Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (21 page)

“
Sleep
,”
s
he whispered
.

I would have but I was afraid
of
the nightmares that my psyche might conjure up. I went much deeper, a place to where no thoughts or feelings could touch me.

CHAPTER TWEN
T
Y-EIGHT

“
Sir,
the men from Dennis’ platoon have just
returned
,”
Frank
said.

“Why the long face?” Paul asked, wanting to know
,
but dreading the answer.

“They lost two
men
,”
Frank answered flatly.

“What!” Paul exploded. “They were on a recon mission!”

“I haven’t completely debriefed the men
,
Paul
,
but there were other factors involved
,”
Frank answe
red in a calmness in direct contrast to Paul’s outburst.

Paul could tell by Frank’s demeanor this was not all the news that was to be delivered.

“Frank
,
now tell me what you really want to say
,” Paul said
as he turned his back to sit down.

“Paul, Dennis and his
g
unney are the two that are missing
,” Frank said
. His words hit
Paul as hard as any sucker punch could.

“Frank
,
get the men some food
and set up a debriefing
in
thirty
minutes and keep them away from the rest of the population for now
,”
Paul
said
hurriedly before the reality of the pain set in.

“Yes
, sir
.” Frank departed.

Tears threatened to stream down his face as he looked back on his
relation
ship with a friend
who
had been there through thin and increasingly thick
.
H
is loyalty had never wavered as Paul had demanded more and more from him. Paul smiled as he reflected back on the first time he and
Mike
had brought Dennis up on top of the supermarket and
his sheer amazement when Paul had produced an icy cold beer from the refrigeration unit. They had sat up there all day in the warm spring
-like
sun talking about girls
and
baseball
.
H
ow they had ribbed him for being a dreaded Yankees fan especially in the heart of Red Sox nation. They had touched briefly on their dreams
of
the future. Paul couldn’t remember any of their dreams involving battling aliens for their very existence. He
thought of
their first tentative steps o
nto Indian Hill. The exploration in a
ll of their minds and the hill itself. Even when Paul and
Mike
had gone on to bigger and better things in college, Dennis always let them know that he was still back in Walpole and he would be there whenever they needed him. That
wasn’t any
more evident than when
Mike
had disappeared, Dennis had flown out on the next available plane, with considerable hardship to his finances.

“
I will miss you and your friendship
,”
Paul muttered.
He
got
up to go into his private restroom
—
he couldn’t let his men see him in th
at
state, it would do no good to let them know he valued any one of them over another, even if he did. Hell
,
he sacrificed a capitol city and put dozens of his elite forces in direct harm’s way to save Mike. He knew
H
ell had a special place reserved for him, but
H
ell would have to wait until he was finished
t
here. Paul washed his face and straightened up his uniform as he headed for the debriefing room.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

Beth rummaged around in the small pack she was
carrying
.
S
he made a make
-
shift mask out of an old t-shirt. It wasn’t perfect
,
but it kept the majority of dust out of her mouth and nose. As she tied the shirt around her neck she glanced down at the straight line of footprints she had been leaving. She didn’t know why, but it disturbed her, it wasn’t so much that she was walking in the remnants of what used to be Boston, it was something else
.
S
he just couldn’t put her finger on it. And then the thought wormed its ugly head into her consciousness
;
she might as well be leaving a flare in the sky for anyb
ody to follow. But not just any
body. Could he still be following her? She trembled with the mere thought of it. What were her options? The woods? Route 49
5
was lined with thick woods, he would know she wasn’t veering off into the wo
ods, she basically had to follow the line of the highway and her going would be a lot tougher and slower in the woods
T
hen what? He would just wait for her to emerge and get to her when she was even more tired. She pulled the shirt over her face and began again, this time at a slow and steady jog. He might catch up to her eventually
,
she thought
,
but he was going to have to pay heavily to do so.

***

Two hours later
Pegged
was standing exactly where Beth had stopped to put on her mask. He looked at her footprints as she had turned to look back at w
h
ere
she had come from. The prints leading away were considerably more spaced apart than the ones leading to th
e
spot
he now occupied
. Somehow
,
she knew. That enticed him. Good, he thought, she knows I’m coming for her. She has to rest some time.
Pegged
trudged on, having never been known for his running abilities
. He
never second-
guess
ed
his decision to ditch his ride. She was on foot so as a true hunter he felt he should be too.

***
.

Beth kept up her pace for three miles according to the highway markers, but now she questioned the wisdom of her
decision
.
S
he was tired, thirsty and as soon as the cramps went away she knew she would be ravenous. She found some solace in the fact she was able to run for three miles
.
I
t had b
een a long time since she had
done so
, probably a few days before she went to the concert she figured. One thing was
certain;
she was
n’t going to be able to run any
more, besides the fatigue factor
,
the fine dust raining down would choke her lungs. She looked back the way she had come, fear inched its way up her spine
.
S
he didn’t know how she knew
,
but she knew the boogie man was coming. And
then a plan began to formulate.
Beth walked another quarter mile to a curve in the road that would hide her exit from the highway. She found a brief respite from the cloying dust under the trees, all was unnervingly quiet as she entered
,
almost like a church at
H
igh
M
ass. It was as if the forest knew something was going to happen and was waiting patiently for the outcome. Beth backtracked into the woods almost to the position she had originally c
o
me up with her idea.  If the madman came no closer to the
woods than her own footprints
,
she figured the shot to be
about
fifty
yards
.
T
hat was nothing for a marksman
,
she reasoned, but then she was no marksman.

Who knows
?
she thought to herself
,
maybe it’s all just an over active imagination that makes me think I’m being followed and I could actually get a little rest
.

She had no sooner started to doze off
,
her head listing to the left
,
when something made her sit up with a start. Beth’s heart hammered,
he
was standing where she had stopped, looking around, sometimes into the woods, his eyes scanned over her exac
t location. She held her breath
,
He can’t see me
.
S
he hoped. Beth wondered with true concern how much her labored heart could keep up its pace.

***

Pegged
knew something was up, he just didn’t know what it was. For years
,
his mind had
been clouded with drugs and alcohol and only since the beginning of the end had his instincts begun to become c
leare
r
,
h
is senses heightened. Without a doubt in his mind
,
he knew his quarry had done something to try
to
change the outcome that he had fore
seen
. He saw the girl
’
s footsteps heading in her same southerly direction
,
but the curve in the road did not go unnoticed.

Perfect place to set up an ambush
,
he reasoned. Was his prey able to bite back? He had been on enough hunting trips with his father to know that even the most skittish animal when cornered
would
t
urn and fight for everything it was
worth. And she might not yet be cornered
,
but he could tell from her running that she was beginning to feel desperate. He could smell the fear, he knew she would not be able to keep her jogging
pace up, especially in th
e
dust
. No,
she had laid a trap, a crude one perhaps but a trap
,
nonetheless.
Pegged
squatted as if to tie his shoe
,
but in reality he was making a smaller target of himself. He scanned the wood
s closest to him,
knowing that was
where she would have to set up if she wanted to take a shot. He tried uns
uccessfully to look over as non
chalantly as possible. Anger and revenge spurred him on, but he wasn’t a fool
—
those traits alone wouldn’t save him from a bullet.
He
got up slowly and exposed his profile, doing his best acting job of pondering his next move.