On Distant Shores Page 11

  Chapter Eleven – Now

  “Where did it all go?” Mike thought to himself. There was no building, no loading dock, no offices, nothing. The compound was gone, the fence around it gone, the parking lot, gone. There had been a rural road with traffic on it. It was all gone. It was a punch to the gut.

  His thoughts were mirrored by the clamor over the radio. There were at least ten people talking. He could hear John and Jennifer, and a crowd of others. The rest of the crowd was talking over John. Mike couldn’t hear what he was saying. The crowd was stunned, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

  Everett spoke, “Excuse me, can you please hold it down.”

  Everett’s voice conveyed the inner Master Sergeant. It was a command, not a request. The team listened as Jennifer shouted everybody down.

  “Everybody, quiet! We can talk about this once we’re sure that the team is safe. Right now, they have a job to do, and they can’t do it if we keep talking over them!”

  The noise quieted down. Mike thought about switching to another radio channel, but he wanted everybody aware of what was happening up top, just in case they had to defend themselves. The mech armor was powerful, but who knew how many of those beasts were out there.

  Right now, Tom was exposed. He was the only one that could be attacked. There was no room in the tunnel for Rob to squeeze up next to him. Only when they were all in the wider cave opening would they be able to support each other with cover fire. It was not a position that Mike liked.

  “Smith, can you move the lens around so that we can see what’s out there?”

  John spoke up, “Yeah, I can do that. Wait just a second.”

  The camera started forward towards the cave mouth. The drone flew past the mouth, out of the cave. Then it stopped in one place, and the camera slowly panned around the meadow. The drone was about one hundred feet in front of the cave. There was nothing but the open meadow, maybe a thousand feet long by a thousand feet wide, irregularly shaped. The cave entrance cut into the meadow like a jagged wound.

  Some of the trees looked familiar, like pine trees, but they were oddly different, something about the color of the vegetation. There were other trees around that looked like tropical banyan trees, and there were vines throughout the vegetation. A low mist encased the meadow as well. It definitely didn’t look like Montana. The sky beyond the trees was a darker, gun metal gray.

  Mike had an ugly feeling about that sky, “John, could you please pan the camera up?”

  “Certainly, Mike.” The camera panned, and Mike could see irregularities in the skyline, peaks of high mountains. These were incredibly high mountains, much higher than the Rockies. If Mike didn’t know better, he would think he was in India, close to the Himalayas.

  “What in God’s name is going on?” Mickey asked, breathless.

  “Don’t know, Mickey, but we’re going to find out.” Mike said.

  “John, go ahead and bring your drone back towards the cave, and land it above, so that we don’t step on it as we go outside the cave entrance.”

  Smith spoke up, “Okay, I can do that, but you wouldn’t step on the drone. It has sensors, and doesn’t allow anything to get near it.”

  Mike thought for a second, “Okay, do what you think is best, but I’m taking the entire team up, and you may lose signal.”

  John replied, “Okay, then your plan sounds like the way to go. I’ll bring it back and park it above you.”

  Mike spoke to his team, “Everett, Mickey, move up behind me. Tom, stay put until Rob gets up with you. Rob, move forward and once you get to Tom, give him the okay to move forward. Tom, I want you and Rob to move as a team into the cave entrance. The rest of us will meet you at the cave entrance. Reply in sequence.”

  The team gave confirmation that they understood the orders, from Everett, the highest ranking, down to Tom, the lowest. This gave the team an opportunity to ask questions if needed. It also gave everybody one more comms check before they moved forward.

  “Good, execute.”

  Mike knew that Rob was moving forward to Tom’s position, and knew that Everett and Mickey were moving forward to his position. Mike started climbing up the elevator shaft, slipping occasionally in the gore of the broken eggs.

  As he climbed up, he heard Rob tell Tom that he was in position. Then he hailed Mike on the radio. “Chief, I’m at Tom’s position. We’re moving forward to the mouth of the cave.”

  “Roger, maintain position in the cave mouth until the entire team is there. If you see anything hostile, don’t ask for permission, go ahead and engage. Do you copy?”

  “Roger, Wilco.” That phrase came from Rob and Tom, in sequence.

  Mike crawled into the tunnel, and started moving forward on all fours, the only way the large mech armor could fit through the tunnel. It was tight, and his mech armor kept rubbing and bouncing off the walls. His audio picked up sounds from behind as Everett and Mickey climbed up the shaft and entered the tunnel behind him.

  He had a small problem navigating the turn in the tunnel, but he began to see ambient light as he crawled to the tunnel entrance. He crawled out and was able to stand up. His sensors noted the size and outline of the cave, and where Rob and Tom were in relation to Mike’s mech armor.

  Mike walked forward so that he didn’t block the tunnel. Tom was stationed at the right of the mouth of the cave, and Rob was stationed at the left of the mouth of the cave. Mike walked forward to stand behind Tom on the right side of the cave entrance; standing to Tom’s left so that he could use his weapons if needed. Everett’s icon popped up on the display. Everett took a second to look things over, then moved to the left, behind and to the right of Rob. Mickey’s icon showed up, and he moved forward between Mike and Everett.

