As both Jonathan and I stepped our foot on the third floor again, everyone was already waiting with heavy anxiety drawn on their faces, particularly Ryan. When they saw our faces again, all of them showed relieved expressions.
"Thank goodness, nothing bad happened to you all…" Ryan said, with a relaxed tone on his voice.
"Quite the opposite, actually…" I responded while giving out a little smile to him.
Jonathan waited for a bit until everyone had calmed their minds down, before he told all of us that he had several things on his mind that was of vital importance to share to us. We then gathered at one of the platform corner, sat ourselves on the floor before he started to explain on what might had caused several things on our latest encounters with the aliens.
Jonathan started by asking everyone's opinions or rather, assumptions on the fog that had been engulfing the town for about no less than one and a half days. At first no one said a word, until Kyle thought that they were spewed out in order to greatly reduce our sights on our surroundings.
Virgil suggested that the fog functioned as some sort of artificial atmosphere to imitate the same one from whey they came from. Della said that the aliens were attempting to affect our minds by spewing out their fog. Ryan, Captain Quentin, and I did not say anything.
Jonathan continued by nodding briefly, and while he mentioned that even though those three opinions had no base, he also said that they could still be considered as other possibilities. He on the other hand, had his own opinion, based on what he had observed and experienced so far.
It kind of came as a surprise to me when Jonathan supposed that the fog was functioning as some sort of thermal sensor to the aliens. The rest of us were too, save for Captain Quentin had their faces showed confusion and became speechless at what he said. He then started by recalling what had happened back at the museum.
"Travis, Ryan. You remember back in museum where we took down those four aliens?" Jonathan asked us.
The four aliens he mentioned were the one that was pierced through by a long garden fork, the other that had its head shot by Jonathan's Browning Automatic Rifle, another that had its beam rifle blown up by the same obsolete rifle, and the last that got its rifle blown up by my submachine gun before being decapitated by Ryan. Both Ryan and I nodded in agreement to him.
"Yes, we do." I responded, as I looked briefly to Ryan. "What about it?"
Jonathan then said, that there were absolutely no possibilities at all if none of the other aliens outside did not hear the gunshots and explosion, even if faintly. I glanced a little at the others, and saw that they were in full agreement with what Jonathan said, before focusing back on Jonathan's explanations.
Then, he jumped back towards what had happened back at the basement of the house not far from the Catholic Church after we departed from the fire department. He asked Ryan if he remembered when the alien back then nearly hit him with its beam rifle shot there, right before Jonathan dropped its rifle to the basement ground. Again, Ryan nodded before Jonathan continued that it was how we knew that they were sensitive, if not weak against fire.
Up until that point, at least both Ryan and I had fully known about the supposition, but then Jonathan supposed another possible fact. It was if the loud explosion that soon followed after was instead, due to the fire's contact with the beam rifle's core or ammunition, and not just because the rifle's bare contact with fire. Therefore, one of the aliens' actual weaknesses was in fact, exposure to their own weapons.
Just as when Jonathan mentioned it to us, it made me realized another thing. Should they were actually sensitive to fire, none of them would leave their aircraft and walked on the street on their own on the night the invasion happened, because countless parts of the town was engulfed in raging fires at that time. It also made me fully understand on why the beam rifle that the alien held back in the sewer suddenly blew up when I fired my previous submachine gun rather aimlessly towards it.
He then continued, by stating that the exact same thing also happened at the museum. For his case, one fired .30-06 round from his rifle was supposedly enough to inflict a serious damage and blowing the beam rifle. In my case on the other hand, several rounds was most likely necessary to be fired in order to inflict the similar level of damage on the beam rifle. Should what he said was true, then perhaps Captain Quentin also only need to fire one, or two 12 gauge rounds at most from his shotgun before blowing up the aliens' weapons.
As everyone had started to understand one of the true weaknesses of the aliens, the main question resurfaced again. Why did Jonathan thought that the fog was spewed out as a thermal sensor for the aliens?
Jonathan continued on the last location he mentioned – the basement of the house. He asked both Ryan and I again if we had encountered or at least saw any aliens when we were running away from the huge explosion back then, to which we shook our head as a sign of saying 'no'.
He then proceeded by supposing that many of the aircrafts that were rushing to the basement were not because of the loud voice from the explosion. The cause was none other due to their detection of a sudden huge thermal trace on their sensor.
Since they had never detected such sudden peaking trace before, they had to gather on numbers first before heading to the location as something might have gone wrong for one of them. The rest of us, including me were left speechless yet the rest of us seemed to be agreeing on what he had stated. Apparently, Kyle was still confused, making her asking a question to him.
"Wait a minute there." She said. "What does that have to do with your suggestion on this fog being a thermal sensor to them?"
"To put it simply," Captain Quentin responded, "The bigger aircrafts that spewed out the fog are most likely to also have a detector inside it, and might also be the first ones to notice if anything down the street went wrong."
"Apparently, that was also the first time that they had picked up a sudden heat rise on their detector that somehow managed to kill one of their own kinds. So, they had to increase their numbers first, before investigating on the incident that had happened there." Captain Quentin continued, making Kyle fully understood.
"I appreciate it, Captain." Jonathan replied, before continuing on with his explanation.
When Captain Quentin finished, Jonathan also supposed another thing that he had in his thoughts. It was none other than the timing of when the fog started to envelope the whole town. Della immediately spoke up that it was at sunrise, and Jonathan responded positively, implying that he had guessed or even knew it right from the start. However, since there were still no other similar encounters yet, he could only suggest that it was right when the fire that had happened on many parts of the town had extinguished.
