Bars reached out with his shaking hands for the specially colored orange handle. He turned it in the right direction and the hatch, which was the entrance into the survival suit, opened releasing a strong odor of delousing agent. While the interior was turning, Bars started to strip off his filthy clothes and drop them on the floor till he was stark naked. Those old rags had warmed him for several years, but he no longer had any need of them, because his mechanized survival suit would take care for his needs.
The freezing cold that wrapped around him was unbearable, but Bars wanted to have one last look at his body. He massaged the nimble muscles of his arms and legs, stretched his shoulders and back, and ran his hand through his shaggy head of hair lightly scratching his head. His fingernails dug into the skin of his neck, trying to leave a lasting impression of their touch. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and tried to dismiss all his fears and doubts from his consciousness.
During the years, Bars had read the Textbook hundreds of times. Its pages were filled with amazing stories of Heroes that had returned to the Fortress. Upon returning, they had written about their adventures and their rules of survival – invaluable information for the generations of boys that were yet to stray outside.
Along with everything else, the Textbook also told of all kinds of frightening things – so nightmarish that most of boys tried to forget them. But unlike the other boys, Bars wasn't going to make the same mistake. He sought to learn and memorize exactly those facts about the most dangerous things that lived in the hostile world outside the Fortress, even though it had cost him numerous sleepless nights.
Soon he would find out if knowing these facts would pay off.
When Bars opened his eyes, his survival suit was ready for him. The boy stepped forward and quickly climbed it up. Once he squeezed through the hatch, his skin felt the cold surface of the cocoon. Bars grit his teeth and crammed his whole body inside. After a few seconds, the cocoon started to fit itself to his body, taking his whole weight. Bars wriggled around to get into the most comfortable position possible while at the same time sticking his hands into the sleeves. Once he reached the end of the sleeves, he put his fingers into the control slots. The survival suit registered his touch and all the systems began to turn on one after the other. Once the hatch closed and sealed itself automatically, Bars took a deep breath of the filtered air.
“Let's check it out!“ - said Bars and lifted his hands. The mechanized survival suit reacted and without any delay fulfilled his command. Two metal hands were there in front of Bars' visor – the synchronization was perfect. Then he moved his legs, but the survival suit only swung because it was still hanging by chains hooked to rails in the ceiling. All the same, the feeling was great – being able to control something so easily and intuitively that had so much strength and power.
Meanwhile, a film of moisture started to form on the glass of the visor. That was completely normal in the beginning. With every movement that Bars made, he began to breath more rapidly and the temperature inside the suit was still a little cool. The climate system slowly warmed the temperature in the survival suit and Bars began to feel waves of warmth that caused him to begin to sweat profusely. The cocoon, wrapped itself around his body, soaking up the discharged body fluid. The suit would store it in a special reservoir and would use it to cool systems that often overheated.
Once a minute had passed, the mist on the visor had partially cleared and Bars looked around. Opatar and Yazo also were testing out their new limbs and occasionally were kicking the air with their legs. Everyone had successfully entered their survival suits with the exception of one visibly anxious boy.
“Why is he still dawdling outside?” wondered Bars, trying to turn in the direction of the worried yells.
“It looks like he's unable to open the hatch,” commented Opatar, who was in a better position to observe.
“The fool welded his Shell on wrong!” said Yazo surprised. “There's no way he can get in now!”
The unlucky guy was trying with desperate attempts to rectify the problem, but it was already too late.
“Attention!” announced the loudspeaker as it came on for the last time. “It's time to leave the Fortress forever!”
The wailing of the sirens drowned out the screams of the scared boy, who was running among the survival suits hanging on their chains while his friends could only look on unable to help him.
A mighty roar echoed between the walls.
Atmospheric nozzles started working to equalize the pressure, and the boy without a survival suit began to suffocate. It was an awful sight, Bars sighed with relief when the floodlights turned off. For a while, it was pitch black, then one by one, the boys began to turn on their survival suit lights. Someone's beam shined right into Bars' face causing him to bow his head while squinting his eyes.
Immediately after that, something big crashed into him.
