Ryan and I rushed to our right side, just as our feet stepped the second floor. As we were getting closer to the corner of the corridor, we saw three panels installed on the ceilings. I looked at a glance, and found out they were the signs of three different sections of exhibition room – communications, reflective glass, and music. It was at that moment, that Ryan suggested that we go to the glass room to confuse the aliens should they were to chase us inside.
At first, I did not fully understand what Ryan meant, until I rushed inside to the room together with him, and saw the room was filled with reflective mirrors and glasses. When I thought about it again, we could actually grant ourselves some more time by confusing the aliens using the illusions created by the mirrors and glasses.
When I glanced through the room, I felt like I was surrounded in a whole optical illusion. When I looked to my left and right sides, the wall was covered with infinity illusion mirrors, which was apparently still turned on as they were ran on batteries instead of the museum's electricity. Thanks to the darkness caused by electricity blackout, the mirrors might act as a diversion to the aliens, making them think that there were lots of other corridor paths inside the room.
As the thudding sound kept going louder and closer, I told Ryan to help me move few of the thicker glasses, with hopes of the aliens hitting them straight in their faces when they came inside. Fortunately, most of the glasses and mirrors were also installed by small wheels, so it was easier for me and Ryan to move them.
Once I moved four glasses in one row at the entrance to the room, I told Ryan that we should also move at least two wheeled mirror right in front of the exit, which was located just across the room entrance, to cover the path from their sights. First, we moved one mirror to block half of the exit, making a narrow gap before we got out through the gap. Then, we let out our hands, and pulled one other mirror to block the rest of the gap.
Just as we finished blocking the exit completely, a very loud crashing sound was heard from inside the room. I assumed that one of the aliens did end up getting slammed to the glasses. They would most likely do not realize that there were glasses blocking their way, as glasses would not reflect images, in opposite to mirrors.
Both Ryan and I then rushed away from the glass room as silent as we could, before we stopped for a little bit to determine which room to go next.
"Okay, so… Where else to go now?" Ryan said while panting.
"Virgil needed that Morse code transmitter and receiver, did not he?" I answered, "Then I think we should check the communications room first."
"Well, let us just hope that there is some kind of a live-display there then…" Ryan responded.
We then headed for the communications exhibition room, which was just on the other end of the same corridor, while keeping our steps as silent as we could. As we were heading for the communications room, we could hear another slamming sound from the direction of the glass room, which was a relief for us since that meant that the aliens were still trapped there. A matter of for how much longer until they figured out it was all only an illusion however, was the concern for us.
When we finally stepped inside the communications room, it was all pitch black around us. Since there was no other option, I decided to turn on Ryan's flashlight to give a little bit of light to our surroundings. The first thing that we saw when I turned on the flashlight, was the sight of the first telephone displayed at the middle of the room.
I looked more thoroughly, and found out that the telephone was connected to a cable, leading towards an electric socket on the wall. It seemed that there were some modifications made for the telephone in order to demonstrate how it worked to the visitors.
"If only there is no electricity blackout…" Ryan sighed.
"Well, look at the bright side," I responded, "Once we found the Morse code display, there is a good chance that it had also received some modifications."
We started to look for the Morse code again by lighting our surroundings with the flashlight, as I also glanced through various communications tool used by mankind in each and every century. From the diorama of smoke signal, the flashlight Morse code technique, to the waterproof and foldable smartphone that we are currently using in the present time. Somehow, it made me felt like I was returning to the times in the past.
"Is that what we are looking for?" Ryan asked, as he patted my shoulder with his right hand, and pointed his other hand towards something.
I responded by lighting my flashlight to the direction he was pointing, as we got the sight of another communication machine on display. We got there in a hurry, and as we check out the communication machine, it turned out that it was the Morse code telegraph machine that was used in the early 20th century. Both the transmitter and receiver were there, and they were also connected to cables leading towards an electric socket, indicating that they were still functioning.
Just as we finally found the machine, another problem occurred in my mind. I did not wear any kind of backpack with me, while Ryan only had a small-sized bag with him, which was already full with our medical and water supplies. Aside from that, I also noticed that the telegraph machine utilized the usage of antennas, and it would be impossible for us to bring them with us as well.
