Before Captain Quentin crossed the billboard makeshift bridge to the secretariat building, he told me that I was to initiate the fight right after he and Jonathan had lighted the gasoline tank. The sequence of lighting the tank would be Jonathan first, and then Captain Quentin, and lastly me. I nodded as a response, before he crossed the bridge and waited on the rooftop of the secretariat building.
As I waited for their signal, I sat down right beside Kyle who seemed to be recounting her arrows although she was quite struggling since it was very dark. Since there were no other things that I could do while we were still waiting, I listened to the ticks of my watch.
"What a first night of the New Year, huh?" Kyle said.
"Yeah… at least we could celebrate it with an emergency candle…" I responded, referring to the gasoline tank in front of us.
I continued to listen to the ticks of my watch, and it was right after I have heard around two hundred ticks when I suddenly saw a fire light from the direction of the parking lot. In almost an instant, I turned to the direction of the secretariat building, and noticed that another fire light had also been lighted there.
"That is their signal…" Kyle said, with a bit of a surprised in her voice.
I quickly stood up, lighted one of the match sticks that Captain Quentin had given to me, and threw it inside the gasoline tank. As it dropped down, fire was lit and our surroundings become much brighter than before, dazzling my eyes a little for a brief moment before they could adapt to the brighter surrounding.
I immediately proceeded to rush to where the two aliens had been set up, and prepared my submachine gun by pointing it towards one of the alien's head at nearly point blank range. I closed my eyes and took a long deep breath as I realized that in a few seconds forward I would pull the trigger that would bring us to a crucial war with the extraterrestrial creatures. As I released my breath and opened my eyes again, I could feel that the rest of the other five were watching me intensely which somehow just gave me more anxiety and pressure.
'THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP'
I shot a couple of rounds from my submachine gun towards each of the aliens' head, even though they had already dead back when they were prepared by Captain Quentin. It felt like the gunshot noises sounded louder than before, which perhaps caused by the tense atmosphere around me. I could also feel my heart pounded very fast as I had just finished initiating the fight, and I could barely wait calmly for the aliens' arrival as I opened my bag fast and filled my submachine gun magazine with four more rounds.
Just as I had finished reloading my submachine gun, I noticed that the four of the others had also taken a combat position on top of the rooftops, indicating that they had then expected the arrival of the aliens at any time. Realizing that there was no more turning back, I began to do the same thing as I crouched on Kyle's right side and waited for the aliens to arrive there.
We had waited for some while, but there were still no signs of the aliens approaching the buildings. As I looked at my watch, it showed the time was exactly 09.30 p.m. I was just beginning to wonder if our methods would not work all along, when suddenly faint sounds of jet engine could be heard in the distance. They did not sound loud and seemed to be not much in numbers at first, but as the sound was getting louder and clearer I eventually began to see the silhouettes of the very familiar aircrafts.
When they were already close enough I could see that no less than five aircrafts were approaching us, and they kept on increasing in numbers. I felt like my heart nearly dropped when I noticed that their numbers had already reached ten. Fear and anxiety conquered me in an instant as my legs trembling and my back shaking when I immediately realized that there must be at least fifty aliens were approaching us.
"Oh my God… what should we do next…?" Kyle said, with a voice full of fear as the thirteenth and fourteenth aircraft had emerged from the dense fog.
"I… I have no idea…" I said, as I desperately trying to calm my mind down and seeing them keep on getting closer.
'ZTOOM ZTOOM'
Suddenly, a couple of rounds were each fired towards two of the aircrafts, hitting them clean off at the tail, and exploding them in almost instantly, scattering the aircrafts' formation. I immediately realized that it was none other than Jonathan who had made the shot, since he was the only one who could have done it from a very far distance. Very shortly after, around half of the aircrafts approached us in a very high speed, before they started to turn their backs towards me and Kyle. In reflex, I fired few shots to them, and at least hitting one or maybe two of the aliens inside through the opened rear hatch.
'THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP'
An explosion then occurred, making the aircraft lost its balance but not to the point that it also exploded because of the fire. It was also then that I told Kyle that we had to rush immediately downstairs through the rooftop entrance.
"Go! Now!" I shouted as I grabbed her right hand and ran towards the rooftop entrance.
We rushed as I could clearly hear more aircrafts approaching at our direction. Right before we entered the rooftop entrance, I glanced at the rest of the other four and noticed that they were also retreating inside. I led Kyle downstairs with me on the front as I had to remind her where we had put the first trap trigger. Just as we were about to step on the fifth floor of the bank, I told her to stop moving and to follow exactly where I was going to step next.
"Wait! Follow exactly as what I am about to do!" I warned her, right before I jumped and skipped the last three stairs steps.
Just as I had reached the fifth floor ground, I gave her the cue to jump. She did exactly what I had done, and then I continued to lead her into one of the gasoline tank while avoiding all of the trap triggers. When I reached it, I lighted another match stick and threw it inside, creating a fire light, before I began to hear rapid thudding sounds right from above us. As it indicated that the aliens had landed and were just about to go downstairs to the fifth floor, I led her to one of the nearest pillar and told her that we were to hide there until many numbers of the aliens had reached the fifth floor.
Very shortly after we had taken cover behind the pillar, I heard a faint brief sound of rope tripping before a loud smashing and piercing sound that was almost instantly followed by a couple of very loud screaming noise. I realized that two of the storming aliens had just fallen to the first ceiling spiked trap. I signaled Kyle to fire an arrow towards one of the aliens, in order to lure the rest of the others deeper inside.
Just as she shot an arrow from her bow, I crouched and fired one round at one of the trapped aliens' rifle, exploding it and seemingly killing them both instantly. Then, as I began to see that the others were stepping on their two dead kinds on the ground, they continued to rush towards where we were hiding before I hid behind the pillar again to cover myself from their beam rifle shot should they fired it.
I heard several rapid thudding sounds to the direction where we were hiding, before few wood cracking sounds followed very shortly with a falling and impaling sounds where heard from downstairs. I immediately told Kyle to crawl and follow me quickly to the stairs that would lead to the fourth floor and avoiding the trap triggers in the process.
Based on how loud the falling and impaling sounds that I heard, I believe that at least four or five aliens had fallen to the pitfall traps. I glanced a bit to the direction of the triggered traps as we crawled and noticed that three traps were triggered. I also noticed that two of the aliens that were attempting to locate us there were about to trigger another one before I focused back to what was in front of me.
As we had arrived just in front of the stairs that would lead to the fourth floor, I heard another pitfall traps triggered, and seemingly resulted in a coupled of aliens fell down to their demise. I told Kyle to proceed first but to wait for me when she was already halfway to the fourth floor. She nodded, and once she had started to go downstairs I moved a bit to a position where I could see and shoot the remaining aliens before I took aim and fired three rounds to one of the aliens' rifle, exploding it and taking it down very shortly.
Having their attention back at me, I rolled over until I had reached just in front of the stairs as few of beam rifle shots were fired, and missed me before I reached Kyle and told her to do the same thing again like we did at the fifth floor stairs. When we reached the fourth floor, I led her and rushed towards the gasoline tank that was just a few distance in front of the stairs and lighted it.
As soon as fire was lighted, I glanced at numbers of dead alien bodies scattered around the floor right and impaled above the piles of concrete full of metal rod spikes. I then rushed towards one of the metal gates where we had prepared a couple of pendulum traps.
Just when we had arrived in front of the metal gate, another rope tripping sound was heard from behind our direction, followed by a loud and painful scream which indicated that one of the aliens had triggered one the pendulum traps near the stairs. Kyle pulled her bow and arrow, and was about to shoot at the direction of the aliens, before I told her to wait and let them get closer to the metal gates instead, as it would show them what had happened to their kinds to instill fear in them.
