of the flying Elves as they touched down on the ground. Their colors were just amazing. They joined Diaz and Finley with the six Elves at the front. As strange as it was, Mykal wondered what it would be like to fly like the Hawkmen. He could imagine flying high to escape the ugliness of this world and just soaring through the sky to get away. He felt a smile form on his face when he thought of that, but he also realized he had his own way to escape. He looked down at the gold band on the middle finger of his right hand. ‘The problem with escaping by just disappearing is the shit gets into my head and tries to control me,’ he thought. ‘That’s my draw back. I guess their drawback would have to be stuck as a Hawkman,’ he snickered.
Mykal saw the front of the column stopped so Diaz, Finley and the six Elves could have a meeting with the five Hawkmen. The rest of their column stopped and held up also. Towbar turned from their little group and walked back to where Mykal and his little group strode. He knew he had to ask Towbar to use him the next time he tried to Mind Talk with Doninka. ‘Time is getting shorter and I need to find her. Forget my bullshit fears,’ he scoffed in thought and knew he would have to overcome his mental hang-ups because of a dream. ‘I need to take the chance cuz we gotta rescue her.’
“Hey buddy, what’s up?” Mykal asked when the giant neared them.
Towbar hesitated for a moment but he didn’t look up above him. The Dosch brothers and Mathis started to laugh because they knew he almost looked up literally. Towbar gave a slight smirk when he realized he had almost been caught. “I am doing fine my friend.”
“Seriously though Towbar, whadda ya think of this stuff?” Mykal asked and nodded to the seemingly countless bodies of brutalized torture victims.
“I have seen much death during my life. I have seen much cruelty as you know from what you have witnessed at the hands of the Sosos. I have to admit this is one of the strangest and most brutal acts I have ever witnessed. The fact that some of these people were still alive is utterly amazing in a horrific way. I am rarely shocked by what man is capable of doing to man. I am very shocked by what we have discovered here. It is one thing to kill. It is another thing to kill for pleasure. What I witnessed today my friend I can not put into words to capture the emotions and thoughts that have flooded my thinking. This appears to be a worse act of torture than I have ever witnessed by the Sosos.”
“I have to say I agree with you one hundred percent,” Mathis said and then he put his radio handset to his ear.
“I agree too,” Mykal said and leaned against the transport vehicle.
“I know I ain’ts never seen no crazy shit like this,” Roy Jr. said and joined Mykal by leaning against the vehicle.
“If someone was to make a movie and showed a scene like this,” Randy said and paused to think of how best to convey his thought. “We would say that’s way too much. This craziness could never happen,” he added and shook his head with a sickened disgust. “I can’t even imagine how this would even work. How the hell could you be so cold and hard hearted to do this to someone let alone a group of people doing this?”
“And doing it over and over to others knowing they ain’ts gonna die instantly,” Roy Jr. said with a heavy sigh.
“But the sad truth is,” Mykal cut in. “It was done back in our world during the 1400s by Vlad the Impaler. He did it to thousands upon thousands of people and it actually scared an entire army away from him that was going to attack and invade his land. He was a sick dude.”
“Yes Sir, we’re kind of doing that right now,” Mathis chuckled into the radio. “Captain Diaz said to take five. They’re trying to decide what to do. It sounds like they made sure all those who were still alive were put out of their misery. Captain Diaz said Ratner is pissed off. Lieutenant Finley is pissed off obviously. The two film crews I guess are filming what we found. You don’t think they showed the mercy killings, do you?” Mathis asked Mykal.
“I don’t think so and if they did I’m sure they would agree to edit that and remove it,” Mykal answered.
“They better,” Roy Jr. declared. “I’m sure they would though.”