As if the new problem before us was not enough, we began to hear another thudding sound getting closer to the direction of the communication room as we were figuring out on how to bring the telegraph machine with us. Ryan then decided to unplug the cables from the electric sockets first, and just when he unplugged all of the cables, the thudding sound was heard just in front of the room.
Spontaneously, I hid behind the table that displayed the telegraph machine, and Ryan hid behind a large diorama table nearby. I tried to move the machine on the table above me slowly by my hand, but unfortunately I sensed that the alien had entered the room as the thudding sound started to echo all across the room, and so I pulled my hands back and took back that intention with me.
I looked at Ryan, who was still hiding behind the diorama table and he pointed towards another direction, and said something without any sound.
"Staff only." he said, soundlessly, as he pointed towards my left direction.
I then realized that I had not turned off the flashlight that I had put on the floor beside me before the alien reached inside the room, but then again I thought that it would raise its suspicion should any light suddenly went off, and so I left it turned on. The thudding sound just kept getting closer and louder as both Ryan and I hid behind a heavy object.
Suddenly, a louder thudding sound, followed immediately by a glass breaking sound was heard from the first floor. In almost an instant, the alien rushed outside, and its steps started to fade out, until they were no longer could be heard. We were saved, but it also made me wonder if it came from Jonathan, who was probably still on the first floor.
I gave out a sigh of relief once the sound faded out completely, and took the flashlight from the floor. Ryan and I then slowly stood up, and started to carry whatever components of the telegraph machine we could, except for the antenna, and headed to the door labeled 'staff room' on the other side of the wall. As I opened the door by pushing my body against it, I took a closer look on the machines that both Ryan and I carried.
Apparently, the one that I carried was the transmitter machine since it had some kind of a knob part on one of its ends, while Ryan carried the receiver machine because it had a rolled paper tape part. The size of either of the machines was roughly the same – about a half of a laptop size. However, I was not sure if the both of them also had a similar weight since Ryan did not seem to have any difficulties in carrying it.
As I expected, the room was also engulfed in pitch black when we opened the door, and so I held the machine by left hand and held the door by my body to let Ryan went inside, before giving the room with the flashlight held on my right hand. We walked deeper inside as the door slowly closed behind us.
When I looked to our new surroundings, it seemed that we were in some kind of their changing room since there were rows of lockers as we walked deeper inside. Aside from lockers, there were also staff restrooms, metal benches, as well as stairs that lead to upper and lower floors.
I soon realized that the stairs would most likely lead to the staff room on the upper and lower floors, but it also turned out that the storage room was not on the second floor. Fortunately, it came across my mind that if the storage room was indeed located inside the staff room, then perhaps we could access it by getting to the other floors through that stairs.
"Wait, hold on a second." Ryan said, as he approached the lockers and putting the receiver machine on one of the benches.
He opened the lockers, only to find that most of the insides were empty, until he came across an empty backpack.
"There you go." he said, as he took the backpack, and approached the receiver machine again before putting it inside the backpack.
He also asked me if I wanted to put the transmitter machine inside his backpack, to which I responded positively. I gave the transmitter machine to him in an instant, while also reminding him to be gentle with those machines, as it looked like they were very fragile. When he finished putting them all inside, he wore the backpack, and we proceeded by going downstairs, as the storage room would be more likely on the first floor and that we were worried about Jonathan.
"Is it heavy? Want me to take turn for the backpack?" I said to Ryan as we were going downstairs.
"No, it is okay. They are pretty light actually." Ryan responded by shaking his head also.
When we arrived at the first floor, the first thing that I noticed was that the staff room really was wider compared to the second floor. It probably had something to do with the larger numbers of exhibition rooms on the first floor that would undoubtedly need more staff to take care of them.
Aside from that, I also noticed that the first floor of the staff room had some kind of several garage doors when I looked at my left direction. I realized that it could mean the storage room was indeed at the first floor. However, we still had not known yet where the storage room was until I lighted one of the ends of the corridor, and saw the storage room label. It showed us that the room was on the right side of the corridor end.
Just as we were starting to head for the corridor end, the alien suddenly emerged from there, and was immediately had its attention towards us. It must have been from the light that attracted it, which turned out was inside the storage room all along.
It aimed its rifle at us, and we rolled over further from the stairs as we attempted to dodge its beam shot. When we got up again, I could see a hole on the wall just a few feet in front of us. We dodged its shot by a near miss. Since we did not have any other choice, we had to run to the other corridor as we tried to get away from it.
