The Between (Earth Exiles Book 3)

by Mark Harritt

  “Who we haven’t even seen yet,” he thought to himself.

  “But, we cannot continue to use these tactics. Instead, we are going to move with all men abreast of each other. If one of our units gets hit, then the units on the left and right will turn towards the gunfire, and wrap around the enemy, enveloping them and fixing them in one location so that they can be trapped and killed. Are there any problems with my strategy?”

  The junior officers looked around at each other to see if anybody was going to say anything. None of them spoke. If any saw problems with it or didn’t like the plan, none of them were willing to speak out.

  Verjon grunted, and pointed at the tent door. They filed out as quickly as they’d filed in. Fartheon was the last to exit, putting the glass back down on the table, and bowing to Caon Verjon. He turned and started toward the door.

  “Don’t let me down tomorrow, Fartheon,” Verjon said as he watched the sub-Caon walk to the door.

  The sub-Caon hesitated for a moment before he stepped through the door flap, “It will be as you wish, Caon Verjon.”

  The guards dropped the door flap behind the sub-Caon.

  Now that the other officers were gone, Verjon let his mood settle back down into the darkness, “It damn well better be,” Verjon growled as he took another drink.

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  Chapter Three

  Mike felt somebody kicking his boot. He slowly woke up from a mishmash of dreams in which Jo and Jennifer were talking about him and he couldn’t get the dishwasher to work.

  He yawned and shook his head to wake up, “What’s up?”

  Matki had kicked him awake, “It’s your turn for guard.”

  Mike looked around. He saw Tom packing up his sleeping bag. Mike rolled over and started doing the same. Once he was done, he walked over to Matki, “Anything going on?”

  Matki shook his head, “No, I haven’t heard anything out there. I think they are settled down for the night. We will know momentarily.”

  “What do you mean?” Mike asked.

  Tom squatted down next to Mike, pointing at Matki, “He sent Geonti and Caul out to scout around.” Tom offered Mike some pemmican then walked back and sat down with his back to one of the trees, looking out into the night.

  Matki nodded, “They went out as soon as Jendi and I took the night watch. They should be back soon. They were supposed to get back before you took watch.”

  A worried look played across Mike’s face. Matki noticed it and chuckled, “Do not worry, Mike. They will not be caught.”

  As if to emphasize Matki’s words, Geonti and Caul appeared out of the darkness.

  Matki spoke to them. Mike could follow a little, but not all of what was said, so he waited for Matki to translate.

  Matki turned to Mike with a smile on his face, “I was right. The grey men are settled down for the night.”

  Mike wolfed down some of the pemmican, then spoke around it as he answered Matki, his voice somewhat muffled by the food, “Still, we can’t rely on them staying in their camps all night. The last thing we want is for them to show up in the middle of the night.”

  Caul and Geonti wandered off to their bedding.

  Matki nodded, “I agree. Besides, the grey men may be stirred up when they find their sentries.”

  Mike looked over at Caul and Geonti, “What did they do?”

  Matki shrugged, “Caul and Geonti wanted to make sure they didn’t get a good night’s sleep. They slit throats while they were scouting the enemy.”

  Mike chuckled, “Yeah. That would put me off my sleep. How many?”

  Matki spoke softly to the two hunters. They replied, and then Caul shoved Geonti who laughed quietly.

  Mike’s eyebrow went up at the exchange. He had a questioning look on his face when Matki turned back to him, laughing softly as well.

  Matki looked at Mike’s expression, and, with a grin, explained, “Geonti slit the throats of seven men, Caul only killed five.”

  Mike smiled, understanding what the exchange had been about, “I guess Caul is getting grief about being too old to hunt anymore. Is that why Geonti’s laughing.”

  Matki pointed at Mike, grinning, “That is exactly what he was laughing about.”

  No matter how many years had passed, the human condition was still the same. Old men made fun of young men for their lack of understanding and wisdom, young men made fun of old men for the decline in their physicality.

  “I’m pretty sure that if Caul knew that they were going to be counting trophies, he would have stepped up his game a bit,” Mike replied.

  Matki relayed that to Caul, who replied. Matki translated, “Caul said, if he’d known they were competing, he wouldn’t have come back until he’d slit every throat out there.”

  Mike took a swig of water to wash the pemmican down, “If anybody could do that, my money would definitely be on Caul.”

  Matki nodded, “Mine as well.”

  “Hey, where’s Jendi?” Mike asked.

  “He’s over there getting his bed ready.”

  With Rob’s death, they’d had an extra set of kit available. Not one to waste the use of the gear because of sentiment, Mike decided that Jendi, along with Rob’s pistol, should inherit the gear. He asked the team, and they all agreed with him. Mike kept anything that was personal to Rob so that he could give it back to Michelle, and then he gave the kit to Jendi.

  Jendi had been in awe when he realized that the team was giving him Rob’s kit and pistol. Matki had reminded him that he was inheriting the kit from a great warrior, and that he should make Rob’s spirit proud. Mike had been impressed with the serious expression on Jendi’s face as he promised to carry on the tradition of his people and Rob’s as well. Now, as he looked over, he could see that Jendi was already curled up in the sleeping bag.

