Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1)
Page 24
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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.