Tolarus clenched his jaw when the hatch opened. Slowly, he stepped outside with the spheroid in his hand, and surprisingly, the whole place looked abandoned. Not the ambiance he expected at the Griseos' main camp.
Footsteps approached. Realizing he wasn't alone, Tolarus took cover behind one of the parked vessels. What's going on here? Tolarus wondered when he saw a dark-haired man walking toward another vessel before a group of Griseos stopped the guy and surrounded him with their weapons. To Tolarus's astonishment, the cornered man spoke Latin though he didn't seem to belong to this island. The guy's outfit resembled those worn by Heather and her people. They still have one of our friends, she had told him once.
Tolarus could hear bits of the conversation between the guy and the Griseos. Surely, the surrounded man was in trouble. But what could Tolarus do against eleven armed Griseos, with only one missile left in his cannon?
Actually, with the Griseos' current formation, it was possible to strike them all with this one missile. The only problem was the guy himself who was so close to the Griseos. Tolarus wouldn't be able to kill them without taking him out as well. Think, Tolarus. Think. The Griseos were already assuming their shooting stances. That anonymous guy was dead anyway.
"Get out of here!" Tolarus hollered, shooting at the ground just behind the aliens. If the explosion didn't kill them, he would make sure they were gone for good.
* * *
"This gray freak," Burke pointed at the assistant's corpse, "said something about Akmenios and killing my friends. Do you have any idea where I can find them?"
"Your friends are on their way to the shore," Tolarus replied. "They're escaping."
"Escaping?" Burke was surprised. "How?"
"One of your boats is still there." Tolarus seemed concerned. "They were supposed to reach the shore unnoticed."
"Then we don't have a minute to waste." Burke grabbed Tolarus's hand. "Take us to them before it's too late."
Tolarus didn't move with Burke's pull. "How?"
Burke couldn't get what the Atlantean's problem was. "Using the same vessel that brought you here?"
"That vessel had a preset route. I'm not sure I can steer it to reach the shore."
"I can. Don't worry." Burke strode toward the vessel, motioning for Tolarus to follow him.
"You speak our language. You steer their vessels. How do you do all these things?" The Atlantean furrowed his brow.
"That's a long story, and I'm afraid we're in a hurry. Now, where shall I take us?"
37. Spheroidal Death
Fear was not what Heather felt when she watched Akmenios rise from the bushes holding his spheroidal weapon. It was fury. No consequences crossed her mind at the moment. All her senses were preoccupied with one damn thing: the ugly gray face of Akmenios that reminded her of her late friends.
Kenneth.
Kenji.
Joshua.
Linda.
Walter.
"Enough!" she hollered, stepping forward toward the gray humanoid.
"You're standing in the line of fire," Akmenios said, his creaky voice impassive. "I won't hesitate to kill you if you keep blocking the way."
"No, Heather!" she heard Daniel yell behind her. "Don't do this!"
Heather didn't stop and kept moving toward Akmenios. She had no idea what she was going to do when she would reach him.
"I won't say it again," said Akmenios, his hand still gripping the white spheroid. "Get out of the way."
"What do you want from us?" Heather cried. "Aren't you done killing us?"
"I kill for a purpose." Akmenios didn't lower his hand. "Unlike your blood-thirsty race."
"Your ridiculous act has become pointless." Heather stopped when she realized that getting closer to the much taller humanoid would enable him to aim easily above her head at Powell.
"Stop!" Akmenios was not looking at her when he bellowed and pressed the spheroid with his palm. The white ray went past Heather's left side. Although Heather wasn't touched by the lethal beam, she felt the heat on her body. Terrified, she turned to her team, but the white ray barely missed them. While Daniel and Jay were dragging Powell behind a tree, Nathaniel, Santino, and Susan ran to the opposite side.
Akmenios shoved Heather out of his way as he chased Daniel and Jay. With his weapon, he struck the tree they were hiding behind, but miraculously, he was late by a second. At the last moment, her two colleagues managed to get Powell out of the blasted spot.
