"I hope I'm wrong. I really hope I'm wrong."
Rick and Jacobson finished their sweep of the home. The dilapidated house was in okay shape considering everything it had survived. Most of the upstairs floorboards had rotted out and hung dangerously from the ceiling to the main level. Several windows had limp sections of siding hanging over them. It seemed as if the abandoned home was trying to cover its empty eyes.
The door to the house groaned when the wind swayed it open as it hung precariously on its hinges. They could imagine the home’s old weary spirit bemoaning its plight to the world.
Rick emerged from the home giving his brother the all clear.
"We're good to go!" Henry announced to Lenny.
"Oh joy," was all Lenny could say.
The homes along the street clustered so close together down the narrow street that they supported each other from falling over. Henry kicked his boot at the gray, dusty soil devoid of life. He knelt down and poured some water to see if the soil would soak it up and regain some of its brown coloring. To his dismay, it did nothing. Instead, it absorbed all the water and then quickly returned to its dry dusty appearance.
Rick and Jacobson returned to the vehicle and grabbed their equipment. Henry stood and gave Lenny instructions to set up the scanner on Rick and Jacobson's tablet so they could monitor any movement while they approached the drilling site. Lenny reluctantly agreed and set to work.
Henry went to assist Rick and Jacobson with unloading the equipment.
The floorboards creaked in protest when Henry crossed with several cases in hand. He was afraid that at any moment, the floor would give way and he would go tumbling into the basement. Luckily, the floorboards held. Henry sat the cases down and inspected the house.
It wasn't the best location in the world, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. The building was falling apart in places, but as long as they avoided those areas, it was still pretty safe and would be a good base of operations.
He went back to assisting Rick and Jacobson with the remaining equipment. It didn't take long, and when everything was ready to go, Henry shook Jacobson's hand and extended his hand to Rick. Rick grabbed his hand and then pulled him in for a hug. Lenny hesitantly stepped in announcing he had everything ready on his end.
Henry stepped back from Rick’s embrace and nodded his thanks to Lenny. He turned back to Rick.
"My Russian PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle is in the blue bag upstairs. She's yours until I get back."
Rick protested, but Henry stopped him with a raised hand.
"I wouldn't trust her with anyone else but you. You already know how to set her up and use her. I don't have the time to teach Jacobson, so you are the best choice. Remember what I taught you, and you'll be fine. Besides, you’ll find plenty of ammo in the bag I placed up there, and remember, she's been modified a bit, but she’ll do what you guide her to do."
Henry walked towards the door and turned back to regard Rick.
"I need you to cover Lenny and me and make sure our way is clear. I don't know what’s going to happen once we leave, but I need to know that no matter what happens, you're here protecting us."
Rick stood there staring at the rifle. "I don't know how I’ll be able to protect you against that thing, even with this gun of yours. McAvoy had to use explosives to damage it. So I don't know how a gun will do anything other than annoy it. But I'll do my best."
"Honestly, that's all I can ask. Besides, if my theory is correct, those armor-piercing rounds should do the trick in slowing the Beast down."
Rick walked up and handed a small cloth bag to Henry.
"What is this?" Henry asked.
"Something you gave me years ago when I left for my first deployment. Do you remember what you told me about it?"
Henry slowly opened the bag and out tumbled their grandfather's Medal of Honor into his open palm. He turned it over in his hand. Still embedded in the center of the medal was a metal slug. The medal had saved Henry's life years ago when insurgents had attacked Henry’s base in Afghanistan.
Henry had taken a bullet to the shoulder, thigh, and chest. It should have killed him, but the bullet had struck the medal instead.
Henry stood staring at the medal that had saved him all those years ago.
Rick interrupted his thoughts. "Years ago you gave me that medal and told me that it was a good luck charm because it had saved your life and that Grandpa was still out there watching over us. I want you to have it because you're going to need all the luck you can get out there. Besides, I expect you to give it back after all this is over."
