‘Let’s finish the job and leave this place. Everything on this planet gives me goosebumps,’ Scott concluded. The four covered the last mile and a half in a run. While they were racing through the woodland vegetation the trees suddenly thinned and a vast plateau opened before their eyes lined by a forest on both sides and surrounded by crags on the other two.
‘How big and flat it is!’ Hiroshi exclaimed. And so it was, a place dozens of miles long and wide. More stunning than its size, though, were the small rocks protruding into the air which seemed to be sprinkled at equal spaces between them. Black semi-rectangular stones covered the ground for as far as the eye could see. It was a weird and somewhat creepy place.
‘We need to get about three hundred feet further, hide behind some rock and wait for the appropriate moment. I think this is the perfect spot, it’s open and we’ll have excellent visibility if we get a little deeper. I don’t see any animals right now, but something would probably come up,’ Liu said and made the first step, timidly followed by his colleagues into the unknown. The environment was calm, there were no sounds coming from the forest inhabitants. The constant buzzing sound got into their ears in a rather irritating manner, but in that place it was weaker than usual. Maybe it was because the ocean was comparatively far away and there were only one or two rivers in the vicinity. The weak, yet still annoying tone drove them insane with its unnerving frequency without any analogue on Earth. Being the only sound that stuck out against the silence of the large space induced fear in the team.
‘I don’t like this place, it’s too open, something may attack us from the air. I prefer us to stay hidden in the forest,’ Alan said as he strode ahead. Shortly after, they found a rock that looked more imposing than the others and took shelter behind it. Hiroshi pulled out his sniper rifle and started checking out the area through the sighting device. He did not spot any movement for a few minutes of observation. An oddly-looking animal appeared on the tenth minute some six hundred and fifty feet away. It came out gingerly from behind a stone and glanced around the area. It seemed as if it knew that someone had crossed the land, even if that was at a great distance. Maybe it had noticed them when they entered the plateau and waited for them to go, so it could come out. Obviously the creature was herbivorous since it fed on the low vegetation around itself. Hiroshi aimed at it, held his breath and placed his index finger on the trigger. No one moved or said a thing, but contrary to what everyone expected, the Japanese lowered the rifle.
‘I can’t do it. It’s not that I lack the courage, but I just can’t, I don’t think it’s right. If we start killing defenseless species from the start, how are we going to help ourselves? I can’t . . . ‘ He laid the rifle on the ground, not wanting to hear about any fire on unsuspecting animals.
‘I’ll do it. I know it’s not right, but it’s what we’ve come here for. That’s what we, humans, are, we can’t escape from reality, ruthless as it may seem. We are monsters ourselves and Menoteus will come to know that,’ Scott piped up. He grabbed the sniper and aimed it at the target. A gunshot came out and the medium-sized herbivorous mammal dropped to the ground with an overwhelming cry. The four men were terrified at the sound and seemed to be slightly disgusted at their own deed. Nothing happened at the first minute after the discharge.
‘Come on, let’s go, squatting here is a waste of time. Are we waiting for death itself to come?’ Alan prompted.
‘Let’s take a look at that creature. We may find something interesting. It’s not far off our track,’ Scott said and ventured to go check his trophy himself.
‘We’ll take a quick look. We got to get out of here as soon as we can,’ Liu advised. The explorers crossed the field, adopting a low-profile approach as they closed in on the animal slowly. When they were about a dozen feet away from the body, a blood-curdling cry, more devastating even from the dying moan of the already lifeless critter, rent the air. From the depths of the forest a few dozen of the grayish-white demons came out. They had black stripes on their limbs. The color of their body probably depended on their habitat, but that remained to be proven true.