Very shortly after, another alien seemed to fall into another pendulum trap as I could hear another painful scream before I could start to see the shadow of the rest of the aliens. It was then when I let Kyle to shoot her arrow to their direction. The arrow flew, and as it seemed to land close to where they were standing, we ran away from the metal gates just before a couple of beam rifle shots were fired at us, but they missed as it hit the wall instead of us. I led her to hide behind one of the large safes not too far from the metal gates, so that we could take cover from the approaching aliens.
As expected, rapid thudding sounds rushed towards the direction of the metal gate, followed by a rope tripping sound and a combination of bashing and impaling sounds, ended by a couple of loud and painful screams. I told Kyle that we had to go to the other metal gate first, before shooting their beam rifles and exploding them. As we had reached just in front of the other metal gate, another beam rifle shot was fired towards us from behind, nearly hitting me. I was surprised to realize that the other aliens had also passed through the metal gate.
I fired wildly about five to six rounds towards their direction while I told Kyle to just rush to the third floor since the stairs were not rigged with trap triggers and to wait right in front of the stairs when she had arrived there. I could only hit one of their beam rifles, as the explosion that occurred was not as big as the previous one, and I jumped out through the metal gate as another couple of beam rifle shot were fired towards me again. I did not glance towards my back as I ran as fast as I could towards the next stairs and started to descend to the third floor.
I met up with Kyle again on the last stairs step, and told her to always follow behind me and crawl at the third floor since there were many triggers for the ceiling spiked traps scattered around. I also warned her on not to shoot her arrows no matter what happens, as it could give away our position and since we could not move freely and swiftly on the third floor, it would be extremely difficult for us to avoid their beam rifle shots.
She nodded quickly, and we immediately crawled as I led her below the stairs, and told her that we were to wait there for a moment as I heard rapid thudding sounds right above us. Unlike the previous two floors above, I also could not light a fire at the third floor, making the third floor almost completely dark and I could barely see anything ahead of one foot away from me. Thus, in terms of our movements we could only depend on my memories regarding where we had placed the traps and the triggers, as well as sounds.
In almost an instant, I could hear a rope tripping sound which was followed by a banging and impaling sounds which and ended by three very loud and painful screams, indicating that three aliens had triggered one same trap and were crushed hard by one of the ceiling spiked traps. Then, as I heard few other aliens experienced the same fate, I could still hear several thudding sounds from above us which gave me a hint that the numbers of the aliens were most likely greater than I had calculated earlier.
However, I realized that it was also a good sign as that would mean more of them would end up falling to the concealed trap, especially if the aliens could not see well in the dark. I even lost count on how many aliens had fallen to the traps since they seemed to be triggering them at almost the same time. It took quite some while, before the banging and impaling sounds as well as the loud screams began to subside, as I could also hear several gunshot noises from some distance away, indicating that they were coming from Jonathan's and Captain Quentin's intense fight with the aliens inside their concrete jungles.
I finally told Kyle that we could start to move again since I could only hear very few thudding sounds from above us. I crawled slowly and away from below the stairs, towards the direction of the stairs to the second floor. Burdened with the feeling that I had to be really careful on not to make any unnecessary noise, I suddenly got anxious as I had my minds filled with any possibilities that they found out our position. Fortunately, it only took us perhaps a few minutes of crawling before I realized I had touched the first stairs step to the second floor, indicating that we had arrived right in front of the stairs.
Since there were no traps on the stairs whatsoever except on the last two stairs steps before the second floor, I told Kyle that we could rush again and follow me. Apparently, the few remaining aliens above us noticed that we had moved again, as thudding sounds could be heard again in almost an instant. However, they seemed to be more cautious and careful of their surroundings as the thudding sounds were not heard rapidly, but were still approaching us.
