37 Days In A Strange World

by Dave Hazel

  “Oh man, he’s nasty,” Mykal laughed.

  “He’s actually drawing blood. Looking at him, you’d think he was in the chopper crash,” Denny joked.

  “And he’s probably biting his nails right?”

  “You got it. That’s our nasty friggin Franklin. Well look, I’m going back. If you don’t see anything in about another fifteen minutes, just come back down.”

  5.

  Mykal looked at his watch. Another fifteen minutes passed like a second eternity. Nothing to report. No sign of life other than their set of tire tracks in the grass. He grew more puzzled after his thirty minutes of guard duty. The area looked like it had never been inhabited. ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’

  Mykal returned last and he plopped himself on the hood of the vehicle. It felt more comfortable than the deceit of the picturesque landscape. Franklin’s face and neck were covered in red puffy bumps. Mykal felt bad for him. Franklin looked like a scared goofy kid.

  “Hey Franklin,” Kurt called out. “Do you pick your ass as good as you pick your ugly face?”

  They all laughed.

  “Screw you Kurt. You’re uglier,” Franklin shot back.

  “Good one, pimps,” Kurt mocked, stirring more laughter.

  “Everyone deals with stress differently,” Nelson offered as a defense for Franklin.

  “Look at these two. The dumb shit brothers,” Larry laughed and pointed to Nelson and Franklin. Larry’s attack on Nelson was in response to Nelson’s audacity to defend their little ‘whipping boy’ Franklin.

  “You’re giving me a headache.” Denny’s cue to stop.

  “Okay dad, we’ll stop,” Kurt joked.

  “There’s nothing there,” Mykal said. “No signs of life.”

  The wind changed direction sending the scent of burnt flesh toward them. “Oh damn,” Larry said and pinched off his nostrils. “Whadda we gonna do about them?” He nodded toward the crash “Just leave them here?”

  “We can’t take them with us, but we might as well try to get their dog tags,” Mykal suggested. “I just wanna get the hell outta here. This place is starting to creep me out.”

  “Good idea and we’ll make room for Newell,” Denny said. “Who’s getting the dog tags? I’m not touching them,” Boris protested before he could be volunteered.

  “I’ll do it. Who’s got a knife?” Denny asked. “The dog tag chain doesn’t break with a quick pull like they do in the movies.”

  “I got one,” Kurt said. He retrieved an illegal, military issue, bayonet from his A-bag. “It got misplaced during that last world-wide exercise,” he laughed. They knew he stole it.

  Though somewhat squeamish in taking the dog tags, Denny easily cut through the chain on Kaiser. He placed the metal identifiers inside a brown sandwich bag. Kurt and Larry followed him to the pilots. They returned rather quickly.

  “Couldn’t do it,” Denny admitted. “I got one of the pilots, but the other three people will have to wait till we’re found.”

  Larry took charge. “Well, let’s start making some room for Newell. Franklin, move all the bags to the third seat and see if we can lay Newell down in the back. I just wish we--”

  Suddenly three rifle shots rang out with a pause in between each blast. Startled, they all dropped to the ground using the vehicle as cover. They couldn’t tell if they were the targets. The gunfire sounded like it came from the other side of the hill where Mykal had been positioned.

  When it seemed clear they weren’t the targets and there wasn’t anyone at the top of the hill shooting down at them, Mykal reacted first. He grabbed his rifle and ran as fast as he could up the hill. He went to the same place he had kept watch earlier. Nearing the top he dropped and crawled to the crest, hoping he could spot the shooter without being seen. His heart pounded faster than ever. If the shooter got to the higher ground they would be sitting ducks. Mykal decided to treat the shooter as an enemy until identified.

  Breathing rapidly as he neared the top, it dawned on Mykal if the shooter really had been an enemy he wouldn’t have given himself away by announcing his presence. “Enemy? What enemy?” With caution he neared the edge. “We don’t have any enemies,” he said and tried to calm himself and realized how paranoid he had become. “Still, I gotta play it safe,” he whispered and peered over the top of the hill.

