The Alien Artifact 7

by V Bertolaccini

  It was incredible the soldiers in the tent kept getting him drinks and drunk, and had immediately handed him cans of beer as he had entered the tent.

  “What was that all about?” the soldier that had taken him to Malone’s tent asked, sitting on the end of his bed, bouncing slightly, testing the springs, and Cameron gasped and decided just to say something.

  “Someone reported me for digging a tunnel ...”

  “Digging a tunnel! What to escape from here?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “I know this place is rainy at times ...”

  “What is happening about that racehorse you’re going to buy?” he moaned over at Hanks.

  “We’re going to go over and buy it ... Are you in?”

  “I’m interested!”

  Cameron thought it over for a few seconds, wondering why there was four of them in the deal, and why he needed them in the deal, and why he never just bought it himself and took the full profit! He was sure it was a gamble and Hanks would have to win on a horse that he had not ridden. How would he be able to check the horse out?

  They all sat thinking about it on their beds, and Hanks eventually replied, “Do you know I recalled seeing you going to meet someone somewhere before you vanished! Just before you ended up in that pool of mud in that field!”

  Cameron wondered why he had done that, trying to recall, and trying to work out why he would do such a thing!

  “What the hell will I do?” he eventually moaned.

  The soldier at the end of his bed looked over at him, and told him, “You’ll remember someday ... I’m sure!”

  The soldier looked over at Hanks, and asked, “Have you any room for anyone else investing in that racehorse?”

  Hanks nodded with satisfaction, and Cameron wondered what it was worth now and what the outcome of it would be!

  Chapter 9

  The Beast

  Cameron was confused! They had been sitting in the bar for four hours and it was almost closing time, the bar was completely empty, and Hanks had not turned up!

  He sat with the other three soldiers drinking and waiting for Hank’s arrival!

  They had been unsuccessful in getting the horse! None of them had a horse available and they had wasted their time and he wondered if it was the horse merchants attempt to drive up the price! Yet he was sure none had much interest in selling anything!

  Hanks knew someone who would sell one and they waited for him to turn up and give them information on what was happening!

  It was incredible the amount they drank and had him drinking, for virtually most of the night, and by the time Hanks turned up they were drunk and lethargic.

  Cameron was staring through hazed eyes, still wondering about everything, when the doors seemed to explode apart and something seemed to shift into his sight in an altered motion and he stared startled at it trying to wake up and realize what it was.

  After a few minutes he heard a loud giggle burst out of Simpson’s lightly closed lips, breaking the intense atmosphere, and he turned to see the angry expression on Fogler’s face and he realized how deep it was and he followed his eyes back to the door and to Hanks standing, looking embarrassed, with a horse that looked like it had been crossed with a monster!

  Yet on close examination he saw something was wrong with the horse, and had to have some medical condition. Something he couldn’t quite grasp, and he tried to wake himself to get it!

  It was supposed to be a racehorse! But why was it abnormal?

  He gawked confused and saw one of the locals look in a door startled and he followed his startled eyes to the horse’s eyes and saw danger! The horse looked extraordinarily strange! He was not even sure it was a horse at times, and he started thinking it was the drink and his memory problem.

  It had eyes of some wild beast, and killer eyes that had a deep hate of what seemed to be humans! He could hardly believe a horse could have such a reaction to humans!

  “What have you been doing to the thing?” Simpson moaned, glaring at the thing in disbelief as though it were not fully there and a figment of the imagination. “Look at it! Have you whipping it into shape or something?”

  “Get stuffed!” Hanks grumbled loudly.

  “So this is our amazing racehorse?”

  “Guess!”

  They all stared as Hanks walked right up to them with the beast, towering over them. What astonished Cameron was he could not get how they could control such a thing while riding! He could see why Hanks might have been whipping it and started trying to see any damage to the beast!

  “Well?” Hanks moaned.

  “Well what?” Simpson swiftly answered.

  “Well what do you think of our racehorse? It was the best they had and I could get!”

  “The best for the price then!” Simpson replied, and stood up and wandered around it, amazed by the incredible size of it in strange places, as if it had been trained doing something else, and how much a danger it looked, and he ultimately giggled at it.

  Cameron had a hard time accepting the thing could win a race.

  “It was bred to race!” Hanks announced, seeing his reaction. “Look at those muscles and the enthusiasm in those eyes!”

  “Enthusiasm in those eyes!” Simpson replied. “The thing looks like it’s going to maul someone! It looks like it was bred and trained for a wild rodeo or circus act!”

  What amazed Cameron was the barman had vanished and remained hidden away out of sight.

  He wondered where the hell Hanks intended to keep the thing, as he had not suggested anything. He could just imagine Malone’s face and temper if he discovered the thing in one of the tents.

  When the barman emerged Fogler left and arrived with some more drinks for them and insisted in giving Cameron the most alcoholic drink he could think of, and Cameron got annoyed and conclusively asked why.