We headed towards the gasoline tank and lighted it before we rushed towards one of the pillars that were the furthest from the tank. As we had arrived and hid behind the pillar, the aliens seemed to have arrived at the second floor as there were few shadows that could be seen at the ground near the lighting gas tank.
Based on what I saw, there were only around ten or twelve of them left at the most. However, should they somehow managed to escape all of the placed trap at the second floor, it would be of a huge problem for us since I had nearly or a little less than half of my ammunition left inside my submachine gun, while Kyle had only six arrows remained with her.
Fortunately, at least four of the remaining aliens seemed to trigger two or three pitfall traps which resulted in their deaths shortly after, and perhaps it caused panic among the still surviving ones as most of them attempted to run away with some triggering another pitfall trap, meeting their own demise as a result. In the end, I could rather confidently confirm that the remaining surviving aliens were only five, and they all attempted to flee through the stairs that will lead to the first floor.
I quickly put some more rounds into my submachine gun magazine before loading it again, and although it was not full capacity it must be more than twenty rounds, which were considerably enough to explode each of the five aliens' beam rifle. Once I had finished, I rushed, but not ran towards the stairs to the first floor.
When we arrived at the first floor, the five aliens were attempting to break the blockades by using their mace left hands. Both Kyle and I quickly crouched and aimed our weapons towards them as we fired them until my magazine was empty, and Kyle had only a couple of arrows left. As we looked at them for the last time, they were no more than burning dead bodies of aliens lying right in front of the main entrance of the building.
I had my mind suddenly went blank as I saw the last of the aliens inside the building burned. I had no idea how long I stared at them blankly until I came to again, noticing that Kyle was most likely experiencing the same as I did. I also did not hear any more thudding sounds upstairs, indicating that there were no more aliens left standing. Since we were not briefed on what we should do next after the aliens were down, I decided to reload my submachine gun.
Just as I had inserted around twenty rounds inside the magazine, I heard more gunshot noises again from the direction of the secretariat building as well as the parking lot building. I hurried up as the noises did not seem that it would be subsiding soon, and were getting more intense instead.
We rushed back to the second floor, with me leading the way and reminding Kyle again on where to step where not to, until we reached the third floor where the makeshift bridges to the secretariat building and the parking lot building were. We crawled again as we had arrived there, and approached the gasoline tank which was located near the bridge to the parking lot building.
Initially, I was not really sure if the two of us were to go to another building together or that we should split up so that each of us could help the other two groups. However, I then decided that it would be best if we were to stick close and help the others starting from the ones closest to us, and in the current case it would be Jonathan Ryan. I stood up, and lighted another of my match stick, and threw it inside the tank as it created a fire. At first, I was reluctant to create any form of light source, however I thought that it would be very crucial as it would also help us in crossing to the parking lot building.
Since the bridge was narrow, we had to cross one by one, and I let Kyle to cross it first in front of me. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, until all of a sudden an alien emerged on the third floor of the parking lot building, shooting its beam rifle twice towards us. I managed to jump back to the bank as I crouched in a hurry and fired four rounds towards the alien, exploding its rifle and taking it down, while Kyle successfully jumped inside the parking lot building. However, the beam rifle shots destroyed the bridge, and therefore I could not follow Kyle to the parking lot unless I crossed from the rooftop.
Since there was no other option but to split up, I signaled her that I was to go to where Captain Quentin and Della were. She nodded in response before she rushed deeper into the parking lot, quickly disappearing from my sights. I crawled quickly to the direction of the other bridge, briefly glancing at the rather large numbers of dead aliens crushed under the ceiling spiked traps before I arrived right in front of the bridge.
In order to anticipate another surprise attack from the aliens, I did not cross the bridge right away. Instead, I reloaded my submachine gun to its full capacity, before I crossed to the secretariat building. As I had finished reloading, I noticed that I only had five more spare rounds inside my bag, a sign for me to conserve my ammunition. Nevertheless, I did not let it become a burden to my mind and I crossed the bridge before I entered the secretariat building through one of its broken window.
