SODIUM:1 Harbinger (10 page)

I began to think that if we got attacked the only point of reference we would have would be those piercing red eyes. I reasoned that they would make great targets for Bull and Allie. As the darkness came we each sat with our backs to one another for the warmth it provided as well as to give us a 360 degree view.

With no light to speak of we were left with listening to every drip or splatter from rainwater saturating the surrounding trees or the constant low roar that was the raging stream several hundred feet away. The sounds all seemed amplified and with the complete blackness we felt it would allow the demon to move about freely without being known, that is, unless we were able to see its eyes.

We decided that the red tarp gave away our position so we took it down and rolled it up. We then talked for an hour quietly about what we had seen. We were all fatigued from the day’s hike so Bull advised that two of us should sleep while the other two did guard duty. Allie and I took the first watch and Bull and Susi bedded down for the night.

Allie could normally carry on a conversation with just about anyone and about anything, but she was almost dead silent that night. It was as though I had to prompt her for a response from every little question or statement I put out. It would seem that even as fearless as she normally was, the whole thing was beyond what she knew how to deal with.

For me, I never wanted to talk more in my life. I wanted to know exactly what everyone was thinking, so I could draw better conclusions for myself. If Allie thought there was a weakness we could exploit I wanted to know what it was. I wanted to ponder just how we might take advantage of it.

If Bull thought they ran on diesel fuel I wanted to know so I could scheme about how to take out their supply. And, if Susi… well, I pretty much knew what Susi was probably thinking about. Her thoughts would have been about Kyle. Was he alive and held captive or had the demon done its worst.

As I stared into the darkness with my shift almost over the demon eyes made themselves known. They were popping in and out of my vision and I at first could not make out if they were getting closer. I hesitated for a moment before telling Allie and waking Bull and Susi.

We watched for ten minutes as the eyes went from right to left and from the creek up to the canyon wall and then back towards the creek again. It looked as though it was searching for us in a pattern. We sat still behind our rock wall with only our eyes peering out above it.

As we watched the red eyes move back up beside the canyon wall to our left Bull reached out and felt in the darkness for my head with his big right hand. When he had a hold he turned my head back down towards the creek and a moment later I saw a second set of the red demon eyes. I had been watching the one intently as it had gone over by the canyon wall, leaving the second unnoticed as it moved along up the creek.

I could only make out one eye which told me that it was looking up the creek in front of itself and not towards us. The first one had remained close to the canyon wall and I could now tell that it was indeed approaching us. We were a 100’ from the wall and 200’ from the creek.

We all watched quietly and kept ourselves as well hidden as possible as the two demons slowly worked their way past us. The one by the creek passed first followed by the other. As they moved slowly by, they got to the point where we could no longer see their red glowing eyes. It was very disconcerting knowing they were there, so very close to us and yet we could no longer see them.

Had they passed without seeing us? Were they almost as blind as us when it came to the darkness? Would we have been noticed had we moved? I wanted to know the answers to all of those questions.

The red eyes had gone invisible to us for almost five minutes when out of nowhere I got a violent urge to sneeze. It was one of those where it comes upon you before you have a chance to cover your mouth or nose. I tried my best to subdue it at the last possible moment, but there was no stopping it.

I let out a loud but short sneeze. I found myself wishing I had one of those sneezes that I had seen others do where they horribly scrunched up their face with almost no sound coming out except for a little “snnnit.” If the demons had ears I was certain they had heard it. And hear it they had.

Two sets of eyes turned back in our direction. Two sets of eyes now searched for whom or what had disturbed the rain soaked valley. Two sets of red demon eyes were now looking for me!

We sat still, each of us breathing as quietly as we could, each of us watching for the red eyes to lock onto us, each of us waiting for the inevitable confrontation that was before us. But it seemed it was our lucky night. A decent sized rotten branch on a nearby tree cracked and then fell to the forest floor with a wet thud. The red eyes immediately turned towards where the branch had fallen and focused on that point. They sat motionless for several minutes before turning back away from us.

We sat the entire rest of the night, looking up the valley toward where we had last seen them. Dawn’s first light brought an eerie pale color to the valley, but a welcome color it was. We had survived another encounter with the demons and this gave us further hope that we could somehow find Kyle. And, with a little luck, we might even be successful if a fight was needed. We were thinkers… they were machines.

Chapter 8

On inspection of the creek it was decided that we could make our way across. The rains had ended and the night had given the flood of water a chance to run down the valley and out of our way. After crossing we moved down the creek to where the trail picked up to take us on top of the ridge.

It was a slow and slippery climb. About three quarters of the way up the trail we encountered several steep assents. Bull climbed first and then threw a rope back down for the rest of us to secure ourselves. I felt the rope was a good idea considering my track record for disaster.

As I pulled myself up onto the final rock my right boot began to slide. I tried to get my balance with a stable foothold, but none was there to be had. I slid and then tumbled backwards falling ten feet before Bull pulled tight on the line.

The tumble brought with it more bruises and a rope burn around my waist. As I made the climb for a second time I was again thankful for my friend. I watched closely as Susi and then Allie made their way up, holding the rope as they came. From that point to the top of the ridge was easy going.

We now had a long walk across the plateau to get back to Lake Eleanor. The terrain was still wet and muddy. Even with my new bruises I was still excited about our hunt for the demons. The fact that there were now two did nothing to curb my enthusiasm. Man was hunting aliens and I was a part of the team.

As we walked, the skies began to clear and the temperature began to climb as drier air moved in. There would be no firewood for at least another night, but the fact that it was drying out gave me hope. As I walked I imagined the comfort of being dry and sitting around a warm fire.