Heather couldn't bear watching the Griseo hunt her crew. Without too much thinking, she sprinted after Akmenios and jumped, surrounding his trunk with her arms, trying to make him lose his balance. The towering slender humanoid tottered, but he didn't fall down. "Your actions don't make any sense." Akmenios forced Heather's arms open and threw her to the ground. "Don't you realize you're getting yourself killed?"
Her back ached, yet she didn't give up. "There are things about humans you can never understand." She pushed to her feet.
"I'm not interested." Akmenios aimed his spheroid at her. "If you still insist on dying, I won't deny you your wish."
He pressed the sides of his weapon. The white spheroid glowed, but only for less than a second. Suddenly, Akmenios fell down after a yellow ray hit the ground behind him. The explosion wave slapped Heather's face, but she managed to keep her feet on the ground. My chance now. She hurried toward Akmenios and kicked the spheroid from his hand. Before the gray humanoid protested, she kicked him in the face.
"What do you think you're doing?" Akmenios held Heather's foot, preventing her from hitting him for the third time, and quickly he pulled it. Heather lost her balance and fell down. The humanoid rose and grabbed Heather by the hair, locking her neck with his other arm.
"Hand over your weapons, hominum!" Akmenios yelled at Powell, who hid behind the bushes with Daniel and Jay. The humanoid walked toward the kicked away weapon, dragging Heather with him.
She tried to slow him by pulling herself down. "Let me go!" Heather dug her teeth into Akmenios's slender arm. It was disgusting, but she didn't have a better idea in mind. Akmenios cried, but he didn't loosen the lock on her neck as he kept moving toward the spheroid.
"Let her go!"
They were a few meters away from the weapon when Powell rose, holding the Atlantean cylindrical gun, pointing it at the humanoid. The tenacious marine, who was not able to move his terribly burnt legs a few moments ago, stood on his feet. Heather could feel his pain from the wince on his face.
"I won't say it twice, Gray Face!" Powell yelled.
"Or what?" Akmenios stopped and lifted Heather, shielding his body with hers. "You won't dare to jeopardize her life."
Heather had no idea how Powell was standing all this time with his burnt legs. From the tremble in his limbs, she could tell that the marine had gone beyond his pain threshold by far, and she wondered how long he could keep himself on his feet. At any moment they would fail him.
Akmenios seemed to be reading their minds. "Don't fool yourself, soldier," he addressed Powell. "Physically, you're not in your best shape to make your winning shot. Emotionally, you're nervous, as usual, and it's hard for you to take any swift actions at the moment. You might kill her with a foolish attempt from your side, and believe me, you won't be able to live with that—in case you survive this situation in the first place."
That damned Griseo. Heather could see how Akmenios was messing with Powell's composure, taking advantage of the marine's devastated condition. She desperately tried to wrench herself free of Akmenios's lock, but her attempts failed.
"I forgot to warn you," Akmenios continued. "In case you're thinking of destroying my weapon, then you should know the explosion will be enough to blow me with your friend. I guess this is your best way out so far."
"Shoot it, Powell!" Heather cried. "Don't listen to him!"
"He won't dare." Akmenios tightened his hold on Heather as he moved toward the spheroid.
"You've forgotten me."
It was Santino's voi
ce. From behind a tree at Akmenios's right, the young widower came and rushed toward the humanoid, falling with him and Heather to the ground.
"This is for Linda." Santino punched the fallen Griseo, but the humanoid held both Santino's arms and kicked him in the belly. Santino growled, and Heather pushed to her feet, hurrying to the spheroid.
"Stop it." She raised the spheroid, facing Akmenios, who slowly stood up, locking Santino's neck with his slim arm.
"You have only two seconds to give me my weapon, or I break your friend's neck." Akmenios pulled Santino by his hair. "One."
"No."
Heather herself was startled when she realized what she had done. In a fraction of a second, she recalled how Akmenios once had pressed the sides of this spheroid. In another part of the same second, she did what she had just recalled and struck the Griseo's head with the deadly white ray from his own weapon.