I jumped inside as I had reached the end of the bridge, and started to crouch and walk slowly and cautiously as I did not want to trigger the traps that had been made by Jonathan and Captain Quentin. I also began to think the reason that I was assigned to the bank was because I would not know where the traps were inside the secretariat building and the parking lot building. The inside of the secretariat building was significantly brighter than the bank, which was most likely the result of the presence of a gasoline tank in each of the building's edges.
I soon realized that for the case of the building, less spaces inside would mean that large creatures would have more trouble in moving with large groups, and therefore would be more advantageous to use a close range firearms there. Traps were also crucial to be used there, as it would prove to be more difficult for the aliens to notice the triggers since they already had their own problem in moving around inside.
However, should the number of the traps too many, it would also be of a hindrance for our movements. So instead, what we needed more in a place with less or tighter space would be an increase in mobility, and in the current case it would be more lighting as it would greatly help us in seeing our surroundings whenever we moved from one location to another. As I reached the T-junction ahead of me, I turned right to see that there was a stairs that would lead me to the second floor.
As if the things what I had just thought were somehow confirmed immediately, I saw few dead aliens scattered around each of the corners of the corridor ahead of me. All of them had one similar state – a destroyed right hand as well as a severe burn all across their bodies. Apparently, shotgun rounds dealt greater damage to the beam rifle which would result in a greater explosion and resulting in greater fire radius from the blast. There were exactly five dead aliens there, and somehow I just knew that both Captain Quentin and Della must have taken down more aliens.
"Do not move any further… you are less than half a step away from being crushed by the ceiling…" said a familiar hoarse voice suddenly from behind me, while it also seemed to be holding something against my neck.
As I took a few steps behind, it seemed to be no longer holding its weapon against me. I turned back slowly, and realized that it was no other than Captain Quentin, who was holding his semi-automatic shotgun in his right hand.
"Glad to see you are okay, son…" he said, with a relieved tone in his voice.
"So am I, sir…" I responded, as I nodded, "But, where is Della?"
"She is just behind the wall, taking cover…" he said as he pointed to one of the corridor corners.
Just after he finished his words, Della came out from her cover and approached us with a handgun on her right hand. Captain Quentin then told me that he was quite sure most of the aliens inside the building had already been dead. However, he also warned me that there were perhaps still few more surviving at the first floor, since he had formed the first floor to be a makeshift maze scattered with several traps.
He had led many of the aliens to the first floor, and was waiting for the rest of them to meet their own demise when he suddenly heard a thudding sound from the third floor, which turned out to be none other than me. I immediately apologized as I thought I was breaking his concentration, to which he said that it was of no problem.
Captain Quentin then asked me on where Kyle had gone to, to which I answered that we were forced to split up after an alien destroyed the bridge. Della was shocked to hear it, while he only nodded as he looked away a bit, before he assured me that she would be okay since there were two capable persons at the parking lot building and that he was completely sure that she had grouped with Jonathan and Ryan there. Even though he might just say it to made me more at ease, he succeeded in doing it as I was a little more relieved to hear it from him.
We eventually decided to wait right in front of the first floor stairs. However, as we had just arrived right in front of it, a couple of aliens had also just about to ascend to the second floor again. We saw each other at the exact same time, and they immediately fired their beam rifle towards us. I rolled over to my left side, hiding behind the wall together with Della while Captain Quentin rushed to his right side and took cover there.
"Ugh, damn it!" Captain Quentin said as he took cover behind the wall just before one of the beam rifle shot grazed the wall.
It was very difficult for me even to just aim at any of their body parts, as they keep on shooting at us whenever we tried to just peek on them. Just then, Captain Quentin told us to follow him retreat back to where we had just met again. Realizing that perhaps he wanted to lure them to trigger the ceiling spiked trap, I immediately followed right behind him as Della and I dodged a couple more beam rifle shots.