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, they said that the grey men are stretched out.”

  “Stretched out? What do you mean?”

  Matki started drawing in the dirt, “This morning, and today, you remember, the grey men were moving like this.”

  Matki had drawn a crude representation of the valley with three lines parallel to the mountains, pointing straight down the valley.

  “And now, they are like this.”

  Matki wiped the three straight lines off of the map, and then drew one across the width of the valley, stopping at the river that ran the length of the valley. Matki was telling Mike that yesterday they were traveling in a column, and tonight, they were set up in a front that stretched from the river to the north wall of the valley.

  Mike looked at the drawing, “Interesting. They’re reacting to what we did today.” He stopped for a moment, thinking about what this meant for them tomorrow. It wouldn’t be a big problem for their scheme of maneuver. It might be a problem for the last trap they had laid out, though.

  Mike motioned for Tom to come over, “Hey Tom. Come over here.”

  Tom stood up and walked over, squatting to look at the map on the ground.

  Mike motioned at what Matki had drawn, “This is how their force is arrayed. I bet you they set up this way so that they could move out like this in the morning.”

  Tom nodded, “yeah. Not sure why they would do this, but I guess it makes sense to somebody. Looks like a police call to me.”

  Mike grinned at Tom, “double arm interval, make sure you get all the cigarette butts.”

  Tom chuckled, “God, I hated policing up after smokers. Maybe they’re trying to make sure we don’t sneak around them. At least it won’t mess with us too bad. It’ll give us more targets if they walk in a line like that.”

  “I’m not too sure our last trap will be as effective.”

  “Does it matter? We just wanted to get them to follow us. Besides, I’m pretty sure what you have waiting for them at the end of the valley might be a little more damaging than what we can hit them with. The only thing I’m worried about is the amount of small arms
fire they can lay down on us.”

  Mike shrugged, “If we can even make that happen. I’m not sure that the Mechs will be available for use, or if they can get to us in time.”

  He looked at Matki again, “When do you think you can arrange that for us?”

  Matki shrugged, “I will head out when I wake up. I have a long way to go. And a long way to come back with help.”

  “You think you’ll be back in time?” Mike asked.

  Matki slapped the dirt off his hands onto his thighs, “There is only one way to find out. At least you are traveling to me.”

  “Well, the good thing is, we shouldn’t have a hard time finding him,” Tom drawled, “His smell should announce his presence a mile away.”

  Mike thought about the two containers, “You said you have the dragon’s poison as well?”

  Matki nodded, “I figured I might be able to make use of it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us about it when we were digging the punji pits?” Mike asked.

  “You said you wanted them wounded. If they stepped on a poisoned spike, I do not think they would live too long,” Matki replied.

  Mike studied the poison container for a long moment, “maybe we can use the poison now.”

  Tom spit, “What do you mean?”

  “What do you think would happen if some of their wounded stopped breathing and puffed up like Ben did?” Mike was referring to Ben Davis, who’d been killed by dragon poison in the attack on the compound.

  Tom thought about it, “That might have an effect on their morale. Might cause a bit of hesitation if they know that even a small wound could kill them.”

  Mike nodded, “Maybe we can start dipping bullets while we’re on sentry duty.”

  Tom shrugged, “Not like we have anything else to do. We need to divvy up the 7.62mm ammunition between the three of you anyway.”

  Mike motioned to the canister of poison, “Mind if we use that tonight?”

  Matki shook his head, “That is why I brought it.” He handed the canister to Mike, “Well, I need to get some sleep. I have a long trip ahead of me tomorrow,” Matki stood up and walked over to his sleeping bag, laying down next to his son.

  “What do you think, Tom?”

  “About what?”

  “Us, the battle tomorrow.”

  Tom picked up a pebble, shrugged, and threw the pebble across the ground, “Who knows. We might make it, we might not. We have hundreds of men coming at us. All we can do is stay in front of them, and hope we don’t get jammed up.”

  “You think it was worth it?” Mike asked.

  “What, to save all those people,” Tom pointed at Matki, “To save his family?” Tom nodded, “If there’s a righteous cause in the world, saving Matki’s tribe is it.”

  “You don’t think I did the wrong thing here?” Mike asked.

  Tom looked at Mike, “Mike, Rob knew the risks. He knew the risks back home, before we came here. He knew the risks here. We all know the risks.”

  “I just feel like . . .” Mike started to say.

  Tom put his hand on Mike’s shoulder, “Mike, it was just bad luck. It was the perfect ambush. They never even knew we were there. One of the hostiles got off a lucky shot. Not your fault.”

  Mike shook his head, “Still, I wish . . .”

  Tom nodded, “Yeah, we all do. If any of us could have taken his place, we would have. He would have wished the same thing if it had been one of us. It wasn’t your fault.”

