The Last Goatherd of Mars
Part 3
Randall gave Blackjack a detailed recounting of events, while Blackjack gave Randall's suit enough of a charge to get out of the rover.
"Little green men, huh?" asked Blackjack.
"I wouldn't make it up. Not after this mess."
Randall gestured in the direction of the rover currently serving as a coffin.
"I'm sure you wouldn't, kid. But people see crazy things out here. Alone. In storms. Dehydrated. Stuck in a rover huffing toxic fumes next to the body of a man they just killed."
Randall picked up a pebble and tossed it.
"So, how do you explain the dead goats? I've never seen anything like it, and be honest, neither have you."
Blackjack pressed his lips together, making his mouth disappear between his gray mustache and beard.
"No, can't say that I have. But I will say that your first response was the right one. Those Tauris boys had no business on your land. Up to no good is up to no good. The one that knocked you out was just lying to you to get away. He's the one we need to worry about. Well, him and his pard there."
Blackjack stood up.
"The sun will be up soon. And Tauris Corp will be looking for their guys. We need to make sure they don't find them."
"What do you have in mind?" asked Randall.
"First of all, we need to make the rover and corpse disappear. Now, I already disabled the tracking beacon, but this is the first place they'll come looking. We either need to bury everything deep or tow it out of here."
"I know a place," said Randall.
...
Randall led the way on his rover. It had weathered the storm no worse for wear; just needing a dusting off. Blackjack followed behind in a larger rig, towing the wrecked Tauris Corp rover.
It was only about a mile to their destination: the rocky slopes of an extinct volcano. There they would find one of the several sinkholes that Randall knew of. It was also the area that Randall knew his surviving goats would flee to as a refuge from the storm. The plain sloped up; the grasses and shrubs thinning. And the chunks of red rock getting larger. They pulled around behind a line of angular boulders and were greeted by a wide, circular hole in the ground.
"Yeah, this'll do just fine," said Blackjack, looking down into the void.
The men worked quickly to get the rover into position on the edge of the hole. Blackjack finished the job, pushing in the broken rover with his own. It made a terrific din as it crashed back and forth between the walls of the pit. He leaned over the edge and looked down. A faint chemical glow gave shape to the bottom of the shaft. Blackjack shined a light inside.
The rover lay upside down about a hundred feet down in what appeared to be a larger cavern.
"Huh," said Blackjack, "never seen the bottom of one of these holes." He looked up at Randall. "Now, we still have a lot to do. Like we talked about, I'm going to double back and take care of our tracks, you're going to find your goats and drive them home. We'll meet up at your place tonight and figure out what to do about the one that got away."
"Right," said Randall. "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. I figured my herd would be right around here."
As if on cue, a goat bleated in the distance.
Blackjack slapped Randall on the back.
"Fortune smiles."
The two men scanned the rocky hillside for signs of the animal.
It bleated again. Randall frowned.
"Maybe not. Can I see that flashlight?"
Blackjack handed his light to Randall. They peered down the hole. Far below, a goat wandered into the light. It looked up.
"Haha!" exclaimed Randall. "Now how'd you get down there?"
That instant a green blur flashed across the floor of the cavern. With a primal scream, the goat disappeared from view.
"No!" shouted Randall.
"Holy..." said Blackjack, taking a step back from the edge. He took his hat off and ran his hand over his bald pate.
"I need to get down there."
"Kid, are you crazy? We need to call the army is what we need to do. Drop a couple of tac-nukes."
"I need to get my goats. I'm not going to let those monsters tear the rest of them apart."
"You don't even know the rest are down there."
"Are you going to help me or not?"
"And how do you expect me to help, dragging my bum leg around?"
"I need you up here. Either to pull me up if I run into trouble, or help with the goats."
"We can't lift them out of there one by one."
"I don't figure they got down there through here. There must be another entrance. I'll turn on my emergency beacon. When I find the way out, you'll see it."
"You're leaving something out."
"What's that?"
"What if those things decide they'd rather not let you take your goats back?"
Randall thought a moment.
"Can I borrow your rifle?"
Come back next Monday for the action-packed conclusion!