The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “No way. We can’t stand. We’ll be spotted.”

  “Blinders?” Hal asked.

  “Do we want to waste them?” Robbie questioned. “Frank? How close?”

  “Too far,” Frank responded. “I’m laying Dean-ami-minis up by four. I won’t be long.”

  Ellen’s head shifted from left to right in confusion. “Robbie? What are these sectors?”

  “It’s what we did all night long.” Robbie winked. “While you slept.” He lifted an index finger to Ellen. “Hold on. What’s that, Hal?”

  “Relay in a few. Get ready. You go forward. I’ll go to twelve. Come around. Meet on fourteen.”

  “Got it.”

  “Relay?” Ellen asked.

  “Relay,” Robbie repeated.

  “Relay,” Hal said just before gunfire rang out. He dove to the ground, nodded to Robbie, watched Robbie’s arm lift the grenade, and as soon as Hal heard the safety sound of the snapping, crackling, blinders, he scooped up Ellen and ran off.

  Robbie didn’t need much cover from the tree. He fired into the men who ran about, blinded from the effects of his explosives.

  “Where are they?” Frank asked as he joined Robbie behind the tree.

  “Headed to twelve. We’ll meet at fourteen.”

  “We’re clear behind. Want my thoughts?” Frank asked. “I think they are patch worked throughout this mountain.”

  “It’s a real life video game.” Robbie snickered.

  “It’s a game of getting to the end of the mountain without dying first. Question is . . .” Frank gave an upward motion of his head. “You missed one.”

  “Sorry.” Robbie fired. “What is the question?”

  “Huh?’

  “You said ‘question is’.”

  “Oh. Question is. Do we take out the Society as much as we can on the way down or get down as fast as we can, lift the bird, and wipe them out?”

  Robbie smiled. “Why not try to do both?”

  “Why not? Let’s go.” Frank stood, moving his mouthpiece to his radio forward. “Hal, what’s going on?”

  “We’re moving forward, Frank. The thick brush looks good. I’m being cautious.”

  “Robbie and I are proceeding. Call for assistance if needed, otherwise stay on course. We’ll see you at the bottom by the bird,” Frank said.

  “Roger that.”

  Frank turned to Robbie. “Load up.”

  Robbie replaced the clip at the same time as Frank.

  “Dean-ami-mini count?” Frank asked.

  “Four grenades.”

  “I have six. Blinders?”

  “Three,” Robbie counted.

  “Four.” Frank added his. “I’d say we’re hooked up for the rest of the two miles.”

  “If we play our cards right, we may clean off this mountain on the way down.”

  “Slagel Avalanche.” Frank grinned. “Just be hands ready.”

  “Um, Frank, with me, that would be, hand ready.” Robbie winked.

  With a chuckle, Frank shook his head. “Let’s just do this.” He started running with Robbie at his side. “I have a feeling, little brother, as long as Hal stays on course, this mountain battle will be easier than we ever thought.”

  “Then it will be easier than we ever thought, Frank,” Robbie said in his running. “I mean, come on. When does Hal ever stray off course?”

  Frank exhaled his frustration with a squealing growl. He looked left to right. “Where the fuck is Hal?”

  Robbie walked from the other side of the hidden chopper. “He’s not in the truck either.”

  “Fuck!” Frank screamed out. “Fuck!”

  “Frank,” Robbie tried to calm him.

  “No.” Frank was near out of control. “We cleaned house. We wiped them out. We get a radio call from Hal that they made it safely to the bottom of the mountain. So where are they?”

  Lifting a finger, Robbie pointed to the radio. “Want me to ask?”

  Frank shook his head. “No, I will.” He breathed out once more and tried to sound calm. “Hal. Oh, Hal. Where the fuck are you?”

  The radio hissed loudly. “On . . . bot . . . tin.”

  Frank’s eye twitched in irritation. “Again.”

  “Bottom . . . tin.”

  Thinking he’d help, Robbie translated. “Bottom of the mountain.”

  “I know,” Frank grumbled. “Hal.” Too sweetly, Frank spoke, “We’re at the bottom of the mountain as well. Actually, you’ll find this funny. Robbie and I are standing by a fuckin truck and helicopter. Where are you!”

