Onio (30 page)

A
number of the monsters stood around the hole in the ground facing outward,
weapons in their huge fists, eyes probing and searching for any threat. One
particularly large character, with painted tattoos on its body and a glittering
jewel in its eye socket rather than an eye, stared into the shadows and locked
eyes with Lenny.

“Shit,
man…would you look at that,” Twitch breathed. “Hey, Lenny you’re seeing them
too, right, it’s not just me?”

“Shhh,”
Lenny cautioned. “Come on you guys, we need to back up and give those things
some room.” He took a step back and grabbed Maurice’s arm so he would follow.

Lenny
had no idea how he knew what the big monster wanted, but he knew it
nevertheless, emphatically and without a doubt. It was as though the warrior,
whose name was Two Horses, had whispered in his ear, saying that Lenny and his
companions wouldn’t be hurt as long as they didn’t try to interfere.

Maurice
was trembling with excitement, and he opened his mouth. One word came out, and
both Lenny and Twitch turned to him in surprise. It was the first word they had
ever heard him speak. “Sasquatch,” he uttered, and Lenny shook his head at the
anti-climax.

That
was Maurice’s nickname, once upon a time, when the world was new and bright,
before he got all the sense knocked out of his head. This seemed like a strange
time to remember how to repeat your own name. Then Lenny paused…was Maurice
talking about himself, or the creatures that flowed up and out of the hole in
the ground? He wondered.

Maybe
these really were sasquatches, a legend come to life in front of his very eyes!
Lenny, Maurice and Twitch watched from behind a concrete pillar as hundreds of
the beasts came up from out of the ground and started walking down the road.

At
one point, Lenny’s eyes were dazzled by the vision of an angel that came out of
the hole. She wore leather clothing and her unbound, silver-blonde hair
glittered under the sodium vapor-light. Another sasquatch helped her to her
feet and stood staring over her shoulder at where he and his friends stood
watching. Lenny shuffled his feet nervously as the huge, handsome man-beast
studied them and then turned away with the girls hand in his, and followed the
other beasts down the road.

The
monsters continued to pour out of the manhole for another ten minutes or so. Then,
the spectacle was over. Four of the beasts watched the perimeter as one placed
the cover back in position. After checking all points of the compass, the five
remaining beasts took up the rear and walked off into the night.

After
a few seconds, Maurice started to follow. Lenny grabbed his arm and said, “No,
Maurie, you can’t!” but Maurice wasn’t listening.

He
nodded his big head, and after giving his friend Lenny a hug, walked away on
the monster’s trail. Lenny and Twitch stared at one another for a moment and
then followed their simple friend down the road and into the new illuminated
darkness.

***

Four
miles away, Stanley Watson shoved the daily paper into the yawning black cavity
of the mailbox and sighed with relief. He had gotten a late start this morning
and thought he wouldn’t get all the papers out before first light, but there
were only three more drops to go and he could run on home for a nap.

That’s
what I get for watching that Lord of the Rings marathon on ShowTime
, he thought
ruefully. He came to a stop sign and parked long enough to pour the last of his
coffee from a thermos into his go cup. He sipped the lukewarm sweetened brew
and sighed, then peered into the darkness to his left to check oncoming
traffic. No one was approaching, so without bothering to check, he swung the
wheel to the right and screeched to a stop.

It
was as if the hours-long fantasy movie he was so engrossed with the day before
had suddenly come to life and walked toward him now on the abandoned county
road. There were hundreds and hundreds of giant, hairy creatures walking toward
him. They were so tall he had to duck down to see their faces through the
windshield of his battered old Nissan Sentra.

They
looked, more or less, like the grainy still-shot photos of sasquatches he had
seen on the Discovery Channel, but twice as big and vibrant with personality. Most
of them carried weapons, like clubs, spears and long, elaborately carved pikes.
They all saw him and his car, stalled in the middle of the road, and parted
ranks so they could move past him. Heart in his mouth, Stan couldn’t help but
notice their clothing, jewelry, leather belts, and grim but frightened faces as
they glanced in at him as they walked past.

