by Kelvin Teo
I was pleasantly surprised when she flipped a few switches and the console lit up. After the initial boot up sequence she leaned in and read some of the displays.
"Looks like they were heading where we're trying to get to. Their mission readout says they were to drop a bomb on a warehouse just south of Bloomington."
"So, we are probably right to guess that the problem started and spread out from there."
"Looks that way."
"Alright, well, we're wasting time here. Neither one of you can fly this beast and we need to find those Osprey's."
"What I don't get, sir, is why or how did the demons get inside this plane? They were obviously configured for takeoff. So they would have been buttoned up tighter than Fort Knox."
"If I was to guess, I’d say the demon was already on the plane when they rolled out of the hanger."
Deb stepped over and flipped the switches off on the consoles and we headed back out of the cockpit and back to the hatch. Vicki stopped and looked toward the back of the plane and stepped back there.
"What do you see, Vicki."
She held up a hand and waved me and Deb back there. She pointed to two bombs, sitting in their cradles.
"Nukes?" I asked.
She nodded, without saying a word.
"They were going to drop the power of God on Bloomington," said Deb.
I reached out and ran a hand over the tip of one of the bombs. So much power sitting there under my hands and nothing we could do to use it in our fight.
After we climbed back down, we moved away from the bomber and motioned for Mike to pick us up. He landed and we climbed on board.
"Anything interesting?" he asked.
"Just the usual, two dead pilots and two hot nukes."
"Rock and roll," he said as he banked the chopper back toward the hanger section of the base.
In seconds we found what we were looking for. Half a dozen Ospreys were parked at the north end of the pad and there was even a couple of fuel trucks parked near them.
We overflew the area a couple of times to see if anything jumped out, but it was as quiet as a cemetery on Halloween night. And just as scary.
Mike set us down about fifty yards in front of the center of the flight line and we all bailed out. Mike lifted off again to fly overwatch.
Moving toward the aircraft we kept seeing large stains on the pavement and it became clear it was what was left of the crews and pilots for these aircraft. Either the demons had carted their bodies off or the animals in the area did.
Deb and Vicki separated and headed for two different helicopters, with Dean and Steve splitting up to go with them.
It took less than five minutes for each team to report the Osprey's had been fully fueled and were ready to go.
"Which one do you think we should take?" I asked."
Vicki came back with, "Why not take both of them?"
"Neither one of you need a co-pilot?"
"We'll manage, sir," said Deb. "Get strapped in, Steve!"
I moved away from the aircraft just as they started spinning up their rotors. It only took them five minutes to check the engines and systems before they were ready to lift off. I heard Vicki call out to Deb to follow her and they lifted off the ground and got themselves stabilized in the air.
I motioned for Mike to pick up Randy and me and while we waited for him to land, Randy pointed to the fuel truck.
"Might come in handy back at the caverns, Trev."
"And who's going to drive it?"
Randy just smiled at me.
"That's about fifty miles of roads we have no idea of. If you get hurt, Michelle is going to kill me."
"Well then, you better not let me get hurt," he said as he turned and started running toward the truck.
As I climbed into the co-pilot seat, Mike gave me a "what the hell is he doing " look.
"I guess he figures we need the fuel."
"Well, yeah, but that's a hell of a long way to drive on the ground."
"I guess we're providing air cover for him."
"Okay," he said as he shook his head.
Randy had gotten the truck started and was heading for a gate at the edge of the runway. It was locked, but that didn't mean anything to Randy. He crashed right through it.
"The man has no respect for government property," said Mike.
I heard Deb laugh in the headphones.
"Okay, you two ladies head back to the caverns and we'll provide a little cover for Randy."
"Actually sir," said Vicki, "I think we'd be better off providing that cover."
"Why is that? And are you going to continue to tell me you outrank me?"
"No, sir. I'm done with that. You're the boss. I'm only saying that I am fully loaded with weapons and I'm assuming Deb is, too."
"That I am," said Deb. "Enough ordnance to fight the next world war. These planes were loaded for battle, sir"
"Alright, let's keep an eye on Randy and get him home safe."
"You're just scared of Michelle," said Deb.
"As scared of any sixteen year old girl as I can be."
I heard a couple of ladies laughing in my ears as we took up positions over the speeding fuel truck. The next hour was spent hoping he wouldn’t meet any of our demon friends on the way back to the caverns.
He didn't. The trip back was uneventful.
Which is more than I can say about life at the caverns.
5
As we landed and climbed out of the aircraft, we followed Randy as he pulled toward the gates and they began to swing open. Before we even reached the gates we could hear the commotion. It sounded like a bunch of demons had gotten inside and there was a lot of yelling and screaming.
What we found when we ran through the gates was a fairly large crowd gathered around the dining hall and they were clearly upset about something inside there.