Henry didn't know what to say. Tears came to his eyes as he stood holding the medal in his hands. Rick still talked, ignoring Henry's outpouring of emotions.
Rick smiled. "I've got your back. It's about time I step in and save your bacon for a change after all the times you've saved mine."
Henry nodded and proceeded out the door.
Rick turned to Lenny. "I know we haven't kept in touch. But thank you for going to Henry and telling him what had happened over here. We'd probably be dead by now if it weren’t for you."
Lenny accepted Rick’s extended hand.
"You and Henry are the closest thing I have to family anymore. I know you two have had your fair share of issues, as do I. However, when we're together, nothing can beat us down."
At that moment, a rush of old memories flooded Rick’s thoughts. "I remember those days all too well. Let’s just hope that even in this highly unusual circumstance that’s still true. Good luck out there, and keep an eye on my brother for me."
Lenny smiled his tight-lipped nervous smile before nodding his head and ran out the door.
Dark clouds accumulated overhead, causing the sky to darken as Henry and Lenny slowly walked down Ballybogie Road. They cautiously approached the old chain-link fence of the Union Forest drilling site. Henry used a pair of bolt cutters to clip away a section of the fence so they could crawl through.
Lenny went through first and followed by Henry, who had a more difficult time getting through due to all the guns and explosives he carried.
"You know, Henry, you look like one of those guys in my favorite action movies. They go charging in with all sorts of guns and weapons strapped to their body while hordes of enemies try to blast them away."
"Yeah, I don't think this will be anything like those silly movies. Besides, none of those action scenes are anywhere near reality. The point is for us to get in and out without me having to use any of these. So let's get moving."
Lenny was amazed at how calm Henry appeared, whereas Lenny felt like his stomach was a knotted mass of hysteria and fear all wrapped up inside his thirty-four year old techno-geek body.
Henry chuckled when he caught Lenny’s expression while they walked along the perimeter of the drilling site. Lenny reminded him of that tall shaggy-looking character on that old cartoon with the talking dog that his parents used to love to watch. Both of them were always on edge, waiting for the smallest thing to jump out and attack them.
Henry moved in closer after making sure the perimeter was safe and clear of any creatures. After they moved passed the broken, twisted forms of what had once been portable offices, they found the giant gaping wound in the ground that was the home of the Beast.
Henry grabbed Lenny by the arm and ducked behind an old aluminum trailer that must have been the foreman's office. Steam rose out of the hole in lazy swirling patterns.
"Is that normal?" Lenny whispered.
"How should I know?" Henry retorted.
Henry scanned the drilling site and found that many of the mechanized drilling machines that had once been beneath the ground, where they should have been drilling, now lay scattered across the drilling site, smashed or destroyed. A few of these were Union Forest's modified DL421 electro-hydraulic long-hole drill rigs that had been mutilated and were decaying from rust as they lay along the edge of the large void.
"Well, those won't be any help to us," Henry rem
arked.
Lenny tapped Henry's shoulder and pointed towards a broken DT1131i. The DT1131i was a large three-armed electro-hydraulic drilling rig. These rigs could dig day and night. Because they never needed rest, they could accomplish what it used to take forty or fifty men to do, all with one remote operator at a control deck.
Henry scanned the large rig. It was pretty beaten up and dangled over the edge of the large metal viewing platform that stretched out about twenty or thirty feet over the void. The viewing platform was located on the other side of the chasm from where the two men stood.
Other than the fact that the platform was a bit bent, it appeared to be in decent shape.
"What is it? I don't see anything other than that drilling rig," Henry said.
"Look underneath the third arm. I think that's the control deck that runs all these mechanized rigs. If it is, then it is likely where our prize is located."
Henry pulled out a pair of binoculars and found that Lenny was right. There certainly was something there behind the twisted arm of the unit.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked.
Lenny nodded his head and grabbed his gear.
