Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Indian Hill 3: Conquest ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure
Indian Hill 3: Conquest ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure
Indian Hill 3: Conquest ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure
Ebook506 pages7 hours

Indian Hill 3: Conquest ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Michael Talbot thought he was done with the Arena.

He was wrong.

Handed over by those who were supposed to protect him, Mike finds himself -- once again -- aboard the Progerian ship facing the prospect of yet another death match. But all is not as it seems within the alien ranks and Paul Ginson has the Progerians' number. Before long Mike finds himself back where this story began: Indian Hill.

War is no longer coming. It has arrived and things aren't going well for the hometeam. Most of the major cities have been destroyed. The armies of the world have been reduced to a shadow of their former strength. Paul's militia, designed to be a first line of defense is now Earth's last hope for a stalemate. And with the help of an unexpected ally, it might just barely be enough.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherMark Tufo
Release dateMay 12, 2012
ISBN9781452469768
Indian Hill 3: Conquest ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure
Author

Mark Tufo

Mark Tufo was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended UMASS Amherst where he obtained a BA and later joined the US Marine Corp. He was stationed in Parris Island SC, Twenty Nine Palms CA and Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. After his tour he went into the Human Resources field with a worldwide financial institution and has gone back to college at CTU to complete his masters. He lives in Colorado with his wife, three kids and two English bulldogs. Visit him at marktufo.com for news on his next two installments of the Indian Hill trilogy and his latest book Zombie Fallout

Read more from Mark Tufo

Related to Indian Hill 3

Related ebooks

Science Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Indian Hill 3

Rating: 3.866666653333333 out of 5 stars
4/5

15 ratings1 review

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a very difficult book to rate. On one hand there is a part of this book that feels like a version of "Stand by Me"--a fact that the author even acknowledges--the actions that happen, the language and thoughts of the characters feels real, stupid stuff and all. And then sometimes right after it reads like a teenager wrote it, cliched situations, cliched dialog, cliched aliens, and cliched wish-fulfillment fantasies.

    So in spite of the fact that it is almost 2 distinct books in one, I'm going to continue the series. Hopefully the good will outweigh the bad going forward.

Book preview

Indian Hill 3 - Mark Tufo

Chapter One

Mike Journal Entry 1

Two weeks, two fucking weeks I spent in a hyperbolic chamber as the aliens did their medicinal magic on my shattered teeth, broken jaw, ribs, nose, left orbital socket, detached retina and a slight break in my shin. So the fucker had broken my leg when I took out his airway. Son of a bitch that he is—I mean was.

I’ve learned a new term from your race, Mr. Talbot…tenacious.

My head swiveled to see from which area the voice came from. My gaze rested on a small speaker box set in the left side of my now semi-permanent home.

It’s me, Mike. The small metal box issued forth, as if that were enough explanation. I had thought about answering but the mere thought of moving my jaw made me think twice. I had no desire to revisit that pain.

It is I, your doctor (he said it like I would remember him), and you can talk. You’re jaw is almost completely healed. I must say that you hu-mans truly are a resilient species. Although not quite as hardy as the Progerians or even the Genogerians, yet you still seem to bounce back quickly from damage.

I’m glad that I can be of service, Doc, I said sarcastically and not much above a whisper. The doc might be right, but I wanted to be sure the parts moved well and without much pain before I started doing any operatic arias.

You truly are a unique species, both delicate and strong at the same time. A small instrument inserted in the right spot can stop your heart in a moment but yet you can survive having nearly every bone broken in your body. You talk about you’re loathing of violence and warfare, yet it pervades every aspect of your culture, your entire civilization is predicated on warfare. You talk of equality of all humankind while you step on the necks of those below you. Your art, your music, your spirituality have almost no rivals among the known universe, but the vast majority of your kind would trade it all away for individual gain. You are altruistic to a fault, while self-preservation reigns supreme.

Are you done with the semantics lesson, Doc? I’m still not feeling all that well.

Right, right…well, that’s not really what I wanted to discuss anyway. I was just musing. I am writing my report for the home world. They will be very curious about your species and we should have some record of it.