  The others ran up the hill behind Mykal. Only Franklin stayed behind. As much as they would rather have Kurt behind the wheel, they didn’t want Franklin around if shooting started. With so many unknowns Denny wanted Franklin out of the way.

  Franklin was the worst marksman of their Crew, and possibly the poorest on Minot Air Force base. “You shoot like a blind man standing barefoot on red hot coals,” an instructor once yelled in Franklin’s face after his third attempt to qualify. “To shoot that bad it’s gotta be on purpose.”

  They spread out when they rushed up the hill. All gasped for breath when they neared the top. ‘Our country is counting on us to keep her safe,’ Mykal thought watching them all drop to the ground. ‘We’re in trouble.’

  Down below Mykal saw a yellow station wagon, stopped where their tire tracks turned up the hill. Two of the four male occupants stood looking at the tracks running up the hill. One of the men held a rifle in his hands. The thought of the stranger holding a rifle terrified Mykal, but he knew something had to be done.

  “Denny, here’s my rifle,” he whispered. “I’m gonna see if I can talk to them.” A swirl of nervousness filled the pit of his stomach. ‘Why am I volunteering myself for this?’

  “Be careful,” Denny said without taking his eyes from the people below.

  “You’re not even gonna stop me?” He joked. Once he stood he felt so strange. Mykal never felt so vulnerable before. He was an easy target. If they opened fire on him, he couldn’t defend himself. He felt nauseous and wished he would have stayed put.

  “You be careful,” Denny repeated.

  “Hello,” Mykal called out and started walking.

  He kept his hands out in front of him with his palms open. Mykal wanted them to see he was unarmed. His nervousness grew when two others exited the car and positioned themselves on the far side. They were armed with rifles as well. He had gone too far down the hill to turn back. He had to finish.

  “Hello,” he called again with a fake smile as he neared them. He kept his hands open to show he came in peace.

  The oldest of the four, met him at the bottom of the hill, unarmed. The three armed men used the station wagon for cover. Clearly they seemed anxious seeing rifles pointing down at them.

  “Hi, I’m Sgt Mykal Graves. I’m in the Air Force, and we have a big problem,” he said, forcing a smile. Mykal assumed this had to be their land and they probably wanted to know what they were doing on it. “We’re lost. We don’t have any idea where we are, and we were wondering if you would be so kind as to tell us how to get out of here. We’re really lost,” he admitted with a self-deprecating chuckle.

  The older man couldn’t take his eyes from the ridge. “Funny you should mention that.” The husky older man cracked half a smile and held his hand out to Mykal. “I’m Roy Dosch, and these are my boys,” he said with pride, cocking his head back toward the car. “That’s Roy Jr., Randy, and the baby of them is ‘Baby’ Ray,” he said as they shook.

  “Pa, stop that,” the youngest moaned, bowing his head with embarrassment. “I hate it when you call me the baby.”

  “Why do you have rifles pointed at us?” Roy Jr., the oldest son, barked. He slapped his Winchester 94 rifle into the hands of Randy and stormed around the front of the car to get answers.

  “You shush your mouth boy,” Roy scolded him before Mykal answered. “I’m settling things here. Now git back behind the car with your brothers until I says otherwise. Now! Damn it,” Roy raised his voice and stomped his foot on the ground for effect.

  “But I--”

  “You gittin’ hard a hearin’ boy?”

  Roy Jr. kicked the ground in defeat an
d turned back.

  “Sir, I assure you, we wish you or your sons no harm at all,” Mykal apologized and pegged Roy Jr. as a violent hothead. “We don’t want any trouble. It’s just that so many strange things have happened to us today and we don’t know what to expect. We heard gunshots and we don’t know who we can trust. We’re just trying to get help, cuz like I said we’re lost and we have a man who is hurt pretty bad.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Roy replied and shook his head. “We’re lost too. When we found these tracks,” he nodded to the ground. “We thought we’d be able to find help from you. We never been around these here parts a’fore. When my son drove off the road, we couldn’t find it again,” he said and shrugged. “I know that must sound silly.”

