CHAPTER 7

For a while, Mike had thought this place was called the “Jungle Gym” but, after being here a few days he saw the sign hanging up that said, “In Memoriam, Jim McCook.” Mike finally asked about the picture and, from what he was told, this McCook guy was some engineer who came up with the idea of using a giant tree as a base of operations. Of course, Mike was a civilian but, if the stories were to be believed, good old McCook was in the navy and this base, named after him, was used by the army. Mike never could figure out government operations so he stopped trying a long time ago, even if most of his money was currently coming from them.

The place was really nothing more than the single biggest tree house that Mike had ever seen in his life. That was fitting, seeing as how this was probably the largest tree Mike had ever seen, let alone, been in and that was saying something. Mike was an avid deer hunter and climbing trees just went with the business. Of course, his puny little, one man, deer stands did not even begin to compare to this place. The army had come in and put a landing pad right on top of the tree. They cleared out a circular shape into the top of the thing and built a platform where leaves and branches once were. Then you had to climb down stairs to the top of the trunk where they had hollowed out caves and set up platforms on other various branches.

The current operations officer, a female elf by the name of Ceascu, had told Mike that the army tried a more conventional defense the year before and, the Orcs had dropped one of these trees right on them. Mike had seen the video of the World Trade Center toppling, and if his guestimations were right, this tree was as easily as big as one of those towers had been. It made Mike wonder what the tree looked like when it slammed down on those soldiers. It also made him wonder what would happen if somebody decided to drop this tree, with him in it.

Taylya Ceascu replied to that inquiry with, “not a chance. We monitor everything on the ground around us, right down to the roots themselves. We have seismic monitors placed everywhere.” She seemed pretty confident and Mike hoped it was not misplaced. He did kind of figure that the soldiers who got squashed by one of these were probably confident too. That was why the elf also mentioned, “we tried to warn them but, they would not listen.”

When Mike’s escort, Lieutenant Vega, heard about that statement, she almost took it like an insult, “is that what that bitch said? I was there. Didn’t no cock sucking Elf say nothing about no goddamn tree.”

It made Mike wonder who was right and, sometimes even if both of them were. He kind of got the sense that Vega and Ceascu did not get along so well. Usually when Mike was loitering around operations, the place that the elf usually hung out, Vega was nowhere to be seen. When Mike was smoking and joking with the hot tempered little Latino chick, the elf usually vanished in a puff of smoke. Mike figured that was for the best. He didn’t come to a war zone to get caught in the crossfire of a cat fight.

Mike was also wondering why he came out here at all. He knew what he was supposed to be doing now, the real question was, would they ever let him do it? In operations, one day, he asked Ceascu about it and she told him, “as soon as it is safe, Mister Greene. We have activity in the area.”

Mike thought about that, knew she was a military person, and just figured, “Orcs?”

“Activity,” was all she would say on that matter.

He didn’t protest. Why should he? The way Mike saw it was that he was getting paid as much to play cards, and get lit, as he was to go poking around the dirt, so, he enjoyed himself even if he was sure that his co-worker, Melanie Wu, was not. That kind of surprised Mike a little. He knew she was from UCLA and he had always figured Californians were a little more laid back than Melanie was. She tried to relax but, it was easy to see that she was up tight and anal retentive, even when she was doing something like playing cards which, occupied most of their time as they waited.

Melanie had been here when Mike first arrived. He kind of figured her apprehension had something to do with that. After all, she had already had the opportunity to go out there and play in the dirt. One evening, if it was actually evening, they were playing cards and Mike asked her about that. Of course, he didn’t say anything as accusing as her being scared but, Melanie surprised him by answering his round about question, “you’re really wanting to know if I’m scared? Is that it?”

Mike kind of grumbled, “didn’t mean no offense.”

Vega laughed at the two academics, “course she is. Damn near pissed in her pants the first time we thought we had visitors.”

Melanie did not react to that, “the answer is, yes. I’m scared, everybody happy? I just want to get my work done and go home. I‘m not a soldier.”

