by Dave Hazel
“How’d it go?” Mykal asked.
“I could not make contact with Nidious,” the giant said. “I know he will be in the Pass. He will be close to the side of King Loankore who is in the Pass at this time. I desperately need to make contact to inform them that we still have Doninka and not to have King Loankore give himself over to the Sosos should we not make it back there before the deadline.”
“Do you think you’re being blocked by Ziggy or do you think you just didn’t make a regular contact? If we can call it a regular contact that is,” he added with a smirk.
“I will try again later,” Towbar replied and avoided answering his question. The giant looked to be disappointed. “I will try again in the morning. What have we decided to do at this time?”
“We’re gonna set up camp and hopefully they’ll keep to what they’ve done all along so far and that is not hitting us at night time,” Mykal said and smirked. “But let’s make sure we have a good solid plan just in case they do try to hit us during the night time. Make sure all the drivers are on the same page in case we have to drive off in the dark. Make sure all the men pulling guard duty are extra alert cuz if they’re getting desperate to take Doninka from us they may try to pull some shit on us that we haven’t seen yet,” Mykal demanded as if he was the only one thinking ahead.
“Agreed,” Captain Diaz replied and several leaders gave several suggestions as well.
The men all remained on high alert. Lanorear and his Hawkmen joined them just before the sun went down completely and shared with them the large group with the Things wasn’t very far away. Lanorear agreed to help as much as his Hawkmen were capable of helping. Lanorear said they were considering taking Mykal up on his offer to return to the Pass with them when, and if, they could return to the Pass. He was curious to see if Nidious could do something to return them to their former selves of being normal Elves, though it had been many decades since they walked around as regular Elves. Mykal made sure they kept that conversation from Hidtotim and his men. Though Mykal was fully convinced that Hidtotim and his men had burned their bridges with Zizmon-Tarl’s army, he didn’t want to take a chance of someone saying something at the wrong time to make them have second thoughts.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 02/03/1984
1. Friday, February 3rd 1984
0451 hours, Other Side Of Towbar’s World (27th Day)
Mykal found he had a fitful time sleeping. He was super sensitive to any noise and movement for fear of the enemy trying to conduct a night time raid. Then when he did finally fall asleep he had so many strange, off the wall, weird dreams and some nightmares. He wondered if this was going to be the course for the rest of his life. The most disturbing part of his sleep or lack thereof, was the movement he knew was taking place around them. He felt the green fog had been used several times. It was possible the green fog could have been used in the area and due to his extremely tired body he might not have awakened to the trembling of his hand and arm which meant the green fog could have been used more than he had been aware of.
Mykal wasn’t sure what to do. In his mind the most important thing was to return home to his wife and kids, but to those around him, the most essential objective he shared was to protect Princess Doninka and return her to the Pass. While he lay there he thought of Doninka and knew he truly loved the girl but understood he couldn’t allow anything more than a friendship to be revealed. He wouldn’t give up his wife and sons for anyone, but at times he found himself in desperate want to be near her and not just in a physical sense. This was the toughest challenge and temptation he believed he had ever faced. He toyed with the idea of being like others he knew who cheated on their wives like his close friend Larry who was now back in the real world. Larry kept saying; “It’s only physical. It doesn’t mean anything. Don’t worry about it,” he said to encourage him to join him in cheating.
He knew he couldn’t even toy with doing that because then he would be playing with the emotions of Doninka and hurting her. He glanced over to her sleeping form and he knew he could have her anytime he wanted because of her love for him. But because of his true feelings for her he would never want to hurt the girl. ‘How the hell did I get mixed up in such a mess?’ He asked inside his head and felt guilty. ‘But wait a friggin minute. I haven’t done anything wrong!’ He declared in thought. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong, and I won’t. I love my wife too much to cheat on her and I love Doninka too much to hurt her. I won’t even play games with having a different woman in each world, cuz I would know what a dirt bag I’d be to both of them if I did that.’