  “Team, status report?” Mike asked.

  All four reported green across the board.

  “Okay, this is what we’re going to do, gentlemen. Tom, I want you to move out of the cave then do a one-sixty degree turn to your right, move to that sector and clear any hostiles. Rob, I want you to do the same thing to your left. Everett, you’ll go out on an approximate 80 degree angle to your left. Mickey, I want you to walk straight out and clear hostiles. I’ll be going out on an 80 degree angle to the right. The goal is a five pointed star, 100 feet out, with the cave mouth in the center of the star. Engage any hostiles, do not wait for permission. Are there any questions? Sound off in sequence.”

  All replied to confirm their orders.

  “All right gentlemen, execute, execute, execute!”

  --------------------------------------

  All five moved smoothly along the uneven ground. The time learning the mech armor, and the onboard AI ghost learning their neural responses paid off. There was no stumbling. They were all in position in a few seconds. They were all ready for trouble.

  “Security halt.” Mike called over the radio.

  A security halt meant that they all stopped moving, and looked and listened for any hostiles that may be in the area.

  There was nothing in the meadow that could attack the team. They stood at five points that gave them interlocking fields of fire over the entire meadow. If anything was going to attack them, it should come at them pretty quickly. “Maintain security. Look for anything moving. Let me know if you see anything in your field of fire,” Mike ordered. The team replied back with a course of, “Roger,” “Affirmative,” and, “Roger, Wilco.”

  They waited. Nothing happened, nothing attacked, and nothing was moving, except for the vegetation swaying in the breeze. Small animals scurried through the trees and the grass. When that occurred, the heads up display would outline the varmint in an orange circle, and the targeting computer would display options to engage. Mike would look at the display and then identify the animal as no threat.

  Eventually, the AI stopped highlighting the animals for friend or foe identification. The software was designed to i
nterface with Mike and to learn as it did so. The software development team and the bio-mechanical team had done wonders with the armor. Mike could feel the armor working in harmony with him. One day, he would feel completely natural in the armor. Even now, processes that had taken concentration when he started were done without him consciously thinking about it.

  They stood there for twenty minutes by Mike’s clock. He decided that there wasn’t going to be any kind of attack from anything. “Maybe we need some bait,” Everett spoke. Mike started, used to the quiet. He had been concentrating on his heads up display.

  “You could be right, Everett. Mickey, Rob, Tom, maintain surveillance. I’m going to keep the ear bud in. If anything happens, let me know. Everett and I’ll judge whether we have time to get back into the armor, or if we have to retreat back into the tunnel,” Mike asked Everett, “Mind joining me close to the mouth of the cave, Everett.”

  “Nope, feeling crowded in here anyway. Meet you in a few.”

  Mike positioned the mech armor in the linebacker position, and put the electronics in standby mode, so that he didn’t have to power the entire thing back up. The semi rigid foam started deflating as soon as the electrical current was cut. Mike opened the back hatch and stood up, looking around the meadow. His helmet had a truncated heads up display, fed by the electronics in the mech armor. There was no hostile movement.

  He pulled off the helmet and set it down. He grabbed his AR-10, and slung it over his back so that he wouldn’t drop it as he climbed down. He climbed down the side of the armor and jumped off onto the ground. Everett was in the process of doing the same thing, and then he was on the ground and walking to meet Mike. Both of them rotated their rifles from their back to their chest, hands on the weapon in the ready position. They met close to the middle in between the five mech armor suits, right in front of the cave.

  “What do you think?” Mike asked, his ear bud set to hear, not transmit, so that he could hear a warning from the rest of the team, but so that he and Everett could talk in private.

  “I think we’re well and truly screwed,” Everett replied, “Where the hell is everything. We were here not five hours ago, when we came to work, and now everything’s gone. It’s like reality has completely warped.”

  Mike nodded, “Yeah, I agree. I don’t know where the hell we are, at all. One minute, I’m doing gymnastics in the mech armor; next minute, I’m skidding across the floor.” Mike stopped, and spit onto the ground, “Not even the big brains we have downstairs understand what the hell has happened. And that scares me.”

  “Yeah, I mean, I’m not a stupid man, or at least, I hope I’m not one, but this is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. What are we going to do? What do you want us to do?”

  “Well, we’ve been trained to survive anything that the bad guys throw at us. We’ve been trained to live off the land,” Mike was looking around as he talked, “So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to ensure that we survive until we can figure out what’s happening.”

  Everett was looking around. He was facing Mike, and Mike faced him. This way, they had a 360 degree field of vision around them. This was natural caution, instinctual, developed from years of conflict.

  “What about Mitchem, Jamison?” Everett asked.

  Mike took a deep breath. “Well, I’m just about fed up with both of them. They’ve been arrogant assholes the entire time we’ve been here.”

  “What about that display with Jamison. What the hell is up with that guy? I don’t think he’s entirely stable.”

  Mike nodded, “Yeah, I don’t know if he’s autistic, psychotic, bipolar, but he has a screw loose somewhere.”

