by Dave Hazel
“Stop, stop. Is there anyone else up here?” He asked again and hugged her tightly but looked all around the room for potential threats. “Are you sure there is no one on this floor?” While he held her tight he was so grateful and thankful to have her so close.
“No. They were the only people put here today,” she replied and cried openly. “There were two others who were put outside on the stairwell. Yurkin, the one you just killed, made the other two go out onto the stairwell,” she whispered.
“They’re gone. I already killed those two little scumbags. Listen to me Doninka. Towbar and fourteen others are outside so we gotta hurry.”
“I am scared Mykal,” she sobbed and didn’t want to let go of him. Due to the length of her imprisonment it was obvious she had resigned herself to the fact that she was their property now and she couldn’t leave the grip of the Supreme Ruler.
“I know and I’m gonna get you outta here. And just between you and me, I’m scared too,” he chuckled in order to lighten the mood.
“How will you get us out of here? There are so many soldiers here now. They will not allow me to leave.”
“First of all, you’re talking to me,” he joked with a cocky bravado and slapped his chest as if she didn’t know what she was saying. “Have I ever let you down?”
“Well, no. However--”
“Stop. Remember who it was that was with you when you were trapped under the mountain with the whole Dwarven nation chasing us.”
“Yes. I do,” she said softly and lowered her head. “I’m just fearful Mykal. I have been away for so long and--”
“Doninka, I don’t mean to cut you off, but we gotta hurry. Take me to the window you looked out when we Mind Talked. I gotta see how everything looks. We’re gonna get you outta here and you’re gonna be back home before you know it. Okay?” He asked. He wanted to ask her if anyone had abused her or if she had been mistreated, but he didn’t want to hear things that would ruin his mood and make him ineffective should he dwell on horrible things that could have happened to her.
She took him through the rooms of the building and brought him to her sleeping quarters. She had nice furnishings: a large comfortable bed, a dresser with a large mirror, several chests he assumed were filled with clothing and other furnishings that filled the room. He saw a couple of paintings on the walls and believed she was using someone’s room until the deadline of the Soso High Holy Day came.
“That is the first window I looked out,” she pointed to the window that over looked the large courtyard.
“Hurry and put out some of the lights,” Mykal ordered and stayed to one side of the room. “I don’t want someone to look up here and see a stranger looking out your window. He waited until the two big lanterns were snuffed out before he approached the window. The enemy tents lined the wall that surrounded the large open yard. He knew more tents, thus more soldiers, were also right on the other side of the wall.
He looked down the length of the wall to find the area where he and his team entered and saw the large wooden gates were still open. If they hurried they could walk right out the way they came in. If the situation became difficult; such as the army being awoken, more soldiers moving into the area, his team exposing themselves and drawing attention to them before they escape, then they would have to rely on the vehicles coming to extricate them.
Mykal looked down below and saw where some of his men were. He saw the side of the building where he entered the alley way and climbed the stairs. He knew Towbar was standing in the shadows. He stepped back away from the window and wanted to leap with joy because he rescued Doninka. “Are you ready?”
“Yes Mykal. I have been ready for a long time. I live with fear of death every day.”
“Do you have anything here you need to take with you?” He asked and looked around the room.
“No. I would just like to leave.”
“And there are no people on this floor, but do you know if anyone is on the floor above us or the two floors below us?” He asked and pointed in both directions.
“I am not sure. I do not think there are people who live above,” she answered and pointed to the ceiling. “I know other people live on the floors below. However I do not think they are soldiers. Soldiers were brought in only in the past few days. I do not know why the sudden increase of soldiers has taken place. There is no place that I can escape to.”
“Well, they’re either brought here to help guard you,” Mykal said as they moved through the rooms. “Or they just happen to be here by chance when we happened to come by to get you. I’ll tell you Doninka, you’ll never believe some of the stuff we have gone through to come here to rescue you. When we get back to the Pass I’ll tell you some of the stories,” he said with a smirk as if it was all comical and funny. He didn’t want to tell her of all the men who had died trying to get here because he knew she would feel terrible and he didn’t want to bog her down with emotional guilt that wasn’t her fault anyway.
“I will gladly listen to your tales,” she said with a smile.
“Stop, stop,” he whispered and twisted his head as if listening for something. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Shhh,” he said and silenced her though he had asked her the question. “It sounded like someone yelled and was stopped,” he whispered and rushed back to the main window he just looked out of. “I hope nothing--”
Suddenly his words were cut short by several rifle shots. The explosions clearly ripped through the night. Mykal dropped to the floor and pulled her down with him. He tried to picture in his mind what happened. He believed a soldier came close and one of the men killed him with a knife. Others may have been nearby and had to be shot before the alarm was sounded. He crept to the window and saw a flurry of movement starting to take place. Though it was very dark he could see bodies starting to move from the tents into the open ground. They obviously never heard something that sounded like rifle shot explosions.
“Damn it,” he whispered. He could tell the numbers were starting to grow. There was no way they were going to walk out of the camp. They were trapped in the buildings and Mykal knew he only had fifteen others on the grounds to support him during the immediacy of the potential conflict. “Where is the other window?” He whispered to her.
