Chapter 1: Cards

Saturday the 14^TH

I sat looking at the cards and shuddered, it was the third time in three days I had drawn the hand. In front of me was the eight and Ace of spades while in my hand were another eights and another ace. Looking up I waved the smoke away from the cigars being puffed around me. With a glance at the pot and then at the dealer I wondered as my hand hovered over my chips.

'Was it a warning? An omen?' I thought.

With another look around the table I watched each of the five other players faces. Two had dropped out and one was wavering or I thought he was. He was a little hesitant on the last raise I made when I got the ace of Spades. Which only left the young kid from Amarillo, with two three's and a King showing on the table. Looking at my hand again I reached down and picked up a stack of hundreds and tossed it into the pot.

"Thousand to you, Mike," I said as I looked at the old air force colonel.

His weathered face showed the age of flying aircraft and balloons. On his left pocket of his jacket was some stitching that said, '477th Bombardment Group, Elmendorf Air Force Base.' Mike picked up his cards and looked at the pot and shook his head.

"Walter my old friend, it's too rich for my blood," Mike Sampson said as he tossed his cards in.

"I'll see your thousand and raise you another," Matthew Holt said as he sneered at the man across from him. He knew he had the pot with two threes and two kings as he picked up the stacks of chips. Pushing back his cowboy hat he pulled out a cigarette and lit it as he waited for the man across from him to do something.

"Call!" I said as I tossed in another thousand.

"Two pair, Kings over threes," he said as he turned the cards over and reached for the pot.

With a frown I said as I rubbed my chin and watched him, "You know young'en, that's a good hand. But this time, it's just not good enough."

Turning over the two eights and an ace I said, "Aces over eights!"

"The dead man's hand," Mathew said in shock as he leaned back in the chair.

"Yep, that it is," I replied as I pulled the fourteen thousand dollar pot to me. I looked at the dealer and said, "Cash me out."

"Wait a minute, that's a lot of my money," Mathew cried out.

"Shouldn't gamble what you can't afford to lose," I said as the dealer handed me thirty-six, one thousand dollar chips.

I watched the man fume as I stood up and walked away from the table. Going through the casino, I walked past the wall of hero's and stopped. Reaching out I touched the picture of my son with a purple ribbon on it.

I stood there for a minute with my eyes closed, and with a weird feeling as I was being watched. I turned and looked around myself, but no one was paying attention to me.

Sending another quick prayer, I walked over to the cashier's booth and slid one of my chips onto the smooth surface and said, "Cash this for me, little lady."

I examined the lady behind the steel bars, and she was quite good looking. Her red hair was up in a bun at the top of her head. She was wearing the typical black pants and white shirt that all casino workers wear. Her nails were painted bright red, and she had an American flag stickpin in her left collar.

Mary MacDillard looked at the cowboy in disgust at his comment and watched as he slid the chip to her. Opening her drawer, she pulled a stack of one hundred dollars bills out. She slid her fingers tips through the paste stick as her other hand took the chip and counted the bills out in her hand and then she quickly counting out the ten one hundreds as she replied, "Here you go, Sir."

"Thank you," I replied as I placed another chip down and said, "I want to cash this one out as well."

"Sir, why didn't you just hand me both at the same time?" Mary asked as she opened the drawer again and quickly pulled the money out and counted it.

With a grin, I pulled out a third and replied, "I have my reasons. Please cash this one too."

Mary blew a lock of hair out of her eyes and snapped, "Look just hand them all to me and I will cash them out!"

"No, we will do it my way. This way the Feds get nothing," I snapped back at her as I waited for my money.

Mary growled under her breath and opened a bottom drawer and pulled out another stack of hundreds and counted them out. "Next," she said, and waited as he placed a fourth chip down and picked up the bills. Ten minutes later she watched him walk out of the casino.

"Fucking asshole! But he tipped well," she said as she placed the one thousand dollar chip in her can.

Whistling, I walked out the door, and headed towards my truck, which was parked in the back parking lot. Getting the feeling again, I looked around and saw someone duck behind a pillar. Before anyone could peek around the column, I stepped around the corner heading for where I had parked when I saw the niche. The niche was another entrance to the casino. Looking up I saw the camera so I ducked into the small alcove. I stood there waiting in the dark, and then three men walked by me not even looking into the alcove. I recognized one of them, right away.

"Where the fuck did he go?" Mathew snarled in anger.

