by Jose Moreno
CHAPTER X***
They dashed, like Martin had taught them in Truxes, by hiding from tree to tree. They did not follow a straight line from the cabin to the lamp. Instead, they curved their path. Under the dim light of the thin crescent moon, Martin led the way telling them when to follow and when to stop: First, Martin ran several yards towards a tree and the others just followed him. Every time he arrived at a tree, he lowered his body at the base so that his body was as close to the ground as possible. As soon as Martin had lower his body at the base on one of the trees, the others did the same behind the nearest tree they were passing by at the instant when Martin had dropped. Then, from behind a tree, Martin looked in the direction where the lamp was; if he did not observed a reaction in the lamp, he got up and ran some more towards another tree; the others did exactly the same. As they got closer, they began to realize that the object they were investigating was not a lamp.
They were 82 yards away from the luminous object when they stopped their covert procession in order to discern the object. The light from the object did not seem to come from any place in particular: it was as if a white halo involved the metallic, silvery object. It was the shape of a sphere suspended four feet from the ground. There did not appear to be any material maintaining the object above the ground. Furthermore, the object was not static: It was slightly hovering and wobbling in a way that had been imperceptible from the cabin; also, it was rotating once every 24 seconds. What was stranger to all of them was the fact that no sound was produced by the object; all the flying vehicles that they knew produced a hissing sound.
First, Martin said “That is no lamp. It looks like a vehicle!” making sure his voice was low. His heart rate had risen up and he had been hyperventilating. His hands were cold.
Mary, who was 5 yards to the left of Martin, responded nervously and almost whispering, “Oh my god! I do not know any vehicle that looks like that!”
7 yards behind Mary, More calmed than Mary and Martin, Barón said, “I think that we should go quickly from here.”
Suddenly, the object started to lift up slowly for 9 feet. The teen-agers were startled. Then, it immediately increased its upward speed for 95 yards more above the ground; in a snap of fingers, it disappeared in the sky. There was no sound produced by the object at any moment. They were able to hear only the sound of the crickets around them.
They all panicked; they were not able to relate what they had observed to anything they had seen before. Their hearts were beating fast. Without any thought, they all stood up from the kneeling position and ran in the opposite direction like scared mice. They did not care who was leading the way this time. They could all hear each other exhaling like never before, trying to avoid all the tree trunks that did not allow them to run in a straight line towards the cabin. Adrenalin was leading the way through the obscurity that surrounded them. With their limited vision, they were all struggling to keep track of the path of the other members. It was only sounds that let them all know that they were all close to one another.
After running for several minutes, Barón stopped running first and screamed at the others while trying to catch his breath, “Stop! Stop!”
Mary and Martin stopped running realizing that it was reasonable to do so –there was at that moment only obscurity around them that allowed them to see tree trunks no more than 11 feet away; there were no strange luminous objects in their horizon anymore and no reason to be running away. Furthermore, they had been running for 4 minutes and they had to stop to catch their breaths.
After taking several deep breaths, Mary and Martin walked towards the place where they were hearing Barón hyperventilating. It was difficult to distinguish shapes under the trees that were masking the scarce crescent moon light. It was a place where only ambiguous shadows could be seen; only sound and movement indicated to them the direction where Barón was among all those tree trunks. With every step they took, the sound of Barón’s breath became louder and his shadow began to acquire shape.
Wanting to cry and trying to catch her breath, Mary said as she was walking, “What was that thing?” Then, she put both hands on her forehead trying to make logical sense about the spherical object she had observed. Her mouth was opened slightly, but she did not want to utter any more words. She wanted to hear answers from them.
With the intension to respond, Martin took 5 deep breaths deliberately to make sure his speech was not impaired. He looked towards Barón’s dark figure and, with a tone of frustration, asked, “Where the hell is Carl? Where did he go? Why did he not come back?” –Martin thought that there could be a connection between the strange luminous object and Carl’s mysterious disappearance.
