37 Days In A Strange World

by Dave Hazel

  “I see.” Towbar paused. “If you could communicate with your wife, to allow her to know you are alive, would that help you?”

  “Hell yeah! You kiddin’ me?” He scoffed. “I feel like a drowning man with no land in sight. That would be like throwing me a life vest. I’d give anything to talk to Pam right now.”

  “I think I can give you what you desire, my friend.”

  “You can? Are you screwin’ with me? Are you tricking me?”

  “I am speaking the truth, my friend.”

  “How? You got a telephone here?” He asked sarcastically.

  “Tell- what?”

  “Telephone. It’s a device we have that we can pick up and call anyone anywhere in the world as long as they have one too.”

  “I have no such device.”

  “Only thing I hate being screwed around with is my family.”

  “I would never mislead you, my friend. I may have a way for you to communicate with you wife. It is called Mind Talk. You will speak with your thoughts not your voice.”

  “Can you really do that?” His face lit up.

  “I will try. No one must ever know of this. Whether it works or fails I will only attempt this one time.”

  “That’s fine. Whatever you say,” Mykal quickly agreed. “But how? I don’t understand.”

  “Let us walk and I will explain. It involves magic and it will drain me physically. I will…” They walked away from the camp and toward the mountain wall where they would be hidden from others. They walked nearly a mile before Towbar felt comfortable. They entered a grove of trees that would shield them from view.

  “…So you can do this cuz your blood is inside me?”

  “This is what I am expecting. I have performed this in the past, but never to a person in another world. I want you to concentrate on your wife. Visualize her surroundings. Picture what she would be doing. Think of anything to focus on her. I am going to attempt to transfer your thoughts to her mind. If it is successful, she will know you are contacting her.”

  “How will I know if it works?”

  “You will know,” Towbar declared confidently.

  “Then what?”

  “Speak or think thoughts as if you were speaking to her. She will feel your thoughts and feel your presence as if you are there. Listen to me my friend, when I tell you to break it off, you must stop communicating. I will be under a great strain. I do not know how long, if at all, this spell will work.”

  “Are you really serious about this?” He asked excitedly.

  “Yes! Hold out your hand.” Towbar unscrewed the hilt of his sword. He took a pinch of the crystalline powder and placed it on Mykal’s palm. “Swallow this and close your eyes. Concentrate on where your wife would be.”

  “This will be easy.” He swallowed the dry, acrid powder, and almost choked. The horrible bitter taste wouldn’t go away.

  ‘Focus!’ Had Mykal never entered Towbar’s world he would laugh and ridicule such a silly idea. But in his desperation he would attempt anything, even the bizarre, for just a remote possibility to communicate with Pam. The depths of his longing suddenly made him understand why desperate people traveled the world for strange remedies to incurable illnesses. He realized he had the same sense of hopelessness inside him.

  “Concentrate,” Towbar coached quietly. Towbar then spoke in his native language. Suddenly Towbar’s words sounded strained as if he suffered great pressure. Mykal imagined Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  Mykal’s thoughts zeroed in on his military housing unit on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. In his mind he visualized his wife lying on the couch holding a pillow from the bed and crying. During his three day tours into the missile field she would sleep on the couch and wait for his return. She told him the bed was too big without him in it.

  He envisioned the living room with all the furnishings, the family photos on the wall, the television and stereo equipment. He saw the hard wood floor and the throw rug by the coffee table. He imagined toys scattered about that the boys would have been playing with. Everything seemed to be crystal clear in his mind.

  A quick flash of light hit his eyelids and he felt heat on his face. It startled him how warmth flowed around him and how intense the heat felt against his eyelids. He didn’t care, he concentrated. He desperately wanted to make contact with Pam.