  “You know I read somewhere it can give people with memory loss their memory back!” he replied, with a laugh, looking sideways in small glances at the horse.

  “Memory back!” he moaned back, confused. “I’ll be lucky to remember anything after all these!”

  “Well, it may cause your brain to start functioning again!”

  He started wondering what they were up to and why such drastic action. He was sure it was part of one of their schemes and that he would have to wait to find out what, like everything else.

  Something strange about the horse grasped his imagination!

  It was far too different! He also could not work out why he had brought it into the bar! The thing could easily smash the place to pieces, if it finally went crazy.

  “Where the hell did you get that thing?” a pensioner gasped, rushing in the bar door, with his hair soaked and standing up, as he went to get an umbrella he had left behind.

  “I bought it at an Ebay dealer!” Hanks moaned, and laughed drunkenly. “It’s marketed as a genetically improved racing horse!”

  Everyone at the table seemed to look at Hanks at the one time, and Cameron, who was in the middle of gulping down his drink, coughed simultaneously and it blasted up his nose, and he had to cough it out.

  The pensioner gasped, and told them he was the last time he bought anything there again and rushed for the door!

  “It was the only place I could get something worthwhile!” he explained. “If I hadn’t the deal would have been off!”

  “As long as it runs good!” Simpson replied. “If not you’ll have to return the thing!”

  Hanks nodded firmly in agreement, showing them he had control of the situation.

  Cameron recovered from his cough and thought over what the hell he had bought, and after not thinking of anything he started ticking off things that it was not but ended up with the exact same!

  Simpson downed his drink and jumped up and moved slowly over to the beast now tied near a wall by its rope! He examined it all over its body and they all moved over and joined in and remarked how fit it looked, but its abnormal looks astounded and
confused them on whether it was capable of winning a race.

  While they all turned around to go back to their seats and turned their backs on it Cameron was surprised that it gave a silent growl, like no horse he had ever heard, and it sounded like a wild cat or beast in the wilderness, and it made a shiver run up his spine and he never forgot it and the way it eyed them up like it was being held by its prey!

  Cameron watched rain blast against a window and wondered why he never found a hotel instead of staying in the army camp.

  They sat listening to Simpson and Fogler arguing over racing horses when they heard something crash to the floor and turned and saw the racehorse had knocked something over and Hanks marched over like a cowboy and calmed it down.

  They all laughed when Hanks started explaining in detail how sad the horse had been and that he had just brought it into the bar to cheer it up, as it suffered from depression!

  Cameron was surprised to hear Hanks bet them a hundred pounds that they could not cheer it up and Simpson and Fogler immediately agreed, and silently discussed it and how best to do it and they marched up to the horse and both of them kept whispering in its ear.

  The horse finally gave out a laughter type smile and sound at something Simpson whispered and Cameron was amazed that they had done it, and Hanks paid them the money, even though it quickly retuned to being in the same mood!

  Hanks swiftly decided to try to get his money back by betting them that they could not make the horse weep and Simpson and Fogler took the challenge and went up to the horse and started whispering to it, but it grunted and knocked Fogler over instead, and they returned to their seats and paid Hanks his money!

  Hanks eventually went over and tried to cheer the horse up by comforting it and reassuring it, and it just ignored him, and he admitted that they had an incredible ability of making the horse more cheerful and laugh!

  In the end he asked them how they had cheered it up, and Simpson replied jokingly, “I whispered in its ear that if it laughed I’d give it my beer!”

  They laughed and watched Hanks unsuccessfully try to get the real answer and they started getting ready to leave and return to the army camp, and Cameron was surprised to hear Hanks say that he might free the thing in a nearby field.

  Chapter 10

  William the Conqueror

  It was a bright hot day and everything looked perfect and about as perfect as they were going to get and Cameron wondered what could possibly go wrong! Even if the horse did not win it was its first race and he was sure its performance would become far better in the future!

  Hanks was transformed now and looked a perfectly normal jockey, and not the soldier they knew, and his weight had dropped and he looked skinny and even fragile, but very determined to do his job! His knowledge in horse racing was great, which had even surprised Simpson and Fogler, who thought they knew everything about him, and they even thought he had a good chance of winning the race. For one thing all the horses looked lethargic compared to their horse, and the jockeys looked inexperienced.

  The only major argument they had was the name of the horse, which was Willy, which Hanks insisted in calling it, which he claimed was after William the Conqueror, but Cameron was sure it was named after a relative!

  They had argued over it with him as they could not imagine a horse with the name becoming a leading racehorse! But Hanks insisted that it was a great name and horse names never mattered that much, and that there were many examples!

  Willy still looked a monster even in the light of day and sober and they still looked twice at it when they had not seen it for a while, checking if they were imaging things, and they were surprised that experienced people at the racecourse had strange reactions to the horse and many stood with their mouths wide open trying to grasp something, and some thought they were up to something and checked on things.