  “And Mitchem?”

  Everett looked at Mike intently. Mike knew that all he had to do was give the word, and Mitchem wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

  “Well, he’s an asshole, but he hasn’t done anything to compromise our safety. So, we’ll let him continue to be the asshole that he is. With his personality, he shouldn’t be able to get too much support behind him.”

  Everett’s features softened. “Yeah, Lieutenant Pang and the rest of the engineering team think he’s an asshole. Except for Weitz. Weitz kisses his butt whenever possible.”

  Mike agreed, “The guy is a good tech and programmer, but I don’t think he can breathe when Mitchem tightens his sphincter.”

  Everett nodded.

  Mike continued, “I think we may have problems with a few of them. There’s Jamison, Mitchem, Weitz, Dr. Randall, and Lieutenant Jondreau.”

  Everett contemplated the names for a minute. “Well, Randall is arrogant, and Jondreau is immature, but I think that Randall will sail wherever the wind blows to save her skin, and Jondreau might just need a good role model. He might surprise you when the rubber hits the road.”

  Mike thought over Everett’s assessments, “Yeah, you’re right about Dr. Randall. She’ll tag on wherever she perceives an advantage. Jondreau though, he’s a boy scout. He’ll try to do the right thing, but the problem is that he doesn’t have enough experience in the world to understand what the right thing is. And that might get one of us killed.”

  Everett shrugged, “Could be, but I’m not saying we should trust him, I just think we may be able to bring him over to the dark side, eventually.”

  “Well, Master Sergeant, you’ve been dealing with people like these a lot longer than I have. I’ll trust your judgment on that one. Just don’t give him too much leeway.”

  “Roger Chief, no problem. Team first.” Everett replied.

  Mike spit again. “We may have to redefine the team. I think that we can rely on Lieutenant Pang, and most of the engineers, minus Weitz, Randall, maybe a few others. Once we get a head count, and see who’s with us, then we can start figuring out who else we can trust. Lieutenant Pang probably knows everybody in this facility, so she can give us an idea of who to trust, and who not to trust.”

  Everett wasn’t sure about the approach, “Probably, but we have to accept that the situation is going to affect people differently. Some people can’t handle the strain when circumstances test them.”

  “This is true, but if we can give them some stability, maybe the idea that, while everything’s different, nobody’s going to die immediately, they may be able to accept the situation.”

  “Yeah, but we have to make it through the day first, and we need to finish cleaning up the mess downstairs, and stay alert for more of the big lizards.”

  “Okay, so I say we get Mickey out of the mech armor, and back down the cave to the play room, so that he can start people moving to get the carcass out and up here to the meadow. The last thing I want is to have a rotting carcass down there,” Mike looked up into the sky, around the meadow, and back to Everett, “I need for you, Rob and Tom to keep security tight up here. Let us know if anything comes this way that we have to worry about, and then Mickey and I’ll start the process of getting the carcass up here, and try to arrange everybody into teams to move the damn thing. That should get their mind off everything for a little while. Plus, the more people that see the new reality, the less problems we should have.”

  “Okay Mike. I’ll relieve Mickey,” Everett said, “Oh, and send Smith up here so that we can get the reconnaissance drone back up in the air. I think it would be helpful to us if we can see the entire area. It can conduct reconnaissance better than we can in the mech armor. At least it would give us more range, and work as an early warning against anything as big as that monster down stairs.”

  “Okay, I’ll send him your way. I think they’re still hiding some things from us. We need to make sure that we know everything about the capabilities of this mech armor.”

  Everett agreed, “Yeah, I’ll try to worm more information from Smith as the day goes by. If they don’t tell us what we need to know, we may have to find the weak one in the herd, and apply a little pressure.”

  Mike nodded, “yes, but I think
when I get Jennifer and Bob, and maybe the PhD Squad away from everybody, we might get some answers.”

  With Everett and Mike’s plan coalescing, Everett walked back to the armor. Mike watched him climb up the back and then punch in the code to open up the hatch. While he was doing this, Mike opened up his ear bud and commed Mickey.

  “Mickey, as soon as you get confirmation from Everett that he’s armored up, I need you to hop out of the mech armor, and come with me.”

  “Roger Mike. What about my med bag? Do I need it?”

  Mike thought a minute, “Yeah, go ahead and bring it with you when you get out. We probably need to get everybody in one place and do on more med screen, just to make sure that everybody’s okay.”

  “Okay, roger that. On my way.”

  Everett’s mech armor stood back up at attention, and Mike knew he was on the job. Mickey’s armor assumed the linebacker stance. Mickey popped the hatch, and climbed down as the hatch closed behind him. He walked over to Mike.

  “Well, what do you think boss?” Mickey asked, “Where the hell are we?”

  Mike turned as Mickey caught up with him and they walked back to the cave mouth.

  “No clue, we have no idea what the hell happened, or where the hell we are. I don’t even know if we’re still on earth. This sure isn’t the place we started out this morning.”

