Indian Hill (37 page)

Was he saying something? Why was he wasting his breath, unless he was telling me he surrendered I really didn’t want to hear it.

“…thing personal.”

What? Did he just say nothing personal, he was coming over to crack my neck in two. Not somebody else’s neck,
my
fricken neck. How the hell was that not personal? I instantly flashed back to good old Tom Greenborough, only in this scenario I was Tom and I was begging for mercy. But there was no mercy here, only death. The place reeked off it. I swooned, “shit,” I thought as I collapsed to my knees, “I’m going to pass out.” And apparently Joe could tell by how my face had drained of all color that I wasn’t faking. This was no elaborate plot, my flight or fight mechanism had pretty much fried itself. I was the
fish out of water. Joe wasn’t taking any chances, he moved in fast as my eyes began to roll up into my head. He was a no nonsense type of guy, no sense in dragging out the inevitable. I couldn’t stop thinking of all those women back at the house.  They must be flipping out. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to see that my numbers had finally come up and they were all snake eyes. So this is how it
would
end, so close to the finish line and I fell, what a fucking bummer. And then Joe’s hands were on either side of my head, he was going to twist my neck like a bottle cap. 
'
I hope it doesn’t hurt.
'
I thought.
H
is hands on my head and neck electrified me, the only way I could describe it was like he was the jumper cable and I was the dead battery. My fried flight or fight mechanism coughed, sputtered and sprang to life. And there it was, Joe’s crotch was directly in front of my face. I wanted to relate this story and say that I threw my closed fist up and punched him as hard as I could in the jewels but that wouldn’t be the truth. I don’t know why I did it but I did it. I bit him, I bit him so hard I literally crushed his right nut in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not very proud of that fact, as I write this line I’m still debating about whether or not to
erase
it. It was horrible, it had the same consistency as that of biting into an unpeeled avocado, and then it burst. Joe immediately went rigid and attempted to scream, that part may have been the worst. The pain for him was so intense he couldn’t even vocalize it. I don’t know which of us was more in shock, him just stuttering in pain or me with his burst sack in my mouth. Thank God for cotton shorts. I let go and Joe fell over. He didn’t even attempt to break his fall, he fell straight backwards still wordlessly mouthing his agony. The sensation of the whole event had turned my stomach, I had ruined this man with my mouth, it was by far the most vulgar thing I had done to date. “Oh please,” I thought to myself, “don’t let there be another event to compare to this.” I turned and retched up everything that I had eaten for the last two days, and still I couldn’t get the sensation of his scrotum bursting in my mouth out of my head. When I finally turned back to look at him he was still rigid as a board staring straight up at the ceiling. He hadn’t even moved his hands to cover his damaged goods. And for the second time in this whole hellish nightmare someone begged me to kill him. And I had to, you can’t do what I did to another man and not finish the job, I still had that much humanity in me. I didn’t know if I had enough strength to snap his neck. I was afraid of botching that, and I wasn’t sure if I could take any more of this
.
So I brought the heel of my boot directly down on the bridge of his nose. I heard the splinter of bone, and
felt
the splash of blood, but I didn’t stop to check if my first blow had done the trick. I wasn’t brave enough for that. I wouldn’t be able to look at him if I hadn’t finished
i
t. I brought the heel of my boot down on his face again and again, to the point where there was no face left. I had crushed virtually every bone in his face and driven his eyes down into his brain cavity. Not only was there a massive amount of blood but also brain tissue began to splatter all around. And yet I stomped on. I know that at that point I had finally lost it. Even the aliens had enough. Two guards had to pull me off of him, they literally had to raise me off of the ground and still I kicked, strings of brain hung off my treads. I had crushed Joe’s head down to half of its former
size. I
t really wasn’t so bad. His face was so mangled it didn’t even look human, and that was almost something I’d be able to live with, almost. To this very day it doesn’t take much effort for me to relive every moment of that. After so many years it’s still that close to the surface. The guards had to carry me back to my quarters, I was so dysfunctional at the moment that if they hadn’t carried me they would have had to drag me. When they got to my apartment they deposited me on the foyer and left. I was vaguely aware of my surroundings; the women were just staring, mouths hanging open, dumbfounded. Just think how I was doing ladies. And then the cavalry came to the rescue. Stephanie.

“What the hell are you all looking at? Your champion is back and he needs our help.” That seemed to galvanize them. “Tanya, get his boots off.” I don’t know what she did with those shoes, but I never saw them again, and I’m a much happier person for it. “Gabriella, get some water! Rebecca, help me with his pants and shirt!” And all of a sudden the house was a blaze of activity, I was stripped, scrubbed, redressed and put to bed, all without me doing much more than moving the appropriate body part when asked to. I slept remarkably well that night. Maybe that’s how madmen do it. Without a conscience, I mean. How else after the horrors I inflicted that night could I be otherwise. That was the last waking thought I had that evening. I awoke the following morning feeling absolutely refreshed; I couldn’t begin to explain the lightness in my heart. Had I lost that much humanity? The women folk for the most part were very wary around me. How far over the line had I traveled and would I or could I even come back over it? Did I want to? It was so much easier on this side. No conscience, no worries, no pain. I felt great but yet I knew that was a horrible thought process. I must have had some horrible facial expression because the women avoided me. You would have thought that I had leprosy. It was later I learned that it was the lifeless grin on my face that had scared the shit out of all of them, even Deb and Steph. Nobody dared dist
urb me that day. What was going on?
I felt great and no one was even congratulating me on my win, the ingrates.