  He wondered if it could win and what the outcome of the race would be, and he saw how prepared for the race the other jockeys really were and their horses were more trained than he had seen.

  Near the starting line he stood beside Fogler and Simpson at the front of the audience and watched Hanks preparing himself for action and he wondered again why he was so keen to have the horse and just how good he was at the game.

  Fogler soon started handing them beers and he grabbed his and opened it and drank thirstily and realized that he had not had anything to eat and eyed up a place where he was sure there was food, and decided to get over there later if he could.

  He wondered what he was missing about horse racing, and realized that they probably had to make it big to do anything worthwhile, as most sports.

  When the starting gun blasted out he jumped and was amazed at the speed the horses raced away and that Willy left slow and uninterested in the race and he watched Hanks going crazy trying to get it to move it, and he spotted what looked like a glint of satisfaction on the horse’s face, and realized it was the first glint of happiness he had seen on it since it had made an expression in the pub. It was like it was being kept fully captive against its will and would do anything it could to escape.

  Simpson looked the happiest for some reason and Cameron was sure he had bet on another horse or it losing! Fogler at one point looked furious and clenched his fist and had to calm himself!

  Yet just when they had all packed in thinking anything but a bigger disappointment was possible Cameron saw something strange and that Willy was speeding up and his eyes had changed to being bloodthirsty, and not just his furious look, and his eyes were on the front horses and he looked as if he was going to attack them and he accelerated faster than any animal he had seen in person and he soon caught up with the horses and the front horses, and Cameron was sure he was going to attack.

  It was incredible the audience went crazy all around them and Fogler spotted it and burst out laughing loudly and cheered the horse on loudly and Simpson’s face dropped.

  It was incredible! When Willy reached the front horses they were at the finishing line and Hanks forced Willy to race passed the finishing line before them and it won the race!

  Though Willy looked shabby, badly treated and starved, he figured it had colossal inner strength and powers and could win races, and he realized the name was a good one as he was named after William the Conqueror!

  Though to his surprise Willy stayed furious, burst into life more, and rebelled against Hanks and his treatment and once he jumped off the saddle it ran furiously away and after one of the horses it had chased, but the jockeys stopped it going near it, and it jumped up and down and managed to loosen its saddle and throw it off it and it leapt crazily on one of the other jockeys and chased after him all over the track and into the audience!

  People ran away from it screaming in fear when it attacked and bit them furiously like a wild carnivore beast, and the whole audience stampeded away in the opposite direction as it ran after them attacking, biting, bucking, and smashing glasses, handbags, seats, and anything in its path!

  It finally charged into the car park and chased people everywhere about the cars, leaping on roofs and people, but it finally jumped through a car windscreen and got trapped, and security guards finally arrived and caught it!

  Chapter 11

  The Show

  Afterwards to celebrate their incredible win they went to a Las Vegas type of show, even though they nearly got charged for the destruction Willy did, and Cameron was sure it was because they were interested in the horse for more races!

  The victory had them all far more drunk than normal and the horse incident was an incredible event, which was in many of the newspapers, and they were sure it was a winner.

  It was incredible that before they thought the horse was an absolute monster but they now even encouraged it to be, as they wanted it to get the publicity they believed it needed. Especially Hanks who was like he was making a last desperate bid at his horse racing career, and he was sure that he had paid far more than he had said for the horse, and was carefully hiding the fa
ct.

  The show was fantastic and he watched on sniggering and thinking of a headline on one of the newspapers, which read: JOCKEY’S MONSTER ASS ON THE LINE, and showed a stupid photo of Hanks going over the finishing line.

  They had been lucky, but how lucky? He was really interested in what would happen with the horse in future races!

  During the interval Cameron drunkenly staggered about trying to find a toilet, wandering about for almost half an hour, and was angered that he had allowed them to get him so drunk and by the fact that there were no toilets anywhere! No matter where he looked there was nothing, and was eventually told off by a parking attendant for trying to do the toilet in a nearby car park.

  He even though he was sure he was going to collapse somewhere he forced himself to keep walking about outside, and to get some air, and once back in the building he decided to look for one of the people working there for directions to a toilet.

  Then after wandering around there for ages he spotted an old usherette and quickly asked for directions, and she told him, “Go up the stairs over there! Go through the double doors you come to! Turn left and carry on through the foyer! Turn left at the end, go up stairs, and then left again! Don’t worry about it you’ll find it!”

  She left with a sadistic smile on her face that worried Cameron, and he thanked her and started marching up the stairs.

  He arrived at the top dizzy and sick, and wobbled around in a circle and dizzily nearly collapsed in a heap, and had a hard time recalling what she had said!

  The place was entirely new and he could not recall anywhere like it, but rushed on so he would not miss the rest of the show.

  The place was empty there and he could not find anyone and he recalled the double doors and went there and turned left, and he knew the place could not be that big and that he would come across the toilets if he kept wandering, and he was sure he could recall the directions anyhow!