Randy pulled up right behind the crowd and blasted his horn. In the tight confines of the caverns, the sound of that horn was enough to melt the skin off your bones.
The crowd quieted down immediately as they turned and saw the large, fuel truck growling at them. The rest of us ran around the truck and were confronted with one angry mob.
"What the hell is going on here?"
"She brought that … thing into the dining hall."
"Move aside!" I yelled at them.
It took no time for them to make a hole for me and Mike to pass through. I think Randy leading us through had something to do with that.
When we walked into the dining hall I found one very scared demon girl and one very defiant human woman. There was a couple of young men standing face-to-face with them and both of them had bloody noses.
Michelle had a pistol in her hand, but she wasn't pointing it at anyone. It appeared she was quite ready to do so if needed be.
"What happened to you two?" I asked the men, knowing in my heart what had happened.
"She hit me when we tried to take the demon," said one of them.
"And the demon punched me when I hit Michelle," said the other guy.
Randy stepped in front of the guy and looked at him.
"You hit Michelle?"
I don't know that I've seen a man shrink in size before that moment.
"She was beating on Todd," he squeaked out.
Randy's hand lashed out and he grabbed the guy by the nose, which brought a howl of pain. Obviously the nose was broken and Randy was prepared to rip it right off.
He looked into the guy's eyes and growled, "I guess you won't be making that mistake again, will you?"
The man tried to shake his head, but the pain from Randy's grip caused him to grow very weak in the knees. When he was released, the man fell into one of the nearby chairs.
Todd, who was a bit taller than me stood up to Randy.
"She shouldn't have brought that thing into this dining hall."
"I'll give you exactly two seconds to back off before I knock you over the tables," said Randy.
"
What, are you a demon lover now, Randy?"
It happened so fast I couldn't have stopped it if I tried, or wanted to. Randy's crashing right hand sent Todd flying across a table and into the chairs on the other side.
"Alright Randy, you've said your piece," I said.
Todd tried to get up, bit it was quite obvious he wasn't going to be walking straight for a little while. A couple of women came forward and helped him and the other guy up and out of the dining hall.
Randy looked at Michelle and asked, "Are you okay? He said he hit you."
"Oh please, he hits like a girl."
"Obviously not a girl like you," said Deb.
"Okay, now would you like to explain why you brought her out here?" I asked.
"I don't think it's right to keep her locked up like that."
"Michelle! I wanted her to stay locked up because I knew something like this was going to happen!"
I looked at Chessi, who was still cowering against the wall. I motioned for her to come over and she did. She walked right up to me and I put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Chessi, but some here are not going to be happy with you here."
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Good God, no. I would never let that happen to you."
I looked back at the doorway to the dining hall and saw the crowd still blocking the way out. This had to end and it had to end now.
I turned to Michelle and said, "Take her over there." I was pointing to the far end of the dining hall, near the kitchen. I motioned for Dean and Steve to go with them with their weapons still locked and loaded.
Then I turned to the doorway and looked at the crowd. I could see a few faces were beginning to wonder if they had made a mistake in making me the leader of the community. I had been the outsider, but quickly proved myself to them when I relieved Simon and his son of their command in the caverns. That was something that needed to be done.
But now, I had brought one of the enemy demons into their midst and it was still alive, something they very much wanted to change.
"Alright, listen up," I said. "I want all of you to come in and take a seat. We have some talking to do and get some things straightened out."
It took a few seconds, but the crowd began to filter into the room and filling the chairs. One thing I noticed was the back chairs were going first, as if no one wanted to be up front and closer to the demon. I couldn't blame them, but I hoped to be able to change their perspectives of this one demon child.
I was amazed at how quietly everyone came into the room. Usually with a crowd this large you would expect a bit of talking and such, but this group moved in and sat down without a single word.
"First off, I want to say I understand your fears. I know that almost everyone in this room has lost someone to the demon attacks and to be fearful of them, well, that's something I guess I can understand."
I looked around the room and could see most were listening to me, but a few were still focused on the dark skinned demon that cowered behind Michelle. I figured the best way to do this was to hit it head on.
I turned and motioned for Chessi to come to me. It was obvious she didn't want to as she looked at all the humans that were between her and the door.
"Come on, Chessi. It's okay," I said.
Michelle moved to the side and put an arm around her shoulders and eased her forward. I heard her lean in and whisper to the demon child, "I won't leave you."
When they reached my side, Michelle stepped behind her and put her arms around her shoulders and hugged her close.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Chessi. She is the first, live demon I have come in contact with."
"Korlani."
I turned and looked at her.
"Excuse me?"
"You keep calling us demons. We are the Korlani."
I smiled at her and turned back to the group.
"I stand corrected. This is Chessi and she is the first, live Korlani I have come in contact with. And after having spoken with her, I would say it is time to stop referring to her and her people as demons. They are not demons."