“I’ll tell ya what,” Mykal said and tried to keep his calm. “There are some scumbags who are so against the military that they would come after our military guys for the mercy killings even if they saw what had taken place here. It pisses me off that we have douche bags who won’t lift a finger for our country or our people, but they’ll bad mouth these boys who have put their lives on the line the entire time we have been here. They’re doing it to help others, like Towbar’s people and in the long run they’re doing it to help the people of our world. I’d like to--”
Suddenly Mykal’s words were cut off by many loud shrieking screams that seemed like they came from a large aggressive animal. Just as suddenly Mykal caught sight of several large thick wooden spears fly out from the tree line. Mykal’s eyes were focused on the pretty colors of the Hawkmen. One of the Hawkmen that he still hadn’t had a chance to get to know that well, ‘the Purple one’, he called the Hawkman with bright purple and yellow colors, took one of those large spears into the center of his chest.
Mykal heard the muffled bird squawk that stopped as ‘the Purple one’ fell to the ground. His pretty wings flapped wildly while his body tossed and turned as if he attempted to pull the spear from his chest. The Purple one looked to be having an epileptic seizure as he began to squawk loudly and desperately. His desperate actions ceased and ‘the Purple one’ just lay there with a large spear stuck into the center of its chest. His bright purple wings flapped slightly until they slowed to a stop.
After the spears flew from the tree line, Mykal was shocked to see large dark creatures rush from the trees. Extremely large primates, several large gorillas, attacked from the tree line. They attacked as an orderly group. Some of the giant primates were armed with weapons to include swords, spiked clubs and axes where their sheer size and brute strength would be more than enough to confront a human.
They looked like gorillas that were larger than silverback gorillas. They were six to seven feet tall and looked to weigh up to six hundred pounds. They charged forward pounding their massive fists onto the ground like front legs and they advanced with wide open mouths to expose their large thick fangs. At least thirty of these gorillas charged from the trees and attacked those closest to them. One of the largest and most aggressive of the apes had bands of steel wrapped around its wrists and the bands of steel had what looked like twelve inch blades protruding from the side so if the creature swung its arms back it could stab anyone within reach.
The aggressive attack of the massive primate bodies coupled with the large yells and grunts was terrifying and off putting for those caught off guard. Some of the men ran away to get into position to defend themselves. The creatures were far too large for any man to attempt to fight hand to hand combat with any one of the large beasts one on one. Mykal caught sight of several men on the ground. It wasn’t only the one Hawkman, the Purple one, which had been struck. After the initial onslaught Mykal saw at least four people were on the ground with large spears protruding from their bodies.
Marine Lance Corporal Little Thunder was the first who went down. Corporal Adkins, one of the originals from the Lost Patrol, was standing beside Little Thunder and ran from the monstrous silverback with the daggers attached to his wrist but the great ape jumped at least twelve feet in the air toward Adkins and drove his wrist blade down in a way that nearly cut Adkins in half. Green Beret Sergeant Saunders also took a flying spear. This was his first trip to this side of Towbar’s world. US Army Ranger Sergeant Kearny also made his freshman trip to this side of Towbar’s world only to have it end when a spear drilled into and through his chest. Kearny and Saunders were close friends and they died side by side.
Glamdir was the only Elf struck by the flying spears. The spear struck him in his young head so he never knew what hit him. Glamdir was the younger Elf who had a temper problem and hated humans. He was learning to trust Mykal and his people. Towbar’s soldier Mootal was killed when one of the huge gorillas pounced in front of him and crushed his head with its massive fists. Rogal and Stegnaw, two other soldiers of Towbar quickly departed to get behind the vehicles since they couldn’t be of any assistance in a battle with such monsters.
Weapons fire began which startled the aggressive beasts, but it didn’t stop their attack. The lead vehicle had Sergeant Santos in the turret and he opened fire with the .50 caliber machinegun. His quick response took down three of the large gorillas promptly. All the gorillas seemed to have some sort of intelligence and were shocked by the counter attack that quickly eliminated three of their clan. One of the gorillas had planned to attack Anka with its spear, but when it saw what had just taken place it turned to throw the spear at Santos. Sergeant Santos, instead of Private First Class Anka, was struck through his shoulder which stopped his shooting. Santos exposed himself and without realizing it, spared Anka’s life.
