“An hour! Fuck, I can’t walk anymore” Donnie halted. He bent over and placed his hands on his knees. He took in a deep breath and sighed.
Arida continued walking. “You can stay here if you want to experience worse things. I mean, if you want the bad things to get you here”
Donnie raised his head. “What bad things?”
She smirked. “Thunder and lightning, acid rain, radiation sand storm, beetle bots, the militia,―”
“Okay, okay, wait up. Am not dying on this hostile planet” He straightened himself with a gritted teeth and the shuffled behind her.
Half an hour of walking got them into a land, different from the desert, different from any other land Donnie had ever seen before. The surface of that vast lands were very hard like a rock and full of craters―large ones.
As they reached the land, they began walking slowly and then stopped, staring quietly at the vast land before them. Dark clouds with thunder and lightning hung above the land. They stared quietly, disbelief transforming their faces.
“The craterlands” Arida whispered.
“This place is as creepy as hell. I hope we aren’t going to cross these lands”
“Then you aren’t going home”
Donnie turned slowly towards her with an awful look. He pointed at the lands and said, “We are going to get struck by lightning before we even know” he sighed deeply. “As much as I want to get back home, it will be very hard for me to cross these deadly lands”
“Shhh” Arida quickly looked behind.
“What?”
“Quiet and listen” she spun around, trying to look for something. “Did you hear that? Sounded like beetle bots”
“Beetle bots?”
Arida was till glancing around with arms apart. “These lands are one of the most dangerous lands on Mars. But what we are about to encounter is far more worse”
Donnie’s heart jumped suddenly. He pulled out his pistol from the grip of his belt and began to sweep it around. “What are you talking about?”
“I have been to the Upper Rim before, crossed these lands before and I thought we got rid of them―”
“We? Them? Tell me something―what are you talking about?” Donnie interrupted, fear gripping him as cold air from the Craterlands blew past them.
“Old enemies I thought we destroyed a year ago―they are called desert bots, more deadly than the militia itself”
The rumbling thunders got louder, approaching them with dark clouds and cold winds.
“You and who got rid of them? Who are the we?”
“When we get out of these lands safely, you will get to know them. But now, we have to run―RUN!”
Donnie turned and started running behind her without thinking twice. They ran into the Craterlands at top speed. Donnie’s eyes kept swinging in their sockets, he couldn’t believe he was now on the land he vowed he won’t cross
“Be careful. Don’t fall into the craters, just follow me!” Arida shouted. A sudden loud booming sound came out of the ground behind them. Donnie turned his head around to see dust-covered and rusted bots flying towards them. They had circular metallic bodies with no legs, box head, their large circular eyes, lit in red and their hands made up of huge rectangular laser guns.
Before Donnie could turn his head back to the front, he stumbled on a rock and fell, rolling on the ground. Arida heard him groaning. She turned and quickly froze.No matter how dangerous the situation was, he couldn’t leave Donnie behind. Three upfront desert bots swirled above Donnie with their laser guns pointed down at him.
“Shit” Arida whispered, pulling out a Roghim glove and the golden hilt. She wore the glove and jerked the flaming blade out of the hilt.
“Come on!” she yelled as she raised the flaming blade straight above her head. “Remember me?” the desert bots turned their attention to her.
Donnie shuddered, panting and sweating even through the cold winds. He turned his head to see more desert bots coming from afar. “Arida, more are on their way!”
The three desert bots above him turned their attention back to him. They contracted their lit eyes and stretched their laser guns down at him. “Holy crap” his jaw taut.
The whirring sound coming from the laser guns indicated they were ready to shoot him, then Arida jumped and thrust the blade into one. The other two turned to shoot her and then Donnie hastily pulled out his pistol and shot them in the head. They all fell to the ground and Arida straightened herself back to her feet.
Donnie sighed through her continuous panting, gazing at Arida.
“I told you to follow me. Humans are so stubborn” she pulled out the flaming blade from the dead bot.
“Says who?” Donnie asked.
“Says my library” she glanced at him and ran off.
Donnie sighed, his arms apart, he turned to look at the coming desert bots. “I got real stories to tell when I get home” he turned and sprinted after her.
They kept on running without anyone saying a word. Donnie could fell his heart dangling in his chest with every step he took. The rumbling thunders got louder.
‘Don’t get struck!” Donnie could barely hear her from behind.
“What?” he yelled.
“Follow me!” she gestured her fingers ahead.
The land became darker with black heavy clouds hanging above their heads. The gloves on Arida’s hand lit with fire through the dark lands as she continued to run with the flaming blade.
The desert bots started shooting at them as they were getting closer.
“Shit Arida! Shit!”
“Don’t waste your energy talking. Just follow me Donnie!”
With every step they took, they miss lasers shot at them. Lightning struck one bot. The loud cracking noise made Donnie and Arida to turn their heads around again. They watched the bot burning on the ground. Dread washed through him. He didn’t know whether to feel relieved or doomed.
“Did lightning just strike it?” his voice quake.
