by Luis Robles
“There will be no shooting, and that’s final,” Arnold said.
“They are surely ugly. I mean, I can’t tell just how much, but by their shadows they sure looked unfriendly,” Avenn said to no one in particular.
“Cut the chatter, at least until we clear them,” Arnold said, trying not to sound too authoritative.
“Roger that,” Avenn said as he stared back into the horizon.
“Kenya, how long until we reach the dunes?” Arnold asked.
“It shouldn’t be long. I say around three hours max... we’ll be there before sunrise,” Kenya replied as she looked into the digital map, zooming in and out of it.
“Once we get there, we have to be extra careful. If what they say is true, the big ones are there. We will reduce speed and keep our noise to a minimum. Hopefully, the small ones will stop following us by then,” Arnold said as he looked at the shadows of the worms following them, with his finger on the trigger.
3
Monsters
The crew of five traveled through the night, with little food and with not much sleep. The worms that followed them faded to the night, as the speed of the Orca was uncatchable. Their nerves were shaken, and paranoia was starting to take its toll. It was easy for them to imagine that worms would come out of the ground and into the Orca at any time.
“All right, everyone eat up and drink... take turns going inside. You go first, Jordan. Have Kenya take your place,” Arnold finally said.
The crew took turns going underneath the deck to the small bunk and kitchen the airboat was equipped with. The bunk and kitchen were tiny, with only one bed, a small kitchen cabinet at the bottom, with a sink at the top, and another cabinet on top of the sink. Next to the kitchen was the restroom, if it could be called that, as whomever would enter the tiny restroom would have to know some sort of acrobats to be able to do their business in there. However, the crew was still grateful with their tiny space; that space was one of the few places in the boat where the group could walk freely without their heavy radiation suits.
Before entering the small area, they had to go through a rigorous cleansing process before they would be able to take out their suits in the outer airlock.
Avenn was the last one to venture into the tiny quarters. In less than five minutes, he was already out and back in his position.
“Clint, you seriously gotta get checked by a doctor when we get back to the Haven. What’s that you left behind in the restroom? That isn’t funny, man. That’s serious condition you have there,” Avenn joked.
“Whatever, man, I’m healthier than any of you in here,” Clint responded.
“You guys are disgusting,” Kenya chimed in.
“Why me? What did I do?” Avenn bickered.
“Cut the chatter. We need to stay focused,” Arnold interrupted.
Arnold got their attention, and the crew immediately went silent. But it was not because of what Arnold had said, no; it was because of the dunes that were right in front of them.
“All right, listen up. Jordan, lower down the speed by half. Everyone, try to be as quiet as you can. Check your weapons one last time, and as soon as we hit the dunes, don’t move a muscle,” Arnold carefully instructed.
The dunes that were in front of them seemed to be larger-than-life. From their viewpoint, they were a lot larger than the Haven’s inselberg. The dunes intimidated the crew with its sheer size, but they did their best not to let it show.
“Are we going to die here? Is this where humanity ends? Has all my life accounted just this... for me to go outside the Haven and die in some dunes? Do those giant worms really exist? Isn’t it just something scouts made up? No, I can’t think that way... Get a grip, Arnold,” Arnold wondered while managing to stay cool on the outside.
“Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man... They are a lot larger than what I thought. I wonder if this airboat has some kind of dunes setting... or, or, or heavy sand,” Jordan thought to himself.
“Ha! Father was right... just as I imagined them. I better take some notes if I see anything different than what Father wrote down,” Kenya said in her head.
“Before the fallout, there were no such things as desert worms or giant worms. This is all new to the world we live in. So far, everything I’ve read about this world and what’s in the desert seems to be true. I wonder if what I read about the visitors from another world is also true?” Avenn thought to himself.
“It’s just a matter of time that we get there... just have to make sure that he doesn’t. Once he’s out of the way, it will be a matter of sweet talk with these other numbnuts,” Clint plotted.