‘We got to get away now!’ Hiroshi cried. ‘Hold them at gunpoint and shoot only in case of immediate danger.’ The four men drew a bead on the monsters and took a quick retreat back to the woods that abutted onto the plateau. The leftward crosswise course they took towards the trees allowed them to see the enemy first. Rather fierce creatures cropped up from the opposite end and the team decided to use the element of surprise and outrun them unnoticed. They were running the risk of getting cornered to the steep rocky edge of the area and being pushed straight into the abyss, but preferred that option to having to cross the whole place. They walked with timid steps, stone by stone, until they covered the distance to their salvation. The grayish-white, though, needed only seconds to enter the site and see the fugitives. They darted for the Earth invaders at an immeasurably high speed, pushing the black stone formation out of their way and breaking them into pieces. The powerful roar of the attack echoed throughout the forest as a distress alarm for everything else in the vicinity.
‘Guys, we’re in big trouble! More of them will come flooding the area even before we’ve managed to get to the woods. Run, fast!’ Alan cried and raced ahead.
The critters were shortening the distance more and more and when they were just some seventy feet away, the humans slowed down, turned around, running backwards and opened burst-fire on the attackers. That managed to impede the enemy for a while, but even the multiple accurate gunshots were not enough to take down the dozens, even hundreds of freaks. About thirty feet before the encounter with the demons something happened. Instead of what everyone expected–a skirmish with a lethal outcome for one of the sides, what happened was as much as majestic as it was threatening. A blinding light behind them shone down on everything around. The creatures halted, blinded by the sudden strong flash of light that was brighter than thermonuclear bomb explosion. The four explorers were stunned by the sight. When they turned around they could find no explanation for what was happening. The light grew less intense and dispersed, leaving a big fiery ball hanging in the sky surrounded by the debris of the blast. It extended for dozens of miles in diameter and looked like a crashed comet that had burst in the atmosphere. At once the sound wave shook the area and the ground began to quake. Everyone thought that the end was knocking on the door so they made no attempt to escape. Neither the humans, nor the Menoetian inhabitants dared to move after that dazzling scene. Awaiting the extermination of their species, both earthlings and Menoetians were blinded for the second time.
The thing that had caused the light show burnt in the atmosphere and then flashed a few more times; its scattered pieces had probably crashed into the ground at different moments. The phenomenon took place far away, high up on the horizon, but it looked to them as though it was so close that it could envelop them any second. Shortly after the breath-taking occurrence the grayish-white ran for the forest straight in the direction of the explosion. The team was completely dumbfounded. What was that thing and why did the demons go towards it?
‘What happened? Was that a meteorite?’ Alan uttered a few times, scared.
‘A comet or a meteorite, what difference does it make, we need to take advantage of their retreat, they obviously have other priorities right now. Let’s run back to the base, the sooner we get there, the better our chances of survival,’ Hiroshi piped up, wanting to flee the place no matter what. The young men raced through the stones and soon after got to the forest. At that moment they heard Zanev’s command in their ears.
‘Everyone out there, get back here, I repeat, everyone out there, get back here right now!’ Roman said with tension in his voice.
‘What’s going on?’ the four men cried one by one, dashing through the woodland vegetation.
‘We’re not alone anymore! They’re coming,’ Zanev said while the signal was breaking up.
‘What? Who are they? Who’s coming?’ Scott fired away, out of breath, but
the signal was lost due to some magnetic disturbance in the region.
‘Return to the shuttle is a priority. Everyone push yourselves to your outer limits. We need to find out what’s going on and the only way to do that is to get back to the Professor alive and well,’ Liu continued as he ran at the life-or-death race, inspiring courage in his bewildered and disheartened brethren . . .
After almost thirty minutes of a high-speed moving, the four men arrived in front of their small mobile base that waited for them with an open bay cargo door. They jumped in quickly and did not even take off the half-drained suits. They went to the cockpit and found the Professor in a pensive state of mind, propped on one of the pilot’s chairs and staring desperately into the screens. Mila was standing by him with the heavy suit on, not knowing how to proceed. Only her head was left uncovered so she could breathe and talk to Roman calmly, her eyes were red as though she had been crying until a while ago.
