***
Commander Williams's eyes were wide with panic. The darkness around him was thick and unsettling. But it wasn’t the dark that was making the commander panic. It was the screams that he could hear down the corridor. He stood there in the atrium, sweat dripping down his face, his heart pumping in his chest and his legs wobbling at the knees. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise up as the screams became louder and louder. He’d attempted to get into radio contact with his men, but the radio system on his suit was failing. But he didn't need a radio to hear the horrors within the ship. The creaking vessel was no longer silent and eerie. It was dark and torturous. Loud and unforgiving. The unknown had introduced itself to Williams and his men. And in doing so, Williams and his crew were about to meet their makers.
The commander didn't know what to do. There were so many screams that he didn't know which direction they were coming from. The screams seemed to surround him. Surround him in a 360° radius. Everywhere he turned the screams became louder. He could tell that the screaming was coming from his men. He recognized their voices. He recognized that they were in danger. But he felt like a coward. He couldn't move. He was rooted to the ground, unflinching while everything around him met its end.
"Get a grip, you need to get a grip," Williams said as he stood there, staring at the door in front of him. The big sliding metal door had automatically opened. But it was yet to close. It had been open for over four minutes. The Commander had kept a timer on it. A timer inside his head. He counted the seconds as they eroded by. But it was no use. He couldn't just stand there, waiting for it to come to an end. He knew that whatever was causing his men pain and suffering would soon also cause him pain and suffering. At that very moment, the commander realized that he was a selfish man. He only thought of himself. And thinking of what lies in store for him made the commander jump into action. They say a coward dies a thousand deaths. Williams wasn’t looking to die anytime soon. His training kicked in. He took three deep breaths in and exhaled loudly. This was it. This was what he'd been training for since the day he became a rescue pilot. On board the Orion Traveller there were people in need of his help. And not just any old people, but his people. And he'd be damned if he just stood there and let his men die. So, he was willing to risk his life and delve deep into the shadows in search of his men. And that's exactly what the commander did.
The commander gripped his gun tightly and drew it toward the door. He surveyed his surroundings through his iron sights. The gun swayed from left to right as he scanned the area for any hostiles. But the atrium was clear. The hallway was his next target. He slowly made his way toward it. As he did so, he could hear his feet clunking against the metal beneath him. The whole ship seemed to be made of aluminium. He felt light on his feet, and the sounds coming from the ship were also just as light – hollow even. Light metal had a certain acoustic to it. It bent and held weight differently compared to other metals. The Orion traveller was a ship built cheaply. And cheaply built ships weren't much good when it came to survival. They would much rather disintegrate into a billion pieces than come out clean on the other end of a dangerous situation. The commander knew that he had to get him and his men off the ship. It was a ticking time bomb. The lights were out and nobody was home. That could only mean something had driven those men off the ship. Or worse, something had gotten to them.
But the Commander couldn't continue to focus on the materials that the Orion Traveller was made from. As far as he was concerned, it was irrelevant. But he just couldn't help himself. When he was nervous, his mind rattled and droned. It was his way of protecting himself from the dangers that lay ahead. It was like a caterpillar cocooning himself. If he got lost in his happy thoughts, then maybe the sharp edges that the world was made from couldn't penetrate his happy place. But life didn't work like that. Commander Williams knew that he couldn't continue to distract himself. So he flushed the thoughts out of his head. The useless information found itself buzzing within the middle of his skull. He ignored the fact that his brain was calculating the density and mass of the Orion Traveller. He ignored the fact that his brain was analysing the ship like an electronic schematic scan system, taking in every nook as he walked down the corridor. Analysing the walls. The panels. The bolts that held the panels together. The grating beneath his feet. The plume of steam rushing up beside him. The PVC piping. The rusty metal hanging off the ceiling. The sprinklers dripping water onto his shoulder as he slowly walked on down the corridor. The squeak of the ventilation system as it pushed clean air through the ship and discarded the dirty air. He ignored all of those things. He focused on his sole purpose at that time. And that was inquiring as to what was causing those screams.
It didn't take long for him to find the source of the screams. As he exited the corridor, he came across a room. He didn't have time to read the sign above the door. He didn't need to know what room he was about to enter. All he needed to know was if one of his men was inside it. And sure enough, the lifeless corpse on the ground confirmed that one of his men was indeed in the room. But they were no longer breathing. That much was evident. He didn't even need to get a closer look to confirm that suspicion to himself. The massive blood loss cemented his prognosis. Buckets of blood sprayed all over the place. An idle corpse on the ground, half its insides speckled all over the room. The Commander swore he could see human intestines hanging from the ceiling. But Williams didn't stand around. There was nothing he could do for that particular person. And there was no way that he was going to get a positive ID on the body. Not when its head was missing. Yet again, the Commander realized how selfish he was. He wasn't even willing to go inside the room and attempt to retrieve the body. His selfishness was apparent. He only cared about self-preservation. There was nothing he could do for whoever was lying on that cold hard floor. They'd already met their end. And Williams didn't want any part of it. Besides, he had more pressing issues. Even more pressing than a dead soldier. As Williams stood there at the entrance of the room, eyes wide with fear, heart still thumping in his chest, he realized that fate may have just caught up with him. The screaming had stopped. There were no more sounds coming from within the Orion Traveller. The only thing that Williams could hear was the ticking in his head. The internal timer that he so often relied on was still counting down the minutes, seconds and nanoseconds. It would usually be counting up, but now, now it was counting down - down toward his own demise.
