The Between (Earth Exiles Book 3)

by Mark Harritt

  “Well, Shar said they came from different planets. If you took our species, spread them across the galaxy onto different planets with different evolutionary pressures, eventually, you’ve got different species of humans, different hominid species. Keep them apart long enough, and they can no longer interbreed,” Mickey pointed out.

  Mike was overwhelmed by that idea, “So, what you’re saying is, our descendants have become the aliens.”

  Mickey nodded, “Well, that was eventually going to happen anyway. Go back along our evolutionary line, and eventually modern humans wouldn’t have been able to interbreed with our ancestors. The world keeps moving. Evolutionary pressures don’t allow species to freeze in one moment in time. Evolve, or die and be replaced.”

  Everett stared at Mickey, “Damn Mickey. I keep forgetting about that big brain you hide behind that thick skull.”

  Mickey grinned.

  Mike changed the subject back to the situation at hand, “Well, there’s nothing else we can do here. Let’s go back to the aircraft and give Matki the bad news.”

  “It’s not all bad,” Everett pointed out, “Matki’s tribe wasn’t involved in this. We should be able to stop them and keep them away from here.”

  Mike nodded. It was true. Hopefully Matki’s family was safe. He had another concern though, “For how long though?”

  Everett looked at Mike, “What do you mean?”

  Mike looked back at him, “They can’t go home, and they can’t come here. They have no place else to go. So how long can we keep them safe?” He pointed back at the bodies on the mound, “How long before Matki’s tribe ends up like them?”

  Everett shook his head, “I don’t know, Mike. I don’t know what else we can do. Where can we take them?”

  Mike was frustrated, “Dammit, this is our fault, my fault.”

  “How the hell can you think that?” Tom asked.

  Mike motioned towards the north, “If we hadn’t stirred up that damned necropolis, none of this would have happened.”

  Tom walked over and poked his finger in Mike’s chest, “Bullshit.”

  He stepped back and eyed Mike for a moment, “If things hadn’t played out the way they did, how long would it have been before these grey bastards showed up at Matki’s village and did what they did here? Not everything’s your fault Mike. You can’t save everybody.”

  Mike sighed, “That’s what Jen told me.”

  Tom nodded, “Smart girl, you should listen to her more often.”

  Everett stretched, “Okay, is the pity party done? We need to head back.”

  Mike motioned, and Tom stepped out to lead the way. Mike fell in behind him, and Everett and Mickey followed. They walked to the slope, and Mike saw Caul sitting on a rock below them. Tom bent over, picked up a small rock, and winged it down toward Caul. It pinged off of a boulder, and Caul looked around, a sad smile on his face. He stood up, and as soon as they were close, he started walking ahead of them.

  They passed through the forest, and back through the silent, now mournful, village. It weighed on Mike’s soul, knowing what had happened to these people. Jen and Tom were both right, though. He couldn’t save everybody. The best he could do was to give them a fighting chance. And there was only one way he could think of to accomplish that.

  There were three hundred dead men back down the valley. Every one of those dead men had rifles and steel knives. Every one of them had ammunition.

  Mike’s resolve grew as he continued to think about the situation. What he had told Matki about the Montagnards was true. They would have to train Matki’s people in guerilla warfare. Make the body count high enough, and the Turinzoni would have to leave Matki’s people alone. Still, a man can’t fight if he’s always worried about his family. They would have to find a new place for Matki’s people. They would have to find a new home not only for Mike’s people, but for Matki’s tribe also. Hopefully, they could find a place that would shield them not only from the dragons, but from the Turinzoni as well.

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  The smell of coffee woke him. Sunlight rippled around the edges of the drapes. He stretched, rubbed his eyes, and reached out a hand to the other side of the bed. The bed was empty except for him. He rolled over to her side of the bed, grabbed her pillow and buried his face into it, breathing in her scent. He stretched some more. It was Sunday, and he really didn’t want to get up just yet. He felt lazy, and wished Jo would be lazy with him. He hoped to talk Jo into staying in bed for a little while longer. He heard the door to the bedroom open up. He listened to the quiet footsteps as she came toward the bed.