  Mickey nodded as he walked, “Yeah, everything’s gone. There aren’t any signs of civilization here. I did a radio spectrum scan in the mech armor while you guys were talking. There’s nothing on the frequencies except for static. Hell, if nothing else, you should be able to hear some Morse code HF noise. I thought those guys would be on radio until the end of the world.”

  Mike was surprised, “You can do a radio spectrum scan with those things?”

  Mickey looked sheepish, “Yeah, well, Tracy’s taken a liking to me. She talks about some of the other things that the mech armor is capable of.”

  Mike looked very seriously at Mickey, “Mickey, I need for you to treat Tracy as a source right now, no matter what else you two have been up to. I need to know everything the armor’s capable of doing. It might be a matter of life or death.”

  Mickey’s sheepish look disappeared and he got serious, “Sure boss, I’ll find out everything I can.”

  Mike was satisfied with the answer, “Okay, we need to go downstairs, and arrange teams so that we can get the damn carcass of that monster downstairs out of the play room.”

  Mike and Mickey kept talking about what the hell was happening as they walked through the cave back into the tunnel. They got to the shaft, then used the service ladder to climb down to the warehouse floor. This ladder, compared to the one in the other elevator shaft, was much easier to use. It was now at an angle that you could lean into, making it easier to climb. Mickey was down the ladder first, and Mike joined him on the top of the elevator soon after.

  When they walked into the play room, there was many more people gathered round the monster’s carcass. It looked like everybody, minus security, Jamison, Mitchem. Mike saw Langford, and some of the other civilians from topside. Evidently they had moved into the secure area when the alarms sounded. He didn’t see Captain Dickerson, though.

  The crowd saw Mike and Mickey, and then the questions started flying at them. Mike held up his hands, and quieted the crowd down. Pang, Bob, Joel, and Ed were in the forefront. As he motioned, the crowd slowly grew quiet, though he could see the apprehension on everybody’s faces.

  “Alright, alright, everybody calm down. I’ll answer your questions if I can, but first, let me tell you, that we don’t know what the hell is going on here. If you were watching the surveillance drone, you can see that everything is gone.”

  The crowd didn’t like that. Someone yelled from the back, “What do you mean, everything is gone?”

  Mike shrugged, “I mean, there’s no blast door at the top of the elevator shaft, there’s no large warehouse with offices, there are no cars, no parking lot, no chain link fence, no guards, no road. Oh, and that big mountain that was east of us, well that’s gone. It’s been replaced by mountains that are taller than the Rockies.”

  He let that sink in, then continued, “Mickey did a radio spectrum survey, and there’s no radio signal, no TV signals, no CB radios, no HF Morse code signals, nothing that indicates that there has ever been civilization up there.”

  “Jesus Christ,” somebody yelled. The crowd erupted in loud voices. Even Lieutenant Pang looked concerned, and she never looked concerned, about anything. She was a tough cookie for someone that weighed about ninety-five pounds soaking wet.

  “Hey, everybody, calm down, calm down!” Mike yelled, his arms up, commanding attention.

  “We have some good news!” Mike was still trying to quiet everybody.

  This calmed the crowd, somewhat. Mike continued, “We haven’t found any more of those monsters here. There’s nothing out there bigger than a squirrel that we can see, but,” and with this, Mike motioned to John Smith, “I need you to go up there, and set up the drone so that we can see a bigger area than just the meadow. With the drone up, we should be able to see anything like that,” he pointed at the carcass, “coming from a mile away, if not further.”

  John nodded his head, gave a thumbs up, and ran over to grab the laptop and controller. He shoved them into the case. He started walking fast towards the elevator shaft, and, as he was passing, grabbed Weitz by the arm, pulling slightly to get him moving up the elevator with him.

  Weitz pulled back, “No way, no way. I’m not going up that elevator shaft. Something up there could kill me.”

  Dr. Ed spoke, “And if you don’t go up there, some more of those creatures can come here, and kill us all.”

  Mike told him, “don’t worry, I have Everett, Tom, and Rob up there in the mech armor to guard the cave entrance. Nothing can get by them. If you don’t go with John, I’m going to have to put you on a team to help drag this carcass out of here.”

  Weitz looked at the carcass, and turned green. Blood, bile, ropes of meat, feces, and shards of bone changed his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was touch that bloody carcass. “Uh, okay, I’ll go.”

  He caught up with Smith, and both of them walked to the elevator shaft. Mickey helped them into the shaft, and showed them how to climb to the top.

  One of the airmen spoke up, a young girl, tall, thin, brunette. “Why do we have to get this thing out?” She looked green.

  Mike turned and told the crowd, “I know you don’t like the idea, but we have to get this carcass out of here, otherwise, wild animals will follow the smell, and then we have to contend with other dangerous creatures coming down that shaft. Plus, in a few days, this thing will bloat up and rot, and that will draw insects and other nasty creatures. The smell alone will be horrible.”

  Mickey spoke up, “and that could create conditions that lead to infectious diseases. We don’t want that, do we?”

  “There’s blood everywhere, what about that?” one of the civilians asked.

