First Encounter Page 4

  I looked at him and decided I needed to get a little information from him, but didn't want the entire group there for this.

  "Ladies, why don't you head over to H100 and start pulling things together and Mike and I will be there shortly to help bring the stuff back here."

  Deb and Ariel looked at me and weren't too sure about going off in this strange place, but Michelle offered to go with them and show them where everything was.

  After they left, I turned to Randy and said, "I noticed a lack of warm fuzzies between you and Simon back there. Anything we need to know about?"

  Randy looked at me and then at Mike. Then he turned and walked over to the door and pulled it closed and even slid the lock closed. I could feel Mike tense up, as if he was getting ready for a fight, but I hoped it wouldn't come to that. Randy was big enough to break us both in half without even breathing hard.

  "Yes, sir, there is something you need to know and you should hear it now, before you hear it from Simon. When I said Simon was the mayor of these here caverns, the word I would have preferred to use would have been dictator."

  I looked at Mike and saw him relax, but I also saw his face get a couple of shades redder.

  "When the trouble started," Randy continued, "Simon and Calvin high-tailed it into these caverns and basically shut the gates, locking everyone else outside. As people started finding their way here, he made them swear an oath to follow his lead or he would leave them outside for the demons to kill."

  "How did Calvin get here from the base so quickly?"

  "He was on leave when all this came down. He was at home. Did you notice the sidearm he's carrying?"

  Mike said, "Beretta 9mm pistol."

  "Correct, sir. And he isn't shy about using it. He is Simon's muscle. I'd break his neck and take it away from him, but if anything happened to me, Michelle would be all alone and Calvin seems to think he has some sort of claim on her. I can't leave her alone with him breathing down her neck."

  The red in Mike's face was truly something to behold. I was beginning to think he could light up the whole room all by himself. I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder and told him to calm down.

  I looked at Randy and said, "Anyone else here know of Mike's past besides you?"

  "I don't see how they could. I haven't talked to anyone yet and I don't think Michelle heard what we said back at the field."

  "Good," said Mike. "Keep it to yourself for the time being. When the time comes, I'll introduce him to the Special Forces way of doing things."

  "I don't want to see anyone else get hurt," said Randy.

  "Mr. Barlow," I said, "we aren't going through a very dark period in our history just to be under the boot of a tyrant."

  "If anyone gets hurt," said Mike, "it will be those two."

  Okay," said Randy, "but I do have one thing to ask. Please call me Randy. Mr. Barlow was my dad."

  I smiled and held out my hand and said, "Randy, I'm Trevor and this is Mike. As a matter of fact, Mike, I think it's about time for all of us to be on a first name basis. No more sir."

  "Yes, sir … err … you got it Trev."

  I laughed and said, "Let's go find the ladies and see what kind of frilly crap they're thinking of decorating this place with."

  Even Randy had to laugh about that.

  7

  I was completely amazed.

  The ladies had foregone the frilly stuff and went right for the practical and utilitarian. Between the three of them, they had pulled mattresses and bedding into the tunnel and started getting some chairs and tables out. Mike, Randy and I started loading things onto the dollies and hauling them back to the room and stacking them inside.

  When we had enough furniture to make life comfortable, we went to the storage section across the tunnel and started pulling wall sections and when Mike looked at them, he shook his head.

  "What's the matter?"

  "Well, sir … Trev … Ariel and I might want to get a little frisky now and then and this isn't going to give us much privacy."

  Randy looked at him and smiled.

  "You two an item?"

  "You might say that."

  Randy thought about it for a moment. Michelle, who had heard every word of that exchange said, "Uncle, F130 is also empty."

  "I know, but Simon said to put them in this section."

  He looked at Mike and Ariel and then said, "But, you know what, maybe it's time to push against the boundaries."

  Ariel looked at him, then at Mike.

  "What does he mean?"

  Mike didn't answer her directly. He looked at Michelle

  "Michelle, I hear you might be a little apprehensive about our man, Calvin."

  She let out a slow, long breath and said, "That would be an understatement. I can't stand to be anywhere near him."

  He turned and looked at Ariel and said, "Ariel, sweetie, you and I are breaking up."

  The look on her face was one of horror.

  "What?!"

  "Only for a little while," he said.

  "Michelle," he said looking back at the teen, 'would you sit with me at dinner this evening?"

  "Mike," I said, "do you think now is the time."

  "Trev, these people have lived under this bullshit for far too long. If it's okay with you, it ends tonight."

  Randy spoke, "I think that may be a little hasty, Mike. I think you should step back for a couple of days and get the lay of the land before you try to take on Calvin."

  Mike looked at him and then at me.

  "I think he's right. We're not even here a few hours and we don't really have the complete picture. Waiting a couple of days won't hurt anything."

  "Okay," he said, but I could tell it was pretty hard for him to say it.

  "But," I said, "don't hesitate to take action if you absolutely need to."

  He nodded to me and that was the end of that.

