Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two)

by Conner Walworth

  “Oh,” he replied, deflated. “We could try to avoid it.”

  “It's not the only one out there. I've seen several of them from the cave. I don't know what they're called, but I've seen them preying on other creatures that wander out there. The place is a graveyard.”

  “It's our only hope to get off of this planet! It has to be worth a try!”

  “Yeah. And if you fail, you're dead.”

  “Come on Fausto!” He urged. “If I'm going to go back to the pod I need your help. You know the terrain better than I do.”

  “Not much. You’ve been out there further than I’ve ever gone. Plus, I've never fought one of those things. I've just observed them and I would like to keep it at that.”

  “We won’t fight them unless we have to. You know how they’ll react from observing them so you should know a way to get around them.”

  “I would much rather stay here, safe in my cave,” he replied. “You'll live a very comfortable life here. It's pleasant and there’s nothing that wants to kill you.”

  “I need to get off Tartarus,” Anlon urged. “Orion is at war with an ancient race who have weird powers. I don't know if my friends escaped to warn the rebels, which means it's now my duty.”

  “Nothing will change your mind? I can’t say anything that’ll make you stay in this cave?”

  “Not a single thing. We’re both getting off of Tartarus or we're going to die trying,” he crossed his arms defiantly.

  “I haven't even shown you around the cave yet,” he walked forward. “But then again, it would be good to see other races after all these years.”

  “So, you're going to help me?”

  “What choice do I have? You don't think I'm going to let you go alone out there and die, do you?”

  Anlon smiled. “What do you know about those things out there?”

  “That we're going to need some weapons or we're about to become their lunch,” he opened a crate, revealing a variety of rifles. “I don't have much, but hopefully we only run into one of these things.”

  Anlon picked up a sonic rifle and examined it. “And if we happen to run into more than one?”

  “Then I hope you can run faster than what I saw.” He picked up another sonic rifle and cocked it.

  Fausto led him off the ship and back into the dimly lit cave. They traveled back the same way they’d come when going to Fausto's ship. It was such a peaceful place, and Anlon didn't blame him for not being eager to leave it to face those creatures, but there was no other choice. If Orion wasn’t in trouble right now, he wouldn't mind staying here, though he'd have to have someone with him, preferably Kanti. It was nice here, but not nice enough to live alone for the rest of his life.

  When they reached the end of the cave, Fausto squatted down and looked out through the tight entrance.

  “There's nothing roaming around out there right now that I can see,” he observed. “The fog is gone, so we should be able to see them coming from a distance.”

  “Where do they come from?”

  “You see those rocky areas?” He pointed. “Those are holes that they’ve somehow dug in the rock. I guess they're little tunnels and they wait in there for prey to come by.”

  “So, we just avoid the holes,” Anlon thought aloud. “Got it.”

  “Not quite that easy. They can sense when prey is around. I don't know how you managed to have only one come after you earlier, but I can see at least four holes on the way to your pod.”

  “We'll be quiet. Hopefully they're all out hunting or something right now.”

  “We can only hope,” Fausto squeezed out of the hole. “If not, we're dead.”

  Anlon followed his lead and squeezed his body through the hole. He was back on the black rock again. The rush to get to the pod had quickly vanished as he realized one misstep could mean his death. He willed himself to follow Fausto forward.

  They lightly walked across the black rocky land, careful to watch their surroundings. Fausto mentioned other creatures on the land, and neither one of them wanted to be caught off guard by one of them because they were so focused on the big predators. The pod was far, and Fausto had been wrong about there being four holes, Anlon could now see six in the distance. As the first one neared, they veered right, to completely go around it. They passed it without any incident and trekked forward.

  He turned to Fausto and smiled. “One down. Five more to go.”

  Fausto shot him a look and motioned him to be quiet and keep moving forward. He lifted his sonic rifle and continued. The pod was still far off and the second hole was quickly approaching. In the corner of his eye, he saw Fausto's body tense up and his rifle raise. There was definitely a creature in this next hole, but it seemed to be feeding on something, paying them no attention. Fausto tapped his shoulder and motioned him to go left, carefully. His heart pounded, and he feared the creature would hear it, but they passed without a glance from the beast.

  Anlon looked to his right, seeing a path that would take them around several holes. He veered from Fausto's lead and was stopped by a hand pulling his shoulder.

  “I've never been out there,” he said. “I have no idea what we could run in to. Those things usually steer clear, so it’s probably best we do the same.”

  “It's okay. We’ll be fine,” Anlon assured. “We're just doing it to get around those three holes,” he pointed. “As soon as we pass them, we’ll get back on track.”

  Fausto nodded with reluctance and they started for the open rock field. The black rock seemed softened beneath his feet, but he shook the thought off, knowing it was his imagination. They sped up some, being a little less careful as they passed the three holes. The pod was now very close, but it wouldn't be as easy to get to as they had thought. His pod was within fifty feet of a hole and he knew why the creature had been on him so quickly. The thing was nowhere in sight, but he had a feeling it was lurking around the dark land waiting for his return. Anlon silently crept past the hole and sped up to get to the pod. He turned around and saw that Fausto closely behind, rifle pointed directly at the hole.