‘What the hell is going on?’ impatient as usual, Alan demanded to know the details as soon as possible. Zanev heaved himself up and stood before the men who were trembling nervously.
‘What I’m about to tell you may confuse you a little. Be strong so you can hear the truth of what is happening now,’ he said, trying to prepare them for what followed.
‘We’re ready, tell us!’ Hiroshi said, still under the influence of the high levels of adrenaline, and felt his stomach clench.
‘A while ago I established contact with another ship–we’re no longer the only humans on the planet. About an hour ago the five ships that were built for the exodus arrived in the Menoetius’ solar system. Right when I was trying to contact you, they entered the atmosphere and one of them burnt up, but I still have no idea why it exploded.’
‘What? Why have they come so early? Weren’t they supposed to wait for us to go back?’ Hiroshi asked perplexed.
‘They were, we had to bring back the results from the air and soil analyses, not to mention that the more time we spend here, the more we realize that this distant land would hardly shelter our species–it proves to be extremely harsh,’ the Russian scientist explained.
‘Someone has jumped the gun way too early.’ Liu added.
‘Listen, there’s more. I took part in the building of the German machines and knowing how large they actually are, I suppose that the others are just as stable. That means that the death toll a while ago is quite high and we must not let another such tragedy happen. Obviously someone has really jumped the gun. A few minutes ago I heard something indistinct over the radio. I don’t know the crew and the pilots and I had personally hired most of them. The dominant part of the passengers is refugees. I don’t want to instill any fear in you or make hasty conclusions, but most probably the Earth is lost . . . I don’t know how nor why, but I heard there was no going back. The ships are packed with people. They have exceeded the capacity of all the aircraft,’ Zanev explained, feeling powerless and refusing to believe his own words. The blond beauty who was standing close by him began to weep silently. She felt sorry for her little spotless life on Earth, for her family, friends and acquaintances. The other men in the team were still yet to grasp the loss that sooner or later they were going to feel, but perhaps their emotions were numbed by the exoskeletons.
‘I can’t believe that, we’re heading for a massacre,’ Scott mumbled, gazing at the floor.
‘I think they have detected our signal while they were still in the Cosmos before they decided where exactly to land. The ships have formed something of a crescent moon, one rushed to help the aircraft in distress, they had probably intended to make a circumference so they could stay close to us. The question is what do we do now? You’re all here so we can make our mind up and take immediate action. The information we have is of vital importance to the survival of all those people,’ the Russian scientist said. At that tense moment, though, things went from bad to horrible.
‘Professor, please, come here quickly!’ the only woman on board called startled by the video feeds on the monitors. Roman and the others bolted to take a look at the electromagnetic map of the area and they established increased movement around the sources of the signals. It became clear that Menoetius was assembling its army of demons. The region of the rocky colossus was swarmed with those critters. A flock of beasts was gradually coming together, dividing up into a few branches and setting out towards the runway where the gigantic machines had touched down. The buzzing that tormented the earthlings became painfully unbearable–they could hear it even inside the shuttle despite the soundproof shell plating. While they were watching and wondering how the Menoetius’ armada managed to gather so fast, they saw they we standing right in its way.
‘I think a lift-off is imperative right now, we’re not safe here. We leave and decide what to do next on the go,’ Scott suggested with a shade of fear, his eyes nervously fixed on the monitors.
‘What about Ivanov? What will happen to him?’ Mila hastened to ask, visibly worried about her compatriot.’
‘I respect the Colonel. It pains me to see he’s not among us, but now we have different priorities. We need to help the newly arrived–they don’t have the faintest idea what they’re up against. We’ll send out a search party as soon as we can,’ Zanev stated.
‘No!’ Mila mumbled in a low voice and a small tear trickled down her cheek. Maybe it was a symbol of the loss of everything meaningful and valuable.