  "Okay," said Ariel, "are we broken up or not?"

  "Not tonight, sweetie," he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

  We finished hauling everything we could think of back to the room and Randy opened up F130 next door and Ariel and Mike decided it looked like a wonderful home to them. Never mind the dirt walls and dank, musty smell.

  They were thinking of it as their own little love den.

  Over the next couple of hours, we set up the two rooms. Deb and I made partitions and walls from crates and wall sections toward the back of our room. Then we set up a table and chairs near the front and that was going to be our little conference area for the four of us.

  Randy took off, saying he had duties he had to attend, but told us dinner was going to be in about an hour in A005.

  Michelle stayed with us to help us get settled and when we finished, we sat at the table and Mike and Ariel came over and joined us. Mike and I filled in the ladies on what Randy had told us about Simon and Calvin. By the time we were finished, the two ladies were ready to take up arms and mount an insurrection of their own.

  Ariel reached over and patted Michelle’s hand and said, "Don't you worry, honey. He ain't gonna lay a hand on you."

  Michelle smiled and then her smile faded.

  "You two should know something," she said. "Simon has to approve of everything that goes on here and that includes couples getting together. He isn’t going to like that you two are together without his permission and he certainly won’t like it that you have taken a room all to yourselves."

  Mike looked across the table and said, "This just gets better and better."

  "I’m wondering why we even came back from the station," mumbled Deb.

  "We came back because this is our home and we’re not going to let some two-bit thug take it away from us."

  Everyone looked at me and I could tell we were all in agreement. It was going to be interesting to find out what we were up against over the next few days. One thing was for certain, we came home to a new planet and now we were planning our first revolution.

  Looking at Michelle,
I asked, "Just what makes him think he gets to decide who is seeing who?"

  "He used to be a preacher before all this happened. It is his contention that all of this is because of the sinful ways of man and it is payback from God."

  "Well, I don’t know about that, but I can feel his days as a leader of this community are fast coming to an end."

  Dinner time came and we all left the room and Michelle led us to the section being used as the community mess hall. It was set up with military style kitchen setups and was manned by various men and women, who looked like they had been on their feet for days on end.

  There wasn’t much in the way of food, but what they had smelled better than anything I’d eaten on the ISS for the past four months. It was mostly just heated canned food.

  Randy joined us for dinner and I was able to ask him some more questions.

  "What is the water situation like here?"

  "There is a spring about halfway up the hills behind the entrances and we’ve drilled into it and now have it piped into storage tanks near the back of the caverns."

  "Any chance of it running dry?"

  "It hasn’t in over a hundred years, so I don’t see it happening anytime soon."

  "Sounds good," I said. "After dinner, I’d like to get a look at those demon corpses you say are here."

  "I’d love to show them to you, but we’ll have to get Simon’s approval first. I don’t see him being a problem there, but I can’t guarantee that."

  "Who else wants to see the dead demons?" I asked.

  Mike chimed in like I knew he would, but Deb was a little less than enthusiastic about the idea.

  "Ariel, I think, as the medical officer in our group, your expertise will be quite valuable in examining them."

  "If you say so, sir. I’d like to find out myself if we really are dealing with demons from Hell or something else entirely."

  "I’ve already seen enough of them to know I don’t want to see anymore up close," said Michelle.

  "Why don’t you stay here," said Deb, "and fill me in a little more on life here in the caverns."

  "I can do that."

  8

  Randy took the three of us toward the front of the caverns and we found Simon and Calvin in their rooms. When I say "their" rooms, I mean each one had their own room and they were both set up with the nicest furnishings you could probably find in the storage vaults.

  When Randy said what we were looking for, Simon looked like he didn’t want to let us at the corpses. Like it was some secret item that only he should have access to and giving anyone else access would somehow diminish his power. In the end, he gave us the okay to examine the demons, but said we could only do so with Calvin along to keep an eye on us.

  "What do you think we’re going to do? Steal a corpse for our own pleasure?" asked Mike.

  "I just don’t like the thought of unlocking the vault they are stored in. I didn’t even want them brought in here, but Randy did it anyway, against my express wishes."

  "They’re dead, aren’t they?" I asked. "If they’re dead, then it makes sense to bring in any corpse we can get our hands on, so we can examine them and see what we’re up against."

  "I can tell you what we’re up against. This is punishment from God for the wicked ways of men. They won’t stop coming until we turn back to God or we are all wiped out."

  Simon looked at me and I could see the wheels turning between his ears, trying to figure out a way to decline my request. In the end, he knew he didn’t have any way to stop me and I had no problem with Calvin coming with us.

  When the door to the vault housing the corpses was pulled open, the stench hit us full-on in the face. I was very sure I was about to ralph all over the floor, but I was able to keep it down.

  Calvin stepped back and away from the door. When I looked at him, wondering if he was going to show us inside and maybe turn on a light, he just backed up.

  "Don’t like going in there?"