“Over here,” she replied and took him to the other room so he could look out the other window.
Mykal looked down and believed Staff Sergeant Fuller and Private First Class Anka would be down below to his left hiding in the shadows along the structure. “Fuller and Anka,” he called out in a whispered to see if there would be any response. He looked out and there were more tents along the stone wall but there didn’t seem to be any activity on this side of the building as there was on the other side.
“Mykal?” Fuller called up quietly to let him know they heard him. “Is that you?” He asked and flashed a quick flicker of light upward from his flashlight.
“Yeah, it’s me. What the hell’s going on?” He asked and suddenly several more shots rang out. “Get over there and help them. Call for help. We’re gonna need the vehicles to come and get us. Tell them to have the vehicles open fire on the stone wall to draw attention to them. Me and Doninka are coming down right now.”
“Will do,” Fuller replied and he saw two dark blurs of movement go back around the other side of the building.
“Ah damn it,” Mykal moaned.
“What is it Mykal?” Doninka asked.
“These guys over here are starting to get up and move around,” he answered and pointed to the movement of soldiers that stirred at the sound of the rifle fire. There were a couple of quick blasts of 40mm high explosives. Mykal believed they fired off the M-203 grenades to create a diversion.
He knew seven of the men had the M-203 grenade launcher attached to their M-16s and instead of carrying cans of 40mm ammo they all took four or five rounds and put them in their pockets just in case they had to use them. The desire among the men was not to
use the single fire explosive weapons. Mykal now wished he would have brought more men and more ammunition.
“Will we be able to escape Mykal?” She asked and sounded terrified.
Mykal looked at her and the terror in her face matched her voice which broke his heart. “I will get you outta here. I promise you that. I promise,” he repeated and hugged her to comfort her. “I don’t want you to worry or to be scared. Okay? I’m gonna get you outta here,” he promised and felt bad because he believed he just lied to her.
As they started to move through the complex Mykal heard the sound of .50 caliber machine guns opening fire. Just as suddenly there was the rapid fire explosions of the 40mm blasts fired from the Mk 19s. As they ran into the room where Doninka had been eating and had been harassed by Yurkin and Gomnon, the building suddenly shook and rattled. If felt like an earthquake struck the medieval high-rise they were in. Dust and dirt loosened from the floor above trickled down on them.
Both Mykal and Doninka dropped to the floor again. The building continued to shake violently and Mykal clearly heard the explosions of the 40mm grenades. ‘What the friggin hell are they doing?’ He gasped in fright. He knew without a doubt his building had been struck. ‘Why are they shooting at us?’
“C’mon we gotta go,” he yelled as the rifle fire, explosions and machinegun fire increased. There was no mistaking it now they were caught in the middle of a battle. He grabbed her hand and pulled her over the body of Yurkin and then over the body of Gomnon who lay at the door to the stairwell. Both the dead men had growing pools of blood encircling their bodies on the wooden floor.
“Is it safe Mykal? Can we leave?”
“Aw damn it! What the friggin hell?” He yelled when he stepped out onto the stairwell platform. He saw soldiers running from and in all directions. Many of those soldiers fell in as many different directions after being shot by Mykal’s men. He saw a few of his men shooting their rifles into the mass of mobilized bodies that seemed unsure where they were running to. But the most disturbing thing he saw was the stairwell. It was gone! There were about six or seven stairs he could walk down but the rest of the stairs as well as the other platforms had been blown up as well as part of the wall to the lower floors. The stairs up to the fourth floor were secure and they could travel to the unused fourth floor, but then they would be trapped on the top floor of the building. If a helicopter was coming he would rush straight to the top and await his ride to be lifted out of there, but there were no helicopters coming. They didn’t even work out anything for the Hawkmen to come and carry them away.
“What is wrong Mykal?” She asked when she heard it in his voice that there was a problem of some kind.
“The friggin stairs are gone,” he yelled. “We can’t get down,” he yelled again for his team below.
“My friend,” Towbar yelled up to him. “The crafts, your vehicles, are coming to take us away.”
Mykal noticed that the building on the other side of the alley way was on fire, though it was a small fire for the time being. As much as Mykal didn’t want to accept the fact of more problems, he clearly saw two of his men on the ground lifeless between the two buildings. His first thought was they were killed by the friendly fire of the explosions striking the building. He tried to remember who stayed around the building and tried to picture who could have been killed, but he knew he couldn’t worry about such things at a time like this. He had to figure a way out for him and Doninka to escape.
“Can you jump my friend?”
“No! Damn it all to hell,” he yelled and looked at the buildings next to his and knew they wouldn’t be able to jump across. It was too far away and too far down. ‘Why does this gotta be so friggin hard? Why can’t anything ever be frickin easy in this damn world?’ He yelled inside his head and wanted to shout a string of profanities, but he knew it wouldn’t help and would only make him angrier that all he could do was yell and scream about the unfairness of it all. He could see a majority of the enemy forces were rushing in a different direction. “What’s going on?”
“The vehicles are coming,” Fuller yelled and squeezed off several rounds. “The bad guys are running to the oncoming head lights. They’re gonna be here shortly Myk.”
