Jake fought the urge to surrender. He heard Skip scream for help, and willed himself to throw the vehicle in reverse. He reached down, his head in agony, and pushed the lever to twenty-five. He then reached for the controls, using all of his strength, as his muscles wanted to resist every command he gave them. Struggling with all of his might, he finally commanded his arms to do what he asked them to do.
Grabbing the controls, Jake pulled back, and the vehicle shot backwards. The alien between the two vehicles tried to get out of the way, but he was too close. The rear bumper of Jake’s hovercraft hit the alien square in the chest and carried him back into the vehicle behind. Jake glanced at the rearview screen as he hit the other vehicle and saw blood spatter on the rear window, obviously crushing the alien to death.
Jake pushed the lever all the way to one hundred and pressed the controls forward. The hovercraft shot off like a rocket. He quickly steered the vehicle to the left before hitting the main building, and sped off down a narrow street.
Before the other alien had realized what had happened, Jake and Skip were already about a quarter mile ahead, but he quickly closed the gap. Jake increased the vehicle's speed and zigzagged its way in and out of buildings, alleyways, and streets, all the while dodging plasma fire from his pursuer.
He heard Skip cough and say, “Jake, toss me your pistol and one of the alien’s guns.”
Jake liked what Skip had in mind. He quickly reached down, grabbed the guns, and tossed Skip the pistol and then the alien’s gun. He heard the handgun and glanced behind him as the rear window shattered. He saw Skip pull himself up with his left arm as he screamed in pain. With the alien’s gun in his right hand, Skip began to fire plasma lasers at the pursuing vehicle.
Jake turned back and saw a building within ten feet. He quickly jerked the controls to the left, slamming Skip into the right side of the vehicle.
“Aaaaah!”
“Sorry.”
“You—” Skip coughed. “—you’d better be. Are you trying to kill me before I slowly bleed to death?”
Jake continued to look for a street that would take him out of the city and into a clearing where, maybe, he could circle around to get behind the alien. Jake looked right and saw a street that might be what he was looking for. When he was about to reach the street, he warned Skip that he was turning and to brace himself. Jake turned right and saw that the street did indeed lead out of the city.
The alien fired again. The bolt brushed the side of Jake’s vehicle, causing him to lose control momentarily. The left side of the vehicle smashed into one of the buildings. Jake regained control, but noticed steam spewing out of the hood of the vehicle. Alarms began to sound within, but he continued to maintain speed.
“Skip!” yelled Jake. “You better take him out. I don’t think this thing can take much more!”
“I’m trying, but this guy is good. Every time—” Skip coughed yet again. “Every time I shoot, he dodges!”
“Use the pistol!”
“Good idea!”
Skip pulled himself up a little straighter. With the pistol in his right hand, he pointed it at the center of the windshield of the alien’s vehicle. He painted the center of the window with the laser and fired four rounds into it. The windshield shattered, and the hovercraft swerved right and then left.
Skip could see the driver now. He was still alive, but holding his neck. “I got him!”
Jake glanced at the rearview screen and saw that the alien lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the building on his right. An enormous explosion ensued. Jake was so relieved that he wasn’t being pursued anymore that he failed to notice the alien had fired a round of plasma blasts before he crashed.
One of the blasts clipped the right side of the vehicle. Jake lost control, and the hovercraft flipped onto its roof. Jake heard Skip scream in pain.
Jake remembered that Skip was not buckled in. However, he was. Upside down, he looked ahead and saw a familiar building about fifty yards ahead and approaching fast.
Because of the snow, the upside-down vehicle would not slow down. The vehicle skidded to and crashed through some sort of wood fence. Jake closed his eyes and held his arms up to protect himself from flying glass. He opened his eyes again and saw the building getting closer and closer. There was nothing he could do to slow the hovercraft down. He just hoped that when the vehicle hit the building, it would not explode. He closed his eyes and braced for impact.