"DIEEEEEEEE!" She dropped the spheroid as she rushed toward Akmenios's dead body and kicked it repeatedly. At last, she was able to release all the tension she had been bearing for seventy-two hours.
At last, that odious creature was gone forever.
"Everything is okay now, Heather," Daniel's voice came from behind her. She was staring at Akmenios's body, still not believing she had killed the humanoid on her own. She was shivering right now, and she had no idea why.
"It's over at last." Daniel gently patted her on the shoulder.
"That gray bastard killed them all." Heather buried her face in Daniel's shoulder and let her tears pour down.
Daniel softly shushed Heather and brushed her hair, repeating, "Everything is okay now."
Her pounding heart started to calm down after a minute. "Come on. Let's get out of this damned island." She parted from Daniel and gazed at Powell, who lay on the ground. The marine had depleted all the stamina he had got. "Hurry and help him up." Nodding toward Powell, she addressed Daniel and Santino. The latter stood like a statue for a while, staring at Heather.
"What?" she nervously asked him.
"Nothing." Santino shook his head, an awkward smile on his face. "I still can't believe what you've just had done. You could have killed me, but you did shot the bastard."
Heather was a bit confused. "Are you blaming me or thanking me?"
"Guys, guys." Daniel pulled Santino by the arm. "Let's get the hell out of here, and later, we shall recall all the sweet memories we had on this island."
"Dani is right." It was about time for the leader of this group to regain her composure. "We're less than a hundred meters far from the. . ."
Heather didn't finish as she spied ten flying scooters in the sky. "No, no, no. Please, no," she muttered, frustrated upon making sure that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. The riders of those flying scooters were the damned Griseos.
38. Trust Me, Trust Me Not
Heather felt like falling on her knees upon seeing the aliens' scooters in the sky. It was a nightmare that didn't seem to have an end. "Why more gray faces? Why? Why? Why?"
"We're surrounded." Susan pointed at an aircraft approaching from the left side of the flying scooters.
Both the speed and direction of the aircraft gave Heather a faint hope that Susan was wrong. That vessel wasn't here to surround her and her team.
It had just arrived to hunt the gray-faced humanoids down.
The aircraft was barely harmed when it crashed into nine scooters, missing only one of them. "A miracle," Susan muttered, and this time Heather couldn't agree more. They watched the vessel turn around, pursuing the scooter that tried to escape by maneuvering at a low altitude. Surprisingly, the much larger vessel matched the pace of the scooter and took a vertical downward path until it hit the scooter.
"Oh my God!" Heather screamed. The aircraft was only a few meters away from crashing into the ground before it swiftly raised its front edge horizontally and rose up again to the sky.
Heather wondered who would arrive at such a crucial moment to save her and her crew. Surely, he's one of Tolarus's Atlantean fellows, or even Tolarus himself, she thought, the flying vessel hovering in a circle before it started to land slowly.
"I don't think it's a good idea to wait here." Susan pulled Heather by the arm and waved to the men to hurry up.
"Hey!" Heather gently removed Susan's hand. "Whoever the pilot of this vessel is, he saved us. We shouldn't be running away from him." She looked at Daniel, Santino, Jay, and Nathaniel who were together dragging Powell on his feet. "Maybe, he can help us get the hell out of here."
"What if he's another gray face?" Susan's eyes were fixed on the aircraft hatch that slowly slid open.
"I don't think so." Heather hoped she was right. One more gray face at this very moment might cause her a heart attack. "The gray nightmare is over."
She didn't think twice when she hurried to the Atlantean emerging from the vessel. "I knew it." She threw herself in Tolarus's arms. "I knew it was you."
Tolarus's grin made her realize that they weren't putting on those mind-connecting helmets. She laughed.
"No, it wasn't him."
The familiar voice startled her. No way, she thought as she gaped at Burke. It was him in the flesh, standing right before her.