He
saw little ones being herded down the road by their worried mothers and at one
point, he thought he saw some humans amongst the others, but then he blinked
and they were gone.

Finally,
he sat alone, dazed and trembling in the aftermath of the creatures’ passage. Then,
he saw three men taking up the rear. They looked like homeless men but they
were clearly following the sasquatches.

Forgetting
the papers he was paid to deliver in the early morning hours, Stanley turned
the engine off, opened the door of his old car and got out. He debated,
briefly, whether to grab a coat and then decided against it. He didn’t want to
let the creatures out of his sight, so he slammed the car door shut and
followed the men and the sasquatches into the approaching dawn.

***

David
White and his two young sons were heading eastbound on the county road. The
interior of the truck cab smelled of boys and PB and J sandwiches, and David
was happy. He had been on the road for too long, driving his eighteen-wheel
reefer truck from Nogales to Dallas, and he had been looking forward to cat fishing
with his sons. His oldest boy, Curtis, was pulling live worms out of the muddy
soil of the bait cup and David was about to say something when a flash of
movement caught his eye.

Dead
ahead he saw something that made him think, for a moment, that he had gone plum
loco in the head.

“Daddy,
lookit!” Randy, the four-year-old cried, pointing out the windshield. Curtis
looked up from the cup of worms and dropped the whole mess in his lap as he
climbed forward on the bench seat for a better look.

Pulling
off onto the shoulder of the road, and keeping his eye on the advancing army of
creatures, David murmured, “I see them, boys,” and added, “Now, I want you two
to crawl down on the floor.”

“Dad….”
Curtis protested, but his father roared, “Get down now, Curtis, before I take
my belt to ya!” The boy flew onto the floorboard of the truck and gathered his
little brother, Randy, into his arms.

They
watched their father as he pulled the handset of his CB radio to his mouth, and
whispered, “Breaker, breaker, Angel…are you there?”

Static
filled the air for a couple of seconds and then the boys heard their Auntie
Angela, who worked as a dispatcher for the sheriff’s office, say, “Sheriff’s
office…David, is that you?”

Thus,
the secret that centuries of governing bodies had tried to keep buried, from the
snowy fields of the Himalayas to the far reaches of the North Pole, the arid
deserts of the African plains to the plunging depths of the Rocky Mountains,
suddenly rose from the dead and flared into life.

Chapter 35

The
sasquatches came to a stop in the middle of the road. They had been traveling
for days and they were weary. The sun had risen over the horizon an hour
earlier and already it blazed hot in the dirty gray sky overhead. While some of
them moved off the road into a grassy verge to relieve themselves behind a
large privacy sheet, others stood together, drinking warm water and staring
nervously at the hundreds of small humans that watched them from a safe
distance.

Every
sasquatch knew that coming out into the open this way would draw attention from
the creatures they had tried so hard for centuries to avoid. They knew it, but
now that it was happening, their hearts lodged in their throats and their backs
itched with the feel of the small human’s eyes on them; there were so many.

They
were aware, of course, that the three small human men who watched them come up
from the tunnel had followed in their wake, and another old man had joined the
march a few miles later. That was only the beginning, however, as over the last
couple of hours, hundreds, possibly thousands of small humans had swelled their
ranks.

They
followed on foot and in their cars, on bikes, motorcycles and horses, which
snorted and kicked at the ground in alarm. They flew overhead in helicopters
and small planes. Giant jumbo jets from the nearby airport were grounded when
news of the sasquatches arrival burst over the airwaves. News vans and trucks
lumbered after them, the satellite dishes on their roofs casting the sun’s rays
into the sasq’s eyes, causing them to see spots and quiver with anxiety.