“Why the hell am I even thinking about this?” He whispered in anger to himself. He was disgusted with all that was going on in his head. He just realized they were on the run for their lives and he was worried about having a relationship with a girl behind his wife’s back. ‘Six men were just killed not twelve hours ago and I’m worried about stupid school boy type shit.’ “What the hell’s the matter with me?” He mumbled in disgust.
“What was that Myk?” Mathis asked.
“Huh?” Mykal gasped and didn’t realize he said something out loud. “I dunno. I think I was dreaming,” he replied and tried to sound like he just woke up. “Anything going on?” Mykal asked to take the focus off his mental ‘heart break’ problem.
“No. From what I understand all the change overs for guard duty have gone smooth and there have been no, none, nada, absolutely nothing going on around us. It’s been all quiet and calm.”
“Good,” Mykal said and smiled to Mathis. “Man, I had this horrible dream,” he whispered and looked to make sure no one could hear him. “I had this dream that we got attacked and Doninka didn’t listen to me by staying inside the vehicle and one of those flying bat faced creeps swooped down and grabbed her and took her away and we couldn’t do anything to stop it. That dream really freaked me out,” Mykal whispered with a quiet sigh. “I actually woke up in a sweat. I was scared,” he added because of his love for the girl. The dream struck him more on a personal level than just doing his job to protect the princess. “We gotta make sure we keep her safe.”
With all that was going on, all that he was struggling with mentally and emotionally, Mykal wondered if he should get away and talk with Captain Diaz about his ‘God stuff’. ‘Maybe Diaz has the answers and he’s been trying to tell me all his religious info. I’m getting so overloaded with all that’s going on. Maybe I should--’ Mykal’s thoughts were interrupted by Mathis.
“I agree,” Mathis whispered back. “But we only have to hold out for three more days, right?”
“Yeah, the Sosos’ High Holy Day is the 7th of February, so if we can keep running for a few more days they won’t have her.”
“Mykal, I want to ask you something,” Mathis said and began to fidget somewhat as if he was afraid to ask his question. He paused and gave the look of one who was nervous, one who feared being rejected.
“Well come on boy, spit it out,” Mykal whispered playfully to let Mathis know he could ask him anything. Mykal’s acceptance of Mathis as a friend wouldn’t hold anything against the kid. He was a close friend as far as Mykal was concerned.
“I haven’t been able to get this out of my mind and I’ve been thinking about it constantly since last night,” Mathis whispered and sounded like he was nervously stalling.
“Quit hem hawing around and just spit it out,” Mykal retorted impatiently. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not gonna think bad of you if you did something stupid,” he chuckled in anticipation of an admission to doing something foolish. “I might just slap ya around a little bit,” he playfully joked with Mathis.
Mathis replied with a weak, forced, laugh. His face was statue-like serious. “Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but when we had that problem with Zig-Zag,” he said with a slight smirk in reference to Zizmon-Tarl. “Where he cast that green fog on us and after that Towbar hasn’t been able to produce the green fog, do you think he targeted Towbar or us as a group?”
“I don’t know,” Mykal replied. “I don’t know if Ziggy knows of Towbar personally so maybe it had to be that he targeted the group. Why? What’s your point?”
“Well, when Ziggy did his dirty deed to us, you weren’t there. Maybe that curse or spell or whatever it was has no effect on you. Maybe you can still do the green fog,” Mathis suggested in almost a whisper. He sounded like he was afraid of being wrong. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that all night. You weren’t there when Zig-Zag hit us with that green fog.”
Suddenly Mykal’s mind went a million miles an hour as thoughts flooded his brain. He bolted upright and was stunned into silence while he thought of the possibilities to what Mathis revealed. Plans and ideas filled his brain when the realization hit him that he wasn’t there when Zizmon-Tarl cast the green fog, and possibly a spell or curse, over Towbar that prevented him from using the green fog for their group. Mathis was right, ‘I shouldn’t have been affected by the ‘curse’ or ‘bad spell’. I wasn’t there,’ he thought and wanted to yell with joyful excitement.