Barón, worried about Carl and feeling responsible for the well being of the group, said, while trying to catch his breath, “Let’s keep calm. That is the most important thing right now. We have to think and not react.” Nevertheless, Barón did not want to reveal his real intuition about the answer to Martin’s question.
Barón got closer to Mary’ silhouette and hugged her, feeling how she was shivering. Barón’s right cheek became humid from the direct contact with her right eye. Then, he kissed her in her forehead softly and said with an affirming tone of voice, “I will be taking care of everything,” not wanting to disclose his fears.
Martin walked closer to both of them and said, “I am sure there is a rational explanation. I refused to believe that was… that was… that was not of human origin. I think that was a type of vehicle that we had never seen before. It just did not make any sound, it can take off quickly, and it glows.” As soon as Martin said the last word, he gave out a painful sigh, wiped his nose with his right hand, and looked at the ground realizing that he did not believe the words that had just come out of his mouth.
Barón, still hugging Mary and not being able to see Martin’s face in the darkness, turned his head to the left, in the direction where Martin was standing, and said, “Let’s think rationally: We need to find Carl. We also want to make sure we are safe. We are not sure what that was. Therefore, let’s go back to the cabin. Carl might be there already, we might to be safer there, and we do not need to worry about things that we cannot explain.”
Martin and Mary felt much more relieved after hearing rational words that allowed them to eradicate their anxiety. Barón’s confident words initiated in Martin and Mary an evaluation of the empirical data they had observed a few minutes earlier. Although they both did not agree with everything that Barón had said, they felt that he was right in trying to deal with the situation by means of Logic.
Martin did not agree completely with Barón. Martin thought that an explanation of the phenomenon was important. He reasoned that, if they could explain the nature of the vehicle, they could act accordingly. On the other hand, there was nothing that they could other than hiding among trees and go to the cabin. Thus, he agreed only practically with Barón.
Concerned with the whereabouts of Carl, Mary tried to remain optimistic. Mary preferred to think that Carl could be in the cabin, as Barón said, and that should be the only thing to focus on –if Carl was in the cabin, they did not have to worry about anything else. Taking a positive stand on the situation, Mary stopped hugging Barón, held his right hand with her left hand, and said, “Let’s go to the cabin”.
Barón responded softly, “Yes.”
Barón was trying to be emotionally supportive towards Mary. Although they were non-libidinous, they were bonded by what they both described as “pure soul communion.”They demonstrated that affection in the many poems they had written to one another; given the traumatic situation they had gone through, Barón felt that it was necessary to recite a poem while they were walking in the dark. With a beautiful poetic tone, Barón recited,
“My sweet, pretty, sensitive girl
Here my voice and rest your soul
I am here to get rid of your woe
Open up your heart, for you are my world…”
Martin remained silent and followed them in t
he darkness. Although Mary and Barón were in a mutual comforting frame of mind while they were walking, Martin was alert. While they were walking, he was paying attention to the “sounds of darkness”. There were no strange sounds; he was hearing only the sounds he had heard much earlier when they had walked among those trees. Martin turned around occasionally in the direction where they had seen the luminous object. From time to time, he also turned his head to the left and the right to try to perceive in the darkness anything unusual. Then, he turned his head up into the sky: He noticed three white luminous spheres. He immediately became frightened again. With difficulty, he said to them, “Hey guys….look up…”
Holding hands, almost simultaneously, Martin and Mary looked up, and their anxiety started again. First, Barón screamed, “Those are the luminous spheres we saw earlier!” Then, Mary cried out, “What do they want!” For several seconds, they both became unable to move out of fear; they did not know how to conceptualize what they were observing or what to do.
Martin, trying not to exasperate them, said to them, “Everybody, pick your tree.” Then, he run towards a tree trunk, ten feet away, and tried to hide behind it. It was time to perform the same military procession that took them deep into the darkness.
