The Silent Killer of The Everfree Forest

SSGt Lopez POV

I continued to run through the brush, with both Duncan and the cubs following close behind me. Eventually our running took us to a small bridge. Looking around, we found a single set of stairs leading down. It had been taken by the overgrowth of the forest and was hardly noticeable.

“Let’s keep going. If we get caught down there, we’re done for,” I said, running past it.

The sun’s dying beams shot fingers of salmon pink and sherbet orange across the sky before extinguishing itself behind the horizon. We sat down in a small clearing next to a pond. It wasn’t the biggest clearing, as it could barely fit all of us and leaving only a few feet of space for the fire.

After I got the fire lit I grabbed the small radio from the bag and fitted it around my head, before starting the search.

“This is Staff Sergeant Roberto Lopez. If there are any others in the area please respond immediately.”

I repeated the phrase countless times for the next half an hour. After that I gave up the search and turned off the radio. Slowly and methodically, the warm embrace of sleep took me, and I was numb to the world.

0800 hours, Everfree Forest

I awoke to the abrupt sound of  branches and sticks popping. The sun was up over the horizon and the fire was slowly dying, almost completely gone. All that remained was the green leaves and sticks that had fallen on it, causing the loud pops as some strange sap popped from it. I looked at a nearby tree and noticed there was more sap leaking out of the tree I was laying back on. The sap was nowhere near me but it was slowly making its way down towards me. I was gonna reach up and collect some but Soft Soil stopped me.

“Wait! Thats poison sap! Dont touch it; it goes into your skin if you do.” She looked away as she thought of what to say next. “You’ll be gone, again… You’ll be gone forever.”

I moved away from the tree and laid beside Soft Soil who was still in her sitting position. I smiled at her and pet her head. “Don't worry Soft. I’m not leaving you, I’m not gonna leave you again.” I smiled as she laid beside me and hugged me. I hugged back with one hand and turned on the radio with the other. I set the option to “search” and waiting for less than 20 seconds before a voice cracked up on the radio for a few seconds before it changed again. I blushed and sat up quickly when Soft glared at me after falling on her ass. I changed the station back to the station where I had heard the voice. It was definitely a recording but it was another soldier’s voice nonetheless.

“If there are any missing or scattered military personnel, we are in the area. This is base camp Phoenix. Head towards the sunset, we do not know where this region is placed so sunset is north and sunrise is south. We have food and water, come now,” The message continued to repeat this message for a little, while Soft Soil sat in my lap and looked at me curiously.

“What’re you doing?” Soft Soil asked cutely, looking up at me with big eyes.

“Listening to a message. C’mon, we gotta get out of here.” I picked up Soft Soil holding her close and tapping the cubs on the head. All three woke up and yawned cutely which woke  Duncan, who was snuggled around them, and caused him to yawn too.

“C’mon, we need to go. The meat in my backpack is bad so we have nothing to eat for breakfast,” I said, kneeling by the pond and filling my water-sack while dropping 10 drops of iodine into the very cloudy water. “We need to get moving,” I repeated.

We all walked “north”, I was just hoping we would make it to the base before something found us. Soft Soil was sitting atop my head and tapping my head like a bongo drum while she giggled. Duncan was keeping the cubs in check by walking behind them and nudging their behinds when one stopped to sniff the ground or simply to look up at a passing butterfly or something. He was really taking a parental role in their lives. Mulling on this thought for a bit, something just bit at me: Who would play the parental role in Soft Soil’s life? I didn’t know what to think about this. “I mean, I could try being a parent to her but I doubt I could be a father. Hell, I’m barely 23, but I’m not cut out to be a father; the kid would probably die from getting too much candy and sweets or something,” I thought as Soft Soil hugged and snuggled my head close. “Maybe I will be a good father. Who knows, I might even be able to get her a real family.”

We walked off towards the “north” as the sun continued on its pathway. We walked for what seemed like hours before we heard a loud bang from the left. It seemingly echoed forever as we all started running towards what we could assume was the base. We continued to run for a long time, running towards what we hoped was the origin of the explosive echoes.

Eventually, after twenty minutes of running we ran into an open field and found what we had been searching for: Base Phoenix.

It was a wide open space, with a large enough plain to allow planes to depart. There were soldiers walking in all directions. We walked into the base, and heard fire from one side. I ran towards the sound and found something that made my blood go cold. A tank and several troops opening fire on a strange rock alligator-like creature; the body looked like any other alligators, except it was made from rock. It had the tusks of a boar but it certainly wasn’t one. I was so distracted watching these men fight off this creature that I hadn’t noticed the soldier walk up behind me.

“Soldier, who are you and where did you come from!?” The man shouted surprising the five of us.

Looking back as fast as I possibly could, I found a soldier standing behind me. I looked at the patch on his sleeve and found that he was a Master Sergeant in the United States Army. “Sir, Staff Sergeant Lopez, sir!”

“At ease, soldier. Who are these?” he asked gesturing to the cubs and the filly on my head.

“These are… uhhh… companions sir. This is an inhabitant of this country and these,” I gestured to filly and cubs. “I killed their mother sir, they wouldn’t have survived a night alone, sir.”

“So we have a native. Figured something was wrong when we found we had gone from the desert into forest in the blink of an eye. Come soldier, I’m sure Captain Shan would like to speak with you,” he said sarcastically, walking away as I followed close behind.

“Uh... yes, sir.” I honestly didn’t know what to say, all I knew was that Soft Soil’s tail started to coil around my neck.

He said nothing, and started towards the metallic buildings on the edge of the base camp.