Instead of picturing a light bulb appear over his head he envisioned a giant search light shining down on his head. From the corner of his eye he saw the giant roll over. Towbar had to have heard what was said. ‘Damn, could it be possible?’ Mykal wondered. ‘Why the hell didn’t I think of this? Is it possible?’ He wondered again and thought back to assure himself that he was in fact not present when the green fog was cast over the group. ‘How the hell could I have missed this? Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Damn it, why didn’t I think of this? All those lives could have been saved,’ he thought and evoked the image of six dead lying side by side, though two of them were left where they had been killed in order to get away without endangering anyone to retrieve their bodies.
“Oh damn Mathis,” Mykal gasped and bore into his friend. “That simple little question you just asked,” he declared. “That’s right, I wasn’t there so I shouldn’t have been cursed by what’s his friggin name,” he said in reference to Zizmon-Tarl. “How the friggin hell didn’t I think of that?” He asked with an exasperated excitement.
“My friend, is it possible?” Towbar asked and whispered his words just in case it wasn’t likely. He didn’t want to get the people all worked up with excitement if it wasn’t promising.
“I don’t know,” he whispered excitedly, but cautiously just in case it wouldn’t work. “After Mathis brought the point up that I wasn’t with you guys, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.”
Suddenly the inside of the vehicle came to life, though some of the people didn’t really seem to know what was actually being discussed.
“Are we being attacked?” Randy asked and sleepily rubbed his eyes and grabbed for one of his rifles with his other hand.
“No, but let’s not get too excited until we know for sure,” Mykal replied. “I think we might be able to get outta here. Mathis, get Diaz on the horn. Mathis if you weren’t such an ugly little Radio Boy, I’d plant a big fat wet one on your lips,” he joked and laughed at the idea he might be able to perform the green fog magic since he wasn’t or rather shouldn’t have been effected by the attack on Towbar.
“A simple handshake will do, with a nice little Christmas bonus if we last that long,” Mathis said with a deadpan expression without missing a beat.
“Hurry Radio Boy, get Diaz on the radio,” he continued to laugh.
“Hey Mykal, I was just getting ready to call you,” Diaz said without a happy morning greeting. “We have a problem. Tell everyone to stay inside the vehicle. I’m relaying this to all the vehicles right now. We are completely surrounded and we’re about to be attacked,” he said through the speakers in almost a whisper. “We are completely surrounded on all sides. We’re going to have to make a decision without allowing the enemy to know, that we know, they are out there, and we are going to have to bust through their wall of bodies placed all around us. Their foot soldiers are actually creeping up on us as I speak. Mykal, I will get back to you in just a couple of minutes,” Diaz said and was gone from the radio.
Mykal looked shocked and turned to Sergeant Barry who gave a thumbs up and a worried nod to confirm what Captain Diaz had just relayed. Barry tapped the leg of one of his two men who stood in the turret and Sergeant Simmons lowered himself from the turret, leaving Corporal Nelson up there by himself. “Simmy, what’s going on out there?” Barry asked Sergeant Simmons. Simmons was Barry’s best friend and right hand man among the Army transportation personnel.
“It’s bad Myk,” Simmons replied while he turned to Mykal since Mykal was the senior person in the vehicle. It’s just barely getting light out and we can now see that we are completely surrounded. Lieutenant Finley gave orders for no one to move or to get out of the vehicles. Finley believes the enemy thinks we are unaware, but once they know that we know they are there, or once the sun is high enough he believes they are going to attack us. We’re slowly getting everyone up and ready.”
“Is there a lot of them out there?” Roy Jr. asked.
Simmy gave a deep sigh as if he didn’t want to speak. “It’s scary as hell looking. Not only are there thousands and thousands of soldiers out there, but then there are also all kinds of freaky monsters, the shit we’ve been fighting the past few days.”
“And are we really completely surrounded?” Mathis asked.