The implication was unsettling. The doc hadn’t talked about it, but there it was out in the open. They wanted a record of us before we became extinct. Doc, get to the point, or you’re going to be talking while I’m sleeping. I had no desire to humor this being. Sure, he was one of the few that had been something sort of decent, but when it really came down to it, it had only been for his personal gain. It’s great to know that greed could travel the star systems, as well.

Yes, I just wanted to let you know that I bet everything that I had won on your previous bouts on this last fight. And at twenty-six to one odds, I came away with more drakkar than my offsprings’ offspring could spend. I will be able to, as you hu-mans call it, ‘retire’.

Wow, Doc, I can’t tell you how happy for you I am.

Why thank you, Mike. Coming from you, that is actually great news.

Whatever, Doc. But what does that do for me?

Do for you? Why nothing, hu-man. I came here only to let you know that you have bettered my life. Unfortunately for you, your time will be up in another week or so.

I sat up so fast, I was rewarded with a solid thunking of my head on the top of the chamber.

I’m guessing by your reaction that you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Oh, I know what you mean. I just didn’t think that it would be that quick.

If it’s any consolation, I’m not betting any money on Drababan, either. He should be able to kill you in under ten seconds, but I’ve watched you far too many times to believe you are as far an underdog at which the odds-makers have you. Which is actually at two hundred fifty to one.

Wow, that close? From the silence through the box I knew the doctor was still trying to process my words. He probably thought I misunderstood what he had said.

Well, okay… he muttered. I will let you sleep now. The healing medicines work much better when the patient sleeps. It has to do with the relaxation of the endocrine system.

I heard the intercom system shut down and then the lights in the chamber dimmed as if in response to the doctor’s words. Hell, what did I know, that was probably exactly what happened. As much as I tried to fight sleep, I needed to think about how I was going to get out of this situation; consciousness eluded me. My dreams were filled with despair—sorrow and an aching that went deep down into the recesses of my brain. Even if by some small miracle I survived the ordeal, I would be a broken man, a shell of the person that I had the potential to become. Soon even self-pity faded away.

I washed up on a beach of golden sand and the brilliant red of a sunset. It had been Heaven, of that I was sure upon waking many hours later. But why was I being shown that, was it in preparation for my soon-to-be earthly departure? There was no way I rated a spot in nirvana, though, I had done things for which there was no absolution; why was God tormenting me this way? Was he showing me what my loss of humanity had lost me in the afterworld? Had my brief pathetic stay in life cost me my afterlife? Or was he showing me there was still hope for my soul?

I wept for hours upon waking, even as my glimpse of Heaven began to fade from my waking. There was still hope; I came away with that, if nothing else.

Chapter Two

Beth had traipsed through the woods the majority of the night; it was fear that drove her. Not fear of the woods, although that did unsettle her some. It was the fear of what was behind, glimpses of the Sergeant’s bloated body haunted her every move. That, and the man’s head she had so neatly dissolved; add to that the fact that she missed Deborah. The girls had become fast friends in their mutual shared agony.

Beth couldn’t take it anymore; she stumbled toward a fallen tree and slouched down, her ass making a solid thud as she wept into her hands. Hunger, pain, and despair took over. Beth sobbed until she felt certain she had completely wrung out her soul, and then she cried some more. Afterward she slept, a soulless, dead sleep, no dreams permeated her mind for if they had they most assuredly would have been dark and oh so regrettably unforgettable. She awoke sometime after midnight, the sky was black—but not as dark as her soul, she figured. However, what disturbed her was the silence, or better yet, the absence of sound.

The woods were deathly silent, nothing stirred. But there was something out there, she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t smell it but she knew it was out there all the same. A deer maybe? Even in her fantasy world she knew that wasn’t the case. Deer don’t make the woods go quiet. Only hunters have that effect; and with that revelation, she was now wide awake and wide-eyed. Fear didn’t so much creep as it leapt into her heart. She turned her head slowly from side to side trying in vain to catch some sort of sighting of whatever was in the forest with her.