  Just as suddenly as the light flashed over his eyes a 3-D scene formed in his mind. The furnishings were as he thought, but his wife sat on the couch holding the pillow crying. There were balls of tissue on the coffee table and floor. The neighbor from next door, Norma, sat with her. They were talking, military wife to military wife. It seemed so real and Mykal felt he could reach out and touch Pam. He knew he had made contact.

  “Concentrate Mykal,” Towbar’s strained voice instructed.

  “Pam! Pam! It’s me, Myk,” he called out to her in thought. He laughed when Pam bounced off the couch and looked about the room.

  “What is it, Pam?” Norma asked. She pulled her hands close to her chest as puzzled concern formed on her face.

  “It’s Mykal,” Pam blurted out and dropped her pillow. “Didn’t you hear him? He called me. Couldn’t you hear him?”

  Norma’s eyes widened, but she said nothing.

  “Pam, listen to me. I don’t have much time,” he thought loudly. “I can hear you, please talk to me.”

  “Where are you, Myk?” Pam called out and looked at the front door, then looked to the rear door. She ignored the jaw dropping expression of Norma’s face. “Myk, what’s going on?” Tears flowed from her eyes. She looked to her friend who remained silent but slowly slid her hand to her mouth.

  “This is going to be hard to believe honey, but I’m in another world right now. I’m with my whole Crew.” Mykal spoke quickly, uncertain of time. “We’re okay, but it’s a strange world. I’m trying to come home soon so don’t stop believing in me, cuz you’re keeping me going.”

  “I won’t. I promise! I won’t.” She sobbed. “Why can’t you come home now? Where are you? I can feel your presence and I can smell you,” she said and wrapped her arms around her own body and sniffed deeply, despite Norma’s terrified ogle.

  “I’ll explain later.” He felt choked up watching her cry. “Don’t worry about anything. Kiss the boys for me.”

  “The boys miss you. We all miss you so much,” she said and continued to weep which caused Norma to back up on the couch. She looked to grow more concerned with Pam’s one way conversation.

  “Be careful what you say honey, Norma’s thinkin’ you lost your mind,” he said mentally and gently stroked her face. It felt as though he touched her flesh on the back of his hand, and brushed against her soft brown hair.

  “I don’t care what anyone--Oh my, I felt that,” she gasped and moved her face to the brush of his hand. She cradled herself to his touch giving Norma a sight she would never forget. “I want you home. No one knows what happened or where you are.”

  “No one will ever know until we get back and explain it.”

  Towbar strained through clenched teeth. “Prepare to end.”

  “Okay Towbar,” Mykal said aloud. “Honey I have to go. I don’t know when, but I will come home. I won’t be able to talk to you again, but I love you with all my heart, with all my soul. You are my life.”

  “I love you too. What’s Towbar?”

  “He’s a friend of mine. I love you and I--”

  “Now!” Towbar yelled and broke the mental link, just as if Towbar hung up the magical, mental, telephone.

  Immediately the vision in his mind disappeared. His wife, her friend, everything about the living room just vanished. He opened his eyes to see Towbar on his knees, doubled over holding his head in his hands. The giant trembled. “Towbar, are you alright?” He quickly moved to the giant’s side.

  “Yes, I will be fine,” he answered slowly and held his large hand out to keep Mykal back. “I am shaken. I will be fine.”

  Myka
l beamed with joy after Towbar collected himself and stood. “Towbar, you don’t know what that did for me. How could I ever repay you?”

  “You have many times over, my friend. I need to rest. We should return and sleep. There is much work to do tomorrow.”

  Mykal tried to sleep after ending a new entry in his journal, but couldn’t. Happiness pumped through his being like adrenaline and speed making it impossible to sleep. He couldn’t stop revisiting the wonderful conversation he experienced. It saddened him that he could never share his secret with any of his friends. He felt as if he had returned home, if for only a few precious moments. No other morale boost could compare. Now, more than ever, going home was his ultimate driving force.

  CHAPTER NINE – Day 11

  1. Sunday, July 3rd 1983

  0547 hours, The Pass- location The Pit.

