Guardians – Containment Protocol-Part 35 (of 38)
Surprise! Fiction. 2200 words. 11-minute read.
This alternate universe has one more surprise for Booker.
The rest of the Containment Protocol saga can be found here: https://raytabler.substack.com/s/containment-protocol-serial
Part 1 (the beginning), ... Part 34 (previous episode), Part 36 (coming soon)
Guardians – Containment Protocol-Part 35 (of 38)
By Ray Tabler
“Pinsky, get your ass back into Fred.” Booker called down to his loader as the column approached where the swahldet riders waited for them along the line of march. “Uh, no offense, Cooper. You did fine. But you’re a chain gunner, not a loader.”
“No problem, el-tee.” Cooper scrambled out the hatch. “It’s claustrophobic down in there.”
“At least you got a hatch to poke your head out.” Jackson joked from the gunner’s seat.
Pinsky slid down from Tiffany and paused to pat his swahldet’s nose. Tiffany mewled like a kitten and licked Pinsky’s face with a slobbery tongue. “See you later, girl.”
Coffman made a face. “I think you two are dating.”
There was a brief traffic jam around Fred’s loader’s hatch as Cooper tried to climb out the same time as Pinsky tried to climb in. After a moment’s confusion, Cooper jumped to the ground and headed for Bam Bam, to resume his presently-redundant duty as chain gunner. He shook his head and exchanged a frustrated look with Handley, Bam Bam’s driver. The sooner Bunzo’s severed head was removed from its place of honor dangling from Bam Bam’s kinked gun barrel the better, in their humble opinions. But neither one wanted to risk Nohfa’s wrath by attending to the matter right now.
“You got those memory sticks, Pinsky?” Booker asked as soon as Pinsky slid into his seat.
“Right here, el-tee.” Pinsky patted his breast pocket decisively.
“Good man.”
“What s that smell?” Jackson frowned at Pinsky, who had just been doused with swahldet spit, and ridden one of the domestic dinos for several days on end.
“We none of us smell like roses at the moment, Jackson.” Booker chided. “Hang an air freshener from the rear-view mirror when we get back to base. Until then, just do your job.”
“Yes sir.” Jackson reflected that his lieutenant was not in a good mood. Being stranded in another universe and dealing with hungry dinos plus hostile cavemen will tend to fray your temper some.
“Olmer.” Booker called. “What’s your status?”
“Recovering from being scared shitless, sir.”
Booker laughed. “Join the club. Alright, you four are going to have to rise those swahldets for the time being. The Bradleys are full of refugees. Head over there and travel with the other swahldet riders. We’ll sort everything out when we get to the gate.”
“Yes, sir.” Olmer saluted and led his dismounted, mounted scouts toward the Bradleys. Zoop, Krilno, and Lumfa hadn’t bothered to wait for orders. They were already with the refugees, audibly mourning the loss of so many friends and relatives.
Booker keyed his mic over the platoon channel. “Let’s get moving again. Assume the box formation again. Fred’ll take the lead. Barney in the rear. Wilma to left flank. Betty to right. Bradleys and everybody else in the pocket.”
Rusty put Fred into gear and the big tank waltzed ahead of the rest of the platoon, rocking over the uneven terrain. After about ten minutes, Booker spotted Muñoz weaving his swahldet in among the refugees. He was transferring people from the overloaded swahldets to the newly added ones with only one rider each. That made sense.
Booker caught Muñoz’s eye, and beckoned him forward. Muñoz urged his mount up to Fred’s flank, and jumped onto the rear deck. He tied the beast’s long lead rope to a convenient spot on the tank, and climb up to the turret, next to Booker. The swahldet did not appear happy so close to the steel monster, but tolerated the situation with commendable forbearance, and some nervous tugging on the hitching rope.
“How are the refugees doing?” Booker asked.
Muñoz shrugged. “For a bunch of insular, tribespeople, who’ve just seen their world destroyed and lost most of their loved ones in the process, not too bad.”
Booker stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words from the blunt statement. And feeling a sharp pang of guilt for his part in precipitating the crisis, truth be told. Booker shook himself, mentally. There would be plenty of time to torture himself about all of that later on. And he didn’t doubt he would. But there as job to do first. Get his platoon home.
Booker looked over at Pinsky, head protruding from the loader’s hatch. “Give us a minute, Pinsky.”
