Dawn of Hope- Exodus

by Dobrin Kostadinov

  That phenomenon was quite annoying, but so unimportant and incomprehensible for the others that almost everyone ignored it and took it as a normal part of the background. But the Russian scientist thought otherwise. He knew that they needed to figure that thing out. Curiosity proved stronger in Roman and he decided to make a step that was as funny and inspiring as it was dangerous and deathly.

  ‘Judging by the data, I think the rainfall will cease or at least decrease. It will be dawn in a few hours and everything will be all right, don’t do anything, I’ll be leaving you now,’ Zanev announced and headed back for the laboratory where Mila was still conducting tests. ‘Lieutenant, I want us to terminate the work process for now. Go get some sleep, I’ll try to have some rest, too, because I want to join you on your walk outside. I have to check something.’ The young woman was unwilling to let him run such risk, yet she had no other option but to go along with his decision. Both of them finished what they were doing, turned out the lights in the control room and went to take a long break.

  But how would anyone manage to sleep a wink for more than a minute knowing where they were?! Whether out of enthusiasm–attuned to the adventures of the day–or out of fear, in truth, no one would be able to relax and drift off peacefully . . . The rain stopped when the morning came and the rays of Menoetius’s red sun shone down on every living and non-living thing around them. Having had some sleep or none at all–everyone had had breakfast and was ready bright and early. They did not even know what the time was and had created a calendar of the almost thirty-hour long Menoetian day with the help of a software. That same planet rotated around its axis slightly longer than its sibling, the Earth. But that was not much of a problem since they already knew when the night would fall and respectively how long they could stay in the open.

  ‘Stay here, Mila!’ Zanev commanded.

  ‘Why? The whole team needs to be out there, we don’t know what could happen,’ Thomas interjected.

  ‘That’s correct, I know. But this time I will be with you and I can’t leave our shuttle unattended, nor allow us to have no contact with our base,’ Roman replied and put his equipment which was technically less sophisticated, yet strong enough to protect him from minor and medium traumas. The Colonel disagreed on not having the entire team together, but complied and left his compatriot in a safe place where she could be of even more use to the crew. She stood there, not having a say in the matter–they had already made the decision without having asked her first, but there probably was not a better option than the one they had already chosen for her.

  ‘Since not everybody is coming with us, I have a different plan for today’s activities,’ Thomas spoke up. ‘Mila stays here, I’m going to visit again the same place we were yesterday. The rest of you, go with Professor Zanev. Listen to everything he says and keep him safe, he is rather vulnerable in the condition he is in right now!’ the military imposed his will.

  ‘All right, chaps, I want each of you to have one of these,’ Zanev said and pulled out six small sound level meters which the team members had to install in their suits. Those were interesting new small devices which had sound recording options–the recorded sounds could later on be separated from one another and their respective frequencies could be measured.

  Soon after the hatch opened and everybody left as scheduled. Only Mila went to the control room to follow what each of her fellow explorers saw and heard. She felt a bit sad that she had to stay behind, alone in the room while the people who she now felt as her friends were exposed to constant threats. Nikolaevna was going to be consistently scanning a large perimeter so she could warn them if anyone or anything got dangerously close to them and that was, in any case, quite some help.

  The four young men and their elderly head of team headed towards the nearby breakwater, shielding the land from the vast ocean. It was situated about three hours’ worth of walk away from where they were. The Professor had put his mind to doing something interesting, but he did not want to travel with one of the ATVs, but to tramp through the forest like real explorers do. The peculiar noise, easily distinguishable, would not stop thrilling him and piquing his curiosity even further. That is why he measured its values in the different points in the area.

  The same went for Thomas. His device had the same capabilities of recording and analyzing the sounds around him, but there was more to the story. When the team learnt that he was going back alone, everyone froze into place, puzzled by his decision, but since he was the head of the expedition no one could hold him accountable for what he did. That was all that the Russian was waiting for. A little freedom of action. His no less curious nature was calling him and he wanted to have a close look at that thing, that dangerous creature. “Reckless” is what most people would call him, but to the insanely brave individuals such as Colonel Ivanov that was a chance to merge with the environment and to find out how hazardous it really was. Alone in the shrubbery, off the beaten track, he fought his way through the thick vegetation. Now he was an observer in hiding who was moving slowly through the bushes and the tree branches . . .

  In the opposite direction, the few-hour long passage and the stronger gravitation exhausted the otherwise enthusiastic Roman and the four men decided to take a break.

  ‘How are you, Professor? Being in such magical place for the first time, I believe you are surprised at least as much as we were yesterday,’ Alan asked. He was walking closest to the scientist while the other three secured the perimeter.

  ‘I am happy and exhilarated that it was precisely me who discovered that alien place,’ Zanev said, taking a few gulps from their water supplies, sitting on an old tree stump and taking some downtime.

  ‘Why didn’t we take the ATVs instead of walking on foot?’ the American asked again.