Was it the sergeant? Was his purplish blue body trying to find her and take her with him? That was insane, wasn’t it? Wasn’t an alien invasion two years ago considered to be an insane thought? Beth hunkered down trying to make herself as small as possible.

Crack. Something off to her left had broken a fallen branch. Her heart raced as she blindly reached out trying to grab onto anything that could be used as some semblance of a weapon. Nothing happened for ages, for eternities, whatever it was had sensed its blunder and was trying to establish if its quarry had been alerted. If the quarry had been Beth, she most assuredly had been warned, but prior warning in no way implied preparation.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she said softly as she pounded her head. Why didn’t I take the gun?

That small error now took on a much greater magnitude. Something or someone was close and so far Beth had only been able to secure a handful of moss as a potential bludgeon. The crack had been close enough, but whatever was stumbling through the woods was heading in her general direction. Beth pulled her legs in close and hugged them for all they were worth. She considered running, though she knew she would be running blind and there was still the possibility that the thing out there might pass her by, but with every agonizingly slow second her hope of just that diminished.

Closer.

It approached slowly as if unsure of its location, closer all the same. Beth held her breath, whatever it was, was only feet away. She could hear it breathing, if it was a meat-eating animal, she had only a few minutes of precious life left.

There it was. It muttered a semi-silent curse. It wasn’t an animal in the traditional sense, but it was a meat-eater and it was looking for her. Was it the Sergeant—was he really coming for her?

Fuck, she heard again.

It didn’t sound like the Sergeant. Who was it? And why were they out here in the middle of nowhere looking for her? Was it one of the raiders? Had someone seen her handiwork? Or was it her handiwork himself coming to seek some sort of revenge? When she was sure that he would literally fall over her feet, he moved on. She heard him walk through the woods and now that her senses were peaked he sounded like a bull in a china shop. Beth finally let her breath out, thankful for one of the few times in her life that she hadn’t taken a bath in the last couple of days. Her hammering chest slowly quieted as the footfalls from her pursuer grew fainter.

Oh, Deb, where are you? she wept. Mike, I need you!

Chapter Three

It had been weeks since the mother ship or for that matter any of the fighter ships had so much as blinked and Paul could not help but wonder if this was the calm before the storm. Civilization for the most part had crumbled, sure there was a viable resistance set up across the globe, but could it stand up against any sort of onslaught? Paul thought not. The best mankind could hope for was to die free. It wasn’t how he had planned his life, but then he figured that it really wasn’t how any of them had.

Well, better get on with it, he said out loud.

Sir?

Oh, I’m sorry, Corporal, Paul said as his addled thoughts converted back to the more streamlined and simplified of the military life. What is it, Corporal Addison?

Sir, the civilians are beginning to grow restless. A growing minority of them want to go topside, they’re sick of living like rats, tucked away and hidden.

Better to be hidden, living like a rat, than shot down like a dog.

Sir, nothing has happened for over two weeks. Maybe the worst of it is over.

I take it, Corporal, that you are part of this growing minority? The corporal did not respond. Do you truly believe that our ‘friends’ up in the sky, after so thoroughly kicking our mightiest militaries’ collective asses in a matter of days, have since decided that maybe this planet isn’t worth the effort after all?

The corporal struggled for a second. Paul couldn’t completely blame him; they had all lost most of their loved ones and wanted to now try to get on with some semblance of normality.

No, sir, I don’t. But what are they waiting for?

Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Maybe they’re busy prepping their ground troops, maybe they’re waiting for reinforcements, maybe they’re just toying with us like a cat with a mouse. Maybe they just want to completely crush our spirits when they have our greatest champion slaughtered at the hands of their champion live as it is broadcast around the globe on the Alien Sports Network. Fuck, Corporal, I don’t know, but if so much as one person attempts to go topside without explicit orders to do so, I want them detained and if they resist I want them shot. I will not have our last bastion compromised because some in our group want to go smell daisies! Do you understand, Corporal?