  “Oh, I thought this was your land. But that’s kinda what happened to us.” Mykal frowned. His hopes of being rescued now dashed. “So I take it you’re not from around here then?”

  “Oh no. We’re from a small town called Gilby. It’s to the north of Grand Forks.”

  “I know where Grand Forks is. We have an Air Force base up there. But what are you guys doing around here? If you don’t mind me asking.” He added so the man wouldn’t feel interrogated.

  “No, I don’t mind you asking.” Roy grinned. “We were on our way to Montana to visit my brother. We were going to do some hunting and have some shooting contests. We were going there to enjoy ourselves by having a little vacation, and now we’re lost.” He frowned and removed his cowboy hat to scratch his sweaty, balding head. Roy Jr. and Randy had thick shorter hair, but Baby Ray, had shoulder length hair.

  Looking at the man’s three sons, Mykal saw they all resembled Roy in some way, especially the youngest, Baby Ray. The two older sons were big and burly like their father. Randy, more on the thin side, had the facial features of Roy Sr. It would take him a long time to grow into his father’s overalls. Mykal had guessed they were farmers by their appearance.

  Baby Ray dressed different. The father and two older sons wore cowboy boots and flannel shirts. Baby Ray wore tennis shoes and a baseball jersey with a picture of the rock group, The Police. They all wore jeans, but dad wore denim overalls.

  “If you wouldn’t mind Mr. Dosch, would you please tell me everything that happened to you today? I have a funny feeling we’re in the same situation.”

  “Sure, not at all,” the older man replied and stepped back to lean against the station wagon. He used his hand to invite Mykal to lean against the car with him. “Welp, we left Gilby late last night and we drove my wife and daughter to Bottineau. They are staying with my wife’s sister, you know. My wife is not very fond of my brother.” He frowned. “So the Misses didn’t care to join us on this trip and a’sides that, she don’t like to take long drives either,” he added and chuckled lightly. “It woulda been unbearable if she’d come along. I love the old gal, but she woulda nagged and nagged and nagged.”

  “Uh huh.” Mykal smiled, nodding politely. He didn’t want a life story, just the facts that explained being lost.

  “We all knew it would be a better vacation for all if we just left my wife and daughter a’hind. We spent the night at my sister-in-law’s home. Bright and early we left. We stopped in Minot this morning just long enough to buy some more ammunition for our rifles, and then we were off again.

  “We drove south on Highway 83, we turned west on Highway 23 and we would have traveled south on Highway 85 but we never made it that far. When we were on Highway 23 the damnedest thing happened,” he said and paused. “We had only gone about thirty miles and we ran smack dab into this, this, green--” he waved his hands trying to find the right words.

  “Was it like a fog or a cloud?” Mykal asked.

  “Yes! Exactly,” Roy snapped his fingers and pointed to Mykal. “It was a green fog. It done scared my boy so bad that he done drove off the road. I probably woulda done the same thing,” he admitted. “Glad the wife wasn’t with us cuz she woulda done had a heart attack for sure. Then if she didn’t have a heart attack she’d be nagging me to no end for bringing her along.” He laughed and his large belly bounced.

  “Did it make you guys dizzy?”

  “Oh yeah. And that green fog left the damnedest green goop all over the car. I’ve never heard of such things a’fore. I can’t tell you how angry and confused we were. We couldn’t find the road. I’ve lived in North Dakota for most of my forty-eight years, and I’ve never seen any land that looked like this.”

  “Well sir, I hate to tell you, we’ve been through the same thing and we have no idea where we are or how to get outta here. Let me call my boss down here, and we’ll explain everything and see if we can work out a way to help each other.”

  Mykal took a couple of steps closer to the foot of the hill as if it would make a difference for Denny to hear him. He waved and called Denny down.

  “Would you like us to drive up there?” Roy asked.

  “I better wait for my squad leader to come down and let him see that you guys aren’t bad guys,” he answered and couldn’t believe he had been so paranoid.

  “Welp, tell us what happen to you people,” Roy requested while watching Denny hand two rifles to the person lying on the ground next to him. Roy’s sons became more relaxed and joined them around the car to be a part of the conversation.