Martin took the lead again and paved the way for the others, dashing from tree to tree back in the direction they thought they had come,–in the darkness, it was difficult to assess the direction they came—turning his head up, from time to time, to assess the behavior of the lights moving erratically above the top of the trees. As soon as Martin did not see a response from the lights that correlated with their displacements, he dashed ahead more—He was not sure if those lights were after them. With an agitated voice, Martin screamed at them, “If we do it fast we might be able to lose them!” Technically, it was an easy tactic; however, it was a physically exhausting operation.
As the leader of the operation, Martin was trying suppress his fear for the unknown. It was a relief for Martin to lead the group again so that he did not have to ponder about the one thing he was afraid: Those lights may not be of earth origin.
Barón and Mary also were evaluating the movements of the three white luminous ominous spheres that were moving without a clear pattern above the trees where they were situated. They appear to be 100 yards above them. It was clear to them that those lights were moving along the same path they were moving. While Barón was moving from tree to tree, he was thinking that those lights on top were looking for them all along: they looked exactly like the ones that he had seen earlier on top of the hill where they set up their camp. For Barón, regardless of the nature of those predatory lights, it was clear that the group of teen-agers was the prey and Carl had been unfortunately the first victim. Similarly, Mary was thinking, as she struggled physically to keep up with the pace that Martin was setting up, that those terrifying lights were searching for them. As she dashed from tree to tree in the darkness, Mary questioned over and over why those strange unidentifiable objects were looking for them—It was important for Mary’s mental health to understand the nature of those unfathomable objects and their motivation for trying to kidnap them. Both, Barón and Mary, had become convinced that a phenomenal menace that surpassed their comprehension was after them.
After following Martin’s lead for nine minutes, Mary fell down on the muddy, slippery ground and screamed at them, “wait! Wait!”
Martin and Barón immediately ran to the place where Mary’s shadow was on the ground. When they got there, they both clenched down; Barón grabbed her right arm and shoulder; Martin grabbed her left arm and shoulder; then, simultaneously, Martin and Barón pull her up.
Mary, with difficulty, tried to sustain her body up with her tired legs. Once she noticed that she could keep her body straight up without the need of Martin and Barón, she said to them breathing heavily, “I can’t go on… I can’t run any more…”
Martin quickly looked up the sky. He noticed that the white lights were not there anymore. Then, he said, “I think we lost them. Hopefully, we lost them.”
Barón responded, “Yes. They are not there anymore. I am pretty sure they could find us”
Mary burst into tears and covered her face with both hands. Then, she wiped her tears and, sobbing, said, “I just want to get out of here!”
Those words were a major blow to Baron’s ego; Mary was in terror and wanted to abandon the group. At that moment, Barón realized that it was time to make a difficult decision. Thus, with a lot of pain, in a soft voice, Barón asked, “Do you want to go back home?”
She responded in a very low voice, “Yes. I fear for my life.”
With a feeling of failure, Barón sat on the soiled ground and said to both of them, “Please, sit down”; then, extended his arms to both of them. He was inviting them to sit down in order to reflect. Specially, to hear what Mary had to say.
Although they were all in terror facing something that was greater than their wits, Barón was trying to face the situation in a noble way by adopting an attitude that could help him and the others face it. To strengthen the morale of the group in the midst of desperation, Barón was performing a symbol of courage hoping that Mary could change her mind.
Mary sat down next to him holding his left hand. She was opened to be comforted. She wanted Baron to talk. Her tears had been rolling down. Her ability to think clearly was impaired; however, she was sure that she wanted to leave that “demonic” place.
Martin also understood the symbolic gesture that Barón was trying to imply; thus, he sat down and held Barón’s right hand. Although Martin was terrified of the unidentified flying objects, he thought that praising courage as a group would be the right practical course of action.
Once Barón had sensed that Mary and Martin had understood the message he was trying to communicate, he looked at their shadows and said, “I love you both very much. I love my dad. I love Carl. I love our plans. I love nature. I love poetry. Now it is your turn.”
Then, Mary said, “I love you both and Carl. I love my mom, my dad, and my little brother.”
When Martin noticed that Mary had paused for several seconds, he said, “Ok… I love our group. I love that we are carrying out our plans. I love my family,” feeling awkward about seating on the muddy ground in a dark place.