"I don't know. I saw him turn down here, maybe he started running and we didn't see him. Lets hurry, the back parking lots are this way," said the blond haired man as he looked around.

The dark haired man who looked like an older version of Mathew looked right at me. I know he did, he should have seen me, but then he turned away.

"Mat, where the fuck did he go?" he said.

"How the fuck should I know James. I just said the same fucking thing. I don't know how you could lose him, he was in front of you," Mathew snapped back at his older brother.

"Let's do what Dakota said, and check the parking lot," James said, and they took off for the end of the alley.

I stood there watching and listing to them talk. The one named James had looked right at me and should have seen me. I was prepared to hit him if he said anything. Shaking my head in confusion, I waited for them to reach the end of the alley and turn out of site. Stepping out, I got dizzy for a second and looked around. I had the feeling I was being watched again, but wasn't sure from where. I knew it wasn't the camera, because I had stepped around the corner and it couldn't see me. I was looking to the back parking and then I turned and went back to the main street and jumped into a cab.

I told the driver where to take me and he took off for the RV Park. Five minutes later we pulled in and I had him take me to my spot. I pulled two twenties out and said, "You didn't see me."

The man took the money and replied, "No, Sir, I didn't see you."

"Thanks," I said as I climbed out.

I walked to the door as the cab drove away. Opening the door, I went inside and back to the garage area. Standing there, I looked at my son's Yamaha dirt bike, and shook my head.

"Fucking Army," I snapped in anger.

I turned to the gun safe and punched the safe in anger. Gripping the lock, I quickly entered the combination and pulled the safe door open. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled the money out. I opened the lock box on the bottom of the tall safe. I dropped the money into the bottom lockbox, next to my son's .44 Desert Eagle he had bought before deployment.

Holding the heavy weapon, I thought of my son killed in Iraq. How I wanted to go over there and kill a bunch of rag heads and send them to their makers. Dropping the automatic in the case I snapped the lid closed and stood up.

With anger flowing through my body, I slammed the safe door and spun the lock. The lock continued spinning as I opened the door and went into my home for the last two years.

Opening the fridge I grabbed a chicken leg and stripped the meat from the bone and then went into the living area and sat down in my lazy boy chair. Sitting there, I though back to how the video had showed my son begging for his life. They asked him to fill out his parents address and they told him he could write a letter to us letting us know he was ok.

He had smiled as he wrote the address down and then he gave them the paper with the address and was offered a sheet of paper to write on. As he picked up the paper and started writing, the man who left the screen started talking. I had seen the horror flashed through Andrew's eyes as the man said 'Lieutenant Andrew Brakes, for crimes committed against the Iraqi people. We the free Iraqi council sentence you to death. Executioner, do your duty!'

He said he was found guilty and then the two men stepped in and yanked him to onto his back and then he was murdered as the other one continued talking. He was sending a warning to all the American forces to get out of his country or this would fall to all the prisoners they took. A new leader was in Iraq, and they wouldn't catch him like they had done to the rest.

I closed my eyes. I could still see Andrews pleading look as they bent him over a small table behind the big one and another man stepped into the picture and a sword came down with a hiss. I heard my wife's screams when I saw my son's head fall to the ground and my tears ran down my face. The day we watched the tape, my son's body was found in a warehouse in Mosul.

Not only did I lose my son, I lost my wife of thirty years and my life, as I knew it. She had been standing next to me and had suffered a massive heart attack as we stood there in shock, watching our brave son being butchered like so much meat in a butcher shop. Before I could get back with her medicine, she was gone.

Grabbing the bottle of whiskey and a glass that I kept on the end table, I poured myself a full tumbler. I drained it, as I looked at the pictures of my beloved Gail and our son Andrew on the wall. I filled the glass again and then sat there sipping the second glassful. I flipped on the TV with the remote.

The newswoman was talking about a tornado that had torn apart a house and killed five people, and dozens of animals, the night before.

With a quick tap of the remote, the DVD player came on. I watched, once more, the murder of my son. The tears flowed down my face again, as I drank my Southern Comfort.

There would be no comfort for me.

Rala

I appeared in the trailer and watched the old man reclining in his chair. He was snoring away, and the glass was about to fall to the floor. I quietly walked over and took it out of his hand. Setting the glass on the end table, I stopped and looked at the TV screen. I again saw the young man being murdered, and shuddered at the brutality of these humans.