“Hey queenie,” Vega said, “got some news for you. All of us are scared when we go out there. I mean going to war, sure that’s bad enough but, we got to be fighting monsters and shit. Wait till you see one of those pig stickers up close.”

Melanie was horrified. Nobody could figure out why but, it was obviously the case by the look on her face. Then she confirmed it by saying, “that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Mike tossed his loosing hand down and bowed out of the game when he said, “then why did you come out here?”

The uptight little archeologist said, “why do you think? I’m on the Presidential Commission. I had to come out here. I either do what they say or I loose my grant money. Course they didn’t tell me I’d actually be in the war zone.”

That led Vega to asking, “how the hell did they find you Mike? You’re the first baby sitting job, I’ve actually had, that seems to have a little goddamn common sense.”

The one thing that Mike was not going to tell this girl was the truth. It sounded pretty pathetic so he asked what was on his mind, “others? How many more have you had to bring up here?”

It appeared as if Vega took the bait, “ah hell, I been doing this gig since I first come over here. My first job here was looking after some reporter bitch. You know that chick, what’s her name? Penny Walsh? No…”

Mike raised a brow, “Patty Walsh? That chick?”

Vega asked, “you know her?”

Mike laughed, “not really. Seen her on the internet though. She’s pretty hot. I did an image search on her once.”

That got Vega to thinking, “yeah I guess she was kind of hot. Still a pain in the ass though, like most you guys.” Vega looked back to Wu and said, “don’t worry none Doc, I’ll still keep your ass from getting blown in half. You should see what those Orc sticks can do.”

That caused Melanie to put a hand over her mouth, get up, and run for the latrine. Vega laughed about it and Mike complained, “did you have to do that? I was trying to get laid?”

Now Vega laughed even harder, “Mike, the only thing that chick thinks about you, is how to get ahead of your career. You’re pissing in the wind, dude.”

“Probably,” Mike grumbled as he picked up his next set of cards.

The next day, if that was truly what time it was, Mike regretted all of the home made hooch he had been drinking the night before. It was truly nasty and the unauthorized booze, that they made on this base, left one with a wicked hangover. Mike practically stumbled into operations. He had been summoned but, was a bit surprised to see who did it. It wasn’t the elf chick. It was some soldier chick now. She stood unusually erect, even for around here, and had her hands behind her back as she watched Mike lean over the map table and nurse his temples.

Then the woman said, “you must be Doctor Greene.”

Mike looked up but found no pleasure in it, “yeah, who are you?”

“Major Mack, this is my operations center,” Katie told him bluntly. She noticed that every word he said made the guy wince in pain. That was why she spoke again, “I hope you’re in shape enough to go out today Doctor. You know, taking a helicopter ride? You get to listen to the sound of those blades over your…”

Mike put his hand up and straightened up, “yeah I get the idea. What happened to Taylya?”

“Oh,” Katie replied, “she’s just my counterpart. I was away on business and she kind of runs things while I’m gone.” She watched Mike squirm in agony and held back her laughs as she asked, “are you all right Doctor? Do I need to get the doctor, um, doctor?”

“Probably,” Mike replied as he put pressure on his nose, “but I think a cup of coffee would probably fix me right up. Where are we going anyway?”

As if on cue, one of Katie’s people called from his work station, “UCAV is on station Major. We’re looking clear for now.”

Then Katie turned back to her guest and said, “you wouldn’t know where it was even if I told you. Just let Doctor Wu explain all that too you, if she hasn’t already. Seeya when you get back.”

Mike figured he must have been late too the meeting because nobody else had showed up for it. They had all probably come and gone and, as it turned out, that was the case. They were all waiting on him when he stumbled up to the stairs that led to the landing pad. It was Melanie who pointed to the shotgun on his shoulder and said, “why are you carrying that?”

Mike rubbed his eyes and said, “where’s yours? Ain’t you the one all scared and shit?”

As the soldiers began filing up the stair case, Melanie grabbed Mike’s arm and pulled him close. She quietly asked him, “does it make you not scared?”

“Na lady,” Mike said in an irritated, “it’s because I’m scared too, ok?” The answer did not seem to satisfy her very much.