**********
Jake was awakened by a strong wind and a heavy snowstorm. How long had he been out? He looked around and noticed that it was still dark outside. Upside down and still buckled in the driver’s seat of the hovercraft, he saw blood dripping from his head to the roof of the mangled vehicle. He reached up, felt a small sliver of glass sticking out of his forehead, and pulled it out. Wincing in pain, he assessed the damage of his injury with his right index finger. The gash was deep, and he knew that he would need stitches, but that wasn’t his main concern right now.
He unbuckled himself and caught his body with his hands before gravity pulled him to the roof of the vehicle. He exited through the shattered front windshield. The wind was blowing ferociously, and the snow was falling harder. He stumbled to the back of the crushed craft and looked inside of what was left of the cargo hold. There was no sign of Skip other than the blood from his injuries.
Jake looked back at the path the vehicle had scraped through the snow, now filled with freshly fallen snow. He continued to scan for Skip but couldn’t see him anywhere. He noticed the fence the craft had crashed through and limped his way to it.
Once he reached the fence, he looked around. He could not see a thing through the blowing snow. It was a virtual whitewash. He was starting to panic. Oh no! Where could he be? Maybe those Gnol things came back and carried him off?
He continued to search in the vicinity he thought the vehicle had flipped over, and then, about ten feet to his left, he heard a low moan. He turned and hobbled to the source of the sound. As he approached, he could see the bloodied heap of Skip’s body.
Jake knelt down beside his wounded friend. “Skip!”
“J … Jake …” Skip said as he coughed, with blood trickling down his lip, “ … I … I don’t think I can hold on much longer.”
Jake began to feel desperate. He knew first aid, but without the use of modern day medical technology, he knew he could not save his friend. “Hold on, Skip. I’m going to get you into that building. Once inside, I’ll get our supplies and get you warm.”
Jake got his legs underneath him and lifted Skip onto his right shoulder. He didn’t know if he hurt Skip because Skip had become delirious and began to mumble things Jake could not understand.
As he stumbled his way to the building, his ankle ached with pain and his head throbbed. The building was only fifty yards away, but with the blizzard and his own pain, he felt as if he was going to pass out and fall over.
Finally, he made it to the building and stopped. He was able to get a better look. He now knew why the building looked so familiar when he was upside down in the vehicle. It was actually a pyramid about four stories tall. Surrounding it were five spires that stood slightly taller than the pyramid. Jake noticed that he was standing next to the spire at the front of the pyramid, the one the hovercraft had crashed into. There were two located next to the front corners of the pyramid, and the last two were next to the back corners of the pyramid.
Jake looked for any sort of entrance. About twenty feet ahead, he noticed an opening. He limped toward it. The opening contained a small stone staircase that led down ten feet to a large wooden door.
Skip was still mumbling.
Jake reached the door and tried to open it with the large handle. It wouldn’t budge. Jake was getting mad now. He knew that if he didn’t get inside soon, Skip wouldn’t survive at all. He put Skip down gently on the ground, and with his adrenaline flowing, kicked the door twice. On the second kick, the door slowly squeaked open. A rush of stale a
ir gushed out. It was obvious by the smell of the air that no one had been in the building for years. He pushed the door open a little more.
The building inside was pitch black. Jake turned, picked Skip up, and walked through the door. He felt the stickiness of a cobweb as he walked a little deeper into the pyramid. He could tell that the hall was narrow, but without any light, he didn’t want to go any further. He gently placed Skip on the hard stone floor, and walked back to the wrecked vehicle to get a flashlight from the supplies he had packed.
A few moments later, Jake entered the pyramid with the flashlight illuminated. When he entered the narrow hallway, he shined the light on each wall to get a better look. Along each wall were hieroglyphs, from the top of the walls all the way down to the floor. It seemed that every square inch of the walls was covered. They were very similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
He nearly stumbled over Skip as he continued to be amazed by the writings. He knelt down to see if Skip was all right. “Skip?”