The DVD continued to play the same murder over and over. Shaking my head in sadness and shame at the scenes of what some humans will do to one another, I turned it off. With a small sigh, I turned back to Walter and looked at him. He reeked of booze. I pulled out what looked like a mechanical pencil and touched the point to his hand. The device hissed in my hand. I pulled it back, and sat down across from him. Brushing my silver hair back behind my ears, I waited for him to awaken.

Walter

I groaned, and slowly opened my eyes. Raising my left hand, I rubbed my sleepy eyes. I then looked around as if I'd heard something and my eyes settled on the girl sitting across from me at the kitchen table. Looking to the door, I saw it was locked as I had locked it and the door to the storage area was locked as well. Turning back to her, I studied her and the rubbed my eyes for they couldn't be telling me that she was bright silver.

"Who are you and how did you get in my home?" I asked in surprise.

"My name is Rala, and I have come to offer you a great gift," she said.

"Gift? What do you mean? Why did you paint yourself silver?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes again.

"I'm silver because that's how I look. It is something in your air that turns us silver. On our ships, we have skin like yours. As to the gift we offer you, we offer you a new life. It will be a hard life, but a new one. We will make you younger, stronger and healthier than what you have been. We will fix everything that is wrong with you, your heart, your lungs from smoking those god-awful cigars, your liver from the booze. Even your diabetes will be cured. All we ask you to do ... no. All you have to do is survive and teach the inhabitants to become a civilization," Rala said.

"Survive what? Teach whom?" I asked.

"Does it matter? Currently you're drinking yourself to death. We have saved your life once already tonight," Rala replied.

"Maybe I don't want to be saved," I said as I grabbed the bottle and filled it with another shot of whiskey.

Looking at the girl I asked, "You want some?"

"No thank you, and you really shouldn't drink any either," Rala said as she watched him with a smirk on her face.

"Little Lady, I've been drinking since before you were born. I don't need... " I stopped talking as she started laughing and snapped at her, "What's so funny?" as I lowered my glass.

"Walter, how old do you think I am?" she asked with a giggle.

"Twenty or so," I said and she laughed again.

"Why thank you, that's very sweet of you. I haven't been that young in a long time, I'm actually three hundred and ninety-one of your earth years old," Rala said with a smile that lit up her face.

"Sure you are, and I own a bridge in New York, and it's for sale real cheap. Now if that's all, I'm going to drink my glass of whiskey, and then go back to sleep," I said as I put my feet up, downed my drink. I smiled at the illusion of the beautiful woman, and wondered how I would explain her to Mike. I set my empty glass down as the booze burned down my throat.

The booze hit my stomach, and all of a sudden it started turning on me. I jumped up from my chair and ran for the bathroom. I pushed the door open and dropped to my knees.

I knelt in front of the toilet, and heaved my guts up. My belly and lungs felt as if they were on fire as I flushed the tank. Gasping in pain, I climbed to my feet, and stood there on wobbly knees. I turned to the sink and took a washcloth off of the rack. I wet it, and washed my face.

"Are you ok?" Rala asked from the other room.

"Fine, the booze must be getting to me," I said as I stumbled into the kitchen and went to the fridge. Opening the door, I pulled out the gallon of milk. Looking at the half full container I pulled the cap off and chugged a quarter of it to settle my stomach. Closing the milk, I put it back in the fridge and went back to my chair and sat down with a loud belch.

"I'm sorry for making you sick, but I needed to wake you up. The only way I could do that, was to neutralize the poisons you have been ingesting into yourself. So I injected you with a drug that prevents The People from drinking too much. It will wear off, in time. It's very compatible to your own physiologically and so I broke our rules and injected you with the serum ... I'm sorry," she said as she sat back down and bit her lip.

"Ugggg," I replied and grabbed my cowboy hat and covered my eyes as my head hurt, and I continued, "Go away. I have a god-awful headache, my stomach hurts and you're..."

"Walter we need to talk!" Rala said.

"You're a figment of my imagination. Go away!" I snapped as I tilted my hat and looked at her.

"No, I'm not a figment, and we need to chat about your future," Rala said as a glass formed in her hand and she drank the clear liquid inside.

"Then come another day, but for now, I need sleep!" I said as I dropped my hat and settled down in my comfortable Lazy Boy chair.

Setting the glass down, Rala stood up, and walked over and straddled his lap and sat down. Pushing the hat up she looked him in the eyes and said, "Do I feel like a figment of your imagination?"

