by Mark Tufo
“I know no magic to do this.”
“The hard part is done.” Lamashtu pulled up the images of a crying hunched Michael being bitten by Eliza.
“No!” Azile put her hand out. “My poor, Michael.”
“The destroyer of worlds deserves no pity.”
“He has done nothing yet; no one, not even you, Lamashtu, can foretell the fate of all worlds. I will stop him, but in my own way. I will not kill him for you, for anyone, not even for everyone.”
“This is not a negotiation.”
“Perhaps you are as mighty as you say, but I will not die without a fight.”
“Die if you must, then. I will find another way to deal with him.” A pin of light as bright as the sun formed above Lamashtu’s head.
“Wait!” Linnick cried out. “There is another way!”
Epilogue - Mike’s Early Years
It was in the mountains of Afghanistan that I found out there is more to the world than I had previously known. Although how much could a young man with a rifle really know to begin with? My unit had been sent on a search and rescue mission, seems a patrol had gone missing. Not an unusual occurrence, given the circumstances. The mountains there could be just as savage as the animals and the people that inhabited them. Now I mean “savage” as in fierce, not making any moral judgments here. I can’t imagine how “savage” I would have been if another country had invaded my home and I was fighting for everything I knew, high up in the Rocky Mountains. Anyway, we were looking for a SEAL team, one of the best, so I was told. They had been on a special mission to capture a leader of one of the kabals; that all of the team members would vanish without a trace was highly unlikely.
I got that they were highly trained, smart, motivated individuals, but that wouldn’t stop a bullet or more likely a mortar from killing them. I’d seen enough death already to realize wasn’t much that would stop a rocket. I had mixed feelings about these missions. If the shoe was on the other foot, of course, I’d want an entire battalion and maybe a few boy scout troops looking for my ass, but when I was doing it I always questioned the sanity of endangering more lives. I didn’t say I was without selfishness. Watching limbs blown off, losing lives or seeing a friend grieve when those things happen tends to enforce feelings of self-preservation. But the stronger bonds of the brotherhood and sisterhood of those in arms always won out. Plus, my lieutenant would have had me court-martialed and sent to Leavenworth to make little rocks out of big rocks. And let’s face it, no matter what Linnick keeps saying, I’m too pretty for jail.
We had a helo insertion, got us to the tree line somewhere around ten thousand feet, which sounds pretty high, but when you’re talking the Himalayas we were barely making base camp. They were talking about a raging storm barreling down on us and the chopper couldn’t risk the brutal cross winds, the mountains were famous for. Glad to see that command wasn’t too concerned with our welfare, though. And people are always asking me why I have issues with authority, well here’s example two thousand three hundred and twelve: ordering us peons into hostile territory during hostile weather. We ran from the helicopter, which was hovering a few inches off the ground; the pilot was in such a rush to get the fuck out of there he wouldn’t even land. We set up a defensive perimeter until our only ride was back high in the sky, just a rapidly vanishing dot.
Been on more than a few missions since being dropped off into the world’s armpit. Now that’s not to say Afghanistan didn’t have some incredibly beautiful parts, because it did. It was the people, and I’m including us, that made it a cesspool. War. Just doing our part for population control. Not trying to devolve into a political rant because my true ignorance would shine through and it has absolutely nothing to do with the story. So, another mission, get through it, get back, get shit-faced off of Charlie’s home-brewed hooch. I’ve had cherry-flavored cough syrup that went down easier, but it did what it set out to do, burn away the memories of the day, and I mean with a prejudice. Like it targeted those thoughts and just boiled them out, bleach on grass stains.
Where the fuck am I? Oh yeah, the helo is gone and I get this fluttering in my stomach. At first, I’m thinking it’s the shitty MRE I’d eaten an hour ago. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten beef goulash from a bag; pretty sure it was just every ingredient left over from all the other meals. But instead of sitting like a stone like they usually do, this one kept rising, trying to force itself from my throat. It was nerves. Sure, nerves were a normal part of the equation, but this was different. This was one of those precognizant things, a “sinking feeling” of all not being right. I might have paid it more attention if I actually believed in clairvoyance or if the L.T. wasn’t force marching us up the side of a mountain at double time. Nothing quite like jogging up a mountain wearing combat boots, carrying seventy pounds of gear to take your mind off your nerves.