No answer.
“Skip, it’s me, Jake. Can you hear me?”
Skip turned and tried to open his eyes, but he didn’t have enough strength. He responded in a slow slur. “J … J … ake.”
“Stay here, buddy. The hallway splits down this way. I’m going to check and see if there’s a place I can make a comfortable bed for you and bandage you up.”
Jake walked down the remainder of the hallway. He turned to the right and noticed another stone staircase that led upward. He didn’t have the strength to carry Skip up a flight of stairs, so he turned around and then noticed the room to the left of the hallway.
He walked into a small room. From what he estimated, the room had a perimeter about fifteen feet by ten feet. In the center of the room was a damaged fountain. In the center of the fountain were the remains of a small statue that had been destroyed. The remains were strewn in the empty basin of the fountain.
He shined the light on the walls. Similar hieroglyphs were on the left wall. On the right wall were five old paintings. He moved in closer to get a better look at the paintings. They were difficult to make out. It looked as if someone had vandalized them. One painting seemed familiar, but because of the damage, he could not make out its image. He shined the flashlight downward and noticed a stone bench encircling the room. It reminded Jake of some kind of waiting room.
This bench will be large enough to hold Skip comfortably, he thought. He then retrieved all of their supplies from the doorway where he had left them and proceeded to make at least a semi-comfortable bed for Skip.
Jake went back to Skip. Skip moaned in pain and mumbled something Jake could not understand. He picked Skip up and almost fell from exhaustion. He carried Skip and placed him on top of the one sleeping bag from their supplies.
He quickly searched through the first-aid supplies and found some morphine. He cut away at the left arm of Skip’s flight suit and injected the morphine. A few moments later, Skip seemed to fall into a deep sleep as the pain subsided. Jake then commenced to clean and bandage the stub of Skip’s left leg. He knew that in a few hours, the bandage would be blood soaked.
After Jake was finished with Skip, he lay on the cold stone floor of the room with his backpack as a pillow. He felt the tears flood into his eyes as desperation set in.
Is my dad really on this planet? And, if he is, where is he? Can anyone help us? The thoughts flooded his mind. He didn’t know what to do. His dear friend was holding onto life by a thread, and it seemed that everyone on this strange planet was an enemy. And for the first time in years, Jake did something that even surprised himself. … He prayed.
**********
Jake was awakened by a loud bang and then a crash. It surprised him that he could hear something outside of the thick stone walls of the pyramid. He turned the flashlight on and checked on Skip. Skip was still alive and sleeping soundly.
Jake heard the sound again. He grabbed one of the alien’s guns and walked slowly to the large wooden door. He opened it, causing a loud squeak. Jake stopped, hoping that if there were any Gnols outside, they wouldn’t hear it.
He heard the sound again, but this time it was much louder. He stepped quietly up the stairs and noticed that the sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. From what he could tell from the sun’s position, it must have been noon on this part of the planet.
Jake heard the sound again, along with voices yelling in the background. He crept up to the top step and knelt down so that no one would notice him. He was able to get a better look at the mangled vehicle he had stolen. He wondered how he had even survived the crash.
The left side of the vehicle had been completely sawn off by the spire he had hit. He looked at the spire and eyeballed his way up to the top. At the top of the spire were the remains of a gold statue. All that remained of the statue were the carvings of bare feet on top of a gold sphere.
Jake flinched as he heard the crashing sound again. He looked through his binoculars about two hundred yards ahead. The vehicles that caused the large crashing sounds were actually demolition vehicles, two of them to be precise. The vehicles hovered about four feet in the air; much like the vehicle Jake had stolen. Only these vehicles had large cranes, and at the end of the cranes were wrecking balls.
Jake flinched again and nearly fell down the stairs upon hearing a large explosion. He looked just beyond the wrecking balls where the explosion took place. They are demolishing this city, he thought to himself. He scanned the ground and saw about a dozen or more Gnols with raised weapons. These Gnols were dressed in all black fatigues with red trim and black berets and they were barking out orders to about fifty or more slaves.