When we had arrived at the same spot, he told me to just stay there until the very second I saw one of them and by then I had to jump, not walk over the trigger rope by the cornering corridor so that it would give the impression that I was attempting to dodge their shots, and not running away from a prepared trap. In almost an instant, I could already see their shadows, and as soon as I saw one of their faces, I quickly jumped over the trigger as they also fired a beam rifle shot towards me.
As the three of us ran away from the trap, I could hear them approaching us fast from behind as the rapid thudding sounds were heard. Suddenly, a rope tripping sound was heard and followed by a familiar banging and impaling sound. Captain Quentin aimed his shotgun towards one of their damaged rifle, before shooting it once, resulting in a great explosion.
I immediately recognized that the explosion was greater than the ones I had created, as if confirming my earlier assumptions about the damage of shotgun rounds towards their beam rifles. When they were no longer moving, I did not hear any more thudding sounds inside the building, indicating that the aliens inside it had all been obliterated. However, very shortly after that a loud explosion sound was heard from the direction of the parking lot building.
"That does not sound good…" Della muttered, with a worried tone.
"We have to go… follow me!" Captain Quentin responded, as he rushed in a hurry.
Della and I followed Captain Quentin all the way through the third, fourth, and fifth floor, before we eventually reached the rooftop again while avoiding any trap ropes that had not been triggered yet along our way. Once we reached the rooftop, we continued on rushing through the bridge back to the bank, and finally to the parking lot rooftop. As we were crossing the bridge from the bank to the parking lot building, I noticed that the explosion occurred from the fourth floor of the building.
Unlike the previous two buildings where we could take cover behind walls, the parking lot building had far fewer walls, or rather pillars to hide at. Our only other alternative would be to hide behind vehicles, which was obviously more risky as they could explode if a beam rifle shot hit them. I held on towards that concept tightly as soon as we had reached the fifth floor though the building's asphalt lane as a personal warning for myself on not to take cover behind any vehicles unless there were no other options.
"I hope it was not the aliens blowing up the vehicle where they had taken cover at…" Della muttered as she followed behind Captain Quentin.
When we had finally reached the fourth floor, the three of us immediately assumed our combat position and taken cover behind three of the nearest four pillars. When I peeked at the still burning vehicles, I could not see any signs of Jonathan, Ryan, or Kyle near there. Instead, I could only see about five to seven aliens burning on the ground. Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard not too far from where we were hiding.
"You are late!" the voice said.
I looked again, and realized that it was Kyle who had just spoken. We went out from our covers and approached her, before we also finally grouped again with Jonathan and Ryan. Apparently, the explosion that occurred was the result of the three of them luring the aliens towards few of the gasoline tanks that had been gathered together, but not lighted.
As the aliens were already close to the gasoline tanks, Jonathan fired his rifle towards some of their rifles , resulting in an explosion, and since there were some gasoline inside the tanks, it enhanced the explosion and made it bigger. None of the three of them seemed to be injured however, as I could still see them standing up straight although with obvious signs of fatigue.
I was relieved to know that they were not injured during the fight. However, in almost an instant a familiar grumbling flying sound was heard right above the parking lot building. We rushed towards the rooftop to see what it was, and it turned out that it was none other than the Narwhal aircraft hovering above us, .
"Ah! Finally, the big fish took the bait!" Jonathan shouted as he had his eyes locked on the aircraft.
I realized that he was about to attempt to take down the aircraft immediately, as he crouched and reloaded his rifle in a hurry. Everyone also seemed to be following what he was doing, even Captain Quentin, and since I still had a full capacity I assumed a combat position to guard them while they were reloading.
I took my chance to glance at my watch, and realized that the time was already 10.45 p.m. The battle that was about to follow might be the conclusion for the guerilla warfare that had just happened, or could even serve as the opening for the final and decisive battle against the aliens…