Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (54 page)

“Not as bad as the city devastations
.
A
bout five hundred yards across has been leveled
,”
h
e continued.

“I hope Dennis is alright
,”
I added.

“H
e shot the missiles?” Dee asked
as he carefully realigned the bones in Spindler’s arm.

“
Yes.
You’re pretty good at that
,” I told
him.

“I practiced on myself
,” he answered
,
never stopping what he was doing.

I didn’t ask for elaboration, I didn’t want to know.

“I see movement on the far side
.
C
an’t tell who or what it is
,”
Brian said as he prudently came back down the ladder a few rungs.

“How far past our hiding spot do we need to get before we get back under cover?” I asked Brian.

There were still two fighters out there and my guess was that they had nothing better to do than to look for survivors and eradicate that problem.

“At least a hundred yards
,”
Brian stated
,
realizing how difficult a journey that was going to be.

I looked to the pipes that led away from this collection point
.
I had no idea where they went and the biggest wasn’t much more than
sixteen
inches in diameter
.
T
he boys
would fit
if they crawled. Even if I thought I could fit, I would have not gone because Dee would not be able to get in. At least that’s what I told myself
—
you can add claustrophobia to my list
of idiosyncrasies
.

“He’s
waking
,” Dee said
. There was some bone on bone grinding
as Dee moved Spindler's arm about
and then the best way I can describe it there was a ‘click’ like two Lego’s being snapped into place. “Apply the splint, Michael
,” Dee said,
making sure to keep Spindler’s arm still.

Spindler’s head was mo
ving slightly from side to side.
I could tell he was struggling to come up from the depths of unconsciousness.

I had no sooner tied
the last knot holding the
splint
in place when Spindler’s eyes fluttered open. I’m not sure who he was more chagrined to have staring over him
,
me or Dee. I could see the scream forming on his lips.

“Your arm is broken
.
M
y big friend here has set it and we’ve splinted it. You’re fine for now.”

He saved us all a lot of trouble by passing out again.

“That was fortuitous
,” Dee said
looking over at me.

“You’re really getting good at this
,” I told
him.

Brian was staring straight up. “Those fighters are still lurking around.”

“Dammit, Dee
,
any idea how long they’ll stay?”

“Not long, they are arrogant enough to think nothing could have survived.”

“Probably because nothing usually does
,”
t
he old man said.

I could only nod in agreement.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THRE
E
- Mike Journal Entry 20

The fighters were out of sight within a half an
hour
.
W
e waited a solid hour before emerging from the ground like reborn mole men. Dirty and bruised
,
we made our way across what was once considered the center of Dedham and which had now been redu
ced to something akin to a 1920
s Kansas dust bowl scene.

Jeffrey
rode atop Dee’s broad shoulders
,
barely able to spread his legs far enough apart to get them around his neck. “I can see everything up her
e
!”
Jeffrey
exclaimed excitedly.

"Shush." I said to Jeffrey, he paid me absolutely no attention as he figured correctly that I couldn't reach him from where I stood.

His brother looked slightly jealous
,
but his fear of Dee would not allow him to ask for the ride his brother had begged for.

“Hey
,
Dee
,
looks like there is plenty of room up there.”
I said.

“Michael
,
I have already told you that I am not carrying you on my shoulders
,” Dee replied
.

Spindler had finally awakened and screamed until Dee put him down
.
C
an’t say I blame him
,
either. Dee had been carrying him like a football, tucked up under his arm.

Spindler was pale with pain, but surprisingly he never complained. I guess he figured if he bitched
,
Dee would just start carrying him again whether he wanted to be or not.

“How many people died here today because of you
,
Mr. Talbot?” Spindler asked snidely.

“What the hell do yo
u
mean by that?” I shot back.

“Those aliens only dropped that bomb because their position was overrun
,”
Spindler replied.

“I don’t think you get it. For being an educated man
,
you certainly are kind of a stupid shit.”

“Enlighten me
,
then
,”
h
e replied.

“It’s our position that’s been overrun. The aliens own everything now, we a
re desperately trying to regain what was once ours.”

“By having it destroyed?”

