Rescue Or Recovery

by Dave Hazel

  “Okay, okay,” William gasped. “Take it easy.”

  “No, you take it easy. If his name is spoken he can pick up on that and you know it,” Mykal argued angrily.

  “I forgot. I forgot.”

  “How did you get free from the Goblins?”

  “They beat the shit out of me. They beat me bad. I honestly thought I was going to die at their hands,” William explained and looked down. “I kept calling out that I was working for Zee-Zee,” William said so he wouldn’t anger Mykal.

  “I call him Ziggy Stardust.”

  “Okay. I kept yelling that I was working for Ziggy Stardust. I don’t know if one of them understood me or what, but one day, I was always chained in the cell I was being kept in, but one day these different looking Goblins came in and unchained me. When I say they were different looking, they were cleaner and much bigger. These four that came and got me were as tall as we are. I thought for sure they were coming to take me away to kill me and I was scared. I couldn’t run away because of the wound in my leg. Speaking of which, I thought I was going to die from that wound because it got infected and it was always dripping a nasty looking pus. It smelled bad too so I thought it must be gangrene setting in. The food they fed me was slop and I was afraid to know what it was, but it kept me going. The water they gave me to drink tasted like it came from a dirty toilet, but I had to drink it to stay alive,” William explained and looked down between his legs and shook his head. He paused and just sat there.

  “So what happened with the four big Goblins?” Mykal asked to get William to continue his story.

  “They took me past hundreds of Goblins who were shouting at me and probably threatening me, but I couldn’t understand them,” William said with a cocky smirk. “Once the four big Goblins wouldn’t allow any of the regular ugly little creeps to get near me, I knew they weren’t going to do anything to me. Then my only thought was they were taking me to be executed. I had this awful fear they were going to chop my head off. I kept trying to turn to the four and say that I was working for Ziz-- I mean Zee-Zee or Ziggy Stardust,” he quickly corrected himself. “But they only pushed me forward like they didn’t care or they couldn’t understand. It was probably both. To make a long story short, they took me outside of the mountain into broad daylight. I couldn’t believe it. I was hoping I could make a run for it, but there was close to a hundred soldiers standing there. Soldiers like those who were just here. They took me to this city and I have been a prisoner with them ever since that time.”

  “How long has that been?” Mykal asked.

  “About three weeks ago I think. I didn’t really have any way of measuring time, but I think it was about three weeks ago,” William answered and twisted again to show that his hands were still bound.

  “Did you meet Ziggy Stardust?”

  “Ah no,” William answered quickly and looked down to avoid Mykal’s glare. “I only dealt with his soldiers,” he added and refused to look at Mykal.

  Mykal suddenly felt uncomfortable. ‘He’s lying,’ he thought. ‘Why the hell is he lying? Why would he lie about meeting the ultimate bad guy?’ Mykal continued to watch William and it just didn’t make sense why he would lie or be uncomfortable about meeting Zizmon-Tarl. “What were they like? What did they do?”

  “They were okay,” William answered. “They weren’t like the Goblins who were abusing me all the time. They were actually kind of friendly. They kept asking me questions about the other side of the world. Most of the questions I couldn’t answer. Then they asked me a lot of questions about Doninka, the princess which I couldn’t answer. But they were big on me being able to identify her. I told them I know what she looks like and I think I would know her if I saw her and they told me that they had captured her. I was thinking if they brought her to me to identify her, I might be able to try to escape and worse case situation, I believed there would be some people coming to rescue her and I might be able to stay close to her to get away, but it didn’t happen that way.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well they asked me if I would be able to identify her and I told them I thought so, but I told them I was afraid I was going to die,” he added and looked down at his injured leg. “I explained how the Goblins shot me with crossbows and I told them I was going to die because of the infection so I probably wouldn’t be able to identify the princess. So, I don’t know what they did but they had this little scary looking little wizard guy come to me with some soldiers. They held me down and squeezed a great deal of pus out of my leg. Oh my goodness it hurt to all hell. I thought they were trying to torture me because it was so unbearably painful. But then he put this wet cloth on the opening of the wound. They pulled this wet cloth from a colorful glass jar and whatever that cloth was soaked in did the trick. My wound healed up pretty quick. I was really amazed. It still hurts and it feels like there is a hard knot in my leg, but the infection seemed to clear up with what that strange little wizard guy did to me. The pus they squeezed out of my leg was horrible and it stunk badly,” he relayed and shook his head.