  ‘We were unanimous in that we have to first make sure it is safe for us. The vehicles are big and noisy and there being six or seven of us meant attracting a lot of unneeded attention. Moreover, we would have missed many of the small details around us. Don’t you think?’ Zanev approached the question rhetorically, sipping from the water and remembering that there was something he wanted to do. He turned on the low-frequency transmitter they used to communicate with and tried to contact Thomas.

  ‘Ivanov, do you read me?’

  ‘I read you, Professor,’ the Colonel confirmed, already having arrived at the intended destination. He had curled up next to a tree, preparing to approach the river bank and to take a close look.

  ‘I want you to take sample from the river water. Try to get as much as you can so I can run an analysis and compare it to the sea water.’

  ‘Is that all?’ the Moscovian SEAL asked.

  ‘Yes, I just remembered, I want to compare them and since we’re taking samples, too, and you’re there anyway, you could do that,’ the scientist clarified.

  ‘All right, I’ll do what I can,’ Thomas said and quickly severed the connection as he was making needless noise around himself and sank back into the ocean of a forest.

  The river was just as impenetrable and blue. Ivanov got closer to the river bed which was covered with small river stones and filled up a few flasks with water. But quiet and unnoticeable as he tried to be in his movements, when he turned around he saw something blood-curdling. His eyes landed on a gigantic tree leech which looked like the one they had seen the previous day–only that its coloration was hued differently–it was beyond his imagination. It was as if he was seeing an alpha male from that species. The creature rose up high above the Colonel, propping itself on the larger part of its body, yet standing firmly on the ground. The enormous round mouth with multiple sharp teeth looked down at him from about three feet over and attacked him. Thomas barely managed to move away at the last second, understanding that the animal was far more dangerous than they initially thought. It was sinister and ready to fight to death for water, territory or fresh meat without a shred of fear. At first the Colonel tried to evade several charges by stepping back or by deflecting
the attempts to be bitten or struck with the tail. In the end he clasped tightly in his right hand the blade he used as a shield and chopped off the critter’s head with several blows, leaving its massive carcass lying in a pool of blood. The Russian regretted his deed, but he knew that either him or the animal had to fall to the ground. He had about fifty feet more to cover before leaving the place and heading back for the shuttle when he heard again the explosive eruption of something coming out of the water, only this time it came from behind his back.

  He turned around and saw something awe-inspiring. The water demon had reappeared with a petrifying cry, moving in his direction. The gigantic animal was much taller and chunkier than him. It had extremely strong fore limbs which it used when it ran; when it walked it tried to do it upright, on its short, thick hind limbs. It was more than nine feet tall, slightly stooped, its frame reminded of that of a gorilla. The creature made a dash for Ivanov at a breakneck speed, but the man did not flinch. The horrifying Menoetian organism halted abruptly and to Thomas’s surprise it rose up on its short legs, towering over the Colonel with about sixteen feet and letting out a deafening cry that reverberated throughout the entire forest. The Russian saw a huge mouth just a few dozen inches away from his face. Its long sharp teeth which could tear his armor apart were like jewels in its maw and its head looked like nothing he had ever seen before. It was slightly elongated and jutted out, the eyes were situated above the supposed nostrils which it used to breathe with when out of the water. Further back it had something that looked like a hard hood, much resembling that of a dinosaur. Grayish-white in color, it seemed to be covered by an unpierceable layer of matter that had probably been solidified from heterotopic ossification. The surface of its body was chapped and despite the time the animal had spent in the water it looked somewhat dry.

  ‘Come on, bastard!’ Thomas uttered in a calm voice as the animal was sizing him up. It noticed that the human was not part of its environment, nor of the nature it knew. The beast started circling around him nervously uttering loud cries. Was it an expression of primal fear or did it just need time to decide what to do next–no one could say what crossed the mind of that extraterrestrial species.

  The Russian saw the water demon move to the side, scurrying on its two short legs. It took a look around and a second later broke into a run at an incredible speed, this time on all of its four legs, towards the nearby trees. It cut a small tree in two with a blow of its big demonic claws and dragged it behind its back. At that moment Ivanov felt that the initial fear the animal showed had either evaporated or had been pushed deep into some corner of its Menoetian essence. Having no time to move out of the way, the human being was standing within spitting distance of the tree that was flying straight towards him. The heavy strike literally made the trunk burst into splinters and send Thomas flying about a dozen feet away from the point of impact. To his surprise the exoskeleton barely reacted to the attack. Rendered almost unconscious by the shock and the blast of the flying, Ivanov was on his way of getting attacked for the second time. The Russian was grabbed by the chest and hurled on the ground so powerfully that the impact echoed through the region with a thud. The “demon” sank its claws into his armor and started biting his body, trying to get to the head, Tom scarcely managed to come up with some counterattack. He mustered all of his strength to catch one of the thick limbs of the beast and break its joint. He had almost succeeded in getting away and began slipping out of its clutches when a new blow was inflicted by the other still intact limb which threw the human many feet away from the battle ground.

  ‘Thomas, are you all right?’ Mila screamed, having witnessed the skirmish that had developed all too quickly. ‘Get up, please, get up!’ she kept yelling, trying to encourage him despite being terrified herself. ‘We have established contact, I repeat, we have established contact,’ the woman informed the rest of the team; unfortunately, no one could help at that moment.

