Morning Star Full Novel

Chapter 21

"Over here!" yelled the sergeant from across the command post. Tony helped unpack one of the pallets and scrambled to stack the supplies where the sergeant told him. The second ATV was used to haul the pallets to the campsite by use of a hitch on the rear bumper. Wheels dropped from the under side of the pallets allowing the pallets to be pulled behind the ATV. They had managed to locate a wooded area along a creek close enough to the drop zone for all the remaining men to collect.
"It’s the other ATV!" one of the lookouts shouted peering through his binoculars Tony paused and looked in the direction of the ATV and saw they were making good progress cutting through the tall grass. Behind them the winged creatures kept their distance, afraid of the fire from the machine gun mounted on the back.
Closer and closer the ATV drove growing larger in his view, humming louder as it approached the post. Fifty yards and closing the gap, the ATV began to bounce in a rut uncontrollably coming to an abrupt halt. Steam escaped from under the hood and the glow of yellow flames shot forth from the engine compartment. The soldiers jumped off the vehicle and made a dead sprint for camp leaving the ATV behind.
"Get some cover out there!" someone yelled and some of the men ran out into the field to assist those running for their lives as if they could sense something was wrong, the creatures dropped from the sky and swooped down on the men. Rifle fire popped from different areas and two of the creatures fell dead to the ground.
"Run!" Tony yelled as the men closed the gap, now twenty feet from the camp. The popping of gunfire and muzzle flashes filled the air all around camp. Ramsey and his rescuers were waist high in tall grass running for their lives holding their guns over their heads just feet from safety.
Just as they reached the edge of camp two of the men disappeared into the tall grass without a sound. Then another and another until only Ramsey and two others were left. Ramsey stopped, seeing his men vanish before him, and yelled for the other two to do the same. They were no more than ten feet from safety, but something stood between them and the woodlands.
"Halt!" he yelled and everyone stopped in their tracks. "Sergeant, I need this area cleared!" he yelled pointing to the strip of grass before him. The sergeant waved his hands and pointed to the area before the three stranded men. Five soldiers stood on the perimeter of camp and proceeded to blast their guns into the grass clearing the area of what ever stood between them and safety. The sergeant waved his hands and the firing stopped.
Ramsey looked to the man standing to his right and then to the one on his left. "On three we are going to run," he stated calmly. "Got it?"
The two men nodded and Ramsey looked to the sergeant. "If anything moves, kill it." The sergeant nodded and the five soldiers stood ready to blast anything that moved in the grass. "Ready?" he asked. "One, two, three," he said and the men in unison, took off running.
Guns blazed as two of the men were pulled down into the grass. Ramsey dove and fell to the ground in the wooded area pulled to safety by his men. He stood and looked back at the tall grass. "Where are they?" he screamed.
"I don’t see them," the sergeant replied.
"Me neither," replied one of the soldiers scanning the area.
"Something is wrong here," Ramsey said and looked to his sergeant. "How many men do we have?"
"Thirty seven now," he replied.
"That’s it?" Ramsey asked looking to camp. "What happened to the rest?"
"We were strung out quite a distance. I suspect there are another thirty or so still out there."
"How long will they last alone?" Ramsey asked. "Where is doctor Rhine?"
Tony ran up to the captain and stood out of breath. "Right here sir," Tony said.
Ramsey pointed to the five armed soldiers and then to the tall grass. "Keep this area under heavy guard." He then motioned for Tony to follow him into the woods. They stopped and Ramsey stood with his arms crossed staring into Tony’s eyes. "Brief me doctor," he stated angrily.
Tony hesitated and looked away from Ramsey. He took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "This was all an experiment," he said.
"Experiment?" Ramsey asked grinding his teeth afterward.
"This was an experiment to see if time travel was possible."
"I don’t believe you for a second."
"Then how do you explain what is going on?"
"I don’t," Ramsey said. "Something is not right, I do know that. What it is I do not know."
"You have to trust me. We were supposed to end up fifty thousand years in the past. I think we did it," Tony said gesturing with his hand pointing to the area around them.
"Are you saying fifty thousand years ago there were huge bat dog things flying around?" Ramsey asked.
"Yes and no," Tony replied. "I don’t think we are exactly where we thought we would be."
"You seemed to know back on the plane. You told the pilot where to go."
"I will say that I think we are in the right place. I just don’t know if we are in the right time."
Ramsey paced in the dirt looking to the ground. He turned and faced Tony again. "One of them sons of jerks spoke to me,"
Tony’s eyes opened wide. "What did it say?" he asked.
"Don’t ask me what it means, but it asked me if I were the Son of Man."
Tony processed the information. "Son of Man?" he asked looking to the side.
"Jesus Christ," someone spoke up from camp.
Ramsey looked over to one of his snipers standing next to a tree relaxing. "What did you say private?"
"Jesus Christ," he replied again.
"I hope you’re not trying to be funny. I have no funny left in me," Ramsey said to the man. "Who are you son?" he asked.
Pvt. Jackson sir," he replied.
"And what do you know about this Pvt. Jackson?" Ramsey asked.
"Do you know your bible sir?"
"I guess not private. Won’t you please fill us in?" Ramsey said sarcastically.
The private stepped away from the tree and approached the men. "For the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day. Mathew twelve-eight," he said to the men before him.
"You know your verses well," Tony said to the private holding his sniper rifle at his side. "Does your religious convictions interfere with your duties?" he asked.
"The sixth commandment reads, "Thou shalt not kill." It is improperly translated from the Hebrew word for murder. It is alright to kill for riotous purposes."
"You do your homework private," Tony said. "So you’re saying this thing was asking the captain here if he were Jesus?"
"Yes sir."
"Thank you private," Ramsey said shaking his head. "I want you to set up a post in one of these trees. Keep an eye out for those damn things."
"Yes sir!" the private said and headed out to scout out the best location.
"What do you think now?" Ramsey asked Tony.
"If I didn’t know better, I would say those things look an awful lot like demons to me."
"Let’s get on the same page," Ramsey responded coldly. "We have time travel and now demons. What will be next?"
"Captain, in all your years, have you ever seen anything like those things before? Can you explain what happened to your men just feet from the edge of camp?"
"No, and neither can you!" he barked back.
"At least I’m willing to try!" Tony snapped back. "One of the damn things spoke to you. We know they’re intelligent. Why don’t you try to speak to one of them?"
"They killed half my men!"
"You don’t know that for sure!"
"The hell I don’t!" Ramsey yelled and stormed off towards his men working in the camp.
Tony couldn’t help but make the connection between what Brinkman had said earlier and what this creature had supposedly said. Brinkman said Tony shared the same DNA pattern with blood remains of Jesus Christ. This creature seemed to be seeking out Jesus Christ. Were they looking for him? He put the thought out of his mind and walked back to camp.