Santos yelled and tried to reclaim his position on the .50 caliber machine gun but just before he continued shooting the same ape jumped up onto the transport vehicle and yanked Santos out of the turret and threw him to the ground. The gorilla pounced on him from the top of the vehicle and viciously attacked him. The gorilla bit most of Santos’s face off and ripped away at him as if getting revenge for his attack on the three gorillas he killed.
All the men were running in different directions to get cover and a position where they could fight back. They needed to fight from behind the vehicles. Captain Diaz ran closer to the beast that was chewing on Santos’s face. With his GAU he fired at least ten rounds into the creatures head and killed it. It fell over after the fourth round but Diaz wanted to make sure the thing couldn’t get back up.
Mykal and all those around him had opened fire and Towbar pulled his sword to charge at one of the gorillas. Mykal was fearful of Towbar’s counter attack on the large ferocious gorilla, but Towbar would never be foolish and knew what his capabilities were.
Mykal continued to shoot rapidly and his heart raced as one of the large monsters charged at him. It seemed like the hateful gorilla was only being angered by the 5.56mm rounds drilling into its chest. The beast charged using its fists as front paws to run faster. To Mykal it felt like a locomotive of fury was coming after him with fangs chomping to get him. Roy Jr. and Randy joined Mykal in shooting the creature until the beast flopped on the ground before them. The creature lay there with its mouth wide open exposing long pointy fangs. Blood flowed from the mouth as well as the many wounds drilled into its hairy body. Its legs kicked out showing how big its monstrous feet were.
“Look at the size of that frickin’ mouth,” Roy Jr. scoffed while he reloaded his Thompson submachine gun with another 30 round clip. “You could easily put your head in that ol’ boys mouth.”
“Which means that thing would bite the shit outta us,” Randy yelled and raised his rifle toward another gorilla.
Mykal was shocked when he saw Towbar fly backward as if he had been struck and knocked to the ground. Where Towbar had been standing there were two gorillas laying there in several pieces. But a third gorilla with them stood his ground and almost struck a pose as it raised his powerful fists. It seemed to be showing off its muscular form. It growled at Towbar and bared its fangs as if it was ready to attack the defenseless giant.
Mykal was suddenly fearful for his giant friend. “Noooo you piece of shit,” he yelled and fired off the last eight rounds of his rifle to stop the creature from attacking Towbar while the giant was on the ground trying to gather himself. Mykal knew he had to reload but he didn’t want to run away to keep from being attacked. He pulled his .357 magnum and knew he looked foolish when the large monster turned toward him and pounded its big massive fists on its own chest. The large gorilla snarled which exposed its long yellowed fangs.
Mykal trembled while he cocked the hammer back. The Dosch brothers had already run off to help others. Mykal’s breathing stopped when the six and a half foot tall beast charged toward him using its arms as front legs and charged toward him aggressively. It suddenly dawned in him that he had his ring of invisibility and the magic sword at his side. His new plan was to shoot as fast as he could and then turn invisible. Before he fired the first round the sudden thumping explosion of the .50 caliber machine gun opened fire over his head. The sudden noise startled him as much as the charging beast scared him. He was amazed and thankful to see the large beast get punched back in place and tumble over dead and its large muscular arms flopped wildly as it flipped. The creature had nearly been torn apart.
Mykal turned to see Staff Sergeant Barry in the turret. Barry turned the machine gun on other gorillas that seemed to pose a threat to other men. Mykal gave Barry a thumbs up but Mykal wasn’t sure if Barry saw him or not. He quickly ran to the giant who just moved to a seated position. Towbar looked stunned and rubbed his face. Mykal assumed the monstrous gorilla punched Towbar in the head or face which nearly knocked him out. He nearly laughed with surprise when he saw Towbar wiggle his jaw. He had never seen anyone or anything that was able to hurt the giant physically.
