I stepped outside from what was left of the gun store, while also staying alert of our surroundings. As Della had exit the gun store, we started to walk cautiously like before. Based on what I remembered, it would not take more than 20 minutes of walking from the store to the station. Reminding Della about the rather brief journey left ahead of us, I could feel like as if we had restored a bit of spirit on ourselves. That spirit however, only stayed with us in a little moment.
I believed it was not more than five minutes after we had started to head back again, that we were starting to hear a faint familiar growling sound, but without the quake that had usually followed it. Since I had never encountered any other things that let out that kind of sound than the narwhal flying object, I assumed that it was the very same aircraft hovering somewhere up in the sky.
We tightened our alerts, and proceeded on heading back to the station as the sound was getting clearer. Just then, we heard a thudding sound. It was followed by another same sound, and then another one. The interval between each thudding sound was short, and was also getting closer to where we were. In a hurry, we crouched down and I opened my submachine gun bolt cover as Della also readied her handgun.
The thudding sound stopped all of a sudden, and we looked towards our surroundings with great anxiety before we started crouch-walking again. I could feel like my heart was pounding hard as we walked slowly. Then, about a minute had passed, then two, and three.
I was about to think that the thudding sounds were only the aliens getting out from the aircraft and getting down to the road quite some distance away from us, when in almost an instant something very terrifying happened right before our eyes. It was something that fell right in front of us, thudding very hard to the ground. We crouched and pointed our firearms towards the thing in reflex, but it was not moving at all.
As we approached it closer and looked at it, we were put to a serious state of fear as the thing was none other than a dead human body, blackened completely like it was charred, just fell body first hard to the ground. I believed I would not forget its face for the rest of my life, as what seemed to be its mouth was left gaped widely, its eyes were left wide opened and seemed to be in terror, and a hole was also present right at the middle of its forehead. However, that was not the worst part. What shortly followed our sight was perhaps one of the worst state possible for an unidentified severely damaged dead body.
It was the revelation of the complete absence of its brain like it was extracted directly out from the skull right after it was cut and torn opened, as I rolled the dead body to see the piercing hole from the back of its head. I spontaneously stepped back as I definitely could not yet grasp of the horrifying reality that was shown before my eyes. Chills ran down my spine in an instant as fear took a complete control over my mind and body, and it made my feet trembled with extreme terror as I was trying to process what had just happened.
The sight of directly witnessing someone you knew disintegrating before your eyes as he or she was burning and screaming in pain would already put someone to the edge of their courage and sanity. However, the sight that I had just directly witnessed, it might be the only final push for the aliens to make the same person completely lose his or her feet on sanity for a very long time, if not for the rest of their lives.
I could barely muster up my courage to look what was above our surroundings, yet the remaining pieces of my calm mind told me that I had to. As I slowly looked above, I witnessed that there were countless dead bodies falling down from the foggy sky. Faint and loud thudding sounds were then heard from all directions, as if to tell both me and Della to get away from the street unless we wanted to lose our sanity through the sights of the horror.
I immediately had my calm mind restored, and forced myself to be able to walk again despite the still falling dead bodies all around us. When I looked towards Della's direction, she was already cowered at the corner of the nearest wall, staring blankly without blinking towards the dead body and her body shaking heavily.
As I approached her, and tried to reach her by holding her arm, she did not give any respond. Then, she slowly turned her shaking head towards me, showing that she was also struggling to keep her minds straight after what she had seen.
"I… I did not want this…" She said to me, trembling, and with her eyes already watery and could fall at any second.
"I understand, and that is why we have to go, now. Come on…" I said, as I was also struggling to keep myself calm while holding her arms.
I helped her got back on her feet, before we started to continue heading back to the station again. To be honest, I had really wanted to just rush to our hideout as I could barely watch the horrors any longer. However, after seeing how shaken and terrified Della was, I realized completely that I had to guard her against our surroundings as well, mentally, psychologically, and physically. It was then, that I decided to do something to ease her state of mind and eyes at the very least for the rest of the journey.