  “Do you think they used magic on your leg?” Mykal asked.

  “I’m not sure what they did, but I’m not complaining about it. It feels much better.”

  “So what happened after that?” Mykal asked and eyed William suspiciously.

  “The soldiers rushed me to a town where they said they were holding the princess and they wanted me to make sure it was her. And it was during this time that you came into the picture and was able to save me from them. I have been bound the entire time. That’s why I want you to untie me, so I can finally be free.”

  “Did you meet Ziggy Stardust?” Mykal asked again because he felt uncomfortable about untying William.

  William wouldn’t look up at Mykal. He seemed to squint and almost hiss as if angered. His eyes suddenly looked more serpent like through the squint. “No, I never met Ziggy, but I did meet a number of his high ranking soldiers or officers. I was supposed to be the one to identify who the princess was when we made it to the town. But there had been some kind of a disturbance that caused some fires so we had to back away for the time being.”

  “That would have been when our people attacked the town and rescued the princess,” Mykal said. “Towbar and the rest of the force left me there cuz I was stuck.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t more than just being stuck with such a pretty little thing?” William said and the tone of his voice was as if he licked his lips. His tone caused Doninka to pull her arms up to her chest.

  “No, it wasn’t anything like that,” Mykal replied and quickly verged on anger. Suddenly and without warning his right hand and forearm turned green and began to tremble. Mykal knew that somewhere the green fog was being used. He wondered if Towbar and the rest of his team had returned to try and help him out of his predicament. He didn’t let on to William that he knew the green fog had been used. “I’ll be right back,” he said and turned away toward the vehicle.

  He grabbed Doninka by the arm and pulled her with him. He saw that she was terrified because her hands were green and shaking like his arm. He whispered for her silence and pulled her to the Jeep.

  “I am scared Mykal,” she whispered.

  “I know, just be quiet. I don’t want him to know, cuz I think it’s Towbar and the others,” he whispered as they reached the vehicle. Mykal waited for the green fog to dissipate where ever it was. He was waiting for the trembling to cease and the green color of his flesh to return to normal. After he was certain the green fog was gone he turned on the portable radio that was left inside the Jeep and called to his team.

  “Once again, this is Mykal, are you guys out there?”

  “Mykal, this is Captain Diaz,” the voice replied though his voice was weak, filled with static and broken. “How do you read us?”

  “Broken and very weak,” Mykal replied happily. “How me?”

  “Same here,” Diaz replied and sounded happy though he was hard to hear.

  “
Are you guys near me?” Mykal asked.

  “We don’t know where you are?” Diaz replied and though he could barely be heard it sounded like he was laughing.

  “Did you guys just move to my location?” Mykal asked.

  “No, that is a negative. We have remained in the same location since we moved from the danger zone.”

  “Where are you guys?” Mykal asked and wondered what caused the effect of the green fog.

  “We went to the Tree of Strange Happenings?” Diaz replied.

  “Good, so is everyone okay? Are you guys in good shape or what?”

  “We’re doing fine since we departed that battle scene. I want you to know Mykal, we did lose two men.”

  “Yeah, I saw them just before you guys picked them up and left. I was going to ask who they were cuz I couldn’t see them. I was trapped on the third floor and couldn’t get down to them.”

  “I know. Towbar explained everything that happened,” Diaz replied. “The two men were lost were Marine Lance Corporal Cremona. He was one of the radio operators.”