“Are you okay buddy?” Mykal asked and held out his hand as an offer to help pull his friend to his feet.
“I am fine my friend. I think my pride is hurt more than my face,” he replied and jumped to his feet. He touched Mykal’s hand as a symbolic gesture to show Mykal helped him up. “I thank you for risking your life to distract that creature. I believe I was in real danger and would have faced being severely hurt or even killed. Thank you my friend.”
“You’re my buddy. I’d do it any time. Come on and let’s kill these friggin bastards,” Mykal said and had to raise his voice as all six .50 calibers opened fire and cut down the majority of the gorillas. A strange whistle like scream rose into the air and suddenly the remaining gorillas turned and ran for the trees. A couple of the beasts stopped at the tree line and thumped their chests as if to threaten them.
Sergeant Barry surprised everyone when he opened fire with the Mark 19 and shredded the area where the two gorillas stood making their threat. The rapid fire multi explosions of the 40mm grenades killed the two beasts while causing much devastation to the trees which startled the gorillas standing nearby. The explosive attack caused a shout of joy to ring out among the men. Most of the men ran around to find out who was injured and sadly, who had been killed. There looked to be nineteen of the gorillas killed.
Lanorear and his three remaining Hawkmen circled overhead and squawked loudly as if giving a dire warning. Diaz, Finley and Ratner weren’t about to take chances and yelled for the men to take up defensive positions. Mykal looked up to the sky and noticed the Hawkmen seemed to be agitated. He believed the Hawkmen were agitated since ‘the Purple one’ lay dead amongst the dead gorillas and sadly Mykal’s men. ‘The Purple one’ stood out like a bright neon sign with a spear protruding from its chest. The other Hawkmen seemed to be emotionally affected at the loss of one of their comrades.
Mykal didn’t want to take any chances since they had taken so many losses in such a short amount of time. He looked at all the tree
s in the immediate vicinity and there didn’t appear to be a problem. He knew they were going to have to return to the Pass to resupply and to replace those who were now ‘gone’. He knew he would have to talk to Towbar about using him to try to communicate with Doninka through Mind Talk.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when he saw a lone gorilla step out from the edge of the trees. At first he thought it would be an older gorilla, maybe a leader, but then he realized it was a white gorilla, an albino gorilla. Was he the leader because he was different? Was he able to communicate because he was different? Were the gorillas willing to make a truce because of Mykal’s team’s most devastating power? What did all this mean?
All the other gorillas were very big and covered in dark hair like any gorilla he had ever seen in zoos or in television documentaries, only these had been much larger. Their sheer size presented them as intimidating and threatening. They all seemed to have anger etched into their broad heads. But this one seemed friendlier because it looked so much different. Mykal wondered if these gorillas were the same dark shapes he had seen captured in Benjamin Milnar’s video tape. Were they the ones who kidnapped Jackson and Thornton? Did they kill these two hundred plus people by impaling them? Were they the brutal cruel bastards who made these people suffer so horribly? Did they have a connection to the Kachjens since the Kachjens were known to grunt and sound like apes? So many questions flooded Mykal’s mind, but none of it mattered right now.
Mykal noticed several more dark shapes creep up to the trees near the friendly looking albino ape. Many of the gorillas were armed with weapons. Could they be warriors for Zizmon-Tarl? Were they getting ready to attack? Were they trying to catch them off guard? Did they want to capture his people so they could impale them and make them suffer a most horrible death?
“They’re sneaking up on us,” Mykal yelled and noticed those creeping into position was a larger number than those that had attacked a few minutes before. “There’s a much bigger group of them than before,” Mykal shouted and the men positioned themselves behind and around the vehicles. He didn’t want to lose one more man and he knew they were not in a position to back away without being attacked from behind while they tried to slip away. “Barry, get ready to take out the white one. I think it might be the leader.”