  The cracking and hissing was overwhelming.

  The more noise that carried through the radio, the more annoyed Frank grew. “Hal!”

  The hissing stopped. “Ah, that’s better. I hear you now,” Hal spoke. “Sorry, Frank, we ran into some trouble and had to veer off course. We’re about a mile or so east of you.”

  “But everything is fine?” Frank asked.

  “Now, yes,” Hal replied. “Actually, you should see this place we’re at. There’s a really nice stream that seems . . .”

  “Hal,” Frank stopped him.

  Robbie laughed.

  “What is so funny?” Frank asked Robbie.

  “Sorry,” Robbie spoke through his snickering.

  “Nothing is amusing,” Hal said. “I was commenting about the stream.”

  “Can you find us?” Frank questioned.

  “Yes,” Hal responded. “Just wait there and we’ll . . . shit.”

  “What?”

  There was a slight tremble to Hal’s voice that carried more than his single word answer over the airways. It carried a seriousness. “Trouble.”

  ^^^^

  The dumbfounded mouthing of the word, ‘trouble’ from Joe was reiterated by the confused look on Elliott’s face.

  Elliott just shook his head slowly. “Where is the trouble?”

  Dean moved closer to the pair. “Swahili guy just relayed that they pulled almost a third from the mountain to regroup.”

  “A third?” Joe asked.

  Dean shrugged. “That’s what I got. Maybe that is the trouble Hal ran into.”

  Scratching the bridge of his nose, Joe tried to think like his sons. “It has to be something else. Maybe it’s not even that big of a deal. The boys had this one under control. They lured them in, in order to get the Society to commit their troops. The minute the Society realized this, they pulled out.”

  “You know, Joe. A mountain?” Dean was puzzled. “From what we heard, it sounds as if they had the whole thing rigged and waiting.”

  “They did,” Joe replied.

  Dean was still confused. “That’s an awful lot of work on chance. How would they know that the Society would follow them to the . . . . no.” He rolled his eyes. “They aren’t.”

  “They are,” Joe stated.

  “They’re leading the Society to them.” Dean’s voice raised on the end in his emotions. “How could they do such a thing? This is my wife.”

  “Dean, trust me when I tell you that she means as much to them as well. That is why they are doing this. My sons know damn well if they don’t take out all six hundred men, coming home won’t be so easy.”

  “I got it,” Elliott spoke up and raised the volume of the radio. “The Captain’s in trouble. Listen.”

  Joe did. His eyes closed in disbelief as he tuned into the background noise. “Christ . . . Savages.”

  ^^^^

  If words were voltage then Frank was electrocuted when he heard Hal’s call of, ‘Christ. . Savages.’ Frank’s first instinct was to take off and run the mile to where Ellen and Hal were, but then reality kicked in.

  Neither he nor Robbie knew the exact location of Ha. From what Hal broadcasted over the radio, Frank was certain the best aid he could give his brother was from the air. Hurriedly, he and Robbie checked the front and side guns on the chopper and prepped the bird. A plan of motion was being devised with each second that passed. Frank was certain until he and Robbie arri
ved, Hal would be fine with a few Savages.

  “Move it, Frank!” Hal called out over the radio as he nearly shoved Ellen behind a denseness of brush. “I have them coming in from north and east. There’s least twenty, maybe more . . .”

  “Give us one more minute, Hal. One more. Are you out of sight?” Frank asked.

  “We’re buried, right now . . .” Hal raised his weapon to shoot and depressed the trigger. “I don’t know for how . . .” Four shots fired then nothing. “Fuck.”

  “What?” Frank asked.

  “My clip is jammed. Just hurry.” Hal slouched down to where Ellen was in a huddle position. He pulled the clip from the rifle and stuck it in his pocket. The new clip was barely in its chamber when Hal turned and aimed outward. It wasn’t so much the purpose of defeating the ensuing Savages, but rather keeping them at bay until Frank arrived.

  Here and there he hit them.

  “Take my revolver.” Hal told Ellen. “Just in case.”

  “Should I help shoot?”

  “No. Just take it just in case.”

  His chest was crushed against the slope of the hillside and Ellen couldn’t squeeze her hand through, so she reached over his back and took the revolver from the holster at Hal’s side.