Then, Barón, trying to ignore his heart beating fast, his shaking jaw, and his cold hands, said, “My friends, we are facing entities that we cannot explain…I think those lights are inviting us to make sense out of our own lives…” Barón tried to talk as much as possible about “the meaning of being alive”; however, the more Barón talked, the more he realized that he did not believe his own words.
Martin took a deep breath and exhaled as soon as Barón finished talking. Then, he cleaned his sweat from his face with his left hand, and said to both of them, “Ok…it is time to put things in perspective…” Then, noticing that there was only comforting darkness and realizing that they were safe for the moment, Martin said in a low voice, “We came here because we were at war with the technology that did not allow us to define our own meaningful life. It is the time to defend ourselves in our own territory.”
Although Barón wanted to respond, he thought that it was more important to hear what Mary had to say. In order to indicate that it was the turn of Mary to speak, Barón held her hand tighter. Then, he says to her, “Come on…we can hear you now.”
Mary’s arms were shaking and her muscles were tight. She was trying to speak up, but her fear was stronger. In desperation, she began to breed faster and louder. It was difficult for her to say anything. Her tears were streaming. Her bloody mouth – Her lip had exploded from the impact with a stone on the ground—was trying to put her thoughts in understandable sounds; however, no words were being said. Out of frustration, she began to cry uncontrollably letting the boys know that she was suffering psychologically.
Barón decided that it was time to take Mary out of those woods. In a soft tone of voice, he s
aid to her, “I will carry you out of here”. Then, he stood up, holding Mary’s hand, and said to both of them in a bellicose tone of voice, “We are going to fight if necessary. We are still here. Que viva la Revolucion!” However, both of them did not respond anything. They were not as optimistic as Barón. Noticing their pessimism, Barón added, “Ok…we are afraid. But, it is time to get out of here. It is time to look for Carl. It is time to fight for survival. Those lights might come back again, so let’s keep moving towards the cabin. We could get help from Nicholas and the others in the area…Maybe.”
Martin knew that there was no point in running away from what appeared to be “alien” technology; however, he thought that making the group act in some meaningful way was better than just giving up.
Martin stood up, still holding Mary’s hand, and said, “Ok. Let’s get Mary out of here.”
Martin and Barón helped Mary get up; Mary quickly stood up wanting to be out of that daunting darkness. Then, Barón, still holding her left hand, took her other hand away from Martin’s grasp. Then, Barón said to Mary, “I will carry you. Get on my back.” In no time, Mary climbed on Barón’s back. “We cannot run anyway. It is too dark,” Barón added as he took a few steps forward.
Martin said, “I will walk right behind both of you. I will be on the lookout for anything behind us.” Martin knew that they could do nothing if those lights appear again; however, he was trying to give some peace of mind to Mary.
Barón said, “Well, now we need to make sure we are walking in the correct direction. I think we lost track of our path.”
Martin, trying not to admit that he felt lost among those woods, responded, “We are going in the right direction. Let’s just keep walking. I know will be able to see the cabin light when we get close.”
They kept walking, looking for the cabin light, remembering that the light inside the cabin could be seen from outside because there were not curtains on the windows. They were sure they were walking in the right direction because they could see the shape of the hills around. The cabin was between those hills. After walking for six minutes, they were not seeing the cabin lights thinking that it was just a matter of time.
Barón was walking slowly to make sure he did not collide with any tree trunk now that his hands could not help him avoid a hard face collision with tree trunks because his hands were sustaining the legs of Mary—He could only see tree trunks when they were seven feet away. Before he was carrying Mary, he could move faster because his arms acted like a buffer for his face in the darkness. But, now he could only depend on his poor vision. In this way, Barón slowed his walk in order to effectively change his direction if he noticed the shadow of an obstacle ahead.
