by Mark Harritt
The carcasses of the dragon and bears were on the other side of the meadow, but as soon as he started screaming, the animals on the carcass mound turned and looked at him. He heard the sound of footfalls running behind him. His hands were straight out, elbows and knees pumping as he sprinted across the meadow. His feet were different than those of a homo sapiens.His foot was longer, thinner, except across the ball of his foot. As he ran, the heel of his foot rose from the ground. The difference in foot structure propelled him much faster than a human could run. He was much faster from a walk to sprint than his pursuers were. But they were gaining on him as they warmed up to the sprint. His intent was to run to the large black demons and hope they would kill each other. He hoped that he was small and inoffensive enough that they would ignore him for the most dangerous threat.
The scavengers bolted away as the predators behind him burst out of the woods. He didn’t look around, knowing that looking back would throw off his stride and decrease his speed. He was getting close to the cave and he saw some activity there. If he made it to the cave and there were no demons there, he would run directly into the cave, hoping that the beast chasing him would go after different prey. What he didn’t plan for was the rock that his footlanded on flying out from under his foot, causing him to cartwheel to a stop next to one of the large black demons. As he tumbled, he saw what was chasing him, and how close it was to getting him. He was not going to live through this encounter, and knew that his wife would be mourning him when he didn’t come back home.
The grasnigs were fur covered lizards, with hard beaks, bounding across the meadow towards him. They were vicious and one of the fastest runners. If he hadn’t weaved through the trees, they would have caught him quickly and killed him. The beast was getting ready to leap, when the light disappeared. Something large and dark blotted out the sun, casting Matki Awrani in shadow.
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Mickey was on watch when he heard the scream. It sounded like a human scream, coming from the edge of the forest. But he knew the entire crew was behind him in the cave or down in the facility. He turned to look in the direction that his sensors indicated the scream came from. He saw a short man, reddish brown, come barreling out of the forest, running for his life. The man had long hair, braided back to keep it out of his face. His beard was also braided, streaming behind him as he ran. His clothes were muted brown and green.The little man was running incredibly fast, and would have blown away any Olympic runners. As he cleared a few hundred feet into the meadow, two nightmares came crashing out behind him. The monsters had massive heads shaped like parrots, with an elongated bill. They had powerful legs that powered them forward after the small man. They were built for the forest, with short, brindle patterned fur. There was a small mane around their heads that was flattened by the wind as they ran. A scream like a steam whistle sounded across the meadow as they chased the little man.
Then disaster struck. A rock went flying out from underneath the little man’s foot, and he went tumbling to land close to Mickey’s mech armored feet. In a split second, Mickey made his decision, the mech armor moving instantaneously to his mental command. He stepped over the man on the ground, putting his bulk between the little man and the two strange beasts. One of the beast crashed into Mickey’s mech and he grabbed the tail of the other beast as it tried to maneuver around him. He hoped the little man had gotten out of the way in time.
The two beasts fought like wet cats. He pushed one of the beasts away from him, and brought the other one around in an arc that finished in an impact with its mate as it recovered and started to leap at Mickey. The bodies of the beasts impacted in a crushing blow, bones snapping. Mickey ran forward to the two beasts as they tried to rise. He launched a powerful kick into one, sending it flying back towards the trees. The other one grabbed the mech armor wrist with its beak. Mickey pulled the creature up, feeling the impact as its powerful hind legs came up, trying to disembowel the armor. He launched a vicious punch which, with the blade on the top of the fist, impacted the writhing beast, snapping bones and slicing flesh.
The beast let go of the mech armor wrist with a shriek, landing on all fours and moving slowly back to its partner,lying on the meadow. The other beast was breathing heavily, but couldn’t move. Both of the beasts had sustained major damage. It was doubtful that either of them would live through that amount of damage.
Mickey triggered his rail gun, sending a blast of metal into one, and then the other, heads exploding as the incandescent iron pellets ripped into their skulls.
Mickey heard a crackle as Everett started talking, “Mickey, what are you doing? What the hell’s going on?”
“Everett, check behind me. Those monsters were trying to kill a man I haven’t seen before. The way he’s dressed, he has to be local. They were intent on eating him, so I decided to intercede.
“Ah, okay, I understand. Let’s see what we have here.”
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Matki Awrani was amazed by what the dark demon did for him. It jumped between him and the grasnigs, and saved his life. That was very unexpected.He watched the fight in dismay, amazed that something so large could move so quickly. He heard footsteps behind him. There were three demons there, all with thunder sticks. They looked human, but that didn’t guaranteed that they wouldn’t do him harm. He thought about running, then put it out of his mind. He remembered the murder bird from yesterday, and knew they could kill him before he could get to the forest.
The demon in the middle said something in a language that Matki Awrani didn’t understand. The demon moved forward, and held out his hand to Matki Awrani. He grasped the hand and felt powerful muscles pull him to his feet. He limped as he stepped gingerly on his twisted ankle. The thunder sticks were all pointed in his direction. A look of concern crossed his face. The demon on the right looked at him, down at the thunder sticks, and said something to the demon in the middle.