"No, but ... you do feel good on something," I replied with a grin and then continued, "And if I wasn't married I would do something about it. Now please go away and let me sleep," I said as I reached for my hat.

Rala

"Walter, Gail is dead. There is nothing I can do about that. But you need to get on with your life, not drink it away. Would she like how you're living now? Would she like this hate in you, which is destroying your life? Would she?" I asked. 'Or is there? I will have to ask Kalib when I have time alone with him, ' I thought to myself.

Walter

"It's none of your business," I snapped out in anger, and dumped her on her shapely ass on the floor as I got up. Walking into the bathroom, I unzipped my jeans and took a hefty piss. When I was finished, I washed my hands, and then came back out into the living area. Looking at Rala, I sat back down and glared at her. I was daring her to say something, anything. But all she did was stand there, rubbing her butt, and then she sat back in the chair again.

With a smirk, I smiled at her and waited.

"That was rude!" Rala snapped.

"Go away!" I snarled in anger.

Getting up once more, Rala started pacing the room as she spouted off, "You humans are the most stubborn, obnoxious, ignorant sons of bitches I have ever known, you think the universe rotates around your piddling little planet. Well, I have news..."

I started giggling at her, as she fumed.

"It's not funny. I'm trying to offer you a new life..." she said as she plopped down in her chair

Rala

With a sigh, I looked at the human and wondered what to do. Taking a sip of my Sprite, I set the glass down and touched the back of my ear. I sent a report to Kalib. Before I could move, I was receiving instructions from my mentor and I sent a silent reply as I looked at Walter.

Walter

"Ok, Walter, I will. But tomorrow, when you go gamble again, the last set of cards you will get will be two aces and three eights. You will get it the next night and the next. If you haven't agreed to talk with us by Friday, you will be dead when you pull the next Dead Man's Hand, but if you do and decide to talk with us, turn your overhead light on during the day and we will see it," Rala said as she vanished.

"Whatever!" I replied as I grabbed the blanket and threw it outward. Grabbing my pillow, I tucked it under my head and rolled over onto my side. With my body covered I drifted off to sleep once again.

Rala

I started pacing my lab as I tried to figure out what to do. Going to the computer I sat down and studied the history of the country called America. I stopped on one item that seemed very important for the American people and grinned.

"That will work, but I need Kalib's permission," I said.

Touching my ear, I sent my thoughts to my boss.

'Kalib, I have a way to convince him, or I think it will work. But I need permission to use the temporal time displacement machine for at least twenty minutes.'

'Use whatever ship resources you have to, but get me that man. Then get his ass onto the planet, ' Kalib replied.

'Ok, but I think I have another idea to help, but it deals with his family. If we offer to save his wife, and send her there as well... '

'NO! She is dead, leave her dead, ' Kalib snapped through the link, interrupting her.

'As you command, ' I said and shut the link down.

With a sigh, I sat there at my desk and computed the coordinates for the destination I had in mind. Two hours later, I stacked up the items I had made for Walter. I sent a request to dimensional transportation department and went to bed.

I lay on my bed thinking of how irritating Walter was being. I wanted him to live. Why, I didn't know. I had spent the last fourteen months studying him. I watched as he buried his wife and then his son. I saw him break down at the graveyard and watched as his friend Mike helped him to the limousine, as they called them.

I was confused and didn't know what to do, or how to do it. The major problem was that I was getting so irritated at him. I wanted to kill him. I needed a plan to get him here, and that would result in me not killing him. Even if what I planned worked, I knew he would resent the intrusion in his life. He was so full of hate, that I was starting to think he wouldn't be a good choice.

'Give him the man, ' Kalib sent to her.

'The man?' I asked.

'Muqtada Ahmadinejad is in his bunker. Take him, and give him to Walter. That will deal with his anger and start the healing process for him. Humans have this weird attitude. Hurt their loved ones and be prepared to be hurt, ' Kalib stated.

'As you command, Sir. It shall be done. Good night, ' I replied.

I closed my eyes with a smile on my face as I thought of a man who deserved what he was going to get.

Walter's trailer

Outside the trailer, the sky darkened as the clouds gathered and hid the stars. Suddenly a green glow appeared in the driveway of Walter Brakes, and when it started to lift, his truck was sitting in its parking space.

Before the glow was gone, the sky opened up and rain started falling on the town. During the night three inches of rain would fall in light showers that would bring life to the desert.

Edited By TeNderLoin