We walked inside a large building serving as a base of operations. I took off my helmet upon entering the building. I could see several computers inside. All of the men were trying to connect to any satellites around the globe. A visual of the forest tops were presented on several screens. I noticed a few golden dots in the forest but thought nothing of it as I walked passed the men working on the computers and stopped in front of Captain Shan.

I saluted as well as the soldier beside me. “Sir!” we said in unision.

“At ease, soldiers. Who are these?” he asked, gesturing towards the cubs and the fillies.

“Natives, sir.” I looked at the soldier next to me, but he decided to stay quiet.

“Why are they here?”  Captain Shan responded stoically.

“These three lost their mother, and this one. I simply don’t know, ask Staff Sergeant Lopez,” the soldier replied.

“Thanks for putting me on the spot, asshole,” I thought bitterly.

“Well, Mr. Lopez?”

“Sir, this young filly was caught in stone when I-” I got interrupted by Soft Soil who happily blurted out my answer for me.

“He saved me from a scary cockatrice. He was brave and just was all like “I’ll save you!” Then he rushed in and made the cockatrice unstone me and sent the cockatrice running away like a little filly!” she yelled happily squeezing the back of my head.

“Uhhh, yeah. That’s… sort of what happened,” I said scratching Soft Soil’s lower back in an attempt to scratch my neck.

Soft Soil giggled in response to my scratching. “Stop it, that tickles.”

“Sorry,” I replied somewhat embarrassed. “Didn’t mean to.”

Soft Soil just continued to giggle until the man in front of us cleared his throat, robbing our attention from each other.

“I’m sure you have a lot to talk about now that you all are… safe, but I think that since we are stuck in our current situation that, Soft Soil should… “educate” us about the different beings of her world. I know she’s a child, and you may not be comfortable with this, but we need information,” the Captain said in a gruff voice.

“I understand sir, all I ask is that I stay with her during the questions, sir,” I said. I could feel Soft Soil tense up a bit, thinking about being asked questions of her world.

“Uhh, Mr, Captain… I… I dont know alot of things about my world… I-I’m only 9,” Soft Soil squeaked. Captain Shan was pretty intimidating.

“Anything you have will suffice. Now go with Master Staff Sergeant Browski,” Captain Shan finished gesturing to the man next to me.

“Yes, sir!” I saluted.

We followed the soldier outside the building as some people started arguing to each other about what they were seeing on their screens. We left before we could really see any of the “anomalies” (as they called them) on their screens. I tossed the arguments aside as we left the room.

“You guys are going to be sleeping in this tent here. Those four can share the bed on bottom. Make sure they stay quiet. We need our men in tip-top shape for the day’s activities, and we can’t have our men sleepy,” Browski said to us, before stopping in front of a bunk bed.

“Will do, sir,” I responded, before Browski left to do whatever his duties of the day would be. I waited until he left before planting my bag to the side of the bed and taking off the rest of my ghillie suit, as opposed to only my helmet. I noticed Soft Soil was nuzzling the top of his head happily. “What, you doing up there, Soft?”

I heard Soft Soil give a cute giggle before jumping on the top bunk and looking at me in the eyes. “Just having fun!” Soft Soil gave out a small, erratic shout. She was happy, and it made me smile some.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, giving her shoulder a playful shove, which she returned to my arm. We went back and forth for a bit before I dodged out of the way and caught her with an arm before putting her back on the top bunk. “Can’t beat me, Soft.”

She just giggled and hugged my face. “I’ll beat you one day.”

I smiled and hugged her back, petting her mane a bit before releasing her. “Okay, Duncan and I’ve got to go do some things. You’re in charge… well… of these three.” I gestured to the cubs. “Until we get back.”

“Okay!” Soft Soil shouted, happily hopping and latching herself onto my chest before jumping onto the pillow behind Duncan.

“You’re gonna sleep again? You just woke up,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but we ran through the forest and that got me tired,” she said defensively.

“You were riding on my shoulders,” I deadpanned.

“And you were bouncy,” she giggled. “Besides, it’ll give all of us something to do until you get back.”

“Fine. C’mon, Duncan,” I said, tilting my head towards the exit.

I looked down at Duncan who was currently nuzzling the cubs as they slowly got up when he left the bed. They wanted to follow him but Duncan growled lowly at them, making them turn to Soft Soil and go lay down by her.

“That’s weird… it’s like he’s talking to them.” I shrugged at my thoughts. “I guess he really HAS filled in in their lives as their father… And I still don’t know what I’m going to do about Soft Soil.”

I sighed as we left the Alaskan-style tent and walked out into the sun. “I’ll ask Soft Soil later today, before bedtime. Who knows. Maybe she WANTS me as her dad… though I kinda doubt it,” I thought before everyone in the area heard a loud blaring shout over the intercom.

“All Marksmen personnel in the southern face of the base, report to the eastern conference room immediately!” the intercom announced.

“I guess that’s me. Duncan go do your running regimen,” I said as he tilted his head to me. “Don’t give me that bullshit. You’ve been understanding me since day one in this damn forest.”

I heard Duncan growl a bit before rolling his eyes and walking towards the track. I sighed and walked towards the eastern wing conference room. The walk was a short one, only two minutes before I opened the door and took a seat with the other 40 men in the room. It was only five minutes before everyone was seated and the meeting started.

“Hello, men. I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here. Well, it’s simple; I’m sending all of you out on a recon mission,” the man said, smiling a bit. “Now, we had a few Shadow UAVs survey the area, and we found a small village south of our location. Only about a mile or so. The populace of this town are… well, ponies. Yes, I know how ridiculous it sounds, but believe me. It is true. Now I want you all to go get ready. You will leave in a few hours.”

We all stood and and saluted as we left the tent. I ran straight back to my tent to explain to Soft what would be happening in a few hours. Once I entered I found one problem… She was gone!

“Crap.”