  Mykal woke and bolted up with a broad smile on his face. He beamed with joy despite being fatigued. In his mind he replayed his conversation with Pam several times. Norma’s expressive responses made him laugh. ‘She’s gonna think Pam flipped out.’ He wanted to share his happiness with others but couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair. Sadly it had to remain a secret.

  The sun started to chase the night away and Mykal already started to perspire. He believed today would be hotter than yesterday. ‘It doesn’t matter. Nothing’s gonna ruin my day.’ He grinned. ‘Pam knows I’m okay. It’s all I care about right now.’

  “Whadda you so happy about?” Larry asked when he joined him. Larry looked groggy and moved liked his body ached.

  “I dunno,” Mykal lied. “Maybe I finally got a good sleep.”

  “How the hell could you sleep in this damn heat?” Kurt complained as he wiped sweat from his neck.

  After a quick breakfast everyone went back to work where they ended the day before. Mykal’s people looked like they missed their coffee whereas the townspeople were energetic and enthusiastic about returning to the chasm called The Pit.

  Mykal eyed the men working on the pit. He disliked most of the men from his world, but they caused his attitude to change toward them. They worked hard and didn’t complain. Everyone from their world knew the importance of standing their ground until Towbar’s army arrived. Survival and going home rests on what they do the next few days. As much as Mykal wanted to dislike certain people, their laborious effort helped him. Mentally, he had to applaud them all, except for Edwards and Mansfield.

  Down inside the pit Mykal didn’t mind the earthy smell mixed with odors of sweat. He appreciated the temperature being several degrees cooler than being topside. Many people worked to remove dirt from the pit. Earth would be placed into large buckets and pulled out with rope by those above.

  Mykal noticed the south wall to be higher than the north wall. His fingertips reached the top of the seven foot wall. The opposite wall stood just over six and a half feet. In some places even less than that, but it didn’t matter. The Sosos would have to climb out the seven foot side when they attacked.

  From his vantage point it appeared the width of the pit to be eight to nine feet. Ten feet would have been great, but he didn’t think any Sosos would be able to jump across the chasm they created. He couldn’t see either end which meant the pit wasn’t a straight channel, though it did run the width of the Pass at the most narrow point.

  A siren sounded from one of the vehicles and Mykal’s heart sank. He panicked since his weapons were back at his sleeping area. Mykal feared Sosos started to attack. The only exits from the pit were at either end of the channel. The ends tapered to gradual inclines allowing access to and from the pit.

  “Please rally in the center for a meeting,” a voice spoke through a vehicle public address speaker. “Lt Light would like everyone to gather at the center of the Pass. Please inform others.”

  “That friggin scared the hell outta me,” Larry said.

  “Me too,” Mykal laughed and blew a sigh of relief hearing the message being repeated down the line. “Well, let’s go.”

  When a majority of people assembled Lt Light spoke through the vehicle PA system. “I would like to commend everyone on a job well done.” Light, Jake and Roy stood atop the armor plated Peacekeeper. Towbar stood as the representative for the locals.

  “Everyone deserves recognition. First for the tireless hard work you’ve all invested. Secondly for working so well together. Unity is a very important component in such a large task. I have traveled back and forth down the line and I am impressed with everyone. You have accomplished much in such a short time, and with limited resources we have available. Again, I’m impressed.

  “For those who haven’t seen the entire quarry, I want to make you aware of what has been done. For my people, the length is just under a half mile. For the others, this trench, if you will, goes from wall to wall,” he explained, pointing as would an airline stewardess giving a pre-flight safety briefing. “We kept thirty feet or so at both ends, untouched, to enable Towbar’s soldiers access to go around the pit when they arrive.”

  “You were going to give an update Sir,” Jake whispered.

  “Yes, thank you, Jake. Nothing new to report from our OP. OP is Observation Post,” he said slowly for Towbar’s people. “We have two men out there watching the Sosos. They can tell us in an instant when Sosos start to move. For now they are idle.