  “Oh damn,” Mykal gasped. He didn’t gasp at the death of Cremona, but Mathis wanted to go on that mission and Mathis would have been in the spot of Cremona. Sure it was possible things could have turned out differently, but Cremona basically took Mathis’s spot so Mathis wouldn’t be at risk for Mykal.

  “And we lost Army Ranger Sergeant Bush. This was Sergeant Bush’s first time over here to this side of Towbar’s world.”

  “Oh damn. I’m sorry to hear that,” Mykal replied and was selfishly relieved that his close friend, Sergeant Mathis didn’t go. Mykal didn’t know what it was about Mathis other than Mathis’s ability to make Mykal laugh all the time.

  “Yeah. It’s horrible when there is any loss of life,” Diaz said. “But we have to be thankful that we only lost two men. I say that because of the size of the army we were surrounded with.”

  “I agree with you. When I catch up to you guys, you’re not gonna believe all the stuff I’ve been through since we were separated, but we’re here and we’re fine.”

  Abruptly Lieutenant Finley’s voice came over the radio ear piece though he sounded just as far away. “We’re here trying to dig up some more finds relating to the soldiers who disappeared from Gallipoli from World War One. You do know where I’m talking about don’t you? And are you going to join us?”

  “Yes. I will start driving in that direction as soon as we’re done talking. I came to the Jeep we left behind and I do have the special package we went to pick up,” he added in reference to Doninka.

  “Great. We will wait here until you return,” Finley replied. “And we’ll be busy while we wait for you. Finley out.”

  “Hey Mykal,” Diaz spoke again through the static of the radio. “We are so grateful and thankful you made it out of there. We were worried that we had to leave you there and we were starting to consider whether we should try another rescue attempt to get both of you out of there,” Diaz added and sounded very happy.

  “No. We were able to get away from there and we made it to the Jeep we left behind for me. It was kinda sketchy at times. I wasn’t sure if we were gonna get away or not,” Mykal said with a laugh. “But we did.”

  “I have to tell you Mykal, you really need to thank God because I have been praying for you and I truly believe it was the hand of God that delivered you out of that dangerous situation,” Diaz said confidently.

  “Well, I’m not gonna argue with you about that,” Mykal replied and suddenly his mind was flooded with many Christian thoughts that both Diaz and Ski had been sharing with him. “As crazy as my situation was, I say thank you to both you and God, cuz it was crazy. I’ll tell ya about it when I get there.”

  “Sounds great,” Diaz said with a laugh. “We will be waiting and watching for you. Diaz out.”

  “Mykal out,” he replied and laughed at the thought of how excited Finley was when they discovered the items that supposedly came from soldiers who disappeared in 1915 from the Island of Gallipoli during the battle with Turkish soldiers in World War One. “Oh crap,” Mykal gasped quietly after he put the radio handset back on the radio pack.

  “What is wrong Mykal?” Doninka asked.

  “I’m not sure,” he whispered though William was too far away to hear their conversation. “It wasn’t our guys who used the green fog, so I don’t know what caused the green fog or even if it’s something that we should be concerned with. Now I don’t know what to do with William.”

  “If you do not mind my opinion, he frightens me,” Doninka said and looked at the man seated on the ground with his hands bound behind him.

  “I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” Mykal said with a deep sigh. “I wanna kill him right now, cuz of my personal reasons when we were trapped under that mountain, but…” he paused and looked at William. “William was a friend to me when I really needed a friend. When me and the others returned to my world from the first time here, my government was trying to make me crack and break and admit to stealing a nuclear missile when it disappeared on June 23rd,” he said quietly and shook his head slowly. “I honestly thought I was gonna go nuts, but he helped me to stay strong through it and helped keep me from breaking cuz I didn’t steal that missile. Me and eighty-four others just vanished without a trace and they had to put the blame on someone,” he scoffed. “But as much as I hate him, he was a true friend and source of strength when I really needed it,” he stopped and paused again.

  “What?” Doninka asked when Mykal just stood there deep in thought. “You just stopped speaking.”

