Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (38 page)

“Yeah
,
I vaguely remember that. My point
,
though
,
Mike
,
is I didn’t really believe in it
.
H
ell
,
I didn’t want to believe in it. Just the thought of it scared the shit out of me.”

“Dennis, I definitely wanted to believe we weren’t the only ones out in the universe, but had I known we were going to run into a species
hell
bent on enslaving us and taking over our planet, I think I would have rethought my stance.”

“It’s not even that
.
I
t’s just that th
e
night was truly the last peaceful, serene
,
content night I’ve had.”

I
looked at him quizzically.

“After we left Indian Hill I went to Angela’s house and stayed the night with her. I mean
,
there I was
,
had a great night with my two best friends and then spent the rest of the evening with the only girl I’ve ever loved
. A
nd you know we broke up a couple
of months after that and then the following week
,
you and Paul headed out to Colorado. I was pretty f’ed up for a while, really got into some heavy drugs.”

I
cocked
my
head. “Dennis
,
I never knew man
.
I’m sorry it went down like that.”

“It wasn’t your fault
,
Mike, and it’s not like I broadcast it
,
either. I guess I just
wasn’t
ready to grow up and move on.
I
f it hadn’t of been for the project Paul put me in charge of I’d probably be sitting at the Kihei restaurant getting drunk.”

“Den
,
I think we’ve all done some growing up we weren’t quite ready for.”

“I’m not done yet.”

“Sorry, sorry
,” I said
placatingly.

“What I’m trying to get at in
a
roundabout
way, is
…
” Dennis hesitated. “If all of this shit hadn’t gone down, would we have remained friends?”

“I’m not sure if I understand
,
bud?”

“If the
G
eno
…
whatever
the fuck they’re called had never come, would you and Paul have stayed in touch? Would we have stayed friends
?” he asked
pleadingly.

“Dennis, just because Paul and I were up at college, didn’t change the friendship we have. Sure we were doing our own things, but I’ll never forget the times we shared growing up. Obviously
,
we weren’t going to see each other almost every day like we used to but, you’re a friend Dennis
—
a best friend
—
you don’t just discard those
things
when you move away, there’s way to
o
much time
and effort put in
to make great friendships to so easily leave one behind so to speak. Can I say with absolute certainty
we would have remained
friends
?
N
o
,
I can’t, but I can answer definitively that you were in my thoughts a lot while I was up at school. I was always asking myself what would Dennis
be thinking if he were here now?
Or I bet Dennis would get a kick out of this. And I leaned on a lot of the memories we had shared to get me through some pretty tough times on that ship. Am I glad to see you now? You can bet your ass I am. I’m just not happy with why I am seeing you now. We’ve both lost a lot over these last couple of years and to still have you and Paulie around, well that just really helps to ease some of the pain, my brother.”

Dennis crossed the room and gave
me a gentle hug
, a small barely noticeable tear tried to escape
his eye
. He
quickly
wiped it away.

“How ‘bout those Bears?”
I
said to try
and
alleviate
the seriousness of
the
scene
.

“Thank you
,
Mike
,” Dennis said
and
turned and
walked out the door.

I
stared after him, wondering what that was all about.

“What the hell was that all about?” If the voice had been deeper
I
would have thought
I
had unintentionally said out loud what
I
was thinking. Tracy was looking out over the top of the blanket she had pulled up almost to the bridge of her nose.

“Uh, hell if I know
,” I answered
. “But I think it probably had something to do with Frank’s death. From what I understand
,
they were pretty good friends.”

“You never get used to it.”

I
looked at her wonderingly.

“Loss…
death, no matter how much of it goes on around you, every time it happens, it hits as hard as it did the first time.”

I
didn’t have a rebuttal or anything to add to her statement for that
matter
. She had nailed it on the head. Although
,
what she hadn’t added,
I
wasn’t going to voice. Sure death hadn’t gotten any easier, but killing had.
I
shivered even as
I
thought it.

CHAPTER
FIFT
Y
-SIX

Beth woke screaming, mostly from the pain in her side
,
but definitely a good portion could be attributed to the huge green arm wrapped around her, carrying he
r as if she was no more than a R
aggedy
Ann
doll. She passed out.

Sampson had more than once let his bladder go, partly from the pain, but mostly from the huge thing carrying him. He couldn’t sense anything e
vil permeating from the animal holdi
ng him, but he couldn’t sense anything good
,
either. The bullet hurt his hind quarters, but he would have been much happier on the ground with the searing pain than a
mere
two
feet away from that teeth-
lined snout. He wasn’t happy about it
and it made him
piddle again.

***

My injuries must have been worse than they had told me and that was why Dennis had come in and had that conversation with me
.
H
e knew I was dying. I
now
knew
I
had died, but what the hell was Drababan doing in Heaven
?
Not that
I
regretted seeing
my
friend, but didn’t he have his own version of Nirvana to go to?

“Hello
,
Drababan
,” I said
using
my
vocal cords. “Funny
,” I said
.
“
I thought in Heaven we’d just project our thoughts, wouldn’t be any reason for speech.”

“Ah
,
Mike, you are a funny hu-man
,”
Drababan roared.

“Holy shit,
this
is real!?”
I
said
,
sitting up much t
o
o
quickly.
P
ain sluiced through me
. Drababan rushed forward, the other people in the room tensed
,
especially
me
, but for a different reason.

“Whoa, hold on D
ee
,” I said
holding
my
hands out. “You’ll break me in half if you hug me.”

“I am just so happy to see you
,
hu-man. Tracy has told me how foolish you were in battle.”

I
looked over at Tracy
.
S
he merely smiled
,
shrugged and looked back up at Drababan. 

Then a light came on.
My
pulse accelerated, the monitoring machines next to
the bed letting every
one know.

“D
ee
,
what about the bug?”
I
asked, impending doom
hanging in the shadows
.

“Neutralized
,” Dee said
smugly.

I
didn’t even question him.
“Well,
then you might as well come over here and get this done with.”

Drababan approached
, a teeth-
showing grin spread across his face. Some of the more nervous in attendance let their fingers get ever so closer to their triggers.

“Paul
,” I said
as
I
grimaced from the ministrations
I
was receiving from Drababan. “Could you please have your men
stand down
? They’re making me nervous.
T
hey’re just as likely to take me out as anything else.
Y
ou can see Drababan isn’t planning on eating me.”

Drababan stood up. “Besides
,
he would probably taste bad
.

“You’re not helping
,” I said
to Drababan.
He
shrugged, looking a little too much like Tracy’s gesture
earlier
for comfort.

“Alright, alright
,” Paul said
. “I want the clinic area cleared out, but post two guards outside the door
,” Paul said
. Acquiescing to
my
request
,
but not completely. “It’s more to keep the gawkers away
,”
Paul added
,
trying to appease
me
.

“He looks pretty tasty
,” Drababan said
pointing to one of the plumper guards to usher the men out just a little quicker. It worked superbly. Paul
,
however
,
was not amused.

“We’ll talk later
,
Mike
,” Paul said
as he left
,
making sure Drababan was not included in the statement.

“Mike
,
I’ve got guard duty in a half hour
—
you’ll be alright?” Tracy asked.

“I’ll be fine
,
thank you
,” I told
her.

“I’ll be back after.” She leaned in for a small kiss. “I never thought I’d say this but it’s nice to see you
,
Drababan.”

“Likewise
,” he said
as she walked out of the room.

“How the hell
did you find this place?” I
asked
,
turning back to Drababan, who had pulled up a large couch which when he occupied it
,
nearly became invisible.