  “Yeah, I know, just make sure you don’t get any in your mouth or eyes. Don’t touch your face, and hopefully nothing will be infectious.”

  Dr. Humphreys spoke, “Look, this creature is not of our world, wherever we may be. Wherever it came from, the odds that it has some kind of disease or parasite that we can catch are pretty low. But, up in the lab, I have denatured alcohol.”

  The crowd looked blankly at him. He chuckled, “sorry, rubbing alcohol, used for the medical instruments. I’ll bring that. We can get the mops and mop buckets from the custodian closet to clean up when we’re done. Just do what Sergeant First Class D’Inazio, and Chief Warrant Officer Duggins asks, and don’t rub your eyes, face, or get any in your mouth. We’ll be okay.”

  It was a nice touch for Dr. Humphreys to throw in their rank, Mike thought. It subtly reminded everybody that they outranked the Airmen, and reinforced Mike’s and Mickey’s authority
to everybody.

  Still, there was grumbling, and groaning. Lieutenant Pang caught Mike’s eye, nodded slightly, and she started separating the crowd into two teams, one to lug the carcass to the elevator shaft, and one to go topside to pull the bloody parts to the surface. The one going to the surface was comprised of mostly younger, stronger men. The older men, and the women, stayed on the bottom, to drag the chunks of carcass over to the elevator, and attach them to a rope to be pulled up.

  Bob walked over and looked up the elevator shaft. He walked back to Mike. As he walked, he motioned over Lieutenant Pang and Tracy Sheffield.

  “Mike, I think we need some rope, some nets, and a block and tackle to get this thing out of here.”

  “Do you have anything like that?” Mike asked.

  Bob looked at Tracy and Lieutenant Pang. Lieutenant Pang nodded. Bob looked back at Mike, “I think we can find something if you give us an hour or so, then we can clear this out.”

  Mike looked back at Lieutenant Pang. “Okay, you’re in charge here. Get everybody started, and let me know when everything’s in place.”

  Mike waved over Mickey, and then motioned Dr. Nachman over. “Ed, I’m going to leave Mickey down here, for two reasons. First, if anybody needs a medic, I’ll have two of you here to help with injuries,” then he looked at Lieutenant Pang, “and if you need some muscle, Mickey is the man to knock heads for you.”

  Mickey grinned. He couldn’t help it. He was a natural brawler.

  Tracy, Pang, Joel, and Bob’s faces blanched slightly when Mickey grinned. Mickey’s smile could do that sometimes. While he was a good natured man, he struck fear in the hearts of his enemies, and sometimes his friends if they saw the amount of destruction he could wreak on the human body. Mickey was truly a beast, though strangely, shy around women. Mike caught Tracy Sheffield eyeing Mickey with open admiration. Then she saw Mike looking at her, and she started blushing. Mike smiled at her, which she returned shyly.

  “That would be a good girl for Mickey,” Mike thought.

  “So, you have this, yes?” Mike asked the group. A chorus came to him, indicating that, yes, they had it. He thanked them all, then turned and walked back to the elevator shaft. He grabbed the ladder and started the climb back up to the cave. He reached the top, and followed the tunnel back down to the cave entrance. Everett, Tom, and Rob were out front, and nothing had changed except for Smith and Weitz standing there with the laptop, looking at the screen.

  Mike walked up to them. Smith and Weitz heard him walking up and turned around to look. Smith started to talk, but Mike held up one hand, “Wait one minute, please.”

  He tapped his ear bud. “Everett, I’m back up. SITREP?”

  “Everything’s normal, nothing moving around up here.”

  “Thanks, out.”

  With that, Mike turned his attention back to Smith and Weitz. “Gentlemen, what can you tell me?” Smith and Weitz looked at each other. They looked back at Mike. Smith was as solid as a rock. Weitz looked shaken. Smith started talking.

  “I can tell you that there is no trace of the world we came from. The drone is hovering at five thousand feet AGL right now, and I can’t even see Great Falls.”

  “AGL,” Mike asked, “What’s the height we’re at right now?” Mike knew AGL meant above ground level, something every paratrooper knew about.

  John continued, “Well, according to sensors on the drone, we seem to be about four thousand feet above sea level.”

  Mike thought about this. “Isn’t that a little bit high for this area?”

  “It would be if we were still in Montana, and I’m not sure that’s the case. Take a look at this,” John motioned him over to the laptop.

  Mike looked, and what he saw didn’t encourage him. The meadow, which was outlined with an orange overlay, was in an irregular bowl of a valley, surrounded by high mountains on all sides, with a river that flowed through the middle and emptied out of the valley through a low pass.

  Mike looked up and around. The meadow had clouds above it, and there were low lying mists further down the valley. He looked at Smith, “How can you see the valley with all of this cloud cover?”

  “Well, the drone has regular, night, thermal, and radar to penetrate cloud cover.”

  Mike shook his head, “That’s amazing. You guys know how to build tech. When I think you’re done, you surprise me some more. But, we have a problem.”

  Smith and Weitz look confused, “What do you mean, Mike?”