The dunes seemed to be endless: one after another they appeared in the horizon. Monotony was starting to take a toll on the crew. But nobody said a word and nobody moved, as they wanted to make sure that whatever was dormant in the dunes stayed that way.
“Move very slowly. Look to the port, and don’t say anything aloud,” Arnold whispered into the radio as he swallowed.
Far away, in the distance, a dune was changing shape right before their eyes.
“Do you guys see that? It’s moving,” Arnold whispered.
“We see it,” Kenya said in a low voice.
That could only mean one thing—the giant worms were real. To make matters worse, the dune right next to the one moving began to move as well, and in the one next to that one, and so on, until their entire horizon was moving. Thunderous sounds bellowed as the ground around them rumbled and moved.
“Jordan... just how fast can this thing go?” Arnold asked in a low voice.
“I’m not sure how fast we can go on the dunes, but in the flats, we can easily go three times the speed that we were going before we got here,” Jordan said as he reached for the Orca’s controls.
“Give it all it got... let’s get out of here. And try to keep low. The last thing we want is to end up out of control,” Arnold said, trying to remain calm.
Jordan swiftly worked on the controls of the Orca, making it go faster. The airboat was moving fast through the dunes, maneuvering away from the slowly moving peaks of sand.
“Clint, get on the rear cannon... keep your eyes open,” Arnold instructed.
The cannon came to life as Clint sat on the shooter seat. The cannon extended far beyond the Orca, letting it rotate only 120°. Its 114-mm caliber was the largest and oldest left in existence. If something was going to defend them against the worms, it was that cannon.
The Havens had scavenged most of the weapons from remnants of an old civilization, as modern weapons were all lost in the Great War against the alien invaders. When it came to weapons, old technology was all they had. They did their best to modernize all weaponry with new technology, to have them synched up with their suits or transportation; although, the ammunition was still primal.
“We’re almost to the edge of the dunes... we’re almost out of here,” Kenya updated the group, looking at the map.
It was then when they saw it—a gigantic sand worm broke the surface of the dunes. They all stared, petrified, as the biggest thing they had ever seen move was coming straight for them. It bellowed the sound of one hundred thunders in front of them. The crew’s hands automatically went to cover the ears over their helmet but to no avail; there was no escape from the sound. As if the sound itself was not enough to scare them through and through, the worm opened its mouth to reveal what seemed to be thousands of sharp teeth. There was no mistake that the gigantic sand worm was coming for them.
The giant worm was not thin but rather bulky, moving tons of sand at a time with any of its movements. It did not look like it had eyes, but it did have nostrils, as mountains of sand was shooting out from them. Its outer skin was thick and leathery.
“Shoot, shoot, shoot! Clint, shoot... Jordan, get us out of here!” Arnold yelled.
The 236-year old cannon came to life, unleashing a fire storm on the creature. It fired twelve rounds in the first minute, thanks to the upgrades it had undergone. But the giant sand monster
was not letting up. In fact, it was gaining ground; even with the tremendous thrust the Orca was gaining from the cannon, it was not enough to out-speed the sand monster.
“We have to slow down, I’m losing control over the Orca!” Jordan shouted.
“We are almost there... we’re almost there!” Arnold yelled back.
“We won’t be almost there if we end up underneath the dune...” Jordan pleaded.
As the Orca speeded down the dunes, parts of it and its solar sails were clashing with the moving mounds of sand, breaking small parts of the Orca off. As another sand worm emerge from the starboard side of the Orca, it broke one of the solar sails entirely.
“Hold your fire!” Arnold shouted.
As Clint ceased-fire, the instruments in the Orca started to flicker, turning on and off as they gained momentum down the dunes.
“Everyone, hold on to something... This is going to be rough!” Arnold exclaimed.
The crew followed and held on to the most solid-looking thing near them as the Orca headed out of the dunes and into the salt pan. The gigantic worms did not follow them to the edge of the dunes; instead, they headed back. The Orca hit the salt pan hard, causing plume of dust all around it.