“Am afraid this is just the beginning. You are yet to see worse things”
Donnie’s stomach churned. “I will pretend I never heard that”
“Follow me Don, just follow me!” then another lightning struck the ground, and then another one, and another one, and another, till they could see lightning touching down all over the lands. They increased their speed, never bothering to speak or turn their heads to check up on the desert bots that pursued them with lasers.
After minutes of non-stop running, they couldn’t hear the whirring sound of the desert bots or the blast of their laser guns anymore. Donnie wondered but tried not to turn his head or that will be the end of him. He panted and gasped. Every step they took was just a probability of life and death.
Arida sprinted and jumped into a large crater.
“What is she doing?” he narrowed his eyes at his thought, but then remembered what she had told him earlier “Follow me Don, just follow me!”
He also jumped into the crater, rolled on the ground upon arrival and then forced himself back to his feet. The crashing thunders was deafening. He continued to run behind Arida at a speed he never thought possible when he knew any mistake he makes will mean being killed by lightning. He had his stare fixed on Arida, following every step she took. “Oh crap, am not dying today” he recited in his head.
“Be fast Don! It’s getting worse!!” Arida interrupted his thought, breaking the long silence. Donnie snapped back to reality and ran into a dark hole on the walls of the crater Arida had entered earlier.
Arida’s flaming glove and blade was the only thing he could see in the dark tunnel. He kept on following the only light he could see. He felt the urge to ask questions but knew she will scold him and tell him to hurry, so he did what she always says, “Follow me”
Within a minute of running through the tunnel, Donnie forced a question out. “When is this thing going to end?”
They began to feel
the tunnel shaking. “Arida! Tell me we are not going to die in here!!”
“You better run faster!”
“Damn, how many hearts you’ve got? You don’t stop and you don’t seem tired either”
She gave a brief smile and said, “I told you. Humans are weak―”
“Admit it Miss Martian, you are cheating the human here. You got the Roghim blade and glove powering you― so don’t tell a hard working human he is weak”
“Oh really, I got the silver Roghim hilt and glove in my coat. Why don’t I give it to you? Be my guest”
“It would be cool” he thought. “Not now, just keep on running. I want to hold that weapon alive not dead so―” a sudden crashing sound followed behind them in the tunnel. This particular sound was different from the sound of the rumbling thunders.
“Arida! I don’t want to look back so can you look back and check on what’s happening behind me?” Donnie shuddered.
Arida took a brief look back and focused back on the tunnel ahead. “The tunnel is collapsing. The lightning hitting on the surface is causing it―and it’s gradually catching up with us”
Donnie couldn’t think of nothing more but run. He could feel they were running on an ascending slope as the collapsing tunnel was catching up.
Running at a very fast pace, they heard the crashing thunders getting louder again. “We are getting back on the surface. Brace yourself!”
Just when she ended her statement, they saw the end of the tunnel and the dark Craterlands that laid ahead. Donnie looked at the tunnel’s end with a disappointed face―he thought they were going to land in a safe place and not back into the thunderous Craterlands. Immediately they came out of the tunnel, the last of it collapsed behind them. The lightning were still striking down the lands at regular intervals on random locations.
“When are we going to stop running?”
“When we get into the mountain caves!”
“And where is that?”
She pointed ahead of them. Donnie looked at her finger direction and saw series of long and tall mountains ahead. The long walls of China was the first thing that came into his mind when his eyes fell on the mountains. His heat sunk as a sudden compulsion to get back to earth filled him. The mountains were hundreds of metres away from them.
“I can’t make it, I can’t!” Donnie felt his ribs crashing in, thirsty and his heart tearing out of his chest. He could feel the muscles in his legs ripping apart. He was on the brink of giving up when he felt warm winds pass over his head. An enormous dark triangular spaceship with bright lights on all three corners, flew just above their heads. They both watched with widened eyes and opened mouths. “Who are those? They better be friendly cause I don’t have any strength to fight now” Donnie thought with glazed eyes.
The spaceship descended a little above the ground and just twenty metres ahead of them at a slower pace. Arida looked back at Donnie with a big smile. “I know who they are! Come on hurry!!” she shouted.
“They better not be like all the hostile Martians we’ve met so far”
A large door behind it swung downwards, nearly touching the land. Arida increased her pace and jumped into the opened door. The lightning continued striking the lands at an intense rate. “Shit! You can do it Donnie, just run” these words continued to ring through Donnie’s head.
Arida placed the flaming blade aside, pushed herself on the door and stretched her hand out. “Come on Donnie, come on!”
Donnie took a deep breath out, sprinted five steps and grabbed onto Arida’s arm. She quickly pulled him inside with a loud moan. They rolled further inside and the door swung closed.
Chapter FIFTEEN
They both gasped for breath as they laid on their backs on the metallic floor. They panted from exertion, their hearts almost exploding out of their chests. Donnie became stunned by the turn of events. He sighed deeply, relieved from all the huge fear that engulfed him.
“We made it. Whoo” he smiled, his chest heaving through his continuous pant.