“Huh, I wonder what ranking I am today?” I yelled and laughed. The women all but tried to blend in with the surrounding furniture

“I’m going back to my room, I strongly suggest nobody make any noise.” I don’t even think they were breathing at th
at
moment. Hours later a little brunette named Bridgitte dropped a bowl on the floor and all the women froze, so sure they were of me busting out of that room and killing her. Bridgitte wept uncontrollably for an hour. I didn’t even know the whole thing happened, I had been dead asleep almost from the moment I entered my room.

CHAPTER 41

Vail

“Hey Colonel, you got a minute?” One of the newest enlisted men to the militia poked his head into the command tent.

“What can I do for you Private…?” Paul hesitated for a moment. “Anderson.” Paul took great pride in learning the names of every man and woman in his new army, from the highest to the lowest.

“Sir.” Paul still had not gotten used to that yet, but he was learning. “Sir, I was in town this morning picking up some supplies and I ran into this gentleman outside of town. He said he had heard rumors about what was going on up here and that he may or may not be interested in rendering his services.”

“Did he give you a name, Private?”

“I think he said More Rain or something to that effect.”

“Was he talking code, soldier?”

“Sir?” the private looked at Paul with a comical expression.

“Don’t worry about it Anderson, just send him in on your way out please.”

“Yes sir, right away sir.”

“Ah, so you’re the infamous Colonel Ginson that I’ve heard so much about.” Captain
Moirane
said as he sauntered into the room. He was not happy with his new assignment and it showed. Paul had known sooner or later Burkhalter or the FBI or CIA or one of those alphabet organizations w
ere
going to send a mole. He had no idea that it was going to be such a lightly veiled placement.

“What can I do for you Mr. …”

“
Moirane
, Sam
Moirane
.”

“Mr.
Moirane
.”

“I came up here to see what exactly was going on up here and if it was to my liking whether or not I would stay.”

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing army, Mr.
Moirane
?” Paul asked with a slight smile on his face.
'
This could actually work to his advantage. Having a known spy, he could be used as he saw fit. He could make it look like these guys were just a bunch of goof balls with some extra ammunition. That would greatly ease the prying eyes if they thought they were a bunch of buffoons
'
.
Paul thought.

“I’ll have you know Colonel Ginson that I still can run three miles in under twenty minutes,”
Moirane
said, heat starting to flare under his collar. He was a decorated Captain in the Marines and here he was taking heat from a self-appointed Colonel of a rag tag bunch of near fugitives.

“Have much need for that out in the civilian world, do you Mr.
Moirane
?”

Moirane
eased back a bit, he had almost blown his cover in the first three minutes, and he had no desire to tell the General he couldn’t even get enlisted into this quasi-military endeavor.

“Well if you can’t tell by looking at me, I’m prior military.”

“Prior, Mr.
Moirane
?” And now it was Paul’s turn to ease up. If he led on that he knew what this man was up to they’d just send another who might be much more difficult to root out. Who kn
ew,
maybe th
e
guy
wa
s here to take the pressure off of the real spy. Oh what a wicked web we weave.
Paul had a contact at the feds
, he had background checks on every one of his troops,
Moirane would be next.
He really only had two or three people in his unit that he had some unanswered questions about, and they were not so much as able to pee on their own without being shadowed. At least until they showed their true colors or proved themselves loyal.

“Prior, Colonel. I know a lot of things about how to organize a successful fighting machine. But I am only here if the cause is justifiable. If you’re here to overthrow the U.S. government or to hire your services out to foreign campaigns, I’m out of here. I have no desire to be with traitors, or for that matter, mercenaries.”
Moirane
said with a sneer.

“Hold on Mr.
Moirane
. Simmer down a bit. We are not here to take down the U.S. government, in fact that would be the direct opposite of our intentions. We are not here as mercenaries. We are not up here playing glorified games of paintball. We have one reason and one reason only to be up here.”

“And what is that?”

“Defense.”

“Defense from what, Colonel? Radical Muslim fundamentalists?”

“
Moirane
, I don’t know how much you’re trying to hide from me but I’ve got a fair idea you know what’s going on in the real world. Call me crazy if you want, you wouldn’t be the first, but I started this fighting unit for defense of our planet. My best friend on this woe begotten world was dematerialized in front of hundreds of amazed and horrified witnesses. Now g
ranted, the vast majority of tho
se people were on mind-altering substances of one sort or another. But when the government pulled out the old mass hallucination card I knew something was fishy right from the git g
o. I’ve got ten or twelve of those witnesses
I could round up for you in three minutes that will swear on their lives that they
saw
a huge ship literally take
everyone
right out of Red Rocks. We have heard rumors of the same thing happening in Russia and China but those governments clammed up even more so than our own. We also have visual confirmation of a huge ship staged or poised if you will in orbit around Venus.”
Moirane
’s face fell, outside of the military he had no idea anybody else knew about that ship.