As the dust settled and they kept moving, Avenn was the first one to speak, “Oh, you have to be kidding me...”
The crew of five looked towards Avenn, and they almost couldn’t believe their eyes. A large group of a smaller kind of worms was gaining on the now much slower Orca.
“Jordan, where is my power? They’re going to be on us any minute now!” Arnold screamed.
“I can’t fix it from here. I have to go to the engine room. I think something might have loosened,” Jordan yelled back.
“Kenya, take Jordan’s place... Jordan, get us the power now!” Arnold shouted.
They quickly switched places, and Jordan went down to the engine room. The engine room was a mess: wires tangled everywhere, and sparks flew as the Orca tried to repair itself. A set of messages were flickering on the main computer screen.
Self-repair in progress.
Repair arm is blocked (remove blocking object).
Switching to emergency power.
A robot hand was moving back and forth, stuck in an endless loop, as a large piece of metal was preventing it to move further down the engine room.
“Oh, shit! How am I supposed to fix this? Damn... I need to find some kind of a leverage... Shit,” Jordan thought as he desperately looked for something that will help in removing a big piece of fallen metal from the arm.
“Fire as soon as you think you can hit them! Clint, get over here and get on a machine gun,” Arnold instructed as the smaller worms were closing in.
Arnold was the first one to fire, then Avenn. Clint also began firing as soon as his hand touched the machine gun. The machine guns on the Orca were heavily upgraded M85. They fired at the worms with all they’ve got, a staggering six hundred rounds per minute. But the worms kept coming; even as part of their bodies flew off, they were relentless.
“Aim for their mouth... aim for their mouth!” Avenn screamed as he was having relative success in taking down the worms.
Meanwhile, the Orca was flickering on and off, power worsened, until it hit the ground hard and came to a slow stop in the middle of the salt pan.
“We need to get the power on fast. Go down there and help Jordan with anything you can. If we don’t get out of here in one minute, we are done!” Arnold yelled at Kenya as worms approached them from all directions.
Kenya ran as fast as she could down to the engine room. As she went into the room, she saw Jordan with a foggy helmet, pushing his entire body against a lever, as a new red sign was flashing in the main computer screen.
Emergency Power!
“Help!” Jordan managed.
Kenya got on top of the table and began pulling together with Jordan. She was not used to physical activity but in that moment, she gave it all she had, and a big piece of metal that was preventing the repair arm to go towards the engine got loose. In a matter of seconds, the repair arm rested right in front of the engine began moving fast, plugging and unplugging cables, and re-routing. Kenya and Jordan stared at the amazing mechanical arm work, and within seconds power was restored to the Orca.
Kenya and Jordan ran back up onto the airboat’s deck, only to find the worms surrounding the Orca.
“Kenya, grab a gun. Jordan, let’s move... Let’s go, go, go!” Arnold yelled.
Jordan grabbed the Orca’s throttle knob and pushed it as far as it could go. The Orca came back to life, picking up speed with every moment that passed, leaving the worms one by one far behind.
“Whoa, that was way too close for comfort. I saw my life flash before me at least four times,” Avenn said as soon as they were away from imminent danger, at least for the moment
“I agree... but for now, get me an ammo count. I want to know how much we lost back there,” Arnold said.
They had lost three quarters of all ammo, including the main cannon. Things were not looking too bright for the crew. But hope burned within them. They knew two things, and they were very clear. One was that by some miracle they were still alive. Two was that they were in uncharted territory and that had to mean something; it had to stand for something. After the fallout, scouts from the Havens had ventured into the desert before, but never in the direction they were heading.
“What if we really find it? What if it’s really out there?” Avenn asked to no one in particular.
“Well, I guess humanity would stand a chance after all. If we do find it, then we will have a real chance,” Arnold replied, holding back a smile. But he was damn glad to be alive.