‘I’m sorry, but we need to take off and leave him behind,’ Scott said in an attempt to console Lieutenant Nikolaevna. ‘I think he would’ve done the same if he considered it the right thing to do. He would never go off the mission’s course to save someone, even if that means losing his own life. Let’s not disappoint him,’ Scott said with respect rich in his voice; probably there was pain in it, too, for their missing team mate. Like never before he was determined to take action instead of sinking into pity. That was exactly what everyone needed. Someone to inspire courage in them even though their commander was not there to boost their spirits. His colleagues took his message to heart, for the young man had never before shown such decisiveness of character, perhaps the power of the suit had changed him. But in truth the technology of the suit served as a mere stimulant–it made him strong and brave, it did not make the decisions for him, nor did it control him. For that very reason everyone chose to listen to him, they knew his words came from a place of goodness.
‘Let’s prepare for take-off,’ Liu said and nudged Hiroshi to go take his pilot place. They jumped into their chairs and together switched on the engines of Iris 1. The shuttle shook a bit while it was powering up and the rest of the team buckled up.
‘I want a satellite view of the area where they have landed and I want to see the coordinates in real time uninterruptedly. I want a thermal and electromagnetic picture of the entire site and all other relevant data,’ Zanev commended. His seat was at the back of the bridge, but the large monitors in front of him made up for that.
‘We’re leaving!’ Mila announced without giving away, at least on the surface, any sign of the sadness that had seized her before. The machine rose slowly and vertically, this time unbothered by the Menoetian guardians. It had just plotted a course up into the unknown. Alan turned on the radio receivers and started surfing through the sequences to find the one that the ships were using. With the helm moving ahead slowly, there was already visual signal on Zanev’s monitors. It was now, in the aftermath of all that had happened, that the team could consider every possibility.
Things escalated at light speed yet another time, not giving them any time to take leave of the pressure and the stress that had mounted up over the previous few days. The explorers noticed something disturbing and rather frightening. The magnetic lines on the map now took different routes from one rock colossus to another. The mountains of steel that were hundreds, even thousands of miles apart seemed to be communicating with one another and to be controlling the creatures.
‘That’s bad!’ the Russian scientis
t murmured. The branches of the advancing army became longer and their approach to the landed machine was quite visible. ‘There’s something else. They’re dangerously growing in number around the front lines,’ he announced the unpleasant news as he drew an explanatory line of the attacker’s front lines on the screen in front. The drawing looked strikingly like a rubber glove that expanded itself ahead, towards them. At the base of its wrist lied the sharp-mounted mountain and the branches that had already taken on the form of fingers were reaching over to the aircraft. Roman underlined one more thing–those were arch-like lines around the perceived fingers of the hand. The front line of the attackers was already formed and the creatures were moving ahead at full speed.
‘That can’t be!’ Mila said. She could not believe her eyes–how was it possible that an organism like that could form such a massive and focused attack in a matter of minutes?
‘I expect contact with the aliens in less than five minutes,’ Liu announced his predictions.
‘I suggest we head for the ship that is fourteen miles away from us, at the far end of the crescent moon. That will be the place where the assault will come last. It is located at a high altitude and is surrounded by two vertical rocks from at least two sides,’ Zanev remarked. Liu and Hiroshi did not say anything, they just nodded. The other three members of the team gave their agreement. The cities of steel that had touched down and were previously representatives of their nationalities were now left to their own devices, for only one would have the honor to be aided. Neither Mila, nor Alan or Hiroshi made any claims despite the burning desire to find someone from those who were closest to them. The shuttle set off for the peninsula formed in the depths of the woodland vegetation as though it was an oasis and the brave explorers made various attempts to contact whoever they could. Suddenly a voice came over.
‘Mayday. Mayday. Mayday! This is the Commander of Stalingrad II, we’re under а savage attack, we need help. Mayday. Mayday . . .’ the signal came through unexpectedly, but got cut off and the passengers on board Iris 1, especially the Russian faction, felt pins and needles pricking all over their bodies.
Dawn of Hope- Exodus Page 36