  “Babe, the coffee’s on.”

  Jo was relentless when she wanted something. She stood there in a small red tank top and pajama pants, neither of which hid her curves. He watched her body move as she leaned against the dresser. The curve of her breasts and hips against the thin material increased his desire. Her hair was still mussed from the night’s sleep. He looked at her shoulder length hair, and he could almost feel the softness against his face. His heartbeat increased as he looked at her.

  “Can I talk you into coming back to bed for a while?” he asked, patting the bed beside him.

  She rolled her eyes, and took a sip of coffee. She shook her head, “No, I’m not coming back to bed with you. We need to talk. You’ve been avoiding me.”

  A puzzled look crossed Mike’s face, “What do you mean?”

  “Silly. You know where I am. Why don’t you come and visit me?” she asked.

  Mike was confused, “What do you mean, visit you? You’re right here, Jo.”

  She sighed, “Mike, remember last year when we went up to to the Granby Ranch, up north, close to Denver?”

  Mike nodded, “Yeah, I remember.”

  “I think we need to go there again.”

  “What, north, up into the snow?”

  “Yeah, we had a great time up there, didn’t we? Wouldn’t it be great if we went up there again?”

  Mike stared at Jo. Something wasn’t quite right here. Why the hell was Jo talking about the ski trip they’d taken last year? In fact, he remembered this very scene. He was having problems placing it, though.

  Jo put the cup of coffee down on the dresser, came over, and sat down on the bed next to him, and put her hand on his arm. Her hand felt warm against his skin. He could smell the scent of her body wash and her shampoo. He ached for her. He missed her so much.

  “Kiss me,” he told her.

  She stared deep into his eyes. He could see the resolve in her eyes crumble. She licked her lips, “I’ll kiss you Mike, but you have to remember to come and see me. Remember, north, where the snow is.”

  Wordlessly, he nodded. He was afraid to say anything, knowing somehow, that this wasn’t real. Jo licked her lips again, then leaned forward to kiss him. He closed his eyes, waiting for her lips to touch his.

  Somebody kicked his foot. He groaned. They kicked his foot again, “Wake up, Mike. It’s your turn for watch.”

  Mike opened his eyes, “God bless, Everett. You have the worse timing.”

  Mike couldn’t see Everett’s face in the gloom of the night, but he knew the man was grinning.

  “What’s the matter, Mike, dreaming about your sweetheart back at the compound?” Everett asked.

  Mike sat up out of his sleeping bag. The air was chill. He quickly found his shirt and pulled it on, “Yeah, I was having a nice dream. I was about to get lucky.” He didn’t mention that the dream was about Jo, not Jennifer.

  Everett squatted down next to Mike, “Yeah, I keep thinking about Joan. I guess I’ve got her and the baby on my mind. I can’t wait to get back.”

  Mike thought back to his dream. He couldn’t quite remember what it was about. As he tried to hold on to the memory, it seemed to slip away quicker. He shook his head, “It’s gone now, I can’t remember what it was.”

  Everett chuckled, “Don’t worry. It’ll come back to you. You’ll stop thinking about i
t, then you’ll remember it.”

  Mike thought about it, then shrugged, “Maybe.”

  “Anyway, you’re up. I have some tea on the fire.”

  Mike nodded, then rolled out of his sleeping bag. With Mike awake, Everett walked back to the aircraft to go to bed. With little room in the aircraft, Mike, Tom, and Mickey were sleeping outside. The pilot, well aware that Mike and the team didn’t trust him, had volunteered to stay outside with them. Matki and Everett, with the worse wounds, were sleeping inside the cleaner environment of the aircraft. Mickey had checked the wounds and changed the bandages. He didn’t allow any arguments when he’d directed that they stay on the transport.

  When they came back from the village, they’d told Matki and Geonti what they’d found. Geonti was grief stricken when he found out that his girlfriend, Retha had been taken. Matki tried to console him, but Geonti left the aircraft and headed into the woods. Caul set out after him, and soon, they came back, though Mike could see Geonti’s red eyes. While the men in the tribe were ferocious warriors, they had no problems expressing emotion when it came to the people they cared about.