Williams guessed that he had only seconds to live. He was in two minds. Fight or flight. Fight the darkness. Or run toward the light. But the thing is, the Orion Traveller hadn't seen the light in a very long time. And Williams knew that all too well. So fight it would have to be. Williams didn't know exactly what he was fighting. All he knew was that what ever killed his man, the man lying on the ground in front of him, was also nearby. He could feel it. Its presence was undeniable. A screeching sound in his ears. A bubbling in his head. A nervous wheeze in his lungs. Yes, it was here. But the question was, where was it?
"I'm here you son of a bitch, come and get me!" Williams said before opening fire with his automatic machine gun. Bursts of light bounced off the walls as the muzzle flash illuminated the room every other second. The light revealed the secrets in the shadows. And the shadows had been keeping those secrets from Williams and his men. Secrets that no man wanted a part in knowing. Secrets that could only be taken to the grave. And the grave was exactly where Williams was heading whether he liked it or not. Sometimes there was no fighting the inevitable. Other times, the inevitable was worth fighting. Williams didn’t want to go out like a coward, but unfortunately, the darkness had the power to drive most men to cowardice.
“Come and get me!” Williams snarled, letting loose with his machine gun, spraying the darkness as it approached him.
Chapter Two
"I somehow don't think that we'll be heading up top anytime soon," April said as she slowly walked beside Gustoff.
Randy smiled.
Go
ing up top wasn't on his list of priorities. He was more concerned with escaping the fallout from the beam. He wasn't stupid, he knew that an explosion of that size would render the land the colony was built on useless. Radioactive material would be launched into the atmosphere for a while. At least for a couple of years. That begged the question how would the people of the colony survive without the land above? It wasn't as simple as just living underground. There were no animals to hunt down there. Not any animals that anyone would want to eat that is. Plus, the lack of light would cause a serious problem. The human body needed sunlight. It needed fresh air. And it certainly needed water. Gustoff knew that in a cave of this size there would most likely be water. And drinkable water at that. But there was no sunlight. And there was no fresh air. So survival was questionable. A man of his scientific calibre was always testing the odds. And unfortunately for Gustoff and the people of the colony, the odds weren't in their favour. He knew that. He was sure that April knew that too. He was even sure that Timson and the girl doctor knew. But, the people of the colony were simple people. For a very long time, they’d rejected science as a valid means of information. They rejected it in favour of religion. In favour of superstition. Superstition wouldn't get them out of this predicament. Gustoff was certain of that at least.
"Getting to the top isn't what we should be focusing on. Getting off this planet is our only goal right now," Gustoff said, kicking a stray rock from his path.
The ground was uneven and posed a risk of injury. He was careful not to succumb to loose footing. A few of the colony members had already tumbled to the ground. One of them had busted their knee. Open wound injuries were susceptible to infection. And infection was their worst enemy. Sick people didn't make for happy survivors. In fact, survivors in general could never be sick. Because without medical attention, or medicine of any sorts, there could be no survivors. And all that Randy Gustoff wanted was to survive.
"What do you mean? How on earth are we going to get off this planet? You do realize that we don't actually have any means of transportation, right?" April asked, her face momentarily turning into a frown.
She would usually wear a smile quite happily on her face. It was rare for her to experience any emotion other than happiness. But the situation that they were in was getting to her. It was wearing her down, just like Gustoff. And if he was a piece of chalk, that meant she was a piece of string. A string being held tightly. Stretched out as far as it could go. A piece of string could only take so much pressure. And once the pressure becomes too much, the string snaps. And Gustoff was afraid of April snapping.
"It was a figure of speech. I know we don't have any transportation. I'm not an idiot. All I'm saying is that I think it would be best to focus our energies on coming up with a plan to get off this planet. It's not like we’re safe here. A massive nuclear explosion just went off. A huge beam of light destroyed the colony. We're now in a cave, underground, hiding away from our troubles. And I don't know about you April, I ain't no coward. I don't want to live my life like this. Cowering in the darkness, allowing the universe to shaft us at every possible moment. I'm tired of being the butt of the galaxies joke. A running joke. Look at us, hiding in the darkness. Hiding from reality as usual.
“I'm tired of it. And I say no more. I say no more hiding. We are fully capable humans. We have the ability to thrive just like the people back on planet Earth. The same people that look like us, talk like us but are not us. The same people like the good doctor over there and her Commander. They aren’t cowards. They are brave. Braver than any of us. And it's about time that we share their ability to prosper. Because that's all this is April, it's all just a test. It's a test that I plan on acing," Gustoff said as he trundled on through the caves.