Fortunately, the natural sounds of the night were audible and comforting. They could hear the sound of the soft wind breaking in their ears. They could also hear wolfs howling far away, the sounds of owls on top of those trees, the rattling of trees due to the soft wind blowing, and the sounds of crickets coming from all directions. In every step they took, they were hearing their feet breaking the dried leaves and, occasionally, the sound made by rocks when they were kicked by the boy’ shoes. Without any unexplainable lights flying above them, the sounds of the night offered an ambience of tranquility.
However, in spite of the seeming calmness of their surroundings, they were cautiously proceeding. Martin and Barón constantly looked up the sky and often their eyes played tricks on them whenever they perceived any bright white star through the branches of the trees –More than once they both were startled by the abundant twinkling lights above them; a shooting star observed by Martin above the hills made him say, “Ah!”; he apologized to Baron and Mary soon after—If they had seen any fireflies around them they would have been momentarily terrified.
Mary, being closed to a nervous breakdown, was deliberately not trying to evaluate her environment and was focusing on the feeling of safety that Barón and Martin were creating for her; She was thinking how lucky she was to have a friend that was willing to carry her and another that, walking behind her, was giving her the feeling that he was willing to protect her in case something ominous came from behind. She thought, “They are ready to take brave action whenever those lights appeared again.”
Barón and Martin were beginning to feel lost and were ironically missing much of the technology they wanted to leave behind—they did not dare to say a word to each other about their internal complaints. They were both thinking how much easier it would have been if they had had a “GPS device”—Like the one that his dad used when he was in high school—with them: they were looking for a cabin in the darkness with less technology than a renaissance man. Certainly, even a flash light would have helped them move faster in that darkness instead of having to walk carefully making sure they did not stumble upon any large stone or collide with a trunk. Most importantly, if they had had a simple “wireless phone” they could have called for help to report a person missing and Mary’s parents. Barón was thinking that if he had carried his electromagnetic gun to that field, he could have possibly disabled one of those flying objects. But, all those thoughts had been the result of their frustration for not been able to arrive at the cabin. They both were feeling as if the cabin had been eaten by the earth itself.
Then, they began to go up a little slope, and once on the top they were finally able to see the light coming from the cabin.
Barón, who was in front of Martin, said in a very excited tone of voice, “There it is! There it is! We made it!” Barón, trying not to fall, began to walk faster. His legs were giving up. He was breading fast. His body was covered in sweat. He was grunting constantly.
Martin responded, “Let’s see if Carl is in there.” Martin was eager to get to the cabin and have access to some means of communication with the exterior: He was thinking that the old fashion computer in the cabin could be helpful to send an electronic message to Mary’s parents about a place where they could pick up Mary; however, he did desire momentarily to go back to the city where no unidentified flying objects were going to be spooking him. He was not optimistic about the future. He believed momentarily that it was inevitable to face those mysterious luminous spheres again soon. The sight of the cabin had triggered a pessimistic frame of mind which made Martin consider the possibility of renouncing his functio- guerilla plans –He thought that it would be more courageous to admit that their lives could be in danger and it would be better to go back even if they would go to jail.
On the other hand, Barón was struggling to keep walking to the cabin; In spite of that, he was ahead of Martin by twelve feet. His desperation to get in the cozy cabin and put Mary to rest on a line of chairs gave him the mental strength to operate with the stamina of a professional athlete. He was motivated by the thought that once he went into the cabin, he could let his “muscles rest”. More important, he was eager to know if Carl was inside. He was day dreaming, in every breath he took, about finding Carl inside the cabin and having a big laugh about their ordeal. Barón had a quick burst of enthusiasm in the sight of the cabin that had made him believe that maybe those mysterious lights they saw were gone forever and it was going to be just a story to remember: He had hoped in the sight of the yellow lights from the cabin that he would never see any strange luminous lights or any unearthly vehicles again. His state of mind was an analgesic for his sorted legs and arms.