Henry sighed. "Let's hope the Beast isn't down there. Because if it is, that viewing platform won’t provide much protection from it. I'm pretty sure the hole gives the Beast a wonderful view of anything that shows up on the platform, and truth be told, I'd rather not find that thing coming up out of the ground after us."
"We can always go back."
"If only that was a choice, my friend."
Henry grabbed his M16 with the M203 attachment and slowly made his way to where Lenny believed the control deck waited.
Rick lay on his stomach, watching Henry and Lenny through the scope on the PTRD-41. Henry kept this rifle in such pristine condition, Rick marveled at it. The scope allowed him to watch as they made their way down the road and into the drilling site. When they entered, he lost sight of them. He immediately scrambled up to his knees, grabbed a pair of binoculars, and scanned the site to locate them. Just when he was about to alert Jacobson, he found them resting behind an old beat-up aluminum trailer.
Rick let out a sigh of relief and lay back down to watch Henry and Lenny through the scope of the rifle.
Rick clicked on his comm. "Jacobson, are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here, what's up."
"They've arrived on site. I have to say that the hole the Beast made is massive; it could easily swallow up an entire high-rise office building. So far they've made it in without any contact. But I want to be safe. Is there any way you can extend the range of that scanner? I don't want anything catching us unprepared."
There was a few moments of silence, and then Jacobson nervously came back on the comm lines.
"Um . . . I think I owe Henry an apology."
"Why? What’s wrong?"
"Something is showing up on the scanner now, and it’s moving in fast. I think I counted ten or twelve of them. They aren't large, but they are closing in on Henry and Lenny's location."
Rick cursed and quickly set about scanning the area with the rifle trying to find what these new threats were.
"I don't see anything. Can you direct me to where these things are? I don't see anything in the skies above."
"They’re not in the sky. Check along the ground. Whatever they are, they appear to be running in groups of two or three. They are about two clicks southwest of Henry’s location. This is crazy! I thought he was being paranoid when he thought something was watching us. Whatever these things are, they’re coming in fast."
Rick acknowledged Jacobson and then started scanning for the new threat.
Henry and Lenny arrived at the edge of the scaffolding and peered down into the endless chasm below. Henry looked over to Lenny, who suddenly appeared as if he was questioning this new course of action.
"Well, are we going to check and see if that's the control deck or not?" Henry whispered.
Lenny looked over to him and then back down the chasm.
"Do you think this will hold us?"
"Only one way to find out," Henry said as he pushed Lenny out onto the scaffolding.
Lenny nearly wet himself right then and there. Before his foot even touched down, he saw himself stepping out onto the viewing platform where he imagined it crumbling out from beneath him and turning to ash as he fell to his doom. However, Lenny's foot stepped firmly onto the viewing platform without any problems.
Henry chuckled when he saw Lenny give him a look of if I didn't need you to keep a giant horrifying fire-breathing beast from eating me, I would push you into the chasm myself.
Henry smiled and shrugged.
Both men cautiously walked across the viewing platform. Henry noticed the powder coating surface on the galvanized steel platform. The coating protected the metal from the elements and rust. As Henry and Lenny made their way towards what they assumed was the control deck, they heard the platform’s large metal beams creak in protest.
Lenny froze in place. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"If it was, we'd already be falling to our death," Henry quipped back in a frustrated tone.
Lenny decided that this wasn't a battle he wanted to pursue, so he did his best to ignore the creaks and groans of the platform. When they arrived at the broken DT1131i, Henry waved Lenny on. As Lenny crawled under the twisted arms of the machinery, he grumbled and groaned because he had to shift his body around uncomfortably to make it through. However, he was rewarded when he came out from under the machine to find the control deck waiting for him.
"Henry! It's here," Lenny shouted.
"Keep it down. Are you trying to wake up the Beast?"
Lenny slapped his hand over his mouth in sheer panic. "Sorry!"
Lenny approached the door and tried his best to open it. Unfortunately, the door wouldn't budge because of the bent doorframe.