Jonathan also added that the fog was definitely a serious hindrance to us, because it did also greatly reduce our range of vision. Since I no longer had any confusion regarding the dense fog, I began to understand more about the whole situation we were currently in. With that in mind, I remembered another thing that I wanted to discuss with the rest of the survivors.
"There is another thing that I am still curious about." I said to all of them.
"When we encountered them just now, two of the aircrafts seemed to be fully hesitating to shoot us with their large beam, and instead opened their rear hatch and let their troops do it for them." I continued.
"This might be rather illogical but, could they not directly attack us because we were using old firearms and weaponries?" I asked to them.
To be honest, I was kind of expecting if any or even some of them would laugh at my question. But to the least of my expectation, they seemed to be concerned about it just as I let that question out. Again, Jonathan stated out his supposition, although with some doubts in his tone.
He said that he had been thinking about it when we were escaping by truck on the highway. While he had no base to support his supposition, he was quite sure that if what I asked was correct, then the similar case also applied for many vintage buildings that were still standing on the street with little or even barely damaged, as opposed to the more advanced ones. That, or because of the vintage ones had far more resistance towards their beam. Jonathan said it while he briefly looked at several cracks caused by the alien's misfire earlier.
Based on what I had known so far, some vintage buildings were indeed built using less fire-susceptible materials. While that information might enlightened me on why the fire might not spread that much from the newer buildings to the older buildings, I could still not understand yet on why so many of them were still standing. I was so deep in that thought, that I a little bit shocked when Ryan suddenly asked something.
"About when we were at the truck…" he said, "even though Jon's rifle was old, but your submachine gun was pretty much up-to-date, right Travis? So why did none of the aircrafts attack us back then?"
None of us could provide a possible answer. However, Jonathan had his own point of view. He said that it might in fact be caused by how Ryan held both the rifle and the submachine gun together with his hands inside the truck, making the aircraft confused about it.
As for when I was still in the sewers with my previous submachine gun, which Jonathan also mentioned again, he could only suppose that either being underground could somehow blurred their detection for up-to-date firearms, or that the sewers itself was also considered of old age. Since there were no other possibilities that he could think of, he could not mention anything about it any further.
"There is one more thing…" Jonathan said, with a more serious tone.
"With what just happened here, they will definitely be more cautious against us from now on, and that is pretty much a good news for us…" he continued, "however,"
"Since that is most likely the case, then we have to be prepared on their next attempt to storm us again. When that time comes, I can almost guarantee that they will come at a greater number, perhaps could be more than five aircrafts next time since they are getting desperate on seeking the things that can cause their own kinds' demise." he finished.
Della, Kyle, and Virgil then started to question Jonathan, Captain Quentin, and even me if we should abandon the station, and search for another refuging place to avoid the next encounter with the aliens. Ryan tried to convince them that basically the station was the safest place after the things that had happened to us. He also stated that should we did try to flee from the station and got ambushed by the aliens on the street, it would be much easier for them to wipe us out.
At first, none of them seemed to be agreeing with what Ryan said. I could only listen and watch them since I did not know any other way to survive from the next wave of their attack. I suppose that Jonathan and Captain Quentin were also not so different from me. Fortunately, it did not take too long before the three of them calmed down. I could admit that I started to admire Ryan a bit on his persuading skill.
"Okay… okay…" Kyle said, as she sighed, "So, where does that put us now?"
I glanced at all of them, looking for anyone who was willing to provide an answer or suggestion, before noticing that Jonathan's and Captain Quentin's eyes locked at each other, as if they were signaling something. Just then, Jonathan looked away for a bit before Captain Quentin answered Kyle.
"We…" Captain Quentin said, as he breathed in, "We will have to capture one of them."
"We may even have to capture one aircraft…" he continued, finishing his suggestion.
I was very surprised to hear Captain Quentin's suggestion. I also noticed that the rest of us also gave out the same response based on their expressions on their faces, save for Jonathan who seemed to have been anticipating his words, before immediately added some words of his own.
"But we definitely cannot do it with only this numbers." he said, before saying his closing statement.
"We will need to find more survivors." he continued, ending his sentences.
Another heavy burdened suddenly befell upon my shoulders, and my legs felt too heavy to walk. In almost an instant, everyone showed a tense expression on their faces, resulting in a sudden heavy atmosphere around us. I responded by nodding slowly, before standing up on my feet again, and walked away from the rest of them.
Just when I was thinking that I could take some good rest for a while, another great obstacle suddenly presented just before my eyes. I could feel like my mind going blank and alert consecutively as I was walking further from them. When I had full control upon my mind again, I realized that I was already halfway downstairs to the second floor.
At first, I was hesitant to continue going down as it would not accomplish anything after all. To be honest, I became completely hesitant to do anything at all. However, I slowly realized that there was actually one thing that I could do – rest my mind to calm myself down. When I thought about it again, being alone at the second floor might be a good way to refresh my mind and energy again.
I proceeded to go down the stairs until I reached the second floor, before seeing again the sights of scattered wooden benches there that I was somehow starting to get familiar with. I approached the one closest to the lines of the ticketing machines, and sat there while staring at the ceiling for a while, and then at the floor rather blankly.
'If this will not make my mind clearer and calmer, then I do not know what will…' I thought to myself.
Usually at this rate, I would check my watch to see what time it would be. However, I decided not to as I did not want to be interrupted by anything else at the moment, perhaps not even by someone upstairs should they asked me to do a favor for them. Time seemed to freeze as I stared blankly at the floor…