Chapter 14

A couple more days’ walking brought us to the edge of an area that looked strange. We arrived in the late afternoon so didn’t look around much. I gathered my squad leaders and said, “Guys, we’re here. I want to figure out what we’re looking at. I want Leon to take his squad to the left and Harry to take his squad to the right. Keep spread out as you go and look for anything and everything. The question is, ‘How do we attack and win?’ Come back with some ideas for us to discuss.”

I looked at Sam and said, “Take your men and spread just a little to the left. Carl, do the same with your squad to the right. Joe, your squad will remain here as we all look around. I’ll be with you.” Everyone left to their search area.

Sheila and I lay down to watch with Joe and Nancy close by. The base’s exterior line appeared to be oval shaped. We had approached it from the north and were a bit east of the northern border of the base’s oval. Sheila noted and commented to me that the edge of the base had a cleared line about five feet wide along it. As we watched, two squirrels ran across the line. One even stopped in the open area and looked around before continuing on. There was a fence on the line that looked new made of barbed wire but it was different than what we used. I felt that it was made by the aliens. The day passed quietly but boringly with little happening. Occasionally, a ship would take off or land but that was it. We could see the aliens walking around in their suits.

There were a number of ships with their hatches open in a group. Over an hour, I noticed that no one went into nor emerged from those ships. I began to guess they were disabled. Twice, I saw aliens stumbling around. Both made it inside what appeared to be the main building. I thought that a hit on it might hurt them badly.

I also wondered if this were their main base for North America or if there were one or two more. The ships and base suffered from what I thought of as a lack of maintenance. That led me to wondering about their chain of command. Loping off the leader’s head might also cause them more difficulty than it would us.

As each squad returned, I told the men to talk among themselves about what they saw and what it might mean. I told the squad leaders that we would meet later. I told everyone also that there were no unimportant observations or ideas.

It was almost an hour later when all the squad leaders joined me. All the squads stayed spread out for safety. Joe started the discussion. “We were covering the center and rear. I watched a number of air ships leave in different directions. Two of them were having difficulty as they left. I’m pretty sure one of them crashed once out of sight. We heard a faint ‘boom’ from that direction that would be about right. That suggests that the poor maintenance is all over but is not all-encompassing.”

The others nodded. Leon said, “We went to the right and saw something that alarmed me greatly. There was a small group of people caged inside the perimeter. While we were watching four aliens in suits came to the cage and grabbed one person, stripped off their bits of clothing, and took him toward a vat. A tentacle came out of the vat and came toward the guy as he was being held. He started to scream when the tentacle went in his mouth and deep into his body. We continued to watch as it went through him deeply to come out his butt. He had ceased to struggle by then. His body shrunk as we watched until it tore his body as the tentacle became thicker. When the tentacle came free, his body looked shrunken and dried out. There was little blood. We don’t know what’s in the vat but it’s dangerous when given the chance. The other people in the cage were looking in horror.”

Carl said, “My squad was next to Leon’s. We couldn’t see details but it was obvious something bad was going on. We saw a couple of drunk seeming aliens. One walked through the perimeter and died. It may not be all along the perimeter but it was certainly there. It flashed him and seemed to vaporize him and his suit. No one seemed to care either. These aliens don’t seem to care about each other. It’s bothersome to us but may be something we can use.”

I said, “Sam, what did your guys see?”

Sam said, “We had two pairs of binoculars. We watched the air ships closely. I had a brother who served in the air force. A plane could come back to base dirty but that never lasted. Planes were cleaned up. We watched one land and the alien left it. It seemed that they filled it up with fuel but there was no attempt to maintain it. Bad things happen when you don’t maintain your equipment.”

Harry said, “I guess I ought to be next. We went way around trying to find an entrance. We did. It is lightly guarded with some traffic in and out. They are slovenly. We could see a post at each side of that entrance. We noticed that no one touched those posts. With what Carl said, I bet they were keeping the space between them clear. It would be a way inside. One of my guys wondered how high that barrier might be.”

Carl said, “We saw birds flying over it as low as five or six feet off the ground. My guy thinks that we could step over it.”

I said, “We know we can shoot over it. We’ll have to figure out how we can beat them here. I want to watch to determine if new ships come in or go out if we can tell. That might tell us about other bases. That’s a question I’ve developed. I’ve been looking but don’t have an answer yet. I recognize that I might not get one either.”

The meeting was over and we, Joe and I, rejoined our spouses. Sheila said, “That ship on the left just landed. It looks cleaner and bigger. They are off-loading a vat. I wonder if the ones we have been calling aliens are subservient to the vat creatures. There seems to be a pecking order there.” We watched as the vat was wheeled over next to the other. It appeared through our binoculars that a tentacle from each vat touched and entwined. Then, a tentacle from each vat moved toward the cage and took a victim. Both human beings were seemingly sucked dry.

I said, “I wonder what a victim looks like.”

Sheila said, “Riley, we can’t get closer and still be safe. I wonder how many operable air ships they have. We can count those.”

“True. However, I think a couple of shots wiping out those vats will be good when we attack.”

Joe added, “I think that would be a great idea. Whatever is in there is, in my mind, worse than the aliens though they are bad also.”

I said, “This evening, I want to watch their evening processes. With that known, we can put together a plan of attack. I wonder if they go dormant at night.”

Joe chuckled, “We’ll see. It would be interesting if they went to sleep or go dormant.”

We continued to watch as the sun set. As it became dark, the aliens had entered one of the two buildings on the base. Even the vats ceased to show any activity. I had focused on the “gate” into the area. It was left standing with one alien in his suit watching over the opening. I thought that a sniper with a good rifle could take it out and let the explosion be the trigger for our attack.