He managed to snag his arm against a loose rock. He now had a superficial cut on his forearm. It didn't hurt that much but it angered him nonetheless. He was fed up of being the victim. He was fed up with the way the world treated him. The way that he always seemed to be the unlucky one. But things were going to change. He was adamant about that fact. He would no longer be the victim. He would no longer be unlucky. He was brave, just like Timson and the doctor.
"You say this is a test, but surely you don't actually think that we are getting off this planet? Come on Randy, you're a clever man. I know you, and I know for a fact that you're not a silly man. You’re an inspiration to me. When no one believed you about the stars above us in space, you continued to search for the truth. Now that you know the truth, you're acting irrational. You're not using your scientific brain. You're hoping. And hope isn't something that I think a scientist should ever dabble in. Hope is a dangerous thing. It lingers in the soul and negatively affects our outlook on things. Hope is just a phantom. It exists purely below the surface. And just like ghosts and phantoms, they never make themselves known. Only the crazies see them. And in my opinion, only the crazies believe in such a thing as hope," April said, minding her step as she followed the group.
Randy was still sidled up beside her, but his head was down. He was looking at his feet as he moved. His mind was escaping him. Maybe April was right. Maybe there was no such thing as hope. Randy had never been a man to meddle in such things. But he felt a change within him. And he wasn't sure whether or not he liked that change.
"Maybe you're right, maybe this is just hope. But you are wrong about something. Before, when the colony shut me out, when they didn't believe anything I said, when they thought that I was a madman, all I did was hope. It was all I could do. It was all I had. I didn't know that my theories were correct. I didn't know that the stars above were real. And there were aliens out there. But I found myself hoping that there were. I hoped that there was life out there. And I was right. There was. There is. So maybe hope isn't a phantom. Maybe hope doesn't rest below the surface. Maybe hope is right in front of us. Maybe it has always been right in front of us," Randy said, momentarily turning to April and smiling at her.
She looked at him and smiled back. It was nice to see that she at least understood where Randy was coming from. He didn't want to come across like a madman yet again. Especially not to her. But then again, when everybody else doubted him, she'd been right there, willing him to continue his work. So maybe he needn't have worried about seeming like a madman to her. She was, after all, a friend. A friend that he cared about dearly.
Randy was just about to reach for her hand when her facial expression changed. She was no longer smiling, but for a split second, she looked terrified. It seemed as if she was about to say something to him – to warn him. She was no longer looking at him, but was now facing front ways. Before he could inquire as to what her look of horror related to, he felt a tremendous hot flash run through the middle of his skull. Throbbing pain followed. It felt like his face had been hit by a rock.
As a matter of fact, that's exactly what had occurred. And before Gustoff could react, he'd gone face first into the cave wall. A jagged piece of rock shunted him in the face. Randy lost his footing and hit the ground. He hadn't been paying attention to where he’d been walking. The conversation he'd been having with April had distracted him, distracted him from the fact that he was centimetres from hitting his head.
Randy had inadvertently knocked himself out cold. The colony members stopped in their tracks and gasped as they made a circle around him. Gustoff was bleeding profusely from a wound on his head. A gash. His eyes were rolling into the back of their sockets, only his eye-whites were visible. April was leaning over him, trying to rouse him from his stupor. But there was no rousing Gustoff. He was out like a light. A light that once shined so bright. A light that left unattended, untreated, could be extinguished. Only the remnants of its smoky ash floating into the atmosphere, disappearing into the darkness of the cave, would remain.
Time was a factor. A factor that the female doctor was fully aware of. She knew that a wound that big needed treating, or Randy wouldn’t be waking up ever again.
A look of panic stretched across her
face. One of the elderman turned toward her.
“Do something! The man needs medical attention!” he said, wheezing as he spoke on account of his age.
The female doctor stood there, mortified. She didn’t know what to do. Or what to say. For a second or two, she went blank. Both her mind and face were idle. The colony members around her were beginning to get agitated. Some of them were crying. Others were trying to attend to Gustoff as he lay there motionless. But the female doctor knew that untrained people trying to suture a wound could spark a disaster. So she decided to step in. She pushed them all out the way and knelt beside him. She then turned her head toward Timson, her eyes were wide and hollow. Timson could see the individual veins in her eyes constricting as the panic she was experiencing started to choke her. The doctor found it hard to speak, but after clearing her throat, she finally managed to say a few words.
"Find me some vine or a strong plant root, or this man is going to die!" She said.
***
Commander Williams's eyes shoot open, his pupils dilated and his breathing shallow. It is as if there is something in the midst of his throat. A constant rumbling can be heard. He starts to choke. Blood begins to spatter out of his mouth. At first, there is only a little. But then, like a torrent from the sea, it starts to spray out of his pursed lips. He attempts to sit up to stop the choking. But he can't, he is glued to the floor. Something is constricting him. It feels like a snake. A snake wrapping itself around his torso, pinning him to the ground. He attempts to scream for help. But the blood in his throat stops his vocal chords from working.
Second Earth: The Complete First Novel (Second Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 11