The slaves were dressed differently. They all had on what looked like blue denim shirts and pants with black boots. The clothing reminded Jake of prisoner’s clothing back on Earth, and on the left breast of each prisoner’s shirt was a number.
Jake was horrified to see that not only were men being ordered to work and clean up the debris of the demolished buildings, but women and children were as well. Some children seemed to be as young as five years old.
Jake clenched his jaw in anger upon seeing helpless women and children working in such cruel conditions. The slaves seemed as if they were not even fazed. They almost walked in a trance. Jake wanted to do something, but what could he do?
Suddenly, Jake felt the incredible pain in his head that he had felt twice before since his first encounter with the Gnols. He dropped his weapon and reached up to cover his ringing ears. He screamed in pain.
He had an impulse to stand up and walk to his left. He could not resist. It was similar to the night before when the two aliens found him and Skip in the stolen hovercraft. Only this time, he could not fight the urge. Still holding his ringing ears, he stood up, turned to his left, and began to walk.
Jake had his eyes closed from the pain in his head. He managed, however, to open his right eye, barely. His vision was blurry, but directly ahead, about twenty-five yards away, he saw three Gnols, all with their weapons pointed in his direction. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t; his body wouldn’t do anything his brain told it to do.
He was overcome with dread and fear. There was nothing he could do. For some reason, these aliens, who looked like human beings, were controlling him with their minds. He was now ten yards away, then twenty-five feet, twenty, and fifteen. He struggled to regain control of his body, but it was useless. He was going to be captured or possibly killed.
Suddenly, Jake saw the red flash of a plasma blast. The three aliens all went down. As a result, he was free from the mysterious mind control that had enslaved him. He dropped to his knees in the snow with his head still throbbing. He looked around. It seemed everywhere he looked there were other human beings – dressed in white fatigues in order to blend in with the snow – running and shooting down Gnols. Jake saw other hover vehicles firing blasts of plasma lasers at the Gnols. He was in the middle of a war zone.
He was just about to get up
and run back to the pyramid when he saw one of the supposedly dead Gnols struggle to his knees. The Gnol raised his weapon and pointed it at him. Jake tried to get up and run, but before he could, the Gnol fired. Jake was thrown backwards about five feet, and landed on his back in the snow. He clenched his stomach in agony.
Jake felt the warm wetness of his blood on his hands. He looked down at his stomach. There was about a three-inch hole where his belly button should have been. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and then … everything went dark.
CHAPTER 6: REUNION
Adrian Palmer, dressed in a surgical mask and gown, burst through the operating room doors, almost knocking down the two nurses and doctor’s assistant who were on their way out. The doctor’s assistant all but fell down as Adrian bumped into him. The assistant, however, managed to maintain his balance, sidestepped, stood up straight and saluted.
“General,” the assistant said.
Adrian was too focused on Doc and managed a half salute back to the assistant. “Doc!”
Doc, who had just finished up the stitch job on his patient, looked up. He was dressed in a surgical cap, goggles, mask, gown, and gloves, and was covered nearly from head to toe in spattered blood.
“Doc, is it true? Could it be?” Adrian asked as he stood next to Doc and looked down at the patient.
Doc didn’t answer, but just looked at Adrian.
Adrian could tell that his best friend in life was smiling under his surgical mask. Adrian could always tell because as Doc aged, the crows’ feet around his eyes grew larger with each smile, and Doc smiled almost all of the time, even after all they had gone through together.
“Doc, are you just going to stand there smiling at me? I need an answer. Is it true what Kylee told me?”
Doc giggled and said, “I ran the DNA test as soon as he came in, and …”
Adrian was anxious. He needed an answer now. “And what, Doc? You had better tell me! You may be twice my size, but I’ll take you down!”
Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1) Page 9