  Mike pointed at the mech armor, “The batteries are quantum batteries. You had rail guns and pulse lasers, so, the question is, what the hell else are you guys not telling me?”

  Smith and Weitz looked uncomfortable.

  Mike stared at them. This made them even more uncomfortable.

  “Well?” he asked.

  Smith spoke up, while Weitz looked down at the ground, “Mike, we’d like to tell you, but we can’t. We signed non-disclosure agreements. Mitchem would have our ass, if we told you everything. Hell, it’s bad enough we told you about the damn lasers and rail guns.”

  Mike barked laughter at the thought of the non-disclosure agreements, “I can’t believe you guys give a crap about anything he says. Hell, I’ll be happy if we live through the night to see another day, and you’re worried about what Mitchem says. Are you kidding me?”

  Mike pointed out to the tree line. “Is there anything out there that gives you the indication that the damn non-disclosure agreement has standing anymore?”

  His voice increased in intensity as he talked, “What makes you think, that we’re going to be alive this time tomorrow, let alone next week? You really think that any of that crap matters anymore?”

  Smith sat down the computer, showing the palms of his hands, his face pleading, “Please Mike, we just can’t do it, he’ll have our ass.”

  Mike walked up to Smith, his face very serious, and in a quiet level voice, one that almost made Weitz pee in his khaki pants, said, “And what makes you think that I won’t?”

  Smith and Weitz suddenly realized that they were in a meadow, with four men that had killed men in combat, and those men were the only ones with guns. Three of those men were in the most powerful infantry weapons that the United States had ever created. All Mike had to do was turn on his ear bud, tell the team to paint the two engineers as targets, and Smith and Weitz would be history.

  It was Weitz, uncharacteristically, who spoke next. The recognition that he was in a very delicate position probably had something to do with him being forthcoming.

  “What do you want to know about the mech armor?”

  Mike’s earlier expression disappeared like pecan pie at a church social. It was as if the sun had broken through the clouds, “Well, boys, are there any other capabilities that this armor has that we aren’t aware of? If there are, can you please unlock them so that my team can access them if any of those big monsters show up again?” The second sentence, while politely spoken, was a command, not a request.

  Smith and Weitz were beaten. Smith started talking again, for Weitz and himself.

  “Mike, okay, I understand. Listen, this is what I’m going to do for you. First, there’s a program that allows the mech armor to camouflage, blend into the background. We’ll put that program online. Also, we didn’t have time to do this for you in the warehouse, but we can link the drone to your mech armor, so that you can have command of the drone at all times. We didn’t do this previously, because we wanted to see what was up here. And some,” John surreptitiously glanced towards Weitz, “didn’t want you to block the signal to the laptop.”

  Mike considered this for a moment. “Okay, that’s acceptable, for now,” he put emphasis on the, “for now.”

  “Are there any other weapons that you aren’t telling me about?” He focused on John, who was more forthcoming than Weitz. Weitz just twitched and looked at the ground whenever Mike looked at him.

  “Mik
e, no, I can honestly say, there are no more weapons that we can attach.” John said attach with a slight inflection, and he glanced at Weitz again. He looked back when Weitz’ eyes quickly darted towards John on the inflection, but John’s eyes were firmly focused back on Mike.

  Mike knew that there was something else, some other thing that might be able to help. He remembered the phrase, “big dog,” that John and Lieutenant Pang talked about previously. Maybe it had something to do with that.

  “Okay, no problem then. I think it would be a good idea if we had a way to transmit what the drone was seeing back down to the warehouse. Since the rock interferes with the radio, can we set up a relay to send comms and video back down to the warehouse?”

  Weitz actually looked up at Mike, no longer interested in looking at his feet. He seemed eager to talk, “Actually, yes, we can set up relays so that signal is transmitted back down to the warehouse, and we can monitor the laptop to see what’s happening up here.”

  Mike looked at Weitz. Somehow, Mike felt like he had played into Weitz’ hand. Too late now, though. He had the nagging feeling that Mitchem would have the feed in his office, watching for any mistake he could find. Ah well, spilt milk. No use crying.

  “So, gentlemen, I think you should tell me about the lights.”

  Smith and Weitz looked guilty again. Smith spoke, “What do you mean?”

  Mike motioned to the area in the meadow, “Do you see any electrical generators in the area?”

  They shook their heads like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

  Mike continued, “So, I know about the battery in the Mech armor. I bet you have a larger battery in the facility. Am I correct?”

  Smith asked, “Who told you about the batteries in the Mech armor?”

  “It’s not really important who told me about them. What I do know is that somebody invented a quantum battery, kind of like a perpetual motion machine, that never runs out of juice.”

  Smith nodded slowly, “Yes, it isn’t quite that simple, but, in reality, that’s exactly why the lights are still on.”

  Mike indicated that he was finished with his questions, “Thank you, gentlemen, that’s all I needed to know.”

  With the small battle of wills won, Mike wanted to see more of the area where they were. He and John started looking at the monitor, so that Mike could get the lay of the land. As he and John were occupied with the monitor, Weitz went back to get the relays. Mike knew he would probably report to Mitchem as well.