“Talbot, you’re point!” Lieutenant Denkins shouted.
“Of course I am,” I mumbled as I took the lead. I’d been on his shit-list for the last week. The army had sent us over some ten-day old cupcakes, things could be used as hockey pucks. Didn’t stop us from eating them, though. I was serving dinner that day and by the time he got to my station, all of them were gone. Like somehow that was my fault? I mean, sure it was because I had lifted a whole tray for my friends, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t know that. Or shit, maybe he did and that’s why he was pissed…doesn’t matter. Hadn’t gone more than a couple of clicks when the wind picked up. Went from a sunny, decent day to gale force winds and storm clouds that would make folks in Kansas concerned. L.T. was a hard ass, but he was smart and he wouldn’t unnecessarily risk the safety of his men.
“Talbot, find some cover!” He had to shout because even though we were only twenty feet apart I could barely hear him over the ripping of the wind.
I did a quick scan, there wasn’t much of anything except loose rocks and a few stunted, twisted trees, nothing a whole squad could find sanctuary behind or under. I kept going up, not entirely sure why; I guess because that was the direction I was pointed in. The wind was screaming down the side of the mountain. I couldn’t even look up anymore to see where I was going because of the rain pelting into my face. I was soaked–everyone was soaked. I’d easily added another twenty pounds onto my load. We were going to be in serious danger of exposure if we didn’t find a place to call home for the night.
SEE! This is the shit I’m talking about. Command absolutely knew this storm was coming and still they green lit the operation. I felt bad for the poor bastards they were going to send in to retrieve what was left of our asses after the mountain goats were finished dining on us. Yeah, you keep telling yourself goats are herbivores; that’s until most of their natural food source is blown away by ordinance and they’re starving. Goats eat just about anything. Until you say you’ve seen a pack of goats ripping the flesh off a dead person, you really can’t say you’ve seen it all.
“No fucking way,” I said aloud. “I am not going to go out by goat.” I raised my head. By now the rain was beginning to freeze and tiny ice shards were trying to pierce my eyeballs. I raised my hand up to shield them as best I could. I couldn’t be sure, but I was fairly positive I saw something a little further up and off to our left, a darker blackness where everything else was a drab brown. It seemed as good a place to head as any.
“L.T!” I had to shout it three times before he heard me and raised his head to look. I pointed to where I was going. He looked, nodded, and off we went. My teeth were chattering and my muscles were firing off almost to the point of uncontrollable shivering by the time I got to the mouth of the cave. In terms of a mouth, it was more of the closed lip variety. The opening wasn’t much bigger than your standard dog house door. I’d be able to fit but only after I’d taken my backpack off. I waited for the rest of the squad to show up.
“Let’s go, Talbot.” The L.T. thrust his head to the hole.
“Fuck off,” was at the edge of my lips. But I was freezing, my friends
were freezing. This was our only chance, but man, that was not a place I wanted to wriggle my ass into. It looked tight and I didn’t want to get stuck or even consider the alternative, that the enemy was already camped out in there and as soon as I showed my face I’d get a knife to the side of the neck. Then they’d pull my profusely bleeding and dying body out of the way, waiting for the next guinea pig to check it out. Instead, I said “Fuck,” as I shucked off my equipment.
“Be careful,” Charlie said as he grabbed my gear.
“Let’s go Marine,” L.T.’s version of a pep talk.
