Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (53 page)

“We’ve got to go!” I yelled to Brian, pulling his sleeve, he was so intent on watching the missiles he was missing our opportunity. “Dude, where do you think all those parts are going to rain down if those missiles hit!” I screamed.

He pulled his gaze away to look at me, the light of recognition dawned. “We’ve got to go!”
h
e yelled like it was his idea.

Spindler was half in and half out of the shed. “We’re leaving
,
Spindler
.
I’ll shoot you if I have to
,”
I yelled at him. We were three quarters across the compound when the percussion from the missile impact threw us all to the ground. Been a long time since
I ate dirt, now I remembered why it wasn’t on my diet.

A large green hand wrapped around my arm and jerked me to my feet.

“Miss me?” Dee asked
,
smiling.

Brian was scrambling
,
trying to get his rifle up from under him.

“Whoa-
whoa, he’s with me!” I shouted to Brian. “He’s the friend I was telling you about.”

“Michael
,
I think your use of English is not as good as you presume it to be. I believe it would be more correct to say that you are with me
,” Drababan said
.

“You should have been a New Yorker
,
Dee
.
T
hey always tend to take their sarcasm too far. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Spindler had passed out or been knocked out when he struck the ground, Dee grabbed him around the belt and hoisted him
up
as if he weig
hed no more than a gallon of milk.

Molten metal showered around us
.
M
ore than one guard was crushed under the twisted metal. We were rapidly moving away from the carnage but still bits would come uncomfortably close to
us
.

“We must hurry
,
Michael!” Dee said running in
half strides. Brian was barely keeping up with him at full speed and I was hanging back a bit trying to urge
an
older couple on,
a
young woman
and two boys
w
ere
half way between me and Dee.
“The remaining fighters are preparing to launch bombs!”

Even order-less Genogerian guards
must have had
the ability for self-preservation, they scattered in every direction. I heard multiple firearms begin to chatter away as the guards came into the opposing fields of fire. I had a good idea who it was and
I would thank him eternally when I got back to the Hill.

“Come on!” I urged the couple for the third time.

“Can’t…
make…
it
,” the man said
clutching his side. “Go
,
Gloria
,” he said
to his wife.

“I’d rather…
die here with…
you
,
Vern
,”
s
he panted out. “Young man…
go
,
” Gloria told me.

“Alright
,
Mrs. Banks.” Vern heaved. “It’s me and you.” He smiled.

Shit
. I was stuck, there wasn’t much I could do to urge them on, and to stay was my death too. Dee once again saved the day,
he came back,
threw Spindler over his shoulder like he was a sack of flour,
dropped
his rifle and reached down to grab the couple. They shrank away
at first,
but I told them that I was with him and it would be alright. Dee nodded at me.

He wrapped his powerful
arms around their mid-sections, somehow tenderly not making pudding out of their innards
and turned and began to run again. The added weight slowed him down a bit, but I still was struggling to keep up. The unmistakable sound
of
a massive projectile
falling
through the sky helped me to find a faster gear
.
I grabbed the
running
woman’s arm and we moved as fast as we could.

Dee had caught up to
the two boys and
Brian, who was busy using the barrel of his rifle to pry open a storm drain.
Dee
quickly put Spindler down and
stuck a claw into an opening and
ripped the heavy metal circle from its resting place. My
fillings were beginning to vibrate from the humming of the bomb
.
Brian went down the hole first
.
Dee
unceremoniously
dropped Spindler in and then gently eased the older woman and man down. His rapid
come-hither
movements
with his arm
were an unnecessary incentive for me and the girl to get moving. We were
close to salvation
when the ground bounced
.
W
e were sent a good two feet
into the air from the impact of the alien
detonation
, the only thing that saved us was the vibration
propelling
us forward. Dee grabbed us mid flight a
nd like he was dunking a basket
ball
,
threw us into the hole.

I had the presence of mind to
wonder
what the good of this maneuver
was;
as soon as his giant ass came down he would crush us. Dee’s huge arms came within inches of the side of my face as he fell through the hole
.
H
e was snout to nose with me
and
I
couldn’t
even begin to
describe
how uncomfortable a feeling
that
was.