Sir, yes, sir! The corporal snapped to attention, saluted, and about-faced to tell his girlfriend that they’re topside picnic was going to have to be postponed for a while.

Frank, I know you were listening—can you believe this shit?

Sir, I can. Every day the aliens do nothing, the more restless our charges get. I almost wish they’d attack so we could direct our energy somewhere.

How go the preparations for the fight site?

On schedule, Paul, maybe a little ahead. I think our French friends feel a little guilt for how quickly they were willing to give Mike up.

Good. Whatever leverage we can use on our froggy friends to make sure they get the job done right is fine with me. What have the new models listed the possibility of a successful raid at, Frank?

Not good, Paul. Even with our changes in tactics we’re really only looking at a one in four chance in pulling this off.

Well, let’s just hope this is the fourth chance and not any of the other three.

I’m in agreement. Oh…and one more thing, Paul. The major turned and said as he was headed out the door. Paul nodded for him to continue. Our stores are down to two months even with rationing.

One way or the other, Frank, I don’t think we’re going to need the full two months. The major nodded as he put his cover back on and headed to the civilian sectors to quell any sort of uprising that might have been rearing its ugly head.

Is any of this worth it? Paul could feel his deepest doubts surfacing. He felt powerless to stop them. Even he thought they should have the chance to breath in fresh air one last time. Throw a baseball under a beautiful blue sky once more. Hear the laughter of children as they played on a swing set. Wasn’t that their right?

NO! Paul forced it down.

He knew he hadn’t taken their rights away, the invaders had. He just felt that he was the last stop-gap to prevent any further loss of whatever rights they may have left. Letting them go would be tantamount to mass murder, sure not by his hands, but he would shoulder the blame all the same. While there was any semblance of hope, he would hold onto it as long as possible. To let go of the tiger’s tail now would be to admit defeat, and if Mike could keep going on after all he had been through, then dammit, so could he. He would not be bested; not by the aliens, not by fate or destiny, and definitely not Mike.

Even through all this mess. Paul laughed. It comes down to a competition with Mike. I won’t lose to him, to see that smug look of satisfaction on his face as he sees me in defeat, I would rather die at the hands of the aliens. And somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, he knew that he would get his chance.

Chapter Four

Mike Journal Entry 2

How are you doing, Miike?

I was aroused from my sleep by a butchering of my name. Was it friend or foe? My memory seemed to have taken an indirect hit during my bouts, but as the layers of unconsciousness peeled away, I was able to place a name with the face hovering over me.

Drababani? I’m sure I returned the butchering almost as well as my visitor.

Close, hu-man, it is pronounced ‘Dra-ba-ban’. How are your wounds?

I had not the resolve or the strength for the barbs I felt like issuing. Or lies for that matter. My next and most likely last combatant probably knew my condition far better than I. I still hurt, Drababan. And I feel as weak as a new born lamb.

I do not feel pity for you, hu-man. You have proved your might over and over again. And you have fought honorably. I will feel something that Genogerians seldom do. I think that your hu-man term is regret—regret that I will have to exterminate the life force that is within you. If all of your kind battled like you, we may have moved on to a much easier confrontation.

Confrontation? Is that what you’re calling it? It was wholesale slaughter. You took us completely by surprise and have done your best to exterminate what is left. I knew what I was about to say was a lie, but if I could make this brute just stop to think for even a second it was worth it. And you’ll see what my kind can do when our backs are to the wall.

To the wall? I do not understand, hu-man.

It means, you fucking ape, that we’re not through yet. We’ll make you pay for what you’ve done! It was false bravado, but it was still somehow cathartic.

Miike, I did not come here to elevate your vital signs, I came as one warrior to honor another warrior.

Drababan, I am not a warrior, I’m just some scared kid whose world has been turned upside down. I was cornered and I did what I could for myself. But at what cost? I have lost my soul, Drababan. I traded my life for my soul.

Ah, that is something I do understand, the Progerians do not believe in what you call a soul but the Genogerians in secret have always believed in Cravaratar.

Cravaratar?

That would be equivalent to your…religion, I think is the word you use.