  “Hurry up and get what we need from that pod,” he said. “I don't feel safe out here. I feel like we're being preyed on by more than just those creatures. It’s too quiet out here.”

  Anlon nodded and crawled into the pod. It felt smaller than he’d remembered as he wiggled his way to the communications system in the front. Sure enough, there was a comline, though it looked a little different than what he was used to. He was sure the circuit boards would be the same though and he started tearing the comline apart. Once he had it apart, he started taking boards off, having no idea what to look for and just shoved everything in his pockets to be safe.

  As he finished taking the boards out, he heard rustling from outside. Anlon reached for his weapon and poked his head out from the pod. Fausto was crouched down with his weapon raised.

  “Nice of you to come out and join me,” he whispered.

  Anlon raised his weapon. “Sorry, but I didn't know what I needed, so I just grabbed everything.”

  “That's nice,” he replied. “I’d rather never come out here again if I don't have to.”

  “What do you want to do?” Anlon asked, following the creature who’d emerged from the hole with his weapon.

  “I don't know,” he shrugged. “Shoot it.”

  “Right now?”

  He nodded. “It's two against one. We're bound to bring it down if we act quickly.”

  “What about the other things?” Anlon asked. “Won't we cause them to come out?”

  “Did they come out last time?”

  “Guess not. Shoot on three?”

  “Three,” Fausto fired his weapon.

  He struck the creature in one of its heads and it darted towards the two of them in a wild frenzy. Anlon rolled out of the way, barely escaping a direct strike from the creature. The sonic round had done some serious damage to its head and he raised his weapon to inflict more damage. This time the round caused
the head of the creature blow up and it writhed on the ground in pain. It went into a rage and came straight towards Anlon.

  He looked to see where he could go, and dove behind the pod for cover. The creature struck the pod, causing it to topple on its side. Anlon scrambled on the hard ground to escape another strike when he was sprayed by blood. Something fell on top of him and he began wriggling in fear to escape the creature. His heart pounded as he scrambled to his feet and began firing at the creature. Fausto lowered his weapon and started laughing.

  “I think it’s dead. Actually, it’s been dead since it landed on you.”

  Anlon lowered his weapon and tried to slow his breathing. He was sure the thing was alive when it’d fell on him. “What’s so funny? We still have a few more to deal with right behind you.”

  Five more were slowly making their way towards them. Anlon knew they were helpless against this many. It took the two of them to bring down one. He looked around for someplace to go and pointed to the rock field they’d traveled on briefly. Fausto gave a quick nod and they darted for the soft land.

  As soon as they set foot on the rock, the creatures backed off, but kept their eyes fixed on them. Anlon kept walking sideways and the beasts continued to back up, as if avoiding something. He grinned to himself and started walking back the way they’d come. A slight vibration pulsed through the ground and he stopped to look as his feet. In the corner of his eye he saw Fausto doing the same and was about to ask a question when the vibration came again, this time harder.

  He looked up and saw something even worse than the golden three-headed monsters. There was a black creature slowly creeping towards them with four red eyes looking directly at him. Its scaly body looked as rock hard as the ground and its four legs were causing the vibrations with each step it took

  “Any suggestions?” Anlon asked.

  “Yeah. Run!”

  They turned and ran from the creature as quick as they could. The four legged creature quickly gained on them with ease and Anlon could feel the saliva hitting his neck. There was no way to escape the beast. There was no place to hide where they'd be safe, not on this bare land. He frantically looked around until a terrible idea sprang in his head.

  “The holes!” Anlon yelled to Fausto. “Jump in the holes! It can't fit in the holes!”

  He saw Fausto jump in without thinking and hoped there were none of the golden creatures waiting for him inside. He jumped in next and fell for several seconds, before hardly hitting the ground with a thump. The beast's snout was snapping ferociously through the hole, but it was far from reaching either one of them. The hole was too small and too deep, but he knew they weren't out of trouble quite yet.

  “Fausto?” He called. “Where are you?”

  “Down here!” He shouted. “This is a series of tunnels!”

  He felt his way down the dark tunnel until he ran into Fausto. He wasn't sure how the tunnels were made, but it definitely hadn't been by the golden creatures. The rock here was just as hard as above and the only thing that could've created this was a race with some type of tool.

  “I think all the holes may be interconnected,” Fausto said. “We can probably just travel through them back to my cave.”

  “Is it safe?” Anlon asked. “There could be those creatures waiting for prey in here.”

  “Our other option is to go back up there,” he pointed. “Even the golden creatures didn't want to face that thing.”

  “Which way do we go? I can see the tunnel breaks off into several directions right up there,” Anlon pointed.

  “I think we take the one on the left. That’s in the general direction we came.”

  “Let's go then,” Anlon walked towards the leftmost hole.

  They walked down the tunnel, keeping an eye out for any of the golden creatures. Luckily, it didn't look like they even lived this deep. The further they traveled, the smaller the tunnels got, until it was the perfect height for the two of them. Anlon rubbed his hands on the walls to help guide him in the darkness. The little light there was, was quickly fading away the further they traveled.