“Oh yeah, they have really encircled us.” Simmons whispered as he raised his right hand as if swearing in. He sounded fearful the enemy might hear him. “There is no doubt about it. They must have snuck close to us during the night. We’re fighting no matter what direction we go to get through the wall they put up.”
Mykal turned to Towbar. “We need to get away from them for me to try using the green fog. I don’t wanna do it right here and now and have them follow us in and come to the Pass with us.”
“Oh damn, that’s scary as all get out,” Roy Jr. replied.
“I mean, our people will kick their ass, but it would be a sudden surprise and it could cause the Sosos to attack if they saw a war break out in front of the Pass. I wouldn’t wanna take us to the rear of the Pass just in case one of them should survive and somehow get back here or do a Mind Talk type thing with Ziggy.”
“Mykal, Captain Diaz is calling for you,” Mathis said and handed him his handset.
“Myk here,” he replied and took a deep breath.
“I want everyone to listen to me,” Captain Diaz said and it came through Mykal’s ear and through the speaker in the vehicle. “We’re going to have to make a sudden move and we’re going to have to move in unison. The direction we’re facing is directly into the face of the Things,” he said in reference to the thirty foot tall monsters they faced in the Pass on New Year’s Eve. “So when we move, I want all vehicles to do an abrupt about face and go in the opposite direction which will be in the direction we were traveling in before we turned around. For clarity, so everyone will know what I’m talking about. Yesterday we were traveling toward the city or cities of Ziggy Stardust. After our battles and the last attack we turned and were moving toward the mountains where we had spent considerable time some weeks before. Now we are going to turn our vehicles around and head back toward the direction of the cities where we were going to try to find a decoy princess.”
“Is that gonna be the best way out since they have us surrounded?” Mykal whispered.
“Based on what all the observers say, that will be the weakest point in the wall to strike,” Diaz replied and continued. “It appears like they are going to try and take us out and I assume they will try to take possession of the princess. However men, we will not allow that,” Diaz declared defiantly. “Their numbers are overwhelming, but we have the fire power and speed of our vehicles,” he said confidently.
‘Hopefully everyone is listening so we’ll all be on the same page of the plan,’ Mykal thought. “How close is the enemy with this wall they circled us with?” Mykal asked.
“It sounds like they’re a
bout twenty-five yards away and in some places they’re moving closer,” Finley answered. “They’re actually creeping closer to us.”
“We’re getting ready and like I said, do an about face and go in the opposite – oh my they’re attacking!” Diaz yelled. “Open fire, and go. Open fire and go. Go! Go go go.”
Mykal heard the roar of the .50 caliber machine guns and the vehicle started and turned quickly. He didn’t like that he couldn’t see what was going on, but it sounded like a vicious attack had been unleashed on them. He could hear the faint yells of men from other vehicles, but he didn’t know what was going on. He heard yelling over the speaker from other vehicles.
“Get us outta here and gimme some distance and I’ll try the green fog,” Mykal yelled to Barry who was driving. “Pass it on to the others, but we gotta keep the bad guys away from us.”
Suddenly the vehicle jerked hard which nearly knocked the men from their seats. The vehicle began to fish tail as if they had been struck by something large. Mykal believed it was a Klardfurdham, the rhino looking creature he fought a couple of days ago. He believed they could have been rammed by the large beast, but Sergeant Barry managed to keep the vehicle going and was able to get away from whatever struck them. Mykal grabbed his rifle and climbed up into the turret and made Nelson get down. Sergeant Simmons was shooting the .50 caliber machine gun and wasn’t as effective as he would have been if they were standing still and shooting at the attackers as they charged in at them.
Mykal began taking shots with his rifle though it wasn’t having the impact he would have hoped for. Most of the enemy was behind them and trying to advance on them. As a group they managed to break through the wall of bodies and left a mass of bodies in their getaway. However those on horseback and the larger creatures such as the Things, the Klardfurdham with the Crymontox riders rode after the vehicles in an attempt to slow them.