You’re spiritual? I find that hard to believe. Drababan seemed unperturbed at my comment.

There are a few of us left that hold on to the old ways, although penalty of death for practicing our rites has greatly reduced our numbers.

Recognition dawned. Is that how you became a gladiator?

Gladiator? Ah yes, I was the leader of a small group of worshippers when soldiers stormed my home. They killed all that were present save me. I was forced to become amusement for the masses.

So have you sold your Cravaratar for your life?

Perhaps I have, hu-man. I truly had never thought of it in that manner. I do what I do now for my honor.

Do you have family, Drababan? Do you mind if I call you, Dee?

No, I would not mate for fear of what would happen to my family should it ever be found out that I had not let go of my previous beliefs.

Have you ever thought of just stopping? I asked

Stopping?

Fighting, I mean…not believing.

He nodded imperceptibly, I have not, Miike, for what would there be left for me? To stop would be suicide, and suicide opposes everything that the Cravaratar stands for.

Maybe we have more in common than you think, Dee. How long have you been a warrior? I asked, more for the sake of conversation than a true desire to know.

He might be the enemy and more than likely my killer, but somehow it was more comforting having him right in front of me than elsewhere, you know the old saying keep your friends close and your…well you know the rest. But there was something else about Dee he was for a lack of a better term, a religious being. He believed in a higher entity than himself, and he tried even under the circumstances to live to that standard. He didn’t realize like me that we were both failing miserably.

Ten years, he answered, breaking my thoughts.

Ten years? How have you not gone insane? I shouted to myself.

One hundred twenty-eight lives I have sent to a better place.

Is that how you get to sleep at night, with the belief that you have bettered your victims’ lives?

These fights, Miike, are going to happen whether I am involved or not. I am not the crazed killer your Durgan was. Was it not advantageous to all life that you defeated him? How many of your species’ women did you save? I do what I do because this is my lot in life. I have mourned for the majority of combatants I have felled, but some were equivalent to that monster you defeated and for them I feel nothing except sadness for their souls which will spend all of eternity in Drespenden.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure Drespenden was his version of Hell. Damn, a theologian would have a field day studying this species. In so many ways, our existence mirrored theirs. Life was life no matter what the form.

You are truly an enigma, Dee.

He cocked his head in the universal gesture for ‘Huh?’.

You are by far one of the most spiritual beings I have encountered in mine or your civilization, yet you are a supreme killing machine, maybe I meant dichotomy. I don’t know, Dee. You come to me as a friend to see how I am doing, but in less than a week you will be trying to kill me.

Not trying, Miike.

He said it with such conviction, how could I not believe him? I was his next victim and I believed it with all my heart, as did he.

I will mourn for you, Miike, as I have not mourned for anyone else I have faced in the arena, but the outcome will still be the same. You are an honorable being, you are a spiritual being, whether you believe it or not. You are an intelligent being, but you will be the one hundred twenty-ninth name I will write on my tibujarar.

Tibu—what?

Tibujarar. It is a sort of journal, warriors use to keep record of those they have met and defeated in battle. It is an honor to be entered into a tibujarar. It is a sign of respect.

Too bad I won’t be around to take part in the festivities.

Dee looked at me with which could only be described as a blank look. How could they be so far up the evolutionary scale and not know what sarcasm was? Man, too bad they hadn’t attacked Boston first, they wouldn’t have made it any farther, I quipped silently.

Is something humorous, Miike?

"The whole fucking thing is kind of humorous, Dee. First, I got a date with the hottest girl in college, who actually liked me. Then we go to this hippy concert, which really isn’t my thing, then I get picked up by aliens, which is rather humorous in its own right. But then, Dee, it gets really hilarious. The girl I start having true feelings for becomes a prize and I have to fight for her, but not in the traditional way. No, you see, I have to at the same time not only preserve my life and the lives of my charges but kill other humans, and not because they are my enemies but merely because they have the unfortunate circumstance of being in the fighting arena with me. So I win some fights, kill some people, fear the worst and begin to fall in love with another woman, not because I’m truly in love, but I am afraid for my own mortality and the false comfort of another is still better than no comfort at all. In the meantime, a full scale invasion is being planned against my home and everything that I know, love and cherish is threatened. And when all seems darkest, a light shines at the end of the tunnel and I am in one fell stroke able to save myself and my ‘harem’ as it were.