"What are they, then? I mean, listen to her voice. It sounds like the voice of a demon," asked a lady in the third row.
"Susan, they are inhabitants of another dimension or another world. Most of them were brought here against their will and told they were to fight and kill all the humans they came in contact with. And as for her voice, I’m sure we sound just as strange to her."
"Against their will?" asked a man further back.
"Yes, Ted, against their will. What we are coming to understand is they were brought here through a portal that was constructed by Miles Jordan."
At the mention of that name, a ripple of disbelief moved through the room.
"That monster brought them here?" asked Susan. "He has always said it was time to bring about the end of the world. He's always wanted to cause the apocalypse."
"Yes, he has said that and it seems he may have figured out a way to make it happen."
"Be that as it may," said another man, "these demons have come here and are killing us without mercy."
"Korlani."
"What?"
"They are the Korlani, not demons," I said.
"Look, I don't care what you call them. You can call them gremlins for all I care. That doesn't change the fact that we need to wipe them out before they kill all of us."
I could feel Chessi tense up next to me and I reached out and patted her on the shoulder. She looked up at me with her red eyes and I could tell she was afraid of what might happen to her.
"I never killed anyone," she said softly to me.
I smiled at her and had her step in front of me as I put my hands on her shoulders.
"Let me start this again," I said. "This is Chessi. She is a twelve year old girl of the Korlani people. She has never killed even one human. She wants nothing more than for this fighting to stop and to be able to go home. A home she was forcibly ripped away from and brought here."
I could see people were looking at her and there was a noticeable softening of faces as they looked at this child. Even though she had the claws of a Korlani, she began to look more like a child to most of them.
"Where are her parents?" asked Susan.
"That I don't know. Did they come through the portal with you, Chessi?"
I could feel her take a deep breath and then she shrugged my hands off her shoulders.
"As has already been said, my name is Chessi of the Korlani. What your leader, Trev or Michelle don't know, is that my parents are the king and queen of our people. When the portal was opened, the guards took my parents to a safe place to protect them, but I was separated from them. I got lost in the crowd that was led to the portal and I ended up coming through. I tried to go back, but was prevented by some of my own."
"Some of your own stopped you?" asked Susan.
"Yes. There is a small group of my people that have listened to this Jordan man and they see this world as something we should take. Most of our people do not agree with them, but if anyone speaks out about it, they are quickly killed. It seems most of our soldiers agree with taking this world. This is why the portal must be destroyed."
"Wait," asked Ted, "are you saying the portal is still open?"
Chessi just nodded.
I told the group about the B-2 bomber sitting on the runway of Whiteman and where they had been headed before the pilots were killed.
"Well, then we need to get that bomber in the air and bomb the crap out of that building."
"Can you fly a B-2, Ted?"
"Well, no."
"Neither can I and neither can anyone else here that I know of."
Vicki spoke up and said, "Deb and I could probably get it off the ground, but it's a moot point."
"Why's that?" asked Ted.
"Because neither one of us would have the arming codes for the nukes and have absolutely no way of getting them. We'd be dropping bombs that would ne
ver go off. Which is fine by me because I'd like to think dropping nukes should be a last resort."
"Okay," I said, "let's shelve the bombing idea for the time being. What we came in here to discuss is the presence of Chessi in the caverns. I do not want to send her back out there, especially now that we know she is actually the princess of the Korlani."
"Princess?" she said looking up at me.
"Your mother and father are the queen and king of the Korlani. That makes you the princess of your people."
I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw her eyes light up even more and a small smile crossed her lips. This was something she may never have considered.
"What we need to do is find a way to get to the portal and closing it, preferably without the use of nukes. But, for the time being, Chessi is going to stay here with us and I want each and every one of you to forget what you know about what's happened since that portal was opened. She didn't do it and she isn't a threat to any of us."
"How can you be sure of that?" asked another woman.
I hesitated and Michelle stepped forward.
"I am sure of that. I have spent more time with Chessi than anyone here and I can tell you this, she and I have become friends. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone and I think if we listen to her, we can find a way to end this war with her people."
I leaned over and whispered in Michelle’s ear.
"I think if we found her some clothes that looked more like ours people would start to relax a little more around her."
"I was thinking the same thing. I’m also going to see if she knows what a shower is."
I looked back at the group.
"Folks, that’s all I have. We need to welcome her into this community and as Michelle said, we just might find a way to end this conflict with the Korlani. I’m sure that’s something all of us would like."
After a few seconds people started getting up and taking one last look at the Korlani child and then filing out of the dining hall. Susan stepped forward and looked down at Chessi. She had a look on her face I couldn’t read, but then she reached out her hand and said, "My name is Susan."
Chessi smiled and held out her hand, but it was claws and she wasn’t sure what she should do. Susan reached and took hold of her claws and shook her hand.
