by Dave Hazel
“I give you my word Myk. I don’t want any trouble. I just want to go back home and forget that I ever came to this place, meaning Towbar’s world,” he replied and turned his bound wrists toward Mykal to free him. “Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“That day we had our little falling out,” William said so he wouldn’t have to admit to killing Boris and Wickey or that he tried to kill Mykal. “Did you really disappear in front of me? Did that really happen?”
Mykal didn’t say anything while he cut the leather binds that kept William from freedom. He cut through the leather and William pulled his hands around him and shook them vigorously. Mykal watched William rub his wrists and felt somewhat happy that he freed William from the bad guys, but at the same time he wanted to kill him. ‘This is the same guy that threatened me in dreams,’ he pondered. ‘But those were dreams in my head. He didn’t do that.’
“Did it really happen?” William asked again.
“Why?’ Mykal asked as William got to his feet and stretched. William looked skyward, bent backward to stretch his back and blew a sigh of relief.
“Oh Mykal, you don’t know how good this feels,” William laughed out because he knew he must have looked silly for being happy to stand up.
“Good. Don’t screw it up. Cuz I’m not playing games about my threat. I’m willing to forgive and forget and put all that behind us, but if you try to screw me over I’ll remember that I have a couple of scores to settle with you.”
“I have no reason to,” William quickly replied with his hands up as if he surrendered to Mykal’s commands. “I owe you a great debt of gratitude. I will do whatever you ask of me.”
“Okay, but we’re gonna have to come up with a believable story cuz I told everyone that I saw you get killed by Goblins.”
“I will help you come up with a believable tale,” William replied. “But did you really disappear?”
“Yes I did and that was how I took out the Untouchables,” he admitted. “Me and Percy have an arrangement for me to teach others how to do that after this war is over.”
“You can teach it to others?” William asked with great interest and great enthusiasm as the three of them walked toward the Jeep.
“Yeah,” he lied. “But I told Percy, I’m not teaching anyone anything until this war is over. You’re driving,” Mykal said when he got into the back seat behind the driver. Doninka followed Mykal into the back seat with him. “Don’t make me regret cutting you free,” Mykal warned and pulled his Glock 17 from his waistband and laid it across his lap.
“Where are we going, and where are the keys?” William asked after he got behind the wheel and adjusted the seat and the rear view mirror. “Thanks,” he said when Mykal handed him the keys over his shoulder.
Mykal looked at him in the rear view mirror and had an uncomfortable feeling based on the look in William’s eyes. ‘Damn it, I’m so friggin tired,’ he thought and feared he would fall asleep while they drove. “We’re going to drive straight that way,” Mykal pointed and pulled Doninka close so he could whisper in her ear. “I need you to stay awake, cuz I’m very tired and I’m afraid I’ll fall asleep. You have to make sure I get up if it seems like he’s up to anything.”
“I will,” she whispered back to him and bore her eyes into William’s head.
“Do you have any food here Myk?” William asked while he looked into the mirror. His eyes looked suspicious.
“Yeah, we have some MREs here in the back, but we’ll eat after we stop. Just drive for right now. I wanna put some distance between us and the last group of soldiers we just dealt with.” Mykal suddenly became fearful of falling asleep. He remembered when he had a dream in the Pass that William attacked him while he was in a vehicle. ‘Damn, I gotta try to stay awake,’ he thought while the vehicle moved over the bumpy ground.
8.
“I’m so sorry Mykal,” Doninka cried. “I’m so sorry,” she said again and suddenly she screamed.
Mykal tried to open his eyes but he felt a tremendous pain in his left cheek and the left side of his head. The only thing that came to mind was he was struck in the head with a large rock. He opened his right eye to see Doninka being dragged from the vehicle by her long pretty hair. Mykal couldn’t move. He didn’t know what was wrong with him but he couldn’t respond to what was happening. Doninka screamed again. She sounded like she was being struck viciously. ‘Why did I trust that friggin scumbag,’ he thought while he heard William laughing over Doninka’s screams. ‘Oh damn, what did I do?’ He moaned in thought, but he didn’t feel he could lift his head.