  Strangely enough, he felt safe, though he knew he shouldn't, not on this planet. Soon, they’d be enveloped in complete darkness, which was probably even more dangerous than walking up on the land, but all fear had left his mind. After seeing what was on top of the land, he was sure nothing down here could come close to being as dangerous.

  “Follow the tunnel,” Fausto whispered. “And hope that there’s nothing else down here.”

  Anlon kept trudging forward, guiding himself with his hand. The texture of the wall suddenly changed to a soft gooey texture. Before he could tell Fausto, he ran face first into his back.

  “Something isn't right. Did you feel the wall?”

  “Yes, but our only option is to go forward. If we turn around now, who knows what will be waiting for us,” Fausto said.

  Anlon shook his head and remembered the gadget he had on his wrist. He fumbled with it and got it to emit some light. It wasn't much, but it was enough for them to see a few feet ahead. An oozing white liquid ran down the walls for as far as he could see.

  “Do you know what it is?” Anlon asked, rubbing his hand through it.

  “Never seen anything like it.”

  “I don't think we're alone down here,” Anlon said. “Something had to have made this stuff. Are you sure we're headed in the direction we came?”

  “I don't know, to tell you the truth,” he shrugged. “We've been walking blind for a while and I may have lost my sense of direction when running for my life up there. We could’ve also missed a turn when we were in the dark.”

  Anlon continued forward. “I guess we’ll find out if we end up in the nest of some monster.”

  The white goo on the wall built up thicker the further that they went and quickly covered the entire tunnel from ceiling to floor. They slugged through the thick residue and came to an opening that dropped straight down. Anlon peered over the drop and backed up into Fausto.

  “It's almost a straight drop, but there are footholds we can use to get down.”

  “What?” Fausto asked, pushing forward to look out the tunnel. “You've got to be kidding me. I'm too old to be running this much and climbing down walls like this.”

  Anlon looked back out and thought it appeared to be a cave with an orange pool at the bottom. Daylight could be seen just poking its way in from somewhere near the bottom. If there was any chance of getting out of here this was it.

  “Looks like it's the only way, Fausto,” Anlon started to climb down. “It's only a few hundred feet, I'm sure we'll make it.”

  “Yeah, only a few hundred. I knew I should've stayed in my cave.”

  Anlon climbed down, making sure every foothold was secure before taking the next treacherous step. He called all the footholds up to Fausto so he’d know where to go before making his moves. It took them awhile, but they eventually reached the bottom without falling or anything attacking them. Now, they had to find a way out.

  “Have you found anything Fausto?” He asked, afraid to break the news to him.

  “There's no way out!” Fausto replied. “We have to go back up and through the tunnels.”

  “Or there's that exit,” Anlon pointed.

  “No. There's no way we're getting out that way.”

  “Is it any riskier than getting eaten by that four legged creature?”

  “How are we going to even travel through there?”

  Anlon looked at the exit to see if there was something that would let them pass over the lava that streamed through a tunnel with light beaming through at the end. The cave was close if they’d gone the right direction, but the only way to get to it was to cross the lava. Anlon walked around the cave, frantically trying to find something, anything that wouldn’t burn up. He kicked nearby rocks in the lava in frustration when he’d found nothing. Fausto turned to him to see what was the matter and ran to him with a smile spread across his face.

  “Y
ou're a genius!”

  “What?” Anlon asked. “I didn't find anything.”

  “The black rocks! They don't sink! We can use them to get across!”

  Anlon looked down and saw the rocks floating on the lava. “Let's find one big enough to fit the both of us!”

  They turned and scavenged the cave for a rock large enough for the both of them. There were plenty of the black rocks scattered throughout the cave, but none were large enough for even one of them. Fausto called over from the other side of the cave.

  “This one big enough?” He pointed.

  Anlon's jaw dropped when he saw a rock that appeared to be carved in the shape of a raft. A smile grew across his face and he shook his head at their luck. It took the both of them to pull it back and a swarm of blue insects flew out and encircled them. The rock smashed to the ground as they both raised their weapons and began firing.

  “We need to get out!” Fausto shouted over the blasts. “I can't get an aim on any of them and I think we’re just pissing them off.”

  “I'll pull the rock into the lava lake. We'll get on it and shoot them if they follow us through the tunnel.” Anlon slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled the raft, swatting the insects as they swarmed him.

  The insects seemed to grow in number, gathering in large clusters before striking. Anlon pushed the rock in the lava and hopped on top. He quickly motioned for Fausto just as the cluster raged towards the raft floating on the lava. Anlon pushed off the wall with all his might and the rock slowly started traveling down the river. Fausto leaped forward and crashed down on his stomach next to him.

  The cluster raced towards him and he fired his weapon, causing many of the insects to drop to the ground and the cluster to break off, reforming near the top of the cavern. Anlon looked behind him and saw they were nearing the end of the river as the cluster came again. This time, they both fired, killing nearly half of them before they broke off once again. Anlon didn’t give them the chance to come at them again, jumping on land as soon as they’d exited the tunnel.

  “Guess we know where the goo came from,” Fausto followed his lead.