  “I’m sorry. But I just don’t wanna kill him in cold blood,” Mykal answered and looked at her. “We were close friends at one time,” he added and suddenly felt super emotional. He knew it was the ring or the magic of the ring playing games with his mind.

  “He really frightens me,” she admitted and peaked over Mykal’s shoulder to eye the seated and bound William.

  “What, do you want me to kill him?” Mykal asked with a laugh and realized he was talking of killing someone as easily as he would talk about the weather.

  “Well, I, oh I, well I do not know if,” she paused. “He frightens me,” she whispered to get her feelings off her chest to say that she didn’t trust him.

  “That’s funny,” he chuckled. “When I first talked of killing him you didn’t want me to kill him, cuz you didn’t think it would be right to kill him in cold blood, but now it sounds like I don’t want to and you want me to.”

  “It is not that I want you to kill him,” she said and turned her head in embarrassment. “I just feel frightened by his presence. I do not desire that he be so close to us while we run for our lives.”

  “I can’t let him go, cuz if he gets back to the crazy Zee-man then he’s a threat to your people’s existence back at the Pass for a number of different reasons. If I do take him back, then it’s gonna be a bunch of problems for me cuz I told everyone I watched him get killed by Goblins.”

  “What should we do Mykal?” She asked and stared into his eyes.

  “I don’t know, but I am so glad that I got you outta there,” he said to change the subject and wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.

  **********

  To say that she was surprised was an understatement, but there was no way she was going to rebuke his show of affection. She loved him dearly and desired a relationship with him. Her main problem was that he was happily married to a woman in another world. ‘A woman who really does not exist as far as I am concerned. Could we make something work?’ She wondered when he hugged onto her in such a loving way. ‘He must have feelings for me, or why else would he hug me so?’

  Doninka longed for the embrace to last forever. She hugged him back to let him know she was fine with his attention. ‘The man of my dreams risked his life to save me from those horrible people,’ she thought and tears welled up in her eyes. She wondered if she should kiss his lips to show where her heart was. ‘Would that be too bold and presump
tive? Would he get angry with me and push me away?’ She was slightly disappointed when he pulled from her body.

  ***********

  “I’m sorry,” he said and pulled away just as quickly as he latched onto her. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “It is fine with me. You did nothing wrong,” she responded and hoped he would continue to hug her.

  “It’s just that I missed you and went through so much to get you back. I want you to know that I--”

  “Mykal, please untie me,” William yelled and cut Mykal’s words short. “I’ve been bound for a long time and I’m afraid the circulation in my wrists has been cut off.

  “You did nothing wrong,” Doninka repeated and suddenly looked frustrated that Mykal was stopped by William. She wanted to ignore William and continue with what Mykal was going to say to her. She kept a happy friendly smile on her face, but inside there was a volcano of anger building only because William would disrupt such a beautiful touching moment of Mykal opening his heart to her.

  “Let’s go see what this friggin idiot wants,” Mykal said and realized his emotions were allowing his flesh to go where it shouldn’t. “C’mon with me,” he said as he walked off toward the seated prisoner.

  “Please Mykal, untie these binds. I have been tied up for a couple of weeks,” William said though he wasn’t really telling the truth.

  “I will untie you, but you’re gonna drive the vehicle so I can keep an eye on you.”

  “Why do you feel that you have to keep an eye on me?” William asked and seemed somewhat offended.

  “Are you kiddin’ me? You killed my best friend and you were gonna kill me,” Mykal scoffed.

  “Yes, but that’s all behind us now,” William replied. “You said you even have an arrangement with Percy. That is good enough for me. I just wish to return home and be done with this world of Towbar’s. I just want to go home,” he repeated.

  “William, I’m telling you, if you friggin screw with me, or if I think you’re trying to screw with me, I’m gonna shoot you dead and then I won’t have to worry about anything involving you. Do you understand me?” He asked and stared into the shocked expression of William.