Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (33 page)

CHAPTER FORT
Y
-NINE
- Mike Journal Entry 14

I
had tossed back more than
I
had planned
.
Dennis seemed unwilling to stop drinking to Frank’s memory and
I
had
obliged
.
M
e, my liver
,
and my head were going to pay dearly
.
I
stumbled back to
my
quarters and had fallen asleep
almost before
my
body made contact with the bed. Tracy came in a little later
after
assimilating her men in with the rest of the soldiers on the Hill. She knew where
I
had been and deeply sympathized with Dennis
she would tell me the next day as I nursed one killer hangover. Trac
y took off her battle
fatigues climbing as quietly in
to bed as possible
.
S
he snuggled up next to
me
and within minutes was fast asleep.

***

“Mike
,
want to go for a walk?” Paul said from the doorway.

I
was halfway out of bed before Paul had finished his question.
I
quickly rubbed the cobwebs out of
my
eyes and reached for
my
boots before
I
realized
I
was still wearing them.

“Rough night?” Paul quipped.

“Yeah
,
I had a drink with Dennis
,”
I
answered.

“A drink?” Paul asked.

“You get the point. Where’re we going?”
I
asked
, my hangover threatening to cleave my head in two.

“Grab your rifle
,”
Paul answered.

“Oh
,
that kind of walk.”
I
suited up and was out the door in less than
two
minutes.
I
t didn’t hurt that
I
was still mostly dressed from the night before.

“What about her?” Paul said motioning
back to
Tracy’s
still sleeping form.

“Who?”
I said still a little out of it, a
s
I
turned back. “Shit
,
I didn’t even know she was there.”

“You didn’t know
she
was there? You must have drank a lot.”
Paul laughed out
loud
.

“Well,
you know Dennis. Let her sleep
.
”
I
pulled the door shut behind
me
.

“What’s the story with her?” Paul asked
as
we
got away from the door.

“Not sure, my friend. After Beth pretty much told me to go fuck myself I was in a bad way. Basically
,
I wanted to take a break from the fairer sex.”

“You weren’t going gay on me were you?” Paul asked with a small smile on his face.

“If I did, I’m sure you would have been the first person to call me
,”
I
shot back.

Paul punched
me
in the arm and for a small moment
,
we
crossed over a span of time
,
we
both felt more like the
eighteen
year old care free kids we
had been than
the
warriors
we
had
been forced to
become.
B
ut
our
smiles ran from
our
faces as
we
rounded the corner and
twelve
well-armed Marines awaited
us
.

“What exactly does this walk entail
,
Paul?”
I
asked as
I
tightened down
my
ammunition
belt

CHAPTER
FIFTY

Beth was a good
three hundred
yards away from the store when she hea
r
d the muffled sounds of gunshots. She knew without hesitation that it was her pursuer either shooting at phantoms or in
frustration
when he discovered she was no longer there.

***

Chills ran up and down the length of
Pegged
’s back like currents
from
an electric eel, after blowing gaping holes through the metal covered storage room door with his newly acquired
.45
.
H
e had expected to be shot himself as he kicked the door open, fully
think
ing the bitch to be
lying
in wait for that exact
maneuver
.
W
hat happened next scare
d him more than the thought of her waiting. That he could have dealt with, but this took him completely by surprise. There was nobody there and after a quick survey of the room he was certain there was no back way out, no small windows and certainly no doors. “What are you?”
h
e screamed. Fine lines of insanity
began
to edge in on the perimeter of his mind. He began to wonder
if
she was ever even real or if he had taken a
deep dark plunge down a rabbit
hole.

But what about your ear?
a
disembodied voice whispered.

“Yeah
,
what about my ear?”
h
e said aloud.

That didn’t happen by itself
,
t
he voice answered.

“Yeah
,
it didn’t happen by itself
,”
h
e echoed, as he absently reached up to touch the still puss oozing hole in the side of his head. If he hadn’t known better
,
he might have thought it was his brains leaking out.
Th
at
would
have been infinitely better than the infection
causing the putrid liquid.
I
t would have been a much quicker and eas
ier death. “
Fuck
!
”
h
e bellowed.

***

Beth paused a moment, thoroughly enjoy
ing
that her
pursuer
was frustrated.

“Serves him right for making us stay in a closet for the night
,” Beth said
as she reached down and scratched behind Sampson’s ear.

Sampson looked up grateful for the scratch but not nearly as happy as the woman he traveled with. He could smell the disease and insanity
of the man chasing them
from
t
here and he wanted no part of it, not in the slightest.

CHAPTER F
I
FTY-ONE
- Mike Journal Entry 15

For
forty
minutes Paul,
myself
and the
other
twelve
soldiers with
us
watched a
n
alien beehive of activity in the town center. Genogerians tightly patrolled the perimeter as dozens of transport ships continually off-loaded supplies and personnel. Paul sat back down from the hedge he was looking over.

“Looks like they weren’t too happy with our welcome wagon committee
,” Paul said
wry
ly.

I
kept looking at the spectacle before
me
.
A
lthough
we
were a
couple of
hundred yards from the nearest sentry it was still entirely to
o
close. “What makes you say
that?”
I
answered in the same tone Paul had used as
I
sat down with a hard thump. “There’s got to be about a thousand of them and they look pissed off. Wouldn’t want to be the reason why they were so pissed.”

Paul looked over at
me
and had to
t
ry with great difficulty to not laugh.

“
Fuckin’
, good one
,” he said
.

“So what’s the plan?
”
I asked. “
You didn’t bring me out here
to sight see
.”

“Ulterior motives? Me?” Paul said
,
trying to
placat
e
me
. “Alright
,
you know me better than that. I want to launch an
assault
” Paul had expected
me
to act with trepidation or at the least with hesitation.

“When
?”
I responded
.

“Shit
,
I knew I loved you for
a
reason.”

“Must be for my insanity
,”
I
answered.

“I want
to hit
them
after they
get everything
they plan on getting here, here. But before they get to
o
settled and start to
explore
their surroundings.”

“So by ‘explore’ you mean seek and destroy
?
”

“Yeah
,
that’s pretty much what I mean.”

“Do you really think they could find the Hill?”
I
asked, now showing the signs of trepidation that Paul had expected earlier. Paul knew
I
wasn’t concerned for
my
self
I
had someone else in mind.

“Do you really want to find out? If they stumble on the Hill
,
it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

I
shivered.