"So when I finally get to touch down to my home, I realize that my mother has died and my father is on the verge of coming apart because of her death and my disappearance. My best friend has set up some sort of militant camp in the mountains of Colorado.

"I go to see him because I am trying to get away from one woman who loves me for all the wrong reasons and one who loathes me for what I have done and become, I go seeking out my friend. I am treated like the returning Helen of Troy, my presence is suspect, I am an outsider on my own planet. How is that possible? My friend proceeds to shoot me in the back no less and sends me to France. Who does that? Isn’t there a more hospitable place I could have gone? Say like the Sahara?

Then I come to find out I am no more wanted in that country than I was in my own. The French can’t wait to give me up. But what can you expect, they’ve been giving up now for close to a hundred years, it must be something inherent in them. So then I find myself back on board the USS Planet Earth Destroyer to fight the man voted most likely to be a sociopath in his high school yearbook. By some grace of God, I side-step death to be faced with the ultimate weapon of death—you, my friend. So you see, I either find humor in the whole thing or I crawl into a corner and await the inevitable.

My friend?

I couldn’t help but smile. Apparently, Dee had ‘tuned out’ my entire diatribe except for two words, which I more intoned as another witticism than of anything regarding substantiated meaning. Shit, maybe sarcasm was finally going to work in my favor for once rather than something that was going to lead to trouble like my mother always said.

Sure, my friend, I said. "You’re the closest thing to it here. You talk to me without the pretense of gain. I know that you are here to gather more information for your tibujarar, but I also know that you, like me, are an outsider, you can never ‘fit in’ to your own society, whether it be from your masters or your own people. You are an outcast for what you believe in and now for what you do. Sure you may be revered and awed by those who you claim to know, but they are far more impressed for what you do for them, whether it is to fatten their pockets or for the thrill of your ‘entertainment’, it will never be for what you think you stand for or what you believe in your heart. When you die, Dee, nobody will mourn your passing. Another will take up your spot and carry forth your torch of destruction. Dee pondered this for a moment and abruptly stood.

We will talk more of this matter later, he said gruffly. He turned to walk out of my room.

Well, you had better make it soon, Dee, I don’t think I have that much time.

With what appeared to be a glint in his eye (was I imagining it?) he answered, Perhaps. And with that he left me to think as I no doubt left him the same way.

Chapter Five

Beth slept fitfully at best, the slightest sound waking her. But with the approaching light of day, she could not sit in the open no matter how much her fear was rooting her to that space.

Get up, Beth.

Trying a verbal approach to motivation, she knew staying put was tantamount to suicide. Eventually whoever was tailing her would discover they had passed her up in the night and begin backtracking methodically. But moving also had its own inherent dangers. What if she moved up on her attacker while he was sleeping? She didn’t feel like she would be much of a match for anyone over the age of ten. Tired, hungry, scared, and alone, she felt she would more than likely just give up rather than face another confrontation. Now she knew what Mike meant when he had told her that he had just wanted to give up. But he hadn’t, he had faced all sorts of horrible odds and still plodded on.

Oh, God. Where are you, Mike? she cried. But the crying did more to steel her resolve than to melt it away.

I will go on if for no other reason than to see him just one more time—to tell him I’m sorry, that I’m sorry for so many things, she thought. And if that bastard in the woods comes for me, I’ll rip his throat out.

Even she didn’t believe the last part, but it sounded a lot better than, ‘I’ll grovel at his feet for mercy.’ Beth walked for what seemed like hours, in somewhat of a straight line, but the New England scrub brush was doing its best to keep her off course.

I’ve got to get to a road, I’ll die long before I get to Walpole at this pace. And this she knew to be the truth. She knew after her last disastrous encounter, she would have to be doubly careful, she didn’t even have the sergeant any more for protection. And with the physicality of a punch to the stomach she bent over from the pain, the pain of loss, the pain of loneliness, the pain of it all.