  "If I can help it. After you’ve done your examination, I’ll be right here to lock up."

  I nodded, but then had a bit of an epiphany. I asked Randy in a low voice if there was any reason he needed to go in. He said no, so I asked him to stay just outside the door. I had this vision in my head of Calvin closing the door after we all went in and locking us in. I could tell by the look on Calvin’s face that he had been thinking that very thing.

  "Be careful and keep an eye on him," I whispered to the big guy.

  Inside the room, we found five corpses laid out on low tables and covered in military tarps. Mike and Ariel were looking at the first covered corpse and they were both reluctant to lift the tarp. Mike had already seen a dead demon at the landing site, but this was going to be a first for Ariel and I think he was worried about how she’d handle it.

  I looked at her and asked, "You ready for this?"

  "Are you kidding me? How can I ever be ready for what’s under that tarp?"

  I shrugged and she said, "Go ahead. Let’s get this over with."

  I stepped toward the head of the table and lifted the tarp. Then I pulled it down, uncovering the upper half of the demon’s body. The smell was even worse once the body was uncovered.

  It was quite obvious these corpses had been dead for quite some time. They were shrunken and dried out, with their skin pulled back over whatever passed for a skeleton inside them. The one we were looking at had lost an eye during whatever battle he had been in and most of his teeth.

  At least, I think it was a he. Lifting the tarp and looking about halfway down its body, it was impossible to tell whether it was male or female. None of the plumbing was there.

  I looked across the table at Ariel and I could see she was going a bit green in the face. She might have thought she was ready for this, but I could tell this was nothing like what she had seen during her time dissecting cadavers during medical school.

  I stepped around and pulled down the tarps on the other four corpses and saw pretty much the same thing. All had died from head wounds, except for one. That one had been decapitated.

  Like they always said, kill the head, it’s dead.

  I looked at the five corpses and then called out, "Sergeant Tarsbury, could you come here for a second?"

  He stepped to the door, but no further.

  "Where were these five killed?"

  "They got inside the gates during a time when the trucks were coming in."

  "Any civilians killed when they got in?"

  "About twenty."

  "Twenty? Twenty people died from these five demons?"

  "That is correct."

  Mike was looking at him and then looked at me.

  "Whatcha thinking, boss?"

  "I’m not sure yet, Mike. I’m going to have to think about this for a bit."

  I looked over and saw Ariel plunge a knife into the chest of the demon she was examining. She used the super-sharp knife to open its chest. I looked at Mike with raised eyebrows.

  "Do you really think it was wise to arm her and Deb with those knives?"

  He laughed and said, "Don’t piss them off."

  Ariel looked up at me with a grin on her face. As Mike and I walked over, we were able to get a good look at the inside of the body and it appeared they weren’t very different from us. They appeared to have the same organs we have. Everything looked to be in the right places. It’s just they were black on the inside and in keeping with their smaller stature, their organs were smaller than ours.

  We studied the body for another five minutes or so and decided we weren’t going to learn anything further, so we covered the corpses and left the room. We could hear Calvin locking the door behind us.

  Randy walked beside me and said, "Those twenty that died, met their end because Calvin panicked and didn’t get the gates closed like he should have."

  I nodded and then looked at Mike.

  "The picture of this place is becoming clearer with every passing minute."

  9

  That evening,
the four of us sat together at dinner and Randy and Michelle joined us.

  We could tell Calvin was trying to get a little attention from Michelle in the serving line and asked her to join him at his table. When she came and sat at our table, between the two ladies, it was easy to read the anger on his face.

  During the time we were in public, it was decided Mike and Ariel should appear as no more than friends for the time being. When the time came to put Mike’s plan into action, it wouldn’t look too cool to have him start spending time with Michelle if he’d already shown his affection for Ariel.

  I have never seen two people more miserable than those two when they couldn’t even make sexy eye contact with each other.

  Mike did make sure to let Calvin catch him looking at Michelle a couple of times, just to grease the gears for later.

  Little did I know that Mike’s plan was never going to be needed. Much to Ariel’s relief.

  After dinner, we all got up and were walking away from the tables when the night was shattered by the sound of multiple 50-cal machine guns going off.

  "Oh no," gasped Michelle.

  "What’s going on?" I asked her.

  "Attack on the gate!"

  Mike broke into a run toward the gate and I sent the ladies back to our section. I told them where the pistols were hidden and told them to arm themselves. I wanted them to take Michelle with them, but she would have none of it. She took off for the gate and I ran to follow her.

  When we got there, I looked up into the framework of scaffolding behind the gates. There were platforms built at various levels and on those platforms were four machine gun emplacements, two on each side of the gate and all four guns were blazing away.

  I could hear Mike on one of the platforms, yelling at one of the gun crews to slow down. I knew immediately what he was getting at and I climbed up to an emplacement on the other side, with the intention of doing the same thing. What I found when I got there could not have surprised me more.