“Yes sir.” Pinsky dropped down, and shut the hatch for good measure.
Booker pulled his headset off, hanging it from a hook inside the hatch. “What are their chances, if we just leave them here?”
Muñoz blew out a long sigh. “That’s a good question. There’s a good reason they holed up in Bedrock. Or at least did hole up in there. A small group of people, without that type of shelter, is at the mercy of predatory dinos. The dinos don’t even have to be all that big, just hungry.”
“And they can’t go back to Bedrock.” Booker reasoned.
“No, they can’t. Bunzo’s dead. But we started a shitload of blood feuds today. The refugees are mostly women and kids. Easy prey for aggrieved relatives of the tribesmen we mowed down.”
“Not that Bedrock’s going to be in good shape with the monster gap we plowed through the dino weed patch either.”
“There is that.”
“You said there are other villages. How about them?”
Muñoz scratched the stubble on his chin. “You saw how important status is to these people. Begging for another village to take them in means starting off at the very bottom of the pecking order. That’s assuming other villages would be willing to risk pissing Bedrock off by sheltering their exiles.”
“If they even make it to another village, through all the hungry dinos.”
“If they even make it.” Muñoz agreed. “Just to be clear, where’s this discussion going?”
Booker gritted his teeth. “I am considering offering the refugees asylum, back home.”
“Considering? Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind.”
“I guess I have.”
“You realize that would be a one-way trip, if what Ralna told us is true.”
“Yeah. If.” Booker glanced back at the refugees. “Go back and make the offer. Give them some time to think it over. They’ve got a until we get to the gate site. That’s all I can do.”
“You’re a decent dude, after all, lieutenant Booker.”
‘Don’t spread it around.” Booker chuckled. “I’m trying to maintain a reputation as an asshole.” Booker sobered. “Which brings me to another matter. “What are your plans? Are you staying behind? Like you said, it might be a one-way trip?”
Muñoz locked eyes with Booker. He opened his mouth to speak.
Booker felt an urgent tug on his pant leg. “El-tee!” Jackson shouted from inside the turret. “Look ahead!”
Booker snatched the headset and hurriedly jammed it back on. “What’s up, Jackson?” He peered ahead. The platoon was rolling down from the hills into the plains where the gate site was located. A heat haze hung over the plains, obscuring their objective.
“I don’t understand what I’m seeing through the main gun optics, sir.” Jackson reported. “You may wanna drop down here and look at your repeater screen.”
“Wait one.” Booker said to Muñoz, then lowered his seat back down into the turret. The repeater screen showed to his right displayed what Jackson had zoomed the optics in on. ‘That’s funny. I don’t remember any hills that close to the gate site.”
Then, one the hills moved.
Booker blinked, and wiped his eyes. No, the “hill” slowly crawled from right to left across the screen. Whatever that was, it was still too far away to discern details. Which scared Booker. Because, the thing must’ve been massive to be visible from that distance. And there were two of them.
#
“Cheslone.” Nohfa rendered her judgement, a hand shading her eyes from the sun.
“Chelsone.” Zoop confirmed, nodding his head in sad confirmation.
“What the hell’s a cheslone?” Booker demanded of Muñoz.
“Uh, you remember that really big dino that tried to crawl through the gate?”
Booker stared at him. “That was a cheslone?”
“Cheslone.” Zoop pointed for emphasis.
“And there are two of them between us and the gate site.” Booker stated the obvious.
“Yep.” Muñoz spat.
“Well, ain’t that a bitch?” Booker stared at the distant, massive beasts.
“I guess Ralna’s mechanism figured that if one giant dino didn’t do the job, send two.” Muñoz joked.
“The mechanism that really isn’t under his control.” It occurred to Booker that only he, Muñoz, and Pinsky had any idea what he was talking about. There simply hadn’t been time to bring the rest of the platoon up to speed on the whole Ralna situation, and the nature of the vital information they had to get back to Earth at all costs.
Booker, Muñoz, and the five track commanders stood on a small hillock a hundred yards ahead of the platoon. Nohfa and Zoop were attending the council of war as well, supplying local expertise. The hot sun beat down on the gathering, not at all helping Booker’s mood.