They were all glad to be alive. Suddenly, their lives had meaning; the impossible purpose was looking more possible every kilometer they gained in the uncharted territory. Jordan had slowed the Orca down back to normal speed as hours passed, and they haven’t seen a single worm. They trekked through the salt pan for the remainder of the day, taking turns in eating and resting.
Before the Havens, before the fallout, during the Great War, humanity’s last resort were war machines—War Beasts so large, heavy, and loaded with enough firepower to tower over any city. However, the invaders’ technology was vastly superior to the humans. And no matter what the humans did or what kind of fight they put up, the visitors won in the end.
Few of the War Beasts were left in existence, forgotten by humans as humanity fell into darkness. Hundreds of expeditions were led from the Havens in search of these now mythical War Beasts. But every expedition ended up in failure. The people from the Haven got close at reviving one of these War Beasts, but it was far too gone to live once again.
The brave crew of the Orca was heading to find the last War Beast known to the Havens. The chieftains of the Havens never believed in this particular War Beast, as very little information was known about it, and it was built towards the end of the Great War. For years, they struggled to figure out the cryptic map of its location, but there was always a missing piece. Until recently, they were able to find all the missing pieces in the Haven’s archives. No one knew if it was really out there or not.
4
Oasis
It was early morning the next day when they left the salt pan behind. The increasing flickering of the Orca’s navigation system and in Kenya’s digital map had the crew on edge.
“I’m losing our location in the map. I’m not getting a clear enough signal from any of the Havens, and it’s messing with our course,” Kenya finally said after minutes of tinkering the map.
“Jordan, take us to that mound over there. Maybe we just need a higher ground,” Arnold said, gesturing to the mound composed of rocks and pebbles.
The Orca reached the mound within minutes, climbing swiftly to the crown. But as it reached the top, the Orca lost all its power once again and began descending to the other side.
“Jordan, what’s happening?” Arnold asked immediately.
&
nbsp; “I don’t know... It looks like we have lost power again,” Jordan said as he was fiddling with the controls.
As the Orca reached the bottom of the mound, it came to a stop. The crew was on edge; each one of them were already manning the nearest machine gun and were not moving a muscle. A few minutes of tense silence passed as the five prepared for the worst. But nothing happened; there was dead silence.
“Stand down. Each grab a shoulder rifle and get ready,” Arnold said.
As they relaxed a bit, the first thing they noticed was the enormous body of water present in front of them just a few meters away.
“I’ve never seen so much water in my life!” Kenya exclaimed.
“Do you think it’s safe to drink?” Clint asked.
“Yeah... If you don’t value your life, go for it. I’m betting you would be alive for a few more minutes after you drink it,” Avenn said.
“I guess I’ll try it then. I’ll take a little bit more than water to take me down,” Clint said, defiant.
“In all seriousness... It’s probably contaminated, just like everything else in this desert. It may look like water, but it could be some form of acid, so it’s better to stay away,” Avenn said.
They were in an oasis. It looked inviting at first glance, with a large body of clear water, with many types of trees and plants surrounding the body of water. And it wasn’t small. It continued far beyond their location. But like everything else in the desert, it was highly radioactive; death was all around it. As they looked closer, they found remnants and skeletons of dead animals; they had probably tried to drink from the water.
“Listen up! Jordan, go down to the engine and fix it. Don’t come back up until it’s 100% fixed. Also, make sure you make a clear assessment of it. We can’t have this boat breaking down on us again. This time we got lucky, but we shouldn’t count on that again. Kenya and Clint, go to that crown over there and see if you can get a signal. We need to know where we are at, and we need to know fast.” He pointed towards the tallest mound around the oasis and continued, “Worst-case scenario... Kenya, you’re going to have to keep track of us without signal from here on out. Write down whatever you need to write, mark down whatever you need to mark... but we cannot afford to get lost. Avenn, secure the rear, and I’ll take the east. Let’s go,” Arnold ordered as they all began to move.