  “You people should be proud of yourselves,” Light lauded the locals. “You have made the Soso task extremely difficult. They will have to go down into this pit and then they will have to climb out in order to attack, empowering even the weakest among us to stop them before they can reach topside. You will be able to strike while they are vulnerable. This is a great obstacle.”

  “He’s not kidding,” Mykal whispered to Kurt and Boris. “When I was down in the pit and heard the siren, I nearly freaked out cuz I wasn’t gonna be able to climb outta there.”

  “Hey, where’s Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum?” Kurt asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Larry sneered. “What have they done?”

  “The farther away they are, the better,” Sam chuckled.

  Rich laughed. “Y’all know dem ol’ boys are gonna--”

  “Shh-shh. Listen up,” Denny cut in. “I wanna hear this.”

  “…Small work will continue, people will touch up on the depth and the width,” Light continued. “But only for a short time. Our next phase will be to place sharp, pointed, objects into the bottom of the pit,” he spoke slowly since the townsfolk hung on his every word, “and then we’ll cover the pit with a light covering, and then grass on top to make it look natural. When the Sosos attack they’ll fall through landing on our pointed objects,” he paused at the silence and blank stares.

  Jake grabbed Light’s hand to speak into the microphone. “That will cause lots of Sosos to die or be injured.”

  A roar slowly rumbled after the leading of Mykal and the rest of the Visitors. Towbar waved his hand to encourage them.

  “Thank you, Jake. Trust me, and Towbar will vouch for my words. Though you are outnumbered at this time, you will be amazed at what we will do to the enemy. I am confident we will stand strong until your army arrives. Once again, I want to congratulate all of you on a splendid performance. Great job. Give yourselves a round of applause and then…”

  2.

  The people embedded the floor of the pit with any and every sharp object. Sharpened tree branches were most plentiful. The punji-stakes were buried deep for sturdiness. The victim’s own weight would impale him, leaving him stuck if not killing him.

  Light and Edwards called a meeting of the NCOs and Towbar to discuss the battle plans. Rules needed to be implemented for engaging the enemy. Uncertainty bred apprehension. Would the Sosos attack today? Would they attack tomorrow? Would they try a night time attack? Would they hopefully wait another week?

  Towbar assured everyone, “Sosos will never attack at night because of spiritual beliefs. You must understand their mind set. Sosos believe if they die during the night, their sou
l will be lost. They will not take such a risk.”

  “This is great to know,” Jake replied, “but we’re not gonna take chances. We’re going to continue to post sentries through the night and would very much appreciate if you would have your people help us. It would give us a strong peace of mind.”

  Towbar nodded. “I understand. I will honor your request.”

  “Well, let’s lay down some rules for engagement,” Mansfield said and opened up a notebook. “We need to establish a list of do’s and don’ts since we don’t have a proper field manual.”

  Mykal spoke first. “What I think is the most important thing we need to get across to all the men is to conserve ammo. If the townspeople are manning the edge of the pit and handling the Sosos trying to exit, tell the men not to waste ammo. And I would say the second most important thing is to use our rifles to pick off the archers before anything else.”

  “Mykal makes an excellent suggestion,” Towbar said. “Soso death arrows need only to scratch your flesh and you will die!”

  “Myk survived,” SSgt Al Fisher pointed out.

  “Mykal’s is an extremely rare case,” Towbar replied.

  “I believe it was the hand of God,” SSgt Ski Winczewski quickly chimed in. “Myself and a few others were praying and I believe God answered our prayers to deliver--”

  “Bullshit!” SSgt ‘Mousy’ Black snapped which caught everyone off guard with his outburst. “Why then hasn’t this God of yours gotten us home yet? I hate any religion and Christianity causes my blood to boil more than the rest. You Christians always spout off how God is in the good things but you never say a damned thing about when things are bad.”