  Matki and the two hunters talked. They came to a decision, and Caul and Geonti headed back down the valley to find their tribe to warn them of the danger. Of course, there was no way that Matki could go with them. Matki tried to send Jendi with them, but there was no way that the boy would leave his father.

  Mike and Everett talked to the pilot, and he explained to them how the village had been taken unaware. The slavers had an energy field that affected the nervous system of their prey. That was the flashlight they had hanging off their belts. Best used when the villagers were asleep, it put them into an even deeper sleep, almost a coma, which allowed the slavers to slip in a put the collars onto them. Once the collar was on, the slavers had complete control over them. The collars could deliver pain, pleasure, or even death to the new slaves.

  Mike could only wonder about the last minutes of the villagers, watching their families enslaved, nothing they could do about it. Then, the children watching as their parents and grandparents were killed on the spot, helpless, unable to resist.

  This was an incredibly dangerous world they lived in now. Mike sipped his tea, stared out into the darkness, his dream completely forgotten.

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  Chapter Eight

  They moved back down the valley. They were now in a location between the two villages. They’d found a small landing zone where they could bring the aircraft down and move it under the trees so that it couldn’t be seen from the air. The tall trees in this area did a good job masking the aircraft from above, just in case there were other aircraft around. Still, they piled some more branches on top to break up the silhouette.

  Everett stood with his hands on his hips trying to get a good look at the aircraft, “Well, it’d be better if we had a couple of camouflage nets, but I guess it’s going to have to do.”

  Mickey nodded, “Yeah, not much more we can do with it.”

  Mike brushed his hands together, trying to get some of the sap and dirt off, “Well, at least we have a while before any more of the Turinzoni get here. Shar told me that since there are only sixty of the Turinzoni at their forward operating base, they won’t venture out here, even to find out what happened when no one reports back. They’ll have to wait until a larger contingent is sent from the other continent.”

  Everett looked grim thinking about more Turinzoni coming, “I think that the next time they come for us, they will be better prepared.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be able to hold them off. We won’t have the Ancient backing us next time either,” Mike said as he walked around the back of the craft.

  Mike ducked as he walked up the ramp and into the aircraft. Shar was out with Tom, as Tom did a walk around to make sure there wasn’t anything or anybody dangerous around. Tom had already done this many times in the past few days, and wasn’t too concerned about taking Shar with him. According to Tom, Shar sounded like a wounded buffalo when he was walking through the underbrush. The man had no woodsman skills at all. But, with Shar out with Tom, they didn’t have to leave someone inside the aircraft to guard it.

  Matki smiled as Mike walked in, “Did you get it camouflaged?”

  Mike nodded, “As good as we could in the circumstances. It would be better if we have camouflage nets, but you have to work with what you’ve got, right?” He walked over and pointed at Matki’s leg, “How’s the leg feel?”

  Matki shifted his weight, and grimaced, “It still hurts, but I have a good caretaker.” He patted Jendi on the shoulder. Jendi beamed, his understanding of English growing more and more each day.

  “Hey, what am I,” Mickey asked, his bulk casting a shadow across the interior of the aircraft as he blocked the light streaming in.

  “You, my friend, are an exceptional doctor,” Matki explained.

  Mollified, Mickey walked over to take a look at Matki’s leg. He grabbed his medical bag, took out Purell and doused his hands. Then he took out black nitrile gloves and put them on. He started unwinding the bandage so that he could see the wound, and then started probing.

  Matki started sweating as Mickey probed, and Mike heard him inhale swiftly as Mickey hit a sensitive area. Jendi looked concerned, but Matki allayed his fears, “It’s okay. Mickey just wants to make sure it is healing correctly.”

  Mickey nodded, “Yeah, it looks good to me. The tissue around it looks normal, the wound itself looks like it’s healing properly, and it doesn’t look like it’s suppurating, so I think you’re going to heal with no problems, Matki.”

  Mike took the bandages and soaked them in the alcohol solution. They didn’t have a way to supplement their supply of bandages, so Mickey was using the last of his rubbing alcohol to clean them for reuse.

  “How is your hand, Mike?” Matki asked.