Reporters
spilled from the vehicles like busy ants. They moved closer and closer to the sasq
rear guard, shouting questions like, “Who are you and what do you want?” They
pointed their cameras and microphones, wailing in fear and excitement, until
Wolf and Willow raised their spears, growling.

The
reporters spilled backwards like a receding ocean tide, but minutes later they
inched close again, reckless in their hungry need for information. School was
canceled when the news broke and children broke away from their parents to
investigate the monsters. As long as they didn’t come too close, the sasq ignored
them. Once or twice some of the more daring boys and girls threw rocks at them,
but Petal concentrated and compelled the kids to believe that they held glowing
coals in their hands rather than stones. The children ran away, screaming but
unharmed.

Police
cars and tactical units surrounded the sasquatches on all sides, and armored officers
shouted orders at them from their hovering white birds. Blue, red, amber and
purple lights etched the road and caused some of the sasq children to weep in
fear and confusion. An entrepreneurial taco-wagon owner seized the day and
crept along the road slowly, selling tacos, burritos, tortilla chips and cold
Coca Cola’s and sweet tea to the delirious crowds.

It
was a carnival, a dark dream, a crazy circus, and the people who joined the
rapidly expanding crowd snapped pictures with their cell phones and texted back
and forth in a frenzy of disbelief and astonishment. The warm morning air was
heavy with the smell of cooking oil, diesel fumes and the distinctive, woodsy
musk of the sasquatch people.

A
loud horn rose and fell, its bleated warning advising the small humans closest
to the base that an attack was imminent, while the fire bells within the city
limits played a discordant harmony. City cops and state patrol officers donned
full Kevlar protective armor and tried to walk between the monsters and the
general population. Many of the officers lost focus however, when they couldn’t
keep from watching the sasq. They also sensed, in the way cops do, that the
monsters were peaceable and meant no harm.

***

One
young policeman named Cody saw Mel walking hand in hand with a tall, handsome sasq
and shook his head. She was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen, with
her long, blond hair, large gray eyes and pale lips which, at the moment, were tight
with worry, but he had no doubt would be as pink and soft as tulip petals when
she was relaxed and happy.

What
are these creatures
,
he wondered,
and why is she with them
? Then, distracted, he turned away
to keep his eye on a truck-full of rednecks who were careening along the side
of the road, hurling beer cans and insults towards the monsters. He was just
about to hit the squawk horn on his patrol car when a tall, redheaded female,
who looked almost human but not quite, stepped away from the others and lifted
her hand.

Cody
raised his pistol in alarm but lowered it again, almost immediately. He thought
she carried some sort of weapon but that wasn’t the case. Whatever she did
seemed to have a profound effect on the rednecks. The truck screeched to a
standstill and crept slowly backwards and out of sight. Cody felt the small
hairs on the back of his neck stir. He did not know what just happened but he
could feel it in the air, like charged particles of electricity after a
lightning strike.

***

Onio
held a hand above his eyes to cut down on the sun’s glare. He could see guard
towers about a half a mile away and a long, white bar that blocked access into
the Army base. His heart pounded in his chest and his senses were taut with
nervous anticipation. He and his people played a dangerous game today. He
believed in the high king’s theory and felt that this was the sasq’s only
viable action, but he had seen the look of fear that came over Blue Sky’s face
when he spoke of the small soldier’s leader.

“There
is such insane hatred in his eyes, Onio,” he had whispered last night, before
they left the tunnels and came out into the open. Blue’s face was still gaunt
from his forced captivity, and his eyes were dark with worry.

“New
Moon thinks to reason with this soldier, but I don’t know if it can be done,”
he added, softly.

Onio
felt a chill. He knew that Blue Sky was smart and courageous. He fought the
spiders with almost reckless abandon and, with the help of his friend Ann,
found a way to escape from the soldiers’ prison. Now though, he seemed to lose
heart. His fingers shook and it was easy to see that the young sasq warrior was
frightened. The fact that New Moon had asked Blue Sky to be the sasq’s spokesperson
did not help matters.