“It's okay, friend! It's me!” said Thirteen as his grinning face met Bars' amazed look.
“300 hundred shriveled slugs! You made me jump out of my skin!” replied Bars.
Suddenly the entire floor shook from a series of tremors accompanied by loud noises. At the center of the hangar appeared a thin band of blue light – the doors were opening.
“There! It's starting!” yelled Thirteen over the noise.
Bars numbly watched the light that was getting stronger as the opening widened. A strong gust of air burst into the compartment and the metal beams fiercely screeched. The floor around the entrance began to be covered in frost.
“Hey! You'll have to help me with this part!” said Thirteen as he grasped Bars' survival suit. “My demo survival suit isn't attached to the chains for the Descent.”
“What?! Hey, what are you doing?!”
Thirteen quickly turned and went behind Bars. Then he started to climb onto Bars' Shell as Bars was trying helplessly to get rid of the unwanted load.
“What are you doing, you little pest!?! Get off now!” Bars couldn't reach him.
“Relax! Our Shells don't have any metal and they're lighter than the rest,” said Thirteen grabbing on as tightly as he could. “If you stop moving so much, the chains will be able to hold both of us.”
“If we die, you're going to regret it!” yelled Bars furiously.
A strong tremor marked the moment that the hatch had fully opened. The air pressure equalized and it became quiet. The light coming through the wide open hatchway looked different. The residents of the Fortress had become used to weak, artificial lighting, but this light wasn't a product of some noisy generator or smoking candle.
This was something completely different.
Bars watched dazed unable to take his eyes off the entrance to the hangar.
“Amazing!” exclaimed Thirteen, his voice coming from somewhere behind Bars' head ruining the wonderful moment. “What do you think, Bars?”
“Uh-huh,” mumbled Bars unable to say anything else.
“The light is blinding!” yelled Yazo as he dropped the light filter that was installed on his visor.
“I also have a shield against the bright light,” added Opatar and he dropped a rudely welded metal hood with several holes over his face.
“Ha-ha!” laughed Yazo as his sound amplifiers squealed. “Are you able to see anything at all?”
“Hey, adjust your volume! My head's going to explode!“ Bars could handle the strong light that was causing his eyeballs to pulse, but he couldn't handle Yazo's loudly amplified snicker.
Suddenly the chains attached to the survival suits began to move.
“Get ready guys!“ yelled excitedly Yazo. “Now, we'll see what's outside!”
All of the survival suits slowly headed to the exit along the rails.
“Stop moving so much, Bars!” warned Thirteen. “It's difficult for me to get a good hold!”
“I'm not moving at all! The rails are shaking us. You just make sure you don't damage my Shell!”
The Old Earth – disfigured and empty, plunged into ruin, vacant of all rational life-forms. All of this was new and different for the boys. It was at once frightening and exciting.
Getting farther away above them was the huge hull of the Fortress attached to the stone arch. The hatch through which they had exited was getting smaller and farther away. Looking at their home from the outside, it looked despairingly old and dilapidated – metal layers had fragmented and there were several holes.
“Look at what a wreck we've been living in until now!” exclaimed Thirteen.
The wind became stronger and the weakened parts of the ancient construction banged the hull with a terrible clanking. Some of the fragments were big enough to cut a survival suit in half, if it got in way of one of them.
“Hey! Aran, where you my friend?” suddenly yelled Yazo, his loudspeaker squealing.
From the other side-openings, the rest of the boys were being dropped down from Hangar 2 and Hangar 1. Yazo waved his hand in their direction trying unsuccessfully to get someone's attention.
The mechanized survival suits were being lowered slowly and were already halfway to the surface when the wind suddenly became stronger. The chains stretched to their limit and started to ominously screech. Bars squeezed his fists and squinted his eyes in fear. Thirteen flew to the side, but succeeded in hanging on while cursing in a way that he had never done before now. The true power of the wind was completely unknown to the boys who had grown up in the Fortress. The thick metal walls had protected them year after year from the killer hurricanes. Now the ominous wailing of the wind became more savage.
“Can't we be lowered any quicker? The weather's getting worse!” yelled Bars anxiously.