Beth, like everyone else, was having great difficulty assimilating all the events that had happened in the recent past. She had grown up on the far slope of the bell curve, her family was affluent, she wanted for naught as a youngster. And although personally, she knew she was attractive, she didn’t wholeheartedly believe that she was the ravishing beauty that so many had labeled her as. Her whole life up to two years ago had been what many would consider a fantasy. She was head cheerleader and prom queen in her junior and senior years, boys fought over the right to date her. And she loved it, she craved the attention. And to top it off, she was only point-twenty-three percentage points from being valedictorian—beauty and brains, she was a deadly combination.

Then college started, where she felt for sure her inadequacies would start to show through. But if anything, the light that was Beth had begun to shine even brighter.

College work had come as easy to her as high school and grown men stopped to stare as she walked by. And then came Mike; he had been just one of many potential suitors. Sure, she felt something for him, but of all the men that had been vying for her attention she wasn’t even sure he cracked the top five. There had been something about him that she hadn’t been able to put her finger on, and she had been eager to find out what it was. So she had toyed with him to a degree trying to ascertain his secrets.

And then had come Red Rocks, an event for which she’d been wholly unprepared for. Her head hadn’t completely finished spinning when she’d tried to wrap her mind around what the games were about and what the ‘combatants’ had been fighting for. Although she’d known it was wrong, she couldn’t help but smile a little at the fact that all the men had been fighting over her. It had been nothing conscious, but still, there it was. Even aliens were able to ascertain that her beauty was above those of her peers and had placed her at the center of attention for their ‘games’.

True, she had been shielded from participating in the brutality, but she had borne witness that had been the whole spectacle. It wasn’t until she began to track the progress of Durgan that a deep unsettling fear began to worm its way into her very being. This wasn’t a game. This was real; real people were dying and she would be among them if that monster had his way. He was an animal, no doubt about it, and he would not place her on the pedestal with which she had become accustomed to her whole life.

And then there was Mike. She finally began to understand what he was hiding from her, it was an uncontrollable rage which could be unleashed with sudden and savage fury. She felt that he had a little devil trapped inside which he could set free when the events warranted it. He scared her to the depths of her soul,

How could anyone contain such a force inside and be able to control it? They couldn’t, she deemed, eventually it would be set loose on some unsuspecting unlucky individual. She hadn’t then been able to see the big picture as she could now. She had been a fool, a narrow-minded fool. He had not done anything on that ship for himself, his main concern had always been her safety and that of the women he had come to obtain. Why had she been such an idiot?

With a single-minded determination, she headed out onto the fringes of the Mass Pike Highway 90. There was no traffic for miles, but someone caught witness as she broke from the trees two miles outside of Amherst.

Chapter Six

Paul walked through the throngs of people huddled inside the large gathering room. He heard many grumblings as he passed, some more vocal than others, but always just low enough as to not attract too much attention. Paul had no room in his universe for complainers but he knew that something had to be done now before any type of organized rebellion formed. He meandered down to the center of the stage and the dais that been set up. He made sure to take his time making it look like he wasn’t in any sort of hurry, although he thought the rapid beating of his heart would surely give him away. Paul and his men had been training to fight, not sit and wait. They weren’t a reactionary force, they were the rebellion. And nothing can stall a rebellion faster than stagnation. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt the aliens were preparing for a strike, where and when was the question. With stores rapidly depleting, rationing would only quicken the unraveling of their tenuous hold on the world as they once knew it.

Paul had finally made it to the pulpit, and his mouth went dry as powder, licking his lips now would only signify the tremors he felt

All eyes were on him, even some of the more incessant grumblings had come to a halt when they realized their leader, or captor as some antagonized, was going to ‘honor’ them with some prose.

Friends… He cleared his throat. Where this speech was going was anyone’s guess. "I come to you not only as the leader of the Earth Corps, but as a person the majority of you know to some degree. To

Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1