  “Got it,” she said.

  “Get it ready. Do you know how?” Hal asked, firing more. He watched the Savages beyond the clearing dart out, then drop from being hit or run back to the woods.

  “Yes.” She shifted the chamber as she backed up.

  “Just don’t shoot that gun.”

  The gun fired.

  “Ellen!” Hal yelled.

  Ellen fired again. “Hal! Savages.”

  Hal’s eyes were wide as he spun around to look. “Shit. Frank . . .”

  The arrow hardly whistled in its high speed flight. It seemed to barely have time to even make a noise prior to the hard, fast, ‘deep thump’ landing it made into Hal’s chest.

  All breath escaped Ellen, but her quivering shock quickly turned to a blood curdling scream that carried through Hal’s radio.

  The chopper lifted from the ground and Frank, with his hand above his head, flipped the controls. “Something’s happened. Hal! Come in. Hal!” Frank looked over his shoulder to Robbie who stood in the open chopper door. “Robbie, secure yourself.” He returned to the radio. “Hal, come in.”

  The hit shocked him for a split second, but Hal kept his bearings. He snapped the arrow off at his body, then grabbed Ellen’s arm and charged out from their hiding spot. “Frank, spot us in the clearing. I repeat . . .” Hal pulled Ellen with one arm and sprayed a safety line of gunfire as he ran with her. “Spot us in the clearing.

  Ellen looked up. “I hear them.”

  Hal quickly assessed left to right, front to back. “Run, Ellen. Run.”

  “What? No.”

  “Run.” Hal shoved her. “Go!” He raised his M-16, watched Ellen dart off and then spun in his firing. He’d run, fire, drop, roll, and fire again. He tried his hardest to not only hit the Savages and protect himself, but more so, keep them from chasing after Ellen.

  Hal was unsuccessful.

  “I see her!” Robbie shouted to Frank. “They are in pursuit of her, Frank.”

  “Can you get them?” Frank asked.

  “Not without chancing hitting Ellen.”

  “What about Hal?”

  Bracing himself, Robbie peered out the door. “He’s alone and about seventy feet from her.”

  “Fuck,” Frank grunted in frustration. Finally, in his turn of the chopper, he saw what Robbie saw.

  Ellen was running with five savages close behind her. Hal was way off in the distance, alone. “All right. We’ll have to land and get them.”

  “Why don’t we just get Ellen and fire from the air!” Robbie shouted.

  “We have to land to get her.”

  “No . . . we don’t.” Robbie secured the rope around him. “Keep it steady. Drop your speed and lower the alt.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Frank looked over his shoulder.

  “You’ve done it.” Robbie prepared to leap.

  “That was me. And I wasn’t . . .” Frank cringed when Robbie leaped out the open door. “I wasn’t the one flying. Shit. I suck at this. Steady. Steady. Robbie, don’t miss.”

  The plan was good and at the steady speed and course Frank flew, Robbie saw he was dead on in getting Ellen. His concept of rescue was noble, but somewhere in the jump of freedom and the ‘man this feels cool’ moment Robbie experienced, he forgot one important thing. The only means he had to pick up Ellen was already occupied with holding on to the rope.

  “Get her. I’ll drop you two then swing back and help Hal,” Frank told him. “How close now?”

  “Um . . .” Robbie fought the rush of air to hear Frank. “Close.” And he was. Just as he thought, ‘how am I gonna do this’, Robbie received his answer when the tip of his boot hit against the head of one of the Savages and knocked him forward. It had to be the lack of time to plan it out that gave Robbie the prehistoric amphibian instinct he never knew he had. He slid down on the sailing rope and just as he did, he arrived at Ellen, reached out to her running body with his legs, and locked them tightly around her.

  “Got her!” Robbie called out. “Oh, shit, I got her. Hey!” He grinned.

  “Get ready. I’m lowering.”

  Ellen didn’t have a second to think about what was happening. She felt the blast of air from the chopper, heard the loud engine noises and by the time she realized Robbie had her, Ellen found herself pummeling to the ground. Her back smashed against the rugged earth. It jolted every ounce of air from her, but before she could breathe in, Robbie landed on top of her.

