Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (37 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-
F
OUR

Beth had spotted a few of the enemy fighters from a distance, but had crossed over into Walpole without the slight
est hitch. Sampson
padded along
side, stopping occasionally to mark his territory, partly for the sake of the aliens and partly for the sake of the crazy man following them. Sampson had caught the scent a couple of miles back and no matter how much he tried to urge his new friend on she just wasn’t having any of it. He knew she was tired and she was stopping more and more frequently even when he would
muzzle
her lap
to urge
her forward.

“I know
,
Sampson
.
I know you’re excited about getting there and so am I
,” she said
as she sat down on a large boulder
looking
over Bird River. “But then how would you know we’re getting close? Huh
,
boy? You’re just picking up on my excitement…
is that it?”
s
he said as she scratched behind his ears. And whereas
,
he liked that sensation immensely that was not the reason he kept pushing at her. The crazy man was close and Sampson knew it. He turned and bristled. Beth stood in alarm.
Sampson began to bark and growl.
W
hite foam
poured from his mouth
as if on cue. Beth began to shake, trouble had caught up.
Pegged
emerged from the woods
fifteen
yards from where she stood. Even
from th
at
distance
,
Beth could tell her pursuer was a long way from
healthy
.
R
ed angry blotches covered his face, hair had begun to fall out of his scalp in bunches, he was coated in
sweat
, his eyes burned red
like the coals of a still hot fire.
His sanity, what remained anyway, was completely shredded and in tatters, pooled around the remnants of his conscience.

“Ah, so we meet again
,” he said
as casually as if they had bumped into each other at a mutual friend's dinner party
. “I see you have a companion
. No,
matter it’s only one extra bullet.”

The dog
lowered to the ground slowly inching his way
toward
him
.

Pegged
had known she had a dog with her, he had found some tracks a while back
,
but he was wholly unprepared for how immense the thing actually was
.
T
he
re
were
just enough wits about him to realize the danger.

“Make your little lap dog heal, or I’m going to put a bullet right between his eyes
!” he said
with vehemence.

“Sampson
,
come here!” Beth said hoping the dog would listen. She didn’t see a way out, but she wasn’t dead yet and neither was Sampson
,
so there was still a chance.

“Aptly named
,”
Pegged
said as Sampson partly did as he was told
.
H
e stopped moving period
;
neither going forward or backwards.

“It’s good to see you again
,” Pegged said,
leering.

“I wish I could say the same
,” Beth answered
.

He
moved a few feet closer
,
his gaze never wavering from Beth.

“Ummm
,
you look good
.
M
aybe I
’
ll give you some before I kill you
,”
Pegged
said as he ran his free hand over his groin.

Beth’s stomach turned
.
S
he would cut her own throat before she would
ever let him touch her.

“I’ll kill myself long before you have the chance.”

“Hey
,
as long as you’re still warm, that suits me too.”

“You disgust me, you pathetic pig!” Beth shouted.

“Yeah
,
that’s right,
bitch! Keep talking dirty
.”
H
e stepped a little closer.

“It’s Beth, you worthless piece of shit
,”
she
said
,
her heart hammering in her throat.

“Well,
since we’re going to be all civil and introduce ourselves, my name is
Pegged
.”

“Fitting.”

He
smiled. Beth was torn
.
Pegged
was increasingly cutting the distance between himself and Sampson, she feared for the safety of the big dog but wanted the death of the maddog.

Beth stalled for time. “Why have you followed me
?
W
hat could I have possibly done to you to make you come across a whole state to try
and
kill me
?
”

“Bitch.” His eyes flared. “
Y
ou killed my brother back there in that bathroom stall.”

“You don’t seem like the kind of person
who
would care about someone enough to put yourself out like this.”

“You’re right. I couldn’t stand the whiny little shit. But he was still family and I have to do what’s right.”

Beth laughed. “Oh great, a mad
man with morals and a code of honor
,”
s
he chortled.

“Fuck you
,
bitch
,”
Pegged
said
,
tak
ing another step closer
,
his pistol raised, the barrel of the .4
5
looking like a small cannon from th
at
distance. “I’ll fucking drop you right here
,
right now.”

Beth froze, her breath caught in her throat. The world slowed as her mind raced.

Sampson had hoped the crazy man would get a little closer
,
but he
could
sense the man
that had
precariously
been
hanging on to the edge had finally
slipped
over
.
I
f he was to act
,
his only opportunity was now. Sampson bolted from a pure standstill to full speed in a fraction of a second
.
T
he only thing that gave his stealthy launch away was the rocks
shooting
out from his
rear paws
from the thrust of his powerful muscles.
Pegged
looked down as
Sampson slammed
into his lower legs, the locking of his left knee sent the bullet he had released slightly off mark. Beth felt the impact of the giant slug slam into her upper body, pain blistered throughout her as she was
thrown to
the ground. The force of the bullet crashing her onto the
ground
behind.

Before she lost consciousness
,
she heard three things, the first was the snapping of a bone, the second was the sharp report
of another bullet and the third—
the
one that struck her the deepest—
was the grunt and whine of Sampson as she realize
d he had been the recipient of that last round.

“So this is how
it end
s
,” she said
,
looking up into the
rapidly graying
blue sky. Something flashed by on her right side but she had neither the strength nor the inclination to try
to
find out what it was.

Beth awoke for a few moments
,
blood rushing to her head, somewhat feeling like a sack of potatoes
.
She was
unsure as to why consciousness eluded her
and she blacked out once again
.

CHAPTER FIFTY-
F
IVE
- Mike Journal Entry 17

“Hey
,
buddy
,” Dennis said
as he walked into the room, the now familiar bottle of Jack accompanying him. He noticed
me
eyeing the bottle. “Want some
?
”

“Nah, I already feel like a train wreck
;
I don’t need a hangover on top of it
,” I answered
.

“You sure
?
T
his stuff cures just about everything.”

I
waved
my
hand
and
Dennis nodded as he took another pull.

“Ah man
,
Mike
,
do you remember that time you, me
,
and Paulie came up to the Hill
?
T
hat night after the Ozzy concert
,” Dennis said
looking off into the distance.

“In one aspect
,
bud
,
the memory of the event is crystal clear
,
however the details, well
,
they’re pretty fuzzy.”

“Ain’t that the truth
?
That was probably the best overall night of my life.”

I
sat up in
my
bed
,
realizing that Dennis had something on his chest and this was just hi
s preliminary way of leading in
to it. “You know
when
we got those hits of mescaline, I got to admit, I was scared shitless to take
them
.
I know you and Paul had taken it before.”

“A couple of times
,”
I
added.

“Yeah
,
a couple of times, and you weren’t any more fucked up after than you normally are.”

“Uh
,
thanks
,
I think.”

“You know what I mean
,” Dennis said
hastily.

“Only messing with you
,
Dennis.”

“It’s just that, you know we went to this awesome concert tripping our trees out and then somehow made it back to the Hill to look at the sky and talk about stuff I don’t even remember ever
having thought a
bout
before
.”

I
smiled
.
I
t had been a pretty good night and hearing Dennis talk about it brought the memories to the forefront.

“I mean
,
we even talked about how there
had to be life on other planet
s, just
because of the sheer odds. And honestly
,
Mike
,
I think I was just agreeing with you to agree with you. I didn’t honestly think there were any such things as aliens. But now
,
looking back
,
I was just being ignorant.”

“Don’t beat yourself up
,
Dennis
.
F
irst off
,
we were blasted
, I think at one point we were talking about alternate tangent realities.”