“I’d rather the scorched earth method then have them take everything!” I yelled
quietly
.
I kn
e
w it ma
de
no sense, but the force behind the words spoke volumes itself.

“Relax
,
this is merely a debate
,” Spindler said
,
condescendingly.

“This is no fucking debate! Does this look like a
fucking debate? This is an all-out war, you
dip
shit
. Man has raced to the top of the endangered species list and you were willingly putting yourself in position to take out on
e of the last strongholds.
I should have just put a bullet in your head when I had the chance.” I brought my rifle up, the barrel
was mere inches from his eye
, it would have been so easy to just pull th
at trigger and be done with it and him. Blake’s brother was shying away from the whole episode. Everyone was
still.
T
he only thing that moved was the sweat
free-flowing
down Spindler’s face.

“I’m sorry
,” Spindler said
softly.

“Damn right
,
you
’
r
e
sorry!” I said
,
still shouting, driving the barrel into his cheek. “He said he was sorry, Michael
,” Dee said
. “Isn’t that sufficient
verbiage
in your culture to allow you to stand down from your present course of action?”

I wasn’t expecting him to be the voice of reason. I pushed Spindler
away with the gun.
H
e would have a circle imprint in his face for a few more hours. I
strode
ahead to get away from Spindler, afraid that I was still close to murdering him.

“You alright?” Brian asked
,
coming up on my side.

“I will be.” And I said no more.

***

It was getting dark rapidly and I still didn’t think we had covered half the distance back to The Hill. Between Spindler
and the
o
ld man
,
we were just about crawling. We stopped for at least the
twentieth
time and not a moment too soon as an alien fighter screamed by.

“Dee?” I asked.

“Look
s
like they’re prepping for another landing
,” he said
,
shielding his eyes from the setting sun and
the glint of light off of
the multitude of sh
i
ps lining up in the sky.

“It looks like
this is a full scale invasion.” Brian whistled.

“It is a large percentage
,” Dee answered
.

The ground
rumbled
as ship after ship made land contact.

“We need to press on
,” I said
,
standing up.

“My…
my husband can’t go on
,” Gloria said
.

“Well
,
he doesn’t really have many other options.
Hey
Brian
,
will you help me
?
” Brian and I each got under a shoulder to help the man to his feet.

“Michael
,
I can carry him
,” Dee said
.

“You’ve done enough
,
let me do this
,” I said
, Dee nodded in
understanding. “You ready
, old
timer?” I asked.

“I was in the
G
reat
est World
W
ar
,”
Vern replied
.

I thought that an understatement, I was thinking the one we were mired in now might have usurped it.

“Why don’t you tell us a story to he
lp the time go by?” Brian asked
and that was the only window the man needed.

“We were on
Tarawa, I was in the 6
th
Marine regiment. I watched as our ships bombed that island into the
Stone Age
. We didn’t think anything much bigger than a cockroach was going to be able survive that barrage
or
so we hoped
.
”

***

“What do you think
,
Vern?” Private Killinger asked
,
coming
up to his friend PFC Banks.

Vern was leaning against the railing, smoking his second straight pack of Pall Malls, watching as shell after shell left the battleships and crashed into the tiny island beyond. “I think we’re going to sink that island before we ever get a chance to land
,” Vern said
,
tossing
the remains of his
filterles
s cigarette into the ocean, almost swearing that he could hear it sizzle out as it hit the water below.
His senses were so dialed up for the oncoming invasion, he thought maybe it wasn’t so much his imagination. He pondered that even as he lit another cigarette.

“Wouldn’t that be something!” Killinger replied. “I wish it would, I’d be happy if I never had to look at those yellow devils again.”

Vern nodded in
agreement. They had been briefed on how savage the enemy was but words meant nothing when you were actually confronted
by
an enemy that seemed completely unconcerned with life, their
own
or his. He had watched in horror as wave after wave of attacking Japanese had come at their machine gun nest
on the Philippines
with nothing more than swords and bayonets. It was all he could do to run enough ammunition through his gunner’s weapon to keep them at bay. The Japanese seemed all too willing to sacrifice their bodies
to
the American bullets.