“I will kill you, you sneaky little bitch,” William yelled and he followed through with solid punches to the princess who continued to scream.
Mykal couldn’t move and he couldn’t see what was happening. He wanted to yell but the words wouldn’t come out. He felt wetness on his face around his mouth and believed all his teeth had been smashed out and he believed he was bleeding freely. He noticed his Glock 17 was no longer on his lap. ‘Did I get shot in the face with my own gun? Am I dying?’
Doninka screamed for help and cried her intense pain. “Please do not stab me,” she begged. “Please. Help me,” she screamed. “Help me.”
Mykal couldn’t understand why he couldn’t move and why his head hurt so much. ‘That friggin bastard shot me in the head,’ he moaned and still couldn’t make his body move. “I shoulda killed that friggin low life,” he mumbled weakly.
“What?” William asked.
Suddenly another hard thump hit the left side of Mykal’s head. “Oh damn,” he moaned again.
“Sorry about that,” William laughed.
“Are you okay Mykal?” Doninka asked from beside him.
Mykal suddenly bolted upright and saw he was still in the back seat behind William. Doninka was to his right. “Oh damn,” he sighed when he realized he dozed off and started to dream. His Glock 17 slid off his lap onto the floor. Mykal’s face had been resting on the window and the end of his rifle. He wiped his mouth and understood he had been drooling and was not in fact bleeding. The side of his face hurt when his rifled jammed into his cheek from a bump William hit. His head struck the side window when William hit a couple of rough bumps. He looked to make sure they didn’t see he had been drooling.
“What did you say Mykal?” William asked again and looked at Mykal through the mirror. “Did you say you should have killed someone?”
“It was nothing,” Mykal lied and wanted to laugh out loud that he had been dreaming. “It was about someone back around that town where I rescued Doninka. It’s nothing. It’s over and done,” he said to take the focus away that he had actually lost consciousness. He glanced down at his watch and believed he had dozed off for about twenty minutes.
“Are we going the right way?” William asked. “It’s all flat land like it was back in the Dakotas,” he said and fanned his hand over the dashboard to reveal wide open plains.
“Yeah, we’re going the right way. See those mountains? Head toward them. That’s our focal point,” Mykal said and was relieved to know that William didn’t attack them. It had been a bad dream. ‘Thank You God,’ he thought. ‘Every day I have nightmares so I’m just thankful this was another one and not the real thing.’
“Mykal, is there any way we can stop and have something to eat?” William asked and looked at him through the mirror. “I haven’t eaten a real meal in a while. Even when I was with the soldiers I had to eat slop. It was much better than what the Goblins gave me, but it was horrible slop. It was like bland oatmeal.”
“Yeah, okay,” Mykal agreed. He was happy that he hadn’t really been attacked and only suffered from a bad dream. “Go ahead and stop. After you put it in park gimme the keys.”
“What? You still don’t trust me?” William asked.
“No I don’t,” Mykal answered matter-of-factly. “If you don’t like that you can keep driving.”
“No no, I’ll do that,” William replied
with a laugh as he pulled to a stop and handed Mykal the keys. “I’m really hungry.”
“Go ahead and help yourself,” Mykal said and pointed to the couple of cases of MREs in the rear of the Wagoneer. There were also six canteens of water.
“Do you mind if I eat two or three of them?” William asked.
“I don’t care. If you’re really hungry eat all you want,” Mykal answered and went back to the front of the vehicle where Doninka stood. She turned away from William’s look and didn’t want to be near him. “What’s the matter?’ Mykal asked and readjusted his rifle on his shoulder.
“I do not feel comfortable around him,” she answered and folded her arms across her chest. “I have a strange fear of him,” she whispered. “He looks at me with a strange glare.”