Optimistically, approaching the cabin, Barón said, “Well, Mary, here we are”. Mary put her feet on the ground; then, she let her arms lose from Barón’s sweaty neck. Mary and Barón took a few steps to approach the door while Martin was walking very slowly twenty feet behind them dragging his feet, looking down at the ground, with his arms swinging lose. Barón quickly grabbed the door handle with his left hand and used his right hand to turn the door knob. The door made a clicking sound. Simultaneously, the night sky above the cabin became bright white: The strange luminous spheres they had seen before were 30 feet above the cabin. Barón pushed the door
and screamed, “Get inside!”
Mary and Barón quickly hopped into the cabin as soon as they could; on the other hand, Martin was outside, paralyzed, and eleven feet from the door—A thin beam of light coming from one of those lights was illuminating Martin’s head. Martin was expressionless. Then, he started turning around very slowly from the place where he was standing. Mary and Barón were terrified, begging him with desperate screams to come inside the cabin. Martin was not responsive. Then, once Martin’s back was facing towards the door, he started to walk slowly away from the cabin while the beam of light kept illuminating his head. While Martin walked away from the cabin, the white lights were following him right above him. When the lights moved away from the cabin, it became easier for Barón and Mary to notice clearly details about those lights: They were circular in shape and there seemed to be something dark moving on the surface of the circle. A white halo covered the ball. It looked as if the light was not coming from inside but it was produced one foot from the surface of the silvery circular objects. Two of the white circular objects moved erratically like mosquitoes, and only one of those flying objects was steady and illuminating Martin’s head. In horror, Mary and Barón were witnessing how Martin just kept walking for nine minutes away from the cabin; then, they noticed that the beam of light coming from one of the three circular glowing balls was turned off; the luminous balls of light came down at the ground level momentarily among the woods; then, quickly, they rose up straight up into the night sky at a amazing speed disappearing from their sight among the stars. After that, the woods again turned into darkness. They could not see from the cabin what happened to Martin.
Barón and Mary were standing by the door of the cabin trying to compute with horror what had just happened. Without forethought, Barón grabbed Mary by the arm with his left hand and moved her away from the door. With his right hand, he grabbed the door and slammed it. Martin’s eyes were opened wide like Mary had never seen before.
“Just hide under the table! Under the table!” Baron screamed at Mary frustrated.
Mary grabbed one of the chairs and pulled it as hard as she could away from the table. She quickly got on her knees, crawling under the table. Once under it, she screamed at Barón, “Come down here! Do not just stand right there!”
Barón was still standing by the door wanting to go out to look for Martin; however, Barón locked the door and went under the table. “OK…Do not be afraid….Just come down…” Barón said noticing Mary’s pale face and her frantic shaking.
But Mary responded, “Do not tell me to come down! We need to do something quick!” She was seating on the floor with both arms forming a cross on her chest and her chin touching the point of intersection of the two arms. She was hyperventilating as if she had been running in a marathon.
“Yes! Yes! OK!” responded Barón accepting the deception he was trying to act out. He had become aware that the optimism he had been holding while they were arriving at the cabin was just a self inflicted fantasy.
Mary extended her arms towards Barón touching both of his cheeks; then, she said crying, “Where is Nicholas? Where is Nicholas?”
Barón quickly came out from under the table and ran to Nicholas door. First, he quickly grabbed the handle and opened the door. Then, he turned on the light. Finally, he noticed that the bed was empty. Barón’s tears began come out of his eyes. Barón now had to figure out what had happened to Nicholas.
“Is he there?” yield Mary from under the table.
Barón cried out, “No!” Then, he briskly returned to the table, went under it again, and hugged Mary with tears in his eyes. He said, “Mary, I do not know what to do.” Barón’s head was spinning out of control piecing together all the information; however, no logical explanation came to him. It did not make sense to him what they had witness; he did not know of any technology that could accomplish what they had been seeing. Barón was struggling to refuse that vulgar explanation that it was extraterrestrial technology.
While Barón hugged Mary, she said, “Let’s try to communicate with someone.”
“Yeah… How should we do it?” Barón responded.
-Why don’t we use the computer?
-Sure… Sure…
Suddenly, they hear a soft knock on the door.
They became even more terrified. Their minds were scintillating with horrific thoughts. The suspense they were feeling was painful.