The demon in the middle lowered his thunder stick, and then slung it over his back, and the other two pointed their weapons away from Matki Awrani. The demon in the middle took a curious thing off of his back, held a long vine to its lips, sipped something, and made a smacking noise, indicating pleasure. Everett held out his water bladder to Matki Awrani. Matki Awrani reached out and took the bladder from the demon. The bladder was covered with soft material, and had two straps. Matki Awrani held the bladder by the straps, and put the end of the long vine in his mouth, and sucked the fluid. Surprise lit his eyes. It was cold water.
Everett pointed to the cave, made a motion with his hand indicating that he wanted Matki Awrani to go with them. He, Murphy, and Stein turned and walked back to the cave, leaving him with the bladder of water, alone in the meadow. Matki Awrani felt the impact through the ground as the black demon moved past him towards its guard position in front of the cave. It stopped, turned around, and went still as it assumed its guard duties. The other three entered the cave, seemingly uninterested in what he would do next. Matki Awrani was curious. He no longer felt he was in danger from these demons.
Truth be told, he didn’t know what he was going to do next. He stood there for a few minutes, looking at the formidable line of giant black demons. He took another pull on the water bladder. He realized the scavengers were still out there, and would be back soon. His ankle was sore, and he doubted he could out run anything at this moment. Plus, he was hungry and he could smell food cooking. He really didn’t want to spend another night at the top of a tree, shivering.
He made up his mind. Matki Awrani hoped that he wasn’t making a fatal mistake. He had a slight limp as he walked over to the cave, stopping at the entrance to let his eyes adjust. As they adjusted, he could see nine of the demons, sitting down on silver and green furniture that looked very fragile but was able to hold two bodies sitting. They looked like men, and acted like men. These demons all had different color skin, with different color hair, some with no hair at all. He was beginning to adjus
t his ideas about these creatures being demons.
The thunder sticks were close by the men, within arm’s length. There were silver cups in front of them, over a small flame. They were stirring the food in the cups. He could smell the food, but the fire smelled unusual, not like wood burning. It was hexamine, something that he wouldn’t know about. Everett indicated the seat next to him, motioning Matki Awrani over to him. Matki Awrani limped over and sat down, a squeak sounding as he sat down, and the fabric shifted against the aluminum frame. Everett stirred the food in the cup, and it smelled delicious.
Everett picked up the cup and held it up to his face. He scooped a spoonful of the food, held it up, blew on it to cool it, and took a small taste. Everett caught Matki Awrani’s eye, and turned the cup so that Matki Awrani could see how he held it, with the two wires. Everett put the cup down on the cave floor at Matki Awrani’s feet, and motioned towards it. Matki Awrani reached down to the cup, and picked it up the way Everett showed him, using the wire handles. He grabbed the spoon, used it to take some food, and then lifted it to his mouth. The smell was mouth-watering. He stuck his tongue out and just put the tip of his tongue on the food. It was amazing. The food tasted fantastic, with flavors that exploded across his taste buds. His eyes rolled and he put the entire spoon into his mouth. He quickly started shoveling the rest into his mouth. He heard someone say, “Beef stew.” He didn’t care. He tucked into the food and was soon licking the spoon clean and dipping his finger into the metal cup to get all of the tasty food out.
One of the other men passed over another cup of food, and said, “Spaghetti and meatballs.” He tasted with the tip of his tongue again, and was rewarded with a wonderful taste that quickly enveloped his mouth. That cup also went down quickly. There was a pop and a fizz and he was handed a can. Mike had a can also, and showed him how to drink out of the metal can, tipping it to his mouth. The can felt cool in his hand. He put the can to his lips, and tilted it up. He was rewarded with the sweetest thing he had ever tasted in his life. It fizzed as he drank. It was cool, refreshing, and sweet. He was over his initial hunger, so he slowed down with the drink, enjoying its taste, not knowing when he would ever be able to taste it again. All too soon, the fizzy drink was finished, and he sat it down on the ground, looking at the men around him.
The man across from him, pointed at itself, and then said, “Mike,” and pointed back at him. He didn’t understand at first, until the demon next to him pointed at itself and said, “Everett.” Then Everett pointed at him. Then “Rob,” “Tom,” “Richard,” “Murph,” “Bobby,” and “Brian,” all said their names, and pointed at themselves.
He understood, and pointed at himself. “Matki Awrani.”
Mike watched the small man eat the food they gave him and his expression when he drank the coke. The expressions indicated that he never tasted food so good before. The soft drink sealed the deal, “Everett, I don’t know who this guy is, but he’snot from where we’re from.”
Everett nodded, “Yeah, I know, and some things are different about his physiology. His legs are different, and his arms are longer, stronger, looks like he climbs a lot. Did you see how fast he was running across the meadow? There’s no Olympic sprinter that couldsprint half that fast.”
Mike thought about this, “Well, if nothing else, he’s a source of information for us. We need to learn his language and figure out where we are, and what the hell is going on here.”
Everett was surprised when Matki Awrani grabbed his wrist and tugged on it. Matki Awrani stood up and motioned for Mike and Everett to follow him. He limped over to the cave mouth, and waved for them to follow.