“We oughta get in the Jeep and take off without him,” he snickered playfully to her delight. “No, we can’t do that,” he continued to laugh when she nodded her head enthusiastically. He knew he would have to come up with an explanation once they reached the others. He told everyone he watched William get killed by the Goblins.
“He frightens me,” she whispered again.
“Don’t worry about him. I think he’ll be alright. He’s been through a lot,” he said with a smile and suddenly a corkscrew anger developed in him. He wanted to take his frustrations out on William for killing his best friend Boris and that young kid Wickey besides the fact William was going to kill him right there in the room where Mykal walked in on them. ‘That’s right, that friggin bastard whacked me in the face with Boris’s pistol,’ he thought and started to think negatively about William again. ‘Huh, how many times did I say I would shoot him dead no matter where we were and no matter what was going on at the time?’
“What is the matter Mykal?” She whispered when Mykal just stood there staring into space.
“I’m conflicted,” he answered and realized his emotions were like being on a roller coaster. “I’m torn between killing that scumbag and letting him live. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to myself and said to Towbar that if I ever saw him again I would shoot him dead where he stands,” Mykal declared angrily. “But now that I’m with him, I kinda feel bad for him.”
“He frightens me,” Doninka whispered as if she was trying to convince Mykal to do something. “He makes me feel uncomfortable.”
“I know, but he was a friend to me when I really needed a friend. I know you wouldn’t understand, but when I went back to my world the first time, my people tried to make me confess for something I didn’t do,” he said and chuckled at all the intense interrogations he went through. “Whether he was a plant at the time or not, he helped me get through that time. I really thought I was gonna lose my mind.”
“He was a plant?” she asked with a befuddled expression.
Mykal suddenly burst out with laughter. He knew she took him literally. He couldn’t resist and hugged her again. “You’re something else,” he said in a friendly way. “It doesn’t matter,” he added and pulled away and felt that she tried to hold a little tighter. ‘Damn it, I shouldn’t have done that,’ he thought as he pulled away from her.
“What do you think you will do?” She asked and looked toward the rear of the vehicle.
Mykal turned to watch William scarf down his food quickly. His heart was pricked and sadness overwhelmed him. It made him feel bad that William would be so hungry that he would gobble up MREs. He recognized that he felt genuine empathy and sadness for what William had gone through. He laughed slightly when he thought of some of the names people had come up with to show their dislike for the military issue food, rather than the proper name - Meals Ready to Eat (MRE). Mykal couldn’t understand why his emotions were taking a turn to the ‘soft and wimpy’ side of him.
“You can’t imagine how many times he pissed me off when we were lost on this side of the world. He made me start to hate him,” Mykal snickered while he watched the balding man chow down like he hadn’t eaten in a week. “He went against everything I was doing like he was doing it on purpose. But I feel bad for the guy. I can’t pretend I don’t ache for what he’s been through and I don’t understand it. Don’t get me wrong, I know my attitude could change like that,” he said with a snap of his fingers. “He hurt me in a big way. I know I’m repeating myself but he killed my best friend and was going to kill me despite the fact that we were supposed to be friends,” he said as if he was trying to make himself angry. “And he couldn’t care less cuz it was ‘business, not personal’,” he added with air quotes and a mocking tone.
Mykal looked at William again. The bruising on his face, the cuts and scratches on his balding head and face showed the abuse he endured. The area between William’s left shoulder and neck seemed swelled and reddened. Mykal believed William may have taken a small piece of shrapnel from the grenade explosion from inside the carriage. The way William tore into the food showed he had been deprived of food for some time. He really felt bad for William. In an odd way he wanted to reach out to hug him and show all was forgiven and they could move on. ‘What the friggin hell is goin’ on in my head?’ He wondered and his face twisted into a strange expression. He couldn’t believe all the mental flip flopping he was doing.
“What is wrong Mykal?” Doninka interrupted his thinking.
“Nothing,” he nearly snapped at her when he felt he was thinking too ‘wimpy like’. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that to sound like I was getting snippy with you.”