  It was Robbie’s intention to roll with the momentum, and move Ellen from harm’s way before jumping up and removing the ensuing Savages, but something stopped him mid-plan . . . The single gunshot from a revolver that discharged an inch from his head. Robbie squealed a shriek of surprise. With his ear still ringing, his head ejected upward and with wide eyes, he looked with horror at Ellen. “You have a gun! Oh, fuck! Who would give you a gun?”

  With a frustrated ‘give me that’, he snatched up the weapon of his near demise, stomped to his feet, turned, and began to fire at the Savages so who were so close.

  Every single shot Robbie fired was echoed by the magnitude of shots that rang out in the distance from Frank in the helicopter. He could hear the bullets sear and rip through trees. The sounds of dying and screaming Savages played like a well received orchestra to Robbie and he knew things were going well.

  Bringing the microphone to his headset around, Robbie fired off his last shot and headed back to where Ellen just sat. As his hand reached to Ellen, Robbie readied to speak to Frank, but stopped when he heard Frank’s voice.

  “Hal, respond. Hal, come in,” Frank called out.”

  Curious, Robbie interjected as he aided Ellen to her feet. “Frank? What’s going on?”

  “I’m at the clearing now.” Machine gun firing was the backdrop to Frank’s voice. “Hal. Respond. Hal? Come in. I can’t see you. Where are you?”

  “Frank?” Robbie said with concern.

  “Hold on. Fuck.”

  Robbie listened to the gun fire slow down. “Frank? What’s . . .?”

  “I can’t see him. I have to land. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  As he shook his head and fought the sun for a better view, Frank moved the chopper into the battle ground clearing where he last saw Hal. Bringing the chopper down, Frank’s heart dropped faster than a bird could when his brother came into view. “No,” he grumbled out with a sick feeling. “Oh my God.”

  He had little strength and his legs were weak but Hal stumbled with everything he had to stand and move. His arm draped across his chest but it didn’t hide the magnitude of blood that seemed to cover him completely.

  Panic was all over Frank’s tone as he landed the helicopter sloppily. “Ha
l’s down! Robbie! Bring Ellen. Hurry. Hal’s down.” Off went the engines as soon as Frank felt the chopper hit the ground. In a hunch under the still slowing blades, he ran in a charge to Hal.

  Hal tried. He really tried. He moved left to right, his knees buckling with every step. He didn’t know where exactly he was hurt. Somewhere in his battle, he lost the pain. However, the adrenaline he used to fight and to keep himself moving dissipated the second he saw Frank. A slight smile of relief swept across Hal’s face when Frank reached to him but he never made it to the sanctity of his older brother’s arms. Hal’s eyes rolled and he dropped to the ground.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Springville, Utah

  Ellen swore her hands were blistered from the temperature of the boiled water in which she repeated submerged her hands. The basin of water never cooled because she had to call for fresh water constantly. It seemed every time she turned around, the water was too tainted with blood to use.

  She reached the point of exhaustion and her still damp, heat chapped hands ran through her hair and she exhaled a breath filled with emotions she couldn’t sort out. Prayers were in order and Ellen prayed that the medical equipment left behind in the doctor’s office in town had been cleaned and sterilized enough by her for the procedure she had taken hours to perform.

  The word ‘raw’ was an understatement for how she handled what she had to do to Hal. The things Dean had packed weren’t enough, and Ellen had to wonder what in the world Dean was thinking when he did so. Did Dean have so much faith in the Slagel men that he failed to even mildly prepare for the worst?

  Frank and Robbie aided as best as they could, but they became more of a hindrance to her. Between their constantly disturbing Hal, teasing him about how lame he was, and ‘oh, that’s gross’ comments, Ellen had enough. She kicked them out.

  Where was the seriousness? Weren’t they seeing it? She understood that the ‘Slagels’ placed themselves on a different mentality level when it came to injuries and illnesses. The ‘mind over matter’ wasn’t to them a question of ‘I am not sick’ thinking way of a healing process but rather, ‘how bad can I annoy my sibling to the point that he doesn’t want to be sick anymore.’ To Ellen, it was a bit much. Under normal circumstances, she would handle it. However, these circumstances were extreme.