Booker pined for his long-lost pair of binoculars, likely laying broken and useless somewhere back inside Bedrock. Yet another offense to level at Bunzo. Not that it mattered anymore. The witch doctor had paid for his crimes, although the punishment hadn’t been painful enough in the view of the people wronged by him. Crimes and punishment aside, the binoculars wouldn’t offer the power to resolve any more details of the cheslone from here. But Booker would’ve felt better with them around his neck.
“Those things are as big as Godzilla!” Fessler whispered.
“Nah. Godzilla’s bigger than that.” Ennis disagreed quietly.
“How would you know? Are you a Godzilla expert?”
“No, but I’ve seen the movies. Godzilla’s as tall as a skyscraper. Those are more brontosaurus size.”
“They just look smaller because they’re down on all fours. It’s an optical illusion.”
“You can count legs from here?”
“Well, no. That’s just a figure of—” Fessler suddenly became aware that Booker, and everyone else, was staring at him.
“It doesn’t matter how big they are.” Booker said. “We have to deal with them, because they’re between us and home.”
“Yes, sir.” Both Bradley commanders said at once.
Booker ran his eyes over the terrain for a long moment before addressing his men. “Alright, there’s a long wrinkle in the ground over to the right. Some kind of gulley. Runs for quite a ways. Everybody see it?”
There was a chorus of agreement from the vehicle commanders. Muñoz translated quietly for Nohfa and Zoop.
“You can sneak along that gully to within about a mile of the gate site without the Godzillas noticing.” Booker paused, allowing the others to examine the ground.
“Looks like longer than a mile to me.” Mulroney said.
“It’s a mile, more or less.” Booker held his hand up and waggled I to indicate a rough estimate.
Mulroney raised an eyebrow. “How fast do these Godzilla things move?” Mulroney asked Muñoz.
“Well, it’s not like I clocked that one with a stop watch, but they can really cover ground with those long legs.” He grimaced. “Maybe faster than our vehicles.”
That threw an uncomfortable silence over the meeting.
“Doesn’t matter.” Booker quietly asserted. “Because Fred’s gonna draw them both away from the gate site long enough for everybody else to dash through the portal.”
Several people objected at once, talking over each other.
“Shut up!” Booker commanded. “This isn’t a debating society. Or a democracy. We have a job to do, and it’s a more important job than I’ve had time to let most of you know.” He ran his eyes over the assembly. “But it doesn’t matter how vital the mission is. Not really. This is the plan, and you’ll carry it out.”
The men chorused yes sirs, again.
“All of you get back to your tracks, and get ready to roll. Except for you, sergeant Mulroney. Walk with me.”
Muñoz turned to go with the others, but stopped. Nohfa hadn’t followed him. Instead she walked up to Booker, a sad smile on her face. The woman reached up and put a hand to Booker’s cheek.
“Good bye, Boo-kur.” Nohfa spun on her heel, and stalked off.
Muñoz and Mulroney appeared uncomfortable. Booker felt an odd mix of foreboding and a certain, guilty, thrill at the gesture.
Muñoz cleared his throat. “Uh, I guess I better get back and herd my cats along.”
Booker lagged behind, walking slowly back to Fred. Mulroney paced his commander.
“I’m not suicidal, sergeant.”
“Furthest thought from my mind, sir.”
Booker smirked. “If at all possible, I plan on evading the...” It took a moment to recall the name for the big dinos, “the cheslones, and drive through the gate after losing them.”
“Losing them. Yes sir.”
“Try to talk colonel Shaylton into keeping the gate open as long as possible.”
“We’ll keep the door open for you, sir. No problem.”
“Thank you, sergeant.” Booker spoke again after few more strides. “When we get back to Fred, I’ll hand you the quantum signaling device. Use your judgment as to when to use it. I’m also going to entrust you with some memory sticks Pinsky had in the video camera. I’ll scribble a short note to colonel Shaylton explaining what’s on them. Those files have to make it back home, sergeant. At all costs.” He stopped to emphasize the point. “At all costs.”
END.
Tune in next Tuesday for another exciting episode, Part 36-Tag, You’re It!.
The rest of the Containment Protocol saga can be found here: https://raytabler.substack.com/s/containment-protocol-serial
Part 1 (the beginning), ... Part 34 (previous episode), Part 36 (coming soon)
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Great buildup for an action filled ending!
The pyrotechnic technicians and stunt coordinators are getting ready for some crazy fireworks! The Dino handlers are getting their beasties ready. Roll the cameras!