"Della, I want you to do me a favor." I said as I looked her in her eyes.
"From this point onwards until I clearly said that we had arrived at the train car again, close your eyes and hold on to my arm as tight as you can, no matter what happens. You can do that, do not you?"
She rapidly nodded in agreement, before she closed her eyes, and clenched her arms against my left arm. Realizing that we technically only had one person to defend two lives made my heart pounded very fast. It was also at this point that I decided to rush for the station, instead of walking slowly even though the decision might be of a reckless one.
I started to run straight ahead, not thinking anymore if we would be spotted by any aliens, or worse, the T-shaped aircrafts. It felt like the rain of the dead bodies would last for forever as it did not seem to be stopping any time soon. The situation got even worse instead, they were starting to fall at an increased rate as we were getting closer to the station.
After running and dodging the falling dead bodies for some time, I began to see a faint sight of a tied arch bridge railing. If I remembered correctly, we just had to pass the bridge and then to turn right at the second intersection before going straight ahead again and finally reaching the station.
Just as we were right in front of the bridge, one of the dead bodies fell on Della, making her screaming and crying hysterically. In reflex, I held her and continued rushing towards the other end of the bridge.
"No!! No!! Get them away from me!!" she said, screaming as she was still swinging her arms violently and blindly around her.
"It is okay! They are gone now! Come on, just a little more!" I said to her, as I directed her hands to hold tight on my left arm again while rushing to the other side of the bridge.
As if the incident that had just happened was not enough, another worst case scenario of bad luck fell upon us. Just as we reached the other end of the bridge, a T-shaped aircraft suddenly emerged from the foggy sky and hovered low above the ground directly facing towards our direction.
In an instant, I could not feel my feet and legs, as my mind was filled with the thoughts of getting burned in a purple fiery beam flame before disintegrating completely into the foggy air. Sweat ran down my neck, filling my back and locking my entire body as a result. I felt like if we were to die and gone there, it would be completely my fault of rushing too recklessly towards our destination.
"Travis?! What is going on now?!" Della said, as she anxiously held my left arm tightly.
However, either it turned out that we were very lucky or due to some unknown reason, the aircraft went up and flew away swiftly into the foggy sky instead. I was left confused, but then my conscience told me to rush again to the station as what just had happened would most likely only mean one thing – that the aliens inside the aircraft were going to hunt us down.
First, we rushed for the intersection, and then took the right turn before we continued on rushing straight ahead towards the station. As we were approaching the first floor of the station, both relieve and distress hit me as I realized that it was no longer raining dead bodies, but at the same time I also saw three dead aliens with pool of black bloods scattered around the road near the station.
"We have arrived at the station, right?" Della asked me, asking if she could open her eyes yet.
"Wait, we have not reached the third floor yet. Hang on." I responded to her, as we ran upstairs to the second and third floor of the station.
Just when both Della and I stepped our feet at the platform, I saw that everyone was already holding their firearms and seemed like they were about to defend our hideout from something. I finally told Della that she could open her eyes again, and she was just as confused as I was on why everyone seemed to be on high alert.
"About time both of you arrived." Captain Quentin said.
"What is going on?" I asked him in confusion.
"Long story short, we will have some uninvited guests coming our way." he responded.
In a brief, Captain Quentin told both Della and I that it seemed like the station was going to be stormed by the T-shaped aircraft, and it would not be just one. He did not tell me any further details, but if I was to judge how he told me, I believed that the three dead aliens on the road near the station belonged to the aircraft earlier that both Della and I had encountered. When I thought about it, it would make sense as it was lacking the necessary firepower, it might decide to call for backup and stormed us all together instead.
"Hey! Brace yourselves! They are already near!" Jonathan shouted from one of the corners of the platform, crouching behind the concrete railing.
Without any further thinking, I opened my submachine gun bolt cover, and took the available corner spot as I readied my mind to counter the things that were going to attack us there.