They hear another knock on the door more firm than the first one.
Barón covered Mary’s mouth with his hand because she was about to scream. Barón said to Mary in her ear, “Let’s pretend that no one is here.”
Then, they heard someone right outside the door that said, “Open the door. I need to talk to you.”
There was something in the tone of voice of the person who said those words that gave Barón a feeling of comfort; however, he did not know what to expect from who ever had said those words. It was the voice of a male that did not sound like Nicholas, but he was thinking that he could be a friend of Nicholas that could be coming to explain about Nicholas whereabouts. “Perhaps,” he thought, “it is someone flying by that noticed what just happened to us and they want to check if we are OK.” On the other hand, he was thinking that it could be the person responsible Martin and Carl’s disappearance.
Mary said in a low voice, “Do not respond Barón. It could be a psychopath!” Her eyes were closed; she was beginning to feel like she wanted to faint; Her muscles were becoming loose.
Barón said to her, “Please! Please! Stay with me!”
The same person that was outside the door said to them, “I can explain what just happen to both of you. I will not harm you.”
Mary was already unconscious in Barón’s arms. Barón was speaking softly in her ear, “Please, Please, wake up.” knowing that it was not going to awake her up. During that anxious moment of uncertainty, he was feeling that his life was finished and was regretting his decision of going away to the woods. While he was holding Mary and looking at her face, He smirked at her. He was rationalizing silently that he never imagined in his wildest dreams that he was going to face unexplainable phenomena in the beautiful country side. On the other hand, the disappearance of Carl and Martin was scalding his mind the most; in this way, he felt at that moment that holding Mary in his arms was a privilege in spite of their situational anxiety.
The man outside the door knocked again and said, “Barón Cortez, I know you are in there. I know you are from Truxes. I also know where Martin and Carl are. They are fine.”
The mention of Martin and Carl made Barón believe that whoever was outside was there for an official business. Many questions were going through Barón’s mind as he was holding Mary in his arms under the table, “If it is someone that knows me from Truxes, how did he know I was at that Cabin? How can that Man explain the phenomena that we witness at the woods? Does this man have good intensions?” Certainly, the man that was outside knew that they were inside. It was useless for Barón to hide anywhere in the house. He calculated that the changes of getting harmed where small; it was worth to take the risk of talking to the man outside. In this spirit, Barón slowly put down Mary’s head on the floor while he slid to the side, away from her. Once he noticed that Mary was lying on the floor, he said in a low voice, “I will be back,” and crawled out of the table. He stood up slowly, looking at the closest window to the door, which was six feet from where he was standing. He could not see who was outside. He slowly walked to the window and gazed slowly in the direction of the door: There was a man not wearing a thermo-suit but an old fashion suit made of wool and a silk tie. Barón’s heart was beating fast and his jaw began to oscillate up and down.
Then, the man outside knocked again and said in an upset tone, “If you are going to play hard ball we are going after you.” There was silence for eight seconds: During that time, Barón felt like he was going to have a panic attack knowing that something drastic was about to happen. Barón’s muscles tensed
up ready to fight if necessary. His face was covered in sweat. After those eight seconds, the window where Barón was standing one foot away from broke as if something had exploded right outside. Barón jumped one step backwards. He struggled to maintain his equilibrium after landing. His eyes were wide opened looking at the window crystals left around its margin. Puzzled, he noticed how the window opened up by a mysterious force which made Barón scream, “What do you want!” Then, he observed in terror how a transparent entity with humanoid form entered through the window, stood up by the window for four seconds, and walked towards the door. Barón was immobile not being able to process the information. The entity unlocked door, opened it, and allowed a man in a gray, wool suit enter through the door.
“Sorry if we spooked you, but it was part of the protocol,” the man in the suit said with a smirk on his face. On his hand, he had a gun looking device which he lifted up and pointed towards Barón. “We are going to put you to sleep a little,” said the man triggering the device: A beam of light, similar to the one that paralyzed Martin, came out of it and made Barón unconscious.
***