  Mike looked down at his gloved hand. He’d folded over the semi empty glove finger and sewn the extra fabric down so that it didn’t get in the way when he was using his rifle, “It still hurts a little. Not as bad as it did.”

  Mickey rewrapped the bandage around Matki’s thigh, “Well, It’s still weeping a little, but the discharge is clear, no indication of infection. You’re still going to have to stay off of it for a while though.”

  Once he was done with Matki, Mickey moved over to Mike, “Okay, your turn.”

  Mike sighed, and pulled the glove off. He had switched from a bandage to two bandaids on the end of his finger, with surgical tape wrapped around the base to keep them on. He unwound the surgical tape, then quickly pulled the bandaids off.

  Mickey looked pleased at what he saw, “Looks like it’s healing to me. I’m going to leave the stitches in for a few more days. Try not to use the hand so much, though.”

  Mike motioned at the area around them, “How the hell am I going to do that, Mickey?”

  Mickey grinned. He was done, and nodded in satisfaction over his handiwork. He handed Mike two prepackaged alcohol wipes, two bandaids, and a roll of surgical tape. He looked over at Everett, “Okay, you’re next. Take off the shirt.”

  While he was working, Mike heard a low whistle. It was Tom coming back to the aircraft. He didn’t need to whistle. Everybody could hear Shar stomping through the woods with him.

  Mike walked to the back of the aircraft. He looked out, “Well, looks like we’re going to have company.”

  Walking with Tom and Shar was Caul, Geonti, Joacar, and Balia, Matki’s wife.

  “It is good to see you. Welcome,” Mike said in the tribe’s language. Mike waved for them to come forward, pointed at Balia, and then motioned for her to come into the aircraft. She seemed uncertain about walking up the ramp, but then she saw Matki and Jendi. A small cry escaped her, and Mike had to dance out of the way so that she could get to Matki. She stopped when she saw the bandage and put her hand over her mouth. She started forward again and knelt down beside them. She leaned forward and
wrapped her arms around them so tight that Matki had to chide her gently so that he could breathe. She let go but then grabbed Matki’s face with both her hands and kissed him. His arms wrapped around her and he kissed her back ferociously. Everybody suddenly found something else to look at as they tried to give the family some privacy.

  Everett grabbed his shirt and stood up. Mickey grabbed his bag and they both moved to the ramp of the aircraft. Everett sat down on the ramp, and Mickey continued to probe the wound. Behind them, Matki and Balia stopped kissing. Balia grabbed Jendi’s face and rested her forehead against his, then kissed him on both cheeks. She let him go, then looked down at the bandage on Matki’s leg. A low moan came from her as she looked at the wound. She didn’t touch it, but her hands hovered over it, afraid to touch it. Tears sprang from her eyes, and now it was Matki that pulled her close to him, murmuring words to make her feel better.

  It was a touching scene, one that drove home the longing that the men felt for their wives back at the compound. Mike felt a lump in his throat as he watched them. Then he was brought back to reality as Joacar started talking. He didn’t sound too happy. Caul stood behind Joacar, not saying anything, not moving, letting the headman have his say. Matki had been listening closely, and then started arguing with Joacar. Heated words flew back and forth between the two.

  Mike looked over at Everett. Everett was just as puzzled as he was, his face noncommittal about what was going on.

  Behind him, Matki called out, “Mike, please let Joacar come in. Then, if you please, you and the team come in as well.” He called out to Caul and Geonti, and they turned back to the forest and disappeared. “Caul and Geonti will keep guard while we talk.”

  Joacar was staring at Mike. Mike could see the anger in his eyes. Why he was upset, Mike didn’t understand. Evidently, Joacar was angry with Mike and the team for something. Mike stepped aside, and Joacar walked up the ramp into the aircraft. Matki waved for Joacar to take a seat. He motioned for Jendi and Balia to help him up off the floor, and into one of the cargo seats. Small tears sprang to Matki’s eyes as he maneuvered himself into the seat. It was painful to him, but evidently he wanted to be level with Joacar as he talked, not willing to give the headman any advantage in position. Jendi sat to his right, and Balia to his left.