“I think he wants us to follow him,” Rob said, stating the obvious.
Mike nodded, “So, let’s follow and see what happens.”
Mike clicked on his ear bud, “Mickey,we’re coming out. Make sure there’s nothing out there to give us a surprise.”
“Roger boss, I don’t see anything that might be trouble, just some scavengers on the bones.”
Mike stood up and grabbed his rifle, and started walking to Matki Awrani. The others followed. Mike turned to address the group, “Rob, Richard, I need you two to stay and make sure nothing comes in behind us, okay?”
Rob sat back down with a smile on his face, picking up the cup of coffee he just brewed, “Sure thing, boss man.” Richard nodded and sat down, not saying anything.
Matki Awrani limped over to the bones of the dead lizard dragon. As the group approached the pile of bones, there were still some scavengers the size of small dogs on them. They yelped and ran as Mickey’s laser hit them with enough energy to chase them off. Soon they were standing next to the skull of the dragon. Matki Awrani slapped the top of the skull, and started a pantomime with his hands. He held up hands and fingers, then pointed towards the mouth of the valley. Mike moved his hands to indicate that the small man needed to move slower and repeat. Matki Awrani did the sequence five more times before Mike got it.
Everett was following the exchange. “Mike, do you understand that?”
Mike nodded, “yes, unfortunately I did. Or I think I did. He’s saying there are many more like this one, over the pass, and they’re bigger than this one was.”
Everett’s face blanched, “Bigger?”
Mike nodded again, “Yes, bigger. And did I say more?”
Everett nodded, “Yes you did.”
“Did I tell you that a bunch of them are coming here?”
“No, you left that part out.”
Behind him he heard Tom curse.
They turned around and walked back to the cave.
“This changes everything,” Mike said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I thought we would explore this area, find water, food, things we can eat without dying. Maybe build a building around here to house our people so that we don’t have to climb up and down the ladder. But, from what he’s telling me, I’m thinking we don’t have a defendable position. If there are a bunch of those giant dragons, then we could be in deep trouble.” Mike explained.
“Ah, crap,” Everett said.
Mike nodded and said in all seriousness, “Ah crap, indeed.”
When they got to the cave, they scattered to sit and pull maintenance on their weapons. If there was going to be a fight, they all wanted to be prepared. Rob looked around at the crew, “I guess it was bad news, then.”
“Yeah, the worst,” Mike informed them. He pointed to Stein, “I need for you to go down and grab Lieutenant Pang, tell her to come up here so we can talk please.”
Stein nodded, then stood up and walked back into the tunnel.
Thirty minutes later, Pang was walking up the tunnel towards him, with Stein in tow.
“What’s up?” She asked.
Mike motioned her over, and she saw the short man.
“Who is this?” she asked.
Mike nodded towards Matki Awrani, “Meet our new friend, Matki Awrani. I wanted you to meet him before I took him downstairs.”
Pang looked at the brown man. And the brown man looked back. This was the child with thunder in her pocket. But now he could tell that she was not a child. She smiled. Matki Awrani looked at Jen, and his eyes widened at the beauty before him.
Mike pointed at Jennifer, and said, “Jen.”
“What, you don’t want to give him my rank,” she said, teasing Mike.
“Sorry, need to keep things simple.” Mike answered.
Mike started explaining to Jen, “I think that we may have a problem. From the pantomime that our friend here did, I think that he’s saying that there are many more like that dragon we killed.They’re bigger, and they’re coming here.”
Pang asked, “How does he know this?”
Mike shook his head, “Until we know his language better, and don’t have to rely on sign language, I think we just have to plan for the worst.”
Pang’s head tilted, “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, I think we’ll nee
d to do the same thing we did last time, but if we can find some belt fed machine guns, we’ll need those. Murph tells me that they have SAWs in security. Plus, we need the techs up here to go over the armor at least once per day for maintenance, just to make sure that they don’t go down in the middle of a fight. I’d hate for two or three of those dragon monstrosities to play crack the nut while I can’t do anything to fight back.”
Pang nodded, “I’ll talk to the technical team and see what we can do. A schedule will be easy to put together.”
Mike continued, “As well made as this armor is, we’ll need replacement parts. I know you designed them to be as tough as possible, but we need to ensure their viability.”
Pang frowned for a minute, “Well, we have a fabrication area, but I’ll have to check with Hank Bethel about what they can and can’t do about building parts. I know they have some replacement parts already made, but the fabricators might be able to make more.”
Mike nodded, “We also need to replace all of this ammunition that we’re using. If you can figure that out with your tech geniuses, I would love for that to happen.”
Pang smiled, “Okay, so consider this Christmas, what else do you want Santa to give you.”
Mike leaned over and grabbed her hand in both of his, “If there are more upgrades for the mech armor, I suggest you go ahead and have them installed so that we can start using them.”
Pang looked into Mike’s eyes, and saw the concern in them, “Sure, I’ll tell the Techs that they should tell your team everything, and to get the mech armor fitted up with full kit.”
Mike let go of her hand, “Thanks.”
He leaned back, “Another question, do you have anybody that is good with languages, who might be able to figure out what Matki Awrani might be trying to tell us?”