The suits were beginning to swing more and there was a danger of banging into one another. The boys tried to balance them, but it was impossible and many of them began to scream simply out of helplessness.
Suddenly, the wind strengthened and succeeded in tearing off a piece of the Fortress' shielding.
“Hold on boys!” squealed Yazo.
Thirteen squeezed Bars' Shell so hard that he clearly heard the metal screech. At the same moment, two more rotting pieces of the Fortress tore off, falling among the suits below.
Bars felt totally helpless. He couldn't do anything except remain where he was and wait for the descent to end. His heart was pounding in anticipation of the moment when he would be smashed by some falling piece of trash. If that didn't happen, there was a rather good chance that he would be fatally damaged by Thirteen falling on top of him. The first few fragments careened down and crashed into the hard ground lifting up a fountain of debris. The strong wind formed ever bigger clouds of dust. Bars was stunned at how quickly everything changed.
Suddenly one of the descending chains was severed by a careening piece of metal. The unlucky suit with the number 86 fell straight down and upon hitting a hard rock broke into pieces.
“Ohh!” said the only voice that could be heard over the wailing of the wind. It was Yazo.
However, Bars heard something else.
This sound was different from the screaming wind, the whistling pieces of metal, the clanking chains and the yells of the boys. The sound his ears picked up on was coming from below, deep in the old planet. And it caused his heart to beat even harder.
“Thirteen!” yelled Bars. “Hold on tight and be ready!”
“What?...,” and then Thirteen saw the most unbelievable sight he had ever seen in his life.
The surface under the Fortress cracked open and amid giant clouds of shards of rock and dirt, flew up several gigantic tentacles.
Upon seeing them, Yazo went completely crazy. He started to throw himself about uncontrollably and scream as loud as he could.
“A thousand curses – the nightmare is real!”
Everyone watched the unbelievable scene petrified, but hardly any of them expected what was going to happen next. Once the huge tentacles, covered in sharp spikes, shook off the thick layer of soil, they started to twist in all directions, seeking out their prey. One of them succeeded in getting a hold of the broken survival suit on the ground, the tentacle wrapped itself around the suit and dragged it under the surface. The rest of the appendages continued writhing about, but changed direction and started to reach higher up. The boys, who were further along in the Descent, started to throw themselves about madly, trying to change their fate but to no avail. The long tentacles reached several of the survival suits coming from hangar 2 without any problem, grabbed onto them and with ease broke their chains. The unlucky boys couldn't save themselves, no matter how hard they tried. Each of their hits upon the thick flesh of the creature had no effect.
Fear and panic seized a hold of all of them.
“Damn it! Save yourselves!” said Yazo continuing to yell.
“Don't throw yourself around so much, you fool!” said Bars trying to protect himself from the scared boy's madness. “You'll get tangled in the chains!”
The wind kept blowing, fragments of metal careened over their heads, and the disgusting creature continued its banquet. Each of the monstrous tentacles grabbed a hold of a survival suit, tore it free of the chains, and then dragged it under the surface.
“There's only four tentacles left,” noted Thirteen. “Who will be the next victim?”
Two of the appendages caught survival suit 34 and severed it in two. Yazo screamed when a greater part of the intestines of the unfortunate boy splattered onto his Shell.
“That was close!” exclaimed Thirteen. “That leaves two tentacles, and we're still at least 20 meters from the surface.”
Bars was frozen with horror. He couldn't handle unsolvable situations like this one. After all that had happened to him until now, he was sure that the last tentacle was coming especially for him.
“I don't like it here! I'm going to speed up our landing!” yelled Bars to Thirteen. “Cut the chains!”
One of the last hungry tentacles reached up.
“I agree!” replied Thirteen and without any hesitation cut one of the descending chains.
Bars' suit hung at an angle and began to swing, as a gigantic tentacle passed within a meter of him.
“Jump!” yelled Bars.
The weight of the two suits was beyond the capability of the remaining chain to hold them, and it severed. Bars and Thirteen plummeted down.
Chapter 6
The Feeding Season Page 6