The Horseman
Copyright© 2009 by Ian Alexander
Chapter 7
I’m having a bit of disagreement with my muse. I’m having trouble with Riley, and she still loves him. I think that I should feed him to the nearest bear, carcajou, wild pig, or vampire that comes along. She wants to give him a crown. That’s the reason it’s taken so long to get this chapter out. It’s darn near gotten me to be schizophrenic. (They say I’m crazy, but we disagree.)
Soooo ... This could get interesting.
In the spirit of the Saturday afternoon cliffhangers (and I’m giving away my age), a little recap...
Carl Kolchak, veteran newspaper hack and Xander wannabe, has been kidnapped by a newly returned Mayor Wilkins and given a message for Buffy and Company. Riley Finn is called from Sunnydale to Area 51 to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a scientist involved with genetic mutation and strange deaths due to “acute anemia”. Riley has arrived and found the situation at Area 51 much more serious than he had been led to believe. Buffy and company have met with a messenger of the Great Spirit who has given them the next piece of the puzzle. Riley heads up a team of STAAR operatives in three helicopters, and tries to find out if man can really fly. (It’s not the flying that hurts, it’s the landing that can really suck.)
So with that in mind we join our plot in progress...
‘OW! That hurts.’ Riley groaned. Opening his eyes was a mistake. Everything was upside down. Slamming his eyes shut, he counted to ten, and then gradually opened them again.
‘Still upside down. Did I hit my head too hard?’ he moaned.
He felt like he was sliding slightly. That’s when he realized that he was on his back sliding upside-down down a slope. Flailing wildly, he grabbed a scrub bush to halt his movement.
The rough bark of the root cut into his palm, and he nearly let go. But he held on, after a couple of minutes, he had enough of a grip on reality to right himself and crawl back from the edge of a 500 foot drop.
Gently easing himself back from the edge, Riley took in the situation he found himself in. ‘I’ve still got my flak jacket, stakes, no water bottles, my cross, and only my FN Five-Seven as a weapon.’
‘There’s nothing up here, ‘ he thought. ‘But I can smell smoke from somewhere.’
Gingerly approaching the drop-off, Riley looked at the destruction below. Bodies were scattered over the rocky slope below intermingled with wreckage from the two attack birds, as well as the troop carrier that held his team.
‘What the Hell happened!!!’ Riley raged as his head started to clear a little more. ‘The last thing I saw was the newby pilot had violated my orders for nap of the earth flying and three tongues of flame heading toward us.’
Shaking his head to clear the beginnings of a headache, Riley tried to reconstruct what happened next. ‘I remember the nose of the chopper pitching up trying to dodge the incoming whatever, then we started a massive roll to the right.’
Looking down over the edge again, he saw where the PaveLow impacted the cliff face about fifty feet down.
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