“Can you jump?” Anka yelled. He didn’t hear Towbar’s question and Towbar ran into a mob of soldiers that advanced on their position. Towbar eagerly charged headlong into their small group swinging his glowing blue sword.
“No. We’re gonna get down and meet you guys later. As soon as the vehicles are here take off.”
“But Myk, we can’t,” Anka yelled back between shots fired at the enemy. “We can’t leave you here. It would be suicide,” he cried out more with concern than he was stating a fact.
“That’s a damn order Marine,” he yelled and tried to sound angry at Anka for arguing with him, but Mykal was grateful that Private First Class Anka was a dedicated Marine and was concerned about leaving them behind. Mykal knew he would get all his men killed if they delayed and waited while Mykal tried to get down from the third floor.
“Yes Sir.”
“Fuller, I mean it, get Towbar and go,” Mykal yelled to the senior man and Mykal’s heart sank. He knew he could turn invisible but he didn’t know what he would do about Doninka. “We will meet up with you guys.”
“Aye aye Sir,” Fuller shouted and ran away like an obedient Marine following an order handed down to him from a higher ranked officer.
Mykal saw the head lights of the vehicles getting close. He believed two of the vehicles pulled up close while the others drove around shooting up the soldiers who tried to attack and ‘bring them down’. He watched one of the vehicles speed over several bodies that refused to get out of the way. After five soldiers had been run over by the strange metal beast, the rest of the soldiers scattered in all directions away from the metal monsters.
The machinegun fire, the rapid fire of the Mark 19s, all put a hollow empty feeling in the pit of Mykal’s stomach. He truly believed he was going to die before the day was over and he believed he was going to bring Doninka down with him. ‘Doninka, the very pretty princess, the pain in the ass princess, who wants to be with me, gets what she wants,’ Mykal sighed in thought while he watched his men battle the on-coming forces awoken to their intrusion. ‘Now she’s with me and I’m gonna get the poor girl killed,’ he sighed.
“What are we to do Mykal?” She asked and she sounded on the verge of tears.
“We’re gonna get outta here,” he whispered and couldn’t look her in the eye. “There’s gotta be another way down. C’mon girl. We’re gonna get outta here,” he added and his voice almost seem to have a moan to it because once all the gun fire and explosions ceased, he would literally be on his own with no one to help them.
They ran back inside the room and listen as the battle shook the courtyard below. He tried to understand how everything just suddenly exploded on him. Obviously someone struck the buildings with the Mk 19s rather than the stone wall. He wasn’t sure how many of the 40mm explosives struck his building, but it was enough to leave him stranded.
They rushed to the main window so Mykal could observe all that was happening. He watched two of the vehicles move close to the buildings to pick up the men who were a part of his team. The other four vehicles set up a defensive shield, covering around them and prevented the enemy from getting close. It was beneficial that most of the enemy had been sleeping and didn’t know what they were awoken to. They rushed out to the noise without any clear leadership directing them as a force to know what they should do. The four vehicles kept a continuous stream of weapons fire trained on those who neared them. The enemy basically walked into their death without understanding what was taking place.
As they rushed around the room, Mykal had a sudden idea but no way to relay it. ‘If the Hawkmen could come by and pick up Doninka, I can walk right outta here. I can take my time and walk right under their noses,’ he added in thought and looked at the gold band around his finger. ‘I
f only I had a radio or some way to communicate,’ he thought while he watched his vehicles rumble away.
**********
The enemy didn’t know if the strange creatures with the bright eyes were creations of Zizmon-Tarl or not. If they were creations of the Supreme Ruler then they would be there to assist and not to attack. Yet these creatures were attacking and killing at a horrific rate. Why would they attack at night and without warning? Why would they attack in Zizmon-Tarl’s back yard? It didn’t make sense for those who survived the initial onslaught of brutality. How does one combat such creatures? Most of the warriors who never backed down from a fight ran to hide so they could get with their leaders to get an understanding of what was taking place. Being woken from one’s sleep with no warning and preparation caused more chaos than the soldiers had ever faced. They were normally the aggressor and the stronger foe. This was a surprised twist.
**********
Mykal was grateful the men picked up the two lifeless forms he saw on the ground. ‘At least they won’t leave them here to be examined by these scumbags,’ he thought and suddenly wanted to break down. He spent all this time, energy and effort to rescue Doninka and now he feared he was going to get the poor girl killed. He bragged and talked over confidently that he could come in here by himself and get her to safety and now that he was all alone he was terrified. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. Being trapped in a building with their means of exit blown apart made it almost impossible emotionally.
Mykal literally wanted to cry when he saw the six vehicles speed off. He was alone with the girl who would be worthless to him in combat since she wasn’t armed. He felt he was alone. He looked at his ring and knew the thoughts of tears and sobbing came from emotions he couldn’t seem to control. He was overcome with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness now that they were trapped inside the building with thousands of angry soldiers surrounding them. Mykal looked at the three hand grenades on his harness. He toyed with the idea of blowing themselves up before allowing the enemy to capture them so they wouldn’t be tortured at the hands of the enemy.