I put my rifle in first, hard. If anything was up front I was at least going to get a shot off. There was a moment of panic as I initially got in to the entrance and realized I didn’t have much room for maneuverability. I turned my vest flashlight on and wriggled forward, looking for any signs that I might not be alone. The entrance tunnel was maybe fifteen feet long and steadily got bigger, which was fine by me. By the time I got to the chamber proper I was walking, albeit hunched over. I was happy; I was in somewhat of a fighting stance, anyway. I pulled my flashlight out to get a better look at what I was dealing with, would have been better off with a lighter for the amount of area it shone. All I could tell was the place was big enough for the squad to fit, it wasn’t raining ice in here, and as of yet no one or nothing had tried to kill me. Those were all plusses.
“It’s clear!” I shouted through the opening. I dropped off a small edge and into what we would soon find out was a vast chamber, measuring almost a hundred feet across and fifty feet wide.
Charlie was the first to come through. “You good?” he asked.
“Right as rain.”
Within fifteen minutes the entire squad and our gear was in and we had a burgeoning fire going. Someone had been in here before us, many some ones, as a matter of fact, and there were plenty of wood stores.
“Good job, Talbot,” the lieutenant said, smacking my shoulder.
With the fire going as high as we could get it, we could see the opening in its entirety. Besides the wood, there was a fair amount of animal offal, discarded empty food cans and even a box of interestingly old MRE packets. If it was from our SEALS it was very uncharacteristic; they usually traveled ultra-light, and if they did have food on them, they would have most certainly cleaned up after themselves, so as to not leave a trace of their existence. So, either it wasn’t from them or they’d left in a hurry, unless they’d been taken. When Denkins saw those, we became all business-like again.
“Talbot, perimeter check.”
“I’m not off point yet?” It came out before I could even begin to rein it in.
He pulled me in close. “Next time there are fucking cupcakes and your sticky fingers steal a tray, I get mine. Now hurry up. I want to sit by this fire and dry off.”
“I’ll go with him, sir,” Charlie volunteered.
“He the one that got my cupcake?” Denkins asked. I said nothing. “Yeah, go, Blaylock. Have fun.”
Everything was damn near fine; we were coming up on the very last part of the chamber when Charlie noticed a mostly hidden passage that went farther back.
“Do we tell him?” I asked.
“If a bear comes out of here later tonight and we knew about it, we’ll both be cleaning latrines for the rest of our enlistment, and Denkins will make sure that the men have burritos on a consistent basis.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked him.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said as he brought his rifle up. I followed. I figured for sure it wasn’t going to go much more than the fifteen feet it had taken to get inside in the first place. I was wrong. We traveled a hundred yards or more through a twisting passage. Thankfully, it never got much tighter than an ordinary hallway; at times, it was twenty feet across.
“Chuck, man. I’m thinking we should tell someone where we’re going. We are way too far away.”
“There’s light up ahead,” he whispered. “Go back.”
“Where the fuck have you Mary Janes been?” Denkins asked when we got back.
“There’s a passage, sir,” Charlie said. “And I saw a light at the end of it.”
“Shit. Hobbs, Wilson, watch the entrance. Stiller, Cowlings, you’ll watch this new passageway. The rest of us, gear up. Let’s go.”
When we got back to the new passage, the L.T. nodded to me. This shit was getting old. It wasn’t too long until I saw the light Charlie had seen. It was white, not the flickering of a flame or the yellow of a flashlight, it looked like a natural source. Wasn’t sure how that could be; the sun had been setting and we were in the midst of a typhoon when we came in. I edged forward, heart pounding. I was fully expecting to come across the whole of the Afghani rebel army. That may have been preferable. A leg; I saw a camouflage covered leg. Not too particularly weird, except this leg was embedded in the side of the cave. At first, I figured it had been blown off with enough force to stick it there, but when I got closer I saw that there was no blood or damage to it at all and it seamlessly went from material to stone, more like they’d been fused. I backed up. Nothing in my training had said anything about this.
“Uh, L., there’s something up ahead you might want to see.”
I think my face was sufficiently ashen that he didn’t question me.