"We have a problem,” Lenny said. “I can't get into the control deck."
"Give me a minute."
Henry grumbled as he nimbly navigated his way under the machine and through the broken arms of the DT1131i rig. When he got out on the other side, he found Lenny sitting at the door of the control deck. The control deck wasn't much to see; it was a small structure no larger than most medium-sized storage sheds. Inside, however, there were several computers, monitors, control collars, and, most importantly, the drilling site’s data core.
"How in the world has this thing survived all this time?" Henry asked.
"Well, like many control decks this one is probably designed to be air tight, so in the event of a flood, none of the equipment inside would be destroyed. Some models are also insulated with a special fire retardant foam that protects the equipment inside from a massive fire or any form of inclement weather. Honestly, without these built-in security measures, I'm pretty sure this thing would have been destroyed like everything else years ago."
"I'm amazed at the amount of useless knowledge you have in that brain of yours."
"How is knowing the different types of security measures built into different models of control decks considered useless?"
"Forget I asked. What seems to be the problem?"
"The door won't open. Part of the doorframe is bent, and I don't think it can be forced open."
Henry walked up to the control deck and examined the doorframe. The force of the large rig’s crash had crushed it tight against the door. Henry pulled out a small handheld acetylene torch.
"Are you sure it's wise to use that thing?” Lenny asked. “What if the Beast is able to smell it?"
Henry looked at the small torch in his hand and then glanced down at the giant chasm below. He pocketed the torch and searched through his pack for something to pry the door open.
"Is there another way into the control deck?" he asked.
Lenny moved to the other side of the structure to see if there were any other entrances. Other than air ducts, Lenny couldn’t find another entrance, not even a window. When Lenny re
turned, he found Henry working on the door with a pry bar.
"It doesn't appear that there are any other entrances. Heck, I wasn't even able to find a window that we could break."
"This isn't going to work," Henry said through clenched teeth.
"What isn't going to work?"
Henry reached back into his pocket, pulled out the acetylene torch, and clicked it on. A small blue flame jumped from the nozzle and burned a bright blue.
"Are you sure about this?" Lenny asked.
"What choice do we have? We need to get inside, and even if we tried to pry this thing open, it would make far too much noise."
Henry leaned forward and put the torch to the door’s handle. Within moments, the torch cut through the metal lock and the door popped loose.
Henry pulled the door open with Lenny's help, and both men took a moment to peer into the darkness below, checking to see if a nightmarish beast was climbing out of the chasm towards them. When they saw nothing, Henry instructed Lenny to power up the control deck and retrieve the data core. Lenny grabbed his bag and stepped into the control deck. Once inside, the light diminished, making it difficult to see. He pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket and clicked it on.
Lenny scanned the small room and determined that the control deck ran on a combination of solar power and power from the local power grid. Unfortunately, the power grid wasn’t functioning anymore, so he hoped that the solar batteries still worked. It took Lenny a few moments to find the electrical panel on the wall. When he did, he opened it and found the switch he wanted. He flipped the switch over to the solar batteries and the equipment inside buzzed to life.
A gunshot rang out across the drilling site followed by a sharp yelp of pain. Henry quickly swirled around leveling his M16 to his shoulder so he could scan the compound for the source of the yelp. The crackle of gunfire was a sound Henry knew all too well and one he could pick out even in a busy crowded market. The gunshot had come from his Russian PTRD-41 rifle. Rick must have seen something and took it out.
Another shot reverberated across the wind-swept drilling site followed by another yelp. However, this time Henry saw what made the sound. It came from a gray wolf that fell from its hiding place behind one of the broken rigs. Henry watched in stone cold amazement as a large black wolf padded up next to the dead wolf, growling in defiance. Henry realized in that instant what had been following them, why the knots in his stomach had returned, and why they hadn't found any signs of being followed.
The Shadow Above The Flames Page 26