“You are lucky. You followed my instructions carefully” she turned her head towards Donnie with her smile fading repeatedly with each pant. Donnie shrugged.
Arida stretched her hands and grabbed the flaming blade on her side. She made the blade to yank back into the hilt. The flames on the gloves wearing her also died out quickly and the space in which they laid darkened. Their breath became normal that they could barely hear them anymore. They pushed themselves and sat up. Arida moaned. “Who told you I don’t get tired?”
“Well―” Donnie shrugged.
The quiet space began to get noisy when they heard footsteps approaching them, pang, pang, pang.
They turned sharply to that direction and two silhouette beings walked toward them in the dark. “Hope they came in peace” Donnie’s his heart began thumping again.
They suddenly stopped a feet away from them. Donnie looked at Arida on his side, suspiciously. The two silhouette beings stood quietly infront of them for a while.
“Why aren’t they doing anything?” then a bulb flickered on and brightened the dark space in a yellow light. The two figures turned out to be Khaghins, a male and a female. The male had a big smile on his face. Just like all Khaghins, his skin was all red, four black stripes on his arms down to his wrist, wearing something like a fleece vest, black and in a form of a bullet proof and a dark cargo pants and boots.
The female glazed at them like she cared less. She had a dark pigtail and she wore the same uniform as the male, except her tight dark pants and female boots.
“Arida!” the male stretched the name. “You seem to have escape the prison cells―”
“You left me there to be captured and I should be killing you now for that” she gestured her head at Donnie. “But my friend here needs a favor and you are the best Martian to grant him that favor”
Hubbit looked down at Donnie in fascination. The way he looked at him seemed like he had just seen an incredible thing he never existed. “You” he pointed. ‘I have heard rumors about you. The being from another planet―planet earth. Such an enthralling creature”
“Am not a creature” Donnie shook his head.
“I have heard about your escape with Arida. It’s amazing how both of you have defied the militia of both rims―”
“Someone has been feeding you a lot of information” Arida interrupted.
‘Don’t be ignorant Arida. You know I got eyes around both rims”
“Ooh, no wonder you found us before we could get struck by lightning” she nodded faintly.
Hubbit raised his hands. “That wasn’t me―thank my spaceship’s radar” he stopped himself and forced another wretched smile. “Do you know the two of you are fugitives and there is a bounty on your heads?”
Arida looked up at him and huffed. “So are you going to deliver us to them? Go ahead Hubbit! We are all yours. It’s an easy catch now you have us in your spaceship, so take us right to them” she glowered at him. “But remember the militia would kill you and take your spaceship like they had always wanted to” she squeezed her eyes. “You can’t trust the militia”
The female Khaghin still glazed at them quietly like she never concerned about anything that was going on. Donnie could sense she never liked them.
“Well truth said―the Militia can’t be trusted” Hubbit’s face saddened.
Arida got onto her feet and stretched herself with a yawn. “You got any food in there, am starving”
Hubbit smiled, looking startled down at her right hand. “Seems you finally got your hands on what you’ve been searching for―the Roghim blade” he paused and stared up at her face. “How did you find it? Killed someone right?”
Arida smiled, tilting her head a little. ‘Long story. Talk later. Where’s the food?”
Hubbit gestured a thumb behind. “Suit yourself”
Arida winked at Donnie. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to his feet and then followed A
rida who was shuffling behind Hubbit and her female counterpart.
“Who is piloting the ship?” Arida’s voice echoed in the corner they entered.
“Autopilot” Hubbit echoed back.
Chapter SIXTEEN
It had been five hours in the spaceship. They had crossed the Craterlands and was on their way to the Upper Rim City. Donnie had gone to sleep in a room on the ship after they ate.
Arida sat behind Hubbit and her female Khaghin on the flight deck. The whirring engines and creaking metals were the only sounds they could hear. No one had spoken a word for the past twenty minutes. Arida was smiling at her thoughts as she trimmed her finger nails. She was looking clean after a shower and no longer wore the long hooded coat but a grey vest, tight black cargo pants and female boots. The Roghim gloves and hilts were kept in a small bag that hung on a belt over her shoulders. She holstered two laser pistols on her waist belt.
“So” Hubbit finally broke the silence. “What favor do you need from me?”
Arida raised her head at him and swallowed her breath. “I need you to take the human back to earth with your ship”
Hubbit nodded and then moved his head slowly from side to side. “I haven’t flown out of Mars in years. The spaceship need little repairs. It’s worn out and―”
“I need no excuses Hubbit. Are you going to help me or not?”
He sighed deeply and stopped himself before another word could come out of his mouth. He looked at the female Khaghin seated on his left side. She looked back at him and they appeared to be communicating with their eyes.
Arida squint her eyes at them. “Are you going to take permission from her before you help me” she chuckled. “Who is she actually?”
The female Khaghin glared back at her. Arida sneered and shook her head.
“Aulta” Hubbit said, still piloting. “Her name is Aulta. I recruited her to pilot with me when you got caught by the militia and―”
“I don’t give a fuck. Tell her to stay away from my personal business”
Lost On Mars Page 7