With the clouds gone we would also have a chance for a little moonlight as the sliver of moon from the previous night would be getting bigger with each passing day. Being out of the canyon would add to the brightness. I was happy to not be faced with another night of pure blackness.

As the sun warmed my face and began to dry my clothes I could once again imagine building a big beautiful home in the area. As I walked I imagined building a small fortress and keeping a watch on the skies; intruders would be confronted early and sent packing back to whence they came.

I found myself consumed with different scenarios of how I would defeat the aliens or even how I might interrogate one if it was captured. I would demand that it tell us its secrets or I would take it apart piece by piece with my bat. My bold and brazen train of thought was only broken periodically to look back down the trail behind us; there was no sign that we were being followed.

We had a number of smaller ravines to cross along our way and with each one we would lose our ability to see for any distance. We tried our best to get in and out of them as quickly as possible because of the added threat. As we climbed our way down into one of the ravines our fears of being trapped became justified.

One of the demons had walked up to the edge of the ravine several hundred yards away from us. We were in a bad position and could not attempt to retreat as it would leave us fully exposed. Our only choice was to turn and run down the ravine with the hope of finding a defensible position.

We stood without motion as the demon scanned the ravine from the other side. I repeated over and over in my mind that we were invisible and that the demon would not see us. My thoughts of having magical powers ended when the demon stopped and locked its eyes on us.

On Bull’s command we all turned and began running down the ravine at our best clip. I glanced back to see the demon disappear and then reappear up on the ridge as it followed our movement. It was easily apparent that it was gaining on our position.

As we came upon a split in the ravine Bull made the command decision to send Allie and Susi down the split while he and I led the beast away from them. There was no time to argue and the girls turned and hid behind a boulder to wait for the demon to pass.

Bull and I both had to stop when the demon reached the edge of the ravine across from where the girls were crouching. Bull raised his .45 and fired a shot that skipped off a rock about two feet from it. I yelled and waved my bat. The demon turned back towards us and began bounding from rock to rock, gaining on us as we continued to run. The girls made their way safely up the split and out of the ravine as we continued to flee.

The demon had closed to within 50 yards of our position when the ravine finally opened into a flat expanse. We kept running straight ahead to a small outcropping of rocks that would offer us cover as we attempted to defend ourselves. The rocks were four feet high in front with a much larger boulder located just behind us. Bull had his .45 and his bear bow and I had my trusty bat. Up until this point we had not seen any type of weapon on the demon other than the obvious use of the knife blade for dissecting animals.

We crouched behind the rock with Bull having his .45 at the ready and me hoping that I would not be in need of my bat. With our somewhat secure position we hoped the demon would determine that we were too well defended. I hoped that it would then turn and leave. My hopes however, were not fulfilled.

The demon remained up on the ravine edge and was now keeping itself behind a large rock as it evaluated the situation. We were in a standoff for several minutes before the demon decided to make its move. A rock about the size of a baseball was hurled at us. After just missing Bull, it shattered on the side of the boulder behind us with a loud crack.

I was sprayed with small bits of debris. Even though the rock fragments did not break the skin, they offered a painful result, making the demon’s weapon an effective one. The rocks then began to crack on the boulder behind us one after another.

Bull popped up to fire off a round before being forced back down by the highly accurate throws from the mechanical pitching machine. He had spent a full clip when the demon made its next move. As Bull reloaded the demon jumped from the ravine edge down into the flats.

I saw the jump and turned to inform Bull of it as I had been peeking through a crack between two of the rocks. I also informed him that the thing was picking up rocks and heaving them with each of its legs as it advanced towards us. When I turned back to check its progress a rock hit in the crack directly in front of me. I was lucky that I had not been blinded as a fine, but heavy spray of fractured rock came through the crack and impacted me straight on.

I rolled over away from the crack covering my face in pain. When I pulled my hands back to look they were covered with blood. The shrapnel from the exploding rock had come through the crack and spattered my face with a thousand tiny grains. The impacted area ran from the tip of my nose down onto my neck.

It was all surface damage, but it was extremely painful as the larger bits had embedded themselves into my skin. Bull moved two feet to his left and popped up to fire a shot and was barely able to duck back under cover. Another baseball sized missile skipped off the rock he had popped up behind and shattered on the boulder behind us. The open expanse did not offer any cover to the demon. It did however, offer a seemingly unlimited supply of projectiles to be heaved at us. And the alien machine had a deadly accurate throw.

For just an instant I got the crazy notion that I could take a swing at one of the rocks with my bat and maybe launch it right back at our attacker… crazy notion turned out to be the correct term. I timed the next three impacts and popped up ready for the fourth, swinging my bat as I rose. To my delight I actually hit the rock dead on with the fat part of the bat. But unlike a baseball, the rock did not compress and then recoil off the bat. It instead shattered and again sprayed me with debris.

I dropped back behind cover just as the next rock skipped off the top edge of the rock where I was standing. It then shattered on the boulder wall behind us. Using the same timing technique as I had, Bull then popped up and fired off one more round before ducking back down. He then informed me that the demon was continuing its advance. It had us pinned down and he could not get off a decent shot to slow it.

He then moved to the left a few more feet, popped up and fired off another round. This strategy allowed him to get off a shot after each move, but he did not have time to aim with any kind of accuracy. The demon was also moving from side to side as it advanced towards us.

The 50 yards turned into 40 yards and then to 30. With each yard closer the demon came the more accurate its throws and the deadlier it was. At 20 yards Bull popped up for the last time as the demon had guessed where to make its next throw. It caught him on his way down.

The rock skipped off our cover and next made a glancing blow off Bull’s scalp just as he descended. It was enough of a scrape to cut the top of his head open and draw blood. With this Bull changed tactics and began to just try to pop up his hand with the gun itself to fire off a shot.