“Noooooo,” William suddenly yelled and cried out. He dropped to his knees and grabbed his head as if he was in severe pain. He continued to cry out and yelled loudly. “Help me. They’re coming for me,” he groaned and seemed to be grinding his teeth as if in intense internal anguish. He turned to look at Mykal and his eyes looked serpent like again. “Help me,” he screeched and began to slap his own head repeatedly. “They’re coming for me.”
“What is it?” Mykal yelled back and took his rifle from his shoulder. Mykal was startled when he watched William slap his own head very hard.
It was then Mykal noticed five strange creatures flying toward them. The idea of the green fog entered his mind and he believed these were the creatures that were moved to this area during the presence of the green fog. He couldn’t believe his eyes. All five were tall and long skinny creatures that had long leathery wings. Their heads were large with long snouts and long teeth. They all had long pointy ears that made them resemble bat like creatures. Their legs had long curled claws and they all carried a large rock in their hands. The rocks were easily the size of a fifty gallon drum. Mykal heard the sound of their leathery wings flapping as they made their way toward them.
On the land Mykal saw six Things moving along the ground toward them, but they were traveling at a slower pace due to the handlers that followed behind on the strange camel mixed with an elephant type of creature he saw on New Year’s Eve in the Pass. There was also an army of soldiers following along with them but it was clear they were staying behind the Things. Mykal remembered how unpredictable those monstrous creatures were during the battle on New Year’s Eve. The Things would attack friend or foe as if they didn’t have an alliance with either side
Abruptly, as if a signal had been given, the five of the flying bat like creatures flung their small boulders at them. The ground seemed to shake with the loud thuds when the large rocks hit the land. Only one of the rocks posed a threat when it struck the ground closest to William and bounced into the rear of the Jeep Wagoneer. It smashed out the driver’s side tail lights. If any of the rocks would have struck the front of the vehicle it could have made it inoperable.
“What the friggin hell is going on?” Mykal yelled as the five flying creatures flew down toward them. After they threw their rocks they all pulled a weapon to fight with. Two were armed with swords that were long and slender. The swords were at least seven feet long. Two were armed with a double headed and double sided battle axes. It was a pole with axe heads on both ends. Though the creatures
were long and skinny they appeared to have incredible strength to wield the weapons in such an easy fashion. The fifth creature had a sword at its side, but it pulled a bow and strung an arrow. The arrows were very large which Mykal thought they looked like mini-spears.
Doninka began to scream when the creatures flew down toward her. Mykal knew they were going to capture her and he was terrified. He didn’t know how he would be able to defend against them and the small army that came behind them. William continued to cry out from his knees and held his head as if his head was being crushed. William gnashed his teeth together and begged Mykal for help but Mykal was too concerned for his and Doninka’s safety to help William.
The creature with the bow and arrow fired off the arrow and it struck the Jeep Wagoneer on the passenger side rear door. The noise was amazing when the arrow crashed into the metal. The arrow penetrated the metal and stuck into the seat. Had someone been sitting there they could have been severely injured or killed. All five of the flying creatures let out a screeching howl as they flew in toward them.
Mykal didn’t want the one with the bow and arrow to take another shot at them so he raised his rifle and aimed at the creatures head. He fired off the rest of his magazine which was about twelve rounds. He aimed all of them at the beast’s head and felt confident he struck the flying bat-like creature at least eight times, but with its jerky flying movements it was hard to keep the creature in his cross hairs. The monster shook its head several times and flopped to the ground. On the ground it continued to kick its legs while the curled claws opened and closed repeatedly. The large leathery wings continued to flap or try to flap, but the creature clearly wasn’t getting off the ground. It suffered a serious wound. The other four circled around their fallen teammate and the leather wings ceased movement. When the four realized their flying comrade wasn’t getting back up despite its screeching yells of pain, they jumped into the air and resumed their attack on the foes that prepared to flee.