  The Colonel managed to come round after the few surprising and exceptionally strong blows he took. He stood up and saw the monster running towards him; he had to overcome his fear this time . . . In the last second before the collision Ivanov squatted down and released the blades of his suit; the creature missed–it tripped by the inertia of the momentum it had gained. The earthling took advantage of that mistake and left the monster with no opportunity for resistance. Two quick strikes later the remaining limbs were severed from the torso of the gigantic beast. One last blow and the head was removed from the body of the moaning shadow of an animal. It was then that Ivanov regained his tranquility, now the bird songs hushed by the sight of the monster could be heard again. Apart from its wrath, there were other strange and astounding features about the animal. The carcass was extremely hard to pierce and had it not been for the capabilities of the suit, now it would be Thomas’s body taking the horizontal position on the ground. The Russian started pressing and studying the different body parts of the animal, establishing its weakest points–the joints connecting the limbs to the torso. The other parts were rock solid. There was no blood or anything that resembled it. Only a small amount of transparent liquid sprinkled out of the carcass, it looked like the water in the river. Not wasting a minute, Ivanov collected some of the liquid into a few flasks and placed them next to the other samples. But the Spetsnaz officer was mostly puzzled by the way the body was soaked into the soil that was particularly porous and spongy. For a few minutes the body disintegrated into water and ash, coloring the soil and getting sucked into it. Incredible, he thought as he collected the remainder of the ash after the skirmish with the weird creature.

  But like an ill omen, a few dozen feet away from Thomas, a handful of members of the demon species sprang up with a bang. At first they did not see him, but instead headed for the scene of the massacre. The Colonel darted across the bank into the forest and squatted low next to a tree in a place where the carcass had decomposed almost completely. The creatures reached the site of the battle and started looking left and right, circling around as though they were looking for the one who killed their brother. Thomas felt it was time to leave and along with everything else, despite the suit’s capability to suppress emotions, he also –both concern for himself and the team. He ran his way back to the shuttle, unable to stop thinking about how everything turned out to be and how death was lurking from around every corner. Things were yet to be cleared out, but at what cost? Could it be that the planet was too harsh for the Earth’s inhabitants or it just had to be explored in more detail . . .

  The other human beings who occupied that solar system relaxed once they got to know that the Colonel was safe and sound. The incident made them even more cautious further on in their passage.

  ‘Interesting . . .,’ Zanev murmured.

  ‘What exactly, Professor?’ Scott asked, curious.

  ‘The closer we get to the ocean, the louder the strange sound grows. The difference is gradually changing, and the sound level meter detects it,’ the Russian explained, examining the device.

  Step after step, tree after tree, an unforgettable view opened before their eyes. The path they had taken led them on the edge of rocky coastline. It was about a hundred and thirty feet above the sea level and extended over thousands of miles. Due to the years of constant erosion beautiful small beaches had formed in some of the lower regions, intercepted by occasional rockslides. The horizon was taken up by the vast ocean which everyone was impatient to see. The strong breeze would not stop blowing in their faces in unremitting gusts that brought forth big blue waves accompanied by moist air masses and hovering billowing mists.

  ‘We have to go down and get samples from the sand and the water whatever the cost,’ the Professor piped up.

  ‘Everyone, look! That’s how we can get to the shore,’ Hiroshi said after taking a look at the area around. He pointed at a heap of rocks that had rolled down a long time ago down which they could go comparatively easy.

  ‘Let’s go, quickly!’ Alan encouraged and stepped
in charge of the line. The American knew they should not spend a long time in the open; maybe he was afraid of what might come as a result of that.

  ‘Careful, Professor, the rocks are quite slippery, let me help you.’ Liu gave Roman a shoulder when he was about to fall and get injured on the dangerous massive rocky chunks. They were last in the line and soon after the five enthusiasts stepped on the small coastline that stretched out for less than half a mile before it was intercepted by another rockslide.

  ‘I suggest we do what we have to and leave this place,’ Scott shared timidly.

  ‘I agree!’ his cousin said, darting glances around the area.

  ‘Good, let me obtain material for analysis and then I am adamant on reaching the other end of this wonderful coastline,’ Roman said and started collecting material in the vials. The sand was pinkish black because of the large accumulation of clam shells and crustaceans in it and the dark hue was the result of the black ferromagnetic particles scattered everywhere around.

  The water samples came second. Zanev slowly approached the point where the surf broke on the beach and filled up a few flasks, just the quantity he needed. How beautiful everything was, how fresh and cool the breeze at that place was! Stinging as it was, it pierced their bodies, but at the same time it sent a wave of energy and vitality through them.

  ‘All right, chaps, let’s go on and see if we can climb back up at the other end of the beach.’ Roman announced his plans right after he put the samples in a safe place. No one objected and the five headed in that direction; the beach’s outlines were barely visible in the distance. As they walked forth, they looked at the water and its power. The Professor stopped for a while and tried to make out something in the ocean’s depth, but the visibility was not good enough because everything was opaque due to the infinite water extent.