  The valley was a bowl with the stream, actually a small river, emptying out of the valley mouth to whatever was beyond. The valley was about thirty kilometers, or 18.6 miles long, surrounded by high mountains all the way around. There were a few places along the mountain walls that seemed to be passes, but they would have to scout to find out more about that. There were more meadows further down the valley towards the mouth. There was also a small lake close to the mouth. It was good that there were so many ponds, streams, lakes and rivers in the area. It would make it easier to get fresh water. Mike would have to see if they could rig some kind of pump to bring water to the facility.

  Mike wondered about the progress of getting the carcass parts hauled up, and started back down the cave tunnel to the shaft. He met Mickey, Luis Garcia, Mike Crandall, plus a skinny Airman named Richard Stein, who preferred to be called Rick, hanging the block and tackle. Bob was there to oversee the placement of the block and tackle.

  “So, we’re in business?” Mike asked.

  Mickey nodded, Bob smiled, and the others hung back, letting the other two do the talking.

  “I think we’ll be in full swing in about thirty minutes,” Bob explained.

  “Yeah, right now, everybody else is down the elevator shaft, piling the meat up to get it out,” Mickey said in agreement.

  Mike moved over to the edge of the shaft and looked down. There was a pile of meat at the bottom, and people moving back and forth, dragging more of the carcass onto the pile.

  “Good idea to preposition. Whose idea was that?” Mike asked.

  Mickey slapped the skinny airman on the back, “Well, it was Rick’s idea, and it was a good one.”

  The slap on the back almost knocked the airman over. He recovered, not gracefully, but able to stay on his feet. The airman turned red and started stammering. Mike grinned at him.

  “Good idea, keep it up.”

  Mike looked back over the edge. He saw Mitchem standing down there, asking questions. Mitchem looked up. Mike looked him directly in the eyes, then moved back from the edge. “Gentlemen, I think trouble is going to be coming up to find me pretty soon. When he comes up, send him outside so that I can talk to him, okay.” He turned to Mickey, “Don’t break him, or anyone with him, comprende?”

  Mickey had an innocent look on his face, “What if they try to break me?”

  Mike gave him the ‘don’t mess with me look.’ “No provocations, Mickey. If they move on you, I don’t want you to damage any of them permanently. We need the bodies, and may need the fire power soon.”

  Mickey nodded, grinning.

  Mike turned around and walked back down the corridor. He walked to the top of the ridge, turned on the earbud, and asked for a SITREP from Everett.

  “Nothing moving boss. I don’t think there’s anything around us right now. And we’re getting good feed from the drone. Nothing large moving our way.”

  Mike acknowledged the report. “Okay, go ahead and have one person per hour on break, rotating shifts. I know you guys need to stretch your legs.”

  Soon, he saw the first team of three guys dragging the head of the monster out of the cave mouth. They pulled on three lines leading to a net that was wrapped around the thick skull. One of them was Airman Stein.

  “Hey, Airman, hang on, I’m coming down to you.”

  The team consisted of the Airman, a civilian administrator named Ben Davis, and Luis Garcia. Mike smiled at the group and told them, “I’m going to be your security. Let’s move the carcass out this direction.”

  The area that Mike picked was about four hundred feet away. The head was pretty heavy, but since the three guys were able to drag it with the netting, they moved pretty quickly. The meadow was sandy and didn’t have many rocks to get in the way.

  Soon the chunks of carcass were coming out regularly. Buckets of feces, blood and gore were also being passed out of the cave. More people had climbed up to help drag it out. There were three teams of people dragging the carcass out, and six people on the rope to pull up the pieces. Once everybody got the hang of it, everything started moving smoothly.

  Lieutenant Pang showed up with a rifle, and had a Beretta 9mm holstered on her hip. She walked out as security with Mike for the teams hauling meat. Whoever was on break from the mech armor sat on top of the ridge, rifle ready as back up.

  “Where did you get the weapons?” Mike asked.

  “I pulled them from security. They had extra, and they couldn’t come up with a reason not to give them to me,” she answered.

  They worked for thirty minutes, then she stopped the group. “Mike, I need to take a whiz.”

  Mike looked around. “Well, if you go up top, you can hide behind one of the mechs and do your business. Nobody will look.”

  Pang looked at him, weary. Everybody was getting tired. “I think I’m pass false modesty by now.” Pang turned around, “Airman, come here.” She waited until Stein was about five feet away, and asked, “Have you shot one of these before?”

  Stein nodded. Pang handed the weapon to him. “Go with Mike and guard, okay.”

  Stein took the weapon, turned to Mike. Mike used his thumb to indicate the next chunk of meat coming out of the cave. Stein nodded, and they walked over. The next team was dragging a lump of carcass, and Stein fell in beside them and walked with them. Mike moved around to the other side of the crew. They walked out to the mound, maintaining a 360 pattern of watch as
the team dumped the meat.

  “Oh hell, what’s that?” Mike heard it over his ear bud.