When the choppers dropped them off at the dig site, Mike and Wu waited as the soldiers fanned out and checked the area. When they finally reached the actual digs, Melanie was completely irate, “they destroyed everything!”

Mike stood back with Vega as Wu whined and tromped around her sight, pointing out this, kicking over that. Mike asked the Lieutenant, “Orc’s do this?”

Melanie obviously heard them and she snarled at Mike, “not unless they have a degree in archeology they didn’t!”

Vega now asked the woman scientist, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do you think I’ve been pointing out Lolita,” Melanie replied as she stomped up to them, “whoever did this knows something about how you dig. They were deliberately trying to contaminate the sight in such a way that I can’t date anything. What complete bullshit!”

Mike asked, “what is this place exactly?”

Vega asked, “Mel, when did you start cussing?”

Melanie plopped down on her but and said, “I think this entire hill is artificial. I think there was one city after another here, a long time ago. We were trying to figure out how long when we had to pull up stakes.”

That made Vega wonder why anybody would care about something like that. Her only concern at the moment was, “does that mean we can go back to base? They’re finally serving roast beef in the DFAC’S.”

At the same time, Mike was carefully looking over the sight with an educated eye, “we need to bring in some drilling gear. You know? Get some core samples from these trees.”

“I know what you’re thinking Doctor Greene,” Melanie replied. “It won’t work, not here. These tree’s, they don’t grow at any standard rate like back home. In fact, the trees are the whole problem!”

Mike could, maybe, get the fact that the trees did not have a constant growth rate like what he was used too. The cycles of light to dark, and even how dark, was something that was so screwed up here that nobody from back home had even been able to chart it out yet. Something like that could easily account for screwed up tree rings. What Mike did not get was, how that made the trees a ‘problem’ as Melanie claimed.

Doctor Wu explained, “wood has a finite amount of strength, tolerances, all that stuff. That’s what initially puzzled some people back home. When the first pictures of the Hurtegan started reaching a few trained eyes, they saw what was wrong, right off the bat.”

“Ok Melanie,” Mike replied, “you got my curiosity now. I’m no engineer and we’re in injun territory so, just cut to the point, will ya?”

She stomped up to him and said as calmly as she could, “Mike, these tree’s shouldn’t even exist. They’re too big for the strength of wood. They should snap and collapse, you know, once they reach a certain size. They just shouldn’t have the strength to hold on. These,” she gestured to the forest around them, “are violating the laws of physics.”

Mike scratched at the back of his head and looked around the forest, “yeah well, we are in another universe.”

“Which,” Melanie came right back with, “we’ve already determined, follows the exact same laws of physics that we know. Those were some of the first tests they did here. In fact, this is probably not another universe. It’s got to be like, another dimension of our own. You know, I don’t understand all that stuff and even the physics guys are still arguing over it but, that doesn’t get past the central issue.”

That left Mike to thinking. Why would they send an archeologist out here to study trees? So he asked her, “I bet that’s got something to do with your city here, don’t it?”

“Yeah,” Melanie replied, “exactly. Mike, the reason why dating the various layers at this site was so important was because, the ones down there at the base, they’re older than anything that’s ever been found on earth, at least we suspect. That means this sight was continuously occupied for tens of thousands of years, maybe even hundreds of thousand. It’s older than our entire civilization!”

Mike just shrugged and asked, “ok fine, where did they go?”

“I don’t know,” Melanie admitted, “that’s not the important question though. Why did they go? Why would they be here all this time and then just vanish without a trace?”

Was that really the connection here? Mike looked around again and thought about it. Only he did not get to finish the conversation because he saw something off in the distance. He pointed out the smoke that was floating over the trees and that caused Vega to get on the radio. When she finished she told Greene, “no ops going on in this area. They said we could check it out.” As Vega assembled a squad, Mike hung with her until she protested. Then after he pointed out the obvious, Vega said, “all right, fine Mike. You found it. You come with us but, you stick to me like glue, all right?”