"I guess it's me who deserves a hug," he continued.
"Burke." Heather was still shocked. "You still. . . and how do you. . . Oh my God!" Frozen in her place, she held her face with both hands.
Burke frowned playfully. "I expected a better reception than this."
She chuckled nervously. "I'm really sorry, Burke. I just can't believe it."
"I know, I know." Burke grinned before he shocked her again by addressing Tolarus in Latin. Her shock even grew more when the Atlantean smiled at Burke, replying in the same language.
This is not shocking anymore. This is creepy. And that led Heather to one conclusion she wished it was wrong. "You're not Burke."
"No, Heather. It's me." He laughed. "I know it sounds weird, but for some reason, I know all that Akmenios knows. Let's leave this island for now, and later we may discuss how that happened."
Heather felt hesitant about believing him. She glanced at her crew standing behind her, and obviously they were as doubtful as she was.
"Trust me, Heather. It's almost over." Burke's fingers startled her when he touched her arm. He had always been a confusing fellow, but never that scary.
"I really wish it was over." She gave him a studying look, trying to spot anything dubious in his facial expressions, but he seemed honest to her. It was him with his cynical smile that seldom left his face, regardless of the darkness of the situation.
"It is over indeed." Burke held her shoulders. "All we need to do is ride the life capsule to leave this island for good."
Heather was still staring at him. "How did you know we were looking for the life capsule?"
"I didn't. Akmenios did, though."
"You just read my mind, didn't you?" She kept her eyes fixed on his.
"Hell no!" Burke's grin faded away. "What's the matter with you? Can't you trust me after all I have been through?"
Again she glanced back at her mates, hoping any of them might provide her with a piece of advice, but all of them looked undecided.
"I'm sorry, Burke." She sighed. "I can't tell what's real from what's not."
"Come on, guessing your next move shouldn't be that hard anyway," he scoffed. "I assume you were not intending to flee the island swimming."
It's him. Her intuition reassured her. "Of course not. The life capsule was our best and only option we had until you showed up with this aircraft."
"Bad idea." He shook his head. "This vessel won't withstand the Shield storm."
"What about the HG-3? Can't you take us there?"
"It's seized by those Griseos, and now it's kept at one of their warehouses, which is heavily guarded by the way, and we can't break into it with our current status. Tolarus has told me about his crushed troops."
Heather was shocked. Crushed troops. Upon se
eing Tolarus, she assumed the Atlanteans were victorious in their march. How had Tolarus rescued Burke, then? It was Burke who rescued the Atlantean, it seems.
She cleared her throat. "What about his other team? Did he tell you about—?"
"He did. Most probably, they had the same destiny of his heavily defeated soldiers." Burke pointed at the coast behind him. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have seen those Griseos with their flying scooters."
"What does this mean?"
"The Griseos' forces have two main rallying points: their underground headquarters—the one we visited together—and the northern warehouse. And as I'm quite sure about the current defenseless status of the Griseos' headquarters, I can easily guess where those scooters had come from."
Shocked, Heather's jaw dropped. "Are you saying the Atlanteans have lost their war?"
Burke glanced at Tolarus who stood still. "I'm not sure about Tolarus's future plans, or whether he has reinforcements or not. Because if he doesn't, how will he raise new soldiers? Anyway, it's not our issue to worry about."
The harsh statement left them all hushed.
"Oh, please!" Burke went on, "We have nothing to do about that. We had better busy our minds with something a little bit more important. Like for instance: figuring out a way to leave this island."
It wasn't easy for her to voice her agreement with Burke, especially after all Tolarus and his people had done to them. Yes, what Burke had just said made sense, yet it didn't feel right.
"For once I agree with him," said Powell weakly, still leaning on the other four men of Heather's crew.
"It sounds callous, Heather, I know," said Daniel, "but in fact, the best help we can do for those Atlanteans is leave this island and go back home to tell everybody about everything going on here. The US government must interfere and aid those humans who have been trapped here for thousands of years."
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