  He turned. Pang had finished watering the lawn, and was walking over to Mike and the haulers. She was caught out. Something large came tearing out of the bushes. It was a freaking bird, but the meanest looking bird that Mike had ever seen. It had a large beak, viciously hooked for tearing into prey. It stopped for a moment, looked at the people in the meadow, confused by all of the targets, and then started running directly at Lieutenant Pang.

  It was a damn big bird, taller than Mike. It was moving fast, maybe too damn fast. Mike yelled and started running, trying to get to her before the bird did. One of the mechs was responding to the threat, but the speed of the bird, and its closeness to Pang, made it very hard for the mech weapons to engage without hitting her. The mech armor didn’t have enough time to get between Pang and the bird. It took time for the armor to get moving at top speed. A bullet cracked by, missing the bird. Mike stopped, took aim, and started to shoot. Another bullet cracked, this time from the top of the ridge.

  Then Pang did something unexpected. Mike thought about it later, and should have known what was going to happen. Pang was a badass, and she was about to prove how much of a badass she was. She pulled her pistol, went into a perfect isosceles triangle shooting stance, left foot forward, bent at the waist, and started pulling the trigger. The pistol barked five times, and the bird slid dead at her feet.

  Time seemed to stop as everyone processed what they had just seen. Then from the top of the ridge, Tom’s voice rang out, “That is the hottest thing I have ever seen a woman do.” Then he started singing, in a bad karaoke voice, “Did you ever know you’re my hero.”

  Pang slowly put the pistol on safe, scanned the area around her, then yelled up at Tom, “If you don’t stop singing, the next bullet is for you!” A subdued, “yes ma’am,” floated down to her. And then a chuckle.

  Mike walked over, “You okay?” He could see her hands trembling, and she saw him notice. He didn’t say anything about the tremors, which she appreciated. He heard a shot, and turned around. Stein had put a bullet in the bird’s brain pane. Mike cocked an eye.

  Stein shrugged, “Too many horror films as a kid. They always get back up if you don’t shoot them in the head.” Mike and Pang looked at Stein for a moment, then Pang’s laughter pealed across the meadow. When she turned back to Mike, she had the same saucy smile on her face that she always did. She pointed fingers at Mike and Stein, then asked, “Fellas’, do you mind bringing my trophy back to the cave for me?” She turned, started whistling, and walked back to the cave.

  “That’s it, don’t let ‘em see you sweat,” Mike thought. Mike turned to Stein, then motioned with his hands, “After you.” Stein flashed an irrepressible grin. He walked forward and grabbed the feet of the large bird. Mike grabbed the bird carcass by the neck. They lifted and started hauling it back to the cave. They set it down off to one side of the cave. Pang walked over to where it lay, “I wonder if this thing tastes like chicken?”

  Mike thought about it, “Well, I guess we need to find out. The MREs won’t last forever.”

  After that incident, Mike changed the method the teams were using to take the carcass out to the pile. Now, the carcass chunks were dragged to the front of the cave, and then one of his team in the mechs would grab it and take it over to the growing pile. It was much safer to do it this way.

  The stench of the hacked meat rose into the air, and more scavengers were arriving. Some were small, but others were the size of dogs. As the pile of meat grew, the scavengers were getting larger.

  Mike didn’t like what he was seeing, so he climbed back into his mech to use different cameras to watch the activity. Mike keyed his comm link up, “Team, I think we need everybody to mount up. I want all five of us back in our mechs and we need to do close security next to the cave entrance. With the drone overhead, I’m not too worried about anything big showing up. I’m worried about one of these smaller scavengers following the blood trail back to the cave. They’re small and agile enough, that they may get past the mech armor. If they get past our security, they’ll have a lot of slow moving prey to pick from downstairs.”

  Mickey spoke, “Hey boss. Just thought you would like to know, Mitchem is here and wants to talk to you when you have a minute.”

  Mike grinned. He knew Mitchem would hate that Mickey wasn’t using his rank. Mike imagined Mitchem stewing at the slight.

  “Roger, Mickey, I need you to hop into your armor and get it to the cave mouth so that we have our first line of defense set for the night.”

  “Is that an order, boss man?” Mickey asked.

  Mike knew that game. Mickey was only following orders if he got into his mech armor now.

  “Yes, that is a direct order. If anybody has a problem with it, they can talk to me.”

  “Roger boss, I’ll relay the message.”

  Mike knew that Mickey was tearing out for the mech armor, just to piss Mitchem off.

  Mike drove his mech to the cave mouth. They would set up in a straight line across the opening. As he walked back, the others on the team lined up in front of the cave, leaving the middle position open for Mike.

  Mike sighed. He hated dealing with assholes. Self-important assholes were the worst.

  Mike settled the mech into position then moved into the linebacker position. He spooled down the systems, but left the mech in standby, so that he could power it up quickly. The foam deflated, and he opened up the hatch, then climbed down to the ground. Before he got to the ground, he heard, “Who the hell do you think you are, telling my people what to do? You almost got Pang killed, you moron.”

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