  “We were on our way to work from Minot Air Force Base…” he gave brief details while Denny made his way down the slope. He introduced Denny to Roy and his sons. “…and they’re lost just like us.” Now there was someone else to corroborate their story.

  “I want to apologize if our appearance seems unfriendly,” Denny said with a bashful smile. “I didn’t want to take any chances. Too many strange things happened today.”

  “That’s perfectly understandable.” Roy nodded and accepted the apology. “Welp, since we’re all lost we might as well all stay together,” Roy suggested. “The Air Force will have people out looking for you folk, but it will probably be days a’fore anyone even notices we’re missing.”

  “Fine with me,” Denny replied. “There’s safety in numbers.”

  “Welp, what should we do first?” Roy asked.

  “For starters, let’s go up there and I’ll introduce you to the rest of my men,” he said with a clap of his hands. “We have a man hurt pretty bad. We need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible.”

  “Hop in,” Roy offered. “And I’ll drive us all up there. It doesn’t look too steep.”

  “It’s a real mess up there on the other side of the hill.” Mykal said. “One of the dead is right out in the open.”

  “Let’s go up there and we’ll see if there is something we can do for the one who is hurt,” Roy offered again.

  Driving up the hill Mykal believed Roy and his two older sons were cowboy farmers through and through. They all wore their cowboy hats and it was obvious they were cast from the same mold. He and Denny road in the back seat with Baby Ray who didn’t want to conform to the same cowboy type.

  Looking over his shoulder to the bed of the station wagon Mykal saw several gun cases, many boxes of different types of ammunition and other weapon accessories. Ammo belts, magazines, magazine pouches, paper targets etc. He was also happy to see several grocery bags of food from Piggly Wiggly. There were also blankets and an ice chest.

  They stopped at the top so everyone could get out and get introductions out of the way. Denny pointed to their find and advised the Dosch family not to go near the crash site. Mykal was sure the image of Kaiser sprawled out in the open had to be a shock to their senses despite being forewarned.

  “Hey Myk,” Kurt whispered as they lagged behind. “I just wanted you to know that if they were going to try anything, I was ready for them,” he said with his big dumb looking smile. “I woulda dropped them all before they knew what hit them.”

  “I appreciate that. But listen, they seem like they’re good guys. So no trouble. Pass that on to the others. They’re gonna stay with us till we get outta this mess
. We have a military image to uphold.” He smirked. “And besides, they have food.”

  Roy Jr. and Randy got along great with Kurt and Boris. They quickly communicated their love of weapons. Roy and Denny looked over the body of Newell and agreed there was nothing they could do for him. They needed to find help. Baby Ray looked sickened by all the blood around the corpse of Kaiser.

  Baby Ray shuddered every time he looked at the dead body. He tried not to look at the broken form of Kaiser, but kept sneaking glances. “I saw dead animals before. I even seen one of my dogs after it was run over by a car, but I never saw a dead human,” Baby Ray said while kicking the ground.

  “Me too,” Franklin said while pinching at his neck.

  Denny and Larry took Roy and Roy Jr. to inspect the wreckage of the helicopter. The son couldn’t hide the horror etched in his face. Roy looked surprised but shared he had seen worse in his younger years.

  “That was the worst thing I’ve seen since I left Vietnam back in the summer of ‘67,” he said softly when they returned.

  “You were in Vietnam?” Larry asked.

  “Oh yeah. I’m a Marine,” he said proudly. “Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi baby! When I was there it wasn’t as bad as it turned out to be in the years that followed. But don’t you take that to mean that it was all fun and games. Some of my memories still give me the shivers all these years later.”

  “Wow, I always wanted to know what it was really like over there,” Boris said and moved closer. “I’ve read tons of books.”

  “I first got there in November of ‘65,” Roy said. “I volunteered to stay an extra tour after my first tour was up. About eight months into my second tour, we were out on patrol and got caught in one hell of an ambush,” he reminisced. “I still see everything as if it just happened,” he said looking directly at Mykal and Larry, shifting his stare back and forth.