Mike agreed as he pulled his shotgun down off his shoulder. He realized it was probably nowhere near as powerful as those big ass shooters the soldiers were carrying. The shotgun was still better than nothing and Mike had it loaded with slugs. He also had a big knife, just in case. He also followed along in such a way that it made Vega break silence and ask, “where did you learn to walk so quiet?”

Mike never got to tell her the answer as snaps came down the line, being passed from one soldier to the next. Then came hand signals and Vega nodded as she sent her orders, via the same method, to the rest of the squad. The soldiers fanned out and then began to move forward. They enveloped the target and Vega took the best position, that she could find, that allowed her to see everything. What she saw was not what she had expected.

As Mike looked down in the clearing, he said the first words he had since they left the dig sight, “looks like she needs help.”

Lolita was busy studying the area with her binoculars and she did not see any obvious traps. She waited for her squad to confirm that the area was clear. That did not mean there were no traps, between Lolita and this woman but, there were at least no signs of Orc activity in the immediate vicinity.

Mike had another relevant question, “the Orcs ever done anything like this before?”

Lolita looked down on that poor girl. She was nude, spread out and tied to four stakes, gagged, and crying. The girl looked dirty and abused. It was enough to make Lolita shiver as she replied, “never seen no shit like this in my life. I don’t know but, I don’t think the Orc’s did this shit. They don’t take no prisoners.”

Mike now scanned the area with great concern and said, “then who did?”

“Got to be the fucking Werewolf,” Lolita replied as she got up from her cover. When Mike protested she told him, “somebody has got to go out there.”

“Fuck it,” Mike said as he got up and now it was Lolita’s turn to protest. Mike took his jacket off and told her, “you got any spare clothes on you?”

“Fuck!” Lolita stomped her foot, “ok but, stay behind me.”

With each footfall, Lolita took a deep breath. She did her best to watch out for land mines but, you could not always see them. The Orc’s did not use such things but, again, Lolita was pretty sure the Orc’s had not done this. The only way to know for sure was to reach the whimpering girl but, that meant having to go through the danger zone in the first place. Every few paces, Lolita would stop, catch her breath, and then point down and tell Mike, “in my footsteps bendejo.”

Mike quietly replied, “you know I do speak Spanish.”

Lolita ignored him as she carefully approached the girl and, now, it was obvious that she saw them. She began thrashing violently about and whimpering more and more until they became near screams. Lolita did not dare approach the girl just yet. She took her helmet off, put her ear to the ground, and tried looking under the girl as best she could. While she did, she also said, “where the hell did the smoke come from?”

Mike was standing behind her and he pointed past the girl, “campfire was right over there. It’s almost burned out. They used a shit load of fuel on it. Bet that thing was burning for a day or more.”

“I don’t see no tripwires,” Lolita said as she got back up to her knees and began taking off her gloves. When she finished, she found Mike handing her a big ass knife. When she studied the size of the blade she had to ask, “all you hillbilly’s carry this big as shit stuff?”

“Only the ones with PHD’s,” Mike replied. Then they both snorted out a short laugh and, after, Mike nodded to the tied up girl and asked, “you going to cut her loose, or what?”

That got a defensive and hostile response form Lolita, “I’m getting around too it, ok?” Then Vega carefully got near the girl and, she stopped again. Now that she was this close, even past all the dirt, the sobs, the stringy hair that was everywhere, Vega felt a spark of recognition here. She could not call up anything specific though. That was why she decided to cut the gag loose first. Then she told the girl, “ma’am, United States Army, we’re here to help you.”

The first sound from the girls mouth was a scream. Then she began babbling incoherently, not even paying Vega much attention at all. Vega tried again, “Ma’am, please, do you speak English? Are there any explosives on you? Are there any wires?”

The next sounds that came out of the girls mouth not only surprised Lolita, they left her in complete shock. Not only were the words in English but, the girl said, “Vega, please! Kill me!” Then the girl went back to babbling.

Mike said, “that’s a language she’s talking.”

“She knows my fucking name,” Lolita finally got out. She then asked the girl, “who are you?” There was no intelligible response.

Mike decided he was getting nervous, “just cut her loose already. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Finally Vega started doing just that as she replied, “no arguments from me.”