  Mike nodded, accepting what Tom was saying. Tom got up and walked out so that he could start his watch. Mike stood up and walked to his position. Mike and Tom chose positions that were close, but far enough away that they could watch a wide swath of the forest. Tom would watch, and Mike would start the work of dipping bullets into the poison. Once he was done with his bullets, he would start working on Mickey’s and Everett’s. The poison might not even survive the trip out of the barrel and down range, but they had to at least attempt to gain whatever edge they could over the enemy. Mike thought about what Tom had told him, and settled back into his routine, listening to the night as the pine trees swayed in the wind.

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  Mike woke with someone kicking his feet again. It was Everett. Mike was rested this time, and was instantly awake. He immediately noticed that everybody else was up and moving.

  “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Time to wake up, Mike.”

  “What time is it?”

  “About two hours to sunrise.”

  “Little early to be kicking me awake, isn’t it?” Mike asked.

  Everett nodded, “Unfortunately, it’s not my call. The grey men are on the move.”

  That put a different spin on the situation. “Who’s out?” Mike asked.

  “Caul and Geonti went back out to see if they could continue their competition. They got there too late to slit throats, but they noticed that the grey men were getting ready to move.”

  “Alright, I’m up. Let me get packed, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  “You want to do the same teams?” Everett asked.

  “Yeah, unless you have a better idea.”

  “No, I’ll go with Mickey and Geonti, you go with Tom and Caul.”

  “Where’s Matki?”

  “He and Jendi already left. They headed out when Caul and Geonti came back in.”

  “Okay, let me pack.”

  Everett went back to square away his own kit. Mike quickly packed, and then he made the rounds to check on everybody. Tom and Mickey had already packed and were wolfing down pemmican for breakfast. Mike motioned for everybody to move in close. Mike pulled out the pocket translator so that Caul and Geonti could understand what he was saying.

  “Okay guys, we don’t want to tangle with them the way we did yesterday. We need to make sure that they don’t fix us in position,” Mike drew a map on the ground, identified the walls of the valley, and then drew the grey men front perpendicular to the valley walls. “We don’t want to get too close to the river. I don’t want to get trapped up against the water without a way across. Same thing goes about getting too close to the northern wall of the valley. My concern is that they fix us in position, then they can maneuver their front around us, flanking our position. We have to avoid that at all costs. Any questions?”

  The team shook their heads.

  Mike continued, “We just need to bloody them enough so that we can keep them interested and moving down the valley behind us. If we can keep them moving toward us, then it will be too late for them to move back up the valley before the rest of the tribe slips away. Hopefully, our last trap will piss them off enough that we can keep them interested in killing us. It’s just unfortunate that they decided to change their tactics today. We won’t be able to bring enough of them into the kill, but we can still bloody their noses.”

  Mike looked at Caul and Geonti, “will there will be a problem keeping ahead of them?”

  Caul shook his head, “No, I don’t think there will be problem. There are many places we can use to kill the grey men and then move away from them.”

  Mike looked at Everett, “Okay, your call, Ev. Do you want to be closer to the north wall or the river?”

  Everett pinched his lower lip as he thought, “Well, I have Mickey with me, and he has the ‘203. Once the primary explosive goes off on the ambush, we can drop a few more rounds on the guys coming in to grab the casualties. We’ll take the position closer to the north wall.”

  “Okay Ev, just make sure you don’t get too interested in making more casualties. Hit them and move out quickly.”

  Everett smiled at Mike, “No problem. The last thing I want to do is get close up and personal with the grey men today.”

  Mike looked around, “Okay, let’s go.”

  The team moved back to their gear. Mike walked over to his and picked up the backpack. Yesterday, they’d been able to stash their gear. They couldn’t do that now. They’d have to take e
verything with them. He slung his ruck onto his back and shrugged it on. He walked over to Tom.

  “You ready?” Mike asked him.

  Tom slung his backpack on, and picked up his rifle, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Mickey walked over and did fist bumps with Mike and Tom, “Be careful out there. Kick some ass.”

  Everett walked over, “Yeah, don’t let Murphy bite you in the ass.”

  Mike looked at Everett, “I’m not worried about Murphy today. If he shows up, I’m going to bury him beside Rob.”

  Mickey was going to say something, but he noticed Mike’s eyes. There was no give there. Mike was ready for some payback.

  The two fire teams separated, and Caul started walking toward the river. Tom fell in behind him and Mike was rear security. It was still dark out, but Mike could see that it was moving toward twilight. Caul picked up the pace so that they could be in position before daylight.

  Mike’s focus began to narrow. Emotion was replaced by a logical, cold fury. Rob’s death was still a raw wound in Mike’s psyche. His only regret was that they didn’t have enough munitions to kill as many today as they had yesterday.

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  Everett and Mickey were set, watching the ambush kill zone. They were about two hundred meters away, hunkered down behind tree roots. The trees towered above, with little vegetation close to the ground. This was the last area like this as they headed further down the valley. The area behind them started sloping down toward dragon valley, and the vegetation started getting thicker in the lower elevations.

  Everett had slipped his right arm from the sling of his back pack, but didn’t take it off completely, ready to run if needed. Everett had the radio switch ready to initiate the ambush. To his left, Mickey had set up the same way, one arm out. Geonti was set up behind them, ready to lead them to the next location.