I would have made some quip, but the explosion sucked all the air from my lungs, so much so I thought perhaps Dee had landed on me after all.
Dee was being pulled up from the back blast, I
anchored myself and
grabbed his arm although I d
id
n’t know what my
weight was going to do to help.
Brian
dove
from the far wall and jumped onto Dee’s back,
I didn't know if
it
would help or
not,
in the end it seemed that
the accumulated weight had
the desired effect
however
it still left his massive jaw
directly in front of me.

A small fact I had not known up until that time, without air, there is no sound. I was aware that the woman next to me was in a full throated scream when we headed down the shaft but that was cut off the moment Dee landed. Who
knew—
it was probably me screaming but it’s much easier to write it this way after I’ve had some time to look at it subjectively.

As air rushed back in to fill the void, the woman next to me once again had fuel
for
her lungs
.

“Are you hurt
?
” I yelled, trying to get through her shock.

She kept going for a few seconds more before she began to shake her head from side to side. “I don’t…
th
-
think so
,” she said
hesitantly as she sat up.

“Everybody else?” I asked with a general question.

“Thank
you
,”
Dee told Brian as he half stood up in the small enclosure.

Spindler was still out cold
. T
he ol
d man was rubbing a growing knot
on the
top of his head
,
but seemed no worse for wear
;
his wife was looking over him
cautiously
.
O
ne of the
two boys just kept touching Dee’s legs.

“He doesn’t feel fishy
,”
t
he one with darker hair told his friend.

“His arm is bent funny
,”
the other
said
,
looking down at Spindler.

“Aw crap
,
it’s broken, he’s going to blame me for this
,” I said
,
standing up.

“I tried to catch him
,”
Brian said
,
but the bomb knocked me off my feet
.
M
issed him by about a foot.

“Are you a dragon?”
t
he first boy asked Dee
,
still rubbing his leg. “You feel like you got scales.”

“We need t
o
splint his arm before we get moving again
,” I said
,
looking in some of the debris in the drain that would be straight and strong enough.

“Where exactly are we going?” Gloria asked.

“The only place we can
,” I answered
her vaguely. I found a piece of wood that suspiciously looked like in a previous life it had been part of a cane.
I ignore
d
that.

Brian took his shirt off and was ripping it into strips so I would have something to tie the splint with.

“Would you rather I set it?” Dee asked. “Or wait until we get back and your surgeons can do it?”

“There are no such things as
d
ragon
doctor
s
,”
t
he first boy
said.

“You look tasty
,” Dee said
to the small
boy
.
T
he kid was
not deterred.

“Please don’t eat my brother
,
mister
,”
t
he older boy said to Drababan. “He’s all the family I
have left.” A small tear formed
in his eye.

“He was kidding
,” I said
to the boy. “Tell him you were kidding
,
Dee.”

Dee was still looking down at the small boy who was now trying to pinch Dee’s calf.

“Can you fly
?”
t
he small boy asked.

“No,
but I chew real well
,” Dee said
making sure to flash all his teeth. I thought the old woman was going to swoon.

“Kid
,
what’s your name?” I asked the older brother.

“Blake
,”
h
e responded
,
never taking his eyes off of Dee.

“Blake
,
could you please get your brother away from my friend?” I asked.

“He’s…
he’s your friend?” Blake asked
,
shuffling slowly forward to get his brother.

“It really gets old trying to explain this, but yes
,
he saved my life
.
O
f course
,
just before that
he was trying to kill me
,
but then he saved me.”

“That doesn’t make much sense
,
mister
,”
Blake said
,
finally grabbing his brother by the arm.

“None of it really does.
"

The boy looked at me like grown-ups were just about the weirdest thing on the planet
.
B
esides the Genogerians and the Progerians, I guess we were.

"What's your brother's name?" I asked Blake, his impish brother was pinching Dee's calf.

"Jeffrey." Blake answered.

No sound could be heard
top
side and except for the occasional heavy breathing and moans from Spindler not much was happening down here
,
either. Dee and I were busy hastily fixing Spindler’
s broken wing before he came to.
Brian had ascended the stairs to
check out what was going on top
side.

“Holy shit, everything’s gone.”

I paused to look up at him.
H
e was a shadow framed by a blazing sun.