“What in the fuck is this?” he asked when we got back to the leg. He looked closely at the boot, his flashlight causing a glint off of the dog tags tied in the laces. “Hold this.” He handed me his light. He grabbed his knife and cut the laces free. “Collins, Trent,” he said, reading the tag. “This is one of our guys.”
“What happened to him, sir?” I asked.
The lieutenant turned to the rest of the squad closing in. The rest of you, go back, get warm, get some chow, but stay vigilant. Me and Talbot will be back soon.”
Charlie looked over to me, I shrugged. We’d gone another ten feet when my light caught the shine of one eye, only one because the other half of its head was encased in solid stone. However this man had died had not been pleasant; his mouth was forever frozen in a scream.
“That another one?” I asked.
Denkins grunted a “yes.”
The light was getting stronger the farther we went. We’d come across five of the six men we’d been seeking. None of them alive. The only one missing was John Stephenson. My guess was he was fully immersed somewhere and until the tectonic plates shifted, wasn’t anybody going to find him. Still, we pressed on until we came to another opening, this one made what we’d just seen seem almost normal. We were gazing out over a vast, lush valley that belonged more in a rainforest than halfway up a barren mountainside. Wherever or whatever this place was, it didn’t belong here. In the back of my head, I knew I was staring at something that was not supposed to exist. Denkins was staring at the vista before him slack-jawed. Just because he was an officer didn’t mean he knew everything, just meant he was good at ordering people around.
“We need to check this place out, Talbot.”
That sounded about as good as eating pigeon wings. “Sir.” I pointed to something almost as far out as we could see. It was a shimmering ripple that was expanding outward. My gut said that wasn’t good and I let him know.
He stared for a second longer before he came to the same realization. “Run.” Like a good officer, he let me take point again, this time I was fine with it. I don’t know how or why those men had melded into the side of the mountain but I was pretty fucking sure of what had caused it and it was a golden shimmering ripple currently barreling down on us. The L.T. and I were hauling ass as fast as you can in a winding corridor. We’d maybe gone half way when we heard a deafening sound. Ever put earbuds in tight, load your mouth up with pop-rocks and toss some soda in there just for fun? It was like that, only to the point where we could hear nothing else. I was sure that the entire cave was coming down on itself, and still, we ran.
I could see Stiller up ahead, his flashlight illuminating his face. “You guys hear that!
” he shouted.
“Run!” I told him. No explanation needed when someone yells that. He turned and tailed it. I was five feet from the exit when I heard a thud. I skidded to a halt to see that the L.T. had gone down.
“Fuck.” I went back reached down and yanked him up and out for all we were worth. The crackling sound was upon us as we fell through. I thought we had died–it had gotten so quiet, so quickly. The sound had stopped; we’d not been bombarded by rocks the size of trucks and not even a wisp of dust shot out of the opening.
“Shit, Talbot. Thank you,” Denkins said.
“You’re welcome, sir.” I went to roll over when I realized my leg was held fast. I panicked, thinking my leg was now enmeshed with the stone. “Sir, I’m stuck,” I pleaded.
“It’s alright. We’re going to get you out of here.”
“Yeah, I want all my parts to come with me.”
He just reiterated that he was going to get me out. “Relax, kid. Let me look.” There was a small laugh of relief soon after. “Just your heel Talbot; just your heel. You’re going to be fine,” he said as he undid my laces. The bottom of my boot was held fast in that rock, most likely still there today.
The Corps didn’t believe us, the DOD didn’t believe us, neither did the FBI, the CIA, nor any of the other alphabet organizations, though they kept interviewing us about it. We were debriefed over and over again that what we hadn’t seen was classified as top-secret and that if we said anything about what we did not see, it would be grounds for lengthy prison terms. Sometimes I think the CIA did something to us to repress that memory because I can’t ever remember discussing it with anyone, ever again. I mean, not until now. Especially after what I’d seen with Jack and Trip. This had to tie all in together right? Fucking Thrimes. I know it was them that shined this penny up for me to see.