As we were running, I could see two labels on the ceiling before 2 doors – restroom, and lobby. Without no doubt, opening the door and exiting to the lobby would be as good as a suicide attempt since there must be another alien searching for us there. Therefore, we rushed to the restroom door, and much to our shock, the door was locked.
Just when we realized that the door was locked, the alien caught up to us. It aimed its rifle at us again, and we slowly backed down as I tightened both of my hands' grips on my fire ax.
"If only I did not light the corridor end too soon…" I thought to myself in despair.
'ZTOOM ZTOOM!'
Suddenly a couple of gunshot noises were heard from behind the alien's direction. When I came to, I realized that there were suddenly two holes on the left side of the alien's face. Shortly thereafter, it collapsed to the ground, revealing that it was Jonathan who had shot it with a long wooden rifle. As the alien was lying on the ground, face down, black viscous liquid started to pour out slowly from the holes on its head.
I really wished that it was the end of their pursuit for us, but instead rapid thudding sounds were also heard following the collapse of the alien. Jonathan then shouted at us to move to his direction.
"Quick! Get here!" he said as he aimed his firearm.
We rushed to his side, and had just passed the door when it was suddenly broken in by something. I looked back as I ran behind Ryan, to see that it was another alien coming inside the staff room from the lobby.
Jonathan then fired another shot with his rifle, and it seemed that he aimed for the alien's rifle. It resulted in an explosion that dropped that alien down hard to the ground. It turned out that we were correct to assume that their rifles were very sensitive to fires and explosions all along.
As the second alien was lying on the ground, letting out several gibberish sounds and probably dying, the three of us rushed to the corridor end to head for the storage room. When we finally arrived at the room, both Ryan and I were really surprised to see that there were many obsolete firearms stored at several crates there. To the least of my expectations, most of them also seemed to be functioning perfectly as there were a lot of 'handle with care' labels on each side of the crates.
I was about to reach for one of the submachine guns that rested on top of one of the crates nearby, when a part of the ceiling suddenly fell down, with an alien jumped down immediately right behind me. It kicked Jonathan away and hitting Ryan in the process, leaving me all alone to defend myself from it. I rushed to another crate nearby with two different obsolete submachine guns lying on top of it.
Spontaneously, I took the shorter one and rolled over to the space at my right side, just before it swung its mace hand and making me losing my grip on my fire ax, as well as destroying the other submachine gun and the crate in the process. As I still had not gotten up from the floor, I aimed the submachine gun towards the alien's rifle one handed and fired.
'THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP'
he alien's rifle instantly exploded as I fired five shots from my submachine gun. The explosion dropped it hard to the ground, and fortunately the explosion occurred quite far from the rest of the other weapon and ammunition crates, as well as from me as I did not get burnt by the burst of flame from the rifle.
As I was getting up from the floor, Ryan suddenly charged himself towards the alien who was already lying on the ground, dying. He took my fire ax, and swung it violently towards its neck as he was screaming at the same time, until he finally decapitated it completely. Black viscous liquid then immediately gushed out from its torn opened neck.
When Ryan had done, he fell on his knees and panting while still holding my fire ax tightly with both of his hands. He must have become panicked when he got hit earlier, and thus he let out his emotions by finishing the alien for good. Since there was nothing I could do other than to let Ryan calmed himself down, I decided to look the whole room to look at various firearms that we could bring back to the station.
Just as I finished thinking about it, I looked at Jonathan's rifle spontaneously since it let out a loud gunshot noise earlier when he fired it. What he held in his hand, was none other than the original World War I era M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, most distinguishable by the lack of bipod and carry handle.
A definite 'Big Gun for a Big Guy', as even if I was the one who found it, I would give it to Jonathan because he would handle it far better than me in the first place. Since he came from the storage room's direction before he saved us from the alien's pursuit earlier, I assumed that the rifle was also lying somewhere inside the room prior to Jonathan's entry.
After I finished finding out Jonathan's rifle model, I looked closer on what was on my hand. The submachine gun that I was holding was an M3A1 submachine gun. I noticed that the submachine gun was not the original M3 model, since it lacked the original cocking lever. Instead, it had a cocking slot in the top side of the bolt.
A short while later, Ryan finally began to calm down and had gotten up on his feet again. We then started to determine which of the weapons that we should take back with us to the station.